dictum .6.): 'Samson wavers between myth saga, and liLstory, belonging altogether to no one
("BooroV'r p"8lT' '" '""''■ '^^' '"''»«^" ''^''"^ yii. REiiGiON._In speaking of the religion of InJ.^^^t n " °«.<='*^«a'7 to regard only the state- ments of the ancient part of the boolc, avoiding the so-called 'margin.' Inquiry was made of Go3 i'L^!, probably by means of the ephod (see ,i IT ^ ' ,""'" '■"'^ "^^^ i° the name of J" (Jg whnJ'/ n-'"'''^ regarded as the national 003 whose dwelling was on the Arabian peninsula
hi^,i f 'in -h^^""'"'; the. angel of J" presented him.self in human form in order to make his
t^^tlt' nJ ' ' the ark was regarded as equivalent to the presence of J" Himself (1 S 4»)
Canaanite influence on religion was stron" dunng this period, for the process of fusion ol Canaanite and Israelite was going on Israel new to the land was introduced to the old sanc'- tuaries by the old inhabitants, and thus learned to worship the local Baal, the native god of corn and ^^ane, ,nth the corrupt and corrupting forms of that lascmous shedder of blood, the Canaanite. Of Israel s morals during this period little good can be said. A time of anarchy always impairs
nT^-6^ ^'"^ ''■'"'''' '™' "Sht in his own eyes' (Jg l/«), very strange things were done (Jephthah, Samson, Danites, Gibeali). There was no lack o courage in this period, and hospitality was evi- dently regarded V the mass of the people as inviolable The sacredness of an oath is strkngely Ulustrated by Jgll35and21'. °^
i^iH^^rn"" *" "'I'^H H'^ P'""'"^ "'ay be character- zed in the words of Amos (8»), as days in which there was 'a famine in the land ; not 1 famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing tlie words of the Lord.' The redactor of Jg is indeed continually drawing lessons from the e.^periences
a thl??n^'>"1f'';'; ^^"^ '^"•^ees, but it seLus tha at the time Itself the events were left for the most pait to deliver their own message uninterpreted
«4tir°t^,e'''°'''"*- , Y% ""^y '^"™Pare the period with the years of 'silence' which preceded the coming of our Lord. ^
viii. Parallel WITH .he Maccab^an Period. -there are several points of resemblance between K'f Maccaba-an period and that of the Judges, i 'fnrn '?""' "^ fo^'e'i'^ent (if it could be called a form ) was the same at both periods. The Snn t' 'ITJ""^^.^^' (°"^-''=* ^^'ophetim) like stratnr^ JfPhthah, and the rest, i.e. not admini- strators, but champions both against the enemy
mL ?4,^"'*^* (Jonathan, I.Mac 10=«; Simon, I Mac 14") so were the ancient judges. Eli and Samuel. (2) Both periods were periods of almost continual struggle (ff the chronoligy of the Judges has been riHuly understood above! and the ve,^ rii Ti "l"' ti'^tinct people was threatened.
W there was the same want of unity among the
in nlme.^""*'*'^'"'''" "'■^'"'^ resembled the thophmm chiefl.
JUDGES, BOOK OF
JUDGES, BOOK OF
809
people at both periods (cf. 1 Mac 1" 6-' 7»). (4) There was tlie same absence of ' ojjen vision ' (1 S 3> ; cf. 1 Mac 4" 14*'). (5) Even the language nseiJ of the Maccaba'an period recalls the time of the Judges (cf. 1 Mac 9" 1jp(aTo Kpivtiv ; 2" xat A
See, further, on the whole subject, the following article.
LiTBRATDRK. — The proper sectionB of the eeneral hiatoriefl of Eirald, Kenan (ttippant even (or Renan), Wellhausen (brieO. Blade (full), Kittel (vcrv KOO<i). See also under luiuil..
The Commentary of O. V. Moore, ISdS ; and J. .S. Black, JucU/rJi, 1892 (in the ' smaller Cambridge Bible ") ; al»o the Liter»- Mre cited at the end of the (oUowihk article.
W. Emeky Barnes. JCDGES, BOOK OF.—
1. The Nante of the Book.
2. The condition of its Text.
8. Ita Content* and Arrawjement.
4. ll« inner Uarrnoni/ or Unity.
6. Helatiim to the PetUatetu:h ' nourca,
6. Character and Age of the component elementa.
7. Ita Author.
8. Ita Spirit and Ita place in the history of revelation. Literature.
1. The Name of the Book. —The seventh component of the Hebrew Old Testament is named Book of Judges (ctcio i;;) in the oldest sources with which we are acquainted (cf. the Talmudic Tract Baba bathra 14'', edited separately by -Marx- Dalman in 'Traditio rabbinorum vetcrrinia de librorum veteris testamenti ordine atque origine,' 1884, p. 14). The same exjiression D-zrts n:o is found in the Dikduki ha-U'amim of Aharon ben- Asher (10th cent.), ed. Haer and Strack, p. 58. The self-evident term ' Book ' is also frequently dropped, and thus the simple OTCis* employed (so the usual reading in above-cited passage from the Talmud). If one compares, for instance, D'srten (Bu 1') and ol Kptral (Sir 46"), it is remarkable that the article is dropped before c'=:ic' when tlio latter Is used as the title of the Hook. But in the course of transition of a nomen ajipcllntioum to the force of a nomen proprium, the article was frequently omitted (for analogies see Konig's S>/ntnx, § 295, h-k). The Heb. title of the Book was either
simply transcribed (cf. e.g. [1[jZlb in Ephraem Syrus [ace. to Brockelmann, Lex. Syr. 383''] and TuKperi^i in Origen [ace. to Euseb. ///J vi. 25]), or it might be translated (cf. e.rr. tlnij'j'tni in the Peshilta, or icpiral, e.g. in Melito of Sardis [ace. to Eiiscb. HE iv. 26]), or {liber) iuilUum, e.g. in Hieronymus, Prologus gitleatus ( = priefatio reg- norum).