The sacred dance

by W. O. E. Oesterley

I

So far as the Old Testament is concerned this subject of the dance in religious ritual illustrates a fact which biblical study, on the comparative basis, is bringing more and more into prominence, and which needs to be recognized both in the interests of truth and in order to realize more fully the evolutionary development of religion as an eternal principle in the divine economy. The original aims and objects of the sacred dance were, as we have seen, “primitive”; the continuance of the rite throughout the ages, even to comparatively recent times among practically all peoples, does not in any way detract from the truth of this, for everyone knows with what persistency religious custom and ritual continues, not only after the original object and meaning has been forgotten, but even when it has no meaning at all. Its existence among the Israelites, therefore, shows them to have been and to have acted throughout their religious history as other races did in this respect (and it is only one of many other illustrations that could be given), in spite of what we rightly believe to have been special opportunities for more exalted forms of worship.

It must be confessed that the religious uniqueness of the Israelites, as a nation, has been, and often still is, exaggerated to an undue extent. Certainly there were among them those who may well be described as unique, sui generis; but they were the great exceptions. The nation as a whole was for many centuries no better and no worse than others; and what stronger evidence for this could be afforded than that given in the prophetical books of the Old Testament? Its ultimate emergence from the religious norm of the world to a position of isolated superiority was due to a mere handful of men who offered the greatest example that the world had hitherto seen of what could be accomplished by subordinating will and personality to the influence and guidance of the Divine Creator.

True, it was among some of these very prophets that the most interesting kind of sacred dance—the ecstatic dance—was in vogue, with its wildness and extravagances; in this they, or at least the earliest of them, did not differ from certain classes of “holy men” all the world over; where they did differ was in their development of the conception which underlay the purpose of the ecstatic dance, i.e. union with the deity; and it is just here that they stand out in such bold relief from all others. The earliest prophets believed that this sacred dance was the means whereby the divine spirit came upon them; this belief they shared with others; but they rose to the higher belief that this means was not necessary for achieving the purpose for which it was used. It had served a useful purpose; but having served its purpose it was dropped. The prophets came to the realization that there were more spiritual means whereby union with the deity was brought about; then the sacred dance found no further place among them. They shed the husk, but retained the kernel. It was the same principle upon which St Paul acted in later days in regard to the Law. The sacred dance, too, was in its way a “school-master” (Gal. iii. 24), leading men to better things. When, centuries later, the far more cultured Greeks were still “raving” in honour of Dionysos, the Hebrew prophets had long since learned that it is God Himself Who puts His spirit upon men (cp. Isa. xlii. 1), and that this is not a thing to be effected by the will or act of man. “Who hath directed the Spirit of Jahwe?” asks one of them in fine irony (Isa. xl. 13).

Thus the history of the ecstatic dance among the Hebrew prophets is one of many illustrations showing their uniqueness.

It is not, however, with these extraordinarily gifted prophets that we are now concerned. We are thinking of the very ordinary and very human Israelites as a whole who, like innumerable men and women of other races, were endowed with emotions and aspirations which were common to humanity. And it is a curious but interesting phenomenon that the sacred dance was among the Israelites, as among all other peoples, one of the means whereby these emotions and aspirations were expressed.

The fact that in the Mosaic legislation no provision is made for ritual dancing when so many other minute details of ritual are given might seem to suggest that such a thing was discountenanced. Without question it is true to say that “the priestly historians and legislators resolutely excluded, as far as possible, everything that could infer any similarity between the worship of Jahwe and that of heathen deities[31].” But it is doubtful whether the subject of the sacred dance would have come into consideration in such a connexion; it was a practice too deeply ingrained in human nature as a means of expressing religious emotion to suggest that it implied assimilation to heathen worship. The bringing of oblations, the offering of sacrifices, were also common to Israelite and heathen worship, but that similarity would never have struck the Israelite legislators as derogatory, because these, too, were means of expressing religious emotion which, in one form or another, were common to all races. The Mosaic legislation makes no provision for the posture to be assumed in the presence of the deity, nor does it say anything about singing in worship; but it is difficult to believe that there were not fixed modes in regard to these which had been in vogue from time immemorial; and therefore they needed no mention. The same may be postulated in the case of the sacred dance. A thing which all the evidence shows to have been a world-wide means of expressing religious emotion and of honouring the deity during a long period in the history of religious development, was not likely to have been wanting among the Israelites.

In those passages in the Old Testament in which religious dancing is recorded there is no hint of disapproval, let alone prohibition. It is, therefore, evident that it must have been looked upon as a usual and integral part of worship. It must also be remembered that the sacred dance continued to be an important element in worship on special occasions among the Jews in post-biblical times; the evidence will be considered later. That this could have been an innovation is out of the question; it was merely the continuation, in some cases quite possibly an elaboration, of a rite familiar to the people from time immemorial.

The comparatively rare mention, therefore, of the sacred dance in the Old Testament must not mislead us; the reasons for that are very natural. And when it is realized what a number of words there are in Hebrew for dancing (see pp. 44 ff.), and that only once is there a possible reference to secular, as distinct from religious, dancing, the conclusion will be forced upon us that it played a much larger rôle in the religious life of the people than first appearances would seem to indicate.

As far as can be gathered, religious dancing among the Israelites was, as a general rule, performed by the sexes separately; in the account of the worship of the Golden Calf, however, it must be allowed that the possibility of promiscuous dancing is not excluded, see especially Exod. xxxii. 2, 3. Among other peoples it is found that, mostly, the sacred dance was performed by men and women separately; but there are notable exceptions among the Egyptians as well as the Syrians, also among the Greeks; and the same applies to the uncultured races.