Shalmaneser, was evidently able to hold its own from 854 to 839. The anti-Assyrian alliance was, as often in west Asia, a temporary one, and the inveterate rivalries of the small states are illustrated, in a striking manner, in the downfall of Omri's dynasty and the rise of that of Jehu (842-c. 745); in the bitter onslaughts of Damascus upon Israel, leading nearly to its annihilation; in an unsuccessful attack upon the king of Hamath by Damascus, Cilicia and small states in north Syria; in an Israelite expedition against Judah and Jerusalem (2 Kings xiv. 13 seq.); and finally in the recovery and extension of Israelite power-perhaps to Damascus-under Jeroboam II. In such vicissitudes as these Palestinian history proceeds upon a much larger scale than the national biblical records relate, and the external evidence is of the greatest importance for the light it throws upon the varying situations. Syria could control the situation, and it in turn was influenced by the ambitions of Assyria, to whose advantage it was when the small states were rent by mutual suspicion and hostility. It is possible, too, that, as the states did not scruple to take advantage of the difficulties of their rivals, Assyria played a more prominent part in keeping these jealousies alive than the evidence actually states. Moreover, in the light of these moves and counter- | moves one must interpret the isolated or incomplete narratives of Hebrew history. The repeated blows of Assyria did not prevent the necessity of fresh expeditions, and later, Adad-Nirari III. (812-783) claims as tributary the land of Hatti, Amor, Tyre, Sidon, the land of Omri" (Israel), Edom and Philistia. Israel at the death of Jeroboam was rent by divided factions, whereas Judah (under Uzziah) has now become a powerful kingdom, controlling both Philistia and the Edomite port of Elath on the gulf of 'Akaba. The dependence of Judaean sovereignty upon these districts was inevitable; the resources of Jerusalem obviously did not rely upon the small district of Judah alone. If Ammon also was tributary (2 Chron. xxvi. 8, xxvii.), dealings with Israel and perhaps Damascus could probably be inferred. Assyria. A new period begins with Tiglath-Pileser IV. (745-728): pro- and anti-Assyrian parties now make themselves felt, and Predomi when north Syria was taken in 738, Tyre, Sidon, nance of Damascus (under Rezin), "Samaria " (under Menahem) and a queen of Aribi were among the tributaries. It is possible that Judah (under Uzziah and Jotham) had come to an understanding with Assyria; at all events Ahaz was at once encircled by fierce attacks, and was only saved by Tiglath-Pileser's campaign against Philistia, north Israel and Damascus. With the siege and fall of Damascus (733-32) Assyria gained the north, and its supremacy was recognized by the tribes of the Syrian desert and Arabia (Aribi, Tema, Sheba). In 722 Samaria, though under an Assyrian vassal (Hoshea the last king), joined with Philistia in revolt; in 720 it was allied with Gaza and Damascus, and the persistence of unrest is evident when Sargon in 715 found it necessary to transport into Samaria various peoples of the desert. Judah itself was next involved in an anti-Assyrian league (with Edom, Moab and Philistia), but apparently submitted in time; nevertheless a decade later (701), after the change of dynasty in Assyria, it participated in a great but unsuccessful effort from Phoenicia to Philistia to shake off the yoke, and suffered disastrously.3 With the crushing blows upon Syria and Samaria the centre of interest moves southwards and the history is influenced by Assyria's rival Babylonia (under Marduk-baladan and his successors), by north Arabia and by Egypt. Henceforth there is little Samarian history, and of Judah, for nearly a century, few political events are recorded (JEWS: § 16). Judah was under Assyrian supremacy, and, although it was involved with Arabians in the revolt planned by Babylonia Recently found to be the third of that name (H. W. Hogg, The Interpreter, 1910, p. 329). So e.g. in references to Ammon, Damascus and Hamath, and in Judaean relations with Philistia, Moab and Edom. See art. HEZEKIAH. A recently published inscription of Sennacherib (of 694 B.C.) mentions enslaved peoples from Philistia and Tyre, but does not name Judah. | (against Assurbanipal), it appears to have been generally quiescent. At this stage disturbances, now by Aramaean tribes, now by Arabia, combine with the new rise of Egypt and the weakness of Assyria to mark a turning-point in the world's history. Psammetichus (Psamtek) I. (663–609) with Egypt. Revival of his Greeks, Carians, Ionians and soldiers from Palestine and Syria, re-established once more an Egyptian Empire, and replaced the fluctuating relations between Palestine and the small dynasts of the Delta by a settled policy. Trading intercommunication in the Levant and the constant passage to and fro of merchants brought Egypt to the front, and, in an age of archaic revival, the effort was made to re-establish the ancient supremacy over Palestine and Syria. The precise meaning of these changes for Palestinian history and life can only incompletely be perceived, and even the significance of the great Scythian invasion and of the greater movements with which it was connected is uncertain (see SCYTHIA). At all events, Egypt (under