"J givt theft Books
¦tie founding ef a Cofftge in. iht\ Colony"

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

Isaiah and other Historical Studies

The Site of Paradise (see p. gi.)

THE
BOOK OF ISAIAH
AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES

BY THE
Rev. CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, D.D., Ph.D.
Donnellan Lecturer in the University of Dublin (1880-1), Bampton
Lecturer (1878), Public Examiner in Semitic Languages
(1894-95), and Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint
(1893-7) 'n tne University of Oxford

WITH A MAP

LONDON:
FRANCIS GRIFFITHS
34 MAIDEN LANE, STRAND, W.C.
1906

PREFACE

It may be well to explain the reasons which have led to
the issue of this volume of Essays. I have been urged
from time to time to republish some of them, and do
so now under special circumstances. The first and
in some respects most important is that on the Book of
Isaiah, which appeared as an article in Sir William
Smith's Dictionary of the Bible in the second edition
of vol. 1. Leave has been kindly granted for its
publication by Mr. John Murray, the great publisher of
Albemarle Street.
Of the remaining essays four have appeared in the
Nineteenth Century, now the Nineteenth Century and
After. The article on The Site of Paradise appeared
Oct. 1882 ; that on' The Jews and the Malicious Charge
of Human Sacrifice in Nov. 1883 ; that on The Perse
cution of the Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces, under,
however a slightly different title in the number for
Dec, 1889, and The Jewish Rabbis of the First Cen
tury in the number for June, 1892. The Editor, Sir
James Knowles, R.V.O., has kindly given me per
mission to republish these in the present volume.
Two of the remaining three have appeared in the
British and Foreign Evangelical Review, a journal
which has been for some years extinct.

vi PREFACE
These various essays have been brought up to date.
The books and pamphlets used in drawing up the
articles on the Jews and Human Sacrifice and on the
Persecution in the Baltic Provinces of Russia are now
in the London Library, St. James Square, S.W., of
which my son, Charles T. Hagberg Wright, LL.D.,
is Librarian. Such a collection of pamphlets it would
be hard now to procure, and occasions may arise in
which it may be useful to know where they can be
found. It may be allowable to mention that 1905 is the
fiftieth year since I first published a book in my own
name. My first contribution was a Grammar of
the Modern Irish Language, drawn up when an
undergraduate in Trinity College, Dublin. It was
written at the request of the Rev. Daniel Foley, D.D.,
then Professor of Irish in that University, and was
revised by him. The Board of Trinity College,
Dublin, made a grant for its publication, and the
second edition is still used as a class-book in that
University. The work was published in June, 1855.
I have therefore appended to this volume a list of my
books and pamphlets written during the half century.
The republication of the article on Russian Per
secution in the Baltic Provinces may be useful at
this crisis of Russia's history. That article, on its
appearance, was attacked by some High Churchmen
specially interested in trying to effect the so-called
" union of Christendom," and therefore anxious to pro
mote cordial relations between the Anglican and the
Russian Church. None of the facts mentioned were
refuted in the letters written by those critics to the
Guardian newspaper. Those letters are alluded to

PREFACE vii
in the addendum at the end of the article. When 1
wrote my article I was in close correspondence with a
Russian official in the Baltic Provinces. The police
intercepted our correspondence, and he implored me
to write him no further letters, and to send him no
further documents. The last letter I received from
him was strangely sent to Berlin to the Young Men's
Christian Association. I cannot comprehend why he
sent it there, for I had no idea that year of visiting
Berlin, but, as God's Providence directed, it came to
me when I was acting as a member of the Inter
national Committee of the Evangelical Alliance in dis
cussing the very subject. It did not come by post,
but was sewed up in the lining of a German peasant
who, as I learned on enquiry, cut open the lining in
the office of the Young Men's Christian Association,
and left the letter for me. The peasant left no
address and could not be found. I have not dared
to communicate with the writer since the day in which
he indicated to me that he was under police super
vision, and from being a highly-trusted official in
Russian employment had become a suspect, simply for
giving information as to the scandalous persecution
which was then going on.
Such is Russian liberty. Many other instances
could be given. Disposed as I then was to look upon
M. Pobedonoszeff as an earnest Christian whose hos
tility might be melted down by love, I have learned to
regard him as a typical persecutor.
The article refers to the Evangelical Alliance, and
its abortive efforts. The Secretary who then ruled it
is gone. I bear no hostility whatever to that Society
of which I have been nearly fifty years a member.

viii PREFACE
But it never can really understand the currents of
Continental opinion until it secures as corresponding
secretary some German and French speaking Swiss
pastor. No Englishman, acquainted only with Eng
lish, can by means of translation of documents really
comprehend the state of religious affairs on the Con
tinent. The Evangelical Alliance could not in any
way have stopped the persecutions in the Baltic Pro
vinces, but it might have obtained important informa
tion for Protestant Christians by sending Christian
men engaged in commercial pursuits to visit persecuted
pastors, and bring back to England full information of
the cases of persecution. No such intelligence depart
ment has ever been formed, and it can only be formed
through the instrumentality of German Christians —
if for various reasons the official German Branch
should find itself unable to take up and perform that
thankless and somewhat dangerous task.
The Rev. Dr. Hermann Dalton, who in earlier
writings called attention to the persecution of the
Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces, has lately pub
lished the fourth volume of his contributions to the
History of the Evangelical Church in Russia. That
fourth volume is entitled Miscellaneen zur Geschichte
der evangel. Kirche in Russland nebst Lasciana.
Neue Folge (Berlin : Reuther and Reichard, 1905).
The first volume of the History was published in 1887 ,
the second, which contained documents concerning
the Church, followed in 1889 ; the third volume, which
dealt with Lasciana (following up the Life of John
Laski or a Lasco, published by Dr. Dalton in 1881 and
translated into English, 1886) was published in 1881.
And now new contributions to the account of Laski

PREFACE ix
who was General Superintendent of the Reformed
Churches in Poland, are given in this volume, which
contains accounts of Protestant activity in Siberia and
other parts of Russia, including the Caucasus. It
should be more generally known that Laski, whose
doctrines and activity are here related, was not only
acquainted with Luther and Melanchthon, but also
with our Bishop Hooper. The newly-issued volume
of Dr. Dalton 's History does not throw any light upon
the present position of the Lutherans in the Baltic
Provinces. May we not hope that Russia's reverses in her war
with Japan, and the terrible upheaval which has since
taken place may be the means of giving the Russian
people their inalienable rights of true civil liberty and
religious freedom.
CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT.

90, Bolingbroke Grove, London, S.W.
Dec. 20th, 1905.

CONTENTS

I
The Book of Isaiah  1
II
The Site of Paradise. An Ancient problem solved by
Modern Scholarship  91
III
The Old Testament and Human Sacrifice . . .118
IV
The Jews and the Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifice
1 The Trial at Tisza-Eszlar  165
2 Human Sacrifices and Jewish Ritual . 186
V
Some Great Jewish Rabbis of the First and Second
Centuries  209
VI
Martin Luther, the Hero of the Reformation . . 244
VII
Religious Life in the German Army During the War of
1870-1871 . . .  287
VIII
The Persecution of the Lutherans in the Baltic Pro
vinces of Russia ....... 320
APPENDIX
List of Books, 1855-1905,- and Pamphlets published
within the last fifty years  345
xi

ERRATA.
Page 1, note 2, lines 1 and 2, read Jaazaniah and Jahaziel.
Page 1, note 2, line 3, read ?NTjn ¦>
-¦-ii-
Page 21, line 6, read i"TSHT
Page 62, line 18, read ^.snar1 QTTp
Page 122, in note, read rblah
Page 127, in note, first line, read oni
Page 196, line 3, read Spiegel.

Isaiah and other Historical Studies

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH1
The name Isaiah signifies either Jahu saves (irtD"'),
kal for hiphil, as in cases like rryann, or mrr sw?
the salvation or help of Jahveh1 A reference to the
meaning of the name probably occurs in Isa. viii., 18.
The name itself was common (1 Chron. xxv., 3, 15;
xxvi., 25). The shortened form, namely, rTVpip?, is em
ployed in 1 Chron. iii., 21; Ezra viii., 7, 19; Neh.
xi., 7. In the latter passages the Revised Version
gives the name Jeshaiah. The LXX. usually trans
literate it 'Ho-cuas , occasionally also 'Io-eas, 'Icrtas
'Icocria, 'Iajo-ias and 'Xlo-cuas. The Vulg. writes
1 This article has appeared in The Dictionary of the Bible,
edited by Sir William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D., and Rev. J. M.
Fuller, M.A. Second edition. London : John Murray, Albe
marle Street, 1893. It is here reprinted by permission of
the publishers, with slight alterations, none of an unimpor
tant character.
2 According to Klostermann, the analogies of such names
as Jaanzaniah (Hebrew m;}!s:. ), Ishmael, and Ishmaiah, Jaha-
zeil (Vsnn,:), and Jahzeiah (Hebrew "IP?: ), with many other
names which are distinct prayers for the children so named,
point rather to a derivation from the root njjp to behold, to
have respect to (Gen. iv. 4). In that case the name should be
pointed w;w ^',av: or the shortened form n;i#!. Isaiah corre
sponds in signification with Illisha, although the sha in Elisha
comes from the verb uw , or v»;. Hence the traditional vocalisa
tion of Isaiah is preferable.
2 1

2 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Isaias, or in various editions Esaias, and Osaias.
Isaiah, the prophet, was the son of Amoz ( j>io« ),
which signifies strong. The latter is not to be identi
fied with the prophet Amos (DiDS, burden-bearer) ,
who lived earlier. The names are quite dis
tinct. The LXX. transliterated both alike 'A/aws ,
and hence the confusion. Nothing is known of Isaiah's
father. The Rabbis maintained that he was a prophet,
on the assumption that whenever the name of a pro
phet's father occurs in Scripture, that father was also
a prophet. The notion that Amoz and Amaziah the
King of Judah were brothers was suggested by the
similarity of name, but unsupported by evidence.
Isaiah's house was situated in the lower part of Jeru
salem (see 2 Kings xx. 4, Revised Version). Hence
Ewald and Knobel supposed the name "valley of
vision ' ' was given to that quarter of the city , where
probably other prophets also lived. It is, however,
more likely the name refers to the " valley " in which
the final struggle of ch. xxii. is depicted. " Valley of
vision," is analogous to the " valley of decision " (Joel
iv. 14), although the meaning of decision is not, with
Bredenkamp, to be extracted from rrjn.
The wife of Isaiah is termed a prophetess (viii. 3),
although it is not clear whether she was so-called
merely because her husband was a prophet, or because
she herself was endowed with the gift of prophecy, like
Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14) and other women. Isaiah's
two sons, who were regarded as gifts from God, were
given names which contained a summary of Isaiah's
mission. These were Shear-jashub, " a remnant shall
return" (vii. 3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz , "haste
spoil, speed booty" (viii. 3). Some maintain that

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 3
Isaiah had a third son, named Immanuel (vii. 14), the
child of a second wife, in which case that son must
have been born before Maher-shalal-hash-baz. There
are, however, weighty reasons against such a conjec
ture. In i. 1 it is stated that Isaiah " saw " his visions
concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. An account is given in
ch. vi. of the " vision " by which Isaiah was called to
the prophetic office. The vision was " seen " in the
year King Uzziah died. The year in question has
been variously reckoned as B.C. 758 or 740, the latter
being the more probable, for Isaiah was not an
old man at the time of the invasion of Sennacherib
(b.c. 701). As no mention is made of "the days of
Manasseh," it has often been maintained that Isaiah
died prior to the close of Hezekiah's reign. All, how
ever, that can be affirmed from the superscription in
Isa. i. 1, assuming its correctness, is that the Book to
which it was affixed contains no vision later than the
reign of Hezekiah. The tradition concerning his
death, referred to in the Talmud, and current in the
Christian Church, is that he was slain during the
bloody persecution in the early days of Manasseh (2
Kings xxi. 16 ; xxiv. 4), having been " sawn asunder."
Heb. xi. 37 probably refers to that tradition, for no
other instance of such a death is recounted in legend.
The story of Isaiah's martyrdom has been highly em
bellished by later tradition. It was known to Justin
Martyr (Dial. cont. Tryph.), to Tertullian (De Patien-
tia cap.. 14), and other early Christian writers. The
" wooden saw " of Justin Martyr may be a legendary
embellishment of a woodman's saw. The Ascension

4 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
of Isaiah, which narrates the whole story, is, as Dill-
mann has satisfactorily proved, a pseudepigraph writ
ten in Christian times. The legend has been further
improved on in fragments of Targums (comp. that
given in Lagarde's Proph. Chald., 1872, p. xxxiii.).1
Chapter vi. is the only chapter of Isaiah which can
with any degree of probability be assigned to the reign
of Uzziah. The bulk of his prophecies in their present
shape belong to Hezekiah's reign. Several were com
posed in the reign of Ahaz, notably chs. vii.-ix., and
possibly chs. ii.-v. None of the prophecies contained
in the Book bear the impress of Jotham's reign. It
is, however, possible that several prophecies delivered
in Jotham's reign may have been revised at a later
time by the Prophet. Such re-edited prophecies
would naturally bear the impress of the later, not that
of the earlier, period.
In the Jewish canon the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel are arranged in the order of historical se
quence. The same order is followed in the LXX.,
save that the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets is
placed before the three great Prophets ; the Books of
Baruch, Lamentations, and the Epistle of Jeremiah
being put between Jeremiah and Ezekiel in their sup
posed historical order. The historical arrangement
is as old as the days of Ben Sira (see Ecclus. xlviii.
22-25, xlix. 6-10). Another order is mentioned in
Baba Bathra, 14 a ; namely, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah,
1 " The Ascension of Isaiah " has since been published in
an English translation from the Ethiopic together with the
new Greek Fragment, the Latin version and the Latin trans
lation with the Slavonic in full by Rev. R. H. Charles, D.D.,
Professor of Biblical Greek in Trinity College, Dublin. Lon
don : Adam and Charles Black, 1900. The volume is enriched
by a valuable introduction and critical notes.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 5
and the Minor Prophets. But, as Klostermann has
pointed out, the latter arrangement is simply based on
the principle of placing the longer Books before the
shorter. Isaiah exceeds Jeremiah in the number of
chapters (having 66 chapters in place of the 52 of the
latter), although, if the number of the verses or the
pages be considered, the Book of Jeremiah exceeds
Isaiah. Jeremiah (exclusive of Lamentations) con
tains 1,365 verses, Isaiah 1,295, Ezekiel 1,273, and the
Book of the Twelve 1,050. Thus calculated, Isaiah
stands second. If, however, the actual size of the first
three Books be computed by pages, Isaiah ranks third,
and the list would stand in the order given in Baba
Bathra. The number of the Sedarim sections, into
which the Books are divided in the Hebrew, corres
ponds with the result drawn from the pagination.
Jeremiah contains 31 Sedarim, Ezekiel 29, Isaiah 26,
and the Book of the Twelve 21. Hence the order
of Baba Bathra is based on the length or extent of the
Books. Other more artificial reasons have, however,
been assigned. The passage of Baba Bathra will be
found translated and commented on in the Excursus on
The Talmud and the Old Testament Canon, appended
to my commentary on the Book of Koheleth.
Lightfoot and others have unsuccessfully made use
of the order in Baba Bathra to get over the difficulty
connected with the quotation from Jeremiah in Matt.
xxvii. 9. Equally mistaken are the attempts of
Gesenius, etc., to construct thereon an argument for
the post-exilian redaction of Isaiah.
Three portions of 2 Kings, namely, chs. xviii. 13,
17-37, xix., xx., are quoted almost verbatim from Isa.
xxxvi. -xxxix. The psalm of Hezekiah is peculiar to

6 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
the Book of Isaiah. Reference is made to Isaiah in
2 Chron. xxvi. 22 and xxxii. 32. In the former Isaiah
is said to have written " the acts of Uzziah, first and
last." The reading of that passage is uncertain (see
LXX. and Vulg.). In 2 Chron. xxxii., " the vision of
Isaiah, the son of Amoz the prophet," is evidently the
Book of Isaiah's prophecies. The difficulty in that
verse connected with the reading in idd bi> , does
not affect the statement in the first part of the verse.
The superscription in Isa. i. 1 presents serious diffi
culties. It does not adequately describe even the
prophecies of the first portion (ch. i.-xxxv.). Those
chapters contain not only prophecies " concerning
Judah and Jerusalem," but prophecies also concerning
Ephraim or Israel and the surrounding nations, with
others of wider scope. That title does not even suit
the first chapter, and the second chapter has a title
of its own, for the words " in the days of Uzziah, Jo-
tham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah" prove that the superscrip
tion was designed to be the title of the entire Book.
It cannot, therefore, be regarded in its present shape as
genuine. The opening chapter is called by Ewald as " the
great Arraignment." Heaven and earth are called up
on to judge the cause between Jehovah and his people.
The chapter vividly describes Israel's sin, and an
nounces the Divine vengeance, which was, however,
to lead to the purification of Israel, and the transforma
tion of Zion into a city of righteousness. The storm
described had already burst forth. All Judah, with
the exception of Jerusalem, was in the hands of the
enemy. Hence the original composition of the chap
ter can scarcely (as Caspari and Kay suppose) be as-

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 7
signed to the times of Jotham and Uzziah, when Judah
was in a state of prosperity. At such a time the pro
phecy, even as a vision of coming judgment, would
scarcely have been intelligible. According to Gesenius,
Knobel, Delitzsch, and Dillmann, the vision was com
posed in the days of Ahaz , during when Judah was in
vaded by the united Syrian and Israelite army ; Vit-
ringa, Hitzig, Ewald, Nagelsbach and Wellhausen
preferably assign the chapter to the time of Hezekiah.
It cannot have been composed after the invasion of
Sennacherib. The chapter expresses only a general
hope of deliverance, and contains no reference to the
victorious overthrow of the Assyrians. Notwithstand
ing the arguments adduced by Cheyne, the prophecy
cannot be assigned to the time of Sargon's invasion,
but must have been composed when the fenced cities
of Judah had all successively fallen before the foe,
and when the city of Jerusalem was the last remaining
bulwark of the land.
We are therefore disposed, with Bredenkamp, to re
gard the prophecy as composed when Sennacherib, as
stated in his own inscription, had shut up Hezekiah
"as a bird in a cage at Jerusalem," and had even
given part of Jewish territory to the kings of the Philis
tines. Though, however, originally composed at that
period, there is no difficulty in regarding the chapter
as placed in its present position by Isaiah himself as a
suitable introduction to his collected prophecies. Al
terations may have been made in its phraseology when
thus re-edited. The picture is too vivid to be regarded
as an ideal sketch painted in the prosperous days of
Uzziah or Jotham. Isaiah may have put forth a col
lection of his prophecies after the overthrow of the

8 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Assyrian foe, which was the grandest victory vouch
safed since the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian
bondage. Isaiah's subsequent prophecies derive no
small portion of their imagery from that wondrous
manifestation of the "God of judgment" (Isa. xxx.
1.8) in aid of His people. We are indisposed, therefore,
to lay stress on every expression, or to argue on the as
sumption that the prophecies were necessarily pre
served even by the Prophet himself in the exact form
in which they were originally delivered. The analogy
of Jer. xxxvi. 32 points in a different direction.
In the historical notices of the Book of Kings no
mention is made of the fenced cities of Judah having
been burned with fire. Such an additional detail,
however, presents no difficulty. The description in
Isa. i. of the deeds of murder and villainy practised by
judges and nobles, and of prevalent idolatry, has often
been regarded as inconsistent with the composition of
the piece in the reign of Hezekiah. But though
generally suppressed, such malpractices may have even
then been common, and Isaiah would naturally regard
the Assyrian invasion as a judgment for such trans
gression, whether past or present. The public prac
tice of idolatry in gardens and groves dedicated to
Asherah was put an end to by Hezekiah. But idola
try must have been practised in private, and have been
popular with the nobility, to account for the fearful
outbreak which took place in the beginning of Manas
seh 's reign.
The second chapter of Isaiah has no connection with
ch. i. It commences with a superscription of its own,
which was probably intended to comprehend ch. ii.-iv.
inclusive. The vision must have been originally com-

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 9
posed during a period of prosperity. The land of
Judah is described as full of silver and gold. Horses
and chariots were everywhere in abundance. The
daughters of Zion, proud and haughty, revelled in all
kinds of luxury and display. Idolatry was rife among
both rich and poor ; magic and divination were largely
practised. The nation still owned "ships of Tar-
shish." Consequently Elath, the sea-port on the
north end of the Gulf of Akaba, which had been re
covered by Uzziah (2 Kings xiv. 22), had not then
ceased to belong to the kingdom of Judah, as related
in 2 Kings xvi. 6. The reading in that passage
is, however, to be corrected as in the margin of the
Revised Version. The prophecy was therefore de
livered in the early part of the reign of Ahaz, prior to
the reverses which befel the nation in the after years
of that monarch. It cannot have been written during
the reigns of Uzziah or Jotham , who discouraged idola
try ; for the idolatry denounced was not such as was
practised in secret by the few, but an idolatry common
among the nation.
The opening verses of ch. ii., namely, verses 2-4, are
almost identical with Micah iv. 1-3. As Micah and
Isaiah were contemporary prophets, the phenomenon
has been variously explained. Critics have maintained
that Isaiah quoted from Micah, not only because the
passage harmonises better with the context of Micah,
but also because of certain peculiarities of expression
in the original which tend to show that it is a quota
tion. Micah's prophecy was delivered in " the days
of Hezekiah, king of Judah" (Jer. xxvi. 18; Micah
iii. 12) ; and as Isa. ii. cannot, from the reasons already
given, have been composed later than the early part of

10 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
the reign of Ahaz, Isaiah could not have quoted the
passage from that special prophecy of Micah. Simi
lar instances of quotations occur in other parts of
Scripture (cp. Obad. verses 5,6, with Jer. xlix. 9, 10 ;
1 Peter v. 5-9 with Jas. iv. 6-10 ; or 2 Pet. ii. with the
Epistle of Jude). It is probable that the view defen
ded by Cheyne and others is correct; namely, that
Isaiah and Micah made use of the words of an earlier
prophet whose closing words (Micah iv. 4) were
omitted by Isaiah as unsuited to the solemn denuncia
tions he had to append to the quotation. If, as
Bredenkamp observes, ch. i. begins with what may be
regarded almost as a quotation from Moses (cp. i. 2
with Deut. xxxii. 1), why should not chapter ii. com
mence similarly with a prediction of one of the older
prophets ?
No objection can, so far as the rendering of the pre
position in the phrase qjnis is concerned , be made to
Cheyne's translation, " the mountain of Jehovah's
house shall be fixed at the head of the mountains,"
comp. 1 Sam. ix. 22 ; Amos vi. 7. But that transla
tion presents too realistic a picture, and suggests an
allusion to heathen mythology which is unnecessary.
The picture, like those in v. 26, xi. 10, is purely poeti
cal. The Prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah
use language in their ideal descriptions of the future,
which, if taken literally, speak of the actual elevation
of the temple mountain above all other mountains.
Such language, however, was only used figuratively.
The future predicted by Isaiah and Micah was a
future which to " the men of the world " of that day
must have appeared the veriest day-dream. It was
that " a law would go forth from Zion, and the word

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 11
of Jehovah from Jerusalem ' ' ; that Israel and the na
tions would ultimately form one united community, of
which Jehovah would be the Judge and King ; that
under His rule and arbitration wars would cease, and
universal peace prevail. The marvellous fulfilment of
the first portion of the prophecy in the salvation which
has come from the Jews to the Gentile world needs
only to be referred to.
In the course of the prophecy the Prophet contrasts
the fallen state of Israel with its glorious future, and
urges the house of Jacob to walk themselves ' ' in the
light " vouchsafed to them by Jehovah. He describes
how Israel had fallen short of the ideal presented in the
Law. In place of being a hardy agricultural race,
satisfied with the riches provided by nature , Israel had
become " like all the nations " (1 Sam. viii. 20), and
had followed them on the road to ruin. Luxury had
overspread the land. Wealth produced love of dis
play. Magic and divination were introduced from
" the east." " The land was full of idols," to be seen
alike in the houses of the poor and in the palaces of
the rich. The wicked walked on every side, and vile-
ness was exalted among the sons of men (Ps. xii. 8).
Men, high and low, basely prostrated themselves be
fore the works of their own hands, and thus brought
down upon themselves heavy chastisement. Jehovah
would, therefore, arise to shake terribly the land. Na
ture and art, both alike made subservient to idolatry,
would be given over to destruction. Lofty mountains
would be abased, trees felled, high towers overthrown.
Strong walls, ships of Tarshish, treasures of art, would
perish , levelled in the dust or otherwise destroyed in the
universal ruin brought about by " the day of Jehovah."

12 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
The ejaculation " Cease ye from man in whose nos
trils is (only) a breath, for at what ought he to be ac
counted?" is suitably interposed between two portions
of this prophecy. Whatever earthly riches or glory
man may possess without God, man himself is of no
account. The verse is omitted in the LXX., and
Diestel and Cheyne regard it as a mere interpolation,
which does not accord naturally with the description of
the day of Jehovah. Dillmann, however, observes
that there is no object for an interpolation in the pas
sage, while the thought expressed in the verse is strik
ing and fully worthy of Isaiah. Dillmann compares
ch. ii. 9, 11 ; v. 15 ; xxxi. 3.
The details of the judgment of " the day of Jeho
vah " are given in ch. iii. The commonwealth would
be overthrown, every " stay and staff " broken. The
leaders of the people in the field and in the council-
chamber would be cut off. Among the latter the pro
phets and diviners are mentioned. Children become
princes, babes bear rule. Anarchy and confusion fol
low, until any decently-attired man urged to act as
ruler of the ruined land would be forced to decline the
task, inasmuch as even he would have to confess that,
in spite of his outward appearance, his house, too,
was equally destitute of bread or clothing. For the
abrupt manner in which the illustration is introduced,
comp. Zech. xiii. 3-6.
" The day of Jehovah " would affect not only the
men, but the women. Delicately brought-up
women would experience in full measure the descent
of Jehovah's retributive justice. Their pride and
haughtiness would be abased to the dust, their orna
ments stripped off, their bodies afflicted with disease.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 13
As the men are described looking vainly about for a
ruler, so the women are depicted as looking out eagerly
even for nominal husbands.
" The day of Jehovah " would thus be terrible to all.
Yet, to use the expression of Zechariah, " in the even
tide there would be light." Mercy would succeed
judgment, a day of building up would follow a day of
casting down. A remnant would be saved, who would
trust in Jehovah, and not in carved images. The rem
nant would return to the simplicity commended in the
Law, and then reap the blessing from above. The
barren and devastated land would yield its increase, the
hills and valleys be covered with beauteous shoots,
" the fruit of the land be excellent and comely for the
escaped of Israel." The old signs of Jehovah's pre
sence would be again vouchsafed. Guilt removed, sin
washed away, there would be a new creation; the
cloudy pillar by day, and the shining of flaming fire by
night, would again be seen, and over all the glory an
abiding canopy.
The exposition of " the branch of Jehovah " in iv.
2, as the personal Messiah, in accordance with the later
usage of Jeremiah and Zechariah, cannot be the origi
nal signification of the prophecy. The parallel ex
pression ' ' the fruit of the land ' ' shows that the pas
sage in Isaiah really refers to vegetation. The human
nature of our Lord is not pointed at under the expres
sion " the fruit of the land," nor is that interpretation
justified by a reference to Ezekiel xvii. 5. But though
not in accordance with Isaiah's mode of thought, the
use of similar phraseology in a metaphorical sense by
the later prophets justifies such an allegorical accommo
dation of the passage, because similar language is

14 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
employed in Rev. xxii. 2. The fifth chapter is an
independent prophecy, unconnected, save in the ex
pression of similar ideas with those which precede or
follow. The closing sentence of ver. 25 is, however,
employed afterwards as the refrain of a later prophecy
(ix. 12, 21; x. 4, 12, 17, 21).
Chapter v. is a vision of judgment enlightened by
no ray of promise. It opens with a parable in the
form of a love-song. That song of unrequited love is
succeeded by six woes pronounced against national sins.
(1) Against covetous land-grabbers, vv. 8-10. (2)
Against drunkards and revellers, vv. 11-17. The first
two woes are described in detail. The great mansions
built by the avaricious land-owners will become desola
tions, the curse of barrenness will rest upon the ill-
gotten fields. The revellers will be swept away into
captivity. Starvation follows after gluttony ; and where
a multitude of drunkards were wont to revel, crowds
of persons parched with thirst would be seen. - Sheol,
or the Under- world, would open her mouth without
measure for an ungodly people, and into that yawning
abyss would descend their splendour and multitude and
joy. (3) The third woe is against ungodly scoffers,
vv. 18, 19. (4) The fourth woe is pronounced
on those who impiously sought to confound the
distinction between good and evil, ver. 20. (5) The
fifth is directed against men ' ' wise in their
own eyes," and whose "folly" would become
"evident unto all men" (see ver. 21). (6)
The sixth and last is directed against corrupt judges,
and men of might whose strength was exhibited only in
an ability to imbibe strong drink, and who shamelessly
sold justice for bribes, vv. 22, 23. The fire of the

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 15
Divine indignation would burn up as stubble all such
unrighteous judges. They would be " left neither root
nor branch ' ' ; the roaring flame would consume their
branches, and rottenness destroy their roots (comp.
Mai. iii. 19).
The closing verses (vv. 25-30), which describe the
hurricane of wrath sweeping over the nation are parti
cularly fine. Jehovah lifts up a banner to marshal
the avengers, to draw together nations from afar
against His degenerate people. Like a bee-master
with his pipe, He collects the foes in swarms against
His land. No warrior is missing in those hostile ranks,
no one stumbles in the way. The anxiety of the
enemies for battle is so intense that they do not slum
ber or sleep, no one looses the girdle from his loins,
or unbinds his sandals. With arrows sharpened, bows
bent, horses' hoofs hard as flint, the adversaries of
Israel enter the land, the noise of their chariot-wheels
like the whirlwind. The roar of the approaching
enemies is like the roaring of lions — like the thunder
ing roar of the waves of the sea dashing over the land.
The sun of Judah and Israel sinks in blood bel'ow the
horizon. Everywhere are darkness and sorrow ; the
light is darkened above by means of the thick clouds
which cover the heavens with a darkness which can be
felt. Isaiah's call to the prophetic office forms the sub
ject of chap. vi. That chapter has been by some
less fitly explained as describing Isaiah's call to a parti
cular mission. The vision was seen in the year that
King Uzziah died, probably before the death of that
monarch. If the reading of 2 Chron. xxvi. 22 be correct, Isaiah

16 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
wrote a history of the events pf Uzziah's reign.
Uzziah reigned over Judah fifty years, and his reign
was prosperous, while the kingdom of Israel for a great
portion of that period was the scene of anarchy and
confusion. Uzziah succeeded in the wars which he
undertook, and so powerfully strengthened the de
fences of Judah, that " his name spread far abroad."
Although young, Isaiah appears to have been a per
son of importance during the reign of Uzziah, and pro
bably regarded the condition of Judah with pride and
satisfaction. The vision recorded in ch. vi. showed
him that God " seeth not as man seeth."
In spite of its outward prosperity, the Jewish state
was honeycombed with corruption, and tottering to
ruin. The incidents recorded in the chapter were presented
not in a dream, but in an ecstatic vision, during which
the prophet was " in the spirit " Cev Trvevp^aTi) , and
' ' saw ' ' and ' ' heard ' ' what could not have been per
ceived with the natural senses. It is probable that the
Hebrew prophets ' ' saw ' ' in visions matters concerning
which they afterwards " spoke," and their prophetic
discourses may in many cases have been but the inter
pretation of that which was ' ' seen " in an ecstatic
state. In the vision of ch. vi. Isaiah was transported to the
Temple above, of which the Temple in Jerusalem was
but a representation. The scene presented was not
that of an Oriental monarch on his throne, attended by
courtiers. There is no trace in the vision of reports
being presented from different countries (as in
Zechariah's vision of the angelic riders), nor is it neces
sary to explain ver. 8 as a consultation of the king with

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 17
his trusted servants. Such a view is wholly inade
quate. In the heavenly Temple the symbols of the
Ark of the covenant and its mercy-seat were not seen,
but " the things signified " thereby — namely, the
throne of Jehovah " high and lifted up " — were " be
held " by the prophet. Seraphim took the place of
Cherubim. The latter were probably emblems of crea
tion in its highest form , and corresponded with ' ' the
four living creatures " of Ezekiel, and ro\ reo-crapa £<Sa
of the Apocalypse. Seraphim are nowhere else men
tioned ; but in the vision they acted as ' ' ministering
spirits" attending on Jehovah's commands, and for
that purpose hovered over and below the throne. Franz
Delitzsch connects the Seraphim of Isaiah with the
ETEntprr D^narr fiery serpents mentioned in Num.
xxi. 6, and Cheyne regards the prophet as making use
of the symbol of seraphim , which , in the ' ' popular
mythic" form of speech, represented "the serpent
like lightning." But Isaiah's opening vision suggests
a contrast between the earthly and the heavenly Tem
ples. In the Holy of Holies on earth Jehovah was
supposed to be throned above or upon the Cherubim,
whose eyes were directed towards the mercy-seat which
covered the tables of the covenant. In the Temple of
Isaiah's vision there was no distinction between the
Holy place and the most Holy. There was but
one Temple ( f?3TT, or raos ), and it was com
pletely filled with the train of Jehovah's robe. In
the sanctuary above the Altar of Incense was
the sole furniture ; while the golden Altar of
Incense was the most conspicuous piece which
belonged to the Temple in Jerusalem. Hence
we adhere to the view which connects the name

18 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
seraphim with the Arabic JyL to be high, to be
noble, and would, with Bredenkamp, compare the
O^EHjOr high ones, which are mentioned in Job.
xxi. 22, or the princes, D"ni0n spoken of in Dan. x. 13.
The cry of the seraphim ] " Holy, holy, holy is Jah
veh Tzebaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory,"
corresponds in its first clause with that of ' ' the four
living beings " in Rev. iv. 8, " who have no rest day
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God,
the Almighty." For the Greek Kvpios in the latter
passage is the rendering of mrr, while 6 ©eos is
the ttSn understood in the Isaianic phrase ; and
6 TTavTOKpdrojp the Almighty is the LXX. rendering
of mms ; compare Amos iv. 13; Jer. v. 14, xv. 16,
etc. The close connection of Isa. vi. 3 with Ps.
xxix. 10 must also not be lost sight of.
In whatever manner the expression ' ' hosts ' ' may
be explained, it is clear that the phrase " Jehovah of
Hosts," is an abbreviation of the fuller Jehovah, the
God of hosts. The full phrase occurs in 2 Sam. v. 10 ;
1 Kings xix. 10, 14; Jer. v. 14, xv. 16, xxxv. 17, xliv.
7; Hosea xii. 6; Amos v. 15, vi. 8; Ps. lxxxix. 9.
Writers who use the full phrase also make use of abbre
viated forms. Thus " Jehovah of hosts " frequently
occurs in Jeremiah, while " God of hosts," with the
omission of Jehovah, occurs in Amos iv. 3, v. 14, 27 ;
Jer. xxxviii. 17. A still fuller phraseology is found
in Amos v. 16, Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord,
(Adonai) ; and in Amos iii. 13, The utterance of the
Lord (Adonai) Jehovah, the God of hosts. The same
phrase occurs in Amos vi. 14 with the omission of God
in the middle, in Amos ix. 5. Other phrases into
which Jehovah Tzebaoth enters are " Jehovah of hosts

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 19
is God over Israel," 2 Sam. vii. 26 ; or Jehovah of hosts
is the God of Israel, 1 Chron. xvii. 24; and in several
passages of Jeremiah, e.g., x. 23, 24, etc., which also
occurs in Jer. xlvi. 10. Unique is mN32 "SIN pINn
in Isa. x. 16. In the Psalms we find Jehovah the God
of Hosts, Pss. lix. 6, lxxx. 5, 20, lxxiv. 9; and in Ps.
lxxx. 8, 15, " God of Hosts." These instances in the
Psalter are the only passages which tell in favour of
Luzzato's view ; namely, that Tzebaoth in process of
time came to be regarded as a proper name, as it is
notably in the LXX. The "hosts" have been
variously explained to mean (1) the angels, (2) the
armies of Israel, and (3) the stars of heaven, the last
being perhaps the most probable view, in which case
the formula " Jehovah, the God of hosts " is like " the
God of heaven," an affirmation that the stars and all
other powers are entirely under the control of God as
their Creator.
At the cry of the seraphim (the NTipn may be
either collective, or used, as Cheyne explains it, "of
each one that cried "), the foundations of the threshold
were moved, and " the house " was filled with smoke
(in some respects similar, but not identical with " the
cloud" mentioned in Exod. xl. 34, 35, and 1 Kings
viii. 10). The smoke may have come from the Altar
of Incense, although that is uncertain. It must not
be identified with the smoke mentioned in Rev. viii.
3, 4, which was occasioned by the petitions of saints
below. The " smoke " in Isaiah's vision accompanied
the songs of praise of the seraphim. Cheyne com
pares Rev. xv. 8, where it should be noted that the lan
guage of Exod. xl. 34 is partly quoted.
The proclamation of Jehovah's holiness convinced

20 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Isaiah of his own sin and of that of his people. The
conviction found expression in the cry of ver. 5. The
Targum considers that Isaiah had contracted guilt by
not reproving Uzziah for the sin recorded in 2 Chron.
xxvi. 16-21. This exegesis is founded upon an erro
neous connection of the verb (int57? ), "/ am un
done ") with the idea of dumbness, silence (as if, " I
was dumb "). Isaiah's cry of " woe " was immediate
ly followed by a Divine exhibition of mercy. One of
the seraphim flew straightway to the prophet with
a live coal taken with the tongs from off the
Altar of incense. The application of the coal
of fire (comp. Jer. i. 9) had a purifying effect
(similar to that which was caused by the spirit
of burning, mentioned in iv. 4). " Lo, this hath
touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away
and thy sin is covered." The load of guilt being re
moved, Isaiah, when invited, boldly accepted the Di
vine commission, and became a prophet of Jehovah.
The word rrasn translated coal, is a noun of unity,
indicating a single hot stone, from *]st a stone.-
The two Hebrew words have their corresponding
equivalents in Arabic, namely <Juj and i&j,'.
Rizpah, except as the proper name of Saul's concubine,
is found only in this passage ; and Rezeph, the name
of an Assyrian city, occurs as an ordinary noun only in
the plural in the expression D'os-i nay (1 Kings xix.
6), a cake baked upon hot stones.
The Rabbinical authorities explain both words to
mean coals (compare avOpaKia. , John xxi. 9), and so
the LXX. But the other Greek translators of Isaiah
have the more precise word ^rJoSos (Vulg. calculus).
As the fire in the heavenly Temple was a Divine

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 21
emanation, whence its purifying power, the word seems
deliberately used in Isaiah in the technical signification
" hot-stone," in which it is commonly employed in
Arabic. There is no allusion, as Ewald and Cheyne
suppose, to the unhewn stones of which altars were
originally built (Exod. xx. 25). For although no?"i
with raphe, is used in Ezekiel and elsewhere in the
sense of a pavement composed of stones, the rrB2n
used by Isaiah was not any part of the altar itself, but
a hot-stone which took the place of coals, and which is
distinctly stated to have been taken with the tongs
" from off the altar."
The section of Isaiah's prophecies which comprises
chs. vii-xii. has been suitably designated " the Book of
Immanuel." The first portion of these, including ch.
vii.-ix 6, probably belongs to the time of the Syro-
Ephraimitic war. It commences with a historical in
troduction, which, owing to the employment of the
third person, has been by some critics considered not
to have been the work of Isaiah. Comp., however,
Isa. xx. ; Hosea i, 2; Amos vii., 12, 14, etc. On ac
count of the fragmentary character belonging to these
prophecies, and their looseness in style, Guthe, Stade,
Cheyne, and others suppose them to have been collec
ted by Isaiah's disciples, and thus to lack the arrange
ment of the master. The force of their arguments
is, however, justly denied by Dillmann. Ewald con
jectures that the historical notices met with in these
chapters were originally fuller.
The Syro-Ephraimitic war took place B.C. 737-734.
According to the Assyrian inscription (see Schrader,
Die Keilinschriften u. A.T., English translation by
Whitehouse, on 2 Kings xv.), Tiglath-pileser com-

22 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
menced his campaign against Palestine with the cap
ture of Gaza in 734, after which he overran the land of
Israel. Pekah, king of Israel, who was an enemy
of Assyria, was slain by Hoshea. The latter plac
ing himself at the head of a party favourably dis
posed to Assyria, succeeded to the throne of Israel and
became a vassal of Tiglath-pileser. In the following
years the Assyrian monarch crushed Rezin, king of
Syria, and put an end to the kingdom of which Damas
cus was the capital. The alliance, therefore, between
Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, and
the war which they jointly waged against Judah, must
have occurred prior to 734.
The coalition between the kings of Syria and Israel
had for its primary object the conquest of Judah. The
allied monarchs conspired together to overthrow the
Davidic dynasty, and intended to place on the throne
of Judah an obscure chieftain, known as " the son of
Tabeel." The allies appear to have designed to throw
off the yoke of Assyria, of which empire, according to
Assyrian inscriptions, both were vassals. Rezin as
sisted in the capture of Elath, the Jewish port on the
Gulf of Akaba, which was restored by him to Edom ;
for it is tolerably clear that in 2 Kings xvi. 6 the read
ing with d, qtn or Edom, is to be preferred to that of
tn«, which is Aram or Syria. The probable object,
therefore, of the coalition was to weld together the
Philistines, Edomites, and possibly Egypt also (cp.
vii. 18), into a strong confederacy against the advance
of Assyria.
In endeavouring as a king of Northern Israel, for
the first time since the great disruption , to root out the
Davidic dynasty in Judah, Pekah may have sought to

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 23
give a death-blow to the Messianic expectations
cherished more or less in the sister-kingdom. It is not
a little significant that, notwithstanding the idolatry re
established by Ahaz, Isaiah should have been bidden
at that crisis to proffer the help of Jehovah. He was
accompanied on the occasion by his son Shear-jashub,
whose name (a remnant shall return) was a standing
prediction of combined judgment and mercy.
The prophet boldly informed the Jewish monarch
that the alliance between Syria and Israel would not
stand. He described Rezin and Pekah as " two tails
of smoking firebrands," destined soon to die out, how
ever brightly they might blaze up for a moment.
"Within sixty and five years" Ephraim, strangely
leagued with an idolatrous nation for the extinction of
the Messianic hope, would be " broken in pieces that it
be hot a people." The denunciation has often pre
sented a difficulty to critics. What, under such cir
cumstances, was Ahaz likely to care for what might
happen in sixty-five years? But the prophecy was not
given with the object of winning over Ahaz. It was a
solemn declaration that the kingdom of Israel had
filled up the measure of its iniquity. The words with
which the prophet concluded the announcement (see
ver. 9) contained a solemn warning to the Divinely-
established House of David. Sixty and five years from
736, the second year of Ahaz 's reign (14 of Ahaz plus
29 of Hezekiah, plus 22 of Manasseh =65), span the
period up to the time of Esarhaddon (2 Kings xvii., 24 ;
Ezra iv., 2) and of Assurbanipal (identical with Asnap-
per, Ezra iv., 10), his co-regent and successor, when
the kingdom of Samaria was colonised with a mixture
of Gentile nations, and Ephraim ceased to be a people.

24 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
It is needless to mention that the passage has been
rejected by some critics as an interpolation, and ad
duced by others as a proof that the whole prophecy
must have been composed after the Exile.
Ahaz gave little heed to the prophet. It is possible
that, although greatly alarmed at the confederacy, he
had some reliance on the military strength of the king
dom, which, as organised by Uzziah, had been so
strong as to deter Tiglath-pileser from assailing Judah
(see Schrader, p. 253, Whitehouse's translation vol. i.
p. 245). Moreover, Ahaz seems already to have
begun communications with the great king of Assyria.
Whatever were his expectations, the opening of the
campaign was disastrous. The account given in
Chronicles (2 Chron. xxviii.) is not generally relied on,
although, due allowance being made for the mistakes
in numbers, Caspari in his monograph gives strong
arguments in support of its credibility. The Chroni
cler states that the Jewish army was almost an
nihilated, one of the king's sons was slain on the field,
and a huge number of prisoners were taken captive.;
The subsequent siege of Jerusalem proved, however,
unsuccessful (2 Kings xvi., 5). Hence both the Syrians
and Israelites, who appear to have carried on separate
warlike operations, retired for a short time from Jew
ish territory. Their southern allies, however, the
Edomites and Philistines (2 Chron. xxviii., 17, 18)
invaded the land, and Judah was greatly distressed.
Under such national trials Isaiah seems a second
time to have sought an interview with Ahaz, when he
offered to adduce a sign of his Divine commission
" either in the depth or in the height above." Accord
ing to the narrative, Ahaz does not seem to have

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 25
doubted the possibility of the sign being afforded, but
he feared to behold it (J. D. Michaelis). Already in
league with the king of Assyria, whose armies were on
the march to his assistance, he "dealt wantonly in
Judah, and trespassed sore against the Lord " (2 Chr.
xxviii., 19). He refused the prophet's offer, hypocriti
cally pretended that he would not commit the sin for
which Israel in early days had been punished so
severely (Exod. xvii., 7; Deut. vi., 16). Notwith
standing the idolatries of the monarch, Isaiah had
spoken to him of " Jehovah thy God." The worship
of Jehovah never seems to have been abandoned during
all the apostasies of Israel and Judah. They, like the
later colonists of Samaria, were eclectics in religion
(2 Kings xvii., 33). The prophet now addressed Ahaz
and the royal family in different language : ' ' Hear ye
now, House of David ! Is it a small thing that ye
should weary men (alluding to the gross acts of in
justice committed in the land) that ye will weary my
God also ! Therefore Jehovah Himself shall give you
a sign : Behold the maiden shall conceive and bear
a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
The ' ' sign from heaven ' ' once rejected was offered
no more. Another " sign " attended not with " out
ward show," would in due season be vouchsafed to
those that waited for redemption in Israel (cp. viii.,
16-18). Even the iniquity of the House of David
would not keep back the ' ' gift ' ' from being bestowed
in its season ; "for the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance" (Rom. xi., 29). Messiah, the
Child of the House of David, and the Child of Israel
also, in consequence of the sin both of the family of
David and of the people of Israel, would be revealed

26 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
in troublous times. The "salvation of Jehovah "
would be granted in a day of dire affliction. A day of
darkness would come upon the land, more gloomy than
that of the great Schism which rent the twelve tribes of
Israel into two antagonistic kingdoms. Ere a day of
grace would dawn, the land would be treated like a
leper covered with leprosy (Lev. xiv. 9). Before the
day of its recovery, Jehovah would shave it clean with
" the razor " of the king of Assyria, " hired " by Ahaz
in his infatuation. The armies of Egypt and Assyria
would both cover the land, numerous as flies and bees,
until it would be wasted and its cities destroyed. Im
manuel would be born in a day of adversity ; and when
old enough to discern between good and evil, that royal
Child, the long-expected One, would, in a wasted land,
be forced to subsist on sour milk and honey. Made
like in all things to His people, He would learn, like
them, obedience in the school of suffering. Messiah's
advent to an unbelieving people would be preceded by,
and accompanied with, bitter sorrows. A day of wrath
would precede the day of mercy.
The prophecy was thus an ideal description. The
picture of the future was painted upon the lines of the
prophet's own present. The Messianic character of
the prophecy, often denied, is now generally acknow
ledged. The supposed reference to the Virgin-birth in
Isa. vii., 14, was long regarded as the main point of
the prophecy. That special point is not now con
sidered to possess the importance assigned to it by the
older commentators. The significance of the prophecy
does not rest upon the translation of the word as ' ' the
virgin." With the glorious light cast upon our Lord's
history after His Resurrection by the fact of His mirac-

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 27
ulous Incarnation, then only made known to the dis
ciples in general terms, and never really understood,
it was natural to see a deeper meaning in the terms of
the Old Testament prediction. But the Hebrew
student must admit that the idea of virginity is not
conveyed by the word made use of ; and there are other
weighty reasons which lead to the conclusion that such
could not have been the " sign " referred to. Like
the Hebrew prophets in general, and the Apostles in
latter days, Isaiah cherished the hope of witnessing
himself the dawn of the Messianic day. All attempts,
however, to explain "the maiden" as the consort of
Ahaz, or as a second wife of the prophet, are now
generally discarded. The most satisfactory view is
that which considers the mother of the Messiah dis
tinctly pointed to, and hence the article is used, al
though the particular individual signified was not
known. She whose Son, as " the seed of the woman,"
was to bruise the serpent's head, was fitly designated
" the Maiden," as the link by which the blessing was
to descend. The Book of Immanuel describes in ideal
terms the Messiah as born in adversity, the predestined
Child of the maiden of the House of David (ch. vii.),
and the Child, too, of the people of Israel born for ad
versity. The Child Himself is therefore addressed as
He to whom the land rightfully belonged ; for Isaiah's
ejaculation (ch. viii. 8) may well be regarded in one
aspect as a Divinely inspired cry to Immanuel, that He
would look in pity upon the sorrows of His own
country (cf. John L, 11, Revised Version; see West-
cott). God would not cast off His people. Deliverance
would be vouchsafed for the sake of the Child who was

28 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
to be born, the Son that was to be given. The
Assyrian invader, after a time of success, would be
overthrown suddenly, as in " the day of Midian " (ch.
ix. 4). A vivid description follows of the victorious
march of the Assyrian through the land to his grave in
sight of Jerusalem (ch. x.). For from the stump of
Jesse's tree, felled though it was on account of long-
continued sins, a Shoot would come forth, and a
Branch out of its roots would bear glorious fruit (ch.
xi.). The redemption would be in due season com
plete and final ; the long looked-for King would redeem
Israel from all their enemies, and unite in one the
scattered people. The world would be subject to His
sway, and universal peace brought in. The redemp
tion when completed would cast into the shade the
great deliverance vouchsafed to Israel at the Red Sea,
and in praise thereof the Book of Immanuel closes with
a song of salvation (ch. xii.).
It must not be forgotten that Micah, the contem
porary of Isaiah, represents the Messiah as the Child
of Israel. The travailing woman of Micah iv. 9, 10,
is the community or Church of Israel, described in
Isa. Ixvi., 7, 8, as bringing forth children. Hence
there is much to be said in favour of the view adopted
by von Hofmann, Kohler, and Weir, that "the
maiden " of Isa. vii. is Israel viewed as the bride of
Jehovah. Cheyne 's objection that "this figure of
speech is reserved for the higher style of prophecy " is
of little weight when it is remembered that Micah and
Isaiah were fellow-prophets, and that the imagery of
the one might well be employed by the other, even in
comparatively prosaic passages. It may also be ques
tioned whether such an ideal description of the future

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 29
as that in Isa. vii., 14, viewed in connection with the
subsequent context, is not itself an instance of " the
higher style."
The prophecies in chs. xiii. -xxiii. treat chiefly of the
Gentile nations. Isaiah's prophecies concerning the
nations, like the similar predictions in Jeremiah (xlvi.-
li.) and Ezekiel (xxv. -xxxii.) are grouped together.
The prophecy of ch. xxii. is exceptional in its charac
ter. Such an arrangement of prophecies according to
subject-matter, and not in chronological order, is sug
gestive of the hand of an editor.
Several of the prophecies in this group are assigned
by critics of eminence to a post-exilian date. It has
been plausibly argued that in the time of Isaiah the
power hostile to Judah was Assyria and not Babylon.
It is, therefore, somewhat strange that Isaiah should
denounce Babylon (chs. xiii., xiv.) as the oppressor and
ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth, when Babylon
during his lifetime never attained such a position. It
is still more strange that the prophet should speak of
Babylon as a power actually keeping the Jews in exile,
at a time when the people of Judah had not yet been
carried into captivity.
Reference is unquestionably made in ch. xi. to a
wholesale deportation of Israel from Palestine, and
among the countries mentioned from whence the exiles
were to be restored the land of Shinar or Babylonia is
not forgotten. Critics, however, like Stade and
Giesebrecht, have maintained that chs. xi. 10, xii. 6,
are not Isaianic. Among the points unfavourable to
its genuineness Giesebrecht adduces the " combina
tion of the idea of the Messiah and of the idea of
universalism " in ver. 11 ; the sense in which the ex-

30 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
pression ' ' remnant of the people ' ' is employed in
verses 11 and 16 ; the countries in ' ' the four corners
of the earth " from whence the Israelites were to be
restored ; together with the union of contradictory
ideas, such as the universal monarchy of the prophetic
Son of David with the notion of a narrow Israelitish
kingdom, described in ver. 14. Hence Giesebrecht
assigns the passage to an imitator of Isaiah in post-
exilian days.
On the other hand the whole passage bears the im
press of pre-exilian times. Shinar, though mentioned,
occupies a subordinate place to Assyria. Assyria and
Egypt are spoken of as the chief foes of Israel ; the
name of Babylon does not occur in the prophecy ;
while the Philistines, with Edom and Moab, are
brought into a prominence which a writer of post-
exilian times could not have dreamed of assigning to
them. That Isaiah foresaw the wholesale deportation of
Israel is plain from passages admittedly genuine, such
as vi., 11, 12, vii., 17, viii., 4-7. The Babylonian Cap
tivity is alluded to distinctly in the historical appendix
to the first part of Isaiah at ch. xxxix. Hence it is not
after all so strange that the prophet, in a collected
edition of his prophecies, put forth probably some time
after the deliverance from Sennacherib, should have
also predicted Babylon's overthrow. If the captivity
of Judah was foreseen by him, it was necessary that he
should also speak of a restoration. That Jehovah
would not for ever forsake His people was a truth
enunciated by Samuel (1 Sam. xii. 22), and never lost
sight of by the subsequent prophets. It was an article
of Israel's faith.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 31
Isaiah's prophecies concerning the nations deal
mainly with the nations mentioned in the close of ch.
xi. — although the order in which they are mentioned
is not the same as in that chapter. Thus Assyria is
spoken of in xiv. 24-27 ; Philistia in xiv. 28-32 ; Moab
in chs. xv., xvi. ; Cush or Ethiopia in ch. xvii. ; Egypt
in chs. xix., xx. In the later chapters of the group,
Elam is mentioned in combination with Media (xxi. 2,
xxii. 6; cp. xiii. 17), and Edom in xxi. 11, 12. The
prophecy against Damascus in ch. xvii. is one which
very naturally follows the Book of Immanuel, where
Syria comes so prominently on the scene ; and Tyre ,
against which the prophecy of ch. xxiii. is directed,
may be regarded as included in ' ' the coast lands ' ' re
ferred to in xi. 11.
Babylon was not in Isaiah's time regarded as a dif
ferent empire from that of Assyria, although, like
many other provinces of the Assyrian empire, Babylon
might be restive under the Assyrian yoke. Tiglath-
pileser, king of Assyria, after his campaign against
Chaldea, assumed the title of "king of Sumir and
Akkad," i.e., of Babylonia (Schrader, K.A.T. 2nd ed.
p. 249). Consequently it is not strange that after the
prediction of the overthrow of Assyria in the Book of
Immanuel, the Book of the Nations should begin with
the prediction of Babylon's downfall (ch. xiii.), or even
that the dirge over Babylon (xiv. 3-23) should be fol
lowed by an utterance concerning the overthrow of the
Assyrian upon the holy mountains (xiv. 24-27).
It is easy to assert that those passages are but in
stances in which prophecies, widely differing in date,
have been pieced together by a post-exilian editor.
But the Jews of post-exilian days clearly distinguished

32 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
between the empires of Assyria and Babylon. It was
very different in the time of Isaiah. It mattered little
to a Jew of that period whether the centre of the great
Eastern empire — which, like a huge boa-constrictor,
was strangling the Jewish nationality — were fixed at
Nineveh on the Tigris, or at Babylon on the
Euphrates. It has been argued that Isaiah predicted only the
overthrow of a particular Assyrian king, and not the
overthrow of the Eastern empire. If, however, as we
maintain, the second half of ch. xi. be genuine, the
overthrow of both the Assyrian and Egyptian powers is
predicted as results connected with the coming forth of
the Shoot out of the stem of Jesse. Micah, Isaiah's
contemporary, similarly predicts the overthrow of
Assyria as brought about by Messiah (Micah v. 4-6).
And alongside of that prophecy, Micah further speaks
of the poor daughter of Zion forced in the pains of
travail to go forth out of the city of Jerusalem, com
pelled to dwell in the field, carried off as a captive to
Babylon, and there finally rescued and redeemed from
the hands of her enemies (Micah iv. 10).
Consequently, according to the evidence of the re
ceived texts of Isaiah and Micah, no marked distinction
was drawn in the days of Hezekiah between Assyria
and Babylon. A critic is not justified in tampering
with the prophetic text, on the ground of a theoretical
assumption of interpolations, so as to force it into har
mony with his peculiar theories. On the other hand,
if the general integrity of the prophetical books is to be
upheld, attention must be called to the fact that the
prophecies of the Old Testament contain more of the
ideal element than is popularly imagined. The reader

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 33
of the Bible must be trained to observe that literal pre
dictions are the exception and not the rule. The
glowing prophecy of Isaiah which depicts Senna
cherib's march upon Jerusalem (Isa. x. 28-34), and his
equally grand description of the overthrow of the
Assyrian king before its walls (Isa. xxxi. 27-33) were
not literally fulfilled. Sennacherib probably did not
march against Jerusalem by the route described in
ch. x., while all the details of the latter passage (ch.
xxxi.) did not actually take place (see Driver's Isaiah:
His Life and Times, *pp. 61, 73). No attempt was ever
made in later days to ' ' touch up ' ' those prophecies of
Isaiah, in order to make them coincide better with the
actual facts of history, which fact speaks volumes for
the general integrity of the text. Such details were re
garded by the prophet and his disciples as but the
pictorial filling up of the picture ' ' seen ' ' in prophetic
" vision." Those ideal portions are of the utmost im
portance, because they are evidences that the pro
phecies were delivered prior to the events predicted.
The " supernatural " element in each prophecy is to
be looked for in the prophecy viewed as a whole, and
not in its mere descriptive details, which are, more or
less, simply pictorial.
It would be easy to show that the prophecies con
cerning Babylon in chs. xiii. and xiv. present marked
characteristics of Isaiah's diction. Some weight is to
be assigned to arguments drawn from such peculiari
ties, but the critic must be on his guard against the
attempt so constantly made to assign ' ' to each
1 Isaiah : His Life and Times. And the writings which bear
his name. By Canon S. R. Driver, D.D. Second -Edition.
Revised. (Francis Grifiiths, 1904.)

34 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
prophet his own Lexicon " (Bredenkamp) . It is there
fore more important to observe that the prophecy about
Babylon is not deficient in the purely ideal element.
When Cyrus captured Babylon with his army of Medes
and Persians, he did not destroy that city. The pro
phecy of ch. xiii. was not fulfilled in " the letter," but
fully accomplished in "the spirit." If written prior
to Babylon's capture, it exhibits all the marks of super
natural inspiration. Babylon after its capture by
Cyrus sank to rise no more. That city never regained
the position of being the capital of an empire. Strabo
describes it as lying waste in the century prior to the
Christian era, although centuries later it became a
seat of Jewish learning. Bredenkamp calls attention
to the fact that in the predictions of Babylon's downfall
by Isaiah or Jeremiah, the union of Elam and Media is
not spoken of, although Cyrus was a Persian (Elamite).
The fact is a strong argument in favour of the composi
tion of those predictions prior to the Exile. It is
scarcely necessary to observe that the prediction in Isa.
xxi. 2 does not refer to the final successful coalition
against Babylon.
The ideas presented in the opening of ch. xiv. are
peculiar, and scarcely harmonise with those of ch.
xiii. They may, however, have been written by the
prophet at a later period to form a kind of framework
in which to insert the dirge over Babylon. That dirge
has, no doubt, been assigned by critics to the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, but there is no serious difficulty in
the way of regarding it as Isaianic. The details given
in xiv. 19, 20, are purely ideal. The king of Babylon
is only a personification of the empire over which that
king ruled. There is no evidence to show that the

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 35
scene pourtrayed of the royal corpse cast forth from its
grave was realised as a fact of history.
The superscription assigns the prophecy against
Philistia (xiv. 28, 32) to the year of Ahaz's death.
' ' The rod ' ' which smote the Philistines is often in
terpreted of Ahaz, who, with the aid of Assyria, re
pelled the Philistine invasion. It is, however, pre
ferably explained as a prophecy not of any particular
king, but of the House of David. The Davidic family
for centuries (2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7) kept the Philistines
in subjection. The rod or sceptre of David was
' ' broken ' ' by the ' ' serpent ' ' of Assyria (Tiglath-
pileser, or Shalmaneser) , although Assyria had been
" hired " (comp. vii. 20) to uphold the Davidic throne.
Judah had become an Assyrian vassal. The " adder "
and " the fiery-flying serpent " are best explained
(with Cheyne and Driver) as referring to Sargon (see
Schrader K.A.T. 2nd ed. p. 396), or even Sennacherib,
for both those Assyrian monarchs crushed the Philis
tines under foot. In the expressions used in the passage
" from the root " (piiBo), and " and his fruit " (thdi),
distinct allusions seem made to xi. 1, although the words
there are not identical in meaning. The " rod " (fan©)
and its smiting are mentioned in xi. 4. Delitzsch,
after the Targum, explains the " fiery-flying serpent "
of Messiah. The " rod " in the hand of the Assyrian,
wherewith he "smote" the Philistines, was "Je
hovah's indignation " (see x. 5, cf. vv. 24-26) ; and the
Messiah whether recognised or not, was the real source
of all deliverances vouchsafed to the Lord's people, and
hence He was appealed to by the prophet in the day of
calamity (viii. 8) as one able to deliver His land, and
as one for whose sake Jehovah might grant deliverance.

36 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Chapters xv., xvi., contain a prophecy against Moab.
The prophecy in xvi. 13, 14, is generally admitted to
be Isaianic. Most critics, however, think that the rest
of chs. xv., xvi., is the work of an earlier prophet re-
edited by Isaiah (cp. the Revised Version xvi. 13).
The prophecy is later than the time of Mesha, although
seven of the proper names mentioned in it are found
on the Mesha-stone. Ch. xvi. 1 refers to the tribute
once paid by Mesha to Judah (2 Kings iii. 4), which
Moab is advised again to pay. The Moabites, accord
ing to the prophecy, were in possession of territory
north of the Arnon, which formerly belonged to the
tribes of Reuben and Gad. That fact is, as Breden
kamp remarks, in favour of the Isaianic composition.
For the tribes of Reuben and Gad had been carried
away captive by Tiglath-pileser, and Moab was there
fore free to extend her territories in that direction.
Sennacherib boasts (Schrader, K.A.T. 2nd ed. p. 291)
that Camosnadab King of Moab paid his tribute..
Nothing has yet been discovered which casts light upon
the events predicted in xvi. 14.
Chapter xvii. 1-11 depicts " the burden upon Damas
cus." That title only describes part of the prediction,
which is mainly occupied with a description of the
overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, united with Syria
against Judah (ch. vii.). The prophecy was probably
composed about the time of Tiglath-pileser's campaign
against Syria and Israel. Israel's ruin is predicted,
but notes of mercy mingle with those of judgment in
vv. 6-8.
The passage that follows (xvii. 12-14) is of con
siderable beauty. It does not seem to be connected
with the prophecy which precedes, and does not be-

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 37
long to that which follows. It is one of Isaiah's
striking miniatures of the overthrow of Sennacherib's
army. There is no necessity to regard it as a frag
ment of some larger prophecy. The prophet probably
inserted the piece in this place of his gallery to mark
the contrast between the fates of Israel and of Judah
when they severally came into collision with the might
of Assyria. The moral of the lesson is too evident to
need comment.
The following chapter (ch. xviii.) contains a refer
ence to the same event. The picture describes
Ethiopia with its swarms of flies. Isaiah appears to
have been acquainted with the land and its inhabitants,
for verse 2 in a few master-strokes delineates the ap
pearance of the Ethiopians, the general features of
their land, and their fleet of papyrus canoes. Shaba-
taka, then monarch of Egypt, was more of an Ethio
pian than an Egyptian prince (Cheyne). The prophet
represents the king of Ethiopia in the act of collecting
an army to co-operate against the king of Assyria, when
startled by the news of the disaster before Jerusalem.
The victory of Jehovah is described as announced by
an ensign lifted up on the mountain, and by the
blowing of the trumpet in the land. In consequence
of that overthrow many nations brought gifts unto
Jerusalem (2 Chron. xxxii. 23), and among them were
probably the representatives of Ethiopia.
The next prophecy concerns Egypt : xix. 1-15 de
scribes the judgment ; xix. 16-25 its results. The
former is regarded by most critics as Isaianic, although
some dispute that point. The Egyptian and Assyrian
inscriptions have thrown considerable light upon the
historical references of the chapter (Cheyne), although

38 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
the points of contact cannot now be noticed. The
drying up of the Nile is not a literal prediction ; but a
symbolical description of the wasting away of that
once mighty empire. Egypt was symbolised by the
Nile, while the Euphrates in viii. 7, 8, is the symbol
of Assyria.
The authorship of the second part (xix. 16-25) is
called in question by many critics. The commenda
tory manner in which verse 19 speaks of " an altar ' ' in
the land of Egypt, and of the erection of a sacred
" pillar " (rnso), notwithstanding the prohibitions as
to pillars in Lev. xvii. and Deut. xii. 3, 4, has occa
sioned expositors no little difficulty. It must, however,
be observed that the prophet regards the ' ' pillar ' ' only
as "a sign," or a pillar of remembrance, and not
as the mark of " a high place." The "altar" he
speaks of was only an altar of " witness " like that of
Ed. The reference to Josh. xxii. is unmistakable.
Both the ' ' altar ' ' and ' ' pillar ' ' in the prophetic
picture were " signs " that Egypt would in future days
be a centre of pure worship. By the "pillar at the
border thereof " Egypt was ecclesiastically annexed to
Canaan ; as were the territories across the Jordan by
the altar of Ed. (Josh. xxii.). Hence the prediction of
five cities speaking the language of Canaan (cp. Zech.
iii. 9) is simply an illustration of that spiritual annexa
tion, and is not to be viewed as a literal prediction.
The reading of verse 18 seems corrupt. The pro
phecy, though purely symbolical, was made use of in
later times to support the erection of a Jewish temple
in Egypt in B.C. 160. The LXX. referred the pro
phecy to that event, and accordingly altered the phrase
" city of destruction " in verse 18 into p7??n T\y, or the

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 39
"city of righteousness." The manner in which
Assyria and Egypt are spoken of in vv. 23-25 recalls
the picture in xiv. 2. They are not, however, identi
cal. The reference to Assyria would have been an
anachronism in B.C. 160.
Chapter xx., though following ch. xix., contains an
earlier prophecy concerning the conquest of Egypt by
Assyria. The Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-
chief, is not to be identified with the Tartan mentioned
in 2 Kings xviii. 17. The title "the Tartan" does
not occur in the parallel passage in Isa. xxxvi. 2.
" The Tartan " of ch. xx. was sent by Sargon, the
predecessor of Sennacherib, against the Philistines
prior to the Assyrian operations against Egypt.
An influential party in Jerusalem relied on
an alliance with Egypt and Ethiopia as
the strongest bulwark against Assyria. To indi
cate the downfall of Egypt and Ethiopia, Isaiah
for three years walked up and down in the garb of a
captive in the streets of Jerusalem, having laid aside
both his outer rough garment of sack-cloth (" naked,"
comp. 1 Sam. xix. 24, Amos ii. 16, Micah i. 8) and
his sandals. On the difficulties connected with the
reading " three years," and on the attempts to obviate
them — whether on the part of the Hebrew punctuators,
who disconnect the word ' ' barefoot ' ' from the ' ' three
years " following, or by critics who conjecturally read
"three days" in the place of "three years," — see
Cheyne's Commentary.
The prophecy against Babylon (xxi. 1-10) probably
refers to the siege which happened in Isaiah's lifetime,
when Sargon captured that city and defeated Mero-
dach-baladan. The latter monarch afterwards re-

40 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
covered much of his power, and was formidable in the
reign of Sennacherib (Isa. xxxix.). At the time of the
prophecy many Jewish statesmen longed for the suc
cess of Merodach-baladan as a check to the growing
power of Assyria. Isaiah, however, predicted the
failure of that monarch's attempts against Assyria.
The language used by Isaiah shows his sympathy with
the natural sentiments of his nation, though from a
higher standpoint he recognised the need of Judah's
being taught by bitter experience to lean only on her
God. The superscription (xxi. 1) is somewhat enigmatical,
though picturesque like the prophecy itself. The
Euphrates, like the Nile (xviii. 2, xix. 5) was some
times styled "a sea." The land of Chaldsea was
termed the "sea-land" (mat ti-am-tiv, i.e., Heb. mrrn
Schrader, K.A.T. 2nd ed. p. 353). Few prophecies so
distinctly convey the impression that what is described
was actually "seen" in prophetic vision, and after
wards recalled to mind and expounded. The pictures
presented to the prophet's view did not represent what
actually took place at the conquest of Babylon. The
details, like similar details in the Apocalypse, are
ideal ; the prophecy true, but symbolical.
Chapter xxi. 11-17 contains two prophecies, the first
of Edom under the symbolical appellation of Dumah,
silence; the second concerning Arabia, i.e., Tema and
Kedar. The answer to inquiring Edomites was to the
effect that their day of prosperity would soon close in
night, but that a day of grace was not yet over, if they
were disposed to make use of it. Nothing definite is
known as to the events noted in the second prediction
as shortly to come to pass.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 41
Chapter xxii. is also concerned with the nations who
suffered bitterly from the ' ' overwhelming scourge ' '
which first passed through them, and then descended
upon Jerusalem. This is probably the reason why the
prophecy occupies its special position. It is, however,
strictly speaking, a "domestic prediction." "The
valley of vision " has sometimes been explained to
signify the low-lying quarter of the city in which the
prophet beheld his " vision," or to denote some
' ' valley ' ' in prophetic ' ' vision ' ' where the contest de
scribed seemed to take place. The prophecy may refer
to some event which occurred during the invasion of
Sennacherib, or (as Cheyne supposes) during the
earlier invasion of Sargon. That monarch styles him
self ' ' he who subdued the land of Judah whose posi
tion is remote" (Schrader, p. 188). The history,
however, of that campaign is not given in the Kings,
and all details are wanting.
Chapter xxii. 15-25 contains a denunciation of Sheb-
na, who was then over the treasury. That statesman's
deposition is predicted, and the promotion of Eliakim
to office. While the personal integrity of the latter is
praised, he was solemnly warned that his partiality for
his relations would in turn bring about his own down
fall. There are no means of tracing the accomplish
ment of those particular prophecies.
The "Book of the Nations" closes with a description
of the fate of Tyre (ch. xxiii.). The authorship of this
highly finished piece is much disputed, chiefly because
of the mention made of the Chaldeans in verse 13.
The language is, however, decidedly Isaianic, and no
convincing arguments have been adduced against the
traditional view. The date of the prophecy cannot be

42 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
absolutely determined, nor can the fulfilment of the
prediction in all its details be pointed out. No light
has yet been cast upon the predictions of the closing
verses. It may, however, safely be affirmed (against
Ewald and Cheyne) that the seventy years of Tyre's
desolation (vv. 15-17) have no connection with the
seventy years of Judah 's exile predicted by Jeremiah.
The next section of the Book, comprising chapters
xxiv. -xxvii. inclusive, may almost be styled the Apo
calypse of Isaiah. It has, as Delitzsch justly remarks,
no counterpart in the Old Testament., except Zech.
ix.-xiv., and that only to a partial extent. Though
admirably suited to the place it occupies in the book,
it is not placed in chronological order, whether as
regards its composition or subject-matter. The
Isaianic authorship of the portion has been disputed,
because the historical situation depicted does not cor
respond with the events of Isaiah's time. Moreover,
the character of the section, although confessedly
abounding with phrases peculiar to Isaiah, wholly
differs from the other Isaianic prophecies.
These arguments, however, are not conclusive. The
prominence given to Moab (xxv. 10-12) is in favour of
Isaiah's authorship. If Isaiah really predicted the
Babylonish Captivity, the reference to Israel's three
great enemies — Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon — in
xxvii. 1 agrees with his historical standpoint, and
xxv. 6 proves that the writer lived at Jerusalem. Well-
hausen maintains that the ideal of the older prophets
was the establishment of the Davidic kingdom and
monarchy on a grander scale, and that the prophets
only dreamed Apocalyptic dreams when they lost hold
of that historical environment (Proleg., pp. 444-5).

