Once more they could lie down in peace behind protecting walls, and not tremble at the thought that fierce robbers might swoop down upon them before the morning light to plunder, burn, and murder. Once more they could begin to live their lives in peace and plan for the future. Traders could bring their goods into the city without fear of losing everything. Men could buy and sell and prosper.

NEHEMIAH'S REFORMS

But security from outward foes is not enough to bring happiness to a people. Even before the walls were finished some of the poor people among the Jews came to Nehemiah with a bitter complaint against their rich neighbors. "We are starving," they said. Others said: "We have mortgaged our fields in order to borrow money that we may buy food for our children. And now because we cannot pay these men take our fields from us, and even sell our sons and daughters into slavery." It was the old story of greed and oppression. Those who were stronger and more fortunate used their advantage to oppress their brothers and extort from them all that they could pay. So a few men were able to live in luxury, even in those troubled days, while the great majority suffered in poverty and misery and despair.

The great massmeeting.—In that little country of Judaea it was possible to gather into an assembly, perhaps in the open space in front of the temple, men from almost every country village and city street. Such an assembly Nehemiah called and laid before it the complaints he had received. He told the rich nobles to their faces: "You exact usury, every one, of his brother. The thing you do is not good.... I pray you leave off this usury." The nobles had nothing to say. Every one knew that what Nehemiah said was true. Then he went on: "Restore to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards, and their houses, also the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you exact from them." Then said they, "We will restore them."

And Nehemiah made them take oath to carry out their promise. "Also I shook out my lap," Nehemiah writes in his memoirs, "and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out and emptied. And all the congregation said 'Amen,' and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise."

The beginnings of a just and happy nation.—Nehemiah could not stay long in Jerusalem. But he was able to make another visit a few years later. And for a time at least his ideas were carried out. During this time there was happiness among the people. They all had something to eat and clothes to wear. All fathers and mothers had a little time to play with their children after the close of work each day. All who could read had a little time to study the rolls of the prophets and the law of Jehovah. And all were brothers. More than ever before the old dreams, handed down from Abraham, had begun to come true.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up the story of Nehemiah in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Nehemiah 1-2, or 5. 1-6, 16.

3. On the right side of the line, below, write what in your judgment corresponds to the men and conditions of Nehemiah's time.

Nehemiah's Time Our Own Time a. Walls around the city. a. b. Robbers, and enemies such as b. Sanballat. c. The poor and enslaved people. c. d. Nehemiah. d.



CHAPTER XXIV

HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE NEW WORSHIP

We have seen that a new kind of public worship of God had been growing up among the Hebrews, beginning with the time when the prophets began to condemn the misuse of the old animal sacrifices. The new worship consisted chiefly of prayer. We have seen how the exiles in Babylon began to come together on the Sabbath days to study the law and other sacred writings, and also for prayer. Those exiles who returned to Judaea brought this custom with them. Special buildings, called synagogues, were erected in Judaea as well as wherever there were faithful Jews in other lands. These synagogues rather than the temple gradually came to be the real home of the Jewish religion even in Jerusalem itself. The chief part of the synagogue service was always the study of the Scriptures. But prayer was also given an important place.

In the temple also, after it was rebuilt, public prayer was regarded as very important—even if not quite so important as the regular burnt-offerings. There were also prayer-hymns, sung by the people and by special choirs.

Making hymnals and prayer books.—In our churches, to-day, we could scarcely conduct our services without the hymn books scattered through the pews. In some denominations there is a prayer book, which is considered just as necessary as the book of hymns. In those ancient synagogues and in the temple service the Jews found such books needful. Had we gone into one of their meetings, we would not indeed have found a book waiting for us in the seat or handed to us by the usher. The art of printing was unknown. Books could not be purchased cheaply by the hundred. Each copy had to be written out by hand with pen and ink on a roll of papyrus. But we would probably have discovered that the leader of the worship had a book of prayers and hymns before him. He would read them, line by line, each Sabbath for the others to memorize. To make this task of memorization easier many of the Jewish hymns were written in acrostic form—that is, each line or stanza began with a different letter in the order of the Hebrew alphabet.

HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE

Our book of Psalms is a collection of smaller collections of just such hymns and prayers to be used in worship. Each one of these smaller collections came out of some synagogue or group of synagogues, or was prepared by the members of one of the choirs who led the worship in the temple. By studying these we may learn something about how they were used.

The Prayers of David.—This was the title of one of these smaller books. It contained Psalms 2 to 41, and some others of our book of Psalms. All of these are headed in our Bible, "A Psalm of David." These words, in the original Hebrew, mean "dedicated to David." The last page in this smaller book is perhaps now found where our Psalm 72 comes to an end with the words, "The Prayers of David the Son of Jesse are Ended." This sentence corresponded, in the little book, to the words, "The End," in our modern books. It was copied in what is now our book of Psalms, even though it is no longer "the end."

These "David" hymns were probably written not only by David, but as well by members of a synagogue of worshipers who were poor and oppressed. There are a great number of references to "enemies." "Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries." "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." These people probably lived in the days before the reforms of Nehemiah, when there were indeed many enemies both outside of Jerusalem and within the city, heathen robbers, and rich oppressors of their own race, men who cheated them and who mocked them when they prayed for help to Jehovah.

The Pilgrim Songs.—Another very different hymn book embedded in our book of Psalms is one which we may call the "Pilgrim Songs." It is found in chapters 120 to 134 of our Psalter. All of these psalms have the title, "A Song of Ascents." This probably means a song to sing on the ascent to Jerusalem. These come from the happy time after Nehemiah when the city was safely protected by walls. Because of this blessed safety it was now possible for the people once more to go on pilgrimages to the great annual religious feasts as prescribed in the law-book of Deuteronomy. Before the walls were rebuilt such gatherings of pilgrims with their gifts would merely have been an invitation to robbers. But now the custom of pilgrimages was renewed, and they came to be among the happiest events of the year in the lives of Jewish men and women and older boys and girls.

The journey to Jerusalem was usually made in large companies or caravans for the sake of protection. For the roads outside of Jerusalem were by no means safe. And naturally in such a crowd of folks from the home village there would be much singing. These "Pilgrim Songs" grew out of the spirit of these journeys. They are filled with gratitude to God for his kindness, and with trust in his care, and with pride in their beautiful city Jerusalem which God had helped them to rebuild.

="I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

"As mountains are round about Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about them that fear him."=

HEBREW MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

These hymns were frequently sung to the accompaniment of instrumental music. There are many allusions in the book of Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament to the harp (kinnor), the psaltery (nebel), the cornet (shophar) and other instruments.

We know just how they looked, for pictures of them, or at least of similar instruments, are found on Egyptian and Babylonian monuments. The harp was probably like a large guitar, only it was played like a mandolin, with a plectrum. The psaltery or lute was a larger-sized harp. The cornet or trumpet was simply a curved ram's horn blown with the lips like our cornets; there was also another form made out of brass, long and straight. The Hebrews also used a wind instrument like our flute, a pipe with holes on the side for making the different notes. They seem also to have been very fond of percussion instruments—the timbal, a small drum, and the cymbals, metal plates clashed together.

