Books: Prolegomena to the History of Israel

J >> Julius Wellhausen >> Prolegomena to the History of Israel

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In the subsequent post-exilic prophets down to Malachi the points
of contact are limited to details, but do not cease to occur; they
occur also in the Psalms and in Ecclesiastes. Reminiscences of the
Priestly Code are found nowhere but in the Chronicles and some of
the Psalms. For that Amos iv. 11 is borrowed from Genesis xix. 29
is not a whit more clear than that the original of Amos i. 2 must
be sought in Joel iv. 19 [iii. 16].

The Priestly Code maintains its isolated literary character as
against the later literature also. This is the result partly of
the use of a number of technical terms, partly of the incessant
repetition of the same formulae, and of its great poverty of
language. But if we neglect what is due to the stiff and hard
idiosyncrasy of the author, it is undoubtedly the case that he
makes use of a whole series of characteristic expressions which
are not found before the exile, but gradually emerge and come
into use after it. The fact is not even denied, it is merely
put aside. To show what weight is due to it we may find room
here for a short statement of the interesting points for the
history of language to be found in Genesis i.

Genesis i. 1, R)#YT means in the older Hebrew, not the COMMENCEMENT
of a process which goes forward in time, but the FIRST
(and generally the BEST) part of a thing. In the sense of a
beginning in time, as the contrary to )XRYT, it is first found in
a passage of Deuteronomy, xi. 12; then in the titles in the Book
of Jeremiah, xxvi. 1, xxvii. 1, xxviii. 1, xlix. 34, and in Isaiah
xlvi. 10, and lastly in the Hagiographa, Job viii. 7, xili. 12;
Proverbs xvii. 14; Ecclesiastes vii. 8. In Genesis x. 10
R)#YT MMLKTW has a different meaning from that in Jeremiah xxvi. 1
in the one it is the principal part of the kingdom; in the other
it is the beginning of the reign. _In the beginning_ was in the
early time, if absolute, BFR)#NH, BATTXLH; if relative, BTXLT
TXLT. /1/

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1 The vocalisation B:R#YT is very curious: we should expect
BFRA$YT. It has been attempted to do justice to it by translating:
"In the beginning, when God created heaven and earth--but the earth
was without form and void, and darkness lay upon the deep, and the
spirit of God brooded over the water--then God spake: Let there be
light."
But this translation is desperate, and certainly not that followed
by the punctuators, for the Jewish tradition (Septuagint, Aquila,
Onkelos) is unanimous in translating:
"In the beginning God created heaven and earth."
In Aramaic, on the contrary, such adverbs take, as is well known,
the form of the _status constructus_. Cf. RBT Psalm lxvv. 10, cxx. 6.
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We have already spoken of the word
BR), a word remarkable for its specific theological import. Apart
from Amos iv. 13 and Isaiah iv. 5 it is first found outside the
Priestly Code in the Deuteronomist in Exodus xxxiv. 10, Numbers xvi.
30 (?), Deuteronomy iv. 32, and in the Book of Jeremiah, xxxi. 22:
then in Ezekiel xxi. 35, xxviii. 13, 15; Malachi ii. 10; in Psalms
li. 12, lxxxix. 13, 48, cii. 19, civ. 30, cxlviii. 5; Ecclesiastes
xii. 1. It occurs, however, most frequently, 20 times in fact,
in Isaiah xl.-lxvi.; and curiously enough, never in Job, where we
should expect to find it. It has nothing to do with B"R") (cut down
wood) and BRY) (fat). /2/

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2. I do not speak of the use of _Elohim_ and the application of
the names of God in the Priestly Code: the matter is not yet clear
to me. Very curious is H#M, Leviticus xxiv. 11.
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Genesis i. 2, THW WBHW occurs also in Jeremiah iv. 23; Isaiah xxxiv.
11. THW alone is not so rare, but it also occurs, Isaiah xxix. 21
excepted, only in the later literature Deuteronomy xxxii. 10; 1Samuel
xii. 21; Isaiah xxiv. 10, xl. 17, 23, xli. 29, xliv. 9, xlv.
18 seq., xlix. 4, lix. 4; Job vi. 18, xii.24, xxvi. 7; Psalm
cvii. 40. The verb RXP (brood), which is common in Aramaic, only
recurs in a single passage in the Old Testament, and that a late
one, Deuteronomy xxxii. 11. Yet the possibility must be conceded
that there was no occasion for its more frequent employment.