Necho, 609-593) prepared to take advantage of the decay of Assyria, and marched into Asia. Judah (under Josiah) was overthrown at Megiddo, where about nine centuries previously the victory of Tethmoses (Thutmose) III. had made Egypt supreme over Palestine and Syria. But Egypt was now at once confronted by the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire (under Nabopolassar), which, after annihilating Assyria with the help of the Medians, naturally claimed a right to the Mediterranean coast-lands. The defeat of Necho by Nebuchadrezzar at Carchemish (605) is one of the world-famous battles. Although Syria and Palestine now became Babylonian, this revival of the Egyptian Empire aroused hopes in Judah of deliverance and led to revolts (under Jehoiachin Babylonian and Zedekiah), in which Judah was apparently not Empire. alone. They culminated in the fall of this kingdom in 586. Henceforth the history of Palestine is disconnected and fragmentary, and the few known events of political importance are isolated and can be supplemented only by inferences from the movements of Egypt, Philistia or Phoenicia, or from the Old Testament. According to the Chaldean Nabonidus (553) all the kings from Gaza to the Euphrates assisted in his buildings, and the Chaldean policy generally appears to have been favourable towards faithful vassals. Cyrus meanwhile was rising to lead the Persians against Media. After a career of success he captured Babylonia (553) and forthwith claimed, in his famous inscription, the submission of Amor. For the next 200 years Palestine remained part of the new Persian Empire which, with all its ramifications on land and on sea, embraced the civilized world from the Himalayas to the Levant, until the advent of Alexander the Great (see JEWS: § 10). Very gradually the face of history underwent a complete change. Egypt had resumed its earlier connexions with the Levantine heirs of the ancient Aegeans, the old empires of the Nearer East had practically exhausted themselves, and Palestine passed into the fresh life and thought of the Greeks. (See below, p. 617-) Influences. In any consideration of the internal conditions in Palestine it must be observed that there is a continuity of thought, custom and culture which is independent of political changes Internal and vicissitudes of names. With the establishment Conditions. of an independent monarchy Palestine did not enter Northern into a new world. Whatever internal changes ensued between the "Amarna" age and rooo B.C., they have not left their mark upon the course of culture illustrated by the excavations. These still indicate communication with Egypt and the north (Syria, Asia Minor; Assyria and the Levant not excluded), and even when a novel culture presents itself, as in certain graves at Gezer, the affinities are with Cyprus and Asia Minor (Caria) of about the 11th or 10th century. The use of Cf. Jer. xxvii. 2 seq., and the history of the Egyptian Hophra (Apries, 588-569). At present it is difficult as regards Palestine to distinguish Aegean influence (direct and indirect) from that of Asia Minor generally. Only after the old Cretan (Minoan) culture had passed its zenith and was already decadent does it suddenly appear in Cyprus (H. R. Hall, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. xxxi. 227). course and alliance introduced the cults of Chemosh, Milcom, the Baal of Tyre and the Astarte of Sidon. Excavation has brought to light figurines of the Egyptian Osiris, Isis, Ptah, Anubis and especially Bes. Assyrian conquest and domination influenced the cults at all events outside Judah and Israel, and when Sargon sent skilled men to teach " the fear of God and the king" (cyl. inscr. 72-74) the spread of Assyrian religious ideas among the Hebrews themselves is to be expected. Certainly about 600 the Queen of Heaven, who has Assyrian traits, was a favourite object of veneration (Jer. vii. 18, xliv. 17-19, 25); yet already a century earlier the goddess "Ishtar of heaven" was worshipped by a desert tribe (see ISHMAEL), and the titles centuries before to west Asiatic goddesses (Anath, Kadesh, Ashira, &c.). Although no goddess is associated with the national god Yahweh, female deities abounded, as is amply shown by the numerous plaques of the great mother-goddess found in course of excavation. The picture which the evidence furnishes is as fundamental for our conception of Palestine during the monarchies as were the Amarna tablets for the age before they arose. The external evidence does not point to any intervening hiatus, and the archaeological data from the excavations do not reveal any dislocation of earlier conditions; earlier forms have simply developed and the evolution is a progressive one. Down to and at the time of the Assyrian supremacy, Palestine in religion and history was merely part of the greater area of mingled peoples sharing the same characteristics of custom and belief. This does not mean of course that the religion had no ethical traits-ethical motives are frequently found in the old Oriental religions-but they were bound up with certain naturalistic conceptions of the relation between deities and men, and herein lay their weakness. iron came in about this time, perhaps from the north, and biblical history (1 Kings x. 28 seq., see the commentaries) even ascribes to Solomon the import of