It is impossible to know how far the Hebrews had developed the art of music. It seems most likely that the best they ever learned to do with these various instruments would have sounded to us more like a loud banging, twanging noise than like our own melodies and harmonies.

Influence of this worship of prayer and song.—Nevertheless the prayer-hymns of which we have told could not fail to wield an influence on the lives of those who sung them. Boys and girls heard them week by week until they could not forget them. When they were tempted to wrongdoing these melodies rang in their ears. For in all these collections there were great hymns, written by men who had caught the spirit of God as had Amos and Hosea and their successors—men whose souls were white, whose love was tender, and whose courage was unshakable. Only such men could write such lines as these:

"Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, And speaketh truth in his heart. He that slandereth not with his tongue, Nor doeth evil to his friend, Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor."

Or these:

"Thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

These words and scores of other passages just as great set to music long since forgotten but in those days sweet to the ear, helped untold multitudes to do justice and to love mercy, to confess their sins, and to find strength and hope in God.

- Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration Fund. -

STUDY TOPICS

1. Of the "David" psalms, read any of the following chapters: 11, 13, 15, 23, of the book of Psalms.

2. Of the "Pilgrim" psalms, read chapter 121 or 124 or 126.

3. Which of these do you like best?

4. Look up words scattered through the Psalms which appear to be musical directions.

5. In what ways did the following Psalms help the Jews to realize their hopes?—

a. 15. b. 51. c. 124.

6. For a good example of one of the prayers, in the temple, read 1 Kings 8. 27, 28.



CHAPTER XXV

A NARROW KIND OF PATRIOTISM

All nations like to think of themselves as superior to the rest of mankind. The Greeks used to despise all foreigners as "barbarians." We in America ridicule immigrants from other countries and call them unpleasant names. The Jews also made the same mistake of despising people of other races and nations. We find laws even in so just a law-book as Deuteronomy which are unfair to foreigners. Jews were forbidden to exact interest from fellow Jews, but they were permitted to exact it from foreigners. The flesh of animals which died of themselves could not be eaten by Jews, but they might sell it to foreigners.

THE INCREASING HATRED TOWARDS FOREIGNERS AFTER THE EXILE

We have seen how the exiles in Babylonia kept the Sabbath and went to the synagogue in order that they might continue to be Jews and might not lose their Jewish religion, the worship of Jehovah. As time went on they found it necessary to be more and more strict. As their girls and boys grew up they fell in love with Babylonian young men and young women. But if these young Jews had married Babylonians, the children would have grown up as Babylonians in customs and religion. So all intermarriages were forbidden.

The fight against intermarriages in Judaea.—When these exiles returned from Babylonia to Jerusalem they were shocked to find that the Jews there had not been strict in this matter. They had taken wives and husbands from the Moabites, and Edomites, and other nations around Judaea.

It is hard for us to see that this was wrong, for these people probably became worshipers of Jehovah, like Ruth the Moabitess in the beautiful story in the Bible, who said to her Jewish mother-in-law, "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." The exiles from Babylon, however, including so good and wise a man as Nehemiah, fought with all their might against all intermarriages. Without doubt the motive, which was to protect the Hebrews from idolatry, was good, but the matter is certainly open to criticism, especially in the light of our truer knowledge of God. We read that at one time, even under the leadership of Ezra, one of the returned exiles, a large number of the wives from other nations were cruelly divorced and sent away weeping to their own people. All this helped to give the Jews a wrong and unreasonable pride in their own race and a silly and unkind contempt for other races.

The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans.—About the time of Nehemiah there was also started a bitter feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. There had always been a good deal of jealousy between the people of Judah in the South, and the Hebrews of the central and northern parts of Canaan. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, which had split off from the kingdom of David and Solomon. This old jealousy flamed up again after Nehemiah. The Samaritans had intermarried with their heathen neighbors, perhaps more than the Jews in Judaea. So the Jews claimed that the Samaritans had no right to call themselves true Hebrews.

The Samaritans, on the other hand, claimed that they were true children of Abraham, and they built a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim as a rival to the temple of Jerusalem. This jealousy and hate grew more and more bitter until, in the time of Jesus, the Jews looked upon Samaritans with even more contempt than any Gentiles.

The growing prejudice against the Jews among other peoples.—Those who call names generally hear themselves taunted and ridiculed in turn. The very fact that the Jews would not work on the Sabbath marked them as peculiar and helped to make them unpopular. Their laws about foods, clean and unclean, were also different from those of other nations. For example, they would not eat pork. Moreover, as time went on many of the Jews in Babylon and in other foreign lands grew prosperous. They were industrious and they had brains and a special gift for trade. Before long they had money to lend, and they often demanded unjust rates of interest. This too made them unpopular. So the more proudly and contemptuously they held aloof from Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, and all other foreigners the more frequently they heard themselves called "Jewish dogs" and other hard names.

THE COMING OF THE GREEKS

This racial pride on the part of the Jews was still more increased by the coming of another unusually proud people, the Greeks. In the year B.C. 333, Alexander the Great defeated the army of the king of Persia and soon extended his rule over all western Asia, including Judaea. Very soon Greeks were everywhere to be seen, in all the cities of Palestine. In order to protect the country from the desert robbers who, as we have seen, had been making their raids through all the centuries, a chain of Greek cities was built to the east of the Jordan and thousands of Greek settlers were brought there to live. The ruins of many beautiful Greek temples and theaters may still be seen in that country. Samaria was also rebuilt as a Greek city, the capital of the province. So there were Greeks on all sides of Jerusalem and throngs of Greek merchants and travelers were to be seen on the streets of every Jewish city and village.

The Greeks in some ways had as much to be proud of as a people as the Jews. Their sculptors had carved the most beautiful marbles in the world. Their poets had composed the most beautiful poems. Their philosophers were wiser than those of any other nation. Moreover, many of these Greeks who came into Palestine and other countries of Asia were filled with a truly missionary spirit. It is said that Alexander the Great was inspired by the thought that he was helping to spread the art and wisdom and culture of the Greeks throughout the world.

The struggle between Judaism and Hellenism.—This meant that the old religion of Jehovah was in danger of being forgotten not only in Babylonia and other lands but even in Judaea and Jerusalem. Many Jews quite fell in love with the new art and learning of the Greeks. They learned the Greek language, gave their children Greek names, such as "Jason," for example, instead of "Joshua." A gymnasium was built in Jerusalem where Jewish lads learned to exercise and play games after the Greek style. Many of them tried to hide the fact that they were Jews, and too often they ceased to worship Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and offered sacrifices to Zeus and other Greek divinities.

The beginnings of the Pharisees.—Other Jews fought against all these new ideas and fashions. They became more strict than ever in their observance of the peculiar customs and regulations of the Jewish law. It was at this time that the beginnings of the party of the Pharisees came into existence, of which we read in the New Testament. The word "Pharisee" means "one who is kept apart, or separate"; that is, one who holds aloof from the heathen and from heathen customs. They were the men who "when they come from the market place, eat not, except they bathe themselves." They might have touched some heathen person in the street which they thought made them ceremonially unclean. In the earlier days the Pharisees were called "Hasideans," or "the pious."

