Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Jevons, Stanley" to "Joint" Volume 15, Slice 4
VOLUME XV, SLICE IV
Jevons, Stanley to Joint
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY JOHN XIX. JEW, THE WANDERING JOHN XXI. JEWEL, JOHN JOHN XXII. JEWELRY JOHN XXIII. JEWETT, SARAH ORNE JOHN I. (Roman emperor) JEWS JOHN II. JEWSBURY, GERALDINE ENDSOR JOHN III. JEW'S EARS JOHN IV. JEW'S HARP JOHN V. or VI. JEZEBEL JOHN VI. or V. JEZREEL JOHN VI. or VII. JHABUA JOHN (king of England) JHALAWAR JOHN I. (king of Aragon) JHANG JOHN II. JHANSI JOHN (king of Bohemia) JHELUM (Indian river) JOHN I. (king of Castile) JHELUM (Indian town) JOHN II. JHERING, RUDOLF VON JOHN I. (king of France) JIBITOS JOHN II. JIBUTI JOHN (king of Hungary) JICARILLA JOHN OF BRIENNE JIDDA JOHN III. (king of Poland) JIG JOHN I. (king of Portugal) JIHAD JOHN II. JIMENES DE CISNEROS, FRANCISCO JOHN III. JIND JOHN IV. JINGO JOHN V. JINN JOHN VI. JIRECEK, JOSEF JOHN (king of Saxony) JIZAKH JOHN I. (duke of Brabant) JOAB JOHN (margrave of Brandenburg-Cüstrin) JOACHIM OF FLORIS JOHN (duke of Burgundy) JOACHIM I. JOHN (elector of Saxony) JOACHIM II. JOHN, DON (of Austria) JOACHIM, JOSEPH JOHN, DON (the younger) JOAN JOHN OF BEVERLEY, ST JOAN OF ARC JOHN OF THE CROSS, ST JOANES, VICENTE JOHN OF ASIA JOANNA JOHN OF DAMASCUS JOANNA I. JOHN OF HEXHAM JOANNA II. JOHN OF IRELAND JOASH JOHN OF RAVENNA JOB JOHN OF SALISBURY JOBST JOHN (of Swabia) JOB'S TEARS JOHN, THE EPISTLES OF JOCASTA JOHN, GOSPEL OF ST JOCKEY JOHN ALBERT JODELLE, ÉTIENNE JOHN ANGELUS JODHPUR JOHN FREDERICK I. JOEL JOHN FREDERICK (duke of Saxony) JOEL, MANUEL JOHN GEORGE I. JOFFRIN, JULES ALEXANDRE JOHN MAURICE OF NASSAU JOGUES, ISAAC JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE JO[H.]ANAN BEN ZACCAI JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JOHANNESBURG (city of Transvaal) JOHNSON, ANDREW JOHANNISBERG (German village) JOHNSON, BENJAMIN JOHN (proper name) JOHNSON, EASTMAN JOHN (the Apostle) JOHNSON, REVERDY JOHN THE BAPTIST JOHNSON, RICHARD JOHN I. (pope) JOHNSON, RICHARD MENTOR JOHN II. JOHNSON, SAMUEL JOHN III. JOHNSON, SIR THOMAS JOHN IV. JOHNSON, THOMAS JOHN V. JOHNSON, SIR WILLIAM JOHN VI. JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY JOHN VII. JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER JOHN VIII. JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER KEITH JOHN IX. JOHNSTON, ARTHUR JOHN X. JOHNSTON, SIR HENRY HAMILTON JOHN XI. JOHNSTON, JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHN XII. JOHNSTONE JOHN XIII. JOHNSTOWN (New York, U.S.A.) JOHN XIV. JOHNSTOWN (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) JOHN XV. JOHOR JOHN XVI. JOIGNY JOHN XVII. JOINDER JOHN XVIII. JOINERY JOINT
JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY (1835-1882), English economist and logician, was born at Liverpool on the 1st of September 1835. His father, Thomas Jevons, a man of strong scientific tastes and a writer on legal and economic subjects, was an iron merchant. His mother was the daughter of William Roscoe. At the age of fifteen he was sent to London to attend University College school. He appears at this time to have already formed the belief that important achievements as a thinker were possible to him, and at more than one critical period in his career this belief was the decisive factor in determining his conduct. Towards the end of 1853, after having spent two years at University College, where his favourite subjects were chemistry and botany, he unexpectedly received the offer of the assayership to the new mint in Australia. The idea of leaving England was distasteful, but pecuniary considerations had, in consequence of the failure of his father's firm in 1847, become of vital importance, and he accepted the post. He left England for Sydney in June 1854, and remained there for five years. At the end of that period he resigned his appointment, and in the autumn of 1859 entered again as a student at University College, London, proceeding in due course to the B.A. and M.A. degrees of the university of London. He now gave his principal attention to the moral sciences, but his interest in natural science was by no means exhausted: throughout his life he continued to write occasional papers on scientific subjects, and his intimate knowledge of the physical sciences greatly contributed to the success of his chief logical work, _The Principles of Science_. Not long after taking his M.A. degree Jevons obtained a post as tutor at Owens College, Manchester. In 1866 he was elected professor of logic and mental and moral philosophy and Cobden professor of political economy in Owens college. Next year he married Harriet Ann Taylor, whose father had been the founder and proprietor of the _Manchester Guardian_. Jevons suffered a good deal from ill health and sleeplessness, and found the delivery of lectures covering so wide a range of subjects very burdensome. In 1876 he was glad to exchange the Owens professorship for the professorship of political economy in University College, London. Travelling and music were the principal recreations of his life; but his health continued bad, and he suffered from depression. He found his professorial duties increasingly irksome, and feeling that the pressure of literary work left him no spare energy, he decided in 1880 to resign the post. On the 13th of August 1882 he was drowned whilst bathing near Hastings. Throughout his life he had pursued with devotion and industry the ideals with which he had set out, and his journal and letters display a noble simplicity of disposition and an unswerving honesty of purpose. He was a prolific writer, and at the time of his death he occupied the foremost position in England both as a logician and as an economist. Professor Marshall has said of his work in economics that it "will probably be found to have more constructive force than any, save that of Ricardo, that has been done during the last hundred years." At the time of his death he was engaged upon an economic work that promised to be at least as important as any that he had previously undertaken. It would be difficult to exaggerate the loss which logic and political economy sustained through the accident by which his life was prematurely cut short.
Jevons arrived quite early in his career at the doctrines that constituted his most characteristic and original contributions to economics and logic. The theory of utility, which became the keynote of his general theory of political economy, was practically formulated in a letter written in 1860; and the germ of his logical principles of the substitution of similars may be found in the view which he propounded in another letter written in 1861, that "philosophy would be found to consist solely in pointing out the likeness of things." The theory of utility above referred to, namely, that the degree of utility of a commodity is some continuous mathematical function of the quantity of the commodity available, together with the implied doctrine that economics is essentially a mathematical science, took more definite form in a paper on "A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy," written for the British Association in 1862. This paper does not appear to have attracted much attention either in 1862 or on its publication four years later in the _Journal of the Statistical Society_; and it was not till 1871, when the _Theory of Political Economy_ appeared, that Jevons set forth his doctrines in a fully developed form. It was not till after the publication of this work that Jevons became acquainted with the applications of mathematics to political economy made by earlier writers, notably Antoine Augustin Cournot and H. H. Gossen. The theory of utility was about 1870 being independently developed on somewhat similar lines by Carl Menger in Austria and M.E.L. Walras in Switzerland. As regards the discovery of the connexion between value in exchange and final (or marginal) utility, the priority belongs to Gossen, but this in no way detracts from the great importance of the service which Jevons rendered to English economics by his fresh discovery of the principle, and by the way in which he ultimately forced it into notice. In his reaction from the prevailing view he sometimes expressed himself without due qualification: the declaration, for instance, made at the commencement of the _Theory of Political Economy_, that "value depends entirely upon utility," lent itself to misinterpretation. But a certain exaggeration of emphasis may be pardoned in a writer seeking to attract the attention of an indifferent public. It was not, however, as a theorist dealing with the fundamental data of economic science, but as a brilliant writer on practical economic questions, that Jevons first received general recognition. _A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold_ (1863) and _The Coal Question_ (1865) placed him in the front rank as a writer on applied economics and statistics; and he would be remembered as one of the leading economists of the 19th century even had his _Theory of Political Economy_ never been written. Amongst his economic works may be mentioned _Money and the Mechanism of Exchange_ (1875), written in a popular style, and descriptive rather than theoretical, but wonderfully fresh and original in treatment and full of suggestiveness, a _Primer on Political Economy_ (1878), _The State in Relation to Labour_ (1882), and two works published after his death, namely, _Methods of Social Reform_ and _Investigations in Currency and Finance_, containing papers that had appeared separately during his lifetime. The last-named volume contains Jevons's interesting speculations on the connexion between commercial crises and sun-spots. He was engaged at the time of his death upon the preparation of a large treatise on economics and had drawn up a table of contents and completed some chapters and parts of chapters. This fragment was published in 1905 under the title of _The Principles of Economics: a Fragment of a Treatise on the Industrial Mechanism of Society, and other Papers_.
Jevons's work in logic went on _pari passu_ with his work in political economy. In 1864 he published a small volume, entitled _Pure Logic; or, the Logic of Quality apart from Quantity_, which was based on Boole's system of logic, but freed from what he considered the false mathematical dress of that system. In the years immediately following he devoted considerable attention to the construction of a logical machine, exhibited before the Royal Society in 1870, by means of which the conclusion derivable from any given set of premisses could be mechanically obtained. In 1866 what he regarded as the great and universal principle of all reasoning dawned upon him; and in 1869 he published a sketch of this fundamental doctrine under the title of _The Substitution of Similars_. He expressed the principle in its simplest form as follows: "Whatever is true of a thing is true of its like," and he worked out in detail its various applications. In the following year appeared the _Elementary Lessons on Logic_, which soon became the most widely read elementary textbook on logic in the English language. In the meantime he was engaged upon a much more important logical treatise, which appeared in 1874 under the title of _The Principles of Science_. In this work Jevons embodied the substance of his earlier works on pure logic and the substitution of similars; he also enunciated and developed the view that induction is simply an inverse employment of deduction; he treated in a luminous manner the general theory of probability, and the relation between probability and induction; and his knowledge of the various natural sciences enabled him throughout to relieve the abstract character of logical doctrine by concrete scientific illustrations, often worked out in great detail. Jevons's general theory of induction was a revival of the theory laid down by Whewell and criticized by Mill; but it was put in a new form, and was free from some of the non-essential adjuncts which rendered Whewell's exposition open to attack. The work as a whole was one of the most notable contributions to logical doctrine that appeared in Great Britain in the 19th century. His _Studies in Deductive Logic_, consisting mainly of exercises and problems for the use of students, was published in 1880. In 1877 and the following years Jevons contributed to the _Contemporary Review_ some articles on J. S. Mill, which he had intended to supplement by further articles, and eventually publish in a volume as a criticism of Mill's philosophy. These articles and one other were republished after Jevons's death, together with his earlier logical treatises, in a volume, entitled _Pure Logic, and other Minor Works_. The criticisms on Mill contain much that is ingenious and much that is forcible, but on the whole they cannot be regarded as taking rank with Jevons's other work. His strength lay in his power as an original thinker rather than as a critic; and he will be remembered by his constructive work as logician, economist and statistician.
See _Letters and Journal of W. Stanley Jevons_, edited by his wife (1886). This work contains a bibliography of Jevons's writings. See also LOGIC: _History_. (J. N. K.)
JEW, THE WANDERING, a legendary Jew (see JEWS) doomed to wander till the second coming of Christ because he had taunted Jesus as he passed bearing the cross, saying, "Go on quicker." Jesus is said to have replied, "I go, but thou shalt wait till I return." The legend in this form first appeared in a pamphlet of four leaves alleged to have been printed at Leiden in 1602. This pamphlet relates that Paulus von Eizen (d. 1598), bishop of Schleswig, had met at Hamburg in 1542 a Jew named Ahasuerus (Ahasverus), who declared he was "eternal" and was the same who had been punished in the above-mentioned manner by Jesus at the time of the crucifixion. The pamphlet is supposed to have been written by Chrysostomus Dudulaeus of Westphalia and printed by one Christoff Crutzer, but as no such author or printer is known at this time--the latter name indeed refers directly to the legend--it has been conjectured that the whole story is a myth invented to support the Protestant contention of a continuous witness to the truth of Holy Writ in the person of this "eternal" Jew; he was to form, in his way, a counterpart to the apostolic tradition of the Catholic Church.
The story met with ready acceptance and popularity. Eight editions of the pamphlet appeared in 1602, and the fortieth edition before the end of the following century. It was translated into Dutch and Flemish with almost equal success. The first French edition appeared in 1609, and the story was known in England before 1625, when a parody was produced. Denmark and Sweden followed suit with translations, and the expression "eternal Jew" passed as a current term into Czech. In other words, the story in its usual form spread wherever there was a tincture of Protestantism. In southern Europe little is heard of it in this version, though Rudolph Botoreus, parliamentary advocate of Paris (_Comm. histor._, 1604), writing in Paris two years after its first appearance, speaks contemptuously of the popular belief in the Wandering Jew in Germany, Spain and Italy.
The popularity of the pamphlet and its translations soon led to reports of the appearance of this mysterious being in almost all parts of the civilized world. Besides the original meeting of the bishop and Ahasuerus in 1542 and others referred back to 1575 in Spain and 1599 at Vienna, the Wandering Jew was stated to have appeared at Prague (1602), at Lübeck (1603), in Bavaria (1604), at Ypres (1623), Brussels (1640), Leipzig (1642), Paris (1644, by the "Turkish Spy"), Stamford (1658), Astrakhan (1672), and Frankenstein (1678). In the next century the Wandering Jew was seen at Munich (1721), Altbach (1766), Brussels (1774), Newcastle (1790, see Brand, _Pop. Antiquities, s.v._), and on the streets of London between 1818 and 1830 (see _Athenaeum_, 1866, ii. 561). So far as can be ascertained, the latest report of his appearance was in the neighbourhood of Salt Lake City in 1868, when he is said to have made himself known to a Mormon named O'Grady. It is difficult to tell in any one of these cases how far the story is an entire fiction and how far some ingenious impostor took advantage of the existence of the myth.
The reiterated reports of the actual existence of a wandering being, who retained in his memory the details of the crucifixion, show how the idea had fixed itself in popular imagination and found its way into the 19th-century collections of German legends. The two ideas combined in the story of the restless fugitive akin to Cain and wandering for ever are separately represented in the current names given to this figure in different countries. In most Teutonic languages the stress is laid on the perpetual character of his punishment and he is known as the "everlasting," or "eternal" Jew (Ger. "Ewige Jude"). In the lands speaking a Romance tongue, the usual form has reference to the wanderings (Fr. "le Juif errant"). The English form follows the Romance analogy, possibly because derived directly from France. The actual name given to the mysterious Jew varies in the different versions: the original pamphlet calls him Ahasver, and this has been followed in most of the literary versions, though it is difficult to imagine any Jew being called by the name of the typical anti-Semitic king of the Book of Esther. In one of his appearances at Brussels his name is given as Isaac Laquedem, implying an imperfect knowledge of Hebrew in an attempt to represent Isaac "from of old." Alexandre Dumas also made use of this title. In the _Turkish Spy_ the Wandering Jew is called Paul Marrane and is supposed to have suffered persecution at the hands of the Inquisition, which was mainly occupied in dealing with the Marranos, i.e. the secret Jews of the Iberian peninsula. In the few references to the legend in Spanish writings the Wandering Jew is called Juan Espera en Dios, which gives a more hopeful turn to the legend.
Under other names, a story very similar to that given in the pamphlet of 1602 occurs nearly 400 years earlier on English soil. According to Roger of Wendover in his _Flores historiarum_ under the year 1228, an Armenian archbishop, then visiting England, was asked by the monks of St Albans about the well-known Joseph of Arimathaea, who had spoken to Jesus and was said to be still alive. The archbishop claimed to have seen him in Armenia under the name of Carthaphilus or Cartaphilus, who had confessed that he had taunted Jesus in the manner above related. This Carthaphilus had afterwards been baptized by the name of Joseph. Matthew Paris, in repeating the passage from Roger of Wendover, reported that other Armenians had confirmed the story on visiting St Albans in 1252, and regarded it as a great proof of the Christian religion. A similar account is given in the chronicles of Philippe Mouskès (d. 1243). A variant of the same story was known to Guido Bonati, an astronomer quoted by Dante, who calls his hero or villain Butta Deus because he struck Jesus. Under this name he is said to have appeared at Mugello in 1413 and at Bologna in 1415 (in the garb of a Franciscan of the third order).
The source of all these reports of an ever-living witness of the crucifixion is probably Matthew xvi. 28: "There be some of them that stand here which shall in no wise taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." As the kingdom had not come, it was assumed that there must be persons living who had been present at the crucifixion; the same reasoning is at the root of the Anglo-Israel belief. These words are indeed quoted in the pamphlet of 1602. Again, a legend was based on John xxi. 20 that the beloved disciple would not die before the second coming; while another legend (current in the 16th century) condemned Malchus, whose ear Peter cut off in the garden of Gethsemane (John xvii. 10), to wander perpetually till the second coming. The legend alleges that he had been so condemned for having scoffed at Jesus. These legends and the utterance of Matt. xvi. 28 became "contaminated" by the legend of St Joseph of Arimathaea and the Holy Grail, and took the form given in Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris. But there is nothing to show the spread of this story among the people before the pamphlet of 1602, and it is difficult to see how this Carthaphilus could have given rise to the legend of the Wandering Jew, since he is not a Jew nor does he wander. The author of 1602 was probably acquainted either directly or indirectly with the story as given by Matthew Paris, since he gives almost the same account. But he gives a new name to his hero and directly connects his fate with Matt. xvi. 28.
Moncure D. Conway (_Ency. Brit._, 9th ed., xiii. 673) attempted to connect the legend of the Wandering Jew with a whole series of myths relating to never-dying heroes like King Arthur, Frederick Barbarossa, the Seven Sleepers, and Thomas the Rhymer, not to speak of Rip Van Winkle. He goes even farther and connects our legend with mortals visiting earth, as the Yima in Parsism, and the "Ancient of Days" in the Books of Daniel and Enoch, and further connects the legend with the whole medieval tendency to regard the Jew as something uncanny and mysterious. But all these mythological explanations are supererogatory, since the actual legend in question can be definitely traced to the pamphlet of 1602. The same remark applies to the identification with the Mahommedan legend of the "eternal" Chadhir proposed by M. Lidzbarski (_Zeit. f. Assyr._ vii. 116) and I. Friedländer (_Arch. f. Religionswiss._ xiii. 110).
