Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

BIBLE
Rise of a
Sacred
Literature.
Popular
religion.
635
of Jehovah, on the high places or local sanctuaries was
constantly exposed to superstitious corruption and heathen
admixture, and so is frequently attacked by the prophets
of the 8th century. It was undoubtedly •under their
influence that Hezekiah abolished the high places. The
abolition was not permanent; but in the reign of Josiah,
the next reforming king, we find that the principle of a
single sanctuary can claim the support not only of prophetic
teaching, but of a written law-book found in the temple,
and acknowledged by the high priest (2 Kings xxii., xxiii.)
The legislation of this book corresponds not with the old
law in Exodus, but with the book of Deuteronomy. But
perhaps the clearest proof that, during the period of pro¬
phetic inspiration, there was no doctrine of finality with
regard to the ritual law any more than with regard to
religious ideas and doctrines, lies in the last chapters of
Ezekiel, which sketch at the very era of the Captivity an
outline of sacred ordinances for the future restoration.
From these and similar facts it follows indisputably, that
the true and spiritual religion which the prophets and like-
minded priests maintained at once against heathenism and
against unspiritual worship of Jehovah as a mere national
deity without moral attributes, was not a finished but a
growing system, not finally embodied in authoritative
documents, but propagated mainly by direct personal efforts.
A.t the same time these personal efforts were accompanied
and supported by the gradual rise of a sacred literature.
Though the priestly ordinances were mainly published by
oral decisions of the priests, which are, in fact, wbat is
usually meant by the word law (Torah) in writings earlier
than the Captivity, there can be no reasonable doubt that
the priests possessed written legal collections of greater or
less extent from the time of Moses downwards. Again,
the example of Ezekiel, and the obvious fact that the law¬
book found at the time of Josiah contained provisions
which were not up to that time an acknowledged part of
the law of the land, makes it probable that legal provisions,
which the prophets and their priestly allies felt to be
necessary for the maintenance of the truth, were often
embodied in legislative programmes, by which previous
legal tradition was gradually modified. Then the prophetsj
especially when they failed to produce immediate reforma¬
tion, began from the 8th century, if not still earlier, to-
commit their oracles to writing; and these written pro¬
phecies—circulating widely in a nation which had attained
a high degree of literary culture, and frequently cited by
later seers—disseminated prophetic teaching in a permanent
form. Long before this time music and song had been prac¬
tised in the prophetic circle of Samuel, and were introduced
under David into the service of the sanctuary. Another
important vehicle of religious instruction was the written
history of the nation, which could not fail to be generally
set forth in the theocratic spirit in which all loftier
Hebrew patriotism had its root. And, indeed, the literary
diffusion of spiritual ideas was not confined to the direct
efforts of priests and prophets. In spite of the crass and
unspiritual character of the mass of the people, the noblest
traditions of national life were entwined with religious con¬
victions, and the way in which a prophet, like Amos, could
arise untrained from among the herdsmen of the wilderness
of Judah, shows how deep and pure a current of spiritual
faith flowed among the more thoughtful of the laity.
Prophecy itself may from one point of view be regarded
simply as the brightest efflorescence of the lay element in
the religion of Israel, the same element which in subjective
form underlies many of the Psalms, and in a shape less
highly developed tinged the whole proverbial and popular
literature of the nation; for in the Hebrew commonwealth
popular literature had not yet sunk to represent the lowest
impulses of national life.
Close of the Old Testament Development. Formation of
the Canon.—The struggle between spiritual and unspiritual The Exile
religion was brought to a crisis when the prophetic predic-an(i ®e‘
tions of judgment on national sin were fulfilled in the fairstora lon'
of the kingdom of Judah. The' merely political worship
of Jehovah as the tutelary god of the state was now reduced
to absurdity. Faith in the covenant God was impossible
except on the principles of spiritual belief. Nor did the
restoration by Cyrus affect this result. No political future
lay before the returning exiles, and continued confidence in
the destiny of the race was not separable from the religious
ideas and Messianic hopes of the prophets. To obey the
law of Jehovah and patiently to await the coming
Deliverer was the only distinctive vocation of the com¬
munity that gathered in the new Jerusalem; and after
a period of misfortune and failure, in which the whole
nation seemed ready to collapse in despair, this voca¬
tion was dearly recognized and embodied in permanent
institutions in the reformation of'Ezra and Nehemiah (445 Roforma-
B.c.) But with this victory the spiritual religion passed tion and
into a stationary state. The spirit of prophecy, long^',^”k
decadent, expired with Malachi, the younger contemporary0 zra‘
of Nehemiah ; and the whole concern of the nation from
this time downwards was simply to preserve the sacred -
inheritance of the past. The Exile had so utterly broken
all continuity of national life, that that inheritance could
only be sought in the surviving monuments of sacred
literature. To these, more than to the expiring voice of
prophecy in their midst, the founders of the new theocracy
turned for guidance. The books that had upheld the
exiles’ faith, when all outward ordinances of religion were
lacking, were also the fittest teachers of the restored com¬
munity. Previous reformers had been statesmen or pro¬
phets. Ezra is a scribe who comes to Jerusalem armed,
not with a fresh message from the Lord, but with “the '
book of the law of Moses.” This law-book was the Penta¬
teuch, and the public recognition of it as the rule of the
theocracy was the declaration that the religious ordinances
of Israel had ceased to admit of development, and the first
step towards the substitution of a canon or authoritative
collection of Scriptures for the living guidance of the
prophetic voice. A second step in the same direction is
ascribed to Nehemiah by a tradition intrinsically probable,
though of no great external authority. He, it is said,
collected a library which, besides documents of temporary
importance, embraced “the books about the kings and
prophets, and the writings of David" (2 Mac. ii. 13.)
Certainly a complete body of the remains of the prophets,
with an authentic account of the history of the period of
their activity, must soon have been felt to be scarcely
second in importance to the law; and so Nehemiah may
very well be supposed to have begun the collection which
now forms the second part of the Hebrew Bible, embracing,
under the general title of The Prophets, the historical books Second
of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings (Earlier Prophets), and canon,
the four prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
the twelve minor prophets (Latter Prophets). The mention
of the writings of David implies that Nehemiah also began
the formation of the third and last part of the Hebrew
canon, which comprises, under the title of Ketubim (Scrip- Third
tures, Hagiographa), the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five cari(m-
Megillot or rolls (Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Eccle¬
siastes, Esther), and, finally, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and
Chronicles. It is certain, however, that this part of the
collection was not completed till long after Nehemiah’s
time; for to say nothing of the disputed dates of Ecclesiastes
and Daniel, the book of Chronicles contains genealogies
which go down at least to the close of the Persian period.
The miscellaneous character of the Ketubim seems, in
fact, to show that after the Law and the Prophets were