It was right, of course, that these men should struggle to keep their religion alive. The great religious truths of the prophets were worth more to the world than all the art and wisdom of the Greeks. But the result of the struggle was an even greater scorn on the part of the Hebrews for all men who were not Jews.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read Esther 9. 5, 11-16. What kind of patriotism does this passage express?

2. Compare the following laws in Deuteronomy: 10. 18-19 and 14. 21. Can you explain the inconsistency?

3. What national characteristics do hatred and contempt of other nations lead to?

4. What is the danger from continually hurling bad names at foreigners, such as "Greasers," "Chinks," and so on?



CHAPTER XXVI

A BROAD-MINDED AND NOBLE PATRIOTISM

In spite of all their prejudice, thinking Jews could not help but see that the Greeks, in spite of their heathen religion, had brought with them many of the blessings of civilization. Many articles of everyday comfort were introduced into Canaan for the first time by the Greeks, for example, new varieties of food, such as pumpkins, vinegar, asparagus, and various kinds of cheese. From the Greeks also the Jews learned to preserve fish by salting them. This made possible the splendid fishing business by the Sea of Galilee. In the time of Jesus we find this lake surrounded by flourishing towns. Most of the men in these towns supported themselves and their families by fishing. The fish were salted and the salt fish sold in the inland towns. They were even exported to foreign countries. The Greeks probably also introduced poultry and hens' eggs to the farmers and housewives of Canaan.

New articles of dress and furniture.—These same newcomers brought with them a greater variety of fabrics and garments, such as Cilician goat's-hair cloth, out of which coarse cloaks and curtains, as well as tents, were made; also felt for hats and sandals. The Greeks also introduced the custom of carrying handkerchiefs. Many new kinds of household utensils came into Jewish homes as a result of the example of their Greek associates, for example, arm chairs, mirrors, table cloths, plates, and cups. Hemp and hempen cords and ropes came from the Greeks. From this same source came the custom of placing food at meals on dining tables, like ours, while the diners, unlike ourselves, lay on couches with their heads toward the table. It may also have been the Greeks—although possibly it was the Persians—who first brought coined money into Canaan, so that in making each purchase it was not necessary to weigh the silver or the gold.

All these useful and beautiful things helped to win over sensible people among the Jews to look with favor on their new neighbors. And when Jewish travelers found themselves stopping at new and more comfortable inns managed by Greek innkeepers, and went to bathe in the public baths which were erected in the larger cities by the Greek authorities, they were sure to spread the idea that even Jews might learn something from the Greeks.

BROAD-MINDED PATRIOTS AMONG THE JEWS

Fortunately there were some among the Jews who could appreciate the good and beautiful things in Greek civilization without being disloyal to their own race and their own religion; and, on the other hand, could be proud of the great teachings of the prophets without hating and despising men of other races. They had learned well the lesson of that great prophet whom we call the Second Isaiah, that Jehovah chose Israel, not as his special "pet" or favorite, but as his servant to teach all nations about the true God and his righteous rule. Such men realized that the Greeks and Egyptians and other foreigners were Jehovah's children like themselves, and that instead of despising them they ought to make friends with them and try to teach them the religion of Jehovah.

Jewish religious books written for Greeks.—It was by men of this broad spirit that a number of books were written for the sake of winning Greeks to the Jewish religion. These books were written in the Greek language and explained to Greek readers the law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. Among the most important of these books was the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This translation was made, indeed, chiefly for the benefit of Jews living in Greek countries who had forgotten the old Hebrew tongue. But the translators also had in mind the great non-Jewish Greek world.

And the new translation, sometimes called the Septuagint (that is, the book of the seventy translators who are said to have worked on it), found its way into the hands of many a Greek reader who learned from it for the first time something about the religion of Jehovah.

The author of the story of Jonah, in the Bible, was another Jew of this broad spirit. He had traveled in Egypt. He had seen the vices and sins of the heathen. And he had tried to tell them of the just and merciful laws of the one God of all the world, Jehovah. Many of his fellow Jews criticised him for this. "Why do you have anything to do with these Gentile dogs?" they asked. It was in answer to this question that he wrote about Jonah, the prophet whom Jehovah had sent to preach to the wicked heathen city of Nineveh. He had tried to avoid obeying the command, but at last had gone; and when the Ninevites listened to his preaching and repented and turned to Jehovah he was angry. And Jehovah said unto him, "Should not I have regard for Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?" (That is, six score thousand little children.)

Jonah in this story is a type of the Jewish people. As Jehovah sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites, so he would send the Jews to teach the nations of his love. What a pity to be so narrow-minded, so blinded by pride of race, as to have no sympathy or good will for any other race of men! This is the lesson the author of the book meant to teach.

Probably very few of the Jews who heard this man, or read his book, understood or appreciated him. But there were enough of them who cared for him to preserve his book, so that it became a part of their sacred writings; and perhaps more than any other book in the Old Testament it prepared the way for a broadening of the dreams and plans of Abraham and Moses and the prophets to include not only Jews but all mankind—that broadening which we call Christianity.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read Isaiah 19. 19-24.

2. What do you think this writer would have thought of our American habit of calling names at foreigners?

3. What advice would these writers have given us, in regard to our "Japanese" problem?

4. If you have time, look into the book of Jonah.



CHAPTER XXVII

OUTDOOR TEACHERS AMONG THE JEWS[5]

All children among all races receive as they grow up some kind of an education. Isaac learned from his father Abraham and from the other older people about him how to set up a tent, how to milk a goat, how to recognize the tracks of bears and other wild beasts, and all the other bits of knowledge so necessary to wandering shepherds. Not till many centuries after Abraham in Hebrew history were there any special schools apart from the everyday experiences of life, or any man whose special work was that of teaching. But in the centuries following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and its gradual restoration, the people came more and more to see the importance of education. And in the course of these three or four centuries before the coming of Christ there grew up two kinds of schools and two kinds of teachers, first, an open air school where life itself was studied, and then later, in the second place, an indoor school, where the chief study was that of books.

SCHOOLS IN THE OPEN AIR

These open-air schools were most often to be seen in the "city gate." The Jews meant by the "gate" of the city the broad open space in front of the actual opening in the city wall. It was like the public square in our modern towns.

Scenes in the "Gate."—Suppose we visit one of the "gates." It is early morning. Everything is noise and confusion. Here are merchants peddling their wheat, or dates, or honey, their wool or their flax. Customers are haggling over prices. Each one is shouting with a shrill voice and with many gestures that the price asked is an outrage. Besides the merchants there are judges. Here sits one of the city elders with a long white beard. Before him are two farmers disputing over a boundary line—also witnesses and spectators.

Out in the middle of the area children are playing. Every now and then a mangy yellow dog noses his way through the crowd looking for scraps of food. And everywhere are the folks who came out just to see their neighbors and to hear the news.