This combination of eternal punishment with restless wandering has attracted the imagination of innumerable writers in almost all European tongues. The Wandering Jew has been regarded as a symbolic figure representing the wanderings and sufferings of his race. The Germans have been especially attracted by the legend, which has been made the subject of poems by Schubart, Schreiber, W. Müller, Lenau, Chamisso, Schlegel, Mosen and Koehler, from which enumeration it will be seen that it was a particularly favourite subject with the Romantic school. They were perhaps influenced by the example of Goethe, who in his _Autobiography_ describes, at considerable length, the plan of a poem he had designed on the Wandering Jew. More recently poems have been composed on the subject in German by Adolf Wilbrandt, Fritz Lienhard and others; in English by Robert Buchanan, and in Dutch by H. Heijermans. German novels also exist on the subject, by Franz Horn, Oeklers, Laun and Schucking, tragedies by Klinemann, Haushofer and Zedlitz. Sigismund Heller wrote three cantos on the wanderings of Ahasuerus, while Hans Andersen made of him an "Angel of Doubt." Robert Hamerling even identifies Nero with the Wandering Jew. In France, E. Quinet published a prose epic on the subject in 1833, and Eugène Sue, in his best-known work, _Le Juif errant_ (1844), introduces the Wandering Jew in the prologues of its different sections and associates him with the legend of Herodias. In modern times the subject has been made still more popular by Gustave Doré's elaborate designs (1856), containing some of his most striking and imaginative work. Thus, probably, he suggested Grenier's poem on the subject (1857).
In England, besides the ballads in Percy's _Reliques_, William Godwin introduced the idea of an eternal witness of the course of civilization in his _St Leon_ (1799), and his son-in-law Shelley introduces Ahasuerus in his _Queen Mab_. It is doubtful how far Swift derived his idea of the immortal Struldbrugs from the notion of the Wandering Jew. George Croly's _Salathiel_, which appeared anonymously in 1828, gave a highly elaborate turn to the legend; this has been republished under the title _Tarry Thou Till I Come_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. G. Th. Graesse, _Die Sage vom ewigen Juden_ (1844); F. Helbig, _Die Sage vom ewigen Juden_ (1874); G. Paris, _Le Juif errant_ (1881); M. D. Conway, _The Wandering Jew_ (1881); S. Morpugo, _L' Ebreo errante in Italia_ (1891); L. Neubaur, _Die Sage vom ewigen Juden_ (2nd ed., 1893). The recent literary handling of the subject has been dealt with by J. Prost, _Die Sage vom ewigen Juden in der neueren deutschen Literatur_ (1905); T. Kappstein, _Ahasver in der Weltpoesie_ (1905). (J. Ja.)
JEWEL, JOHN (1522-1571), bishop of Salisbury, son of John Jewel of Buden, Devonshire, was born on the 24th of May 1522, and educated under his uncle John Bellamy, rector of Hampton, and other private tutors until his matriculation at Merton college, Oxford, in July 1535. There he was taught by John Parkhurst, afterwards bishop of Norwich; but on the 19th of August 1539 he was elected scholar of Corpus Christi college. He graduated B.A. in 1540, and M.A. in 1545, having been elected fellow of his college in 1542. He made some mark as a teacher at Oxford, and became after 1547 one of the chief disciples of Peter Martyr. He graduated B.D. in 1552, and was made vicar of Sunningwell, and public orator of the university, in which capacity he had to compose a congratulatory epistle to Mary on her accession. In April 1554 he acted as notary to Cranmer and Ridley at their disputation, but in the autumn he signed a series of Catholic articles. He was, nevertheless, suspected, fled to London, and thence to Frankfort, which he reached in March 1555. There he sided with Coxe against Knox, but soon joined Martyr at Strassburg, accompanied him to Zurich, and then paid a visit to Padua.
Under Elizabeth's succession he returned to England, and made earnest efforts to secure what would now be called a low-church settlement of religion. Indeed, his attitude was hardly distinguishable from that of the Elizabethan Puritans, but he gradually modified it under the stress of office and responsibility. He was one of the disputants selected to confute the Romanists at the conference of Westminster after Easter 1559; he was select preacher at St Paul's cross on the 15th of June; and in the autumn was engaged as one of the royal visitors of the western counties. His _congé d'élire_ as bishop of Salisbury had been made out on the 27th of July, but he was not consecrated until the 21st of January 1560. He now constituted himself the literary apologist of the Elizabethan settlement. He had on the 26th of November 1559, in a sermon at St Paul's Cross, challenged all comers to prove the Roman case out of the Scriptures, or the councils or Fathers for the first six hundred years after Christ. He repeated his challenge in 1560, and Dr Henry Cole took it up. The chief result was Jewel's _Apologia ecclesiae Anglicanae_, published in 1562, which in Bishop Creighton's words is "the first methodical statement of the position of the Church of England against the Church of Rome, and forms the groundwork of all subsequent controversy." A more formidable antagonist than Cole now entered the lists in the person of Thomas Harding, an Oxford contemporary whom Jewel had deprived of his prebend in Salisbury Cathedral for recusancy. He published an elaborate and bitter _Answer_ in 1564, to which Jewel issued a _Reply_ in 1565. Harding followed with a _Confutation_, and Jewel with a _Defence_, of the _Apology_ in 1566 and 1567; the combatants ranged over the whole field of the Anglo-Roman controversy, and Jewel's theology was officially enjoined upon the Church by Archbishop Bancroft in the reign of James I. Latterly Jewel had been confronted with criticism from a different quarter. The arguments that had weaned him from his Zwinglian simplicity did not satisfy his unpromoted brethren, and Jewel had to refuse admission to a benefice to his friend Laurence Humphrey (q.v.), who would not wear a surplice. He was consulted a good deal by the government on such questions as England's attitude towards the council of Trent, and political considerations made him more and more hostile to Puritan demands with which he had previously sympathized. He wrote an attack on Cartwright, which was published after his death by Whitgift. He died on the 23rd of September 1571, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, where he had built a library. Hooker, who speaks of Jewel as "the worthiest divine that Christendom hath bred for some hundreds of years," was one of the boys whom Jewel prepared in his house for the university; and his _Ecclesiastical Polity_ owes much to Jewel's training.
Jewel's works were published in a folio in 1609 under the direction of Bancroft, who ordered the _Apology_ to be placed in churches, in some of which it may still be seen chained to the lectern; other editions appeared at Oxford (1848, 8 vols.) and Cambridge (Parker Soc., 4 vols.). See also Gough's _Index to Parker Soc. Publ._; Strype's _Works_ (General Index); _Acts of the Privy Council_; _Calendars of Domestic and Spanish State Papers_; Dixon's and Frere's _Church Histories_; and _Dictionary of National Biography_ (art. by Bishop Creighton). (A. F. P.)
JEWELRY (O. Fr. _jouel_, Fr. _joyau_, perhaps from _joie_, joy; Lat. _gaudium_; retranslated into Low Lat. _jocale_, a toy, from _jocus_, by misapprehension of the origin of the word), a collective term for jewels, or the art connected with them--jewels being personal ornaments, usually made of gems, precious stones, &c., with a setting of precious metal; in a restricted sense it is also common to speak of a gem-stone itself as a jewel, when utilized in this way. Personal ornaments appear to have been among the very first objects on which the invention and ingenuity of man were exercised; and there is no record of any people so rude as not to employ some kind of personal decoration. Natural objects, such as small shells, dried berries, small perforated stones, feathers of variegated colours, were combined by stringing or tying together to ornament the head, neck, arms and legs, the fingers, and even the toes, whilst the cartilages of the nose and ears were frequently perforated for the more ready suspension of suitable ornaments.
Amongst modern Oriental nations we find almost every kind of personal decoration, from the simple caste mark on the forehead of the Hindu to the gorgeous examples of beaten gold and silver work of the various cities and provinces of India. Nor are such decorations mere ornaments without use or meaning. The hook with its corresponding perforation or eye, the clasp, the buckle, the button, grew step by step into a special ornament, according to the rank, means, taste and wants of the wearer, or became an evidence of the dignity of office. Nor was the jewel deemed to have served its purpose with the death of its owner, for it is to the tombs of ancient peoples that we must look for evidence of the early existence of the jeweller's art.
The jewelry of the ancient Egyptians has been preserved for us in their tombs, sometimes in, and sometimes near the sarcophagi which contained the embalmed bodies of the wearers. An amazing series of finds of the intact jewels of five princesses of the XIIth Dynasty (c. 2400 B.C.) was the result of the excavations of J. de Morgan at Dahshur in 1894-1895. The treasure of Princess Hathor-Set contained jewels with the names of Senwosri (Usertesen) II. and III., one of whom was probably her father. The treasure of Princess Merit contained the names of the same two monarchs, and also that of Amenemhe III., to whose family Princess Nebhotp may have belonged. The two remaining princesses were Ita and Khnumit.
The art of the nameless Memphite jewellers of the XIIth Dynasty is marked by perfect accuracy of execution, by sureness of intention, by decorative instinct and sobriety in design, and by the serviceable nature of the jewels for actual wear. All forms of work are represented--including chiselling, soldering, inlaying with coloured stones, moulding and working with twisted wires and filigree. Here also occurs the earliest instance of granulated work, with small grains of gold, soldered on a flat surface (fig. 1). The principal items in this dazzling group are the following: Three gold pectorals (fig. 2 and Plate I. figs. 35, 36) worked _à jour_ (with the interstices left open); on the front side they are inlaid with coloured stones, the fine _cloisons_ being the only portion of the gold that is visible; on the back, the gold surfaces are most delicately carved, in low relief. Two gold crowns (Plate I. figs. 32, 34), found together, are curiously contrasted in character. The one (fig. 32) is of a formal design, of gold, inlaid (the plume, Plate I. fig 33, was attached to it); the other (fig. 34) has a multitude of star-like flowers, embodied in a filigree of daintily twisted wires. A dagger with inlaid patterns on the handle shows extraordinary perfection of finish.
Nearly a thousand years later we have another remarkable collection of Egyptian art in the jewelry taken from the coffin of Queen Aah-hotp, discovered in 1859 by Mariette in the entrance to the valley of the tombs of the kings and now preserved in the Cairo museum. Compared with the Dahshur treasure the jewelry of Aah-hotp is in parts rough and coarse, but none the less it is marked by the ingenuity and mastery of the materials that characterize all the work of the Egyptians. Hammered work, incised and chased work, the evidence of soldering, the combinations of layers of gold plates, together with coloured stones, are all present, and the handicraft is complete in every respect.
A diadem of gold and enamel, found at the back of the head of the mummy of the queen (fig. 3), was fixed in the back hair, showing the cartouche in front. The box holding this cartouche has on the upper surface the titles of the king, "the son of the sun, Aahmes, living for ever and ever," in gold on a ground of lapis lazuli, with a chequered ornament in blue and red pastes, and a sphinx couchant on each side. A necklace with three pendant flies (fig. 4) is entirely of gold, having a hook and loop to fasten it round the neck. Fig. 5 is a gold drop, inlaid with turquoise or blue paste, in the shape of a fig. A gold chain (fig. 6) is formed of wires closely plaited and very flexible, the ends terminating in the heads of water fowl, and having small rings to secure the collar behind. To the centre is suspended by a small ring a scarabaeus of solid gold inlaid with lapis lazuli. We have an example of a bracelet, similar to those in modern use (fig. 7), and worn by all persons of rank. It is formed of two pieces joined by a hinge, and is decorated with figures in repoussé on a ground inlaid with lapis lazuli.
That the Assyrians used personal decorations of a very distinct character, and no doubt made of precious materials, is proved by the bas-reliefs from which a considerable collection of jewels could be gathered, such as bracelets, ear-rings and necklaces. Thus, for example, in the British Museum we have representations of Assur-nazir-pal, king of Assyria (c. 885-860 B.C.), wearing a cross (fig. 8) very similar to the Maltese cross of modern times. It happens, however, that the excavations have not hitherto been fertile in actual remains of gold work from Assyria. Chance also has so far ordained that the excavations in Crete should not be particularly rich in ornaments of gold. A few isolated objects have been found, such as a duck and other pendants, and also several necklaces with beads of the Argonaut shell-fish pattern. More striking than these is a short bronze sword. The handle has an agate pommel, and is covered with gold plates, engraved with spirited scenes of lions and wild goats (fig. 9, A. J. Evans in _Archaeologia_, 59, 447). In general, however, the gold jewelry of the later Minoan periods is more brilliantly represented by the finds made on the mainland of Greece and at Enkomi in Cyprus. Among the former the gold ornaments found by Heinrich Schliemann in the graves of Mycenae are pre-eminent.
The objects found ranged over most of the personal ornaments still in use; necklaces with gold beads and pendants, butterflies (fig. 10), cuttlefish (fig. 11), single and concentric circles, rosettes and leafage, with perforations for attachment to clothing, crosses and stars formed of combined crosses, with crosses in the centre forming spikes--all elaborately ornamented in detail. The spiral forms an incessant decoration from its facile production and repetition by means of twisted gold wire. Grasshoppers or tree crickets in gold repoussé suspended by chains and probably used for the decoration of the hair, and a griffin (fig. 12), having the upper part of the body of an eagle and the lower parts of a lion, with wings decorated with spirals, are among the more remarkable examples of perforated ornaments for attachment to the clothing. There are also perforated ornaments belonging to necklaces, with intaglio engravings of such subjects as a contest of a man and lion, and a duel of two warriors, one of whom stabs his antagonist in the throat. There are also pinheads and brooches formed of two stags lying down (fig. 13), the bodies and necks crossing each other, and the horns meeting symmetrically above the heads, forming a finial. The heads of these ornaments were of gold, with silver blades or pointed pins inserted for use. The bodies of the two stags rest on fronds of the date-palm growing out of the stem which receives the pin. Another remarkable series is composed of figures of women with doves. Some have one dove resting on the head; others have three doves, one on the head and the others resting on arms. The arms in both instances are extended to the elbow, the hands being placed on the breasts. These ornaments are also perforated, and were evidently sewed on the dresses, although there is some evidence that an example with three doves has been fastened with a pin.
An extraordinary diadem was found upon the head of one of the bodies discovered in the same tomb with many objects similar to those noticed above. It is 25 in. in length, covered with shield-like or rosette ornaments in repoussé, the relief being very low but perfectly distinct, and further ornamented by thirty-six large leaves of repoussé gold attached to it. As an example of design and perfection of detail, another smaller diadem found in another tomb may be noted (fig. 14). It is of gold plate, so thick as to require no "piping" at the back to sustain it; but in general the repoussé examples have a piping of copper wire.
The admirable inlaid daggers of the IVth grave at Mycenae are unique in their kind, with their subjects of a lion hunt, of a lion chasing a herd of antelopes, of running lions, of cats hunting wild duck, of inlaid lilies, and of geometric patterns. The subjects are inlaid in gold of various tints, and silver, in bronze plates which are inserted in the flat surfaces of the dagger-blades. In part also the subjects are rendered in relief and gilded. The whole is executed with marvellous precision and vivid representation of motion. To a certain limited extent these daggers are paralleled by a dagger and hatchet found in the treasure of Queen Aah-hotp mentioned above, but in their most characteristic features there is little resemblance. The gold ornaments found by Schliemann at Hissarlik, the supposed site of Troy, divide themselves, generally speaking, into two groups, one being the "great treasure" of diadems, ear-rings, beads, bracelets, &c., which seem the product of a local and uncultured art. The other group, which were found in smaller "treasures," have spirals and rosettes similar to those of Mycenae. The discovery, however, of the gold treasures of the Artemision at Ephesus has brought out points of affinity between the Hissarlik treasures and those of Ephesus, and has made any reasoning difficult, in view of the uncertainties surrounding the Hissarlik finds. The group with Mycenaean affinities (fig. 15) includes necklaces, brooches, bracelets (g), hair-pins (a), ear-rings (c, d, e, f), with and without pendants, beads and twisted wire drops. The majority of these are ornamented with spirals of twisted wire, or small rosettes, with fragments of stones in the centres. The twisted wire ornaments were evidently portions of necklaces. A circular plaque decorated with a rosette (h) is very similar to those found at Mycenae, and a conventionalized eagle (k) is characteristic of much of the detail found at that place as well as at Hissarlik. They were all of pure gold, and the wire must have been drawn through a plate of harder metal--probably bronze. The principal ornaments differing from those found at Mycenae are diadems or head fillets of pure hammered gold (b) cut into thin plates, attached to rings by double gold wires, and fastened together at the back with thin twisted wire. To these pendants (of which those at the two ends are nearly three times the length of those forming the central portions) are attached small figures, probably of idols. It has been assumed that these were worn across the forehead by women, the long pendants falling on each side of the face.
The jewelry of the close of the Mycenaean period is best represented by the rich finds of the cemetery of Enkomi near Salamis, in Cyprus. This field was excavated by the British Museum in 1896, and a considerable portion of the finds is now at Bloomsbury. It was rich in all forms of jewelry, but especially in pins, rings and diadems with patterns in relief. In its geometric patterns the art of Enkomi is entirely Mycenaean, but special stress is laid on the mythical forms that were inherited by Greek art, such as the sphinx and the gryphon.
Figs. 37-48 (Plate I.) are examples of the late Mycenaean treasures from Enkomi. " 37, 38 " Ear-rings. " 39 " Diadem, to be tied on the forehead. The impressed figure of a sphinx is repeated twelve times. " 40, 41, 46 " Ear-rings, originally in bull's head form (fig. 40). Later, the same general form is retained, but decorative patterns (figs. 41, 46) take the place of the bull's head. " 42 " Pin, probably connected by a chain with a fellow, to be used as a cloak fastening. " 43 " Pomegranate pendant, with fine granulated work. " 44, 45 " Pins as No. 42. The heads are of vitreous paste. " 46 (See above.) " 47 " Pendant ornament, in lotus-form, of a pectoral, inlaid with coloured pastes. " 48 " Small slate cylinder, set in filigree.
Another find of importance was that of a collection of gold ornaments from one of the Greek islands (said to be Aegina) which also found its way to the British Museum. Here we find the themes of archaic Greek art, such as a figure holding up two water-birds, in immediate connexion with Mycenaean gold patterns.
Figs. 49-53 (Plate I.) are specimens from this treasure. " 49 " Plate with repoussé ornament for sewing on a dress. " 50 " Pendant. Figure with two water-birds, on a lotus his base, and having serpents issuing from near middle, modified from Egyptian forms. Fig. 51 (Plate I.) Ring, with cut blue glass-pastes in the grooves. " 52 " Pendant ornament, repoussé, and originally inlaid with pieces of cut glass-paste. " 53 " Pendant ornament, with dogs and apes, modified from Egyptian forms.
For the beginnings of Greek art proper, the most striking series of personal jewels is the great deposit of ornaments which was found in 1905 by D. G. Hogarth in the soil beneath the central basis of the archaic temple of Artemis of Ephesus. The gold ornaments in question (amounting in all to about 1000 pieces) were mingled with the closely packed earth, and must necessarily, it would seem, have been in the nature of votive offerings, made at the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century B.C. The hoard was rich in pins, brooches, beads and stamped disks of gold. The greater part of the find is at Constantinople, but a portion was assigned to the British Museum, which had undertaken the excavations.
