44G
IDOLATRY
IDOLATRY
with their concerns, and to which they can draw near in some spot or object in wliich these are housed — as the well, the tree, the sacrc<l stone (so Kayser, Tkeulogie dcs AT, p. 2111'.). From poly- theism it is distinguished by the fact that tlie spirits have not j'et attained to a clear-cut indivi- duality, or to the possession of a mythology, while it tends to run down into fetisbism through the adoration of the tenement in jilace of the tenant. In one of the most speculative regions of history a certain conclusion is, of course, unattainable, but the view in question at least harmonizes with what is known of the primeval modes of Semitic thouglit, while suili an animistic religion forme<l some sort of a preparation for the introiluction of the liigher faith. In particular, it could oiler no such opposi- tion as a developeil polytheism to the claim of one God upon the undivided allegiance of a people.
When Israel emerges into the light of history, it has broken, at least in principle, with heathenism. In the national memory the momentous step was connected with Abraham ; and although the date of tlie patriarchal narratives makes them in large measure the vehicle of prophetic ideals, there is no reason to <lonbt that Mosaisra reposed on and appealeil to a religious past, in which the light of revelation had dawned. The work of Moses was to widen and perpetuate the breach with he.atlienism, and this he accomplished through the coincidence of the divine deliverance of Israel with the hour of his proplietic mission. Mosaisni, what- ever else it may have included, was at least a revolt from heathenism, from which it sought to protect Israel by prohibiting the worship of any divinity save J" its God (E.\ 20^), and by bringing under His ban immoral acts and practices to which the genius of heathenism is at the best in- dill'erent. From this standpoint there are two notable declensions related in the history of the peiiud. The story of the golden calf, tliough its main signilicance belongs to the sphere of the minor idolatry, is also conceived as an apostasy to other gods than J" (E.\ 32*). The second reported lapse IS the idolatry with Moab at Peor, where Israel succumbed to the fascinations of a Baal-cult that consecrated sexual licentiousness (Nu 25). These incidents, however, even if historical,— and it may be noted that they belong in substance to our oldest capital source, — were mere episodes of temporary reaction natural to a period of intense religious fervour. The Israel which hurled itself upon Canaan was the people of J", and saw in the gods of the nations real gods indeed, but His and their enemies.
Upon the settlement in Canaan there followed a heatlien revival. The history of the Book of Judges moves through a succession of cycles: the people forsake J" and serve the Baalim and the Ashtarotb ; J" in anger delivers them into the hands of the spoiler; then it repents Him, and He raises up judges who save them ; then once more they turn back, and deal more corruptly than their fathers (Jg 2"*). For this relapse various causes are plausibly assigned — intermarriage with the Canaanite population, association of the Baal- cult with the agricultural year, a sense of the pos- session of proprietary rights by the old divinities in the Land of Canaan (Smend, AT Religionsgeschkhte, p. 50). But doubtless the strongest enticement lay m the character of the Canaanitish worship, which, in the main resting on a deification of the pro- ductive forces of nature, gathered up into religion all that is comprehended in laughter and licence. And if it had also quite another side, which revealed the divinity as cruel, and lusting for agony and blood, there was an element in the Hebrew nature to which this also appealed. The divine remedy for '■Jie backsliding was war. When
Israel was attacked and sjioilcd, or when thj hand of the oppressor was heavy upon them, they re- membered that of old time J" had been their deliverer, the religious enthusiasm welled up afresh, and under a leader whom it posses.sed they marched to victory. Such a leader also, without doubt, was Saul, although the history lays most stress on his later defection from, and his desertion by, J". But among those who delivered Israel in the name of J" the noblest and the best character was that of David, whose piety, even if allied with the superstition of divination, and marreil by sensuality and cruelty, in some respects was the model of Christian communion with God ; and the linal outcome of the experiences of the period of the Judges, and esp. of the career of David which established the monarchy, was to place the sove- reignty of J " on as firm a basis as in tlie first tlu.sh of the wars of conquest. But again with an era of peace there came a heathen reaction, beginning in the seduction of Solomon to Canaanitish and cognate cults through the influence of his wives (1 K 11'"'), and extending throughout a great portion of the history both of the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms.
In the Nortliern Kingdom the religious life took in the first instance an opposite direction. An- tagonism to the heathenish innovations in Jerusa- lem may have been a factor in the power behind Jeroboam, as the setting up of the worship of the golden calves in two ancient sanctuaries may h.ave been conceived in the interests of the ancestral religion ; at all events, there is no reason to charge Jerolioam and his immediate successors with de- liberate apostasy from J". The recrudescence of heathenism in the Northern Kingdom is connected with Ahab, who built a temple in Samaria to the Zidonian Baal (1 K 16'-), ami supported a heathen- ish priestliood. How far the hostile designs of Ahab against the religion of J" extended is less certain. Many modern w'ritersare of opinion that Ahab remained loyal to the national God — for which the names of his sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram, allbrd some evidence, and that the story of the persecutions is at least exaggerated (see, e.g., Smend, op. cit. p. 154 fl'.). But, while it is true that the OT annals give broad eti'ects and neglect fine distinctions, the Elijah traditions make it impossible to doubt that we have to deal in the case of AJiab with a dangerous assault on the national religion ; and this impression is con- firmed by the observation that the house of Omii was shortly afterwards destroj'ed with all its works in the name of the God of Israel (2 K 10). At all events, the intrusion of the alien cult received an effectual check. The annalist grants that the successors of Jehu stopped short in the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, however persistently the heathen leaven may have continued to work in the local sanctuaries.