In one corner of the open space by the "gate" we notice a dignified figure, an old man with a circle of friends and listeners. He is watching the varied scenes around him and occasionally talking with those about him.

"Who is that old man?" we ask.

"That is one of the wise men," we are told.

These "wise men" among the Hebrews studied human nature, and gave to young men and to any less-experienced people who cared to listen, the benefit of their practical good sense. They loved to teach through "proverbs," that is, short and witty sentences. A large number of the "proverbs" of these teachers are preserved in the Book of Proverbs in our Old Testament.

THE TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN

One of the most important keys to success in life is a knowledge of people. This the wise men helped their students to obtain. Let us sit for a while beside one of them and look through his eyes at the people who pass by. Here comes young Mr. Know-it-all. He wears a very fine garment, and walks with a swagger. His father and mother and all his aunts and uncles have always told him that he is the most clever person in the world. And, of course, he agrees with them. He will listen to advice from nobody. The wise man watches him pass, then says to his hearers:

"Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him." (Proverbs 26. 12.)

The wise man has a sense of humor. He loves to smile at the little inconsistencies of life. He has been listening to the talk between a merchant and his customer. And this is his comment on it.

"It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: But when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." (Proverbs 20. 14.)

But though he is so quick to laugh at human follies the wise man has a tender heart. He helps his hearers to sympathize with those who are anxious and discouraged. And he knows the value of friendly encouragement.

"Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop; But a good word maketh it glad." (Proverbs 12. 25.)

A practical advice of the wise men.—With this knowledge of human nature these teachers were able to give much good counsel in matters of business. For example, there were tricksters in those days just as now. One of their favorite tricks was to persuade some "greenhorn" to act as surety for a loan. "Just shake hands with me before witnesses," the smooth tongued one would say, "and the banker will lend me money; there is a caravan of silks coming from Damascus which I can buy for a song. We will both be rich." So the poor fool would shake hands before witnesses, which was like our modern custom of signing one's name on a note. The man would then take the money and disappear, leaving his victim to repay the loan or be sold into slavery. "Be on your guard against these sharpers," the wise men were constantly saying.

HELPING PEOPLE TO LIVE LOVINGLY TOGETHER

The best part of the teaching of the wise men had to do with even more important matters than how to keep from being cheated. They helped people live together. They had many sensible things to say about good manners. For example, Joshua the son of Sirach, a wise man whose sayings are found in the book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha, gives much wise counsel about table manners:

"Consider thy neighbor's liking by thine own, And be discreet in every point. Eat as becometh a man, those things which are set before thee; And eat not greedily, lest thou be hated. Be first to leave off, for manner's sake, And be not insatiable, lest thou offend."

Surely courtesy at the table is one of the things which make life happy and noble. Truly civilized people do not eat like pigs in a trough.

As they looked out upon the lives of men what made the wise men most sorry was the hatred and bitterness which they so often saw between those who should have been friends. One of their most frequent teachings was the need for the control of one's anger and for charity and forgiveness.

"A fool uttereth all his anger, But a wise man keepeth it back." (Proverbs 29. 11.)

"He that covereth a transgression seeketh love: But he that harpeth on a matter separateth chief friends." (Proverbs 17. 9.)

Their condemnation of tale-bearing.—Since the wise men felt so strongly on this point, it is not surprising that they kept their most scathing denunciations for tale-bearers and troublemakers. Too often they saw men who were formerly dear friends passing by each other with dark looks. Some liar had been sowing his evil seed. If you have anything to say against a man, the wise men urged, say it to his face. Don't talk against him behind his back.

"A froward man scattereth abroad strife: And a whisperer separateth chief friends." (Proverbs 16. 28.)

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN

There came a time, perhaps a century or two after Nehemiah, when the wise men were the chief moral and religious leaders of the Jewish nation. The people had lost faith in the prophets, for there were no more prophets like Amos or Isaiah. And these practical teachers with their warm sympathy and kind hearts had many true words to speak about the God of wisdom and of love. The book of Job in the Bible, one of the greatest books of history, was written by one of these wise men. It is a story of a man who found God although both his own misfortunes and also the false ideas of his friends had made him think that God was his enemy. He found God at last because he was brave enough to think for himself.

So these teachers gave their pupils the best kind of education. They too, like the prophets and all the leaders about whom we have studied, helped to prepare their pupils for the life of loving brotherhood with God as their common Father, which was the goal toward which all this history we have studied was slowly but surely moving.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Browse through the book of Proverbs, especially chapters 10 and following, looking for teachings on the following subjects; enter the references opposite (a), (b), etc., below.

(a) Diligence in work. (b) Temperance in use of wine. (c) Honesty in business. (d) Compassion toward the poor. (e) Self-control in anger.

2. Read Ecclesiastes 11, for a taste of another "wisdom" book.

3. Find if you can a Bible with the Apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments, and read a chapter or two in Ecclesiasticus, or the wisdom of the Son of Sira.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Part of these pages taken from the author's earlier book, The Story of Our Bible. Copyright, 1914, 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by permission.



CHAPTER XXVIII

BOOK LEARNING AMONG THE JEWS

If we could have visited the home of some sincerely religious Jew about the time when the law of Deuteronomy was adopted by King Josiah and the people we might have seen the beginning of a new kind of education—the regular study of books, and especially of the Bible. They had for their Bible at that time the law of Deuteronomy, which they had accepted as God's will for all Jews. And if this was God's will for them, it was plain that it must be taught to everybody, beginning with the children.

TEACHING THE LAW AT HOME

Let us imagine ourselves, then, visiting the house of some good Jewish friend in Jerusalem under Josiah. As we enter the door we notice letters roughly carved or painted on the wooden door. "You ask what are those words," replies our host to our question. "They are from our law. They are for the children to see, as they go in and out the door. This is the way the inscription reads:

"'Hear, O Israel: Jehovah thy God is one and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.'

"The priest wrote them for us and both I myself and the children have been learning to read them," says our friend. "And every Sabbath we study them, and I teach the children to repeat after me as much of the rest of Jehovah's law as I can remember. Sometimes the children ask me questions. They say, 'What mean these laws and these statutes which you say Jehovah our God commanded?' Then I answer, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in the land of Egypt. And Jehovah brought us up out of Egypt ... to give us this land. And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God for our good.'"

Religion through education.—It is easy to understand that with this training in childhood it became more and more easy from this time on to persuade the Jewish people not to worship idols and to see why they gradually changed more and more rapidly into the most devout and earnest people in the world. The children were taught in their homes.

THE NEW KIND OF TEACHERS, THE SCRIBES

After Josiah's time many additions were made to this law of Jehovah. At first it consisted of only a part of our book of Deuteronomy. But the learned priests and prophets, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, made a careful study of all the writings of preceding generations, and they found many collections of laws and histories of Jehovah's dealings with his people which seemed to them inspired of Jehovah and worthy to be reverenced and obeyed. They tried the experiment of combining some of these with the law of Deuteronomy. So it came to pass that two or three centuries later the Jews had as their sacred book the whole of what is now the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible.