Figs. 54-58 (Plate II.) Examples of the Ephesus hoard. " 54 " Electrum pin, with pomegranate head. " 55 " Hawk ornament. " 56 " Electrum pin. " 57, 58 " Electrum ornaments for sewing on drapery.
The cemeteries of Cyprus have yielded a rich harvest of jewelry of Graeco-Phoenician style of the 7th and following centuries B.C. Figs. 16 and 17 are typical examples of a ring and ear-ring from Cyprus.
Greek, Etruscan and Roman ornaments partake of very similar characteristics. Of course there is variety in design and sometimes in treatment, but it does not rise to any special individuality. Fretwork is a distinguishing feature of all, together with the wave ornament, the guilloche, and the occasional use of the human figure. The workmanship is often of a character which modern gold-workers can only rival with their best skill, and can never surpass.
The Greek jewelry of the best period is of extraordinary delicacy and beauty. Fine examples are shown in the British Museum from Melos and elsewhere. Undoubtedly, however, the most brilliant collection of such ornaments is that of the Hermitage, which was derived from the tombs of Kerch and the Crimea. It contains examples of the purest Greek work, together with objects which must have been of local origin, as is shown by the themes which the artist has chosen for his reliefs. Fig. 18 illustrates the jewelry of the Hermitage (see also Ear-Ring).
As further examples of Greek jewelry see the pendant oblong ornament for containing a scroll (fig. 19).
The ear-rings (figs. 20, 21) are also characteristic.
Figs. 59-70 (Plate II.) Examples of fine Greek jewelry, in the British Museum. " 59-60 " Pair of ear-rings, from a grave at Cyme in Aeolis, with filigree work and pendant Erotes. " 61 " Small bracelet. " 62-63 " Small gold reel with repoussé figures of Nereid with helmet of Achilles, and Eros. From Cameiros (Rhodes). " 64 " Filigree ornament (ear-ring?) with Eros in centre. From Syria. " 65 " Medallion ornament with repoussé head of Dionysos and filigree work. (Blacas coll.) " 66 " Stud, with filigree work. " 67-68 " Pair of ear-rings, of gold, with filigree and enamel, from Eretria. " 69 " Diadem, with filigree, and enamel scales, from Tarquinii. " 70 " Necklace pendants.
Etruscan jewelry at its best is not easily distinguished from the Greek, but it tends in its later forms to become florid and diffuse, without precision of design. The granulation of surfaces practised with the highest degree of refinement by the Etruscans was long a puzzle and a problem to the modern jeweller, until Castellani of Rome discovered gold-workers in the Abruzzi to whom the method had descended through many generations. He induced some of these men to go to Naples, and so revived the art, of which he contributed examples to the London Exhibition of 1872 (see FILIGREE).
Figs. 71-77 (Plate II.) are well-marked examples of Etruscan work, in the British Museum. " 71 " Pair of sirens, repoussé, forming a hook and eye fastening. From Chiusi (?). " 72 " Early fibula. Horse and chimaera. (Blacas coll.) " 74 " Medallion-shaped fibula, of fine granulated work, with figures of sirens in relief, and set with dark blue pastes. (Bale coll.) " 73, 75 " Pair of late Etruscan ear-rings. " 76, 77 " Pair of late Etruscan ear-rings, in the florid style.
The jewels of the Roman empire are marked by a greater use of large cut stones in combination with the gold, and by larger surfaces of plain and undecorated metal. The adaptation of imperial gold coins to the purposes of the jeweller is also not uncommon.
Figs. 78-82 (Plate II.) Late Roman imperial jewelry, in the British Museum. " 78 " Large pendant ear-ring, set with stones and pearls. From Tunis, 4th century. " 79 " Pierced-work pendant, set with a coin of the emperor Philip. " 80 " Ear-ring, roughly set with garnets. " 81 " Bracelet, with a winged cornucopia as central ornament, set with plasmas, and with filigree and leaf work. " 82 " Bracelet, roughly set with pearls and stones. From Tunis, 4th century.
With the decay of the Roman empire, and the approach of the barbarian tribes, a new Teutonic style was developed. An important example of this style is the remarkable gold treasure, discovered at Pétrossa in Transylvanian Alps in 1837, and now preserved, as far as it survives, in the museum of Bucharest. A runic inscription shows that it belonged to the Goths. Its style is in part the classical tradition, debased and modified; in part it is a singularly rude and vigorous form of barbaric art. Its chief characteristics are a free use of strongly conventionalized animal forms, such as great bird-shaped fibulae, and an ornamentation consisting of pierced gold work, combined with a free use of stones cut to special shapes, and inlaid either cloisonné-fashion or in a perforated gold plate. This part of the hoard has its affinities in objects found over a wide field from Siberia to Spain. Its rudest and most naturalistic forms occur in the East in uncouth objects from Siberian tombs, whose lineage however has been traced to Persepolis, Assyria and Egypt. In its later and more refined forms the style is known by the name, now somewhat out of favour (except as applied to a limited number of finds), of Merovingian.
The so-called Merovingian jewelry of the 5th century, and the Anglo-Saxon of a later date, have as their distinctive feature thin plates of gold, decorated with thin slabs of garnet, set in walls of gold soldered vertically like the lines of cloisonné enamel, with the addition of very decorative details of filigree work, beading and twisted gold. The typical group are the contents of the tomb of King Childeric (A.D. 481) now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. In Figs. 22 and 23 we have examples of Anglo-Saxon fibulae, the first being decorated with a species of cloisonné, in which garnets are inserted, while the other is in hammered work in relief. A pendant (fig. 24) is also set with garnets. The buckles (figs. 25, 26, 27) are remarkably characteristic examples, and very elegant in design. A girdle ornament in gold, set with garnets (fig. 28), is an example of Carolingian design of a high class. Another remarkable group of barbaric jewelry, dated by coins as of the beginning of the 7th century, was excavated at Castel Trosino near the Picenian Ascoli, and is attributed to the Lombards. See _Monumenti antichi_ (_Accademia dei Lincei_), xii. 145.
We turn now to the Celtic group of jewelled ornaments, which has an equally long and independent line of descent. The characteristic Celtic ornaments are of hammered work with details in repoussé, having fillings-in of vitreous paste, coloured enamels, amber, and in the later examples rock crystal with a smooth rounded surface cut _en cabochon_. The whole group is a special development within the British Isles of the art of the mid-European Early Iron age, which in its turn had been considerably influenced by early Mediterranean culture. In its early stages its special marks are combinations of curves, with peculiar central thickenings which give a quasi-naturalistic effect; a skilful use of inlaid enamels, and the chased line. After the introduction of Christianity, a continuous tradition combined the old system with the interlaced winding scrolls and other new forms of decoration, and so led up to the extreme complexity of early Irish illumination and metal work.
A remarkable group of gold ornaments of the pre-Christian time (probably of the 1st century) was discovered about 1896, in the north-west of Ireland, and acquired by the British Museum. It was subsequently claimed by the Crown as treasure trove, and after litigation was transferred to Dublin (see _Archaeologia_, lv., pl. 22).
Figs. 29 and 30 are illustrations of two brooches of the latest period in this class of work. The first is 13th century; the latter is probably 12th century, and is set with paste, amber and blue.
Rings are the chief specimens now seen of medieval jewelry from the 10th to the 13th century. They are generally massive and simple. Through the 16th century a variety of changes arose; in the traditions and designs of the _cinquecento_ we have plenty of evidence that the workmen used their own designs, and the results culminated in the triumphs of Albert Dürer, Benvenuto Cellini and Hans Holbein. The goldsmiths of the Italian republics must have produced works of surpassing excellence in workmanship, and reaching the highest point in design as applied to handicrafts of any kind. The use of enamels, precious stones, niello work and engraving, in combination with skilful execution of the human figure and animal life, produced effects which modern art in this direction is not likely to approach, still less to rival.
In fig. 31 illustrations are given of various characteristic specimens of the Renaissance and later forms of jewelry. A crystal cross set in enamelled gold (a) is German work of the 16th century. The pendant reliquary (b), enamelled and jewelled, is of 16th century Italian work, and so probably is the jewel (c) of gold set with diamonds and rubies. The Darnley or Lennox jewel (d), now in the possession of the king, was made about 1576-1577 for Lady Margaret Douglas, countess of Lennox, the mother of Henry Darnley. It is a pendant golden heart set with a heart-shaped sapphire, richly jewelled and enamelled with emblematic figures and devices. It also has Scottish mottoes around and within it. The ear-ring (e) of gold, enamelled, hung with small pearls, is an example of 17th century Russian work, and another (f) is Italian of the same period, being of gold and filigree with enamel, also with pendant pearls. A Spanish ear-ring, of 18th century work (g), is a combination of ribbon, cord and filigree in gold; and another (h) is Flemish, of probably the same period; it is of gold open work set with diamonds in projecting collets. The old French-Normandy pendant cross and locket (l) presents a characteristic example of peasant jewelry; it is of branched open work set with bosses and ridged ornaments of crystal. The ear-ring (j) is French of 17th century, also of gold open work set with crystals. A small pendant locket (k) is of rock crystal, with the cross of Santiago in gold and translucent crimson enamel; it is 16th or 17th century Spanish work. A pretty ear-ring of gold open scroll work (m), set with minute diamonds and three pendant pearls, is Portuguese of 17th century, and another ear-ring (n) of gold circular open work, set also with minute diamonds, is Portuguese work of 18th century. These examples fairly illustrate the general features of the most characteristic jewelry of the dates quoted.
During the 17th and 18th centuries we see only a mechanical kind of excellence, the results of the mere tradition of the workshop--the lingering of the power which when wisely directed had done so much and so well, but now simply living on traditional forms, often combined in a most incongruous fashion. Gorgeous effects were aimed at by massing the gold, and introducing stones elaborately cut in themselves or clustered in groups. Thus diamonds were clustered in rosettes and bouquets; rubies, pearls, emeralds and other coloured special stones were brought together for little other purpose than to get them into a given space in conjunction with a certain quantity of gold. The question was not of design in its relation to use as personal decoration, but of the value which could be got into a given space to produce the most striking effect.
The traditions of Oriental design as they had come down through the various periods quoted, were comparatively lost in the wretched results of the _rococo_ of Louis XIV. and the inanities of what modern revivalists of the Anglo-Dutch call "Queen Anne." In the London exhibition of 1851, the extravagances of modern jewelry had to stand comparison with the Oriental examples contributed from India. Since then we have learnt more about these works, and have been compelled to acknowledge, in spite of what is sometimes called inferiority of workmanship, how completely the Oriental jeweller understood his work, and with what singular simplicity of method he carried it out. The combinations are always harmonious, the result aimed at is always achieved; and if in attempting to work to European ideas the jeweller failed, this was rather the fault of the forms he had to follow, than due to any want of skill in making the most of a subject in which half the thought and the intended use were foreign to his experience.
A collection of peasant jewelry got together by Castellani for the Paris exhibition of 1867, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrates in an admirable manner the traditional jewelry and personal ornaments of a wide range of peoples in Europe. This collection, and the additions made to it since its acquisition by the nation, show the forms in which these objects existed over several generations among the peasantry of France (chiefly Normandy), Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and also show how the forms popular in one country are followed and adopted in another, almost invariably because of their perfect adaptation to the purpose for which they were designed.
Apart from these humbler branches of the subject, in the middle of the 19th century the production of jewelry, regarded as a personal art, and not as a commercial and anonymous industry, was almost extinct. Its revival must be associated with the artistic movement which marked the close of that century, and which found emphatic expression in the Paris international exhibition of 1900. For many years before 1895 this industry, though prosperous from the commercial point of view, and always remarkable from that of technical finish, remained stationary as an art. French jewelry rested on its reputation. The traditions were maintained of either the 17th and 18th centuries or the style affected at the close of the second empire--light pierced work and design borrowed from natural flowers. The last type, introduced by Massin, had exercised, indeed, a revolutionary influence on the treatment of jewelry. This clever artist, not less skilful as a craftsman, produced a new _genre_ by copying the grace and lightness of living blossoms, thus introducing a perfectly fresh element into the limited variety of traditional style, and by the use of filigree gold work altering its character and giving it greater elegance. Massin still held the first rank in the exhibition of 1878; he had a marked influence on his contemporaries, and his name will be remembered in the history of the goldsmith's art to designate a style and a period. Throughout these years the craft was exclusively devoted to perfection of workmanship. The utmost finish was aimed at in the mounting and setting of gems; jewelry was, in fact, not so much an art as a high-class industry; individual effort and purpose were absent.
Up to that time precious stones had been of such intrinsic value that the jeweller's chief skill lay in displaying these costly stones to the best advantage; the mounting was a secondary consideration. The settings were seldom long preserved in their original condition, but in the case of family jewels were renewed with each generation and each change of fashion, a state of things which could not be favourable to any truly artistic development of taste, since the work was doomed, sooner or later, to destruction. However, the evil led to its own remedy. As soon as diamonds fell in value they lost at the same time their overwhelming prestige, and refined taste could give a preference to trinkets which derived their value and character from artistic design. This revolutionized the jeweller's craft, and revived the simple ornament of gold or silver, which came forward but timidly at first, till, in the Salon of 1895, it burst upon the world in the exhibits of René Lalique, an artist who was further confirmed in his remarkable position by the exhibition of 1900. What specially stamps the works of Lalique is their striking originality. His work may be considered from the point of view of design and from that of execution. As an artist he has completely reconstructed from the foundation the scheme of design which had fed the poverty-stricken imagination of the last generation of goldsmiths. He had recourse to the art of the past, but to the spirit rather than the letter, and to nature for many new elements of design--free double curves, suave or soft; opalescent harmonies of colouring; reminiscences, with quite a new feeling, of Egypt, Chaldea, Greece and the East, or of the art of the Renaissance; and infinite variety of floral forms even of the humblest. He introduces also the female nude in the form of sirens and sphinxes. As a craftsman he has effected a radical change, breaking through old routine, combining all the processes of the goldsmith, the chaser, the enameller and the gem-setter, and freeing himself from the narrow lines in which the art had been confined. He ignores the hierarchy of gems, caring no more on occasion for a diamond than for a flint, since, in his view, no stone, whatever its original estimation, has any value beyond the characteristic expression he lends it as a means to his end. Thus, while he sometimes uses diamonds, rubies, sapphires or emeralds as a background, he will, on the other hand, give a conspicuous position to common stones--carnelian, agate, malachite, jasper, coral, and even materials of no intrinsic value, such as horn. One of his favourite stones is the opal, which lends itself to his arrangements of colour, and which has in consequence become a fashionable stone in French jewelry.
In criticism of the art of Lalique and his school it should be observed that the works of the school are apt to be unsuited to the wear and tear of actual use, and inconveniently eccentric in their details. Moreover, the preciousness of the material is an almost inevitable consideration in the jeweller's craft, and cannot be set at naught by the artist without violating the canons of his art.
The movement which took its rise in France spread in due course to other countries. In England the movement conveniently described as the "arts and crafts movement" affected the design of jewelry. A group of designers has aimed at purging the jeweller's craft of its character of mere gem-mounting in conventional forms (of which the more unimaginative, representing stars, bows, flowers and the like, are varied by such absurdities as insects, birds, animals, figures of men and objects made up simply of stones clustered together). Their work is often excellently and fancifully designed, but it lacks that exquisite perfection of execution achieved by the incomparable craftsmen of France. At the same time English sculptor-decorators--such as Alfred Gilbert, R.A., and George J. Frampton, A.R.A.--have produced objects of a still higher class, but it is usually the work of the goldsmith rather than of the jeweller. Examples may be seen in the badge executed by Gilbert for the president of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours and in the mayoral chain for Preston. Symbolism here enters into the design, which has not only an ornamental but a didactic purpose.
The movement was represented in other countries also. In the United States it was led by L. C. Tiffany, in Belgium by Philippe Wolfers, who occupies in Belgium the position which in France is held by René Lalique. If his design is a little heavier, it is not less beautiful in imagination or less masterly in execution. Graceful, ingenious, fanciful, elegant, fantastic by turns, his objects of jewelry and goldsmithery have a solid claim to be considered _créations d'art_. It has also been felt in Germany, Austria, Russia and Switzerland. It must be admitted that many of the best artists who have devoted themselves to jewelry have been more successful in design than in securing the lightness and strength which are required by the wearer, and which were a characteristic in the works of the Italian craftsmen of the Renaissance. For this reason many of their masterpieces are more beautiful in the case than upon the person.
_Modern Jewelry._--So far we have gone over the progress and results of the jeweller's art. We have now to speak of the production of jewelry as a modern art industry, in which large numbers of men and women are employed in the larger cities of Europe. Paris, Vienna, London and Birmingham are the most important centres. An illustration of the manufacture as carried on in London and Birmingham will be sufficient to give an insight into the technique and artistic manipulation of this branch of art industry; but, by way of contrast, it may be interesting to give in the first place a description of the native working jeweller of Hindustan.
He travels very much after the fashion of a tinker in England; his budget contains tools, materials, fire pots, and all the requisites of his handicraft. The gold to be used is generally supplied by the patron or employer, and is frequently in gold coin, which the travelling jeweller undertakes to convert into the ornaments required. He squats down in the corner of a courtyard, or under cover of a veranda, lights his fire, cuts up the gold pieces entrusted to him, hammers, cuts, shapes, drills, solders with the blow-pipe, files, scrapes and burnishes until he has produced the desired effect. If he has stones to set or coloured enamels to introduce, he never seems to make a mistake; his instinct for harmony of colour, like that of his brother craftsman the weaver, is as unerring as that of the bird in the construction of its nest. Whether the materials are common or rich and rare, he invariably does the very best possible with them, according to native ideas of beauty in design and combination. It is only when he is interfered with by European dictation that he ever vulgarizes his art or makes a mistake. The result may appear rude in its finish, but the design and the thought are invariably right. We thus see how a trade in the working of which the "plant" is so simple and wants are so readily met could spread itself, as in years past it did at Clerkenwell and at Birmingham before gigantic factories were invented for producing everything under the sun.
It is impossible to find any date at which the systematic production of jewelry was introduced into England. Probably the Clerkenwell trade dates its origin from the revocation of the edict of Nantes, as the skilled artisans in the jewelry, clock and watch, and trinket trades appear to have been descendants of the emigrant Huguenots. The Birmingham trade would appear to have had its origin in the skill to which the workers in fine steel had attained towards the middle and end of the 18th century, a branch of industry which collapsed after the French Revolution.
