i.e.
that
a
commensal
feast,
in
which
the
god
and
the
worshipper
partook
of
the
same
food,
and
their
kinship
was
consequently
renewed,
was
its
chief
feature
i.RS',
vl.-xi.).
Whether
tliis
was
its
sole
feature
or
not,
there
can
be
no
doubt
that
the
sacrificial
feast
formed
an
important
part
of
primitive
sacrifice,
and
of
sacrifice
among
the
early
Hebrews
(cf.
Ex
24").
Curtiss
beUeves
that
the
originally
significant
element
in
sacrifice
was
the
bursting
forth
of
the
blood,
—
that
this
rather
than
the
feast
constituted
it
a
sacrifice
(Prim.
Sem.
Bel.
To-day,
216-228),
while
Whatham
(}.c.
ii.
38)
holds
that
human
sacrifice,
at
least,
originated
in
impersonating
the
death
of
the
earth-goddess's
son,
i.e.
the
death
of
vegetation.
Whatever
the
meanings
attached
to
it
(and
in
the
long
developments
of
pre-historic
time
they
may
have
been
many),
sacrifice
both
of
human
beings
and
of
animals
was
practised
by
the
primitive
Semites,
and
was
perpetuated
by
the
Hebrews
into
the
OT
period.
Traces
of
human
sacrifice
were
found
by
Mr.
Macalister
during
the
excava-tion
at
Gezer
(cf.
PBFSt,
1903,
pp.
33
£f.,
121,
306
ff.).
The
story
of
the
sacrifice
of
Isaac
(Gn
22)
is
in
reality
an
attempt
to
justify
the
discontinuance
of
the
sacrifice
of
the
human
firstborn,
and
to
substitute
a
ram
for
it.
It
is
really
the
story
of
Isaac's
deliverance,
not
of
his
sacrifice.
Its
presence
in
the
OT
proves
that
in
early
times
the
Israelites,
in
common
with
other
Semites,
practised
human
sacrifice.
(7)
Probably
the
'ban'
(chSrem),
by
which
even
before
a
battle
all
the
population
of
the
enemies'
country
and
their
effects
were
devoted
to
destruction
as
a
solemn
obligation
to
Jahweh,
is
another
survival
from
primitive
times.
Many
examples
of
it
are
found
in
the
OT
(cf.
Nu
212,
joa
6",
1
S
153«).
It
seems
to
have
been
the
custom
of
the
Moabites,
for
Mesha
says
(Moabite
Stone,
1.
11
f.):
'I
killed
all
the
people
of
the
city
—
a
pleasing
spectacle
to
Chemosh.'
So
barbarous
a
custom
was
no
doubt
primitive.
(8)
Another
custom
perpetuated
by
thelsraeUtesfrora
pre-jahwistic
times
was
the
law
of
blood
revenge,
by
which
it
became
a
religious
duty,
when
one
was
injured,
to
infiict
a
hke
injury,
and
if
the
blood
of
one's
kinsman
was
shed,
to
shed
the
blood
of
those
who
had
committed
the
deed.
This
idea
not
only
meets
us
frequently
in
the
OT
(Gn
4™.
23ff-.
Ex
21
2m.),
but
is
also
found
often
in
the
Code
of
Hammurabi.
B.C.
2100
(§§
127,
195-197,
200,
202,
210,
219,
229,
230,
231),
and
among
the
Arabs
to-day
(cf.
e.g.
Zwemer,
Aralyia.
155,
265).
It
is
clearly
one
of
the
religious
points
of
view
which
have
come
out
of
the
primitive
Semitic
past.
(9)
The
Passover,
or
spring
leaping
festival,
so
called,
perhaps,
because
the
young
were
then
gambollingabout
,is
another
institution
which,
as
is
now
generally
recognized,
the
IsraeUtes
broughtwiththera
from
their
remote
Semi
tic
past
(cf.
BS2
406ff.,
464;
Sem.
Or.
108
ff.;
Kautzsch,
in
Hastings'
DB,
Ext.
Vol.
621
ff.:
Schmidt,
Prophet
of
Nazareth,
62).
It
is
one
of
the
survivals
of
the
early
Semitic
worship
of
deity
as
the
giver
of
animal
life,
and,
like
the
'
pillar'
and
ashirah,
is
an
evidence
of
the
sacred
nature
of
reproduction
among
the
ancestors
of
the
Hebrews.
It
underwent
in
later
times
a
different
inter-pretation
at
their
hands
(cf.
Ex
12),
but
it
is
certain
that
that
explanation
does
not
account
for
its
origin.
(10)
It
is
probable
that
an
autumn
festival,
which
in
primitive
Semitic
times
was
connected
with
the
date
harvest,
and
in
the
OT
period
was
known
as
the
Feast
of
Tabernacles,
was
brought
by
the
Israelites
into
Jahweh-worship
from
their
primitive
life.
This
is
not
so
universally
recognized
as
in
the
case
of
the
Passover,
but
has
been
practically
proved
by
Barton
(Sem.
Or.
lu-lls).
In
connexion
with
this
festival
probably
in
primitive
times
the
wailing
for
Tammuz
occurred,
and
all
those
ceremonies
which
celebrated
the
death
and
resurrection
of
vegetation.
This
waiUng
was
in
the
late
Hebrew
ritual
interpreted
as
mourning
tor
sin
on
the
Day
of
Atonement
(cf.
RS'
ill:
Sem.
Or.
289
ff.).
Similarly
after
the
settlement
in
Canaan
it
was
regarded
as
the
feast
of
the
grape
harvest
instead
of
the
date
harvest.
(11)
We
can
hardly
say
that
the
Hebrews
were
believers
in
polytheism
before
the
covenant
with
Jahweh,
but
certainly
they
were
not
monotheists.
