SECOND SECTION

THE THEOLOGY OF PROPHETISM.

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Summary.

The theology of Mosaism is further developed by prophecy, especially in the following respects :—

1. With regard to the doctrine of God and of His relation to the world, the idea of Jehovah developes into the Divine name of THE LORD OF HOSTS (Jehovah Zebaoth), with which is connected a further expansion of angelology.

2. In its conflict both with the legal externalism and apostasy of the people, the intrinsically moral nature of the law is further developed by Prophecy, and greater profundity thus given to that view of man's religious and moral relation to God which Mosaism involves; in other words, the doctrine of sin and of righteousness is further unfolded.

3. The communion of man with God culminates in Prophecy. The nature of prophetic revelation and of prophecy will be here represented as the continuation of what Mosaism teaches concerning the forms of Divine revelation.

4. The progress of the kingdom of God forms the essential matter of prophecy.

FIRST DIVISION.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD OF HOSTS (1) AND OF ANGELS.

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Form and Occurrence of the Name of God. Partial Views concerning its Original Meaning.

JEHOVAH ZEBAOTH.-The full expression of this name of

it is, however, mostly ; (יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַצְבָאוֹת or) יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת God is

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found in its abbreviated form, nisa nin (once, Amos ix. 5, nix in). In the latter mode of expression, in is not in the status constructus (2), against which the form ni D already occurring in certain passages in the Psalms also speaks (3); but the abbreviated form must be explained by an ellipsis, the more general notion being taken from the nomen proprium, as in Dun and similar combinations (4). niny never appears alone as a name of God in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. The LXX. are the first to treat the word occasionally as a proper name, viz. by generally rendering it in the First Book of Samuel and in Isaiah by caẞawe (5); while, on the other hand, they replace it in the Second Book of Samuel, frequently in Jeremiah and throughout the minor prophets, with the exception of Zech. xiii. 2, by πаνтоkpáτwp, and in the Psalms, occasionally in Jeremiah, and in some passages in other books, by κύριος οι θεὸς τῶν δυνάμewv (6). Jehovah Zebaoth does not occur as the Divine name in the Pentateuch, Joshua, or Judges. It is first mentioned in the narrative of the times of Eli. Sacrifices are offered in Shiloh to Jehovah Zebaoth (1 Sam. i. 3, comp. with iv. 4); and it is by this name that Hannah invokes God (i. 11). The name seems to have been customary chiefly in the days of Samuel and David (comp. 1 Sam. xv. 2, xvii. 45; 2 Sam. vii. 8, 26 sq.; Ps. xxiv. 10). In the Books of the Kings it seldom occurs, and only in the mouths of prophets, especially of Eli. In the prophetical books it is most frequently found in Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (7).

This name, according to its original meaning, is said by many (8) to designate Jehovah as the God of battles of His people, who are called, Ex. vii. 4 and xii. 41, the "armies" of the Lord. The expression "God of armies" would thus be

God of the) אֱלֹהֵי מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל equivalent with the appellation

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armies of Israel). Ps. xxiv. is also referred to, where nisay nin in ver. 10 is said to be equivalent with pnp ni nin in ver. 8.

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But though it is true, as will be shortly seen, that there is in this name a reference to the fact that God manifests Himself in irresistible power against the enemies of His people, yet if this were its original meaning, it would be strange that the name should not yet have made its appearance in those ancient times which were expressly the times of the great theocratic conflicts ("the wars of Jehovah," Num. xxi. 14); and again, that it did not originate, but was already in use, in the warlike age of David. The combination in 1 Sam. xvii. 45, of "the Lord of Hosts" and "the God of the armies of Israel," testifies that the two names do not signify the same thing. A higher notion must be involved in the former, namely this, that the fact that the God of the armies of Israel is also the Lord of Hosts makes Him so terrible a God. A similar relation exists in Ps. xxiv. between vers. 8 and 10. From the Lord mighty in battle, the psalm rises to the God of Hosts; the thought in the tenth verse corresponding with that in the first: so that the ode celebrates the God of Israel as God of the world both in its opening and conclusion. This more general meaning of the name is maintained by a second view, which, referring to Gen. ii. 1, understands the expression nisay as applying to the crea tures in general, who in their entirety compose the great army of the Lord. Thus it is the general sovereignty of God, as effectively manifested in all creation, of which He alone has the disposal, which is impressed upon this name (9). But the expression "host" is only figuratively applied to the creatures in general, the mention of the heavens being in the passage appealed to the immediate occasion of the introduction of DNY, which only stands for the creatures of the earth also, in virtue of a zeugma, as the more exact expression Neh. ix. 6 shows (10). The explanation of the name must be derived

.(צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם) from the heavenly host

(1) Compare my article Zebaoth in Herzog's Realencyll. xviii. p. 400 sqq.