Modern jewelry may be classified under three heads: (1) objects in which gems and stones form the principal portions, and in which the work in silver, platinum or gold is really only a means for carrying out the design by fixing the gems or stones in the position arranged by the designer, the metal employed being visible only as a setting; (2) when gold work plays an important part in the development of the design, being itself ornamented by engraving (now rarely used) or enamelling or both, the stones and gems being arranged in subordination to the gold work in such positions as to give a decorative effect to the whole; (3) when gold or other metal is alone used, the design being wrought out by hammering in repoussé, casting, engraving, chasing or by the addition of filigree work (see FILIGREE), or when the surfaces are left absolutely plain but polished and highly finished.
Of course the most ancient and primitive methods are those wholly dependent upon the craft of the workman; but gradually various ingenious processes were invented, by which greater accuracy in the portions to be repeated in a design could be produced with certainty and economy: hence the various methods of stamping used in the production of hand-made jewelry, which are in themselves as much mechanical in relation to the end in view as if the whole object were stamped out at a blow, twisted into its proper position as regards the detail, or the various stamped portions fitted into each other for the mechanical completion of the work. It is therefore rather difficult to draw an absolute line between hand-made and machine-made jewelry, except in extreme cases of hand-made, when everything is worked, so to speak, from the solid, or of machine-made, when the hand has only to give the ornament a few touches of a tool, or fit the parts together if of more than one piece.
The best and most costly hand-made jewelry produced in England, whether as regards gold work, gems, enamelling or engraving, is made in London, and chiefly at Clerkenwell. A design is first made with pencil, sepia or water colour, and when needful with separate enlargement of details, everything in short to make the drawing thoroughly intelligible to the working jeweller. According to the nature and purpose of the design, he cuts out, hammers, files and brings into shape the constructive portions of the work as a basis. Upon this, as each detail is wrought out, he solders, or (more rarely) fixes by rivets, &c., the ornamentation necessary to the effect. The human figure, representations of animal life, leaves, fruit, &c., are modelled in wax, moulded and cast in gold, to be chased up and finished. As the hammering goes on the metal becomes brittle and hard, and then it is passed though the fire to anneal or soften it. In the case of elaborate examples of repoussé, after the general forms are beaten up, the interior is filled with a resinous compound, pitch mixed with fire-brick dust; and this, forming a solid but pliable body underneath the metal, allows of the finished details being wrought out on the front of the design, and being finally completed by chasing. When stones are to be set, or when they form the principal portions of the design, the gold or other metal has to be wrought by hand so as to receive them in little cup-like orifices, these walls of gold enclosing the stone and allowing the edges to be bent over to secure it. Setting is never effected by cement in well-made jewelry. Machine-made settings have in recent years been made, but these are simply cheap imitations of the true hand-made setting. Even strips of gold have been used, serrated at the edges to allow of being easily bent over, for the retention of the stones, true or false.
Great skill and experience are necessary in the proper setting of stones and gems of high value, in order to bring out the greatest amount of brilliancy and colour, and the angle at which a diamond (say) shall be set, in order that the light shall penetrate at the proper point to bring out the "spark" or "flash," is a subject of grave consideration to the setter. Stones set in a haphazard, slovenly manner, however brilliant in themselves, will look commonplace by the side of skilfully set gems of much less fine quality and water. Enamelling (see ENAMEL) has of late years largely taken the place of "paste" or false stones.
Engraving is a simple process in itself, and diversity of effect can be produced by skilful manipulation. An interesting variety in the effect of a single ornament may be produced by the combination of coloured gold of various tints. This colouring is a process requiring skill and experience in the manipulation of the materials according to the quality of the gold and the amount of silver alloy in it. The objects to be coloured are dipped in a boiling mixture of salt, alum and saltpetre. Of general colouring it may be said that the object aimed at is to enhance the appearance of the gold by removing the particles of alloy on the surface, and thus allowing the pure gold only to remain visible to the eye. The process has, however, gone much out of fashion. It is apt to rot the solder, and repairs to gold work can be better finished by electro-gilding.
The application of machinery to the economical production of certain classes of jewelry, not necessarily imitations, but as much "real gold" work, to use a trade phrase, as the best hand-made, has been on the increase for many years. Nearly every kind of gold chain now made is manufactured by machinery, and nothing like the beauty of design or perfection of workmanship could be obtained by hand at, probably, any cost. The question therefore in relation to chains is not the mode of manufacture, but the quality of the metal. Eighteen carat gold is of course preferred by those who wear chains, but this is only gold in the proportion of 18 to 24, pure gold being represented by 24. The gold coin of the realm is 22 carat; that is, it contains one-twelfth of alloy to harden it to stand wear and tear. Thus 18 carat gold has one-fourth of alloy, and so on with lower qualities down to 12, which is in reality only gold by courtesy. It must be remembered that the alloys are made by weight, and as gold is nearly twice as heavy as the metal it is mixed with, it only forms a third of the bulk of a 12 carat mixture.
The application of machinery to the production of personal ornaments in gold and silver can only be economically and successfully carried on when there is a large demand for similar objects, that is to say, objects of precisely the same design and decoration throughout. In machine-made jewelry everything is stereotyped, so to speak, and the only work required for the hand is to fit the parts together--in some instances scarcely that. A design is made, and from it steel dies are sunk for stamping out as rapidly as possible from a plate of rolled metal the portion represented by each die. It is in these steel dies that the skill of the artist die-sinker is manifested. Brooches, ear-rings, pinheads, bracelets, lockets, pendants, &c., are struck out by the gross. This is more especially the case in silver and in plated work--that is, imitation jewelry--the base of which is an alloy, afterwards gilt by electro-plating. With these ornaments imitation stones in paste and glass, pearls, &c., are used, and it is remarkable that of late years some of the best designs, the most simple, appropriate and artistic, have appeared in imitation jewelry. It is only just to those engaged in this manufacture to state distinctly that their work is never sold wholesale for anything else than what it is. The worker in gold only makes gold or real jewelry, and he only makes of a quality well known to his customers. The producer of silver work only manufactures silver ornaments, and so on throughout the whole class of plated goods.
It is the retailer who, if he is unprincipled, takes advantage of the ignorance of the buyer and sells for gold that which is in reality an imitation, and which he bought as such. The imitations of old styles of jewelry which are largely sold in curiosity shops at foreign places of fashionable resort are said to be made in Germany, especially at Munich.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the Dahshur jewels, see J. de Morgan and others; _Fouilles à Dahchour, Mars-Juin 1894_ (Vienna, 1895) and _Fouilles à Dahchour en 1894-1895_ (Vienna, 1903). For the Aah-hotep jewels, see Mariette, _Album de Musée de Boulaq_, pls. 29-31; Birch, _Facsimiles of the Egyptian Relics discovered in the Tomb of Queen Aah-hotep_ (1863). For Cretan excavations, see A. J. Evans, in _Annual of the British School at Athens_, Nos. 7 to 11; _Archaeologia_, vol. lix. For excavations at Enkomi, see _Excavations in Cyprus_, by A. S. Murray and others (1900). For _Schliemann's excavations_, see Schliemann's works; also Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excavations; Perrot & Chipiez, _Histoire de l'Art_, vi. For the Greek Island treasure, see A. J. Evans, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xiii. For Ephesus gold treasure, see D. G. Hogarth, _British Museum Excavations at Ephesus_; _The Archaic Artemisia_. For the Hermitage Collection from South Russia, see Gillé, _Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien_ (reissued by S. Reinach), and the _Comptes rendus_ of the Russian Archaeological Commission (St Petersburg). For later jewelry, Pollak, _Goldschmiedearbeit_. For Treasure of Pétrossa, A. Odobesco, _Le Trésor de Pétrossa_. For the European and west Asiatic barbaric jewelry, see O. M. Dalton, in _Archaeologia_, lviii. 237, and the _Treasure of the Oxus_ (British Museum, 1905). For the whole history, G. Fontenay, _Les Bijoux anciens et modernes_ (Paris [Quantin], 1887). For the recent movement, Léonce Bénédite, "La Bijouterie et la joaillerie, à l'exposition universelle; René Lalique," in the _Revue des arts décoratifs_, 1900 (July, August). (A. H. Sm.)
JEWETT, SARAH ORNE (1840-1909), American novelist, was born in South Berwick, Maine, on the 3rd of September 1849. She was a daughter of the physician Theodore H. Jewett (1815-1878), by whom she was greatly influenced, and whom she has drawn in _A Country Doctor_ (1884). She studied at the Berwick Academy, and began her literary career in 1869, when she contributed her first story to the _Atlantic Monthly_. Her best work consists of short stories and sketches, such as those in _The Country of the Pointed Firs_ (1896). The People of Maine, with their characteristic speech, manners and traditions, she describes with peculiar charm and realism, often recalling the work of Hawthorne. She died at South Berwick, Maine, on the 24th of June 1909.
Among her publications are: _Deephaven_ (1877), a series of sketches; _Old Friends and New_ (1879); _Country By-ways_ (1881); _A Country Doctor_ (1884), a novel; _A Marsh Island_ (1885), a novel; _A White Heron and other Stories_ (1886); _The King of Folly Island and other People_ (1888); _Strangers and Wayfarers_ (1890); _A Native of Winby and other Tales_ (1893); _The Queen's Twin and other Stories_ (1899), and _The Tory Lover_ (1901), an historical novel.
JEWS (Heb. _Yehudi_, man of Judah; Gr. [Greek: Ioudaioi]; Lat. _Judaei_), the general name for the Semitic people which inhabited Palestine from early times, and is known in various connexions as "the Hebrews," "the Jews," and "Israel" (see § 5 below). Their history may be divided into three great periods: (1) That covered by the Old Testament to the foundation of Judaism in the Persian age, (2) that of the Greek and Roman domination to the destruction of Jerusalem, and (3) that of the Diaspora or Dispersion to the present day.
I.--OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY
I. _The Land and the People._--For the first two periods the history of the Jews is mainly that of Palestine. It begins among those peoples which occupied the area lying between the Nile on the one side and the Tigris and the Euphrates on the other. Surrounded by ancient seats of culture in Egypt and Babylonia, by the mysterious deserts of Arabia, and by the highlands of Asia Minor, Palestine, with Syria on the north, was the high road of civilization, trade and warlike enterprise, and the meeting-place of religions. Its small principalities were entirely dominated by the great Powers, whose weakness or acquiescence alone enabled them to rise above dependence or vassalage. The land was traversed by old-established trade routes and possessed important harbours on the Gulf of 'Akaba and on the Mediterranean coast, the latter exposing it to the influence of the Levantine culture. It was "the physical centre of those movements of history from which the world has grown." The portion of this district abutting upon the Mediterranean may be divided into two main parts:--Syria (from the Taurus to Hermon) and Palestine (southward to the desert bordering upon Egypt). The latter is about 150 m. from north to south (the proverbial "Dan to Beersheba"), with a breadth varying from 25 to 80 m., i.e. about 6040 sq. m. This excludes the land east of the Jordan, on which see PALESTINE.
From time to time streams of migration swept into Palestine and Syria. Semitic tribes wandered northwards from their home in Arabia to seek sustenance in its more fertile fields, to plunder, or to escape the pressure of tribes in the rear. The course leads naturally into either Palestine or Babylonia, and, following the Euphrates, northern Syria is eventually reached. Tribes also moved down from the north: nomads, or offshoots from the powerful states which stretch into Asia Minor. Such frequently recurring movements introduced new blood. Tribes, chiefly of pastoral habits, settled down among others who were so nearly of their own type that a complete amalgamation could be effected, and this without any marked modification of the general characteristics of the earlier inhabitants. It is from such a fusion as this that the ancestors of the Jews were descended, and both the history and the genius of this people can be properly understood only by taking into account the physical features of their land and the characteristics of the Semitic races in general (see PALESTINE, SEMITIC LANGUAGES).
2. _Society and Religion._--The similarity uniting the peoples of the East in respect of racial and social characteristics is accompanied by a striking similarity of mental outlook which has survived to modern times. Palestine, in spite of the numerous vicissitudes to which it has been subjected, has not lost its fundamental characteristics. The political changes involved in the Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian or Persian conquests surely affected it as little as the subsequent waves of Greek, Roman and other European invasions. Even during the temporary Hellenization in the second great period the character of the people as a whole was untouched by the various external influences which produced so great an effect on the upper classes. When the foreign civilization perished, the old culture once more came to the surface. Hence it is possible, by a comprehensive comparative study of Eastern peoples, in both ancient and modern times, to supplement and illustrate within certain limits our direct knowledge of the early Jewish people, and thus to understand more clearly those characteristics which were peculiar to them, in relation to those which they shared with other Oriental peoples.
Even before authentic history begins, the elements of religion and society had already crystallized into a solid coherent structure which was to persist without essential modification. Religion was inseparable from ordinary life, and, like that of all peoples who are dependent on the fruits of the earth, was a nature-worship. The tie between deities and worshippers was regarded as physical and entailed mutual obligations. The study of the clan-group as an organization is as instructive here as in other fields. The members of each group lived on terms of equality, the families forming a society of worship the rites of which were conducted by the head. Such groups (each with its local deity) would combine for definite purposes under the impulse of external needs, but owing to inevitable internal jealousies and the incessant feuds among a people averse from discipline and authority, the unions were not necessarily lasting. The elders of these groups possessed some influence, and tended to form an aristocracy, which took the lead in social life, although their authority generally depended merely upon custom. Individual leaders in times of stress acquired a recognized supremacy, and, once a tribe outstripped the rest, the opportunities for continued advance gave further scope to their authority. "The ... interminable feuds of tribes, conducted on the theory of blood-revenge, can seldom be durably healed without the intervention of a third party who is called in as arbiter, and in this way an impartial and wise power acquires of necessity a great and beneficent influence over all around it" (W. R. Smith). In time, notwithstanding a certain inherent individualism and impatience of control, veritable despotisms arose in the Semitic world, although such organizations were invariably liable to sudden collapse as the old forms of life broke down with changing conditions.[1]
3. _Early History._[2]--Already in the 15th century B.C. Palestine was inhabited by a settled people whose language, thought and religion were not radically different several hundred years later. Small native princes ruled as vassals of Egypt which, after expelling the Hyksos from its borders, had entered upon a series of conquests as far as the Euphrates. Some centuries previously, however, Babylonia had laid claim to the western states, and the Babylonian (i.e. Assyrian) script and language were now used, not merely in the diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and Asia, but also for matters of private and everyday life among the Palestinian princes themselves. To what extent specific Babylonian influence showed itself in other directions is not completely known. Canaan (Palestine and the south Phoenician coast land) and Amor (Lebanon district and beyond) were under the constant supervision of Egypt, and Egyptian officials journeyed round to collect tribute, to attend to complaints, and to assure themselves of the allegiance of the vassals. The Amarna tablets and those more recently found at Taannek (bibl. Taanach), together with the contemporary archaeological evidence (from Lachish, Gezer, Megiddo, Jericho, &c.), represent advanced conditions of life and culture, the precise chronological limits of which cannot be determined with certainty. This age, with its regular maritime intercourse between the Aegean settlements, Phoenicia and the Delta, and with lines of caravans connecting Babylonia, North Syria, Arabia and Egypt, presents a remarkable picture of life and activity, in the centre of which lies Palestine, with here and there Egyptian colonies and some traces of Egyptian cults. The history of this, the "Amarna" age, reveals a state of anarchy in Palestine for which the weakness of Egypt and the downward pressure of north Syrian peoples were responsible. Subdivided into a number of little local principalities, Palestine was suffering both from internal intrigues and from the designs of this northern power. It is now that we find the restless Habiru, a name which is commonly identified with that of the "Hebrews" (_'ibrim_). They offer themselves where necessary to either party, and some at least perhaps belonged to the settled population. The growing prominence of the new northern group of "Hittite" states continued to occupy the energies of Egypt, and when again we have more external light upon Palestinian history, the Hittites (q.v.) are found strongly entrenched in the land. But by the end of the first quarter of the 13th century B.C. Egypt had recovered its province (precise boundary uncertain), leaving its rivals in possession of Syria. Towards the close of the 13th century the Egyptian king Merneptah (Mineptah) records a successful campaign in Palestine, and alludes to the defeat of Canaan, Ascalon, Gezer, Yenuam (in Lebanon) and (the people or tribe) Israel.[3] Bodies of aliens from the Levantine coast had previously threatened Egypt and Syria, and at the beginning of the 12th century they formed a coalition on land and sea which taxed all the resources of Rameses III. In the Purasati, apparently the most influential of these peoples, may be recognized the origin of the name "Philistine." The Hittite power became weaker, and the invaders, in spite of defeat, appear to have succeeded in maintaining themselves on the sea coast. External history, however, is very fragmentary just at the age when its evidence would be most welcome. For a time the fate of Syria and Palestine seems to have been no longer controlled by the great powers. When the curtain rises again we enter upon the historical traditions of the Old Testament.
