Israel in Europe

by G. F. Abbott

The following conversation between two representatives of the two worlds brings their respective attitudes into vivid relief. One is Justin Martyr, the other a mysterious personage—probably a fictitious character—who sowed in Justin’s mind the seed of the new religion.

Justin. Can man achieve a greater triumph than prove that reason reigns supreme over all things, and having captured reason and being borne aloft by it to survey the errors of other men? There is no wisdom except in Philosophy and right reason. It is, therefore, every man’s duty to cultivate Philosophy and to deem that the greatest and most glorious pursuit, all other possessions as of secondary or tertiary value; for, if these are wedded to Philosophy, they are worthy of some acceptance; but, if divorced from Philosophy, they are burdensome and vulgar.

Stranger. What is Philosophy and what the happiness derived therefrom?

Justin. Philosophy is the Knowledge of that which is and is true. The happiness derived therefrom is the prize of that knowledge.

Stranger. How can the Philosophers form a correct notion of God, or teach anything true concerning him, since they have neither seen him nor heard of him?

Justin. God cannot be seen with the eye, but only comprehended by the mind.

Stranger. Has our mind, then, such and so great a power as to perceive that which is not perceptible through the senses? Or can man’s mind ever see God unless it is adorned with the holy spirit?

Justin. To whom can, then, one apply for teaching, if there is no truth in Plato and Pythagoras?

Stranger. There have been men of old, older than any of these reputed philosophers, saintly men and just, beloved of God, who spoke through the divine spirit and predicted the things that were to be. These men are called Prophets. They alone saw the truth and declared it unto men; neither favouring nor fearing any one; not slaves to ambition; but only speaking the things which they heard and saw when filled with holy spirit. Their works are still extant, and the lover of wisdom may find therein all about the beginning and end of things, and every thing that he need know. They had not recourse to proof, for they were above all proof, trustworthy witnesses of the truth. Pray thou above all things that the gates of the light may be opened unto thee.[5]

This diversity of view reveals itself in every phase of Hebrew and Hellenic life—political, social, religious and artistic. The Greeks very early outgrew the primitive reverence for the tribal chief—the belief that he derived his authority from Heaven, and that he was, on that account, entitled to unlimited obedience on the part of man. Even in the oldest form of the Greek state known to us—the Homeric—the king, though wielding a sceptre “given unto him by Zeus,” is in practice, if not in theory, controlled by the wisdom of a senate and by the will of the people. Monarchy gradually developed into oligarchy, and this gave way to democracy. Nor was the evolution effected until the sacerdotal character, which formed one of the king’s principal claims to reverence and obedience, lost its influence over the Greek mind. In historic times the impersonal authority of human law stood alone and paramount, quite distinct from any religious duty, which was a matter of unwritten tradition and custom. The divorce of the Church from the State in Greece was complete. Now, among the Jews the opposite thing happened. Kingship remained hereditary and indissolubly associated with sacerdotalism. The Semite could not, any more than the Mongol, conceive of a separation between the spiritual and the temporal Government. The King of Israel in the older days always was of the house of David, always anointed, and always wore the double crown of princely and priestly authority. And when, after the return from Babylon, the house of David disappears from sight, its power is bequeathed to the hereditary high-priest. To the Jew Church and State, religion and morality, continued to be synonymous terms; the distinction between the sacred and the secular sides of life was never recognised; all law, political and social, emanated from one Heaven-inspired code; and, while Greece was fast progressing towards ochlocracy, Judaea remained a theocracy.