Moses, on the one hand ; and, on the other, the free de-
velopment of mankind in general, and in them of the
principles antagonistic to that idea.
The first condition was, that the religious idea should
exist and be preserved, in a fit receptacle ; and that at
the due time it should issue forth, act upon, and in-
fluence the whole world of man. This receptacle was
PROPHETFSM. 81
the Hebrew race. For the reception of the religious or
Divine idea, as the reverse of the human idea, or Hea-
thenism, no established people could be found, whose
mental soil was ready tilled and prepared. For in all
such human vessels, the seeds of its antagonistic
principle Idolatry, had been sown and had taken
root. It was necessary, that in its national infancy,
a race should be appointed and trained to this, their
sacred mission; and that to be the depositaries, pre-
servers, and disseminators of the religious idea,
should be their whole vocation, their sole destiny,
then and evermore.
The second condition was, that also in that infant
race, some of these natural instincts and heathen
principles should be inherent. That, consequently,
the religious idea was to overcome the tendencies foreign
to itself, in its depositaries, the Jewish race, in order
to render them wholly devoted to their appointed voca-
tion. Thus was this conflict of the religious idea with
its opposite principle, to be fought to its close within
the Jewish race ; and the champion in this combat is
Prophetism.
Permit me, my hearers, to define this proposition
more closely.
In the wide circle of the family of man, every more
highly endowed nation has its individual task to accom-
plish ; each people has its peculiar mission its special
destiny, growing out of, and dependent on, its natural
capacities, its inherited characteristics, modified or
developed by the varying incidents of locality and
climate, and by the course of external events. If this
fact is everywhere observable even in the present time,
notwithstanding the close and constant intercourse sub-
82 LECTURE IV.
sisting between nation and nation ; notwithstanding the
almost immediate participation by one people in the
new intellectual acquirements of another; if even in
our day, the respective vocations of the English, French,
German, North American, etc., admit at once of clear
definition how much more manifest must have been
their several national characters, in more remote ages,
when each people dwelt isolated ; and when the specific
individuality of each, being unacted upon from without,
must have assumed and retained more marked and
indelible forms? Thus the vocation of the Hebrew
race was, to make the religious idea victorious within
Judaism, over its antagonist the heathen idea ; and sub-
sequently to transplant that religious idea into the
midst of the family of man, there to take root, and to
extend its branches unto all. That such was its mis-
sion, we deduce from the fact that it has effected nought
else, and that in it alone it has found being and con-
sistence. All the writings all the works of the Jewish
mind, have a religious import and tendency. If in
recent times the Israelites have tilled other fields of
literature, we must not forget that these intellectual
efforts have been made by them, not specifically, in
their character as Jews, but because they, in their
altered social condition, have availed themselves of the
general extended cultivation of mankind.
In order to prepare fitting soil for the reception and
propagation of the germ of the religious idea, it was
necessary that Divine Providence should pre-ordain the
training and development of the Jewish people for this,
their mission. Such progressive training we clearly
recognise in the patriarchal history of the Hebrew race ;
which, beginning with the man Abraham, grew from
PROPHETISM. 83
him into the family of Jacob, and from them into the
twelve tribes ; and they, under the leadership of Moses
became a distinct people. This history further relates,
how Abraham was called to a distant and strange land;
how Jacob, by reason of his many wanderings, became
again a stranger in the land of his birth, and was trans-
planted with his family into a foreign country; and
how, even in the midst thereof, his posterity found
space to increase, so that they became an unmixed
nation. How again this people was conducted to the
peninsula of Sinai, in order that there, in those unin-
habited regions, its natural tendencies of organization
should be developed ; and that as a nation, it should
there receive the religious idea. Then, and then only,
was it permitted to return to the land, in which, until
the conflict within itself was fought out, it was destined
to dwell. Thus this race was ever kept isolated, in
order to preserve it from the contamination of heathen-
ism, and to render it a fitting instrument for the dis-
semination of the religious idea. From that time
forward, the Jewish race appeared on the great theatre
of the world in its entire character; as a people carry-
ing Mosaism in its heart and hand.
