These friendly and hostile, creative and destructive, natural and supernatural powers stood mutually opposed in the religious consciousness of the Syrians. Just as the Egyptians went forward, and saw in the myth of Osiris the beneficent deity as the conqueror of the evil god in the process of vegetative life and in the revolution of the year, so did the Semitic nations unite the beneficent and destructive powers of heaven in the same deities, who in turn dispensed blessing and destruction, and by themselves and in themselves overcame the destructive element. This combination is obvious in the form of Baal of Tyre, whom the Tyrians invoked as the king and protector of their city under the name of Melkarth,i.e.city-king.[536]The Greeks identified this god with their own Heracles; but as the protector of navigation and the god of the sea, they are acquainted with Melkarth, under his native name of Melicertes. Herodotus was astonished at the splendour of the ancient temple of this god at Tyre, at the richness and beauty of the votive offerings, and the two rectangular pillars in the temple, the one of pure gold, the other of emerald, and so large that it shone by night.[537]Hiram, king of Tyre, had dedicated the first about the year 1,000B.C.to Melkarth. To the Phenicians Baal Melkarth was a labouring and conquering deity, who creates new life out of destruction, vanquishes the baneful signs in the zodiac, brings back the sun from perigee and apogee, from excessive heat and wintry cold, to beneficial operation, whose life is seen in the sun's course.[538]When the sun burned with the fiercest glow, and stood in the sign of the lion, then the good sun-god must vanquish thelion or symbol of fiery heat; he pressed the lion to his own breast, forced back into himself the fiery beams, and consumed himself in his own heat. The good sun-god must overcome the evil sun-god, or he must consume himself, so that with renewed youth he may again secure gentler warmth for the earth. When the sun appeared most remote from the earth, Baal of Tyre had gone on a journey or was asleep. In the Phenician colonies in the West, in Crete, Sicily, and at Gades, in the distant land of the setting sun, were pointed out the resting-places of the deity, from which he arose with the vernal sun to new activity and life. At the end of February or the beginning of March the festival of the awakening of the god took place;[539]and if the Greeks tell us that Iolaus awoke the god, Iolaus is merely a Grecised form of Jubal,i. e.the beauty of Baal, and therefore only a mythical expression for the god himself as re-awakening with the beautiful vernal sun.[540]From these ideas of strife and conquest Melkarth could become in the eyes of the Phenicians a warrior-hero, who was thought to have wandered over the earth, as the sun revolves round it, in order to set it free from hostile powers. With this conception may be connected the story that the procreative power was taken from Uranus and transferred to the springs and rivers, and that El's brother Atlas,i. e.Atel, a name which perhaps may be explained as meaning darkness, is overthrown and cast into the abyss. In the legends of the Phenicians it was Melkarth who reduced the barbarous tribes of the distant coasts, who founded the ancient colonies of the Phenicians on the western coasts of the Mediterranean, and set up, as theboundary stone of his wanderings, the two great pillars at the end of the earth, the rocks of Calpe and Abyle on the Straits of Gibraltar. As the restrainer of the burning heat, of the lion, and of giants, Melkarth is the Heracles of the Greeks; as a wandering god who gives order to the life of mankind, he bears, in Greece, the names Minos and Cadmus (the name Kadmon means, "the man of the East"), by which forms they expressed not the deity only, but the old supremacy of the Phenicians, and their settlements on their islands and coasts. The Hebrews tell us that once, when a great drought attacked the land, the priests of Baal assembled at Carmel and invoked the god to consume with his rays the bull which they placed as a sacrifice on the billets of the altar. But the god heard them not. Then Elijah, the prophet of the Jews, mocked them. "Call louder," he said: "perhaps he is meditating or hath a pursuit; he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up again." The priests called louder, and became frantic, and cut themselves with knives and lancets, so that the blood gushed out.[541]
As Baal and Moloch, the beneficent and the baneful powers, were united in Baal of Tyre, and in the form of Melkarth, so also was the goddess of reproduction, of birth, and procreation amalgamated with the warrior goddess, the maiden who brought death. It was this deity which in turn gave blessing and destruction, sensual enjoyment and war, birth and death. She inspired consuming sensual passion, and then caused death to overtake her lover, even if she did not slay him herself. Thus a Roman poet can put into the mouth of a Carthaginian the invocation, "Goddess Astarte, power of gods and men, life andsafety, and again destruction, death, and dissolution."[542]We find that the Venus of Tyre was called Astarte, that at Ashtaroth Karnaim, the ancient seat of the worship of the horned Astarte, the maiden with the horns of the moon, there was a sanctuary of Atargatis,[543]and that fire-festivals were celebrated at Hierapolis in the sanctuary of Atargatis, which festivals belonged to Astarte; that the Urania,i. e.the birth-goddess, of Ascalon, Cyprus, and Cythera became an Aphrodite Areia,i. e.a warlike Aphrodite;[544]that after Cinyras, the king of Byblus, whose daughters paid service to the goddess of Byblus with their bodies, Pygmalion became king, and he regarded with abhorrence the unchaste daughters of Cinyras, and worshipped the pure goddess of heaven, and taught how to appease her anger by human sacrifices.[545]At Carthage a good goddess of the sky (bona cœlestis) was worshipped beside an evil one (inferna cœlestis). If human sacrifices were here burnt to the goddess Dido, just as the supposed foundress of Carthage is said to have burnt herself,[546]her sister Anna,i. e.the charming one, was worshipped with cheerful rites. Other accounts mention that the two sisters Dido and Anna were one and the same goddess. Without doubt they are right. We saw that with the Babylonians the planet Venus, when rising, was the war-goddess Istar, and, when setting, she was Mylitta, the goddess of love (p. 270).
