Hebrew Life and Times Part 15

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, tw.a.n.ging noise than like our own melodies and harmonies.

=Influence of this wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O G.o.d, thou wilt not despise."=

These words and scores of other pa.s.sages just as great set to music long since forgotten but in those days sweet to the ear, helped untold mult.i.tudes to do justice and to love mercy, to confess their sins, and to find strength and hope in G.o.d.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [Ill.u.s.tration: CANAANITE PIPE OR FIFE] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: AN EGYPTIAN HARP] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: AN a.s.sYRIAN UPRIGHT HARP] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: AN a.s.sYRIAN HORIZONTAL HARP] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: A BABYLONIAN HARP] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: JEWISH HARPS ON COINS OF BAR COCHBA, 132-135 A.D.] | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.sYRIAN DULCIMER] | | | | 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+pers 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 G.o.d my G.o.d." 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 G.o.d. We read that at one time, even under the leaders.h.i.+p 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 h.e.l.lenism.=--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 wors.h.i.+p Jehovah, the G.o.d 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 fas.h.i.+ons. 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 pa.s.sage 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," "c.h.i.n.ks," and so on?

CHAPTER XXVI

A BROAD-MINDED AND n.o.bLE 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 fis.h.i.+ng business by the Sea of Galilee. In the time of Jesus we find this lake surrounded by flouris.h.i.+ng towns. Most of the men in these towns supported themselves and their families by fis.h.i.+ng. 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.