There can be no rational doubt respecting this ; for
wherever we may begin our examination, even in the
later writings of the Hebrews, these point back to
something previously existing, as the root from which
they have sprung, and this is Mosaism. Wherever in
the history of the Jews we commence, it always exhibits
a struggle for something already extant, and that is
Mosaism.
Hence, a marked peculiarity of the Jewish race also
springs; one, indeed, which distinguishes it from all
G 2
84 LECTURE IV.
other peoples. This race, at its very birth, had its ap-
pointed mission given it ; while other peoples, on the
contrary, have progressively developed their missions,
and come to the knowledge of what these missions are,
when they are well-nigh fulfilled. Thus the Jewish
race possesses a history from its very commencement ;
at a period when other nations have scarcely myths.
That race knew from its origin what it was LO
perform, and why it existed. It knew itself from tte
earliest moment to be the people of God ; that is, the
depositary of the religious idea. It was not chance,
however, that caused the Hebrew people to relapse
again and again during its infancy, into heathenism.
To generate idolatry, is inherent in man's nature, and
the Israelites were men. Consequently, heathenism
came into being, and shewed itself among them. It is
true, that (their life being Mosaic,) they borrowed their
heathenism from the surrounding nations. But had
this not been at hand, they would, doubtlessly, have
originated a heathenism of their own. This shews it-
self during the period even of their Mosaic development.
Not the popular classes only, but likewise princes, kings
and priests, re-introduced and promoted heathenism.
Thus all preventive measures availed nothing; and
Moses died in the full consciousness that his people
were going forth to this battle.
^Vliile all the rest of mankind, therefore, pursued
their unshackled course of development in the direction
of the Human idea, it was reserved for the children of
Israel, " the smallest of the peoples of the earth/' to
fight out within themselves the combat of the Religious
idea. Though the generations of Moses and Joshua
had, it is true, permitted Mosaism to take deep root
PKOPHETISM. 85
among the people ; yet is it equally true that the first
national period, the days of the Judges, was their real
state of nature, in which antagonisms co-existed side by
side, without coming into active collision. The masses
yielded first to one impulse and then to another, and
the people was still unconscious of its own unity. The
influence and authority of each judge did not extend
respectively, beyond one tribe or more.
It was necessary to fight, in self defence, against
the hostile surrounding nations.* Mosaism as well as
heathenism was the affair of the individual; a state
of things graphically portrayed in the closing passage
of the Book of Judges.f " In those days every
man did that which was right in his own eyes."
But the Judges in inciting and leading the people
against the heathen nations, had ranged themselves
on the side of Mosaism, and in its name and spirit
were they compelled to appear in the field. And
the last Judges, Eli and Samuel, being men of superior
intellect, insisted on the ascendancy of Mosaism, and
endeavoured to render it the inherent characteristic of
their people.
By the adoption of the monarchical form of govern-
ment, a decisive and critical step was taken. I do not
mean that it was per se, an anti-mosaic institution, or
that it carried with it into the Hebrew popular life a
directly heathen element.^ But the people became, by
its means a unity, and received as a concrete body a tem-
poral head, that exercised a preponderating sway over
them ; so that in the future it might depend on the per-
sonal bias of the king, whether Mosaism or heathenism
should be the dominant principle of action in Israel.
* Jud.2. 1119. t Ibid. 21 25. J See Lecture III.
86 LECTURE IV.
It was easy to foresee that kings, in the interest of their
unfettered rule, would soon become prone to favour
heathenism, and to supplant Mosaism. For the latter
demands and ensures freedom and equality ; securing
to the people the superior influence in the state govern-
ment. According to Mosaism, the king is only ' one
taken from the midst of his brethren.'* Samuel, there-
fore, clearing foreseeing all these results, is opposed to
the establishment of a monarchy, and seeks to impress
upon the national mind, the theocratic idea ; for the
Bible tells us that God deputes Samuel to fulfil the
desires of the people. t In other words, by this state of
vacillation between heathenism and Mosaism, nothing
could be gained. It was absolutely necessary that the
conflict between the two principles should be fought out
to the last ; and kingly rule furnished the most direct
means to that end. Though, on the whole, the mo-
narchical period was decidedly Mosaic in its bias and
character, even the first king, Saul, betrayed much un-
steadiness. This indecision was in itself a crime, and
through it he fell. David was true to Mosaism ; but
he was a warrior, a conqueror ; he was subjective, for
egotism (though of a higher order perchance) was his
incentive to action. He sought to identify Mosaism
with his own and his family's sovereign rule. There
lies deep meaning, therefore, in the prohibition pro-
nounced against David's building a ' temple unto the
Lord.' In it was heard the echo of Samuel's warning
voice. With Solomon, heathenism ascended the throne
of Israel. Solomon's ideal theory was doubtlessly
Mosaic. He built the temple, and prayed there in all
sincerity of heart ; but his nature was heathen. The
* 5Mos. 17. 15. t 1 Sam. 8. 7.
