[Such facts as these could not readily escape from the minds of men contemporary with these events; and so the relation of them in a public harangue, as this book pretends to be, supposes that a long time had elapsed since the events took place.]

In reducing these legends to writing, the authors of these books scarcely design to write a history. They were the less inclined to it as this design had exerted so small an influence in preserving the legend. They exercised the rights of the religious imagination natural to their countrymen, and the more freely, as this had formerly been so active in developing and embellishing these same legends, and as the substance of them was so indefinite and fluctuating.

The author of Deuteronomy had read the earlier Mosaic books. Their very language was present in his memory, and yet he departed from those narratives. Even in times still later, when the greatest veneration prevailed for the sacred letter, Josephus allowed himself to take surprising liberties in his treatment of the Mosaic legends; or, if he followed the tradition of his countrymen, others had taken these liberties before him; for example, there is a remarkable difference between the account of Abraham's dissimulation, in respect to his wife, in Josephus," and the account of the same transactions in Gen. xx. The story of Joseph," the account of the oppressions of the Hebrews in Egypt," the history of Moses, contain statements unknown to the Bible. Josephus explains the passage of the Red Sea as a natural, the Bible as a miraculous, event. There is a difference, also, between iii. 1-6, and the corresponding parts of Scripture. The same may be said of the additions in the Targums.

§ 147, b.

THE EPIC AND PROPHETIC TREATMENT OF THESE LEGENDS.

The history of the primitive time, of the patriarchal and Mosaic age, has been treated according to a religious, poetical, and didactic plan, which discloses itself most clearly in the document Elohim, which lies at the basis of it." In conformity with this plan, the Jews are constantly told of their high destination, that they are the chosen people of God,-and of the divine origin of their institutions and laws. By this means, an inspiration was kindled in them for their religion and their country, in a word, for the theocracy.

I. If an historical narrative, written without critical investigation of facts,' but treated so as to suit religious and poetical ideas, is an epic composition, then the Pentateuch may be called the theocratical epic poem of the Israelites, without denying that there is an historical basis at the bottom." This epic treatment shows itself,

1. In the poetic form of the narrative, which satisfies the poetic sense, not only by its intuitiveness and spiritedness, but even by the rhythmic elevation of the style."

The

2. In the subject matter, and, indeed, in the miraculous events, and the supernatural intercourse of man with God; for the epic loves the miraculous. popular legend had prepared the way for this treatment, and the epic poets-who needed miracles to answer the end they proposed-sometimes developed the miraculous legend still farther, and sometimes invented new

с

• § 150.

Meyer (Apol. Gesch. A. T.; 1811) misunderstands my view in Beitr. vol. i.
Anschaulichkeit und Gemüthlichkeit.

§ 126

miracles; for they also availed themselves of the right, so frequently used by the poets and prophets, of constructing symbolical poems. The book of Chronicles shows how the miracles were enlarged upon and farther developed. It is probable the author of the Jehovistic fragments has transformed much into the miraculous which was natural and simple in the Elohistic fragment. Passages like Ps. 1., Isa. vi., Ezek. i., and Ex. xix., belong to this kind of symbolic poetry. The story of the manna in Ex. xvi. is obviously designed to impress men with the holiness of the Sabbath.

[We can never determine to what extent historical narratives have been altered to suit the theocratical ideas; but the fact of such alteration, or else of the invention of circumstances, is very plain; for example, the following passages seem designed to suit the notion of a covenant between Jehovah and the Israelites; that he had miraculous communication with them; had selected them, and rejected all other nations; and had founded the theocracy at an early date: Gen. xv., where it is said Jehovah appears to Abraham, and makes a covenant to give him, or his posterity, all the region from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates; (the covenant was ratified by a sacrifice, and a miraculous furnace and blazing torch pass between the divided portions of the slaughtered animals ;) Gen. xvii., where the same covenant is renewed, the rite of circumcision established, and the birth of Isaac promised; Gen. xxxv. 9-15, where the blessing is confirmed to Jacob; Gen. xlvi. 1-7.

Exodus xiii. 21, 22.

"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them

light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."

Exodus xl. 34-38.

"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys."

Leviticus ix. 23, 24.

"And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces."

Numbers ix. 15-23.

"And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the

morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses."

The history of Isaac, contained in Gen. ix. 20—29, xii. 1, xix. 30—38, xxi. 9-21, xxiv. xxv. 19—34, xxvii.; Gen. ii. 3, which mentions the Sabbath; Gen. ix. 4-6, where blood is forbidden; Gen. xvii. 10-14, where the rite of circumcision is enjoined; Gen. xii., containing the alleged trial of Abraham's faith; Gen. xlviii. 13-22, Jacob's blessing on the sons of Joseph; Gen. xlix., his final blessing of all his sons; Ex. xii. 1—28, xiii. 1—16, the institution of the Passover.]

II. Since the chief design of the theocratical epic poem was to inspire the people with reverence for their sacred laws and institutions, therefore the author of the document Elohim not only, in conformity with the actual tradition, showed how they proceeded from Moses, the lawgiver, who received divine influence, but he also ascribed to him, and in a manner not historical, many later developments of his laws, and additions which seemed necessary to the writer. Thus he sanctioned many laws and customs by assigning them an origin still more ancient than the time of Moses. Where laws are thus referred back to a more remote antiquity, I have called them juridical or legal myths. Such a one is found in Gen. ii. 3-" And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it God had