Genesis i. 4, HBDYL and NBDL (divide and divide one's self), common
in the Priestly Code, is first used by Deuteronomy and the
Deuteronomist (Deuteronomy iv. 41, x.8, xix. 7, xxix. 10; 1Kings
viii. 53), then by Ezekiel (xxii. 26, xxxix. 14, xlii. 10) and
the author of Isaiah xl. seq. (lvi. 3, lix. 2). It is most used by
the writer of Chronicles, (1Chronicles xii. 8, xxiii. 13, xxv. 1;
2Chronicles xxv. 10; Ezra vi. 21, viii.24, ix. 1, x. 8, 11, 16 ;
Nehemiah x. 2, 29, xiii. 3). On YWM )XD Genesis i. 5 compare
Josephus, Antiquities I. i. 1: "That now would be the FIRST day,
but Moses says ONE day; I could give the reason of this here, but
as I have promised (in the Introduction) to give such reasons for
everything in a separate work, I shall defer the exposition till
then." The Rabbis also, in Genesis Rabba, feel the difficulty of
the expression, which, however, has its parallel in the )XD LXD#,
which belongs to the later way of speaking. In Syriac the
ordinary expression is XD B#B); hence in the New Testament MIA
SABBATWN for the first day of the week.

Genesis i. 6, RQY( (firmament) is found, outside the Priestly
Code, only in Ezekiel (i. 22-26, x. 1), and in still later
writers ; Psalms xix. 2, cl. 1 ; Daniel xii. 3; cf. Job
xxxviii. 18. /1/

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1. It does not mean, as is generally assumed, that which is
beaten out thin, is stretched out. For, firstly, the heaven is
never considered to be made of sheet-metal; secondly, the meaning
in question only belongs to the Piel, and the substantive derived
from it is RIQQUA(. The Kal, with which RQY( must be connected,
is found in Isaiah xiii. 5, xliv. 24; Psalms cxxxvi. 6. It is
generally translated _spread out_, but quite unwarrantably.
Parallel with it are YSD and KWNN (compare Psalms xxiv. 2 with cxxxvi.
6); the Septuagint translates in all three passages with stereoun,
and accordingly renders RQY( with STEREWMA (firmamentum). This
rendering, which alone is supported by tradition, and which is very
satisfactory, is confirmed by the Syriac, where the verb RQ( is
frequent in the sense of _fortify_.
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Genesis i. 10 YMYM (the sea, singular, see i. 22; Leviticus xi. 9,
10), is rare in older times, and belongs to lofty poetical
language; it is, on the contrary, frequent in Ezekiel (ten
times), and in the Psalms (seven times); and occurs besides in Job
vi. 3; Nehemiah ix. 6 ; Jonah ii. 4 ; Daniel xi. 45. Genesis i. 11
MYN (kind), a very peculiar word, especially in the form _Jeminehu_,
is found outside of this chapter and Leviticus xiv., Genesis vi. 20,
vii. 14, only in Deuteronomy xiv. and Ezekiel xlvii. 10.

Genesis i. 26, DMWT (likeness, verses 1, 3) does not occur in the
earlier literature. It first appears in 2Kings xvi. 10, in a
post-Deuteronomic passage, for the writer is that of chapter xi.
seq., xxi. seq. Then in Ezekiel (15 times), Isaiah xiii. 4, xl.
18; 2Chronicles iv. 3; Psalms lxviii. 5. It is a borrowed word
from Aramaic; and the corresponding verb only came into use in
the period when Aramaic began to find its way in.