The relation of the Tyrian goddess Astarte to the moon has already been touched upon. As goddess of the moon, she was a changing, wandering deity. With the waning light of the moon she retired intothe gloom of the west, the region of the setting sun; and on the disappearance of the goddess on the "bad evening," the Tyrians performed rites of mourning. As a "wandering goddess,"[547]Astarte was called among the Phenicians Dido,i. e.the rover, and among the Westerns Europa,i. e.the dark one.[548]With the retirement of the goddess was connected the legend how her destructive power was overcome; it showed how Astarte could be worshipped in Tyre as the wife of Melkarth, as Milkath (Melecheth,i. e.queen).[549]The wandering sun-god went in search of the lost goddess. At length he found her in the remote distance, and loosed her girdle; the goddess surrendered herself to him, and sacred marriage changed the warlike goddess into the friendly deity favourable to procreation, Astarte into Ashera, Dido into Anna, Artemis or Athena into Atargatis. The "maiden of the sky" is now the wife of the god of Tyre, the Hera of the sky, the Ada (Athe) of the Syrians. From the embraces of Melkarth and Astarte, the sun-god and the moon-goddess, and the conquest of the cruel goddess of war, spring life, order, and law. The sacred marriage is said to have taken place in the West, at Samothrace, and further still, on the Cadmeia, the citadel of Cadmus,[550]i. e.of the searching Melkarth, and finally beyond the pillars of the god, on the happy islands of the Western Sea, where all fruits of every kind grew spontaneously, especially the applesof life, the pomegranates of Ashera, the apples of the Hesperides,—the pledge of love, the symbol of life and light returning out of darkness. Here also Melkarth sank down to rest in the streams of the Western Sea, which his beams had warmed.[551]
The Syrians did not remain content with combining the beneficent and destructive powers into one form only, into Baal-Melkarth and Astarte-Ashera. While searching for the unity of the divine powers and the divine nature, they also combined the male and female deities into one figure, and the creative and receptive powers were amalgamated in one and the same form. As the combination of mighty heroic power with luxurious sensuality is the practical ideal of the East, so in theory also the highest union of the powers of nature and divine being, the amalgamation of male and female is attained by the same combination. When Astarte had become Ashera, and had surrendered herself to the god, the god in turn surrendered himself to the goddess. He plied female tasks, she carried the weapons. But even their nature became one, their forms were combined. Astarte and the Baal placed at her side became one deity. The male deity of the Moabites was Camos. When Mesha, king of Moab, took Nebo from the Israelites, he dedicated it to Ashtor-Camos.[552]At Carthage Dido-Astarte was represented with the beard of Melkarth.[553]At Paphos there was a standing image of the bearded Aphrodite, which was worshipped as a great divinity. It is this unification which lies at the root of the legends of Heracles (Melkarth) and Omphale (perhaps, mother[554]), of Semiramis and Sardanapalus. At certain festivals of Baal the priests and worshippers of the androgynous deity appeared in red transparent female garments, and were otherwise dressed as women, while the women were dressed as men, and carried swords and lances.[555]The law of the Jews strictly forbids the erection of Astartes and pillars, the bringing of the hire of the harlot or the pay of the fornicator into the house of Jehovah, the tearing of the skin, or the cutting of the hair (which was customary among the Syrians in different ways as the symbol of the worship of certain deities), and insists that no eunuch shall come into the people of Jehovah, that no woman shall wear a man's clothes, and no man the clothes of a woman.[556]
Philo told us above (p. 355) that Eljon of Byblus, who was called the Highest, was slain in conflict with wild beasts, and was worshipped by after generations with libations and sacrifice. In Byblus, under the name Adonis (Adon,i. e.Lord), a god was worshipped, who was thought to have disappeared, or to have been carried off in the bloom of youth. Eljon and Adonis are one and the same form. When the maritime river named after this deity, the Adonis (now Nahr Ibrahim), near Byblus, began to run redin July (Thammuz), owing to the red earth washed down from the mountains, then it was believed that the beautiful Adonis was slain on Libanus by the savage boar of the war-god. With lamentations and cries the women sat in the shrine at Byblus; or lingered by the wayside lamenting the death of Adonis. They cut off their hair, tore their breasts, and cried out—Ailanu, ailanu (woe to us). Adonis was lost, and was now called Thammuz (the Departed).[557]A time of lamentation was observed, during which his wooden image was washed and anointed, and laid upon a bier, which the priests carried about with their garments rent and beards shorn. But the god appeared again; he came to life again, as it seems, with the new spring. And as the lamentations for his death had been excessive, so also was the sensuality with which his return to life was celebrated.[558]Hence we must assume that in Adonis was personified the vernal sun, the bloom of vegetation, which so soon begins to droop. If it was the boar of the war-god,i. e.of Moloch, which slew Adonis, as one account maintains, then in the minds of the Syrians the destructive sun-god, the glow of the midsummer sun which makes vegetation wither, was the cause of the death of Adonis.
Philo further told us of the two sons of the giants, the brothers Samemrumus and Usous, at Tyre (p. 354). The name Samemrumus means the High One of the Sky, a meaning which is clearly confirmed by the Greek attribute Hypsuranius. Hence Samemrumus was the god, the Baal of Tyre, Baal Melkarth. That Usous also was a god of Tyre is clear from the observation of Eusebius, that Usous, a man of little account, had been deified at Tyre beside Melicertes.[559]Usous, who knew how to catch and destroy wild animals, and clad himself in their skins, the ancestor of hunters, reminds us of the Esau of Hebrew tradition. Compared in point of language the names of Usous and Esau coincide: "Usous" (Usov) means, like "Esav," the hairy one. Completely reversing the natural connection, Philo ascribes to Usous the erection of the pillars which belong to his brother, and represents the hunter as embarking on the earliest ship, whereas Samemrumus, the father of the fisherman, must have embarked on the first ship. We saw that the name Sidon means "fish-catchers" (p. 344). Hence the legends of the Phenicians carried back the origin of the Sidonians, to whom not only the city of Sidon but also Tyre belonged, to Baal Melkarth. From this god the tribe of the Sidonians, as it seems, pretended to have sprung. At a later period the mariners of the coast,i. e.the population of the harbour towns, looked down with scorn on the shepherds and hunters of the mountains, although they could not refuse to recognise the greater antiquity of this mode of life. Usous, therefore, must be regarded as the elder brother, the hunter of the mountains, like the Esau of the Hebrews, while the younger Melkarth takes up his abode in Tyre. That Usous is the firstborn is clear from Philo's remark, that Samemrumus rebelled against his brother. The contrast between the two brothers is marked by the statement of Eusebius, that Usous was of little account, more strongly than in Philo. From this we may perhaps conclude that Usous, the older god, was originally looked upon as a hostile power, as Baal Moloch; while in Samemrumus the friendly, helpful, beneficent power of the deity was personified as Baal Melkarth. An obscure trace of the contrast of the two gods is to be found also in thename Surmubel,i. e.Opponent of Baal, in Philo, which seems to belong to Baal Melkarth in opposition to Baal Moloch.[560]
The gods, whom the various cities of the Phenicians worshipped as their tutelary deities, were placed side by side as soon as the feeling of community in the cities became more lively, and intercourse between them more vigorous. Hence it came about that a common worship was also paid to these tutelary deities. Beside their significance in the natural and moral world, there resided from antiquity in certain deities peculiar relations to hunting and agriculture, and it was natural that as naval occupations, trade, and industry developed in the cities, the gods should be brought into relation to these spheres of activity also. In the same degree as it was felt that trade and commerce could only prosper amid internal peace and security in the cities, and under the protection of law and justice, the gods who maintained order in the world must become the protectors of order and law in the cities. In this feeling, and starting from conceptions of this kind, the priests of the Phenicians brought the gods of their cities into a connected system which, following the sacred number seven, included seven gods. The deities brought into this circle were known by the collective name Cabirim, i.e. the "Powerful," the "Great." Among the descendants of the "field" and the "husbandman," Philo has already mentioned Misor,i. e.Sydyk (justice). As powers ruling in justice, law, and equity, and maintaining order in the cities, the Cabiri are the children of Sydyk. The Greeks call them children of the sun-god,i. e.of Baal Samim; and if others connect the Cabiri with Ptah, the god of light among theEgyptians, the conclusion to be drawn is, that it was Baal Samim who, in his relation to the Cabiri, was denoted by the name of the Just, the supreme champion of justice. From the hunter and the fisher Philo derives Chusor, who discovered the working of iron; he calls him Hephæstus (p. 354). Chusor, so far as we can tell, was the foremost deity within the circle of the Cabiri. Phenician coins exhibit him with a leather apron, hammer, and tongs; the name seems to denote "arranger." He was the tutelary god of the life of the cities occupied in navigation and handicraft. Next to Chusor came a female deity, Chusarthis, also called Turo (Thorah, law), whom the Greeks call by the name Harmonia. As the same deity is also called the goddess of the moon, we cannot doubt that Chusarthis is Astarte, which is also sufficiently clear from other evidence; only in the new system the severe goddess was connected in a definite manner with the upholding of justice and preservation of law. Next to Astarte in the series of the Cabiri comes Baal Melkarth of Tyre, who is known to the Greeks under the name of Cadmus. He is regarded as the discoverer of mining and masonry and the inventor of writing. He searches for the lost Harmonia, and with her when found celebrates the sacred marriage. Hence Cadmus could be worshipped in this system as a life-awakening, phallic god, as well as the tutelar god of marriage. A peculiar reverence was enjoyed among the Cabiri by the deity who was added as an eighth to these seven; his name was Esmun,i. e.the Eighth. In this form it seems that the peculiarities of the seven gods were taken up and gathered together. At any rate in Carthage the temple of Esmun stood in the Byrsa, and on the highest part of it. In this temple the holiest relicsof the city were preserved and the most important deliberations held. The Greeks call Esmun by the name of Asclepius, but also add that he was different from the Greek Asclepius. He was, it appears, a healing,i. e.an appeasing deity, like Jasion in the Cabiric mysteries of Samothrace. Esmun is also compared and confounded with Hermes, as with the Thoth of the Egyptians. Just as Thoth revealed the sacred books of the Egyptians, did Esmun reveal the sacred books of the Phenicians. Esmun was represented with a serpent in his hand as the serpent-holder (Ophiuchus), and his head as surrounded by eight rays. The forms of the eight tutelar gods were carved by the Phenicians on the prows of their ships; it was the Cabiri, as Philo told us, who discovered the ship. Even now Phenician coins exhibit the Cabiri in that dwarfed and distorted form in which the Phenicians loved to represent the nature and superhuman power of the gods.[561]
From the circumstance that the Greeks, when settling in Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace, and Rhodes, found the worship of the Cabiri in existence, and adopted it, though not without certain alterations, we may conclude that the Cabiric system was established before the year 1000B.C.In the tutelary gods of the sea-loving nation of the Phenicians the Greeks recognised and worshipped the deities favourable to mariners, and from this side they combined them with their own Dioscuri. On the other side the myth of Melkarth and Astarte, who were adopted into this circle of divinities, the myth of Melkarth, who discovers the lost moon-goddess in the land of gloom, and returns thence with her to new light and life, and who wakesto new life after the slumber of the winter, gave the Greeks an opportunity of connecting with the mysteries of the Cabiri those conceptions of the life after death, which grew up among them after the beginning of the sixth century.
