In this period many of the elements of Semitic religion are discovered. Altars were built on hills and under trees, sacrificial meals and sacred festivals were celebrated, circumcision was in troduced, and probably abstinence from blood and the taboo of certain kinds of food were practiced. With these went the customs of blood revenge, polygamy, concubinage, and slavery. Images for worship, called teraphim, were not unknown, even in the families of the patriarchs (Gen. xxxi :to), and sacred stones were set up and anointed with oil (Gen. xxxv :i4, 15 ; Josh. iv:2o), while certain places were deemed especially sacred, as Hebron, Shechem, the Oak of Moreh, and Beersheba.
(2) The Religion of Moses. (1) After an in definite period of residence in Canaan, the Hehrew clans moved southward into Egyo. following the leadership of the tribe of Joseph. The monu ments mention many migrations of this character into a country that was the granary of the world at the time, b'ut no certain identification of the Hebrews in any inscriptions can be made. A period of prosperity in which the Joseph clan came to prominence was followed by a reversal of policy toward foreigners, and the hardships of servitude were experienced. After a stay of about four centuries. the etnancipation of the Hebrews was wrought by a leader named Moses. His first attempt to rouse the nation to action was unsuc cessful, and he was compelled to quit the country (Ex. ii:11-t5 ; Acts vii :23-25). Ile betook him self to the territory of Midian, and entered into alliance with that tribe. After a time the divine impulse came upon him to renew his effort in lichalf of his oppressed countrymen. Mount Sinai was the mountain of God, the reputed home of deity (Ex. iii :1-5 ; xix :2; Juclg v :5). and here Moses was commissioned to undertake the difficult task. He returned to Egypt, and at last succeeded in the plan of deliverance. which was greatly aided by a series of disasters that fell upon Egypt at that time, and which were ever believed by the Hebrews to mark the wrath of God against their oppressors. The departing host tnade its way toward the friendly land of Midian, and, crossing an arm of the Gulf of Suez at low water. the Egyptian army sent 111 pursuit was overthrown and destroyed. This deliverance was celehrated in perhaps the oldest fragment of Hebrew litera ture (Ex. xv), and was forever regarded as the decisive sign of the divine care of the nation.
Moving on to the sacred mountain Sinai, Mosen. whose place as a leader had been firmly estab lished by the remarkable experiences of the past, seized the opportunity to lay the foundations of national life by the promulgation of certain insti tutes of political and religious character suited to the people he was leading. No attempt was madc to break with the past (Ex. iii :6; iv :5; vi:2, 3; vii :lb). The Hebrews already possessed a re ligion which differed in 110 small degree from that of other nations, but in the centuries of serfdom in Egypt much of the patriarchal practice, simple as it was, may have been forgotten. But the peo ple were passing from clan life to nationality. The purpose of Nloses was to prepare for a future such as had been foreseen by none of his ancestors. Looking at the work which Moses accomplished for this people, taking them at a time of such utter lack of organization and of such elementary religious ideas; witnessing the lofty character of the ideals which he lifted before them, however little they were realized for centuries, the ques tion naturally- rises, What is the explanation of his unique personality and his conceptions of God and righteousness, so greatly in contrast with the philosophy of the Egyptian priesthood and the barbarism and immorality of the common life in his day ? The response is to be found alone in that divine choice of this nation, not for its own sake, but for the disclosure it might make -through its history of the divine purposes regarding men. Thischselosure could onlybe made through chosen men intrusted with leadership, and among these one of the most conspicuous is Moses. (2) Our sources tell us that a new name for God sprung up in this period. The indefinite Elohim no longer sufficed to represent the covenant God of the He brew people, who had made himself known to their fathers. The new name is Jehovah, or more correctly Jahveh (also written l'ahva or Yahway, and pronounced in accordance with the latter fortn), the living, self-existent (Ex. vi:1-4). Whether this name originated with Moses, or was used in Midian and brought back by him, or was used in his family, as the name of his mother might suggest (Ex. vi :20), or in the tribe of
Joseph, as Joshua (Je-Hoshua) might argue, in any case the name first appears at the time of Moses' return frotn Midian, and was connected in Hebrew traditions with an epiphany at Sinai. The name continued to be employed to the close of the Old Testament literature. It is not claimed as yet that Jahveh is the only God, but that he alone must be worshiped by Israel. Othe nations may have their deities, but the Hebrews must have no god beside Jahveh. lt will bc seen that it is a far cry from this idea of monolatry to the pure monotheism of the post-exilic period ; but the religious education of Israel was a long and painful process, and one thing had to be learned at a time. (3) The code of laws promul gated by Nloses (Ex. xx :23, 34) dealt with the situation in which Israel found itself in the period of its unsettled life, and served as the basis of all the legislation that grew up in later times. So largely was the_ Mosaic spirit preserved and con tinued in all the legislative material ever pro duced by Israel that the phrase, "The Law of Moses" was never felt to be a misnomer in de scribing the body of statutes. the most of which, as a matter of fact. came into existence centuries subsequent to the time of Moses. The first code. called the Book of the Covenant (Ex. xx:23. 34), and including the Dedalog-ue in its primitive form. is a striking interpretation of the character of Jahveh, the national God. There is little in com mon with either the nature-worship of the times or the speculative character of the Egyptian re ligion, from which it might be supposed leading elements would be drawn. Jahreh is righteous and holy, and he demands these characteristics in his people. There is an utter lack of the sensuous elements of other religions. No images are to be employed. Altars of earth at places selected fur nish a sufficient means of worship. But Jahveh alone must be the object of this service. The ele ment of sternness, not to say fierceness, which the Hebrews associated with the character of God, appears. Jahveh is capable of fierce wrath when his will is not honored (Ex. xxii :23, 24 ; xxxiv : 7), and he will not lightly overlook transgression xxiii :2t). His jealousy of other gods who may receive the affection of his people is carried to the extent of forbidding any covenant with other nations, and of commanding the total destruction of all symbols of worship not connected with the national cult (Ex. xxxiv :12-16). The nations are to be driven out before Israel (Ex. xxiii:22-24). This stern spirit appears in certain of the laws regulating social life. The lex talionis is to be enforced (Ex. xxi :24). The man who kills an other, or smites or curses his father or mother, is to be put to death. Yet there is a note of great tenderness in the laws of this primitive code. Care for the life and honor of servants, mitigation of the severities of the blood feud, ca're for the property and welfare of all the community, kind treatment of strangers, even help to an enemy in distress, are enforced. The seventh day and year are made sacred, and three annual religious feasts are instituted. The standard of morality and wor ship is high for the age. Indeed, it was the first serious attempt to unite morality with religion. Justice and purity, as elements in the divine char acter, were demanded of the people; and if there was a sternness and harshness in the character of Jaime!! which seems incompatible with a moral ized idea of deity, they might easily be found to co-exist in the mind of a teacher like Moses, with the profound conviction that God is sternly just and demands justice and holiness in his fol lowers. (4) In providing for the future of the nation Moses made use of those ancestral relig ious elements which commended themselves to his divinely illumined judgment. Circumcision, altar sacrifice, the sabbatic periods, the fundamental laws of morality were all accepted as sanctioned by Jahveh. With them certain features in the Egyptian and Midianitish religions were incorpo rated, such as the idea of the sanctuary and sacred palladium or ark. the priesthood, and the Urim and Thummim. Moses established a tent of meet ing at Kadesh, and the function of priestly service he assigned to his own tribe of Levi. This office of priest and that of judge he probably derived from the practice he had observed in Midian (Ex.