Many of these conclusions, which have been put forward and established by critical methods, especially in reference to the religious feeling of those times, and in the different conception of the piety of men like David and Solomon, may strike the reader as startling and disturbing. That may well be, but that is no excuse for our reading into Bible story more than can be legitimately found there, while it will be sure to obscure some of its highest teaching, which is to be found not in isolated "texts," but in great movements. It is the facts that we have to face, and the facts are obscured not so much by the corrections of the history by the later historians, as by our forcing into them the still later conceptions of our own times. We have not given detailed proof of many of the positions here taken up; they may be sought in detail by the reader in the works of Biblical scholarship. Our object is to discover whether these things being so, we can still find a true revelation in the history of this people, and hear in it the Voice of God. Do we not get from this corrected view of the history, a sense of the splendid onward movement of this religion, which in itself is so much more inspiring than the monotonous conception, which is only the product of later Judaism, that the history of Israel's religion is nothing but a series of apostasies from a pure and perfect faith? That late conception is not borne out by a careful and critical study of the sources, and it rather owes its strength to-day to a certain dogmatic conception of human nature that is needlessly pessimistic, and to an idea of the weakness of the Spirit of God in His dealings with man that nearly approaches atheism.
One or two lessons of the period stand out in strong relief. One is that better things come of enthusiasm, even when it is mistaken, than from indifference. The reference of all the institutions of Israel to the definitely revealed Will of Jehovah may seem to some, after these investigations, a mistake. This can only arise from too narrow a conception of the working of God and the means through which His Spirit reaches man, for it is this very reference to the Will of God that is responsible for the advance in Israel's faith. To believe in the Will of God, and to refer all to it, does gradually increase the knowledge of that Will, and so leads to a true revelation.
Another lesson is, not to despise the accompaniments of the first movements of the Spirit of God in man. It is not within the scope of this work to enquire why it is that when a man is moved by the Spirit of God such strange phenomena as we have been studying in the prophetic bands, which still accompany many revivals, should be the immediate results. There must be patience with these things as beginnings; but equally must there be impatience with them when they elevate themselves into a permanent claim to recognition as the only signs of a true religious life, and when they refuse to recognise as higher the sane and ethical movement to which they themselves have given birth. One of the chief difficulties in things religious is to recognise the offspring of a great movement, to discover the time when the child must be allowed its new-found freedom, to know when symbols may be dropped and the reality brought in. Protestantism has given birth to wider thoughts about God and deeper appreciations of the extent of His working, which are the logical outcome of Protestantism, and yet which are often repudiated by those whose Protestantism is of the aggressive type. A progressive movement of any kind always has these strifes. They are as constant in Science as in Religion, only in Science they are more easily overcome by the greater readiness to accept new revelation. Christianity is a religion that moves, and, as Christ Himself foretold, it causes the son to rise up against his father, the new generation to come into conflict with the old. Ours it is never to forget that the Kingdom of God is on the side of the child; except ye receive the Kingdom of God as a child, in the spirit of enquiry and growth, except ye never grow old, ye cannot enter therein.
[THE RELIGION OF THE LITERARY PROPHETS]
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PROPHETS
Assyrian Period. Amos 760–750 B.C. B.C. Hosea 750–737 Accession of Tiglath Pileser III 745 Isaiah 740–700 Invasion of Sennacherib 701 Micah 724– Fall of Samaria 722 Zephaniah circa 627 Western Palestine invaded by Scythians Nahum 610–608? Fall of Nineveh 607 Chaldæan Period. Jeremiah 626–586 Deuteronomy discovered 621 Habakkuk 605–600? First Great Exile 597 Ezekiel 593–573 Second Great Exile 586 Persian Period. Isa. xiii.-xiv.; xxi. 1–10; xxxiv., xxxv. (Date uncertain, but definitely after the Exile.) Isa. xl.-lv. (The "Second" Isaiah) c540. Cyrus takes Babylon 538 Isa. lvi.-lxvi. (Various prophecies, to be dated after the return.) Return of the Exiles 537 Haggai c520 Zech. i.-viii. c520 Mal. 460–450 Promulgation of the Law 444 Zech. ix.-xiv. 322 There is nothing to enable us to decide the dates of Jonah, Joel, and Obadiah with greater definiteness than to say that they were written after the Restoration.
Diagram representing the religious significance of the Prophets:—
FINAL EMBODIMENT
GOLDEN AGE OF PROPHECY SILVER AGE OF PROPHETIC
TEACHING
Exile
+ +---------+ PSALMS
| | |
| | |
| + |
+--------------+ 2 ISAIAH |
| | |
| | |
+---+ JEREMIAH | |
| | |
| | |
+ | |
+--+ HOSEA | |
| | |
| | |
AMOS +-------+ MICAH--NAH.--HAB. +--+---------------+ WISDOM LITERATURE
| | |
| | |
+-----------+ ISAIAH DEUT. | |
+ | |
| | |
| | |
+-------------+ EZEKIEL ------+ THE LAWJudging from the standard of New Testament religion and their contribution to it, the Prophets may be roughly classified in the above order. The higher tendency seems to vanish from the historical works which were composed after the Exile, save in many of the Psalms, where religion reaches its highest expression outside the New Testament. The tendency represented by the middle and horizontal line ends in the somewhat superficial ethics of such works as the Book of Proverbs. The lower tendency is only to be judged so from comparison; it served its purpose, and it was an honest endeavour to reduce the Prophetic ideals to a definite system. It is in line with the spirit of many of the Psalms that the religion of the revelation of Christ takes its rise, and we may see in the Sadducees and the Pharisees the degenerate effect of the other lines of development.
| Assyrian Period. | |||
| Amos | 760–750 B.C. | B.C. | |
| Hosea | 750–737 | Accession of Tiglath Pileser III | 745 |
| Isaiah | 740–700 | Invasion of Sennacherib | 701 |
| Micah | 724– | Fall of Samaria | 722 |
| Zephaniah | circa 627 | Western Palestine invaded by Scythians | |
| Nahum | 610–608? | Fall of Nineveh | 607 |
| Chaldæan Period. | |||
| Jeremiah | 626–586 | Deuteronomy discovered | 621 |
| Habakkuk | 605–600? | First Great Exile | 597 |
| Ezekiel | 593–573 | Second Great Exile | 586 |
| Persian Period. | |||
| Isa. xiii.-xiv.; xxi. 1–10; xxxiv., xxxv. | (Date uncertain, but definitely after the Exile.) | ||
| Isa. xl.-lv. (The "Second" Isaiah) | c540. | Cyrus takes Babylon | 538 |
| Isa. lvi.-lxvi. (Various prophecies, to be dated after the return.) | Return of the Exiles | 537 | |
| Haggai | c520 | ||
| Zech. i.-viii. | c520 | ||
| Mal. | 460–450 | Promulgation of the Law | 444 |
| Zech. ix.-xiv. | 322 | ||