constitution of the world : and the analysis of this num- ber is supposed to contain the key to the mysteries of Nature, The primary division is into in j-22. The number in represents the ten Sephiroth (figures) which
answer to the ideal world: 22, on the other hand, the number of the Hebrew alphabet, answers to the world of objects; the object being related to tie- idea as a word, formed of letters, to a number. Twenty-two again i- equal to 3+7+12; and each of these numbers, which constantly recur in the O.-T. Scriptures, is in- vested with a peculiar meaning. Generally the funda-
onceptions of the I k may be thus represented:
The ultimate Being is Divine Wisdom (Ckokmah, ao- <pia). The universe is originally a harmonious thought of Wisdom (Number, BephiraJi); ami the thought is afterwards expressed in letters, which form, as words, the germ of things. Man. with his twofold nature, thus represents in some sense the whole universe, lie i- the microcosm in which the body clothes and veils the soul, as the phenomenal world veils the spirit of God. It is impossible to follow out here the details of this system, and its development in Zohar; but it is obvious how great an influence it must have exercised on the inter- pretation of Scripture. The calculation of the numer- ical worth of words (comp. Rev. xiii, 18; Gematria, Buxtorf, Lex. Rabb. p. 446), the resolution of words into initial letters of new words i Notaricon, Buxtorf, p. 1339), and the transposition or interchange of letters rah), were used to obtain the inner meaning of the text : and these practices have continued to affect modern Jew- ish exegesis.
The fragments of Berosus. preserved by Eusebius and Joseph us, and to be found in Scaliger i h> Eyiendat. Temp.),&aa more fully in Fabricius (Bib!. Gr. xiv, 175), afford some information on the subject of Chakkean philosophy. Berosus was a priest of the god Baal, at Babylon, in the time of Alexander the Great. On the naturalistic philosophy of the .lews in general, the Talmud and other works of the Jewish rabbins may also be advantageously consulted, together with the fol- lowing authorities: Euseb. Prop. Evang.ix, 1": Philo, De Mig. Mun.; Selden, 1>> Dm Syris, Proleg.3; Stan- ley. Hist, of Oriental Philosophy; Kleuker. /'-'«;■ die Natur "nil iii a Ursprung der Emanationslehrt hex </' n Kabbalisten | Riga, 1786); Molitor, Pkilos.der Geschichte (1827 28); llartmaun. hi, enot Verbindung des A. T. mil il. hi N. | L831); Knzer. Lexicon von I'. Fritz (1838); Bracken, Hist.-Crit. Phil.; Ritter, Geschichtt dt r PhiL; Nork, VergleichencU Mythologii (1836); Lutterbeck, Neu-test. Lehrbegriff, i. 223-254; Reuss, Kabbala, in Her/.og's Encyklop. ; Joel, Die Religtonsphilos. <l. Zohar (1849); Westcott,/nrrod.foGr<Mpe&,p.l3J -134; Franck, f.n Kabbah (1843). See Cabala.
II. The Philosophy of History. — The philosophy of the Jews is, as has hern seen from the above oiuline of its naturalist ic relations, essentially a moral philosophy, resting on a definite connection with God. The doc- trines of Creation and Providence, of an infinite Divine Person and of a responsible human will, which v\-v- Where form the ultimate limits of speculation, are here
assnmed at the outset. The difficulties which they in- volve are but rarely noticed. Even when tiny are canvassed most deeply, a moral answer drawn from the great duties of life is that in which the questioner finds
repose. The earlier chapters of Genesis contain an in- troduction to the direct training of the people which follows. Premature and partial developments, king- doms based on endless might, stand in contrast with the slow foundation of the divine polity. To distin- guish rightly the moral principles which were succes- sively called out in this latter work would be to write a history of Israel; but the philosophical significance of the great crises through which the people passed
lies upon the surface. The call of Abraham set forth at once the central lesson of faith in the I'nseeu. on which all others were raised. The father of the nation
was tirst isolated from all natural ties before he received the promise; his heir was the son of hi- extreme age; his inheritance was to him "a- a strange land." The history of the patriarchs brought out into yet clearer light the sovereignty of God; the younger "a- pre-
PHILOSOPHY
141
PHILOSOPHY
ferred before the elder ; suffering prepared the way for safety and triumph. God was seen to make a cov- enant with man, and his action was written in the rec- ords of a chosen family. A new aera followed. A na- tion grew up in the presence of Egyptian culture. Per- secution united elements which seem otherwise to have been on the point of being absorbed by foreign powers. God revealed himself now to the people in the wider relations of Lawgiver and Judge. The solitary disci- pline of the desert familiarized them with his majesty and his mercy. The wisdom of Egypt was hallowed to new uses." The promised land was gained by the open working of a divine Sovereign. The outlines of national faith were written in defeat and victory ; and the work of the theocracy closed. Human passion then claimed a dominant influence. The people required a king. A fixed Temple was substituted for the shifting Tabernacle. Times of disruption and disaster followed ; and the voice of prophets declared the spiritual mean- ing of the kingdom. In the midst of sorrow and de- feat and desolation the horizon of hope was extended. The kingdom which man had prematurely founded was seen to be the image of a nobler " kingdom of God." The nation learned its connection with "all the kin- dred of the earth." The Captivity confirmed the les- son, and after it the Dispersion. The moral effects of these, and the influence which Persian, Greek, and Ro- man, the inheritors of all the wisdom of the East and West, exercised upon the Jews, have been elsewhere noticed. See Cyrus; Dispersed. The divine disci- pline closed before the special human discipline began. The personal relations of God to the individual, the family, the nation, mankind, were established in inef- faceable history, and then other truths were brought into harmony with these in the long period of silence which separates the two Testaments. But the har- mony was not always perfect. Two partial forms of religious philosophy arose. On the one side the pre- dominance of the Chaldean or Persian element gave rise to the Cabala; on the other the predominance of the Greek element issued in Alexandrian theosophy.