Solomon And Solomonic Literature Part 12

In the moral and religious evolution which we have been tracing it has been seen that the utter indifference of the Cosmos to human good and evil, right and wrong, was the theme of Job; that in Ecclesiastes the same was again declared, and the suggestion made that if G.o.d helped or afflicted men it must depend on some point of etiquette or observance unconnected with moral considerations, so that man need not omit pleasure but only be punctilious when in the temple; that in Jesus Ben Sira's contribution to his fathers' "Wisdom," the moral character of G.o.d was maintained, moral evil regarded as hostile to G.o.d, and imaginary sanctions invented, accompanied by pleadings with G.o.d to indorse them by new signs and wonders. Such signs not appearing, and no rewards and punishments being manifested in human life, the next step was to a.s.sign them to a future existence, and this step was taken in "Wisdom of Solomon." There remained but one more necessity, namely, that there should be some actual evidence of that future existence. Agur's question had remained unanswered--

"Who has ascended into heaven and come down again?

Such an one would I question about G.o.d."

To this the reply was to be the resurrection from death claimed for the greatest of the spiritual race of Solomon.

CHAPTER XIII.

EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS (A SEQUEL TO SOPHIA SOLOMONTOS).

In a Theocracy the birth of a new G.o.d was not the mere new generalization that it might be in our secularized century,--a deification of the Unknowable, for instance,--of not the slightest practical or moral interest to any human being. Judea was the bodily incarnation, even more than Islam is now, of a deity who said, "I am the Lord and there is none else; I form the light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things." The denial of such a deity, the subst.i.tution of one who required neither prayers, sacrifices, nor intercessions, could not be merely theoretical. It must involve the overthrow of a nationality which had no bond of unity except a book, and the inst.i.tutions founded on that book.

Nor did the theocratic principle admit of a mere philosophical opposition to its inst.i.tutions. He who touched that system was dealing with people who, in the language of "Sophia Solomontos" were "shut up in a prison without iron bars." The natural advent of the anti-Jahvist was in the Temple and with the words--

He hath sent me to herald glad news to the poor, He hath sent me to proclaim deliverance to captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised.

These miseries had no real relation to the social or political conditions amid which their phrases and hymns were born, but to a burden of debts to a jealous and vindictive omnipotence; a burden not of actions really wrong, but of mysterious offences, related to incomprehensible ordinances and heavenly etiquette. No human vices are so malignant as inhuman virtues.

Bunyan, in depicting Christian's burden, has, with a felicity perhaps unconscious, made it a pack strapped on. It is not a hunch, not any part of the pilgrim, and had he possessed the courage to examine it there must have been found many spiritual nightmares of the race, and many robust English virtues turned to sins when the merry and honest tinker turned retrospective Rip Van Winkle, and dreamed himself back into the year One. The burden of sins on the poor Israelites had been gradually getting lighter under the scepticism of the Wisdom school, in view of the failure of Jahveh to fulfil the menaces and sentences of the priesthood. Conformity was secured mainly for actual advantages bestowed by the synagogue, or its terrors. But the discovery of the doctrine of a future life and a day of judgment, when all the mysterious "sins" were to be settled for, while smiled at by the Saducees, made the burden of the ignorant poor intolerable. Life was pa.s.sed under suspended swords. The priesthood had a cowering va.s.sal in every ignorant human being. The time, the labour, the flocks of the peasantry were devoted, but it was all a "sweating" process,--the debts were never paid, and there was always that "certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." No doubt even the learned supposed these superst.i.tions useful to keep the "ma.s.ses" in order.

But one day a scholarly gentleman, a man of genius, was moved with compa.s.sion for these poor lost and priest-harried sheep: he turned aside from his college and his rank, and became their shepherd; he declared they owed no duties to any deity, and that the heavenly despot they so dreaded had no existence.