When the great deities had been combined with the circle of the Cabiri, the subordinate spirits followed in their course. By degrees a scheme of thrice seven was reached, a scheme of twenty-one or rather twenty-two deities, since an eighth was added to the seven Cabiri. These, beginning with El, were arranged according to the twenty-two letters of the Phenician alphabet, and stood in a certain relation to them. From this number of deities, their various names, and the order of succession, various schemes of the origin of the gods were developed, and with the help of these genealogies certain systems of theogony and cosmogony were formed, of which the dislocated and confused fragments were found in Philo; and the chief of them I have given above. The wind Kolpia (p. 353) modern research would explain by Kol-pyah,i. e."breath of the month;" Baau, the wife of this wind, by Bohu,i. e.Chaos, the Tohu-wa-Bohu of the Hebrews. The more abstract the potentialities with which these systems begin, the later we may assume their origin to be.
Like the Arabs, the Syrians originally worshipped their gods upon the mountains and in stones; then they erected pillars of wood and stone to them, and images, figures of bulls, or shapes combined from the forms of men and fish. They also erected statues male and female, or androgynous. At the great festivals the sacred tents and chests in which ancient symbols and tokens of the deities were preserved, orthe images of the gods, were carried round in solemn procession.[562]Of the festival in the temple of Atargatis, at Hierapolis, we have already spoken (p. 360); of the fire-festival which the Tyrians held in the spring, Lucian tells us: "They trim great trees, set them up in the court of the temple, and bring goats, sheep, birds, and other victims. These they fasten to the trees, and in addition, clothes and gold and silver jewellery. After these preliminaries they carry the images of the gods round the trees; the pyre is then kindled, and all consumed."[563]
As we may conclude from Lucian's account and from ruins, the temples were on a tolerably extensive scale. There were two or three courts, one after the other, either rectangular as at Paphus and Marathus, or oval, as at Malta and Gaulus, surrounded by strong walls, and furnished with pillars, altars, and pools of water. With these was connected a narrow and small shrine, containing the sacred stone or image. The tithes belonged to the gods. Every year, at the festival of Melkarth, in Tyre, an embassy appeared from Carthage which offered to the god of the mother city the tenth of the revenue of their state, and after great victories the Carthaginians probably sent a tenth of the spoil to the gods of Tyre.[564]The number of priests was great; we often find hundreds engaged in a single sacrifice,[565]and the ritual was complicated. The human sacrifices, mutilation, and prostitution, by which the Syrians sought to win the favour of their deities, we have already heard of. At a later time at all the great sanctuaries there were thousands ofmale and female servants beside the priests. The priests lived on the tithes, the temple lands, and the part which fell to them in the sacrifices. The ritual distinguished burnt offerings, offerings of purification, expiatory offerings, and offerings of the first fruits; besides animals and the firstlings of the field, sacrificial cakes were frequently offered. The bull was the most acceptable victim; cows were not sacrificed, nor the flesh eaten. Beside bulls, rams and he-goats, and of birds, the dove, the partridge, the quail, and the goose were offered. The animals were required to be pure, without blemish, of the male sex, and capable of procreation. To guard against the offering of unclean beasts, the priests of Hierapolis refused to sacrifice any but those bought from themselves.[566]Two Phenician inscriptions of Massilia and Carthage have come down to us from the fourth centuryB.C., containing the edicts of the Carthaginian Suffetes about the part of the sacrifice belonging to the priests, the fee to be paid for the sacrifice, and finally the price of the victims purchased of the priests. The Carthaginian inscription lays down the rule that of a bull, a ram, or a goat, offered as a burnt-offering, the skin was to be the property of the priests and the inwards the property of the person presenting the victim. Moreover, of every victim offered, the cut and roasted flesh went to the priests. On the other hand, the inscription of Massilia gives the skin to those who present the victim (the law of the Hebrews also gives the skin of a burnt-offering to the man who offers the victim), but according to this decree the victims must be bought from the priests. For a bull ten shekels were to be paid to them, andthough the tariff at Carthage lays upon the sacrificer a fee of only 2susfor each head of fowl sacrificed, the inscription of Massilia raises the fee to 3/4 of a shekel and 2 sus.[567]