horses from Kue and Musri (Cilicia and Cappadocia). The cuneiform script, which continued in Egypt during the XIXth and XXth Dynasties, was perhaps still used in Palestine; it was doubtless familiar at least during the Assyrian supremacy. But in the meanwhile the "North Semitic" alphabet appears (from 850) with almost identical forms in extreme north Syria (e.g. Sam'al), in Cyprus, Gezer, and in Moab. The type is very closely related to Alphabet. the oldest European (Etruscan) forms, and, in a less degree, to the "South Semitic" (old Minaean and Sabaean); and since it at once begins (c. 700) to develop along separate" lady of heaven,"" bride of the king of heaven," had been applied paths (Canaanite and Aramaean), it may be inferred that the common ancestor was not of long derivation. This alphabet stands in contrast to the old varying types of the Aegean and Asia Minor area and can hardly be of local origin. Under what historical circumstances it was first distributed over Palestine and Syria is uncertain; it is a plausible conjecture that once more the north is responsible. Too little is known of the north as a factor in Palestinian development to allow hasty inferences, but it is certainly noteworthy, at all events, that the names Amor and Hatti appear to move downwards, and that "Hittite" is applied to Palestine and Philistia by the Assyrians, and to Hebron in the Old Testament, and that Ezekiel (xvi. 3) calls Canaanite Jerusalem the offspring of an Amorite and a Hittite. It is to be observed, however, that the meaning of geographical and ethnical terms for culture in general must be properly tested-the term "Phoenician " is a conspicuous case in point. Thus, in north Syria the art has Assyrian and Hittite affinities, but is provincial and sometimes rough. Some of the personal names are foreign and find analogues in Asia Minor; but even as the Philistines appear in biblical history as a" Semitic "people, so inscriptions from north Syria (c. 800-700) are in Canaanite and early Aramaean dialects, and are in entire agreement with "Semitic " thought and ideas. The deities too generally bear familiar names. In Sam'al the kings Panammu and Q-r-I have non-Semitic names (Carian), but the gods include Hadad, El (God par excellence), Resheph and the Sun-deity. In Hamath we meet with the Baal of Heaven, Sun and Moon deities, gods of heaven and earth, and others. A god "Most High" (elyon) was perhaps already known in Hamath. The "Baal of Heaven," reminiscent of the Egyptian title "lord of heaven," given long before to Resheph, appears in the pantheon of Tyre (c. 677). The reference here is probably to the inveterate Hadad who, in his Aramacan form Ramman (Rimmon), is found in Palestine. Among the Hebrews, Yahweh, some of whose features associate him with thunder, lightning and storm, and with the gifts of the earth, has now become the national god, like the Moabite Chemosh or the Ammonite Milcolm. (For the Edomite gods, see EDOM.) The name is known in the form Ya'u in north Syria (8th century), and, so far as the Israelite kings are concerned, appears first in the family of Ahab. No images of Yahweh or of earlier Canaanite deities have been unearthed; but images belong to a relatively advanced stage in the development of religion, and the aniconic stage may be represented by the sacred pillars and posts, by the small models of heads of bulls, and by the evidence for calf-cults in the Old Testament. Yahweh was by no means the only god. Inter1 On the points of contact with old Cretan and Anatolian scripts see A. J. Evans, Scripta Minoa (Oxford, 1909), p. 80 sqq. persistence of evidence for the importance of Aegean and Asia Minor ("Hittite") peoples in the study of Palestine and surrounding lands is one of the most interesting features of recent discovery. Cf. H. Hogarth, Ionia and the East (Oxford, 1909), pp. 64 sqq.; E. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, i. §§ 490, 523. So Dhorme interprets the place-name Ur(light of)-bi-le-e-ni (Rev. Bibl. 1910, p. 67). The Gods. = The See CALF, GOLDEN, and note the representation of a calf at er-Rumman (Ramman Hadad) in east Jordan (Gressmann 35). It is obvious that the strict injunctions in Exod. xx. 4, Deut. iv. 16 sqq., 23. 25, and other references to idolatry, are the outcome of a reaction against images. the Assyrian In the age of the Assyrian supremacy Palestine entered upon a series of changes, lasting for about three centuries (from about 740), which were of the greatest significance for its internal development. The sweeping conquests Sequel of of Assyria were "as critical for religious as for civil Domination. history." The brutal methods of warfare, the cruel treatment of vanquished districts or cities, and the redistribution of bodies of inhabitants, broke the old bonds uniting deities, people and land. The framework of society was shattered, communal life and religion were disorganized. As the flood poured over Syria and flowed south, Israel (Samaria) suffered grievously, and the gaps caused by war and deportation were filled up by the introduction of new settlers by Sargon, and by his successors in the 7th century. Unfortunately, there is very little evidence in the biblical history for the subsequent career of Samaria, but it is clear that the old Israel of the dynasties of Omri and Jehu received crushing