CHAPTER XII

PROPHETIC PRINCIPLES FORMULATED INTO LAW

Deuteronomy

(Before 621)

LAW-BOOKS do not usually form a part of literature, but there was a law-book written in Israel which cannot be omitted from any historical survey of the nation's literature. Its influence upon the form and spirit of later writing was revolutionary, and, in itself, it is an attractive literary work, infused with sublime ideas nobly expressed. When the historical origin of the book is realized, its quality ceases to be wholly inexplicable.

We have seen how the eighth-century prophets started currents of thought that made their half-century one of the most notable in the progress of the world's thinking. These currents were such as touch the springs of human emotion in many ways; but, early in the next century, all public expression of this thought was suddenly checked by a great reactionary movement. The nation could not be carried forward from its lower ideas with such a rush as the prophetic outburst of the eighth century demanded. When King Hezekiah died in 686, there came to the throne his twelveyear-old son Manasseh, who evidently fell under the control of the anti-prophetic party which succeeded in rousing this great reactionary movement. Tradition has it that Isaiah was sawn asunder during this reign. We have already seen some indication that Micah lived till this time and cried out against the corruption of all classes of society. If so, he probably suffered a martyr's death; Manasseh's reign is chiefly notable for its bloody persecution of the prophets of Jehovah and its reinstatement of the practices which they had denounced.1

12 Kings 21 1-18, Jeremiah 230, 154.

The reaction is not difficult of explanation. The prophets had not simply enunciated revolutionary theological ideas; they had applied their ideas of God's justice and mercy to the entire civic, economic, social, and religious life of their day. In emphasizing these principles they had opposed powerful and unscrupulous business and political interests and had minimized or denounced time-honored forms of religious worship. When Hezekiah carried out his reforms under the influence of Isaiah and Micah, it was as though, to-day, those who believe that the religion of a just and merciful God means the suppression of special privilege should get control of all government long enough to put out the "grafters" and largely to break up oppressive monopolies of all sorts, and as though they should say to those orthodox Christians who have no sympathy with the great social and ethical awakening of the time, "All your prayers and hymns are loathesome to God; away with them. What he demands is not these things, but rather to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him." With Manasseh's accession, it was as though, following this, all who believe that religion is primarily a matter of institutions and ceremonies and that revolutionary ideas in religion are necessarily wrong, with the "grafters" and monopolists, should come back to complete control.

Some elements of the situation we can hardly imagine in our day. Those who had stood for a religion that expressed itself in putting down bribery and monopoly were put to death, if they so much as taught their doctrines. The reform has utterly failed; government, as well as business, social, and religious life all seem in worse state than before it was undertaken. Some true and earnest souls have seen a great light and have faith in the ultimate outcome; if they do anything to carry their doctrines into immediate effect, their blood flows in the streets of Jerusalem. Many bear witness through death; others labor secretly, formulating into detailed and practical working shape for the everyday life of their countrymen the ideals which the prophets have set forth and have tried to apply whole.

These chastened reformers have ready at hand a brief code of laws dealing with religious, social, and economic practices based upon just principles, so far as it goes. This code has been itself

a slow growth; it includes elements of great antiquity, it is already embodied in the national history, and is revered by the nation. They make this code the basis of their work. In one important respect they must make a change, for which the division of the kingdom and the downfall of Northern Israel, with its ancient sanctuaries, has done much to prepare the way. The old code presupposed the worship of Jehovah in many places, but experience has showed that, at the scattered local sanctuaries, his worship is wont to be mingled or confused with that of the local deities, and that debasing practices are thus associated with the worship of Jehovah. Amos had seen the situation with perfect clearness and had attacked it rough handed, after his fashion. The reformers of this century see that they must revise the old laws at this point. They accordingly leave out the part at the opening that seems to permit altars to Jehovah in any and every place,2 and formulate definite requirements that all sacrificial worship shall be performed at the temple of Solomon.

