War, in the present, had been regarded by Israel as occasionally a pnnishment of the nation for wrong-doing ; the prophets had tanght that faith- lessness to Jahweh might be requited by invasion and defeat at the hands of a foreign power raised
* There is a parallel (see, further, F. H. Chase, TS i. 3 [Cambridge, 1891], pp. 31 f., 147 f.) in the eleventh Benediction of the early Jewish liturgy : ' Restore our judges as at the first, and our counsellors as at the begiTuiing ; remove from us grief and suffering ; reign thou over us, O Lord, thou alone . . . and for slanderers let there be no hope, and let all wir^kedness perish as in a moment ; let all thine enemies be speedily cut off, and the dominion of arrogance do thou uproot and crush, cast down and humble speedily in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who breakest the enemies and humblest the arrogant.' This primitive petition may be ' for the restoration of political autonomy, but it seems more probable that the significance is Messianic' (Abrahams, in Authorised Daily Prayer Book^ London, 1014, p. Ixiv). Perhaps ; and yet the messianin outlook includes the national supremacy. Would a primitive Christian, especially if he had been trained in this discipline, always be able to pray *Thy Kingdom come' without similar asso- ciations?
t The older cry in Enoch 47J^f- runs ; • In those days shall have ascended the prayer of the righteous, and the blood of the righteous from the earth before the Lord of Spirits. In those days the holy ones who dwell above in the heavens shall unite with one voice ... on behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed . . . that justice may be done them, and that tliey may not have to suffer for ever.' The Son of Man enables the elect themselves to annihilate the enemy (4S8f ).
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up by Jalnveh for that purpose. The people inij;ht uuoil to be chastised or pur^'eil by some ' bitter and hasty' outside coniiuoror, altbou;,'li eveiitually .lahweh tlirows away His very tool (<•{., e.g., tlie Book of IlabaUUulv and Bt 32="-). This is still recognized not only in tiie Psalms of Solomun but as late as the I'irkr. Abot/i, where (5") ' the sword conies upon the world for tlie suppression of justice and the iierversion of justice, and for those w ho do not explain the Torah according,' to rule' {i.e. for heterodox ways).* Kven in the Zadokite docu- ment (Charles, Apocrypha and Psciirlcpif/rfipha, ii. HIG) the militant niessiah himself destroys the disloyal by the sword for their disobedience to the new covenant (9"'). But the last-named predic- tion is eschatolog'ical, and it suj;f;csts the three war-scones in the la>t act of the ilrama, as esciuito- logy usually shaped the future course of theworlil. (a) Wars and bloodshed, the ' wars and rumours of wars' of which the Gospels speak, jirecede the dawn of the messianic a<;'e ; international strife ushers in the new era here as in the contemiiorarj' astrological sc'henie of Hellenism, t but it is not war waged upon Israel. The people of Go<l may suffer in the conflict, but they are not the objects of the pagan campaign. (6) Then comes a campaign of God or niessiah against the ojiponents of Israel, who are supposed to be instigated by Satan and his agents. This hope, which thrills through one class of apocalypses, including Enoch, liaruch, the Psalter of Solomon, and the early Jewish strata of the Sibylline Oracles, is still maintained in 2 Ks 13^-"- ; the colours of the sketch vary, from Is 24-27 downwards, but the general outline remains the same ; the assault of the massed pagans is a failure, anil they are enslaved or annihilated, so that the saints can now enjoy the peace for which they have lived and longed. Nevertheless, these dreams of peace are always based on war; .Jalnveh or niessiah must do for the people what they cannot do for themselves, i.e. rout and overpower the foe. ' The allegiance of the nations is evidently thought of as growing out of their fear and awe in the presence of the irresistible God. He reigns as a gTeat conqueror. He fights no more because there is nobody left to oppose him. The jieace that is to prevail is a peace that has been conquered by the sword of Yaliweh. The day of Yalnveh which is to usher in the Golden Age is the day of battle upon which he from the heavens sets the battle in array and once for all overthrows all his foes, whether spiritual or temporal.' J As the demon- ology developed, the foes became more super- natural, not so much isolated powers as agencies of a transcendental evil realm ; but the human instruments of the Satanic delusion were never entirely left out of the picture. Then [c) the clos- ing battle between God and the sjiiritual hosts of Satan rounds off' the campaign and the drama of the ages. This is a single combat, so far as God or niessiah is concerned ; even less than in (h) is there any real place for hosts of men or of angels aiding tlie divine conqueror. They may escort Him, but by a breath or a word He wins the victory single-handed. Thus evil is finally routed where it originally arose — in the spiritual, supra-natural region.