Genesis i. 27 ZFKFR (male) is in earlier times ZFKW.R; for
this is the vocalization in Exodus xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23; Deuteronomy
xvi. 16, xx. 13; and if it is right in these passages, as we cannot
doubt it is, it must be introduced in Exodus xxxiv. 19; Deuteronomy
xv. 19; 1Kings xi. 15 seq. as well. In the Priestly Code ZFKFR
occurs with great frequency, and elsewhere only in the later
literature, Deuteronomy iv. 16; Jeremiah xx. 15, xxx. 6; Ezekiel xvi.
17; Isaiah lxvi. 7; Malachi i. 14; Judges xxi. 11, 12; 2Chronicles
xxxi. 16; Ezra viii. As for NQBH (female), matters are even worse.
Outside the Priestly Code it is only found in Jeremiah (xxxi. 22)
and the Deuteronomist (iv. 16). The Jehovist, it is well known,
always says )Y#, W)Y#H even of the lower animals: the editor of
the Hexateuch, on the contrary, always follows the usage of the
Priestly Code.

Genesis i. 28 XYH HRM#T attracts attention by the omission of the
article with the substantive and its being merely prefixed to the
following adjective; as if one should say in Greek, )ANHR (O
)AGATHOS instead of (O )ANER (O )AGATHOS. In the same way i. 21
YWM H##Y, and ii. 3 YWM H#BY(Y. In Arabic there are some
analogies for this, but on seeking one in Hebrew we have to come
down to the period when it was usual to say KNST HGDWLH. KB#
and RDH are Aramaisms. In KBSHWH we find the only verbal suffix
in Genesis i. Instead we have always the forms )TM )TW; this is
so in the Priestly Code generally. In the Jehovistic main work,
in J, these substitutes with )T are only used sometimes and for
special reasons: it may be generally asserted that they are
more used the later we come down. Parallel with this is the use
of )nky in J and )ny in the Priestly Code; the latter form
grows always more frequent in later times.

These remarks carry us beyond Genesis i.; for the Priestly Code
generally I am now able to refer to F. Giesebrecht's essay on
the criticism of the Hexateuch. Such words as QRBN, (CM, L(MT,
(#TY are each, by itself, strong arguments for assuming a late
date for the production of the Priestly Code. We cannot believe
that such everyday words should never have come into use in the
other literature before the exile, if they were in existence.
They cannot be counted technical terms: QRBN used in Hebrew for
sacrifice and offering is simply as if an English writer should
say priere instead of worship. In such comparisons of the
vocabulary we have, however, to consider first the working up
and revision which has been at work in every part of the books
of the Bible, and secondly the caprice of the writers in apparent
trifles, such as )NKY and )NY, especially outside the Pentateuch.
These two agencies have so dislocated the original facts in this
matter, that in general we can only deal in proportions, and must
be content with showing that a word occurs say 3 times in the
other literature and 27 times in an equal extent of the later. /1/

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1. Too much importance must not be attached to Aramaisms: even when
they admit of clear demonstration they prove little while
occurring merely in single instances. We early find remarkable
phenomena, such as NDR for NZR (hence NZYR = vovens), N+R for NCR
(Amos i. 11 , Y+R for Y+RP?), comp. Arabic _lata_ for _laisa_, Sur.
38, 2. Hudh. 84, 1. And yet such an Aramaism as BT #NTH in Numbers
xv. 27, or even QRBN, is very remarkable.
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IX.III.2. The study of the history of language is still at a very
elementary stage in Hebrew. In that which pertains to the
lexicographer it would do well to include in its scope the proper
names of the Old Testament; when it would probably appear that
not only Parnach (Numbers xxxiv. 25) but also composite names such
as Peda-zur, Peda-el, Nathana-el, Pazi-el, Eli-asaph, point less to
the Mosaic than to the Persian period, and have their analogies in
the Chronicles. On the other hand, the prepositions and particles
would have to be examined the use of the prepositions Beth and
Lamed in the Priestly Code is very peculiar. That would lead
further, to syntax; or better still, to rhetoric and style--a
diffcult and little cultivated field of study, but one of great
importance and lending itself readily to comparative treatment.
This treatment yields the most far-reaching results in the case
of those parallels which have an undoubted and direct relation
to each other. The dependence of the Priestly Code on the Jehovist
cannot be more strikingly demonstrated than by comparing its CDYQ,
Genesis vi. 9, with the CDYQ BDWR HZH, of Genesis vii. 1 (JE.).
The plural DRWT is quite on a line with the MYNYM, and the (MY
H)RC, of the Rabbis, and the SPERMATA of Galatians iii. 15; it
does not denote the successive generations, but contemporaries,
the contemporaneous individuals of one and the same generation.