4. _Biblical History._--For the rest of the first period the Old Testament forms the main source. It contains in fact the history itself in two forms: (a) from the creation of man to the fall of Judah (Genesis-2 Kings), which is supplemented and continued further--(b) to the foundation of Judaism in the 5th century B.C. (Chronicles--Ezra-Nehemiah). In the light of contemporary monuments, archaeological evidence, the progress of scientific knowledge and the recognized methods of modern historical criticism, the representation of the origin of mankind and of the history of the Jews in the Old Testament can no longer be implicitly accepted. Written by an Oriental people and clothed in an Oriental dress, the Old Testament does not contain objective records, but subjective history written and incorporated for specific purposes. Like many Oriental works it is a compilation, as may be illustrated from a comparison of Chronicles with Samuel-Kings, and the representation of the past in the light of the present (as exemplified in Chronicles) is a frequently recurring phenomenon. The critical examination of the nature and growth of this compilation has removed much that had formerly caused insuperable difficulties and had quite unnecessarily been made an integral or a relevant part of practical religion. On the other hand, criticism has given a deeper meaning to the Old Testament history, and has brought into relief the central truths which really are vital; it may be said to have replaced a divine account of man by man's account of the divine. Scholars are now almost unanimously agreed that the internal features are best explained by the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis. This involves the view that the historical traditions are mainly due to two characteristic though very complicated recensions, one under the influence of the teaching of Deuteronomy (Joshua to Kings, see § 20), the other, of a more priestly character (akin to Leviticus), of somewhat later date (Genesis to Joshua, with traces in Judges to Kings, see § 23). There are, of course, numerous problems relating to the nature, limits and dates of the two recensions, of the incorporated sources, and of other sources (whether early or late) of independent origin; and here there is naturally room for much divergence of opinion. Older material (often of composite origin) has been used, not so much for the purpose of providing historical information, as with the object of showing the religious significance of past history; and the series Joshua-Kings is actually included among the "prophets" in Jewish reckoning (see MIDRASH). In general, one may often observe that freedom which is characteristic of early and unscientific historians. Thus one may note the reshaping of older material to agree with later thought, the building up of past periods from the records of other periods, and a frequent loss of perspective. The historical traditions are to be supplemented by the great body of prophetic, legal and poetic literature which reveal contemporary conditions in various internal literary, theological or sociological features. The investigation of their true historical background and of the trustworthiness of their external setting (e.g. titles of psalms, dates and headings of prophecies) involves a criticism of the historical traditions themselves, and thus the two major classes of material must be constantly examined both separately and in their bearing on one another. In a word, the study of biblical history, which is dependent in the first instance upon the written sources, demands constant attention to the text (which has had an interesting history) and to the literary features; and it requires a sympathetic acquaintance with Oriental life and thought, both ancient and modern, an appreciation of the necessity of employing the methods of scientific research, and (from the theological side) a reasoned estimate of the dependence of individual religious convictions upon the letter of the Old Testament.[4]
In view of the numerous articles in this work dealing with biblical subjects,[5] the present sketch is limited to the outlines of the traditional history; the religious aspect in its bearing upon biblical theology (which is closely bound up with the traditions) is handled separately under HEBREW RELIGION. The related literature is enormous (see the bibliographies to the special articles); it is indexed annually in _Orientalische Bibliographie_ (Berlin), and is usefully summarized in the _Theologische Jahresbericht_ (Berlin). On the development of the study of biblical history see C. A. Briggs, _Study of Holy Scripture_ (1899), especially ch. xx. The first scientific historical work was by H. Ewald, _Gesch. d. Volkes Israel_ (1843; 3rd ed., 1864-1868; Eng. trans., 1869-1883), popularized by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley in his _Hist. of the Jewish Church_ (1863-1879). The works of J. Wellhausen (especially _Prolegomena to the Hist. of Israel_, Eng. trans., 1885, also the brilliant article "Israel" in the 9th ed. of the _Ency. Brit._, 1879) were epoch-making; his position was interpreted to English readers by W. Robertson Smith (_Old Test. in Jewish Church_, 1881, 2nd ed., 1892; _Prophets of Israel_, 1882, 2nd ed. by T. K. Cheyne, 1902). The historical (and related) works of T. K. Cheyne, H. Graetz, H. Guthe, F. C. Kent, A. Kittel, W. H. Kosters, A. Kuenen, C. Piepenbring, and especially B. Stade, although varying greatly in standpoint, are among the most valuable by recent scholars; H. P. Smith's _Old Test. Hist._ ("International Theological Library," Edinburgh, 1903) is in many respects the most serviceable and complete study; a modern and more critical "Ewald" is a desideratum. For the works of numerous other scholars who have furthered Old Testament research in the past it must suffice to refer to the annotated list by J. M. P. Smith, _Books for O.T. Study_ (Chicago, 1908).
For the external history, E. Schrader, _Cuneiform Inscr. and the Old Testament_ (Eng. trans. by O. C. Whitehouse, 1885-1888) is still helpful; among the less technical works are J. F. McCurdy, _History, Prophecy and the Monuments_; B. Paton, _Syria and Palestine_ (1902); G. Maspero, _Hist. ancienne_ (6th ed., 1904); A. Jeremias, _Alte Test. im Lichte d. Alten Orients_ (2nd ed., 1906); and especially _Altoriental. Texte u. Bilder zum Alten Test._, ed. by H. Gressman, with A. Ungnad and H. Ranke (1909). The most complete is that of Ed. Meyer, _Gesch. d. Alterthums_ (2nd ed., 1907 sqq.). That of Jeremias follows upon the lines of H. Winckler, whose works depart from the somewhat narrow limits of purely "Israelite" histories, emphasize the necessity of observing the characteristics of Oriental thought and policy, and are invaluable for discriminating students. Winckler's own views are condensed in the 3rd edition--a re-writing--of Schrader's work (_Keilinschr. u. d. Alte Testament_, 1903), and, with an instructive account of the history of "ancient nearer Asia," in H. F. Helmolt's _World's History_, iii. 1-252 (1903). All modern histories of any value are necessarily compromises between the biblical traditions and the results of recent investigation, and those studies which appear to depart most widely from the biblical or canonical representation often do greater justice to the evidence as a whole than the slighter or more conservative and apologetic reconstructions.[6] Scientific biblical historical study, nevertheless, is still in a relatively backward condition; and although the labours of scholars since Ewald constitute a distinct epoch, the trend of research points to the recognition of the fact that the purely subjective literary material requires a more historical treatment in the light of our increasing knowledge of external and internal conditions in the old Oriental world. But an inductive and deductive treatment, both, comprehensive and in due proportion, does not as yet (1910) exist, and awaits fuller external evidence.[7]
5. _Traditions of Origin._--The Old Testament preserves the remains of an extensive literature, representing different standpoints, which passed through several hands before it reached its present form. Surrounded by ancient civilizations where writing had long been known, and enjoying, as excavation has proved, a considerable amount of material culture, Palestine could look back upon a lengthy and stirring history which, however, has rarely left its mark upon our records. Whatever ancient sources may have been accessible, whatever trustworthy traditions were in circulation, and whatever a knowledge of the ancient Oriental world might lead one to expect, one is naturally restricted in the first instance to those undated records which have survived in the form which the last editors gave to them. The critical investigation of these records is the indispensable prelude to all serious biblical study, and hasty or sweeping deductions from monumental or archaeological evidence, or versions compiled promiscuously from materials of distinct origin, are alike hazardous. A glimpse at Palestine in the latter half of the second millennium B.C. (§ 3) prepares us for busy scenes and active intercourse, but it is not a history of this kind which the biblical historians themselves transmit. At an age when--on literary-critical grounds--the Old Testament writings were assuming their present form, it was possible to divide the immediately preceding centuries into three distinct period. (a) The first, that of the two rival kingdoms: Israel (Ephraim or Samaria) in the northern half of Palestine, and Judah in the south. Then (b) the former lost its independence towards the close of the 8th century B.C., when a number of its inhabitants were carried away; and the latter shared the fate of exile at the beginning of the 6th, but succeeded in making a fresh reconstruction some fifty or sixty years later. Finally (c), in the so-called "post-exilic" period, religion and life were reorganized under the influence of a new spirit; relations with Samaria were broken off, and Judaism took its definite character, perhaps about the middle or close of the 5th century. Throughout these vicissitudes there were important political and religious changes which render the study of the composite sources a work of unique difficulty. In addition to this it should be noticed that the term "Jew" (originally _Yehudi_), in spite of its wider application, means properly "man of Judah," i.e. of that small district which, with Jerusalem as its capital, became the centre of Judaism. The favourite name "Israel" with all its religious and national associations is somewhat ambiguous in an historical sketch, since, although it is used as opposed to Judah (a), it ultimately came to designate the true nucleus of the worshippers of the national god Yahweh as opposed to the Samaritans, the later inhabitants of Israelite territory (c). A more general term is "Hebrew" (see HEBREW LANGUAGE), which, whether originally identical with the Habiru or not (§ 3), is used in contrast to foreigners, and this non-committal ethnic deserves preference where precise distinction is unnecessary or impossible.
The traditions which prevailed among the Hebrews concerning their origin belong to a time when Judah and Israel were regarded as a unit. Twelve divisions or tribes, of which Judah was one, held together by a traditional sentiment, were traced back to the sons of Jacob (otherwise known as Israel), the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham. Their names vary in origin and probably also in point of age, and where they represent fixed territorial limits, the districts so described were in some cases certainly peopled by groups of non-Israelite ancestry. But as tribal names they invited explanation, and of the many characteristic traditions which were doubtless current a number have been preserved, though not in any very early dress. Close relationship was recognized with the Aramaeans, with Edom, Moab and Ammon. This is characteristically expressed when Esau, the ancestor of Edom, is represented as the brother of Jacob, or when Moab and Ammon are the children of Lot, Abraham's nephew (see GENEALOGY: _Biblical_). Abraham, it was believed, came from Harran (Carrhae), primarily from Babylonia, and Jacob re-enters from Gilead in the north-east with his Aramaean wives and concubines and their families (Benjamin excepted). It is on this occasion that Jacob's name is changed to Israel. These traditions of migration and kinship are in themselves entirely credible, but the detailed accounts of the ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as given in Genesis, are inherently doubtful as regards both the internal conditions, which the (late) chronological scheme ascribes to the first half of the second millennium B.C., and the general circumstances of the life of these strangers in a foreign land. From a variety of independent reasons one is forced to conclude that, whatever historical elements they may contain, the stories of this remote past represent the form which tradition had taken in a very much later age.
Opinion is at variance regarding the patriarchal narratives as a whole. To deny their historical character is to reject them as trustworthy accounts of the age to which they are ascribed, and even those scholars who claim that they are essentially historical already go so far as to concede idealization and the possibility or probability of later revision. The failure to apprehend historical method has often led to the fallacious argument that the trustworthiness of individual features justifies our accepting the whole, or that the elimination of unhistorical elements will leave an historical residuum. Here and frequently elsewhere in biblical history it is necessary to allow that a genuine historical tradition may be clothed in an unhistorical dress, but since many diverse motives are often concentrated upon one narrative (e.g. Gen. xxxii. 22-32, xxxiv., xxxviii.), the work of internal historical criticism (in view of the scantiness of the evidence) can rarely claim finality. The patriarchal narratives themselves belong to the popular stock of tradition of which only a portion has been preserved. Many of the elements lie outside questions of time and place and are almost immemorial. Some appear written for the first time in the book of Jubilees, in "the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs" (both perhaps 2nd century B.C.) and in later sources; and although in Genesis the stories are now in a post-exilic setting (a stage earlier than Jubilees), the older portions may well belong to the 7th or 6th cent. This question, however, will rest upon those criteria alone which are of true chronological validity (see further GENESIS).
The story of the settlement of the national and tribal ancestors in Palestine is interrupted by an account of the southward movement of Jacob (or Israel) and his sons into a district under the immediate influence of the kings of Egypt. After an interval of uncertain duration we find in Exodus a numerous people subjected to rigorous oppression. No longer individual sons of Jacob or Israel, united tribes were led out by Moses and Aaron; and, after a series of incidents extending over forty years, the "children of Israel" invaded the land in which their ancestors had lived. The traditions embodied in the books Exodus-Joshua are considerably later than the apparent date of the events themselves, and amid the diverse and often conflicting data it is possible to recognize distinct groups due to some extent to distinct historical conditions. The story of the "exodus" is that of the religious birth of "Israel," joined by covenant with the national god Yahweh[8] whose aid in times of peril and need proved his supremacy. In Moses (q.v.) was seen the founder of Israel's religion and laws; in Aaron (q.v.) the prototype of the Israelite priesthood. Although it is difficult to determine the true historical kernel, two features are most prominent in the narratives which the post-exilic compiler has incorporated: the revelation of Yahweh, and the movement into Palestine. Yahweh had admittedly been the God of Israel's ancestors, but his name was only now made known (Exod. iii. 13 sqq., vi. 2 seq.), and this conception of a new era in Yahweh's relations with the people is associated with the family of Moses and with small groups from the south of Palestine which reappear in religious movements in later history (see KENITES). Amid a great variety of motives the prominence of Kadesh in south Palestine is to be recognized, but it is uncertain what clans or tribes were at Kadesh, and it is possible that traditions, originally confined to those with whom the new conception of Yahweh is connected, were subsequently adopted by others who came to regard themselves as the worshippers of the only true Yahweh. At all events, two quite distinct views seem to underlie the opening books of the Old Testament. The one associates itself with the ancestors of the Hebrews and has an ethnic character. The other, part of the religious history of "Israel," is essentially bound up with the religious genius of the people, and is partly connected with clans from the south of Palestine whose influence appears in later times. Other factors in the literary growth of the present narratives are not excluded (see further § 8, and EXODUS, THE).[9]
6. _The Monarchy of Israel._--The book of Joshua continues the fortunes of the "children of Israel" and describes a successful occupation of Palestine by the united tribes. This stands in striking contrast to other records of the partial successes of individual groups (Judg. i.). The former, however, is based upon the account of victories by the Ephraimite Joshua over confederations of petty kings to the south and north of central Palestine, apparently the specific traditions of the people of Ephraim describing from their standpoint the entire conquest of Palestine.[10] The book of Judges represents a period of unrest after the settlement of the people. External oppression and internal rivalries rent the Israelites, and in the religious philosophy of a later (Deuteronomic) age the period is represented as one of alternate apostasy from and of penitent return to the Yahweh of the "exodus." Some vague recollection of known historical events (§ 3 end) might be claimed among the traditions ascribed to the closing centuries of the second millennium, but the view that the prelude to the monarchy was an era when individual leaders "judged" all Israel finds no support in the older narratives, where the heroes of the age (whose correct sequence is uncertain) enjoy only a local fame. The best historical narratives belong to Israel and Gilead; Judah scarcely appears, and in a relatively old poetical account of a great fight of the united tribes against a northern adversary lies outside the writer's horizon or interest (Judg. v., see DEBORAH). Stories of successful warfare and of temporary leaders (see ABIMELECH; EHUD; GIDEON; JEPHTHAH) form an introduction to the institution of the Israelite monarchy, an epoch of supreme importance in biblical history. The heroic figure who stands at the head is Saul ("asked"), and two accounts of his rise are recorded. (1) The Philistines, a foreign people whose presence in Palestine has already been noticed, had oppressed Israel (cf. SAMSON) until a brilliant victory was gained by the prophet Samuel, some account of whose early history is recorded. He himself held supreme sway over all Israel as the last of the "judges" until compelled to accede to the popular demand for a king. The young Saul was chosen by lot and gained unanimous recognition by delivering Jabesh in Gilead from the Ammonites. (2) But other traditions represent the people scattered and in hiding; Israel is groaning under the Philistine yoke, and the unknown Saul is raised up by Yahweh to save his people. This he accomplishes with the help of his son Jonathan. The first account, although now essential to the canonical history, clearly gives a less authentic account of the change from the "judges" to the monarchy, while the second is fragmentary and can hardly be fitted into the present historical thread (see SAUL). At all events the first of a series of annalistic notices of the kings of Israel ascribes to Saul conquests over the surrounding peoples to an extent which implies that the district of Judah formed part of his kingdom (1 Sam. xiv. 47 seq). His might is attested also by the fine elegy (2 Sam. i. 19 sqq.) over the death of two great Israelite heroes, Saul and Jonathan, knit together by mutual love, inseparable in life and death, whose unhappy end after a career of success was a national misfortune. Disaster had come upon the north, and the plain of Jezreel saw the total defeat of the king and the rout of his army. The court was hastily removed across the Jordan to Mahanaim, where Saul's son Ishbaal (Ish-bosheth), thanks to his general Abner, recovered some of the lost prestige. In circumstances which are not detailed, the kingdom seems to have regained its strength, and Ishbaal is credited with a reign of two years over Israel and Gilead (2 Sam. ii. 8-10; contrast v. 11). But at this point the scanty annals are suspended and the history of the age is given in more popular sources. Both Israel and Judah had their own annals, brief excerpts from which appear in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, and they are supplemented by fuller narratives of distinct and more popular origin. The writings are the result of a continued literary process, and the Israelite national history has come down to us through Judaean hands, with the result that much of it has been coloured by late Judaean feeling. It is precisely in Saul's time that the account of the Judaean monarchy, or perhaps of the monarchy from the Judaean standpoint, now begins.
7. _The Monarchy of Judah._--Certain traditions of Judah and Jerusalem appear to have looked back upon a movement from the south, traces of which underlie the present account of the "exodus." The land was full of "sons of Anak," giants who had terrified the scouts sent from Kadesh. Caleb (q.v.) alone had distinguished himself by his fearlessness, and the clan Caleb drove them out from Hebron in south Judah (Josh. xv. 14 sqq.; cf. also xi. 21 seq.). David and his followers are found in the south of Hebron, and as they advanced northwards they encountered wondrous heroes between Gath and Jerusalem (2 Sam. xxi. 15 sqq.; xxiii. 8 sqq.). After strenuous fighting the district was cleared, and Jerusalem, taken by the sword, became the capital. History saw in David the head of a lengthy line of kings, the founder of the Judaean monarchy, the psalmist and the priest-king who inaugurated religious institutions now recognized to be of a distinctly later character. As a result of this backward projection of later conceptions, the recovery of the true historical nucleus is difficult. The prominence of Jerusalem, the centre of post-exilic Judaism, necessarily invited reflection. Israelite tradition had ascribed the conquest of Jerusalem, Hebron and other cities of Judah to the Ephraimite Joshua; Judaean tradition, on the other hand, relates the capture of the sacred city from a strange and hostile people (2 Sam. v.). The famous city, within easy reach of the southern desert and central Palestine (to Hebron and to Samaria the distances are about 18 and 35 miles respectively), had already entered into Palestinian history in the "Amarna" age (§ 3). Anathoth, a few miles to the north-east, points to the cult of the goddess Anath, the near-lying Nob has suggested the name of the Babylonian Nebo, and the neighbouring, though unidentified, Beth-Ninib of the Amarna tablets may indicate the worship of a Babylonian war and astral god (cf. the solar name Beth-Shemesh). Such was the religious environment of the ancient city which was destined to become the centre of Judaism. Judaean tradition dated the sanctity of Jerusalem from the installation of the ark, a sacred movable object which symbolized the presence of Yahweh. It is associated with the half-nomad clans in the south of Palestine, or with the wanderings of David and his own priest Abiathar; it is ultimately placed within the newly captured city. Quite another body of tradition associates it with the invasion of all the tribes of Israel from beyond the Jordan (see ARK). To combine the heterogeneous narratives and isolated statements into a consecutive account is impossible; to ignore those which conflict with the now predominating views would be unmethodical. When the narratives describe the life of the young David at the court of the first king of the northern kingdom, when the scenes cover the district which he took with the sword, and when the brave Saul is represented in an unfavourable light, one must allow for the popular tendency to idealize great figures, and for the Judaean origin of the compilation. To David is ascribed the sovereignty over a united people. But the stages in his progress are not clear. After being the popular favourite of Israel in the little district of Benjamin, he was driven away by the jealousy and animosity of Saul. Gradually strengthening his position by alliance with Judaean clans, he became king at Hebron at the time when Israel suffered defeat in the north. His subsequent advance to the kingship over Judah and Israel at Jerusalem is represented as due to the weak condition of Israel, facilitated by the compliance of Abner; partly, also, to the long-expressed wish of the Israelites that their old hero should reign over them. Yet again, Saul had been chosen by Yahweh to free his people from the Philistines; he had been rejected for his sins, and had suffered continuously from this enemy; Israel at his death was left in the unhappy state in which he had found it; it was the Judaean David, the faithful servant of Yahweh, who was now chosen to deliver Israel, and to the last the people gratefully remembered their debt. David accomplished the conquests of Saul but on a grander scale; "Saul hath slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands" is the popular couplet comparing the relative merits of the rival dynasts. A series of campaigns against Edom, Moab, Ammon and the Aramaean states, friendly relations with Hiram of Tyre, and the recognition of his sovereignty by the king of Hamath on the Orontes, combine to portray a monarchy which was the ideal.