FOOTNOTES:[497]In Strabo, p. 756.[498]Philo. Frag. 1. ed. Müller.[499]Philon. frag. 1, 6, 7, ed. Müller.[500]Loc. cit.2, 1-4, ed. Müller; cf. Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 257 ff.[501]Such is obviously the meaning of this passage.—Baudissin, "Abh. z. semit. Relig." s. 14.[502]Fragm. 2, 4, 5, ed. Müller.[503]Pausan. 5, 7, 10.[504]"Hist. Nat." 36, 65.[505]Athar-ath,i. e.Astarte-Athe; Brandis, "Münzwesen," s. 431. Diod. 2, 4, 30. 2 Maccab. xi. 26.[506]Herod. 1, 105. Pausan. 1, 14, 7.[507]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 16. The cutting off of the hair which Lucian mentions is also a vicarious custom.[508]Justin. 18, 3.[509]Movers, "PhÅ“niz." Encycl. v. Ersch. s. 388, ff.[510]2 Kings xxiii. 7. Ezek. xxiii. 40, ff.[511]Movers, "PhÅ“niz." 1, 197, 579; Munter, "Tempel der Göttin von Paphos," and the Syrian coins in De Luynes, "Numismatique," pl. 1. Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 13, 28. On the pillars of Marathus and Paphos, Gerhard, "Kunst der PhÅ“niker," s. 23.[512]Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 4; Diod. 2, 4; Lucian,loc. cit.14.[513]Lucian,loc. cit.33, 39.[514]Stark, "Forschungen," s. 248, ff.[515]Avien. "Ora maritima," v. 305.[516]De Bell. Parth. 28.[517]Judges xiv. 23; 1 Samuel, v. ff.[518]Gesenius, "Monum. Tab." 25. Silius Ital. Pun. 3, 104.[519]Osborne, "Egypt," p. 144.[520]Baudissin ("Jahve et Moloch," p. 47) regards the amalgamation of Moloch and Adar as of later origin; to me the connection between Saturn and the sun (Diod. 2, 30) appears of later origin.[521]e. g.Diod. 20, 65.[522]Justin. 18, 6. 19, 1; Plin. "H. N." 36, 4.[523]Curtius, 4, 15, ed. Mützell; "Porphyr. de Abstinentiâ," 2, 56.[524]Euseb. "Præcept. Evang." 4, 26.[525]2 Kings iii. 27; see below.[526]Diod. 13, 86.[527]Diod. 20, 14.[528]Plut. "De Superstitione," p. 171; Sil. Ital. 4, 767.[529]Numen virginale; virgo cælestis.[530]De Luynes, "Numism." pl. v.; Hockh. "Kreta," 1, 98.[531]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," 4, 32; Augustin, "De Civitate Dei," 2, 26.[532]Movers, "Religion der PhÅ“n." s. 605, 611, 621 ff.[533]Procop. "De bello Persico," 2, 28.[534]Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 15, 27, 43, 50, 51.[535]Movers, "Religion der PhÅ“n.," s. 681.[536]"Our Lord Melkarth, Baal of Tyre," as he is called in an inscription found at Malta.[537]Herod. 2, 44; Plin. H. N. 37, 75; Theophr. "De Lap." 25.[538]Thus Virgil says of the minstrel of Dido: "Canit errantem lunam, solisque labores," Æn. 1, 742.[539]Joseph. Ant. 8, 53; Movers, "Religion der PhÅ“nizier," s. 150.[540]Athen. p. 392; Movers,loc. cit.s. 536.[541]1 Kings xviii. 28.[542]Plaut. "Merc." 4, 6.[543]Cic. "De Nat. Deorum," 3, 23; 1 Macc. v. 43; 2, xii. 26.[544]Pausan. 3, 23, 1.[545]Movers, "PhÅ“niz." 2, 230.[546]Sil. Ital. 4, 81, 819; Justin. 18, 6.[547]Virg. "Æn." 1, 742.[548]Hesychius: "Εá½Ïωπὸν σκοτεινόν, πλατÏ. Εá½Ïώπη ἡ χώÏα τῆς δÏσεως ἤ σκοτεινή." That Europe is Astarte follows from Hesychius: "Ἑλλωπία, ἑοÏÏ„á½´ Εá½Ïώπης á¼Î½ ΚÏήτῃ." The "Etymolog. Mag." pp. 232, 333, says: "Europa was anciently called Hellotia, 'ὅτι οἱ φοίνικες τὴν παÏθÎνον Ἑλλωτίαν καλοῦσιν.'" Eloth signifies "goddess."[549]Jeremiah vii. 18; xliv. 17-23.[550]Pindar, "Pyth." 3, 90; Cic. "De Nat. Deor." 3, 23.[551]Appian, "De Reb. Hisp." c. 2; Movers, "Kolonieen der PhÅ“nizier," s. 63 ff. We shall see below what a conglomeration of fables the Greeks have gathered round the wandering Astarte, who rides on a bull and is represented with the crescent of the moon, and a cow's horns. With them she is not only Europe whom the Bull-Zeus carries from PhÅ“nicia, who is sought by Cadmus the son of PhÅ“nix. In her crescent and cow's horns they also recognise their Argive Moon-goddess, Io, and represent her as wandering to PhÅ“nicia and Egypt, where Isis, who here again wears the cow's horns or head, or is entirely represented as a cow, becomes their Io. The wanderings of Dido-Astarte then became confused with the stories of Helena, with the wanderings and fortunes of the foundress of Carthage, and the travels of Æneas, the favourite of Aphrodite, were directed to the most famous seats of the worship of Ashera.[552]Nöldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa."[553]Serv. ad Æn. 2, 632; Gerhard, "Kunst der PhÅ“niker," s. 36, 38.[554]According to Lenormant,um-pali, "mother of the sword."[555]Joh. Lyd. "De Mensibus," 4, 46.[556]Lev. xix, 27-29; Deut. xiv. 1; xxii. 5; xvi. 21; xxiii. 1.[557]Ezek. viii. 14.[558]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 8; Strabo, p. 755.[559]"De Laudib. Constant." c. 13.[560]Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 379.[561]Herod. 3, 37; Gerhard, "Kunst der PhÅ“nicker Taf." 4, 5; Movers, "PhÅ“nizier," 2, 87-99; "PhÅ“niz." in Ersch. s. 391 ff.[562]Jerem. x. 5; Baruch, vi. 3, xxv. 26; Diod. 20, 65.[563]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 49.[564]Polyb. 31, 20; Diod. 20, 14; Just. 18, 7; Curt, 4, 13.[565]1 Kings xviii. 17-24.[566]Movers, "PhÅ“niz." in Ersch. s. 419.[567]Movers, "Opferwesen der Karthager," s. 8; Blau, "Opfertarif von Karthago;" Zeitschrift d. d. M. G. 16, 438.
[497]In Strabo, p. 756.
[497]In Strabo, p. 756.
[498]Philo. Frag. 1. ed. Müller.
[498]Philo. Frag. 1. ed. Müller.
[499]Philon. frag. 1, 6, 7, ed. Müller.
[499]Philon. frag. 1, 6, 7, ed. Müller.
[500]Loc. cit.2, 1-4, ed. Müller; cf. Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 257 ff.
[500]Loc. cit.2, 1-4, ed. Müller; cf. Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 257 ff.
[501]Such is obviously the meaning of this passage.—Baudissin, "Abh. z. semit. Relig." s. 14.
[501]Such is obviously the meaning of this passage.—Baudissin, "Abh. z. semit. Relig." s. 14.
[502]Fragm. 2, 4, 5, ed. Müller.
[502]Fragm. 2, 4, 5, ed. Müller.
[503]Pausan. 5, 7, 10.
[503]Pausan. 5, 7, 10.
[504]"Hist. Nat." 36, 65.
[504]"Hist. Nat." 36, 65.
[505]Athar-ath,i. e.Astarte-Athe; Brandis, "Münzwesen," s. 431. Diod. 2, 4, 30. 2 Maccab. xi. 26.
[505]Athar-ath,i. e.Astarte-Athe; Brandis, "Münzwesen," s. 431. Diod. 2, 4, 30. 2 Maccab. xi. 26.
[506]Herod. 1, 105. Pausan. 1, 14, 7.
[506]Herod. 1, 105. Pausan. 1, 14, 7.
[507]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 16. The cutting off of the hair which Lucian mentions is also a vicarious custom.
[507]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 16. The cutting off of the hair which Lucian mentions is also a vicarious custom.
[508]Justin. 18, 3.
[508]Justin. 18, 3.
[509]Movers, "Phœniz." Encycl. v. Ersch. s. 388, ff.
[509]Movers, "Phœniz." Encycl. v. Ersch. s. 388, ff.
