the earth throughout all time. The prophets who are near to Jehovah, whose faith rises to him through all earthly limitations, do not hesitate to ascribe to his royal representatives the highest achievements, the widest authority, the finest justice and beneficence.

(d) It is now possible from this point of view to discern the foreshadowings of this period. Its eternal background is the prophetic faith in Jehovah as the lord of all, the eternal, righteous ruler. Its centre is the Davidic monarchy, the single figures of which, clothed in all the idealization of the prophet's inspired expectation and the singer's insight, appear and pass away, leaving the realization still unrealized, the ideal abiding. David and Solomon and all their line were gone, but the image and expectation of what they might have been, of what the monarchy could attain, outlived them and became the heritage of the future.

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES: (a) the stages in the occupation of Canaan; (b) the difficulties of settlement, (1) internal, (2) external; (c) meaning of the "Judge "; (d) outcome of the age in politics, society, and religion. Ewald, Hist. of Israel, II, pp. 269-408; Stanley, Lects. on the Hist. of the Jewish Church, Lects. 13-17; Kittel, Hist. of the Hebrews, II, pp. 60-102; Kent, Hist. of Hebrew People, I, pp. 59-98; Smith, Prophets of Israel, Lect. I; McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, II, pp. 106-143.

2. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY: (a) the service of Samuel, of Saul, of David, of Solomon; (b) the twofold conception of its origin in 1 Sam. i.—xv. H. P. Smith, Comm. on Samuel (in Intern. Crit. Comm.), Introduction; Kent, Hist. of Hebrew People, I; Wellhausen, Sketch of the Hist. of Israel, pp. 36-56; Stanley, Lectures, etc., I, Lect. 18; McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, I, pp. 238-253

3. PROPHECY: (a) its origin; (b) its relation, (1) to Jehovah, (2) to the State, (3) to the priesthood, e.g. in Samuel. Cornill, Proph. of Israel, pp. 1-28; Orelli, O. T. Proph., pp. 1-50; Briggs, Mess. Proph., pp. 1–33; G. A. Smith, Book of the XII Prophets, I, pp. 11–29.

4. THE BOOK OF PSALMS: (a) organization; (b) history; (c) authorship; (d) literary character; (e) religious attitude and ideas characteristic of them. Perowne, The Psalms, Introduction; Kirkpatrick, The Psalms, Introduction; Encyc. Brit. art. "Psalms"; Davison, Praise Songs of Israel; Robertson, Origin and Religious Contents of the Psalter.

5. THE COVENANT WITH DAVID: (a) is the application individual or institutional? (b) the date and affiliations of the oracle; (c) its importance in the history of messianic prophecy. Cf. Briggs, Mess. Proph., p. 130; Orelli, O. T. Proph., pp. 150-152. 6. DAVID IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: (a) passages in the

Gospels collected and compared ; (b) passages in the Epistles; (c) light thrown on conceptions of the time respecting O. T. prophecy; (d) permanent value of the N. T. interpretation.

The

Literature.

Poetry.

CHAPTER IV

MESSIANIC HOPES IN THE TIME OF THE EARLIER

PROPHETS

I. THE age which opened with the disruption of the empire of David and Solomon into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah saw also the beginnings of a vigorous and splendid literary activity. Prophetic and priestly circles were the scene of this new movement. Oral tradition, in the presence of the opening world and its varied interests, began to decline, and both prophet and priest perceived the necessity as well as the usefulness of organizing these invaluable memorials, and putting them beyond the danger of perishing by reducing them to writing. Many books were written which have been utterly lost; some have come down only in fragments which later writers have preserved. Such were the poetical compilations known as the Book of Jashar and the Book of the Wars of Jehovah. Others were books of laws like the so-called Book of the Covenant. Still others dealt with the stories of the heroic age of the Judges, or with the materials which had accumulated about the careers of the three great kings, Saul, David, and Solomon. They have

been preserved in part by the compilers of the Prophetic present Books of Judges, Samuel, and the Kings. Books.

Somewhat later than these, two books were compiled, in which the traditions of the nation's earliest age were gathered and arranged in historical order. The earlier of these was the so-called J document produced in Judah; the later was the document E, which seems to have appeared in Northern Israel. Both now form part of the present Pentateuch. At most they are not more than a century apart, and the significant fact about them is that both interpret these early traditions in the light of the prophetic ideas of the time. Reference has already been made to the inspiring outlooks and the sound moral ideas cherished by these seers. In their eyes the rude and fragmentary relics of the national past are transfigured.

historical

Such books as these prepared the way for an outburst of individual prophetic activity, even more impressive and potent. In crises of the national history, now becoming more frequent, Written Prophecy. great teachers appeared whose messages, so opposed to the spirit of the age, were put in written form as a testimony to future generations of the reality of their prophetic impulse and the truth of their words. These prophetic books witness both to the unwavering faith in Jehovah, the progress of his revelation to his servants, and the grandeur of the thoughts they cherished. They are Israel's most precious bequest to the world.

Problem.

The attention which these writings received in Israel, the care with which they were preserved, and the enthusiasm with which they were studied by the many followers of their teachings who were raised up by them in the prophetic circles, all this has made the prophetic books as they now stand in our Bibles a great literary jungle, in which the original growth has been enlarged, pruned, grafted with new shoots, until the problem of the literary origin and relationship of the several elements of each prophetic writing is a The Literary very complicated one. Early prophecies have been expanded in the spirit of a later age, interpreted in the light of new experiences, completed to form a more symmetrical whole. Fragments of oracles whose authorship was unknown were connected with collections of prophecies of known authors, later prophets wrote in the spirit and in the name of earlier masters, or described the episodes in their lives. Modern scholarship, moving with caution and with the exercise of recognized scientific canons of judgment, has sought, and succeeded in part, in disentangling this maze and recovering in this field, as in that of the Pentateuch and the Historical Books, the original writings of greater prophets whose names head the several prophetical books of the Old Testa

ment.

Leaders among these writing prophets, the first of the long line, were the heroic figures of Amos