4. JEWISH LITERATURE. I. The He brew National Literature to 70 A.D.— The former belief that in patriarchal times Israel could have had no literature is now disproved. The code of liammurabi has established the fact that already in the age of Abraham the art of writing was known, and records of events kept. Still, the oldest remains of He brew literature are only found in fragments of ancient songs and in parables, such as the war song of Lemeh (Gen. iv, 23-24), and the Song of the Well (Numbers xxi, 17-20). Col lections of such songs existed, and are alluded to under the title of of the Wars of the Lord' (Numbers xxi, 14), and (Book of the Righteous' (Joshua x, 13; 2 Sam. i, 18). At a later period codifications of laws were begun, and still later, recollections of the history of the past, naturally overgrown with legends, were written down. It is impossible to give their date or that of the compilation in which they have been brought down to us. The nature of such investigations will always lead only to negative results with some degree of certainty. As to the positive inferences, drawn from these results, differences are bound to ex ist, especially as religious prejudice enters largely into this controversy.
It may be laid down as a generally accepted opinion, that the entire Pentateuch, as we have it, cannot have been written by Moses, and that the oldest part is the so-called book of the covenant (Ex. xxi-xxiv). Then follows the Jehovistic code, named so, because in it the name of God is given as Jehovah (or rather Jahvch). Then followed the Elahistic code, named from the employment of the, word Elohim, for God. After that came the oompila tion of Deuteronomy, and finally the pries* code, chiefly found in Leviticus. This arrange ment does not exclude the fact that some older passages are found in the younger codes, and that some of the older codes contain additions from the hands of the last compiler, who, nat urally, lived after the priestly code had been written. The date of these books is always hypothetical. Still, it may be considered as the prevalent opinion; that the Jehovistic code comes from the 9th century, because it con tains references to the sacred places of Bethel, which presupposes an author who lived in the kingdom of Israel. The Elohistic code may be dated from the 8th century. In the period, characterized by the revival of religious senti ment under King Josiah the book of Deuteron omy was discovered, according to the testimony of the Bible. It is, therefore, to be dated from about 600. The ideals evolved during the exile, when the past of 'Israel was gilded with reminis cences and the ideals of a strictly uniform ritual and an organized hierarchy were formed, werd laid down in the priestly code during the 6th century, but the final adoption of the Pen tateuch, with its attempts to fill some lacunte and to harmonize some discrepancies, did not take place until about 400.
Prophetic literature began with Hosea. and Isaiah during the 8th century. Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah and Jeremiah followed during the succeeding century. Again here, the dating is difficult. One of the clearest facts it a refer ence to King Cyrus of Persia (Isaiah xlv, 1), which indicates, a doubt, that the prophet who wrote the passage was a contem porary with this Persian king, and, therefore, lived nearly two centuries after Isaiah, who lived at the time of Ahaz. Chapter 66, which denounces the rebuilding of the Temple as something heathenish, is of still later origin.
The Babylonian exile naturally stimulated literature in various ways, and still more so, the return of the exiles, to whom Cyrus gave permission to settle again in the land of their fathers (538). Of this time we possess the prophesies of Haggai and Malachi, and the beautiful idyl of Roth, with its clearly indicated polemic against Ezra's prohibition of intertnar riage with the heathen. The book of Jonah, although, as the language would seem to indi cate, of very late-origin, clearly presents a uni versalistic tendency which is the opposite of the strongly nationalistic ideas expressed by Ezra and Nehemiah. From the same period we must date a large number of the Psalms which form the hymnbook of the congregation of Israel. Here again the dating is exceedingly difficult, as a great many of the Psalms have no clear historical references. Others, such as Psalm 51, show that they have been interpolated by later hands, as the whole Psalm denounces sacrificial worship, while the last two verses pray for the restoration of the sicrifices. 'Some again, as Psalm 74, speaking of the destruction of -the synagogues, clearly point to the tinie of Antiochus Epiphanes (175). Quite a number of the Biblical books cannot be dated at all, ex cept in so far as the linguistic reasons will give a vague indication of their origin. Such is the case with Canticles, Ecclesiastes and Job, in reference to which various scholars differ widely, and only agree that Canticles and Eccle siastics cannot have been written by Solomon, and that Job, which the Talmud places in the days of Moses, is of much later origin.