The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 26

[614] Lepsius, "Chronolog." s. 365. On the possible twelve representatives of those twelve generations, Noldeke, "Untersuchungen,"

s. 190.

[615] Exod. i. 11; Gen. xlvii. 11.

[616] Exod. v. 6-11.

[617] Exod. i. 7, 13, 14.

[618] Chabas, "Melang. egypt." pp. 2, 42 ff. That _lutu_ means "Egyptians," as Ebers ("aegypt." s. 96) thinks, is by no means certain.

[619] Ebers, "Durch Gosen." p. 494.

[620] Lauth, "Moses," s. 1.

[621] Exod. i. 10.

[622] Exod. xii. 37. Numb. i. 46.

[623] "With 600,000 men, besides the children," Exod. xii. 37, 38.

Numbers i. 22-46, enumerates 603,550 fighting men, who could take the field, in the total sum, and in the totals for the several tribes, to which must be added 22,000 male Levites, men and boys, Numb. iii. 39.

The question seems to me to be settled by Noldeke ("Untersuchungen," s.

117).

[624] 1 Chron. vi. 18.

[625] Above, p. 409; Gen. x.x.xv. 22.

[626] Gen. x.x.xiv. 13, 25-30, x.x.xviii.

[627] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 280, n. 54.

[628] Gen. xlviii, 20.

[629] Gen. xlviii. 5; above, p. 425.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIBERATION OF THE HEBREWS.

The oppression which, according to the Pentateuch, the Egyptians exercised upon the sons of Jacob when settled in the land of Goshen, by field-labour and tasks of building, may be regarded as a historical fact. It is proved by the position of Egypt and her relations to her neighbours on the north-east in the fourteenth century B.C., and it agrees with the arrangements and aims entertained and carried out in this border-land by Sethos I. and Ramses II. It must have been a grievous burden for the Hebrews to pa.s.s from the easy life of shepherds to the work of agriculture, and abandon the old life with their flocks.

In addition there were the heavy tasks of the fortifications, the ca.n.a.l, and the new cities. Were they to give up the memory of their fathers, and their attachment to their customary mode of life, in order to perform taskwork for the Egyptians and become Egyptians? Was it possible to escape this grievous oppression? How could they be freed from the mighty power of the Pharaohs? Could the Hebrews, a peaceful nation and without practice in war, venture to resist the numerous, disciplined, and drilled armies of Egypt?

The Hebrew tradition gives the following account of the liberation of their forefathers, connecting it with the supposed command of Pharaoh to throw into the Nile all the male children born to the Israelites, and to allow the daughters only to live. The son of Levi, the son of Jacob, was Kahath, and Kahath's son was Amram. Amram had a son born to him by his wife Jochebed. When Jochebed saw that the boy was fair, she hid him for three months; and when she could hide him no longer, she took an ark of reeds and daubed it with resin and pitch, and placed the boy in it, and put the ark in the reeds on the bank of the Nile, and the boy's sister was placed near to see what would come to pa.s.s. Then Pharaoh's daughter came with her maidens to bathe in the river. She saw the ark, and caused it to be brought to her, and when she opened it the boy wept. It is one of the children of the Hebrews, she said, and had pity on it. Then the sister came and offered to find a nursing-woman from among the Hebrews, and brought her mother. When the child grew up, Pharaoh's daughter took him for her son, and called him Moses. One day Moses went out to his brethren and saw their burdens, and when an Egyptian smote a Hebrew, and Moses perceived that no one was at hand, he slew the Egyptian, and fled before Pharaoh into the land of Midian. And as he rested at a well, the seven daughters of Jethro came to water the sheep of their father, but the other shepherd prevented them, and drove them away. Then Moses came to their help, and watered their sheep, and their father Jethro took him in, and Moses found favour in his eyes, and took Zipporah, one of his daughters, to wife, and kept Jethro's sheep. After many days the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of their burdens; and G.o.d heard their complaint, and thought of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Moses, as he was keeping the flocks of Jethro, and led them behind the desert, and came to Mount h.o.r.eb, saw a bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses approached, and Jehovah spoke to him out of the bush, and said: I am the G.o.d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; come not near; put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Then Moses veiled his face, for he was afraid to look upon G.o.d. Then Jehovah said: I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I will deliver them.