(2) So Ewald, Ausf. Lehrb. der hebr. Sprache, p. 268; Gesenius, Thesaurus, iii. p. 1146.

(3) See Ps. lix. 6, lxxx. 5, 8, xv. 20, lxxxiv. 9. The Masoretes, too, in the passages where precedes n', have never placed under the former word the points of, but always

.(אֲדֹנָי צְבָאוֹת ,16 .comp. also Isa. x) אֱלֹהִים those of

(4) See Hengstenberg, Christologie des A. T. ii. sec. 1, p. 436 sqq.

(5) Also Jas. v. 4. The expression σaßaól is, however, never found alone in the LXX.; it first stands thus in the Sibyllines, i. 304, and elsewhere. Lydus, de mensibus, § 38, 98, regards the name as a Phoenician one, and derives from it the number seven: ὁ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἑπτὰ πόλους, τοῦτ ̓ ἔστιν ὁ δημιουργός.

(6) The other Greek versions have the more exact expression κύριος στρατιῶν.

(7) It is found in other prophets also, at least in single passages, but never in either Ezekiel or Daniel. It is also wanting in the monuments of the Khochmah; while, on the other hand, it sometimes appears in the Psalms, but only in the first three books, and consequently seems to have been out of use in more recent psalmody. Among the post-Babylonian historical books, it is found only in Chronicles, and there only in the history of David (1 Chron. xi. 9, xvii. 7, 24).

(8) So Herder, Geist der hebr. Poesie, Werke zur Relig. und Theol. ii. p. 167 sq.; v. Cölln, Theol. des A. T. p. 104. ("This combination of the name of God is first found in the Books of Samuel, where it is pretty frequently used, but always with reference to war, battles, and victories; so that the word hosts must be taken from the hosts of the Israelites, and this name of God understood to designate Him as the God of warlike hosts, the God who presides over the hosts of Israel and leads them to victory.") (Schrader, in Jahrb. f. Prot. Theol. i. 319, argues that the usus loquendi of the plural may is conclusive for this view.}

(9) So Hävernick, Theol. des A. T. sec. 1, p. 41 sq., sec. 2, p. 48. This view is undoubtedly correct, in rightly recognising the fact that the almighty power of God over the universe is implied in the name, though this is not the idea which originally gave rise to it. rise to it. Joh. Buxtorf (the younger), also, in his

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treatise de nominibus Dei hebraicis (Dissertat. philol. theol. p. 280), understands by the hosts of God varios exercitus, qui ipsi parent, ministrant et militant, the celestial hosts, viz. the angels and stars; the terrestrial, the powers of nature, sword, famine, pestilence, etc.; and lastly, the hosts of Israel.

(10) Neh. ix. 6: "Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and Thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee."

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The Host of Heaven: 1. The Heavenly Bodies.

The host of heaven in the Old Testament includes, as the above-cited passage of Nehemiah shows, the heavenly bodies and the celestial spirits.

In the view of the nations bordering upon Israel, the heavenly bodies were either Divine powers, genii pursuing their paths clothed in ethereal bodies, or at least the shades or the visible forms of Divine beings. In opposition to such notions, which essentially unite if they do not identify the heavenly bodies and heavenly spirits, the Old Testament distinctly maintains not only the creaturehood of the heavenly hosts (Ps. xxxiii. 6), but also their distinction into the two above-named classes. It is only by a poetical personification that the stars are spoken of in the song of Deborah, Judg. v. 20, as the warriors of the Lord, who, leaving their courses, descend to fight for Israel against Sisera; as the morning stars, said in Job xxxviii. 7 to have joined with the angels in celebrating the morning of creation, just as in ix. 13, xxvi. 13 (according to the most probable interpretation of these passages), a poetical application is made of mythological notions of a restraining of sidereal powers (1). The greater the danger to the Israelites, surrounded as they were by Sabæanism, of being seduced into a worship of the heavenly bodies, and it may be seen how seductive the appearance of the sun and moon was considered,