From words we are brought back to things again by noting that the
age of the word depends in many cases on the introduction of the
thing. The name BTR in the Song of Songs, for example,
presupposes the cultivation of the malobathron in Syria and
Palestine. The Priestly Code enumerates colours, stuffs,
goldsmiths' work and jewels, which nowhere occur in the older
literature: along with the Book of Ezekiel it is the principal
quarry in the Old Testament for the history of art; and this is
the less likely to be due to chance, as the geographical horizon
of the two works is also the same. There is also some contact in
this respect, though to a less degree, between the Priestly Code
and Isaiah xl.-lxvi., and this must doubtless receive a historical
explanation in the circumstances of the Babylonian age. /l/

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1. On Canticles cf. Schuerer's Theol. Lit. Z., 1879, p. 31. It
also, by the names of plants and similar details mentioned in it,
is an important source for the history of external civilisation.
In Isaiah liv. 11, read with the Septuagint NPK: instead of the
meaningless PWK:, and )DNYK instead of )BNYK.
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CHAPTER X. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN TORAH.

What importance the written letter, the book of the law, possessed
for the Jews, we all know from the New Testament. Of ancient
Israel, again, it is said in the introductory poem of Goethe's
West-Oestlicher Divan, that the word was so important there,
because it was a spoken word. The contrast which Goethe evidently
perceived is really characteristic, and deserves some further
attention.

X.I.

X.I.1. Even if it be the case that Deuteronomy and the Priestly
Code were only reduced to writing at a late period, still there
remains the Jehovistic legislation (Exodus xx.-xxiii. xxxiv.)
which might be regarded as the document which formed the
starting-point of the religious history of Israel. And this
position is in fact generally claimed for it; yet not for the
whole of it, since it is commonly recognised that the Sinaitic
Book of the Covenant (Exodus xx.-xxiii. 19) was given to a
people who were settled and thoroughly accustomed to agriculture,
and who, moreover, had passed somewhat beyond the earliest stage
in the use of money. /1/

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1. Exodus xxi. 35: compare xxi. 33 with Judges ix. 4
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The Decalogue alone is commonly maintained to be in the strictest
sense Mosaic. This is principally on account of the statement
that it was written down on the two stone tables of the sacred
ark. Yet of Deuteronomy also we read, both that it was written
on twelve stones and that it was deposited in the sacred ark
(Deuteronomy xxxi. 26). We cannot therefore place implicit reliance
on such statements. What is attested in this way of the Decalogue
seems to find confirmation in 1Kings viii. 9. But the authority
of this statement is greatly weakened by the fact that it occurs
in a passage which has undergone the Deuteronomistic revision, and
has been, in addition to this, subjected to interpolation. The more
weight must we therefore allow to the circumstance, which makes for
a different conclusion, that the name "The Ark of the Covenant"
(i.e., the box of the law) /1/ is peculiar to the later writers,

