which the Hebrews almost uniformly associated with their religious ordinances. The nature and import of the New-year's day were readily fixed. The commencement of a fresh period, with all the uncertainties it shrouds, with all the trials it may possibly have in store, was apt to call forth among a people like the Hebrews SO serious and so little sanguine, yet so impressionable and so easily awed-feelings of anxious anticipations, against which they struggled with prayer, self-humiliation, and expiatory sacrifice. This character was given to the New-year by Ezekiel in his ideal descriptions, and it was greatly intensified when, in the course of time, the first day of Tishri was linked with the tenth; for then the New-year was considered as the commencement, and the Day of Atonement as the culmination of the penitential season extending over the significant number of ten days, of which the first and the last were signalised as particularly momentous". This is not the place to point out how eagerly later Judaism unfolded the precepts regarding those two days which, in holiness and solemnity, were raised infinitely above all other festivals of the year. With respect to the Day of Atonement, the Pentateuch 7 Philo (De Septenar. cc. 2 sqq.) counts ten festivals "ten being the perfect number” (τέλειος ἀριθμός) adding to the five named in the preceding note "every day” (μéрa лãoa), the Sabbath, the New-moon, and dividing the Passover into three distinct holidays "the killing and eating of the paschal lamb" on the 14th day of Nisan, the "feast of unleavened cakes" from the 15th to the 22nd, and the offering of the first sheaf (òpáyμa, ¬y) on the 16th day: but this separation has no basis in the Bible. The and n were indeed originally two different phases of Passover, but the term op was not long restricted to the eating of the paschal lamb, but was used, like an, for the entire festival (see Comm. on Exod. p. 181). 8 In Nehem. VIII. 9-12, elements of joy prevail in accordance with the peculiar circumstances of the time: when the Law was read, as there itself gave a strong proof of the singular importance which was attached to it very soon after its introduction; for it ordained, that on that day the Hebrews were to proclaim the year of jubilee with all its privileges and all its social changes. Later tradition, anxious to connect so holy. a celebration with some remarkable event in Hebrew history, and thus to stamp it, like all other festivals, as a commemorative anniversary, contended that it was on the tenth day of Tishri that Moses, after having stayed forty days on Mount Sinai (for he is supposed to have gone up on the first of Elul), came down with the second tablets of the Law, and announced to the people God's gracious pardon for their worship of the golden calf2. The Jewish doctors and scribes might have looked with just pride upon the institution of the Day of Atonement, which testified to the vast progress that had been made in religious thought and theocratic organisation: we in our age, who view it by the light of so many new truths, indeed appreciate its spiritual depth and power, but we cannot help being astonished at finding, even in so late a period, the admission of a pagan element the sin-laden goat sent into the wilderness to the evil demon Azazel a fiction of Persian dualism and superstition, which almost counterbalances the value, and certainly dims the purity, of the other features of the ritual, and which should warn us not to accept any intellectual achievement of past times as final. The introduction of that element is so significant in its bearings and inferences, that it seems desirable to examine its origin, and to consider the organic relation in which it stands to kindred conceptions. This will be attempted in the following treatise. nacles (XXIII. 39), and the Year of release (XXV. 5). 1 Lev. XXV. 9; see notes in loc. The Year of release (v) began on the Feast of Tabernacles (comp. Deut. XXXI. 10). 2 See Exod. XXXIV. 27—29; Pirk. R. Eliez. c. 46; Maim. Mor. Nev. III. 43. B. THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS AND SPIRITS, OR THE MONOTHEISM OF THE BIBLE. THE idea of one incorporeal and omnipresent God, "whom the heaven and the heaven of heavens do not contain", may have been fathomed by some profound and gifted minds among the Hebrews, but it proved too abstract and too refined for the mass of the people. At no period polytheism lost its hold upon the community, and the causes and conditions in which it rooted, though at times mitigated or modified, never ceased to operate. Even when the existence of one eternal Deity was acknowledged, a compromise with paganism was indispensable; and it was accomplished by the mythology of angels and spirits. These represented to the popular mind the visible manifestations of God's power, and its individual effects in nature and in human life; they revealed the Infinite in a finite form, and made it accessible to external perception; they clothed the spirit in a material form, and engaged the senses, if they did not fascinate the imagination. Though hardly remnants of old and degraded Hebrew idols, they may be regarded as the tribute by which idolatry was reconciled to Hebrew monotheism, and was prevailed upon to tolerate it. They were themselves the mystic ladder reaching from earth to heaven. For according to the simple notions of the Bible, the earth is the centre of the universe, while heaven, with the sun and moon and the myriads of stars, is a canopy over the earth, and the abode of God, from whence He descends to visit the earth2. Whenever He does 1 Comp. De Wette, Bibl.Dogm.I. § 108. Comp. Gen. III.8; XI. 5, 7; XVIII. 