blows. The fact that among the new settlers were desert tribes, suggests the introduction, not merely of a simpler culture, but also of simpler groups of ideas. In the nature of the case, as time elapsed the new population must have taken root as securely as one must conclude-the invading Israelites had done some centuries earlier. As a matter of fact the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel by no means regarded the population lying to the north of Judah as strangers, and the latter in turn were ready to share the Judaean distress at the fall of Jerusalem (Jer. xli. 5), and in later years offered to assist in rebuilding Yahweh's temple. Indeed, since the Samaritans subsequently accepted the Pentateuch, and claimed to inherit the ancestral traditions of the Israelite tribes, it is of no little value in the study of Palestinian history to observe the manner in which this people of singularly mixed origin so thoroughly assimilated itself to the land and at first was virtually a Jewish sect. But Samaria was not the only land to suffer. Judah, towards the close of the 8th century, was obviously very closely bound up with Philistia, Edom and Egypt; and this and Hezekiah's dealings with the anti-Assyrian party at Ekron do not indicate that any feeling of national exclusiveness, or any abhorrence of the 4 W. R. Smith, Rel. of the Semites (London, 1894), p. 58. Ibid. p. 35; cf. pp. 65, 77 sqq., 358. New Conditions. Biblical " uncircumcised Philistines " predominated. From the descrip- | with Seleucid and later times. Its appearance has been assotion of Sennacherib's invasion it is clear that social and economic ciated with the invasion of the Israelites or with the establishconditions must have been seriously, perhaps radically disturbed,' ment of the independent monarchy, but on very inadequate and the quiescence of Judah during the next few decades implies grounds; and since it has been independently placed at the an internal weakness and a submission to Assyrian supremacy. latter part of the monarchy, its historical explanation may During the 7th century new movements were coming from presumably be found in that break in the career of Palestine Arabia, and tribes growing ever more restless made an invasion when peoples were changed and new organizations slowly grew east of the Jordan through Edom, Moab and Ammon. Although up. The great significance of these vicissitudes for the course they were repulsed, this awakening of a land which has so often of internal conditions in Palestine is evident when it is observed fed Palestine and Syria, when viewed with the increasing that the subsequent cleavage between Judah and Samaria, weakness of Assyria, and subsequent vicissitudes in the history not earlier than the 5th century, presupposes an antecedent of the Edomites, Nabataeans and East Jordan tribes, forbids common foundation which, in view of the history of the us to treat the invasion as an isolated raid.2 Later, the fall of monarchies, can hardly be earlier than the 7th century. These the Judaean kingdom and the deportation of the leading classes centuries represent an age which the Jewish historians have brought a new social upheaval. The land was not denuded, partly ignored (as regards Samaria) and partly obscured (as and the fact that "some scores of thousands of Jews remained regards the return from exile and the reconstruction of Judah); in Judah through all the period of the exile," even though but since this age stands at the head of an historical developthey were "the poorest of the land," revolutionizes ordinary ment which leads on to Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism, it notions of this period. (See JEWS: § 18). But the Judaean is necessary to turn from Palestine as a land in order to notice historians have successfully concealed the course of events, more particularly certain features of the Old Testament upon although, as has long been recognized, there was some movement which the foregoing evidence directly bears. Inaugura upwards from the south of Judah of groups closely tion of related to Edomite and kindred peoples of South Palestine and Northern Arabia. The immigrants, like the new occupants of Samaria, gradually assimilated themselves to the new soil; but the circumstances can hardly be recovered, and even the relations between Judah and Samaria can only be inferred. In the latter part of the 6th century we find some restoration, some revival of the old monarchy in the person of Zerubbabel (520 B.C.); but again the course of events is problematical (JEWS, § 20). Not until the middle of the 5th century do the biblical records (book of Nehemiah) furnish a foundation for any reconstruction. Here Jerusalem is in sore distress and in urgent need of reorganization. Zerubbabel's age is of the past, and any attempt to revive political aspirations is considered detrimental to the interests of the surrounding peoples and of the Persian Empire. Scattered evidence suggests that the Edomites were responsible for a new catastrophe. Amid internal and external difficulties Nehemiah proceeds to repair religious and social abuses, and there is an important return of exiles from Babylonia. The ruling classes are related partly to the southern groups already mentioned and partly to Samaria; but the kingship of old is replaced by a