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1. Compare 1Kings viii. 21, "the ark wherein is the covenant of
Jehovah," and viii 9, "there was nothing in the ark save the two
tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, the tables of the
covenant which Jehovah had made with the children of Israel." The
Deuteronomistic expression "tables of the covenant", alternates
in the Priestly Code with that of "tables of testimony"; i e.,
likewise of the law. For H(DWT, "the testimony," 2Kings xi. 12,
read HC(DWT, "the bracelets," according to 2Samuel i. 10.
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and, when it occurs in older narratives, is proved by its sporadic
appearance, as well as by a comparison of the Septuagint with
the Massoretic text, to be a correction. In early times the ark
was not a mere casket for the law; the "the ark of Jehovah" was of
itself important, as we see clearly enough from 1Samuel iv.-vi.
Like the twelve maccebas which surrounded the altar on the holy hill
of Shechem, and which only later assumed the character of monuments
of the law, so the ark of the covenant no doubt arose by a change
of meaning out of the old idol. If there were stones in it at all,
they probably served some other purpose than that of writing materials,
otherwise they would not have been hidden as a mystery in the
darkness of the sanctuary; they must have been exposed to public
view. Add to this that the tradition is not agreed as to the
tenor of the ten words said to have been inserted on the two
tables; two decalogues being preserved to us, Exodus xx. and
Exodus xxxiv., which are quite different from each other. It
results from this that there was no real or certain knowledge as
to what stood on the tables, and further that if there were such
stones in the ark--and probably there were--there was nothing
written on them. This is not the place to decide which of the two
versions is prior to the other; the negative result we have
obtained is sufficient for our present purpose.

X.I.2. Ancient Israel was certainly not without God-given bases
for the ordering of human life; only they were not fixed in
writing. Usage and tradition were looked on to a large extent as
the institution of the Deity. Thus, for example, the ways and
rules of agriculture. Jehovah had instructed the husbandman and
taught him the right way. He it was whose authority gave to
the unwritten laws of custom their binding power. "It is never so
done in Israel," "that is folly in Israel," and similar
expressions of insulted public conscience are of frequent occurrence,
and show the power of custom: the fear of God acts as a
motive for respecting it. "Surely there is no fear of God in
this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake," so
Abraham says to himself in Gerar. "How shall I do such great
wrong and sin against God?" says Joseph to the woman in Egypt.
"The people of Sodom were wicked and sinned grievously against
Jehovah," we read in Genesis xiii. 13. Similarly Deuteronomy
xxv. 18: "The Amalekites attacked Israel on the march,and killed
the stragglers, all that were feeble and fell behind, and feared
not God." We see that the requirements of the Deity are known and
of force, not to the Israelites only, but to all the world; and
accordingly they are not to be identified with any positive
commands. The patriarchs observed them long before Moses. "I
know Abraham," Jehovah says, xviii. 19, "that he will command his
children to keep the way of Jehovah, to do justice and judgment."

Much greater importance is attached to the special Torah of
Jehovah, which not only sets up laws of action of universal
validity, but shows man the way in special cases of difficulty,
where he is at a loss. This Torah is one of the special gifts
with which Israel is endowed (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4); and it is
intrusted to the priests, whose influence, during tbe period of
the Hebrew kings, of which we are now speaking, rested much more
on this possession than on the privilege of sacrifice. The verb
from which Torah is derived signifies in its earliest usage to
give direction, decision. The participle signifies _giver of
oracles_ in the two, examples _gibeath moreh_ and _allon moreh_.
The latter expression is explained by another which alternates
with it, "oak of the soothsayers." Now we know that the priests
in the days of Saul and David gave divine oracles by the ephod
and the lots connected with it, which answered one way or the other
to a question put in an alternative form. Their Torah grew no doubt
out of this practice. /1/ The Urim and Thummim are regarded,

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1. 1Sam xiv. xxiii. xxx. In connection with 1Samuel xxxi. 3
I have conjectured that the verb of which Torah is the abstract
means originally to throw the lot-arrows. The Thummim have been
compared in the most felicitous way by Freytag, and by Lagarde
independently of him (Proph. Chald. p. xlvii.) with the
Arabian Tamaim, wbich not only signifies children's amulets but
any means of "averruncatio". Urim is probably connected with
)RR "to curse" (cf. Iliad i. 11 and Numbers xxiii. 23): the two
words of the formula seem mutually to supplement each other.
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according to Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8, as the true and universal insignia
of the priesthood; the ephod is last mentioned in the historical
books in 1Kings ii. 26, /1/