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 43
If Wellhausen's canon be accepted, the genuineness of
the prophecy is indefensible. But his canon is purely
arbitrary. Wellhausen summarily rejects as inter
polations all the passages which can be adduced as
evidence against his theory. There is, however,
nothing really opposed to the admission of the Isaianic
authorship of the prophecy, unless it be assumed that
whatever savours of the ' ' supernatural ' ' is necessarily
spurious. The prophecy is, however, not literal. It is in the
grandest sense ideal. It does not describe the de
vastation only of "the land" of Israel or Judah.
That "land," indeed, is not forgotten; it is promi
nently before the prophet's mind. But the thought
which filled his soul was that of a world collapsing
into ruin. The days of Noah are recalled to mind :
' ' the windows on high are opened ' ' (xxiv. 18) , ' ' the
everlasting covenant ' ' then made is now ' ' dis
solved " (xxiv. 5), and the curse devours the earth
once more (ver. 6), chaos ("inn Gen. i. 2) coming
again into view (ver. 10).
The catastrophe being thus world-wide, " the rem
nant " of vv. 13-15 is not exclusively that of the
Jewish nation. "Few are left" among the peoples
(o^D^rr), vv. 6, 13 (comp. Matt. xxiv. 22). Hence
the voices of the remnant that escape arise from the
western sea and from the lands of the rising sun
(Delitzsch). The city of confusion (inn Gen. i. 2) is
neither Babylon nor Jerusalem, but the idealised
" capital of the God-estranged world " (Delitzsch), dis
tinguished only for pictorial effect from the world
with which in many aspects it may be identified. A
world estranged from God has ever a tendency to re-

44 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
lapse into a chaos from whence it arose. The final
victory described by the prophet is delineated by him
as achieved both in heaven above and in earth be
neath. Angels and kings are described as hurled to
gether into the prison, from whence they are to be
brought forth to judgment, when order and beauty
are re-established, and Jehovah "shall reign before
His ancients gloriously."
This picture of the " last things " is unique. There
is, however, nothing improbable in such a vision of
final victory having been revealed for consolation to
the prophet after the Assyrian deliverance, when he
was led to contemplate the dark storm-clouds which
began again to gather over the horizon.
The hymn of praise which follows (xxv. 1-5) de
scribes Jehovah's mercy in the midst of trouble, and
the feast made for all peoples on Mount Zion. Zion
is not always to be a stone of stumbling, but a source
of rejoicing. All peoples are to rejoice in her. Death
will be swallowed up, and the veil of ignorance and
sorrow drawn off from all eyes.
Beneath the mountain on which the joyous feast is
held, a striking contrast is depicted. At the close of
chapter xxx. " tabrets and harps " are represented as
sending forth melody on the mountain above, while
at its foot the funeral pile is made ready for the
Assyrian king. It is kindled by the breath of Jehovah
" like a stream of brimstone." Similarly in chapter
xxv., Moab, Israel's haughty foe, is seen trodden
down at the foot of the mountain, like straw in the
water of earth's dung-pit. In vain Moab spreads
forth his hands to swim, for he is trampled under,
and stifled beneath the fetid water.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 45
A third hymn of praise follows (xxvi. 1-7). Zion
is described as surrounded by the walls and bulwarks
of salvation. The ideas presented under other phra
seology in xxxiii. 20, 21, are repeated almost in identi
cal language in lx. 18. Through the doors and gates of
the city stream in ' ' the righteous nation which keepeth
truth." Verses 8-11 describe either the prophet's
past or present trials, the thoughts of which dimmed
awhile the view of future glory. Faith, however,
bursts forth victoriously from verse 12 onwards, rising
almost to the level of New Testament revelation.
" The dead " of verse 14 are not merely Israel's oppres
sors. The prophet's gaze is fixed on the distant future.
The faith that believes in Jehovah bringing His
people down to Sheol is compelled to affirm a bringing
up from Hades (1 Sam. ii. 6), in the same way that the
faith that foresaw the national captivity prophesied a
glorious return. Hofmann rightly maintains (Schrift-
beweis, ii. 461) that a belief in the resurrection of the
dead is no mere product of exilian days. It is no light
borrowed from Zoroaster. The revivification of the
dead was often obscured by the clouds that shut out
the world beyond. The awakening of the dead to con
sciousness and life was, perhaps, thought of in Old
Testament days as limited to Israel, and the resurrec
tion of all men was not clearly revealed. But the fact
of a life beyond the grave, and of deliverance from
Sheol, was surely, though slowly, recognised as a ne
cessity of faith.
The language in which Old Testament Psalmists and
Prophets speak of the state of the dead in the Under
world is not, indeed, to be regarded as literal. The
Church in Hades is described in Isa, xxvi. as a woman

46 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
travailing with child, awaiting the time of her delivery.
Bredenkamp calls attention to the fact that Isaiah's
similitude is expanded in 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) iv. 35-42.
As Daniel looked forward, after a period of rest, to
stand in his lot at the end of the days (Dan. xii. 13),
so in an ecstasy of believing rapture, Isaiah cries out to
the longing Church of Hades (cf. Thess. iv. 14-18) :
" Thy dead shall live, my dead body [there is no neces
sity to view the expression as collective] shall arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy
dew (the dew of Jehovah) is as a dew of herbs ! " It
is a dew which falls upon the grass, and makes it
spring up luxuriously, or " a dew of lights " (cp. Jas.
i. 17), " so full of the light of life that it draws forth
the shades even from the dark womb of the Under
world " (Cheyne). " The earth shall cast forth the
dead," also from its womb (cf. Rev. xx. 13). Numerous
as the dew-drops from the womb of the morning are
the youths that range themselves under the banner
of Messiah (Ps. ex. 3). So the dew of Jehovah, in
the morning of resurrection , shall bring forth a mighty
army from the womb of Earth and Hades.
The burst of rapture is succeeded (vv. 20, 21) by an
exhortation to the people of Jehovah. A further des
cent in sobriety of language marks ch. xxvii., the pro
phet being actuated by the principle enunciated by St.
Paul in 2 Cor. v. 13. Ch. xxvii., however, possesses
beauties of its own, and the fourth song of thanksgiving
(contained in vv. 2-5) is not a little striking. The
rest of the chapter is devoted to setting forth practical
lessons, and is finally brought to an end by another
picture, not so apocalyptic in its colouring, of the day
of deliverance.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 47
The next group of prophecies comprises chs. xxviii. -
xxxv. Delitzsch terms ch. xxviii. -xxxiii. " the book of
woes," owing to the five woes with which each of these
five chapters severally begins. Those prophecies were
delivered at various times, but were placed together
owing to the similarity in their contents. The internal
evidence of xxviii. 1-6 proves, as Driver remarks, the
chapter to ' ' have been written prior to the fall of
Samaria in 722, and therefore during the reign of Shal-
maneser IV." Jerusalem is warned of Samaria's sin
and of her approaching ruin. The words of mockery
and scorn with which the prophet's messages were re
ceived by the people of Jerusalem are re-echoed and
turned back upon those mockers " with a new and
terrible significance." The exact significance of the
monosyllabic words used in verse 10, and repeated in
verse 13, is a matter of some uncertainty. Their
general meaning is clear. The Jews were warned that
if they despised the repetition of Jehovah's message as
monotonous, they would soon as captives in a strange
land and in a strange tongue be compelled to hearken
to the harsh monotones of commands from the lips of
foreign taskmasters. Judah relied on the help of
Egypt in her struggle against Assyria. That hope, the
prophet pointed out, was a delusion. She had, how
ever, if she only knew it, surer ground of confidence.
Jehovah had laid in Zion "for a foundation a stone ,
a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure founda
tion." This was not Zion itself or her Temple, but
the Davidic house, from whence Messiah was to arise.
The N.T. interpretation gives the true explanation of
verse 16 (Rom. ix. 33 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6). The nation of
Israel was eternal, the Davidic throne indestructible, if

48 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
the nation only relied on her God. If not, she would
be compelled to learn in days of sorrow the lessons
which might have been learned in days of prosperity.
Prophetic lessons of wisdom for the present, and of con
solation for the future, are presented by the common
operations of husbandry, for what seems the severest
treatment of the grain tends to provide bread for the
use of man. Similarly " the holy seed," purified by
affliction and taught in adversity, will one day be per
fected, and become a blessing to the nations (vv. 23-29).
The Apostle Paul's explanation (Rom. xi. 33-36) is a
fitting parallel to and commentary upon verse 29.
Chapter xxix., though referring also to the Assyrian
invasion, was written at a later period, and predicts the
desolation which Sennacherib's invasion would bring
upon the land. Ariel, which more probably signifies
" hearth of God " (cp. xxxi. 9) than " lion of God," is
used to designate Jerusalem, which, though highly
favoured, would be brought down by sin, and after
wards redeemed by God's mercy. The prophet de
nounces the secret plottings with Egypt (verse 15)
which were bringing the country to the verge of ruin ;
though he predicts a marvellous deliverance within the
course of a year (xxxix. 1), which would be accom
panied with blessed results. In ch. xxx. the embassy
sent to Egypt is derided by Isaiah, who points
out the disobedient character of the people who desired
to have " smooth things " spoken to them. The con
sequence of their folly would be that they would be
compelled to experience God's heavy chastisement
before the day of repentance and of mercy. At the
close of the chapter Isaiah's finest imagery is employed
to sketch the path along which the nations were to be

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 49
lured to destruction, when Jahveh would go forth for
the redemption of His people. He is described as an
indignant hero striding forth to the battlefield, a
mightier than Samson, whose arms would bring salva
tion. Amid a mighty storm stroke upon stroke des
cends upon the mighty foe. And as those mighty
blows are breaking the enemy in pieces, tabrets and
harps resound with melody from the walls of Jeru
salem, where the afflicted people recognise that their
Lord has gone forth to the battle. The funeral pile is
depicted as already constructed for the reception of the
carcases of the fallen foes, for the king and his numer
ous host. In the valley of Tophet, beneath the holy
city, the pile is lighted to consume the relics of the
enemy. The prophecy is highly figurative, not literal,
though in very essence fulfilled : ' ' The Assyrian sol
diers, cut down in their ranks like sheaves of corn,
were gathered in that spot into the threshing-floor
(Micah iv. 12), and laid in their last earthly beds along
the sides of that deep valley. Sennacherib's death at
Nineveh was the direct result of his discomfiture before
Jerusalem " (Wright's Biblical Essays, p. 126).
The same thoughts under different imagery form the
subject of ch. xxxi., while ch. xxxii. depicts the salu
tary result of this judgment and deliverance upon both
king and people. The opening verses of ch. xxxii.
were by the older commentators generally regarded as
Messianic. They are not, however, Messianic in their
primary signification, although some features re
appear which are characteristic of Messianic times.
All temporal deliverances, however, more or less
distinctly foreshadow that final salvation. Critics, like
Stade, regard the chapter as post-exilian, but there is

50 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
no real necessity for such a supposition. Although
there is no historical narrative to guide us, we may
fairly assume that Hezekiah was, after that " crowning
mercy," able to rule with a firmer hand, and sup
pressed many of the oppressions whereby the nobles of
Jerusalem unjustly and ignobly crushed their poorer
brethren. True nobility, for a season at least, was
seen to consist in executing righteousness. The re
bukes administered to the careless women of Jerusalem
at the close of the chapter (vv. 9-20), and the manner
in which Isaiah insists on the necessity of an out
pouring of the Spirit from on high on all the people, all
show plainly that, although he could vividly paint the
ideal, the prophet was not forgetful of the low spiritual
character of the people to whom he ministered.
Chapter xxxiii. presents another grand picture of the
same period. The fresh details depicted upon the pro
phetic canvas are interesting. The scorn with which
Hezekiah's messengers of peace were received by the
Assyrian king, and the lamentation of the people when
all attempts at negotiations with the cruel foe proved
to be in vain, are vividly set forth.
In verse 14 the dejection caused by the sight of the
perpetual burnings of cities and villages is well pour-
tray ed. Never was a grander illustration afforded of
the truth that man's day of adversity is God's day of
opportunity (cf. xxx. 18, xxxiii. 10, 11). The clos
ing verses of the chapter, with the description of Jah
veh as the judge, the general, the king, and deliverer of
His people, are peculiarly fine.
The next two chapters (xxxiv. and xxxv.) differ con
siderably from the preceding, and are in many respects
of an apocalyptic character. They are, therefore,

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 51
assigned by critics who accept Wellhausen's dictum to
the post-exilian age. There are no doubt " striking
parallels between chs. xxxiv., xxxv. and Zephaniah,
and between ch. xxxiv. and parts of Jeremiah (xlvi.
3-12, xxv., 1. and li.), which are of great critical impor
tance " (Cheyne). But, as Caspari pointed out, and
others before and after him, not a few eschatological
points are to be found in the previous chapters of
Isaiah. Such are the healing of the deaf and blind
(xxix. 18; xxxii. 3, 4), the transformation of the wil
derness (xxxii. 15), the springing up of water (xxx.
25). Such are also the marvellous pictures in chs.
xxiv. -xxvii., and especially the contrasted picture in
ch. xxvi. The favourite style of criticism is a kind of
reasoning in a circle. It is assumed, first of all, as an
axiom, that the second portion of Isaiah is post-exilian ;
and next that every part of the first portion of the Book
which presents any similarities to the second is also
non-Isaianic. The argument frequently proceeds up
on a number of unproved assertions, while those who
ask for proof are accused of the lack of " sound judg
ment," and informed that the question has been finally
decided by the tribunal of critics !
Many wrongs committed by the Edomites against
Judah were fresh in the memory of the men of Isaiah's
time. It is therefore easy to understand why Edom is
used in ch. xxxiv. to designate the foes of Jahveh "s
people, and why the different fates of the two kindred
peoples are so often contrasted. The story of Gen.
xix. and the Song of Moses in Deut. xxxii. (cf. es
pecially vv. 41-43) were distinctly in the Prophet's
mind. The ideal character of chs. xxxiv. and xxxv.
must be insisted on. It is impossible to regard those

52 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
statements as designed to be understood literally.
Chapters xxxvi. -xxxix. are a historical supplement
to the first part of the Book of Isaiah. That appen
dix presents not a few difficulties. Its outlines may
have been drawn up by the prophet ; but if so, they
have been added to by later writers. The murder of
Sennacherib, recorded in ch. xxxvii., took place in B.C.
682-1, after the death of Isaiah. The narrative is in
the main identical, even in verbiage, with that in the
Kings. There are, however, notable differences. The
three verses, 2 Kings xviii. 14-16, do not occur in
Isaiah, and are different in style, the name of Hezekiah
himself being there spelled in a peculiar manner. The
psalm of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. 9-20) is peculiar to
Isaiah, while the account of Hezekiah 's sickness is
shorter than that in the Kings. The prophecy (xxxix.
22-35) is certainly Isaianic. The narrative in the
Kings appears to be the original, that in Isaiah the
copy. The latter, however admirably suited it may
be to the place it occupies, dates in its present shape
from post-exilian days.
The account of Sennacherib's campaign presented in
the Assyrian inscriptions differs in some respects from
the Biblical. Driver regards both accounts as imperfect,
though in substantial agreement. The Assyrian in
scriptions deal with the entire campaign ; the Biblical
account is mainly concerned with the expedition against
Judah. It is not improbable that the Assyrian account
has, as Schrader supposes, transposed the order of
events so as to gloss over the disaster before Jerusalem.
The chief difficulty is in reference to the time when
the invasion occurred. The Bible places it in the
fourteenth year of Hezekiah ; Hezekiah reigned only

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 53
twenty-nine years. His life was, according to ch.
xxxviii. , prolonged for fifteen years after the overthrow
of Sennacherib. But the Assyrian account places the
invasion in the spring of 701 ; that is, in the very last
year of Hezekiah. Consequently Hezekiah must have
reigned considerably longer, and Manasseh's reign
(stated at fifty-five years) must be reduced, or the
events recorded in chs. xxxviii., xxxix. as having oc
curred after Sennacherib's defeat, must have preceded
that event. Much can be said in favour of the former
hypothesis, though the latter is adopted by Delitzsch,
v. Orelli, and others. Cheyne, too, considers Merodach-
baladan 's embassy from Babylon to have preceded the
invasion of Sennacherib. Following up the hints given
by Hincks, Cheyne supposes the events of 2 Kings
xviii. 14-16 to refer to an invasion in the reign of Sar
gon. There are as yet scarcely sufficient data on
which to base any definite conclusion on these points.
The embassy of Merodach-baladan, so far as the his
tory of that remarkable antagonist of Assyria is known
to us, may just as well have followed as preceded the
defeat of Sennacherib.
The second part of the Book of Isaiah, containing
chs. xl.-lxvii. is regarded by modern critics as the work
of another writer. This is the view now almost uni
versally adopted. Scholars of unimpeachable ortho
doxy, who firmly believe in the Divine inspiration of
the book (as Delitzsch, Oehler, v. Orelli, and Breden
kamp) , and some who long defended the genuineness of
this portion, have at last yielded to the prevalent
opinion. The arguments in support of the theory are
in themselves cumulative, and derived from three dis
tinct lines of evidence : namely, (1) the subject-matter

54 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
of the prophecy, (2) its literary style, and (3) the theo
logical ideas which characterise it.
1. The theme of the chapters is the restoration of
Israel from Babylon. In these chapters no reference
is made to the existence of the Assyrian empire, which
was so powerful in the days of Isaiah. The Baby
lonian empire is spoken of as bearing rule over Israel.
The Assyrian empire is, however, in one place referred
to as having oppressed Israel in days gone by (Iii. 4).
The "old waste places" of Jerusalem are repeatedly
mentioned (lviii. 12), with "the waste cities and the
desolations of former generations" (lxi. 4). In a prayer
addressed to Jahveh the lamentation is put into the lips
of the nation : ' ' The holy and beautiful house where
our fathers praised thee is burned with fire, and all our
pleasant things are laid waste" (lxiv. 10). Israel is
throughout depicted as actually in captivity, while there
is no prophecy of the Exile as an event still future.
The oppression of the Chaldseans is so keenly felt that
Zion exclaims, " The Lord hath forgotten me " (xlix.
14). The days of exile are also described as almost
over; the destined deliverer, Cyrus, is at hand, whom
the Almighty had been leading on in a wondrous career
of victory (xii. 1-7), in order that he might burst open
Babylon's gates of brass (xiv. 1-4), overturn her idols
(ch. xlvi.), and dash to the ground the " virgin daugh
ter of Babylon." All those events, too, are stated to
have been pre-arranged with the object of Jacob's de
liverance (xiv. 4), and of the restoration of Israel " not
for price, nor for reward." The coming deliverer was
to build the walls of Jerusalem, and to lay the founda
tions of the Temple. Cyrus and Babylon, however,
entirely disappear from view after ch. xlix. Grander

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 55
and loftier visions float before the prophet's eye, who
winds up his predictions with a picture of the future
Zion, thoughts of which again and again have crossed
his mind at various portions of the earlier chapters.
To ascribe a prophecy possessing such peculiarities
to Isaiah, who lived in the Assyrian period, is, it is
argued, contrary to all analogy. Prophets do, indeed,
occasionally throw themselves forward to an ideal
standpoint, and from it depict the future. Such
transferences are, however, only transient. " No such
sustained transference to the future " can be pointed
out " as would be implied if these chapters were by
Isaiah, or for the detailed and definite description of the
circumstances of a distant age" (Driver). If other
prophets predict the Restoration, they predict also the
Exile, as in the cases of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But
in the second part of Isaiah the captivity is spoken of
as something present, under which Israel was then
suffering. On the other hand, it may be fairly asked, if the
second portion be supposed to have been written by
the writer of the first portion of the Book, what need
was there for that prophet to repeat again and again
the predictions of a coming exile? If, as is abun
dantly proved from passages in the first portion, the
prophet was able to transfer himself for a " transient ' '
period to the standpoint of the future, what improba
bility is implied in the supposition that, after long pon
dering over the subject, he should have composed pro
phecies written entirely from the latter standpoint ? It
must be borne in mind, whatever theory of authorship
be adopted, the second portion of Isaiah is a work sui
generis. It is not a work which would have been ex-

56 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
pected from a writer at Babylon prior to the Restora
tion, and still less from one who lived after that event.
To this point we shall presently allude.
There, are many passages in the first portion of the
Book which predict a coming Exile and a future Res
toration. Such thoughts underlie portions of the in
troductory chapters (cf. iii. 25, 26). The Captivity is
distinctly spoken of at the end of the song of the vine
yard^. 5 sq.) and in the verses which follow after (v.
13-17). It is alluded to in Isaiah's opening vision (vi.
11, 12). Captivity and restdration are mentioned in
ii. 11 sq. The sayings in xxx. 12 or xxxii. 14, may
be passed over, because they have probably a different
meaning. If ch. xiii. be Isaianic, the judgment on
Babylon is there distinctly predicted ; and Israel's Cap
tivity in Babylon must have been prophesied by Isaiah,
if xxxix. 6, 7 be regarded as historically true.
There are, moreover, portions in the second part of
the Book which have distinctly a pre-exilian stamp.
Ewald and Bleek regard ch. lvi. and a portion of ch.
lvii. as predictions of an age earlier than the Exile.
Chapter lix. and most of ch. lxv. have also been as
signed by other critics to the same period. The phe
nomena of the second part of the book (if that portion
be regarded as a whole) are not so very distinct from
those of the other prophets. The writer occasionally
refers to the circumstances of his time, and permits us
now and then to see that, though writing from the
standpoint of the Exile, he lived before the event had
actually taken place, which he, however, foresaw to
be certain.
Bredenkamp and others have called attention to an
other point, namely, that the author of the second part,

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 57
amid all his denunciations against idolatry, does not
show such an acquaintance with the land or religion of
Babylon which an exile in Babylon would naturally
have displayed , and which is actually exhibited by Jere
miah, Ezekiel, and other prophets.
If, moreover these chapters of Isaiah be compared
with the prophecies of Micah, the contemporary of
Isaiah, the substance of their prophecies appears to
be the same. Micah gives the same vivid picture of
the future glory (iv. 1-6), found in the early part of
Isaiah. He afterwards transfers himself to the days
of gloom and captivity, speaks of a coming restoration
(iv. 6, 7), predicts the recovery by Zion of her former
dominion which was forfeited because of her sin (iv. 8),
depicts Zion in sorrow and travail (iv. 9), which bitter
" pains " were to be the birth-throes of a glorious fu
ture (iv. 10) — a picture somewhat similar to that in Isa.
Ixvi. 5-9. The nation, however, must go to Babylon,
and in that place its redemption would take place (iv.
10). The designs of Israel's foes are sketched out
(Micah iv. 11), which they in their blindness fancy
they can carry out (Micah iv. 12; cf. Isa. li. 17-23).
And then follows a prediction of the sudden and un
expected victory of Zion (comp. Isa. lvi. 5-6, with
Micah iv. 12, 13, and v. 18). Zion would be victori
ous, though brought into great extremities — the De
liverer would come at last (Micah iv. 13, v. 5). Later
on in the prophecy the ruin of Israel, actually impend
ing, is spoken of (Micah v. 10-15). It is also worthy
of note that if Isaiah does not forget to allude to the
oppression of the Assyrian (in Iii. 4), the thoughts of
Isaiah's contemporary also recur to that Assyrian
foe, as an enemy which would only be completely

58 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
vanquished by the Messiah (Micah v. 5, 6).
In both the first and second portions of Isaiah, and
in Micah, the same apocalyptic " dreams " are to he
found. Visions of mercy and of judgment strangely
commingle, visions which come and go, and again re
appear, but by no means always in chronological order.
This argument is, of course, based on the text of the
Prophet Micah as handed down to us ; not on that
prophet's writings as revised by critics. Critics would
erase from the page of Micah the clause that speaks
of the Babylonish Captivity, on the ground of its want
of harmony with the immediate context. We protest,
however, against this " unscientific " plan of revising
old texts with the view of bringing them into harmony
with modern critical conjectures, and thus shamefully
tampering with documentary evidence. There is too
great a tendency among modern critics to treat the
Books of the Prophets as heaps of broken fragments,
lying promiscuously together, out of which the critic
has to select according to his individual fancy those
" remains " which appear to him to be genuine. Such
is the position taken up by no less a critic than Giese
brecht in his Beitr Age zur Jesaiakritik (cp. p. 86).
One may confidently predict that criticism will return
at no distant time to safer and surer principles.
2. Another independent line of argument which, it
is affirmed, leads to a conclusion fatal to the Isaianic
authorship of this portion, is drawn from its literary
style. It ought, however, to be understood that the
critics of to-day do not affirm that the Hebrew of the
second portion of Isaiah belongs necessarily to a later
period. From a purely linguistic point of view, it
may be safely affirmed that the Hebrew of both por-

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 59
tions belongs substantially to one and the same era.
The difference in literary style between the first and
the second portions is, however, undeniable, and that
difference can be understood by students of the Bible
acquainted only with English. Isaiah's style exhibits
certain marked peculiarities. He makes use of allu
sions and illustrations found in no other O.T. writer.
It can be shown that a number of these occur in the
first part of the book, and are conspicuously absent
from the second, in which portion " new images and
phrases are found instead." A list of such phenomena
is to be found in Driver's Introduction. Some of
them may be fairly accounted for by the change of both
subject and standpoint ; but the force of the argument,
of course, lies in its cumulative character.
We admit the fact of the existence of these pheno
mena, but question the conclusions drawn therefrom.
In the earlier portion of his life Isaiah had to denounce
prevalent sins, especially that of idolatry, and to predict
coming judgment. The prophet was then one of the
foremost counsellors of the State. He spoke of " the
judge standing at the door," of the executors of God's
wrath as having already begun their fatal work. De
nunciation was the staple theme of those early dis
courses. Terse, sharp, and compact sentences were
well fitted for such a mission. Force and power had
to be called into play. But, on the hypothesis of the
Isaianic composition of the second part, the circum
stances were completely altered when the prophet in
old age penned those predictions. He was no longer a
leader of the people. Though in or about Jerusalem,
he had retired from public life, to some spiritual " Pat-
mos," where he brooded over the future, and on the

60 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
mount of vision dreamed apocalyptic dreams and jotted
down those musings. Transported in thought to the
distant future, he sat down "in spirit" among the
exiles of Israel, and when the storm was conceived to
have spent its violence, sought to console them with
bright hopes of the future. It was quite natural for
the prophet then to speak of Jahveh 's majesty in oppo
sition to the vain gods of the heathen. Like Paul in
the shipwreck, he reminds the people of the future of
Jahveh 's faithfulness to His ancient covenant, which
was not forgotten, notwithstanding that He had " hid
for a moment His face" from His people. The
theme of the prophet in those later days was of the
days of restoration which he had previously predicted,
but which were now to be set forth as close at hand.
In such descriptions a " warm and impassioned rhe
toric," a " flowing style," " pathos " in all its depth
and winsomeness, were what was essentially required.
3. It is further argued, that "the theological
ideas " presented in the second part of the Book, " in
so far as they are not of that fundamental kind com
mon to the Prophets generally," when compared with
those of the former portion, are "much larger and
fuller " ; and further, that those truths are not merely
" affirmed," but are made the subject of reflection and
argument " (Driver). Such phenomena are, however,
not opposed to the traditional hypothesis. If a nation,
which it was foreseen would be driven into captivity
because of aggravated offences, was at last to be raised
from the position of slaves to that of free men, would it
not be necessary to dilate somewhat fully on the abso
lute vanity of the gods of their conquerors, and on the
might, majesty, and infinity of the Most High? It

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 61
was not the Divine plan when rescuing His people
from captivity ' ' a second time " to do so by a display
of miraculous power. The comparatively brief period
during which the nation was in captivity in Babylon,
compared with the centuries of Egyptian bondage, and
the comparative liberty enjoyed under that second
period of serfdom , may have rendered external miracles
unnecessary in the day of " glorious Return." But if
the Most High was to work by stirring ' ' the hearts of
His faithful people," it was necessary that some Pro
phet, in anticipation of that day of liberty, should draw
out from the admitted principles of revelation the les
sons likely to awaken, elevate, comfort, and console the
exiles of Israel at the great foreseen crisis. It mattered
not for that special purpose whether the work were per
formed by an " Isaiah of Jerusalem " or " an Isaiah of
Babylon." But we object to inventing a new pro
phet, of whose existence history and tradition are alike
silent, and to dub the new creature of critical invention
by the name of " the great Unknown," or even by that
of " Isaiah of Babylon."
If Isaiah could project himself, tis it were, into the
future, and under Divine inspiration lay up store for
the coming days of spiritual dearth, there is little diffi
culty to be found in the fact that the picture of the
Messianic King, so often presented before, should be
allowed to drop out of sight ; and that he should be led
on to paint for those in servitude that masterpiece of
" the suffering Servant," wounded for offences not His
own, who was to "make intercession for the trans
gressors." The second part of Isaiah moves unques
tionably " in a different region of thought " ; but this
phenomenon, often dwelt upon as if it were a dis-

62 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
covery of modern times, has at all times more or less
taken notice of, and is quite consistent with the hypo
thesis that Isaiah was the author also of the second
part. Certain characteristics common to both portions
have induced critics who have abandoned the idea of
Isaiah's authorship to maintain that the writer of the
second portion was one of the later scholars of Isaiah.
The following list, which might be considerably added
to, is given by Bredenkamp : — "The commencement of
ch. xl. sounds almost like a continuation of the close of
the first part (xxxv. 3 sq.). The close of both portions
presents a judgment upon Edom (comp. ch. xxxiv.
with ch. lxiii.). Two sentences, almost word for word,
are found in both parts : comp. lxv. 25 with xi. 9, and
lv. 11 with xxxv. 10. Many thoughts peculiar to
Isaiah found in the first portion recur in the second, and
such expressions as ' the Holy One of Israel '
(mTp f?N"ito^), 'King' ( ^Sip), are used of God; the
figure anadiplosis repetition (comp. vii. 9, xviii. 2, 7,
xxi. 11, xxviii. 10, 13, xxix. 1, xl. 1, xii. 24, xliii. 11,
25, xlviii. 11, &c.) are met with in both parts." The
second portion does not present the appearance of one
continuous prophecy, although the prophecies which it
contains run mainly on one grand theme. Those pro
phecies are most certainly not vaticinia post eventum.
For no one who had witnessed the scenes of the Re
turn, as narrated in the pages of Ezra and Nehemiah,
could have indulged in the gorgeous ideal pictures of the
second part of Isaiah. And although we may admit
that glosses pointing out fulfilments are occasionally to
be found in the text, and on such a principle explain
the mention of Cyrus by name, we cannot regard the
second portion as non-Isaianic.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 63
The difficulties which beset the theory that a name of
a prophet of the very foremost rank (like the author of
these chapters) could have entirely vanished from the
memory of a people awakened and aroused to action by
his songs are much more serious than those which at
tend on the traditional view.
The second part of Isaiah falls into three divisions : —
(1) chs. xl. -xlviii. treat of the Return, the mission of
" the Servant of Jahveh " in general, the mission of
Cyrus in particular, Babylon's downfall, and the folly
of idolatry. (2) chs. xliv.-lv., the Servant and His
mission in more detail, with Israel's weakness and sin.
To this are added several chapters (lvi. -lix.) loosely con
nected together. (3) chs. lx.-lxvi. describe the Zion of
the future, its light and glory — the inner and the outer
restoration and purification.
(1) The mission of comfort — ch. xl. Contrast the
ideas with those in Lam. i, 2, 9, 16, 17, 21, &c. Jahveh
returns to His people ; hence days of mourning are at
an end. A way is made for Him in the wilderness.
Valleys are exalted, mountains levelled, crooked paths
made straight. The glory of the Lord is revealed and all
flesh together behold it. A voice cries : — Israel's foes
are mortal, while Jahveh "s word stands fast. His pro
mises are irrevocable. His messengers on the moun
tains proclaim to Jerusalem and her sister cities , ' ' Be
hold thy God." The arm of the Mighty has wrought
salvation. Israel is brought back as the reward of vic
tory. Jahveh leads them along gently as a shepherd
does sheep, who must not be overdriven (Gen. xxxiii.
13). He is wise and strong, though the idols to which
men liken Him are very vanity. He gives strength
to the faint, and to those that wait on Him.

64 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Chapter xii. 1-7 depicts a judgment scene. Jahveh
commands silence. The nations are summoned to re
ply. Who stirred up Cyrus, the conqueror from the
East? Who prepared him for his work and led him
on to victory? The answer is : "I, Jahveh, the first
and the last, I am He." The terrified nations made
" new gods " (comp. Judg. v. 8), but Cyrus' course of
conquest and victory was not arrested by such foolish
devices. While the nations are alarmed Israel is comforted.
Israel, Jahveh 's servant (ver. 8), is not forgotten. His
Redeemer remembers the " worm Jacob " ; and, while .
nations are trodden like straw (cf. xxv. 10), Zion is
" a sharp threshing-instrument, which shall thresh the
mountains and beat them small" (ver. 15; comp.
Micah iv. 11-13). Israel is apparently victorious on
a battlefield, but the scene is rapidly transformed ; cara
vans of exiles, poor and needy, traverse a wilderness,
seeking water, but finding none, when suddenly
springs burst forth, and along their path plants and
trees appear with grateful shade. Israel once more
recognises that it is Jahveh who is leading them
through the wilderness.
The judgment scene reappears in xii. 21 sq. The
nations and their gods are summoned : ' ' Jahveh judg-
eth among the gods" (Ps. Ixxxii. 2; cf. Ps. xcv. 3,
xcvi. 4, 5, xcvii. 6-9). But the idols "things of
nothing " cannot speak. Their work is nought, they
cannot show that they are gods (ver. 23). Jahveh as
Judge answers (vv. 25-29) : "I have raised up one
from the north, and he is come." Cyrus is repre
sented (ver. 25) as already present. His victories
were foreknown and predicted by Jahveh, who is the

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 65
first that gives to Zion (so Dillmann) a " behold, be
hold them (i.e. thy children, xlix. 18; lx. 4), and to
Jerusalem one that brings good tidings" (see xl. 9).
Among all the gods of the nations not one can utter a
word. " The Servant of Jahveh " (spoken of in xii.
8, 9) now appears on the scene (xlii. 1 sq.). The
same appellation is applied to Israel (xii. 8,9; xlii. 19 ;
xliv. 1, 2, 21 ; xiv. 4; xlviii. 20), but the Personal Ser
vant is a distinct character. Israel and " the Ser
vant " are the " two witnesses " (xliii. 10) adduced to
give evidence. Verses 1-7 reveal "the Servant" as
distinct from the nation. His mission concerned
Israel and the nations. Israel was, indeed, chosen as
Jahveh "s servant, to be a blessing to all the nations.
But Israel failed to perform that mission, fainted and
was weary (xl. 27 sq.). The personal "Servant"
would not fail nor be discouraged until His work was
done (xlii. 4). Israel longed to destroy her adversaries
(Num. xxiv. 8) ; the true Servant would bless them
altogether (xlii. 1-3, 6, 7), for He teaches the Gentiles
religion and restores Israel (cf. xlix. 6). Such are the
points referred to, and " the far-reaching prevision of
the prophet deserves notice " (Driver). The Servant
is called, upheld and kept by Jahveh "to be a cove
nant of the people " (ver. 6). Jahveh will not give
His glory to another, nor His praise unto graven
images (ver. 8).
" The former things " (xlii. 9) are the Divine pro
phecies fulfilled in former days, and not predictions
concerning Cyrus' early victories. God's prophecies
were fulfilled in the past, and the fresh predictions now
uttered would be accomplished in their season (Breden
kamp). Comp. xliii. 12, 13, 18, 19.

66 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
The " new song " in xlii. 10-12 reminds one of xxiv.-
14-16. Verses 13-17 depict Jahveh going forth as " the
mighty man " (Heb. niaa?) to execute vengeance.
Before Him mountains are laid waste, all herbage is
withered, rivers become islands, pools are dried up, that
He may bring the blind by a way they know not, and
lead back His people. The expression " I will not
forsake thee " (ver. 16) is a quotation from Josh. i.
6. A comparison is mentally drawn between the de
liverance out of Egypt and that from Babylon (cf. xi.
11 sq.). The pictures presented in verses 22-25 recall
incidents of the days of the Judges.
The description of the blindness and perverseness of
Israel in the character of Jahveh's servant harmonises
with its context. The " deaf " and " blind " servant
of verses 19, 20, is not Messiah, but the nation which
had promised obedience at Sinai, and is consequently
described as "he who is at peace with Me ' ' (Revised
Version, comp. xxvii. 5). The part, pual dWd which
is found in ver. 19 only, is explained by Ewald,
Cheyne, &c, as synonymous with Moslem, surrendered
(to God's service). But the verb, as Dillmann notes,
occurs in that meaning only in Arab, and Aram., and
in those languages only in hiphil. Hence the transla
tion of the Revised Version " he that is at peace with
Me," is better, and is that of Gesenius, Delitzsch, and
Dillmann. The Personal Servant of Jahveh opens
blind eyes, but Israel is blind ; the nation is hid in
prison houses (ver. 22), but the Servant leads prisoners
out of captivity. He is the Deliverer, Israel the de
livered. The "practical incompetence" of Israel to
perform such duties necessitated the mission of
Messiah.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 67
But however blind and weak Israel may be, although
punished (vv. 24, 25) for its offences, Divine mercy
begins with that nation. Chapter xliii. describes Jah
veh leading forth His people. According to the Divine
plan, the Persian must set them free, even though
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba (Meroe in Ethiopia) be
given up to be Cyrus' reward (cf. Ezek. xxix. 20).
The blind must see, the deaf must hear (ver. 8).
Another judgment session is pictured in verses 8-13.
Nations and people assemble. They are called on to
produce their witnesses of similar fulfilments " that
they may be justified," by the witnesses listening to
the statements and affirming their truth. No wit
nesses can be adduced. Jahveh's "two witnesses."
Israel and His Servant, are again produced, that by
comparison of prophecy and accomplishment men may
acknowledge that Jahveh is "the same" (^rr ^n
"I am He"), present "yesterday" in prophecy.
" to-day " (rri*o, xliii. 13) in redemption, " for ever "
working for His people. Heb. xiii. 8, seems to be an
imitation of this passage.
The march from Babylon to Jerusalem is again
(xl. 14-21) described in words which recall Israel's
ancient history. The transformation scenes, before
depicted in chapters xxxv., xii. 17-20, re-appear. The
closing verses (22-28) are not a polemic against the
sacrificial ritual, but they prove that the neglect of
God's outward worship shows that the redemption
granted is an act of grace. The absence of all re
ference to the fact that sacrifices could not be offered
to Jahveh in Babylon is in favour of the Isaianic
authorship. Chapter xliv. shows that notwithstanding Israel's

68 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
sin the Unchangeable did not forget His chosen.
Blessings were in store for them. Water would be
poured upon the thirsty, streams upon the dry
ground, language which is explained of a pouring out
of the Spirit of God. Hence Israel's young men
(comp. Ps. ex. 3) range themselves on the side of
Jahveh (ver. 5), Israel need not fear. Her King and
Redeemer promises prosperity, and Israel is witness
that there is no god beside Him (vv. 6-8). Idols are
nothing, and cannot aid their votaries. The folly of
idolatry is again dwelt on, more fully than in xl. 18 sq. ,
or in xii. 5-7. God's forgiving grace is set forth in
magnificent language in verses 21-23, and the chapter
closes with the Divine commission given to Cyrus as
Jahveh's shepherd to lead home His flock. Cyrus is
here first mentioned by name (vv. 24-28).
While we admit the possibility of the revelation to
the prophet of the name of Cyrus, an examination of
the passages in which it occurs favours the view that
not only the name Cyrus, but some of the details found
in those prophecies are later insertions belonging to a
time when text and comments were interwoven to
gether. The " calling by name " spoken of in xiv. 3,
4, means more than a prediction of the name of the
conqueror, as the use of that expression in reference
both to Israel and the Personal Servant might suffice
to prove (cp. xliii. 1 ; xlix. 1).
The commission to Cyrus is given in xiv. 1-8. To
the title of honour, "my shepherd," is added hrruJip
(xiv. 1), " his anointed." This is the only place in
Isaiah where Messiah occurs, and the only passage
where a heathen king is called by that term. Cyrus
was probably a monotheist, although for political

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 69
reasons he represents himself in his cylinder as a wor
shipper of Bel, Nebo, and Merodach, the gods of Baby
lon. In the light of recent discovery it is questionable
whether the older interpreters were correct in ex
pounding xliv. 27 of the literal drying up of the
Euphrates (comp. the figurative use of that expression
in Zech. x. 11), or whether xlvi. 1,2, can be regarded
as literally predicting the carrying of the gods of
Babylon into captivity.
The expression " though thou hast not known Me,"
repeated twice for emphasis (xiv. 4, 5) ought to have
warned commentators against supposing that Cyrus
was a worshipper of Jahveh. His employment of the
sacred Name in the proclamation (set forth Ezra i, 2
sq.), if an exact copy of Cyrus' edict be there given,
was but another instance on his part of political ex
pediency. The expressions used in verse 7 interpreted
in the light of Lam. iii. 38 and Amos iii. 6, contain-
no reference to the Persian theological dualism.
Verse 8 is a short hymn of great beauty. Verses
9-17 condemn those who murmur against the Divine
method of Israel's redemption by the instrumentality
of a heathen monarch (see Dillmann's Commentary).
It is absurd for a potsherd to dictate to the potter how
he ought to perform his work. The simile is common
to both parts of Isaiah (xxix. 16, lxiv. 7), and occurs
in Jer. xviii. 6, xix. 1 sq. , Rom. ix. 20 sq. Jahveh
chose His own instrument, and through Cyrus He
accomplished Israel's deliverance.
Cyrus did not, however, himself rebuild Jerusalem
or the Temple. Bald literal exposition would ruin all
Hebrew prophecy. The statements respecting the
Sabeans (ver. 14) also cannot be understood literally.

70 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
The Sabeans, as representatives of the Gentiles, are
described as voluntarily becoming Israel's slaves by
adopting their religion, and thus recognising that there
is no other God and that Israel is His people. So
correctly Hitzig, Delitzsch, Cheyne, and Dillmann.
The references to the history of creation in Genesis
in xiv. 18-20 are noteworthy. If creation began with
chaos ( *inn , ver. 18) earth was not left in that
condition or in darkness (T[fijn , Gen. i. 2). Jah
veh 's creative word said not to " the seed of Jacob
. . . seek Me in a waste (inn)." Creation
and redemption reveal a God who speaks and it is
done, who commands and it stands fast. Israel's re
demption is eternal, " an everlasting salvation " (ver.
17), and consequently, as Cheyne observes, " spiritual
as well as temporal." Hence the salvation that comes
from the Jews, and is designed for " all the ends of the
earth " (ver. 22), is applied by St. Paul (Rom. xiv.
9-12) to the eternal kingdom of the Lord's Christ.
The Pauline comparison of creation and redemption
(2 Cor. iv. 5, 6) is perhaps borrowed from Isaiah.
Idolatry has, indeed, reduced the earth to chaos and
darkness, for there can be no deliverance so long as
men " pray to a god that cannot save " (xiv. 20), to
idols which can be carried on the backs of beasts of
burden (xiv. 1), and go themselves into captivity (see
before xlvi. 1). Idolaters carry their idols, but Jah
veh carries His people (vv. 3 seq.). He can carry, aye,
He can deliver them. Comp. Num. xi. 12 ; Deut. i.
31 ; xxxii. 11 ; Hos. xi. 3.
The folly of idolaters is depicted again in verses 6,7.
These remarks are closely connected with the subject
treated of. Idolatry is condemned not so dissimilarly

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 71
in i. 29-31 ; ii. 18-21 ; xvii. 7-11 ; xxi. 9 ; xxx. 22 ; xxxi.
6, 7. The play upon words in xlvi. 1, the expression
" house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of
Israel," the irony that pervades the whole passage, are
all indicative of Isaiah's pen. To him the land of the
Persian conqueror was "a far country " (ver. 11, cp.
xiii. 5). A post-exilian prophet would hardly thus
have expressed himself. The use of -is; to indicate
the Divine purpose, and its combination with the other
verbs in that verse, are Isaianic touches (comp. with
Delitzsch, xxii. 11; xxxvii. 26). It would have been
strange if the text of Isaiah had not been interlarded
with post-exilian comments — comments so frequently
repeated for the consolation of the exiles that they
came to be regarded as part of the original. Cyrus is
forcibly described as a ravenous bird or vulture from
the east, descending upon the Babylonian carcase. It
is, however, fanciful to see a reference here to the
standard of Cyrus, the golden spread eagle upon a lofty
spear (Xenophon, Cyropaed., vii. cap. i. 4).
The song (ch. xlvii.) on the downfall of Babylon is
particularly fine. The proud daughter of the Chal
deans is commanded by Jahveh to descend from her
throne, and take the place of the meanest slave.
Stripped of her veil and train, she is compelled to
grind the meal, to bare her legs, to wade through
waters, and to endure dishonour. Verse 4 is no doubt
a later insertion from ' ' a marginal note ' ' (Cheyne)
for the speaker throughout chapter xlvii. is Jahveh.
The song is Isaianic ; verse 4 and probably verse 6 are
later insertions. Verse 5 may be compared with xiii.
19 ; and verse 14 recalls v. 24 and other passages.
Verse 8 is quoted by Zephaniah ii. 15 — not the only

72 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
quotation which that prophet makes from Isaiah. No
enchantments can avert the Divine judgment; not
even the world-wide commerce of Babylon can rescue
her from her doom (vv. 12-15).
Chapter xlviii. is a comment on the previous pro
phecies. The phraseology is Isaianic, worked over by
a later hand, prophetic text and prophetic comment be
coming so intermixed that they cannot be separated.
Verse 1 does not distinguish between Israel and Judah,
but claims for Judah the title and inheritance of Israel;
Such expressions need not indicate a pre-exilian
author. The idea of " the ten lost tribes " is purely
mythical. All Israelites after the Exile were termed
"Jews," and one-fourth of the first returning exiles
were not members of the two tribes (see my Bampton
Lectures, p. 278 sq.). The expression " holy city "
(Dan. ix. 24; Neh. xi. 1) occurs in verse 2, Iii. 1, and
in plural in lxiv. 10 (comp. Zech. ii. 16). The " former
things " (ver. 3) need not be limited to the prophecies
concerning the Assyrian invasion (Klostermann,
Bredenkamp). The "new things" (ver. 6) refer to the
deliverance through Cyrus. Idolatry was rife enough
among Israel in Babylon (ver. 5 ; comp. Ezek. xx. 30
sq.). The accomplishment of " former things " ought
to lead Israel to trust in the ' ' new things ' ' promised
(ver. 6). According to verse 7, the fulfilment had al
ready begun. Hence the use of N}3, to create.
Israel did not hear or know of such things before ; it
did not comprehend the meaning of the events then
transpiring. The nation was still unfaithful. Cap
tivity had not purified it. God melted the nation in
that furnace, " but not for silver " produced thereby.
Ewald and Dillmann regard p]D3n (ver. 10) as

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 73
the a pretii; Delitzsch, Cheyne, and Revised Version,
less suitably, as 3 essentiae (" not as silver"). See
i. 22, 25, and cp. Jer. vi. 29, 30. The restoration was
an act of grace performed for the glory of God, and not
for the merit of Israel.
The hand of the post-exilian enlarger is seen in the
exhortations, verses 12-22. But the thoughts and
verbiage are still mainly Isaianic. The expression con
cerning Cyrus, " Jahveh hath loved him " (ver. 14) ia
striking. Cyrus would execute Jahveh's purposes up
on Babylon, and the arm of the Almighty judgment
would descend on the Chaldaeans. We can only touch
lightly on much that is remarkable. Dillmann is
right in maintaining that, notwithstanding verse 16 b,
Jahveh is throughout the speaker. If Jahveh rained
down brimstone and fire out of heaven from Jahveh
(Gen. xix. 24), why should not Jahveh be represented
as sending Jahveh and His Spirit on a mission of
mercy to teach and redeem His people? Prophetic
poetry often expresses profound theology. The path
of peace is that of obedience (ver. 18) , and " there is no
peace, saith Jahveh, unto the wicked."
(2) In the second portion, chapters xlix. -lix., the
names of Babylon, Israel's oppressor, and that of
Cyrus, her Gentile deliverer, completely vanish. A
greater than Cyrus and a grander mission are depicted.
The Servant of Jahveh is described as a polished shaft
from the Divine quiver, called, like Jeremiah (i. 5),
from the womb to be a prophet to the isles and peoples ;
his mouth is a sharp sword (vv. 1 , 2) to slay the wicked
(cf. xi. 4). The coming prophet is distinguished from.
Israel (vv. 6, 8, 9), and yet addressed as " My servant
Israel" (ver. 3). That appellation, though unique,

74 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
presents no difficulty. Why should not Messiah be
called by the name of Israel as well as by that of Adam
or of David? The title Servant of Jahveh is bestowed
alike on prophet and people ; and the name Israel may
well be given to one described in this prophecy as
having "power with God and prevailing" (Gen.
xxxii. 28).
The Servant is the Restorer of Israel (xlix. 5). But
that is not large enough for His powers. He is to be
the Light of the Gentiles, the Saviour of the world
(ver. 6). Despised by man, abhorred by Israel, a
servant of rulers, kings and princes yet fall down be
fore Him (ver. 7). Described (xlii. 4) as never failing
nor discouraged, He complains (xlix. 4) that His labour
is in vain. The "crying" is heard and answered
(ver. 8), for the Servant's work cannot be unsuccessful.
Notice how early those dark shadows appear which
envelope the Servant in chapter liii. The delineation
is throughout a strange blending of humiliation and
glory. The Servant was given "as a covenant to the people"
(xlix. 8). This is repeated from xlii. 6. The Restora
tion of Israel is described (vv. 9-12) in language like
that of chapter xxxv. The multitude of rescued
Israelites gathered from all quarters (as in xi. 10-16)
is exhibited to Zion's astonishment, who imagined that
the Lord had forgotten her. Here there is also a
strange blending of opposites. The nations carry back
in their bosoms or on their shoulders the sons and
daughters of Israel (vv. 22, 23) ; but the captives are
also spoken of (vv. 24-26) as torn by the arm of the
Mighty One of Israel from the grasp of their foes.
Jahveh had not cast off His people. The temporary

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 75
divorce was Israel's act (i. 1,2). Though when called
back Israel did not hearken, the Unchangeable was
still omnipotent to save (vv. 3, 4). The Servant is
re-introduced again (in vv. 4, 5). He speaks and ex
plains His actions. Divine inspiration was imparted
to Him, not only in night visions, but in daily open
intercourse with Jahveh. Bitter were His sorrows,
disgraceful His treatment by men (vv. 6, 7). Undis
mayed, however, by sufferings, the Servant knows that
Jahveh will help and justify, and therefore boldly
defies all His adversaries (vv. 7-9). The note of
defiance sounded by the Master was caught up by the
great disciple (Rom. viii. 31, sq.). Both the ecclesia
pressa of the Old and New Testament days have simi
lar experiences, and therefore their sorrows and joys
may be expressed in the same language. The Servant
of verse 10 is not, as Cheyne suggests, the writer of
the prophecy, but the speaker of verses 4, 5. To His
speech, however, the writer utters an Amen in the ex
hortation (vv. 10, 11), in which, like the Psalmist (ii.
10-12), he urges to faith and obedience. Those who
gird themselves with firebrands to destroy God's people
(Ps. vii. 13) shall be driven into the destruction they
deserve. Chapter li. is addressed to Israel Kara, irvevpa
Jahveh, or the Servant as His Representative, is the
Bpeaker. Verses 7, 8, are an echo of the Servant's
words in 1, 9. The analogy of Heb. i. 10 sq. would
justify a similar explanation of verses 4-6. In verse 5
the phraseology employed in reference to the Servant in
xlii. 4 recurs, and in verse 16 that found before in xlix.
2, 3. The stories of Eden (ver. 3), of Abraham and
Sarah (ver. 2), of the Law (ver. 4), Egypt's over-

76 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
throw (ver. 9), and of the passage of the Red Sea
(vv. 10-15), are all alluded to as reasons for comfort.
Heaven and earth may pass away (ver. 6), God's words
stand fast (comp. Luke xxi. 33). The ideas of verse
11 are a repetition of xxxv. 10. The passage is
Isaianic, though portions are like Jeremiah. Comp.
verse 15 with Jeremiah xxxi. 35 ; and the scenes pre
sented in Jer. xxv. 15-18, 27, 28, with verses 17, 21-23.
Jeremiah may have quoted from Isaiah.
In iii. 1-12 Zion is aroused by a new cry to awake,
for salvation is nigh at hand. The day of liberty has
dawned. No compensation will be made to her op
pressor for releasing her from bondage. Egypt and
Assyria both oppressed her without cause, and so did
Babylon. God's Name was blasphemed ; that Name
would now be honoured. Part of the scene is ideally
laid in Palestine. Zion in ruins is the slumbering
Jerusalem awakened by watchers on the mountains
surrounding her, who announce, " Thy God reigneth."
These are not, as Cheyne suggests, "ideal super
sensible beings," " angelic remembrancers." It may
be well to caution some that Dan. iv. 17 (in Heb. ver.
14) is not analogous, for the word " watchers " there is
very different. A part of the scene is laid in Babylon.
The Israelites are bidden to go forth from hence, and
carry back "the vessels of Jahveh" to Jerusalem.
The Levitical ritual is alluded to in verse 11 ; the march
from Babylon being contrasted with, and compared to,
the memorable march out of Egypt (ver. 12).
With the •*-ni> h'Ottr mrr of Hi. 13 a new sub
section commences, which ends with liii. 12. The pas
sage is theologically connected with the preceding, but
otherwise marked off from it. The subject is different.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 77
The linguistic peculiarities of the piece are so striking
that some critics have regarded it as an interpolation.
The style is " obscure and awkward " (Delitzsch), not
withstanding that several phrases already used of the
Servant re-appear. The passage breaks the connexion
between Iii. 12 and chapter liv. It was probably com
posed by the prophet after some vision which he
" saw," but which, however, he does not describe but
expound. Believers in the New Testament revelation
may well imagine that the prophet himself did not
understand its full import (1 Pet. i. 11, 12). The
enigma could not be solved until seen in the light of
the Cross.
It is impossible to attempt a satisfactory sketch of
the exegesis of the passage. We agree with those (1)
who view it as a distinct Messianic prophecy. It may,
perhaps (as Ewald suggests), contain reminiscences of
a martyr scene in the days of Manasseh. The marked
individuality of the description has led (2) able com
mentators to expound it of individual kings or prophets.
Of such explanations the only one really worthy of
mention is that of R. Saadiah, who considered Jere
miah its subject. Parallel passages in Jeremiah can be
adduced which correspond strikingly with its expres
sions. Grotius upheld this view, and afterwards
Bunsen., whose exposition is commended, though not
entirely endorsed, by Rowland Williams (Essays and
Reviews). (3) The attempt to explain the section of
the Hebrew prophets is now abandoned. (4) Equally
hopeless is the attempt to interpret it of Israel in
general, as the guiltless martyr-nation of the. world.
The idea is opposed to the view of Israel as the ' ' sin
ful nation " given in both parts of the Book. (5) Some

78 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
critics still, however, maintain that the picture drawn
is that of the righteous in Israel, or the Israel which is
Kara irvevfia. The doctrine of verse 6 is, as Cheyne
observes, fatal to that theory. (6) The opinion gener
ally held by modern critics is that the ideal and not the
actual Israel is depicted, purified by afflictions and
made an instrument of blessing to the world. This
i'deal Israel, amid all national apostasies or disasters, is
regarded as always present before God, and contem
plated by Him with pleasure. This view is sub
stantially that of Wellhausen, Cheyne, and Dillmann,
though with modifications in detail. Bredenkamp re
marks well that such a picture of a mere abstraction
" corresponds well with the meditation of a philoso
pher, but not with that of a prophet."
Against the Messianic interpretation it is maintained
that Messiah is not mentioned in the second part of
Isaiah (lv. 4 is questionable), and that there is no
passage which distinctly identifies Messiah with the
Servant. It must be remembered, however, that a
victorious King and an afflicted sin-bearing Sufferer
could not be depicted in one view. The identification
of the two ex hypothesi was not possible prior to the
Resurrection of our Lord. It is further urged that the
Servant is represented not as a future individual, but as
the one actually present. That, however, does not
hinder the passage from being a prophecy of future
days. For both the sufferings and exaltation are re
presented as simultaneously present to the prophetic
eye. The prophet saw in the same picture the suffer
ings borne, the work done, the reward bestowed, the
portion assigned, the spoil divided. This does not
prove that the prophet depicted events of his own time.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 79
The passage can in no wise represent the state of Israel
in the day of the Restoration from Babylon.
Much may be said in favour of each of the views de
fended by critics. The Messianic interpretation unites
all those points together. The prophet evidently de
scribes what he " saw." Every description of
Messiah's sufferings must to some extent describe the
sufferings of His nation, or of those individual followers
who follow in His steps, as the Messiah does in theirs.
The passages in Jeremiah adduced by Bunsen might
be utilised in favour of the Isaianic authorship. Al
though the passage as a whole cannot be explained of
the sufferings of the righteous, the Book of Daniel
(xii. 3) apparently refers to liii. 11 as illustrating their
work. The sporadic references to the Isaianic pro
phecy of the Servant in the Book of Wisdom (chs. ii.,
iii., iv., v.) show that the prophecy was then explained
of the righteous in Israel. The LXX. translation of
the prophecy follows in the same track, and modifies
passages accordingly. Such was the natural line of
exegesis prior to Christ.* The perplexed inquiry of
every deep thinker is, however, summed up in the
question of the eunuch , who , reading the passage with
the comment of the LXX., asked: "Of whom
speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some
other?" (Acts vii. 34). That earnest student saw
clearly that the sufferings of some individual, and an
individual only, were pourtrayed upon the sacred page.
All the men of the New Testament expound the pas
sage of Messiah. John the Baptist refers to it in his
exclamation recorded in John i. 29 ; St. Matthew re-
* See our Essay, the title of which is given at the end of
the literature.

80 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
gards it as a prediction of Christ, the healer of disease
(Matt. viii. 17). Our Lord alludes to the prophecy on
several occasions (Mark ix. 12 ; Luke xxii. 37 ; prob.
also Luke xxiv. 26). Both St. Paul (Rom. iv. 25) and
St. Peter (1 Ep. ii. 21-25) quote it. See also the re
ferences in Acts iii. 13, 26 ("His Servant," Revised
Version), iv. 27 ; 1 Cor. xv. 3, &c.
The section depicts a stricken leper, disfigured so as
to be scarcely human. Hence the Babylonian Talmud
gives ' ' the Leprous One " as a name of Messiah
(Sanh. 98 b). But the wisdom of the " stricken "
Sufferer, followed by His exaltation, " startles many
nations." The translation "sprinkle," despite its
difficulties, has much to commend it. Kings shut their
mouths in astonishment at what they see and hear ;
while penitent Israel mourns its ill-treatment of the
Sufferer. Penitent Israel breaks into lamentations
(liii. 1-3) : " Who among us believed that which we
heard ' ' in the prophecies concerning this Righteous
One? To whom was the arm of the Lord revealed in
His exaltation ? ' ' For He grew up before Him (Jah
veh) as a (slender) twig." The Servant was under
Jahveh 's protection in both His humiliation and glory.
The statement is not ' ' strangely inconsistent ' '
(Cheyne) ; although, if purely conjectural emendations
were admissible, and in such a prophecy they are
scarcely so, the emendation suggested by Ewald and
Cheyne, "before us," i.e., in our streets, might
perhaps be more natural. The description "as a root
out of dry ground," is peculiarly Isaianic (cf. on the
"root" xi. 1, 10, and Rev. v. 5, xxii. 6). The dry
ground corresponds to the stump of Jesse's tree. " He
hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 81
there is no beauty that we should desire Him." This
historic present may be rendered as a past, because the
ill-treatment in verse 3 is described as something past.
" He was despised and rejected of men," or rather
" deserted of men " (Cheyne), as Job xix. 14 explains
the passage. The use of qib)->n (conveying the
idea of men of high degree) shows the reference to be
to the conduct of the great ones in Israel (Delitzsch).
' ' A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief " ; or
rather, " a man of pains and familiar with sickness "
(Cheyne). The objections of Jewish controversialists
against the Christian interpretation are easily met.
Luke vi. 19, viii. 46, with Matt. viii. 17, show that
our Lord's exertion of His healing power was not
without having an effect on His own bodily frame.
' ' Familiar with sickness ' ' is part of the picture of the
stricken leper from whom men turned away their faces
(cf. Job xxx. 10, xix. 13-19; Lam. iv. 15). The
"mystery" is partly explained in verses 4-6. The
Servant's sufferings were vicarious, endured for His
people. Wunsche enumerates the twelve distinct
assertions contained in the chapter ' ' of the vicarious
character of the sufferings of the Servant " (Cheyne).
Such language proves the prophecy to depict an
individual. The lamentation of Israel closes with the recognition
that the Servant's sufferings were endured for their
sake. The prophet speaks further of the Servant's
sinlessness and the indignities He endured (vv. 7-9).
"He was depressed," as if by slave-drivers (awn,
cf. Exod. iii. 7 ; Job iii. 18), " yet He humbled Him
self " (Niphal tolerativum; see Delitzsch, Cheyne),
"and opened not His mouth" (cf. Ps. xxxviii. 14;

82 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
xxxix. 9). "As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb ; yea,
He opened not His mouth " (Revised Version). Jere
miah, in xi. 19, refers to this passage. But the con
clusion of the verse forbids us to see in that particular
prophet the accomplishment of the prophecy. The
Servant's humiliation was voluntary ; there was a re
straint of " power," a restraint of love (cp. Matt. xxvi.
53). " Through oppression, and through a judg
ment " — a judicial sentence — " He was taken away,"
condemned to death ; " and as for His generation," or
those who lived in His day (cp. Jer. ii. 31), "who
among them considered that He was cut off from the
land of the living ? For the transgression of My people
was He stricken!" The Messianic interpretation
remains quite unaffected whether Soh in the last
clause of verse 8 be singular or plural. If the trans
lation ' ' who shall declare His generation ' ' be pre
ferred, Ps. xxii. 30 supplies a sufficient commentary.
The prophecy is too striking to be regarded only as
' ' a presentiment of the historical Redeemer. ' '
The Massoretic text of verse 9 must be rendered
" and one assigned His grave with the wicked (plural),
and with a rich (man) in His deaths (emphatic plural,
used of violent death) , because [or ' although '] he had
done no violence, neither was any deceit in His
mouth." Rich is not, indeed, a suitable parallel to
wicked, while the form of the sentence does not admit
of its being explained as containing a contrast. The
clause simply connects the two statements, which coin
cide remarkably with the Gospel history, and ought
not to be tampered with by critical conjectures.
The concluding verses reveal the Divine purpose in

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 83
such sufferings. The Servant is mystically identified
with Israel, and therefore can offer Himself as a sin-
offering. His vicarious sin-offering ( riNJsn ) ex
piates the nation's guilt ; His trespass-offering ( d#n
ver. 10) makes satisfaction (see Delitzsch). Cheyne
well compares verse 10 with the phrase used by our
Lord, TidevaL rr)v t^x7?" (John x. 11). Mediaeval
Jewish controversialists argued from verse 10 that the
Messiah must have children. The original, however,
is " a seed," not " his seed " (cp. Ps. xxii. 30). The
closing verses speak of the Servant's exaltation antici
pated in Iii. 13, 14. The word era! , many, ought to be
uniformly translated throughout. It is without the
article in Iii. 14, and liii. 12 at end. It has the article
in liii. 11 and in the beginning of verse 12 ; and quali
fies " nations " in Iii. 15. The Pauline use of 7roAAoi
in Rom. vi. 15-19 is the key to its meaning. The
Servant's continued intercession ( inasp, ver. 12;
cf . Jer. xv. 11) is affirmed. Cp. Luke xxiii. 34 ;
Acts v. 31. The Hebrew Prophets were not re
strained by modern ideas of literary harmony ; and if
clauses occur in such a prophecy more suitable to
priest than victim, they should be left intact, because
the Redeemer is portrayed under both characters.
The six chapters which follow (ch. liv. -lix.) are not
closely connected. Chapter liv. would suitably follow
Iii. 12. The ideal or spiritual Zion is addressed
throughout. "The Servant of Jahveh" occurs no
more, though "servants of Jahveh" are spoken of
(ver. 17; compare lxv. 13 sq.). "The suffering and
glory of the Servant and the servants are similar, but
not identical " (Bredenkamp). Wellhausen regards
chapter liv. to lvi. 8 " to some extent as a sermon on

84 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
the text Iii. 13-liii. 12 " ; but this is, as Cheyne ob
serves, in the interests of his theory that the Servant
is not an individual. There is nothing in chapter liv.
opposed to the Isaianic authorship.
Chapter lv. is complete in itself. It is a discourse
designed to stir up faith in coming deliverance. God's
purposes are sure, and the exiles shall return (vv. 8-13).
It may have also a higher meaning. The similarity to
chapter xxxv. is in favour of the authorship of Isaiah.
Critics differ whether David or Messiah is the subject
of verse 3. The former is the better view (comp. 2
Sam. vii. 12-16). Ps. Ixxxvi. may serve as com
mentary. The Davidic covenant is, however, only
fulfilled in Messiah. By virtue of his religion (Ps.
rviii. 43) David was a witness as well as a ruler. Rev.
i. 5, iii. 14 refer to this passage, and Hengstenberg
has properly called attention to Christ's words before
Pilate (John xviii. 37).
Chapter lvi. 1-8 refers to the Israelites in Babylon,
where some of them were forcibly made eunuchs.
Isaiah's prophecy (ch. xxxix. 7) makes it natural for
him to drop some words of comfort for those that
would be so cruelly treated. Eunuchs were. shut out
from the congregation of Israel (Deut. xxiii. 2). But
the enactments of the Mosaic law concerning eunuchs
and foreigners are represented as abolished for those
who keep the Lord's sabbaths. The advent of the day
is predicted when Israel's outcasts, with " the
nations," would worship together in the Temple. The
conceptions of the prophets are identical with those in
ii. 2, 3.
Very different in character is lvi. 9-lvii. 21. It
seems almost out of place. Ewald, with other critics,

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 85
regard it as decidedly pre-exilian, if not Isaianic. It
speaks of Israel's watchmen as dumb dogs. The wild
beasts are invited to devour the flock. The righteous
perish, and idolatry in its vilest and most cruel form
erects its head. Verse 14 appears to be an interpola
tion ; but lvii. 15-21 is a prophecy of final salvation,
probably Isaianic, and is here inserted that Israel after
contemplating their sin, might yet " hope in God."
Chapter lviii. is a penitential discourse of a wholly
different character. Formality in religion, trust in
external fasts, combined with neglect of the poor and
afflicted, is denounced. The subject matter harmonises
with i. 10-20. If the chapter be Isaianic, verse 12
must be a later insertion. The need of 6 pr/a xeia Kad-
apa Kal 5a/uavTos (Jas. i. 27) is a doctrine not pecu
liarly suggestive of a time of exile.
Many critics regard ch. lix. as a continuation of ch.
lviii. But that is scarcely possible. The sins des
cribed are crimes of violence, murder, and robbery.
Ewald long ago maintained the colouring to be pre-
exilic. The correspondence with Isaianic portions is
very marked. Bredenkamp notes that verse 18 re
echoes i. 24 b, and verse 20 reminds of i. 27. Verses
19, 20 recall xxx. 27, 28, 33. The mention of ser
pents, bears, doves, &c, and the description of ar
mour are all Isaianic. The section speaks no doubt of
judgment leading to repentance, and verse 12 sq. is a
penitential confession of sin. But the same mention
of mercy and judgment, of the destruction of sinners,
and of the salvation of the penitent, is exhibited in
i. 27, 28. Verse 20 is regarded as Messianic in Rom.
xi. 26, and referred to the Second Advent. A Re
deemer (or fjNha ) is predicted as coming to Zion, to

86 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
a repentant people, for, as Cheyne observes, " the
Messianic promises to Israel are only meant for a con
verted and regenerated people."
The last seven chapters of Isaiah (chs. lx.-lxvi.) de
scribe the renovated Jerusalem. As Babylon was com
manded to descend from the throne to the dungeon (ch.
xlvii.), Zion is bidden to arise from slavery, and to
behold the light and glory streaming in upon her.
There is more predicted than the return of Solomonic
prosperity (cp. v. 17 with 1 Kings x. 21). The vision
is of " the last things seen in Old Testament light."
Zion's walls are rebuilt by the nations who once iD
anger demolished them. The nations with their kings,
willing or unwilling (ver. 10) , bring back to Jerusalem
Israel's exiles, together with silver and gold, and sacri
fices innumerable. Verses 18-20 describe, however,
more than earthly glory, and the Seer of Patmos has,
therefore, employed Isaiah's language in relating his
N.T. visions (Rev. xxi. 23-26; xxii. 5). The simili
tudes of vv. 6-7 are pre-exilian, though some have ima
gined a reference (in ver. 8) to the names of the walls of
Babylon (cf. Schrader, K.A.T. 2nd ed., on 1 Kings vii.
21). The actual crops up here and there among the
ideal ; and amid strains of peace there are notes of
war (see ver. 12 and cf. Zech. xiv. 17, 18).
The speaker in ch. lxi. is probably the prophet him
self, although the words suit " the Servant " who is
also a prophet ; and consequently were suitably quoted
as fulfilled in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luke iv. 16-
22. Cf. Heb. i. 1 sq.). The statement in reference to
the Gentiles in verse 5 is in a lower strain than in
other places (cp. Ixvi. 21). The reference to the old
ruins in verse 4 is not necessarily post-Babylonian. The

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 87
prophet is speaker in Ixii. 1-5, the language of
which is Isaianic and highly figurative. The name
Hephzibah, mentioned in verse 4, was that of Heze
kiah 's queen (2 Kings xxi. 1). The " watchers " in
verse 6 are not Angels (Ewald and Cheyne). It is, as
Bredenkamp observes, not ruins which are there spoken
of, but the walls of a city actually standing. In the
name "Forsaken One" (ver. 40; cf. ver. 12) there
may lurk a reference to some lost tale concerning
Jehoshaphat's mother (1 Kings xxi. 42). Note the re
currence in verse 11 of the words of xl. 10, and in verse
12 of the ideas presented in iv. 3, xxxv. 10.
Chapter lxiii. 1-6 is a fitting parallel to ch. xxxiv.
Its Isaianic character is confessed even by some
modern critics. A post-exilian author would scarcely
thus express himself. There are several of the plays
upon words so characteristic of Isaiah. Calvin long
ago protested against the idea that those verses were
prophetical of Calvary. It is a prophecy of a day of
vengeance on Edom and on the nations (ver. 6). Their
downfall must precede Israel's revival. The language
and phraseology re-appear in Rev. xix. It is probable
that lxiii. 7-14, with lxiv., is a post-exilian meditation.
Verses 18, 19, with lxiv. 9-12, must have been com
posed at the close of the Babylonian Captivity. The
references in the prayer to Israel's ancient history are
most interesting.
Chapter lxv. 1-7 is not, properly speaking, an answer
to the prayer of the preceding chapter, though possibly
inserted by the editor with that intent. The whole
style of thought is pre-exilian. The sins described are
those common in the last days of Israel's common
wealth. Ezekiel speaks of them as in his day abound-

88 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
ing in Jerusalem. Judgments are denounced upon the
guilty idolaters, though God's " servants " are remem
bered in mercy, and "the remnant " protected. Days
of blessing are predicted for the righteous, new heavens
and a new earth (vv. 17, 18). The scenery of ch. xi.
is repeated. No mention is made there of exiles, or
of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. A fairer vision
floats before the prophet's view, namely, that of a
world with the curse removed.
It is not easy to assign a satisfactory date to ch.
Ixvi., or to summarise it in a few sentences. If com
posed after the Return, its statements would have been
glaringly opposed to what men's eyes then beheld. It
appears to be Isaianic, though probably " worked
over" by a later hand. It describes the glories of
the Return, and the exclusion of the sinners from the
congregation of the holy. The destruction of the un
godly is represented as taking place on earth. But
the visions, though connected with the real, are con
cerned with matters beyond this world. Both in de
scribing blessings and judgments there is no fixed line
of demarcation between ' ' the things seen ' ' and ' ' those
not seen."
Literature. It is impossible here to give anything
like a complete survey of the extensive literature of the
Book. Passing over the Patristic commentaries,
among the Jewish may be mentioned those of Abar-
banel (Lat. transl. 1520), Rashi (Lat. transl. by Breit-
haupt, 1713), Kimchi (Lat. transl. 1774), Ibn Ezra
(transl. into Engl, by Friedlander, 1873-1877). Cal
vin's Comm. is still of value; Vitringa's, 2 vols, fol.,
1714, 1720, and 1715, 1722. Bp. Lowth's Comm. is

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 89
antiquated; Gesenius Comm. 1821; Hitzig, 1833;
Drechsler, began 1845, compl. 1857 ; P. Schegg, 2 vols.
1850; Henderson (English), 1857; and still better J.
A. Alexander, 2 vols. 1846, and edit, by Eadie, 1865;
S. D. Luzzato (Italian), 1855-1866; Ewald's Pro-
pheten, 1867, 1868, translated into English, and pub
lished by Williams and Norgate ; A. Knobel, 1861, re
vised by Diestel, 1872, and re-written as an indepen
dent work by Dillmann, 1890. This latter is most im
portant. Nagelsbach's Comm. in Lange's Bibelwerk,
1877, contains much that is important; it has been
translated into English. Kay wrote in the Speaker's
Comm., and T. R. Birks independently. Franz De-
litzsch's great Comm. has been often revised ; the 4th
edit, appeared in 1889, and has been translated and
edited in English with a preface by S. R. Driver,
1890, 1891. The ablest English Comm. is that of
T. K. Cheyne, 2 vols., 5th edit., 1889. Cheyne is
constantly changing his views, which makes it difficult
to refer to his works. Bredenkamp's Comm., short
but suggestive, appeared in 1887. The Comm. of
von Orelli in 1887, translated into English, and pub
lished by T. and T. Clark. Myrberg, in Swedish,
1888. Canon Rawlinson has written on Isaiah in the
Pulp. Comm. Fresh and interesting are the volumes
of G. A. Smith, 1889. Important, too, in this matter,
is the new translation of the Bible by distinguished
schoLrs (Die Heilige Schrift des A.T., 1890-2), edited
by Kautzsch, with critical notes on the dates of each
portion. The student should consult all the various Introduc
tions, especially that of Driver. 1891, 4th edit., 1892;
and though brief, that of Cornill, 1891, although its

90 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
conclusions are far too negative; also Driver's Isaiah,
Life and Times, 1888; A. H. Sayce, with similar
title, 1889; Sir E. Strachey, Jewish History and Poli
tics, 2nd edit., 1874; Klostermann's article in Herzog-
Plitt; Cornill, in Stade's Zeitschrift, 1884. Among
the most important monographs are the 2 vols, on
Isaiah liii. according to the Jewish Interpreters, Text
by A. Neubauer, transl. by Driver and Neubauer, edit.
by Pusey, 1876, 1877; Urwick, The Servant of Je
hovah, 1877; Prof. Forbes of Aberdeen, On the Ser
vant of the Lord, in Isaiah xl.-lxvi., 1890; J. Barth,
Beitrage, 1885, and F. Giesebrecht 's Beitr age, 1890;
H. Guthe, Das Zunkunftsbild des Jes., 1885; Graetz
in Monatschrift, 1886, and in Jewish Quarterly, 1891
(on Isa. xxxiv., xxxv.) ; T. K. Cheyne in same Review,
on the Critical Problems of the Second Part ; Lohr. , on
Isa. xl.-xlvi., 1878-1880. A. Wiinsche, Leiden des
Messias, 1870, and G. F. Dalman, Isaiah liii., 1890, are
highly important. C. P. Caspari, Beitrage, 1848, and
his Syr. Eph. Krieg, 1849, are still valuable; Reinke's
Mess. Weissagungen, von Hofmann's works Heng-
stenberg's Christology contain much that is still worth
study. Our own short monograph, re-published with
additions from The Expositor, may here be mentioned.
It has been reprinted with the title — The Suffering Ser
vant of Jehovah, depicted in Isaiah Iii. and liii., con
sidered in relation to Criticism Past and Present.
(Francis Griffiths, 1905).