PROPUETISM. 87
tone of his philosophical estimate of life and of society,
and his views of government, were all essentially hea-
then. His habits, manners, and morals, were therefore
heathen. It was consequently an easy matter for him,
in order to please his strange wives, to sanction the
presence of heathenism, by the side of Mosaism. Thus,
towards the close of Solomon's long reign, heathenism
had again invaded Israel, and gained a party in the
state. The national unity was destroyed, and that
disunion, which for some time had existed internally,
now manifested itself externally. The nation broke up
into two kingdoms, hostile to each other. The very
existence of the people was thus impaired, and their
political downfall rendered inevitable. The only ques-
tion then was, would Mosaism issue triumphantly from
the ruin of the nation, or not ?
Policy compelled the kings of the ten tribes of Israel,
to establish and maintain heathenism as the state
religion, in order to keep their subjects away from
Jerusalem, and to alienate them from Judaism : since
for them Mosaism and self-destruction would have been
identical. In Judea, indeed, it was far otherwise.
There stood the sanctuary consecrated to Mosaic wor-
ship. It would undoubtedly have been for the best and
highest interests of the royal house of David, to have
remained its faithful adherents. But the majority of
these kings mistook their course, and favoured hea-
thenism in order to render their personal authority
absolute. They did not cause the Mosaic temple service
to be actually discontinued, but they conferred equal
rights on the heathen worship, the former being degraded
to a matter of form, to a hypocritical act of material
devotion.
88 LECTURE IV.
But the more strenuous the opposition of the kings,
the more determined became the adherence of the people
to Mosaism. Not the masses of the people, but the
men of the people, those who had appreciated and
vindicated the popular interest, despite the kings; those
who had recognised that Mosaism constituted the very
vital principle of the Jewish race, and that consequently
the Jewish people could not but forfeit its existence,
sooner or later, whenever it should abandon Mosaism :
those who had become convinced, that as in heathenism
were involved the degradation and the servitude, so
in Mosaism lay the exaltation and the freedom of
the people ; these inspired and master-minds zea-
lously sought to keep alive Mosaism, and by it, to
counteract the undue influence exercised by the monarch
over his subjects. The masses of the people watched
this conflict in a state of perpetual fluctuation, and the
prophet Elijah calls on them in these remarkable words,
' How long will ye halt between two opinions ? If
Baal is God follow him, if the Lord is God, follow
Him. 5 *
In the kingdom of Israel this struggle was speedily
decided. Mosaism succumbed; heathenism encouraged
by the sovereign, overcame the people, previously
alienated from Mosaism. Their downfall was immi-
nent. All trace of these ten tribes, with the exception
of a few fragments that attached themselves to the king-
dom of Judea, was irrecoverably lost. All search after
them was and is vain, for they had been their own
destroyers.
In the kingdom of Judah, events took the opposite
course : Mosaism obtained the victory. But in what
* 1 Kings 18. 21.
PROPHETISM. 89
manner was this effected ? Not by the conquest of the-
heathen kings by the Mosaic people; for not the people,
but the men of the people, were the combatants. The
people, as a political body, were annihilated. From
their ruins, ruins permeated with the very spirit of
Mosaism, a new people arose, devoted from their cradle
to Mosaism, and developing with their own growth, a
new Jewish popular life. The kingdom was destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar, the people were carried away cap-
tive into Babylon; after some time the fragmentary
tribes returned to Palestine, never more to relapse into
heathenism, but faithfully to preserve the religious idea
in the bosom of the Hebrew race. By means of the
fall of the Jewish people, Mosaism triumphed, and by
means of Mosaism, the Jewish race has been preserved.