Thou shalt go to Pharaoh and lead my people away to Canaan, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses answered: O my Lord, I am not a man of words; I cannot speak to the children of Israel, for I am dull of speech and heavy of tongue. Go, said Jehovah, I will be with thy lips, and will teach thee what to say; and Aaron thy brother, the priest, can speak. Then Moses took his wife and his sons and put them upon the a.s.s, and turned back to Egypt, and Aaron his elder brother met him in the desert. Moses told him the commands of Jehovah, and they gathered the elders of Israel together, and the people believed their words.

Then Moses and Aaron came into the presence of the king of Egypt, and said: Let us go with our people three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to our G.o.d Jehovah, that He may not visit us with the pestilence or the sword. The king answered: Would ye free the people from their tasks? Go to your work. And he ordered the taskmasters and the overseers to increase the work of the Israelites, and make their service heavier, and to give them no more straw for their bricks, so that they might be compelled to gather straw for themselves. But the daily tale of bricks remained the same, and the chiefs of the Israelites were beaten because they could not make up the sum. Then Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron threw down his rod before the king, and lo! it became a serpent. Then the wise men and magicians of Egypt cast their rods down, and they also became serpents, but Aaron's serpent consumed the rest. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the water in the stream was turned into blood, and the fish died, and the water became foul and noisome. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their art. Then Aaron stretched out his hand over the stream, and the frogs came up over the fields, into the houses, the chambers, the beds, the ovens and kneading-troughs. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to take away the frogs from him and his land; he was willing to let them go. And the frogs died away out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. But when Pharaoh was delivered he hardened his heart, and would not let the Hebrews go. Then Aaron turned the dust of the earth into flies, and Moses and Aaron took at Jehovah's bidding ashes of the oven and sprinkled them in the air, and the dust of the ashes became boils and blains, breaking out on man and beast, on the magicians, and all the Egyptians. And Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and Jehovah caused it to thunder and hail, and fire came down, and the hail smote all that was in the field, man and beast, and all the herbs of the field; and all the trees were destroyed; only in the land of Goshen there was no hail. And Moses stretched out his hand over all Egypt, and Jehovah brought the east wind, and in the morning the east wind brought swarms of locusts, and they ate up all that the hail had left in the field: there was nothing green in the field and in the trees. And Moses stretched his hand towards heaven, and there was a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days. And now the king was willing to let Israel go, but their flocks and herds must remain behind.

Moses answered that not a single hoof should remain, and went in wrath from the presence of Pharaoh. But to the Israelites he said: At midnight Jehovah will go forth and smite all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the woman behind the mill, and all the firstborn of cattle. But they were to slay a yearling lamb without blemish for each household, and to eat it roast, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. With loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staff in hand, they were to keep the feast. With the blood of the lamb they were to strike the door-posts and the lintel of their houses, that Jehovah might see the blood and pa.s.s by their doors. In the morning there was not a house of the Egyptians in which there was not one dead.

There was a great cry in Egypt, and the king called Moses and Aaron and said: Depart with your people, your flocks, and your herds.

Then the children of Israel set forth from Ramses to Succoth--600,000 men on foot, besides children. And with them went a number of strangers, and many flocks and herds. And they went from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the desert; and from Etham they went to Pihahiroth, and encamped over against Baalzephon. But Pharaoh was grieved that he had let the people go from their service; he pursued them with all his chariots, his hors.e.m.e.n, and his army, and found them encamped on the sea at Pihahiroth, over against Baalzephon. But Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind through the whole night, and made the sea into dry land, and the Israelites pa.s.sed through the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and a wall upon their left. And the Egyptians pursued and came after them with their chariots and their hors.e.m.e.n into the sea. Then Moses again stretched out his hand, and the sea returned towards morning into its bed, and covered the chariots and the hors.e.m.e.n of Pharaoh, so that not one of them was left.

And Moses and the children of Israel sang: I will sing of Jehovah, for he is glorious; the horses and chariots he whelms in the sea; Jehovah, the G.o.d of my father, will I praise. Jehovah is a man of war; Thy right hand, O Jehovah, shatters the enemy. The chariots of Pharaoh and his might he threw into the sea; his chosen charioteers were drowned in the reed-sea. The floods covered them; like stones they sank in the pit. At the breath of Thy nostrils the waters rose in a heap; the floods stood like a bank; the floods ran in the midst of the sea. The enemy said: I will pursue, and overtake, and divide the spoil; I will satisfy my l.u.s.t upon them; I will draw my sword, and destroy them with my hand. Thou didst blow with Thy mouth, O Jehovah, and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the G.o.ds is like unto thee, Jehovah?[630]

