The Martyrdom of Man, Winwood Reade [best book club books TXT] 📗

the people, to the heads of

houses and the sheikhs of tribes, that Eloah, the God of Abraham, had

appeared to him in Sinai and had revealed his true name—it was

Jehovah—and had sent him to Egypt to bring away his people, to carry

them to Canaan. The elders believed in his mission and accepted him as

their chief. He went to Pharaoh and delivered the message of Jehovah:

the king received it as he would have received the message of an Arab

chief—gods were plentiful in Egypt. But whenever a public calamity

occurred Moses declared that Jehovah was its author, and there were

Egyptians who said that their own gods were angry with them for

detaining a people who were irreligious, filthy in their habits, and

affected with unpleasant diseases of the skin. The king gave them

permission to go and offer a sacrifice to their desert god. The Israelites

stole away, taking with them the mummy of Joseph and some jewellery

belonging to their masters. Guides marched in front bearing a lighted

apparatus like that which was used in Alexander´s camp, which gave a

pillar of smoke by day and a flame by night. Moses led them by way of

Suez into Asia, and then along the weed-strewn, shell-strewn shore of the

Red Sea to the wilderness of Sinai and the Mount of God. There with

many solemn and imposing rites he delivered laws which he said had

been issued to him from the clouds. He assembled the elders to represent

the people, and drew up a contract between them and Jehovah. It was

agreed that they should obey the laws of Jehovah, and pay the taxes

which he might impose, while he engaged on his part to protect them

from danger in their march through the desert and to give them

possession of the Promised Land. An ark or chest of acacia-wood was

made in the Egyptian style, and the agreement was deposited therein with

the ten fundamental laws which Moses had engraved on stone. A tent of

dyed skins was prepared and fitted with church furniture by voluntary

subscription, partly out of stolen goods. This became the temple of the

people and the residence of Jehovah, who left his own dwelling above the

vaulted sky that he might be able to protect them on the way. Moses

appointed his brother Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; they wore

the surplice, but to distinguish them from Egyptian priests they were

ordered not to shave their heads. The men of Levi, to which tribe Moses

himself belonged, were set apart for the service of the sacred tent. They

were in reality his bodyguard, and by their means he put down a mutiny

at Sinai, slaughtering three thousand men.

 

When thus the nation had been organised the march began. At daybreak

two silver trumpets were blown, the tents were struck, the tribes

assembled under their respective banners, and the men who bore the ark

went first with the guides to show the road and to choose an encampment

for the night. The Israelites crossed a stony desert, suffering much on the

way. Water was scarce; they had no provisions, and were forced to

subsist on manna or angel´s bread, a gummy substance which exudes

from a desert shrub and is a pleasant syrup and a mild purge, but not a

nourishing article of food.

 

As they drew near the land of Canaan the trees of the desert, the palm and

the acacia, disappeared. But the earth became carpeted with green plants

and spotted with red anemones like drops of blood. Here and there might

be seen a patch of corn, and at last in the distance rounded hills with trees

standing against the sky. They encamped, and a man from each tribe was

deputed to spy the land. In six weeks they returned bringing with them a

load of grapes. Two scouts only were in favour of invasion. The other

ten declared that the land was a good land, as the fruits showed—a land

flowing with milk and honey; but the people were like giants; their cities

were walled and very great; the Israelites were as grasshoppers in

comparison, and would not be able to prevail against them.

 

This opinion was undoubtedly correct. The children of Israel were a

rabble of field slaves who had never taken a weapon in their hands. The

business before them was by no means to their taste, and it was not what

Moses had led them to expect. He had agreed on the part of Jehovah to

give them a land. They had expected to find it unoccupied and prepared

for their reception like a new house. They did not require a prophet to

inform them that a country should be theirs if they were strong enough to

take it by the sword, and this it was clear they could not do. So they

poured forth the vials of their anger and their grief. They lifted up their

voice and cried; they wept all the night. Would to God they had died in

the wilderness! Would to God they had died in Egypt! Jehovah had

brought them there that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives

and little ones might be a prey. They would choose another captain; they

would go back to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb, the two scouts who had

recommended invasion, tried to cheer them up, and were nearly stoned to

death for their pains. Next day the people of Canaan marched out against

them: a skirmish took place and the Israelites were defeated. They went

back to the desert, and wandered forty years in the shepherd or Bedouin

state.

 

And then there was an end of that miserable race who were always

whining under hardship, hankering after the fleshpots of the old slave life.