Let us now endeavour to become better acquainted
with the combat and the combatants. Contempora-
neously with the establishment of the kingdom, a
popular party had arisen in the state, whose aim was, to
uphold Mosaism in the presence of monarchy. How
was this popular party composed? We have stated
above that it consisted, not of the masses of the popula-
tion, but of men from among the people, men of the
people, pleaders and defenders of the popular cause.
Who then were these men ? Moses had intended this
vocation for the priests and Levites, as the organs of
public worship, and as a body of national instructors.
But the priests, attracted by the glare of the crown,
soon became the mere tools of their sovereigns and
princes. The priests, then, were not these men of the
people. These men of the people were the prophets.
Who and what are the prophets ? Let us examine into
their history more closely.
90 LECTURE IV.
Moses was the first &O33 prophet, that is, he to whom
first, from amidst all the people, a divine revelation was
vouchsafed, on whom the ' Spirit of the Lord rested.'
He promised the perpetuation of prophetism in Israel,
the appearance of men, in whose mouth the 'Lord would
put His words',* in order to secure to the divine or
religious idea, the victory over the human idea or
heathenism.
Although so early as the days of the Judges, Deborah t
was designated a prophetess, and allusion besides made
to a prophet whose name is not mentioned ; the virtual
father of the prophets (after Moses) was Samuel.
This grand, penetrating character was resolved to
create, in opposition to the royal dignity, and for the
protection of the religious idea, a second power in the
state, a spiritual power, the power of the word, of con-
viction. He, therefore, established schools of prophets,
and consequently a prophetic order, simultaneously with
royalty. In these schools men were instructed in
impassioned eloquence, consonant with the spirit of
Mosaism ; also in the art of sacred song, which excited
them to sublime, prophetic oratory, and solemn poesy.
The disciples, termed Sons of the Prophets, lived in
community,! in houses built by themselves ate in com-
mon their frugal repasts adopted a general costume,
* Deut. 18. 1518.
t Let those who ascribe to Judaism a tendency to degrade the
social position, the vocation of woman, remember, that in its
society she was called to exercise the loftiest, the most ennobling
function vouchsafed to a human being that of pi-ophecy. Let
them also remember the inspired strains of a Deborah and a
Miriam, as well as the fact that the prophetess Huldah t ' dwelt in
the house of the prophets,' and that + 'the word of the Lord' was
asked at her mouth by the sovereign. A. M. G.
t 2 Kings 22. 1320. 2 Chron. 34. 22.
PROPHETISM. 91
and fixed habits and manners and had at their head a
father of the prophets, as Elijah and Elisha are termed.
Thus the order of the prophets as an institution, be-
came the fountain whence the more highly-gifted and
inspired seers drew the material resources for the
achievement of their mission. We find, therefore, sub-
sequently to the age of Samuel, frequent allusions made
to numerous companies of prophets. When Jezebel
sought to exterminate them, a certain Obadiah alone,
found means to save one hundred ; and soon after, men-
tion is made, first of a party of one hundred, and then of
fifty, while eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal
appear on the scene. By these means, a regular order
of the prophets was founded ; and this expanded into a
class of popular orators. Two results thence ensued.
On the one hand, all these Sons of the Prophets could
not attain to that higher position, in which they might
have achieved universal appreciation and influence.
Prophetism in itself was not confined to the prophetic
schools. (Amos).
From the collective body of these prophets we must
accordingly select those, who thus highly endowed with
the gifts of the soul and the intellect, stand forth the
directly-chosen ones, filled and inspired with the 'Spirit
of the Lord.'