II.
THE SITE OF PARADISE.
AN ANCIENT PROBLEM SOLVED BY MODEBN
SCHOLARSHIP1
Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, Professor of Assyriology
in the University of Leipzig, is well known as a dis
tinguished investigator of Assyrian literature. For
the information of those who are not acquainted with
his important contributions to this difficult branch of
science, it may be well to state that he is the son of
Professor Dr. Franz Delitzsch, the renowned Hebrew
scholar and theologian, whose Biblical commentaries
have attained a world-wide reputation.
In the latter half of 1881 Professor Friedrich
Delitzsch published a remarkable work on the position
of the Paradise mentioned in the early part of Genesis.
This work has already created a good deal of interest
in many quarters, and is likely to create still more
when its conclusions are more generally known. The
subject of which it treats is of deep interest not only
to theologians, but also to the general public.
The second chapter of Genesis states that ' ' the
Lord God (Jahaveh Elohim) planted a garden east
ward in Eden," and there He placed the man whom
1 Wo lag das Parodies ? Bine Biblisch-Assyriologische
Studie. Mit zahlreichen Assyriologischen Beitragen zur bibli-
schen Lander und Volkerkunde, und einer Karte Babyloniens,
von Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, Professor der Assyriologie an
der Universitat Leipzig. Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buch-
handlung, 1881. 91

92 THE SITE OF PARADISE.
He had formed, in order "to dress (till) it and to
keep it." " And out of the ground made the Lord
God (Jahaveh Elohim) to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil " (Gen. ii. 8, 9, 15).
The garden of Eden is accordingly referred to in a
later chapter of the same book (Gen. xiii. 10) as
' ' the garden of the Lord ' ' (of Jahaveh) , and the same
expression is used concerning it in the second part of
Isaiah (li. 3). It is similarly described as "the gar
den of God " (Elohim) in three places in the book of
Ezekiel (xxviii. 13, xxxi. 8, and xxxi. 9) ; in the last
quoted passage the article occurs before the name of
God (Elohim). The language of Ezekiel conveys the
impression that the garden in question was in exis
tence in his day. For he represents the Almighty as
saying : "I have made him (Asshur or Assyria) fair
by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees
of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him "
(Ezek. xxxi. 9). The translators of our English
Versions have, indeed, introduced a gloss into their
translation of this passage by the insertion of the
word " were," printed, however, in the A.V. in italics
to denote that it is not to be found in the original
Hebrew. But the context of the passage shows clearly
enough that the gloss is erroneous, and that clause
ought to be rendered : "all the trees of Eden that are
in the garden of God (the Elohim) envied him."
Nor does the participial form made use of in Gen. ii.
10 in the original Hebrew, and rendered in our
English Versions as the historical past ("a river went
out of Eden "), bear the signification which some have

THE SITE OF PARADISE 93
sought to put upon the statement in that verse, namely,
" a river used to go forth out of Eden,"1 as if the
language used by the writer were designed to convey a
significant hint that changes had taken place in the
locality since the time of which his narrative treats.
The ancient Greek translation, known as the Septu-
agint (the LXX) , translates the word ' ' garden ' ' by
" paradise," which has generally been considered to
be a word of Persian extraction, and was undoubtedly
introduced into the Greek language by Xenophon
directly from the Persian. But it is not impossible
that the word in question came into Persian from the
Babylonian or Assyrian. For although it has not
yet, as far as we know, been discovered in the cunei
form inscriptions, those inscriptions contain numerous
statements of the fact that the Assyrian and Baby
lonian monarchs dehghted in those large gardens and
parks of trees surrounded by walls, which the Persians
were wont to call "paradises," and as the Persians
seem to have been in this particular mere copyists
of the Babylonians, the name of these pleasure-parks
may have been derived by them from a Babylonian
source. It is generally supposed that the name of Eden is
given in the Old Testament to three distinct localities ;
namely, first, to the garden of Eden spoken of chiefly
in the book of Genesis ; secondly, to the country al
luded to in Rabshakeh's speech, recorded in 2 Kings
xix. 12, and in the parallel place in Isaiah xxxvii. 12,
"the children of Eden which were in Telassar " ;
and thirdly, " the house of Eden," referred to by the
1 See Kautzsch-Gesenius' Heb. Gram, by A. E. Cowley.
§ 116, 3; Ewald's Lehrb. § 168, 2.

94 THE SITE OF PARADISE
prophet Amos (i. 5) as closely connected with Damas
cus. But it is more likely that the country termed by
the name of Eden in the two latter passages is one
and the same, the Bene-Eden (the children of Eden),
or Beth-Eden (the house of Eden), in western Meso
potamia, not far from the locality of the modern cities
Aintab and Urfa. This district is mentioned in the
annals of Assur-nasir-pal and Salmanassar by the
name of Bit ( = Beth, house of) Adini. See among
other passages, Records of the Past, vol. iii. p. 47.
It must be carefully noted that the name Eden,
when used to denote the Garden of Eden in which
Adam and Eve were placed, is vocalised in a different
manner ( j-jy ) from the same name when used as the
designation of the other district referred to ( n? ) .
The difference in the punctuation is indeed so slight
that in another case it would be scarcely worth
noticing. Slight as it is, it is in this case systemati
cally adhered to throughout the Hebrew Bible. It is,
therefore, probable that the distinction made has a
special significance, and represents an historical tradi
tion, according to which the two names were regarded
as entirely distinct from one another.
The ancient Greek translation (the LXX) exhibits
traces of a disposition on the part of its translators to
regard the story of the Garden of Eden contained in
the book of Genesis as a mystical narration. The
disposition to allegorise the story manifests itself in
the following manner. Wherever the phrase "Gar
den of Eden " occurs (except in Gen. ii. 8), the phrase
is translated in the LXX by ' ' the paradise of
pleasure " (so in Gen. ii. 15, iii. 23, 24, Joel ii. 3).
The proper name Eden is similarly rendered

THE SITE OF PARADISE 95
"pleasure" by the LXX in Ezek. xxviii. 13, xxxi.
16, 18, xxxvi. 35, and in other places by " paradise "
or " paradise of the Lord " (as in Ezek. xxxi. 9, and
Isaiah li. 3). In a very few places the name, when
used without the word "garden," is regarded as a
proper name ( 'ESe'ju, ), as in Gen. ii. 10, iv. 16 ; and in
Gen. ii. 8, " And the Lord planted a paradise in
Edem." Very little light as to the precise geographical posi
tion of Eden can be derived from the use of the ex
pression " eastward," which occurs in Gen. ii. 8, and
intimates that Eden lay somewhere eastward of the
land of Palestine. Nor does the statement that
" Cain dwelt in the land of Nod east of Eden " (Gen.
iv. 16, 17) afford more information. It is, however,
clear that the garden must have been situated in a
warm eastern climate, for mention is made of " the
cool (lit. the breeze) of the day " (Gen. iii. 8). Adam
and Eve were content to cover themselves after the
fall with fig-leaves rudely stitched together, which is
also a proof that the climate of Eden was warm and
genial. Wellhausen, however, maintains a different
opinion : namely, that the book of Genesis places
Eden in the East, not in a warm and genial climate,
but, on the contrary, in a northern and cold region.
In favour of this view Wellhausen lays stress on the
fact that the guilty pair after their transgression were
provided by God's kindly care with coats of skins.
But that scholar has been strangely forgetful, as Pro
fessor Fried. Delitzsch does not fail to observe, of
the well-known fact that the Orientals wear coats of
skins during all seasons of the year, that the prophet
Elijah had such a "hairy coat" (2 Kings i. 8), and

96 THE SITE OF PARADISE
John the Baptist wore also in the wilderness a similar
heavy coat of camels' hair (Matt. iii. 4).
Thj writer of the book of Genesis professes to give a
minute description of the locality of the Garden of
Eden. His words are : "A river went out of Eden
to water the garden, and from thence " [i.e. after
passing out of the garden] ' ' it was parted ' ' [it parts
itself] , ' ' and became into four heads ' ' [became four
arms, or branches]. The fact must be borne in mind,
noticed long ago by Dr. W. Aldis Wright, in his
article on Eden in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, that
the word " went forth " (.sr), which occurs in this
description, is used only in reference to a river de
scending downwards from its source. The four arms,
or independent streams, into which the river which
watered the garden of Eden was divided after passing
through that paradise, are minutely described by the
writer of the book of Genesis : ' ' The name of the
first is Pison (Pishon) ; that is it which compasseth
the whole land of Havilah (lit. the Havilah), where
there is gold (or, the gold) ; and the gold of that land
is good : there is bdellium and onyx stone. And the
name of the second river is Gihon (Gihon) ; that is it
which compasseth the whole land of Cush " [the
Authorised Version contains here a gloss, translating
"Cush" by "Ethiopia."] And the name of the
third river is Hiddekel ; that is it which goeth towards
the east of Assyria " [more correctly rendered, with
Knobel and Kalisch , ' ' which floweth before
Assyria"]. " And the fourth river that is Euphrates"
(Gen. ii. 11-14).
Two of the rivers mentioned here are well known.
The Perath (cuneiform Purat, Arab. Furat, old Pers.

THE SITE OF PARADISE 97
Ufratu), which the Greeks called Euphrates, was so
well known that the writer did not consider it neces
sary to specify any of the countries through which it
passes, from its first rise in the mountains of Armenia
until it finally discharges its waters into the Persian
Gulf. He simply says, "the fourth river that is
Euphrates." The Hiddekel is the Tigris. In the
cuneiform inscriptions the name of this river is Idiklat
or Diklat, whence the Hebrew form ( Sp'jrn , Sam.
hpin, pronounced by the modern Samaritans, ac
cording to Petermann, eddeqel or eddekel), which
occurs in Gen. ii. 14, Dan. x. 4. Other Shemitic cor
ruptions of the name are Syr. Deklath, Chald. Dig-
lath, Arab, Diglatu. The old Persian form, found in
the Behistun inscription is Tigra, whence the Greek
forms Tuypyj's and Tiypis. The philological
and geographical dissertations of Professor Friedrich
Delitzsch on these rivers and their tributary streams
form a most interesting portion of his book. It may
be noted in passing, that the description of the Tigris
given by the writer of the book of Genesis indicates
plainly that, although the class of readers for whose
benefit the author originally composed his work had
some acquaintance with the geographical position of
that river, the knowledge they possessed of it was
considerably less than that they had of the Euphrates.
Hence the more detailed description given of the
course of the Tigris, and of that part only which
would be known by fame to his countrymen. This is
one of the incidental indications which the book of
Genesis affords of having been written at a period
considerably earlier than that of the captivity in
Babylon.

98 THE SITE OF PARADISE
Although two out of the four streams which issued
forth from the Garden of Eden are known beyond all
reasonable doubt, the greatest variety of opinion has
always prevailed respecting the two other streams.
Consequently the locality of the Garden of Eden has
ever been a subject of controversy. An interesting
catalogue of the conflicting views of scholars and theo
logians on this subject will be found at the close of
Kalisch's excursus on the site of Paradise in his His
torical and Critical Commentary on the Book of
Genesis, and a less complete, but still very able,
sketch of the same is given in Dr. W. Aldis Wright's
article, to which reference has been already made.
We do not propose in our present article to give
any account of the interpretations of former scholars,
except so far as may be necessary for the immediate
purpose we have in view, which is to point out how the
study of the cuneiform inscriptions has shed a great
deal of light upon a question which has often been
regarded as insoluble. The view put forward by Pro
fessor Friedrich Delitzsch affords a satisfactory ex
planation of the many and perplexing difficulties with
which the narrative has hitherto been beset. The
allegorical interpretation of the narrative in the book
of Genesis, to the support of which the renderings of
the LXX probably contributed not a little, was first
traced out in all its details by Philo, and afterwards
advocated in a modified form by Origen. That mode
of explanation, however, is too extravagant to deserve
here more than a passing reference.
The various solutions of the problem which require
a real examination may be divided into three groups.
The first consists of solutions proposed by writers who,

THE SITE OF PARADISE 99
from want of geographical knowledge themselves, or
from a conviction that the writer of the book of
Genesis was deficient in his geographical information,
place the locality of Paradise in some Utopia not to be
found on this earth. A second class of writers have
located the Garden of Eden in Armenia, and the third
and last class have sought to discover it in Southern
Babylonia in the locality of the Shatt-el-Arab. The
latter stream is formed by the junction of the waters
of the Tigris and Euphrates, and, after a course of
considerably over two hundred miles, flows into the
Persian Gulf, after having received, however, in its
course two important affluents, the Karun, identified
by some with the Pishon, and the Kercha or Karasa,
identified with the Gihon.
This last-named hypothesis must, however, now be
abandoned. For Professor Friedrich Delitzsch has
proved conclusively that the stream of the Shatt-el-
Arab had no existence in early times. Pliny states
expressly (vi. § 130) that the Euphrates originally dis
charged its waters directly into the Persian Gulf, and
Ritter (as quoted by Delitzsch) observes that in the
time of Alexander the Great the mouths of the Tigris
and the Euphrates were still separated from one an
other by the distance of at least a good day's journey.
The delta at the head of the Persian Gulf is distin
guished for its rapid growth. It increases, according
to Loftus, at the rate of one mile of land in seventy
years. According to Sir Henry Rawlinson its growth
was far more rapid in ancient times, when it probably
grew at the rate of one mile in thirty years. The city
Charax was founded by Alexander the Great on the
site of the present Mohammerah. But in the days of

100 THE SITE OF PARADISE
Alexander that city was only two thousand paces from
the sea. In the time of Juba II., as Delitzsch notes
in his appendix, that is about 1 B.C., that city "lay
inland fifty, or indeed, one hundred and twenty
Roman miles."
What is even still more decisive is that the delta'
at the embouchure of the Tigris and Euphrates was
in the time of Sennacherib a sea which ran inland far
beyond Mohammerah. Into that sea, termed in the
cuneiform inscriptions Nar Marratum, or the salt
water stream, the Euphrates and the Tigris discharged
their waters independently of one another, without
uniting in one common channel. The designation
Nar Marratum was known as a name of the Persian
Gulf in the time of the Achamenidean monarchs.1
The proofs adduced by the learned Professor (in the
appendix to his work) in support of his statement that
an extensive arm of the sea, running inland perhaps
several hundred miles, anciently divided Babylonia
and Elam, are not such as can be here conveniently
reproduced. The Persian Gulf extended in the time
of Sennacherib nearly as far inland as the modern
Kornah, or about one hundred English miles from
the present extremity of the Shatt-el-Arab furthest
from the Persian Gulf. For the cuneiform inscrip
tions speak of a great naval expedition which Senna
cherib made against Elam, in which he transported
his army over this arm of the sea in large vessels, in
order to attack the army of Elam at the city of Nagitu,
situated on the opposite coast a few miles north of the
1 The name Marratum, Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch has sug
gested, is to be found in Jer. 1., 21, where our Version 'the
land of Merathaim ' is spoken of. The suggestion is one of
no little interest.

THE SITE OF PARADISE 101
spot where the river Ulai (the Pasitigris) discharged
its waters into this sea, that is nearly opposite to the
modern Busra.
The fact thus established that the waters of the
Euphrates and the Tigris in ancient times flowed, in
dependently of one another, into the Persian Gulf, is
completely destructive of all those theories which
would locate the Garden of Eden near the Shatt-el-
Arab in Southern Babylonia. It is unnecessary, there
fore, to lay any stress, in confuting such theories, on
the objection of Dr. W. Aldis Wright already referred
to, or to point out many other difficulties which beset
the hypothesis.
Those commentators who consider the Garden of
Eden was in Armenia generally identify the Gihon
with the Araxes or the Aras (Arab. Gaihun er-Bas),
which, after receiving into its stream the waters of the
Kyros, falls at last into the Caspian Sea. Xenophon
gives the name Phasis to the Araxes in its upper
course. Hence some preferred to identify the Araxes
with the Pishon and the Kyros with the Gihon. It
is true that the source of the Aras, in common with
those of the Tigris and Euphrates, is to be found in
the mountains of Armenia. But independently of
the many difficulties which beset the attempt to make
out the various lands mentioned by the Hebrew his
torian, the fact that neither the Araxes nor the Kyros
can be regarded as a continuation of one and the same
stream with the Euphrates and the Tigris is fatal to
the theory. The same may be said of the hypothesis'
which, identifying the Araxes or the Kyros with the
Gihon of Genesis, seeks to discover the Pishon in the
Phasis, now the Rion, on the borders of the ancient

102 THE SITE OF PARADISE
Colchis, separating it from Armenia. The Phasis,
moreover, has no connection whatever with any of the
other rivers.
Still more hopeless, perhaps, was the attempt to
connect the Oxus, called by the Arabic geographers by
the name of Gaihun, with the river of Paradise of the
same name (the Gihon). The Oxus, which now flows
into the sea of Aral, was anciently considered to have
flowed into the Caspian, but its sources are far
removed from those of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Hence, if the geographical correctness of the narra
tive contained in the book of Genesis was to be main
tained, and the locality of Eden to be sought for in
some district of the mountainous country of Armenia,
it became necessary to maintain that the configuration
of that country had been altered by some violent con
vulsion of nature from that presented in the early days
of which the book of Genesis speaks. Many theo
logians therefore sought, like Luther, to account for the
discrepancy by supposing that the Deluge had oblite
rated all traces of the early Paradise, and had altered
the courses of the four rivers which once flowed from
a common source.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the majority,
perhaps, of modern critics, untrammelled by dogmatic
prepossessions in favour of the historical truthfulness
of the book of Genesis, considered themselves bound
to maintain that the writer or compiler of that book
had but a scanty knowledge of the district or lands
which he professes to describe, and that his knowledge
of geography was on a level with that of many other
ancient writers. Josephus saw nothing absurd in the
opinion that the Pishon was the Ganges and the

THE SITE OF PARADISE 103
Gihon the Nile. For he thought that the great ocean
(which, according to the Greek writers from whom he
derived his information, flowed round the world) was
the original stream from which the four rivers came.
It may be said that he regarded the account of Moses
as at least partly allegorical, and hence the incongruity
of his geographical notions may be somewhat excused.
The same excuse cannot be pleaded in defence of the
Church Fathers, who adopted his views as to the
identity of the Ganges with the Pishon without per
ceiving the absurdity of such an opinion if the book of
Genesis was to be supposed to be correct in its geo
graphy. Modern scholars who regard the narrative in the
book of Genesis as legendary, either in whole or in
part, have maintained that the land of Havilah is to be
identified with India, ever famous for its gold and
gems. Such scholars consider the Gihon to be the
Nile. In defence of the latter opinion the facts are
pointed out (1) that the Nile flows through Ethiopia,
which is explained to be the Cush of Gen. ii. 13; and
(2) that the LXX identified the Gihon and the Nile.1
The ancient Shemites were however by no means
so deficient in geographical knowledge as has often
been imagined. Professor Delitzsch quotes passages
from Pliny and other ancient authorities which prove
decisively that there is no necessity to suppose when
1 For in Jer. ii. 18, in place of Sihor (Shihor), which is the
Nile (compare the rendering of the Vulgate in Isaiah xxiii. 3,
semen Nili) the LXX substitute T-qay , which is the word
which occurs in the Alex, and other texts of the LXX in Gen.
ii. 13). Sirach also evidently regarded Geon as the Nile
(Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 27). A somewhat similar name
occurs in the Coptic glossaries for the Nile, which tends to
prove that the Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians regarded
the Nile as the Gihon of Paradise.

104 THE SITE OF PARADISE
the writer of the book of Genesis describes Havilah as
a land abounding in gold, bdellium, and precious
stones, that he had any dim traditionary knowledge of
the far distant India.
The Garden of Eden is considered by Professor F.
Delitzsch to have been situated in the land of Baby
lonia, in that special district in which the waters of
the Euphrates and the Tigris approach nearest to each
other. From that region, as will be shown in the
sequel, the water-courses of the Gihon and Pishon
formerly flowed. Those streams were rivers, or
rather canals, connected with the Euphrates.
The word nahar ( ins ), river, is used in Hebrew,
as well as in Babylonian and Arabic, in the significa
tion of a canal. Chebar (Kebar, -Q3 signifying
greatness, length), the " river," on the banks of which
Ezekiel beheld his wondrous visions (Ezek. i. 1, &c),
was probably one of the numerous canals of the land
of Babylonia. It was probably so called because it
was the largest of the great canals (narati) or streams
of that country. In Babylonia there are no other
rivers in existence, in the proper sense of the word,
than the Tigris and the Euphrates. Commentators
have often sought to discover the river mentioned by
Ezekiel in another country than in " the land of the
Chaldseans," where the prophet himself distinctly
locates it (Ezek. i. 3). Keil and other scholars have
sought to identify the Chebar of Ezekiel with the Kha-
bur (Arab, ^u., Assyr. Habur), the well-known
affluent of the Euphrates, which falls into the
Euphrates in North Mesopotamia at Sirki, the ancient
Circesium. But this latter river is referred to by the
writer of the second book of Kings by the name of

THE SITE OF PARADISE 105
Habor, the river of Gozan (2 Kings xvii. 6, xviii. 11,
not "Habor by the river of Gozan," as our A.V. trans
lates the clause). In 1 Chr. v. 26, Habor is the name
of a district, and the river is there called simply " the
river of Gozan." Many scholars have identified the
Habor mentioned in the second book of Kings with
an unimportant affluent of the Tigris, which bears
indeed that name ; but the addition of the clause, " the
river of Gozan," is, independently of other reasons, a
sufficient refutation of that opinion (see Delitzsch's
Wo lag das Parodies, p. 184). Gozan (Assyr. Guzana)
was originally the name of a city of Mesopotamia (2
Kings xix. 12), and afterwards applied to a district
traversed by the waters of the Habor.
It is necessary here, in order to meet an obvious
objection, to observe that some of the numerous canals
of Babylonia were not artificial constructions, dug out
by human labour, but were originally water-courses or
natural branches of the Euphrates. These channels,
having in the course of ages become filled up with
sand, were in later times cleared out, enlarged, and
transformed into canals for the purpose of inland navi
gation and irrigation.
The writer of the book of Genesis describes the
river Gihon as compassing the whole land of Cush.
The name Cush is commonly used to denote
Ethiopia, the well-known country of Africa watered
by the upper Nile. But it is used in the book of,
Genesis; also to denote a country of Asia. In
Genesis x. 7 there are seven names mentioned as
those of descendants of Cush, the son of Ham. Not
one of them can be pointed out with any certainty as
the designation of a particular African land or people,

106 THE SITE OF PARADISE
while several of the name occur as the names of
Asiatic tribes inhabiting the north-west coast of the
Persian Gulf or the southern coast of Arabia. Nim-
rod was also a son of Cush (Gen. x. 8-12), and the
commencement of his kingdom was Babylon, and
Erech, and Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.
Thus, the ruler of Northern Babylonia and Assyria
was a descendant of Cush. There was an Asiatic as
well as an African Cush. The original inhabitants of
Babylon were closely connected with the people of
Elam, and these Elamite-Sumerians (Babylonians)
are included under the name of Cush in the catalogue
of nations given in the tenth of Genesis.
The old Elamite population exhibits a type some
what similar to the Ethiopic Cushites. Rawlinson,
in his Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 500, observes
that ' ' there is reason to believe that the Cushite race
was connected not very remotely with the negro. In
Susiana, where the Cushite blood was maintained in
tolerable purity — Elymseans EElamitesl and Kissians1
existing side by side instead of blending together —
there was, if we may trust the Assyrian remains, a
very decided prevalency of a negro type of counten
ance." See the pictorial illustrations in Rawlinson's
work. Professor Friedrich Delitzsch notices a curious fact
which has probably something to do with this as yet
unexplained connection of the Asiatic Cushites with
the African people of the same name. The old Baby
lonian geographical lists mention two districts of
Babylonia which respectively bore the non-Shemitic
1 Kfo-o-ioi , Biblical Kush, Hieroglyph. Kash, Kaish, Kish,
Kesh, but not Kush; vid. Delitzsch, p. 54.

THE SITE OF PARADISE 107
names of Magana and Melugha — names which occur
in the vocabularies close to one another, and appear,
like Sumer and Akkad (South and North Babylonia),
to represent the two great divisions of united Baby
lonia. In the Annals of Sargon II. and Sanherib
(Sennacherib), Ethiopia is also termed Meluhu (a
name closely connected with Melugha), and in the
Annals of Assarhaddon (b.c. 681-668) and Assurbanipal
(b.c. 668-626) Ethiopia is termed by the name of both
Meluhu and Kusu (mis), while in the Annals of
Assurbanipal, the land of Egypt is called by the name
of Makan. It appears probable that the name of
Meluhu given to Ethiopia had something to do with
the bestowal of the name Makan on Egypt. How
ever the fact may be ultimately explained, it is curious
that a district of Babylonia bore a name identical with
that of the African Cush or Ethiopia.
The mention of Tigris and Euphrates in the narra
tive of the book of Genesis proves clearly that the
writer refers to the Asiatic Cush and not to Ethiopia.
The country indicated by Cush was probably a portion
of the land situated between the city of Babylon and
the Persian Gulf. When the book of Genesis speaks
of the Gihon compassing the whole land of Cush, it
does not necessarily imply that the Gihon flowed round
the country indicated, so as to encompass it on all
sides with its waters, but simply that the country of
Cush from end to end was surrounded on one side at
least by that stream (comp. Isaiah xxiii. 16 ; Cant. iii.
3; 1 Sam. vii. 16).
The name Havilah occurs twice in the catalogue of
nations in Gen. x. In verse 29 of that chapter it is
found between those of Ophir and Jobab, as that of

108 THE SITE OF PARADISE
the last but one of the thirteen sons of Joktan. The
Joktanite tribes seem to have spread themselves from
South Arabia in a north-easterly direction. Their
northern or north-eastern border was Mesha (Gen. x.
30), often identified with the small kingdom of Me-
sene, and situated on the Persian Gulf north of the
Pasitigris. But Mesha is more correctly identified
by Professor Friedrich Delitzsch with the land of
Mash'u mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions.
That land formed a part of the Syrian desert bordering
on the Euphrates, and stretching along the shore of
the Persian Gulf. It is significant that the name
Havilah occurs also in Gen. x. 7, as that of the second
son of Cush. Professor Friedrich Delitzsch conse
quently maintains that the land of Havilah was a por
tion of the so-called Syrian desert bordering on the
Euphrates, and extending from the Persian Gulf on
the south, northwards almost as far as the city of
Babylon. A portion of this district is even to the
present day known by the name of Ard el-halat or
Dune-land. The three products for which the Havilah of Genesis
was remarkable were in ancient days found in this
country. Professor Friedrich Delitzsch adduces a
clay inscription of the younger Tiglath-pileser (who is
mentioned in the Old Testament literature), which re
cords that Merodach-baladan, the son of Jakin the
king of the sea, or of the district of South Babylonia
known as Bit-Jakin did homage to the great king of
Assyria, and presented to him, " gold, the dust of his
land in quantity," with gold neckchains, glass,
" stones, the production of the sea," precious wood and
raiment. The inscription proves that gold was found

THE SITE OF PARADISE 109
in that district of Babylonia lying between the mouths
of the Tigris and Euphrates. Pliny bears witness of
the fact that bdellium, which is most probably the
substance meant by the Hebrew bedolach, is also
found in that country. The shoham stone spoken of
in Gen. ii. 12, is mentioned among other precious
stones in one of the Babylonian lists as the most im
portant production of the province of Meluha. The
Babylonian form of the word shoham is sdmtu, a femi
nine form of samu=sahimu (qptd, cognate with the
Hebrew cnm ). The Babylonian stone samdu was
worn as a special ornament of the Babylonian mon
arch, and the shoham formed one of the precious stones
in the breastplate of the Jewish high priest (Exodus
xxviii. 20, xxxix. 13). The shoham is rendered in the
Authorised English Version by onyx, but there are
weighty reasons for regarding it as the carnelian.
Professor Delitzsch calls attention to the interesting
circumstance that the magi who came from the East,
from Babylon, to worship the infant Redeemer brought
with them, in token of their homage, gold as one of
the chief productions of the land from which they
came. He also observes that the eleventh verse of the
second chapter of the first book of the New Testament
has thus a curious connection with the eleventh verse
of the second chapter of the first book of the Old.
Herodotus thus describes the irrigation and fertility
of the land of ancient Babylonia (i. 191) : —
" The river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the cornlands of
its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand, or by
the help of engines. The whole of Babylonia is, like Egypt.
intersected with canals. The largest of them all, which runs
towards the winter sun, and is impassable except in boats, is
carried from the Euphrates into another stream called the
Tigris, the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly

110 THE SITE OF PARADISE
stood. Of all the countries that we know there is none which
is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension indeed of
growing the fig, the olive, or the vine, or any other tree of
the kind : but in grain it is so fruitful as to yield commonly
two hundred-fold, and when the production is the greatest
even three hundred-fold. The blade of the wheat-plant and
barley-plant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet
and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow,
though within my own knowledge ; for I am not ignorant that
what I have already written concerning the fruitfulness of
Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have never
visited the country  Palm trees grow in great numbers
over the whole of the flat country."1
' ' As far as the eye can reach from the town ' ' (Hil-
lah), situated on the bank of the Euphrates opposite
to Babylon, writes Ker Porter, " both up and down the
Euphrates the banks appear to be thickly shaded with
groves of date trees " (Travels, vol. ii. p. 335). These
groves of palms were more abundant in ancient days
before the watercourses and canals had by the neglect
of the inhabitants become filled with sand, and the
land in general had by degrees assumed that desert
appearance which it now presents to the traveller.
In Babylonia there was a district better irrigated
than all other parts of the country by numerous canals
and water-courses. It lay close to the city of Baby
lon, and extended some distance northward. In that
locality the main streams of the Euphrates and Tigris
approach most nearly one another. That portion of
Babylonia is warmly praised by Xenophon, Strabo,
and by Ammianus Marcellinus (who relates the cam
paigns of the Emperor Julian) as most remarkable,
both for the gifts of nature and the improvements of
art. These writers speak of its canals, bridges, vine
yards, orchards, and palm groves, and express astonish
ment at the abundance of corn, dates and grapes pro-
1 Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i.

THE SITE OF PARADISE 111
duced therein. Though Herodotus does not speak of
vineyards, Zosimus, writing in the fifth century of our
era, notices (as mentioned by Delitzsch) that in that
country, even where no buildings are seen, palm-tree
woods extend in every direction, the trees being en
circled by vines whose hanging clusters covered their
crowns. The palm trees of Babylon were also peculiarly dis
tinguished for size and beauty. The tradition cur
rent in the early centuries of the Christian era was that
some of the palm trees were as old as the time of
Adam. The following anecdote from the Talmud, which al
ludes to this tradition, may here be given in full. It
is found in Berachoth, 31a1 where the story is told as
an illustration of the importance of taking farewell of
a friend with some saying of Halachah :
Rab Kahana accompanied Rab Simi-bar-Ashi from Pum-
nahara2 up to the place of the palms of Babylon. When he
reached that place he said to him, Master ! is that true which
men say, these palms of Babylon exist from the (time of the)
first man even to the present day ? He said to him (in reply) :
I remember an expression of R. Jose bar-Rabbi Hanina. R.
Jose Bar-Rabbi Hanina said, What is the meaning of that
which is written : through a land that no man passed through
and where no man dwelt (Jer. ii. 6)? For in a land where
no man passed through, how can any man have dwelt? But
the sense is, every land is inhabited which the first man
(Adam) decided should be inhabited, and every land concern
ing which the first man did not so decide, that land is not
inhabited. 1 Professor Friedrich Delitzsch refers to this anecdote (p.
133), and says it is to be found in Berachoth, Site. This, how
ever is a typographical error. The same anecdote is repeated
in a' different Connection and for a different object in Sota,
2 Professor Friedrich Delitzsch, on some authority not cited
bv him, states that this was the name of a city in the neigh
bourhood of Nehardaa. The words would naturally be trans
lated " from the mouth of the river."

112 THE SITE OF PARADISE
In other words, the Rabbi maintained the current
tradition to be true, and affirmed that Adam himself
had destined the spot referred to as a place which
should be set aside for ever for a grove of palm trees.1'
This district of Babylon was anciently termed Kar-
Duniash, the park, or garden, of the god Duniash.
Kar-du-ni-shi is once, as Prof. F. Delitzsch points out,
written in an inscription of Assurbanipal, Gin-dun-i-
sha, where the non-Shemitic word kar is changed into
the Shemitic ginu, "garden." He observes that Sir
Henry Rawlinson was the first to suggest that the
Biblical Gan-Eden (garden of Eden) was probably a
transformation of this very word Gin dunish. The
name Duniash is compounded of Dun, lofty, exalted
(which is found in other Babylonian names, as for in
stance Dungi), i.e. Lord, and jash, signifying the lands
or countries. Hence the compound Kar-duniash sig
nifies " the garden of the Lord of the lands." Even
those who believe in the historical truth of the narra
tive of Genesis are by no means bound to maintain
that the name of the " Garden of Eden " was the origi
nal designation of that particular spot. But it
is quite as possible that the old Babylonian name
may have been a corruption of the Biblical Gan-
Eden, Garden of Eden, as that latter should have
been a corruption of the Babylonian Kar-duniash.
The apparent connection of the name Kar-duniash
with the Gan-Eden may possibly be disproved by fresh
1 The word used in these passages of the Talmud for palm
trees (urns), and which also occurs elsewhere, is ex
plained by Levy in his Chald. W. B. as connected with a word
signifying rock, and is supposed by him to be applied to palm
trees because of their growing in stony places. But Pro
fessor F. Delitzsch suggests that it is likely that the word
in question may ultimately prove to be of Babylonian origin.

THE SITE OF PARADISE 113
discoveries, and, therefore, though probable, is not yet
to be accepted as distinctly proven. In a later part of
his work, Prof. F. Delitzsch maintains that a lately
discovered syllabary of Mr. Rassam's collection pre
sents us with the word idin as a non-Shemitic word
corresponding to the Babylonian-Shemitic seru, which
means field, plain or desert (prop, a depression).
Some of the newly-discovered Babylonian tablets may
throw light upon this interesting point.
That this district of Babylon was the locality of the
original Garden of Eden is rendered still more pro
bable by the fact that the city of Babylon itself was
known by another name, namely, Tintira, which
signifies grove of life, or fountain of life, or possibly,
tree of life. Such a name may indeed be explained
without any reference whatever to the story of Para
dise, but the name is significant of something higher,
and may point back to that lost tree of life which once
stood in the Paradise of God.
The precise district in which Prof. Friedrich De
litzsch considers the Garden of Eden to have been
was that portion of Babylonia which lies immediately
north of the city of Babylon, between the Tigris and
the Euphrates, which formed respectively its eastern
and western boundaries. Its limits on the north may
be indicated by a line drawn from Bagdad on the
Tigris across to Akkad on the Euphrates, while a
similar line, parallel to the former, stretching from
Babylon on the Euphrates to the Tigris, would desig
nate with sufficient accuracy its southern boundary.
The book of Genesis represents the Garden of Eden
watered by a single river. The statement correctly
describes a feature of this district of Babylonia. While

114 THE SITE OF PARADISE
other parts of that country to the south are to a certain
extent watered by the Tigris as well as the Euphrates,
the district specially referred to is exclusively irrigated
by the Euphrates. Large water-courses, afterwards
transformed into canals, but which seem originally to
have been natural arms of the Euphrates, conducted a
considerable portion of its water from the higher level
of that river into the bed of the Tigris. From these,
as chief arteries of irrigation, smaller water-courses,
such as those alluded to by Herodotus, spread the water
all over the country.
The classical historians long ago called attention to
this interesting hydrographic peculiarity of the coun
try. Arrian says that, of the streams which enclose
the district of Mesopotamia, the Tigris is of less im
portance than the Euphrates, "because the arms or
canals of the Euphrates in great number convey their
water to the Tigris " (Exped. Alex. vii. 7). The fact
that the Euphrates, at its entrance into the Baby
lonian plain, flows from a higher level than the Tigris,
and that it contributes much water to the Tigris, has
also been noted by modern geographers.
The same phenomenon appears to be alluded to in
the Talmud (Bekoroth 55a), where Rabbi Jehudah is
stated to have remarked, on the authority of Rab, the
great Jewish Rabbi of Babylon, " that all the rivers
lie deeper than the three streams [Pishon, Gihon
and Hiddekel], but these three streams lie deeper
than the Euphrates." Hence it was geographically
correct to describe the Garden of Eden as watered by
a single stream, if that Garden of Eden is to be identi
fied with the district of Kar-duniash near Babylon.
And if the writer of the Book of Genesis had that

THE SITE OF PARADISE 115
special locality in view, he was fully justified in re
garding the Tigris, as it flowed forth from the plain of
Babylon, to be an important branch of the Euphrates.
The Euphrates has so frequently altered its channel
that it is impossible , until the whole country shall have
been accurately surveyed, to trace with any accuracy
the course of the former beds of the great canals or
streams which proceeded from it. Prof. Delitzsch,
however, has little hesitation in maintaining that the
celebrated canal Pallakopas was in all probability one
of the rivers referred to in the book of Genesis. The
Pallakopas was an ancient arm of the Euphrates, and
used in historical times to carry off the water of the
Euphrates in the summer season, when the size of that
river was largely increased by the melting of the snows
in the mountains of Armenia. That great water-way
was navigable for ships. It led from a point of the
Euphrates somewhat north of Babylon, passed near,
or through, the Bahr-i-Nedjif, flowing on in a course
nearly parallel to the Euphrates, and discharged its
waters at last by a channel of its own into the Persian
Gulf. The spot has been identified in recent days by
Colonel Chesney. That stream was probably the Pi
shon. No river or stream of that name has yet been
found mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions , but the
word piscina or pisdnu is often used for various recep
tacles for water, and is also found in the signification
of a canal. Hence the Pishon might be so called as
being the great canal of the country. Kiepert has al
ready suggested that the Greek name Pallakopas is
connected with the Hebrew noun i^b (peleg) , Assyr.
palgu, " canal," which latter is often used as a syno
nym for nam, " river." The Pallakopas formed the

116 THE SITE OF PARADISE
boundary line of that portion of the Syrian desert west
of Chaldaea, which may be identified with Havilah,
and in all probability produced in ancient times gold,
bdellium, and precious stones.
The identification proposed by the German Professor
for the other stream, the Gihon, is even more satisfac
tory. He identifies it with the Shatt en-Nil, another
arm of the Euphrates which led from Babylon itself,
and, after passing by the ancient city of Erech (where
now the ruins of Warka exist) ultimately discharged
its waters again into the main stream of the Euphrates.
It is curious that the name Nile should have been
given to that important stream, and possibly this has
something to do with the fact, already noted, that the
designation of Makan, the name of the country through
part of which the Shatt en-Nil flowed, was also be
stowed on the land of Egypt. This latter arm of the
Euphrates was also navigable, and seems to have en
compassed the land of Kash-shu, which Delitzsch
identifies with Cush. He connects it also with the
name of Kash-du, the land of the Chaldaeans. The
Babylonian Kash-du appears to have been identical
with the Assyrian Kal-du, whence the name Chaldsean
(Heb. ontw once found written with d, Ezra v. 12).
The latter identification is somewhat startling, and of
no little importance, should it ultimately be accepted
by scholars. A most remarkable fact, corroborative of
the identification of the Gihon with the Shatt en-Nil,
is that a clay tablet has been discovered in which
mention is made together of the Tigris, the Euphrates,
and the Nar (river) Ka- or Gughan-de, and in which
the latter name is made to correspond with the Assy
rian Arahtu. This Gughana was the greatest canal

THE SITE OF PARADISE 117
at Babylon, and flowed along the left bank of the
Euphrates, as Delitzsch proves from statements occur
ring in various cuneiform inscriptions.
Thus at last — if the conclusions arrived at are not
ultimately upset by some new investigations in the
extensive literature which has recently been unearthed
— the geographical correctness of the writer of Genesis
has clearly been demonstrated.
The fact, however, must not be glossed over, that
it may be argued that while the geographical
truthfulness of the narrative of the book of
Genesis appears thus to be established, serious
doubts are at the same time thrown upon its
antiquity. The tendency of modern scholarship
is to bring down the date of the composition
of the Pentateuch to the times in which the
Israelites came into connection with the Babylonian
Empire. We are, however, by no means disposed to
concede the correctness of that view, but, on the con
trary, believe from internal evidence supplied by the
book of Genesis itself when compared with the newly
unearthed records of the past, that the narratives of
the book of Genesis concerning the ancient history of
mankind, and notably its record of the Deluge, exhibit
traces of a far higher antiquity than the stories dis
covered in the libraries of Assyria and Babylon, how
ever valuable and important those records unquestion
ably may be.

III.
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND HUMAN
SACRIFICE.
The custom of offering up human sacrifices in order
to appease Divine wrath was prevalent among most of
the nations of antiquity. Not only uncivilised and
savage races, but even highly civilised peoples, were
in ancient days guilty of the practice, now happily re
stricted to the most savage and ignorant races of man
kind. The ancient inhabitants of Greece, the Phoeni
cians and Carthaginians, the Scythians, Gauls, and
Teutons, and even the Romans, as late as the times of
the Empire, had recourse, under peculiar circum
stances to the same rite. Instances of the practice
may be clearly traced down to the era when Christian
ity was established in the Roman Empire, after which
epoch the cruel custom was only here and there prac
tised in secret, or the tradition of such a usage retained
in certain curious magical rites and observances which
cannot here be described.
The Pentateuch bears witness to the fact that hu
man sacrifices prevailed to a certain extent among the
tribes who inhabited the land of Canaan prior to the
incursion of the Israelites. Among the various abomi
nations spoken of as practised by the Canaanites, and
which the Israelites were warned not to commit, the
abomination of human sacrifice is distinctly mentioned.
' ' Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the
fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of
thy God : I am the Lord " (Lev. xviii. 21). Simi-
118

HUMAN SACRIFICE 119
larly in ch. xx. 2, 3 : " Whosoever he be of the child
ren of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel,
that giveth any of his seed to Molech, he shall surely
be put to death ; the people of the land shall stone him
with stones. And I will set my face against that
man, and will cut him off from among his people, be
cause he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile
my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if
the people of the land do anyways hide their eyes from
the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and
kill him not ; then I wilil set my face against that man ,
and against his family, and will cut him off, and all
that go a- whoring after him, to commit whoredom
with Molech, from among their people."
A similar reference to this practice occurs in Deut.
xviii. 10, in which passage it is spoken of in connec
tion with " divination." Ahaz, king of Judah, as the
writer of 2 Kings (xvi. 3) informs us, made his son to
pass through the fire. The writer of 2 Chronicles
goes further. Among the reasons assigned for the
Lord having given up the children of Israel into the
hands of the king of Assyria, who carried them away
captive, this practice is mentioned : " They caused
their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire,
and used divination and enchantments " (2 Kings xvii.
17). At a later date Manasseh, king of Judah, was
guilty of the atrocity (2 Kings xxi. 6 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii.
6) ; while on the other hand, his grandson, Josiah,
when he ascended the throne, defiled Tophet, in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to prevent any
one making his son or daughter to pass through the
fire to Molech (2 Kings xxiii. 10). The prophet Jere
miah, whose early life was passed under the reign of

120 HUMAN SACRIFICE
Josiah, denounces the children of Judah for having
" built the high places of Tophet, which is in the val
ley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and
daughters in the fire " (Jer. vii. 31) ; and he states
in another place that the Jews had " filled this place
(Tophet) with the blood of innocents, and have built
the high places of Baal in order to burn their sons in
the fire as burnt offerings unto Baal " (Jer. xix. 4-5).
In thus acting, the Jews followed the custom prevalent
among the Sepharvites, planted as colonists in the
northern part of the country by the king of Assyria,
who were likewise in the habit of burning their sons
in the fire to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods
of Sepharvaim (2 Kings xvii. 31). Nor must the case
of Mesha, king of Moab, be omitted, who, in his dire
straits, offered up his first-born son, the heir to his
throne, as a burnt-offering upon the wall of the city
in the sight of the allied forces of Judah, Israel and
Edom, by whom he was besieged (2 Kings iii. 27).
The prophet Ezekiel compares Jerusalem, on ac
count of her unfaithfulness to Jehovah, to an unchaste
woman, and represents God as thus addressing her :
" Thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters which
thou didst bear to me, and didst sacrifice them to
them (i.e. to the idols of the heathen spoken of in the
passage as Jerusalem's paramours) for (them) to eat.1
Was it a small matter of thy whoredoms? And thou
didst slay my sons, and gave them to them in order to
let them pass through the fire '" (Ezek. xvi. 20, 21).
1 Heb. ^3») , in allusion to the feasts in which the idols were
supposed to have their share. Comp. Deut. xxxii. 38.
2 In this passage, as in Lev. xvii. 21 and in the general
statement contained in Ezek. xx. 26, the word " fire " is not
expressly mentioned in the original. But the word must
evidently be understood. Comp. Ezek. xx. 31.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 121
The expression " to pass through the fire " might,
indeed, if it stood alone, be explained as alluding to
some lustral purification by means of fire, such as
walking rapidly over red-hot coals, or the like, or to
practices of a character similar to the ordeals of the
Middle Ages. In favour of this view, the direction in
Numbers might be adduced, according to which vessels
of gold, silver, brass, and other metals taken as spoil
from the Midianites, were commanded to be passed
through the fire, and the spoil which could not stand
such treatment was directed to be passed through
water (Numb. xxxi. 22, 23). But the passages al
ready cited prove that no mere lustral purification by
fire took place when the children were made to pass
through the fire to Molech, but that in the latter case
the phrase must necessarily be understood in the
darker signification.1 Moreover we read in 2 Chron.
xxviii. 3 of Ahaz offering up incense in the valley of
the son of Hinnom, and burning his sons in the fire,
after the abominations of the nations which the Lord
had cast out before the children of Israel. It has, no
doubt, been suggested that the reading of the latter
passage is incorrect.' But even in that case, the
other passages cited abundantly prove that the chil
dren offered to Molech were committed to the flames.
1 The LXX no doubt explains Deut. xviii. 10 in the milder
Signification, ovx evpeS^o-erat iv ffo\ irepucadaiptcv rov viov avrov Kal *H)v
Bvyarfpa avrov iv irvpl . That explanation is also followed by the
Vulgate: "nee inveniatur in te qui lustret filium suum, aut
filiam, ducens per ignem." Indications of a desire to tone
down the meaning of the same expression are to be found in
many other passages of the LXX.
2 Namely, that in place ofiH?n, "and he burnt his sons in
the fire," we ought to read i3M "and he made his sonB to
pass through the fire," which latter reading has the support
of the LXX., Syr., Targ., and Vulg.

122 HUMAN SACRIFICE
In Ezek. xxiii. 37, where Samaria and Jerusalem are
symbolically represented as two unchaste sisters,
Aholah and Aholibah, the statement occurs : " They
committed adultery with their idols, and even their
sons, which they bare unto me, they have made to pass
through (the fire) for food " (i.e. for the idols).1 It
is remarkable how persons guilty of such abominations
still continued to worship the God of Israel. Thus it
is said in Ezekiel that "when they had slain their
children to their idols, then they came into my sanc
tuary the same day to profane it ; and lo, thus have
they done in the midst of my house " (Ezek. xxiii. 39).
The latter fact proves that the idolaters themselves did
not regard their participation in the worship of other
gods as excluding them from the worship of Jehovah.
To the passages already quoted others might be
added. Thus Isaiah (lvii. 5) speaks of the idolators
' ' inflaming themselves with idols under every green
tree, slaying the children in the valleys, under the
clifts of the rocks." In Ps. cvi. 36, a psalm of post-
exilian days, it is stated that the apostate Israelites of
former days ' ' sacrificed their sons and their daughters
unto demons " (lit. the powerful beings, DntS1?)
rendered in our Authorised Version, after the LXX.,
Vulg., &c, " unto devils." The writer of the Apocry
phal Book of Wisdom speaks of the ancient inhabitants
of the Holy Land as hated of God ' ' for doing most
odious works of witchcrafts and wicked sacrifices " ;
and for being ' ' merciless murderers of children , and
devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood " (ch.
xii. 4, 5).
From the wording of the passages in Isaiah and
Ezekiel it has been considered as highly probable that
i See note 1 on p. 120. The Hebrew is here: n1??*)

HUMAN SACRIFICE 123
the children offered to Molech were first slain and
afterwards consumed by fire. But there is certainly
no ground for the conjecture of Canon Cook in the
Speaker's Commentary on Leviticus, drawn "from
the context in which the rite is mentioned," i.e. in
connection with divination, " that the rite in the time
of Moses belonged to realm of magic rather than
of definite religious worship, and that it may have been
practised as a lustral charm or fire-baptism for the
children of incest and adultery. "Its connection,"
Canon Cook adds, " with the children of Ammon, the
child of incest, may be worth noticing in reference to
this suggestion." The latter suggestion is fanciful,
for not only in the Pentateuch, but in other books in
which the sacrifice of children is distinctly recorded,
the act is often spoken of in connection with " divina
tion." See 2 Kings xvi. 3, xvii. 17, xxi. 6, &c, as
well as Wisdom xii. 4, 5.
There are several interesting questions connected
with the worship of Molech, the national god of the
Ammonites, known also by the names of Mi'lcom (1
Kings xi. 5 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13) and Malcom (Jer. xlix.
1,3), which must be here passed over. It may suffice
to note that the descriptions of Molech derived from
the statements of Diodorus Siculus (Lib. xx. 14) can
not be relied on with any certainty. According to
these the image of Molech was an idol of hollow metal
resembling a man, but with a bull's head. The child
presented for sacrifice was placed in the outstretched
arms of the idol, which was heated by fire within, and
by some mechanical contrivance the child so placed
was rolled into the flames, its cries being drowned by
the sound of music. Nor can the more minute de-

124 HUMAN SACRIFICE
scription given in the Yalkut Shimeoni on Jer.vii. 31
be assumed as historical fact, according to which the
image had seven gratings ( yhpsp , Lat. cancelli),
which were severally opened by the priests, according
as a pigeon or dove, a sheep or goat, a lamb, calf, bull,
or child, was presented as an offering. Kalisch, in
his preliminary Essay on the Sacrifices of the Hebrews
and of other nations, sect. xxii. (prefixed to his elabo
rate Hist, and Crit. Commentary on Leviticus) , consi
ders the latter description probably borrowed from the
construction of the temple of Mithras with its seven
gates, corresponding to the seven planets, and conjec
tures that the description may have been based on the
circumstance that seven old temples originally stood in
the valley of the son of Hinnom. It has been in
ferred with great probability, from a comparison of
Jer. xxxii. 35 with Jer. xix. 5, that Molech, under
some phases, at least, was identified with Baal or the
Sun-god. It has been admitted on all sides that the practice
of human sacrifices was not only common among the
Israelites in times of national apostasy, when they
imitated the rites of the Phoenicians and the neigh
bouring peoples, but even that the old worship of the
Canaanitish aborigines was never completely eradi
cated from the land. Traces of heathenish practices,
which date back probably to pre-Israelitish times , may
still be discovered in strange combination with
Mohammedanism. But it has been tacitly assumed
by some modern critics that human sacrifice formed at
one time part of the genuine religion of Israel, and
that the practice was only banished from the national
cult some short time previous to the Babylonish capti-

HUMAN SACRIFICE 125
vity. The view propounded by Gillhany, that it was
originally the custom to sacrifice all the first-born child
ren of the Israelites (an opinion founded on a mistaken
interpretation of the expressions used in Exod. xiii. 2
and xxii. 39), and his assertion that the sacrifice of
such children was the chief peculiarity of the Pass
over festival, have, indeed, been rejected as monstrous
by scholars of the most advanced school, such as Well
hausen and others,1 for the simple reason (among
others) that the sacrifice of an only child was never re
sorted to, even among the heathen, except on the
rarest occasions. But some of those scholars have
maintained that the increase in the human sacrifices in
the seventh century before Christ was caused by an ex
tension on the part of the priesthood of that day of the
command, " All the first-born are mine," to the first
born of man as well as of beast ; and that these sacri
fices were supported by a rigid interpretation of the
law which required the first-born to be consecrated to
the service of God. The writers referred to deny, of
course, the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch in
any real sense, and regard it as not older than the days
of Isaiah, and as having in its present form undergone
considerable revision even at a later period.
To enter fully into a discussion of such questions
would be to write an introduction to the history of the
Israelitish people. But, while declining to admit the
correctness of the theories just noticed, it may be well,
inasmuch as such opinions have been put forward by
men of ability, briefly to consider the slender founda-
1 See Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels
(Zweite Ausgabe der Gesch. Israels, Band I.), Berlin, G.
Reimer, 1883, pp. 91, 92.

126 HUMAN SACRIFICE
tion on which it has been assumed that human sacri'
fices formed at any time part of the worship of
Jehovah. The principal passages in the writings of the pro
phets from which such a strange conclusion has been
deduced are the following : — In condemning the con
duct of the Jews for having built the hight places of
Tophet in order to burn their sons and their daugh
ters there in the fire, the prophet Jeremiah (vii. 31 and
xix. 5) concludes with the remark, " which I com
manded them not, neither came it into my heart," or,
" which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came
it into my mind." It is maintained that such state
ments would never have been made by the prophet
unless he had been compelled to answer assertions
made on the other side by persons addicted to such
practices. Be it so. The statements, however, of
idolaters who sought to worship Jehovah, and to adore
at the same time the sun and the moon and the host
of heaven, even if their statements were distinctly on
record, could surely not be regarded as evidence in the
matter of the true worship of Jehovah ; unless, indeed,
such idolaters could cite in support of their opinions
the words of the Law. The most superficial reader
of the Old Testament does not require to be informed
of the fact that the Israelites were prone to idolatry
from the earliest times up to the Babylonish captivity.
Somewhat more difficult is it to answer the argument
drawn from the striking words used by Ezekiel, xx.
24 ff. : "Because they had not executed my judg
ments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted
my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers'
idols, I even gave them statutes that were not good,

HUMAN SACRIFICE 127
and judgments whereby they should not live ; and I
polluted them in their gifts, in that they caused to pass
through (the fire) all that openeth the womb, that I
might make them confounded (Heb. DfiffiN ) in order
that they might know that I am the Lord." Smend,
one of the latest commentators of Ezekiel, considers
that that prophet expresses in this passage an opinion
directly opposed to that of Jeremiah. According to
his explanation, Ezekiel states that " judgments " and
"statutes" which did not cause life and happiness,
and led to such cruelties as the offering up of first-born
children, were directly enjoined by God. But that is
not the true meaning of the passage. Ezekiel's
phraseology is identical with that employed in Exodus
xiii. 12 (as even the English reader may see by con
sulting the marginal rendering of the Authorised Ver
sion in the latter passage), " And thou shalt set apart
(lit. cause to pass over, or set apart, consecrate, comp.
verse 2) for Jehovah all that openeth the womb."1
The omission by Ezekiel (xx. 26) of the clause " for
Jehovah " in the passage he refers to does not appear
to have been accidental. For the prophet who, in the
same discourse refers to the deliverance from Egypt,
simply notices the fact that in place of the consecra
tion of the first-born as designed by the command
given in Exodus, the punitive justice of Jehovah per
mitted that command to be carried out in a very differ
ent manner than was originally intended (compare the
expressions used in Matt. xix. 7,8; Acts vii. 42 ; Rom.
1 The Hebrew of Exod. xiii. 12 is mm^ Dm ibb hi JTPyni
the phrase in Ezekiel is Dm ntss *?:> vajra . The LXX. renders
the verb in the first passages! aQeKeTs , or as in Alex. Cod.,
Kal aipopttis . The maym of ver. 12 in Exod. xiii. is well
explained by the 'H^P of ver. 2.

128 HUMAN SACRIFICE
i. 24-32). Thus the idolatrous Israelites, forgetting
the directions in Exodus, according to which no un
clean beasts were to be offered in sacrifice, and all the
first-born of men were to be redeemed, executed the
command by offering up sacrifices to Molech, to their
own utter confusion, just as if the clause "for
Jehovah " had been omitted.
The meaning of Ezekiel is plain and distinct. Its
meaning must not be glossed over by expounding the
verse, with Kimchi, as if it alluded to the oppressive
laws or tribute which the Gentiles exacted from the
Jews when they ruled over them. The Targum more
correctly expounds it to mean : "I took away their
understanding, so that, despising my laws, they made
for themselves hard and death-bringing command
ments." Thus also Grotius rightly explains it. The
supposed reference to the ceremonial law, spoken of as
" not good," inasmuch as it was imperfect (comp.
Rom. vii. 12), which some would read into the pas
sage, does not accord with the immediate context.
The prophet expounds his meaning in verse 39 : "As
for you, 0 house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God,
Go ye, serve ye everyone of his idols, and hereafter
also, if ye will not hearken unto me, but pollute ye my
holy name no more with your gifts and with your
idols." In other words, serve me wholly, or abandon
my service altogether. That God is represented as
commanding the rebels among the people to serve
their own idols and quit His service is a thought akin
to that constantly found in both Old and New Testa
ments, where the evil actions of men are represented
as prescribed to them in judgment by God. Thus the
Psalmist says : "I gave them up unto their own

HUMAN SACRIFICE 129
hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels "
(Ps. lxxxi. 12). Joshua, in a passage often quoted in
a different sense, ironically commanded the people, if
it seemed evil unto them to serve the Lord , to choose or
Belect for themselves the gods they preferred, either
the gods whom their forefathers served when they
lived beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amor-
ites in whose land they were dwelling (Josh. xxiv. 15).
In the awful denunciations denounced against Israel
in Deut. xxviii. , not the least terrible to a pious Israel
ite was the threat that ' ' there thou shalt serve other
gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known "
(Deut. xxviii. 64).
Lastly, it i& argued that the remarkable inquiry
found in Micah vi. 6-8, although answered there in an
orthodox fashion, proves that the idea of human sacri
fice was not even in Micah's day absolutely abhorrent
in the eyes of the orthodox Jews. The passage is
well known : —
"Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah.
And bow myself before the high God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings,
With calves of a year old?
Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,
Or with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ;
And what doth Jehovah require of thee.
But to do justly, and to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with thy God?"
The answer to this use of the words of the prophet
is very simple. In that time— for Micah lived in the
days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah — as instances of
human sacrifice had occurred among the Jewish
10

130 HUMAN SACRIFICE
people, the inquiry was a natural one, and the answer
concerning the true way in which Jehovah would be
served was absolutely necessary.
The Psalter, the hymn-book of the Jewish Church,
is a standing proof against the possibility of such prac
tice having ever been in use in that Church. Even
most advanced critics admit that the Psalter con
tains a large number of genuine psalms of David. In
those psalms — indeed in all the Psalms, from first to
last — there is not a hint in favour of such a practice.
In one Psalm (Ps. cvi. 36), and that of post-exilian
date, the practice is distinctly referred to. In no kind
of writing is the spirit of the theology of the people
more distinctly seen than in their songs of praise and
hymns of prayer, and in such compositions the usages
and practices of the time in which they were written
are generally found incidently noticed. The theology
of the Psalter, however, is that of the Prophets, with
the exception that there is not in the Psalter, for
obvious reasons, such strong denunciations of human
sacrifices as those which occur in the prophetical
writings. David's personal recollections bring us back to
nearly eleven centuries before Christ, and if in
the stories recited to him in his childhood mention had
been made of such acts in connection with the re
ligious worship of that day, the sweet singer of Israel
could scarcely have avoided referring to the matter,
as he does to various other practices of idolaters. The
silence of the Davidic psalms on this subject, and the
silence of the Psalter, the spirituality which breathes
through its songs and prayers, afford ample proof that
p.mong the authorised usages of the Israelitish Church

HUMAN SACRIFICE 131
the barbarous practice of human sacrifices never at any
period found a place.
We have now to consider the instances in the
earliest writings of the Old Testament in which
human sacrifices seem to be spoken of with commen
dation, which have often proved stumbling-blocks to
those who firmly believe in the Divine inspiration of
those holy writings.
I. The attempted sacrifice of Isaac by his father
Abraham is the first of these narratives that claims our
attention. It is impossible, within present limits, to give any
thing like a history of the exegesis of the narrative in
the Book of Genesis We must content ourselves
with an examination of the view suggested by Ewald
and other critics of eminence, and popularised by
Dean Stanley in his Lectures on the History of the
Jewish Church. The view of the latter writer is best
described in his own words : " The source of all sacri
fice ' ' is regarded by Dean Stanley as ' ' the craving to
please, or to propitiate, or to communicate with the
powers above us by surrendering some object near
and dear to ourselves." " The form taken by this
Divine trial or temptation was that which a certain
stern logical consequence did actually assume, if not
then, yet certainly in after ages, among the surround
ing tribes  Deep in the heart of the
Canaanitish nations was laid the practice of human
sacrifice, the very offering here described of ' children
passing through the fire.' .... Such was the
trial which presented itself to Abraham . . . The
sacrifice, the resignation of the will, in the father and
the son was accepted ; the literal sacrifice of the act

132 HUMAN SACRIFICE
was. repelled. On the one hand, the great principles
were proclaimed that mercy is better than sacrifice,
and that the sacrifice of self is the highest and holiest
offering that God can receive. On the other hand,
the inhuman superstitions, towards which the ancient
ceremonial of sacrifice was perpetually tending, were
condemned and cast out of the true church for ever.
. . . . Abraham reached the very verge of an
act which, even if prompted by noble motives and by a
Divine call, has by all subsequent revelation and ex
perience been pronounced accursed. At that moment
his hand is stayed, and the patriarchal religion is
rescued from this conflict with the justice of the law or
the mercy of the Gospel."
Omitting all discussion of minor issues, the question
is whether Dean Stanley has correctly explained the
narrative. It is not necessary to investigate the
sources from whence the writer or editor of Genesis
derived his information. For our special purpose we
are entitled to regaru mat book as presenting a con
nected account of Abraham's history.
In upholding the view that the scene of the story
in the original text of Genesis was Mount Gerizzim,
and not Mount Moriah, Dean Stanley displays his
characteristic weakness as a historical critic. That
correction of the Hebrew text rests entirely upon a
various reading found in the Samaritan codex of the
Pentateuch, which, like many other variants in that
curious recension, has no real claim to be regarded as
preferable to the received Massoretic text, and has
rightly been set aside by all critics of eminence as
introduced by the Samaritan scribe for polemical
reasons.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 133
The grandeur of Abraham's character, does not, as
Ewald imagines,1 consist in his being there repre
sented as "initiating as a father, founder, and ruler,
a new era," or as one " who derived neither his know
ledge nor power from another," who united " the most
absolute dominion and original power of soul with the
utmost purity, peacefulness, and energy of action,"
one "perfectly irreproachable," who ruled and con
quered " by his own godlike power," like " a prince of
God " (Gen. xxiii. 6), or "a prophet " (Gen. xx. 7).
Abraham may have been " the introducer of a new
and pure religion."1 But to depict him as Such was
not the object of the writer of the book of Genesis. It
is significant that that book does not record the
idolatry of the family of Terah. That fact is first
alluded to in the book of Joshua (xxiv. 2), and this
point might be fairly urged as an indication of the
priority of composition of the Book of Genesis. The
incident recorded in Genesis of Rachel's carrying off
the teraphim of Laban (ch. xxxi. 19) may be re
garded as the original basis for the charge of idolatry
made in the book of Joshua , but it is not identical with
the strong statement in Joshua that the family of
Terah, who lived on the other side of the Euphrates,
worshipped other gods (Josh. xxiv. 2).
Abraham may have been ' ' a man of independent
thought" (Mozley), but all such statements are only
deductions from the narrative, drawn by the fancy of
the commentator or critic. They dp not form any dis-
1 See Martineau's translation of Ewald's History of Israel
to the Death of Moses, p. 297 seq
2 Mozley 's Ruling Ideas in Early Ages and their relation to
Old Testament Faith. Lectures delivered to Graduates of
the University of Oxford (London : Rivingtons, 1878).

134 HUMAN SACRIFICE
tinct portion of the picture presented in the Book of
Genesis, nor are they the features which stand out
prominently on the sacred canvas.
The greatness of Abraham's character consists in
his standing forth pre-eminently as a man of faith.
He is, no doubt, also represented as obedient to the
Divine commands. His faith was exhibited by his
actions. He left at the Divine call his country and
kindred (Gen. xii.). He erected here and there altars
to the Lord (Gen. xii. 7, 8; xiii. 4, 18; xxii. 9),
chiefly, be it noted, in the early part of his life. He
was so generous that he permitted his nephew Lot
to make choice of the best part of the country (ch.
xiii.). Like Noah, he was righteous in his generation
(ch. xviii. 19). He was a warrior of eminence, al
though only one instance of his martial prowess is on
record (ch. xiv.). His innate nobleness of character
was shown by his refusal after that victory to appro
priate to himself any share in the spoil of the foe (ch.
xiv. 21-24), while he insisted on his confederates ob
taining their due reward. His piety was exhibited
on the same occasion by the presentation to Melchize-
dek, "king of Salem, and priest of the most high
God," of tithes of all (ch. xiv. 20). But he is not
depicted by the sacred writer as " without reproach."
His want of moral courage placed his wife on several
occasions in imminent peril (ch. xii. 11 ff. , ch. xx.),
while in the management of his household he first
yielded to Sarah's evil advice and took Hagar as his
concubine, and afterwards weakly permitted Sarah
in her jealousy unduly to oppress that maid-servant
(ch. xvi. 4-6). That good was ultimately evolved from
those errors is not a matter which can be here dis-

HUMAN SACRIFICE 135
cussed. But that does not alter our estimation of
Abraham's weakness in the whole affair.
But, while the sacred historian does not describe
Abraham as "perfectly irreproachable," he depicts
him throughout as a man of faith. His faith led him
to look into the future, and to contemplate the future
greatness of his own posterity, and not merely of that
posterity, but of all the nations of the earth
through their means (ch. xii. 2, 7 ; xiii. 15, 16). It is
unnecessary to regard his remonstrance, in which he
speaks of Eliezer his steward as "the heir of his
house," as a sign of a waning faith (ch. xv. 2, 3).
The promise twice given before was then repeated in a
more definite form. He was bid to look at the stars,
and the Divine word assured him " so shall thy seed
be." The sacred writer adds : " And he believed in
the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
The promise appears to have been reiterated the same
day, and on the second occasion comprehended a pro
phecy which spoke of a long period of disaster and
affliction for the nation that was to be born (ch. xv.
12-14). It is true that Sarah, after a lengthened
period, despaired of the promise being destined
to be fulfilled through her means, and appointed
her handmaid to act as her representative. Whether
even that ought to be regarded as a failure of
faith on her part may be doubtful. The plan she
had recourse to seems to have been admissible in
similar cases, and Sarah had not then (as far as we
know) been expressly designated as the mother of the
future seed (ch. xvi. 1-3). Some thirteen years after
wards the promise was once more repeated, with the
definite addition that Sarah should herself be the

136 HUMAN SACRIFICE
mother of the future nation (ch. xvii. 4-16), and the
rite of circumcision was appointed as a sign of the
covenant. The promise in the latter form seems to
have staggered Abraham for a moment (ch. xvii.
17-19), for he had naturally begun to imagine that the
blessing promised would be realised through the
posterity of Ishmael. Faith, however, soon at
tained the upper hand ; and when the promise
was, somewhat later, again repeated, Abraham
exhibited no signs of incredulity, although Sarah
secretly laughed at the idea (ch. xviii. 9-12 ;
xxi. 1-7) .l
With all these facts before us, when we turn to
examine the narrative in Gen. xxii. , it is impossible to
explain the temptation there recorded as anything
else than a probation or crucial trial of the faith of the
patriarch. Dean Stanley grounds an argument on the
use of the two opposite phrases used in reference to
David's numbering of the people, which temptation is
ascribed in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 to Jehovah, while in 1
Chron. xxi. 1 it is ascribed to Satan. On that prin
ciple he attempts to explain the temptation of
Abraham as having sprung from an earnest desire to
rival the devotion of the Canaanites, in whose land he
dwelt, by offering up to God the most precious
possession which he had.' The explanation is, how
ever, opposed to the plain sense of the story, according
to which the action was not only commanded by God,
1 The variation in the narrative in the latter passage does
not affect in the slightest the argument.
1 It ought to be noted that in the Book of Genesis no hint
whatever is given that such sacrifices were at that time com
mon among the Canaanites. On the contrary modern scholars
are rather inclined to maintain that those sacrifices were the

HUMAN SACRIFICE 137
but commended and rewarded by Him. The
narrative depicts Abraham as believing that Isaac
would, if put to death, be restored to life again. It
was with that firm conviction that Abraham
addressed the men who accompanied him, — " I and the
lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to
you " (ver. 5). The sceptic may, as Mozley has well
remarked, if he choose, attribute Abraham's faith " in
the restoration of Isaac from the dead to a visionary
and wild fanaticism, but even he will not dispute as
an historical truth that Abraham was perfectly capable
of looking forward to such a solution of the difficulty —
of believing such a miracle." Such a miracle, we may
add, would scarcely have been greater than that
connected with Isaac's birth. This is the interpre
tation of the trial of Abraham given by Paul in the
Epistle to the Romans, who speaks (ch. iv. 17) of his
faith in God, " who quickeneth the dead, and calleth
the things that are not as though they were." The
same explanation is given in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, that "by faith, Abraham, being tried,
offered up Isaac ; yea, he that had gladly received the
promises was offering up his only begotten son ; even
he to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be
called : accounting that God is able to raise
up, even from the dead; from whence he did
growth of a later age. The writer of the Book of Genesis
notes that in Abraham's time " the iniquity of the Amorites
was not yet full " (Gen. xv. 16). The fact that human sacri
fices are not alluded to in the Book of Genesis, while they are
spoken of in other books of the Pentateuch, is an indication
of the early date of Genesis. Dark as is the picture there
presented of the immorality of the Canaanitish people,
such a crime is not referred to. Was the omission merely
accidental ?