The older text narrated in a simple manner, that the Hebrews multiplied greatly in Egypt, and the Egyptians vexed them with heavy burdens, and G.o.d heard their cry, and thought of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then G.o.d spoke to Moses: he would take Israel for his people, and lead them out of Egypt, and Moses spoke to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to him. Then the command came to Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and Aaron was to speak for him. Afterwards came the plagues (to which the revision has added the hail, the locusts, and the darkness),[631] the slaying of the firstborn, the march through the sea as described.[632] The text of the tribes of Joseph is far better instructed, or, at any rate, far more detailed in its account of Moses, no less than in that of Joseph. To it belongs the command of Pharaoh to slay the children of the Hebrews, the rescue of Moses, the history of his youth, his flight into the desert, his connection with Jethro, the appearance of G.o.d on Sinai, and certain traits in the dealings with Pharaoh, and the direct action of G.o.d in the march through the sea and the desert.

Of both these narratives the tendency is the same, it is only more strongly marked and broadly realised in the second. The G.o.d of the Hebrews has pity on the sufferings of his people. He provides and arouses their leader. To him and to Aaron he imparts the power of working miracles which the magicians of Egypt can only imitate up to a certain point. Yet the power of working miracles given to Moses and Aaron is not enough to overcome Pharaoh. The decisive stroke is given by Jehovah himself, inasmuch as he smites the firstborn among the Egyptians of man and beast. And when Pharaoh hastens after the Hebrews Jehovah causes the sea to retire before them, and finally buries Pharaoh and his host under the returning waves. Thus has Jehovah led his people out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.

The narrative of the slaying of the firstborn of the Egyptians and the mode in which the Hebrews protected themselves from the visitation are borrowed from the Hebrew ritual. We saw above that the firstlings of the fruits, and "all that first opens the womb, man or beast," belonged to the G.o.d of the Hebrews.[633] This firstborn must be sacrificed, or ransomed by a vicarious sacrifice. In the spring the sacrifice of the firstfruits was offered from an ancient period, and unleavened bread eaten, as was usual with shepherds.[634] The spring, the time when nature has borne anew, was also the right time to offer the sacrifice for the redemption of the house. The head of the family at the spring festival slew a lamb without breaking any bone, and with the blood he smeared the lintel and door-posts. Hence the offering in the spring was also the festival of redemption and purification--the pa.s.sover, the _pa.s.sah_ of Jehovah, who had spared the house for the lamb. To this old spring sacrifice, which was celebrated in the month Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew year (it was the year of the Babylonians), at the time of the full moon, when the sun was in the Ram, the first text has already attached a historical background and meaning. It was in the night following this sacrifice that the exodus from Egypt took place.

The unleavened bread of the ancient custom was explained by the haste of the exodus; and as signs of the readiness to go forth, the girdle round the loins, the shoes upon the feet, and the staff in the hand were added to the old ritual; the smearing of the lintel with the blood was done in order that the angel of Jehovah might distinguish the doors of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. Tradition turned the spring festival and sacrifice into a feast of thanksgiving for the protection of the firstborn of the Israelites while Jehovah carried off those of the Egyptians, a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the nation out of Egypt.

The lofty calling of the man whom Jehovah summoned to be the instrument of the deliverance is shown in the Ephraimitic text by the marvellous fortune which attended him even in his earliest years. The daughter of Pharaoh himself, disregarding her father's commands, rescues the boy, brings him up, takes him for her son, and gives the name to the man who is destined to liberate the Hebrews and bring so much misfortune upon Egypt. Amid the kindness shown to him by the Egyptians Moses does not forget the people to whom he belongs. The sight of the oppressions which his people suffer kindles his heart. A rash action, by which he avenges the ill-treatment of a Hebrew, compels him to fly into the desert. Here he founds a family by taking a Midianitish woman, a daughter of the desert, to wife. In the second text the father of his wife is called Jethro, in the revision Reuel.[635] When he has begotten sons here, and is advanced in years, his mission is revealed to him on the mountain of G.o.d. In both texts he hesitates to undertake it, but finally carries it resolutely to the end.

As in the narrative of Joseph, so here, all that is said of Egypt agrees with what we know from other sources of that country. As the Hebrews were settled to the east of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, the locality of the exposure in the meaning of the Ephraimitic text must be sought in the neighbourhood of Tanis. We saw above that Ramses II. erected considerable buildings in this district (p. 134). The name Moses, which the king's daughter is said to have given to the rescued boy, may be connected without violence with the Egyptian messu, _i.e._ the child.