Probably
each
tribe
had
its
god.
One
of
these,
the
god
of
the
tribe
Gad,
has
survived
in
the
OT
with
a
specialized
function
(cf.
Is
65").
These
tribal
deities
received
the
special
homage
of
their
respective
clans,
but
no
doubt
when
men
wandered
into
the
region
of
other
local
numina
they
propitiated
these
also.
Such
a
condition,
where
tribes
worship
one
deity
but
recognize
the
reality
of
other
deities,
is
called
by
some
scholars
'
henotheism.'
2.
The
covenant
with
Jahweh.
—
The
historical
circumstances
under
which
Jahweh
became
the
God
of
Israel
have
been
sketched
above
(I.
§
6).
(1)
Those
circumstances
certainly
suggest
that
Jahweh
was
the
god
of
the
Kenites
before
He
was
the
God
of
Israel.
This
view,
firat
suggested
by
Ghillany
,
also
independently
by
Tiele,
more
fully
urged
by
Stade.
fully
worked
out
by
Budde,
is
now
accepted
by
Guthe,
Wildeboer,
H.
P.
Smith,
Barton,
and
W.
R.
Harper.
Thereasonsforitare:
(a)Of
the
three
documents
which
narrate
the
Exodus,
E
and
P
tell
of
the
introduction
of
the
name
Jahweh
as
a
new
name
.
In
early
religion
a
new
name
usually
means
a
new
deity.
E,
on
whom
Pisdependentinthispartofthenarrative.wasanEphraimite
and
preserved
the
traditions
current
among
the
Joseph
tribes.
(6)
The
account
of
the
institution
of
the
covenant
(Ex
18^^-)
makes
it
clear
that
Jethro,
the
Kenite
priest,
offers
the
sacrifice.
He
really
initiates
the
Hebrews
into
the
worship
of
Jahweh.
This
is
confirmed
by
the
underlying
thought
of
all
the
documents
that
it
waa
in
this
Midianite
or
Kenite
country
(the
Kenites
were
a
branch
of
the
Midian-ites)
that
Moses
first
learned
of
Jahweh.
(c)
For
centuries
after
this
Sinai
was
regarded
as
the
home
of
Jahweh
.
From
here
He
marched
forth
to
give
victory
to
His
people
(Jg5*ff.,
Dt
33^
Hab
3',
Ps
68").
Elijah
also
made
a
pilgrimage
to
Sinai
to
seek
Jahweh
in
His
home
(1
K
19).
(d)
The
Kenites
during
several
succeeding
centuries
were
the
cham-pions
of
thepure
worship
of
Jahweh.
Jael
killed
Sisera
(Jg
5^^-).
Trie
Rechabites,
who
from
Jehu
to
Jeremiah
(2
K
10^^,
Jer
35)
championed
Jahweh,
were
Kenites
(1
Ch
25*).
(e)
Someof
the
Kenites
joined
Israel
in
her
migrations
(Nu
10^^-),
mingling
with
Israel
both
in
the
north
(Jg
5^*)
and
in
the
south
(Jg
l^^);
some
of
them
remained
on
the
southern
border
ofjudah.
where
they
main
tain
edaseparate
existence
till
the
time
of
Saul
(1
S
15^),
and
were
finally,
in
the
days
of
David,
incorporated
into
the
tribe
of
Judah
(1
S
SO^s*.
ziff
).
(f)
It
is
this
absorption
of
the
Kenites
by
Judah.
which,
if
Jahweh
were
a
Kenite
deity,
explains
why
the
J
document,
written
in
Judah,
regards
the
faiowl-edge
Oi
the
name
Jahweh
as
inmaemorial
(Gn
i^).
The
perpetualseparateness
ofjudah
from
the
othertribes
tended
to
perpetuate
this
in
spite
of
contrary
currents
from
other
quarters.
We
are
therefore
justified
in
holding
that
Jahweh
was
the
god
of
the
Kenites
,
that
some
of
the
Hebrew
tribes
entangled
in
Egypt
were
ready
to
abandon
their
old
gods
for
one
that
could
deliver
them,
and
thus
He
became
their
God.
The
objections
to
this
view
urged
by
Kautzsch
(Zoc.cii.
626
ffO
really
do
not
touch
thenerveof
the
argument.
The
words
'
Giod
of
thy
fathers
'
on
which
he
lays
so
much
stress
are
written
from
a
later
point
of
view,
ana
that
point
of
view
is
quite
as
well
justified
by
the
Kenite
hypothesis
(for
the
Kenites
were
absorbed
by
Judah)
as
by
the
sup-position
that
Jahweh
was
the
god
of
one
of
the
Israeiitish
clans.
(2)
What
conception
the
Hebrews
of
the
time
of
Moses
held
of
Jahweh
we
can
in
broad
outline
define.
Evi-dently
they
conceived
Him
to
be
a
god
of
war.
The
needs
of
the
oppressed
tribes
demanded
a
warrior.
The
people
are
said
to
have
sung,
after
their
deliverance,
'Jahweh
is
a
man
of
war.'
A
book
of
old
poems
was
called
'The
Book
of
the
Wars
of
Jahweh'
(Nu
21"),
and
'Jahweh
of
hosts'
(or
armies)
was
afterwards
one
of
His
most
constant
names.
There
can
be
little
doubt
that
this
conception
of
Jahweh
as
a
war-god
had
developed
among
the
Kenites,
and
that
it
had
large
influence
in
drawing
the
Hebrews
into
His
worship.
There
is
reason
also
to
believe
that,
as
Jahweh
had
long
been
worshipped
around
Mount
Sinai,
where
severe
thunder-storms
occur
(cf.
Agnes
Smith
Lewis,
Expos.
