HEBREWS, RELIGION OF THE (he'brps rt-Ifj'in).
(1) The Pre-1V1osaie Period. 0) The ancient Hebrews belonged to the Semitic group pf na tions, having its original home in northern Arabia, from which region migrations into the Mesopotamian valley formed the eastern branch, including the Babylonians and Assyrians. From Mesopotamia came the northern Semites or Arameans, and the western Semites, including the Phcenicians, Canaanites and Hebrews. Of these westward migrations, that of the Hebrews, was among the latest, including, as it did, clans that later broke off into separate nations, such as Moab, Ammon and Edom. The memorials of Hebrew history- and religion that have been pre served are found in the Old Testament. The books composing that collection are of varying dates, from the eighth to the second centuries B. C. But several of them contain documents much older. Traditions and legends of the past are incorporated, and the effort is made by later writers to reconstruct the origins of the nation, as well as the early history of the world. But the purpose of these narratives is rather religious than historical. The materials are chosen seem ingly with the object of illustrating the growth of the religion, and not of giving a connected recital of the national experiences. It therefore becomes a matter of difficulty to discover the religious character of the earliest period, colored as it is by the ideas of the later days when the narratives received their present form. But this material deals with the earliest traditions of the race in a spirit marked by an earnestness and sobriety in striking contrast with similar accounts produced by other nations. (2) The Hebrew people brought with them from their earlier home in the east the religious conceptions coinmon to thc Semitic races. and these appear to some extent in the narratives of the early period, though modified and given other meanings by later writers. Yet from th,i first a new force was operating in this national history. That peculiar factor which distinguished Israel from other nations appeared early, even be fore the days of Moses. Those Semitic elements which this people had in common with its neigh bors were used, modified, or eliminated in the de velopment of that particular type of religion which the Old Testament alone discloses. Two processes were at work : the natural growth of religious ideas, as among other nations, and the providential evolution of those unique elements whose fuller disclosure appears in Christianity. (3) Studied in the light of their heredity and environment, the Hebrews exhibit religious characteristics in strik ing contrast to those of their ancestors or the kin dred tribes about them. But those peculiar forces make their appearance but slowly, and under the leadership of rare men. These men gave to the national life its chief significance. There is always a temptation, however, to observe only the unique features of Israel's religious life and to forget the thorough Semitism of this people and the features of irs earliest cult, which is possessed in common with the other races of the Semitic family, These nations were polytheists, offered saerificts, even human sacrifices, practiced circumcision, to some extent at least, erected sanctuaries for their gods, believed that certain places were sacred to the gods, had religious festivals like the Sabbath and other sacred seasons, used images in worship or its family teraphim, and believed in a dim under world into which the dead descended. Many, per
haps it may be said all, of these features are ex hibited by the earliest Hebrew religion, and some continue and are developed, while others fall quite out of sight. But even from the earliest begin nings-of the national life there is a difference be tween Israel and the rest. This is most strikingly illustrated in the conceptions of deity held by this people. From this the higher ethical character of the nation arose. The earliest ideas may have been polytheistic, as the plural form of the word Elohinz (God) hints, and there may appear rare indications of such an idea (Gen. iii:22), but they are slight. There are no traces of a Hebrew pantheon. This is the more surprising when it is observed that the neighboring and kindred tribes of Edom, Ammon, and Moab, descended indeed from the traditional ancestors of the Hebrews, were polytheists. In the case of Moab the evi dence is found in the mention of at least two gods 011 the celebrated "Moabite Stone" of King NIesha. But while the worship of more than one god is not traceable in the religion of Israel, that religion is not, in its earlier stages, a pure mono theism, but rather monolatry, e., the worship of a national God for Israel, while admitting the xistence of other gods for other nations ( Judg. xi:24; Sam. xxvi :19). There are certain inter esting characteristics of the Hebrew idea of God which mark the being they worshiped as quite different from the gods of the nations about them. He had no goddess or consort, nor was his wor ship attended by any of those degrading rites connected so largely with the worship of god desses. Fire was his symbol (Ex. iii :4; Judg. xiii: 20 ; 2 Kings i :to). He could be seen only with peril to the beholder (Judg. xiii :22), and sacred places and objects could be approached only with danger (t Sam. vi :tp; 2 Sam. vi :6 sq.; Ex. xix: 21 sq.). He led his people in war (Ex. xv :3), and their rchievements in battle were his own (Num. xxi :14), while cities taken in his name and de voted to him were destroyed. In these and other elements of the faith are discerned the harsher and fiercer characteristics of the age. Righteous ness was, however, the dominant feature of his nature, and to this belief much of the high ethical tone of the Hebrew religion is to be traced. (4) Abraham is the traditional ancestor of this people, and the one to whom the earliest disclosures of the divine character are made. Whatever the legendary nature of the traditions regarding this man, there can be little doubt of his reality and impress upon the national life. Faith in God is his motive. He comes westward to a new land in obedience to a divine impulse (Gen. xii sq.)...11e crects altars wherever Ile stops (Gen. xii :8; xiii:4), and constantly lives in communion with God. He is even willing to offer his son in sac rifice (Gen. xxii). according to the custom of his (lay, but is forbidden to carry out his purpose, and thus the ban is placed on the practice, though it does not disappcar. The patriarchs whom the early traditions introduce to us are not demt gods, but men—men of very imperfect character, like Abraham and Jacob, and typical sheiks of the Orient, whose counterparts might be found there to this day, but, withal, tnen with a moral purpose, if we may trust the outlines of their lives, a pur pose never obscured in Abraham's case, gradually attained in that of Jacob, and preparing for a ful ler disclosure of the divine purpose in later days.