The plagues too which tradition represents as coming upon Egypt are suited to the nature of the land. Even now the water of the Nile becomes at times red and disagreeable in smell; often after the inundation swarms of frogs cover the fields, and at the same time myriads of marsh-gnats and flies rise out of the mud, and locusts from time to time in thick devastating swarms cover the fields in the valley of the Nile.[636] Eruptions of the skin also occur after the inundation, and sometimes grow into large boils. Storms of hail, though not entirely unknown, are yet extremely rare in Egypt, and storms from the south-west, which in the spring blow over the great desert, are one of the worst plagues in Egypt; they bring with them violent heat and thick dust, which darkens the sky.

If we attempt to ascertain the historical value of these narratives, it follows from the helpless position of the Hebrews in regard to the Egyptians which we have already described, that the idea of rescuing them from the dominion of Egypt could only have been entertained by a resolute spirit, and the undertaking begun by a leader who was prepared to make the highest venture in order to preserve the highest prize--nationality and religion. Among the Hebrews there could be no other thought but to leave the borders of Egypt in order to resume the old mode of life in the deserts of Syria, and there to worship their old G.o.d in the old manner. In harmony with the situation the Ephraimitic text represents the resolution to make an exodus as growing up after long hesitation and grave thought in the soul of a man who, owing to the oppression of his people, had come into the sharpest conflict with Egypt, had fled into the desert in order to save his life, and there had again seen and lived the free life of the kindred tribes. If the Hebrews intended to leave Egypt it was necessary to know certainly that the tribes of the desert, or at least a part, would receive them, and that they would not one and all oppose them. By combination with the Midianites the conditions most needed for the exodus could be supplied.

If of the Midianites and the Amalekites, the desert tribes who dwelt nearest to Egypt, the first were gained for the Hebrews, and from them support, a.s.sistance, and alliance in repulsing an Egyptian attack might be expected, then it was possible to hope for success in the venture.

The Ephraimitic text represents the Hebrews as choosing that moment for carrying out the exodus in which there was a change of the succession in Egypt, and it is obvious that a change of this kind, the commencement of a new and perhaps contested dominion, secured better prospects for the Hebrews than an established rule when obedience was unchallenged.

According to the older text the Israelites gathered together near the city of Ramses (Abu Kesheb) for the exodus. We have seen that this city was built on the ca.n.a.l, nearly in the middle of the district allotted to the Hebrews; it was therefore the natural place for meeting. From this the Israelites took a southern direction towards the north-west point of the Arabian Gulf, which is known to the Hebrews as the reed-sea. This was the shortest way of reaching the deserts of the peninsula of Sinai and the pastures of the Midianites, and on this line the Hebrews had the Bitter Lakes at hand, from which could be obtained what water was absolutely necessary. When they had pa.s.sed Succoth, Etham, Pihahiroth, and had reached the corner of the reed-sea, as the first text describes, the pursuit overtook them, which Pharaoh had begun with a hastily-collected force. Southward of the extreme point of the reed-sea, in the neighbourhood of Suez, there are firths which can be crossed at the ebb, especially if a strong north-east wind drives back the waves to the south-west. By a strong east wind, blowing through the whole night, Jehovah caused the sea to retire, and turned it into dry land; and the water became a wall on the right hand and the left, as we learnt from the oldest account. The extreme point of the reed-sea, _i.e._ the sea on the left of the firth, is too deep to be crossed, on the right the wind and the ebb kept the waters back.[637] Thus it was not in itself impossible that the Hebrews reached the other sh.o.r.e, _i.e._ the peninsula of Sinai, by pa.s.sing through the firth and cutting off the extreme point of the sea; and not impossible that the Egyptian army in their eagerness to overtake the Hebrews, or afraid that the marshes at the head of the sea would detain them so long that they could not come up with them before the desert made pursuit very difficult, attempted to cross the sea when the water had already returned. The narrative is supported to some extent by the ancient song of victory (p. 446). This song, it is true, cannot be proved to belong to that period, but it is nevertheless of very ancient origin.[638]

