Introduction to the History of Religions Part 74

[1978] In the political and social disorders in Judea in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. the priesthood was, probably, influential in maintaining and transmitting the purer wors.h.i.+p of Yahweh, and thus establis.h.i.+ng a starting-point for the later development.

[1979] Cf. Breasted, _Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, lecture x.

[1980] So Ezekiel's altar (probably a copy of that in the Jerusalem temple-court), over 16 feet high, with a base 27 feet square (Ezek. xliii, 13 ff.). The Olympian altar was 22 feet high and 125 feet in circ.u.mference. Cf. W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 3d ed., pp. 202, 341, 377 ff. On the general subject see article "Altar" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1981] So in Australia (Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, Index, and _Native Tribes of Northern Australia_, Index), Samoa (Turner), Canaan (Genesis, Judges, pa.s.sim), Greece (Gardner and Jevons, _Greek Antiquities_, p.

173), etc.

[1982] Gardner and Jevons, op. cit., Index, s.v. tee???, _Temple_; Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentumes_, Index; W. R. Smith, op. cit., Index, s.v. _Temples_. There is perhaps a hint of such a place in Ex. iii, 5.

[1983] K. F. Hermann, _Gottesdienstliche Alterthumer der Griechen_, -- 18; Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, 1st ed., p. 137.

[1984] Cf. article "Architecture" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1985] Ps. xiii, 3 [2]; lx.x.xiv, 3 [2].

[1986] So in Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and probably in Babylonia and a.s.syria.

[1987] In Herod's temple: the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of Women, the Court of Israel (Nowack, _Lehrbuch der hebraischen Archaologie_, ii, 76 ff.).

[1988] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopadie der cla.s.sischen Altertumswissenschaft_; article "Asylum" in _Jewish Encyclopedia_. The right of asylum goes back to very early forms of society in all parts of the world; many examples are cited by Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, Index, s.v. _Asylums_.

[1989] Cf. above, -- 121.

[1990] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria_, chap.

xxvi.

[1991] On the supposed difference of symbolism between Greek and Gothic temples (churches) see Ruskin, _Seven Lamps of Architecture_.

[1992] ---- 15, 120, note 3.

[1993] For details see Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, p. 45 f.; Jastrow, op. cit., p. 658 ff.; articles "Ritual" and "Sacrifice" in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_; Bloomfield, _Religion of the Veda_, p. 213 f.; Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 124; _L'Annee sociologique_, ii.

[1994] -- 1199.

[1995] Some hymns to Tammuz are lamentations for dying vegetation and pet.i.tions for its resuscitation.

[1996] 1 Chron. xvi; commentaries on the Psalms; works on Hebrew archaeology (Nowack, Benzinger); articles in Biblical dictionaries and encyclopedias.

[1997] _Revue des etudes grecques_, 1894. On savage songs and music see above, -- 106.

[1998] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopadie der cla.s.sischen Altertumswissenschaft_; Fowler, _Roman Festivals_.

[1999] Pa.s.sover with the departure from Egypt; Sukkot (Tabernacles) with the march through the wilderness; later, Weeks (Pentecost) with the revelation of the law at Sinai.

[2000] Book of Esther.

[2001] 1 Macc. v, 47 ff.

[2002] 1 Macc. vii, 49.

[2003] H. H. Wilson, _Religious Sects of the Hindus_; Monier-Williams, _Hinduism_, Index.

[2004] Gardner and Jevons, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 289.

[2005] They sometimes degenerate into coa.r.s.eness or immorality.

[2006] Christmas, New Year's Day, May Day, Midsummer, All Souls, and others.

[2007] The protest in Prov. xxvi, 2, against this whole conception shows that it existed among the Jews down to a late time.

[2008] Totemic poles, with carved figures of animals, are found in Northwest America (Boas, _The Kwakiutl_; Swanton, in _Journal of American Folklore_, xviii, 108 ff.) and in South Nigeria (Partridge, _Cross River Natives_, p. 219); but these figures are rather tribal or clan symbols than idols.

[2009] The situation in Egypt was exceptional; after the idolatrous stage had been reached the old wors.h.i.+p of the living animal survived.

[2010] Aniconic representations of deities in civilized communities (like the stone representing the Ephesian great G.o.ddess) are survivals from the old cult of natural objects.

[2011] Teraphim, 1 Sam. xix, 13 al.

[2012] In the literature they are guardians of sacred places (Gen. iii, 24) and throne-bearers of the deity (Ezek. i, 26; Ps. xviii, 11 [10]).

[2013] The numerous images mentioned in the Old Testament as wors.h.i.+ped by the Israelites appear to have been borrowed from neighboring peoples. The origin of the bull figures wors.h.i.+ped at Bethel and Dan is obscure, but they appear to represent the amalgamation of an old bull-cult with the cult of Yahweh.

[2014] Possibly the civilization of China was in earliest times identical with or similar to that Central Asiatic civilization out of which Mazdaism seems to have sprung. Cf.

R. Pumpelly, in _Explorations in Turkestan_ (expedition of 1904), i, pp. xxiv, 7, chap. iv f.

[2015] The same feeling appears in the treatment of images of saints by some European peasants.

[2016] For Egyptian forms see Rawlinson, _History of Ancient Egypt_, vol. i; Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_; for Semitic, Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Kypros, the Bible, and Homer_; for Indian, Lefmann, "Geschichte des alten Indiens" in Oncken's _Allgemeine Geschichte_.

[2017] Even the Hindu women's linga-cult is said to be sometimes morally innocent.

[2018] A church is here taken to be a voluntary religious body that holds out to its members the hope of redemption and salvation through a.s.sociation with a divine person or a cosmic power.

[2019] -- 530 f.

[2020] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i, chap. ix.

[2021] H. Webster, _Primitive Secret Societies_, chap. vii.

[2022] For a large definition of the term see S. Reinach, _Orpheus_ (Eng. tr.), p.v.

[2023] For a possible influence see below, -- 1101.

[2024] See the histories of philosophy of Ueberweg, Windelband, Meyer, Zeller.

[2025] See the reference in the _Republic_ (ii, 364 f.) to the mendicant prophets with their formulas for expiation of sin and salvation from future punishment, and Demosthenes's derisive description of aeschines as mystagogue (_De Corona_, 313).

[2026] It is not clear that the peculiar cults described in Isa. lxv, 3-5; lxvi, 3 f., are of Semitic origin. Their history, however, is obscure--they are not referred to elsewhere in Jewish literature. In part they are, like the cults mentioned in Ezek. viii, 10, the adoption of the sacred animals of neighboring peoples; Isa. lxv, 5 seems to point to a close voluntary a.s.sociation with a ceremony of initiation, but nothing proves that the a.s.sociation was of Semitic origin. For a different view see W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 2d ed., p. 357 ff.