[510]2 Kings xxiii. 7. Ezek. xxiii. 40, ff.
[510]2 Kings xxiii. 7. Ezek. xxiii. 40, ff.
[511]Movers, "Phœniz." 1, 197, 579; Munter, "Tempel der Göttin von Paphos," and the Syrian coins in De Luynes, "Numismatique," pl. 1. Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 13, 28. On the pillars of Marathus and Paphos, Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœniker," s. 23.
[511]Movers, "Phœniz." 1, 197, 579; Munter, "Tempel der Göttin von Paphos," and the Syrian coins in De Luynes, "Numismatique," pl. 1. Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 13, 28. On the pillars of Marathus and Paphos, Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœniker," s. 23.
[512]Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 4; Diod. 2, 4; Lucian,loc. cit.14.
[512]Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 4; Diod. 2, 4; Lucian,loc. cit.14.
[513]Lucian,loc. cit.33, 39.
[513]Lucian,loc. cit.33, 39.
[514]Stark, "Forschungen," s. 248, ff.
[514]Stark, "Forschungen," s. 248, ff.
[515]Avien. "Ora maritima," v. 305.
[515]Avien. "Ora maritima," v. 305.
[516]De Bell. Parth. 28.
[516]De Bell. Parth. 28.
[517]Judges xiv. 23; 1 Samuel, v. ff.
[517]Judges xiv. 23; 1 Samuel, v. ff.
[518]Gesenius, "Monum. Tab." 25. Silius Ital. Pun. 3, 104.
[518]Gesenius, "Monum. Tab." 25. Silius Ital. Pun. 3, 104.
[519]Osborne, "Egypt," p. 144.
[519]Osborne, "Egypt," p. 144.
[520]Baudissin ("Jahve et Moloch," p. 47) regards the amalgamation of Moloch and Adar as of later origin; to me the connection between Saturn and the sun (Diod. 2, 30) appears of later origin.
[520]Baudissin ("Jahve et Moloch," p. 47) regards the amalgamation of Moloch and Adar as of later origin; to me the connection between Saturn and the sun (Diod. 2, 30) appears of later origin.
[521]e. g.Diod. 20, 65.
[521]e. g.Diod. 20, 65.
[522]Justin. 18, 6. 19, 1; Plin. "H. N." 36, 4.
[522]Justin. 18, 6. 19, 1; Plin. "H. N." 36, 4.
[523]Curtius, 4, 15, ed. Mützell; "Porphyr. de Abstinentiâ," 2, 56.
[523]Curtius, 4, 15, ed. Mützell; "Porphyr. de Abstinentiâ," 2, 56.
[524]Euseb. "Præcept. Evang." 4, 26.
[524]Euseb. "Præcept. Evang." 4, 26.
[525]2 Kings iii. 27; see below.
[525]2 Kings iii. 27; see below.
[526]Diod. 13, 86.
[526]Diod. 13, 86.
[527]Diod. 20, 14.
[527]Diod. 20, 14.
[528]Plut. "De Superstitione," p. 171; Sil. Ital. 4, 767.
[528]Plut. "De Superstitione," p. 171; Sil. Ital. 4, 767.
[529]Numen virginale; virgo cælestis.
[529]Numen virginale; virgo cælestis.
[530]De Luynes, "Numism." pl. v.; Hockh. "Kreta," 1, 98.
[530]De Luynes, "Numism." pl. v.; Hockh. "Kreta," 1, 98.
[531]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," 4, 32; Augustin, "De Civitate Dei," 2, 26.
[531]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," 4, 32; Augustin, "De Civitate Dei," 2, 26.
[532]Movers, "Religion der Phœn." s. 605, 611, 621 ff.
[532]Movers, "Religion der Phœn." s. 605, 611, 621 ff.
[533]Procop. "De bello Persico," 2, 28.
[533]Procop. "De bello Persico," 2, 28.
[534]Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 15, 27, 43, 50, 51.
[534]Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 15, 27, 43, 50, 51.
[535]Movers, "Religion der Phœn.," s. 681.
[535]Movers, "Religion der Phœn.," s. 681.
[536]"Our Lord Melkarth, Baal of Tyre," as he is called in an inscription found at Malta.
[536]"Our Lord Melkarth, Baal of Tyre," as he is called in an inscription found at Malta.
[537]Herod. 2, 44; Plin. H. N. 37, 75; Theophr. "De Lap." 25.
[537]Herod. 2, 44; Plin. H. N. 37, 75; Theophr. "De Lap." 25.
[538]Thus Virgil says of the minstrel of Dido: "Canit errantem lunam, solisque labores," Æn. 1, 742.
[538]Thus Virgil says of the minstrel of Dido: "Canit errantem lunam, solisque labores," Æn. 1, 742.
[539]Joseph. Ant. 8, 53; Movers, "Religion der Phœnizier," s. 150.
[539]Joseph. Ant. 8, 53; Movers, "Religion der Phœnizier," s. 150.
[540]Athen. p. 392; Movers,loc. cit.s. 536.
[540]Athen. p. 392; Movers,loc. cit.s. 536.
[541]1 Kings xviii. 28.
[541]1 Kings xviii. 28.
[542]Plaut. "Merc." 4, 6.
[542]Plaut. "Merc." 4, 6.
[543]Cic. "De Nat. Deorum," 3, 23; 1 Macc. v. 43; 2, xii. 26.
[543]Cic. "De Nat. Deorum," 3, 23; 1 Macc. v. 43; 2, xii. 26.
[544]Pausan. 3, 23, 1.
[544]Pausan. 3, 23, 1.
[545]Movers, "Phœniz." 2, 230.
[545]Movers, "Phœniz." 2, 230.
[546]Sil. Ital. 4, 81, 819; Justin. 18, 6.
[546]Sil. Ital. 4, 81, 819; Justin. 18, 6.
[547]Virg. "Æn." 1, 742.
[547]Virg. "Æn." 1, 742.
[548]Hesychius: "Εá½Ïωπὸν σκοτεινόν, πλατÏ. Εá½Ïώπη ἡ χώÏα τῆς δÏσεως ἤ σκοτεινή." That Europe is Astarte follows from Hesychius: "Ἑλλωπία, ἑοÏÏ„á½´ Εá½Ïώπης á¼Î½ ΚÏήτῃ." The "Etymolog. Mag." pp. 232, 333, says: "Europa was anciently called Hellotia, 'ὅτι οἱ φοίνικες τὴν παÏθÎνον Ἑλλωτίαν καλοῦσιν.'" Eloth signifies "goddess."
[548]Hesychius: "Εá½Ïωπὸν σκοτεινόν, πλατÏ. Εá½Ïώπη ἡ χώÏα τῆς δÏσεως ἤ σκοτεινή." That Europe is Astarte follows from Hesychius: "Ἑλλωπία, ἑοÏÏ„á½´ Εá½Ïώπης á¼Î½ ΚÏήτῃ." The "Etymolog. Mag." pp. 232, 333, says: "Europa was anciently called Hellotia, 'ὅτι οἱ φοίνικες τὴν παÏθÎνον Ἑλλωτίαν καλοῦσιν.'" Eloth signifies "goddess."
[549]Jeremiah vii. 18; xliv. 17-23.
[549]Jeremiah vii. 18; xliv. 17-23.
[550]Pindar, "Pyth." 3, 90; Cic. "De Nat. Deor." 3, 23.
[550]Pindar, "Pyth." 3, 90; Cic. "De Nat. Deor." 3, 23.