The account which the Egyptians and Manetho give of the exodus of the Hebrews has been already related. According to it the Hebrews are impure and leprous Egyptians whom Pharaoh had banished to the quarries east of the Nile, and made to work there, like other Egyptians employed in that task. That the Hebrews are Egyptians, and leprous Egyptians, in the Egyptian tradition, need excite no astonishment; white leprosy was a disease from which the Israelites frequently suffered. We cannot contest the number of the lepers, which Manetho puts at 80,000, though we have already seen that the Hebrews at the time of the exodus could hardly have approached this number of men capable of work. The Hebrew tradition in both texts represents the tribes of Ephraim and Mana.s.seh, the descendants of Joseph and an Egyptian woman, as growing up during the settlement in Egypt; the revision adds that a "number of strangers" left Egypt with their forefathers. Moses, the leader of the lepers, is described by Manetho as an Egyptian priest of Heliopolis, of the name of Osarsiph. We saw that Heliopolis was the nearest centre of Egyptian religious worship to the land of Goshen, and that the second text gives the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis to Joseph to wife. According to this text also Moses is brought up by the Egyptians, and the revision calls him an "Egyptian."[639] Hence we can at once accept the statement of Manetho that the leader of the Hebrews was skilled in the wisdom of the Egyptian priests.[640] On the other hand the more detailed narrative of Manetho is in itself far more improbable, more full of contradictions and impossibilities, than the account of the Hebrews. It does not agree with the tenor of Manetho's narrative when we find Pharaoh giving over the fortified city of Avaris to the leprous Egyptians whom he had banished to the stone quarries. In that city the lepers rebel, there they make the priest of Heliopolis, Osarsiph, their leader, and Osarsiph gives them the law, to worship no G.o.d, to eat the most sacred animals, and to have dealings only with their confederates.

From hence he summons the Hyksos, who had been driven out of Avaris a long time before, and had meanwhile built Jerusalem. Pharaoh goes with an army of 300,000 of the best warriors of Egypt against the conspirators, 80,000 unclean persons and 200,000 shepherds, yet turns back voluntarily, and flies towards Ethiopia, while the confederates desolate Egypt without pity for thirteen years. It is hardly credible that a king of Egypt should abandon his kingdom without a struggle to lepers and the descendants of the Hyksos. And if anyone is inclined to a.s.sume that the Hebrews did actually combine, not with the supposed Hyksos of Jerusalem, but perhaps with the Midianites, and conquer Egypt and force the king into Ethiopia, and so rule over Egypt for thirteen years--their tradition would not have forgotten or suppressed such a glorious achievement of the nation, such a proof of the power of Jehovah. Compared with this wholly purposeless exile of the king, the account of the Hebrews seems far more credible--that Pharaoh did make the attempt to stop the migration, but that the attempt was without success.

It remains to fix the date at which the Hebrews succeeded in escaping from the dominion of Egypt, and resuming their old mode of life in the deserts of Syria. It has already been proved that Sethos I. and Ramses II. were the Pharaohs who oppressed the Hebrews; and it is in harmony with the whole situation to a.s.sume that the attempt to escape from this oppression would be made under a less powerful successor. If, as is shown above (p. 159), the Pharaoh of Manetho, who banished the lepers and retired before them, was Menephta, the son and successor of Ramses II., it would be Ramses II. before whom Moses fled into the desert, and after his death he would have returned and carried out against his son the attempt he could not have ventured upon against so powerful a ruler as Ramses II. Menephta's rule falls in the years 1322 to 1302 B.C. Hence the exodus of the Hebrews must be placed in this period, about the year 1320 B.C.[641] The immigration into the land of Goshen, we found that we might place about the year 1550 B.C. (p. 433). Hence they dwelt there about 230 years, and this lapse of time corresponds pretty closely to the eight generations which the table of the leader under whom the Hebrews afterwards conquered Canaan gave for the sojourn in Egypt (p.

431). When the Hebrews, after retiring from Egypt, wished to give up the peninsula of Sinai, and settle themselves in the east of Jordan, they besought "the king of Edom," according to the second text, for a free pa.s.sage through his country. The first text knows and mentions eight kings who had ruled over Edom "before kings ruled over Israel." As the monarchy was established in Israel about the year 1050 B.C. (see below), eight generations would carry us two centuries beyond the date of Saul, king of Israel, if this list could be regarded as historical, but the two first names in it seem of a mythical rather than a historical kind.[642]