The need of other teachers besides the father in the home.—If this larger Bible was to be carefully studied by every Jew from his childhood up, there must be certain men who should give their lives to teaching it. So in time there came to be a class of teachers known as "scribes." These men spent all their working hours reading this law of God, making copies of it and teaching it to others. Some of these men were truly great and good. For example, there was the gentle Hillel, who lived about a century before Christ and who taught the spirit of the Golden Rule, although in a form not so perfect as that of Jesus.

"Do not to your neighbor what is unpleasant to yourself. This is the whole law. All else is exposition."

It was a scribe like this who talked with Jesus about the "greatest commandment," and to whom Jesus said, "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God."

THE SCHOOLS OF THE SCRIBES

These teachers conducted regular daily schools in the synagogues. More and more children were sent to them until in the time of Jesus all boys were supposed to go for at least a year or two. Girls were taught only at home. People had not yet come to realize that the minds of girls are as well worth educating as those of boys.

The methods of teaching.—The boys sat on the floor in a circle before the teacher. They repeated after him the Jewish alphabet and learned to recognize each letter. Their only textbooks were papyrus rolls on which were written parts of the law. They began with Leviticus and learned by heart as much of it as possible. We can imagine that the boys were glad when they finished with Leviticus and went back to Genesis to the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.

They also learned to write. Their copybooks were at first rough scraps of broken pottery on which with sharp nails they learned to scratch letters. Probably mischievous boys sometimes drew pictures instead of practicing the words assigned to them. After they could write fairly well they were given wax tablets, or even a bit of papyrus, a quill pen, and an ink horn. Papyrus was expensive and had to be used with care.

GOOD AND BAD RESULTS OF THE TEACHING OF THE SCRIBES

So much study of these books of law and history was bound to wield a mighty influence. Those thousands of boys studying laws which for their time were the most just and humane in the world, could not but learn something about the meaning of justice and mercy. Better still, the wonderful stories in Genesis and Exodus left their sure impress on the hearts of those who studied. The boys for the most part reverenced their teachers, and many of them came to love their Book, the law. It was a boy, so taught, who when he was older, wrote that Psalm:

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet And light unto my path. * * * * * * * * * Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto, according to thy word."

The danger of formality.—The danger in this kind of education is that of blindness to the voice of God to be heard in everyday experience or in our own hearts as well as in the written Scripture. The result of this blindness is that goodness and religion are thought of as merely the keeping of the written law. It was such blind scribes whom Jesus denounced for giving tithes, or a tenth part of the mint and anise and cummin, that is, of even the most insignificant of their garden herbs and forgetting mercy and justice and faith; in other words, keeping the letter of the written law but not living out the spirit of it. It is not enough, Jesus taught, just to obey what is written. To do only that is to be an unprofitable servant. This bad kind of religion grew up in those schools where only books were studied, not the real everyday experience of living people.

JESUS WAS A WISE MAN RATHER THAN A SCRIBE

When Jesus came he was a teacher more like those more ancient wise men of the city gates. Like them he taught his listeners out of doors by the shores of the lake or on the hillside as well as in the synagogues. He reverenced the Bible, the Law and the Prophets, as God's word, but he listened for that word also in the sights and sounds of the streets and country lanes. He heard his Father's voice as he listened to house wives chatting with their neighbors, or to vineyard keepers hiring harvest hands.

"When He walked the fields he drew From the flowers and birds and dew Parables of God. For within his heart of love All the soul of man did move— God had his abode."

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up in the Bible dictionary under "Scribes" and "Rabbi."

2. What impressions of the scribes do you get from Matthew 7. 28-29, Matthew 15. 1-9, and Mark 12. 28-34?

3. Read Luke 1. 5-6; 2. 25-36. Where and how do you think these good men and women, among whom Jesus was born, got their training?



CHAPTER XXIX

NEW OPPRESSORS AND NEW WARS FOR FREEDOM

After the death of Alexander the Great his empire was broken into fragments ruled by those of his generals who were able to snatch these smaller kingdoms for themselves. One of them named Ptolemy seized Egypt. His descendants, known as the Ptolemies, reigned there for centuries. Another, named Seleucus, gained control of the greater part of the old Persian empire. He built the city of Antioch, in northern Syria, naming it after his father Antiochus. His descendants, on the throne of the new kingdom, are known in history as the Seleucids.

THE JEWS UNDER GREEK RULERS

Canaan at first became part of the kingdom of the Ptolemies, and this continued for about a century. During this period the Jews seemed to have been treated with a fair degree of kindness and justice. At least they were left most of the time in peace. But about B.C. 200, Canaan was taken from the Ptolemies by the Seleucids, and this turned out to be for the Jewish people an unhappy change. In the year 175 B.C., there came to the throne in Antioch a young prince named Antiochus Epiphanes who, like Alexander the Great, thought of himself as a kind of missionary for Greek art and civilization. He became more and more angry because so many of the Jews refused to worship Greek gods. About B.C. 170, he issued a decree that all persons in his dominion must offer sacrifices to Zeus. When the Jews refused they were put to death.

New persecutions.—A terrible persecution was thus begun. A Greek officer would come into a Jewish town or village, set up an altar to Zeus, and summon all the people to join in the sacrifice of worship. As many as possible of those who refused were hunted down and killed. All copies of the Jewish law that could be found were burned. Every month a search was made throughout Judaea to see whether any Jew still had copies of the Scriptures. A heathen altar was set up in the temple at Jerusalem and swine were sacrificed upon it. To the Jews, who were taught to regard swine's flesh as unclean and unholy, nothing could have seemed more horrible.

Of course there were some traitors and renegades. But the great majority of the Jewish people were nobly true to the faith of their fathers. Hundreds and thousands, young and old, allowed themselves to be tortured and slain rather than take part in a heathen sacrifice. Many even of those who had fallen in with some of the evil customs of the Greeks now refused to be known as anything else than faithful Jews, even though it might cost them their lives.

THE MACCABEAN REVOLTS AND VICTORIES

In the midst of this cruel persecution a rebellion flamed up under the leadership of a certain brave old priest named Mattathias. After his death his sons took up the cause. The greatest of them was Judas, who was surnamed Maccabeus, which some have thought meant the Hammerer. The whole family is known as the Maccabees. Under the skillful command of Judas victory after victory was won by his little band of Jewish warriors fighting against great armies of Greek hired soldiers. The city of Jerusalem was cleared of the detested oppressors, all except a garrison that maintained itself in the citadel. The temple was purified and rededicated to Jehovah.

After some twenty years the soldiers from Antioch were driven out altogether and the little Jewish kingdom under Simon, a brother of Judas, was recognized as independent. For nearly a century the descendants of the Maccabees reigned in Jerusalem. Most of them turned out to be greedy and selfish men unworthy of Judas and Simon. Yet during this period the Jews tasted once again something of the joys of freedom.

THE VICTORIES OF ROME

During the last two centuries before Christ a new empire had been growing up in the west, that of Rome. In the year B.C. 63, two princes of the Maccabean line fell into a quarrel as to which one should be king. There was a civil war, which was ended by the Roman general Pompey, who annexed the country as a province of the Roman Empire. This was the end of the independence of the Jewish nation.

