The Evolution of Old Testament Religion — John Shaqi
The Evolution of Old Testament ReligionOrchard, W. E. (William Edwin)
Religion
The Evolution of Old Testament Religion
Orchard, W. E. (William Edwin)
Bible. Old Testament -- Theology; Judaism -- History -- To 70 A.D.
times, and are still capable of arousing bitter hostility, as may be
seen from those violent eruptions of anti-Semitism which occasionally
burst through the cosmopolitanism of Western Europe. The well-defined
limitations of their primitive home--crushed in between the continents
of Europe, Africa and Asia, the neutral ground of the Eastern and
Western worlds--seem almost to be reflected in the limitations of their
mental development. The Semitic tongue is crude in its simplicity
and incapable of expressing an abstract idea, and it is natural to
find as a result that the philosophical faculty is almost entirely
missing. Although they have given to the world an alphabet, a system
of numeration which has made mathematics possible, and the beginnings
of measurement and of the science of astronomy, yet their mind is not
scientific in the modern sense. They possess, as perhaps no other race,
the gift of telling stories of wonder and mystery, and for a simple
tale of love and pathos they are unsurpassed. They have produced the
finest lyrical literature of the ancient world, but have contributed
hardly anything to dramatic or epic poetry, and their achievements in
art have been cramped by their religious prejudices.
But in the realm of religion they are supreme, and have become the
high-priests of humanity, for from them have gone forth three great
religions, and one of these capable of development into the universal
religion of mankind. These faiths have not been slowly evolved from the
national consciousness, but have both sprung from and been embodied in
inspiring personalities; for have they not given to the world Moses and
the Prophets, Mahomet, and the Son of Man?
The Semites are divided by anthropologists into the following groups:
Southern Group--North Arabians, Sabæans, Abyssinians; Northern
Group--Babylonians, Assyrians, Aramæans, Canaanites, Hebrews; and
all these groups seem to have been formed from the original stock
by migrations from their home in Arabia. The contracted area of the
Arabian peninsula, the inability of the land to support a large
population, coupled with their restless spirit and the constant feuds
between the tribes, made emigration a necessity at a very early period.
The exact history and order of these migrations it is now impossible to
trace, but it would seem that the first great movement was eastward,
whither they were drawn by the culture and wealth of the Sumerian
civilisation in the Euphrates valley. It is quite possible that this
movement commenced 6000 years before Christ. At a later date they
seem to have invaded Egypt and left some traces upon the language and
customs of that land.
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