Prolegomena to the History of IsraelWellhausen, Julius
Religion
Prolegomena to the History of Israel
Wellhausen, Julius
Bible. Old Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D.; Judaism -- History -- To 70 A.D.
VII.I.4. In the last place it is possible to trace even in the
original narratives themselves certain differences of religious
attitude which indicate to us unobtrusively and yet clearly that
tendency in the development of the tradition which reached its
end in the revision and ornamentation of which we have hitherto
been speaking. This is especially the case with regard to those
narratives which are preserved to us in a double form. These are
not frequent in Judges, but they do occur. A very simple case
of the kind is seen on comparing chap. iv. with chap. v.
The Canaanites again lift their heads under their great king
Sisera, and from their towns in the plains harass the hill
villages of the new settlers. Deborah unites the Hebrew tribes
for the contest. From the North and from the South the hosts of
Jehovah descend before our eyes towards Jezreel, the prophetess
Deborah at their head, the warrior Barak at her side. The conflict
takes place at the brook Kishon, and ends with the defeat of the
kings of Canaan. Sisera himself is killed in the flight by Jael,
the wife of a nomad Kenite. Such are the contents of the song in
chap. v. In the preceding narrative (chap. iv.) we should
expect to find a historical commentary on the song, but we find a
mere reproduction in which the special features of the story are
blurred and falsified. Instead of the kings of Canaan we have the
king of Canaan, as if Canaan had been a kingdom. Sisera, the head
of the Canaanite kings, is transformed into a mere general; the
oppression of the Hebrews is made general and indefinite. Jael
murders Sisera when he is Iying in a deep sleep by driving a
tent-peg into the ground through his temples. There is nothing
of this in the song: there he is drinking when she strikes the
blow, and is conceived as standing at the time, else he could
not bow down at her feet and fall, and lie struck dead where
he fell (ver. 27).
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