The Herods.—Sometimes Roman provinces were ruled by Roman governors, and at other times they were left to native kings who were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased so long as they paid tribute to Rome. There was a certain Edomite, or Idumean, as the name was pronounced by the Greeks and Romans, who partly by flattery and partly by real ability persuaded Romans to make him king over the whole land of Palestine.

This man is known in the history books as Herod the Great, although he was sadly lacking in true greatness, being fearfully cruel and absolutely selfish. He built many beautiful palaces in various Jewish cities and also rebuilt very beautifully the temple at Jerusalem. He himself had no interest in religion, but he hoped in this way to win back with the Jews some of the popularity which he had lost through his many crimes. It was during his reign that Jesus was born. When Herod died the land was divided among his sons. When Jesus began his public career as a teacher one of these sons, Herod Antipas, was the ruler of the northern part of the country, that is Galilee. Judaea, in the south, and Samaria between Galilee and Judaea, were directly under Roman rule with a Roman governor or procurator.

The Sanhedrin.—To a certain extent even after the Roman conquest the Jews were permitted to govern themselves. There was in Jerusalem a council, or court, of leading priests and rabbis, called the Sanhedrin. There were in it seventy-one members. When any member died the others elected some one to fill the vacancy. All Jews everywhere were supposed to be under the authority of the Sanhedrin. But except in purely religious matters it had little power outside of Judaea. In Judaea, however, this court, or council, decided all questions except those which the Roman procurator reserved for himself. They were not allowed to condemn a criminal to death. So when the Sanhedrin voted to put Jesus out of the way it was necessary to take him before Pilate the Roman procurator and persuade Pilate to ratify the sentence of death. How galling it was to a proud nation like the Jews to be obliged to go to a hated enemy for permission to carry out their decrees we can well imagine; and we shall learn more of it in the next chapter.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up in the Bible dictionary, Maccabees and Herod.

2. Read Hebrews 11. 32-40. Verses 33-38 are probably in large part a description of the heroic martyrs before the Maccabees.

3. Was the Maccabean rule a failure because it did not last?

4. How did these rulers contribute to the great ends which Jews had always dreamed of.



CHAPTER XXX

THE DISCONTENT OF THE JEWS UNDER ROMAN RULE

In spite of the fact that the Jews still had some power of self-government through the Sanhedrin, the great mass of the people hated the Romans with an almost inconceivable fury. The world had never before seen such cruel rulers. The Assyrians had been bad, but the Romans were worse. Think of that form of punishment which they inflicted carelessly every day even for minor crimes—crucifixion! The poor victim was nailed by the hands and feet to a pole and left to hang in agony till death mercifully ended it all. Think of the gladiatorial combats in the city of Rome and in other Roman cities, where every day for centuries slaves or condemned criminals fought each other with swords to the death, or fought with wild beasts while the gloating multitudes looked on in rapture.

Moreover, not only were the Romans very cruel, they had no manners. They were haughty in their bearing and took pains to let conquered people know how thoroughly they were despised.

Roman cruelty in Palestine.—All these qualities were manifested almost at their worst by the Roman rulers in Judaea and Galilee. Jesus speaks of certain Galilaeans, "whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices." We know nothing of this incident except what Jesus tells. Evidently, these Galilaeans had come as pilgrims to Jerusalem at the time of one of the annual feasts. Possibly they did not salute with sufficient respect the Roman eagles as they passed some squad of Roman soldiers in the street. At any rate, they were taken before Pilate and ruthlessly condemned to the slaughter.

Roman taxes and the Publicans.—Naturally, the thought of paying taxes to such masters was almost unbearable. Yet each adult Jewish man and woman was required to pay a personal or poll tax besides taxes on his property or income. To make matters worse, the Romans were accustomed to hire Jews to collect these taxes, giving these men the right to extort whatever they could, provided the required tribute was paid to Rome. Of course all true Jews hated and despised these Jewish tax-gatherers or publicans even more than they hated and despised the Romans themselves.

VARIOUS PARTIES AMONG THE JEWS

There were some respectable Jews, indeed, as well as these tax-collectors, who favored the Romans. There were for example the Sadducees, a group of wealthy and aristocratic men, mostly priests, who formed a sort of political party called by this name. Many of them were members of the Sanhedrin. They were prosperous, and so long as their power was not taken away they sided with the Romans. It was nothing to them that the great mass of their poor fellow countrymen were being brutally and wickedly robbed and ill-treated.

The Pharisees.—We have already spoken of the Pharisees as being "Separatists," that is, the people who were most opposed to any contact with heathen foreigners. Strange to say, most of the Pharisees were opposed to any violent rebellion against the Romans. They believed that God himself would come to the aid of his people. Many books of the class called apocalypses were written during this period of the history in which the writers tried to comfort their readers by prophesying that the Lord would soon descend from heaven with armies of angels or would send his Messiah to drive out the Romans and set up his own kingdom. The word "Messiah" (in Greek, "Christ") means anointed one.

The book of Daniel in the Old Testament is one of the books of this period. Many similar books were written which were not included in the canon of the Scriptures. All of them were written in rather mysterious language—with references to trumpets, vials, seals, beasts with many heads and many horns, and so on. This was to keep their heathen rulers from understanding the real meaning. It would not have been safe openly to predict that in a few years God was going to send all Romans to eternal punishment.

The Zealots.—There were still others among the Jews at this time who were not willing to wait for Jehovah to come down from heaven. They wanted to start a revolution right away. One such man, Judas of Gamala, led a revolt when Jesus was about ten years old in which many Galilaeans joined. It was put down by the Romans with their usual cruelty. Very likely the fathers of some of Jesus' boyhood friends in Nazareth of Galilee were crucified as the punishment for taking part in this revolt. Those who sympathized with Judas continued to plot in secret against the hated Roman oppressors. They were called Zealots. One of them became a member of Jesus' band of twelve apostles.

SMOLDERING HATE AMONG THE PEOPLE

Whether they were actual plotters against Rome, like the Zealots, or whether they gave their strength to eager prayer to Jehovah for deliverance, the great mass of the common people among the Jews in the time of Christ were burning with a fierce patriotism and with a hatred against their oppressors such as we can scarcely imagine. The century of freedom under the Maccabees had made them all the more impatient of tyranny—and then to find themselves under such unspeakable tyrants as Herod and Pilate!—this was almost unendurable.

The children drank in this spirit with their mothers' milk. Fathers and mothers had constantly to warn their boys and girls not to show their feelings toward Roman officers and soldiers lest some dreadful punishment should befall them. So it went on from year to year, growing constantly worse instead of better. The whole land was like a heap of smoldering leaves. Sooner or later there would be a sudden flare of open flame.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up in the Bible dictionary "Publicans," "Zealots," and "Sadducees."

2. How do you explain the success of the Romans in tyrannizing the proud Jews for so many years? Consider the part played by the Sadducees.