138 HUMAN SACRIFICE
also in a figure receive him back " (ch. xi. 17-19) -1
The trial, then, was not only to prove Abraham's
obedience and to exhibit his devotion, but to test his
faith in the promise so repeatedly given. This (apart
altogether from all considerations as to the authority
of the New Testament) is the only natural interpreta
tion of the narrative. The obedience of Abraham
was no doubt conspicuously shown by that action, but
it was faith which was most gloriously manifested.
Mozley has pointed out the mistake which underlies
the contention that if the patriarch had looked forward
" to the recovery of his treasure, there was no true
surrender and no sacrifice in the act." "Death,"
remarks that writer, " is an undeniable test of the act
of surrender. If the patriarch looked beyond death to
a recovery, that did not negative the surrender, which
ipso facto had taken place in death."
There is no doubt a moral difficulty involved in the
history, namely, how far (even though the sacrifice
itself was not ultimately carried into effect) the con
duct of Abraham can be justified for yielding obedience
to such a strange command, even though imposed by
an audible voice from heaven. It is authoritatively
laid down in the Book of Deuteronomy that even if a
1 The R.V. translates " received him back in parable,"
i.e. figuratively, iv wapafio\{j. But the translation " in a
figure " is plainer. Isaac was virtually sacrificed and re
ceived back by his father, having risen from that death which
he had undergone in and under the figure of the ram.
Alford's note on the passage is fairly satisfactory. J. H.
Biesenthal, in his interesting and suggestive work Das
Trostschreiben an die Hebraer, maintains that the apostle
refers to the Jewish tradition, according to which the soul
of Isaac departed from his body as soon as the knife touched
his throat, without his having been wounded bv Abraham, but
that afterwards Isaac's soul returned into his body by the ex
press command of God.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 139
prophet or a dreamer of dreams were to perform
signs and wonders in order to entice to acts of idolatry ,
such persons were to be put to death, and not obeyed.
"For the Lord your God proveth you, to know
whether ye love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul " (Deut. xiii. 1-3). The
same principle is set forth in the New Testament :
" Though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach
unto you any gospel other than that we have preached
unto you, let him be anathema " (Gal. i. 8). A temp
tation to commit murder is no less a temptation than
one to idolatry or apostasy. Signs and wonders, and
even voices from heaven, are regarded in Scripture at
least as possible to be manifested in the interests of
error. Men are therefore, in both the Old and New
Testaments, urged to hold fast to the inner law graven
on their hearts, and not to let themselves become the
slaves of any external appeal to their obedience which
may contradict the moral law which is borne witness
to by their consciences.
Mozley, however, draws attention to the difference
between the conceptions of mankind on important
points in former ages and in our own, in consequence
of which commands in an earlier age, authenticated
by miracle, might reasonably have demanded obedi
ence as agreeable to the voice of conscience, though
inconceivable in the present day. The individuality
of man, and his essential right to his own life and
existence, were points not then fully developed. Chil
dren were considered in patriarchal, Jewish, and even
in Roman law, as being of right the property of the
father. The parental authority was despotic. Hence
there was nothing strange in Reuben as a father ad-

140 HUMAN SACRIFICE
dressing Jacob, and in reference to Benjamin, ex
claiming : " Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to
thee" (Gen. xlii. 37). Such being the common con
ception of antiquity, Abraham might, without any
violence being done to his moral convictions, be tested
by a command requiring him to sacrifice his only son.
The story of the trial and its sequel afford, however,
an emphatic proof that no such sacrifice would have
been acceptable to the Lord God of patriarchs.
It is worth while to call attention to some incidents
in the account of the sacrifice of Isaac as described in
Jewish legends. In doing so we quote partly from
the work of Beer (1859) on the legendary Life
of Abraham as well as from the Midrash Rabba
itself. The trial of Abraham's faith, according to those
legends, is represented as having been, like the trial of
Job, the consequence of a bold denial before the angels
on the part of the great adversary, Satan or Sammael,
of the willingness of Abraham to obey God in all
things. The obedience of Abraham, the adversary
argued, arose simply from selfish motives. To prove
the deep reality of Abraham's religion, the com
mand was given to him by God to offer up his son
Isaac. That test having been agreed on, and the command
communicated to the patriarch, Satan set himself to
try and dissuade Abraham from obeying the Divine
command. In the guise of an old and crippled man,
he met Abraham on the way to Moriah, and strove to
persuade him that the voice he had heard commanding
such a sacrifice was not that of God, but of Satan.
"If thou art fool enough," said Satan, "to act in

HUMAN SACRIFICE 141
compliance to its directions, God will on the morrow
punish thee for the crime of murder." To that temp
tation Abraham replied that he was convinced of the
reality of the Divine command, and therefore would
go forward.
Satan next manifested himself to Isaac in the form
of a handsome youth, and informed him of the object
for which he was being brought on the journey by his
father. Isaac, however, expressed his determination
to go forward, and, even under such terrible circum
stances, not to oppose the will of his Creator, or the
command of his father.
The two attendants whom Abraham took with him
are stated in these legends to bave been Ishmael with
the aged steward Eliezer, both of whom are repre
sented as wrangling with one another on the
advantages which would accrue to them severally from
the death of Isaac. They were reproved by a voice
from heaven, which exclaimed, "0 ye fools, neither
of you understand the truth." This incident,
however incongruous it may be considered as a fact,
has moral significance when regarded as an allegory.
Satan after a while reappeared to Abraham, and
informed him that the object of his journey was
destined not to be accomplished, for He had heard the
Divine secret, that God would have a lamb, and not
Isaac, for a sacrifice. To this last temptation
Abraham replied: "Even if thou art now speaking
the truth, this is the punishment of a liar, that one
does not believe him even when he speaks the truth."
Satan then departed, and Abraham went on his way.
These legends, it will be seen, miss the real point
of the narrative. But they explain the words of

142 HUMAN SACRIFICE
Abraham to the attendants, " Abide ye here with the
ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and
come again to you," as words spoken by Abraham
under a higher guidance than his own. The Midrash,
more correctly, explains them to indicate Abraham's
conviction that he would return in peace from the
mountain, and it remarks that Abraham believed that
prayer would accomplish such a result. "For by
prayer," it adds, "the Israelites were delivered out
of Egypt (Exod. iv. 31) ; in answer to prayer the Law
was given from Mount Sinai (Exod. xxiv. 1) ; thus
Hannah, too, received the gift of a son, Samuel (1
Sam. i. 28) ; and as the result of prayer, the exiles were
brought back from Babylon (Isa. xxvii. 13) ; the
temple was to be built again (Ps. xciv. 9) ; and the
dead which live not are through prayer to be re-vivified
(Ps. xcv. 6)."
There are two other instances which must be noted,
namely, the case of Jephthah's daughter, and the
execution of the seven sons of Saul by order of David.
II. The narrative of Judges xi. presents, un
questionably, difficulties of a very peculiar kind. The
ancient writers who commented on the tragic story, to
wit, Josephus, the Chaldee paraphrast, and the
Church Fathers, such as the author of the Quaest. et
Responss. ad Orthod. (ascribed incorrectly to Justin
Martyr), with Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine,
Chrysostom, etc., as well as the early Rabbinical com
mentators, all understood the Book of Judges to record
the actual offering up of Jephthah's daughter as a
burnt-offering. Several of them maintained that God
in His providence did not prevent Jephthah from
carrying into execution his rash vow, in order that

HUMAN SACRIFICE 143
men might learn from such a terrible example not
rashly to vow anything unto the Lord.
The great Jewish scholars Moses and David.
Kimchi, who flourished in the close of the twelfth cen
tury, appear to have been the first to advocate a dif
ferent explanation of the passage. They maintained
that the result of Jephthah's vow was that his
daughter was dedicated to the service of the tabernacle
of Jehovah, and devoted to a life of perpetual virginity.
In modern times the latter view has been defended by
many scholars, such as Junius, Munster, and Drusius
among the Biblical expositors of the seventeenth cen
tury, and in our day by Hengstenberg, Keil, and
others. A third explanation, however, propounded by Cap-
pellus, Havernick, and a few others, deserves less
consideration, namely, that Jephthah put his daughter
to death as a person vowed to God, and thereby de
voted to destruction (as one who was mn sanctified or
accursed), like the inhabitants of Jericho and Ai inas
much as human sacrifices were forbidden by the law of
Moses, and in this way only could Jephthah's vow be
performed. For, as Keil observes, the words "he
dealt with her according to his vow " cannot be other
wise understood than that he offered her up as a burnt-
offering unto the Lord ; and the law of Moses concern
ing "the bann," and those devoted under it tc de
struction did not give an Israelite the right to devote
to destruction an innocent child or servant of his
household. "The bann" was only brought into
operation in the case of nations or people given over to
notorious ungodliness and sin, and therefore the law in
reference to it was not applicable to the case of the

144 HUMAN SACRIFICE
pious, God-loving, God-fearing, and patriotic daugh
ter of Jephthah.
It will not be denied that an ordinary reader perus
ing the narrative in the Book of Judges, might inter
pret the expressions there made use of as implying that
Jephthah considered himself obliged by his vow to
offer up his daughter as a burnt offering. First
impressions, however, are not always correct; and the
question is, whether there is any evidence which can
be adduced to lead us to put a different construction
upon the statements in the story. Luther tersely re
presents the opinion of the ordinary reader in his mar
ginal note on the passage : " Some think he did not
offer her up, but the text there stands clear."
It has been already shown that human sacrifices
were distinctly forbidden in the Pentateuch and not
only prohibited, but affirmed to have been part of the
" abominations," for the purpose of which the Canaan
ites were devoted to destruction. Whatever views may
be held as to the date at which the several books of the
Pentateuch were reduced into their present form, if the
statements of those books be regarded as historically
correct, the Israelites must have become familiarised
with the facts of such sacrifices long prior to the time
of Joram (2 Kings iii. 26) or the days of Ahaz (2 Kings
xvi. 3). Human sacrifices were, at least occasionally,
offered up to Baal. Although such sacrifices may have
been rarer in early days, and only resorted to under
the pressure of terrible calamities, the idea remained
deeply rooted in the minds of the worshippers of Baal
that in desperate emergencies human sacrifices were
acceptable to the higher powers.
In order to comprehend more fully the narrative

HUMAN SACRIFICE 145
in the Book of Judges, the character of Jephthah as
there set forth must be borne in mind. Jephthah
was an illegitimate son, who was permitted during
the lifetime of his father to be on an equal footing
with his legitimate offspring. The legitimate sons,
when their father was dead, expelled Jephthah from
the paternal home, and refused to give him any share
in the inheritance. His expulsion seems to have
taken place with the sanction and approval of the
chiefs of the country, and to have been the result of
personal hatred and dislike on the part of the elders
of Gilead, as well as on that of the brethren of Jeph
thah (Judges xi. 7). The sequel of the story leads us
also to suspect that both parties were influenced in
their actions and procedure by envy because of superior
qualities exhibited by Jephthah.
Banished from home and country, Jephthah be
took himself to the land of Tob, a country lying to
the north-east of Peraea on the borders of Syria. His
well-known bravery and determination induced a num
ber of men of loose character (Judg. xi. 3 ; comp.
Judges ix. 4, 2 Sam. vi. 20) to gather around him,
and he soon found himself acknowledged as chief
tain of a band of desperadoes who lived mainly by war
and plunder. Under such circumstances it is not
likely that Jephthah, the captain of the troop, can
have been noted for his religious character. It has,
no doubt, been urged that David, when forced by
Saul's persecutions to live for a time the life of an
outlaw, surrounded himself with men of a very similar
character. And yet David's earnest piety was at no
time of his history more strikingly conspicuous than at
that very period. But it is questioned whether
11

146 HUMAN SACRIFICE
David's companions, described in 1 Sam. xxii. 2,
though outlaws by reason of oppression, were in gene
ral men of abandoned character like those who ranged
themselves under the banner of Jephthah. David's
men are never described as "vain men," or "loose
characters " (Judg. xi. 3), like the scoundrels who for
hire abetted Abimelech in his atrocities (Judg. ix. 4),
or "the loose fellows" alluded to by Michal in her
sneers at David's conduct (2 Sam. vi. 20). Though
in David's troop there were some wicked men (1 Sam.
xxx. 22), the general conduct of his followers was ex
cellent (1 Sam. xxv. 15, 16), and the presence among
them of the high priest Abiathar, as well as the
marked piety of their chieftain, had no doubt their
full effect in producing such a result.
But though Jephthah's companions were men of
loose character, and ready for any marauding ex
ploits, the narrative represents Jephthah himself as
not wanting in religious faith, and as well versed in
the leading facts connected with the history of Israel.
It is probable that he harassed chiefly the foes of his
nation. Whatever his moral character may have
been, he firmly believed in Jehovah, as the God who
brought up Israel out of Egypt, and planted them in
the land of Canaan, and who had promised them,
moreover, victory over their foes so long as they ab
stained from going a-whoring after other gods. Jeph
thah's faith in Jehovah does not seem to have led
him so far as to believe that Jehovah was the God of
all the earth , and that ' they are no gods which are
made with hands." In his message to the king of
Ammon he, in words at least, recognised the power of
Chemosh, as the god of the children of Ammon, and

HUMAN SACRIFICE 147
as a god who looked after the interests of that people
in the same manner as Jehovah, the God of Israel, did
after the people that belonged peculiarly to Him
(Judges xi. 24).
The fame acquired by Jephthah by his exploits at
the head of his band of warriors induced the elders of
Gilead to have recourse to him in the dire straits to
which they were reduced some time after his expulsion
by the great invasion of the children of Ammon.
After a short parley, Jephthah accepted the task of
leading the armies of Israel against the Ammonites,
on condition that, if victorious in the campaign, he
would be made head or chief over all the inhabitants
of Gilead.
The Ammonites, in their destructive raids, had
overrun not only the territories occupied by the Israel
ites on the east of Jordan, but had ventured to cross
the river, and to lay waste a part of the land of Eph
raim, and districts which appertained to the tribes
of Judah and Benjamin. For eighteen years the
Israelites on the other side of the Jordan had been
constantly subject to cruel exaction and oppression
from those Ammonites and their king. But at the
critical moment when the Gileadites implored the as
sistance of Jephthah, a much more formidable attempt
was being made by the Ammonites to bring all the
tribes of Israel under their sway.
To avert the approaching danger, a considerable
number of the children of Israel, united by the com
mon peril to which they were exposed, assembled in
arms at Mizpah. The Israelite warriors were, how
ever, mainly composed of men belonging to the tribes
of Gad and Manasseh, who dwelt on the eastern side

148 HUMAN SACRIFICE
of Jordan, and the majority of them consisted of the
inhabitants of Gilead. The great tribe of Ephraim,
probably from ill feelings cherished towards the
eastern tribes, an ill feeling which was afterwards
bitterly displayed, sent no contingent to aid the
common cause.
At Mizpah of Gilead there was an ancient sanctuary,
probably near the spot where the meeting of Jacob
and Laban had taken place (Gen. xxxi. 47-54), and
erected to commemorate that fact of patriarchal
history. The Tabernacle of Witness was at the
time at Shiloh, which lay within the confines of the
tribe of Ephraim, and at that sanctuary the regular
Levitical priests officiated. The want of sympathy
which existed between the tribes which severally in
habited the districts lying east and west of the Jordan,
seems to have led the eastern tribes to make use of
the ancient sacred place of Mizpah as their special
sanctuary. The great lesson, which the erection of
the altar Ed by the men of Reuben, of Gad, and the
half tribe of Manasseh in former days (Josh, xxii.) had
been intended to teach, had long since been forgotten.
The tribes which dwelt east of the Jordan, severed
from their brethren by that river and by other inter
ests, seem to have lived during the period of the Judges
in habitual disregard of the Levitical law. The
sacrifices offered up at Mizpah were probably per
formed in accordance with the ancient patriarchal
rites. The existence of such a sanctuary was in itself
a standing violation of the Mosaic code. Inasmuch,
however, as Mizpah was the sanctuary of the eastern
tribes, it was the natural spot for the Gadites
and Manassites to assemble for worship prior to going

HUMAN SACRIFICE 149
forth to battle. There it would appear the Israelites,
under the influence of some " man of God," put away
their idols, and entered anew into covenant with
Jehovah, the God of Israel (Judges x. 10-17).
Having thus freed themselves from " the accursed
thing," the warriors of Israel placed themselves under
the supreme command of Jephthah. That chieftain
first opened up negotiations with the king of Ammon
in order to induce him peaceably to withdraw his
people from the territory of Israel. The king of Am
mon having refused to comply with the demand, " the
Spirit of Jehovah " came upon Jephthah. Thus
roused up and fitted for the work before him, Jephthah
made the necessary preparations for the campaign.
Before, however, actually engaging in battle with the
foe, the Israelite chief vowed a solemn vow unto
Jehovah, most probably in the sanctuary in Mizpah.
The vow, according to the rendering of the words given
in the Authorised Version, was as follows : " If thou
shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into
mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh
forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I
return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall
surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-
offering." (Judges xi. 30, 31).
The Authorised Version, however, here exhibits a
distinct disposition to tone down the meaning of the
original. Few scholars would hesitate to translate
the Hebrew words n^ nffiw nsITT by "whosoever
goeth out from the doors of my house," as distinctly
referring to a person and not to an animal. More
over, the phrase in the original here, translated "to
meet," one (nenp^)) is only used in reference to

150 HUMAN SACRIFICE
persons, as can be seen by examining the instances in
a concordance. The same phrase is used, in this
exact sense, in 1 Sam. xviii. 6, as well as later in the
narrative, in reference to the daughter of Jephthah
herself (Judges xi. 34). But inasmuch as nsvt
is used in Numb. xxx. 3 in a neuter sense, "that
which goeth forth of his mouth ' ' ( vqd N2rn
comp. Jer. xliv. 17), it is perhaps too much to affirm
that Jephthah's words could not possibly be explained
of an animal, though all the expressions made use of
point in the opposite direction.
Clericus has indeed striven to maintain that the
words of Jephthah show that it is clear that he de
signed to offer up an entire flock of goats or sheep as
a burnt-offering, and that he contemplated being met
by his flocks and herds on his return in peace to his
house. It is scarcely necessary seriously to attempt
to refute such an opinion. Such animals would not
be spoken of as " going forth out of Uis nouse to meet
him," and had such been the original intention of the
vow, why should Jephthah have been so concerned at
being met by his daughter? She certainly would not
in that case have been affected at all by the vow.
The words of the original vow, however, show clearly
that Jephthah actually contemplated from the very
first the sacrifice of some human victim. Had he
contemplated the offering up of an animal or animals,
such a vow must have been understood with the neces
sary restrictions, namely, that the animal should be
such as could be offered up as a burnt-offering. The
sacrifice of a dog or an ass would in no case have been
lawful. But the phrases made use of can only be
understood of the sacrifice of an individual who should

HUMAN SACRIFICE 151
first come forth of Jephthah's house to meet him on
his return. The only question is, was it Jephthah's
intention simply to devote such a person to the service
of the sanctuary of Jehovah, and thus to offer him or
her up as a " spiritual sacrifice," or did he literally in
tend to destine that individual to death at the altar?
Can anyone, after a perusal of the narrative in the
Book of Judges, believe that it represents Jephthah
as merely vowing, in case of victory, that he would de
vote the individual who first met him to a lifelong ser
vice at the sanctuary? If that was his meaning, why
should he have spoken at all of offering up the person
as a " burnt-offering ' ' ? But if Jephthah had really
vowed to offer up an actual human sacrifice, he could
not, in accordance with the strict fulfilment of such a
vow, have substituted a " spiritual " in the room of a
literal sacrifice. If he had ever contemplated the
offering up of a human victim, but shrank from liter
ally executing such a vow in the case of his own daugh
ter, and destined her to a lifelong servitude in the
sanctuary, could he properly be said to have dealt with
her in accordance with his vow?
The arguments adduced by Keil in order to prove
that Jephthah could never have contemplated offering
a human sacrifice are unsatisfactory. It is ad
mitted that Jephthah was not a man devoid of faith in
God or of zeal for His cause. But the narrative does
not represent him as obedient in all matters to the law
of Moses. Of many of its precepts he seems to have
been unmindful or ignorant. According to that law
he ought not to have had recourse to the sanctuary in
Mizpah, but ought to have gone up to the Tabernacle
in Shiloh. Keil calls attention to the fact that no

152 HUMAN SACRIFICE
mention is made in the Book of Judges of human sac
rifices having been connected with the idolatrous
rites of Baal or Astarte , and argues that Jephthah con
sequently could not have derived any ideas concerning
the acceptability of human sacrifices from that source.
It may, however, be fairly rejoined, that the Book of
Judges gives no details whatever of any of the abomi
nations of the heathen, and secondly, that human sacri
fices were in more primitive times not resorted to un
less in cases of great emergency.1
The request made by Jephthah's daughter that,
prior to the execution of her father's vow, she should
be allowed two months' grace to lament her virginity
on the mountains (ver. 37), is considered by Keil and
others to be a proof that she could not have interpreted
her father's words to mean that she would have to die
a victim on the sacrificial altar. Keil endorses fully
the opinion put forward by Paulus Cassel that it would
have been a violation of the ordinary instincts of hu
man nature for a loving daughter destined to death to
ask permission to spend the time of respite allowed
her at a distance from her father's home. It would
have been perhaps natural enough that she should have
asked a respite in order to enjoy life for a little, but to
ask for such an interval to bewail her virginity or un-
1 The fact that the allied armies of Israel, Judah and Edom
were compelled to raise the siege of the capital of Moab on
account of the king of Moab having offered up his son as a
burnt-offering to Chemosh on the wall of the town in sight of
the besieging army (2 Kings iii. 27), so far from proving that
such sacrifices were held in abomination by the Israelites so
late as the days of Joram. the son of Ahab and Jezebel, is
rather a proof of the superstitious awe and dread in which the
allied forces stood of the effect of such a sacrifice. It is worthy
of note that the same phrase, rrViv l.-vjv^m , which is found in
Judges xi. 31, recurs in 2 Kings iii. 27.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 153
married state is, these expositors maintain, utterly at
variance with all ordinary experience. Kalisch and
others, however, have given an unanswerable reply to
all such argumentation by pointing out that even the
ancient Greek and Latin poets have represented their
heroines, who were similarly doomed to an early death,
such as Antigone, Polyxena, and Iphigenia, as actually
lamenting in very similar manner their virginity or
unmarried condition.1 There is, therefore, nothing
strange in the fact that the daughter of Jephthah
should, " in harmony with Eastern views on the mis
sion of women," lament partly her " misfortune and
the- disgrace of her childlessness." The poetical rea
sons assigned by Paulus Cassel for the lamentation
taking place on the mountains would be equally valid
whether Jephthah's daughter was doomed, according
to his theory, to perpetual virginity, or was really
offered up as a sacrifice on the altar at Mizpah.'
There is no instance in the Old Testament in which
a woman under the Jewish dispensation is spoken of
as set apart for the service of Jehovah, and for that
purpose devoted to a life of seclusion and isolation.
Incidental mention, indeed, is made in two places
1 Kalisch's Hist, and Crit. Comm. on Leviticus, vol. i.,
Preliminary Essay, ch. xxiii. on " Human Sacrifices among
the Hebrews." Compare Sophocles, Antiq. 810-816. Oed. Tyr.
1501. 1502, Euripides, Hecub. 416, Lucretius, i. 98. 99, &c.
Paulus Cassel, in his Commentary in Lannre's Bibelwerk,
notices also these cases.
2 Paulus Cassel, in his article on Jephthah in Herzog's
B,ealencylel., quoted by Keil, says : "If it were_ her life that was
in danger, she could have lamented that loss in her own home.
But a lamentation for her virginity, that could not be uttered
in the city, in the presence of men. Her chaste feelings re
quired for such a purpose the loneliness of the mountains."
Cassel does not, however, refer to this subject in his later
Commentary.

154 HUMAN SACRIFICE
(Exod. xxxviii. 8, 1 Sam. ii. 22) of women who served
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Such women were probably employed in grinding the
corn and in baking the bread for the use of the priests
in the sanctuary, and possibly in making, mending, or
washing the numerous garments required for sacred
purposes. Whether those duties were performed
voluntarily, or were duly paid for, is unknown ; but we
have no right to imagine that such women were re
garded as slaves. Not the slightest indication is any
where given that women were specially ' ' dedicated ' '
to perform such ministrations, or were looked upon as
holy unto the Lord, or were required to spend their
lifetime in such service, or were obliged to promise or
to practise perpetual virginity. The women in ques
tion may have been married or unmarried, or indiffer
ently belonging to one or the other state. That no
necessity was laid upon men dedicated to the service
of Jehovah to live unmarried is plain from the fact
that the law contains distinct regulations with respect
to the marriages of the priests of the Most High ; and
Samuel, who was specially dedicated by his mother
to the service of the sanctuary, and whose whole life
she promised should be spent in that service (1 Sam.
i. 28), considered it no violation whatever of that
solemn vow to enter, like other men, into " the holy
estate of matrimony." A life of celibacy is nowhere
commended in the Old Testament Scriptures. If
vows of celibacy in the case of men could be proved to
have existed under the Jewish dispensation, then the
silence of Scripture might in itself be considered no
proof that women may not have made similar vows.
But the latter theory is absolutely devoid, not only

HUMAN SACRIFICE 155
of positive proof, but also of the remotest probability.
Consequently the attempt to explain the phrase
made use of in Jephthah's vow ("I will offer him up
as a burnt-offering ") in a " spiritual " sense, can only
be regarded as a desperate effort to get rid of the plain
meaning of the narrative, inasmuch as no instance
whatever can be cited in the whole range of the He
brew Scriptures in which the consecration of a whole
life to service in the sanctuary and to perpetual vir
ginity is spoken of as a " burnt-offering." Equally des
perate is the attempt of some, after Joseph Kimchi
(father of Moses and David Kimchi), to explain the
words of Jephthah (Judg. xi. 31) disjunctively, as if he
promised, with regard to whatsoever should come forth
out of his house to meet him, " it shall be the Lord's,
and I will (besides) offer to Him a burnt-offering."
The grammatical construction of the passage, as Keil
and Kalisch rightly observe, excludes such a rendering.1
It therefore appears that no other construction can
be fairly put upon the expressions made use of by
Jephthah than that he actually contemplated in his
vow the offering up of a human sacrifice. Such
sacrifices were, indeed, strictly forbidden by the Mosaic
law. But with many of the commands of the Law
Jephthah appears to have been unacquainted, and not
1 The suffix in l.-rrrVym cannot refer to Jehovah. The
clause, as already noticed, is exactly parallel to the
nDnn hy r6n laVyi, "and offered up him as a burnt
offering upon the wall," of 2 Kings iii. 27, or the similar
constructions in Judges vi. 26, 1 Sam. vi. 14. vii. 9. The first
clause in the vow is the more general, "whatsoever cometh
forth from the house, it shall be Jehovah's," and the special
phraseology employed is used with reference to both animals
and human beings (Exod. xiii. 1, 12, 13, 15; Numb. iii. 12).
The second clause states how the person devoted thus to the
Lord should be dealt with: "I will offer him up as a burnt
offering."

156 HUMAN SACRIFICE
only he, but also the majority of the Israelites whom
he led forth to battle.1 Acquainted as he was with
the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, somewhat
disfigured possibly by the accretions of tradition, and
probably somewhat imbued with the superstitions of
the idolatrous nations around him, he may well have
considered that the perilous circumstances in which
he was placed warranted such a vow. Some human
sacrifice he may have considered expedient to offer up ;
but he did not contemplate being driven in compliance
with his vow to offer up his only daughter. The sin
ful vow was terribly punished by its performance.
Though the faith of Jephthah was rewarded by the
victory granted to him over the foe, his ignorance
in religious matters was left to work out its own
punishment. He who would without any compunc
tion have offered up some other human individual was
driven to immolate his own daughter. The sanctuary
where the fearful sacrifice was performed was pro
bably that of Mizpah, in which the vow has been'
made, and at which no Levitical priests officiated, but
where the more primitive patriarchal ritual prevailed.
Jephthah appears to have acted as a judge and
chieftain, not over the whole laud of Israel, but mainly
1 It need not surprise us that these Israelite warriors
should have been induced on this occasion, at the earnest ex
postulation of some "man of God," to abandon for a time
their idolatry (Judg. x. 10-16), like the children of Israel on
an earlier occasion at Bochim, at the rebuke of one there
termed "an angel" or "messenger of Jehovah" (Judg. ii.
1-5), who may also have been some divinely-inspired prophet,
while the selfsame Israelites were left to follow their own de
vices in other respects, and continued to worship at the local
sanctuary which they venerated. Even the great prophets of
later days, such as Isaiah, Amos, and Micah, were often wont
to condemn idolatry in no measured terms, while they forbore
to thunder against such lesser breaches of the Mosaic Law.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 157
over the trans-Jordanic tribes. His feud with the
Ephraimites fully accounts for his neglect of the taber
nacle at Shiloh. The times of the Judges were days
in which much ignorance and darkness prevailed, and
the tribes of Israel scarcely ever appear to have pre
sented an united front to their numerous foes. The
idolatries into which they were enticed from time
to time not only deeply injured their religious faith,
but weakened their political unity. It is also to
be noticed that the sacred writer or compiler confines
himself in general to setting forth the simple facts
connected with the several histories drawn by him
from older sources, noticing indeed the several oc
casions in which the people did evil against the Lord
by falling away into the sin of idolatry, and the
numerous punishments which followed such apostasy ;
but in all other particulars, even when the writer re
cords grave moral delinquencies on the part of indi
vidual " judges," he leaves it to the moral sense of the
reader to pass his own judgment upon such acts. If,
however, no distinct condemnation is formally passed
by the writer on the vow of Jephthah, the whole nar
rative shows very clearly that the writer regarded the
patriotism, piety, and noble devotion of Jephthah's
daughter as the only gleams of light which irradiated
the intense darkness of the mournful story.
According to some expositors, provision was made
in the Jewish law for cases like that of Jephthah, and
it was quite possible for him to have redeemed his
daughter. This is the opinion of some of the oldest
commentators on the passage. The Targum remarks,
that had Jephthah asked Phinehas, who, according to
its view, was high priest in those days, he could have

158 HUMAN SACRIFICE
redeemed his daughter by money. The Midrash
Rabba (Par. Ix. on Gen. xxiv. 13) cites the story as
an instance in which that which was not proper was
vowed to God, while victory was expected from God,
and in which an answer was given corresponding to
the impropriety of the vow : " Jephthah said, Whatso
ever cometh out of my house to meet me when I re
turn in peace, I will offer it to the Lord for a burnt-
offering. But what then would he have done if an ass
or a dog or a cat had come forth to meet him ? Would
he have offered such an animal as a burnt-offering?
But God granted a result not according to his desire,
for his daughter came forth to meet him. R. Johanan
says, Jephthah was bound to have ransomed her by
money. According to Resh Lakish, he was in no way
required to ransom her, for the following law is laid
down : If one says, in reference to an unclean or
faulty animal, Lo ! this is a burnt-offering; he has
said nothing. But if he says, Lo ! this is for a burnt-
offering ; he must then sell that animal, and bring
a burnt-offering with the money it produces. Was
then Phinehas not there, who could have released
Jephthah from his vow ? [Yes] , but Phinehas said :
He is need of me, and shall I go to him? And Jeph
thah said : I am the head of the princes of Israel, and
shall I go to Phinehas ? So between the one and the
other the maiden perished .... Both, how
ever, were punished for the blood of the maiden.
Jephthah died by the falling off of his limbs . . .
and the Holy Spirit departed from Phinehas."1
1 We have omitted certain clauses of the Midrash at the
end of this remarkable comment, inasmuch as it would take too
much space to explain them to the ordinary reader, and they
hare no reference to our subject.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 159
So far the Midrash Rabba. The whole explanation
is, however, based on a mistake. No one had a right
under the Levitical law to make such a vow. Under
that law such a vow would have been a sin, and the
carrying out thereof into execution would have been
simply adding iniquity unto iniquity. The father had
no right whatever to devote his innocent child to de
struction under the law concerning devoted things or
persons ( cnn ), according to which persons thus
designated could not be redeemed at all (Lev. xxvii.
28, 29). No mention of such a dedication occurs in
our narrative, and, according to tha law, as already
noticed, such devoting to destruction only took place
in cases of notorious and flagrant immorality' (Exod.
xxii. 19, Authorised Version verse 20; Deut. vii. 2,
xiii. 14-16; Josh. vi. 17 ff.). Nor does a case such as
that of Jephthah's daughter come under the law of
Lev. xxvii. 1-8, for the dedication there spoken of was
not a dedication of a person to be offered up as a
burnt-offering, or to be given up to a life of menial
service about the tabernacle, or to be sold as a slave,
but simply concerning the payment of money on
their behalf and in their name to the sacred treasury.
Rash oaths were to be atoned for according to the law ,
in the manner prescribed in Lev. v. 4-10, and even
cases of rash vows might fairly be considered to come
under the same enactment. It is unfortunate that
1 See the observations on pp. 446 ff. of my Bampton Lectures
on Zechariah. Kalisch's remarks in note 12 on p. 383 are
inconsistent with his observations on p. 386. For if Jephthah's
daughter had been put to death under the law of devoted
persons ( Din), she could not have been offered up as a burnt
offering ( n^iy ). We admit that the word vow ("ni) used in
ver. 30, being general and comprehensive in meaning (comp.
Num. xxi. 2), would not absolutely exclude the former idea.

160 HUMAN SACRIFICE
the Midrash Rabba contains no special comment on
the latter passage.
III. Kalisch, Kuenen, and others maintain that
another clear case in which human sacrifices are re
corded as having been offered is found in the history of
David, as recorded in 2 Sam. xxi. The circumstances
are as follows : Three years in succession the land of
Israel was visited by a severe famine. On inquiry in
to the cause of the visitation , the answer given by the
Divine oracle was : " Upon Saul and upon his house
rests blood-guiltiness, because he slew the Gibeon-
ites."1 The Gibeonites, as the sacred writer re
minds us, were not of the people of Israel, but of the
remnant of the Amorites (specially designated as
Hivites in Josh. ix. 7). When Joshua led the people
of Israel into the land of Canaan these Gibeonites by
an ingenious stratagem secured themselves from the
destruction meted out to the other aboriginal inhabi
tants of the land of Canaan; and were, instead of
being rooted out, reduced by the Israelites to a sort
of mild servitude. Saul, however, notwithstanding
the solemn oath which had been sworn by the Israelite
chieftains in former days, sought to put them to
death (verse 2), and not only so, but as verse 1 leads
us to conclude, had actually put some of them to the
sword.2 Unfortunately, we have no record of this
1 So the passage must be rendered reading O'm rtn'D ?ki
instead of nmi n>3 bx\ For n'Di cannot properly have the
article, and a masculine suffix is required after rva . The LXX
is a curious jumble of a double translation (or of a double
gloss, as Bottcher thinks), aSixia iv Savdra, al/idraiv dvrov . It is
not necessary, as Thenius maintains, to regard b» as a mistake
for hy.
1 There is no necessity to view the text of ver. 2 as corrupt,
or to see in its statements any opposition to that of ver. 1.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 161
special event, and know not what circumstances
stirred up the zeal of Saul against the Gibeonites, or
what prevented him fully carrying out his design of
rooting them out of the land. He may possibly have
been led to seek their ruin from some desire to en
large the territories of his own tribe— that of Benja
min. But it is useless to speculate where we have
so slight data to assist us.
Instead of further inquiring of the Lord what steps
should be taken to remove the blood which rested on
the land, and thus acting according to his previous
habit of repeatedly questioning the oracle (1 Sam. xxiii.
11, 12), David forthwith opened communication with
the Gibeonites, and inquired of them how atonement
should be made for the blood which had been shed.
The Gibeonites replied to this inquiry, in accordance
with the law laid down in Numb. xxxv. 33 : " It is no
matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his
house, neither it is for us to put any man to death in
Israel."1 That is, we have no right to receive silver
and gold in compensation for the wrong done to us.
They demanded, therefore, that seven of the sons of
Saul should be delivered into their hands, to be
solemnly executed in the place, or near the locality,
where the massacre had been actually committed by
Saul. According to the reading of the present Hebrew
text, the Gibeonites required leave to hang up Saul's
1 This is the correct translation of the phrase '^ j'K or uS p*
with the following h and an infinitive. This translation re
moves the contradiction which is contained in the verse as
rendered in the Authorised Version, "We will have no silver nor
gold of Saul, nor of his house: neither for us shalt thou slay
any man in Israel," when immediately afterwards they de
manded the death of no less than seven men who were all
genuine Israelites.
12

162 HUMAN SACRIFICE
sons, or crucify them, "unto Jehovah, in Gibeah of
Saul, the chosen of Jehovah " (ver. 6). But the text
is certainly faulty. In the first place, it is unlikely
that the Gibeonites, who were bitterly opposed to
Saul, would have made use of such a title of honour
when speaking of that monarch. The opinion of
Maurer and Keil, that the use of the appellation was
ironical, does not commend itself to our judgment.
Erdmann's opinion that the expression was used in
order to emphasize the scandal of such an act has
more in its favour. It is, however, more likely that the
present reading is the mistake of a copyist, and that
we should read " in the hill of Jehovah," instead of
"the chosen of Jehovah."1 Secondly, in place of
Gibeah it would be better with Wellhausen and Stade
to read Gibeon, the names Gibeon and Gibeah being
often confused by copyists. The LXX. here correctly
reads Gibeon.2 The hill of Gibeon was the natural
place for such an execution. If Gibeah be referred to,
then it will be remembered that in that place there
was a sanctuary of repute in the days of Samuel (1
Sam. x. 5), and probably a monumental pillar, erected
either by the Philistines, or on account of some
victory achieved over them.3
The executions were probably performed by the
persons being impaled or crucified, possibly after
1 That is, in place of nirr vm the words m:v -1,12 should be
read. The similarity in form, as will be seen, is very close.
2 Comp. 1 Chron. xiv. 16, and Isa. xxviii. 21. See also for
a probable confusion on the other side, 1 Chron. viii. 29.
s The phrase dw'jb 'as: , rendered in 1 Sam. x 5 in our
version, "the garrison of the Philistines," is probably better
translated "the pillars of the Philistines." Of course, this
is a point on which no positive statement can be made.

HUMAN SACRIFICE 163
having been previously put to death. It cannot be
asserted with any certainty that the Hebrew verb
used in 2 Sam. xxi. 6, 13 necessarily implies cruci
fixion. In any case we need not think of the slow death
commonly understood by that expression. The use
of the phrase ' ' before Jehovah ' ' is the solitary ex
pression used in the narrative which can be pressed
into service by Kalisch and Kuenen to justify their
theory that there is here an instance of a human sacri
fice offered up to Jehovah. But that expression is
made use of in Numb. xxv. 4, in the case of the
execution of the chieftains of Israel who were guilty of
sharing in the immoral practices of Baal-peor. Few
have ventured, with Ghillany, in his infamous book on
Die Menschenopfer der alten Hebraer, to maintain
that in the latter case a human sacrifice was
offered up.1
There is, therefore, not the slightest evidence to
show that 2 Sam. xxi .was a case of " human sacri
fice." Kalisch has evidently derived his view from
the pages of Ghillany. David, no doubt, was guilty
of a double transgression in permitting, without Divine
direction, such a terrible act of vengeance. In the
first place, he put the children to death for the sins of
the father, which was expressly prohibited in the
Mosaic law (Deut. xxiv. 16) ; and secondly, he com
mitted an offence against the ceremonial law by per
mitting the bodies of those who were hanged to re
main over-night on the trees on which they were
executed (Deut. xxi. 22, 23). The conduct of
Joshua in similar cases (Josh. ix. 29, x. 26, 27) proves
1 See on the whole story Prof. A. Kohler's able volume
Lehrb. der bibl. Gesch. alt. Test., ii. Halfte, 1 Theil, pp.
307-12, and v. Baudissin, Jahve et Moloch, p. 61.

164 HUMAN SACRIFICE
that the latter law was in force from the earliest times.
It has been asserted that David adopted such a
course to rid himself of the surviving children of Saul.
The narrative gives no support to that view. Accord
ing to its plain import there were other sons of Saul
who might have been selected for execution. Mephi-
bosheth, the son of Jonathan, seems to have had a
numerous family, and he was always treated with
special favour (see 2 Sam. ix., xix. 24 ff., and 1
Chron. ix. 35-44). The persons selected to be de
livered up to the Gibeonites were persons who had no
claim to the throne. The sons of Merab, the daughter
of Saul, which she bore to Adriel the Meholathite (1
Sam. xviii. 19), possessed certainly no such right.1
Still less had the two sons of Rizpah, the concubine of
Saul (2 Sam. iii. 7). The heroic conduct of the latter
woman imparts to the sad story an undying interest,
as a proof of the strong and unwearied instincts of true
maternal love. Our limits will not permit us to com
ment on her conduct. The sacred writer, after
alluding to the effect of the story of Rizpah's heroism
on David, in forcing him at once to remove those sad
crosses from the sacred hill, and to bury the bodies of
those so rashly and so unjustly executed, notices signi
ficantly, " and after that, God was entreated for the
land." The remark indicates that the inspired
writer did not approve of the execution, and still less
did he dream that he was recording an instance of
human sacrifice.
1 Here again the text is corrupt, for the reading " Michal,
the daughter of Saul," is an old blunder of a copyist for
" Merab " (see 1 Sam. xviii. 19).

IV
THE JEWS AND THE MALICIOUS CHARGE
OF HUMAN SACRIFICE.1
I. The Trial at Tisza-Eszlar
The trial of fifteen Jews on the charge of having
murdered a Christian girl to obtain her blood for pur
poses connected with the Jewish ritual attracted the
attention of the whole civilised world. The place
where the crime was said to have been committed is
a village in Hungary called Tisza-Eszlar, about three
hours' drive from Nyiregyhaza, a town situated in
the northern part of the great plain watered by the
Theiss. The portion of that plain which lies between
the Theiss and the Danube is often termed the Meso
potamia of Europe. The region is unromantic, being
a level district of enormous extent, almost destitute of
trees, but abounding in thickets of dwarf bushes.
The mountains of the Carpathian range, which are
visible in the dim distance, form almost the only
feature in the landscape of Tisza-Eszlar upon which
the eye can rest with pleasure.
1 Esther Solymosi, oder der jiidisch-rituelle Jungfrauen-
Mord. Von Georg v. Marczianyi. Berlin : bei M. Schulze,
1882. Esther Solymosi, Der Prozess von Tisza-Eszlar. Nebst den
Portraits sammtlicher Angeklagter. sowie der Esther Solymosi
und des Moritz Scharf, und den Abbildungen der Synagogue
165

166 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
Nyiregyhaza, the county town of the district, has
risen within the last twenty-five years from the posi
tion of a simple market town to one of considerable
importance. It contains now a population of about
30,000, and is a garrison town, with a respectable
court-house, in which the recent trial was held. The
houses of the town are for the most part one-storied,
surrounded by gardens. Two-thirds of its population
are Hungarian belonging to the Reformed Church,
the remaining third being mainly Russniaks or
Ruthenes, belonging either to the United Greek
Church — i.e., that branch which is in union with the
Church of Rome — or to the Non-United Greek
Church, which is professedly under the patriarchate of
Constantinople. The Jewish population here numbers
about five hundred.
und Wohnung des Tempeldieners. 2te Auflage. Berlin : M.
Schulze, 1883.
Der Prozess von Tisza-Eszlar. Eine genaue Darstellung der
Anklage, der Zeungenverhbre, der Vertheidigung und des
Urtheils. Nach authentischen Berichten bearbeitet. Mit
20 Illustrationen. 3te Auflage. Wien : A. Hartleben, 1883.
Tisza-Eszlar in der V ergangenheit und Gegenwart. Ueber
die Juden im Allgemeinen. Judishce Glaubens-Mysterien.
Rituelle Mordthaten und Blutopfer. Der Tisza-Eslarer Fall.
Von Geza von Onody, Reichstags-Abgeordneter. Autorisirte
Uebersetzung aus dem TJngarischen von Georg. von Marc
zianyi. Budapest, 1883.
Die Blutbeschuldigung gegen die Juden. Von christlicher
Seite beurtheilt. 2te Auflage. Wien : Druck u. Verlag
" Steyrermiihl," 1883.
Christliche Zeugniss» gegen die Blutbeschuldigung der
Juden. Berlin: Walter und Apolant, 1882.
Holding's Talmudjude beleuchtet. Von Franz Delitzsch.
" Falsche Wage ist nicht gut." 7te, durch Beleuchtung der
Gegenschrift Rohling's erweiterte Ausgabe. Leipzig : Dorf-
fling & Franke, 1881.
Franz Delitzsch und die Judenfrage antwortlich beleuchtet.
Von Prof. Dr. August Bohling. " Voiles Gewicht gefallt dem
Herrn." " Cretenses semper mendaces, malse bestiae." Prag:
Reinitzer & Co., 1881.

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 167
The population of Tisza-Eszlar consists of some
1,400 inhabitants, half of whom are members of the
Reformed Church ; some two hundred are Jews who
have settled here within the last thirty years. The
Roman Catholics are very numerous. While the
Protestant pastor lives in a thatched cottage, in which
one small room serves the varied purpose of parlour,
study and bedroom, the Roman Catholic priest
occupies a roomy, well-furnished house with a good
garden. Close to Tisza-Eszlar, and forming almost a part of
it, are the two smaller villages of Ujfalu and Totfalu,
the former of which comprises only thirty cottages.
The three villages form together a kind of triangle,
and at the point where the three roads meet stands the
Jewish synagogue. The building is of the simplest
architecture, scarcely better than an ordinary cottage,
and distinguished therefrom only by its roof and en-
Meine Antworten an die Babbiner, oder Fiinf Briefe iiber
den Talmudismus und das Blut-Ritual der Juden. Von Prof.
Dr. Aug. Rohling. Vierte Auflage. Prag : Verlag der Cyrillo-
Method. Buchdruckerei (J. Zemen & Co.), 1883.
Was D. Aug. Bohling beschworen hat und beschworen will,
Zweite Streitschrift in Sachen des Antisemitismus. Von
Franz Delitzsch. 2ter, revidirter Abdruck. Leipzig : Dorf-
fling u. Franke, 1883.
Schachmatt den Blutliignem Bohling und Justus. Entboten
von Franz Delitzsch, 2ter, revidirter Abdruck. Erlangen:
Verlag von Andreas Deichert, 1883.
Judenspeigel, oder 100 neuenthiillte, heutzutage noch gel-
tende, den Verkehr der Juden mit den Christen betreffende
Gesetze der Juden ; mit einer die Entstehung und Weiter-Ent-
wickelung der judischen Gesetze darstellenden, hochst interes-
santen Einleitung. Von Dr. Justus, speculi opifex in lumine
veritatis. Dritte Auflaee. Paderborn: Verlag der Boni-
facius-Druckerei (J. W. Schroder), 1883 .
Die Polemik und das Menschenopfer des Babbinismus. Eine
wissenschaftliche Antwort ohne Polemik fiir die Rabbiner und
ihre Genossen. Von Prof. Dr. Aug. Rohling. Paderborn:
Verlag der Bonifacius-Druckerei (J. W. Schroder), 1883.

168 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
trance door. Close to the synagogue, and separated from
it only by a narrow passage, stands the thatched cottage
occupied by the caretaker of the synagogue, Joseph
Scharf, one of the accused Jews. The portion of his
cottage nearest to the synagogue is used as a bath
house by the Jewesse". At the back of the synagogue
is a small farm-house, from which the narrow passage
between the synagogue and Scharf's cottage can be
clearly seen. The correspondent of the Czas1 — a
Cracow newspaper, the organ of the Polish nobility,
and a journal with strong Roman Catholic leanings —
who minutely examined the place and its surround
ings, observes that the spot is much exposed, and
anything occurring there could be seen from the high
road to Ujfalu, the mill-dam at Eszlar, and other
places. The family Solymossi consisted of a widowed
mother, fifty-five years of age, a son, who was a day
labourer, and two daughters, Esther, the younger,
being of the age of fourteen, and Sophie about seven
teen. All were members of the Reformed Church,
and lived in a small cottage in Ujfalu. At the time of
Esther's mysterious disappearance, both sisters were
in domestic service in the village : Sophie in the ser
vice of a Jew named Rosenberg ; Esther in the house
of her godfather, a peasant named Hury, who lived
next door to widow Solymossi. Esther is said to have
been plain, but not uncomely, with black hair and
brown eyes. Her likeness which has appeared in
many illustrated journals was made by an artist from
the description given of her appearance by her friends
1 See the article Der Schauerroman von Tisza-Eszlar aus
dem Krakauer ' Czas ' in Professor Franz Delitzsch's Saat auf
Hoffnung, 1883, Heft 2. (Ostern). Erlangen : A. Diechert.

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 169
and relatives. No photograph or likeness was made
in her lifetime. According to Herr von Onody, the
mother has pronounced the likeness excellent.
On Saturday, the 1st April, 1882, Esther was sent
out by her mistress, Frau Hury, to Eszlar to buy some
nails and paint. On her way homeward she met her
elder sister Sophie, who accompanied her as far as a
mill situated in the further end of Eszlar, on the road
leading to the other two villages. There the sisters
conversed for a long time. According to the deposi
tions of several witnesses who saw them and overheard
a portion of their conversation, Esther was much de
pressed, and was crying and complaining to her sister
of the treatment she had received from Frau Hury.
One witness even overheard Sophie ask her sister
whether she had been beaten. Sophie, however,
denied these statements. According to some, Esther
was last seen between eleven and twelve o'clock in the
day on the road leading to the Jewish synagogue.
But one witness, Andreas Antaliczki (or Havalovski),
a carman, swore that at three o'clock on that day he
distinctly heard, when passing Hury's house, the
voices of Esther and her mistress quarrelling with each
other. Another witness, Samuel Frankel, stated that
he met Frau Hury the same afternoon, about four
o'clock, who was then looking for Esther, whom she
said she had sent the second time into the village for
paint, and that she was then going to see what had
kept the girl so long.1
1 When examined before the court, Frau Hury at first
denied that she had ever scolded Esther, but she afterwards
admitted that she had scolded her on the morning in question,
though not severely. This witness's statements were so con
tradictory, that both the Public Prosecutor and the counsel for
the defence alike objected to her evidence being received by

170 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
Some hundred steps further on than the mill where
the girls were seen conversing together, and about the
same distance from the village of Ujfalu, where Frau
Hury lived, the road from Ujfalu and Eszlar crosses
that leading to Totfalu. A few yards from the cross
road the wretched cottage of Joseph Scharf comes into
view, and close to it, as has been stated, stood the
Jewish synagogue.
One of the suggestions made by the counsel for the
defence at the trial was that Frau Hury's harshness
towards Esther had driven the unfortunate girl to
commit suicide. No clear evidence was, however,
forthcoming in support of this theory, nor did the
lawyers consider it advisable to urge the point as a
substantial part of the defence. It is, however, signi
ficant that Widow Solymossi admitted at the trial that
some time before Frau Hury informed her of Esther's
disappearance the widow herself went down to the
bank of the river Theiss, which flows by Tisza-Eszlar,
in order to look for her daughter. It would appear
that the mother was afraid of what her daughter might
do with herself. When this significant circumstance
the court. Julie Vamosi gave evidence that she saw Esther
on her way back, about one o'clock in the afternoon. Her
evidence was supported by Rosa Rosenberg. The latter's evi
dence was suspected because she was a Jewess. If the evi
dence of Antaliczki and Julie Vamosi had not been counter
balanced by the statements of others, Moritz Scharf's state
ment would have been at once proved false, and the prosecu
tion have failed in the very outset. But more than twenty
days later (the trial lasted thirty-one days), Julie Vamosi,
having been threatened with death by the inhabitants of Tisza-
Eszlar, solemnly retracted her sworn statements, and sub
mitted to be indicted for perjury. Julie Vamosi was severely
beaten by her parents in order to make her withdraw her
evidence. The mother acknowledged this fact before the
court. That such a course should have been legally permitted
is one of the strangest features in connection with the trial.

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 171
turned up in the course of the trial, the widow simply
remarked : " I did not myself know why I did so ; I
only felt that something had happened."
No searching investigation seems to have been made
by the police authorities in the outset as to the rela
tions which existed at that time between the families
of the Hurys and Solymossis. It would have been
important to know whether Widow Solymossi had
ever blamed Frau Hury as the real cause of her
daughter's disappearance, or whether an estrangement
had ever occurred between the two women on this
subject. No evidence on that point was adduced at
the trial. During the first investigation by the magis
trate, and at the final trial, both women were united
in their accusation against the Jews.
Widow Solymossi fully admitted that she did not
dream for some time of suspecting the Jews. The full
suspicion did not suggest itself to her mind until the
10th of April, nine days after her daughter had dis
appeared.1 On the 10th of April the widow acci
dentally met Joseph Scharf, who, in the course of con
versation on the subject of Esther's disappearance,
remarked that wicked people said that the Jews some
times sacrificed Christian children, and he urged
Widow Solymossi not to give credit to such an idea if
1 In his Tisza-Eszlar in der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart,
p. 160, Herr von Onody mentions this incident as having
occurred on the very day of Esther's disappearance. Accord
ing to the account there given, one would be led to imagine
that Esther's disappearance was noticed almost immediatelv.
and that the village was excited by the mother weeping for
her daughter ere four hours had transpired. The statement is
distinctly opposed by the evidence given at the trial. In the
account of the case published by M. Schulze, Berlin, which is
drawn up from the most violent anti-Jewish standpoint, it is
stated that this conversation with Scharf occurred ' in the

172 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
ever it was suggested to her. The remark does not
appear to have been unnatural when it is remembered
that the Anti-Semitic agitation had been extensively
spread in Hungary, and that such suspicions are only
too commonly entertained by Christians in Eastern
Europe. The widow, however, ruminated over the
matter, and repeated Scharf 's remark to her friends,
who regarded it at once as the utterance of a man
with a guilty conscience. Thus Widow Solymossi be
came fully persuaded that Esther must have been kid
napped by the Jews. The idea that her daughter had
committed suicide was naturally most repugnant to
the mother's mind.
The suspicion that the Jews had a hand in the affair,
when once ventilated, rapidly gained a footing among
a people imbued with prejudices against their Jewish
neighbours. Every circumstance was then looked
upon with suspicion. Report soon spread the story
that Samuel, the youngest child of Joseph Scharf, a
boy six years old, when quarrelling with other children
of the village, had threatened them with a fate like
that of Esther. Such a threat from so young a child
was no doubt extraordinary. A woman swore on th=)
trial that she heard the child tell his play-fellows that
his father had murdered Esther. This witness, how-
first days of May ' (see p. 17 of that pamphlet). It ought,
however, to be observed that Herr von Onody's book was pub
lished in Hungarian before the trial, and the German trans
lation of it by Marczianyi seems to have been published ere
the trial was concluded, for the preface bears the date, June
12th, 1883, seven days before the court at Nyiregyhaza began
its sittings. Tne decision of the court was not given until the
3rd of August. The publication of such a work, as well as of
many other pamphlets avowedly bearing on the case, and
intended to influence the court in its decision, would never
have been permitted in Great Britain.

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 173
ever, admitted under cross-examination with consider
able reluctance that she herself had openly said on that
occasion that the time would soon come when the
Jews would be driven out of Hungary.
On the 10th of May, Herr Joseph Bary, a magistrate
from Nyiregyhaza, appeared on the scene. He oc
cupied the post of Untersuchungsrichter, or Judge of
Examination.1 Herr Bary appears to have shared
the common prejudices against the Jewish race. His
antipathy had been increased by the perusal of such
works as Professor Rohling's Talmudjude, and he be
gan the investigation into the cause of Esther's dis
appearance with the strong belief in his mind that she
must have been sacrificed by the Jews. His eager
ness to obtain proofs of this supposed fact led him
beyond all bounds. The child Samuel was at once
brought before him, examined by him in private, and
a memorandum made of the boy's statements. This
memorandum or protocol contained on its very face
the proof of the animus under which it was drawn up.
Nicknames occur in it which could not have been used
by a Jewish boy. Consequently, when the case came
up for trial, the counsel for the defence had no diffi
culty in getting it set aside as worthless evidence,
while at the same time they maintained that the
protocol in question was of the highest im
portance as affording distinct proof that the official
memoranda in the case were concocted by per-
1 An ' Untersuchungsrichter ' is not, however, what would
be termed a judge in Germany or England, but occupies a
position similar in some respects to that of a justice of the
peace, and in others to that of a district-inspector of the
police. Herr von Onody describes Herr Bary as the ' Notary
of the Nyiregyhaza Court.'

174 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
sons imbued with the strongest anti-Jewish
prejudices.1 The investigation was not left, however, in Ihe
hands of the local magistrates. The attention of the
public was drawn to the case by Herr G6za von Onody,
a Deputy of the Hungarian Reichstag. The credulity
of this gentleman with respect to any tale unfavourable
to the Jewish race may be seen by a perusal of his
work, Tisza-Eszlar in der Vergangenheit und Gegen-
wart. The monstrous fable related by Apion in order
to justify the profanation of the Jewish temple by
Antichus Epiphanes has found believers in Hungary
in the nineteenth century !2 On the 23rd of May
1 The first version of the story told by little Samuel was
that when Esther entered the house of the Scharf s " a great
Basci " (or Schachterbacsi, Butcher Bacsi) cut off her head,
and that he (little Samuel), along with his brother Moritz,
helped to collect her blood in a plate. The absurdity of this
story is clear ? and it bears all the appearance of having been
first communicated to the child, and then related by him. It
is utterly at variance with the confession of Moritz, his
brother, who ultimately was the chief witness against the
accused Jews, as well as with the story said to have been
afterwards told by Samuel himself. According to the protocol
produced at the trial, Samuel said that his father had stuffed
a white rag into Esther's mouth, she was then washed in a
trough (trog), and a big Jew with a long knife cut her throat,
so that the head of Esther fell down. Moritz kept the head ol
Esther as they were carrying out the corpse, etc. The child's
evidence must have been seriously tampered with, and the
child have been ' coached up ' by some interested person. The
child was not produced at the trial, but several witnesses were
examined as to what he said.
2 The story is given in full by Josephus (Contra Apion, ii.
8). It is referred to as an historical fact in pp. 68, 69 of von
Onody's work, and was dwelt on before the court at Nyiregy
haza by Advocat v. Szalay in his speech on behalf of Widow
Solymossi. The story relates how a Greek foreigner was
fattened every year in the Temple by the Jews with all manner
of delicacies, and was afterwards sacrificed according to the
Law. The entrails of this victim were, according to Apion,
then eaten by the Jews, and a solemn oath then taken of per
petual hostility to the Greek nation. The story has always

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 175
Herr von Onody brought the case of Esther Solymossi
before the Hungarian Parliament, and maintained
that she must have been murdered for purposes con
nected with the Jewish ritual. On the day following
Deputy Istoczy, the founder of the Anti-Semitic clubs
in Hungary, put a question in the Reichstag to the
Hungarian Prime Minister as to the state of the
judicial investigation into the case. Herr Tisza, the
Hungarian Prime Minister, and Herr Pauler, Minister
of Justice, in reply, assured the Deputy that his in
terrogation, and Herr von Onody 's speech, delivered
the day before, was the first information they had re
ceived on the subject, but that the Government would
not fail to make all due inquiry into the matter, and
see that is was properly investigated by the regular
courts of the kingdom. These speeches in the Hun
garian Reichstag gave general notoriety to the accusa
tion against the Jews, and stirred up the officials con
cerned in its investigation to fresh exertions in order
to discover the supposed delinquents.
Herr Bary at once placed under the surveillance of
the police Joseph Scharf and other Jews whom he sus
pected of having had a hand in the crime. Joseph
been regarded by sober historians as on a par with the other
tale of Apion's, mentioned by Josephus in his former chapter
— namely, that about the Jews worshipping an ass's head, and
of Antiochus Epiphanes finding in the Holy of Holies an ass's
head made of gold and worth a great deal of money. Com
pare the statement of Tacitus on the latter point in his Hist.
v. 3. Similar charges were made against the early Christians.
They, too, were accused of worshipping an ass's head (see
TertuUian, Apol. xvi._, and Ad Nationes, xi.), and also of being
guilty of human sacrifices. (See Justin Martyr, Apol. II. cap.
xii. ; Dial, cum Tryph. cap. x. ; Athenagoras irp<=o-/3. cap. iii.
Other authorities on this point are cited by Strack in his
valuable paper on Tisza-Eszlar, oder gebrauchen die Juden
Christenblut ? referred to at the close of this article.

176 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
Scharf denied on this occasion all knowledge of the
matter. So did his elder son, Moritz, a boy of four
teen years of age, who affirmed most positively that
he knew nothing about the girl. Moritz was at once
taken into custody, and was removed from his parents'
cottage. Police-Commissary Recsky (also called Bandi),
however, Drought the boy back the same night to the
cottage, and took him to all the places which were
supposed to be in any way connected with the crime.
The boy was then brought off to Nagyfalu and placed
under the care of one Koloman Peczely, a clerk in
Herr Bary's bureau. The next day Moritz made
what was called a full confession of the crime ; and
Joseph Scharf and his wife, butcher Schwarz, and two
other Jewish butchers were arrested on the charge of
being accomplices in the murder of Esther Solymossi.
The story told by Moritz was as follows : As Esther
was passing by the synagogue about twelve o'clock
noon, Joseph Scharf called her into his cottage under
the pretext of getting her to put away the candle
sticks, which work he, as a strict Jew, could not per
form on that day, for it was the Jewish Sabbath.
Esther was afterwards induced to enter the synagogue,
when she was thrown down and gagged. She was
then stripped of all her clothing, her hands were
bound, and her throat cut with a butcher's knife by
Solomon Schwarz, the butcher to the Jewish com
munity of Tisza-Eszlar.1 Her blood was caught in
1 According to the more sensational account given in the
report of the trial published by M. Schulze, p. 19, when Esther
entered the cottage she was seized by three Jews, thrown
down on the ground, and her hands secured. Frau Scharf
then gagged the girl's mouth, while the other Jews stripped her
almost naked and carried her downstairs to the underground
bath for the purification of the Jewish women. There she was

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 177
plates provided for the purpose, and was afterwards
poured into a larger vessel. When the first bleeding
was over, the girl was held with her head downwards,
in order to hasten the flow of blood. The sacrifice
occupied three-quarters of an hour, and was all over
before the midday meal, when Moritz, who .had been
all the time looking on at the murder, having watched
the operation through the keyhole of the synagogue
door, sat down to dinner along with his father and
mother. He related to his parents before dinner the
fact of the murder of the girl, and his mother charged
him not to mention the matter to anyone. In his
confessions ' ' he maintained that his father was not
in the synagogue at the time, but that his father told
him all that was done previous to the actual murder.
At one o'clock he was sent out to fasten the synagogue
door. He then looked in, but could discover no trace
of blood, nor did he see the corpse of the girl. He
stated that most probably the corpse had been hidden
away somewhere, and that it was taken away from the
house at night through a window after he had gone to
bed. But these statements were confessedly only
surmises of his own.
It was afterwards proved by experiment on the spot,
made in the presence of the judges, lawyers, and some
representatives of the press, that Moritz might, by
looking through the keyhole, possibly have seen a por
tion of what went on in the synagogue. But it was
washed by Frau Scharf, assisted by a Jewish beggar named
Hermann Wollner. Next she was wrapped up in a cloth, and
brought over to the synagogue in the evening, where the sac
rifice was accomplished. These further atrocious details are
not contained in the several protocols of Moritz Scharf, pub
lished at the end of Marczianyi's translation of von Onody's
work. 13

178 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
also proved that he could not from thence have seen
all the persons named by him in his depositions.
Moreover, the position of a person looking
through the keyhole would have been so painful to
bear that Moritz could scarcely have continued there
for so long a time. When the experiment was made
before the Judges, Moritz was forced to look through
the keyhole, but was so exhausted after a very short
period that the Judges, who had originally intended to
have kept him there for the full time, permitted the
boy to retire. On the other hand, it must be remem
bered that the synagogue was wrecked before the trial
took place, and those who maintain that Moritz 's
story is correct argue that it is quite possible that the
door may not have been replaced exactly in the same
position as on the 1st of April 1882.
The statements made by Moritz on the trial were in
many points absurd and contradictory. He described
the girl's blood as flowing " very slowly in a small
stream " from the wound in her throat, which the
medical authorities declared to be impossible under the
circumstances. He said that since his arrest he had
heard indirectly through "Catholic clergymen," that
the Jews had laws which demanded the sacrifice of
Christian girls. He stated that his father, Joseph
Scharf, related to him at the mid -day meal all that
was done to Esther before she was put to death. He
affirmed that he was not shocked when he saw the
murder through the keyhole, and said he was afraid to
call for help. When asked what led him to look
through the keyhole, he said he heard cries and went
to see what was going on.
One of the most striking incidents of the trial,

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 179
which abounded in sensational passages, occurred when
Moritz was confronted with his parents. He stamped
and screamed at them, calling them liars. He said
he would be a Jew no longer. The mother affirmed
that the boy was much addicted to lying. She said
he appeared to be shocked when he heard for the first
time the report of the murder of Esther. On the day
on which he was carried off by the police he had a
quarrel with his mother, and when she punished him
he flung a knife at her and cut her. The boy admitted
to the court that he had been obstinate, and that he
had been often punished. He positively denied, how
ever, that he had ever thrown a knife at his mother.
It was elicited in the course of the trial that Herr
Bary repeatedly promised Moritz that nothing would
occur to his parents, even if inculpated by him. Also,
that Moritz had received money from time to time
from a certain high official ; that he was informed that
the Minister of the Interior would provide for him
after the trial was over. Moritz stated that he him
self read a decree to that effect in the newspapers, and
had found the decree in the Archives, where he had
been permitted to look over papers. The President of
the court denied the existence of such a decree.
Moritz also admitted having called out to his father,
some days after the asserted murder, " The girl is
come back."
Witnesses were brought before the court to prove
that the boy's evidence had been seriously tampered
with ; that he had refused at first to confess ; that he
was then taken away somewhere, and brought back
afterwards " bent down and broken." Police-detective
Barcza, who was employed in the case, produced a

180 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
paper at the trial on which the very questions were
written down which Moritz was asked before the
court. He swore that those questions had been put
to Moritz in private ; that Moritz often answered them
in a different way from what it was desired he should,
and that Prison-warder Henter then corrected his
answers. At this private examination (which took
place weeks' after his arrest), Moritz was wholly un
able to describe the clothes worn by Esther on the 1st
of April, but Henter supplied him with the necessary
details, which were duly inserted in his " confession."
Barcza swore that at the close of this examination he
turned round to Moritz and said, " Moritz, speak the
truth ;" to which the boy replied, " If I dare speak the
truth I have seen nothing at all." The same witness
affirmed that Moritz also told Herr Bary that he had
really seen nothing. Warder Henter interrupted
Barcza at this point of his evidence with the remark
that ' ' he [Moritz] took back that statement the next
day ! " It is worthy of note that Moritz , when con
fronted with Barcza, confirmed the evidence of the
latter in the most essential particulars.
The evidence of Moritz Scharf was the only direct
evidence which could be produced against the accused.
Its utter worthlessness was proved by the many strange
circumstances connected therewith. It was conclu
sively shown that Henter had used threats of violence
to the boy ; that Peczely, to whose care he had been
committed, had " coached him up " for the occasion.
the latter official was also proved to have maltreated
witnesses in a gioss manner ; to have tampered
seriously with the official protocols; and, moreover,
had himself undergone fifteen years' imprisonment

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 181
with hard labour for a murder committed by him in
company with others. He was proved to have got
into the public service by deception.
Another remarkable circumstance, however, oc
curred in connection with the case, which considerably
complicated the whole affair. On the morning of the
18th of June, two months and a half after Esther's
disappearance, the corpse of a girl was discovered by
two raftsmen floating in the Theiss, between Tisza-
Lok and Tisza-Dada. The rumour soon spread
itself abroad that the body of Esther had been found at
last. No marks of violence of any kind were dis
covered upon the corpse, and it was plain, if the corpse
was that of Esther, the whole story of a "ritual
murder ' ' having been committed by the Jews
would at once prove to be an invention. The
clothes found upon the body were exactly similar to
those which Widow Solymossi had stated her daughter
had worn on the fatal 1st of April ; a little parcel with
colouring matter was also found upon the corpse.
Herr Bary was soon on the spot. By his directions
the clothes were taken off the body, and Widow
Solymossi and her sister with other friends were then
permitted to view it. The Jews were, however, care
fully excluded from being present on the occasion.
The mother and aunt, it appears, failed to recognise
the body as that of Esther, though they at once
acknowledged that the clothes were hers. Several of
the friends, however, recognised the corpse as that of
Esther; others maintained that it could not be the
body of Esther, assigning as a reason that Esther's
eyes were brown, and that the eyes of the corpse found
in the river were blue.

