Reviewing the subject as a whole, there is no shadow of doubt that Hebrew and Greek practice here, though it is but a small item of religious ritual with which we have been concerned, illustrates their religious superiority over all the other races. But of these two the Hebrews stand on distinctly higher ground; there is not the remotest reason for believing that the ecstatic dance among them was ever contaminated by the licence which often obtained among the Greeks. Among the Hebrews, moreover, the object of it was purely devotional; and when an oracle was put forth it was only to declare the will of their God. So that it is true to say that even in the lower planes of religious thought and practice the Hebrews showed that they were in the vanguard of religious evolution.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SACRED DANCE AT VINTAGE, HARVEST, AND OTHER FESTIVALS
I
We are not concerned here with the history and development of the Hebrew feasts; but a few introductory words regarding them will not be out of place.
There were three agricultural festivals of first importance among the Israelites:
Mazzôth[233], or the feast of Unleavened Bread; this was a spring feast held when the sickle was first put to the standing corn and the first-fruits of the new crops were offered (Deut. xvi. 8, 9);
Shabuôth, or the feast of Weeks, celebrated seven weeks later at the conclusion of the harvest (Deut. xvi. 10); called also Ḳazir, the feast of “Harvest” (Exod. xxiii. 16);
Sukkôth, or the feast of Tabernacles, the autumn feast, called also ha-Asiph, the feast of “the ingathering,” when “thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field” (Exod. xxiii. 16).
Since prior to their entry into Canaan the Israelites were nomads, and therefore did not observe harvest festivals, it is extremely probable that, in settling down among the Canaanites, they adopted these festivals from the people of the land, and celebrated them in honour of Jahwe, their God.