[551]Appian, "De Reb. Hisp." c. 2; Movers, "Kolonieen der Phœnizier," s. 63 ff. We shall see below what a conglomeration of fables the Greeks have gathered round the wandering Astarte, who rides on a bull and is represented with the crescent of the moon, and a cow's horns. With them she is not only Europe whom the Bull-Zeus carries from Phœnicia, who is sought by Cadmus the son of Phœnix. In her crescent and cow's horns they also recognise their Argive Moon-goddess, Io, and represent her as wandering to Phœnicia and Egypt, where Isis, who here again wears the cow's horns or head, or is entirely represented as a cow, becomes their Io. The wanderings of Dido-Astarte then became confused with the stories of Helena, with the wanderings and fortunes of the foundress of Carthage, and the travels of Æneas, the favourite of Aphrodite, were directed to the most famous seats of the worship of Ashera.
[551]Appian, "De Reb. Hisp." c. 2; Movers, "Kolonieen der Phœnizier," s. 63 ff. We shall see below what a conglomeration of fables the Greeks have gathered round the wandering Astarte, who rides on a bull and is represented with the crescent of the moon, and a cow's horns. With them she is not only Europe whom the Bull-Zeus carries from Phœnicia, who is sought by Cadmus the son of Phœnix. In her crescent and cow's horns they also recognise their Argive Moon-goddess, Io, and represent her as wandering to Phœnicia and Egypt, where Isis, who here again wears the cow's horns or head, or is entirely represented as a cow, becomes their Io. The wanderings of Dido-Astarte then became confused with the stories of Helena, with the wanderings and fortunes of the foundress of Carthage, and the travels of Æneas, the favourite of Aphrodite, were directed to the most famous seats of the worship of Ashera.
[552]Nöldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa."
[552]Nöldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa."
[553]Serv. ad Æn. 2, 632; Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœniker," s. 36, 38.
[553]Serv. ad Æn. 2, 632; Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœniker," s. 36, 38.
[554]According to Lenormant,um-pali, "mother of the sword."
[554]According to Lenormant,um-pali, "mother of the sword."
[555]Joh. Lyd. "De Mensibus," 4, 46.
[555]Joh. Lyd. "De Mensibus," 4, 46.
[556]Lev. xix, 27-29; Deut. xiv. 1; xxii. 5; xvi. 21; xxiii. 1.
[556]Lev. xix, 27-29; Deut. xiv. 1; xxii. 5; xvi. 21; xxiii. 1.
[557]Ezek. viii. 14.
[557]Ezek. viii. 14.
[558]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 8; Strabo, p. 755.
[558]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 8; Strabo, p. 755.
[559]"De Laudib. Constant." c. 13.
[559]"De Laudib. Constant." c. 13.
[560]Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 379.
[560]Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 379.
[561]Herod. 3, 37; Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœnicker Taf." 4, 5; Movers, "Phœnizier," 2, 87-99; "Phœniz." in Ersch. s. 391 ff.
[561]Herod. 3, 37; Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœnicker Taf." 4, 5; Movers, "Phœnizier," 2, 87-99; "Phœniz." in Ersch. s. 391 ff.
[562]Jerem. x. 5; Baruch, vi. 3, xxv. 26; Diod. 20, 65.
[562]Jerem. x. 5; Baruch, vi. 3, xxv. 26; Diod. 20, 65.
[563]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 49.
[563]Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 49.
[564]Polyb. 31, 20; Diod. 20, 14; Just. 18, 7; Curt, 4, 13.
[564]Polyb. 31, 20; Diod. 20, 14; Just. 18, 7; Curt, 4, 13.
[565]1 Kings xviii. 17-24.
[565]1 Kings xviii. 17-24.
[566]Movers, "Phœniz." in Ersch. s. 419.
[566]Movers, "Phœniz." in Ersch. s. 419.
[567]Movers, "Opferwesen der Karthager," s. 8; Blau, "Opfertarif von Karthago;" Zeitschrift d. d. M. G. 16, 438.
[567]Movers, "Opferwesen der Karthager," s. 8; Blau, "Opfertarif von Karthago;" Zeitschrift d. d. M. G. 16, 438.
The tradition of the Hebrews of the early history and fortunes of their people previous to the settlement in Canaan is contained in the books of the Pentateuch. After they had settled in that land and had passed beyond the loose combination of their tribes to the unity of civic life, after a monarchy had been established, and under it a metropolis and a centre for the national religion had been founded, the priesthood engaged in this worship began to collect together ritualistic observances and customs of law, and to write them down in combination with anything still living about their early history in the traditions of their families. The Hebrews had found existing in Canaan that ancient and many-sided civilisation the nature and extent of which we have already attempted to describe. Of their own history they could have preserved nothing but prominent facts and decisive crises. Songs of praise and victory which celebrated the great events of the Hebrew past, such as the exodus from Egypt and the victories won over the Canaanites, of which some were already written down,[568]forms of blessing, genealogies,[569]isolated fragments of the moral law, or time-honoured sacrificial custom, or ancient rules of justice,[570]and finally narration of the wars,[571]constituted fixed points of connection in this tradition. At the new centre of religious worship the whole stock of existing ritual and custom had to be brought under review, and from hence provision made for the use of the true and acceptable kind of sacrifice, and sentence of law. The consideration of the marvellous lot which had fallen to the Hebrews, the rise of a feeble shepherd tribe under the powerful protection of Egypt, the liberation from the dominion of this great kingdom, the conquest of Canaan, the capture of ancient and strongly-fortified cities, "of fields which they had not tilled, of vineyards and olive-gardens which they had not planted, of wells which they had not dug, of cities which they had not builded," caused the Hebrews to recognise in the favour which had attended them the direct guidance of their deity. This grace would remain with them if they continued to worship the god of their fathers according to his will, in the way acceptable to him. Thus to the priests, who undertook the task of writing down the tradition, the nation appeared as a chosen people from the beginning, to whom their god had early given his blessing. In return for such grace and beneficence the Hebrews had to obey his law. This is the "covenant" which Jehovah has made with them.[572]This law, therefore, must be carefully recorded, in order that it may be obeyed exactly in every particular by the priests themselves, as by the judges and all the nation.
On the basis of this tradition, these songs and poems, genealogies and ancient records, and under the guidance of the views just pointed out, there arose atHebron, in the first decade of the reign of David, within the circle of a priestly family, which apparently claimed to be sprung from Aaron, the brother of Moses, the Judæan text of the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.[573]Composed as annals, this text deals primarily with the connection and course of the fortunes of Israel; the central point is the covenant between Jehovah (Elohim) and Israel, Israel and Jehovah, and the law, which is the body of this covenant.[574]The unity of religious worship and the centralisation of it at one place and one only is brought prominently forward, and this could not have happened till political unity had been obtained, a metropolis founded, and a seat erected there for the worship of the whole nation, or at least contemplated, if not erected. The law for the priests, the minute details of ritual which make up the chief part of this text, were, in the view of the priests, given at that mighty time when Moses led the people; though, as a matter of fact, only a few of the fundamental precepts reached so far back (see below). The centralisation of the worship also at one place of sacrifice, the command to have a common place of worship, was thought to have been in existence as early as the time of Moses, and to have been prescribed even when the Hebrews were in the desert. And the priests were more inclined to believe that the ideal sought after for their religion, for Church and State, belonged to the time of Moses, because in those days of piety and exaltation the true ordinances must have been in existence, and certain sacrificial institutions, certain principles of law and morality, actually came down from that period.