A modern gentleman in a fine mansion and estate may be amused at Bunyan's quaint pilgrim, reading in a book and discovering that he was in a City of Destruction, fleeing with a burden on his back, and rejoicing when it rolls off at the cross. But if this gentleman should suddenly receive from some distant personage papers showing that his estate had been entirely mortgaged by his father, that it would soon be claimed and his family reduced to beggary, he might understand the City of Destruction. And if, soon after, some visitor arrived to state that the holder of the mortgages was dead; that those claims had all legally fallen into his own hands, and that he had burnt them, the rolling off of Christian's burden might be appreciated,--also the enthusiasm of the personal followers of Jesus.

But one might further imagine a host of hungry lawyers, living on large retainers, not being quite happy at such easy settlements, especially if the generous visitor were found wealthy enough to go about buying up and burning claims, and ending litigation. This, to us hardly imaginable, was, however, actually the condition of things reflected in parts of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Therein the bond under which man suffers is clearly to him who hath the Power of Death, the Devil: Jesus ransomed man from the Devil.

The anonymous tractate superscribed solely "To the Hebrews," though the last admitted into the New Testament, is probably the earliest doc.u.ment it contains. It has no doubt been tampered with, but the evidences of the early date of its conception of Christ remain. Not only was it evidently written before the destruction of the temple (anno 70), but before there was any thought of a mission to the Gentiles, who, with Paul their apostle, are ignored. Some of its phrases and ill.u.s.trations are found in epistles of Paul, but, as Dr. Davidson pointed out in his Introduction to the New Testament, the general doctrine of this treatise is far from Pauline, and it is difficult to find any reason for supposing that the few borrowings were not by Paul, other than a preference for Paul, and disinclination to admit that there is any anonymous work in the New Testament. The treatise is without Paul's egotism, or his fatalism, and its conception of the new movement seems decidedly more primitive than that in the recognised Pauline epistles. The sagacious Eusebius, "father of church history," connects the Epistle "To the Hebrews"

with the "Wisdom of Solomon," and it seems clear that we have here the bridge between the last abutment of philosophic or "broad" Jahvism, and its "new departure" as Christism.

It is not of especial importance to the present inquiry to determine that Paul might not at some youthful period have written this work, though I cannot see how any critical reader can so imagine; but it will bear indirectly on that point if we read successively the following corresponding pa.s.sages:

Wisdom of Solomon.--"For Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me ... she is the breath of the power of G.o.d, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty; therefore can no unclean thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of G.o.d, and the image of his goodness. And alone she can do all things; herself unchanged, she maketh all things new: and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of G.o.d and prophets."--(vii. 25-27.) "And Wisdom was with thee: which knoweth thy works, and was present when thou madest the world." (ix. 9.)

Epistle to the Hebrews.--"G.o.d, having in time past spoken to the fathers by many fragments and divers ways in the prophets, at the end of these days spake unto us in Son whom he const.i.tuted heir of all things, by whom also he fashioned the ages; who, being the brightness of his light and the image of his substance, and guiding all things by the word of his authority, having made purification of sins, sat on the right of majesty in high places." (i. 1-3.)

Epistle to the Colossians.--"Who (the Father) delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his son of love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: who is the image of the invisible G.o.d, the first-born of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and above the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or princ.i.p.alities or powers; all things have been created through him and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (i. 13-17.)

Fourth Gospel.--"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d. The same was in the beginning with G.o.d. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. That which hath been made was life in him, and the life was the light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory--glory as of an only begotten of a Father full of grace and truth." (i. 1-15.)

It appears to me that the evolution is represented in the order given. Paul's phrase, "first-born of all creation," is an amplification of the word "first-born" used in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but there used in another connection,--and not solely, as we shall see, relating to Christ. Paul's phrase corresponds with "the only-begotten," etc., of John, and with the "son const.i.tuted heir" of the Epistle to the Hebrews, though the latter is a different Christological conception. When this writer's doctrinal statement is finished, and after his argument is begun, he says (i. 6), "But when of old bringing the first-born into the inhabited earth, he saith, And pay homage to him all angels of G.o.d." The word "first-born" here is probably the seed from which Paul develops his full flower of doctrine, given above. Paul's conception of a creative Christ seems later than the "guiding" Christ (Heb. i. 3), which recalls the function of Wisdom as "director" at the creation (Prov. viii. 30); and the idea in this epistle to the Hebrews of a previous and historical Christophany, while harmonious with that of the "Wisdom of Solomon" (vii. 27),--that she (Wisdom) "in all ages enters into holy souls,"--is so primitive, unique, and so foreign to Paul, that the writer may have been one of those accused by him of preaching "another Jesus" (2 Cor. ii. 4). [30]