The law of the central sanctuary is the most prominent feature of their revised code; but they go deeper than this, for they have Hosea, as well as Amos and Isaiah, and they have given their hearts to the God of love and righteousness. The old code does not emphasize absolute devotion to God or provide for the detailed enforcement of justice and consideration between man and man. So they add new motives for the carrying out of the old laws, and they modify, expand, and add to those laws until they produce a code that is at once old and new. To this they prefix a wonderful exhortation, embodying the noblest religious and social thought ever expressed by human speech.

They cast the whole, law code as well as exhortation, in the literary form of addresses delivered by Moses. In this their age would see nothing strange. We have seen that the idea of individual authorship and proprietorship by the author of a book is relatively modern. In addition to this, their work is, after all, only a revision and expansion of earlier laws that were regarded as of Mosaic origin. Even in modern times a work may be greatly revised and expanded by later hands and yet continue to be issued 1 The code is now found in Exodus 2020 - 23 33, commonly called the "Book of the Covenant." 2 Exodus 20 22-25,

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under the name of the original author.1 Again we know that among the Jewish writers a few centuries later it was a regular literary method to represent one's own thoughts as uttered by some ancient man of renown. Our book indeed was not the first example of the practice, although it may not have been carried out on so elaborate a scale before Manasseh's reign.

The weary years of Manasseh's reign grew into decades; a half century passed and still this practically pagan king lived and ruled. No opportunity appeared for giving any publicity to the new law code. When, at the end of fifty-five years of rule, the old king died full of years and cruel wickedness, his son, bearing the name of an Egyptian god, proved a ruler worthy of this ill omen. The new law-book was preserved somewhere about the temple, but its authors may have been dead and it was completely forgotten.

Happily the reign of Manasseh's son Amon is brief, and he is succeeded by his son, still a boy. The father removed, in some way this son seems to grow up under good influences. As the years go by the voice of faithful prophets is heard once more. Zephaniah and Jeremiah dare to reprove and rebuke the evils which have persisted from the reigns of Manasseh and Amon.

After a time the king, Josiah, having attained full manhood, undertakes the repair of the temple which has fallen into sad estate. During these repairs the law-book, written in Manasseh's reign, is brought to light. When it is read to the king, he is deeply moved. He cannot fail to see how utterly different its provisions are from the practices of the land. He is moved to undertake a great reform of the nation, based upon this law. Such, in general, is the history of the writing and first publication of the Book of Deuteronomy as it is read to-day by the student of Israel's literary and religious history.2

Now, for the first time, there was a thoroughgoing attempt to centralize the nation's worship in Jerusalem. Whatever Hezekiah

1 When the present writer entered college, he had a new Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It was fully twice as large as the Webster's Unabridged that his father had in his college days; yet Noah Webster had died before that earlier edition was published.

2 The law book as composed before 621 B.C. did not include more than chapters 5-26, 28 of the present book of Deuteronomy.

may have done in this direction, his zeal did not extend to the destruction of the high places that Solomon had built before Jerusalem for the foreign deities. Prior to Josiah's reform in 621 B.C., Israel's greatest religious leaders show no knowledge of the central requirement of Deuteronomy that all sacrificial worship shall be limited to the Jerusalem temple.

The great hortatory address of chapters 5-11 begins with the writer's statement that "Moses called unto all Israel and said unto them"; but from this point on the address is given in the first person. It begins:

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and observe to do them. Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Jehovah made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. Jehovah spake with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire (I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to show you the word of Jehovah: for ye were afraid because of the fire, and went not up nto the mount), saying,

With verse 6 begin ten commandments, slightly modified from the familiar form in which they appear in Exodus 20.3 The most notable difference is found in the motive assigned for observing the Sabbath day, in the third commandment. Deuteronomy

Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Jehovah thy God commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

The motive here given is in perfect accord with the rest of the book, in which thoughtful consideration for the rights and comfort of others is constantly manifest, and the memory of the Egyptian

12 Kings 18. 22 Kings 23 13.3 In the Ephraimite Prophetic History.