Not long after this first text arose a second, which, however, can hardly have been composed in priestly circles, and certainly did not come from Judah. With the author of this second text, it is not the collection and establishment of the law, and the desire to insist on the obedience to it, which is the main point. It is rather the personal fortunes of the fathers of the race, in which the divine guidance is shown, the manifestations of the deity in their favour, the revelations made to them by divine messengers, the importance of old customs and old names, on which he lays especial weight. He also availed himself of older written sources.[575]The language and style of this second text are more lively, versatile, and distinct than those of the first; and the importance which he ascribes to the fortunes of Joseph and the tribes of Ephraim confirms the assumption that the author belonged to this tribe. The origin of this second text falls in the second half of Solomon's reign, or immediately after it—in the decades from 970 to 950B.C.[576]
About a hundred years later, towards the middle of the ninth centuryB.C., both these texts were combined and transformed into one work. The author of this combined text (the Jahvist) was guided by the feelings and views of the prophets. He is superior to the authors of the two texts in versatility, in reflection, and vivid power of imagination. Not only did he work up the two texts into one and insert into the whole his own views, but he has added some sections, the materials of which must have been furnished partly by tradition and partly bywritten records.[577]In this shape were the first four books of the Pentateuch, the beginning and the end of the fifth book, and the book of Joshua, at the time of the prophets Amos and Hosea. The "Second Law,"i. e.the main portion of the fifth book of the Pentateuch,[578]on the other hand, was not written till the time of king Josiah, about 625B.C., and was then added to the rest. The author of this second law also revised the book of Joshua.[579]
If we compare the Hebrew account of the Creation with the cosmogonies of Berosus and Philo (pp.257,353), and the narrative of Noah's deluge with the description of the flood on the Assyrian tablets and in Berosus (p. 240 ff.), we see at the first glance how far asunder the conceptions lie—with what clearness and vigour the Hebrews have succeeded in purifying and exalting the rude fancies of the nations so closely akin to them—the ancient common possession of the Eastern Semitic tribes, from whom the Hebrews were sprung. This power—the patient labour, the serious and thoughtful effort to deepen the traditions of the past into an ethical significance, to sublimate legends into simple moral teaching, and transplant the myth into the region of moral earnestness and moral purpose—to pass beyond the rude naturalism of their kinsmen into the supernatural—from the varied polytheism of Babel and Canaan to monotheism—this it is which gives to the Hebrews the first place, and not among Semitic nations only, in the sphere of religious feeling and development. At a later period the Greeks understood how to breathe life, beauty and nobility into the gods of the Phenicians, whoserites came over to Hellas; they could change Ashera-Bilit, the goddess of prostitution, into the youthful Aphrodite, the goddess of blooming grace, and the highest charm of love; but the Hebrews practised the severer, sterner, and loftier task of carrying religious feeling beyond the life of nature, of conceiving the highest power as morally in opposition to natural impulses and forces, of publishing the supremacy of the intellectual and moral over the natural being.
Adam begot Seth, so we are told in the first book of the Pentateuch, and Seth begot Enos, and Enos begot Kenan, and Kenan begot Mahalaleel, and Mahalaleel begot Jared, and Jared begot Enoch, and Enoch begot Methuselah, and Methuselah begot Lamech, and Lamech begot Noah, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth was full of evil, but Noah walked with God. Then God said to Noah: Make for thyself an ark of gopher-wood, 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height. For I will send a flood upon the earth to destroy under the heaven all flesh wherein is the breath of life. But with thee I make my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou and thy three sons and thy wife, and the three wives of thy sons with thee. And of all living creatures thou shalt bring two into the ark, male and female shall they be. And Noah did as God commanded him. When Noah was 600 years old, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and there was rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and the waters rose and lifted the ark. And the flood was mighty, and all the high mountains that are under heaven were covered; the water rose fifteen cubitsabove the tops of the mountains. For 150 days the flood was mighty on the earth. Then God caused a wind to blow, and the waters sank. And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested on the mountains of the land of Ararat; and in the tenth month, on the first day, the tops of the mountains appeared. It came to pass after forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark, and sent out a raven; but it flew to and fro. Then he sent out a dove, to see whether the water had retired from the earth. But the dove found no place of rest, and returned to the ark. And Noah remained seven days more, and again sent out the dove. Then the dove came to him at evening, and lo! a fresh olive-branch was in her mouth. And he remained yet seven days, and again sent out the dove, but she returned to him no more. Then Noah opened the door of the ark and looked out, and lo! the earth was dry. And in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the earth was dry. And Noah went out of the ark, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons, and he built an altar to Jehovah, and took of all clean beasts and birds and offered a burnt sacrifice upon the altar. After the flood sons were born to the sons of Noah. The sons of Shem were Elam and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud and Aram. Arphaxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. Eber had two sons, the name of the one was Peleg, and the name of the other Joktan. Peleg begot Reu, and Reu begot Serug, and Serug begot Nahor, and Nahor begot Terah.
Terah dwelt in the land of his nativity at Ur in Chaldæa, and his sons were Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot and Milcah and Iscah, and died before his father at Ur in Chaldæa. Nahor tookMilcah to wife, and Abraham took Sarah. And Terah went with Abraham his son, and Lot the son of Haran, from Ur in Chaldæa to Haran and dwelt there. But Jehovah said to Abraham: "Go from thy land, and thy home, and thy father's house, to a land which I will show thee." Then Abraham took Sarah his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods, and the souls born to them in Haran, and went forth from Haran. He came unto the land of Canaan as far as Sichem and to the oak Moreh, and there he built to Jehovah an altar; and afterwards he went towards the mountain and pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai, and there he built an altar to Jehovah, and journeyed towards the south. And when the famine was sore in the land, Abraham, and Lot with him, went to Egypt, and Pharaoh, for Sarah's sake, gave Abraham sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. But Jehovah smote Pharaoh with great plagues, so that he let Abraham and Sarah go, and bade men guide him.
Then Abraham dwelt again at Bethel, and was very rich in flocks, in silver and gold. Lot also had tents and sheep and oxen, and there was a strife between the shepherds of Abraham and the shepherds of Lot. Then Abraham said to Lot: "Let there be no strife between my shepherds and thine, for we are brethren. If thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go to the right." Then Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw the land of Jordan, that it was watered as a garden of the Lord; and he set forth at morning, and pitched his tents at Sodom. But Jehovah said to Abraham: "Lift up thine eyes; the whole land which thou seest I will give to thee and thy seed for ever; rise up and go through the length and breadth of the land, for I willgive it to thee." And Abraham pitched his tents under the oaks, which are at Kirjath-Arba (Hebron), and there built an altar to Jehovah.
For twelve years the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Adamah, Zeboiim and Zoar, had served Kedor-Laomer, king of Elam. Then they rebelled; and in the fourteenth year Kedor-Laomer, and the kings who were with him, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Tidal and Arioch of Elassar, smote the Rephaims at Ashtaroth-Karnaim, the Zuzims at Ham, and the Emims at Shaveh-Kiriathaim, and the Horites on their mountain of Seir, and smote the whole land of the Amalekites and Amorites. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah also, of Adamah, Zeboiim and Zoar, who had drawn out against them in the valley of Siddim, were put to flight, and fled to the mountains, and all the goods and all the food in Sodom and Gomorrah were taken, and they also took Lot and his goods. When Abraham heard that his brother's son was carried away, he set forth with his servants, 318 in number, and fell upon them by night at Dan, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is to the west of Damascus, and brought back all the goods and Lot and the people that were captured. The king of Sodom came to him and said: Give me the souls, and take the goods for thyself. But Abraham said: I lift up my hand to Jehovah that I will take nothing of thee, save what my servants have eaten.