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1 Bleek, Einleiung in das A. T., 1878, p. 642.
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but appears to have remained in use down to the time of Isaiah
(Hosea iii. 4; Isaiah xxx. 22). The Torah freed itself in the
process of time, following the general mental movement, from such
heathenish media and vehicles (Hab. ii. 19). But it continued
to be an oral decision and direction. As a whole it is only a
power and activity of God, or of the priests. Of this subject
there can be no abstract; the TEACHING; is only thought of as
the action of the TEACHER. There is no torah as a ready-made
product, as a system existing independently of its originator and
accessible to every one: it becomes actual only in the various
utterances, which naturally form by degrees the basis of a fixed
tradition. "They preserve Thy word, and keep Thy law; they teach
Jacob Thy judgments and Israel Thy statutes " (Deuteronomy xxxiii.
9, 10).

The Torah of the priests appears to have had primarily a legal
character. In cases which there was no regular authority to
decide, or which were too difficult for human decision, the latter
was brought in the last instance before God, i.e., before the
sanctuary or the priests (Exodus xviii. 25 seq.). The priests
thus formed a kind of supreme court, which, however, rested on a
voluntary recognition of its moral authority, and could not
support its decisions by force. "If a man sin against another,
God shall judge him," 1Samuel ii. 25 says, very indefinitely.
Certain legal transactions of special solemnity are executed
before God (Exodus xxi. 6). Now in proportion as the executive
gained strength under the monarchy, _jus_--civil justice--necessarily
grew up into a separate existence from the older sacred _fas_. The
knowledge of God, which Hosea (chapter iv.) regards as the contents
of the torah, has as yet a closer connection with jurisprudence
than with theology; but as its practical issue is that God
requires of man righteousness, and faithfulness, and good-will,
it is fundamentally and essentially morality, though morality
at that time addressed its demands less to the conscience than
to society. A ritual tradition naturally developed itself even
before the exile (2Kings xvii. 27, 28). But only those rites
were included in the Torah which the priests had to teach others,
not those which they discharged themselves; even in Leviticus
this distinction may be traced; the instructions characterised
as toroth being chiefly those as to animals which might or might
not be eaten, as to clean and unclean states, as to leprosy and
its marks (cf. Deuteronomy xxiv. 8).

So it was in Israel, to which the testimony applies which we have
cited: and so it was in Judah also. There was a common proverb in
the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, "The Torah shall not perish
from the priest, nor counsel from the ancient, nor the word from
the prophet:" but no doubt the saying was not new in their time,
and at any rate it will apply to the earlier time as well. Not
because they sacrifice but because they teach, do the priests
here appear as pillars of the religious order of things; and
their Torah is a living power, equal to the occasion and
never-failing. Micah reproaches them with judging for reward
(iii. 11), and this shows their wisdom to have been based on a
tradition accessible to them alone; this is also shown by some
expressions of Deuteronomy (xvii. 10 seq., xxiv. 8). We have
the counterpart to the proverb above cited (Jeremiah xviii. 18;
Ezekiel vii. 26) in the complaint in Lamentations (ii. 9):
"Jerusalem is destroyed; her king and her princes are among the
Gentiles: the Torah is no more; the prophets obtain no vision
from Jehovah;" after the ruin of the sanctuary and the priests
there is no longer any Torah; and if that be so, the axe is laid
to the root of the life of the people. In the post-exile prophets
the torah, which even in Deuteronomy (xvii. 11) was mainly
legal in its nature, acquires a strong savour of ritual which one
did not notice before; yet even here it is still an oral teaching
of the priests (Haggai ii. 11).