RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Judges
is it to be regarded as an extract from some larger work, extending from Joshua's death (or from the Creation) to the Exile. Equally untenable is a derivation of the book from J and E, and their combination into JE. Since, on the other hand, the Deuteronomic redactor was not the first to combine the accounts given in the book, the question of its date admits of no single answer. The redactor doubtless lived in the period of the later kings; but there is no evidence to show that the book belongs to the exilic or post-exilic period. Textually the book of Judges is one of the best preserved of all the historical writings. Nevertheless, a comparison with the versions, especially the Septuagint, shows noteworthy variants, especially in proper names. So ancient a fragment as the Song of Deborah naturally gives more scope to textual criticism, although here also great caution is necessary. C. von Orelli.
2. Critical View : A cursory reading of the book of Judges shows that it consists of two main elements, one of these containing stories and histor- . ical notices without comment, and the
. other comprising detailed narratives
with an explicit or implicit commentary on the events described. The latter, comprising most of the book, extends from iii. 7 to xvi. 31, and has a prefatory note containing the moral of the history (ii. 6 — iii. 6). It is this main portion which not only gives character to the book as a whole but also explains its aim and motive. It is written to show, in the Deuteronomic spirit, the course of Israel's history before the movement began which ended in the founding of the kingdom— how fidelity to Yahweh and his commandments was invariably attended by prosperity, and how calamity, especially by the inroads and oppressions of national enemies, surely followed false worship and impiety, according to the principles laid down in Deut. xxviii. All the lives of the " Judges " are narrated in this principal section. The introduction (i. 1 — ii. 5) is quite different in character and style, not only running parallel to portions of the book of Joshua (see Joshua, Book of) but actually giving a divergent account of the conquest of the Canaanites. Quite different also, and falling as clearly without the sphere of the Deuteronomistic compiler, are the last five chapters (xvii.-xxi.) which narrate important events belonging to the early period of the occupation of Canaan, and therefore out of the chronological order followed by the author of the main part of the book. Both the introduction and the conclusion are lacking in the religious and homiletic comments which dominate chaps, iii. 7-xvi. 31.
The most important question for the Bible student is the amount and degree of the idealizing of history which are employed in the book in its present form. The introduction (i. 1 — ii.
2. Ideal- 5) contains a plain narrative of facts izing. of the highest value; only the fact must be noted that the words in i. 1 " after the death of Joshua " are a late gloss due to a misunderstanding of "the historical situation, for, as ii. 6-9 shows, the events described here took place during the life of Joshua. Chaps, xvii.-xviii.
are also of great importance for the early political and religious condition of Israel and contain merely a statement of facts, which set forth the causes and incidents connected with the migration northward of the tribe of Dan and the founding of the city of that name at the point which became the northerly limit of Israel and the seat of a famous sanctuary. Chaps, xix.-xxi. are a highly embellished account of some incidents which occurred in the early days of the settlement, an outrage perpetrated by some members of the tribe of Benjamin (chap, xix.) and avenged by the other tribes (xx., xxi.). Chap. xix. would appear to rest on a considerable basis of fact, but the last two chapters are full of numerical exaggerations; they represent Israel as forming a political and religious unit at a very early date, and they give other evidences of a priestly authorship. Thus it must be assumed that certain old traditions were worked over in them at a late date in conformity with the spirit of the priest code.
The stories which make the main part of the
book so readable are at the same time the source
of nearly all direct knowledge of the period between
the settlement and the founding of
3. The the kingdom. They belong in their
History, original form to some of the earliest collections of prose compositions in the literature of Israel. Beginning with the deliverances effected by Othniel (iii. 7-11) and Ehud (iii. 12-30), the motive of the collection comes out more clearly in the story of the final suppression of the Canaanites under Deborah and Barak. This is given in its original form in the oldest long poem of the Bible (chap, v.), the prose version which was of course later being found in chap. iv. The poem is our best authority for the condition and activity of the tribes of Israel about 1130 b.c. Of equal importance is the great story of Gideon and his deliverance of his tribesmen from the oppression of the Midianites (chaps, vi.-viii.). The sequel of their expulsion is specially instructive since it shows how the tribes felt themselves helpless in their disunion and were conscious of their need of hereditary " judges " or kings. The fact that here as elsewhere in the book more than one version of the original tradition was drawn upon is illustrated by the variations of vii. 24-viii. 3 and viii. 4-21, the latter being the briefer or earlier account. The history of Samson (xiii.-xvi.) dealing as it does with the period of Philistine domination over western Judah brings the account one step nearer to the epoch of the monarchy; but the subject lent itself so much to romance and legend that it is more difficult to learn the real facts behind this story than elsewhere in the book. In any case the Samson episodes form, from the historical point of view, merely a preparation to the history of Eli and Samuel, who carried on the contest with the Philistines till the crowning of King Saul. Thus the closing of the original book of Judges was really the beginning of a history which began with Samson (cf. xiii. 5) and ended with I Sam. xii. It was then a Deuteronomistic editor who compiled the first edition of the book, beginning with ii. 6 and unifying the whole by his " pragmatic " treatment
Judges Judson