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the Jews who had captured the fortress of Masada, on the shore of the Dead Sea, held out for three years longer, but was finally captured {Jos. BJ vii. viii.).

After this terrible calamity the Jews were politically quiet for many years. The Sanhedrin removed from Jerusalem to Jabneh (Jamnia), a town in the Philistine plain south of Joppa, where in later years its sessions became famous for the discussions of Rabbi Akiba and others concerning Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs and other interesting questions.

In A.D. 116, under the Emperor Trajan, Jews in Cyprus and the East-Mediterranean lands raised a revolt, but it accomplished nothing. Hadrian, a ruler of just and tolerant spirit, is said to have granted permission for the rebuilding of the Temple, when the slanders of the Samaritans led him to revoke it. Such an event tended to foster national resentment. In 132 a new Jewish leader, called Bar Cochba, or 'Son of the Star,' appeared and led a new and stubborn revolution. Ttiis precipitated a bloody war. After the defeat of the main force a body of troops fortified themselves at Bether (mod. Bittir), where they held out till 133. Hadrian was so exasperated that he determined to erase the name of Jerusalem from the map. A Roman colony, called iElia Capitolina, weis accordingly founded on the site of Jerusalem, from which all Jews were banished, and a temple to Jupiter was erected on the site of the Temple of Jahweh.

This revolt was the last expression of Israel's national aspirations. In the centuries which have elapsed since, the Jew has been scattered in many countries. Often persecuted, he has in persecution cherished Messianic expectations. He has maintained his national identity without land or national government, content to stand Eis the representative of a religious idea once embodied in a glorious national life.

II. Religion.— 1. The pre-Jahwisticrellgion of Israel. — The history of the religion of Israel is the history of the religion of Jahweh. The religion of Jahweh was, how-ever, introduced at a definite time in Israel's history, and His reUgion as practised by the Hebrews contains many features which are identical with those of other Semitic religions. Several of these can be proved to have had their origin in very primitive conditions common to all the Semites, from which the Israelites had in a good degree emerged before the worship of Jahweh was introduced. It will aid to clearness of thought to note at the beginning what those features were which the Hebrews brought to the religion of Jahweh from their common Semitic inheritance.

(1) In this early religion lotemism, prevailed. In Comparative Religion the term ' totemism ' denotes the idea that a natural object — usually an animal — is kindred in blood to the worstiipper. Such animals are held in great veneration; often they are regarded as specially related to the god of the tribe, and are then worshipped as the representatives of the deity. Traces of such a conception among the ancestors of the Israelites are found in the fact that the name Leah means ' wild cow'; Rachel, 'ewe'; Simeon, a kind of 'wolf or 'hysna'; Caleb, 'a dog.' Confirmation of this view is found in the food taboos of the Israelites. Certain animals were 'clean,' and others 'unclean.' The latter class was in early times indistinguishable from 'holy' animals (Smith, RS 425 fl.). For further proof of totemism, see Barton, Semitic Origins, 34 ft., and the references there given.

(2) Another conception common to the primitive Hamite and Semite was theideathat deity manifests itself especially in the processes of reproduction, and that therefore the organs of reproduction are especially sacred. That this was true of these people generally is abundantly proved (cf. Barton, ch. ill.). One direct evidence that it survived In Israel is the fact that when in early times one swore by Jahweh he put his hand under the thigh (Gn 24^), as one now puts it on the Bible.

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(3) The 'pillar' (mazsibah) was a sacred symbol in the worship of Jahweh down to the reform of Josiah (cf. Gn 28», Hos 3\ Dt 7', 2 K 23"). This object was not peculiar to the Israelites, but is found in all Semitic countries. The 'pillar' was at first a representation of a phallus (cf. Barton, 102), and no doubt, as such, came to be the symbol of deity. The Egyptian obelisks are but more conventionally fashioned 'pillars.'

With the 'pillar' must be placed the ashSrah. TUs object was among the Hebrews at times a wooden post, but usually consisted of more than one. There is some reason tor supposing that the ashSrah was not complete until there was carved in it a rude doorway, symboUc of the physical doorway of life, in which a figure of a goddess stood (cf. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Kypros, p. 165 ff., Plates 17, 18, 29, 80, 83; also 1 K 16"). If this be true, the pillar and the ashlrah together represented at every sanctuary the male and female organs of reproduction (cf. Whatham, Amer. Jour, of Rel. Psychology, i. 25 ft.). Ash^ahs stood by the altar of Jahweh down to the Deuteronomic reform (2 K 23»). These symbols, then, were survivals from the pre-Jahwistio religion of Israel, and their existence proves that the conception of deity of which they are the expression formed a part of that early religion also. Cf. artt. Asherah, Pillar.

(4) Circumcision also is an institution wliich the Hebrews had inherited from their Semitic ancestry. It can no longer be regarded as a peculiarly Hebrew institu-tion, for it was practised by both Hamites and Semites (Barton, 98-117), and is'pictured on an Egyptian monu-ment earlier than the 1st dynasty (Bvll. de cor. hellen-igue, 1892, p. 307 ff., and pi. 1). Circumcision, like many other religious institutions, underwent different inter-pretations at different periods; but its origin is clearly connected with that naive conception of the close con-nexion of the reproductive organs with the Divine wliich characterized all the people of the Hamito-Semitic race (cf. Whatham, ' Origin of Circumcision,' I.e. i. 301 ff.). ■The practice of circumcision among the Israelites is another proof that their conception of deity was in early times closely connected with animal fertility.

(5) From the pre-Jahwistic period came also the idea that spirits or numina dwelt in certain natural objects, such as trees, stones, and springs. This conception belonged to the primitive Semites, by whom it was held in common with primitive peoples generally (cf. RS^ 132, 167-183, 185-195; Sem. Or. 82 ff., 87-97). Sacred trees existed in many parts of Palestine. There was Abraham's oak of Mamre near Hebron (Gn 13" 18'), at Shechem stood another (Jos 24^), at Ophrah another (Jg 6"- "), and at many other places they were found, and indeed they are still found in Palestine at the present day (cf. Curtiss, Prim. Sem. Rel. To-day, 91 ff.; Barton, A Year's Wanderings in Bible Lands, 162, 163, and Biblical World, xxiv. 170, 174).

Wells were also sacred. The fountain at Kadesh was called En-mishpat (Gn 14'), or the ' spring of judgment,' no doubt because oracular decisions were obtained there. The well of Lahai-roi (Gn 16") had a story to account for its sacredness, as had also the wells at Beersheba (Gn 21^'), which were evidently sacred. En-rogel (modern Job's Well) was so sacred that Adonijah held a sacrifice by it (1 K l*"), while Solomon was anointed at Gihon (modern Virgin's Fountain) for the same reason.

A sacred circle of stones called Oilgal existed on the west of the Jordan (Jos 4'Mf). This sacred stone-circle, like many which exist still on the east of the Jordan (cf. Barton, A Year's Wanderings, 143, and Biblical World, xxiv. 177), was no doubt of pre-historic origin. In the pre-Jahwistic religion, then, such numina were wor-shipped by the Hebrews.

(6) Another feature of this early religion was sacrifice. In later times sacrifice was regarded mainly as a gift of food to the deity (cf. Ps 60), and probably in early times this idea entered into it. The late W. R. Smith thought that the chief feature of primitive sacrifice was communion.

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