Although this Epistle contains the principle ascribed to Jesus, "charity and not sacrifice" (xiii. 9) and subst.i.tutes for beasts the "sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips harmonious with his good name" (verse 15), the letter that killeth brought forth from the same chapter the fatal doctrine that the body of Jesus was a sacrifice to be eaten. And although this emphasizes the completeness of his humanity to an extent inconsistent with his deity, it is on the letter of this Epistle that the deification of Christ is founded.

V. 7-9. "Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up entreaties with vehement crying and tears to him able to save him out of death, and although inclined to because of his piety, yet, albeit a son, learned obedience by the things he suffered; and having been made perfect, became unto all that follow him the author of eternal salvation." [31]

He is represented as "made perfect through sufferings," as "tempted in all points like (?others) without sin," and as having without a.s.sistance of temple or sacrifices, "obtained eternal redemption"

(ix. 12). Thus he also needed redemption.

The new covenant of which Jesus was the founder is described in the words of Jeremiah (x.x.xi.):

I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart will I write them And I will be to them a G.o.d, And they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least unto the greatest.

In quoting this the writer to the Hebrews adds: "In that he saith, 'A new (covenant) he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is near unto vanishing entirely.'" Here is a primitive Quakerism, but more conservative; not like George Fox at once sweeping away priesthood sacraments and ecclesiastical laws before the Inner Light, but pointing to their near vanishing.

The writer of this Epistle is a philosophical conservative; he shudders at the idea of a swift and complete overthrow of the traditional system, and even borrows its old thunders against levitical sin to menace offences against the new moral G.o.d. "Our G.o.d [also] is a consuming fire." It is evident by his very warnings that a great anti-sacerdotal and anti-levitical revolution had taken place, and that the free spirit was burgeoning out in excesses. But such is his culture that one may suspect his thunders of being theatrical, and that he thinks some superst.i.tion necessary for the ma.s.ses.

The fatal and subtle character of the detective Holy Spirit is imported into this Epistle from the "Wisdom of Solomon" (i. 6), though not so distinctly personified. The sin afterwards called "unpardonable"

is here a sin against Christ for which repentance, not pardon, is impossible. We may perhaps find in some of the expressions germs of the legend of Judas. "As touching those who were once enlightened, and tasted the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of G.o.d, and the powers of the age that is come, and fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, seeing they individually impale the Son of G.o.d afresh and put him to open shame" (vi. 5, 6). The believers are "not of them that shrink back into perdition" (x. 39); and they are warned to look carefully "whether there be any man that falleth back from the grace of G.o.d,... like Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright" (xii. 15, 16). The words "tasted," "perdition," "sold,"

might start a legend of the betrayal, first alluded to by Paul (if 1 Cor. xi. 23 be genuine, which is doubtful), though had the legend of Judas then existed this writer would naturally have alluded to him along with Esau.