1, 2, 17; etc.; see Comm. on Genes. pp. 20-26. descend, He appears in bodily shape, or as an angel, He and the angel being identical. Hence there was at first no distinction of good and evil angels; being all alike the organs of God's will, they were all good and holy 1; and they vanished when they had fulfilled their mission, to reappear when a new miracle of Divine intercession was to be wrought2. In later times, the Hebrews abandoned a childlike conception which limits God in space, and makes Him corporeal almost like a heathen deity; but, still desirous to establish a personal intercourse between heaven and earth, they conceived Him as the lord of angels, whom He sends in forms perceptible to mortal eyes, while He Himself remains in His celestial realms, an unchangeable spirit. Thus the notions concerning angels fluctuated and changed; and a clear result on this important subject can hardly be arrived at unless we distinguish and examine the literature of different periods, namely (1.) the Canonical Books composed before the Babylonian exile; (2.) those compiled during or after it, together with the Apocrypha, and the works of Philo and Josephus; (3.) the New Testament; and (4.) the Talmud and the Rabbinical writings. --- 1. THE ANTE-BABYLONIAN TIME. At an early period, the belief in spirits was introduced into Palestine from eastern Asia through the ordinary channels of political and commercial interchange. We find the Hebrews at all epochs familiar with angels in nearly all their varied qualities and functions. The angels are the "messengers" or "servants" or "sons" of God3, "exceedingly awful" in appearance and wonderful in attributes, endowed with more than human intelligence and wisdom, and conspicuous for more than human righteousness'. Though no mortal can see them without forfeiting his life, they present themselves on earth in human shape, wrestle with human beings, or taking them by the hand in times of danger, lead them away in safety. They are therefore called "men"; occasionally they share the human wants, and having connection with the daughters of men, they become the progenitors of hero- and giant-races' to which notions heathen mythology offers striking analogies 9. They are sent as God's representatives, whenever His holy and awful presence cannot be endured by sinful men. We find usually as dei ex machina- angels who help and protect 10, save and redeem11, and provide food for the forlorn and helpless 12; who announce remarkable incidents and disclose the course of future events 13; who console and comfort 14, advise and direct 15, and stimulate men to deeds of courage or heroism 16; or who warn reprove, and punish 17. Angels inspire and teach prophets 18, who are themselves called "angels" or "messengers of God" 19, like the priests in later times 20. 21 Their number is infinite. They form the "camp of God", or are "His hosts", "His army" 21, and "His mighty heroes" 22. They belong to His celestial Court or "Council" 23, and surround His throne as His ministers or as the executors of His decrees 24. Hence their ordinary 7 Gen. VI. 2, 4 (where that intercourse is not, as in later writings, represented as iniquitous, or as the "fall of the angels"; comp. 2 Petr. II. 4; Jude 6, 7; Testam. Rub. c. 5; Hen. VI. 2-8; X. 11; XII. 4; XV. 2 sqq. ; XIX. 1; LIV. 6; (see also Kurtz, Die Ehen der Söhne Gottes etc. 1857; Die Söhne Gottes in 1 Mos. VI. 1-4 etc.1858); Gen.XVI.13; XVIII. 2 sqq.; XIX. 1 sqq.; Judg. VI. 22; XIII. 6, 16, 18, 20, 22; comp., however, infra. 8 Comp. Herod. II. 143; see Preller, Griech. Myth. II. 4-6. 9Exod. XXXIII. 2,3; comp.XXXII. 34. Hence the later Rabbinical maxim (Talm. Shabb. 156; etc.), that is, God entrusts the welfare of Israel not to a guardian angel (r), but watches over it Himself; whenever He deviates from this rule, He does so to punish the Hebrews for disobedience or other transgressions (comp. Talm. Berach. 7a; see infra). 10 Gen. XXIV. 7, 40; Ex. XIV. 19; XXIII. 20-23; XXXII. 34; XXXIII. 2; Ps. XCI. 1, 11, 12; comp. Gen. XXXII. 2, 3; 2 Ki. VI. 17. 11 Gen. XLVIII. 16; Num. XX. 16; Ps. XXXIV. 8. 12 1 Ki. XIX. 5, 7. 13 Gen. XVI. 10-12; XVIII. 2; XIX. 1; XXII. 16-18; Judg. XIII.3. 14 Gen. XXI. 17, 18. 15 Gen. XVI. 9; XXII. 11, 12; XXXI. 11. 16 Judg. VI. 11; 1 Ki. I. 15; comp. .שר צבא יהוה,14,5 .Josh. V 17 Judg.II.1,4; V. 23; Ps.XXXV.5,6. 18 1 Ki. XIII. 18; 2 Ki. I. 3; comp. Dan. VIII. 16. 19 Isai. XLIV. 26; Hagg. I. 13; Mal. III, 1, 23; Eccl. V. 5; 2 Chr. XXXVI. 15, 16; comp. Isai. XLII. 19; see also Midr. Rab. Lev. I. 1 ( D); ibid. Num.XVI.1; Yalk. Shim. I. § 427 Lev. init. 20 Mal. II. 7; comp. Midr. Rab. Num. .(הכהנים נמשלו למלאכים) .XVI 21 Comp. the later designation o 24 Gen. XXVIII. 12; XXXII. 2, 3; Deut. XXXIII. 2; Josh. V. 14, 15; 1 Ki. XXII. 19; 2 Chr. XVIII. 18; |