CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

LIFORNI

The Land and the Literature of the Hebrews.-At the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea lies the land of Palestine, not larger than the state of Vermont, but so situated between the great nations of the ancient world as to present an obstacle to the free passage of men and arms in time of war, and of commerce in seasons of peace. Now the possession of the Turk, its people povertystricken and illiterate, remnants of a drifting tide from the desert, or swarthy Jew content with the humblest home, provided it be in his own land, it contains little to remind the traveler of the glories of an ancient nation whose influence has reached to the ends of the earth.

It is not because of its strange and tragic political history that this nation has commanded the attention of the world, but because in it was planted centuries before Christ a religion one product of which was Christianity, and another modern Judaism, which still finds its adherents in millions of members of the Hebrew race scattered over the habitable globe.

The mother religion from which Christianity grew must be of supreme interest to all who live in a Christian land. The modern rise of interest in the Orient leads us still more thoughtfully to consider that to an oriental nation came the revelation of God in its highest perfection, and to the Hebrew prophet, priest, and sage we owe the literature which preserves the clearest messages of God to humanity that have come down to us from the past.

In the Old Testament is traced through more than a thousand years the growth of the religion of the Hebrews. This record is not a definite chronological presentation of historical facts. It is a collection of such literature of the Hebrews as has survived the political and social disasters of a people bereft of their land, and driven to the ends of the earth by wars of conquest and by persecution. These records as found in the Old Testament are incomplete and fragmentary, but notwithstanding their deficiencies as historical

material they present to us a brilliant and impressive series of pictures of life and thought in that ancient nation. There are breaks in the series, many and long, which only the imagination can fill, but in the wealth of poetry, orations, sayings, stories, visions, we find no lack of material for the reconstruction of thrilling situations, wars, great political and religious crises, and social upheavals such as find few parallels in history.

The Tribal Dream, and the Tribal God.-In ancient times the dream of all great nations was world sovereignty. For centuries the balance of world power alternated between the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where Egypt represented the highest world civilization, and the countries on the northeast where the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers made fertile a far-stretching plain. Between these two countries lay Palestine, on the east walled in by mountains and the desert, and along its western border furnishing the only highway between Egypt and Assyria, over which marched and countermarched for centuries the armies of both countries in a long struggle for supremacy. Notwithstanding this perilous geographical situation, the Hebrews from very early times were possessed by a dream of an independent state, which led them to brave wars of conquest and defense, even to the death, in fruitless struggle to fulfill their dream.

This ideal of political independence and even of world supremacy drew its strength from their religion. Ancient tradition told them that centuries before, their great ancestor Abraham had been divinely led to this country, a fair land with room for flocks and herds in abundance, a fit place for the founding of a new tribe and nation. It was said that Jehovah, their God, had selected this land as a dwelling-place for them and for himself. It must be understood that in these early times people had too little knowledge of God to permit them to conceive of him as the one God of all nations. Each nation possessed its own god, and regarded that god as supreme over the gods of other nations. When countries and tribes warred with each other, therefore, they believed that it was the gods who were at war. Victorious gods by their successes proved their superiority, and conquered peoples became not only subjects of their captors, but worshipers of the gods of their conquerors as well.

To Yahweh, or Jehovah, as our English Bible spells the word, the Hebrews had sworn allegiance through a covenant between Jehovah and Moses, a covenant never entirely lost sight of, and renewed from generation to generation by successive great leaders. Through a long period of conquest accompanying their settlement in the land they held tenaciously to the belief that the land of Palestine, or Canaan as it was then called, was Jehovah's permanent abode, and that he had chosen them for his people. Therefore the land was theirs, and its inhabitants, though people of higher civilization than their own, must be driven out in order that Jehovah's people might occupy their place. Every victory thus became a victory of Jehovah, and every defeat was the sign of Jehovah's anger against his people and evidence of his intention to punish them by the temporary withdrawal of his support. The final outcome of such supreme faith was inevitably the belief that Jehovah would eventually conquer the world, and from the land of the Hebrews would be administered the government of the nations.1

The Rise of the Hebrew Prophet.-In the history of every people the life of the nation moves forward by distinct stages. An examination of the facts shows the reason of this to lie in the rise now and again of individuals, men or women who are strong enough to impress their ideas upon large groups of people, and to incite them to action. Not infrequently such leadership entails heroic deeds and great self-sacrifice, especially if as in Israel the end at stake be at many points a losing cause when its adherents face defeated hopes and personal degradation. With the Hebrews, patriotism and religion were one. Loyalty to the land meant loyalty to Jehovah. Desire for the favor of God was inseparably linked with desire to live in his land and to enjoy its benefits. It is natural therefore that the great patriots should have been the great reli

I The movement known in modern times as Zionism, a movement which is leading large numbers of Jews to find homes in Palestine, contemplates the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine under the protection of the European powers. It should not be looked upon as an effort of the Jewish people to realize in this age their old dream of a world power in Palestine, to which all nations of the earth would pay homage. In it, however, we see still persisting the hope of a future for the Jewish people, which is the expression of an optimism upheld through all the ages by firm trust in Jehovah.