182 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
Herr Bary, however, immediately suspected that
the whole matter had been artfully planned by the Jews
in order to relieve themselves of the charge of a " ritual
murder." If the body was not that of Esther, while
the clothes were hers, it was only too evident that the
Jews had made away with Esther, and invented this
plan of concealing their crime.
Rosenberg, the Jew in whose house Esther's sister
Sophie had been in service, had, in expressing his
sympathy with Widow Solymossi, unfortunately given
utterance to the conviction that Esther would soon be
discovered. Those words were now looked upon with
suspicion, and interpreted as an indication of his
complicity in the fraud. He was, therefore, at once
arrested by orders of Herr Bary, as also were the
raftsmen who had been so unlucky as to find the
corpse. The latter were tortured in various ways in
order to induce them to give the evidence which was
desired, and possibly believed to be true. Some were
induced to make " confessions " under the promise of
being liberated, and several of those " confessions,"
like those of Moritz Scharf, were more or less seriously
tampered with. A plausible story was thus made out,
on the strength of which some five additional Jews
were put on their trial. But the whole mass of evidence
against those Jews broke down hopelessly when in
vestigated before the Court at Nyiregyhaza, while
certain officials were seriously compromised by the
revelations then made to the Court.
The medical men who made the first post-mortem
examination belonged to Tisza-Eszlar. Dr. Kiss pro
nounced the corpse to be that of a girl of about
fourteen years of age. Subsequently after consulta-

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 183
tion with Dr. Horvath and Drt Cornel Traytler, a
dental surgeon, gentlemen who were reasonably
suspected of being favourable to Anti-Semitic views,
Dr. Kiss was led to alter his opinion, and these three
medical men pronounced the body that of a woman
between eighteen and twenty years of age. In the
opinion therefore of these doctors the corpse was
certainly not that of Esther. The corpse was
completely deprived of hair. This the doctors
maintained had been shaven off. An apothecary,
Zukanyi, with others, recognised the body as that of
Esther from the mark of a wound on one of her feet
made by the hoof of a cow. But that mark, though
pointed out to the medical men, was considered by
them of no importance. An important argument had
been derived from the circumstance that, when some
witnesses viewed the body, the piece of cloth con
taining paint or colouring matter had been tied to the
wrist by a cord. Zukanyi affirmed that this was not
fastened to the wrist at all when the corpse was first
discovered. It is curious to note that the eyes of the
corpse were declared on medical authority to be brown
though many of the witnesses affirmed that they were
blue. It was afterwards considered necessary that the
corpse found in the Theiss should be re-examined by
some more competent medical authorities. It was
accordingly exhumed and examined by three
professors belonging to the Medical Faculty of the
University of Pesth (Budapest) — namely Dr. Belky,
Dr. Mihalkovics and Dr. Scheuthauer. Those experts
arrived at very different conclusions from the other
medical men. They unanimously declared from an

184 THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR
examination of the remains that the person must have
been a girl of between fourteen and seventeen years
of age, and could not possibly have been older. They
explained the loss of hair as having arisen in a natural
way from long submersion in the water, the corpse
having been caught and detained in its passage down
the river by having met with some impediment ; the
hair, they maintained, had not been shaved off, but
was broken off from the roots. They discovered, too,
traces of the scar on the foot, which they said might
have been caused by a cow's hoof. They, moreover,
affirmed that it was a common matter for persons
to be unable to recognise the bodies of their friends
even under more favourable circumstances. When
confronted with the Tisza-Eszlar doctors, the Buda
pest professors declared that the medical opinions
expressed by the former were "unscientific, un
founded, and impossible." Professor Scheuthauer
stated that the views expressed by Dr. Tray tier, the
dentist, were such as only might have been expected
from " a barber," and that if he had given such answers
as a medical student, he (the Professor) would not
have allowed him his examination.
The judges on the bench at the trial at Nyiregyhaza
were Herr Franz Kornis, President of the Tribunal,
who in many respects showed himself prejudiced
against the accused. He was assisted by three other
judges, Herren Russu, Gruden, and Simon. Herr
Gruden was taken ill on the seventeenth day of the
trial, and Herr Feherbarna took his place for the re
mainder of the trial. The trial commenced on the
19th of June, and lasted till the 3rd of August, the
court having sat during this period for thirty-one

THE TRIAL AT TISZA-ESZLAR 185
days. Herr Szeiffert was the Public Prosecutor, and
conducted the prosecution in a most equitable manner.
Inasmuch, however, as he opposed the violent opinions
of the Anti-Semitic party, he was roundly abused by
that portion of the press which clamoured for the
condemnation of the accused Jews. During the pro
gress of the trial he was insulted in the open streets,
and violently threatened by Herr Deputy von Onody,
and had to seek the protection of the court. On the
side of the defence there was a brilliant array of
lawyers. These were Dr. Funtak, Dr. Friedmann,
Dr. Szekely, Dr. Heumann, and Dr. Eotvos. The
last named seems to have been the leading counsel.
Advocate Carl von Szalay appeared as counsel
specially retained on behalf of the Widow Solymossi.
This lawyer was not permitted to interfere in the trial,
but was allowed to address the court at its close, before
the lawyers for the defence made their speeches. His
speech, which occupies more than eight closely-printed
pages of M. Schnlze's pamphlet, was full of the most
virulent attacks on the Jewish race, but contained an
able summing up of the evidence adduced on behalf of
the prosecution. The Public Prosecutor, who spoke
first, considered it his duty honestly to confess that the
prosecution had broken down on all points, and
expressed his belief that all the accused deserved to
be honourably acquitted of the charges laid against
them. After the other lawyers for the defence had
spoken, Dr. Eotvos made a most brilliant closing
oration, and the court on the following day gave their
unanimous decision, according to which all the
prisoners were declared "not guilty." This judgment
was confirmed on appeal to the highest court.

186 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL

II. Human Sacrifices and the Jewish Ritual.
In this second portion of our article we have
briefly to examine the charge so often preferred
against Jewish people of using human blood in their
religious ritual. The charge has, indeed, in modern
times generally been regarded by enlightened public
opinion in the most civilised parts of Europe as a
foul slander, as one of the base falsehoods preferred
against the Jewish people during the Middle Ages,
deliberately invented, or, if not invented, maliciously
made use of for the purpose of inflaming the popular
indignation against the Jewish people in order the
more easily to seize hold of the wealth and property
of that hated race, or to get rid of debts superinduced
by wanton extravagance. But the charge has been
renewed from time to time, and men with the reputa
tion of scholarship have ventured to maintain that the
accusation is based on facts.
Shortly after the disappearance of Father Thomas
(a Roman Catholic Capuchin friar and physician from
Sardinia) at Damascus in February 1840 — a murder
generally asserted to have been the work of the Jews
of that city, though the accused Jews were ultimately
set at liberty by Mohammed Ali, Khedive of Egypt—
Dr. F. W. Ghillany, Professor and City Librarian in
Niirnberg, published a strangely ingenious but most
misleading work on The Human Sacrifices of the
Ancient Hebrews,1 in which he sought to maintain
1 Die Menschenopfer der alten Hebraer. Eine geschicht-
liche Untersuchung. Niirnburg : bei Johann Leonhard Schrag,
1842.

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 187
that human sacrifices were common among the ancient
Israelites, and in the preface to which book he
expressed the belief that the remains of such an
ancient practice might possibly be found to linger on
even to modern times.
The extravagant opinions of Ghillany and of
Daumer found few defenders, and their works have
sunk almost into oblivion. Daumer's work on Fire
and Mo,loch Worship1 appeared after Ghillany's trea
tise saw the light. The latter scholar sought to
uphold the monstrous thesis that the worship of Moloch
was really the orthodox religion of the Jewish nation.
The standpoint from which both works were written
was a denial of all supernatural inspiration. Both
writers refused to place credence in the plainest state
ments of the Old Testament Scriptures. The denun
ciations to be found in the law and the prophets
against the abominable rite of human sacrifice were
explained by them as having been introduced into the
Jewish Scriptures by the party of reform which sprang
up after the Babylonish captivity of the nation. On
such principles Ghillany found little difficulty in main-
1 G. Fr. Daumer, Der Feuer- und Molochdienst der alien
Hebraer als urvaterlicher, legaler, orthodoxer Cultus der
Nation, historisch-kritisch nachgewiesen, Braunschweig : 1842.
Compare his work, Die Geheimnisse des christlichen Alter-
thums, Hamburg, 1847, in two volumes, where he affirms and
endeavours to demonstrate that the Christians of the first cen
turies, and even down to the Middle Ages used to offer sacri
fices of men, specially, however, of children. In other words,
Daumer sought to establish the justice of the charge brought
against the Christians by their heathen opponents — namely,
that the Christians were guilty of evio-raa Selirva Daumer
afterwards acknowledged the madness of holding such opinions,
and died a Roman Catholic noted for his bigotry. His case
was a curious instance of the grossest infidelity terminating in
the most abject superstition.

188 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
taining that Moses offered up his own son in sacrifice,
that all the first-born male infants of the Israelites
were commanded by him to be sacrificed to Jehovah,
and that the pious worshippers partook of their flesh ;
that the three thousand men put to the sword by the
Levites (Ex. xxxii. 26-28), on account of the worship
of the golden calf, were in reality a great human sacri
fice in honour of the giving of the Law, more awful in
its character than any of the ' ' customs ' ' of the
African kingdom of Dahomey; that the death of
Nadab and Abihu, consumed by fire because they
offered " strange fire " before the Lord (Lev. x. 1-2),
was nothing else than a sacrifice of the same kind ; that
indeed, Aaron at last offered up himself a sacrifice for
the people on Mount Hor, and Moses later followed his
brother's example — immolating himself on Mount
Nebo in order to secure the passage of the Israelites
over the Jordan.
After such an exhibition of perverse interpretation
one need not be surprised to be informed by this au
thority that in the time when the first temple was still
standing human victims were sacrificed at the Pass
over feast for each section of the Jewish people, and
that the blood of the victims was mixed up with the
bread, in place of leaven, peculiar expiatory virtue
being attached to such bread ; that the bodies of the
victims were afterwards roasted with fire, each of the
Jews present at the feast partaking of small morsels
of the flesh in order to secure the pardon of their
sins !
Such were some of the monstrous statements which
were put forth as the results of a critical investigation
of the Old Testament Scriptures. One thing, how-

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 189
ever, may be said in extenuation of the folly and guilt of
writing and publishing such a work. However dis
posed Professor Ghillany was, on this theory, to con
sider it probable that the practice of human sacrifice
was not utterly extinct among the Jews, he did not
venture in his work to cite any proofs from the Jewish
literature of post-Biblical times in which such cannibal
practices were taught or commended.1
The publication of Professor Rohling's Talmudjude,
the sixth edition of which appeared in 1878, marked a
decided step in advance in the history of such scanda
lous charges against the Jews. At the time Professor
Rohling published that work he was not, however, in
clined to go quite so far as to assert that the Jews were
guilty of cannibalism. The accusations made in his
book against the Jewish nation are mainly drawn from
the work of Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, Professor
at Heidelberg, entitled Entdecktes Judenthum, first
published at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1700 in two parts,
each over one thousand pages small quarto. The first
edition of that great work, however, is said to
have been confiscated by the influence of the Jewish
community at Frankfort. Eisenmenger, whose know
ledge of Jewish literature was most extensive, professed
to have been urged by the highest and noblest motives
in the publication of this work. There is, how
ever, an ugly story told that the Jews offered
to compensate him for the confiscation of the
1 We might refer the English reader who desires further
to investigate this subject to the valuable prolegomena of Dr.
M. M. Kalisch, prefixed to the first volume of his Historical
and Critical Commentary on the Book of Leviticus (London:
Longmans, 1867), premising, however, that we do not coin
cide with all the conclusions of that eminent Jewish scholar.

190 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
work, if he would consent never to republish it,
and that the negotiation only failed because, while
they offered him 12,000 gulden, he demanded 30,000.
Some copies of Eisenmenger's book got abroad in spite
of all the care taken by the authorities, and the result
was that the second edition of the work, in consequence
of the powerful intercession of several Universities, was
published after the death of its author by permission
of King Frederick I. of Prussia, in 1711. Eisen
menger's book was written in the bitterest contro
versial spirit, and has since formed the repertorium
from whence Christian controversialists malevolently
affected towards the Jewish people, have usually drawn
their materials. Rohling has made some curious mis
takes founded on a cursory reading of Eisenmenger
which have been ably exposed by Professor Franz
Delitzsch in his pamphlets, the titles of which are
given in the note on pp. 166, 167. There are cases in
which Eisenmenger has mistaken the meaning of the
Jewish writings cited by him, and Rohling has fallen
into the snare. Eisenmenger's book is by no means a
safe guide. Though disposed, however, to press every
weapon possible into service in his powerful onslaught
on Jews and Judaism, and though he sought to dis
suade Christians, under all sorts of imaginary fears,
from having recourse to Jewish physicians, whose skill
was then in high repute, Eisenmenger, it ought to be
mentioned in his honour, urged most strongly the in
utility of persecuting the Jewish race. Willing as he
was to believe that the Jews were in the habit of mur
dering Christians out of hatred to Christ's religion, he
rejected most distinctly the charges brought against
the nation of their women making use, in cases of diffi-

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 191
cult labour, of the blood of Christians, and the still
more abominable charge of using the blood of Chris
tians in the preparation of the Passover cakes and mix
ing it with the wine used at that festival.
Dr. Augustus Rohling, Professor of Hebrew Antiqui
ties and of the Exegesis of the Old Testament in the
Theological Faculty of the Imperial and Royal Uni
versity of Prague, a Roman Catholic theologian of some
position, has been daring enough to maintain that the
custom alluded to has been, and still is, in existence
among the Jews. He maintains (1) that the testi
mony of history is quite conclusive on the matter •
(2) that the practice of shedding the blood of Christian
virgins and of mixing up the same with the Passover
bread has often been had recourse to, and that it rests
upon a secret teaching on the subject handed down by
word of mouth from generation to generation ; (3) that
passages can be adduced from Jewish writings of au
thority decisively proving the existence of the custom.
Professor Rohling did not venture to make those
charges at once. His accusations put forth against
the Jews gradually increased in virulence. The his
tory of his charges is as follows : — In the summer of
1881, at the request of the Anti-Semitic agitators, Pro
fessor Rohling made a solemn deposition before the
Supreme Court of Prague, to the effect that he could
prove from printed works that the Jews regarded Chris
tians as idolaters, and were wont to term them "dogs,"
"asses," "swine," &c. ; that a Talmudic Jew was
bound by his religious principles to seek even by means
of lying and treachery to effect the moral and physical
ruin of those who are not Jews. Terrible as were
those charges, the exaggerated character of which Pro-

192 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
fessor Delitzsch has ably pointed out in his Rohling's
Talmudjude beleuchtet and other publications, Dr.
Rohling did not venture in his deposition to accuse
the Jews as guilty of human sacrifices. In 1882, how
ever, he further offered to depose on oath that the mur
der of Christians for ritual purposes was a doctrine
secretly taught among the Jews.
In his Antworten an die Rabbiner, which consists
of letters published in the close of 1882 and early in
January of the year 1883, Dr. Rohling maintained!
that the Talmud contains nothing certain respecting
human sacrifices (see his note on p. 11). But he pro
fessed still his readiness to depose on oath that the
point was " taught by the Rabbinical religion." " The
proof of this assertion," he remarks, " principally rests
upon the facts of history1 inasmuch as the Western
Jews have so arranged the texts of their books which
are accessible to Christian Hebrews that no stringent
argument can be procured from that source. If the
higher authorities would permit me to spend a few
years in the East, I verily believe that I could also dis
cover texts of this kind." This last statement is
peculiarly naive.
Another assailant, however, soon appeared on the
stage. A convert from Judaism to the Roman Church
1 Upwards of fifty closely printed pages of this work are
occupied with reciting ' historical ' proofs down to the case of
Father Thomas at Damascus. In his account given of the
latter case, Rohling is guilty of gross suppression of facts.
One would never learn from it that the most important
witnesses, whose evidence would have cleared the Jews in the
very outset, were tortured to death before the public trial
took place. See Dr. L. Loewe's Translation of Levinsohn's
Efes Vammim, or Conversations at Jerusalem on the
malicious charge of using Christian blood (Longmans, Green,
and Longman, 1841).

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 193
published a pamphlet under the nom de plume of " Dr.
Justus," designated Judenspiegel, or the Mirror of
the Jews. The first edition of this pamphlet contained
no charge of " ritual murder;" but the second edition
published early in 1883, contained an appendix
which also appears in the third edition, entitled "Is
the murder of a Christian for ritual purposes allowed
or not by the Jews?" Dr. Justus here for the first
time ventured to cite chapter and verse from ' ' the
books of the Kabbala " in support of his terrible ac
cusation, and adduced a passage to that effect from
what he termed the ' ' Sepher Halkuthem ' ' of Jeru
salem, page 156, which passage, if the citation made
therefrom were correct, would have been amply suffi
cient to substantiate the odious charge.
Rohling eagerly availed himself of Justus's dis
covery. In a letter to Herr von Onody, dated
June 19th, 1883 (reprinted in Delitzsch's Schachmatt,
p. 22), Rohling reiterated the statement that he " did
not find in the Talmud, as far as it lies before us in
print, any proof of ritual murder," but he stated that
a book had since come into his possession, printed
under the auspices of Sir Moses Montefiore so late as
the year 1868 ,x which contains a direct commenda
tion of such murder. The work in question is that
referred to by " Dr. Justus."
It is evident, therefore, that Dr. Rohling had not
1 On this point it may be well to quote a passage from
a letter of Dr. L. Loewe, which appeared in the Daily
Telegraph of July 12, 1883: "With regard to the statement
of Rohling that the mysterious book had been printed under
the auspices of Sir Moses, I have to explain that forty vears
ago, with the view of encouraging industry in the Holy Land,
he presented a person of the name of Israel Back with an
English printing-press, and the recipient, in token of deep
gratitude to the donor, named it Massat Moshe ve-Yehoodit,
14

194 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
six months ago made this discovery. The " heifer "
with which he has "plowed " this field (Judges xiv.
18), and by whose aid he has unearthed this " pearl "
of evidence, can scarcely be any other than the anony
mous Jewish convert. Relying on ' ' the staff of this
broken reed," which has verily pierced the hand of him
who has used it (Isaiah xxxvi. 6), Rohling ventured
to engage in combat with the venerable Leipzig Pro
fessor, who for nearly fifty years has made post-Biblical
Jewish literature one of the subjects of his special
study.1 Had the Talmud contained one single pas-
a present of Moses and Judith. Since that time all the
books printed by the use of that press bear that name on
the title-page. Sir Moses himself has not the remotest idea
of the printing of that book, nor has he ever heard of its
existence; but it pleased Dr. Rohling, and he thought it
would answer his purpose exceedingly well, to interpret these
words by ' under the auspices of Sir Moses Montefiore.' "
1 However bitterly Rohling wrote of Delitzsch in his
later pamphlets, he was once willing to learn from Delitzsch
on matters of Biblical criticism. In his first rej>ly, Francis
Delitzsch und die Judenfrage, he spoke of him with admira
tion. " Delitzsch," he said, " I both honour and love. For
he has, during many years of a life already long, borne labour
and toil with patience, he has become by his talents and dili
gence a spiritual power, and has performed many splendid
services to the truth by his restless literary activity. He is
in his way a second TertuUian ; his words shine forth like the
lightning ; his readiness for combat is unrivalled. And what
makes him so particularly lovable? He does not conceal the
fact that he knows Jesus Christ, our hope and life; and in
his heart the call is loud : — ' To Rome, to Rome, to Christ's
Representative ! ' He speaks, indeed, much against Rome ;
still the manner in which he says it, proves what is going on
within him; wherefore I hope that the voice may yet reach
him (TK\iip6v Trpos Kivrpa \aKrl(eiv (Acts xxvi. 14). God
grant that this treatise may contribute to make him and
others abandon the war against the Rock of Peter, which
contains in itself the saving water of the Redeemer." We
may here observe that we have intentionally abstained in this
article from noticing the hitter assaults of Rohling on Pro
testants and Protestantism, which are contained even in his
treatise against the Jews, as such attacks have no direct bear-
ing on the subject before us.

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 195
sage in which such a practice was commended, had
the Sohar, or any later Kabbalistic works, really con
tained any such directions as is now for the first time
pretended, the great Protestant controversialists like
the Buxtorfs, Wagenseil, or Eisenmenger, or great
Kabbalistic scholars of the Roman Catholic Church,
like the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, would certainly
long ago have brought such passages to the light of
day. It is not surprising that the Antworten an die Rabbi
ner should have been forbidden in the kingdom of
Bohemia, on account of its inflammatory con
tents.1 In it Professor Rohling refers in terms of
highest approbation to the pamphlet of Dr. Justus, and
maintains that ' ' the laws of the Jews ' ' are correctly
set forth in that wretched publication. He remarks :
" Dr. Justus is not identical with me, but his cause is
my cause. The texts which he quotes are taken. di
rect from the originals." The crowning discovery,
however, of Professor Rohling is contained in a letter
published in the Westungarischer Grenzbote of the 2nd
of July, 1883. He there endorses as correct a trans
lation of a passage professedly taken from the Book of
Sohar, known to be a great authority among a certain
class of Jews, especially those known as Chasidim, in
which particular directions are given as to the manner
in which a Christian virgin ought to be put to death,
and her blood used for religious purposes.
The following are the passages on which Dr. Justus
and Professor Rohling rely as evidence of that barbar
ous practice being in existence among the Jews.
1 See this fact referred to in Rohling's Polemik und das
Menschenopfer, p. 8.

196 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISE RITUAL
The first passage is from the Sepher Halkuthem. p.
156, translated as follows by Dr. Justus in his Juden-
speigel, p. 94, in which, according to that writer^ the
blood of virgins not belonging to the Jewish race is
declared to be peculiarly acceptable in the sight of
God:— "It is written in the Holy Scripture [Prov. xxx. 19], 'the
way of a man with a maid,' &c. (Three things are then
mentioned in the Bible of which it is said, ' three things are
too wonderful for me ; and the fourth ' — in the following verse
this course is described as ' the way of a man with a maid ' — ¦
I understand not.) What is here the meaning of the Holy
Scripture? The sense, put in the fewest words, is: It is
wonderful that the virgin's blood of the unclean, of the
Klipoth [those who are not Jewesses] is, however, to Heaven
an offering of sweet savour. Yes, to shed non-Jewish virgin's
blood is as holy an offering as the best spices, and a means to
reconcile God with oneself, and to draw down upon oneself
favour. This is the meaning, therefore, of the Holy Scrip
ture: It is wonderful that the virgin [is] personally un
clean and a Klipa [not a Jewess], and yet the shedding of her
blood is so precious an offering."
The passage is professedly quoted from the Jerusalem
edition. Perhaps it was in reference to this fact that
Professor Rohling remarks : "If the authorities in
power would render it possible for me to spend some
years in the East, I believe that I could also discover
texts of this import."
The Sepher Halikkutim which Dr. Justus refers to
in " Polish jargon " as the " Sepher Halkuthem " is
a collection of single texts of the Old Testament, with
remarks thereon drawn up by Chayim Vital, a pupil of
the distinguished Kabbalist Isaak Luria, and editions
of it have been published, as Delitzsch observes, in
Zolkiew, Wilna, and Jerusalem. The translation of
the passage given by Justus and endorsed by Rohling
is simply a gigantic falsehood. Professor Franz
Delitzsch has given the original of the passage on p. 30

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 197
of his Schachmatt den Blutliignern. If the learned
Professor of Leipzig used strong language in this
pamphlet it was because circumstances fully justified
that language, for the falsehoods of Justus and Rohling
had inflamed the feelings of the people against the
Jews, and led to scenes of murder and outrage.
To understand the passage fully, it is necessary to
have some idea of the Kabbalistic philosophy or theo-
sophy, which has often found warm admirers among
the theologians of Christendom. The English reader
desirous of obtaining a general idea of the chief points
of that strange system of Jewish mysticism could not
do better than peruse the pages of Dr. Christian D.
Ginsburg's interesting though brief essay, The Kab
balah, its Doctrines, Development, and Literature.1
There he will see the Kabbalistic doctrine regarding
the Sephiroth, "principles," "intelligences," or
" emanations." The exact meaning of that technical
word need not here be discussed, but it is in many
points akin to the Gnostic teachings on similar sub
jects. According to Kabbalistic doctrine the lower
world has been created after the pattern of things
above, even as the Tabernacle of Moses was formed
after the pattern of that seen on Mount Sinai ; thus the
things on earth have their counterparts in things
in heaven.
With this general remark we turn to the passage
from the Sepher Halikkutum which is given and
translated in full by Delitzsch. We have taken the
liberty of curtailing the passage, and of slightly modi
fying Delitzsch's rendering, though not departing sub
stantially from it in any particular, and have added a
1 London: Longman's, 1865.

198 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
few notes within brackets to make the passage more
generally intelligible : —
"Three things are wonderful to me, &c. The first is this:
Why is the appearance of the eagle, although it is unclean,
attached to the Chariot [the Jews style the vision given in
Ezekiel i. the vision of "the chariot;" see Ezekiel i. 10, &c]
and mentioned in the sephira of Beauty, which is called
' heaven ' ? This is that which is meant by the words ' the
way of an eagle in the heaven ' [our Authorised Version ren
ders ' in the air ']. And the second is the way of the serpent
upon the rock, as it gives thus a support for the unclean ser
pent in (the sephira) of the Kingdom [the tenth sephira which
represents the harmony of the archetypal man ; see Ginsburg p,
16, and his pictorial illustration of the tenth sephira], which is
termed 'rock' [being that which is the foundation of all.] The
third is ' the way of the ship in the heart of the sea,' for
' oniya ' [the word for ' a ship '] signifies the evil maid who
always howls, with a secret reference to " taaniya waaniya "
[' mourning and lamentation ' Lam. ii. 5, Isa. xxix. 2]. How
can she [the evil maid ' or sensuality ' which is never satisfied]
drive away her mistress, and enter by force the heart of the
sea, that is, into the congregation of Israel, which is termed
' sea ' ? It therefore follows that all his wondering [i.e. of
the author of Prov. xxx.] is how there is an opening and way
for the things which are outside [to intrude] into the glory.
So far of another [hander down of the doctrines of the
Master.] "
So far there is no reference in the remarks of Vital
to deeds of blood, but that Kabbalistic writer explains
the text in the Book of Proverbs mystically as referring
to the entrance of evil powers into the holy worlds
which emanated from the Supreme Being, the End
less One. But Vital proceeds further : —
" Samuel [the son of Chayim Vital] says: According to this
verse where it says further, ' and four things I know not,' this
means that there is yet a fourth object of wonder, namely,
' the way of a man with a maid,' and the meaning is not that
over and above the three [wonderful things, there are four
others, for no mention is made of them [i.e. of any four others
than the three mentioned]. And I have found an explana
tion of the fourth, which is [here] mentioned, in the manu
scripts of the Master (may his memory be blessed !) and I will
here write it down and briefly explain it. The matter is
that it appeared wonderful to him [the original writer] how

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 199
the blood of virginity [the directions of Mosaic law concerning
which token or sign of purity are laid down in Deut. xxii.
13-21] can be in the higher world, since all things which are
corrupted below are also notched in a similar manner above
[in that higher sphere where the archetypes exist of the thing!
below]. In other words, the archetypes above exhibit traces
of any injury which may happen to their corresponding forms
[in the lower sphere], and afterwards [it appeared wonderful
to him] that the crowned bride is a virgin, who has not yet
known a man, should belong (far be it !) to the shells [or husks,
the Kelippoth, i.e. to the imnure or demoniacal world ; see
Ginsburg's Kabbalah, pp. 25, 28.] And not only that, but
since the union i.e. of the sephira of Justice and that of
Mercy]1 is brought about only by means of the quieting of
judgment, and by compassion gaining the upper hand, whence
should the redness of the blood [primse noctis], which although
it is clean [in contrast to that spoken of in Leviticus xv.
19-24], still indicates [or betokens] judgment, get there
[namely, to the heavenly sphere]? This is a difficult ques
tion, and it is of the same kind as that which I have explained
concerning the way of the eagle in the heaven, and the way of
the ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of the serpent
upon the rock ; and there is yet another way [of explaining
the passage] ; but this may now suffice."
We have nothing whatever here to do with the cor
rectness or incorrectness of this strange Kabbalistic
1 The Kabbalistic Sephiroth are first divided into six prin
ciples mutually antagonistic, represented as masculine and
feminine. The masculine Sephiroth are Wisdom, Mercy and
Firmness ( ns: ) ; the feminine are Intelligence, Justice,
and Splendour. These six are united with each other by three
uniting principles, designated as the Crown, Beauty, and
Foundation — thus making nine in number. From the ninth
proceeds the tenth sephira, or the Kingdom which unites all
in one harmonious whole. All are regarded as emanations
from the Supreme Being or the Endless One. The masculine
sephira of Mercy on the right hand corresponds to the femi
nine sephira of Justice on the left, and the sixth sephira, that
of Beauty, unites the two. From this union ( nvi ) proceeds
the sensuous world to which marriage belongs. But even
these things which are sensuous and earthlv have, according
to this philosophical system, their counterparts in the
heavenly sphere. Justus, in his pamphlet, p. 95, evidently
understood one word translated " union " to be used in the
sense of "reconciliation," which is utterly false. Rohling, in
his Polemik, p. 58, while avoiding in words that error, endea
vours by a display of ingenuity to attach substantially the
same signification to the expression.

200 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
interpretation of the passage in the Book of Proverbs,
and it would require more extensive comments in order
fully to explain the several details of this interpreta
tion. One point, however, is certain, that the Kab
balistic interpreter never had the slightest intention of
speaking of any shedding of the blood of virgins in sac
rifice, nor does he allude in the most remote manner
to non-Jewesses. The masculine plural form used in
the passage (bethulim) always signifies "virginity"
and not "virgins," in which signification the regular
feminine plural form bethuloth is always employed.
This usage is characteristic not only of the language of
the Old Testament Scriptures, but also of that of the
Talmud. See, on the use of the plural in such a signi
fication, Gesenius-Kautzsch's Hebrdische Gramm.
§124.1. b,and Bottcher's Lehrbuch der Heb. Sprache,
§689, B., as also the Hebrew Lexicons of Gesenius or
Fiirst. We can only account for so gross a blunder of
translation on the supposition that the mistake origi
nated in the ignorance of " Dr. Justus," who was
originally a Polish Jew, but is now an ardent convert
to the Romish Church, and, like many Polish Jews,
evidently very imperfectly acquainted with the critical
niceties of the Hebrew language, and certainly un
acquainted with the Kabbalistic philosophy. Utterly
misconceiving the meaning of " Kelippoth," which
never occurs in the sense he assigns to it, and blinded
by partisanship, this Jewish convert forced upon the
passage a sense it cannot bear. Professor Rohling, in
a zeal for God which is certainly not according to know
ledge, appears at first without due examination to have
accepted Justus's interpretation. But it is unintelli
gible how any man with any pretensions to Hebrew

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 201
scholarship, after his gross blunders of translation had
been thoroughly exposed by such an authority as Pro
fessor Franz Delitzsch, of Leipzig, could yet persevere
in affirming as a truth what he must know to be false.
The case is not one in which an honest difference of
opinion is conceivable as to the correct translation of
the Hebrew. Every tyro in Talmudic or Rabbinical
Hebrew can clearly see from an examination of the
original text as given in Delitzsch's pamphlet, that the
passage appealed to has been grossly mistranslated by
Justus and Rohling, and that the interpretation they
have put upon its terms is absolutely impossible.
We do not charge Rohling with being absolutely
ignorant of Hebrew. He is the author of a respectable
Commentary on the Book of Proverbs,1 which,
though disfigured by its unnecessary and violent attacks
on Protestant commentators, owes no little of its value
to the use made in it of the work of Delitzsch on the
same portion of the Old Testament. But he is fairly
chargeable with having made blunders through rash
ness and want of accuracy. Under the influence of a
fanatical hatred against the Jews as opponents of Chris
tianity, and of feelings of indignation against the scur
rilous attacks on Christ which have appeared in the
Jewish press,8 Rohling appears to have eagerly
grasped at the first weapons handed to him by a half-
educated convert, and, rather than admit his mistakes,
has had the audacity to maintain the correctness of
lDas Salomonische Spruchbuch. TJebersetzt und erklart
von Prof. Dr. August Rohling. Mit Erlaubniss der Obern.
Mainz. 1879.
2See the important article in Professor Franz Delitzsch's
Saat auf Hoffnung, XIX Jahrg. 2tes Heft (Ostern, 1882),
entitled Christentum und jiidische Presse, Selbsterlebtes von
¥. D.

202 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
interpretations which are palpably untrue. Rohling's
final reply to Professor Franz Delitzsch, Die Polemik
und das Menschenopfer, is not lacking in ingenuity.
It will convince no Hebrew scholar, but it will deceive
numbers of persons unacquainted with that language.
It will again and again be appealed to by popular
demagogues like Herr von Onody. It will stir up the
flaming passions of ignorant Christians against the
Jews, it will embitter the hostility of the Jews against
all that is Christian. And all this has been done in
the name of the meek and loving Redeemer ! Would
that — for the sake of the innocent human beings,
whose houses may be rifled, whose persons may be ill-
treated, whose wives and daughters may be outraged,
under the influence of such false accusations — the au
thorities of the Church of Rome, whose " permission,"
it seems, had to be sought ere a Commentary on the
Book of Proverbs could be issued, would suppress these
inflammatory publications of a writer who is under
their control, being one of their professors of
theology !
It is only necessary here to observe, in reply to the
further observations of Dr. Rohling, that no reference
whatever is made to non-Jewish virgins in the pas
sage of Vital before quoted. As, however, under the
term Kelippoth, all the gross forms of the material
world are included, it is easy to understand how " the
souls of the wicked " are regarded by Kabbalists as be
longing to that category, which includes also the evil
angels, in whom darkness and impurity have the upper
hand. All such are ' ' termed death and the shadow of
death." But to conclude from such statements that
Christians, and, as "Dr. Justus " would have it, Chris-

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 203
tian virgins, are specially designated by " Kelippoth,"1
and that " crowned virgin " of the passage is a
Christian maiden, is a monstrous perversion of the
truth. The very expression " crowned virgin " proves
that the allusion made is to a Jewish bride.
According to the W est-ungarischer Grenzbote of the
2nd of July, 1883, Professor Rohling communi
cated to the court before which the unfortunate Jews
of Tisza-Eszlar were tried for the murder of Esther
Solymossi, the second passage professedly taken from
the Sohar, vol. ii. p. 119 a, in which according to his
interpretation, full directions are given as to the mode
in which Christian virgins ought to be solemnly sacri
ficed. In a letter dated Prague, July 1, Professor
Rohling stated that he was prepared to swear that the
following special directions, among others, are there
given as to the manner in which the rite is to be per
formed. (1) Such a sacrifice must be performed in the pre
sence of Jews, inasmuch as a sacred sacrifice is not to
be offered up in secret. (2) Ere the sacrifice begins,
the Jews present are to repeat a form of confession of
sin, in order that their hearts may be purified from all
sense of sin, and thus they may worthily present them
selves at the holy sacrifice. (3) The knife with which
the sacrifice is to be performed is to be tested twelve
times by passing one's nail over its edge, to see whe
ther it is perfectly free from all notches. (4) The
girl to be sacrificed must have her mouth gagged, in
1 This was evidently Justus' way of explaining the femi
nine plural Kelippoth, for he translates in the same page
' Klipa ' in the singular as Nichtjiidin, a non-Jewess, which is
a blunder.

204 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
order that she may not be able to scream, but die as
an animal dies, without uttering any sound. (5) The
girl is to be put to death with the knife in such a man
ner that all her blood shall flow out, so that the corpse
may be absolutely devoid of colour. (6) After the
sacrifice has been finished, the slayer, who in perform
ing this solemn rite discharges the functions of a high
priest, is to repeat the closing prayer, in which he
makes a vow before God that every day, when it is
possible for him to do so, he will offer such a sacrifice.
The edition of the Sohar from which these atrocious
directions are professedly taken is that published at
Przemysl in Galicia in 1880.
Is it at all surprising, when such statements are
solemnly made by a scholar and professor, that the
common people in Hungary and other parts of the
Austrian Empire should have been only too ready to
give full credence to the monstrous story told by Moritz
Scharf with respect to the murder of Esther Solymossi
in the synagogue of Tisza-Eszlar?
The whole citation, however, turns out to be a gross
falsification, for which not even a poor excuse can be
pleaded, as we have ventured to suggest is possible in
the first instance, in order to explain the mistranslation
of the passage in Sepher Halikkutim. No wonder
that Professor Franz Delitzsch was driven to ex
claim in righteous indignation that such lying can only
be accounted for on the supposition of ' ' moral insan
ity," or even demoniacal possession. With him we
deeply feel the terrible injury done to the honour of
Christ, and to the holy cause of Christianity, by such
cruel and inexcusable falsehoods.
The passage of the Book of Sohar referred to by

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 205
Rohling is given in full by Delitzsch,1 together with
a translation and brief explanation. Rohling has not
ventured to dispute the correctness of the extract. It
does contain an allusion to sacrifices, and mention is
made of the sacrificial knife whose edge has to be tested
twelve times to secure its freedom from all notches.
But how different is the real meaning of the passage
from that assigned to it by Professor Rohling ! We
can here translate only the most important portion.
Those who wish to investigate the subject fully must
obtain the pamphlet of Professor Delitzsch.
1 " Their death [that is the death which persons, who are
ignorant and opposed to the law of God. suffer as a penalty
for their sin] is a public death — death, namely, in the sense
of poverty [the Talmud, in Nedarim, 7 b, compares poverty to
death.] This their death of poverty shall be no concealed
death, to be covered up like the blood of the birds [Lev. xvii.
13], but a public death before the eyes of the people. For
the poor man is likened to a dead man. There is, however,
a poverty concealed from men, and a poverty in the sight of
all men, just as they pour out the blood of the animal before
the face of all men ; for as their blood is poured out, so the
blood of the poor disappears from the countenance before the
eyes of men, and they become white as dead persons. But
if they return penitentlv. and open not their mouths in un
seemly words against God, their death is then more mute than
that of a beast, which is dead and without voice or word.
Their confession of sin is : 'I have no mouth to defend my
self, and no forehead to lift up my head :' they confess and
praise daily the unit*' of the Holy One (blessed be He!), in
order that they may die with ' one ' [that is, in the act of re
peating the well-known formula given in Deut. vi. 4, which in
the Hebrew closes with the word ' one ' ("inx). R. Akiba is said
to have died while repeating that word, in the midst of the most
cruel torture (see Berachoth, 61 b : see p. 243] — a represen
tation [i.e. their death in that case is an image or representa
tion] of the animal [which goes forth to its death] with a
knife tested twelve times [in order to see that its edge has no
notches], and with a knife which makes ' echad ' Tthat is, 12
and 1 are 13, which is the numerical value of the Hebrew
which compose the numeral 'echad.' The typical believer
meets the sword of death with calmness, and dies with the last
word of the Jewish confession of faith upon his lips, and
therefore such a death is likened to a sacrifice."

206 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
Whatever views may be held as to the mystic doc
trine here taught in the Book of Sohar, not a word is
spoken therein of any sacrifice of virgins.1 It is!
utterly in vain that Professor Rphling has attempted
in his Polemik to justify that interpretation of its terms.
Some of his remarks would lead us to surmise that
Rohling is ignorant of, or forgetful of, some of the pe
culiarities of Hebrew syntax. It is impossible)
here to pursue the matter into its details. But in
reading such publications one can scarcely help think
ing of the remarkable denunciation recorded in the
Old Testament history, in which Micaiah, the son of
Imlah, warned the king of Israel against the false pro
phets who encouraged that king to go to war against
Syria and predicted the success of the expedition :
"Behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the
mouth of all these thy prophets " (1 Kings xxii.).
That " lying spirit " has in very deed entered into
"Dr. Justus " and Professor Rohling.
We cannot within the limits assigned to an article
refer to all the remarkable pamphlets whose titles are
set forth at its commencement. The two collections
of testimonies acquitting the Jews of this foul and cruel
charge are most important. The Berlin pamphlet
entitled Christliche Zeugnisse, and edited, we believe,
by a Jewish scholar, Dr. M. Lazarus, Professor of
Philosophy in the University of Berlin, and the fuller
pamphlet published in Vienna under the title Die Btlut-
1 On some of the remarkable doctrines taught in the Book
of Sohar we would call attention to a very able pamphlet en
titled Auszilge aus dem Buche Sohar mit deutscher TJeberset-
zung (3te verbesserte Ausgabe. Berlin : Ph. G. Low, 1857).
Its author was the eminent Jewish Christian, Dr. J. H. Biesen-
thal, one of the highest authorities in Rabbinical questions.

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL 207
beschuldigung gegen die Juden, von christlicher Seite
beurtheilt, were both most timely and valuable. The
decrees of Innocent IV., Gregory X., Pius VI., and
many other opinions of kings and others set forth in
the second pamphlet, are most interesting. Most im
portant is the solemn opinion given on the subject by
the Theological Faculty of the University of Leipzig
in 1714 in answer to the inquiries of Friedrich August,
King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, a monarch most
hostilely disposed to the Jewish people. Professor
Rohling, in his Antworten, had recourse to "special
pleading ' ' in his attempting to meet the charge of op
posing Papal decrees. One must remember how in
consistent the Church of Rome has been in all her
dealings on this point, and how often she has cruelly
oppressed the Jewish race.
We would, however, call special attention to the
elaborate opinion of Professor Dr. Hermann L.
Strack, of Berlin, in favour of the Jews (which is con
tained in both pamphlets), in which he points out the
absurdity of the charge of using human blood as being
utterly opposed to all the directions of the Mosaic law.
He refers to the extreme care taken by the Jews even
in the Middle Ages to abstain from anything' with
blood in it, and among other facts to the curious di
rections given with regard to the minute atoms of
blood sometimes found in eggs, which were ordered to
be carefully shunned by pious Jews, as well as to the
directions given as to what to do when, in the act of
eating, the gums might accidentally bleed. Professor
Strack also points out that the accusations of this kind
brought against the Jews were originally preferred

208 HUMAN SACRIFICES AND JEWISH RITUAL
also against the Christians by their pagan assailants.1
The opinions in these pamphlets of Professor Noldecke
of Strasburg, Professor Merx of Heidelberg, Professor
Stade of Geissen, Professor Siegfried of Jena, all He
brew scholars of the highest eminence, and men not
likely to be influenced by any theological prepossessions
on the subject, ought to be sufficient in the eyes of all
rational men to clear the Jewish nation from this
odious charge. The theological faculties of Amster
dam and of Leyden have also given strong opinions in
favour of the Jews. The only strange thing about the
matter is that in the nineteenth century of the Chris
tian era the charge — which, like that of witchcraft,
ought long since to have been thrown into the lumber-
room of exploded opinions — should have been believed
in by many persons, and that a Roman Catholic Pro
fessor in Prague, and a Roman Catholic religious order
in Paderborn in Westphalia, should have lent all their
influence and support to the circulation of so vile a
calumny against the Jewish nation.
1 See Das Blut im Glauben und Aberglauben der Menschheit
mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der " Volksmedicin " und
des " judischen Blutritus " von Prof. Dr. H. L. Strack.
8te. Auflage Munchen, 1900.

V
SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS OF THE
FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES.1
The study of the sayings and doings of the Jewish doc
tors of the first century is interesting to all concerned
in the investigation of the early history of Christianity.
In drawing attention to the subject, though writing
from a Christian standpoint, we shall endeavour to
avoid questions of religious controversy.
Though Hillel belonged to an age somewhat earlier
than that of which we are about to treat, it may be
well before entering on our special subject to say a few
words about that remarkable man. For Hillel, though
he died a few years before the Christian era, may in
many respects be regarded as the father of that system
of biblical exegesis which was more fully developed by
the Jewish scholars who succeeded him.
1 Die Agada der Tannaiten. Erster Band : Von Hillel bis
Akiba. Von 30 vor bis 135 nach d. g. Z. Von Dr. Wilhelm
Bacher, Professor an der Landes-Rabbinerschule in Budapest.
Strasburg i. E. : Karl J. Trubner. 1884. The second volume
of this work was published in 1890.
ninx -fns Die Sprilche der Vater, ein ethischer Mischna-
Traktat, mit kurzer Einleitung, Anmerkungen und einen
Wortregister, von Prof. Dr. Herm. L. Strack. 3te. Auflage
Leipzig. 1901.
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, comprising Pirqe Aboth and
Pereq B. Meir in Hebrew and English, with Critical and Illus
trative Notes : and specimen pages of the Cambridge Univer
sity Manuscript of the Mishnah " Jerushalmith," from which
the text of Aboth is taken. Edited for the Syndics of the
Cambridge University Press by Charles Taylor, M.A. [now
209
15

210 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
The anecdotes illustrative of Hillel' s patience and
suavity, as contrasted with the irritability and harsh
ness of his distinguished contemporary Shammai, are
well known, and may be found cited with sufficient
fulness and accuracy in the Appendix to Farrar's popu
lar Life of Christ. They need not, therefore, be re
peated here. According to one of these anecdotes Hillel
is said to have given utterance to the " golden rule " :
" What is hateful to thyself that do not to thy fellow."
Farrar considers that the occurrence of a similar ex
pression in Tobit1 is sufficient to prove that Hillel is
not the original author of the saying, for " the probable
date of the Book of Tobit is two centuries before Hil
lel." The date of the Book of Tobit is, however, a
matter of great uncertainty, and its composition has
been by some scholars assigned to a much later era.
Hence all deductions based on its date must be received
with caution ; and it may be observed that Bacher con
siders the sentence in Tobit to have been unquestion-
D.D., Master of St. John's College, Cambridge]. Cambridge:
at the University Press. 1877. Second Edition. 1897.
Beal-Enclyclopadie fiir Bibel und Talmud. Worterbuch zum
Handgebrauch fiir Bibelfreunde, Theologen, Juristen, Ge-
meinde und Schulvorsteher, Lehrer etc., ausgearbeitet von Dr.
J. Hamburger, Landrabbiner zu Strelitz in Mecklenburg. Ab-
theilung II. ; Die Talmudischen Artikel A-Z. Strelitz : Im
Selbstverlage des Verfassers, 1883. Supplement Band, Leipzig,
1886. Geschichte der Juden von den altesten Zeiten bis auf die
Gegenwart. Aus den Quellen neu bearbeitet von Dr. H.
Graetz, Professor an der Universitat Breslau. Band iii. und
iv. : Gesch. von dem Tode Juda Makkabi's bis zum Abschluss
des Talmud. 1863.
Geschichte des jildischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi,
von Dr. Emil Schurer, ordentl. Professor der Theol. zu Gies-
sen. 2te Auflage, Zweiter Theil. Die inneren Zustande Pales-
tina's und des jiidischen Volkes. — Leipzig: Hinrichs. 1886.
1 Do that to no man which thou hatest. — Tobit iv. 15.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 211
ably derived from Hillel. The authorship, however,
of such an aphorism, especially in face of the fact that
many parallel sayings of an earlier date can be
adduced, is a matter of too much uncertainty to admit
of any definite conclusion.
It is, however, an interesting fact, and one which
has indirectly an important bearing upon vexed
questions of authorship, that the great Jewish
teachers of the two centuries preceding the Chris
tian era, and even those of a considerably later
period, had an inveterate repugnance to commit
ting to writing any ordinances or directions except
such as were actually contained in the recognised
Sacred Writings. The teaching of those scholars
was strictly oral, and their decisions on the most
important points of law, dogma, and interpretation
were entrusted only to the memory of their well-trained
disciples. It was not until after the dire calamities
of later times that this practice was modified, and even
then not without opposition.1
According to Bacher, the earliest rules for the inter
pretation of Holy Scripture may be traced back to Hil
lel. Few specimens of his interpretations, however,
have been handed down by tradition, unless, as is pro
bable, some of those ascribed to his disciples may origi
nally have proceeded from their master. Hillel urged
upon his disciples the importance of studying Scripture
for its own sake, and not for any ulterior benefit which
such study might bring in its train. This appears to
1 See the Excursus on ' The Men of the Great Synagogue,'
p. 484, appended to my work on The Book of Koheleth, or
Ecclesiastes considered in relation to Modern Criticism and
to the Doctrines of Modern Pessimism (Hodder & Stoughton,
1883).

212 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
be the meaning of his aphorism, " He who desires
profit from the crown (of learning) perishes "1; or, as
a later rabbi expresses the same sentiment, " Make it
(the Law) not a crown to glory in it, nor an axe to get
thy living by " 2 — Aboth, iv. 5.
As an interesting instance of Hillel's interpretations
of Scripture passages, we may quote the following rules
for conduct in ordinary life, deduced by him from
Eccles. iii. 4, 5 : —
Hillel the wise (lit. the old) used to say : ' Do not be seen
naked (when others are clothed), do not be seen clothed (if
others are naked), do not be seen standing (if others are
sitting), do not be seen sitting (if others are standing), do
not be seen laughing (if others are weeping), do not be seen
1 >]^[j kjr*i e'she'x-i Aboth i. 13, iv. 5.
2 The above is the reading in Strack's text : the other
reading, adopted by Taylor, has the suffix in the plural, in
which case the meaning probably is : ' Make not them (dis-_
ciples) a crown to glory in them [comp. Phil. iv. 1 ; 1 Thess.
ii. 19], nor an axe to live by them.' The passage will be
found in Taylor's edit. ch. iv. 9. The saying of Hillel is
also quoted in Aboth I. 13. Dr. Charles Taylor's work on
The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers is r>erhar>s the most valu
able of the many commentaries published on that remarkable
Talmudic treatise. As an introduction to the study of the
Mishna, Strack's handy edition of the Aboth is most valuable,
and peculiarly useful to beginners, for the Hebrew text is
there fully pointed. Strack's critical remarks, though short,
are most comprehensive, and the price at which his work is
published ought to secure its use in every class-room where
the later Hebrew is studied. In our citations from Aboth
in the present article we have frequentlv followed the text
of Strack. It may be well here to note in the outset that we
have not considered it necessary in all cases, in a popular
article like the present, to give literal translations, and in
quoting from the Talmuds and Midrashim we have sometimes
paraphrased the original in order to avoid more lengthened
explanation We take this opportunity of noticing the re
cently published Lehrbuch der Nev-hebraisehen Spra.che und
Litteratur, von Hermann L. Strack und Carl Siegfried.
Karlsruhe u. Leipzig : H. Reuther, 1884 — which affords much
assistance to students of Rabbinical literature.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 213
weeping (if others are laughing). For it is written ' there
is a time to weep, and a time to laugh,' ' a time to embrace,
and a time to refrain from embracing.' — Tosefta Berachoth,
II. at end.1
The teaching of Hillel on this point has been at least
partially endorsed by the great Apostle in his com
mand : " Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep
with them that weep " (Rom. xii. 15).
The employment of the parable may also be traced
to Hillel. In the Midrash on Levit. xxv. 39, it is re
lated that his scholars asked Hillel one day where he
was going. " To perform a commandment,"
answered the rabbi. " What special commandment?"
asked the disciples. " To bathe myself in the bath
house," said Hillel. " Is that one of the command
ments?" inquired they. Certainly rejoined Hillel;
' ' if the statues of kings placed in the theatres and cir
cuses have to be kept clean and washed, how much
more ought I not to keep my body clean, since I have
been created in the image of God?"
It is unnecessary to enter into any account of the
differences which divided the milder school of the Jew-
1 The citation of the Book of Koheleth by Hillel, and the
quotation of proof-texts from Koheleth by Simon ben
Shetach, who flourished sixty or seventy years earlier than
Hillel, may be fairly quoted as evidence against Graetz's theory
that the Book of Ecclesiastes was composed in the reign of
Herod the Great— a theory which has been endorsed by Renan.
But such citations are by no means the chief evidence in
opposition to that theory. Prof. Graetz no doubt uninten
tionally, misrepresented our own views on this point in his
review in the Monatsschrift fiir Geschichte u. Wissenschaft
des Judenthums (Feb. u. Marz, 1885), which we hope to notice
more fully on another occasion. See also on this subject the
interesting work published by Rabbi Dr. S. Schiffer, Das
Buch Kohelet nach der Auffassung der Weisen des Talmud
und Midrash, und der jildischen Erklixrer des Mittelalters.
Theil I. : Von der Mischna bis zum Abschluss des babyl. Tal
mud. 1884.

214 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
ish doctors of the Law led by Hillel, from the sterner
school which acknowledged Shammai as its master.
Schurer has an interesting chapter on this subject.
Those controversies were often of deeper significance
than appears at first sight. These rival schools of
Jewish theologians discussed not a few of the questions
which still agitate the theological world. They were
divided in opinion on the question of the future state
of the dead, and the rewards and punishments to be
meted out in another world. The school of Shammai
held that men in general will there be divided into three
classes, two of which, they argued, are expressly men
tioned, and the third inferentially alluded to, in Dan.
xii. 2, where it is written, " Many of those that sleep
in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt." The third
class — namely, those who may belong neither to the
one category nor the other — according to the Sham-
maite doctors , will be delivered over to purgatorial fire ,
in which they will ultimately be ' ' purified and made
white " (Dan. xii. 10). In support of their views the
Shammaites adduced the expression used in 1 Sam. ii.
6: "He bringeth down to the grave (Sheol) and
bringeth up;" and, what was still a worse argument
(considered from an exegetical standpoint) , the mention
of " the third part " in Zech. xiii. 9. The doctors of
the school of Hillel agreed with the Shammanites in
admitting the existence of a middle class of trans
gressors, but maintained that such persons would be
dealt with by God more mercifully. In support of their
view they adduced the description given of God in Exod
xxxiv. 6 as "rich in mercy," and went so far as to
affirm that David, in Psalm cxvi., distinctly refers

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 215
to the case of such individuals, and their final deliver
ance by God's mercy. These rabbis formulated no
such doctrine as prayers for the dead, which was un
known till after the first century1
It is not our object here to discuss such interpreta
tions, but to point out that many questions of perma
nent interest were discussed in these schools of reli
gious philosophy. Much interesting material may
be gleaned here and there from the sayings of the an
cient rabbis, which throw light on the controversies of
the present day.
Foremost among the rabbis properly belonging to
the first century stands Gamaliel, the great teacher of
Saul of Tarsus or the Apostle Paul. We can glance
but slightly at his history. He was a grandson of
Hillel, and, like his grandfather, President
of the Jewish Sanhedrin. St. Paul, in his
speech to the Jews at Jerusalem, states
that he was brought up in Jerusalem at
the feet of Gamaliel, "instructed according to the
strict manner of the law of our fathers " (Acts xxii. 3).
Gamaliel is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles
as taking part in the meeting of the Jewish Council be
fore which Peter and the other apostles were brought
for daring to preach and teach in the name of
Jesus in opposition to the commands of the
Sanhedrin. Gamaliel was not then President of
the Sanhedrin, but was a teacher and doctor of the
Law, " held in reputation among all people." It was
mainly through his instrumentality and influence that
the Sanhedrin was induced to set the Apostles at liber-
1 See my Intermediate State and Prayers for the Dead,
examined in the Light of Scripture and of ancient Jewish and
Christian Literature. 1900.

216 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
ty after a slight punishment, with the solemn injunc
tion not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus — a
charge which the apostles, however, declined to obey
(Acts v. 33-42). The advice which Gamaliel gave
the Council on that occasion was : ' ' Refrain from these
men and let them alone ; for if this counsel or this work
be of men it will be overthrown ; but if it be of God, ye
will not be able to overthrow them, lest haply ye be
found even to be fighting against God."
Rabban Gamaliel1 was not long able to maintain
the passive attitude towards Christianity which he re
commended on that occasion. An interesting discus
sion on the peculiarities of the Messianic age, which
took place between him and one of his disciples, not
improbably the Apostle Paul, has been preserved in
one of the treatises of the Talmud (Shabbath, 30 b),
and is translated in full in our work on The Book of
Koheleth, pp. 22-25. The principal argument made
use of in that discussion on the Christian side was
founded on the statement in Eccl. i. 7, "There is
nothing new under the sun." The disputant on that
side seems to have maintained that it was absurd to
regard the physical changes in nature spoken of by the
prophets as signs of the Messianic period to have been
meant literally ; which position he sought to confirm by
the authority of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Gamaliel
contended that those predictions had to be literally
1 Rabbi, my master, or my lord, was the ordinary title given
to the Jewish doctors of Palestine. Rab. master, is especi
ally used of the Jewish doctors of Babylon. Rabban, our
master, or our lord, is a title given to some seven or eight
of the descendants of Hillel. The scholars of the period
which closed with Hillel and Shammai received no similar
titles of honour. Their simple names were regarded as in
themselves sufficiently honourable.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 217
accomplished, and that their fulfilment might
rationally be expected, and that the Messianic age had
not arrived, since such changes had not taken place.
Gamaliel in his later years was more decidedly op
posed to the Christian religion, as is proved by the fact
that he was chosen some years later as Nasi, or Prince
of the Sanhedrin. His sayings preserved in the Pirke
Aboth point in the same direction : " Make to thyself
a master, and remove thyself from doubt, and do not
often gives tithes by conjecture." The first two seem
to have been levelled at the use or abuse of private
judgment in matters of religion. Gamaliel urges the
importance of following the counsel of " the wise,"
that is, the duty of submission to the decision of the
Synagogue. His second saying is in some respects
parallel to " How long halt ye between two masters?"
The third saying seems to refer to a different matter.
Its meaning is, do not often give tithes on mere guess
work, or at haphazard ; for if a person gives more than
required he will be regarded as a prodigal or a hypocrite,
but if less than is right he commits sin, and will be
condemned as avaricious.
No historical weight whatever is to be attached to
the legend which affirms that Gamaliel ultimately be
came a convert to Christianity. The story of his having
been buried in Pisa, where the grave of St. Gama
liel is still pointed out, is of course, wholly mythical.
The death of Gamaliel took place about eighteen years
before the destruction of Jerusalem. He is often
styled Gamaliel the Elder, to distinguish him from R.
Gamaliel II., of whom we shall speak shortly. Of
Gamaliel I. it is said, " when Gamaliel the Elder died
the glory of the Law ceased, and purity and sanctity

218 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
died." His presidency of the Sanhedrin was dis
tinguished by a considerable number of reforms in
Jewish usages, and by the display of a considerable
friendliness of spirit towards the Gentiles, even to
wards those who were still attached to pagan rites and
ceremonies. Simon, the son of Gamaliel, was, according to
Josephus, a man of great wisdom and reason, and capa
ble of restoring public affairs by his prudence when in
a critical condition (Life, § 38). Josephus states that
Simeon was personally unfriendly towards himself,
and, consequently that writer's account of Simeon
(which in some respects is unfavourable) cannot be im
plicitly relied on. He appears to have belonged to the
peace party in the closing years of the Jewish common
wealth. He was killed at, or shortly before, the capture
of Jerusalem. A saying of his is preserved in the
Treatise Aboth : "All my days I have grown up
among the wise, and have not found aught good for a
man but silence : not learning but doing is the impor
tant thing, for everyone who multiplies words brings
forth sin." The meaning of this aphorism is more
profound than that of the English proverb, " Speech
is silver, silence is golden," or than the parallel proverb
of another rabbi (R. Joshua), " Speech is worth a sela
(a shekel), silence two."1 The saying of Simeon ben
Gamaliel has reference to the vain wrangling which
often occurred in the Jewish schools during the Roman
period, and which not unfrequently concerned matters
beyond the comprehension of man. Such idle talk
often sorely perplexed the poor uninitiated ' ' way
faring men," who sometimes scarcely knew how to find
1 Midrash Koheleth on ch. v. 5.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 219
the way to the city (Jerusalem), although they ven
tured to engage on such subtle questions of theology.
At an earlier period the divinely inspired Koheleth had
found it necessary similarly to rebuke folly (Eccl. x.
12-15), and to remind his hearers of the fact there was
" a time to keep silence " (Eccl. iii. 7). The Talmud
contains many similar warnings. The man who pre
sumes to talk too much, even in praise of the Holy One
of Israel , is warned that he is in danger of being ' ' swal
lowed up," or " rooted out of the earth."1 The pro
phet Habakkuk says, " The Lord is in His holy Tem
ple : let all the earth keep silence before Him ;" and
the Psalmist exclaims, " Silence is His praise " (Ps.
lxv. 2).2 On the wisdom of keeping silence on many
points of theological controversy the Talmud notes,
" Beautiful is silence to the wise, how much more so
to the fools."3 One might well compare the Latin
proverb, " 0 ! si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses !"
Johanan ben Zakkai and Jonathan ben Uzziel were
contemporaries of the great Gamaliel. They were
termed respectively " the eldest " and " the youngest "
of a group of eighty disciples who specially attached
themselves to Hillel. A later tradition in the Aboth
R. Nathan (apparently founded on the ambiguity of the
Hebrew expressions denoting " eldest " and " young
est ") amplifies the statement, and relates that Hillel
had eighty disciples, thirty of whom were worthy that
the Shekinah should rest on them as it did on Moses ;
1 See Dr. C. Taylor's note 38 on p. 39.
2 This is the literal sense of the phrase rendered "praise
waiteth for Thee," in our A.V. See the comment of Delitzsch
on that passage, and also of Perowne.
5 Jer. Talmud Pesacliim, ix. 1 ; Babli Pesachim, 99 a.

220 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
thirty that the sun should stand still for them as it
did for Joshua ; while twenty were of medium capacity,
the least of whom was Johanan ben Zakkai. The lat
ter story does not indeed harmonise with the fact that
Hillel himself used to term Johanan ben Zakkai, " the
Father of Wisdom and the Upholder of the Future."
Ben Zakkai was known as a firm adherent to the old
Jewish traditions, and a strict teacher of morals. He
was disposed to be friendly to strangers, although he
lived at a time when the feeling of the Jewish nation
was aroused to desperation against their cruel tyrants,
the Romans. He taught his disciples that there was a
hope even of the salvation of the Gentiles in the future
state. From the expression used in Prov. xiv. 34 —
' ' Righteousness exalteth a nation ( via ) , but sin is a
reproach to the people " — he drew the conclusion (the
theological correctness of which need not here be dis
cussed) that moral goodness would procure the same
mercy for the Gentiles as the sin-offering obtained for
Israel (Baba Bathra, 10b).
The learning and wisdom of Ben Zakkai attracted
many disciples around him, even in those troublous
times. He occupied himself chiefly in expounding the
Law, and in teaching the traditions which in process
of time clustered around it. He used to teach his dis
ciples in the cool of the evening, sitting under the
shade of the Temple walls. He attacked the tenets of
the Sadducees ; and condemned all attempts at rebel
lion against the Romans as wicked and foolish. Hence
he occupied a position similar to that which had been
assumed by Jeremiah during the Babylonian war.
Ben Zakkai was, like Jeremiah, a strong advocate
for peace. " Wherefore will ye," said he to the Zea-

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 221
lots, " destroy the city, and give over the Temple to
conflagration ?" Indignant at the iniquities which pre
vailed among the Galileans, he exclaimed, " 0 Galilee,
Galilee, thou hatest the Law ; thine end will be to seek
employment from the hands of the robbers" (Jer.
Shabbath, xvi. 15 d).
According to a story told on Jewish authority, and
referred to in the Talmuds, during the siege of Jerusa
lem the gates of the Temple, which had been duly
shut and barred in the evening, were found to have
mysteriously opened themselves in the morning. R.
Johanan ben Zakkai rebuked the gates of the sanctuary
in the following terms: "0 Sanctuary, sanctuary!
why dost thou trouble thyself? I know of thee that
thine end is to be left desolate, for Zechariah, the son
of Iddo, prophesied long since against thee, ' Open thy
doors, 0 Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy
cedars ' " (Zech xi. I).1
As Ben Zakkai was known to belong to the peace
party, he was offered during the siege of Jerusalem a
place of refuge in the Roman camp. He first strove to
persuade the Jews to surrender, but finding that in
vain, he determined to accept the offer of the Romans.
He induced his nephew Ben Batiach, a captain of the
Zealots, to aid him in effecting his escape. His dis
ciples spread abroad the news that their master was
dead, and in the dusk of evening two of them (Elazar
and Joshua) bore the supposed corpse in a coffin to the
gate of the city. They had wisely taken the pre-
1 See on this passage our Bampton Lectures on Zechariah.
p. 303. The Targum Sheni on Esther relates a similar
legend, and states that the words were spoken by a voice
from heaven when the Temple was destroyed by Nebuchad-

222 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
caution to place inside the coffin some meat in a state
of putrefaction, in order that the odour of decom
position might aid them to attain their object. But
even that device hardly enabled them to secure the
wished-for permission to pass beyond the gates. It re
quired all the authority which Ben Batiach possessed
to be exercised before the wild soldiers were restrained
from forcing open the coffin. Having thus escaped
with the skin of his teeth, Ben Zakkai was favourably
received by the Romans. He exerted all his elo
quence to induce the Roman general to punish only the
guilty and to spare the city and Temple. According
to the common legend, the rabbi saluted the Roman
general as king. The Roman informed him that he
was not a king. " True," replied the rabbi, " thou
art not yet a king ; but a monarch thou shalt become ,
for the Temple of Jerusalem can only perish by the
hands of a king."
At his request the Roman commander permitted Ben
Zakkai to open a school in Jamnia, a small city situated
not far from the sea-coast between Joppa (now Jaffa)
and Ashdod. The request appeared small, but it was
fraught with important results to the Jewish people.
When tidings came of the terrible though expected
catastrophe, and of the destruction of the Temple,
round which the affections of the Jews were centred,
Ben Zakkai rent his clothes, and mourned as for the
loss of a nearest relation. But he did not abandon
himself to despair, though his disciples were disposed
to regard all as hopelessly lost, because there was no
longer a temple in which to worship God, nor a place
where the sin-offering could be offered in accordance
with the Law of Moses. Johanan ben Zakkai strove to

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 223
console them with the thought that acts of benevo
lence and mercy would be accepted by God in room
of the sin-offering, and dwelt on the teaching of the
prophet (Hosea vi. 6), "I will have mercy and not
sacrifice" (see Baba Bathra, 10 b). On account of
his re-organisation of the Jewish ecclesiastical arrange
ments, and the adaptation of the old Law to the altered
circumstances of the times, Ben Zakkai has been
termed by Graetz ' ' the founder of Talmudic Juda
ism." It was owing chiefly to Ben Zakkai's efforts that
the Jews, in spite of their misfortunes, continued to
exist as a nation though no longer a State ; that Juda
ism in its altered form attained the position of a re
ligion, though destitute of a common sanctuary and
without sacrifice, and that the Jewish doctrine attained
the right of law though without any recognised legal
tribunal (see Bacher, p. 26).
Ben Zakkai's love of peace led him to give curious
explanations of certain passages of Scripture. The
command in Exod. xx. 25 not to employ a tool of iron
in the erection of the altar was explained symbolically :
" The iron is the symbol of war and strife, the altar
that of peace and reconciliation ; iron must therefore be
kept far from the altar " (Mechilta on Yithra, §11).
" If God commanded that no iron should be employed
over the stones of the altar, which neither see, nor
hear, nor speak, because they procure peace between
Israel and the Father in Heaven , how much more shall
God's judgment be far from everyone who makes peace
between individuals, between man and wife, city and
city, nation and nation, kingdom and kingdom, family
and family " (see Bacher, p. 31). The blessings pro
nounced in the Sermon on the Mount must recur to

224 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
the minds of all : " Blessed are the merciful : for they
shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers : for
they shall be called sons of God " (Matt. v. 7, 9).
A saying of Ben Zakkai's is quoted in the Treatise
Aboth : ' If thou hast practised Thorah [the Law]
much, claim not merit to thyself, for thereunto wast
thou created.' Compare the words of our Lord :
' When ye shall have done all those things which are
commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants :
we have done that which was our duty to do ' (Luke
xvii. 10). We may also call to mind the saying of the
Apostle : ' If I preach the gospel I have nothing to
glory of ; for necessity is laid upon me ; for woe is
unto me, if I preach not the gospel ' (1 Cor. ix. 16).
Ben Zakkai had five favourite disciples, whom he
used thus to describe : ' ' Eliezer ben Hyrkanus is like
a plastered cistern, which loseth not a drop of water;
Joshua ben Hananyah, happy is she that bare him!
Jose the priest is pious ; Simeon ben Nathanael is one
who fears sin ; Elazar ben 'Arak is a bubbling spring "
(Aboth ii. 10, Strack's edit. ii. 86).
He asked these disciples one day to "go and see
what is the good way which man should cleave to."
R. Eliezer said : " A good eye " (i.e. a bountiful eye) ;
R. Joshua said : " A good companion " ; R. Jose : " A
good neighbour " ; R. Simeon : " He who foresees that
which shall happen " ; R. Elazar ben 'Arak said :
" A good heart." Ben Zakkai said : "I approve of
the words of Elazar ben 'Arak rather than yours, for
his words include yours."
On another occasion Ben Zakkai said to his dis
ciples : " Go and see what is the evil way from which
man should keep himself." R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanus

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 225
said : " An evil eye " ; R. Joshua said : " An evil com
panion " ; R. Jose said: "An evil neighbour"; R.
Simeon said : " He that borroweth and payeth not
again ; he who borrows from man is like one who
borrows from God [lit. "the Place"], as it is said,
' The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the
righteous is gracious and giveth ' " ; R. Elazar ben
'Arak said: "An evil heart." Johanan ben Zakkai
said : " I approve the words of Elazar ben 'Arak more
than your words, for his words include yours."1
When Ben Zakkai was overwhelmed with sorrow at
the death of his only son, those five scholars came to
visit him, and sought to console him. They came in
one by one, and sat each down alone before him, and
begged permission to speak. Permission having been
granted, R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanus sought to comfort
the teacher by adducing the case of Adam, who com
forted himself after the death of his son. Ben Zakkai
replied : " Is it not enough that I should be afflicted
myself, that I should also be reminded of the grief of
Adam?" R. Joshua next entered, and spoke of the
sorrow that overwhelmed Job when he lost all his sons
and daughters in one day. The old rabbi gave a simi
lar answer : " Is it not enough that I should myself be
afflicted, but I must also be reminded of the sorrows of
Job?" R. Jose the priest next begged permission to
speak, and tried to console him with recalling to his
mind that Aaron, the great high priest of Israel, lost
his two sons when grown up to maturity. He received
the same reply ; so did R. Simeon, who spoke of King
David's loss of his child. R. Elazar ben 'Arak next
1 These two anecdotes are both found in Aboth ii. 12, 13,
or in Strack's edit. ii. 8b, 9.
16

226 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
entered. When Johanan ben Zakkai saw him, he said
unto his attendant : " Throw away your things, and
go to the bath, for this is a great man, and I am not able
to stand before him." Elazar entered, and sat down
before Ben Zakkai, and said : " I will tell thee a par
able as to what this thing is like. It is like unto a
man into whose care a king had entrusted a deposit,
and who was daily wont to weep and say : ' Woe is
me, how shall I be able to render up this deposit
safely?" "Rabbi," said he, "thou hadst once a son
who used to read the Law, and the Prophets, and the
Holy Writings, Mishnah, Halakoth, and Haggadoth ;
he has departed from this world free from sin, and canst
thou not receive comfort in the thought that thou
hast restored to God in safety the deposit He com
mitted to thee?" " 0 Rabbi Elazar, my son," replied
the aged teacher, "thou hast comforted me in the
manner in which the sons of man may be comforted."1
In another treatise of the Talmud, that entitled
Berachoth, it is related that when Rabban Johanan
was on his death-bed his scholars came to visit him.
When he saw them he began to weep. Then said his
scholars to him : " 0 Light of Israel ! 0 Pillar at the
right hand ! ' ' (alluding to the two pillars erected by
Solomon in the porch of the Temple, Boaz on the left
and Jachin on the right, 1 Kings vii. 21), " 0 mighty
Hammer! why weepest thou?" He said to them:
' ' If they were about to bring me before a king of flesh
and blood, who to-day is and to-morrow will be in his
grave, even then I might weep. But if he were angry
with me his anger is not eternal ; and if he were to
1 We have somewhat curtailed the anecdote as told in the
Aboth Babbi Nathan, § xiv.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 227
cast me into chains, his chains are not eternal ; and if
he were to put me to death, his death would not be
eternal ; I might appease him with words, or bribe him
with riches. But now they are about to lead me before
the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He ! who
liveth and abideth for everlasting ; and if He casts me
into chains, His chains are eternal chains; and if He
kills me, it is everlasting death ; and I cannot appease
Him with words, nor bribe Him with mammon. Nor
is that all : there are before Him two ways ; one leads
to the Garden of Eden, and one to Gehenna, and I
know not which way they will conduct me to ; and
shall I not weep?" His scholars said to him : " Bless
us, 0 our master !" He said to them : " May it be
the will of God that the fear of Heaven may be im
pressed upon you like the fear of flesh and blood ! ' '
His disciples said unto him : " Is that all?" He said
to them : " And would that it were even so !" (that is,
that you had always such fear before you !), "for when
a man is about to commit a sin, he is wont to say, If
only no man would see me ! ' ' Shortly before his death
Ben Zakkai exclaimed : ' ' Keep the vessels from un-
cleanliness " (i.e. take them out of the house, since
all the vessels are unclean which are in a house where
a death occurs) , ' ' and place a chair for Hezekiah , king
of Judah, for he is coming " (Berachoth, 28 b). That
is, in accordance with a prevalent belief that dying
saints were visited by the spirits of the departed, Ben
Zakkai's last thoughts were that Hezekiah, the pious
king of Judah, was approaching to conduct him to the
judgment-seat of the Eternal.
The five disciples of Ben Zakkai survived their mas
ter. Of the eldest of them, Eliezer ben Hyrkanus,

228 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
Ben Zakkai once said : " If all the wise men of Israel
were placed in one scale of the balance, and Eliezer
ben Hyrkanus in the other, he would outweigh them
all (Aboth ii. 8 b). Eliezer ben Hyrkanus, some years
after Ben Zakkai's death, was, however, placed under
the ban, because of his determined opposition to the
opinion of the majority of the learned men. But it is
noteworthy that, notwithstanding this fact, as Jost
(Geschichte der Juden) remarks, the Mishnah has pre
served more of his sayings than of those of his con
temporaries. An interesting collection of these on a
large variety of subjects is to be found in Bacher's
valuable treatise. His three sayings (preserved in the
treatise Aboth) show that he wished his disciples to
profit by his experience, and to be more ready than he
had been to submit to the decisions of the majority of
the sages. These sayings are : " Let the honour of thy
friend be dear unto thee as thine own and be not easily
provoked ; and repent one day before thy death [that is,
repent to-day, for to-morrow thou mayest die]. And
warm thyself before the fire of the wise, but beware of
their coals , that thou mayest not be burnt ; for their
bite is like the bite of the fox, and their sting the sting
of a scorpion, and their hissing like the hissing of a
fiery serpent, and all their words like coals of fire."
R. Joshua, the second disciple, was deservedly held
in good reputation. He was the disciple who, in com
pany with Elazar ben 'Arak, had borne Ben Zakkai in
his coffin out of the gate of Jerusalem into the Roman
lines. He was a Levite, and belonged to the singers of
the Temple. He was, however, compelled to follow
the occupation of a smith in order to obtain his daily
livelihood. Hence he occupied in some respects a

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 229
middle position between the upper and the lower
classes of Jewish society, and is said to have been the
only one of the learned class who had any hold upon
the affections of the common people. He was so ugly
in person that a Roman princess once asked him the
impudent question : ' ' Why is so much wisdom con
tained in such an unshapely vessel?" She received,
however, a pungent reply. "Wine," remarked the
rabbi, " is not kept in golden jars, but in earthenware
vessels." Like his master, R. Joshua was a man of
peace, and did all in his power to calm his country
men during the rebellion against Roman domination in
the days of Trajan. He is said to have had consider
able knowledge of astronomy and to have understood
some of the laws that regulate the reappearance of
comets, and his knowledge of such matters enabled
him during a sea voyage to save the crew from destruc
tion. His sayings (preserved in Aboth) are : " An evil
eye [envy] , and the evil nature, and hatred of the
creatures [mankind], drive a man out of the world."
Compare with the last clause the more profound saying
of the Apostle : ' ' He that hateth his brother is a mur
derer : and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him " (1 John iii. 15).
B. Jose, surnamed by his master " the pious," also
said three things : ' ' Let the wealth of thy companion
be as precious to thee as thine own ; prepare thyself to
learn Thorah [the Holy Scriptures], for it is not an in
herited possession [that is, its acquisition requires per
sonal toil and effort] ; and let all thine actions be done
for the name of heaven " — for the honour of God, and
not for selfish ends. Dr. C. Taylor observes that an
Oxford manuscript of Aboth here contains a reference

230 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
to the blessing pronounced on Jael for the murder of
Sisera, as a good illustration of the principle that an
evil action done from a good motive is better in God's
sight than a good action performed from evil motives.
The first of R. Jose's sayings reminds us of our
Lord's remark : " If ye have not been faithful in the
unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust
the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in
that which is another's, who will give you that which is
your own?" (Luke xvi. 11, 12). His last saying may
be paralleled with: "Whether ye eat or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God " (1 Cor.
x. 31).
R. Simeon ben Nathanael, the fourth disciple, com
mended by Ben Zakkai as one who "feared sin,"
seems to have had something of the character of the
Nathanael commended in the Gospel as "an Israelite
indeed, in whom was no guile" (John i. 47). Were
we to let ourselves be guided by fancy, we might con
jecture that the two men were related to each other.
R. Simeon's sayings are "Be careful in reading the
Shema [that is, the ' Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord,' Deut. vi. 4, recited morning and
evening by every Jew] , and in prayer ; and when thou
prayest make not thy prayer an ordinance,1 but an
entreaty before God, blessed be He ! for it is said, ' for
He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and plente
ous in grace, and repenteth of the evil ' (Joel ii. 13) ;
and be not wicked unto thyself. ' ' The last clause is a
quotation from Sirach xiv. 5, and is probably correctly
1 That is, not like some command attended to only from
compulsion and gone through without any taste for it.
Shammai used to insist on the reading of the Law at stated
times as a fixed ordinance (,v?P, ) which should never be omitted.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 231
explained by Geiger (ap. Strack), though differently in
terpreted by Taylor, " be not sinful for thyself"— i.e.
when thou art removed from the company and observa
tion of other men, and thou revealest thy true charac
ter to thyself by heartlessness in prayer, as one who
has no love to God. The sayings of the fifth disciple,
R. Elazar ben 'Arak, are peculiar: "Be diligent to
learn Thorah, that thou mayest know what to answer
to Epicurus [a common designation in the Talmud of
the free-thinking Jew] , and know before whom thou
toilest, and who is the Lord of thy work, that he may
render to thee the reward of thy doing." A New
Testament parallel to this is the warning of St. Peter
in his first epistle, addressed to the Jews of the dis
persion (ch. iii. 15), " Fear not their fear, neither be
troubled ; but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord :
being ready always to give answer to every man that
asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you,
yet with meekness and fear : having a good conscience,
that, wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put
to shame, who revile your good manner of life in
Christ." Gamaliel II. was grandson of the renowned Gama
liel. He was carefully trained by his father, Simeon,
in all the learning of the Jewish schools. He remained
in Jerusalem during the terrible siege of Titus, and was
one of the prisoners taken at its capture. His life was
spared by the Roman general, at the intercession of
Johanan ben Zakkai. Advanced to the presidency of
the Jewish Sanhedrin, and recognised by the Roman
authorities as the representative of the Jewish nation,
Gamaliel strove hard to unite the two great parties
which had long divided the Jewish schools , namely the

232 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
followers of Hillel and Shammai. He exercised a rigid
discrimmation in admitting students to the school at
Jamnia, and placed at the door a janitor to exclude the
unworthy. From the precision in which the scholars
were drawn up in regular lines, that school obtained in
his day the name of " The Vine Garden." He strove
as far as possible to suppress disputations on useless
subjects, and made all feel the authority of the patri
archal chair. He introduced the ban or excommunica
tion, in order to silence opposition. The ban or ex
communication was, however, in that period compara
tively mild in its effects, although the person under
such a sentence had to wear mourning, and was re
stricted in intercourse with his fellows. Gamaliel
used this weapon not merely to punish junior
offenders, but to strike down his equals. R.
Akiba was threatened with this punishment, and it
was inflicted on the most learned disciple of Ben
Zakkai, namely, Eliezer ben Hyrkanus. But the
further attempt to exercise discipline upon R.
Joshua aroused to a flame the long pent-up indig
nation against the patriarch. He was accor
dingly deposed at the synod of Jamnia (a.d.
118), and the presidency bestowed upon the youthful
Elazar ben 'Asariah. The synod of Jamnia was re
markable for several other subjects brought under dis
cussion, and especially for having been the Jewish
council which finally silenced the objections made in
Jewish circles to the retention of the Book of Koheleth
and the Song of Songs among the Sacred Writings.
Elazar ben "Asariah at once threw open the school at
Jamnia, removed the porter, and admitted all who
chose freely to enter. The obnoxious rules passed by

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 233
Gamaliel were repealed. The school was soon filled
to overflowing. Gamaliel exhibited under these cir
cumstances remarkable self-control, and continued
regularly to attend the disputations. One day an
Ammonite proselyte of the house of Judah sought to be
admitted to the congregation of Israel. R. Gamaliel
opposed his admission, appealing to the prohibition
contained in Deut. xxiii. 3: "An Ammonite or
Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the
Lord." R. Joshua maintained that the proselyte
ought to be received. " Are these people still," asked
he, "in their ancient possessions? Did not Senna
cherib carry them away captive to Assyria?" (Isa. x.)
" But is it not written," urged R. Gamaliel, " I will
bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon?"
(Jer. xlix. 6.) " They have verily been brought back
again," said Gamaliel. R. Joshua maintained that
such was not the case. At the close of the debate the
assembly divided, and the views advocated by R. Joshua
were accepted by a large majority of votes. R. Gama
liel then withdrew his opposition, and the proselyte was
admitted into the congregation. R. Gamaliel, after
the meeting, visited R. Joshua in his dwelling, and
sought reconciliation with him. The latter was a nail-
smith, and his house was black with the smoke of the
furnace. Gamaliel on entering marvelled to see the
place in which his renowned adversary lived. " Thy
walls," said he in astonishment, "bear testimony to
the fact that thou art a blacksmith." "Woe,"
answered R. Joshua, " to the generation whose leader
thou art ! Thou knowest not the poverty of the learned,
or how they support themselves!" "Forgive me,"
said R. Gamaliel, " I have been unjust to thee." R.