But in passing from the books of Samuel, with their many rich and vivid narratives, to the books of Kings, we enter upon another phase of literature; it is a different atmosphere, due to the character of the material and the aims of other compilers (see § 9 beginning). David, the conqueror, was followed by his son Solomon, famous for his wealth, wisdom and piety, above all for the magnificent Temple which he built at Jerusalem. Phoenician artificers were enlisted for the purpose, and with Phoenician sailors successful trading-journeys were regularly undertaken. Commercial intercourse with Asia Minor, Arabia, Tarshish (probably in Spain) and Ophir (q.v.) filled his coffers, and his realm extended from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt. Tradition depicts him as a worthy successor to his father, and represents a state of luxury and riches impressive to all who were familiar with the great Oriental courts. The commercial activity of the king and the picture of intercourse and wealth are quite in accordance with what is known of the ancient monarchies, and could already be illustrated from the Amarna age. Judah and Israel dwelt at ease, or held the superior position of military officials, while the earlier inhabitants of the land were put to forced labour. But another side of the picture shows the domestic intrigues which darkened the last days of David. The accession of Solomon had not been without bloodshed, and Judah, together with David's old general Joab and his faithful priest Abiathar, were opposed to the son of a woman who had been the wife of a Hittite warrior. The era of the Temple of Jerusalem starts with a new régime, another captain of the army and another priest. Nevertheless, the enmity of Judah is passed over, and when the kingdom is divided for administrative purposes into twelve districts, which ignore the tribal divisions, the centre of David's early power is exempt from the duty of providing supplies (1 Kings iv.). Yet again, the approach of the divided monarchy is foreshadowed. The employment of Judaeans and Israelites for Solomon's palatial buildings, and the heavy taxation for the upkeep of a court which was the wonder of the world, caused grave internal discontent. External relations, too, were unsatisfactory. The Edomites, who had been almost extirpated by David in the valley of Salt, south of the Dead Sea, were now strong enough to seek revenge; and the powerful kingdom of Damascus, whose foundation is ascribed to this period, began to threaten Israel on the north and north-east. These troubles, we learn, had affected all Solomon's reign, and even Hiram appears to have acquired a portion of Galilee. In the approaching disruption writers saw the punishment for the king's apostasy, and they condemn the sanctuaries in Jerusalem which he erected to the gods of his heathen wives. Nevertheless, these places of cult remained some 300 years until almost the close of the monarchy, when their destruction is attributed to Josiah (§ 16). When at length Solomon died the opportunity was at once seized to request from his son Rehoboam a more generous treatment. The reply is memorable: "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." These words were calculated to inflame a people whom history proves to have been haughty and high-spirited, and the great Israel renounced its union with the small district of Judah. Jeroboam (q.v.), once one of Solomon's officers, became king over the north, and thus the history of the divided monarchy begins (about 930 B.C.) with the Israelite power on both sides of the Jordan and with Judah extending southwards from a point a few miles north of Jerusalem.
8. _Problems of the Earliest History._--Biblical history previous to the separation of Judah and Israel holds a prominent place in current ideas, since over two-fifths of the entire Old Testament deals with these early ages. The historical sources for the crucial period, from the separation to the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.), occupy only about one-twelfth, and even of this about one-third is spread over some fifteen years (see below, § 11). From the flourishing days of the later monarchy and onwards, different writers handled the early history of their land from different standpoints. The feeling of national unity between north and south would require historical treatment, the existence of rival monarchies would demand an explanation. But the surviving material is extremely uneven; vital events in these centuries are treated with a slightness in striking contrast to the relatively detailed evidence for the preceding period--evidence, however, which is far from being contemporary. Where the material is fuller, serious discrepancies are found; and where external evidence is fortunately available, the independent character of the biblical history is vividly illustrated. The varied traditions up to this stage cannot be regarded as objective history. It is naturally impossible to treat them from any modern standpoint as fiction; they are honest even where they are most untrustworthy. But the recovery of successive historical nuclei does not furnish a continuous thread, and if one is to be guided by the historical context of events the true background to each nucleus must be sought. The northern kingdom cherished the institution of a monarchy, and in this, as in all great political events, the prophets took part. The precise part these figures play is often idealized and expresses the later views of their prominence. It was only after a bitter experience that the kingship was no longer regarded as a divine gift, and traditions have been revised in order to illustrate the opposition to secular authority. In this and in many other respects the records of the first monarchy have been elaborated and now reveal traces of differing conceptions of the events (see DAN; DAVID; ELI; SAMUEL; SAUL; SOLOMON). The oldest narratives are not in their original contexts, and they contain features which render it questionable whether a very trustworthy recollection of the period was retained. Although the rise of the Hebrew state, at an age when the great powers were quiescent and when such a people as the Philistines is known to have appeared upon the scene, is entirely intelligible, it is not improbable that legends of Saul and David, the heroic founders of the two kingdoms, have been put in a historical setting with the help of later historical tradition. It is at least necessary to distinguish provisionally between a possibly historical framework and narratives which may be of later growth--between the general outlines which only external evidence can test and details which cannot be tested and appear isolated without any cause or devoid of any effect.
Many attempts have been made to present a satisfactory sketch of the early history and to do justice to (a) the patriarchal narratives, (b) the exodus from Egypt and the Israelite invasion, and (c) the rise of the monarchy. As regards (b), external evidence has already suggested to scholars that there were Israelites in Palestine before the invasion; internal historical criticism is against the view that all the tribes entered under Joshua; and in (a) there are traces of an actual settlement in the land, entirely distinct from the cycle of narratives which prepare the way for (b). The various reconstructions and compromises by modern apologetic and critical writers alike involve without exception an extremely free treatment of the biblical sources and the rejection of many important and circumstantial data.[11] On the one hand, a sweeping invasion of all the tribes of Israel moved by a common zeal may, like the conquests of Islam, have produced permanent results. According to this view the enervating luxury of Palestinian culture almost destroyed the lofty ideal monotheism inculcated in the desert, and after the fall of the northern tribes (latter part of the 8th cent.) Judah is naturally regarded as the sole heir. But such a conquest, and all that it signifies, conflict both with external evidence (e.g. the results of excavation), and with any careful inspection of the narratives themselves. On the other hand, the reconstructions which allow a gradual settlement (perhaps of distinct groups), and an intermingling with the earlier inhabitants, certainly find support in biblical evidence, and they have been ingeniously built up with the help of tribal and other data (e.g. Gen. xxxiv., xxxviii.; Judg. i. ix.). But they imply political, sociological and religious developments which do not do justice either to the biblical evidence as a whole or to a comprehensive survey of contemporary conditions.[12] Thus, one of the important questions is the relation between those who had taken part in the exodus and the invasion and those who had not. This inquiry is further complicated by (c), where the history of Israel and Judah, as related in Judges and 1 Samuel, has caused endless perplexity. The traditions of the Ephraimite Joshua and of Saul the first king of (north) Israel virtually treat Judah as part of Israel and are related to the underlying representations in (a). But the specific independent Judaean standpoint treats the unification of the two divisions as the work of David who leaves the heritage to Solomon. The varied narratives, now due to Judaean editors, preserve distinct points of view, and it is extremely difficult to unravel the threads and to determine their relative position in the history. Finally, the consciousness that the people as a religious body owed everything to the desert clans (b) (see § 5) subsequently leaves its mark upon (north) Israelite history (§ 14), but has not the profound significance which it has in the records of Judah and Jerusalem. Without sufficient external and independent evidence wherewith to interpret in the light of history the internal features of the intricate narratives, any reconstruction would naturally be hazardous, and all attempts must invariably be considered in the light of the biblical evidence itself, the date of the Israelite exodus, and the external conditions. Biblical criticism is concerned with a composite (Judaean) history based upon other histories (partly of non-Judaean origin), and the relation between native written sources and external contemporary evidence (monumental and archaeological) distinctly forbids any haphazard selection from accessible sources. The true nature of this relation can be readily observed in other fields (ancient Britain, Greece, Egypt, &c.), where, however, the native documents and sources have not that complexity which characterizes the composite biblical history. (For the period under review, as it appears in the light of existing external evidence, see PALESTINE: _History_.)
9. _The Rival Kingdoms._--The Palestine of the Hebrews was but part of a great area breathing the same atmosphere, and there was little to distinguish Judah from Israel except when they were distinct political entities. The history of the two kingdoms is contained in Kings and the later and relatively less trustworthy Chronicles, which deals with Judah alone. In the former a separate history of the northern kingdom has been combined with Judaean history by means of synchronisms in accordance with a definite scheme. The 480 years from the foundation of the temple of Jerusalem back to the date of the exodus (1 Kings vi. 1) corresponds to the period forward to the return from the exile (§ 20). This falls into three equal divisions, of which the first ends with Jehoash's temple-reforms and the second with Hezekiah's death. The kingdom of Israel lasts exactly half the time. Of the 240 years from Jeroboam I., 80 elapse before the Syrian wars in Ahab's reign, these cover another 80; the famous king Jeroboam II. reigns 40 years, and 40 years of decline bring the kingdom to an end. These figures speak for themselves, and the present chronology can be accepted only where it is independently proved to be trustworthy (see further W. R. Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, pp. 144-149). Next, the Judaean compiler regularly finds in Israel's troubles the punishment for its schismatic idolatry; nor does he spare Judah, but judges its kings by a standard which agrees with the standpoint of Deuteronomy and is scarcely earlier than the end of the 7th century B.C. (§§ 16, 20). But the history of (north) Israel had naturally its own independent political backgrounds and the literary sources contain the same internal features as the annals and prophetic narratives which are already met with in 1 Samuel. Similarly the thread of the Judaean annals in Kings is also found in 2 Samuel, although the supplementary narratives in Kings are not so rich or varied as the more popular records in the preceding books. The striking differences between Samuel and Kings are due to differences in the writing of the history; independent Israelite records having been incorporated with those of Judah and supplemented (with revision) from the Judaean standpoint (see CHRONICLES; KINGS; SAMUEL).
The Judaean compiler, with his history of the two kingdoms, looks back upon the time when each laid the foundation of its subsequent fortunes. His small kingdom of Judah enjoyed an unbroken dynasty which survived the most serious crises, a temple which grew in splendour and wealth under royal patronage, and a legitimate priesthood which owed its origin to Zadok, the successful rival of David's priest Abiathar. Israel, on the other hand, had signed its death-warrant by the institution of calf-cult, a cult which, however, was scarcely recognized as contrary to the worship of Yahweh before the denunciations of Hosea. The scantiness of political information and the distinctive arrangement of material preclude the attempt to trace the relative position of the two rivals. Judah had natural connexions with Edom and southern Palestine; Israel was more closely associated with Gilead and the Aramaeans of the north. That Israel was the stronger may be suggested by the acquiescence of Judah in the new situation. A diversion was caused by Shishak's invasion, but of this reappearance of Egypt after nearly three centuries of inactivity little is preserved in biblical history. Only the Temple records recall the spoliation of the sanctuary of Jerusalem, and traditions of Jeroboam I. show that Shishak's prominence was well known.[13] Although both kingdoms suffered, common misfortune did not throw them together. On the contrary, the statement that there was continual warfare is supplemented in Chronicles by the story of a victory over Israel by Abijah the son of Rehoboam. Jeroboam's son Nadab perished in a conspiracy whilst besieging the Philistine city of Gibbethon, and Baasha of (north) Israel seized the throne. His reign is noteworthy for the entrance of Damascus into Palestinian politics. Its natural fertility and its commanding position at the meeting-place of trade-routes from every quarter made it a dominant factor until its overthrow. In the absence of its native records its relations with Palestine are not always clear, but it may be supposed that amid varying political changes it was able to play a double game. According to the annals, incessant war prevailed between Baasha and Abijah's successor, Asa. It is understood that the former was in league with Damascus, which had once been hostile to Solomon (1 Kings xi. 24 seq.)--it is not stated upon whom Asa could rely. However, Baasha at length seized Ramah about five miles north of Jerusalem, and the very existence of Judah was threatened. Asa utilized the treasure of the Temple and palace to induce the Syrians to break off their relations with Baasha. These sent troops to harry north Israel, and Baasha was compelled to retire. Asa, it is evident, was too weak to achieve the remarkable victory ascribed to him in 2 Chron. xiv. (see ASA). As for Baasha, his short-lived dynasty resembles that of his predecessors. His son Elah had reigned only two years (like Ishbaal and Nadab) when he was slain in the midst of a drunken carousal by his captain Zimri. Meanwhile the Israelite army was again besieging the Philistines at Gibbethon, and the recurrence of these conflicts points to a critical situation in a Danite locality in which Judah itself (although ignored by the writers), must have been vitally concerned. The army preferred their general Omri, and marching upon Zimri at Tirzah burnt the palace over his head. A fresh rival immediately appeared, the otherwise unknown Tibni, son of Ginath. Israel was divided into two camps, until, on the death of Tibni and his brother Joram, Omri became sole king (c. 887 B.C.). The scanty details of these important events must naturally be contrasted with the comparatively full accounts of earlier Philistine wars and internal conflicts in narratives which date from this or even a later age.
10. _The Dynasty of Omri._--Omri (q.v.), the founder of one of the greatest dynasties of Israel, was contemporary with the revival of Tyre under Ithobaal, and the relationship between the states is seen in the marriage of Omri's son Ahab to Jezebel, the priest-king's daughter. His most notable recorded achievement was the subjugation of Moab and the seizure of part of its territory. The discovery of the inscription of a later king of Moab (q.v.) has proved that the east-Jordanic tribes were no uncivilized or barbaric folk; material wealth, a considerable religious and political organization, and the cultivation of letters (as exemplified in the style of the inscription) portray conditions which allow us to form some conception of life in Israel itself. Moreover, Judah (now under Jehoshaphat) enjoyed intimate relations with Israel during Omri's dynasty, and the traditions of intermarriage, and of co-operation in commerce and war, imply what was practically a united Palestine. Alliance with Phoenicia gave the impulse to extended intercourse; trading expeditions were undertaken from the Gulf of Akaba, and Ahab built himself a palace decorated with ivory. The cult of the Baal of Tyre followed Jezebel to the royal city Samaria and even found its way into Jerusalem. This, the natural result of matrimonial and political alliance, already met with under Solomon, receives the usual denunciation. The conflict between Yahweh and Baal and the defeat of the latter are the characteristic notes of the religious history of the period, and they leave their impression upon the records, which are now more abundant. Although little is preserved of Omri's history, the fact that the northern kingdom long continued to be called by the Assyrians after his name is a significant indication of his great reputation. Assyria[14] was now making itself felt in the west for the first time since the days of Tiglath-Pileser I. (c. 1100 B.C.), and external sources come to our aid. Assur-nazir-pal III. had exacted tribute from north Syria (c. 870 B.C.), and his successor Shalmaneser II., in the course of a series of expeditions, succeeded in gaining the greater part of that land. A defensive coalition was formed in which the kings of Cilicia, Hamath, the Phoenician coast, Damascus and Ammon, the Arabs of the Syrian desert, and "Ahabbu Sirlai" were concerned. In the last, we must recognize the Israelite Ahab. His own contribution of 10,000 men and 12,000 chariots perhaps included levies from Judah and Moab (cf. for the number 1 Kings x. 26). In 854 the allies at least maintained themselves at the battle of Karkar (perhaps Apamea to the north of Hamath). In 849 and 846 other indecisive battles were fought, but the precise constitution of the coalition is not recorded. In 842 Shalmaneser records a campaign against Hazael of Damascus; no coalition is mentioned, although a battle was fought at Sanir (Hermon, Deut. iii. 9), and the cities of Hauran to the south of Damascus were spoiled. Tribute was received from Tyre and Sidon; and Jehu, who was now king of Israel, sent his gifts of gold, silver, &c., to the conqueror. The Assyrian inscription (the so-called "Black Obelisk" now in the British Museum), which records the submission of the petty kings, gives an interesting representation of the humble Israelite emissaries with their long fringed robes and strongly marked physiognomy (see COSTUME, fig. 9). Yet another expedition in 839 would seem to show that Damascus was neither crushed nor helpless, but thenceforth for a number of years Assyria was fully occupied elsewhere and the west was left to itself. The value of this external evidence for the history of Israel is enhanced by the fact that biblical tradition associates the changes in the thrones of Israel and Damascus with the work of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, but handles the period without a single reference to the Assyrian Empire. Ahab, it seems, had aroused popular resentment by encroaching upon the rights of the people to their landed possessions; had it not been for Jezebel (q.v.) the tragedy of Naboth would not have occurred. The worship of Baal of Tyre roused a small circle of zealots, and again the Phoenician marriage was the cause of the evil. We read the history from the point of view of prophets. Elijah of Gilead led the revolt. To one who favoured simplicity of cult the new worship was a desecration of Yahweh, and, braving the anger of the king and queen, he foreshadowed their fate. Hostility towards the dynasty culminated a few years later in a conspiracy which placed on the throne the general Jehu, the son of one Jehoshaphat (or, otherwise, of Nimshi). The work which Elijah began was completed by Elisha, who supported Jehu and the new dynasty. A massacre ensued in which the royal families of Israel and Judah perished. While the extirpation of the cult of Baal was furthered in Israel by Jonadab the Rechabite, it was the "people of the land" who undertook a similar reform in Judah. Jehu (q.v.) became king as the champion of the purer worship of Yahweh. The descendants of the detested Phoenician marriage were rooted out, and unless the close intercourse between Israel and Judah had been suddenly broken, it would be supposed that the new king at least laid claim to the south. The events form one of the fundamental problems of biblical history.
11. _Damascus, Israel and Judah._--The appearance of Assyria in the Mediterranean coast-lands had produced the results which inevitably follow when a great empire comes into contact with minor states. It awakened fresh possibilities--successful combination against a common foe, the sinking of petty rivalries, the chance of gaining favour by a neutrality which was scarcely benevolent. The alliances, counter-alliances and far-reaching political combinations which spring up at every advance of the greater powers are often perplexing in the absence of records of the states concerned. Even the biblical traditions alone do not always represent the same attitude, and our present sources preserve the work of several hands. Hazael of Damascus, Jehu of Israel and Elisha the prophet are the three men of the new age linked together in the words of one writer as though commissioned for like ends (1 Kings xix. 15-17). Hostility to Phoenicia (i.e. the Baal of Tyre) is as intelligible as a tendency to look to Aramaean neighbours. Though Elisha sent to anoint Jehu as king, he was none the less on most intimate terms with Bar-hadad (Old. Test. Ben-hadad) of Damascus and recognized Hazael as its future ruler. It is a natural assumption that Damascus could still count upon Israel as an ally in 842; not until the withdrawal of Assyria and the accession of Jehu did the situation change. "In those days Yahweh began to cut short" (or, altering the text, "to be angry with") "Israel." This brief notice heralds the commencement of Hazael's attack upon Israelite territory east of the Jordan (2 Kings x. 32). The origin of the outbreak is uncertain. It has been assumed that Israel had withdrawn from the great coalition, that Jehu sent tribute to Shalmaneser to obtain that monarch's recognition, and that Hazael consequently seized the first opportunity to retaliate. Certain traditions, it is true, indicate that Israel had been at war with the Aramaeans from before 854 to 842, and that Hazael was attacking Gilead at the time when Jehu revolted; but in the midst of these are other traditions of the close and friendly relations between Israel and Damascus! With these perplexing data the position of Judah is inextricably involved.