high-priest, and, under the influence of Babylonian Jews of the strictest principles, a breach was made between Judah and Samaria which has never been healed (JEWS: § 21 seq.). Biblical history itself recognizes in the times of Artaxerxes, Nehemiah and Ezra the commencement of a new era, and although only too much remains obscure we have in these centuries a series of vicissitudes which separate the old Palestine of Egyptian, Hittite, Babylonian and Assyrian supremacy from the land which was about to enter the circle of Greek and Roman civilization. This division, it may be added, also seems to leave its mark upon the lengthy archaeological history of Palestine from the earliest times to the Byzantine age. There is a certain poverty and decadence of art, a certain simplicity of civilization and a decline in the shape and decoration of pottery which seems to exhibit signs of derivation from skin prototypes elsewhere associated with desert peoples. This phase comes at a stage which severs the earlier phases (including the "Amarna" age) from those which are very closely connected 1 See G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, ii. 160, 196 seq. See L. B. Paton, Early Hist. of Syria and Pal. (London, 1902), p. 269; Winckler, Keilinschr. u. das A.T., p. 151. G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, ii. 269. On ordinary historical grounds it is probable that there was a political reorganization and a welding of the diverse elements throughout the land (J. A. Montgomery, The Samaritans, Philadelphia, 1907; p. 62 seq.). There is internal literary support for this in the criticism of Deuteronomy (which appears to have in view a comprehensive Israel and Judah at this period), and of various passages evidently earlier than Nehemiah's time (see R. H. Kennett, Journ. of Theol. Stud., 1905, pp. 175-181; 1906, pp. 486, 498). The Old Testament is essentially a Palestinian, an Oriental, work and is entirely in accord with Oriental thought and custom. Yet, in its characteristic religion and legislation there are essential spiritual and ethical peculiarities which give it a uniqueness and a permanent value, the reality of which becomes more impressive when the Old Testament is viewed, not merely from a Christian or a Jewish teleology, but in the light of ancient, medieval and modern Palestine. The ideas which characterize the Old Testament are planted upon lower levels of thought, and they appear in different aspects (legal, prophetical, historical) and with certain developments both within its pages and in subsequent literature. To ignore or to obscure the features which are opposed to these ideas would be to ignore the witness of external evidence and to obscure the old Testament itself. The books were compiled and preserved for definite aims, and their teaching is directed now to the needs of the people as a whole-as in the ever popular stories of Genesis-now to the inculcation of the lessons of the past, and now to matters of ritual. They are addressed to a people whose mental processes and philosophy were primitive; and since teaching, in order to be communicable, must adapt itself to current beliefs of God, man and nature and the inveterate conservatism of man must be born in mind-the trend of ideas must not be confused with the average standard of thought. The teaching was not necessarily presented in the form of an over-elaborated moral lesson, but was associated with conceptions familiar to the land; and when these conceptions are examined from the anthropological standpoint, they are found to contain much that is strange and even abhorrent to modern convictions of a purely spiritual deity. There are moreover many traces of conflicting ideas and ideals, of cruder beliefs and customs, and of attempts to remove or elevate them. In Genesis and elsewhere there are examples of popular thought which have not the characteristic spirit of the prophets, and which, it is clear, could only gradually be purified. The notion of a Yahweh scarcely less limited in power than man, the naïve views of supernatural beings and their nearness to man, and the persistence of features which stand relatively low in the scale of mental culture, only serve to enhance the reality of the spirit which inspired the endeavour to reform. There were rites and customs which only after lapse of time were considered iniquitous. Magical practices and forms of sacred prostitution and human sacrifice were familiar, and the denunciations of the prophets and the For the late date, see F. Petrie, Tell-el-Hesy (1891), p. 47 seg→ and Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in Palestine (1902), pp. 72, 74 101, 124; and, for the suggestion in the text, S. A. Cook, Expositor, (Aug. 1909), pp. 104-114. See, e.g., E. Sellin, Alltest. Relig. im Rahmen der andern altorientalischen (Leipzig, 1908). On the characteristics of primitive thought, see G. F. Stout, Manual of Psychology (London, 1907), Bk. IV., especially pp. 574-579 Holy Places. lawgivers show very vividly the persistence of what was current religion but was hostile to their teaching. There is an astonishing boisterousness (cf. Lam. ii. 7), joviality and sensualism, all in striking contrast to the austerity of nomad asceticism. There is a ferocity and fanaticism which manifests itself in the belief that war was a sacred campaign of