3. Read Matthew 3. 1-2. Why did John's message arouse such interest and enthusiasm?



CHAPTER XXXI

JEWISH HOPES MADE GREATER BY JESUS

This history of the common people of Israel began with certain vague hopes of a happier and nobler way of living for the descendants of Abraham. As the centuries passed these hopes were only very partially realized. But what was more important the Jews came more and more clearly to understand the meaning of their own hopes. Their great teachers helped them to know what they really wanted or ought to want if they would be happy. Moses taught them the first lessons of justice as the foundation of happiness. The great prophets helped them to see that neither happiness nor justice was possible except as they knew and worshiped the true God—not a God of greed and anger to be bribed with sacrifices, but the God of justice and love. A few of the prophets also began to see that such hopes as theirs could not be for Jews alone but must include all mankind.

THE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES

The Jews under their Roman masters had come to a time, as we saw in the preceding chapter, when they were wildly expecting an immediate fulfillment of these hopes. The short taste of freedom and happiness which they had enjoyed under Judas and Simon Maccabeus, followed by a tyranny more cruel and distasteful than any which their ancestors had known, made them almost mad with the desire for some kind of a Saviour. And it seemed to them that he must come soon.

The chance for a world-Saviour.—All over the world just at this time there were strange hopes and longings in men's hearts. The Romans had robbed many other nations besides the Jews of their independence. These people had no real nation of their own any longer to live for—and they hated Rome. What was there to make life worth living unless some Redeemer should come from God?

Moreover, it was possible now to think of such a Saviour as a world-Saviour. In the earlier centuries men hardly knew that there was a world outside their own tribe and a few of their neighbors. There were no maps. Only a few could travel, and see for themselves how great a world there really was—and how many nations there were—made up of men like themselves. The common people of Asia scarcely knew that there was a Europe, and the enormous continent of Africa, except for Egypt, did not exist for them. As for what is now called the New World, North and South America, no one knew of its existence.

Preparations for Christianity.—But the Romans built good roads all over the great countries which bordered on the Mediterranean Sea, and many were the travelers who went to and fro upon them. They established one government for all this Mediterranean world. One language came to be understood everywhere—not Latin, the language of the Romans themselves, but Greek. Beyond the boundaries of the empire there were, of course, vast territories. But it was possible now for even the common people to realize that their own village or city or tribe was only a small part of one great world. And for the first time in history there was a chance for some one to take the old Jewish hope of a better and happier Jewish people and change it into a world-hope of a better and happier human race, and to gather a few men and women together and start them working for it.

THE COMING OF JESUS

In the wonderful providence of God there was born in a manger-cradle just at this moment in history the Baby who was destined to accomplish this miracle; to broaden out to their widest and noblest meanings these hopes which had been handed down from one generation of Jews to another. The story of the life of Jesus will be given in detail in other courses in this series. Here, in a nutshell, is what Jesus did: he helped men to believe in a God who loved all men as his children, whether rich or poor, learned or ignorant, Jews or Gentiles or Samaritans, even the bad as well as the good; for if they were bad, they needed his love to help them to be good. Jesus not only taught this idea of God through his spoken words; he helped men, through his deeds, to understand it. He lived that way, as the Son of such a God. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He ate and drank with outcasts. He was everybody's friend.

The inevitable conflict and cross.—Of course Jesus was not able to live that kind of life very long in our kind of world. Very soon he came into conflict with the various kinds of men who enjoyed special privileges of wealth or learning or honor and were not at all willing to share these things in a brotherly way; with the Pharisees, who were considered especially holy and did not want to be brothers to common men, the "people of the land"; with the rich who did not want to be brothers to the poor; with priests who did not want to be brothers to wounded men lying by the side of the Jericho road; with Romans who were afraid the Jews might think brotherhood meant liberty. So after three short years of preaching and healing Jesus was nailed to the cross, praying even as the nails were driven into his hands, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Suppose the Jews had believed in Jesus.—How different the outcome of their history would then have been! Instead of a bloody and hopeless revolt against the Romans, they might have found a way to live at peace with them, receiving from them a more just and humane government; Isaiah, centuries before, showed his people how to get along under the rule of Assyrians. Or, if the Romans had goaded the people to rebel, they might have fought and died gloriously, not merely for their own freedom but in the cause of all the suffering masses in all lands. Thus the whole course of history might have been changed. The four years' war which did break out in A.D. 66, about thirty-six years after Jesus' death, was not that kind of a war. In the course of these four years different factions among the Jews fought each other almost as fiercely as they fought the Romans. The Jews themselves were selfish in their hopes. They were not inspired and strengthened by Jesus' vision of brotherhood. In A.D. 70 the Romans captured the city of Jerusalem and burned the temple. It was never rebuilt. From that day to this the Jews have been a people without a native land.

CARRYING OUT THE IDEAS OF JESUS

There was, however, after Jesus' death and resurrection, a splendid company of disciples whose lives had been transformed by their acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and who were eager to go on carrying out Jesus' plans. None of them thoroughly understood these plans. Indeed, we are only beginning to understand them to-day. But very soon, within a few years after Jesus' death, the wisest of the early apostles, such men as Peter, Barnabas, and Paul, came to see that to carry out Jesus' wishes there needed to be a universal church in which Jews and Gentiles, men of all races, would be included. Within a half century branches of this new world-church had been started in every important city in the Roman empire. At first their meetings were held in synagogues of the Jews of the Dispersion; and it is a pity that all the Jews could not have perceived that these disciples of Jesus were carrying out the hopes of their own prophets, that this Christianity was simply Judaism fulfilled. But many, of course, wanted to keep their religion and their God to themselves as Jews. So there sprang up other buildings everywhere which came to be known as Christian churches rather than Jewish synagogues.

Our task to-day.—In these modern times we are still trying to understand what Jesus wanted and to bring it to pass in reality. We are beginning to see that if all men are indeed sacred to our heavenly Father, then under the leadership of our everliving Christ, a fight is in store for us on behalf of all the millions of our brothers who are blinded by selfishness, haggard from want, embittered by injustice, stunted in soul and mind by ignorance, or tortured by all the agonies of war. If there is to be a better world for any of us, it must be a better world for all of us. It must be "everybody's world."

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up in the Bible dictionary, for further light on the background of Jesus' life, Galilee, Nazareth, Capernaum.

2. Read Matthew 4. 17. Explain why the message of Jesus, like that of John, awakened such a quick response among the people.

3. What did Jesus think of the rule of Rome? Read Matthew 20. 25-27, and Luke 13. 31, 32.

4. In contrast with the Zealots, what was Jesus' plan for winning freedom and happiness, instead of the oppression and misery of Roman rule? Read John 18. 33-38.



CHAPTER XXXII

A THOUSAND YEARS OF A NATION'S QUEST

In this course of study we have been tracing the progress of a great enterprise. A race of people set out in the days of Abraham to seek the best in life. Did they win or lose, succeed or fail? What did they achieve, during a thousand years of striving?

