3. Development. — If we think of the above three methods of communication between the divinities and men as existing, in embryo, in the earliest ages, we can realize how they were each developed by such great races as the Semites and the Aryans, and how the common inheritance of each of these was developed along distinctive lines by the difl'erent nations springing from them. Thus, to confine our attention to divination, we have that of the Semites,* developing into that of the Meso- potamians,t Persians,^ Jews,§ and Arabians ; |1 and that of the Aryans,^ developing into that of the Vedas,** Greeks,tt Romans.tJ Celts,§§ Teutons, |||| and Lithuanians ; ^H while that of the Egyptians strongly influenced and was influenced by many of these.***
The Pax Romana and the toleration of the Roman Government permitted the cults of in- numerable divinities and all these forms of divina- tion to spread throughout the Empire ; and Jews, Christians, worshippers of all kinds of Eastern and Egyptian deities, diviners, ' magicians, astrologers, and wizards jostled each other in a theological con- fusion to which no parallel can be found ' (K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1911, p. 47).
4. Divination in the Apostolic Age. — It is diificult, but necessary, to realize this amazing profusion of divinities as a distinct feature of the Apostolic Age. BesidesmentioningJahweh, the God of the Hebrews, Jesus Christ, and the Hol}^ Spirit, Avorshipped by the Christians, and some of the innumerable ethnic deities, the literature of the Apostolic Age contains references to angels, archangels, living creatures, Satan, the Devil, the Wicked One, the Antichrist, demons, unclean and evil powers, dominions, princi- palities, authorities, thrones, and glories.
It is not easy to decide how far belief in these aflected the various classes. But practically this is true : each man had his favourite di\dnity to which all Gentiles added a select gi'oup of deities whom they reverenced. Rationalists like the Sad- ducees denied the existence of d-/yeXoi and irvevfiara (Ac 23*) ; many of the more educated viewed the existence of the minor supernatural beings with
• W. Robertson Smith, iJ.S2, 1894 ; Th. Noldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, Eng. tr., 1S92 ; ERE i. 390 ; J. E. Carpenter, Comparative Religion, 1913; HDBv.SSS. and the Ldterature there mentioned.
t J. E. Carpenter, op. cit. ; A. H. Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Baht/lonians, 1S87 ; G. Maspero, Dawn of Civilization^, 1896; Stephen Langdon, 'Private Penance,' in Transactions of the Third International Congress tor the History of Religions, 1908, p. 249 ; L. W. King, £ab. Magic and Sorcery, 1896, Bab. Religion and Mythology, 1S99 ; L. R. Farnell, Greece and Babylon, 1911; ERE i. 316, iv. 783, and Literature there mentioned ; R. C. Thompson, The Report of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineceh and Babylon, 1900, also The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, 1903-04.
: ERE iv. 818 ; J. H. Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia, 1911.
§ ERE iv. 806 ; S. A. Cook, The Religion of Ancient Palestine, 1908 : T. W. Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology among the Hebrews and their Neighbours, 1S98 ; EDB i. 611 ff.
II ERE i. 655.
•; R. V. Iherin<r, The Evolution of the Aryan,tr. Drucker, 1897 ; I. Taylor, The ifrigin of the Aryans, 1SS9 ; ERE i. 11 and the Literature there mentioned.
•* lb. iv. 827.
ft W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination, 1913; ERE iv. 796, vi. 401 ; Gilbert Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, 1912.
XX \V. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, 1911 ; ERE iv. 820.
§■; lb. iii. 277, iv. 787. |i|| 76. iv. 827.
Ht 76. iv. 814.
*** lb. vi. 374 ; F. Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, Eng. tr., 1911, p. 73fif.
more or less scepticism ; but the mass of people lived in the belief and the fear of these divine beings. In that age men felt themselves surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (He 12'), living in a world where the gods appeared (Ac 14^^ 28^), where Jesus appeared to St. Paul (Q''^- ^ 26'6) and to Stephen (T''"), and His Spirit prohibited action (16'), where an itinerant preacher was received as a messenger of God, or even as Christ Jesus re-incarnated (Gal 4''*) ; where the Holy Spirit was a distinct living person- aJitj-, where the assertion that a man was the Son of God made a Roman governor tremble (Jn 19®), and the patience of His death caused a Roman centurion to exclaim: 'This was a Son of God' (Mt 27^''). In sucli a world the Satan fashioned himself into an d77eXos (j)on6s (2 Co 11'*), oaltxoves entered into men, and were cast out by men (Lk IP**, Mk 9^), converts to the religion of Jesus who had believed and were baptized proposed to purchase the ability to confer the Holj' Spirit (Ac 8'^), the power of the evil ej^e was exercised (^Ik 7"-), and apxa-l and bwa- /iets, 'principalities' and 'powers' (Ko 8^), 'mus- tered their unseen array.' Nor must we think that the Christians stood far removed from the common beliefs of the age. This is clear from many things. Think of their belief in the Satan, the antagonist who stood over against God. He was conceived as a huge dragon, or old serpent (Rev 12^ 13'' [as amended by Charles in his Studies in the Apoca- lypse, 1913, p. 100] 20"), and as such was identified with otd/3oXos. He was regarded as having his abode in the skies, in which he and his dyyeXoi. had been defeated by an apxiyyeXos IMichael and his ayyeXoi, and thrown down on the earth (12'-'') to be flung into the abyss for a thousand years (2U^- '). He had his subordinate spirits. Special mention is made of 'the Lawless One' [according to hf B] (2 Th 2^), and the £776X01 who fought for him (Rev 12'-^), and afllicted men's bodies (2 Co 12"), and even destroyed them (1 Co 5^). He himself could masquerade as dyyeXos (puros (2 Co 11'*), and could equip his servants with full powers, the miracles and portents of falsehood, and the full deceitfulness of evil (2 Th 2"- '"). The Satan was the adversaiy of men ; his chief aim was to seduce to wrong (Rev 20^- *• '", Eph 2^) by tempting to such sins as lying, cheating (Ac 5^), incontinence (1 Co 7°, 1 Ti 5'^), gross sexual excess, ' his deep mysteries ' (Rev 2-*, Eph 2^). He gains advantages by clever mancEuvres (2 Co 2"). He is the accuser of the members of the Christian brotherhood (Rev 12"*). He hinders good endeavours (1 Th 2'®), but the God of peace crushes him under His people's feet (Ro 16'-"). Jews hostile to the religion of Jesus are thought of by the Christians as his servants who form his synagogue (Rev 2^ 3^), and in places noted for wickedness he dwells in power as a king on his throne (2'^). By a deliberate act of judgment an otlender could be consigned to the Satan's power for the destruction of his body (1 Co 5^, 1 Ti 1-°). _ The natural and inevitable outcome of this multiplicity of divinities was the universal practice of divination. The testimony of history to this fact is fully confirmed by the discovery of con- temporary texts, among which are ' innumerable . . . horoscopes, amulets, cursing tablets, and magical books. . . . The whole ancient world is full of miracles' (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East'-, 1911, pp. 284, 393). Divination and magic were prevalent not merely among sects like the Essenes, but among the Jews generally (Schurer, HJP II. iii. [1886] p. 151 fl'., II. ii. [1885] p. 204). The writings of the Apostolic Fathers show the relation of the Christians to these arts. In the Didache among other commandments are these, ' thou shalt not practise magic, thou shalt not use enchantments,' ov p-ayevoeis, ov <j>apfj.aKevaeLS (ii.), and this entreaty, 'become not an omen-