deity against deity. Even if the acccunt of the "ban" (utter destruction) at the Israelite conquest be unhistorical, it represents current ideas (cf. Josh. vi. 17 seq.; 1 Sam. xv. 3; 2 Kings xv. 16; 2 Chron. xxv. 12 seq.), and implies imperfect views of the Godhead at a more advanced stage of religion and morality. There are conflicting ideas of death and the dead, and among them the belief in the very human feelings and needs of the dead and in their influence for good or evil. Moreover, the proximity of burial-place and sanctuary and the belief in the kindly care of the famous dead for their descendants reflect "primitive" and persisting ideas which find their parallel in the holy tombs of religious or secular heroes in modern Palestine, and exemplify the firmness of the link uniting local groups with local numens. "The permanence of religion at holy places in the East "3 is one of the most important features in the relation between popular and national religion. The local centres will survive political and historical vicissitudes and the changes of national cults and sects, and may outlive the national deities. The supernatural beings may change their name and may vary externally under Greek, Roman, Mahommedan or Christian | influence; but their relation to the local groups remains essentially the same, although there is no regression to earlier organic connexions. The inveterate local, one may perhaps say immediate, powers are felt to be nearer at hand than the national deity, who is more closely bound up with the changing national fortunes and with current philosophy. These smaller deities are, as it were, telluric, and the territory of each is virtually henotheistic-as also its traditions-and even as to-day the saints or patrons enjoy a more real veneration among the peasants than does the Allah of the orthodox, the long-established worship of the ancient local beings always hampered the reformers of Yahwisin (cf. Jer. ii. 28, xi. 13). Whether they could be regarded as so many manifestations of a single deity or as really distinct entities, there were at all events similar and well understood relations between each and its group; and although the cult was nature-worship and was attended with a licentiousness which drew forth the denunciations of the prophets, this is only one aspect of the local deity's place in the religious conceptions of his circle. The excavations (at Gezer, Megiddo, Jericho, &c.) indicate a persisting gross and cruel idolatry, utterly opposed to the demands of the law and the prophets." Jerusalem and the surrounding district have ominous heathen associations. Jerusalem itself lay off See generally E. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums (Berlin, 1909), i. 342 sqq. Ceremonial licentiousness was perhaps of northern origin (Meyer § 345), and as a preliminary to marriage seems to have been known not only in Assyria (Herod. i. 199), but also in Palestine ("a law of the Amorites "; Test. of Judah, ed. R. H. Charles, xxii. 2); cf. E. S. Hartland, Anthropol. Essays E. B. Tylor (Oxford, 1907), pp. 189-202. (For miscellaneous material see J. G. Frazer, ibid. pp. 101-174: Folk-lore in the Old Testament.") See P. Torge, Seclenglaube u. Unsterblichkeitshoffnung im Alten Test. (Leipzig, 1909). The title of an instructive essay by Sir W. M. Ramsay in the Expositor, Nov. 1906, pp. 454 sqq. The whole subject involves also the various forms and developments of hero and saint-cults, on which cf. E. Lucius, Anfänge d. Heiligenkultus, &c. (Tübingen, 1904); P. Saintyves, Saints successeurs des dieux (Paris, 1907) On the old Baals of Palestine, see H. P. Smith, in O. T. and Semitic Studies in Memory of W. R. Harper (Chicago, 1908), i. 35-64. For the persistence of the high places," see G. F. Moore, Ency. Bib. arts. "High Place," " Idolatry and Primitive Religion." Vincent, Canaan, p. 204; cf. S. R. Driver, Modern Research as illustrating the Bible (London, 1909), pp. 60 sqq., 90. the main line of intercourse and one may look for a certain conservatism in its famous Temple. Temples, shrines and holy places were no novelty in Palestine, and the in- Jerusalem auguration of the great centre of Judaism is ascribed and the to Solomon the son of the great conqueror David. Temple. Phoenician aid was enlisted to build it, and the Egyptian analogies to the construction accord with the known influence of Egypt upon Phoenician art. It is the dwelling-place of the deity, the centre of the nation and of the national hopes; the fall of the Temple follows after Yahweh left it, it is rebuilt and he returns (Zech. viii. 3). The Temple is merely part of the royal palace and the government buildings (cf. Ezek. xliii. 