The story of Joseph is too well known to be repeated. It is quite enough for our purpose that a famine drove this Jacob’s family, as it did Abraham, to Egypt, where they increased and multiplied during a period of nearly four hundred years; that Joseph was famous in the land, and the king gave Jacob and his children leave to live in Heliopolis—for in that city the king’s shepherds had their pasturage.
This in brief is the story, stripped of the peculiar phraseology, which no doubt was in those days customary.
The trouble had begun with Terah, Abraham’s father, who hated the Chaldeans; and the Chaldeans returned the same with interest, I suppose. So they moved to Haran in Canaan and settled down on a tract of land, by the right of squatter sovereignty, as it would be called in our times. Terah, the first squatter, turned this land over as a heritage to his son, Abraham; Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob. In this manner it became the promised land, the heritage of their fathers.
It is no easy matter to suppress and eradicate a practice, a habit, a custom, once firmly ingrafted in a community. Prohibit it as much as you will, it will be done secretly. So after circumcising the Hamerites and Shechemites, the sons of Jacob slaughtered them, on account of the seduction of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He and his family had to leave for fear of their neighbors, so Jacob told his household to put away the strange gods that were among them, and “be clean and change your garments,” he said ([Gen. xxxv, 2]).
This abstract idea of God that Abraham called into life was not so firmly rooted as might have been expected. The taint of the ancient gods more or less remained among them and occasionally cropped up here and there in a most prominent manner. For four hundred years we hear nothing of God or his workings—whether the Jews flourished or were oppressed—nor have the other descendants ever made mention. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob call on this imaginary god when in an emergency, when some task has to be accomplished, some journey has to be undertaken, or a battle has to be fought.
During the whole of the period they were in Egypt, notwithstanding they were sorely oppressed, this God paid no attention to them, until a man arose that produced a great crisis in the affairs of this people, in the destiny of this family which had grown into a nation. This was really the first reformation—that is, modification—of the existing religious practices—their numerous gods, perhaps their rites, etc. The sacrifices the Jews retained, with most of the usages and priestly rituals.
How many reformations or modifications had taken place before Abraham the reformer, we do not know; and how long these gods (they were very numerous) were in existence we know still less.
The evolution of these idols, the existing gods, did not take place all of a sudden. It may have taken thousands of years for anything we know. It required considerable mental training to produce them. Intelligence had assumed some importance, because the people had become proficient in argument, skillful in reasoning, and observers of nature.
The ordinary barbarian possesses no such capabilities. His brain is not sufficiently cultured. So long as his wants are amply supplied, there is no necessity to exert himself, the nervous system lies inactive, and this inactivity involves the perpetuation of ignorance.
We may reasonably presume that these Chaldeans, these shepherds, had through many centuries of slow culture acquired the knowledge they possessed, the customs and habits they practiced, the laws they promulgated, and the rules of conduct enacted both for social and political purposes.