This Epistle is the nursery of the t.i.tles of Christ; he is Apostle, Son of G.o.d, Son of Man, Great Shepherd, Captain of Salvation, Mediator, Great High Priest; and here alone is found the now familiar endearing phrase "Our Lord." These t.i.tles represent the functions of different beings in the Avesta. The conception of the work of Jesus on earth is largely Zoroastrian. The Majesty on high has a colony and a people on earth, which otherwise is under the supremacy of the Evil One. As we have seen the Avestan definitions of Ahuramazda and Angra Mainyu, "the Living and the Not Living," are reflected in the phrases of this Epistle,--the "Power of Imperishable Life" (vii. 16) and the "Power of Death" (ii. 14). Ahuramazda, when his "habitable earth" was prepared, brought into it his "first-born," Yima, and wished him to propagate the divine law which should destroy the power of Angra Mainyu on earth and confine him in the underworld. Yima replied, "I was not born, I was not taught, to be the preacher and the bearer of thy law." He engaged, however, to enlarge and nourish the garden of G.o.d on earth, of which he was king, and ent.i.tled "the good shepherd." He obtained from the Holy Spirit, Anahita, the powers thus enumerated in Aban Yast 26: "He begged of her a boon, saying, 'Grant me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sra Anahita, that I may become the sovereign lord of all countries, of the daevas [devils] and men, of the Yatus [sorcerers] and Pairkas [seducing nymphs], of the oppressors [who afflict] the blind and the deaf; and that I may take from the daevas [devils] both riches and welfare, both fatness and flocks, both weal and glory" [hvareno, "the glory from above which makes the king an earthly G.o.d"]. [32] This "firstborn" reigned a thousand years, but then, having ascribed his "glory" to the demons from whom he obtained wealth and material benefits, his "glory" was lost, and secured by the Devil, who reigned in his place a thousand years, blighting the world, when Zoroaster was born to undertake the establishment of the divine Law on earth. Yima was ultimately developed into the Jamshid of Persian mythology, whose power over demons, fabulous wealth, and ultimate fall (through declaring himself a G.o.d, according to Firdusi) invested the legend of Solomon.

From the legend of Solomon and the Solomonic Psalms the Epistle to the Hebrews brings its exaltation of Christ. From Ps. lx.x.xix. 26-7, as reproduced in 2 Sam. vii. 14, is quoted (i. 5) the divine promise, "I will be to him (Solomon) a Father and he shall be my Son," along with the manifesto at Solomon's enthronement (Ps. ii. 7), "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Solomon is the "first-born"

alluded to in Heb. i. 6: "When of old bringing the first-born into the inhabited earth (oikoumenen) he saith, And pay homage to him all angels of G.o.d?"

And here we have an interesting example of evolution in the Solomon legend. The term "first-born," as indicating the relation of a human being to the deity, occurs but once in the Old Testament, namely, in Psalm lx.x.xix. 27. It occurs in a strange pa.s.sage that must be quoted:

19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy ones, And saidst, I have laid help upon a youth; I have raised one elected out of the people.

20. I have discovered David, my servant: With my holy oil have I anointed him, 21. By whom my hand shall be established, Whom also mine arm shall strengthen.

22. The enemy shall not do him violence, Nor the son of evil afflict him.

23. I will beat down his adversaries before him And smite them that hate him.

24. But my faithfulness and my mercy end not with him, And in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25. I will extend his hand on the sea also, And his right hand on the rivers: 26. He shall address me, "Thou, my father, My G.o.d, and the rock of my support"; 27. In answer I const.i.tute him first-born, Elyon of the kings of the earth.

Although in all of these verses the Davidic royalty is exalted, the reference to David's own reign pa.s.ses at verse 24 into a celebration of Solomon. Here, as in Psalm cx.x.xii. 17, Solomon is the "horn" of David: he was distinctively the power on sea and river, phrases inapplicable to David, and there is a contrast between the anointed "servant"

(verse 20) and the "first-born" (verse 27). The next t.i.tle, "Elyon"

(Most High), comes very near to that of the deity (El Elyon) of the mysterious priest-king of Salem, Melchizedek, whose mythical character and ident.i.ty with the legendary Solomon will be hereafter considered.

Here we have no doubt the germs of the narrative in 2 Sam. vii. of the formal adoption of Solomon as Jahveh's son, with the addition of a metaphysical connotation of the sonship not found in the Psalm. In the Psalm the fatherhood is that of support, the position of "first-born"

is that of chieftainship among kings; and it is further said (31, 32) that if any of the sons of the Davidic line profane the divine statutes, "Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes." But in 2 Sam. vii. 14, Jahveh applies this warning to Solomon alone, and with a remarkable modification: "I will be his father and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of men; but my mercy shall not depart from him." That is, though a son of G.o.d he may be chastened like the sons of men,--an intimation of a difference between Solomon and ordinary human nature not intended in the words of the Psalm.