234 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
Joshua was silent. " Forgive me," urged R. Gama
liel, "out of consideration for the honour of my
father." R. Joshua gave him his hand, and the two
learned men were reconciled on the spot.1 This re
conciliation was noised abroad, and created a deep
revulsion in favour of Gamaliel. R. Elazar ben
'Asariah generously resigned the patriarchate, and
Gamaliel II. was reinstated in the post.
We close this notice of Gamaliel II. with the golden
saying of his mentioned in Aboth, a saying which
seems to have been called forth by his own experiences :
" On three things the world stands : on Judgment, and
on Truth, and on Peace." "Justice, truth, and
peace," as Dr. Charles Taylor notes, " are collectively
the cruvSeo-ftos of society, a threefold cord which is
not quickly broken " (Eccl. iv. 12). Peace plays an
important part in the New Testament. Thus of Christ
it is said : " He is our peace " (Eph. ii. 14) ; and St.
Paul says : ' ' The God of Peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly" (Rom. xvi. 20). Peace, as
Taylor observes, is a Talmudic name of God, and the
etymological connection in Hebrew between peace and
perfectness, DY?ffil cbwr bin — " everything is per
fected by peace " — affords a clue to the source from
whence several of the Pauline expressions may have
been derived.
R. Elazar ben 'Azariah used to ask : " To what is
that man like whose wisdom is greater than his doings
[works] ? He is like to a tree whose branches are
many, but whose roots are few; and the wind comes
and uproots it, and overturns it, as it is written : ' and
1 See Berachoth, 28 ». The same story is related in
Bechoroth, 36.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 235
he shall be as one stripped naked [as the heath,
A. V.] in the desert, and shall not see when good
cometh, and he shall inhabit the parched places
in the wilderness, a salt land, and not inhabited '
(Jer. xvii. 6). But what is that man like
whose doings are greater than his wisdom?
Like a tree whose branches are few, and whose
roots are many, for though all the winds which
are in the world come and light upon it they do not move
it from its place, according as it is said, ' and he shall
be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth
out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat
cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall
not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit' " (Jer. xvii. 8)
(Abothiii. 27, in Strack's ed., iii. 17).
The striking resemblance of this sentiment to the
words of our Lord at the conclusion of the Sermon on
the Mount (Matt. vii. 24-27) cannot fail to suggest it
self to the mind. The details of the parable of our
Lord are different, but the teaching of both parables is
identical. The last and most famous of the great Jewish rabbis
of the first century who shall be here mentioned is R.
Akiba. According to the common story he was of
Gentile origin. He entered into the employment of a
rich inhabitant of Jerusalem as a shepherd. While so
engaged he cordially hated the learned, possibly be
cause of the contempt often exhibited by them towards
persons of his class. He once said : " When I was
one of the common people I would say, 0 that I had
here the disciple of a wise man, that I might bite him
like an ass" (Pesachim, 49 b). But his hatred to

236 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
learning was totally altered by his falling in love with
Rachel, the daughter of his employer. He was then a
widower, and had one son by a previous wife. He was
a man of noble exterior as well as of great mental
powers. His love was returned with love. But
Rachel refused to give him her hand unless he aban
doned his shepherd's staff and became a scholar.
Though forty years of age, he accepted the conditions
imposed by his beloved, and forthwith enrolled him
self as a pupil of the most distinguished Jewish teachers
of that day. For twelve years he devoted himself to
intense study, though at first he learned slowly and
with difficulty. He began his studies some fifteen
years before the destruction of the Temple by Titus.
Though his fellow-students were men of the highest
abilities, Akiba excelled them all. He carefully
learned the traditions of the fathers, and acquired the
skill to discover proofs for these, or allusions to them,
in passages of the Sacred Scriptures. When on one
occasion he pressed his opponent R. Eliezer ben Hyr
kanus hard in argument, R. Joshua, the learned black
smith, said to Eliezer : " See, these are the people
which you despise." (Jer. Pesach. vi. 4).
In due course Akiba was married ; but Rachel's
father, Kalba Shebna, opposed the marriage, and it
took place privately. Kalba Shebna drove the pair
from his house, and disinherited his daughter. The
married pair were accordingly reduced to great straits.
Their first child was born upon a heap of straw, and
Rachel was compelled to cut off her hair and sell it in
order to provide the means of subsistence. R. Akiba
consoled her on the occasion with the promise, " When
I become rich I will buy for thee a golden Jerusalem."

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 237
He was obliged to separate himself for several years
from her society while carrying on his studies at
Jerusalem. When he returned to Bene-Berak, south
east of Joppa, after having completed his studies, in
order to found a college of his own, a multitude went
out to meet the then distinguished rabbi. Rachel,
clad in miserable attire, went also forth to meet him,
and when she saw him sprang forward and clasped his
knees. His disciples, not knowing who she was, at
tempted to thrust her away. But R. Akiba exclaimed,
' ' Let her alone , make room for her ; all that I am , and
that you are, we have to thank her for" (Nedarim, 50).
Her father, proud of the fame of his son-in-law, now
bestowed upon her a rich dowry, and left R. Akiba his
entire possessions. R. Akiba was not unmindful of the
promise he had made in the days of poverty, and be
stowed upon his wife a magnificent robe upon which
was embroidered in gold a picture of Jerusalem.1
According to the story, the wife of the Jewish pat
riarch became envious on account of the splendour of
the robe which R. Akiba bestowed upon his wife, and
complained that no such present had been bestowed
upon her. The Patriarch Gamaliel II. reprimanded
her for her jeolousy, remarking that a wife only de
served such a distinction who had deprived herself of
her tresses for the sake of her husband. Possessed of
a wife of such sterling qualities, it is no wonder that
one of the sayings attributed to R. Akiba should be :
"That man is rich who possesses a wife with
excellent virtues" (Shabbath, 25).
R. Akiba's school in Bene-Berak soon became famous
and many of the distinguished rabbis of a later period
1 See Graetz's Gesichichte der Juden, iv. 59 ff.

238 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
were among his pupils. His scholars were wont to
compare R. Akiba to a husbandman who goes out to a
field to seek for grain. If he finds wheat he gathers
that, if barley he takes it also. If he sees spelt he adds
it to his stock, or if beans or lentils he reaps them also.
But when he returns, he arranges all in order according
to their respective sorts.1 His rules for teaching
were : " A portion daily, a portion daily." " Repeat
often the sentence which you wish to impress on the
minds of your scholars." " Teach out of a book which
is correct, for a blun'der once fixed in the memory
cannot easily be eradicated."
It is unnecessary here to enter into any details as to
his learning. This subject is ably treated in the work
of Bacher, who gives numerous instances of his in
genuity. His subtlety enabled him to invent many
Biblical arguments in favour of the traditions of the
fathers. Those interpretations often cannot bear the
light of modern criticism, although similar principles
of exegesis have been only too common with popular
preachers of all Churches, who sometimes take little
trouble to ascertain the real meaning of the texts
they venture to expound. R. Akiba was said to be
able to give a reason for every little stroke and point
in the Sacred Writings.
He used to say of sin that ' ' in the beginning it is as
weak as the thread of a spider, but in the end as strong
as the towing rope of a ship." (Midrash Bereshith, §
xxii. , on Gen. iv. 6). This saying of his was founded
on Isaiah v. 18. On one occasion he taught for a time
his students in the morning under the shade of a large
fig-tree. When the figs began to get ripe, the owner
i Aboth Babbi Nathan, § 18.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 239
of the tree was wont to go out early and gather
all the ripe fruit. Fearing that he did so because he
suspected their honesty, the rabbi and his pupils re
moved to another locality. The owner was disappoin
ted when he came and found that they had left the
place. He at once sought them and discovered where
they had removed. " My lords," said the owner,
' ' you afforded me much pleasure when you held your
meetings under my fig-tree, and now you have deprived
me of that honour." " We did not mean," replied
they, " to deprive you of any pleasure." " But why
did you, then, go away from my tree?" asked the
owner. "Because," was the reply, "we thought
you suspected us." "I did not suspect you,"
answered the owner, " and I beg that you will return."
They accordingly did so. The next morning the
owner came early as usual, but he stood quietly there,
and did not gather the figs. When the sun shone up
on the tree the ripe fruit became full of worms. The
owner then showed the fruit to R. Akiba and his dis
ciples, and said, " You now see why I used to pluck off
the fruit so early, not because I suspected your honesty,
but because I did not wish the fruit to be destroyed."
R. Akiba then remarked to his disciples, " See ye not
that the owner of the fig-tree knows exactly when the
fruit should be gathered ; and even so God knows the
time when the righteous ought to be taken away from
this world." He then quoted in illustration of the
truth the expression in the Song of Songs vi. 2, " My
beloved is gone down to his garden to gather lilies."1
1 This anecdote is related in the Midrash Bereshith, §
xlii., on Gen. xxv. 8, and also in the Midrash Koheleth in
ch. v. 11, and in other places.

240 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
The following sayings of R. Akiba remind us of the
words of the Apostle John in the opening verses of his
1 Epist. iii. : " Man is beloved inasmuch as he was
created in the image of God ; greater love was it that it
was made known to him that he was so created."
" Israel is beloved because they are called the sons of
God ; greater love was it that this was made known to
them [in the words of the Law] , as it is said ' Ye are the
sons of the Lord your God'" (Aboth iii. 21, 22;
Strack, iii. 14).
More important are his sayings, in the same Trea
tise, on the question of predestination and foreknow
ledge : " Everything is foreseen ; and freewill is given.
The world is judged by grace, and everything is accord
ing to work." R. Akiba here affirms that the supposed
opposites, predestination and freewill, mercy and jus
tice, are reconcilable with each other. The profound
saying of a later rabbi may also be quoted as setting
forth the prevalent opinion among the Pharisees on
this question : " Everything is in the power of Heaven
except the disposition of a man towards Heaven."
What a flood of light does the doctrine of the Pharisee
shed on that of the great apostle of the Gentiles, who
was " a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee," in the
Epistle to the Romans. It is the old teaching of the
Book of Koheleth, namely, that man's circumstances
and surroundings are foreseen and predestined, but that
man himself is free to choose whether he will hear, or
refuse to hear, the voice of God.
The last saying of R. Akiba that we shall here quote
is : " Everything is given [to man] on pledge, and the
net (of death ; compare Eccl. ix. 12, Isa. xxv. 7) is cast
over all the living. The office is open ; the broker [the

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 241
Lord of the world] gives credit ; and the ledger is open ;
and the hand writes ; and whosoever will borrow comes
and borrows ; and the bailiffs [the angels] go round con
tinually every day and exact from a man whether he
knows it or not ; and they have whereon to lean [evi
dence to justify them] ; and the judgment is a judgment
of truth ; and everything is prepared for the Banquet "
(Aboth iii. 25, in Strack's ed., iii. 16). Compare the
cry of the angel in the Book of the Revelation : ' ' Bles
sed are they that are called to the marriage supper of
the Lamb " (Rev. xix. 9).
R. Akiba was one of the chief movers in the terrible
Jewish insurrection in the days of Trajan and Hadrian.
That second war of the Jews had no historian like
Josephus to record its victories and defeats. The last
great battle was fought on the great plain on which
the city Sepporis stood, at the Castra Vetera of the
Romans. That name seems afterwards to have been
corrupted into that of Bether.1 The awful struggle
might well be described in the words of Rev. xiv. 20,
" The blood came forth even unto the horses' bridles."
The losses of the Romans were too awful to permit of
their making any boast of the victory which they ulti
mately achieved, but according to the lowest calcula
tion, in that fearful war more than 580,000 Jews
perished by the sword.
R. Akiba travelled far and wide previous to the
breaking out of that insurrection to prepare the Jews
for the struggle. He visited even Rome on that busi
ness. As his companions heard in the distance the
1 See Bether, die fragliche Stadt im Hadrianisch-judis-
chen Kriege: ein 1700-jahriges Missverstandness. Von Dr.
F. Lebrecht. Berlin : Adolf Cohn, 1877.
17

242 SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS
noise of the great city, they were startled,
and thought of the days of the destruc
tion of Jerusalem by Titus. The rabbi consoled them
with the remark, " If the wicked now prosper so much,
how will it be by-and-by with the righteous?"
" Everything that happens to you is for your good "
was his constant expression, a saying similar to that of
the Apostle in Rom. viii. 28, which has often been a
consolation to the martyrs of the Church. "When
evil befals the heathen," said Akiba, " they curse their
gods; but we praise our God both in prosperity and
adversity, and cry, Praise be to the Judge of Truth !"
At Rome he met with a young unmarried nobleman
who had heard of his wisdom, but who noticed with as
tonishment that the rabbi was on foot and barefooted.
" Art thou a Jewish rabbi?" asked the Roman. " I
am," replied R. Akiba. " Then listen," said he, "to
three words : a king rides upon horseback, a freeman
on an ass, and a common person goes on foot with
shoes ; but he that hath neither the one nor the other,
for him the grave is to be preferred." " Thou hast
spoken three words," rejoined the rabbi; " now hear
also three from me. The ornament of the face is the
beard, the joy of the heart is the wife, and the dowry
of the Eternal is children : woe to the man who has
not these three ! Moreover, I will answer thee from
our Scripture : ' I have seen slaves upon horses, and
princes like slaves walking upon the ground.' "
(Eccles. x. 6. See Midrash Koheleth, on that
passage). R. Akiba threw his whole heart and soul into the
Jewish insurrection. He proclaimed the great Jewish
commander Bar Kokab as the promised Messiah.

SOME GREAT JEWISH RABBIS 243
Referring to the name of that commander, which signi
fied " son of a star," R. Akiba exclaimed, " Behold
the star that is come out of Jacob ; the days of redemp
tion are at hand!" " Akiba," said the peace-loving
R. Joshua, " the grass will spring up from thy jaw
bone ere the Son of David will come."
The Romans put R. Akiba to death with the utmost
torture. While they were combing off his flesh with
iron combs the time of prayer arrived. The Jewish
rabbi began to recite the Jewish formula, " Hear, 0
Israel," with a loud voice, to the amazement of all pre
sent. " Art thou a sorcerer?" asked the Roman
general who presided over the execution. " I am no
sorcerer," was the calm reply of R. Akiba ; " but I re
joice to fulfil that which has ever been regarded by
me as the highest ideal : ' Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with
all thy substance ' — that is, even if He should take
away thy life. ' ' As he was dwelling on the word ' ' the
Lord thy God is one " ( -rriN ), and prolonging the
last syllable of the Hebrew word, his spirit winged its
flight to that place where ' ' the wicked cease from
troubling and the weary are at rest " (Job iii. 17).
Our subject is not exhausted, nor have we given more
than a few illustrations of what may be gathered from
even a superficial study of Rabbinical literature.

VI
MARTIN LUTHER, THE HERO OF THE
REFORMATION1

The four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Mar
tin Luther, celebrated in 1883, awakened afresh an in
terest in everything connected with that great Re
former. It will be remembered with what enthusiasm
the Luther Jubilaeum was celebrated in all parts of
Germany. The centenary was, indeed, observed
almost everywhere throughout the Protestant world,
but, as was natural, Germany led the van.
Pope Leo XIII. utilised the occasion by issuing a
Papal Brief on August 10th, 1883, in which he
besought writers on the Roman Catholic side to come
to the aid of "Holy Mother Church," and promised
revelations from the archives of the Vatican which
would demonstrate the beneficial influence ever exerted
by the Holy See.
The Luther celebration in 1883 produced several im
portant Protestant works on the history of the Refor-
1 This article in a somewhat modified form was delivered as
a lecture in many places in Ireland at the 400th celebration
of the birth of Martin Luther. It was afterwards pub
lished as an article in the British and Foreign Ecclesiastical
Beview for Jan., 1884. It is now issued in a somewhat re
vised and enlarged form. 244

MARTIN LUTHER 245
mation. Nor were Roman Catholic writers idle.
Professor Johannes Janssen led the way with a re
markable " History of the German People from the
End of the Middle Ages," of which a second edition
of the first two volumes down to 1535 appeared the
same year, comprising with their supplementary;
volumes (An meine Kritiker), nearly 2,500 pages in
octavo. The entire work, since published, bringing the
history down to 1638, extends to six volumes. It has
been translated into English. Janssen 's history re
ceived the warm approbation of the Pope ; but the his
torical untruths with which it abounds were mercilessly
exposed by Kostlin, Kawerau, and other able German
historians. Kostlin's smaller "Life of Luther" is
the only one of these writings which has yet appeared
in English, and the other works on the Reformation by
Germans are comparatively little known in our
country. Luther was born at Mohra, near Eisenach, on the
10th November, 1483. His father was a miner, his
ancestors were all peasants. His parents were re
ligious but severe, so his childhood was not happy.
His school-boy days in Magdeburg, and afterwards in
Eisenach, were worse. Luther in later days remarked,
" There exists no more now the hell and purgatory of
our schools, where we were martyred over cases and
tenses, although we then learned absolutely nothing
through so much flogging, quaking, terror and
misery." He speaks of having been beaten fifteen
times in one day without having committed any fault
whatever. In Eisenach he used to sing from door to
door. His singing brought him under the notice of
Dame Ursula Cotta, wife of one of the most respect-

246 MARTIN LUTHER
able citizens of the town, who, with the approval of
her husband, took the boy into her house. Martin
Luther was then fifteen years old. Janssen incorrectly
asserts that he was sixteen years of age, and that
Dame Cotta was " a young noble lady," and adds
that from her Luther learned the expression, " There
is nothing dearer on earth than woman's love to him
by whom it can be obtained."
Janssen in later editions has somewhat toned down
numerous innuendoes made in the earlier. There he
stated that Luther's age was seventeen, and asserted
that he learned in Dame Cotta 's house to play on the
lute and flute. In reply to the criticisms of Professor
Kostlin (in a work entitled " Luther und J. Janssen:
der deutsche Reformator und ein ultramontaner
Historiker "), Janssen somewhat modified the passage.
The insinuation conveyed is, as Kostlin has proved,
baseless. Luther did not learn to play on the flute till
much later, while no evidence has been adduced to
warrant any slur upon the character of Dame Cotta.
It is natural that after having experienced, as a friend
less boy, Christian kindness from such a quarter,
Luther should in later life have spoken warmly of the
love exhibited by women, and stated that he had
learned the truth of the adage already quoted from
that noble Christian lady.
Pope Leo XIII. in speaking of the mode in which
history has often been tampered with, remarks that
' ' writers have often ventured to mutilate or cunningly
cast into the shade the broader lineaments, as
it were, of past events, and so pass over in silence
deeds of glory and claims to honourable remem
brance." The Pope adds: "Nay, they have not

MARTIN LUTHER 247
been ashamed to pry closely into the doubtful mys
teries of private life, and bring forth into the light of
day whatever seemed most likely to scandalise, and
afford a subject of mirth to the multitude, ever so
prone to listen to detraction." The ultramontane his
torian ought to have laid to heart the Pope's weighty
words. In the summer of 1501 Luther, then eighteen years
of age, left Eisenach, and entered the University of
Erfurt, which University, though not now in exist
ence, could then look back upon a history of about a
hundred years, and occupied an honourable position
among the seats of learning in Germany. In Michael
mas, 1502, Luther took the degree of Bachelor of
Philosophy, now generally merged into the title of
Doctor of Philosophy. In Erfurt Luther studied the
classics, especially Latin. In the University library
he came across for the first time a copy of the complete
Latin Bible, and was charmed with the story of Han
nah and Samuel. He studied with eagerness philoso
phy and music, and seems to have taken part in
the amusements of his fellow-students. According to
all contemporary accounts his morals were then blame
less. Not one of those who knew Luther at Erfurt,
says Kostlin, although many of them were afterwards
bitter enemies, ever hinted that Luther was guilty of
immorality. His early education, with all its defects, had been a
pious one. He had learned the Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and knew so
much of the Holy Scriptures as was contained in the
Epistles and Gospels read in the church services.
Pious priests even then used to explain those portions

248 MARTIN LUTHER
in the vernacular. The religious exercises of his
youth he continued in the University, but he obtained
no peace. One question which then troubled him was
whether his eternal salvation or damnation had not al
ready been decreed, and whether, therefore, all efforts
to obtain salvation might not be in vain. The sud
den death of a friend startled him ; a terrible thunder
storm encountered on a return journey to Erfurt
brought matters to a crisis. With the idea implanted
in his mind that true religion required a total with
drawal from the world, when a thunderbolt struck the
path before him, he fell terrified to the earth exclaim
ing, " Help, dear St. Anna, I will become a monk!"
This was in the end of June, 1505. When he reached
Erfurt he regretted the vow, and many advised him to
disregard it. But conscience would not permit him to
act thus lightly ; and the brilliant young Master of
Philosophy, who had already excited high expecta
tions by his lectures in the University upon Aristotle,
gave a farewell entertainment to his friends on July
16, knocked next day at the gates of the Augustinian
monastery, and was admitted as a probationer.
Many of Luther's bitterest enemies have borne wit
ness to the strictness of his conduct as a monk. In
spite, however, of frequent confessions and of solemn
absolutions, in spite of penances and prayers and fast
ing — Luther remained long a stranger to peace. His
strivings after the higher life, and the severe discipline
he underwent, caused him to be held up in other
monasteries as a model. He stated in after life that
he was at one time inclined to be exalted above mea
sure and to become " a haughty saint." But he soon
sank back into the depths of despondency, and was

MARTIN LUTHER 249
constrained, like the Apostle to cry out, "0, wretched
man that I am ! who shall deliver me out of the body
of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24).
At this time he received some comfort through the
senior monk under whose charge he was placed, who
urged on him the duty of faith, quoting the sentence
in the Apostles' Creed, " I believe in the forgiveness
of sins." That monk pointed out to him St. Bernard's
explanation of the Old Testament passage quoted by
St. Paul " The just shall live by faith." More im
portant, however, were the consolations he received
from Johann von Staupitz, Vicar-General of the
Augustinian order of monks in Germany, whose
teachings were evangelical, although he was a devoted
upholder of the Church of Rome.
It is curious to observe that Janssen regards these
spiritual conflicts of Luther as having been caused by
his ignorance of the Church's teaching on the subject
of " good works." That writer quotes some excellent
passages which occur in Roman Catholic devotional
works of the period, in which salvation is said to de
pend upon the merits of Christ alone. Such expres
sions, however, although they occur here and there in
those books, are too often contradicted or explained
away in the immediate context in such a manner as
to oblige the reader to arrive at the conclusion which
tortured the soul of Luther.
On May 2nd, 1507, Luther was ordained priest. He
had at that time obtained, through the study of the
Scriptures and of Augustine, some insight into the
great truth of Justification by Faith, destined after
wards to be his guiding principle. In 1508, on the
recommendation of Staupitz, he was appointed Pro-

250 MARTIN LUTHER
fessor in the Philosophical faculty of the University
of Wittenberg, founded by Frederick the Wise, Elec
tor of Saxony, six years before. Luther was in due
course admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Theology,
which entitled him to deliver lectures in theology.
He was afterwards for a short time recalled to Erfurt,
but soon returned to Wittenberg, and was then dis
patched to Rome on business connected with his order.
Luther's visit to Rome was an important epoch in
his history. He looked forward with eagerness to the
day when he should be permitted to tread the streets
of the " Eternal City," and no pilgrim ever entered
Rome with higher expectations.
The Papacy was, however, at that time almost at
the lowest point of infamy. The memory of Alexan
der VI. who had occupied the Papal See from 1492 to
1503, was still fresh in the memories of all. A greater
monster of iniquity never sat upon a throne. Im
moral to an extent which decency forbids us to men
tion, Alexander VI. had made Rome a den of iniquity.
His children were even worse ; the infamous
Caesar Borgia, and the beautiful and dissolute Lucretia
filled Italy and the world with the story of their scan
dals. The Borgias were characters which even Roman
Catholic historians have seldom ventured to defend;
but Alexander VI., villain as he was, for eleven long
years occupied the position of " Vicar of Christ on
earth." Bad as were his immediate predecessors in
the chair of St. Peter, he exceeded them all, and in
the midst of his iniquities perished by drinking a
poisoned draught prepared for another.
His successor (for the three weeks' Pontificate of
Pius III. need scarcely be reckoned) was Julius II.,

MARTIN LUTHER 251
who ascended the throne in 1503, and was Pope when
Luther visited Rome. He was better than Alexander,
though addicted to the sin of drunkenness, and more
fitted for the camp than the Church. Luther saw
him returning to Rome in triumph, after a campaign in
which he had signalised himself by leading on bravely
the soldiers who stormed the town.
In his ' ' Table Talk ' ' Luther says that Pope Julius
" was an excellent man in war and governing," and
had " indeed worldly wisdom and understanding," but
he was " a cruel, powerful monster, a godless man."
Pope Julius, however, "kept the streets in Rome so
clean that there was not much pestilence there."
Luther was disgusted with the frivolity and irrever
ence of the priests at Rome. He was then " a silly
saint." He visited all the churches and believed all
the marvels that were related to him. He ascended
on his knees the 28 stairs which, according to the le
gend, once belonged to Pontius Pilate's palace in Jeru
salem, and which our Lord descended on the way to
the cross. But while performing that penance the
passage came forcibly to his mind " The just shall
live by faith," and he broke off his prayers in the mid
dle. Had it not been for the visit to Rome, Luther
used to say, he might have thought that he had done
the Pope an injustice. The sights he beheld at Rome
bore fruits in after days. He there learned what
Rome really was. In Rome also he learned Hebrew
from the greatest Jewish scholar of the age, Elias
Levita, who had instructed Reuchlin, the father of
Christian Hebraists, into the mysteries of that tongue.
Notwithstanding the scandals Luther then saw and
heard of, he was, as Janssen observes, for many years

252 MARTIN LUTHER
after his return faithful to the Roman Pontiff. The
statement of Duke George of Saxony that Luther be
came the enemy of the Papacy because the Pope re
fused to release him from his vows and permit him
to marry, or because the Pope did not make him a
bishop or cardinal, Janssen declares to be untrue.
Luther, writes Janssen, saw much to admire in Rome ;
the magnificent hospitals which Christian benevolence
had erected, where women of rank took care of the sick,
excited his admiration. He praised also the sobriety
of the Romans and the careful manner in which the
authorities acted in all cases affecting ecclesiastical
rights. After his return to Germany Luther resumed his
post as Professor at Wittenberg, and became Doctor
of Theology, October, 1512. His lectures on the
Psalms aroused great interest. He acquired a deeper
insight into the difference between the Law and the
Gospel, and was led to clearer views on the question of
Justification by Faith. He was also a preacher in the
city, and attracted crowds eager to hear the strains of
the Gospel. He had already learned by experience the
worthlessness of man's efforts to attain righteousness,
and that the righteousness which the sinner requires
could only be attained by simple faith in Christ.
We cannot review all the incidents of his career, or
summarise his correspondence with Erasmus of Rotter
dam, the greatest scholar of the age. Luther derived
much spiritual benefit from a study of the sermons of
Tauler, a mystic writer of the 14th century, and his
first work was a re-issue in 1516 of a tract based on
Tauler's writings, entitled " German Theology," of
which another edition appeared in 1518. The study

MARTIN LUTHER 253
of St. Augustine's works gave him clearer views on the
question of justification. But Luther still believed in
the divine authority of priests, bishops, and Popes, and
in the infallibility of the Church.
Pope Julius II. died in 1513, and Leo X. ascended
the Papal chair. He was a man of culture and
erudition, but more a Pagan than a Christian. Leo
was a favourer of the arts and literature, and his great
ambition was to make the church of St. Peter worthy
of the metropolis of Christendom. Julius had enter
tained the same idea, and had begun by pulling down
part of the ancient church. But to erect a grand and
magnificent building, money was needed, and it had
to be obtained. Hence the Pope resolved to open the
treasury of the Church, and to offer indulgences to all
prepared to purchase such gifts.
According to the Church of Rome, sin is never for
given without satisfaction made for the offence commit
ted. The Council of Trent (Sess. xiv. De Poenit. cap.ix.)
asserts that we are able to make satisfaction to God the
Father, through Christ Jesus, not only by punishments
voluntarily endured by us as chastisements for sin, or
imposed at the pleasure of the priest according to the
degree of the offence, but even, which is the greatest
proof of love, by temporal pains inflicted by God Him
self, and by us patiently borne. As men generally
cannot make satisfaction for all the sins committed in
their lifetime, it was supposed there must be a purga
tory after death where such satisfaction can be made.
On this sandy foundation is built the doctrine of in
dulgences. The Roman Pontiff is supposed to be able
to grant both to the faithful on earth, and to those in
purgatory, indulgences from the treasury formed by

254 MARTIN LUTHER
the merits of Christ and the saints. All, living or
dead, who obtain indulgences of this kind, are con
sidered freed "from so much temporal punishment,
due for their actual sins according to the divine justice,
as may be equivalent to the indulgence conceded and
acquired " (Bull of Leo X. De Indulgentiis).
This doctrine, interpreted in the mildest way, is bad
enough, but the instruction delivered to the sub-com
missioners appointed by Archbishop Albrecht in the
beginning of Leo X.'s reign went much further. The
words of that instruction are : ' ' Four principal graces
are conceded by the Apostolic Bull (of the year 1514),
each of which can be obtained without the other."
The first was " plenary remission of all sins." " By
which remissions of sins even the punishments in pur
gatory, which must be endured on account of sin
against the Divine Majesty, are fully remitted, and the
pains of the said purgatory are altogether done away
with." The fourth was " a plenary remission of all
sins for souls in purgatory," — this grace being trans
ferable to the special person for whom it was sought
"by meuns of suffrage" or prayer. In the latter
case it was expressly added that ' ' there is no necessity
that the persons contributing in the box for the souls
(in purgatory) should be contrite in heart, or that they
should have made confession with the mouth, because
such grace only depends upon the charity in which the
departed died, and the contribution of the living."
An indulgence purporting to be "a full remission of
all sins " was bestowed under the condition of a per
son confessing to a priest, and receiving absolution
from him. To obtain a valid absolution, according to
the teaching of the Church of Rome (Concil. Trid.,

MARTIN LUTHER 255
Sess. xiv. cap. iv.), contrition is not necessary. But
" attrition " or " imperfect contrition," that is sorrow
for sin, such as that which arises from fear of punish
ment, combined with the observance of the penance
enjoined by a confessor, is sufficient. A plenary indul
gence professed to free its possessor from the necessity
of performing any penance, while it relieved him from
all punishment in purgatory for the offences committed
up to that period.
No, wonder, then, that Luther was scandalised when
the Dominican monk Johann Tetzel, a man whose
character and antecedents were bad, as sub-commis
sioner of indulgences, made an almost royal progress
through parts of Germany, and proceeded to introduce
his trade into Saxony. Janssen, the ultramontane
historian, says nothing about the disgraceful ante
cedents of this vendor of graces, but describes him
simply as "a favourite popular orator." It is worthy
of note, however, that Janssen has rejected the com
mon Roman Catholic fiction that Luther's opposition
to the preaching of indulgences was owing to the fact
that his order, the Augustinian, had been passed over
in favour of the Dominican. Janssen, too, acknow
ledges clearly that it was not the abuses connected with
the sale of indulgences, or even the mode in which they
were preached up, which stirred the soul of Luther and
drove him into the field against Tetzel, but the Roman
Catholic doctrines on that point, which Luther then
saw to be opposed to his views of Justification, and
on the question of the bondage of the human will,
which were directly contrary to ' ' the Church doctrine
concerning good works."
Luther preached boldly against the indulgence

256 MARTIN LUTHER
traffic. As a priest he refused absolution to those who
claimed it as a right on the strength of some purchased
indulgences. He refused to absolve those who did
not profess a desire to amend their lives. As "a
young doctor, hot-spirited, come fresh from the forge,
he burned to enter into the contest," and to expose
the scandalous proceedings of Tetzel and his followers.
He wrote earnestly to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz
and Magdeburg, and to other bishops. But when all
his warnings were unheeded he took a bolder step, and
on the eve of All Saints' Day, October 31st, 1517, he
affixed the celebrated ninety-five Theses in Latin to
the door of the Schloss-Kirche at Wittenberg.
By this act, the wager of battle was boldly thrown
down, and the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth
century fairly begun.
The ninety-five Theses declared that the Lord Jesus,
in commanding men to repent, meant that the Chris
tian life throughout was to be a life of repentance ; that
the Pope could only grant pardon to the penitent, and
that the Papal pardon was merely a declaration of the
pardon of God. Luther at that time thought that
sinners ought to seek the pardon of God through the
means provided by the Church , but he maintained that
the Pope could only remit punishments which he or
the Church had imposed, and could not give any
plenary remission. The Theses, moreover, affirmed
that all such teaching was an erroneous interpretation
of the Pope's words, although the preachers of the
indulgences had thus explained them. Luther asserted
that in all cases of true penitents their sins were for
given, and the punishment was remitted by God with
out the purchase of indulgences.

MARTIN LUTHER 257
Luther in his Theses had gone further than he then
imagined. He had unwittingly struck at the root of
the tree. The doctrine of Justification by Faith alone
was virtually contained in those Theses, the Papal
authority was attacked, and the freedom of the Chris
tian upheld.
The Theses of Luther, drawn up in Latin, and
affixed in that language to the door of the Castle
Church at Wittenberg, were at once translated
into German. So great was the excitement
caused by their publication, and so general the
disgust against Tetzel and his colleagues, that in
a little time the Theses formed the universal
subject of discussion throughout Germany. The monk
of Wittenberg had struck his axe into the heart of the
tree of Papacy, as surely as Boniface, the apostle of
Germany, had struck at the root of German Paganism
when he cut down the sacred oak of the god of thunder
at Geismer in the early part of the eighth century.
The Pope at that time occupied a wonderful posi
tion. Christopher Marcellus, in the fourth session of
the Council of Lateran (held only six years before),
addressed the Pope without rebuke in these terms :
" Thou art the Shepherd, thou the Physician, thou the
Ruler, thou, in fine, another God on earth." In the
sixth session of the same Council, held in 1513, four
years previous to Luther's Theses, another orator ap
plied to Leo X. words partly borrowed from the Book of
the Revelation: "Weep not, daughter of Zion, for,
behold, the Lion (Leo) of the tribe of Judah, the King
of David ;" and again (in the seventh session), " Thou
art another Lion of men, not only King of men, but
King of kings, and Monarch of the world."
18

258 MARTIN LUTHER
The divines in the Lateran Council had but recently
congratulated themselves on the fact that heresy was
extinguished and the whole world subject to the Papal
authority. But now again were heard the murmurings
of a terrible storm, destined to shake the Church
to its foundations. The Pope and cardinals did not,
indeed, imagine that the "little cloud" at Witten
berg was the forerunner of such a tempest.
In the University of Wittenberg no one entered the
lists against Luther. The Dominicans, however, in
duced the University of Frankfort-on-Oder to offer the
degree of Doctor of Theology to Tetzel, and Tetzel, in
disputing for that degree before the University, put
forth two sets of counter theses, the first numbering
one hundred and six, the second fifty. In these the
doctrine of Luther concerning indulgences (though his
name was not mentioned) was declared to be " hereti
cal, schismatical, pertinacious, contumacious, erro
neous, seditious, evil-sounding, rash, injurious."
Among the theses was that infamous one, afterwards
withdrawn by Tetzel, that "whoever says that the
soul may not fly out of purgatory more rapidly than
the penny can tinkle in the bottom of the chest, errs."
In the " holy war " thus commenced, the Emperor
Maximilian took the part of Luther. Pope Leo re
garded the matter at first as merely trivial : "A
drunken German has written these Theses ; he will ,
when he becomes sober, be of a different opinion."
The Pope was soon, however, undeceived.
Silvester Prierias, or de Prierio, Master of the Holy
Apostolic Palace, or Pontifical Inquisitor, i.e., censor
of books and dogmas, forthwith wrote a Dialogue
against Luther dedicated to the Pope. " If the Pope

MARTIN LUTHER 259
were on my side, I would not," he said, " be afraid to
meet Satan himself in the conflict, so desirous am I
to try whether that Martin has an iron nose or brazen
head which cannot be broken." Luther's language
may sometimes be condemned. But it ought not to
be forgotten that he was assailed from the first with
violent abuse by the defenders of the Papacy. Thus
he was called "a spiritual leper," "one who was
proved by his own snarling to have had a dog for his
father." Luther soon received a citation from the Pope by
which he was commanded to appear at Rome within
sixty days. The Elector of Saxony, the most influen
tial of the German princes, however, came forward as
his friend, and threw the shield of his protection over
him; and for weighty political reasons the Pope did
not wish then to quarrel with that prince. Luther
himself boldly faced the danger, and preached and pub
lished a sermon at Wittenberg, in July, 1518, upon the
"power of excommunication." The sermon was
preached in Latin, but it was afterwards translated in
to German. That discourse proves clearly that it was
not on an arm of flesh Luther then rested, but on
the arm of God. Convinced that his doctrine was
agreeable to the Word of God, and persuaded that if
an angel were to preach any other Gospel he would be
accursed (Gal. i. 8), Luther declared himself prepared
for the worst, and maintained that no excommunica
tion could cut off from the true communion of the
Church anyone possessed of faith, hope and charity.
Foiled in their attempt to bring Luther to Rome,
the Papal authorities next attempted to get him into the
hands of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Thomas de Vio of

260 MARTIN LUTHER
Gaeta, commonly known as Cardinal Cajetan. Luther
was summoned to appear before the Legate at Augs
burg, and was permitted to obey the citation, care
being taken that he should receive a safe conduct
from the Emperor to prevent his being carried off as
prisoner to Rome. An insidious attempt to induce
Luther to appear before the Cardinal before the safe-
conduct arrived was frustrated by the prudence of
friends. Urban von Serralonga, a friend of Cajetan,
informed Luther that all he had to do when he came
into the presence of the Legate was to pronounce six
letter " Revoco " — "I recant." When Luther de
murred to such a course , Serralonga asked him whether
he imagined that the Elector would for his sake risk
crown and country? Luther replied that he did not
wish him to do so. " Where, then, will you abide?"
asked the courtier. "Under the (free) heaven,"
boldly rejoined the Reformer.
The Cardinal received Luther courteously, but de
clined to enter into any discussion. He, however,
pointed out to Luther the two principal "heresies"
contained in his Theses : (1) the denial that the
Church's treasury of Indulgences consisted in the
merits of Christ ; and (2) the assertion that faith was
necessary for the beneficial reception of the sacraments.
The first point was opposed to the doctrine of the Papal
authority. Luther affirmed that Papal decrees might
be erroneous and opposed to Holy Scripture. He re
minded the Cardinal that the Apostle Peter once erred
and was rebuked by St. Paul (Gal. ii. 11). The
Cardinal, in reply, warned Luther that if he refused to
retract he had power to excommunicate him, and to
place the locality in which he dwelt under an interdict.

MARTIN LUTHER 261
His last words were, "Retract, or come not again
before my face." Luther refused to retract, and
appealed from the Pope misinformed to the Pope better
informed. Cardinal Cajetan, when he encountered Luther, was
a stout upholder of the Papal pretensions. He once
styled the Church "the born slave of the Pontiff"
(servus natus Pontiflcis). But although he never left
the communion of the Roman Church, he learned from
the interview how superior Luther was to himself in
the knowledge of Holy Scripture. He therefore,
though a cardinal, returned to his studies, worked hard
at Greek and Hebrew, became a great expositor of
Scripture, one who was not afraid to deviate from the
Latin Vulgate when its translation was incorrect, and
one not unwilling to depart from the opinions of the
Fathers. Cajetan wrote afterwards against the mer
chandise of Indulgences as bringing its agents under
the ban of the Apostle Peter (in 2 Pet. ii. 5), and con
demned those who imagined that by purchase of an
indulgence they could free a soul from purgatory. He
upheld in later days the doctrine of Justification by
faith in a commentary on the Romans, and in his
commentary on St. John even maintained that our
Lord's discourse in chap. vi. " in its literal sense does
not refer to the eating and drinking the sacrament of
the Eucharist; but to the eating and drinking the
death of Christ."1
1 See Pre-Tridentine Doctrine. A revision of the com
mentary on the Scriptures of Thomas De Vio, Cardinal of
St. Xystus, commonly called Cardinal Cajetan. By Robert
C. Jenkins, M.A., Rector of Lyminge, Hon. Canon of Canter
bury, and Hon. Curator of the Library of Lambeth Palace.
London: David Nutt, 270 Strand, 1891.

262 MARTIN LUTHER
The conference with Cardinal Cajetan took place on
October 14th. Next day, however, at the earnest ad
vice of Staupitz, whom he always regarded as his
"father in God," Luther wrote to the cardinal, and
promised to let the question alone provided his oppo
nents on their parts acted in a similar manner. In
later days Luther said he looked back with shame on
the promise he was induced to make on that occasion.
Having ascertained that it was resolved in spite of
the safe-conduct, to seize his person, Luther left
Augsburg on the night of October 20th, on horseback,
accompanied by a trusty guide. He rode the first day
nearly forty English miles to the little town of Mon-
heim. He was so wearied when he dismounted that
he could not sit, but had to lie at full length on the
straw in the stable. He re-entered Wittenberg in
safety on the anniversary of the day on which he had
affixed the Theses to the door of the Castle Church.
The promised silence did not last long. The Pope's
conduct had aroused new thoughts in Luther's mind.
He began to suspect that the Pope was the man of
sin, spoken of in 2 Thessalonians , who was to sit in
the Church of God. From Rome Luther privately
received news that the Pope had determined not to
examine further into his case, but to crush him at once.
Some people thought that the matter would soon blow
over, but Luther believed the conflict was only begun.
He wrote to Spalatin, court chaplain to the Elector,
who had urged him to be prudent : " The more these
men rage and think of violence, the less I am terrified,
only the freer I will become against the Roman snakes.
I am prepared for all risks, and I depend upon the
counsel of God."

MARTIN LUTHER 263
The Court of Rome now despatched a more wily en
voy, the Papal chamberlain, Carl von Miltitz, by whose
cajoleries it was hoped the Elector might be induced
to deliver up Luther. Miltitz endeavoured to induce
Luther to retract, or be silent; the former Luther
refused to do, but he consented to be silent under cer
tain conditions. At Miltitz 's suggestion he wrote a
letter to the Pope in which he set forth his views, com
bined with expressions of personal respect for the Pon
tiff. He, however, repudiated all idea of retracting.
Meanwhile the Emperor Maximilian died, and, after
six months, Charles V., king of Spain, was elected to
the vacant throne. Carlstadt, senior Professor of Di
vinity in Wittenberg, embraced many of the views of
Luther, and got into controversy with Dr. John Eck,
Professor at Ingolstadt, who had written against
Luther. Eck challenged Carlstadt to a discussion at
Leipzig, which the latter accepted. As Eck, however,
had attacked Luther by name, Luther claimed the
right to be permitted to take a part in the discussion,
and the claim was allowed. The discussion took place
in the Castle of Pleissenburg, which forms part of the
old city of Leipzig. George, Duke of Saxony, was
present. In the course of the discussion Luther dis
puted the claims of the Pope to universal primacy, for
he had been led by the study of history to see how un
founded were the Papal claims, the truth of which he
had not previously called in question.
The debate was taken down by notaries. Two hun
dred members of the University of Wittenberg accom
panied their representatives to the discussion, among
them several Professors, and foremost among the latter
was Melanchthon. Eck and Carlstadt disputed for

264 MARTIN LUTHER
three days, between June 29th and July 3rd, on the
question of Free-will. Luther and Eck disputed to
gether from the 4th of July up to the 13th. The
boldness of Luther was extraordinary. He main
tained that the faith in the supremacy of the Roman
Church was not necessary to salvation ; that no one had
a right to force a Christian to admit anything not found
in Scripture as an article of faith. He further averred
that many of the articles for which Huss had been
condemned by the Council of Constance in 1414, were
Christian and evangelical, although Huss was
universally at that time looked upon as a heretic.
Luther also maintained that the authority of Scripture
was superior to that of the Church, or the Fathers, and
he refused to admit the authority of the Apocryphal
books to be equal to that of the other books of the Holy
Scripture. A further disputation of two days between
Carlstadt and Eck closed that memorable discussion.
Eck knew the Theses he had to defend, and defended
them with great spirit : Luther was in the position of
a man always driven to occupy new ground. Hence
Eck came off best in the discussion. The University
of Leipzig from beginning to end was opposed to
Luther. The Rector of that University, however,
refused to pronounce any definite judgment, and
referred the decision to the Universities of Erfurt and
Paris. Luther, however, really proved to be the vic
tor. Although mortified that the supreme authority of
Scripture was not acknowledged, Luther accomplished
much by the discussion, and among the friends won
over to his side was the great Philip Melanchthon.
Returning to Wittenberg, Luther was surrounded
by a numerous flock of Btudents, and his Commentary

MARTIN LUTHER 265
on the Epistle to the Galatians, based on his University
lectures, shortly after issued from the press. It was
that commentary which led Bunyan to understand the
Gospel and to write the " Pilgrim's Progress."
Eck repaired to Rome, and the Pope, knowing that
the party of Reform was daily increasing, on June 15,
1520, launched a bull of excommunication against
Luther, in which he gave him 120 days to retract his
wicked errors. ' ' The Bull was published in parts of
Germany in September, but not at Wittenberg, for its
publication there required the permission of the Uni
versity. Luther's answer was heroic. On the 10th Decem
ber he announced by placard that the next day at nine
o'clock the Papal anti-Christian Decretals would be
publicly burned, and he invited the students of the
University to be present at that " act of faith." Ac
companied by a number of masters and doctors, among
whom were Carlstadt and Melanchthon, Luther next
day proceeded to the appointed spot, and a pyre hav
ing been duly erected, he committed to the flames the
forged Decretals of Rome, and then cast into the fire
the Papal Bull, with these words : " Forasmuch as
thou hast troubled the Holy One of the Lord, the
eternal fire shall consume thee."
It has been suggested that in taking this step Luther
may have had the fact in mind that a Pope
had once been compelled to excommunicate his own
Bull. Pope Paschal II. on one occasion was driven
by force of arms to publish a Bull conceding to the
Emperor Henry the rights of investiture to the bishop
rics in Germany. The Lateran Council, in 1116, pro
nounced the concession heretical, whereupon the Pope

266 MARTIN LUTHER
had recourse to the device of excommunicating his own
Bull, in order to cancel its authority.
Luther defended his daring act of defiance to the
Papal authority in a pamphlet in which he pointed out
the duty imposed upon him, as a sworn Doctor of Holy
Scripture, to seek to drive away all false doctrine. He
pointed out thirty errors which were to be found in the
Papal books committed to the flames, and declared
that the sum and substance of their teaching was : —
"The Pope is a God upon earth, over everything
heavenly, earthly, spiritual." So that no one can
say, What doest thou? "This," said he, "is the
abomination of desolation ; this is the Antichrist de
scribed as the Man of Sin in 2 Thessalonians."
Luther's diagnosis was right. The Papacy is the
"Man of Sin" who sits in "the temple of God,"
showing by acts and assumptions that he is God.
' ' The Man of Sin ' ' was to be manifested within the
professed Church of Christ, and not to be in open
opposition to the Church, as many still fondly dream.
The breach with the Papacy was now accomplished.
The Pope fulminated on January 4th, 1521, a decree of
excommunication against Luther and his followers,
and laid all places where they were harboured under an
interdict. A storm had now arisen which, in Luther's
words, only the great day of judgment could still. But
calmly he lifted his heart towards heaven, and when
Ulrich von Hutten wrote to ask his permission to stir
up a holy war against the Papacy, replied : — "I do not
desire that anyone should contend with force and mur
der for the Gospel. By the Word is the world to be
overcome ; by the Word the Church is to be upheld ; by
the Word it is again to be reformed; yea, even Anti-

MARTIN LUTHER 267
christ, as he began without the fist, so also without the
fist will be broken in pieces by the Word."
The Pope next appealed to the secular power, and
Charles V., the newly-elected Emperor, cited Luther
to appear before him in the Diet of the Empire held
at Worms in April of the same year. The terms of
the imperial citation (" scrutinium de te sumere ")
gave the Reformer reason to hope that the matter
would be thoroughly investigated at the Diet. The
citation had to be obeyed, although Luther's own
sovereign, the Elector of Saxony, took care that he
should be provided with a safe-conduct. The cita
tion was served on the 26th March, and required
Luther to appear before the Diet within twenty-one
days. He received it with calmness, and set out on the
journey, refusing to allow Melanchthon to go with him.
Though warned on the road that the safe-conduct
would be violated, as it had been violated in the case
of John Huss a century before, Luther boldly replied to
the messenger : " Go tell your master that I will enter
Worms though there were as many devils in that city
as there are tiles upon the roofs of its houses."
No nobler event in the history of the world since the
time of the Apostles has ever taken place than the ap
pearance of Martin Luther before the Diet. It has
been graphically described by the eloquent pen of
Merle D'Aubign6, and most earnestly do we commend
the perusal of his chapters on this period of Luther's
life. Luther arrived at Worms on April 14th, and ap
peared before the Diet on the 17th. As he entered the
Hall of Assembly to present himself to the Emperor
and the princes, the distinguished captain George von

268 MARTIN LUTHER
Freundsberg clapped him on the shoulder, and said,
" Little monk (Monchlein), little monk, thou art going
to-day to make a stand the like of which I and many
colonels have never made in our most terrible order of
battle. If thou art on the right path, and art sure of
thy cause, go forward in the name of God, and be
comforted : God will not forsake thee."
When Luther stood before the Diet, he was asked
whether the books piled on a table before the Emperor
were his, and whether he would retract them. Jerome
Schurf , Professor of Law at Wittenberg, who had been
appointed to act as Luther's legal adviser, here inter
fered, and asked that the titles of the books should
be read. The Chancellor of the Archbishop of Treves,
as spokesman for the Diet, then read their titles, and
the Reformer was astonished to find that among the
books which he was asked to retract were not merely
his controversial, but several of his devotional writings,
including his booklet on " The Lord's Prayer," which
had never been charged with heresy.
Luther replied that the books were his, but as they
concerned the Word of God and the salvation of souls,
he asked time to consider his reply to the second ques
tion. The space of a day was granted. In the short speech
he had made he had shown no intention to retract. But
as he had asked for time to reply the rumour spread
that he was going to retract. Great excitement pre
vailed ; the friends of the Papacy were exultant. Luther
withdrew for meditation and prayer, and wrote at
once to a friend : "I write to you in the middle of
tumult. I have just this hour appeared before the
Emperor. I have acknowledged the authorship of my

MARTIN LUTHER 269
books, and have declared that to-morrow I will give
my answer concerning retractation. By the help of
Jesus Christ, not one iota of all my works will I re
tract ! ' '
The next day he again appeared before the Diet.
The question was again put : Will you defend all the
works which you have acknowledged are yours, or will
you retract? Luther's answer was delivered in a
speech which occupied, according to some authorities,
two hours. He divided his books into three classes.
Those on practical truths he would not retract, for their
truth was acknowledged by friend and foe. Those
against the pernicious laws and doctrines of the Papacy
he would not retract, for that would be to conceal
wickedness and tyranny. The works against indi
vidual opponents he would not retract, for, although he
might have written too warmly and spoken too strong
ly, he could not retract them without countenancing
tyranny and ungodliness. He concluded as follows :—
" Although I am a mere man, and not God, I can
not adduce another defence for my books than that
which my Lord Jesus Christ adduced for His doctrine,
who, when He was asked before Annas about His
doctrine, and had been struck by the high priest's at
tendant, said, ' If I have spoken evil, bear witness of
the evil.' If the Lord Himself, who knew that He
could not err, did not, however, refuse to hear testimony
against His teaching, even from the vilest servant, how
much more ought I — mere dross, able to do nothing
but err — to attend if anyone wishes to bear witness
against my doctrine ? Prove to me by the writings of
the Prophets and Apostles that I am mistaken, and I
will myself cast my writings into the flames."

270 MARTIN LUTHER
Luther spoke, according to Kostlin, in Latin, in
which language he had been addressed by the Chancel
lor. He repeated his speech, however, at the request
of some of the princes, in German. The Chancellor
rebuked him for want of modesty, and observed that
he had not answered the question put to him. Several
doctrines contained in his books had been condemned
by the Council of Constance, and the decisions of that
Council could not be called in question. The Chancel
lor, therefore, asked whether Luther would retract all
statements of his opposed to the decisions of that Coun
cil, or whether he was determined to maintain all the
statements contained in his works, or was he willing
to retract some of them. He asked for a simple
answer, an answer " without horns."
Luther replied that he would give an answer which
had " neither horns nor teeth." His conscience was
bound by God's Word. The Pope and Councils had
often erred. He could and would retract nothing, be
cause it was dangerous to act contrary to conscience.
Finally, in reply to the Chancellor's threats, Luther
exclaimed in German: "Hie stehe ich, ich kann
nicht anders; Gott helff mir. Amen." (Here I stand,
I cannot do otherwise; God help me. Amen.)
Glorious confession — never to be forgotten while the
Church of Christ remains ! We cannot attempt
to give a full sketch of the Reformer's life. Luther
was permitted to return homeward in safety. For
the space of twenty-one days he was secured against
arrest. But notice was given that after that time
had elapsed, he and his followers would be regarded
as under the ban of the Empire. By the device of
the Elector, however, he was fallen upon by armed

MARTIN LUTHER 271
men in a forest, and carried off a prisoner to Wartburg.
There he was kept in concealment. That castle be
came a Patmos in which he had further revelations of
grace and glory. In that castle he translated the
Scriptures and wrote incessantly. The presses of
Germany teemed with publications from his pen, and
the monk whom Rome thought she could crush, be
came a mighty power in the land. ' ' It was the Lord's
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
It is necessary to notice briefly Luther's controversy
with King Henry VIII. of England, which took place
shortly after his appearance before the Diet. In a
book on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, pub
lished in 1520, Luther had discussed the doctrine of
the Sacraments, and denied the Romish theory that
the Sacraments were seven in number. The work
naturally aroused the anger of the devotees of the Pa
pacy. The book was extensively read in England.
At the suggestion of Cardinal Wolsey Henry VIII.
wrote a reply to it. The royal answer (Henrici VIII.
Regis Anglice Adsertio septem Sacramentorum adver-
sus Martinum Lutherum) appeared in London in 1521,
was reprinted in Antwerp in April 1522, and came into
Luther's hands in the month of June. Henry VIII.
used no gentle language ; he spoke of Luther as a viper
whose head ought to be crushed. When Luther
perused the king's book he resolved that, as he had^
handled other opponents severely, he would not " be
more mild to the King of England."
Luther's opening statement gives a description of
the arguments used in the controversy : —
" My opponents," writes he, "moved by constant
madness, bring nothing forward against me but the

272 MARTIN LUTHER
statutes of men, the interpretations of the Fathers, and
the doings or ceremonies of centuries ; the very things
which I deny and impugn, and which even they them
selves confess are untrustworthy, and frequently erro
neous  I ask ' By what authority you do these
things?' They say, 'Because we so do them, and
have so done them.' Their wishes are put in the place
of reason ; their ceremonies as authority ; their custom
in place of law ; and this in matters of God. ... So
it happens, when I call out for ' the gospel, the gospel ;
Christ, Christ,' they reply, ' the Fathers, the Fathers;
custom, custom; statutes, statutes.' But when I say
the Fathers, customs, statutes, have often erred; you
must support your views by stronger and more certain
authority ; Christ cannot err. Thereupon they are
more mute than fishes, and, as Scripture says, like
deaf adders they stop their ears, that they may not
hear the voice of the charmer. Or they give me this
answer which comes always on the top of their saliva,
' Ambrose says so ; art thou more learned than Am
brose ? Art thou the only person who art wise ? ' as
if dispute was about the doctrine of Ambrose and my
doctrine ; or as if I could not say : ' You mistake and
misrepresent Ambrose.' What is the end of disput
ing with those blind and furious and mad persons?
Such is also this book of the King of England, who
does nothing else than urge the traditions of men, and
the glosses of the Fathers, and the use of ages."
For this service to the Papacy Henry VIII. received
the title of " Defender of the Faith," a title still re
tained by our sovereigns. Once assumed, the title
was too honourable to be cast aside. To have repudia
ted it would have been an admission that the English

MARTIN LUTHER 273
monarch had turned aside from " the faith," and had
embraced a " heresy." That admission could not for
one moment be granted. It was bestowed upon Henry
VIII. by an Act of the English Parliament, and that
is the basis on which the title is retained by all suc
ceeding English sovereigns. An attempt was made,
under Romish influence, during the reign of Queen
Victoria to omit the " F.D." stamped on the coinage.
But the attempt called forth at once a decided protest
in Parliament, and the Master of the Mint had to
leave off his unlawful practices.
Great as a theologian, mighty as an intellectual
genius, powerful in writing, and eloquent in the pulpit,
Luther was not only a writer, preacher, politician, talk
er, but every inch a hero. He was not immaculate,
but his moral character was pure. The attitude he
assumed at the insurrection of the peasants may be
blamed, but the more facts are examined into, the
more reasonable appears to have been the stand Luther
made against the wild Nihilism of that day. He be
lieved in many of the superstitions of that age. It
would have been strange if, with his early training,
he had not done so. He believed to some degree in
astrology and witchcraft. The powers of darkness
were to him dread realities, and he wrestled mightily
against them. Some may taunt him with his marriage,
and assert that it would have been better if he and his
noble wife, Catherine von Bora, had never broken
their monastic vows. The attempt to blacken his
character and that of his wife is an attempt that,
though often made, has always been unsuccessful.
Professor Kostlin has ably defended both from the
charges which malignant adversaries have again and
19

274 MARTIN LUTHER
again sought to fasten on them. The marriage of
Luther, repugnant though it was to Melanchthon, was
a noble act of the Reformer. In the true spirit of a
Christian he declared by that act the nullity of the vows
imposed upon him and others in days of darkness.
The picture of a happy Christian home, of a loving
domestic circle, which Luther and his family presented
to Germany, have had a blessed effect on succeeding
generations. Some have been offended at the boldness of his re
marks on the Sacred Scriptures, and have oft forgot
ten that Scripture was the authority to which he ever
submitted. Many of Luther's suggestions have been
most useful to expositors of Scripture. Men quote his
remarks on the Book of Jonah without the qualifica
tions attached to them ; and that made concerning the
Epistle of James, namely, that it was " a right strawy
epistle " when compared with the Epistles of Paul,
Peter and John. The comparison, as Schaff remarks,
must not be overlooked.1 But Luther's critics forget
or ignore the fact that Luther had only begun to under
stand the history of the books of the New Testament.
He once believed that the Decretals (on which the au
thority of the Papacy was founded) were genuine docu
ments ; the study of history had proved them to be
forgeries. He once believed the Apocryphal books of
the Old Testament to be of equal authority with the
, books handed down as canonical by the Jewish Syna
gogue. In that, too, he learned that he had been
mistaken. He had but lately come to understand that
the canonicity of certain books of the New Testament,
namely, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of
1 See Schaff, Germ. Beform., vol. 1. p. 42.

MARTIN LUTHER 275
James, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and
third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude, and the
Book of the Revelation, rested on evidence inferior to
that on which the other books were received, although
the evidence for the reception of those books into the
canon has long since been shown by competent scho
lars to be satisfactory. It is not surprising that one
who had to unlearn and cast aside so much, once ac
cepted on the authority of the Church — with the
solemn words of the Apostle ringing in his ears :
" Though we or an angel from heaven should preach
any gospel other than that which we preached unto
you, let him be anathema" (Gal. i. 8) — should have
expressed himself as he did. He was then perplexed
with the statement of St. James as to justification by
works, which he supposed to be opposed to the doctrine
of justification by faith, plainly taught in the other
books of the New Testament. We understand now
that St. James spoke of justification in the sight of
men, and St. Paul of justification in the sight of God.
But had Luther never been able to reconcile the two
apparently conflicting statements we would be dis
posed rather to admire than condemn the boldness with
which the Reformer, with the light he then possessed,
ventured to express his conviction of the certainty of
the great fundamental doctrine of justification by faith
only. When we consider the tossing to and fro of
men's minds in the great upheaval against authority
in the 16th century, and the ardent character of the
man, we are astonished at the calm judgment exhibited
by the great mastermind of the Reformation.
But Luther erred, say some, on the question of Jus
tification. His doctrine of "Justification by faith

$76 MARTIN LUTHER
only," say these writers, is not the doctrine held by
the Reformed Churches, and tersely and clearly stated
in the Xlth of the Thirty-nine Articles. We have
read much which has been written on this subject, and
are amazed that men have so gravely mistaken the
doctrine of Luther. Archdeacon Hare's admirable
Vindication of Luther against his recent English
Assailants, written in 1855 (J. W. Parker and Son),
ought to have closed that controversy. Let anyone
peruse the English translation of Luther on the Gala
tians. That book is easily accessible, and it is excel
lent reading — commended by good, honest, God-taught
John Bunyan, as the best book next the Bible. A
wayfaring man, though a fool, need not mistake
Luther's meaning. Luther teaches the necessity of
good works, but he maintains that works have no part
in the justification of the sinner in the sight of God.
He never held the doctrine attributed to him by his
Roman Catholic adversaries, or by the Anglican haters
of the Reformation, viz., that the Christian was free to
sin without hindrance. He never asserted that " with
out holiness no man can see the Lord." Sometimes
he writes so boldly that his language is often
exaggerated. Romish assailants are never tired of quoting
Luther's words to Melanchthon when overwhelmed
with spiritual anxiety concerning ' ' the sin that doth
so easily beset us." He bade him in his strong lan
guage " pecca fortiter," sin away boldly, not to en
courage him in actual trangression, but to make him
understand that Christ is a loving Redeemer who feels
for our weakness and pardons our sins, and is not a
cruel taskmaker ready to lash us for every shortcoming.

MARTIN LUTHER 277
Thus, when again encouraging another weak believer
tortured with the intrusion of evil thoughts, Luther
wrote, " You cannot prevent such thoughts coming
into your mind ; the birds fly above our heads, but, on
the other hand, we don't permit them to make their
nests in our hair."1 Luther's language was strongly
proverbial, and must ever be judged from its context.
The language of proverbs is more or less exaggerated,
that is, expressed in words which often need qualifica
tion ; and if it be attempted to make out that Luther
denied that " good works do spring necessarily of a
true and lively faith," it is easy, by the same style of
reasoning, to prove that doctrines opposed to one
another are taught in the inspired Book of Proverbs.
Contrast with Luther's language the language of
Mr. William George Ward, once one of the great
Tractarian leaders. His son tells us that : "In dis
cussing the doctrine of equivocation, as to how far it is
lawful on occasion, he maintained, as against those
who admit the lawfulness of words literally true but
misleading, that the more straightforward principle is
that occasionally when duties conflict, another duty
may be more imperative than the duty of truthfulness.
But he expressed it thus : Make yourself clear that you
are justified in deception, and then lie like a trooper."
The passage is quoted in Mr. W. Walsh's Secret
History of the Oxford Movement, p. 16. The teaching
is practically identical with that taught by Liguori and
Peter Dens and a host of others on the Romish side.
To return, however, to Luther, remember the com
parative poverty in which he lived. His garments
1 Kostlin, Martin Luther, sein Leben und seine Schriften.
2te Band, 214.