In their stead rose up a new generation—genuine children of the desert—

who could live on a few dates soaked in butter and a mouthful of milk a

day; who were practised from their childhood in predatory wars; to whom

rapine was a business, and massacre a sport. The conquest of Canaan

was an idea which they had imbibed at their mothers´ breasts, and they

were now quite ready for the work. Moses before his death drew up a

second agreement between Jehovah and the people. It was to the same

effect as the covenant of Sinai. Loyalty and taxes were demanded by

Jehovah; long life, success in war, and fruitful crops were promised in

return. Within this contract was included a code of laws which Moses

had enacted from time to time, in addition to the ten commandments; and

this second agreement was binding not only on those who were present

but on their posterity as well.

 

Moses died; Joshua was made commander-in-chief, and the Israelites

began their march of war. This time they approached the land not from

the south but from the east.

 

The river Jordan rises in the Lebanon mountains, half way between Tyre

and Damascus; it runs due south, and ends its curling, twisting course in

the dismal waters of the Dead Sea. Its basin belongs to the desert, for it

does not overflow its banks.

 

Along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, parallel to the valley of the

Jordan, lies a fertile strip of land without good harbours, but otherwise

resembling Phoenicia, from which it is divided by two large

promontories, the Tyrian Ladder and the White Cape.

 

And thirdly, between the naked valley of the Jordan and this corn-producing line of coast there rises a tableland of limestone formation,

honeycombed with caves, watered by running streams of no great size,

and intersected by ravines and also by flat, extensive valley plains.

 

The coast belonged to the Philistines, the basin of the Jordan and the

pastoral regions on the south to roving Arab tribes; the tableland was

inhabited by farmers whose towns and villages were always perched on

the tops of hills, and who cultivated the vine on terraces, each vineyard

being guarded by a watch tower and a wall; the valley plains were

inhabited by Canaanites or lowlanders, who possessed cavalry and iron

chariots of war.

 

The Israelites differed from other Bedouin tribes in one respect—they

were not mounted, and they were unable to stand their ground against the

horsemen of the plain. The Philistines, a warlike people probably of the

Aryan race, also retained their independence. The conquests of the

Israelites were confined to the land of the south, the Jordan valley and the

mountain regions, though even in the highlands the conquest under

Joshua was not complete. However, the greater part of Palestine was

taken and partitioned among the Israelitish tribes. Some of these inclined

to the pastoral and others to the agricultural condition, and each was

governed by its own sheikh. During four hundred years Ephraim

remained the dominant tribe, and with Ephraim the high priest took up his

abode. At a place called Shiloh there was erected an enclosure of low

stone walls over which the sacred tent was drawn. This was the oracle

establishment, or House of God, to which all the tribes resorted three

times a year to celebrate the holy feasts with prayer and sacrifice, and

psalmody, and the sacred dance.

 

The Levites had no political power and no share in civil life, but they had

cities of their own, and they also travelled about like mendicant friars

from place to place performing certain functions of religion, and

supported by the alms of the devout.

 

It was owing to these two institutions, the oracle and the monkish order,

that the nationality of Israel was preserved. Yet though it escaped

extinction it did not retain its unity and strength. So far from extending

their conquests, after their first inroad under Joshua the Israelites

constantly lost ground. They were divided into twelve petty states,

always jealous of one another and often engaged in civil war. The natives

took advantage of these dissensions, and subdued them one by one. Now

and then a hero would arise, rouse them to a war of independence, and

rule over them as judge for a few years. Then again they would fall apart,

and again be conquered, sometimes paying tribute as vassals, sometimes

hiding in the mountain caves. However, at last there came a change. The

temporal and spiritual powers, united in the hands of Moses, were divided

at his death. Joshua became the general of Jehovah; the high priest

became his grand vizier. Joshua could do nothing of importance without

consulting the high priest, who read the commands of the Divine Sheikh

in the light and play of Urim and Thummim, the oracular shining stones.

On the other hand, the high priest could not issue laws; he could only

give decisions and replies. But now a Nazarite or servant of the Church,

named Samuel, usurped the office, or at all events the powers, of high

priest which belonged to the family of Aaron, and also obtained the

dignity of president or judge. He professed to be the recipient of private

instructions from Jehovah, issued laws in his name, and went round on

circuit judging the twelve tribes.

 

In his old age he delegated this office to his sons, who gave false

judgments and took bribes. The elders of the people came to Samuel and

asked him to appoint them a king.

 

Samuel had established a papacy, intending to make it hereditary in his

house, and now the evil conduct of his sons frustrated all his hopes. He

protested in the name of Jehovah against this change in the constitution;

he appealed to his own blameless life; he drew a vivid picture of the

horrors of despotism; but in vain. The people persisted in their demand;

they were at that time in the vassal state, and their liege lords,