The Ancient Hebrews

Article i. The Ancient Hebrews The civil history of the ancient Hebrew people is set forth in Holy Scripture. The father of the Jewish race was Abraham, and the name “Hebrew” is probably a derivation from “Heber,” the name of one of Abraham’s ancestors. For our purpose the history of the Hebrews is divided into two periods, viz., that preceding, and that following the Captivity of Babylon (6 century b. c.). Pr e-Capt ivit y Per iod (Earliest times to 586 b. c.)

a) From the first the ancient Hebrew people believed in only one supreme God (monotheism) whom they called Jahve or Yahweh. The pre-Captivity Scriptures describe Yahweh as no mere local or national deity, but as the one and only God, creator of all things, author of the moral law. Yahweh is in no wise identified with the world (pantheism), but is described as distinct from the world and transcendent over it; yet He is present to the world and rules it as His creature.

b) The most ancient Hebrews believed in the immortality of the human soul. They regarded man as an exile on earth in consequence of Adam’s sin. Now, the idea of exile involves the idea of a fatherland existing somewhere. If man is an exile on earth—as David often declares in his Psalms—his true home must be somewhere beyond the earth and earthly 9 existence. Again, the pre-Captivity Scriptures mention the dead as “gathered to their fathers” or “gathered to their people.” From this we must infer that the Hebrews of most ancient times believed in a place and state beyond this life where the souls of the dead continue in existence. In other words, the most ancient Hebrews believed in the immortality of the soul.

c) The earliest Hebrews believed in the retributions of a life to come. Sheol is the place where souls abide after death. The wicked dwell there forever (Psalms xlviii, 15-16; Ixxii, 24 sqq.) but the just shall be delivered thence unto glory (Isaias xxvi, 19; Osee xiii, 14). Post-Capt ivit y Per iod (End of the Exile to Christ) After the Captivity the spirit of religion and philosophy revived among the returned exiles. In the Scriptures of this period the fundamental truths of the Hebrew religion are clearly set forth; the nature of God is discussed; creation of the universe by the simple fiat of the Divine Will is asserted ; the spirituality and immortality of the human soul is taught; the rewards and punishments of the life to come are described. During this period commercial and social relations with the Greeks introduced new elements into Hebrew thought. Some Hebrews came to know and to admire the language and the lore of the Greeks, and to adopt from them both speculative doctrines and practical norms. Other Hebrews, regarding the Grecian influence as dangerous to their holy traditions, clung the more tenaciously to the old faith and rejected the infidel philosophy with horror. Thus divisions were created among the Hebrews. The most important groups of opposed philosophers and religionists were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes.

a) The Pharisees held firmly to all traditional doctrines. They insisted particularly upon the spirituality and immortality of the soul, and upon the rewards and punishments of a life to come. They made all things utterly dependent upon the will of God, yet they taught that man has free-will, nor did they offer any explanation of this apparent contradiction. They held that the Pentateuch (Books of Moses) contains the moral and ceremonial law, but insisted that the true interpretation of that law had been given by God to their own ancestors and handed down by oral tradition. They continually invoked this tradition in inventing endless new obligations and formalities of observance which they imposed upon the faithful orthodox Hebrews.

b) The Sadducees denied the existence of all spirits (materialism). They taught, therefore, that the human soul is neither spiritual nor immortal, and that the resurrection of the body is impossible. They acknowledged no Divine Providence ruling the world (deism). Inconsistently they rejected the doctrine of fate or necessity in the affairs of men (determinism) and held that the human will is free. The Sadducees taught that the great end of human life lies in such pleasures as can be enjoyed in this world (hedonism).

c) The Essenes retired from commerce with men and lived a community life under strict religious discipline. They professed the strange doctrine of the pre-existence of souls. Each human soul, they asserted, existed before its union with a body. It hovered about in the air, where it was somehow affected by sensuality and was, in consequence, drawn into a body as into a prison. Death liberates the soul, which is an immortal spirit, from the body-prison. After its liberation the soul will enter upon a life of happiness or woe in accordance with the manner in which life in the body has been conducted. To live rightly and win happiness hereafter the soul in the flesh must not be of the flesh ; hence man must rid himself of fleshly concerns and bodily delights. The cloistered and disciplined life of the Essenes was the natural consequence of their doctrines.

Remarks: The Hebrew philosophy is essentially religious.

Its chief note of interest for the student of the History of Philosophy is the fact that it shows monotheism to be a really primitive form of belief. It stands in flat contradiction to the rationalist and evolutionist doctrine that belief in one supreme God (monotheism) was gradually evolved out of cruder beliefs.