* According to the correct text (bya and nj7'7; the MT has been corrected on dogmatic grounds, so as to express the hope of immortality).
732 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
his people, viz. the kernel of the OT conception of God. All his scepticism and all his pessimism had not impaired his faith in a personal God who is at the same time the God of the whole world.* He does not really doubt even the wisdom and justice of this God: ‘He hath made everything beautiful in its time, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning to
the end’ (31-4 81”), What pains the Preacher is this, that comforting insight into the enigmas of the world, for which in view of God’s wisdom and justice there must be a solution, is for ever for- bidden to man.
(6) We can well understand that the reception of Ecclesiastes into the canon should have awakened serious doubts, even as late as the Ist cent. A.D. Nevertheless, we have cause to thank the editors of the canon for having suppressed these doubts
(perhaps on account of the conciliatory epilogue). By doing so they have bequeathed to us a price- less evidence that those of Israel who to this day believe that God’s last word to humanity was spoken in the revelations and institutions of the Old Covenant, are in error. Having once perceived the insufficiency of all works of the Law and re- nounced belief in the trustworthiness of his own wisdom, the Preacher could find solace and support only in faith in redress beyond this life. But of such a faith, so far as the individual was concerned, the religion of his people knew nothing, and to be pointed to the Messianic future of the nation as a whole evidently appeared to him but a dubious substitute. In all this he affords a proof that this religion called for supplement and completion—a completion which came in the fulness of time through Christ, who is the end of the Law.
LitERATURE.—The older works on Biblical Theology and on the History of the Religion of Israel may be all the more readily passed over, since they are almost without exception based upon incorrect critical principles —a blemish which attaches, indeed, even to some of the more recent works cited below. _ The view which once held sway, namely, that the beginnings of the Religion of Israel as well as of its codification are to be sought in P, gives so completely false a picture of the develop- ment of this religion, that in such works it is at most only the treatment of neutral points (where the question of gradual development does not arise) that can have any value. The foundation of a true knowledge of the subject was laid by BE. Reuss in 1833 (in theses for his students) and in 1850 (in his art. ‘Judenthum ’ in the so-called Hallesche Encyklopddie of Ersch and Gruber); and, independently of Reuss, by W. Vatke in Die biblische Theologie wissenschaftlich dargestellt, vol. i. ‘Die Religion des AT nach den canonischen Bichern entwickelt,’
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction, p. 6122, I. TRACES OF A PRE-MosAIc RELIGION oF ISRAEL, pp. 6138-6242, i. CONCEPTION OF THE DEITY, etc., pp. 6132-6182,
1. Totemism : existence in Israel not proved, p. 613.
2. Animism and Ancestor Worship : the evidence for the latter insufficient, p. 614 f.
3. Nwmina loci: sacred stones (mazzéboth), p. 6164 ; trees, p. 6164 ; springs, p. 616».
4. Supposed traces that Polytheism once prevailed in Israel, p. 616> fi,
ii. FORMS OF WORSHIP, AND OTHER RITES AND USAGES, pp. 6184-624a,
1. Sacrifice: gifts to the Deity, p. 6188 ; sacramental communion between the Deity and the wor- shipper, p. 618; importance attached to the blood, p. 618; human sacrifice, p. 618b ; the ratifying of a covenant by passing between the pieces of a dismembered animal, p. 6192; the eee or ban, p. 619 ; the altar and its horns, p.
au
D3 The mazzebah and the ’dshérah, p. 620.
* This faith is indicated by the very fact that the Divine name ‘Jahweh’ is consistently replaced by the appellative *Hlohim (as almost everywhere in the 2nd and 3rd books of the Psalter, very frequently in Chron., and generally in the latest Scrip- tures). It is true that the influence of awe at the use of the sacred name also had to do with this result ; buf, on the other hand, this complete equating of ‘ Jahweh’ and ’*Bléhim affords a proof that the faith of Israel had now finally decided on the absolutely unique character of Jahweh.
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
Berlin, 1835.—In what follows we distinguish the following branches of literature on our subject—
J. WORKS DEALING WITH THE HISTORY OF RELIGION IN GENERAL, IN WHICH THE TREATMENT OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL IS INCLUDED. —O. P. Tiele, Vergelijkende Geschiedenis van den Godsdienst (Dutch, 1876 (2nd ed. 1894), French, 1882], and the same author’s Geschiedenis van den Godsdienst en de Oudheit, 2 vols. 1896 fi. (Germ. tr. by Gehrich, 1896-1903], and Inleiding tot de Gods- dienstwetenshap, Amsterdam, 1897, 1899, 2 parts [German tr. by Gehrich, Gotha, 1899, 1901]; Chantepie de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte? [in collaboration with Buckley, Lange, Fr. Jeremias, Valeton (whose account of the Religion of Israel is amongst the best parts of the work), Houtsman, Lehmann], Freiburg i. B. 1897, 2 vols. ; C. von Orelli, Allgemeine Religions- geschichte, Bonn, 1899.