The oldest accounts of western writers of the fortunes of the Hebrews date from the time of the successors of Alexander of Macedon. They were founded partly on accounts of the Egyptians, and partly on accounts of the Hebrews themselves. The narrative of Hecataeus of Abdera, who was in Egypt in the time of Ptolemy I., and wrote an Egyptian history, gives us the most unprejudiced account, composed from the widest point of view, and connects the emigration of the Hebrews, whom he does not consider Egyptians, with the supposed emigration from Egypt to Greece. "Once, when a pestilence had broken out in Egypt, the cause of the visitation was generally ascribed to the anger of the G.o.ds. As many strangers of various extraction dwelt in Egypt, and observed different customs in religion and sacrifice, it came to pa.s.s that the hereditary worship of the G.o.ds was being given up in Egypt. The Egyptians, therefore, were of opinion that they would obtain no alleviation of the evil unless they removed the people of foreign extraction. When they were driven out, the n.o.blest and bravest part of them, as some say, under n.o.ble and renowned leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to h.e.l.las; but the great bulk of them migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called Judaea, and was at that time without inhabitants. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and bravery. When he had settled in the land he built several cities, among them Jerusalem, which is now the most famous. He also built the most celebrated temples, taught the worship of the G.o.d, and the ritual, and arranged the const.i.tution, and gave laws. He divided the people into twelve tribes, because this number is the most complete, and corresponds to the number of the months which make up the year. The most handsome men, who could also at the same time guide the united people best, he made priests, and arranged that they should concern themselves with all that was sacred, the religious worship and the sacrifices, and at the same time he made them judges in the most important matters, and put into their hands the preservation of the laws and customs. He erected no images of the G.o.ds, because he did not believe that G.o.d had the form of men; he rather believed that the heaven which surrounds the earth was alone G.o.d and lord of all things. The sacrifices, too, and manner of life he arranged unlike those of other people; owing to their own banishment, he introduced among them a misanthropic and inhospitable life. At the end of his laws is written: This Moses has heard from G.o.d, and tells it to the Jews. This lawgiver also made provision for war, and compelled the young men to exercise themselves in strength and manliness, and the endurance of privations. He undertook campaigns against the neighbouring nations, and divided the conquered land by lot, and gave to the priests larger lots than to the rest. But no one was permitted to trade with his lot, in order that none might from avarice buy up the lots and drive away the more needy (by this is meant no doubt the Hebrew year of Jubilee). He forced the people also to bring up their children, and as it was possible to do this with little cost, the tribes of the Jews were always numerous. About their marriages and their burials he laid down quite different laws from those in use among other nations."[643]

When Antiochus Sidetes besieged Jerusalem in the year 134 B.C., and began to treat with the city, the greater part of the counsellors of the king (so Diodorus tells us) were of opinion that the Jews ought to be destroyed, for of all nations they were the only one who had no community with others, and contracted no marriages with them, and regarded them all as enemies. Their forefathers had been banished out of the whole of Egypt as G.o.dless men, and abhorred of heaven. At that time all who had white leprosy, and scales upon the body, were collected as being under a curse and sent over the border in order to purify the land. The expelled persons had then gathered together and formed the nation of the Jews; they had taken the districts round about Jerusalem, and propagated their hatred of mankind. Hence they had adopted wholly different laws from others. They were not to eat with strangers at one table, or bear them any friendly feeling. When Antiochus Epiphanes conquered the Jews (167 B.C.), he went into the innermost shrine of the temple, which only the priests might enter, and there he found the stone image of a man with a long beard, who was riding on an a.s.s with a book in his hand. This statue he took for an image of Moses, who had founded Jerusalem, gathered the people together, and given the wicked and misanthropic laws.[644]

Strabo remarks that southern Syria "was inhabited by mixed tribes of Egyptian, Arabian, and Phenician origin, but the prevailing legend of the temple at Jerusalem called the ancestors of the Jews Egyptians. For Moses, one of the Egyptian priests, who occupied a part of this land, and was dissatisfied with his condition, removed from that country, and many who worshipped the deity emigrated with him, and Moses told them and taught that the Egyptians were not right in representing the divinity as a wild or domesticated animal, nor the Libyans, nor were the h.e.l.lenes wise in giving G.o.ds the form of men. For only the One was G.o.d which surrounds us all and the earth and the sea, and who was called Ura.n.u.s and Cosmos, and the nature of things. How could any reasoning creature venture to make an image which should truly represent this nature? All making of images must be cast aside, a sacred place must be marked off, and a temple erected, and prayers offered without any image.