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Looking back over the whole period which we have studied, there are four short epochs which stand out in bright contrast to long stretches of darkness as times when the common people had a chance to enjoy some of the good things of life, or at least had reason to hope that they might some time gain them for themselves or their children. These were the times of David, of Josiah, of Nehemiah, and of Simon the Maccabee. These four men were all able and just leaders. They were all inspired, to a greater or less extent, by the ideals of Abraham, Moses, and the great reformer-prophets.

The long centuries of failure.—The lives of all four of these men together, however, do not cover much more than a century. During the rest of the time, the common people were ground down under oppressors, either of their own race or foreign conquerors. Generation after generation of fathers and mothers patiently toiled and struggled and suffered, in the hope that they might climb just a little higher toward the sunlight of health and comfort and the higher blessings of life. Most of them struggled in vain. It is true that a few of the more fortunate, in each generation, saw some little advance over earlier generations in the good things of civilization. Such men as Nicodemus and Zacchaeus, in the time of Jesus, lived in better houses, wore more comfortable clothes, and ate better food than did King David himself in an earlier, ruder age. But the common people of Jesus' day were not so well off as even in the days of Abraham. For as wandering shepherds they were free. Life might be a bitter struggle against wild beasts and drought and famine. But no haughty masters looked down on them with contempt, or robbed them of their last farthing in unjust taxation. Shall we say, then, that as a whole, the great enterprise was a failure?

THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT—A TRUE RELIGION

No, the great quest was not a failure, even though it was so far from a complete success. Out of the long years of struggle and prayer had come a new religion, not, indeed, understood by many but partly grasped at least by some, and written down in books so that it could never be wholly lost. This was a religion of the brotherhood of man and of a universal Father-God. The four eras of their history when the common people had been happy were eras when the principles of this religion had partly prevailed. And these eras still shine out for us as examples of what that kind of religion means in the life of a people. And the lives and words of the great prophets, and, greatest of all, the life of Jesus Christ, are a priceless legacy to us, who are still continuing the quest which Abraham began.

The truth which has been revealed to us.—All men, everywhere, who are longing and toiling for a better chance for life and happiness and for knowledge and beauty and love for themselves and for their children, may now know that they are not without a mighty helper. There is One who revealed himself, in the history of the people of Israel and uniquely in Jesus Christ his Son, who still speaks in the name of all the hungry and thirsty and ragged and sick:

"I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: ... Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me."

STUDY TOPICS

1. Of the four short eras of righteousness, in the history of the Hebrews, in which does it seem to you that the common people made the greatest gains?

2. What were some of the improvements in civilization which rich or well-to-do people, in the later centuries of this history, enjoyed, as compared with the earlier centuries? Study Chapters I and II, VI, VII, and VIII, and XXII.

3. Compare the earliest religion of the Hebrews with the religion of the prophets and Jesus. Mention four great discoveries in regard to the character of God.



REVIEW AND TEST QUESTIONS

1. Describe the daily life of the earliest ancestors of the Hebrews.

2. What valuable characteristic of these people is reflected in the story of Joseph?

3. What were some of the evils of Babylonian life?

4. What kind of life did Abraham admire judging from the story of Lot?

5. What was the name of the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews?

6. Describe the slavery which the Hebrews were compelled to endure. What did they have to do?

7. How did Moses succeed in delivering his countrymen?

8. What was the effect of this deliverance on the life and religion of the Hebrews in after years?

9. Why was it comparatively easy for the Hebrews to get a foothold in Canaan about B.C. 1200?

10. To what extent was the settlement in Canaan peaceful and to what extent was it by conquest?

11. What lessons in civilization did the Hebrews learn in Canaan?

12. What moral dangers did they have to fight against there?

13. Why were the Hebrews in the first years after the settlement so often beaten by their enemies?

14. What was Deborah's most important contribution to the history of her people?

15. Why did it seem necessary for the Hebrews to have a king?

16. Why were some of the wisest of the Hebrews opposed to the idea of a king?

17. How did David make the lives of the common people under his rule more prosperous and happy?

18. Why was Solomon unpopular?

19. Was the disruption of the kingdom of Solomon a mistake, or was it a blessing?

20. In what way did most of the kings who followed David make themselves a curse to their subjects?

21. Explain why the Rechabites, Elijah, and others hated Canaanite civilization and wanted the people to go back to the old nomadic desert ways.

22. Describe the burnt-offerings of ancient Hebrew religion. What was the difference between ordinary sacrifices and special "whole burnt-offerings"?

23. Describe the life of the poor people of Israel in the time of Jeroboam II and the prophet Amos.

24. How did Amos criticize the religion of burnt-offerings?

25. What false ideas of God did Hosea combat?

26. How did Hosea come to think of God as loving and merciful?

27. How were superstitious ideas about God used by greedy priests and fortune-tellers in Micah's day to extort money from the people?

28. What did Micah say were the essential things in religion?

29. Why did the Jews in Isaiah's time seek for alliances with foreign countries?

30. How were these alliances connected with the worship of foreign gods?

31. What were some of the sayings of Isaiah in which he taught the lesson of faith in the one true God?

32. What plan did Isaiah devise to educate disciples in his religious teachings?

33. What was the historical connection between the study circles of Isaiah and the law-book of Deuteronomy?

34. To what extent did the law-book of Deuteronomy lead to the practice of the teachings of the prophets?

35. How did this law compromise in the matter of burnt-offerings and other sacrifices?

36. What did the prophet Jeremiah think of the law-book of Deuteronomy? Did he favor it or condemn it? Explain.

37. Describe the life of the exiles in Babylon.

38. How did they keep alive their faith in Jehovah?

39. Where else besides Babylonia were large numbers of Hebrew exiles to be found?

40. With what hopes did the Jews comfort themselves after the destruction of Jerusalem?

41. In what two ways did Nehemiah help the Jews in Jerusalem to a happier life?

42. Tell the story of the growing use of prayer and hymn books in the religious worship of the Jews.

43. Why did many of the Jews become more narrowly prejudiced against foreigners after the destruction of Jerusalem?

44. What influences tended to make some of the Jews in this period more broad-minded and friendly toward foreigners?

45. Mention some writings from this period which helped the cause of the broader patriotism.

46. What two kinds of special schools and teachers grew up among the Jews?

47. Describe the daily scenes in the group of listeners around one of the old wise men.

48. What were some weaknesses and faults in the education of the scribes?

49. What contributions did the Greeks bring to the civilization of the Jews in Canaan?

50. Why were the Jews specially discontented under the rule of the Romans?

51. In what four periods of their history were the Jews happiest?

52. How did Jesus fulfill and broaden out the national hopes of the Jews?

A SHORT LIST OF BOOKS THROWING LIGHT ON HEBREW LIFE AND TIMES

Kent and Bailey: History of the Hebrew Commonwealth.

George A. Barton: Archaeology and the Bible.

Charles Reynolds Brown: The Story Books of the Early Hebrews.

Harold B. Hunting: The Story of Our Bible.

Crosby: Geography of Bible Lands.

Hastings' One Volume Bible Dictionary.



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Typographical errors corrected in text: Page 14: wondering replaced with wandering Page 38: record replaced with records Page 155: 'life itself itself was' replaced with 'life itself was'

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