On the other hand, that the ever-growing corruption
should at length invade these prophet-ranks, and that
the prevailing party should employ them as tools by
which to delude the people, and alienate their allegiance
from the true prophets, was wholly inevitable. There-
fore in the latest centuries, a countless multitude of
false prophets arise, against whom and their deceptions,
the true prophets, such as Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
92 LECTURE IV.
Ezekiel, spoke in words of flame, and never wearied of
uttering warning denunciations. The false, were easily
to be distinguished from the true prophets. The first
were ever contented with existing circumstances, in
accordance with the powers that were. They encouraged
the moral and religious degeneracy of the people, fos-
tered their depravity, and predicted to them power,
duration, and victory. The true prophets held a
diametrically opposite course. These prophets, having
nought on their side save a weak, vacillating, and
demoralized population, had to contend against the
temporal sovereign, a debased and hypocritical priest-
hood, and against their perfidious colleagues, invested
as these were, with like dignity with themselves. In
this conflict they displayed a mental strength, a spirit
of devotion, of resignation, of self-sacrifice and of fear-
lessness, which have been seldom reached, and never
surpassed by man, and which well entitle some of them to
be numbered among the noblest heroes of human kind.
Hence the many traditions existing of the violent deaths
of several of these prophets, which traditions are in
some instances confirmed by history.
The means employed by these prophets were ha-
rangues, in which they addressed the people, and
occasionally the monarch s, and in which, while
referring to general or special circumstances, they
strenuously urged on them, the adoration and worship
of the Supreme and the obligations of morality. They
condemned idolatry and immorality, and indicated the
true course by which, both religiously and politically,
the people could secure to themselves national duration
and prosperity. They took their stations wherever the
people were assembled; in the temple, the market-
PROPHETISM. 93
place, and at the gates of the city. They spoke ; and
their bold and inspired flights of eloquence transported
the audience, as it were, to other and higher spheres,
to which the actual world around them presented so
dire a contrast, and which nevertheless was to be
the world of Israel's race. They often repaired to the
palace of the king, often gathered around them the
elders of the people, analyzed their crimes, and depicted
to them the future that awaited them, with unsparing
energy. Sometimes also they reduced their speeches
to writing, and spread them abroad, and tried to extend
their influence by causing them to be read and copied.
In short, they sought and employed every means by
which to act beneficially on their brethren.
While the prophets, as a body, are thus presented to
us, as exerting so powerful an influence on the political
condition of their countrymen, they divide themselves
into two classes, the one consisting of those, of whose
career history alone informs us; the other of those
whose prophetic writings (containing a portion of their
spoken addresses), have descended to us. The most
distinguished among the first-named, are Samuel,
Elijah, and Elisha. The second class* is composed of
* Science has now irrevocably determined that all the chap-
ters of Isaiah from the 40th to the 66th are the work of another
prophet, who lived towards the end of the Babylonian captivity.
The order in which the sacred writings have come down to us,
gives proof of this, otherwise the historical appendix of the
book of Isaiah would have been placed not from the 36th to the
39th chapters, but after the 66th chapter.
As frequent mention will be made in the course of these
lectures of a l ji/'st' Isaiah and a l seco)id' Isaiah, it may be well
here to furnish a statement of what is advanced by the advo-
cates of the theory, viz: that the book of Isaiah is the work of two
separate authors who nourished in different ages, as well as the
LECTURE IV.
the four major and twelve minor prophets, thus dis-
tinguished in reference only, to the comparative extent
of their writings. Samuel, the second founder of
Mosaism in Israel, must have plainly foreseen, as
answers put forth, and, as the writer ventures to think,
successfully, in refutation of that theory.
Towards the close of the last century, Koppe was the first
biblical critic to cast doubts on the authenticity of that part of
Isaiah which extends from the 40th chapter to the close of
the book. His views were afterwards adopted by a multitude
of writers, such as Doderlein, Juste, Eichhorn, Roseiimuller,
Paulus, Bauer, Bertholdt, De Wette, and Gesenius, the last men-
tioned of whom may be regarded as the most authoritative
exponent of the negative system. Among the Jews the book
was received entire, and no doubt was ever entertained by them
of the authenticity of any part. It is recorded in the Talmud
(Baba Bathra) that the associates of King Hezekiah collected
the prophecies of Isaiah ; and in the preface to Isaiah, in what
is called ' Mendelssohn's Bible,' there is a quotation from
'Medrash Eabba,' shewing that the father of Hosea left two
prophecies which have been incorporated with the writings of