In order to have fortunate dreams it was needful to sleep in the sanctuary, and those who were wise and lived with justice could always expect signs and gifts from G.o.d. By such doctrines Moses convinced not a few men of reason, and led them to the place where Jerusalem now is. He easily obtained possession of the land, because it was not sufficiently valuable for anyone to fight vigorously for it. It is rocky, and the district round the city is without water. At the same time he pretended to take it for the sake of the sanct.i.ty of the place, and the deity for whom he sought a dwelling, and established such a ritual and such sacrificial customs, that the worshippers were not compelled to undergo great expense, or vex themselves by any ecstasies, contortions of the body, or vile occupation. As this was well received, Moses established no unimportant dominion, for those who dwelt round about were induced by his speeches and promises to join him. But at a later time superst.i.tious and even tyrannical men acquired the priesthood, and from superst.i.tion the abstinences from food, circ.u.mcision, and mutilation and other things of the kind became law, and are observed even to this day. The capricious nature of the ruling power ended in robbery, for the insurgents plundered the land. But those who were with the rulers subjugated even the border territories, and conquered a good deal of Syria and Phoenicia. Yet the fortress, which, instead of treating it as a place of confinement they worshipped as a temple, retained a certain dignity."[645]

Better acquainted with the traditions of the Hebrews, Nicolaus of Damascus tells us that Abraham came with an army out of Chaldaea, which lies beyond Babylon, and ruled over Damascus. Not long after he again set out from this place with his people, and established himself in the land which was then called Chananaea, and afterwards Judaea. Here he dwelt and his numerous posterity. "The name of Abraham is still praised in the region of Damascus, and a village is pointed out which is called Abraham's dwelling, after him."[646] This account, of which the continuation in the writings of Nicolaus is lost, was used, as it seems, by Trogus Pompeius. His account survives only in the excerpt of Justinus. "The Jews," so we find in this excerpt, "derive their origin from Damascus, the most famous city of Syria. This city took its name from king Damascus, in whose honour the Syrians revered the tomb of his wife Astarte as a temple, and worshipped her as a G.o.ddess in the most sacred manner. After Damascus, Azelus reigned, then Adores, then Abraham, and lastly Israhel. Israhel became more famous than his predecessors, for he had ten sons to help him. So he left the nation divided into ten kingdoms to his sons, and called them after the name of Juda, who died after the division, Judaeans, and commanded that his memory should be held in honour by all, because his share had profited all the others. The youngest of the brothers was Joseph. The others were afraid of his pre-eminent gifts, and secretly they got him into their power, and sold him to foreign merchants. By these he was carried to Egypt, and as he gave his mind eagerly to the magic arts of the place, he was soon in high estimation even with the king. For he was the most acute expounder of signs and wonders, and first founded the interpretation of dreams. Nothing in divine or human ordinances seemed hidden from him; he even foresaw the unfruitfulness of the land many years before it came. The whole of Egypt would have been destroyed by famine had not the king, at Joseph's suggestion, ordered corn to be laid by for many years previously, and he gave such proofs of his wisdom that his answers seemed to be those of a G.o.d and not of a man. His son was Moses, who in addition to the inheritance of his father's wisdom, received also great beauty of person. But at the bidding of an oracle the Egyptians banished him, because they were afflicted with scab and leprosy, with all the diseased persons beyond their borders, so that he might not infect more. Chosen to be leader of the exiles, Moses took from the Egyptians their sacred things. The Egyptians rose to recover them by force of arms, but were compelled to return by storms. Then Moses as he turned towards his old fatherland, Damascus, settled on Mount Syna. As he came there with his people exhausted after seven days'

privations in the deserts of Arabia, he consecrated each seventh day a fast for all time. After the manner of the people this day was called Sabbata, because it had put an end to the hunger and wandering. And when they remembered that they had been driven out of Egypt from fear of contamination, they were careful that they should not be hated by the inhabitants from the same causes and had no dealings with them, which rule in time became a strict custom and religious observance. After Moses, his son Arvas became priest of the Egyptian sacred things, and was soon after chosen to be king. Since then it became a custom among the Jews that their priests should be at the same time kings, and their duties as judges, combined with the worship of the G.o.d, held the nation uncommonly close together."[647]

The most marvellous story is that of Lysimachus of Alexandria, who brings down the exodus of the Jews to the eighth century B.C. "At the time of king Bocchoris, unclean and leprous men had come into the temples to beg for food. Hence there was a blight in the land; and Bocchoris received a response from Ammon, that the temples must be purified. The lepers, as if the sun were angry at their existence, were to be plunged into the sea, and the unclean were to be driven out of the land. Hence the lepers were tied to plates of lead, and thrown into the sea; but the unclean were driven out helpless into the desert. These met together in council; in the night they lit fires and lights, and called, fasting, upon the G.o.ds to save them. Then a certain Moses advised them to go through the desert till they came to inhabited regions, but at the same time required them to show kindness to no man, to advise every one for the worst, and to destroy all altars and temples upon which they came. The exiles approved, and after many hardships came through the desert to an inhabited land, and after treating the men cruelly, robbing and burning the temples, they established a city Hierosyla (temple-plunder) in Judaea, and afterwards, to lessen the disgrace, the name was slightly altered into Hierosolyma (Jerusalem)."[648]