278 MARTIN LUTHER
were often gifts of charity; the house in which he
lived until a few years before his death, was not his
own. The man whose works enriched booksellers by
the hundred never profited by them. He was ever
ready to bestow gifts on the poor. ' ' This poverty is
beautiful," remarks the Roman Catholic historian,
Audin; "Luther bears it courageously. He never
speaks of it even as a joke among his friends, and he
charges it on the Elector."
But Luther taught the doctrine of Consubstantia-
tion, which is scarcely distinguishable from the Roman
Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation ! So exclaim
some detractors. The two doctrines are, however,
essentially different in their essence and effects. Luther
denied almost from the commencement of his Refor
mation that the clergy were sacrificing priests. He
emphatically taught the universal priesthood of all be
lievers. He denied the mass to be a sacrifice, and the
Lord's Supper to be an offering for sins. The
Augsburg confession repudiates the theory that the
clergy offer up a sacrifice in the Lord's Supper.
Consubstantiation, however incorrect it may be,
is in no wise opposed to sturdy Protestantism.
If differences like those between Calvinism and
Arminianism are now admitted to be comparatively
unimportant, the points that divide the Churches of
the Augsburg Confession from those who hold the Hel
vetian Confessions are equally non-essential. We can,
without compromise of evangelical truth give the
right hand of fellowship to the members of both Con
fessions. Whatever is supposed to be given "in, with
and under " the elements in the Sacrament, is,
according to Lutheran doctrine, imparted by Christ

MARTIN LUTHER 279
only in the act of reception, and not at consecration.
Consequently, Lutherans do not pay any veneration
to the consecrated bread and wine. There is no
" elevation " of the elements in the Lutheran Church,
nor any adoration to them as containing Christ.
There is no nonsense talked about their ' ' reserva
tion." It is a matter of indifference that the table
is termed " altar," if once the idea of " sacrifice " be
exploded. We might as well be accused of heathenism
because we retain the heathen names of the days of
the week, as accuse the Lutheran Church of
sacerdotalism. Candles may sometimes be lighted on
the table, the crucifix may be used as a symbol, but it
is regarded as nothing more. The Lutheran pastor is
not supposed to be gifted with any mysterious powers,
nor treated with superstitious reverence. The attempt
to unduly exalt the clergy has little foothold in the
Lutheran Church. Even extreme sacramental views
without sacerdotalism, however erroneous they be, are
different in form and character from that which they
assume when combined with the miserable and anti-
Christian sacerdotal pretensions with which we in
England are now, alas ! too familiar.
In reading the writings of Luther we may often
condemn their coarseness and invective. Kleinert has
admirably drawn attention to the services he rendered
to the cause of science. Luther often treated
opponents too severely. He could not sympathise
with a man like Erasmus, who was, perhaps, some
thing like " Little-faith " in the Pilgrim's Progress.
The extravagancies of Carlstadt prejudiced Luther
against the noble Zwingli. Such faults are to be
ascribed to the age in which he lived, and the

280 MARTIN LUTHER
circumstances by which he was surrounded, and, in
spite of .all, we thank God for the hearty, Christ-
loving, generous, noble, frank reformer.
One blot, indeed, we cannot remove, although it
admits of extenuation. Luther's opinions as to
marriage, when fairly considered, are correct in the
main, despite coarseness of some expressions. The
sanction he gave to the bigamy of the Landgrave of
Hesse, in 1539, is the weakest point in his history.
Luther did not see his way to form any decisive
opinion on that question ; he was startled at the appeal
the Landgrave made to Old Testament precedents.
The relation of the Old and New Testaments to one
another was not then understood. Theologians in
England and Scotland have erred by following Old
Testament precedents. Luther dallied with the
question. "The Gospel," said he, "has neither re
voked nor forbidden what the Law of Moses
permitted." "I do not wish," wrote he, "the
practice of polygamy to be introduced among
Christians — who ought to abstain even from what is
allowed — to avoid scandal." Those, however, who
rail at the Reformer for his weakness might be
sorely perplexed if called upon, in close discussion with
an able antagonist, to refute Luther's position.1
We have no hesitation, however, in condemning
Luther's opinion on that point, or his conduct on that
occasion. But Rome, which has granted so many
" dispensations " to sin, is the last Church in
Christendom which ought to venture to cast a stone
1 This whole question has lately been discussed in the light
of documentary evidence by Dr. William Walker Rockwell,
Instructor of Theology in Andover, Mass., in Die Doppelehe
des Landgrafen Philipp von Hessen, Marburg, 1904.

MARTIN LUTHER 281
at the Reformer. She has often connived at the
immoralities of Pontiffs, bishops and priests. If
Luther, sorely against his inclination, made an un
worthy concession to Philip of Hesse — a concession
which sullied the cause of the Reformation — he learned
that and many other bad things in the school of
Rome. But here we must conclude, though our task has been
inadequately fulfilled. It would be easy to cite speci
mens of his Table Talk from the bulky volumes pub
lished twenty years after Luther's death. That book,
though a storehouse of pithy sayings, anecdotes, and
conversations which exhibit the hero in the manysided-
ness of his character, cannot be depended upon as
stating his views correctly. Luther's power of work
was enormous, his writings fill twenty-four quarto
volumes, nearly ninety volumes in 8vo. He preached
several times weekly ; he used to spend three hours
daily in prayer and meditation. Yet he was always
accessible ; could enter with ease into the liveliest con
versation ; could play and sing. He composed eighty-
nine hymns, and set them to music of his own com
position. When we reflect how little we are able to
effect in our day, we may learn what pigmies we are
compared to Martin Luther. His love for children
was intense, and his little catechism has been a bless
ing for generations to the children of Germany, Nor
way, Denmark and Sweden. A learned Roman
Catholic Italian, who did not know its author,
exclaimed when he read it, "It has the can
dour and ease of a child's heart, with the eloquence
of a prophet. . . . Happy the hand that wrote
thee ! Happy the eyes that shall read thee !

282 MARTIN LUTHER
Happy the hearts that shall pray thee!" The
incident shows that even in the midst of the old
corrupt Church there are those who cling to the one
and only Redeemer !
Luther died where he was born, in Eisleben. After
his last meal he retired to the window, and was over
heard to pray thus — " Heavenly Father, may it please
Thee to keep the Church of my dear country in firm
adherence to Thy Word." As he saw his end was
approaching, he exclaimed, " Into Thy hands I com
mend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord
God of truth !" He repeated thrice the passage, John
iii. 16. "Reverend Father," cried Dr. Jonas, when
he saw that life was ebbing, " do you die in the faith
of Christ and His Word, which you have preached?"
"Yes," replied the dying man, summoning up all
his expiring energy. Shortly after, he passed into
eternity, on February 18th, 1546. Well might
Melanchthon, like Elisha on the banks of Jordan,
exclaim when he heard the sad news : " My father,
my father ! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen
thereof!" In 1890, the Rev. Paul Majunke, Roman Catholic
Pfarrer of Hochkirch, near Gross-Glogau on the
Oder, in Eastern Prussia, published a work on
Luther's Lebensende (Mainz, Kupferberg, 1890).
Herr Majunke, now a priest, was formerly editor of
the Roman Catholic newspaper Germania, and for a
time member of the Prussian House of Deputies, and
of the German Reichstag. In the pamphlet he pre
tended to prove by ' ' historical investigation ' ' that
Luther did not die, as generally believed, a natural
death, but committed suicide. The pamphlet of Herr

MARTIN LUTHER 283
Majunke caused jubilation in Ultramontane circles,
and drew forth a crop of pamphlets and articles. Pro
fessor Kostlin of Halle, Professor Kawerau of Kiel,
and Professor Kolde of Erlangen, with others, have,
however, successfully demolished this "house built
upon the sand," and exposed the falsehood " cunningly
devised " by the Roman Catholic advocate. Majunke
attempted a reply to Prof. Kolde and his other assail
ants, in a pamphlet entitled Die Historische Kritik
uber Luthers Lebens Ende (Mainz, 1890). He, how
ever, only landed himself in greater difficulties. The
rejoinder of the Erlangen Professor, Noch einmal
Luthers Selbstmord, was crushing. The controversy
is of importance, if only for the purpose of showing
that the contest with Rome in the present day is not
confined to our country. Rome to-day, as in the days
gone by, makes "lies" her "refuge," and "under
falsehood " hides herself (Isaiah xxviii. 15).
The pamphlet of Herr Majunke seems at first sight
plausible. The death of Luther took place on the
morning of February 18th, 1546. The event was un
expected, and was much commented on. A pretended
account of the post-mortem examination, written by
an anonymous writer, is given by Luther's earliest
Roman Catholic biographer, Cochlaeus, in a work pub
lished twenty years after Luther's death. But even
that story does not hint at suicide. Prof. Kolde con
clusively proves that no Roman Catholic historian of
the sixteenth century expressed any doubt whatever
concerning the truth of the ' ' history ' ' drawn up by
Dr. Justus Jonas and the friends who were present on
the occasion. The Roman Catholic historians of that
day, of course, abound in such charitable expressions

284 MARTIN LUTHER
as that "he yielded up his soul to the devil," he
" descended to Satan." Popish writers of the follow
ing century state that Luther died in tortures, or, like
Arius, shed out his bowels. But with two miserable
exceptions, presently to be mentioned, they never
dreamed of suicide.
Majunke falsely asserts that the only account of
Luther's end which the biographers of Luther made
use of, was the " history " of Dr. Justus Jonas. But
Justus Jonas wrote a letter to the Elector at four
o'clock in the morning, two hours after Luther ex
pired. That letter states that there were present at
Luther's death the Court-Preacher Coelius, J. Jonas,
Luther's two younger sons, Paul and Martin, his ser
vant Ambrose, his landlord, Hans Albrecht, the
notary, Count Albrecht of Mansfield and his wife,
Count von Schwarzburg, and two doctors, eleven
persons in all. Two other letters are also extant,
written that day to the Elector by Count Albrecht,
and by Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt. A fourth letter
written the same day, by Aurifaber, states that the
persons present numbered sixteen, including Aurifaber
and Count Hans George of Mansfield. There is,
moreover, a fifth letter written the same day to Duke
Maurice of Saxony. A sixth letter written on that
day is also extant, by J. Friedrich, Councillor of Eisle-
ben, to his uncle, the well-known J. Agricola. Fried
rich does not say that he was present, but he states
that the doctor ascribed Luther's death to a stroke
of paralysis, brought on by the closing up of a wound
in his leg from which the Reformer had long suffered.
The Court-Preacher Coelius delivered on Feb. 20
the opening address at the grave, in which address it

MARTIN LUTHER 285
was stated that the corpse of the Reformer had been
viewed by a large number of people who crowded in
to see the remains when the sad event was announced.
The " history," or " Report of the Christian Death of
Luther," was drawn up afterwards at the request of
the Elector by J. Jonas and M. Coelius. The facts
there mentioned are confirmed by the seven indepen
dent witnesses already referred to. This evidence is
wholly suppressed by Majunke.
Forty -three years after Luther's death, indeed, the
Oratorian Thomas Bozius, in 1593, asserted in a book
De Signis Ecclesiae, that he had heard, from the testi
mony of one who when a boy had been servant to
Luther, that Luther hung himself. According to the
same writer, several of the Reformers died awful
deaths. Oecolampadius was strangled, Calvin died of
the lousy disease, while a horrible devil, which fright
ened all bystanders, stood by Martin Bucer in his last
moments. Bozius is the first authority on which
Majunke depends. A fuller account is given by the
Romanist Sedulius (in his Praescriptiones adv.
Haereses, Antwerp, 1606), i.e., sixty years after
Luther's death, which is reprinted as a reliable
authority in Majunke's pamphlet, pp. 95-97. But the
name of the author of that account is not known.
Sedulius shows his own qualifications for the work of a
historian, and his gullibility, by setting forth as trust
worthy a second authority, which, in deference to our
age, Majunke has silently suppressed. The writer
of that second account was Tileman Bredebach, who,
writing in 1587, forty-one years after Luther's death,
states that the demoniacs then waiting at the shrine
of St. Dymna at Brabant, in hope of being cured by

286 MARTIN LUTHER
that saint, were all freed from evil spirits on the day
Luther was buried, but were again taken possession of
by those spirits the day after, because (as was found
out by interrogating those evil spirits) Satan required
them to attend Luther's funeral, which they did in
the form of ravens, who, in incredible numbers,
accompanied Luther's corpse to its last resting-
place ! ! !
Such are the authorities on which Majunke relies.
We need not notice other grave misrepresentations of
fact in his work. There is no doubt, however, that
such charges, however silly in themselves, will some
day be utilised by the Ritualists in their shameful
attempts to deprave the glorious Reformation. We
have ourselves seen placards posted with similar lying
statements on the walls of Dublin. And hence it
is necessary to put Protestants on their guard against
believing such false ' ' historical discoveries ' ' which are
as " plentiful as blackberries " in this " age of lies."

VII
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE GERMAN
ARMY DURING THE WAR OF 1870-1 -1
A LECTUKE AND REVIEW.
Never was there a war more remarkable for such a
number of great battles and sieges, fought within a
short space of time, than the war of 1870-1, between
France and Germany. Nor has there been
war in modern times so marked by religious
feeling, as was that war on the side of
the Germans, although not waged for any
1 Die evangelischen Feld-und-Lazareth-Geistlichen der
Kbniglichen Preussischen Armee in Feldzuge von 1870-1.
Nach eigenen Erlehnissen und amtlichen Berichten bearbeitet
von B. Rogge, konigl. Hofprediger und Garnisonspfarrer von
Potsdam, Divisionspfarrer der ersten Garde-Infanterie-
Division, wahrend des Feldzuges Militair-ober-Pfarrer des
Garde-Corps. Berlin, 1872. Verlag von Ludwig Rauh.
1st Got fiir uns, wer mag wide runs sein! Gedenkbl&tter
aus der Geschichte der zweiten Garde-Infanterie-Divisio".
wahrend des Feldzuges, 1870-1. Von Theodor Jordan,
Divisions Pfarrer der 2 Garde-Infanterie-Division. Berlin,
1871. Verlag von Wiegandt & Grieben.
Der Beligiose Geist im Volk und Heer wahrend des franzd-
sischen Krieges. Ein Vortrag von Adolph Stocker, Hof-und
Domprediger zu Berlin. Berlin : Verlag von Wiegandt &
Grieben, 1876.
Froschweiler Chronik. Kriegs-und Friedensbilder aus dem
Jahr 1870. Von Karl Klein, Pfarrer zu Froschweiler im
Elsass. Nordlingen. Verlag der C. H. Beck'schen Buch-
handlung. 1877. Pastor Klein's book has been translated into
287

288 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
religious cause. That feature of the contest has been
too little understood in Great Britain ; and when the
deep religious feeling which characterised the language
of the Germans, when commented on by the English
Press, was too often ascribed to hypocrisy, a misjudg-
ment into which we fell again to some extent in
newspaper criticisms of the war in the East between
Russia and Turkey. With respect to the German
people, no more ungenerous accusation could have
been brought against them, nor any charge more re
pugnant to the genius of the nation, as Germans are
far more disposed to conceal religious emotion and
sentiments than to act the part of hypocrites.
English and published by the Religious Tract Society under a
different title.
Das Kriegsbuch. Von Ernst Haltaus. Stuttgart, Belser (5
Bandchen). Zeit-predigten. Von Max Frommel, evang. luth. Pfarrer
in Ispringen bei Pforzheim. Heidelberg, Carl Winter's
Universitats Buchhandlung. 1873.
The present essay was originally delivered as a Lecture on be
half of the Belfast Sailors' Institute, and published by Williams
and Norgate in 1878. It was dedicated : — " To Her Excellency
The Countess von Bernstaff, widow of the late esteemed Ger
man Ambassador to the British Court. In Memoriam 1870-1,
and of much help afforded to the writer in aid of the German
Prisoners of War confined in Calais and Dunkirk, this
Pamphlet is, by permission, respectfully inscribed." Copies
were, by permission, sent to Her late Gracious Majesty Queen
Victoria, and to the Emperor William I. of Germany, and
special thanks were received from the latter Monarch — Her
Royal Highness the Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Baden,
having been shown a copy by Lord Napier of Magdala, pro
cured some 25 copies or more at different times for distri
bution in Germany. The writer has been frequently asked to
republish the pamphlet, and does so now with some verbal
corrections but no substantial alteration, except the omission
of the Preface, which contained much now out of date
on the state of Religion in Germany. The record of facts
here set forth may be still of interest. Several German
scholars have at different times stated that the pamphlet
was extensively reviewed in Germany, but the writer has not
himself come across those notices.

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 289
Many politicians who from a distance observed the
course of events in Germany understood little at the
commencement of the last great war of the deep
feeling of unity which pervaded the minds of the Ger
man people. The War of Liberation of 1813 had helped
to awaken the feeling of national unity, which can,
however, be traced back even to an earlier period.
The poems of Arndt and others tended to diffuse that
feeling more widely among all peoples of the various
states of "the Fatherland." The idea of belonging
to the Holy Roman Empire had kept alive a similar
sense of union in former ages ; and when the Holy
Roman Empire became a mere name, the idea of
German nationality sprang up in its stead. Men of
ability in the smaller states of Germany were not
in modern times compelled by the circumstance of
their birth to confine their aspirations within the limits
of the small state to which they happened to belong.
In the Universities of Germany intellectual merit was
recognised wherever it might be displayed. Scholars
were often called from the smaller states to occupy
professional chairs in the Universities of Prussia ; and,
on the other hand, Prussian scholars were often in
duced to accept such positions in the smaller states.
In the sphere of political life it will not be forgotten
that Baron von Beust, who had for several years dis
tinguished himself as Minister of Foreign Affairs at
the Court of Saxony, was, after the war of 1866,
appointed Prime Minister in Austria, and afterwards
made Chancellor of that Empire.
The National unity of the German peoples was ex
hibited in a very remarkable manner from the com
mencement of the struggle in 1870-1. Those who
20

290 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
knew the feelings of the Germans (and did not suffer
themselves to be misled by the language of officials,)
who looked back with regret to the state of affairs
before 1866. They were perfectly aware that, what
ever difference of opinion might exist between
Germans on other matters, all the German peoples
would rise enthusiastically to oppose any interference
on the part of France with the affairs of Germany.
Napoleon III. made a fatal mistake when he fancied
that the annexations to Prussia, made in consequence
of the events of 1866, had altogether alienated the
feelings of the Southern Germans. The prophecies
made by some in England that the Hanoverian
soldiers, with the recollections of Langensalza fresh
in their memories, would not fight with spirit on the
side of Prussia against France were doomed to be
gloriously disappointed.
Never was a more magnificent enthusiasm exhibited
on the part of any people than that aroused in Ger
many by the wanton declaration of war on the part of
France. The national unity of the Germanic race
was then decisively demonstrated, and a signal proof
given that, whatever mistakes had been made by
Prussian statesmen, and whatever real or apparent
instances of harshness may have been exhibited, the
Prussian statesmen, with Prince Bismarck at their
head, thoroughly understood the opinions universally
held by German people. The secret of the astonishing
success of Prussia lay in the fact that she understood
and carried out into action the sentiments of the people
of Germany. The writer was fully aware of this fact,
even at the commencement of the campaign of 1866,
when he was British chaplain at Dresden. He had

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 291
learned by intercourse with the Saxons, that the popu
lar sentiment of the people of that state was far more
favourable to Prussia than Austria, although the in
terests of the Saxon Government at that crisis caused
the Saxon troops to be ranged on the side of Austria
during that brief but decisive war.
At the declaration by France of war against Prussia,
a flame of national enthusiasm burst forth in all parts
of Germany. In Hanover and Nassau the people
were as enthusiastic and patriotic as in Berlin. In
Cassel and in Flensburg they were as staunch as in the
old provinces of Prussia. The Southern Germans were
as earnest and determined as their brethren who be
longed to the North German Federation. The feeling of
the Saxon people may be exemplified by the message
sent at that crisis to the North Germanic Parliament
from one of their chief commercial cities. ' ' The city of
Chemnitz in this eventful time is without a representa
tive in the Parliament. It desires, therefore, to testify
by its municipal representatives that it is prepared to
bear its full share by sacrificing blood and money for
the accomplishment of any end which may advance
the honour and welfare of ' the dear Fatherland.' "
George H. Boker, an American poet, has so fitly ex
pressed the feelings of the Germans at this period on
the subject of " German unity," that it is worth tran
scribing two of his stirring stanzas :
" For this our invader we thank.
He has crowned our undying endeavour,
For the blow of the insolent Frank
Has welded our union for ever.
March, march ! and whoever may part,
We swear that we never will sever !
Lead, Prussia ! for we with one heart
Are Germans — are Germans for ever.

292 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
" We join as the waves of a flood
In more than a mere federation-
One people, one God, and one blood,
For Germany now is a .Nation.
March, march ! and whoever may part,
We swear that we never will sever 1
Lead, Prussia ! for we with one heart
Are Germans — are Germans for ever."
This spirit of national enthusiasm was upheld by a
deep religious feeling. Whatever may be said of Ger
many and of the spread of Rationalism among its peo
ple, a comparison of the present with the past thirty or
forty years will show that evangelical Christianity
is on the increase, and not on the decline. This was
abundantly proved in the wars of 1866 and 1870-1. In
the latter war more especially the nation felt the cause
for which it had taken up arms was a righteous one,
and it looked up to God for help in the day of trouble.
The King of Prussia, in the speech which he made on
the occasion to the Parliament of the North German
Confederation, used the following weighty words : —
' ' We will carry on war after the example of our fathers
for our freedom and for our rights, against the violence
of a foreign conqueror ; and in this war, in which we
seek no other object than to secure on a lasting basis
the peace of Europe, God will be with us, as He was
with our fathers."
The address of the Parliament in reply to the speech
from the throne contained the following : — " The Ger
man people know that a severe and terrible war is be
fore them. We rely on the bravery of our brethren
in arms, upon their love of their country, and upon the
firm resolve of a united people. We trust to the ex
perienced leadership of our old hero-king, the German
commander-in-chief, to whom Providence has assigned

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 293
the duty of carrying on to a decisive issue in the evening
of his life the great war which he waged as a youth
more than half a century ago. We rely on God,
whose judgment will punish the bloody wrong done to
us. From the shore of the sea to the foot of the Alps
the people have risen unanimously to the call of their
united princes. No sacrifice is for us too dear."
" It is a great consolation to me in the sight of God
and man," wrote King William, in his decree appoint
ing a day for earnest prayer to Almighty God, " that I
have not given any cause for war. I am certain of hav
ing a clear conscience before God with regard to the
origin of this war, and as to the righteousness of our
cause. It is a serious war, which will require heavy
sacrifices from my people and from all Germany. But
I go forth to it, looking up to God who searcheth all
hearts, and in dependence on His almighty aid. Even
now I bless God for this fact, that from the first ru
mour of war but one feeling has animated all German
hearts, and manifested itself, namely, that of indigna
tion at the attack made upon us, and of joyful con
fidence that God will give the victory to the righteous
cause. My people will stand by me in this war, as
they stood by my father, relying on God  From
my youth up I have learned to believe that all depends
upon the gracious assistance of God. On Him I trust,
and I invite my people to have a like reliance on Him.
I bow myself before God in acknowledgment of His
loving kindness, and am convinced that my subjects
and fellow-countrymen do so also with me." After
naming the day appointed for special prayer, the King
further remarked : " I also direct that during the con
tinuance of the war special prayer be offered up in all

294 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
services for public worship, that God may lead us in
this war to victory, and that He may give us grace to
conduct ourselves also as Christians in the presence of
our foes."
The day of prayer was solemnly observed through
out the kingdom. Everywhere the churches were
thronged with worshippers, and a spirit of earnestness
prevailed. On the last row of the seats reserved for
the members of Parliament in the Cathedral of Berlin
sat General von Moltke, the strategist of the coming
campaign. Notwithstanding the cares and anxieties
with which his mind must have been filled at such a
period, the hero, whose earnest, unaffected piety was
well known in Germany, found time to humble himself
before God, and to seek His blessing. Nor were
services held only on the special day appointed by
Royal proclamation. Numerous other meetings for
prayer were held throughout the country, and in many
cases those services in Protestant churches were atten
ded by Roman Catholics; among whom, as well as
among the Protestant population, a spirit of religious
fervour prevailed.
In many garrisons solemn celebrations of the Lord's
Supper took place, officers and privates partaking side
by side. Many officers after such services shook hands
warmly with the officiating clergymen. Such reli
gious fervour had not been witnessed for ages. After
crossing the French frontier, 2,400 soldiers of one regi
ment partook at one time of the Holy Communion,
which fact greatly impressed the native population of
the country. All the Protestants of one battalion, a
day or two before the battle of Weisenburg, the first
victory gained by the German troops over the French

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 295
in the campaign, came forward and partook of the
Lord's Supper, the medical men also being communi
cants on the occasion. It was afterwards remarked
that this battalion distinguished itself greatly by its
bravery in storming the hill of the Gaisberg, which was
the key to the French position.
It must be borne in mind that in time of war the
attendance of soldiers at Divine service in the Prussian
army is not compulsory. The attendance, therefore,
of the men at the various services held by the army
chaplain may be cited as a fair proof of the religious
feeling which pervaded the ranks of the army. The
number of Protestant chaplains attached to the Prus
sian forces in the field was only eighty-one. To these
must be added ninety-nine, being the number of chap
lains attached to the military hospitals at the seat of
war, making in all 180 Protestant chaplains attached
to the various Prussian armies on French soil. There
were, however, a number of other chaplains attached
to the military ambulances established on German
territory, and twelve chaplains worked specially among
the prisoners of war ; one of these , Pastor Lowitz , for
merly a missionary in Algiers, laboured among the
captive Turcos. The total number, however, was far
too little to meet the necessities of the case. The
writer is inclined to have a favourable opinion of Prus
sian army chaplains from what he saw of them at
Dresden in 1866 , as well as in Strasburg after the close
of the Franco-German war and from the official re
ports of their work on the battlefields and in the
hospitals. We extract the following account of a service held
for the Prussian troops on the French frontier from the

296 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
interesting work of Hofprediger Dr. Rogge : —
" At a second service held in the afternoon, I was
obliged to confine myself to the Liturgy and sermon,
as there was no time for the administration of the
Sacrament on account of the large number of com
municants, and also because my voice was unequal to
the task after my exertions in the forenoon. I was,
besides, almost overwhelmed as I found a whole bri
gade, the 1st and 3rd Regiment of Guards, on foot,
drawn up for Divine service in a field lying on high
ground near Ober-Gailsbach. No one had remained
behind in the bivouac save those detained on special
duty. In the middle of a square, enclosed on all sides,
a mound of earth had already been thrown up for the
erection of a field altar. In front of the battalion the
flags waved in the evening wind. The heaven,
covered with clouds which threatened every moment
to descend in rain, was a faithful picture of our out
ward circumstances, and of the feelings which filled
our hearts. The chain of hills behind us marked the
German boundaries ; before us lay the enemy's terri
tory. I had to summon up all my strength to make
my voice reach this congregation, consisting of over
5,000 men. Still my inward emotion doubled my
external strength, and I did succeed in making myself
understood by all as I preached on Hebrews xii. 1."
The British and Foreign Society circulated during
the course of the war, chiefly among the German
soldiers, the enormous number of one million and a
half of Bibles, New Testaments, and smaller portions of
God's word. Of these about half were sold, the other
half given away gratuitously. Bibles and Testaments
were eagerly sought after and purchased by the Ger-

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 297
man soldiers. It is impossible to estimate aright the
importance of such a large circulation of Holy Scrip
tures. It must also not be forgotten that the British
and Foreign Bible Society was not the only society
engaged in such work. German societies were not be
hindhand in helping it forward. Moreover, the German
Protestant soldiers all possessed, at the end of their
military " Kirchenbuch " (specially issued for use in
the war), the complete Psalms of David. Such facts
render the circulation of Scriptures by the British and
Foreign Bible Society the more remarkable,. and prove
the eagerness of the Germans in their days of trial to
possess complete copies of the Book of God. Many in
stances might be cited, from the reports of colporteurs
and others, proving the welcome given by nearly all
ranks in the army to those engaged in the work. It is
unnecessary to do more than allude to the fact.
Bibles and Testaments were not only bought, or
accepted, but read. The colporteurs frequently found
the Bibles, which the soldiers had bought with such
eagerness when on the march, used on the field of
battle, in the bivouac, and in the hospital. Army
chaplains bore testimony to the fact that the soldiers
often read them by their camp fires; and, frequently,
after a weary day's march, they were seen to peruse
the Word of God before they prepared their kettles to
cook their evening meals. Hofprediger Stocker re
cords that at the battle of Mars-le-Tour, a Branden-
burger lay, during a terrible storm of bullets, upon the
ground, while his comrades were falling on his right
and left. " Then I opened," wrote he, " my New
Testament, and at the back of it, Ps. cxxiv., which
ends with the words, ' our help standeth in the name

298 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.' Oh, how
precious was the Word of God to me then ! As I put
up my New Testament, the captain cried out, ' Chil
dren, rise, in God's name, we will charge once more
upon the enemy. With God, for King and Father
land !' I sprang up, and said, ' Yes, in the name of
God, I will go with you.' " Two days later, at Grave-
lotte, a Pomeranian lay dying, who said to his lieu
tenant, " What I have with me, my watch with the
lock of my Mary's hair — she gave it to me last Christ
mas — and my small Testament, in the front of which
the verse is written, which was given me at my con
firmation, take and give to them at home." His
Bible was the last thought and greatest treasure of
the dying man. A soldier, who was brought as a
prisoner of war into Paris, wrote home : — " My New
Testament, which I bought in the camp at Knielingen,
has given me much comfort ; I have read it all through.
In such a situation one seeks one's Saviour and Re
deemer. I have not deserved, indeed, that the Lord
has so graciously brought me through — Psalm xci.,"
he laconically added.
Herr Stocker says that the " Kirchenbuch " (or
Church Book) issued for the use of the Protestant
troops, was almost as important as the Bible. It as
sumed the important place which Hymn Books are
wont to have in the country places in Germany. That
little book contained a small but choice collection of the
fine old evangelical hymns of Germany, with prayers
suited for the various circumstances of a soldier's
career, and at its close the complete Psalter. The
people of Froschweiler learned the value of its con
tents when they gathered up the Prussian books which

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 299
lay in thousands upon the deadly field of Worth. The
village of Froschweiler was not far from Worth, and
was the centre round which the battle raged. It was
taken by. storm during that bloody day, and the church
of the village reduced to ashes. A beautiful memorial
church was erected there after the war. The people
of Froschweiler had for many years been obliged to
use a wretched hymn book in which the old hymns had
been watered down to suit the prevalent Rationalism.
A few weeks before the war an evangelical
hymn book had been re-introduced again into the com
munity. The people compared together then the old
Church hymns, "0, head full of blood and wounds,"
or, " How shall I receive Thee," as given in the Prus
sian book and in their new book, and as they found
that they agreed together, the hymns of the fathers of
the German Church took such deep root that, as
Pastor Klein expresses himself, no power on earth
could drive them out. The pastor of Worth died, and
Pastor Klein undertook the instruction there of child
ren for confirmation. The children had to learn the
hymns after the good old texts, which were not to
be found in the hymn book used in Worth. They ac
cordingly brought to the pastor the books found on the
battlefield, and the children eagerly committed those
hymns to memory.
A remarkable revival was occasioned in Worth
through the instrumentality of those Prussian hymn
books. As Hofprediger Stocker some years after-
Wards was at Worth for the purpose of assisting at the
erection of a military monument, an old woman ad
dressed him in her Alsatian dialect, and said, " We
know well why God let the Germans win the day,"

300 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
meaning that it was because the Prussians
had on their side the truth of the Gospel,
It deserves to be noted that earnest evan
gelical preaching was scarcely known in Elsass
before the country passed into the possession
of the Prussians ; and after the war was over, a piouB
German in Strasburg remarked to the writer, when
there, " The Prussians brought with them the preach
ing of the Gospel of Christ."
Herr Stocker mentions many interesting facts con
nected with the Prussian soldiers' manual. On the
field of Worth three Prussian soldiers were found lying
dead on the ground the day after the battle. The loss
on each side in the battle was about sixteen or seven
teen thousand men. The soldiers had thrown off their
knapsacks before entering into the battle ; but one
thing they all brought with them,, the little Kirchen-
buch. Upon the ground, wide open, lay the soldiers'
little hymn book belonging to one of them ; his coun
tenance was still directed towards the book, his hands
folded in the attitude of prayer. The book belonging
to 'another of them had fallen from his weary fingers
and lay upon the earth ; while the third held the same
little book with his stiffened fingers, as if he would
fain have opened and read therein in his dying mo
ments. On the bloody field of St. Privat, among the
heroes of the Guard whose corpses covered the ground,
there was one found whose cold hand still held the
book open at the place where it contained " a soldier's
thanksgiving for victory." Thus true bravery was
united with religious faith, and the hope of immortality
imparted joy in the very prospect of death.
Herr Jordan mentions that among the wounded at

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 301
St. Privat, collected in one of the field hospitals, lay
the field major of a regiment severely wounded. When
the news was announced to him that his battalion was
one of the very first of those whose colours had been
planted within the French positions, his countenance
beamed with joy. " God be thanked," cried he, " my
wounds do not now smart any more." On the even
ing of that eventful day, when the roar of the cannon
had subsided, and the burning houses were lighting up
the dark heavens with their fearful glare, the trum
pets announced the victory to the various parts of the
army, and the army sung the fine old choral of " Nun
danket alle Gott."
" Now thank we all our God,
With hearts, and hands, and voices "
That hymn may well be called the German ' ' Te
Deum." It was written by Martin Rinkart at the
close of the Thirty Years' War, and is used in Ger
many on all occasions of public thanksgiving. It has
now, in the excellent translation of Miss Winkworth,
found its way into many of our English Church
Hymnals. The value of hymns was abundantly shown in the
war. German children generally learn a large num
ber of hymns at school, and many a wounded soldier
on the field of slaughter comforted himself and his
comrades by the repetition of suitable verses. When
a division of the German army crossed the French
frontier, and were for the first time loading their guns
on foreign soil, the general of the brigade, General
von Hiigel, repeated a well-known German hymn,
expressive of confidence in God and His Christ, in all

302 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
difficulties and dangers, and of a prosperous result in
the work thus begun. The German soldiers refreshed
themselves by the bivouac fires, or in their quarters,
by singing some of the fine old ' ' hymns of the land
of Luther." A detachment of a regiment quartered
one night in a country church, came in footsore and
weary, when a volunteer acquainted with music, placed
himself at the organ, and sang " Befiehl du meine
Wege," which has been rendered by Wesley thus : —
' ' Commit thou all thy griefs
And ways into His hands.
To His sure truth and tender care,
Who heaven and earth commands."
The whole company joined at once heartily in the
hymn, and in that beautiful expression of confidence
in God seemed to forget for a time the hardships of
their lot.
After the fearful day of the battle of Worth, during
which the poor people of the village of Froschweiler
had their houses stormed and sacked, when emerging
from the holes and corners, in which they had sought
refuge during the storm of battle, the Alsatian villa
gers crept back to their ruined homes, and listened,
through the darkness, to the terrible sound of armed
soldiers marching all night through along their roads,
and of cannon and ammunition hurried forward
through their streets. But among those sounds of
war they were surprised to hear songs of
praise, blending with martial music, arising
from the battlefield. They listened with as
tonishment, writes Pastor Klein, to hear the
soldiers sing their own familiar German hymns.
Luther's hymn ' ' Ein f este Burg ist unser Gott ' ' (A

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 303
sure stronghold our God is He), "Nun danket alle
Gott," " Jesus meine Zuversicht " (Jesus is my con
fidence)." Such sounds were like home echoes of
former days. The German soldiers were singing some
of their songs of victory, or hymns of faith, over
the graves to which they had committed so many of
their fallen comrades. Strange must have been the
feelings of the pastor of that village, as he gazed that
awful night upon the flames rapidly consuming the
church in which he was wont to worship God with his
people, and heard the victors expressing their feelings
in such well-known hymns.
One of the most remarkable instances in which these
hymns of praise were sung with an enthusiasm which
only the most virulent malice can ascribe to hypocrisy,
was on the eve of the victory of Sedan. The hymn,
" Now thank we all our God.
With hearts and hands and voices."
pealed forth in the twilight of that decisive day from
regiment to regiment, as a Christian song of triumph.
He who has taken part, writes Stocker, on the evening
of Sedan, in singing that loud and powerful song of
praise which burst forth in the evening air from one
hundred thousand voices, can never forget during his
life. " You may," wrote a young soldier to Pastor
Ahlfield of Leipzig, " have heard and sung that hymn
on the 2nd of September." A Roman Catholic Ba
varian soldier thus describes the singing of this very
hymn in a letter in which he wrote home: — "The
Herr Pfarrer should have seen at Sedan how the Prus
sian riflemen near us sung loud their religious hymn,
accompanied with their martial music. We

304 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
were all shouting with joy, but we stopped
when the Prussians began to sing, and
were ashamed that we had on our side no hymn
to raise like that which was raised by the Prussians."
The Bavarians it will be remembered were mostly
Roman Catholics.
As to the power of religion in the German army,
Professor Beesley, of London, gave the most remark
able testimony — remarkable as proceeding from one
who is Rationalistic in his religious views, and strongly
opposed in feeling to the Germans. We quote Pro
fessor Beesley' s words as translated by Stocker, as we
do not possess the original English, though we took a
note of it at the time : " France, although Catholic in
name, is in reality free from all religious trammels,
while Germany, Protestant not only in name, but in
reality, has sent forth her psalm-singing legions to in
vade the holy ground of Socialism."
' ' What hath God wrought ! ' ' was the feeling upper
most in the minds of the German soldiers at the won
derful results achieved at Sedan. " What a change,
through God's leading!" telegraphed the King of
Prussia to Queen Augusta in Berlin, as he announced
the capitulation of the French army with the French
Emperor at its head. Men who had been indifferent
to religion, and unobservant of the over-ruling hand
of Providence, felt that the results which had been ob
tained were due to God alone. A commander of a
German regiment, so writes one of the army chap
lains, cried out to his regiment, when announcing to
them the result of the victory, in the strong language
of one not accustomed to be careful of his words, " He
who now does not believe in a living God is a rascal 1"

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 305
It would be easy to give proofs of similar feeling ex
hibited in German hearths and homes. A word or
two must be said on the power of faith as exhibited
in the ambulances and military hospitals. Many a
careless soldier in hospital, when under affliction, was
brought to a sense of sin, and to a knowledge of God's
grace in Christ. Under such circumstances one can
observe the presence or absence of true faith in the
soul, and discover whether a man is dead or not to the
power of vital religion. Many instances might be
given of the comfort that the knowledge which Christ's
atoning love gave to dying soldiers in the German
army. Many were supported under grievous wounds
by the consolations of religion. A dying man in a let
ter to his mother, written by the chaplain at his dic
tation, pointed to a verse in Matthew xviii. 18, " It is
better for thee to enter halt into life, rather than hav
ing two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting
fire." A wounded man, while lying in the church of
Vionville, used during the battle as a hospital, com
posed, amid his pain, a hymn on " Hope and trust."
The love felt for the King of Prussia is illustrated by
the following anecdote : — As his Majesty was passing
through an ambulance, he halted at the bed of a poor
soldier severely wounded, who was asleep. The King
wrote upon the soldier's card, " My son, remember
thy King." When the man awoke he saw the card,
and as the King was returning through the same room
he said, " I will think on your Majesty, even in hea
ven." The military chaplains were most diligent in the
discharge of their duties. They were sometimes in
the front of the troops encouraging the soldiers by ear-
21

306 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
nest addresses when going into the field. Still oftener,
and more in accordance with their duty, the chaplains
were to be found in the rear, to be at hand to assist
the wounded, and to afford the consolation to be found
in God's Word. They wrote letters for the sick, held
services for the men in health, and circulated tracts
and Bibles wherever they found opportunity. Many
of those chaplains gave testimony to the spirit of ear
nestness and prayer that pervaded all ranks of the
army. "One does not say any prayers now," re
marked a French civilian to a German soldier, who
had just purchased a New Testament from a German
colporteur. "What," replied the soldier, "this is
the very time for prayer, and where prayer is made,
there will be victory." "Your prayers," wrote a
soldier home to his mother, " are my coat of mail."
" How I thank my parents that they taught me to
pray." " I am comforted, God's will be done," wrote
a grenadier from Pomerania to his brother. " With
out prayer we cannot live," said a Bavarian whose two
arms and one leg had been shot off. " Children,
pray," exclaimed a colonel, "the battle begins."
When the Crown Prince of Prussia (afterwards the
Emperor Frederick) made in 1872 his first tour of in
spection through Wurtemburg, he remarked to Pre
late Kapff on his entrance : " We have to thank your
prayers much in the last war."
The feeling that all the victories which were gained
during the war were owing to God's grace, pervaded
the minds of all the Germans, even the highest generals
in command. " To pray to God and hope in
Him," wrote General von Gersdorf, shortly before his
soldier's death at Sedan, "gives courage and confi-

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870.71 307
dence when one can say, Thou hast hitherto given us
the power to do our duty." " The glory of the suc
cess belongs to God," said General von Obernitz at
his triumphal entry into Stuttgart. " Almighty God
has done for us great things, to Him be the honour,
the praise, and the thanks," &c, exclaimed General
von Werder, (conqueror at the battle of Belfort, one
of the most remarkable of the German victories at the
close of the campaign) when expressing his thanks
for the Bible with which the ladies of Stuttgart pre
sented him. Of that Book, he remarked, " It points
above, and leads to God, on whose blessing all de
pends." In a letter written by a relative immediately
after his wonderful three days' struggle and victory
(which the King of Prussia, no mean judge of such
matters, pronounced "one of the greatest deeds of
arms of any age"), General von Werder thus ex
pressed himself : " We wish to be humble, and to be
come even more humble, and magnify and praise our
Lord God, saying, Thou hast blessed our righteous de
signs, Thou hast granted us strength and endurance,
and permitted us to find out the measures which have
rendered our success possible." Similar were the
expressions of Prince Frederick Charles in his reply to
the magistrates of Berlin, " We must ascribe this suc
cess to the gracious help of the Most High. This
feeling, that we have been instruments in His hands,
gives us in the face of such great success humility and
confidence." The same feeling pervaded every tele
gram of the King of Prussia, which announced from
time to time the German victories. The writer felt
deeply humiliated at the time to note the shameful
manner in which his Prussian Majesty's ascription of

308 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
.gratitude to God was commented on in some of the
.English newspapers which took the side of the French
after the first German victories had been obtained.1
Englishmen may recollect the caricatures of the King
of Prussia, with the almost blasphemous distich : —
" For thirty thousand Frenchmen sent below,
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."
The feeling that suggested those caricatures and
sought to ridicule the religious feelings of the Ger
mans, and of their heroic leader, was unworthy of
a nation which professed to believe in Holy Scripture,
"where God is ever pointed forth as the giver of victory,
and repeated warnings are given against acting in the
spirit of the proud kings of Assyria and Babylon,
who boasted of their own strength, forget
ting that all their power and might was given to them
by God (see Isa. x. 13-15, and Hab. i, 15-17).
The humility of the King of Prussia, in the midst
of his great success, was remarkably exhibited on the
occasion when he was crowned Emperor of Germany
at Versailles (Jan. 18th, 1871). The King received
on the previous day, in private audience, Hofprediger
Dr. Rogge, and gave him directions as to the service
to be used on the occasion. The King charged the
preacher most earnestly to leave out, as far as possible,
all allusions to his Royal person, for, said he, "I have
not done the work, God has so ordered it." At the
imperial coronation which took place in the Royal Hall
of Louis XIV. , the King of Prussia stood beneath the
portrait of that great monarch of France which bears
1 At the beginning of the war the entire Press of England,
almost without exception, declared itself against France,
which had so recklessly declared war.

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 309
the inscription " Le roy gouverne par luy meme;"
and, as the first Emperor of the Germans promised,
when called to that high dignity by the nation and its
princes, that he would seek, " with the assistance of
God, to fulfil the duties connected with the Imperial
dignity to the blessing of Germany."
It was too often maintained, on very insufficient
reasoning, that the Germans ought to have retired
from France after the crowning victory of Sedan. Too
many persons forget that it was impossible for the war
to have been closed then, because the French had ex
hibited no willingness to come to reasonable terms.
The revolution at Paris, the proclamation of the Re
public, and the negotiations for an armistice of M.,
Favre with Count Bismarck at Ferrieres, are too often
forgotten. The French did not believe that they
were really worsted, and they were unwilling to come
to terms except on conditions which were unreason
able under the circumstances. The sad event at
Laon scarcely a week before those negotiations, had
aroused suspicions with regard to French honour. The
citadel of Laon was blown up by a French artillery
officer after the commandant had signed the articles
of capitulation, and by that explosion the Germans
lost 120 killed and wounded. The French, indeed,
suffered themselves even more severely, losing 400 men
besides 700 of the civil inhabitants. That act was
probably not committed by the orders of the comman
dant, who was killed on the occasion. But unfortu
nately it was loudly praised by the French Press as
an act of heroism, which ought everywhere to be
imitated. The German troops on the whole behaved them-

310 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
selves in France with great moderation, and dis
cipline was maintained under trying circumstances.
Some English newspapers denounced what were
termed the German atrocities, especially those com
mitted at Bazeilles, and even compared those deeds to
the awful atrocities which the Turks committed in
Bulgaria. The absurdity of the parallel was gross
enough, as anyone who had perused attentively the
account of the battle of Sedan would know that Ba
zeilles lay in the line of attack, and was bravely de
fended by the French, and the place was not taken by
the Bavarian troops imtil after repeated attacks. Some
of the inhabitants of Bazeilles in their excitement
fifed out of their houses on the German soldiers, and
those houses consequently had to be stormed. In such
a state of things many non-combatants fell by the
hands of the enraged Bavarians, who could not dis
tinguish them from others. A wounded German sol
dier was said to have been hurled into the flames by
a Frenchwoman under intense excitement, and the
act" stirred up the Bavarian troops to fury. But
cruelties committed in such moments ought never to
have been compared with the cold-blooded atrocities
of the Bashi-Bazouks in Bulgaria.
No doubt many stories have been told of German
soldiers plundering French houses during the latter
stage of the war. But when sifted to the bottom
such stories have generally been found to have had but
a slender foundation of truth. The damage done to
houses often proceeded from adventurers hanging on
to the outskirts of the army, and in some cases from
French peasants, and even National Guards. That
Ge'Waan troops coilld have carried off plunder with

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 311
them is utterly impossible, unless to a very small ex
tent, as is plain from the regulations as to baggage in
force in the German army. Complaints were made
to the writer during the last war of articles stolen from
French houses by German officers who were after
wards taken prisoners. On asking to be shown what
the officers had stolen, a small clock and a couple of
candlesticks were pointed out by the French authori
ties. On investigating the matter, however, the
writer ascertained that the articles were purchased at
Rheims by the accused German officers, and the re
ceipts for the money paid for them were actually
shown to him. Any story prejudicial to the German
character was unhesitatingly believed at the time by
the majority of Frenchmen. Numerous instances,
however, of kindness done by Germans, and of their
courteous behaviour and consideration for the civil
population of France, were related to the writer by
French people in different parts, both during the war
and after its close. He has personally known cases
which came under his own observation in which Ger
man soldiers acted as nurses and caretakers of the
children of Frenchmen in whose houses they were
quartered ; and a German general of distinction, quar
tered on a French family, permitted the lady of the
house to give him directions as to all household
arrangements. The tone of the sermons delivered in Germany on
the war were not merely patriotic, but evangelical. At
the outbreak of the war Hofprediger s Dr. von
Hengstenberg and Dr. K6gel warned the people of
Berlin of the vows they had made in 1866, and after
wards forgotten, and sternly reminded them of the

312 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
reasons why they might justly fear the punishment of
God because of their unthankfulness and unbelief.
Dr. Carus, in Stettin, stated in his sermons that he
believed that the war was a sharp rod of correction
for the sins of the German people. Dr. Hoffmann of
Halle adopted the same line, and stated that he feared
God would send some disaster on the nation to humble
it under His afflicting rod. Prof. Beyschlag warned
the University students, as they flocked in numbers
to the royal banners, that if the judgment of 1870 did
not produce more fruit than that of 1866 , Germany
would certainly receive terrible chastisement. The
chaplains in the army, in their addresses to the soldiers
were wont not to use " flattering speeches," but loud
ly called the soldiers to repentance and earnest seeking
after God. Pastor Frommel's " Zeitpredigten" are
an illustration of the tone prevailing among the home
clergy. His sermon preached before the army on
July 24, 1870, " God with us," was divided into three
heads : (1) " God calls us into this war " ; (2) " God
speaks with us through this war " ; (3) " God will be
our comfort in this war." Pastor Frommel preached
a remarkable sermon on the Fast Day, July 31, 1870,
and on the occasion of the battle of Sedan and the fall
of Paris.
It fell to the lot of the writer to be a witness of the
religious feeling which then pervaded all ranks of the
German troops. He was located during the war of
1870-1 as a chaplain in the north of France, and his
attention was drawn by a French Wesleyan pastor
(M. Ozanne) of Calais, to the depot of German
prisoners of war which had been formed a short dis
tance outside that city in Fort Neuilly. Hearing of

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 313
the great misery and destitution prevailing among
those poor prisoners, he determined to visit them, and
to see what could be done to supply their necessities and
relieve their most pressing wants. On visiting them
in company with his wife, he found the condition of
these prisoners of war far more miserable than he had
any previous conception of. The sick and wounded
were well cared for in the military hospital, and in a
temporary hospital established in the Museum of the
town of Calais, where they were treated in every re
spect on an equality with the French wounded. •
The state of the unwounded prisoners of war in Fort
Neuilly, and of the German Officers who were confined
in a hotel in the town was very different. The treat
ment of the officers was not such as officers who had
given their parole would have naturally expected. Six-
and-twenty of them were confined in two small rooms,
so low that the ceiling was literally only six inches
above their heads, and with only a front court-yard
in which they were permitted to take exercise. This
was not the treatment which officers should have been
subjected to in a place where abundant facilities existed
for other arrangements being made. In other respects,
however, the officers had nothing to complain of ; and
they would have received better treatment had power
been given to the military authorities to make the
necessary arrangements. The civilian authorities had,
however, the upper hand ; and under the leadership of
M. Gambetta, they were violently opposed to the idea
of treating Germans with any consideration.
The condition of the German prisoners of war in
Fort Neuilly was, however, most deplorable. There
were over 450 in number confined in the arsenal of Fort

314 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
Neuilly. The Arsenal was a large building like a capa
cious stable; its floor was paved with stones. It
was provided with a large double door, which freely
admitted the cold blast underneath. Wooden boards
were placed round that miserable den. The prisoners
slept on those planks at night ; and in this place many
of them were confined, without even a single blanket,
in that bitter winter, with frost and snow deep in the
outer court, without either fire or light, from six in the
evening until six in the morning. In the daytime the
men were permitted to walk about the large court in
front. Many of them were literally swarming with
vermin, and many in a most deplorable state for want
of clothing. They had no means of washing them
selves, or performing any ablutions, save at a pump in
the yard. We were by degrees enabled to relieve their
most pressing wants by getting a stove put up, through
the kindness of the Belgian International Society, and
also by providing the men with the luxury of tobacco.
Coals were, after the writer's visit, provided for them
from another source. Bales of clothing and blankets
were obtained through the kindness of the Countess
von Bernstorff, of the Prussian Embassy at London,
which were sent to the writer under " the Red Cross."
From other sources tin jugs, tin washing basins, soap,
and other necessary articles of a similar kind were
obtained, and means devised to rid them to some ex
tent of the vermin with which they were plagued.
The condition of the poor German prisoners in Dun
kirk, whom we did not hear of till later, was even
more deplorable. They were confined in the dark and
damp casements of Fort la France, about two miles
dut of the town, and were only permitted twice a day,

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 315
for half an hour at a time, to take exercise in a small
yard. The casemates of the fortress were, of course,
not provided with windows ; the apertures were merely
closed with wooden boards. When closed, the atmos
phere within was stifling; when open, the draught
frorn the frozen glacis was bitterly cold. No light
was permitted in that horrid place, which, as the
writer remarked to a Frenchman at the time, was
more suitable to be a den of wild beasts than to be a
residence for men." The answer he received — " And
are not the Germans wild beasts?" — showed the depth
of hate for Germans which then burned in the breasts
of many Frenchmen. In the casemates of Fort la
France there were about 150 soldiers and sailors. The
majority of them had been non-combatants. Many of
them were poor sailors, who, returning to their own
country from foreign parts, were ignorant of the war
which had broken out in their absence from home,
when captured in the channel by French men-of-war.
Here, too, through the kindness of Countess Von Bern
storff, we were enabled somewhat to alleviate their
sufferings by the distribution of warm clothing, of
which they stood in fearful need. Through the kind
efforts of the French Protestant pastor of Dunkirk (M.
Vesson), the writer was permitted to hold a German
Service. It is not so much, however, of their destitution that
the writer desires to write, as in reference to the
religious life which prevailed among those poor men.
At Calais the writer was able to hold three
German services. The prisoners of war there were
visited by us on eight consecutive occasions. At Dun
kirk he held a service on the only occasion he was able

316 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
to visit them, because the conclusion of the armistice
followed closely after the date at which we were made
acquainted with their sad condition. Through the
kindness of the Christian Knowledge Society, he was
enabled to circulate among the men at Calais some
hundred copies of the Book of Common Prayer in Ger
man, as well as copies of the Psalter published by that
Society in three languages (English, French, and Ger
man), which were most acceptable. Through the
British and Foreign Society he was enabled to give to
all the men at Calais, and to many of those at Dun
kirk, Bibles or Testaments in German, as well as a
few Polish Bibles to Polish soldiers. The Religious
Tract Society liberally supplied us with tracts. These
were eagerly sought for, and were earnestly read.
Among the soldiers we found students of theology
from several of the German Universities, men from
nearly all parts of that country, and some serving in
the ranks, according to German law, who were
connected with noble families.
The service in Dunkirk was held in the casemates,
for no other place would be granted. The services
at Calais were held in the arsenal of Fort Neuilly.
As the writer did not venture to preach extempore in
German, his sermons were all written beforehand.
Never has he seen more attentive congregations, and
nowhere heard more hearty songs of praise, than those
which arose in the damp casemates of Dunkirk, and in
the wretched arsenal of Fort Neuilly. The pulpit on
those occasions consisted of a deal table, on which the
preacher stood. The hymns sung were some of the
well-known German evangelical hymns, which had to
be printed at a French provincial printing office, where

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 317
the special German vowels were not attainable, but for
which the best shift possible was made. As
the services were hastily got up, it was impossible to
provide German Gesangbilcher. As for the hymns,
the memory of the congregation needed but little re
freshing. Nearly all the prisoners attended the ser
vices, and even some who were Roman Catholics.
Never did men join more heartily in a religious service,
and never were hymns sung with greater fervour and
spirit. Most warmly, too, they thanked the writer for
his poor efforts. In conversing with them after the
services, all manifested the greatest respect for religion,
and not a few appeared to be men who had earnest
faith in God.
It will afford a fair idea of the amount of religious
feeling among the men at Calais to mention that
eighty of them gave in their names as desirous to par
take of the Lord's Supper. These men were chiefly
Lutherans. Lutherans in general have scruples
against partaking of the Lord's Supper from the
hands of one who was viewed as a pastor of the
Reformed Church, the doctrines of which on the ques
tions of the Eucharist differ from the Lutheran. A
day was fixed for the administration of the Holy
Communion, but, by the armistice which was con
cluded, the German prisoners were unexpectedly set
at liberty. When, not knowing this fact, the writer
went down to Calais, he found all the Germans gone.
Many of the men were again seen by us at Amiens
after having been set at liberty. They then expressed
their most hearty thanks for the little we were able to
do for them during the days of captivity. Through
the kindness of the French military commandant at

318 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE
Calais at each visit we were permitted to receive from
the prisoners scraps of paper containing their names,
and the name of some relative in Germany, and
through the kindness of the Countess Theresa,
daughter of the Count v. Bernstorff, those messages
were forwarded to their several relatives in Germany ;
and, in many cases, necessary supplies were trans
mitted to me through the same source, and thus to the
prisoners themselves. This involved a very consider
able amount of work, and on each of our visits hours
were spent in distributing relief in the shape of
money and various articles.
The experience obtained during the war confirmed
the opinion which was formerly expressed by the
writer in letters in the Times in August and Septem
ber, 1869 / namely, that there exists a great deal of
vital earnest religion throughout Germany. This was
the opinion the writer arrived at after five years' resi
dence in Saxony, where he had much intercourse with
German theologians and others, not merely in Saxony,
but also in Berlin, Halle, etc. After a short residence
in Dresden he had come to a different conclusion,
which a closer acquaintance led him considerably to
modify. Germans who judge the state of religion in
England from what they read in the English Press,
often imagine that England and the English Church
are fast relapsing into Romanism. Matters in that
respect are now much worse than they were thirty
1 Those letters were reprinted, but without any correction
of the typographical errors they contained, in a work entitled
Beligious Thought in Germany. Reprinted by permission
from the Times. London: Tinsley Bros., 18, Catherine Street,
Strand, which was written by the Times correspondent at
Berlin.

GERMAN ARMY DURING 1870-1 319
years ago. But even now those who look a little deeper
will be inclined to take a different view. But
the ideas of the Germans are quite natural, and this
ought to teach us not to judge superficially of the state
of religion in Germany. In estimating the present
state of religion in Germany, the present must be com
pared with the past. Such a comparison will show
that there is much true religion in the country which
cannot be discovered by a superficial glance, and, not
withstanding all that has been written on the other
side, the writer still believes, however gloomy
the state of religion in Germany may occasionally
appear, that Evangelical Christianity is a real power in
the " land of Luther."

VIII
THE PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES OF
RUSSIA.1

The efforts put forth since the accession of Nicholas I.
(1825) to the throne of Russia to Russify the Baltic Pro
vinces have assumed more and more the character not
only of a political, but also of a religious persecution.
Those provinces have been in the possession of
Russia for scarcely more than a century. Christianity
was introduced into those lands from Western Europe
in 1172. At the Reformation era the reformed faith
won the day after a short but decisive struggle, and
Lutheranism has been ever since the common creed of
1 Die Bedrilckung der deutschen und die Entrechtung der
protestantischen Kirche in den Ostsee-Provinzen. Leipzig :
Duncker und Humblot, 1886. — Bussich-baltische Blatter, Heft
i.-iv. Leipzig : Duncker und Humblot, 1886-88. — Die Verge-
waltigung der russischen Ostsee-Provinzen. Appell an das
Ehrgefuhl der Protestantismus von einem Balten. Berlin:
A. Deubner, 1886. — Die Baltische Provinzen Busslands.
Politische und culturgeschichtliche Aufsatze. Von Julius
Eckhart. 2 Aufl. Leipzig : Duncker und Humblot, 1869. —
Livldndische Beitrage, herausgegeben von W. von Bock.
Band I (2 parts), 1867-68; Band II. (7 parts), 1868-69; Neue
Folge, Band I., Heft i.-v., with supplement, 1869-71. Leipzig:
Duncker and Humblot. — Geschichtsbilder aus der Lutherischen
320

PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS 321
the peoples of those provinces, although composed of
various races and nationalities.
Esthonia and Livonia were ceded to Russia in con
sequence of the victories of Peter the Great, but by
the peace of Nystadt the Lutheran Church was con
firmed in all its privileges as the Established Church
of those provinces. Kurland obtained similar terms
from the Empress Catherine, when that province, in
1795, voluntarily submitted to her sway.
In defiance of those solemn covenants the Emperor
Nicholas promulgated a new code of ecclesiastical law
in 1832, whereby the Greek Church formally became
the Established Church, and the provisions of the
Russian penal code became applicable to the provinces.
But inasmuch as it was impossible to put such pro
visions in force in a country where all, both nobles and
peasants, were, almost without exception, Protestants,
it was fondly hoped that the new law would become
practically a brutum fulmen, and that no real harm
would ultimately be done to the Protestant Church.
When a Greek bishopric was established in Riga in
Kirche Livlands vom Jahre 1845 an. Von Dr. G. C. Adolf
von Harless. 2 Aufl. Leipzig, 1869. — Die Lettische-nationale
Bewegung und die kurldndische Geistlichkeit. Eine un-
parteiische Stimme aus den Ostsee-Provinzen. Leipzig :
Bbhme, 1886. — Verfassungsgeschichte der evangelisch-luther-
ischen Kirche in Bussland. Von Dr. Hermann Dalton. Gotha :
Perthes, 1887. Im Banne Moskaus. Die evangelisch-
lutherische Kirche in den russische Ostsee-Provinzen. Von
Dr. K. H. Neubert. Barmen: Klein, 1888.— Bussland am
Scheidewege. Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Slavophilenthunis
und zur Beurtheilung seiner Politik. Berlin : Wilhelmi, 1888. —
Deutsche-Protestantische Kdmpfe in den baltischen Provinzen
Busslands. Leipzig : Duncker und Humblot, 1888. Zur
Gewissensfreiheit in Bussland. Offenes Sendschreiben an den
Oberprokureur des russischen Synods, Herrn Wirklichen
Geheimrat K. Pobedonoszeff von Hermann Dalton. 7ter
Abdruck. Leipzig : Duncker und Humblot, 1889.
22

322 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
1837 the authorities took due care to explain, that by
the erection of the see nothing was intended contrary
to the interests of the Protestant religion. The worth-
lessness of Russian imperial promises was, however,
soon only too manifest. A series of bad harvests in
1839, 1840, and 1841 created great distress among
the peasantry, and a state of famine prevailed in the
Baltic Provinces in 1844 and 1845. Russian agents
traversed the country in order to stir up the peasantry
against the landowners, who were mostly of German
origin. Those agents represented to the peasants that
if they would outwardly conform to the Russian
Church they would be placed in a position independent
of the proprietors. The peasants were assured that if
they only placed their names on the Greek registers
they would be allowed freely to retain their churches,
sermons, sacraments, and Bibles, while they would be
freed from the necessity of paying tithes to the Ger
man pastors. Greater religious liberty was promised
to them than had ever been enjoyed in the bosom of
the Lutheran Church. Greek priests were at the same
time ostentatiously permitted by Bishop Philaret to
read from the pulpits Protestant sermons, and Greek
churches were even granted occasionally for Moravian
services. All this liberty was but a bait to induce
the ignorant peasants to place their names on the Greek
registers1 By the law of Russia no one who becomes
1 The statements can be abundantly proved by a
reference to the mass of depositions on the subjects
sworn before the courts of the provinces, which are
given in the work of von Harless and in the larger
book of von Bock, entitled Livldndische Beitrage, published
from 1867 to 1871. The "Leaves from the Diary of a Rus
sian Official in Riga, 1846 " (given in full in chapter iv. of the
Deutsche-protestantische Kdmpfe in den baltischen-Provinzen)

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 323
a member of the Greek Church is permitted, on any
pretext whatever, to secede from her communion.
The Russian propagandists had recourse to even
worse methods. Memorials to the Czar, drawn up in
Russian , and purporting to be memorials for an exten
sion of civil rights, were extensively signed by the
peasants who were wholly ignorant of that language.
The memorials ultimately proved to be petitions for
enrolment as members of the Greek Church. The
memorialists were informed in due course by the
bishop that the Czar had graciously acceded to their
request, and that they were all to be duly enrolled as
Greek Catholics. All protests were in vain. Many
were forcibly baptised and anointed. The names of
others were in many cases inserted on the church
registers as "anointed" and "confirmed," although
they had not actually undergone those rites. Russian
law assigns a certain period for due consideration be
fore converts are received into the Greek Church.
But that provision was set at nought, and no legal
permission has ever since been accorded to those who
were then so foully betrayed for reinstating themselves
in their proper position as members of the Lutheran
Church. No doubt large numbers were, in the period referred
to, induced by promises of secular advantages to join
recount a number of cases in which the Lutheran clergy were
harassed by the police. Several pastors were deprived of
their benefices and punished in various ways. Evangelical
publications were suppressed and confiscated. Rewards were
liberally bestowed on all officials who exhibited zeal in the
work of " conversion." Greek churches were, in several cases,
erected on farms in spite of the protests of the landowners.
Protestants were compelled to uncover their heads, and pay
honour to Greek processions, and in other ways molested in
their conscientious opposition to the inroads of the Greek
Church.

324 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
the Greek Church. But many cases of cruel wrong
were done in entire violation of the rights of con
science. The enrolment of a father in a state of in
toxication legally transferred in some cases his wife,
and in all cases his children under age, to the registers
of the Greek communion.
It is not surprising that such a propaganda should
have had considerable success. The success would
not, however, have proved so considerable had it not
been for the estrangement which existed between the
peasantry and the nobles. Though the peasants and
nobles were united in common adherence to the Pro
testant faith, the German nobles were accustomed to
look down upon the people whom their forefathers had
conquered as inferior races fit only for serfdom, while
the conquered races in return regarded the nobility
as their oppressors. The clergy, with noble excep
tions, were too much imbued with the feelings of the
nationality from whence they had sprung, and agrarian
disputes embittered the relations between the peasants
and the landed proprietor.
The education of the peasantry had been too gener
ally neglected in the days of quiet ; although extensive
efforts were set on foot in 1830 and in 1846 to im
prove the education and to enlarge the privileges of
the peasant population. It would have been easy in
the previous decades to have thoroughly Germanised
the original races, had that task been undertaken. But
the opportunity was let slip, and the Russian Govern
ment now sought to Russify the peasantry. It is un
deniable, too, that its efforts were attended with a
certain amount of success.
But the peasantry awoke at last to a, comprehension

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 325
of the real position of affairs. They discovered that
they had been duped, and that the civil and religious
liberty promised to them was a delusion. They strove
in vain to shake off their connection with the Greek
Church. They flocked in troops back to their old
churches, and implored the Lutheran pastors to rein
state their names again on the Protestant registers.
But, willing as the pastors were to re-admit " back
sliders " to their communion, the laws of the Russian
Empire forbade such a return. Lutherans are, in
Russia, permitted freely to pass over to the ranks of
" the Orthodox," but the Russian Church permits no
"apostates" from her communion. The "charac
ter ' ' she professes to impart by the ' ' anointing oil ' '
is considered to be as " indelible " as " holy orders."
Unbelievers may remain even as "atheists" "within"
the Russian Church , but no one is permitted to ' ' go
forth " from her fold. The statement of Prince
Tscherkasky at the Slavonic Congress in Moscow in
1869 cannot be forgotten : " I prefer a thousand times
rather an orthodox Greek atheist than a believing
Roman Catholic." The statement affords the key to
understand Russian policy.
Petitions upon petitions from the injured peasantry
now poured in upon the authorities. Those petitions
described the artifices by which the poor peasants had
been beguiled. The "exceeding bitter cry" which
arose from the cottage to the noble's hall, and echoed
from the hall to the throne, was too loud to be wholly
disregarded. Alexander the Second was constrained to
make inquiry into the matter, and General Count Bob-
rinski was commissioned, in 1863, to visit the Baltic
Provinces, and to report on the subject to the Emperor.

326 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
Count Bobrinski's Official report, dated April 18,
1864, was a terrible justification of the grievances com
plained of. According to that report, out of the whole
number of 140,000 persons, entered upon the registers
of the Greek Church as converts, scarcely one-tenth
really belonged to that communion. All the rest in
heart and soul still continued to be members of the
Lutheran Church. The report closed with the words :
"Your Majesty, it has been painful to me as Orthodox and
as a Russian, to witness with my own eyes the degradation of
the Russian Orthodoxy through public exposure of this official
fraud. It is not the earnest words of these unhappy families,
who turn themselves to your Majesty with the humble but
impassioned prayer to grant them the right to confess the re
ligion which is in accordance with the conviction of their own
conscience, not those open-hearted and touching expressions
of their feelings, which have made so painful an impression on
me, as this fact in particular — that the violence done to con
science, and the official fraud, which is known to all, should be
indissolubly connected with the thought of Russia and Ortho
doxy." The report of Count Bobrinski brought some relief
to the harrassed provinces. The "converts" were
not, indeed, permitted openly to return to the Church
of their forefathers. But legal proceedings against
most of "them were tacitly dropped for a season.
Bishop Philaret was translated to another diocese, and
his successor, who was created Archbishop of Riga,
was not at first disposed to carry matters with so high
a hand. The new Archbishop, however, was not
willing to grant religious liberty to the oppressed ; he
merely sought to postpone the matter. He admitted
that many names had been unfairly placed upon the
registers of his church. But even in such cases he re
fused to concede liberty of conscience, lest the conclu
sion should be drawn that secession was, under any cir-

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 327
cumstances, permitted from the Greek communion.1
The persecution of the Lutherans in the Baltic Pro
vinces was for many years not generally known to their
co-religionists in the more favoured countries of
Europe. Christians in England, under the guidance
of the Evangelical Alliance (founded in 1846), had
their attention directed to various religious persecutions
in Florence and other parts of Italy, Spain, in Ger
many, and in Turkey, long before the cry of oppression
was heeded which arose from the Baltic provinces, and
an international deputation was sent to the Emperor of
Russia. A memorial to the Emperor was with diffi
culty presented through the medium of Prince Gort-
schakoff, and the fair words spoken by the Prince on
that occasion gave some reason to hope that an
increased modicum of religious liberty would be
granted to the sorely harassed Lutherans of those
provinces. With the presentation, however, of the memorial,
and the publication of an account of the ' ' gracious ' '
manner in which it had been received, all efforts of
the Alliance in that direction came to an end. No
sufficient means were taken to discover the actual re
sults brought about by the ' ' memorial ' ' in the pro
vinces themselves. The "intelligence" department
of the Evangelical Alliance has never been "up to
the mark," and Russian policy was not easily turned
1 Special negotiations were carried on with Archbishop
Platon on behalf of ninety-eight persons who claimed their
liberty as having been falsely enrolled. Out of that small
number fifty-six persons were, in opposition to their solemn
protests, declared by him to be members of the Greek Church.
and the police authorities were directed to compel the attend
ance of those persons at the Greek services.

328 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
aside from its fixed purpose of the Russification of the
provinces. It reads almost as a satire on the impotent efforts
of the Evangelical Alliance to know now that in the
very year in which Prince Gortschakoff gave such a
"gracious" reply, a society was founded in Russia
under the Imperial patronage for the express purpose
of converting the Lutherans to the orthodox faith.
Had that; society sought to accomplish its purpose by
a use of all the arts of persuasion and controversy,
no one would have a right to complain. But the ob
jects of the society were mainly political ; it carried on
its propaganda by means of agencies similar to those
already described, while it was backed by the power
of the Russian Empire. Yet, active as were its opera
tions, nothing was heard of its doings by the English
Evangelical Alliance for nearly fifteen years I1
1 The London Council of the Evangelical Alliance was at that
time thoroughly under the influence of the late Mr. A. J.
Arnold, a Secretary who was an earnest man and supposed to
understand continental affairs. He, however, understood no
language other than English, and had all the prejudices of a
"political Nonconformist" against "Established Churches." It
was one of his ideas that Germany coveted the Baltic provinces
of Russia, and that the contest in the Baltic provinces was
mainly political. In vain the writer tried to point out to
him the absurdity of that view, and to show that,
as matters stood, and still stand, Germany would
not accept the provinces as a present, for they would
make Germany's line of defence against Russia un
tenable. That gentleman, who died some years back,
showed his political bias when the Evangelical Alliance Con
ference was held in Edinburgh, by preventing the deputation
sent by the Irish Branch of the Alliance from taking any public
part in that Conference under the fear that they might express
hostility to Mr. Gladstone's Bill for Home Rule in Ireland,
then warmly supported by the English Nonconformists in
general, though strongly opposed alike by all Protestants
in Ireland. Those undercurrents of opinion apnear to have
been unknown to the London Council as a body. The Evangeli
cal Alliance was first organised in Trinity College, Dublin,

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 329
With the accession of Alexander the Third a new
chapter of religious persecution has been opened. The
sad circumstances under which the present monarch
commenced his reign were not such as to render him
favourably disposed to any movements in the direction
of liberty. And, owing to the severity of the present
persecution, the days of Alexander the Second are now
looked back upon as a time of comparative peace.
In the Baltic Provinces Lutheran pastors, however
anxious they may be to confine their ministrations to
persons of their own communion, are often placed
under the greatest difficulties. No inconsiderable num
ber of the so-called ' ' converts ' ' have naturally per
sisted in attendance at Lutheran services. Many, too,
of those who, through fear, for a time conformed to the
Greek Church, have been driven back by their con
sciences into the Protestant churches. Many also
contrived to conceal a " conversion " of which they
were ashamed, and in no few cases managed to retain
their names upon the Protestant registers. Conse
quently not only were those earnest pastors, who felt
constrained to " obey God rather than man," brought
into constant collision with the Russian ecclesiastical
authorities, but many others who might have been dis-
so that the Irish Branch is older than the English. The origi
nal " minutes " which prove this point are in the possession of
the Irish Council. Despised and dishonoured as the Irish
Council was by the London Council of the time referred to,
it was owing simply to it that the International Conference
was held in Copenhagen, when, through the stupid action of
the Secretary alluded to, it had been refused permission to
meet at Stockholm. It was also the Irish Council who sent
delegates to the International Committee at Copenhagen, who
prevented the Alliance there from being broken up on account
of the partiality exhibited towards the " Salvation Army" by
the English and French delegates on the International
Committee.

330 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
posed to temporise have also fallen under the condem
nation of the Russian penal code. The best course,
and possibly the safest in the end, would have been
boldly to defy the law and to brave persecution. But
it is not surprising that persons situated in such trying
circumstances should have in many cases attempted to
elude the law by other less honourable contrivances.
But as in the fable, the wolf in order to justify his
intended slaughter of the lamb complained loudly of
the misdeeds of the latter, so there have not been lack
ing writers who have sought to paint Russia in the
character of a generous benefactor, anxious only to de
liver the peasantry of the provinces from the power of
a rapacious nobility. But if the full history of the
facts had been known, the fullest sympathy of all
Englishmen would have been accorded to the suffering
Protestants of the Baltic Provinces.
The intolerant and persecuting spirit which still
characterises Russian rule in these provinces may be
seen by the statement of a few facts.
In March, 1886, the Minister of the Interior issued
an order to the police to prevent persons not belonging
to the Greek Church from using chaplets of flowers
at funerals. Those who are acquainted with Conti
nental habits know that the custom of depositing gar
lands on the coffin and of throwing flowers into the
grave is more common than in our country. Much
indignation has been created by such a wanton inter
ference with a harmless custom ; and one can scarcely
be surprised at the anger created among the bystanders
when the police have on several occasions required the
coffins to be taken up from the grave in order to de
spoil them of the last fond tokens of love and respect.