7 seq.), and this is as significant as the king's position in its management. It is in keeping with the old conceptions of the divine kingship, which, though they survive only in isolated biblical references, live on in the ideals of the Messianic king and his kingdom and in the post-exilic high priest.? The Temple is built, ornamented and furnished on lines which are quite incompatible with a spiritual religion. Mythical features abound in the cherubim and seraphim, the pillars of Jachin and Boaz, the mysterious Nehushtan, the bronze-sea and the lavers. These agree with the more or less clear allusions in the Old Testament to myths of creation, Eden, deluge, mountain of gods, Titanic folk, world-dragons, heavenly hosts, &c., and also with the unearthed seals, tablets, altars, &c. representing mythical ideas. The ideas occur in varying forms from Egypt to Babylonia and point to a considerable body of thought, which is not less impressive when one takes into account the instances in the Old Testament where myths have been rationalized, elevated, or otherwise removed from their older forms (e.g. the story of the birth of Moses, accounts of creation and deluge, &c.), or when one observes the subsequent uncompromising objection to a display of artistic meaning, implying that it aroused definite conceptions. To reinterpret all these features as mere symbols, the lumber of ancient days, is to avoid the problem of their introduction into the Temple, and to assume an advance of popular thought which is not confirmed by the retention and fresh developments of the old ideas both in the pseudepigraphical literature and in the literature of Rabbinical Judaism. The horses of the sungod (2 Kings xxiii. 11), too, belong to a group of ideas which may perhaps be associated with the plan of the Temple and with the old hymn of dedication (1 Kings viii. 12 seq.). At all events, when one considers the Babylonian-Assyrian conceptions of Shamash as the supreme and righteous judge, god of truth and justice, or the monotheism of Amenophis IV. and his fine hymn to the sun-god, it is certain that a corresponding Palestinian deity would not necessarily be without ethical and elevated associations. In short, the place which the Temple held in with that of a deity (Winckler, Keil. u. A.T. 224 seq.; G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, ii. 25 seq.), and the deity Sedek is curiously associated with the names of the Jerusalem priests Zadok, Jehozadak (cf. Melchizedek of Salem, Gen. xiv.), and the kings Adonizedek and Zedekiah. The strange character of the names of the first kings in Israel and Judah (Saul, David and Solomon), noticed already by A. H. Sayce (Modern Review, 1884, pp. 158-169), cannot easily be explained. See A. B. Davidson, Theol. of O. T. (Edinburgh, 1904), p. 9; J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis and Osiris (London, 1907), pp. 12 sqq., 401. Cf. the title "The Anointed of Yahweh," the simile as a messenger (angel) of Yahweh" (2 Sam. xiv. 17, xix. 27), and the idea of the king as the embodiment of his people's safety (2 Sam. xxi. 17; Lam. iv. 20). This absence of the deification of the king is characteristic of biblical religion which recognizes Yahweh as the only king; see H. Gressmann, Ursprung d. israel.-jud. Eschatologie (Göttingen, 1905), pp. 250 sqq.. 8 For examples of the persistence of the interrelated ideaswhether of astral significance or not is another question-see A. Jeremias, Babylon im Neuen Test. (Leipzig, 1905), Das Alte Test. im Lichte d. Alten Orients (1906); E. Bischoff, Bab. Astrales im Weltbilde d. Thalmud u. Midrasch (1907). Cf. for an excellent example of Oriental religious thought, the fine Babylonian hymn to Ishtar (i.e. Astarte), L. W. King, Seven pp. 222-237. and the specimens in R. W. Rogers, Rel of Bab. and Tablets of Creation (London, 190 in its Relations to Israel (London Viz. the shrines of Chemosh, Moloch, Baal of Tyre and Astarte of Sidon (1 Kings xi. 1-8; 2 Kings xi. 18, xxiii.); the valley of Hinnom (see J. A. Montgomery, Journ. Bibl. Lit. xxvii. i. 24-47); and the place-names Anathoth ("Anaths"), Nob (Nebo?). Beth- | 1908), pp. 142-184. On ethical conceptions of heathen deities, see ninib, Beth-shemesh. The name Jerusalem may be compounded [ I. King, Development of Religion (New York, 1910), pp. 268–286. religious thought (cf. especially Isaiah), the character of the reforms ascribed to Josiah (2 Kings xxiii.), the pictures drawn by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the latter's condemnation of the half-Hittite, half-Amorite capital, combine with the events of later history to prove that the religion of the national sanctuary must not be too narrowly estimated from the denunciations of more spiritual minds or from a priori views of the inevitable concomitants of either henotheism or monotheism or of a lofty ethical teaching. Biblical Law. Secial The uniqueness of the Old Testament religion is stamped upon the Mosaic legislation, which combines in archaic manner ritual, ethical and civil enactments. As a whole, the economic conditions implied are pastoral and agricultural, and are relatively primitive; and the general rudimentary character of the legal ideas appears in the death penalty for the goring ox (Exod. xxi. 28), resort to ordeal (Num. v. 11-31), and in the treatment of murder, family, marriage, slaves and property. The use of writing is once contemplated (the "bill of divorce," Deut. xxiv. 3), but not in ordinary business; oaths and symbols are used instead of written contracts, and the commercial law is notably scanty. The simplicity of the legislation is also manifest in the land-system in Lev. xxv., which implies a fresh beginning and not a readjustment of earlier laws. In property succession there is a feeling of tribal aloofness which would not be Evolution. favourable to a central authority; and in fact the legal machinery is rude, and the carrying out of the law depends not so much upon courts and officials as upon religious