Even this narrative was accepted and believed. Tacitus first enumerated the different views of the writers on the origin of the Jews, in order finally to agree in all essential points with the narrative of Lysimachus. "According to the view of some," Tacitus says, "the Jews were descendants of the Ethiopians, whom fear and disinclination compelled, at the time of king Kepheus, to change their dwelling; others say that a horde coming from a.s.syria gained possession of a part of Egypt, and soon after pa.s.sed into the neighbouring parts of Syria, and inhabited the Hebrew land and cities." The latter statement obviously confounds the immigration of the Hyksos and the Jews, and makes them a mingled horde of a.s.syrians, but still is nearest the truth. "Others, again," Tacitus continues, "are of opinion that under the rule of Isis in Egypt, the number of men became too great, and the superfluous mult.i.tudes were settled under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judah in the neighbouring lands. But most authorities agree that under king Bocchoris a contagious disease raged in Egypt, and the oracle of Ammon bade them purify the kingdom and remove the diseased persons out of the land as a race hated by the G.o.ds. Hence the unclean were collected and left behind in the desert. Amid their idle lamentations one of the exiles, Moses, warned them that they had no a.s.sistance to expect from G.o.ds or men, for they were abandoned by both, but they were to trust to him as a heavenly leader by whose a.s.sistance they might be rescued from their present calamities. To this they agreed, and in complete ignorance struck out a path at random. The want of water distressed them most, and almost at death's door they sank upon the ground, when a herd of wild a.s.ses ran from the pasture to a rock covered with trees. Moses followed them, and found copious streams of water. This saved them, and after a march of six days they came on the seventh day to a region where, when they had expelled the inhabitants, they founded a city and a temple. In order to strengthen the nation and establish his own supremacy, Moses gave them new customs, quite opposed to the usages of the rest of the world. What we consider sacred, they regard as profane; and what is permitted to us is forbidden to them. The image of the animal which had shown them an escape from their wanderings, and put an end to their thirst, they placed in the innermost shrine, after they had slain a ram.

in order, as it were, to throw contempt upon Ammon. They abstained from swine's flesh in remembrance of the misery which the leprosy, to which this animal is subject, had once brought upon them. The long hunger which they then endured they still avow by frequent fasts; and as a proof of the fruits once stolen, their bread is unleavened. On the seventh day they rest, because the seventh day brought them to an end of their labours; the seventh year also, induced by their laziness, they have given up to inaction. Others are of opinion that this is done in honour of Saturn, because Saturn completes the highest circle of all the seven stars which rule the fortunes of men, and is of pre-eminent power, and most constellations accomplish their influence and their orbits by the number seven.

"Other abominable customs have come into force owing to their vile corruption. For all the worst of men, despising their hereditary religions, brought money and contributions to them; and because among them stiffnecked belief and ready a.s.sistance was to be found, and deadly hatred towards the rest of the world, their power increased. They do not eat with strangers or make marriages with them; and this nation, otherwise most p.r.o.ne to debauchery, abstains from all strange women.

They have introduced circ.u.mcision in order to distinguish themselves thereby; and those who have adopted their customs follow this practice.

The first lesson learnt by their youth is to hate the G.o.ds, to despise their country, to disregard parents, children, and brothers. Yet they take considerable care to increase their numbers. It is a sin to slay a kinsman, and the souls of all slain in battle and by execution they consider immortal. Hence they have a lively impulse to beget children, and they hold death in contempt. The custom of burying the dead, instead of burning them, they have borrowed from the Egyptians; on the other hand, the Jews alone worship in the spirit a single deity, while the Egyptians offer prayer to many animals and composite images. They also consider it profane to make any images of G.o.d out of perishable material in the form of men, for the deity is the Highest, the Eternal, the Unchangeable and Imperishable. Hence in their cities and temples there are no images. As their priests use the music of flutes and drums, and wear crowns of ivy, and a golden vine was found in the temple, some have thought that they worshipped the conqueror of the East, the G.o.d Bacchus. But the rites are widely different. Bacchus inaugurated blithe and merry festivals; but the customs of the Jews are absurd and melancholy.[649]"