Abraham dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, but his wife bore him no son. But he had an Egyptian maid-servant whose name was Hagar. Her Sarah gave him to wife, and Hagar was with child, and the angel of Jehovah announced to her that she should bear a son who would be like a wild ass, and his hand would be against every man and every man'shand against him, and he would dwell to the east of his brethren. And Hagar bore Abraham a son, and Abraham named him Ishmael. Then he received the promise that Sarah also should bear a son, "from whom should arise kings and nations;" and when he was 100 years old, and in the south between Kadesh and Sur, Sarah bore him a son. Abraham named him Isaac, and circumcised him when he was eight days old. The year before he had circumcised Ishmael, for God had said: This is the covenant which thou shalt keep between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, that every male shall be circumcised.
When Isaac grew up and Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian woman, she said to Abraham: Thrust out this woman and her son; Ishmael shall not be heir with Isaac. Then Abraham gave Hagar bread and a bottle of water on her shoulders, and sent her forth with her child. She wandered into the desert of Beersheba, i.e. the well of the seven, and when the water was spent, and the child was fainting with thirst, she laid him down under a bush, and sat down a bow-shot from him, and said: "Let me not see the death of the child." Then Jehovah heard the voice of the child, and His angel called to Hagar out of heaven: "Fear not, rise up, and take the boy in thy hand, Jehovah will make him a great people." And Jehovah opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and filled the bottle, and gave her child drink. And Jehovah was with him; he grew up in the desert, and was an archer, and dwelt in the desert of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of Egypt, and Ishmael begot Nebajoth, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, and Hadar, and Tema, and Jetur, and Naphish, and Kedemah, twelve princes.And Ishmael died 137 years old, and his descendants dwelt to the east of his brethren from Shur, which lies before Egypt, to Havilah, and towards Asshur.
Abraham abode a long time in the land of the Philistines. And God tempted Abraham, and bade him sacrifice his only son Isaac, in the land of Moriah, as a burnt offering. But when Abraham had built the altar on the top of the mountain, and laid the wood upon it, and bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, and taken the knife and stretched forth his hand to slay his son, the angel of Jehovah called from heaven, saying: Lay not thine hand on the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God; thou hast not refused Him thine only son. And Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket, and he sacrificed him.
When Sarah died at Hebron, Abraham spoke to the Hittites among whom he dwelt: I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burying-place for my people among you, that I may put away my dead from me. Speak for me with Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he give me the cave of Machpelah which is his, at the corner of his field; let him give it to me for a burying-place at its full worth in money. Ephron agreed, and Abraham weighed the money to Ephron, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. And thus the field of Ephron at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, that is Hebron, the field and the cave, and all the trees on the field and round it, were given to Abraham before the eyes of the Hittites, and the eyes of all who went into the gates of the city. And Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah.
Then Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah, and she bore him Zimram, and Jokshan,and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. But Isaac had grown a man, and Abraham said to his servant, the oldest in his house, Eliezer of Damascus: Lay thy hand under my thigh; I charge thee that thou take not to my son a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom we dwell; to my fatherland and my home thou shalt go, and there seek a wife for Isaac. Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and goods of every kind, and passed over the Euphrates towards Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. To Nahor his wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, had borne eight sons. The youngest was Bethuel, and Bethuel's son was Laban, and his daughter Rebekah. Eliezer came to the city of Nahor at evening, and halted his camels at the well outside the city. Then came a maiden, fair to behold, with her pitcher on her shoulder, to the well. When she had filled her pitcher and come up from the well, the servant went to her and said: Bend down thy pitcher and let me drink a little water. Drink, my lord, she answered, and quickly took the pitcher in her hand, and gave him to drink. Then she said: I will draw also for thy camels, and stepped down again to the well. Eliezer marvelled at her; and when all the camels had drunk, he took a golden ring, half a shekel in weight, and two golden bracelets, ten shekels in weight, and put the ring in her nose, and the bracelets on her arm, and then inquired whose daughter she was, and whether there was room in her father's house to shelter him and the camels. And she answered: I am Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor; straw and fodder is in abundance with us, and room for the camels. And her brother Laban came to the well, and ledEliezer to the house, and Laban took the saddles from the camels, spread straw for them, and gave them fodder and brought water for his guest to wash his feet, and food. But Eliezer said: I will not eat till I have given my message. I am the servant of Abraham, and Jehovah has blessed my master, so that he has become great, and he has given him sheep and oxen, and silver and gold, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and camels and asses. And Sarah has borne a son to my master in his old age, and I have sworn to seek a wife for his son from his home and his own people; and Jehovah led me in the right path in order to take the granddaughter of the brother of my master for his son. If ye are willing to plight troth and love with Abraham, say it. Then said Bethuel, Rebekah's father, and Laban her brother: Behold, the maiden stands before thee, take her and go. Then Eliezer brought forth gold and silver ornaments, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; to her brother also and her mother he gave gifts. And when Laban and his mother sent away Rebekah with her nurse Deborah, and Abraham's servant Eliezer, they blessed Rebekah, and said: Become a thousand times a thousand, and may thy seed possess the gate of thy enemies. When Eliezer returned home, he told all that he had done, and Isaac received Rebekah into the tent of his mother, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; but to Ishmael and the sons of Keturah he gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac into the land to the East. Then Abraham, after he had lived 175 years, died at a good old age, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah.
These narratives show that the Hebrews derivedthe origin of their nation from the land of the Euphrates and Tigris. We remarked above that the legend of the Deluge could only have arisen in river valleys, exposed to severe inundations (p. 245). If we set aside the additions made in the prophetic revision, the narrative of the flood belongs to the first text; in this text therefore the nations of the earth were derived from the sons of Noah. The revision adds that the descendants of Noah, in their journey from the East, found a plain in the land of Shinar, i.e. Babylonia, and dwelt there, and erected a city and a tower, intended to reach to heaven. Then Jehovah confounded their language and scattered them over the earth.[580]But it is the first text which gives the genealogy of Abraham, according to which the descendant of Noah, Terah, the father of Abraham, dwells in the land of his nativity, at Ur in Chaldæa. We found that Ur lay on the lower Euphrates, where the ruins of Mugheir mark its site, that the oldest buildings in Babylonia belong to this place, and the oldest sovereigns on the Euphrates called themselves kings of Ur (p. 259). From Ur Terah, according to the first text, journeyed with his family to Haran.[581]Haran lies in a wide plain surrounded by hills on the Skirtos, a tributary of the Belik, at no great distance from the Euphrates; it is the Carrhae of western writers. From Haran Abraham turns towards Canaan; but his brother's tribe remains in Haran. Hence, as the oldest writings of the Hebrews without any doubt derive the progenitors of the nation from Ur and Carrhae in the land of the Euphrates, so later authorities maintain, as an absolute certainty, that "the fathers dwelt beyond the river,"i. e.the Euphrates. Inthe "second law" Abraham is called a "wandering Aramæan," and Ezekiel calls Chaldæa "the birthplace of the Hebrews."[582]The name "Hebrews" confirms this statement and view. Heber means "that which is beyond," "those who dwell beyond." The Hebrews call themselves the sons of Israel; the name of Hebrews they received from the Canaanites, into whose land they forced a way, though the Canaanites, no doubt, meant no more by the name than that the sons of Israel dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, before they set foot in Canaan.