The special points which have to be noticed in the records for this brief period (1 Kings xvii.-2 Kings xi.) concern both literary and historical criticism.[15] A number of narratives illustrate the work of the prophets, and sometimes purely political records appear to have been used for the purpose (see ELIJAH; ELISHA). If Elijah is the prophet of the fall of Omri's dynasty, Elisha is no less the prophet of Jehu and his successors; and it is extremely probable that his lifework was confined to the dynasty which he inaugurated.[16] In the present narratives, however, the stories in which he possesses influence with king and court are placed before the rise of Jehu, and some of them point to a state of hostility with Damascus before he foresees the atrocities which Hazael will perpetrate. But Ahab's wars with Syria can with difficulty be reconciled with the Assyrian evidence (see AHAB), and the narratives, largely anonymous, agree in a singular manner with what is known of the serious conflicts which, it is said, began in Jehu's time. Moreover, the account of the joint undertaking by Judah (under Jehoshaphat) and Israel against Syria at Ramoth-Gilead at the time of Ahab's death, and again (under Ahaziah) when Jehoram was wounded, shortly before the accession of Jehu, are historical doublets, and they can hardly be harmonized either with the known events of 854 and 842 or with the course of the intervening years. Further, all the traditions point clearly to the very close union of Israel and Judah at this period, a union which is apt to be obscured by the fact that the annalistic summaries of each kingdom are mainly independent. Thus we may contrast the favourable Judaean view of Jehoshaphat with the condemnation passed upon Ahab and Jezebel, whose daughter Athaliah married Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. It is noteworthy, also, that an Ahaziah and a Jehoram appear as kings of Israel, and (in the reverse order) of Judah, and somewhat similar incidents recur in the now separate histories of the two kingdoms. The most striking is a great revolt in south Palestine. The alliance between Jehoshaphat and Ahab doubtless continued when the latter was succeeded by his son Ahaziah, and some disaster befell their trading fleet in the Gulf of Akaba (1 Kings xxii. 48 seq.; 2 Chron. xx. 35-37). Next came the revolt of Moab (2 Kings i. 1), and Ahaziah, after the briefest of reigns, was followed by Jehoram, whose Judaean contemporary was Jehoshaphat (ch. iii.), or perhaps rather his own namesake (i. 17). The popular story of Jehoram's campaign against Moab, with which Edom was probably allied (see MOAB), hints at a disastrous ending, and the Judaean annals, in their turn, record the revolt of Edom and the Philistine Libnah (see PHILISTINES), and allude obscurely to a defeat of the Judaean Jehoram (2 Kings viii. 20-22). Further details in 2 Chron. xxi.-xxii. 1 even record an invasion of Philistines and Arabians (? Edomites), an attack upon Jerusalem, the removal of the palace treasures and of all the royal sons with the sole exception of Jehoahaz, i.e. Ahaziah (see JEHORAM; JEHOSHAPHAT). Had the two kingdoms been under a single head, these features might find an explanation, but it must be allowed that it is extremely difficult to fit the general situation into our present history, and to determine where the line is to be drawn between trustworthy and untrustworthy details. Moreover, of the various accounts of the massacre of the princes of Judah, the Judaean ascribes it not to Jehu and the reforming party (2 Kings x. 13 seq.) but to Athaliah (q.v.). Only the babe Jehoash was saved, and he remained hidden in the Temple adjoining the palace itself. The queen, Athaliah, despite the weak state of Judah after the revolt in Philistia and Edom, actually appears to have maintained herself for six years, until the priests slew her in a conspiracy, overthrew the cult of Baal, and crowned the young child. It is a new source which is here suddenly introduced, belonging apparently to a history of the Temple; it throws no light upon the relations between Judah with its priests and Israel with its prophets, the circumstances of the regency under the priest Jehoiada are ignored, and the Temple reforms occupy the first place in the compiler's interest. The Judaean annals then relate Hazael's advance to Gath; the city was captured and Jerusalem was saved only by using the Temple and palace treasure as a bribe. On the other hand, Chronicles has a different story with a novel prelude. Jehoash, it is said, turned away from Yahweh after the death of Jehoiada and gave heed to the Judaean nobles, "wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for their guilt," prophets were sent to bring them back but they turned a deaf ear. The climax of iniquity was the murder of Jehoiada's son Zechariah. Soon after, a small band of Syrians entered Judah, destroyed its princes, and sent the spoil to the king of Damascus; the disaster is regarded as a prompt retribution (2 Chron. xxiv.). The inferiority of Chronicles as a historical source and its varied examples of "tendency-writing" must be set against its possible access to traditions as trustworthy as those in Kings.[17] In the present instance the novel details cannot be lightly brushed aside. The position of Judah at this period must be estimated (a) from the preceding years of intimate relationship with Israel to the accession of Jehu, and (b) from the calamity about half a century later when Jerusalem was sacked by Israel. The Judaean narratives do not allow us to fill the gap or to determine whether Judaean policy under the regent Jehoiada would be friendly or hostile to Israel, or whether Judaean nobles may have severed the earlier bond of union. If the latter actually occurred, the hostility of the Israelite prophets is only to be expected. But it is to be presumed that the punishment came from Israel--the use of Syrian mercenaries not excluded--and if, instead of using his treasure to ward off the invasion of Syria, Jehoash bribed Damascus to break off relations with Israel, an alternative explanation of the origin of the Aramaean wars may be found.[18]
12. _The Aramaean Wars._--If the records leave it uncertain (a) whether Jehu (like Tyre and Sidon) sent tribute to Shalmaneser as a sign of submission or, while severing relations with Hazael, sought the favour of Assyria, and (b) whether Judah only escaped Hazael's vengeance by a timely bribe or, in freeing itself from Israel, had bribed Hazael to create a diversion, it appears that the southern kingdom suffered little in the disastrous wars between Damascus and Israel. There were, indeed, internal troubles, and Jehoash perished in a conspiracy. His son Amaziah had some difficulty in gaining the kingdom and showed unwonted leniency in sparing the children of his father's murderers. This was a departure from the customs of the age, and was perhaps influenced less by generosity than by expediency. Israel, on the other hand, was almost annihilated. The Syrians seized Gilead, crossed over into Palestine, and occupied the land. Jehu's son Jehoahaz saw his army made "like the dust in threshing," and the desperate condition of the country recalls the straits in the time of Saul (1 Sam. xiii. 6, 7, 19-22), and the days before the great overthrow of the northern power as described in Judges v. 6-8. The impression left by the horrors of the age is clear from the allusions to the barbarities committed by Damascus and its Ammonite allies upon Gilead (Amos i. 3, 13), and in the account of the interview between Elisha and Hazael (2 Kings viii. 12). Several of the situations can be more vividly realized from the narratives of Syrian wars ascribed to the time of Omri's dynasty, even if these did not originally refer to the later period. Under Joash, son of Jehoahaz, the tide turned. Elisha was apparently the champion, and posterity told of his exploits when Samaria was visited with the sword. Thrice Joash smote the Syrians--in accordance with the last words of the dying prophet--and Aphek in the Sharon plain, famous in history for Israel's disasters, now witnessed three victories. The enemy under Hazael's son Ben-hadad (properly Bar-hadad) was driven out and Joash regained the territory which his father had lost (2 Kings xiii. 25); it may reasonably be supposed that a treaty was concluded (cf. 1 Kings xx. 34). But the peace does not seem to have been popular. The story of the last scene in Elisha's life implies in Joash an easily contented disposition which hindered him from completing his successes. Syria had not been crushed, and the failure to utilize the opportunity was an act of impolitic leniency for which Israel was bound to suffer (2 Kings xiii. 19). Elisha's indignation can be illustrated by the denunciation passed upon an anonymous king by the prophetic party on a similar occasion (1 Kings xx. 35-43).
At this stage it is necessary to notice the fresh invasion of Syria by Hadad (Adad)-nirari, who besieged Mari, king of Damascus, and exacted a heavy tribute (c. 800 B.C.). A diversion of this kind may explain the Israelite victories; the subsequent withdrawal of Assyria may have afforded the occasion for retaliation. Those in Israel who remembered the previous war between Assyria and Damascus would realize the recuperative power of the latter, and would perceive the danger of the short-sighted policy of Joash. It is interesting to find that Hadad-nirari claims tribute from Tyre, Sidon and Beth-Omri (Israel), also from Edom and Palastu (Philistia). There are no signs of an extensive coalition as in the days of Shalmaneser; Ammon is probably included under Damascus; the position of Moab--which had freed itself from Jehoram of Israel--can hardly be calculated. But the absence of Judah is surprising. Both Jehoash (of Judah) and his son Amaziah left behind them a great name; and the latter was comparable only to David (2 Kings xiv. 3). He defeated Edom in the Valley of Salt, and hence it is conceivable that Amaziah's kingdom extended over both Edom and Philistia. A vaunting challenge to Joash (of Israel) gave rise to one of the two fables that are preserved in the Old Testament (Judg. ix. 8 sqq.; see ABIMELECH). It was followed by a battle at Beth-shemesh; the scene would suggest that Philistia also was involved. The result was the route of Judah, the capture of Amaziah, the destruction of the northern wall of Jerusalem, the sacking of the temple and palace, and the removal of hostages to Samaria (2 Kings xiv. 12 sqq.). Only a few words are preserved, but the details, when carefully weighed, are extremely significant. This momentous event for the southern kingdom was scarcely the outcome of a challenge to a trial of strength; it was rather the sequel to a period of smouldering jealousy and hostility.
The Judaean records have obscured the history since the days of Omri's dynasty, when Israel and Judah were as one, when they were moved by common aims and by a single reforming zeal, and only Israel's vengeance gives the measure of the injuries she had received. That the Judaean compiler has not given fuller information is not surprising; the wonder is that he should have given so much. It is one of those epoch-making facts in the light of which the course of the history of the preceding and following years must be estimated. It is taken, strangely enough, from an Israelite source, but the tone of the whole is quite dispassionate and objective. It needs little reflection to perceive that the position of Jerusalem and Judah was now hardly one of independence, and the conflicting chronological notices betray the attempt to maintain intact the thread of Judaean history. So, on the one hand, the year of the disaster sees the death of the Israelite king, and Amaziah survives for fifteen years, while, on the other, twenty-seven years elapse between the battle and the accession of Uzziah, the next king of Judah.[19]
The importance of the historical questions regarding relations between Damascus, Israel and Judah is clear. The defeat of Syria by Joash (of Israel) was not final. The decisive victories were gained by Jeroboam II. He saved Israel from being blotted out, and through his successes "the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as of old" (2 Kings xiii. 5, xiv. 26 seq.). Syria must have resumed warfare with redoubled energy, and a state of affairs is presupposed which can be pictured with the help of narratives that deal with similar historical situations. In particular, the overthrow of Israel as foreshadowed in 1 Kings xxii. implies an Aramaean invasion (cf. vv. 17, 25), after a treaty (xx. 35 sqq.), although this can scarcely be justified by the events which followed the death of Ahab, in whose time they are now placed.
For the understanding of these great wars between Syria and Israel (which the traditional chronology spreads over eighty years), for the significance of the crushing defeats and inspiring victories, and for the alternations of despair and hope, a careful study of all the records of relations between Israel and the north is at least instructive, and it is important to remember that, although the present historical outlines are scanty and incomplete, some--if not all--of the analogous descriptions in their present form are certainly later than the second half of the 9th century B.C., the period in which these great events fall.[20]
13. _Political Development._--Under Jeroboam II. the borders of Israel were restored, and in this political revival the prophets again took part.[21] The defeat of Ben-hadad by the king of Hamath and the quiescence of Assyria may have encouraged Israelite ambitions, but until more is known of the campaigns of Hadad-nirari and of Shalmaneser III. (against Damascus, 773 B.C.) the situation cannot be safely gauged. Moab was probably tributary; the position of Judah and Edom is involved with the chronological problems. According to the Judaean annals, the "people of Judah" set Azariah (Uzziah) upon his father's throne; and to his long reign of fifty-two years are ascribed conquests over Philistia and Edom, the fortification of Jerusalem and the reorganization of the army. As the relations with Israel are not specified, the sequel to Amaziah's defeat is a matter for conjecture; although, when at the death of Jeroboam Israel hastened to its end amid anarchy and dissension, it is hardly likely that the southern kingdom was unmoved. All that can be recognized from the biblical records, however, is the period of internal prosperity which Israel and Judah enjoyed under Jeroboam and Uzziah (qq.v.) respectively.
It is difficult to trace the biblical history century by century as it reaches these last years of bitter conflict and of renewed prosperity. The northern kingdom at the height of its power included Judah, it extended its territory east of the Jordan towards the north and the south, and maintained close relations with Phoenicia and the Aramaean states. It had a national history which left its impress upon the popular imagination, and sundry fragments of tradition reveal the pride which the patriot felt in the past. An original close connexion is felt with the east of the Jordan and with Gilead; stories of invasion and conquest express themselves in varied forms. In so far as internal wealth and luxury presuppose the control of the trade-routes, periodical alliances are implied in which Judah, willingly or unwillingly, was included. But the Judaean records do not allow us to trace its independent history with confidence, and our estimate can scarcely base itself solely upon the accidental fulness or scantiness of political details. In the subsequent disasters of Israel (§ 15) we may perceive the growing supremacy of Judah, and the Assyrian inscriptions clearly indicate the dependence of Judaean politics upon its relations with Edom and Arab tribes on the south-east and with Philistia on the west. Whatever had been the effect of the movement of the Purasati some centuries previously, the Philistines (i.e. the people of Philistia) are now found in possession of a mature organization, and the Assyrian evidence is of considerable value for an estimate of the stories of conflict and covenant, of hostility and friendship, which were current in south Palestine. The extension of the term "Judah" (cf. that of "Israel" and "Samaria") is involved with the incorporation of non-Judaean elements. The country for ten miles north of Jerusalem was the exposed and highly debatable district ascribed to the young tribe of Benjamin (the favourite "brother" of both Judah and Joseph; Gen. xxxvii., xxxix. sqq.); the border-line between the rival kingdoms oscillated, and consequently the political position of the smaller and half-desert Judaean state depended upon the attitude of its neighbours. It is possible that tradition is right in supposing that "Judah went down from his brethren" (Gen. xxxviii. 1; cf. Judg. i. 3). Its monarchy traced its origin to Hebron in the south, and its growth is contemporary with a decline in Israel (§ 7). It is at least probable that when Israel was supreme an independent Judah would centre around a more southerly site than Jerusalem. It is naturally uncertain how far the traditions of David can be utilized; but they illustrate Judaean situations when they depict intrigues with Israelite officials, vassalage under Philistia, and friendly relations with Moab, or when they suggest how enmity between Israel and Ammon could be turned to useful account. Tradition, in fact, is concentrated upon the rise of the Judaean dynasty under David, but there are significant periods before the rise of both Jehoash and Uzziah upon which the historical records maintain a perplexing silence.
The Hebrews of Israel and Judah were, political history apart, men of the same general stamp, with the same cult and custom; for the study of religion and social usages, therefore, they can be treated as a single people. The institution of the monarchy was opposed to the simpler local forms of government, and a military régime had distinct disadvantages (cf. 1 Sam. viii. 11-18). The king stood at the head, as the court of final appeal, and upon him and his officers depended the people's welfare. A more intricate social organization caused internal weakness, and Eastern history shows with what rapidity peoples who have become strong by discipline and moderation pass from the height of their glory into extreme corruption and disintegration.[22] This was Israel's fate. Opposition to social abuses and enmity towards religious innovations are regarded as the factors which led to the overthrow of Omri's dynasty by Jehu, and when Israel seemed to be at the height of its glory under Jeroboam II. warning voices again made themselves heard. The two factors are inseparable, for in ancient times no sharp dividing-line was drawn between religious and civic duties: righteousness and equity, religious duty and national custom were one.
Elaborate legal enactments codified in Babylonia by the 20th century B.C. find striking parallels in Hebrew, late Jewish (Talmudic), Syrian and Mahommedan law, or in the unwritten usages of all ages; for even where there were neither written laws nor duly instituted lawgivers, there was no lawlessness, since custom and belief were, and still are, almost inflexible. Various collections are preserved in the Old Testament; they are attributed to the time of Moses the lawgiver, who stands at the beginning of Israelite national and religious history. But many of the laws were quite unsuitable for the circumstances of his age, and the belief that a body of intricate and even contradictory legislation was imposed suddenly upon a people newly emerged from bondage in Egypt raises insurmountable objections, and underestimates the fact that legal usage existed in the earliest stages of society, and therefore in pre-Mosaic times. The more important question is the date of the laws in their present form and content. Collections of laws are found in Deuteronomy and in exilic and post-exilic writings; groups of a relatively earlier type are preserved in Exod. xxxiv. 14-26, xx. 23-xxiii., and (of another stamp) in Lev. xvii.-xxvi. (now in post-exilic form). For a useful conspectus of details, see J. E. Carpenter and G. Harford-Battersby. _The Hexateuch_ (vol. i., appendix); C. F. Kent, _Israel's Laws and Legal Enactments_ (1907); and in general I. Benzinger, articles "Government," "Family" and "Law and Justice," _Ency. Bib._, and G. B. Gray, "Law Literature," ib. (the literary growth of legislation). Reference may also be made, for illustrative material, to W. R. Smith, _Kinship and Marriage_, _Religion of the Semites_; to E. Day, _Social Life of the Hebrews_; and, for some comparison of customary usage in the Semitic field, to S. A. Cook, _Laws of Moses and Code of Hammurabi_.
14. _Religion and the Prophets._--The elements of the thought and religion of the Hebrews do not sever them from their neighbours; similar features of cult are met with elsewhere under different names. Hebrew religious institutions can be understood from the biblical evidence studied in the light of comparative religion; and without going afield to Babylonia, Assyria or Egypt, valuable data are furnished by the cults of Phoenicia, Syria and Arabia, and these in turn can be illustrated from excavation and from modern custom. Every religion has its customary cult and ritual, its recognized times, places and persons for the observance. Worship is simpler at the smaller shrines than at the more famous temples; and, as the rulers are the patrons of the religion and are brought into contact with the religious personnel, the character of the social organization leaves its mark upon those who hold religious and judicial functions alike. The Hebrews shared the paradoxes of Orientals, and religious enthusiasm and ecstasy were prominent features. Seers and prophets of all kinds ranged from those who were consulted for daily mundane affairs to those who revealed the oracles in times of stress, from those who haunted local holy sites to those high in royal favour, from the quiet domestic communities to the austere mountain recluse. Among these were to be found the most sordid opportunism and the most heroic self-effacement, the crassest supernaturalism and--the loftiest conceptions of practical morality. A development of ideals and a growth of spirituality can be traced which render the biblical writings with their series of prophecies a unique phenomenon.[23] The prophets taught that the national existence of the people was bound up with religious and social conditions; they were in a sense the politicians of the age, and to regard them simply as foretellers of the future is to limit their sphere unduly. They took a keen interest in all the political vicissitudes of the Oriental world. Men of all standards of integrity, they were exposed to external influences, but whether divided among themselves in their adherence to conflicting parties, or isolated in their fierce denunciation of contemporary abuses, they shared alike in the worship of Yahweh whose inspiration they claimed. A recollection of the manifold forms which religious life and thought have taken in Christendom or in Islam, and the passions which are so easily engendered among opposing sects, will prevent a one-sided estimate of the religious standpoints which the writings betray; and to the recognition that they represent lofty ideals it must be added that the great prophets, like all great thinkers, were in advance of their age.
