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.
One more point has to be noticed. The chapters vii. viii. x. 17
seq. xii. betray a close relationship with Judges xix.-xxi.,
not only by their general tendency, but by a geographical
detail in which the two passages agree. It is only here that
Mizpeh, near Jerusalem, occurs as the place of meeting of all
Israel; we find no further mention of the place in the whole
period of the judges and the kings. Only after the destruction
of Jerusalem is it mentioned, and there as the centre of the new
Jewish community instituted by the Chaldeans (Jeremiah xl. seq.) as
the substitute of the old capital. It appears once more, and in a
similar character, in I Maccabees iii. 46 seq. at a time when the
temple of Jerusalem was in the hands of the Syrians, and the Jews
could not get to it. The Mizpeh of Judges xx., 1Samuel vii. 10,
is probably the same as that of Jeremiah xl. seq., and intended to
be, like these, in place of Jerusalem, the only legitimate
sanctuary, which, however, did not exist at that early time.
This is a further proof of the post-Deuteronomic and Jewish origin
of these narratives, but at the same time an indication that, with
every inclination to the views of the Priestly Code, the writer
yet had not that code before him. For in that work the projection
of Jerusalem into the period before Solomon is carried out in
quite a different way: the tabernacle renders Mizpeh superfluous.
It has also to be remarked that the rite of pouring out water
(1Samuel vii.) is foreign to the Priestly Code.
VII.II.3. The relation of Saul to Samuel is a subject which lends
itself readily to general views, and the development of the
tradition is visible in it in other particulars besides those we
have mentioned. Taking the view of 1Samuel vii. viii. xii. as
the lower limit, the narrative nearest in character is the story
about Samuel contained in an insertion in chap. xiii. After Saul
is made king at Gilgal by the levy with which he relieved Jabesh,
he selects from it a body of men who camp with him and Jonathan
at Gibeah and the neighbouring Michmash: and Jonathan, by killing
the officer at Gibeah, gives the signal for battle with the old
enemy of his race. The Philistines advance, and take up a position
to the north of Gibeah, with only a deep valley between them and
the Israelites. But Saul, we hear all at once, xiii. 7 (cf. ver. 4)
was yet in Gilgal, and waited seven days for Samuel, according
to the set time the latter had appointed; but Samuel did not come,
and the warriors began to scatter. As he was himself offering the
sacrifice without which no campaign could be commenced, Samuel
arrived, and at once opened upon him. Saul defended his act
with great force: the people were scattering, and Samuel had not
come at the appointed time, and as the Philistines had advanced
close up to Gibeah, he had found it impossible to delay longer,
and had offered the sacrifice in order to advance against them.
To all this Samuel's only answer was:
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