considerations. If there is a supreme court, it is priestly (Deut. xvii. 8-13), and the legislation is bound up with the worship of Yahweh, who avenges wrong. This legislation appears as that of the Israelites, newly escaped from bondage in Egypt, joined by an ethical covenant-relation with Yahweh, and waiting in the desert to enter and conquer the land of their ancestors. But it is remarkable that, although within the Old Testament itself there are certain different backgrounds, important variations and developments of law, these are relatively insignificant when we consider the profound changes from the 15th-13th centuries (apparent by the period of the conquest) to the close of Old Testament history. Yet, the conditions in Palestine during the monarchies reveal grave and complex social problems, marked class distinctions, and constant intercourse and commer There is indeed a development, but it is none the less noteworthy that the post-exilic priestly ritual preserves in the Post-exilic worship of the universal and only God Yahweh, Develop rites, practices and ideas which can be understood ments. only in the light of other nature-religions, especially that of Babylonia, with which there are striking parallels. For example, the ephod, an object of divination, is still retained, but it is now restricted to the high-priest; and his position as head of a theocratic state, and his ceremonial dress with its heathenish associations presuppose a past monarchy. Clad in almost barbaric splendour (cf. Ecclus. xlv., 1., and Jos. Ant. iii. 7, &c.) he embodies the glory of the worshipping body like the kings of old, and sometimes plays as important a part in the later political history. The priestly system, as represented in the Pentateuch, is not fitted for the desert, where its initiation is ascribed, but on independent internal critical grounds belongs to the post-exilic age, where it stands at the head of further developments. It is the adaptation of the prophets' conceptions of Yahweh to old religious ideas, the building up of new conceptions upon an old basis, a fusion "between old heathen notions and prophetic ideas," and "this fusion is characteristic of the entire priestly law." The priestly religion bound together the community in a way that alone preserved Jewish monotheism; it stands at the head of a long, unintermittent history, and it is to be viewed, not so much as the climax of Old Testa-cial enterprise. There was no place for tribal exclusiveness, and ment religion, but as one of a series of inseparable stages. In concentrating the religious observances of the people upon Jerusalem, its Temple and its priesthood, it became less spontaneous, and its services more remote from ordinary life. It left room for rival schools and sects, both within and without the priestly circles, and for continued development of the older and non-priestly thought. These reacted upon this institutional religion, which readapted and reinterpreted itself from time to time, and when they did not help to build up another theology (as in Christianity), they ended by assuming too rigid and unprogressive a shape (see QARAITES), or, breaking away from long-tried convention, became a mysticism with mixed results (see KABBALAH). While these vicissitudes take us away from Palestine, the course of native religious thought is very significant for its relation to the earlier stages. Although the national God was at once a transcendent ruler of the universe and also near at hand to man, the unconscious religious feeling found an outlet, not only in the splendid worship at Jerusalem, but in the more immediate intercessors, divine agencies, and the like; and when Judaism left its native soil the local supernatural beings revived-as characteristically as when the old placenames threw off their Greek dress-and they still survive, under a veneer of Mahommedanism, as the modern representatives of the Baals of the distant past. 1 The presence of parallels also in South Arabian and Phoenician cults suggests that the old Palestinian ritual was in general agreement with the Oriental religions. Specific influence on the part of Babylonia is not excluded; but the absence of striking points cf agreement in other portions of the Old Testament may not be due to anything else than the particular character of the circles to which they belonged. See C. Westphal, Jahwes Wohnstätten (Giessen, 1908), pp. 137 sqq. A. Jeremias, Hilprecht Anniversary Volume (1910), pp. 223-242, and art. COSTUME: Oriental. C. G. Montefiore, in the Hibbert Lectures, 1892, p. 320, cf. p. 322 ([the] marriage of heathen practice and monotheistic use is one of the oddest and saddest features of the whole priestly code "), of. also p. 411, and, in general, Lectures vi.-ix. See Clermont-Canneau, Pal. Explor. Fund, Quart. Statem. (1875), pp. 209 sqq.; C. R. Conder, Tent Work in Palestine (London, 1878), ii. 218 sqq.; J. G. Frazer, op. cit., p. 71, &c.; H. Gressmann, the upkeep of a monarchy (including the Temple) and the Cf. J.-M. Lagrange, Hist. Crit. and the O. T. (London, 1905), p. 176; H. M. Wiener, The Churchman (1908), p. 23. Sce W. R. Smith, Rel. of Semites, p. 70, who compares the judicial authority of Moses. Note also the British Indian legislation imposed upon the various castes and creeds each with their peculiar rites and customs |