The prophets are thoroughly Oriental figures, and the interpretation of their profound religious experiences requires a particular sympathy which is not inherent in Western minds. Their writings are to be understood in the light of their age and of the conditions which gave birth to them. With few exceptions they are preserved in fragmentary form, with additions and adjustments which were necessary in order to make them applicable to later conditions. When, as often, the great figures have been made the spokesmen of the thought of subsequent generations, the historical criticism of the prophecies becomes one of peculiar difficulty.[24] According to the historical traditions it is precisely in the age of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah that the first of the extant prophecies begin (see AMOS and HOSEA). Here it is enough to observe that the highly advanced doctrines of the distinctive character of Yahweh, as ascribed to the 8th century B.C., presuppose a foundation and development. But the evidence does not allow us to trace the earlier progress of the ideas. Yahwism presents itself under a variety of aspects, and the history of Israel's relations to the God Yahweh (whose name is not necessarily of Israelite origin) can hardly be disentangled amid the complicated threads of the earlier history. The view that the seeds of Yahwism were planted in the young Israelite nation in the days of the "exodus" conflicts with the belief that the worship of Yahweh began in the pre-Mosaic age. Nevertheless, it implies that religion passed into a new stage through the influence of Moses, and to this we find a relatively less complete analogy in the specific north Israelite traditions of the age of Jehu. The change from the dynasty of Omri to that of Jehu has been treated by several hands, and the writers, in their recognition of the introduction of a new tendency, have obscured the fact that the cult of Yahweh had flourished even under such a king as Ahab. While the influence of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha is clearly visible, it is instructive to find that the south, too, has its share in the inauguration of the new era. At Horeb, the mount of God, was located the dramatic theophany which heralded to Elijah the advent of the sword, and Jehu's supporter in his sanguinary measures belongs to the Rechabites, a sect which felt itself to be the true worshipping community of Yahweh and is closely associated with the Kenites, the kin of Moses. It was at the holy well of Kadesh, in the sacred mounts of Sinai and Horeb, and in the field of Edom that the Yahweh of Moses was found, and scattered traces survive of a definite belief in the entrance into Palestine of a movement uncompromisingly devoted to the purer worship of Yahweh. The course of the dynasty of Jehu--the reforms, the disastrous Aramaean wars, and, at length, Yahweh's "arrow of victory"--constituted an epoch in the Israelite history, and it is regarded as such.[25]
The problem of the history of Yahwism depends essentially upon the view adopted as to the date and origin of the biblical details and their validity for the various historical and religious conditions they presuppose. Yahwism is a religion which appears upon a soil saturated with ideas and usages which find their parallel in extra-biblical sources and in neighbouring lands. The problem cannot be approached from modern preconceptions because there was much associated with the worship of Yahweh which only gradually came to be recognized as repugnant, and there was much in earlier ages and in other lands which reflects an elevated and even complex religious philosophy. In the south of the Sinaitic peninsula, remains have been found of an elaborate half-Egyptian, half-Semitic cultus (Petrie, _Researches in Sinai_, xiii.), and not only does Edom possess some reputation for "wisdom," but, where this district is concerned, the old Arabian religion (whose historical connexion with Palestine is still imperfectly known) claims some attention. The characteristic denunciations of corruption and lifeless ritual in the writings of the prophets and the emphasis which is laid upon purity and simplicity of religious life are suggestive of the influence of the nomadic spirit rather than of an internal evolution on Palestinian soil. Desert pastoral life does not necessarily imply any intellectual inferiority, and its religious conceptions, though susceptible of modification, are not artificially moulded through the influence of other civilizations. Nomadic life is recognized by Arabian writers themselves as possessing a relative superiority, and its characteristic purity of manner and its reaction against corruption and luxury are not incompatible with a warlike spirit. If nomadism may be recognized as one of the factors in the growth of Yahwism, there is something to be said for the hypothesis which associates it with the clans connected with the Levites (see E. Meyer, _Israeliten_, pp. 82 sqq.; B. Luther, ib. 138). It is, however, obvious that the influence due to immigrants could be, and doubtless was, exerted at more than one period (see §§ 18, 20; also HEBREW RELIGION; PRIEST).
15. _The Fall of the Israelite Monarchy._--The prosperity of Israel was its undoing. The disorders that hastened its end find an analogy in the events of the more obscure period after the death of the earlier Jeroboam. Only the briefest details are given. Zechariah was slain after six months by Shallum ben Jabesh in Ibleam; but the usurper fell a month later to Menahem (q.v.), who only after much bloodshed established his position. Assyria again appeared upon the scene under Tiglath-pileser IV. (745-728 B.C.).[26] His approach was the signal for the formation of a coalition, which was overthrown in 738. Among those who paid tribute were Rasun (the biblical Rezin) of Damascus, Menahem of Samaria, the kings of Tyre, Byblos and Hamath and the queen of Aribi (Arabia, the Syrian desert). Israel was once more in league with Damascus and Phoenicia, and the biblical records must be read in the light of political history. Judah was probably holding aloof. Its king, Uzziah, was a leper in his latter days, and his son and regent, Jotham, claims notice for the circumstantial reference (2 Chron. xxvii.; cf. xxvi. 8) to his subjugation of Ammon--the natural allies of Damascus--for three years. Scarcely had Assyria withdrawn before Menahem lost his life in a conspiracy, and Pekah with the help of Gilead made himself king. The new movement was evidently anti-Assyrian, and strenuous endeavours were made to present a united front. It is suggestive to find Judah the centre of attack.[27] Rasun and Pekah directed their blows from the north, Philistia threatened the west flank, and the Edomites who drove out the Judaeans from Elath (on the Gulf of 'Akaba) were no doubt only taking their part in the concerted action. A more critical situation could scarcely be imagined. The throne of David was then occupied by the young Ahaz, Jotham's son. In this crisis we meet with Isaiah (q.v.), one of the finest of Hebrew prophets. The disorganized state of Egypt and the uncertain allegiance of the desert tribes left Judah without direct aid; on the other hand, opposition to Assyria among the conflicting interests of Palestine and Syria was rarely unanimous. Either in the natural course of events--to preserve the unity of his empire--or influenced by the rich presents of gold and silver with which Ahaz accompanied his appeal for help, Tiglath-pileser intervened with campaigns against Philistia (734 B.C.) and Damascus (733-732). Israel was punished by the ravaging of the northern districts, and the king claims to have carried away the people of "the house of Omri." Pekah was slain and one Hoshea (q.v.) was recognized as his successor. Assyrian officers were placed in the land and Judah thus gained its deliverance at the expense of Israel. But the proud Israelites did not remain submissive for long; Damascus had indeed fallen, but neither Philistia nor Edom had yet been crushed.
At this stage a new problem becomes urgent. A number of petty peoples, of whom little definite is known, fringed Palestine from the south of Judah and the Delta to the Syrian desert. They belong to an area which merges itself in the west into Egypt, and Egypt in fact had a hereditary claim upon it. Continued intercourse between Egypt, Gaza and north Arabia is natural in view of the trade-routes which connected them, and on several occasions joint action on the part of Edomites (with allied tribes) and the Philistines is recorded, or may be inferred. The part played by Egypt proper in the ensuing anti-Assyrian combinations is not clearly known; with a number of petty dynasts fomenting discontent and revolt, there was an absence of cohesion in that ancient empire previous to the rise of the Ethiopian dynasty. Consequently the references to "Egypt" (Heb. _Misrayim_, Ass. _Musri_) sometimes suggest that the geographical term was really extended beyond the bounds of Egypt proper towards those districts where Egyptian influence or domination was or had been recognized (see further MIZRAIM).
When Israel began to recover its prosperity and regained confidence, its policy halted between obedience to Assyria and reliance upon this ambiguous "Egypt." The situation is illustrated in the writings of Hosea (q.v.). When at length Tiglath-pileser died, in 727, the slumbering revolt became general; Israel refused the usual tribute to its overlord, and definitely threw in its lot with "Egypt." In due course Samaria was besieged for three years by Shalmaneser IV. The alliance with So (Seveh, Sibi) of "Egypt," upon whom hopes had been placed, proved futile, and the forebodings of keen-sighted prophets were justified. Although no evidence is at hand, it is probable that Ahaz of Judah rendered service to Assyria by keeping the allies in check; possible, also, that the former enemies of Jerusalem had now been induced to turn against Samaria. The actual capture of the Israelite capital is claimed by Sargon (722), who removed 27,290 of its inhabitants and fifty chariots. Other peoples were introduced, officers were placed in charge, and the usual tribute re-imposed. Another revolt was planned in 720 in which the province of Samaria joined with Hamath and Damascus, with the Phoenician Arpad and Simura, and with Gaza and "Egypt." Two battles, one at Karkar in the north, another at Rapih (Raphia) on the border of Egypt, sufficed to quell the disturbance. The desert peoples who paid tribute on this occasion still continued restless, and in 715 Sargon removed men of Tamud, Ibadid, Marsiman, Hayapa, "the remote Arabs of the desert," and placed them in the land of Beth-Omri. Sargon's statement is significant for the internal history; but unfortunately the biblical historians take no further interest in the fortunes of the northern kingdom after the fall of Samaria, and see in Judah the sole survivor of the Israelite tribes (see 2 Kings xvii. 7-23). Yet the situation in this neglected district must continue to provoke inquiry.
16. _Judah and Assyria._--Amid these changes Judah was intimately connected with the south Palestinian peoples (see further PHILISTINES). Ahaz had recognized the sovereignty of Assyria and visited Tiglath-pileser at Damascus. The Temple records describe the innovations he introduced on his return. Under his son Hezekiah there were fresh disturbances in the southern states, and anti-Assyrian intrigues began to take a more definite shape among the Philistine cities. Ashdod openly revolted and found support in Moab, Edom, Judah, and the still ambiguous "Egypt." This step may possibly be connected with the attempt of Marduk (Merodach)-baladan in south Babylonia to form a league against Assyria (cf. 2 Kings xx. 12); at all events Ashdod fell after a three years' siege (711) and for a time there was peace. But with the death of Sargon in 705 there was another great outburst; practically the whole of Palestine and Syria was in arms, and the integrity of Sennacherib's empire was threatened. In both Judah and Philistia the anti-Assyrian party was not without opposition, and those who adhered or favoured adherence to the great power were justified by the result. The inevitable lack of cohesion among the petty states weakened the national cause. At Sennacherib's approach, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab and Edom submitted; Ekron, Ascalon, Lachish and Jerusalem held out strenuously. The southern allies (with "Egypt") were defeated at Eltekeh (Josh. xix. 44). Hezekiah was besieged and compelled to submit (701). The small kings who had remained faithful were rewarded by an extension of their territories, and Ashdod, Ekron and Gaza were enriched at Judah's expense. These events are related in Sennacherib's inscription; the biblical records preserve their own traditions (see HEZEKIAH). If the impression left upon current thought can be estimated from certain of the utterances of the court-prophet Isaiah and the Judaean countryman Micah (q.v.), the light which these throw upon internal conditions must also be used to gauge the real extent of the religious changes ascribed to Hezekiah. A brazen serpent, whose institution was attributed to Moses, had not hitherto been considered out of place in the cult; its destruction was perhaps the king's most notable reform.
In the long reign of his son Manasseh later writers saw the deathblow to the Judaean kingdom. Much is related of his wickedness and enmity to the followers of Yahweh, but few political details have come down. It is uncertain whether Sennacherib invaded Judah again shortly before his death, nevertheless the land was practically under the control of Assyria. Both Esar-haddon (681-668) and Assur-bani-pal (668-c. 626) number among their tributaries Tyre, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Ascalon, Gaza and Manasseh himself,[28] and cuneiform dockets unearthed at Gezer suggest the presence of Assyrian garrisons there (and no doubt also elsewhere) to ensure allegiance. The situation was conducive to the spread of foreign customs, and the condemnation passed upon Manasseh thus perhaps becomes more significant. Precisely what form his worship took is a matter of conjecture; but it is possible that the religion must not be judged too strictly from the standpoint of the late compiler, and that Manasseh merely assimilated the older Yahweh-worship to new Assyrian forms.[29] Politics and religion, however, were inseparable, and the supremacy of Assyria meant the supremacy of the Assyrian pantheon.
If Judah was compelled to take part in the Assyrian campaigns against Egypt, Arabia (the Syrian desert) and Tyre, this would only be in accordance with a vassal's duty. But when tradition preserves some recollection of an offence for which Manasseh was taken to Babylon to explain his conduct (2 Chron. xxxiii.), also of the settling of foreign colonists in Samaria by Esar-haddon (Ezra iv. 2), there is just a possibility that Judah made some attempt to gain independence. According to Assur-bani-pal all the western lands were inflamed by the revolt of his brother Samas-sum-ukin. What part Judah took in the Transjordanic disturbances, in which Moab fought invading Arabian tribes on behalf of Assyria, is unknown (see MOAB). Manasseh's son Amon fell in a court intrigue and "the people of the land," after avenging the murder, set up in his place the infant Josiah (637). The circumstances imply a regency, but the records are silent upon the outlook. The assumption that the decay of Assyria awoke the national feeling of independence is perhaps justified by those events which made the greatest impression upon the compiler, and an account is given of Josiah's religious reforms, based upon a source apparently identical with that which described the work of Jehoash. In an age when the oppression and corruption of the ruling classes had been such that those who cherished the old worship of Yahweh dared not confide in their most intimate companions (Mic. vii. 5, 6), no social reform was possible; but now the young Josiah, the popular choice, was upon the throne. A roll, it is said, was found in the Temple, its contents struck terror into the hearts of the priests and king, and it led to a solemn covenant before Yahweh to observe the provisions of the law-book which had been so opportunely recovered.
That the writer (2 Kings xxii. seq.) meant to describe the discovery of Deuteronomy is evident from the events which followed; and this identification of the roll, already made by Jerome, Chrysostom and others, has been substantiated by modern literary criticism since De Wette (1805). (See DEUTERONOMY; JOSIAH.) Some very interesting parallels have been cited from Egyptian and Assyrian records where religious texts, said to have been found in temples, or oracles from the distant past, have come to light at the very time when "the days were full."[30] There is, however, no real proof for the traditional antiquity of Deuteronomy. The book forms a very distinctive landmark in the religious history by reason of its attitude to cult and ritual (see HEBREW RELIGION, § 7). In particular it is aimed against the worship at the numerous minor sanctuaries and inculcates the sole pre-eminence of the one great sanctuary--the Temple of Jerusalem. This centralization involved the removal of the local priests and a modification of ritual and legal observance. The fall of Samaria, Sennacherib's devastation of Judah, and the growth of Jerusalem as the capital, had tended to raise the position of the Temple, although Israel itself, as also Judah, had famous sanctuaries of its own. From the standpoint of the popular religion, the removal of the local altars, like Hezekiah's destruction of the brazen serpent, would be an act of desecration, an iconoclasm which can be partly appreciated from the sentiments of 2 Kings xviii. 22, and partly also from the modern Wahhabite reformation (of the 19th century). But the details and success of the reforms, when viewed in the light of the testimony of contemporary prophets, are uncertain. The book of Deuteronomy crystallizes a doctrine; it is the codification of teaching which presupposes a carefully prepared soil. The account of Josiah's work, like that of Hezekiah, is written by one of the Deuteronomic school: that is to say, the writer describes the promulgation of the teaching under which he lives. It is part of the scheme which runs through the book of Kings, and its apparent object is to show that the Temple planned by David and founded by Solomon ultimately gained its true position as the only sanctuary of Yahweh to which his worshippers should repair. Accordingly, in handling Josiah's successors the writer no longer refers to the high places. But if Josiah carried out the reforms ascribed to him they were of no lasting effect. This is conclusively shown by the writings of Jeremiah (xxv. 3-7, xxxvi. 2 seq.) and Ezekiel. Josiah himself is praised for his justice, but faithless Judah is insincere (Jer. iii. 10), and those who claim to possess Yahweh's law are denounced (viii. 8). If Israel could appear to be better than Judah (iii. 11; Ezek. xvi., xxiii.), the religious revival was a practical failure, and it was not until a century later that the opportunity again came to put any new teaching into effect (§ 20). On the other hand, the book of Deuteronomy has a characteristic social-religious side; its humanity, philanthropy and charity are the distinctive features of its laws, and Josiah's reputation (Jer. xxii. 15 seq.) and the circumstances in which he was chosen king may suggest that he, like Jehoash (2 Kings xi. 17; cf. xxiii. 3), had entered into a reciprocal covenant with a people who, as Micah's writings would indicate, had suffered grievous oppression and misery.[31]
17. _The Fall of the Judaean Monarchy._--In Josiah's reign a new era was beginning in the history of the world. Assyria was rapidly decaying and Egypt had recovered from the blows of Assur-bani-pal (to which the Hebrew prophet Nahum alludes, iii. 8-10). Psammetichus (Psamtek) I., one of the ablest of Egyptian rulers for many centuries, threw off the Assyrian yoke with the help of troops from Asia Minor and employed these to guard his eastern frontiers at Defneh. He also revived the old trading-connexions between Egypt and Phoenicia. A Chaldean prince, Nabopolassar, set himself up in Babylonia, and Assyria was compelled to invoke the aid of the Askuza. It was perhaps after this that an inroad of Scythians (q.v.) occurred (c. 626 B.C.); if it did not actually touch Judah, the advent of the people of the north appears to have caused great alarm (Jer. iv.-vi.: Zephaniah). Bethshean in Samaria has perhaps preserved in its later (though temporary) name Scythopolis an echo of the invasion.[32] Later, Necho, son of Psammetichus, proposed to add to Egypt some of the Assyrian provinces, and marched through Palestine. Josiah at once interposed; it is uncertain whether, in spite of the power of Egypt, he had hopes of extending his kingdom, or whether the famous reformer was, like Manasseh, a vassal of Assyria. The book of Kings gives the standpoint of a later Judaean writer, but Josiah's authority over a much larger area than Judah alone is suggested by