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 331
Even when committing the remains of their friends to
the tomb, Protestants must be taught to feel their in
feriority to members of the Orthodox Church ! And
this in countries where less than twenty years ago Pro
testantism was supreme, and where even still Protes
tant pastors are recognised by the law !
A beginning has already been made with the ap
propriation of churches erected for Protestant worship
for the purposes of the Greek Church. When a peti
tion was sent to St. Petersburg complaining of such
injustice, the first person who headed the list of peti
tioners was immured for some time in the casemates of
the Imperial Palace at St. Petersburg. No Lutheran
churches are in future to be built, unless permission be
specially granted by the Orthodox clergy ; while the
Greek clergy have obtained the right to any sites they
may choose for the erection of Greek churches and
schools, without the consent of the landowners.
The visit of Bishop Donat to Palzmar in June, 1885,
was attended with some remarkable circumstances.
The Bishop was met by a large crowd of " converts,"
who implored him to permit them openly to profess
the Protestant religion which they held, and to allow
their names to be struck off the Greek registers, in
asmuch as in heart and soul they were in reality Lu
therans. They explained to the bishop that their
names had been placed on the registers of the Greek
Church by the fault of their parents, or through their
own ignorance. The bishop refused to listen to their
entreaties, and informed them that if they persisted in
harassing him by such requests, he would have their
clergyman, Pastor Brandt, removed from office, and
thus the parish would be deprived altogether of a Pro-

332 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
testant pastor. The peasants boldly replied that they
could read the Word of God for themselves, and if
their pastor were removed they would form themselves
into a Lutheran Society, and select some man of their
own number acquainted with the Bible to preach to
them and to administer the Lord's Supper.
Among the petitioners on that occasion was a Let
tish peasant woman, Anna Kursemneeks by name,
thirty-two years old, who had originally been baptised
in the Lutheran Church. The name of Anna and
that of her sister had been placed upon the Greek
register in consequence of her father having been en
rolled and ' ' confirmed " as a Greek Catholic during
the excitement of former years. Anna implored
the bishop with tears to be permitted to remain in the
church of her forefathers. Instead of replying to her
request, the bishop presented her with the picture of
a saint, and directed her to pray to the Virgin Mary.
She refused the picture, stating that she believed Christ
to be the only mediator between God and man.
Several priests who were with the bishop urged her to
accept the holy picture, for the bishop would then give
her absolution. She replied that the bishop had no
power to forgive sins, for he was but a man and not
God, and stated that the Lutheran pastor only ven
tured to declare that pardon came from God. Some
Greek bystanders then called her a great sinner. She
replied that she knew that very well, but that Christ
pardoned sinners and not Pharisees. She was then
threatened with the Czar's displeasure, but nobly
answered that the Emperor might take away her life,
but that he could not rob her of her faith.
On the 26th of July, 1885, an Imperial ukase was

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 333
issued threatening severe measures against all " con
verts " who dared to return to Lutheranism. A peti
tion was at once sent in to the Czar, signed by Anna
Kursemneeks and her sister and two men of Palzmar,
named Leitis and Ohsol. The petition is given in full
in the Russischbaltische Blatter, Heft III., and in Dr.
Neubert's interesting little work. Its language might
well have touched the heart of the mighty Czar ; but
the Emperor, in all probability, never saw it. The
answer came in the shape of police domiciliary visits.
Pastor Brandt and his schoolmaster Abel, who were
suspected of having a hand in the affair, were thrown
into the criminal prison of Riga, and Anna Kursem
neeks had to undergo a rigorous examination, followed
by a short imprisonment.
When interrogated and asked how she dared to send
such a petition to the Czar, the woman replied that she
was wont to ask God daily for all that she needed, and
that therefore she considered she might ask His repre
sentative on earth for what he could grant her. When
it was objected to her that she subscribed herself as a
" most obedient subject," and yet had ventured to dis
obey the Czar by abandoning the Greek Church, she
replied , " I am prepared to give up to the Czar all he
demands— even my life ; but my heart and my faith I
cannot yield to him, for these must I give to God only."
In March, 1886, sentence was passed on Pastor
Brandt. He was deprived of his pastorate and ban
ished to Smolensk. There he was placed under police
surveillance, was permitted to work for 2Jd. a day, but
not allowed to preach or teach. His heroic wife soon
joined him in his punishment. The case, after some
time, aroused much sympathy in St. Petersburg, and

334 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
he has recently been permitted to accept a small pas
torate in the interior. Jacob Abel, the schoolmaster,
was deposed from office, and declared " a politically
untrustworthy person," and incapable of holding any
office as teacher, or even as sexton. The only offence
laid to his charge was that of opposing the propaganda
of the Greek Church.
Sixty-five pastors have been already prosecuted be
fore the courts of- Livonia on the charges (1) of having
administered the Lord's Supper to persons who had
been enrolled on the Greek registers, and (2) of having
performed marriages between Lutherans and members
of the Greek Church. All persons whose names, how
ever wrongly, are found on the Greek registers,
are legally regarded as Greek Catholics. In most of
these cases the courts of the province returned a ver
dict of " not proven." The Imperial prosecutor ap
pealed to the Supreme Court of Russia, that is, the
Senate in St. Petersburg. The Senate have already
condemned Pastor Christoph of St. Johannis in Es-
thonia to a year's banishment to Astracham, and Pastor
Hoerschelmann of Haggers in Esthonia to banish
ment to Eastern Siberia, though the latter has been re
commended by the Senate to the Imperial clemency.
The Senate of St. Petersburg has lately expressed its
opinion that the Church law in the provinces is too
weak to meet the exigencies of the present situation.
In a ukase of January 28th, 1888, issued in the case
of Pastor Emil Wegener of Ecks, and other accused
pastors of Livonia, the Senate asked the Imperial
Government for further powers in order to secure the
condemnation of the offending pastors. By the law of
1832 all offences committed by the clergy must first

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 335
be brought before the Church courts or consistories.
Those courts, as well as the ordinary courts of the pro
vinces, have proved too favourably disposed to the ac
cused pastors. Hence it has been decided to dissolve
all the consistories throughout the Baltic Provinces,
and a beginning is to be made with the consistories of
Riga, Reval, and Arensburg. The criminal courts,
too, have also been partially reconstructed ; and in all
cases in which clerical offences are to be tried it has
been decided that the officials, from the judge down to
the lowest officer, must be members of the Orthodox
Church. The Russian Governor of Livonia, Michael Sinow-
jeff, in an official letter to Bishop Donat, dated Feb
ruary, 1887, states that in future all cases of " apos
tasy ' ' from the Orthodox Church will be severely pun
ished. " Converts " who attend the instructions of a
Lutheran pastor are to be ineligible for any post under
Government. They are to be liable to imprisonment ;
their children may be taken away from them and
handed over to members of the Orthodox communion
to be brought up as Greek Catholics. Such guardians
will also be liable to severe punishment if they fail to
impart the necessary training in the Greek faith to
all children committed to their care. Heavier punish
ments are to be meted out to ' ' converts ' ' who ven
ture to get married in Lutheran churches. All such
marriages are declared to be illegal; the offspring of
such marriages are to be regarded as illegitimate, and
incapable of inheriting the property of their parents.
Imprisonment from eight to ten months is to be the
penalty of any such persons as venture to train up their
children in the Lutheran faith.

336 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
Such is ' ' civil and religious liberty ' ' in the Baltic
Provinces of Russia ! It is no wonder that the Inter
national Committee of the Evangelical Alliance, at its
meeting at Geneva, determined to memorialise the
Emperor of Russia on the subject ; and a memorial
signed by the presidents and secretaries of its various
branches was duly forwarded to his Majesty in August,
1887. In January, 1888, a remarkable answer was received
to this communication. The answer was addressed
to M. Edward Naville, the eminent Egyptologist, Pre
sident of the Swiss Central Committee of the Evan
gelical Alliance. The answer was not sent from the
Cabinet of the Czar, but was signed by Konstantin
Pobedonoszeff, Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod of
the Russian Church. This remarkable man was for
merly tutor to the present Emperor. He is the author
of a work in several volumes on Russian jurisprudence,
and the translator into Russian of Thomas a Kempis's
Imitation of Christ. His piety was strikingly dis
played in his earnest Appeal to the Russian Youth,
written on the occasion of the murder of the Emperor
Alexander the Second. But alas ! M. Pobedonoszeff
has, by his actions, and by his letters on the question of
the Baltic Provinces, proved himself to be a bigoted
Greek Catholic, utterly unable to comprehend the
very first principles of religious liberty. His letter to
M. Naville was an impeachment of the Baltic pastors
and of the German nobility, in which facts and fic
tions are curiously blended together. He accused the
Lutheran clergy of bigotry towards the Greek com
munion, because they are opposed to the doctrines of
that Church. But he forgot "the beam that is in

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 337
his own eye." He denies that freedom of conscience
is interfered with in Russia , in which empire he asserts
that all creeds are perfectly free, " if only they abstain
from proselytising." M. Pobedonoszeff could not com
prehend the fundamental truth, that what he calls
freedom ' ' falls infinitely short of what is really
meant by the term, and that as long as the Russian
law a'ttempts forcibly to restrain men within the pale
of the Russian Church , or to prevent persons who have
passed over from any cause to the Greek Church
returning to the Church from whence they originally
seceded, there is no such thing as religious liberty in
the Russian Empire.
Dr. Hermann Dalton, late pastor at St. Petersburg,
issued a reply to M. Pobedonoszeff. He com
mented on the unfairness with which the press of the
provinces had been muzzled, while gross libels are pub
lished upon the Protestant clergy and nobility of those
lands. M. Pobedonoszeff insinuated that the clergy
were seeking to stir up their people against Russia.
Dr. Dalton challenged him to produce one single in
stance of their disloyalty. One paragraph tending in
that direction, cited by the Russian official, Dr. Dal
ton points out never appeared in the sermon incrimi
nated, but was quoted from a review of that sermon by
the Russian journalist Katkoff. The Protestants of
the Baltic Provinces have freely shed their blood for
Russia on many a hard-fought battlefield. In speaking
of the schools of the provinces, Dr. Dalton showed
from official statistics how far they surpass all those of
the other parts of the Russian Empire. He quoted
even Katkoff in their favour, who wrote as follows :
" Russia will, no doubt, give its utmost support to thu
23

338 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
German customs and German culture in those lands.
God preserve us from the vandalism of destroying a
school system based upon the foundation common to
all civilised nations ! God forbid that we should
bring down the gymnasia of the provinces to
the sad level of our educational establishments !
May the instruction both in the gymnasia and
in the University continue in the German lan
guage. A protest against that arrangement would,
indeed, proceed on our side from veritably false
national pride, from which, thank God, we are
free." Dr. Dalton did not enter into many details of the
persecution. He quoted the anathemas against Pro
testantism uttered by Archbishop Platon ; he exposed
the manner in which M. Pobedonoszeff seeks to ignore
the official report of Count Bobrinski. He referred to
the suppression of the Protestant missionary work car
ried on in the Caucasus and elsewhere, which has not
been taken up by the Russian Church. He showed
from M. Pobedonoszeff" s own report in 1884, not only
that converts have fallen back into Mohammedanism,
but that numbers of Russian Christians have there apos
tatised from Christianity without any let or hindrance
being placed in their way. He exposed severely the
fact, that while Mohammedan works against Chris
tianity, and in favour of a "Holy War" against
Christians, are permitted by Russian censorship to be
printed in the University Press at Kasan, Protestant
books are suppressed in the Baltic Provinces. Step
by step he went through the letter of the Russian
advocate of persecution, and closed a letter of over
ninety octavo pages by giving sad instances in which

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 339
the suppression of the rights of conscience had driven
some to despair and infidelity.
A translation of the letter of M. Pobedonoszeff ap
peared in the Times of May 26th, 1888. It was also
inserted in Evangelical Christendom of June, 1888.
Little notice, however, was called to that reply by the
British Evangelical Alliance. That society found
it, no doubt easier to attend to other work than to
attempt to call attention to the case of their suffering
brethren in the Baltic Provinces. Meanwhile the
English Church, in the person of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, sent kind and flattering messages of love
to the persecuting Church of Russia, while no re
monstrance was uttered against the cruel deeds done
to a sister Protestant communion. Possibly the then
Archbishop of Canterbury had no acquaintance with
the facts mentioned in this article. But it ought to
be one of the first duties of a society like the Evan
gelical Alliance to see that the English public is duly
informed from time to time on all such matters. It
may be able to do no more, but it ought to make
strenuous efforts at least to perform that duty.
The Russian Church has often been unfairly accused
of being opposed to the circulation of the Holy Scrip
tures. The Russian Church has, however, in that
particular of late nobly done her duty. In
formation of a certain kind travels slowly,
even in our days, and often fails to find
an attentive public. But the fact referred to is now
becoming more generally known, and many people have
come to the conclusion that there is " religious liber
ty" in Russia, and that the struggle in the
Baltic Provinces is purely, or mainly, political. Re-

340 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
ligious liberty, however, in the proper sense of the
word, is utterly unknown in Russia. No such hberty
can exist where the right of spreading one's religious
convictions is denied, and where no secession is per
mitted from an established Church. Russia is en
gaged in an attempt to ' ' stamp out ' ' Protestantism
in the Baltic Provinces.
Though little has appeared in the columns of the
daily press, the Baltic Provinces are wrapped up in
the flames of a ruthless persecution. The persecution
may have a political object in view, but it is no less
religious. We have not told the whole, or the half,
of the story. Powerful efforts are put forth to destroy
the Protestant schools. Those schools, built and
maintained at the cost of the German communities,
are now forced to adopt the Russian language as the
medium of instruction. Religious instruction in the
Protestant faith has been interfered with. The pas
tors are not permitted to teach doctrines opposed to
the teaching of the Greek Church. No warning
voice is to be lifted against the practices of that Church,
though those practices are in many particulars opposed
to the tenets of all the Protestant communions, the
Church of England included. We cannot enter into
details on those heads. The gymnasia, once the pride
of the provinces, are more than threatened. The Uni
versity of Dorpat has been completely Russified. Per
sonal political liberty is at an end, as well as religious
liberty. Englishmen may not be able to afford much
assistance to the sufferers, but at least they ought to
understand the true state of the case. It is, however,
difficult to get at the history of facts. It was well
known in Sweden, that a young man who attended

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 341
the conference of the Young Men's Christian Associa
tion held at Stockholm in 1888, and spoke out about the
sufferings of his co-religionists in the Baltic Provinces,
was arrested on his return home, and transported to Si
beria. Such cases are not permitted to be mentioned
in the public press. The newspapers of the provinces
are under strict supervision : the courts do their work
quietly ; private correspondence, as we know from
practical experience, is being strictly watched by the
police, and many avenues of information once open
are now closed. The Russian police and officials
are vigorously at work to destroy the highest civilisa
tion found in the Russian Empire, and to bury it, with
the Protestantism which gave it birth, in one common
grave. POSTSCRIPT.
Since the above was written the Times of November
16th, 1889, published the following important in
telligence : —
" The Czar has granted three months of unsolicited
leave of absence to M. Pobedonoszeff, the Procurator-
General of the Holy Russian Synod."
The Times' correspondent stated further that the
Czar during his recent stay at Copenhagen received
Dr. Dalton's pamphlet, and learned from it something
of the religious oppression in the Baltic Provinces.
On his return to Russia, the Emperor wrote an auto
graph letter to M. Pobedonoszeff, giving him three
months' leave, and directing him to make use of the
time in writing "a full and convincing answer" to
Dr. Dalton's work. In vain has the Procurator-Gen
eral sought for a private audience with his Majesty.

342 PERSECUTION OF THE LUTHERANS
The audience has been refused until the justificatory
memoir shall have been handed in. These facts gave
much reason to hope for the dawn of better things,
even in the oppressed Baltic Provinces.
The hopes then held out have, however, been only
partially realised. The Russo-Greek Church is all-
powerful in the Baltic Provinces, which were once
almost exclusively Protestant. M. Pobedonoszeff, in
or out of office, sustains under the present Czar to a
large extent the same role of a persecutor of
Evangelical Christians who dissent from the so-called
Orthodox Russian Church. He is still active in the
background, perhaps more active than if he still filled
an official position.
A lengthened correspondence on this article in the
Nineteenth Century took place in the columns of the
Guardian, from February 26th to April 23rd, 1890.
The chief writers were Mr. Athelstan Riley, Mr. W.
J. Birkbeck, and myself. The attempt was re
peatedly made to turn the discussion to the subject
of the merits or demerits of the Russian Church, into
which point, however, I declined to enter. None of
the historical facts mentioned in the article were dis
proved. Long articles from the German side in
favour of the views set forth in the article appeared in
Die Christiche Welt of April 13th and June 1st the
same year (1890). A full translation of the article
itself appeared in the Protestantische Kirchen-
zeitung of May 7th and 14th. entitled Die Vernich-
tung des Protestantismus in den russischen Ost-see
Provinzen. An article on it written by Pro
fessor Dr. Ad. Merx, of Heidelberg, appeared in the
same journal on June 9th, 1890, entitled Ritualistisches

IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES 343
und Baltisches zur T ages geschichte. A previous
article by me on the same subject appeared in the
British and Foreign Evangelical Review for January,
1887, written on the lines of a paper read before the
Dublin Christian Convention, held 1886, and pub
lished in The Christian Advocate for October, 1886.
That article also was translated into German by Frau
Professor Merx, and appeared in the Protestantische
Kirchenzeitung for December 1st, 1886.
The Preface to this volume contains a few additional
remarks on this subject. God grant that the freedom
of conscience nominally granted (May, 1905) to his
subjects by the Emperor of Russia may prove to be a
blessed reality. One cannot, however, as yet be certain
whether it will be carried out into practice. Until full
freedom of conscience be unreservedly granted to
persons of all creeds and religions, Russia will never
obtain her proper position among the nations of Europe.

The End.

APPENDIX

LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISHED DURING THE HALF-
CENTURY.
Books marked with an asterisk are out of print.
1855. A Grammar of the Modem Irish Language designed
chiefly for the use of the classes in the University.
With a Preface by Rev. Daniel Foley, B.D., Pro
fessor of Irish in the University of Dublin. Dublin :
Printed at the University Press, Hodges and Smith,
Booksellers to the University. 1855.
1859. The Book of Genesis in Hebrew, with a critically-,
revised Text, Various Readings and Grammatical
and Critical Notes. London and Edinburgh: Wil
liams and Norgate, 1859.
1860. A Grammar of the Modern Irish Language designed
for the use of the Classes in the University of Dublin.
Second edition, revised and enlarged. London :
Williams and Norgate. Dublin : Hodges, Foster
and Figgis. 1860. Price Is. 6d.
1864. The Book of Buth in Hebrew, with a critically-revised
Text, Various Readings, including a new collation of
twenty-eight Hebrew MSS. (most of them not pre
viously collated), and a Grammatical and Critical
Commentary, to which is appended the Chaldee Tar
gum, with various Readings, and a Chaldee Glossary.
London : Williams and Norgate. 1864. Price 7s. 6d.
1864. * The Spiritual Temple of the Spiritual God; being
the substance of Sermons preached in the English
Church, Dresden. London : Nisbet & Co. Dublin :
G. Herbert. 1864. 345

346 APPENDIX
1866. Bunyan's Allegorical and Select Poetical Works.
Edited with Notes, original and selected. London:
J. Hagger. Leipzig and Dresden: A. H. Payne.
1866. Illustrated. 4to pp. Ixx. 962. The pub
lishers sold this work and the plates to some firm in
the United States, and where it is now published the
Editor does not know.
1867 * The Fatherhood of God, and its Belation to the
Person and Work of Christ, and the Operations of
the Holy Spirit. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
London : Hamilton, Adams and Co. 1867.
1869. * The Pentateuch, or the Five Books of Moses, in the
Authorised Version; with a critically revised trans
lation, a collation of various Headings translated in
to English and of various Translations, together with
a critical and exegetical Commentary. For the use
of English students of the Bible. Specimen Part,
containing Genesis I. -IV., with Commentary, pp.
viii. 48. London: Williams and Norgate. 1869.
[No more published.]
1871. The Footsteps of Christ. Translated from the Ger
man of A. Caspers, Church Provost and Chief Pastor
at Husum, by Adelaide E. Rodham. Edited with a
Preface by Rev. Charles H. H. Wright. M.A. Edin
burgh: T. & T. Clark. 1871. pp. xii. 434.
1878. * The Indian Mutiny of 1857-8, sketched in a Memoir
of John Loyering Cooke, Gunner in the Royal'
Artillery, and afterwards Lay-AgenE of the British
Sailors' Institute, Boulogne - sur - mer. Second
Edition, with illustrations. London : J. Nisbet &
Co. 1878. pp. 228.
1879. Zechariah and his Prophecies considered in relation to
Modem Criticism with a Grammatical and Critical
Commentary and New Translation. (The Bampton
Lectures for 1878.) London: Hodder & Stoughton.
1879. Second Edition. Price 14s.
1883. The Book of Koheleth, commonly called Ecclesiastes,
considered in relation to Modern Criticism and to the
Doctrines of Modern Pessimism, with a Critical and
Grammatical Commentary and a Revised Translation,
(The Donnellan Lectures for 1880-1.) London:
Hodder and Stoughton. 1883. Price 12s.
1886. Biblical Essays: or Exegetical Studies on the Books of
Job and Jonah, Ezekiel's Prophecy of Gog and Magog,

APPENDIX 347
St. Peter's " Spirits in Prison " and the Key to the
Apocalypse. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 88, George
Street. 1886. Price 5s.
1887. * The Writings of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
Revised Translation with Notes Critical and Histori
cal by Rev. G. T. Stokes, D.D., Prof, of Eccl. History,
University of Dublin, and Rev. C. H. H. Wright,
D.D. First edition 8vo. Dublin, 1887. Second edi
tion, 1888. [Over 4,000 copies were sold in this
form, mainly in Ireland, corrections being made in
each thousand copies.]
1889. The Writings of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
A Revised Translation, with Notes Critical and His
torical, and an Introduction. London : The Religious
Tract Society. 1889. Second Edition. 1894. A
Third Edition, thoroughly revised, with additional
matter, appeared in 1897. Prof. G. T. Stokes had
nothing to do with any of the editions published by
the R.T.S. The Irish Text of St. Patrick's Hymn,
with a modern Irish Translation by Rev. Prof. Good
man, M.A., appeared in all these editions. The
Genuine Writings were also published separately in
two editions ; the last in 1903. See List of
Pamphlets.
1891. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Sixth Edition.
With a Bibliographical Appendix brought down to
1898. Ninth Thousand. London: Hodder and
Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. 1905. Price 2s. 6d.
The First Edition was published in 1891.
1893. The Bible Beaders' Manual ; or, Aids to Biblical Stxidy
for Students of the Holy Scriptures. With Illustra
tions and Maps. Edited by the Rev. Charles H. H.
Wright, D.D. New and Revised Edition. William
Collins, Sons & Co., Limited, London and Glasgow.
New York : International Bible Agency. 1895. The
first Edition of this was published in 1893. Several
hundred thousand copies have since been sold.
1890. Sunbeams on my Path ; or, Beminiscences of Christian
Work in Various Lands. By Ebba J. D. Wright, nee
Almroth. Edited by Rev. C. H. H. Wright, D.D.
First Edition was published in 1890. Second, en
larged, in 1900. Price 2s. 6d., with ten illustrations.
Francis Griffiths.

348 APPENDIX
1896. "Three Beply Lectures in answer to Boman Catholic
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November, 1895. Two Editions. Nearly 7,000 copies
were sold.
1896, Boman Catholicism ; or, the Doctrines of the Church
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Present day Primers. No. IX. Price Is. With
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Third Edition, revised, 1903. The Religious Tract
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1898. The Service of the Mass in the Greek and Boman
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1900. The Intermediate State and Prayers for the Dead.
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1902. The Statutory Prayer Book, as enacted by the Act of
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Church Association. Price 2s. 6d.
1904. A Protestant Dictionary, containing articles on the
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and Illustrations. London : Hodder and Stoughton,
27, Paternoster Row. 1904. Pp. xvi-832. Price 15s.
net.
1905-6. The Book of Isaiah and other Historical Studies.
London : Francis Griffiths, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand,
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1905-6. Daniel and his Prophecies. London : Williams and
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APPENDIX 349
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and the Gospel: Thoughts upon St. Paul's Epistle to
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Letters on Beforms needed in the Divinity School of
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Divinity School and its proposed reconstruction under
Lord Belmore's Bill. With a few remarks on a Scheme
for creating Professors Extraordinary. 1879. Dublin
University Beform and the Divinity School.— .tour
Pamphlets with a General Preface and Appendix.

350 APPENDIX
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and Controversial Index; or, Texts of Holy Scripture
in proof of the leading doctrines of Protestant
Christianity, and on Questions connected therewith.
Compiled for the use of Bible Classes. 1876. Now
published by J. Kensit. [Sale over 30,000.] Still
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Missionary Work in Ireland and the Duty of English
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Bitualism in the Diocese of Dublin. Speech at Dublin Dio
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Lord's Supper or The Mass? London: J. KenBit.
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[6,000.] The Synagogue and its Lessons for Clergy
and Laity at the Present Crisis. J. Kensit. 1893.

APPENDIX 351
Prayers for the Dead. [Church Assoc, and Prot. Ref. Soc]
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1898. [10,000.] Three Beply Lectures in answer to
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sington Town Hall. Ven. William M. Sinclair, D.D.,
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Genuine Writings of St. Patrick. R.T.S. 3d.
1897. With Irish Text of the Hymn. With Revised
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vered March 27th, 1898, by Rev. Verner M. White,
M.A., and Rev. C. H. H. Wright, D.D. With His
torical Memoranda. Christ and Antichrist. Second
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Ref. Soc. 1900. The Coronation of the King and
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" The Teacher's Classified Lesson Material " contains Scripture Lessons strictly evolved
from the sacred narrative itself, 'and! constitutes the1 'handiest Biblical Expositor for busy
Preacheis and Teachers. The authors have gone through Reference Books, Commentaries,
Standard Works and have collected, selected, condensed and classified all the information which
a Preacher requires upon the portion of Scripture to be explained. In this work the grouping
of the accumulated treasures has been made upon a sound and uniform system. The matter
too, is arranged in such a manner as to catch the eye and enable a reader at once to' alight
upon the exact point' upon which, he seeks help without the vexa.tjous' wading through
superfluous or entangled statements.'1 '; . . i
The .Guardian : "There is manifest throughout a great desire to be accurate and simple,
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The Record : " Of the ' Classified Teacher's Material ' it is impossible to speak too highly.
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Literary World: "Explorations and" comments are given in such a 'form as to be
quickly perceived, and arranged according to the teachers' and scholars' needs."
Methodist Recorder : " Form a veritable thesaurus on the Gospels, and will prove of
immense service to the 'painstaking teacher."

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

THE TEACHER'S
CATECHISING BIBLE
By the Rev. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.

The Following are Now Ready :
THE FOUR GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE
APOSTLES. Demy 8vo. Cloth. . Price 7s. 6d. net.
THE BOOK OF GENESIS Price as. net.

Every Teacher or Expositor has felt the : need of 'a-" Biblical
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Holy Writ, and so to display the text itself as to remove all gram
matical and exegetical difficulties, and to make an Eastern and ancient
book as perfectly easy to read as a Western and modern one. In a
form expressly suitable fdr class teaching 6r for "the purposes of ex
position in the family circle, lecture room, or pulpit has been prepared
THE TEACHER'S CATECHISING BIBLE. A Prebendary of
one of our leading cathedrals,' and a tutor of considerable eminence
informed the Author that during Holy Week he took this help into the
pulpit and was able to preach with perfect ease upon the Kvents
of our Lord's last week on earth. By this aid an amateur teacher
might easily train himself to be equal to the professional teacher ;•
while the professional teacher would perform his duties with increased
readiness and intelligence; • ¦¦

The Guardian : " The difficulties of combining the narratives have been carefully con
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full account of any period of our Lord's recorded life, harmonized from the Four Gospels."
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is especially well worked out, and will he' found useful, riot only by teachers, but also by
preachers and catechists."
The Christian : "By showing the' structure of the Scripture, they help materially to a
sound interpretation of the text."
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Christian Visitor's Handbook
Passages of Scripture with Descriptive Titles and Suggestive Remarks;
also Topics for Prayer suitable for cases usually met, with in District
Visiting.
F'cap 8vo. Ump Cloth. Price is. 6d. net,

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

THE TEACHER'S
SYNOPTICAL SYLLABUS
Of Scripture Lessons
With Reference Tables, Maps, Plans and Diagrams.
By the Rev. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.
With an Introdttction by the Ven, ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR, D.D.

Complete in one Demy 8vo. Volume. 518 pp. 10s. 6d. net.

The first help which every Scripture student needs is a Biblical Educator, some one
experienced person or book to survey the field of Biblical knowledge as a whole and note its
related parts. In regard to the Books of the Bible usually taught in schools, and frequently
furnishing the topics for sermons this task has been preformed. A scientifically drawn up and
logically arranged '* Teacher's Synoptical Syllabus '* has been prepared, with
seventy-eight Reference Tables and sixty-nine Maps and Diagrams. These Tables, Maps and
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faces them in such a way that it can be read without shifting the position of the book. The
help thus offered is what writers have hitherto failed to give. It is exactly what every student
consciously or unconsciously longs for. The historical, geographical and other facts com
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a lesson or preach a sermon.

• THE AUTHORITATIVE APPROVAL OF EXPERTS.
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Schools, Principals of Theological Colleges and Training Colleges, Masters and Mistresses of
High Schools, and School Inspectors have written in exceptionally approving terms.
Testimony in favour of this book comes not only from members of the Church of England,
but from Presbyterians and Nonconformists.
The present Archbishop of Canterbury, though always cautious in his recommendations,
writes, when Bishop of Rochester : " I shall certainly recommend the Book both to Ordination
candidates and to other friends."
Dr. C. J. Ellicott, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Chairman of the Revision Committee of
the New Testament Company — perhaps the greatest living English commentator, asserts :
"It is obviously compiled with much care, contains in it a great deal of helpful and in
structive matter, and cannot fail to be of much use to every careful reader of God's Holy
Word." Dr. F. J. Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool, formerly Principal of Wycliffe Lodge, Oxford,
pronounces the book to be "A perfect treasury of information, and will prove a valuable
help to Teachers, Clerical and Lay."
' The late Bishop Perowne, the Editor of the " Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges," and acknowledged eminent Theologian of his day, remarks : " I have seen
nowhere else so clear and helpful an analysis of the whole Bible history, and I shall gladly
do all in my power to promote its circulation."
The late Canon Evan Daniel, once Principal at St. John's College, Battersea, the Author
of the Standard Work on the Book of Common Prayer for Educational Purposes, commits
himself to this unqualified praise : " It is the best harmony of the Bible . . which I am
familiar with."
The late Dr. H. R. Reynolds, Principal of Cheshunt College, himself a most industrious
and scholarly writer, bore the following strong testimony: "The care and research involved
in the preparation of such a work are quite phenomenal. I heartily congratulate you on the
completion of such an Herculean task."

Ldndon: FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Works by the
Rev. CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, D.D., Ph.D.
Bampton Lecturer (1878) ; Public Examiner in Semitic Languages (1894-95) ;
and Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint {1893-7} > m *ne University of Oxford.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES.
Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price 6s. net.
?Contents :— I.— The Book of Isaiah. II.— The Site of Paradise (with a Map). III. — Human
Sacrifices in the Old Testament. IV.— The Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifices among
the Jews. V.— Great Jewish Rabbis of the First Century. VI — Martin Luther, the Hero
of the Reformation. VII.— Religious Life in the German Army in the War of 1870-1871.
VIII. —The Persecution of the Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces of Russia.

The Suffering Servant of Jehovah
Depicted in Isaiah Iii. and liii. Considered in Relation to Criticism
Past and Present.
Crown 8vo. Paper Cover. Price 6d. net.

The Intermediate State
AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD
Examined in the light of Scripture, and of Ancient Jewish and Christian
Literature.
Cloth Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net.
"Dr. Wright is our highest authority iu respect of Hebrew Biblical Literature, and
¦nothing could be more felicitous in its seizure of a golden opportunity than the publication at
the present moment of this exhaustive ' examination.' '' — The Rock.

Sunbeams on My Path
OR
Reminiscences of Christian Life in Various Lands
By EBBA J. D. WRIGHT, nee ALMROTH,
Edited by Rev. C H. H. WRIGHT, D.D.
Price 2s. net. With Ten Illustrations.
" Gives glimpses of the life and character of persons of all nationalities The work is
well illustrated, and being written in a most unpretentious style, by a simple-minded,
¦devout, sympathetic, and courageous woman, will be much appreciated by readers of the class
she specially appeals to." — Spectator.

London: FRANCIS GKIFHTHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Price . j/- Net.
Ecclesia DIscens t
OCCASIONAL SERMONS AND, ADDRESSES
bv: m > OH/-.
'ARTHUR WOLLASTON HUTTON, M.A.
Rector of St. Mary-le-Bo.w, Cheapside. ..
Crown 8vo. Cloth. Gilt top. Price 3s. net.

CONTENTS. SERMONS.
The Presence of the Kingdom.
The Restoration of Faith.
Our Father's Kingdom.
Vocation to the . Ministry. .;;.•¦.. -• I: -i; ...
The Heavenly Vision.
The Old Testament and its Critics (Four Lectures).
Authority and the Bible.
The Significance of Anglican Ritual.
ADDRESSES.
The Ritschi.ian Theology and its Relation 'to Mysticism.
The Permanent Element in Theological. Re-Statement.
Cardinal Newman, his Weakness tAnd his Strength.
Statement Prefatory to Declaration of Assent,*',

London: FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane Strand, W.C.

ECCLESIA DISCEN5. By A. W. Hutton.
PRESS OPINIONS.
Athenaeum : "The idea of a learning Church deserves emphasis,
and the name might properly be taken by every Church which, while
fulfilling the function of an ecclesia docens, disclaims infallibility. In
adopting the title of his book Mr. Hutton takes a phrase which, as he-
points out, means in theological treatises the laity as contrasted with
the clergy, or the laity and the inferior clergy contrasted with the Pope
and bishops. He does well, however, to elevate the phrase to the high
station of a title for a whole Church, and he applies it to the Church of
England. It is a nice question how far an established Church, on
account of its State connexion, has the liberty to restate its doctrine in
harmony with acquired knowledge ; and it may be asked 'whether
formularies, fixed. by Acts of Parliament, which determine the limits of
an ecclesia docens, do not thereby prevent such a Church from being an
ecclesia discens. The judgment, of the House of Lords, in the case of the
Free Church of Scotland raises questions regarding the relation of creeds,
articles, and confessions to progressive thought, even though that.
judgment may not, and probably does not, directly affect the Estab
lished Churches of England and Scotland. Apart from the answers to
the difficult questions arising out of the connection of Church and State,
the duty of learning, it may be said, should go with the right of teach
ing ; and it is a sound and healthy conception of a Church that it must
learn as well as teach. In the sermons and addresses contained in this
book, Mr. Hutton deals with subjects of outstanding' interest, and he
speaks From personal knowledge in the address ' Cardinal Newman, his
Weakness and his Strength,' since for some years he was, within the pale
of the Romaa Church, closely connected with Newman. The book
should have many lessons for those to whom the idea of the Church of'
England as an ecclesia discens may be a novelty."
Pall Mall Gazette: "Mr. Hutton's book is a' careful guide to
what the broad wing of English Churchmen, represented by the
Churchmen's Union, are now doing. Mr. Hutton's spiritual career
has been such as to enable him to see the problems of religion in a
\ery varied way, and his attachment to orthodox Liberalism cannot
be considered apart from his former acceptance of the claims of Rome.
His sojourn in Rome has, we think, made him rather intolerant of
the English Catholic position, and at times he seems anxious to
exaggerate the official change in doctrine that occurred at the
Reformation. On the 'whole, the most valuable things in the book
are the paper on the Ritschlian theology, and that on Cardinal
Newman." South Place Magazine : " Such men as Mr. Hutton however
much they may seem to us addicted to compromise, must give their
orthodox hearers to think, and so hasten the time when the Church
will place weightier emphasis upon the fruits of religious conviction,
rather than on its forms and dogmas;"'

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Seeking a Country:
(ENGLISH PREACHERS' SERIES).
By THOS. F. LOCKYER, B.A.
Crown 8vo. Cloth, Gilt Top. Price 3s. net.

Contents.
Seeking _a Country — The Homeward Way— A Citizen of No Mean
City — My Redeemer Liveth — The last Passover — Idylls of Home
Life — They came to Marah — Love's Faithful Waiting — Evening and
Morning — The Gift of the Morning Star — Shall He Live again ? —
The Challenge of Eastertide — None of you Asketh, Whither? — The
Abiding Christ.

Press Opinions.
" Two volumes have been issued — Ecclesia Discens, by the Rev. A.
"W. Hutton, M.A., and Seeking a Country, by the Rev. T. F. Lockyer,
B.A. The names represent two very different types of preaching.
Mr. Hutton is absorbed in the intellectual movements of our time and
concerned for the authority of the Church. Mr. Lockyer is interested
in men and women, their home-life, their daily burdens, their abiding
Christ, and their future hope. We need both kinds of sermon.
Every congregation should have a Hutton and a Lockyer in the pulpit
in turns. If that is not possible at present, every member of every
congregation should be encouraged to read both these books." —
The Expository Times.
" Mr. Lockyer has a quiet strength of thought and an assured
felicity of style which make his sermons very pleasant reading. He
is an expositor of real insight and careful scholarship." — London
Quarterly Review..
" These addresses are just such as we should expect from Mr.
Lockyer — scholarly, eloquent, graceful in diction, full of vigorous and
stimulating thought, and throughout instinct with spiritual power — ¦
real power — and plenty of it. Earnest, persuasive, and soul-stirring,
they bring before us a preacher who knows how to play upon the
hearts of men, and deal with the mysteries of human experience." — ¦
Aberdeen Daily Journal.
" The present volume worthily sustains his reputation. The sermons
are evangelical and practical, though not avowedly doctrinal, or
presented in the old conventional form. The style is chaste, clear,
and marked by a certain self-restraint which seldom, if ever, forgets
itself." — Primitive Methodist Quarterly Review.

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Seeking a Country : By Thos. F. Lockyer.

Press Opinions.
" Mr. Lockyer is a preacher of singular charm. He writes with the
skill of the well-trained man of letters as well as with the calm fervour
of the evangelical preacher. His careful study and extensive reading
are constantly in evidence, but the book is thor6ughly his own." —
Preacher's Magazine.
" These sermons are thoughtful expositions of vital truths. Many
of our readers will be glad to have their attention called to a volume
which worthily represents the ministry of one who has skill in open
ing the Scriptures and in applying their teaching to the spiritual
needs of men." — Methodist Recorder.
"For expository genius and illustrative aptitude, with spiritual
insight and power of tender and persuasive appeals, Mr. Lockyer has
erw equals." — Peterborough Advertiser.
" In thought, in temper, and in language this is a choice book." —
Hastings and St. Leonards Weekly Mail and Times.
" Mr. Lockyer has set himself to work out a clear and consecutive
purpose. And on that main purpose Mr. Lockyer has worked a beauti
ful embroidery of clear thought and uplifting ideals." — Methodist Times.
" He deals with the variety of topics over which the fourteen
sermons of this book range with a boldness of touch, a picturesque-
ness of style, and a practicalness of tone that must invest any pulpit
with an unusual charm." — Erith Times.
" The title is taken from the subject of the first sermon, which is the
recurring motive of the whole book. Those who are familiar with
Mr. Lockyer' s other publications will not be surprised to find this
continuity of interest in the contemplation of the eternal life. It is a
living interest, and not mere dreaminess ; still less is it any unhealthy
weariness of the world's work. The present life is simply penetrated,
in these sermons, with the consciousness of the greater life hereafter :
the preacher does not look away from facts, but through them to the
light beyond." — The Myrtle.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

The Quest of Faith
A SERIES OF DEVOTIONAL STUDIES.
F'cap 8vo. Cloth. Price 2s. net.

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Cssaps for tbe Cimes
A Series of Essays on Biblical, Religious, and Theological
Subjects, written in the Light of Modern Criticism,
in Defence and Exposition of the Christian Faith.
Paper Covers. Crown 6vo Price Sixpence net each.

No. i.— ST. PAUL'S VIEW OF THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
By the Rev. Dr Allan Menzies.
No. 2.— RELIGIOUS PROGRESS A CONSTANT ELEMENT
IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY. By the Rey, C. J.
Abbey, M.A.
No. 3.— THE GOSPELS IN THE EARLY CHURCH. By
Frederic G. Kenyon, M.A., D. Litt. Assistant Keeper
of Manuscripts, British Museum.
No 4— THE SUFFERING SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. De
picted in Isaiah Hi and liii. Considered in Relation to
Past and Present Criticism. By the Rev. Charles H. H..
Wright, D.D., Ph.D.
No. 5.— THE FALL-STORY. By the Rev. F. R. Tennant, M.A.
B.Sc.
No 6— ARCH/EOLOGY AND CRITICISM. By Professor A. H.
Sayce, M.A., D.D.
No 7— THE SPIRITUAL QUALITY QF EVOLUTION. By
the Rev. Newman Smyth, D.D., LL.D.
No. 8.— ILLUSION IN RELIGION. By the Rev. Edwin A.
Abbott, M.A., D.D.
No. 9— THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW TESTA-
MENT IN MODERN LIFE AND THOUGHT. By P.
Mordaunt Barnard, B.D.
No. 10— DOCTRINE AND THEORY. By William Barrett
Frank-land, M.A., Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
No. 11— THE VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE DIVINITY OF
CHRIST. By Principal Walter F. Adeney, M.A., D.D.
No 12.— ORIGINAL SIN. By the Rev. F. R. Tennant, M.A.,
B.Sc.
No. 13.— THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS. Interpreted by
the purpose of His Mission. By the Rev: Charle*
Moinet, M.A., D.D.
OTHER ESSAYS IN PREPARATION.

London: FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C

ENGLISH PREACHERS.
Crown 8vo. Volumes. Bound in Red Cloth, Gold Letters,
Gilt top, 3s. net, per Volume.

ECCLESIA DISCENS. OCCASIONAL SERMONS AND
ADDRESSES. By the Rev. Arthur Wollaston Hutton,
M.A., Rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside.
Contents : — The Presence of the Kingdom — The Restoration
of Faith — Our Father's Kingdom.' — Vocation to the Ministry —
The Heavenly Vision — The Old Testament and its Critics —
Authority and the Bible — The Significance of Anglican Ritual
— The Ritschlian Theology and its relation to Mysticism — The
Permanent Element in Theological Re-Statement — Cardinal
Newman : his Weakness and his Strength.
3EEKI-NG A COUNTRY. Sermons by the Rev. Thomas F.
Ltf.CKYER, B.A. . :
Contents: — Seeking a Country — The Homeward Way — A
Citizen of No Mean City — My Redeemer Liveth — The Last
Passover — Idylls of Home Lite — They came to Marah — Love's
Faithful Waiting — Evening and Morning — The Gift of the
Morning Star — Shall He Live Again? — The Challenge of
Eastertide — None of you asketh, Whither? — The Abiding
Christ.
-SAINT GEORGE FOR ENGLAND, and other Sermon*
Preached to Children. By T. Tbignmouth Shore, M.A..
Canon of Worcester Cathedral, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to
the King.
Contents: — St. George for England — The King's Garden —
Dreaming and Doing — The Good Eight — Flowers — The Ass— r
Lingering Lot — Slaves — An Example — Two Ways — Serving the
Lord with One Shoulder — The Man with the One Talent —
Doing What We Like— Doing Right— Doing Good— The Pat
tern of Childhood— The Saviour of Others — Christ is Risen—
Tongues of Fire— The Bible— The English Bible.
DIFFICULTIES OF OUR DAY: Sermons by the Ven. W.
M. Sinclair, D.D., Archdeacon of London.
Contents: — Christianity and Christian Science — Christian
ity and Theosophy — The Virgin-Birth — The Old Testament and
the Higher Criticism — Neglect of Family Praver — Neglect of
Reading the Bible — Neglect of Parents' Responsibilities —
Materialism — Covetousness — Party Spirit — Plain Living —
Answers to Prayer — Christ's Gospel Eternal Truth — Know
ledge through Faith — Patriotism.
NEW LIGHTS ON THE OLD FAITH. Sermons for the
Times. By the Rev. N. E. Egerton Swann, B.A.

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

THE TRUE STORY OF
GEORGE ELIOT
In relation to "ADAM BEDE," giving the real life
history of the more prominent characters
By WILLIAM MOTTRAM
(Grand nephew of Adam and Seth Bede and cousin to the
Author)
WITH EIGHTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS, MAINLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY
ALLAN P. MOTTRAM, B.SC, AND VERNON H. MOTTRAM, B.A.

Large Crown 8vo. Cloth, Gilt Top. Price 7s. 6d. net.

CONTENTS.
Chapter I. — The Evolution of George Eliot.
Chapter II. — The Home of the Bedes a Hundred Years Ago.
Chapter III. — -Adam Bede, a Fiction Founded on Fact.
Chapter IV. — The Real Life-Story of Adam Bede.
Chapter V. — All about Mrs. Poyser.
Chapter VI. — Haytime at the Hall Farm and the Harvest Supper.
Chapter VII. — Seth Bede's Account of Himself;
Chapter VIII. — Dinah Morris Preaching on the Green .at Hayslope.
Chapter IX. — The Autobiography of Dinah Morris.
Chapter X. — -Dinah Morris from Babyhood to Womanhood.
Chapter XI. — Dinah Morris — Life and Work in Nottingham.
Chapter XII. — Dinah Morris Wooed by Seth Bede.;
Chapter XIII.— Holy Work of a Wedded Pair.
Chapter XIV. — Life's Labour — Sabbatic- Rest.
Chapter XV. — The Marriage with George H. Lewes.
Chapter XVI. — -The Religion of George Eliot.

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

EAST AFRICA AND
UGANDA
Or, OUR LAST LAND
By J. CATHCART WASON, M.P.,
with a preface by
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
With 33 Illustrations from photographs by Mr. Borup, of the
Church Missionary Society, Uganda; Mr. Cunnington, of
Uganda ; and Mr. and Mrs. Cathcart Wason.

Crown 8vo. Cloth, Gilt Top. Price 3s. 6d. net.

" Mr. Cathcart Wason has published a most entertaining volume on East Africa
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" A readable book. Gives many insights into the habits and characteristics of am
interesting people." — Shetland News.

A HISTORY OF RHODESIA
COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES
By HOWARD HENSMAN.

With a Map. Crown 8vo. Price 6s.

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Mr. Hensman seems to have achieved it."— Spec ta tor.
" As a general description of Rhodesia — historical, political, and industrial . . .
deserves high commendation .... The book contains exactly the kind of information the
reading public would like to possess."— Daily News.
London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

From mr. francis GrlffltDs Cist.
Difficulties Of OUr Day; -By ke-Ven. 'Archdeacon Sinclair, D.D.
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Cix Biblical Illustrator:
Being SermoYis, Outlines, Quotations, Anecdotes, Similes, Emblems Illustra
tions , Expository, Scientific, Geographical, Historical and Ho.-niletic Notes-
gathered from the entire range of Home and Foreign Literature of
the Past and Present on the Verses of the Bible.
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Genesis, Vol. I.— ch., l.-xvii.
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Exodus
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Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
I. and II. Chronicles, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Esther.
Job. [Ready in July, 1905.
Psalms, Yol. I -Ps. i.-xxvi.
Proverbs

Isaiah, Yol. I.— ch. i.-xxx.
Jeremiah, Vol. I.— i. -xxii.
Jeremiah. Vol. II — xxiii. -Lii.
and Lamentations. [May.
Ezekiel. [September.
Minor Prophets, Yol." I., Hosea.
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah,
and Micah.
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St John, Yol. Ill— xvi.-xxi.
Acts, Yoi. I. — i.-viii.
Acts, Yol. II. — ix.-xvii.
Acts, Yol. III. xviii. -xxviii,
Romans, Vol. I — i.-viii.
Romans, Vol. II. — viii. -xvi.

I. Corinthians, Vol. II — ch.x.-xvi.
II Corinthians
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I. and II. Thcssalcnians, and
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Hebrews, Vol. II. — ix.-xiu.
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Revelation.

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INDEX
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OF THE
Biblical Illustrator

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Short Description of the Index Volume.

A good index is a perfect guide in what might otherwise often be an unknown
country.
A good index sets before you, in review, all the forces at your disposal.
This Index is a good one. It contains 507 pages of double columns of references, 1,014,
columns of references to the New Testament volumes.
It has over 80,000 distinct references,
Compare this with the fact that the New Testament has but 7,959 verses in all and you
will see that there is an average of between eleven and twelve references to each
verse. Then each of these references frequently covers many pages of exposition and
illustration.
It forms, with the volumes of the work, a complete ENCYCLOPEDIA of all religious,.
homiletical, and Biblical Information.
It is in itself a complete SUBJECT-INDEX to the whole New Testament. It enables
you to find any passage, outline, exposition, illustration or help on any one passage
or subject.
There is not a passage, thought, illustration, outline, authority, suggestion or point of
any kind in any volume but will be found in the Index. By its aid you can trace
that forgotten passage, illustration, or find information on any desired subject.
In a word it places all the material in this monumental library in your hands at one
time in one convenient volume.
In actual practice one preacher, designing to take on the next Sunday the subject of
" God Revealed Through Nature," found not only a complete exposition, together
with a wealth of illustration, etc., under the head of the text chosen, but on consult
ing the index, found immediately over two hundred other valuable references. Of
course he knew better than to attempt to read them all, but the index made it easy
to select those most pertinent and to quickly glean their riches. Instead of turning
bewildered to book after book in his library, the Index Volume placed all the
libraries of the world right before him on his desk and enabled him to do in hours
what he might have spent days in a vain attempt to accomplish.

Expository Times : " The ' Biblical Illustrator ' is a work of scientific value. An Index
was indispensable. Here it is for the New Testament volumes (Griffiths ; 10s. 6d. net), a
miracle of fulness and convenience and accuracy."

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THE MEN OF THE BIBLE.
17 Volumes, Crown 8vo, bound in Cloth. Each as. 6d. net.

Abraham. ^ )'deane, m.a.
" This book has the great merit of throw
ing on the life of Abraham all the light of re
cent Oriental learning." — " The Evangelist."
rtnniAl By the Rev.
UiUIICl. H- DEANE, B.D.
" It makes the life of Daniel and his sur-
roundings realities in a new sense." —
" The Standard."
David By the Rev.
UttVIU. Wt jm DEANE, MA.
"The story of the romantic life, from
cabin to palace, is told in simple, graceful
style, giving a very distinct impression of his
life and character. ' — " The Advance."
Pliiah By the Rev. Professor
CIIJUI1. Wm MILLIGAN, D.D.
" A charming addition to the series ....
A strong, interesting, and useful book." —
"The Episcopal Recorder."
Ezra and Nehemiah.
By the Rev. Canon RAWLINSON, M.A.
"It is orderly, scholarly, and discriminat
ing . . . The writer is clear and reverent
in his views of Scripture." — "The Interior."
Gideon and Judges.
By the Rev. J. M. LANG, D.D
" In no sense technical, while marked by
fulness and freshness of information." — "The
Presbylenan Review."
Isaac and Jacob.
By the Rev. Canon RAWLINSON, M.A.
" Rawlinson is one of the most intelligent
and painstaking of writers of ancient
history. He is, in fact, an authority on such
subjects." — "The Pittsburg Christian Ad
vocate." Icaiih By the Rev. Canon
lSiUail. DRIVER, M.A., D.D.
" A careful reading of this work by
Professor Driver is fitted to add greatly to
one's interest in the study of the book of
Isaiah."— "The Advance." By the Rev.
Canon CHEYNE, D.D.
" An idea,; volume, which brings the
histgry and the book vividly before the
reader in a simple, picturesque manner." —
" The Independent."

Jeremiah.

Jesus Christ the Divine
Man By "" Kcv-
1Y1HII. 1 H.VALLINGS.M.A.
"This piece or work bears examination,
and grows on one." — " The Churchman."

By the Rev.
W.J. DEANE, M.A.

Joshua.
" These books are easy as welt as engaging
reading, being written not for Biblical
students and scholars any more than for the
general reader." — " The Christian Intelli
gencer."
Kings of Israel and Judah.
By the Rev. Canon RAWLINSON, M.A.
'* It would be difficult to give a more com
plete and readable account of all these kings."
— " The Week."
Minor Prophets. %^R,Dp
"He has a marvellous power of weaving
from the short threads of Scripture state
ments the tapestry of a thoroughly connected1
biography." — "The Gospel Age."
MOSeS. Canon RAWLINSON, M.A
"Such is the writer's acquaintance with-
Eastem history, manners, and scenery ,^ that
he becomes the Macaulay of Moses. This is-
grand change for half-a-crown. If the other
' Men of the Bible' find such biographers, the
publishers will have to enlarge their
premises. Friend, but this book." — " Sword
and Trowel."
Samuel and Saul.
By the Rev. W. J. DEANE, M.A.
"Treated with adequate learning, a com
mand of the best authorities and excellent
judgment."—" The Watchman."
Solomon, g^;*. D.D.
" Farrar's ' Solomon ' is well worth read
ing, and it constitutes such a magnificent
word-picture of the great king that one rises.
from it with a more vivid idea of the Royal
Preacher than one is likely to obtain by any
other means." — "Sword and Trowel."
St. PaUl ¦ Prof. IVERACH, D.D
"Shows scholarship and research, and i»
written in a popular and pleasing style."—
" Christian Work."

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The Teacher's Classified
LESSON MATERIAL
Edited by
The Rev. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.
(Vicar of St. Mary's, Stamford Brook, W.)
The following Volumes and Parts are now Ready :
THE FOUR GOSPELS & THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
By The Rev. MARCUS E.W.JOHNSON, A.K.C., The Rev. W. J. DEANE, M.A.,
The Rev CHARLES NEIL, M.A., and R. G. S. GIRLING. Complete . in One
Volume. Demy8vo. ... ... ...  P"ce 9s. net.
THE BOOK OF GENESIS. By The Rev.W. J. DEANE, M.A.,
J. DICKENSON, B.A., and The Rev. CANON EVAN DANIEL, M.A., Principal of St.
John's College, Battersea.. Demy 8vo. ... ... ... Price3s.net.
THE BOOKS OF JOSHUA, JUDGES, AND RUTH. By The
Rev. FREDERICK MEYRlCK, M.A., and The Rev. THOMAS PALMER STEVENS.
Deniy8vo. ... ... ¦-¦ - Price £#. net.
THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. By The Rev. MARCUS
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THE! SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL and the First Book
of Chronicles. By The Rev. BLOMFIELD JACKSON, M.A. Demy8vo. Price 2s. net.
THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS and the corresponding portions
of the Books of Chronicles. By The Rev. JOSEPH HAMMOND, LL.B'., B.A.
Demy 8vo. ... ... ... ... ... Price 2s, Gd. net.
THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS and the corresponding portions
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THE BOOK OF DANIEL. By ARTHUR T. BOTT, M.A.
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"The Teacher' ^Classified Lesson Material " contains Scripture Lessons strictly evolved
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a Preacher requires upon the portion of Scripture to be explained. In this work the grouping
of the accumulated treasures has been made upon a sound arid uniform system. The matter
too, is arranged in such a manner as to catch the eye and enable a reader at once to alight
upon the exact point upon which he seeks help without the vexatious wading through
superfluous or entangled statements.
The Guardian : " There is manifest throughput a great desire to be accurate and simple,
and to lose no opportunity of drawing attention, to the moral lessons which should be sug
gested by the sacred text: A teacher . .. will find that the books, as helps for instruction in
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The Record : " Of the ' Classified Teacher's Material ' it is impossible to speak too highly.
Each lesson is full of information of a most varied kind. The different incidents in the
nartative are well brought out ; the geography, topography, and history thoroughly ex
plained ; and the spiritual lessons are clearly defined."
Literary World: "Explorations and comments are given in such a form as to be
quickly perceived, and arranged according to the teachers' and scholars' needs."
Methodist Recorder: ".Form a veritable thesaurus on the Gospels, and will prove of
immense service to the painstaking teacher."

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

THE TEACHER'S
CATECHISING BIBLE
By the Rev. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.

The Following are Now Ready :
THE FOUR GOSPELS AND THE ACTS OF THE
APOSTLES. Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 7s. 6d. net.
THE BOOK OF GENESIS Price 2S. net.

, Every Teacher or Expositor has felt the need of a 'Biblical
Interpreter — someone to tell him in the tersest and most suggestive
and thought-promoting way the point of each paragraph or portion of
Holy Writ, and so to display the text itself as to remove all gram
matical and exegetical difficulties, and to make an Eastern arid ancient
book as perfectly easy to read as a Western and modern one. In a
form expressly suitable for class. teaching or for the purposes of ex
position in the family circle, lecture room, or pulpit has been prepared
THE TEACHER'S CATECHISING BIBLE. A Prebendary of
one of our leading cathedrals, and a tutor of considerable eminence
informed the Author that during Holy Week he took this help into the
pulpit and was able to preach with perfect ease upon the ICvents
of our Lord's last week on earth. By this aid an amateur teacher
might easily train himself to be equal to the professional teacher ;
while the professional teacher would perform his duties with increased
readiness and intelligence.

The Guardian : " The difficulties of combining the narratives have been carefully con
sidered and treated in a satisfactory manner."
The Record: " The volumes of the Catechising Bible contain the narrative of the Four
Gospels combined in chronological order, and divided into sections to correspond with
the lessons set forth in the companion volumes of the ' Classified Lesson Material.' The
advantage of this to the teacher will be at once apparent ; he has before him, at a glance, a
full account of any period of our Lord's recorded life, harmonized from the Four Gospels."
The Ecclesiastical Gazette : " The analysis of the Four Gospels in a combined narrative
is especially well worked out, and will be found useful, not only by teachers, but also by
preachers aud catechists."
The Christian : "By snowing the structure of the Scripture, they help materially to a
sound interpretation of the text."
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Christian Visitor's Handbook
Passages of Scripture with Descriptive Titles and Suggestive Remarks;
also Topics for Prayer suitable for cases usually met with in District
Visiting.
F'cap 8vo. Limp Cloth. Price is. 6d. net.

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THE TEACHER'S
SYNOPTICAL SYLLABUS
Of Scripture Lessons
With Reference Tables, Maps, Plans and Diagrams.
By the Rev. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.
With an Introduction by the Ven. ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR, D.D,

Complete in one Demy 8vo. Volume. 518 pp. 10s. 6d. net.

The first help which every Scripture student needs is a Biblical Educator, some one
experienced person or book to survey the field of Biblical knowledge as a whole and note its
related parts. In regard to the Books of the Bible usually taught in schools, and frequently
furnishing the topics for sermons this task has been preformed. A scientifically drawn up and
logically arranged '* Teacher's Synoptical Syllabus " has been prepared, with
seventy-eight Reference Tables and sixty-nine Maps and Diagrams. These Tables, Maps and
Diagrams have been specially prepared for teaching purposes, and letterpress, when necessary,
faces them in such a way that it can be read without shifting the position of the book. The
help thus offered is what writers have hitherto failed to give. It is exactly what every student
consciously or unconsciously longs for. The historical, geographical and other facts com
pressed into this book will be found indispensable to the student when he is about to prepare
a lesson or preach a sermon.

THE AUTHORITATIVE APPROVAL OF EXPERTS.
Bishops, Deans, Canons, Archdeacons, the Clergy, Headmasters of our Great Public
Schools, Principals of Theological Colleges and Training Colleges, Masters and Mistresses of
High Schools, and School Inspectors have written in exceptionally approving terms.
Testimony in favour of this book comes not only from members of the Church of England,
but from Presbyterians and Nonconformists.
The present Archbishop of Ca)iterbury, though always cautious in his recommendations,
writes, when Bishop of Rochester : " I shall certainly recommend the Book both to Ordination
candidates and to other friends."
Dr. C. J. Ellicott, the Bishop of Gloucester, the Chairman of the Revision Committee of
the New Testament Company — perhaps the greatest living English commentator, asserts :
"It is obviously compiled with much care, contains in it a great deal of helpful and in
structive matter, and cannot fail to be of much use to every careful reader of God's Holy
Word." Dr. F. J. Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool, formerly Principal of Wycliffe Lodge, Oxford,
pronounces the boolc to be " A perfect treasury of information, and will prove a valuable
help to Teachers, Clerical and Lay."
' The late Bishop Perowne, the Editor of the " Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges," and acknowledged eminent Theologian of his day, remarks : " I have seen
nowhere else so clear and helpful an analysis of the whole Bible history, and I shall gladly
do all in my power to promote its circulation."
The late Canon Evan Daniel, once Principal at St. John's College, Battersea, the Author
of the Standard Work on the Book of Common Prayer for Educational Purposes, commits
himself to this unqualified praise : " It is the best harmony of the Bible which I am
familiar with."
The late Dr. H. R. Reynolds, Principal of Cheshunt College, himself a most industrious
and scholarly writer, bore the following strong testimony : " The care and research involved
in the preparation of such a work are quite phenomenal. I heartily congratulate you on the
completion of such an Herculean task."

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Works by the
Rev. CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, D.D., Ph.D.
Bampton Lecturer (1878) ; Public Examiner in Semitic Languages (1894-95) ;
and Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint (1893-7) ! m lne University of Oxford.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES.
Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price 6s. net.
¦Contents :— I.— The Book of Isaiah. II.— The Site of Paradise (with a Map). III. — Human
Sacrifices in the Old Testament. IV. — The Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifices among
the Jews. V. — Great Jewish Rabbis of the First Century. VI. — Martin Luther, the Hero
of the Reformation. VII. — Religious Life in the German Army in the War of 1870-1871.
VIII.— The Persecution of the Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces of Russia.

The Suffering Servant of Jehovah
Depicted in Isaiah Iii. and liii. Considered in Relation to Criticism
Past and Present.
Crown 8vo. Paper Cover. Price 6d. net.

The Intermediate State
AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD
Examined in the light of Scripture, and of Ancient Jewish and Christian
Literature.
Cloth Crown 8vo. Price 5s. net.
'' Dr. Wright is our highest authority in respect of Hebrew Biblical Literature, and
nothing could be more felicitous in its seizure of a golden opportunity than the publication at
-the piesent moment of this exhaustive ' examination.' " — The Rock.

Sunbeams on My Path
OR
Reminiscences of Christian Life in Various Lands
By EBBA J. D. WRIGHT, nee ALMROTH,
Edited by Rev. C. H. H. WRIGHT, D.D.
Price 2s. net. With Ten Illustrations.
" Gives glimpses of the life and character of persons of all nationalities The work is
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devout, sympathetic, and courageous woman, will be much appreciated by readers of the class
she specially appeals to." — Spectator.
London: FRANCIS GRIFHTHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Price -j/-- Net.
Ecclesia Discens :
OCCASIONAL SERMONS AND ADDRESSES
BY
ARTHUR WOLLASTON HUTTON, M.A.
Rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside.
Crown 8vo. Cloth. Gilt top. Price 3s. net.

CONTENTS. SERMONS.
The Presence of the Kingdom.
The Restoration of Faith.
Our Father's Kingdom.
Vocation to the Ministry.
The Heavenly Vision.
The Old Testament and its Critics (Four Lectures).
Authority and the Bible.
The Significance of Anglican Ritual.
ADDRESSES.
The Ritschi.ian Theology And its Relation to Mysticism.
The Permanent Element in Theological Re-Statement.
Cardinal .Newman, his Weakness and his Strength.
Statement Prefatory, to Declaration of Assent.

London: FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden I.Ane Strand, W.C.

ECCLESIA DISCENS. By A. W. Hutton,
PRESS OPINIONS.
Athenaeum: "The idea of a learning Church deserves emphasis,
and the name might properly be taken by every Church which, while
fulfilling the function of an ecclesia -docens, disclaims infallibility. In
adopting the title of his book Mr. Hutton takes a phrase which, "as he
points out, means in theological treatises the laity as contrasted with
the clergy, or the laity and the inferior clergy contrasted with the Pope
and bishops. He does well, however, to elevate the phrase to the high
station of a title for a whole Church, and he applies it to the Church of
England. It is a nice question how far an established Church, on
account of its State connexion, has the liberty to restate its doctrine in
harmony with acquired -knowledge; and it may be asked whether,
formularies, fixed by Acts of Parliament, which determine the limits of
an ecclesia docens, do not thereby prevent such a Church from being an
ecclesia discens. The judgment of the House of Lords in the case of the
Free Church of Scotland raises questions regarding the relation of creeds,.
articles, and confessions to progressive thought, even though that
judgment may not, and probably does not, directly affect the Estab
lished Churches of England and Scotland. Apart from the answers to
the difficult questions arising out of the connection of Church and Stater
the duty of learning, it may be'said, should go with the right of teach
ing ; and it is a sound and healthy conception of a Church that it must
learn as well as teach. In the sermons and addresses contained in this-
book, Mr. Hutton deals with subjects of outstanding interest, and he
speaks from personal knowledge in the address ' Cardinal NeWman, his-
Weakness and his Strength,' since for some years he was, within the pale-
of the Roman Church, closely connected with Newman. The book
should have many lessons for those to whom the idea of the Church of
England as an ecclesia discens may be a novelty."
Pall Mall Gazette: "Mr. Hutton's book is a careful guide to
what the broad wing of English Churchmen, represented by the
Churchmen's Union, are now doing. Mr. Hutton's spiritual career
has been such as to enable him to see the problems of religion in a
very varied way, and his attachment to orthodox Liberalism cannot
be considered apart from his former acceptance of the claims of Rome.
His sojourn in Rome has, we think, made him rather intolerant of
the English Catholic position, and at times he seems anxious to
exaggerate the official change in doctrine that occurred at the
Reformation. On the whole, the most valuable things in the book
are the paper on the Ritschlian theology, and that on Cardinal
Newman." South Place Magazine : " Such men as Mr. Hutton however
much they may seem to us addicted to compromise, ' must give their
orthodox hearers to think, and so hasten the time when the Church
will place weightier emphasis upon' the fruits of religious conviction,
rather than on its forms and dogmas."

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Seeking a Country:
(ENGLISH PREACHERS' SERIES).
By THOS. F. LOCKYER, B.A.
Crown 8vo. Cloth, Qilt Top. Price 3s. net.

Contents.
Seeking a Country — The Homeward Way — A Citizen of No Mean
City — My Redeemer Liveth — The Last "Passover — Idylls of Home
Life — They came to Marah — Love's Faithful Waiting — Evening and
Morning— The Gift of the Morning Star — Shall He Live again ?—
The Challenge of Eastertide— None of you Asketh, Whither ?— The
Abiding Christ.
Press Opinions.
" Two volumes have been issued — Ecclesia Discens, by the Rev. A.
W. Hutton, M.A., and Seeking a Country, by the Rev. T. F. Lockyer,
B.A. The names represent two very different types of preaching.
Mr. Hutton is absorbed in the intellectual movements of our time and
concerned for the authority of the Church. Mr. Lockyer is interested
in men and women, their home-life, their daily burdens, their abiding
Christ, and their future hope. We need both kinds of sermon.
Every congregation should have a Hutton and a Lockyer in the pulpit
in turns. If that is not possible at present, every member of every
congregation should be encouraged to read both these books." — •
The Expository Times.
" Mr. Lockyer has a quiet strength of thought and an assured
felicity of style which make his sermons very pleasant reading. He
is an expositor of real insight and careful scholarship." — London
Quarterly Review.
" These addresses are just such as we should expect from Mr.
Lockyer — scholarly, eloquent, graceful in diction, full of vigorous and
stimulating thought, and throughout instinct with spiritual power —
Teal power — and plenty of it. Earnest, persuasive, and soul-stirring,
they bring before us a preacher who knows how to play upon the
hearts of men, and deal with the mysteries of human experience." —
Aberdeen Daily Journal. .
" The present volume worthily sustains his reputation. The sermons
axe, evangelical and practical, though not avowedly doctrinal, or
presented in the old conventional form. The style is chaste, clear,
and marked by a certain self-restraint which seldom, if ever, forgets
itself." — Primitive Methodist Quarterly Review.

London : FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34, Maiden Lane, Strand, W.C.

Seeking a Country : By Thos. F. Lockyer.

Press Opinions.
" Mr. Lockyer is a preacher of singular charm. He writes with the
skill of the well-trained man of letters as well as with the calm fervour
•of the evangelical preacher. His careful study and extensive reading
are constantly in evidence, but the book is thoroughly his own." —
Preacher's Magazine.
" These sermons are thoughtful expositions of vital truths. Many
of our readers will be glad to have their attention called to a volume
which worthily represents the ministry of one who has skill in open
ing the Scriptures and in applying their teaching to the spiritual
needs of men." — Methodist Recorder.
"For expository genius and illustrative aptitude, with spiritual
insight and power of tender and persuasive appeals, Mr. Lockyer has
erw equals." — Peterborough Advertiser.
" In thought, in temper, and in language this is a choice book." —
Hastings and St. Leonards Weekly Mail and Times.
" Mr. Lockyer has set himself to work out a clear and consecutive
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with an unusual charm." — Erith Times.
" The title is taken from the subject of the first sermon, which is the
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continuity of interest in the contemplation of the eternal life. It is a
living interest, and not mere dreaminess ; still less is it any unhealthy
weariness of the world's work. The present life is simply penetrated,
in these sermons, with the consciousness of the greater life hereafter:
the preacher does not look away from facts, but through them to the
light beyond." — The Myrtle.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

The Quest of Faith :
A SERIES OF DEVOTIONAL STUDIES.
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€ssaps Tor the Cimes
A Series of Essays on Biblical, Religious, and Theological
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in Defence and Exposition of the Christian Faith.
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No. i. -ST. PAUL'S VIEW OF THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
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ECCLESIA DISCENS. OCCASIONAL SERMONS AND
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M.A., Rector of St. Mary-lo-Bow, Cheapside.
Contents : — The Presence of the Kingdom — The Restoration
of Faith — Our Father's Kingdom. — Vocation to the Ministry —
The Heavenly Vision — The Old Testament and its Critics —
Authority and the Bible — The Significance of Anglican Ritual
— The Ritschlian Theology and its relation to Mysticism — The
Pormanent Element in Theological Re-Statement — Cardinal
Newman : his Weakness and his Strength.
SEEK1-NG A COUNTRY. Sermons by the Rev. Thomas F.
Lcckyer, B.A.
Contents: — Seeking a Country — The Homeward Way — A
¦Citizen of No Mean City — My Redeemer Liveth — The Last
Passover — Idylls of Home Tife — They came to Marah — Love's
Faithful Waiting — Evening and Morning — The Gift of the
Morning Star — Shall He Live Again? — The Challenge of
Eastertide — None of you asketh, Whither? — The Abiding
Christ.
-SAINT GEORGE FOR ENGLAND, and other Sermon*
Preached to Children. By T. Teignmouth Shore, M.A..
Canon of Worcester Cathedral, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to
the King.
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Dreaming and Doing — The Good Fight — Flowers — The Ass —
Lingering Lot — Slaves — An Example — Two Ways — Serving the
Lord with One Shoulder — The Man with the One Talent —
Doing What We Lik,e — Doing Right — Doing Good — The Pat
tern of Childhood — The Saviour of Others — Christ is Risen—
Tongues of Fire— The Bible— The English Bible.
DIFFICULTIES OF OUR DAY; Sermons by the Ven. \Y.
M. Sinclair, D.D., Archdeacon of London.
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NEW LIGHTS ON THE OLD FAITH. Sermons for the
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THE TRUE STORY OF
GEORGE ELIOT
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By WILLIAM MOTTRAM
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Chapter I. — The Evolution of George Eliot.
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Chapter V. — All about Mrs. Poyser.
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Chapter XI. — -Dinah Morris — Life and Work in Nottingham.
Chapter XII.— Dinah Morris Wooed by Seth Bede.
Chapter XIII.— Holy Work of a Wedded Pair.
Chapter XIV. — -Life's Labour — Sabbatic Rest.
Chapter XV. — The Marriage with George H. Lewes.
Chapter XVI. — The Religion of George Eliot.

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EAST AFRICA AND
UGANDA
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