This sense, in fact, inhered with the genius for history and its meanings which, as we have noted, was distinctive of the Hebrew mind.1 Even the primitive Jehovistic stories of the loss of Eden, of Cain and Abel, of Noah's survival of the Flood—are as truly prophecies as histories, containing as they do elements of promise and outlook toward a high destiny for mankind. This prophetic strain becomes increasingly marked, alike in the J and the E sources, after Abraham has made his great venture of faith and founded a family in the hope of becoming, through his posterity, a light and blessing to all the nations of the earth. It is this sense of future destinies which differentiates the Hebrew line of story from the myths and legends of other nations. Instead of a confused and motiveless past, such as these other legends reflect, the Hebrew historian deals with the "dark backward and abysm of time" as with a history of which he possesses the secret; and so those early myths, so odd and childish by other standards, become luminous and reasonable as links in a chain of prophetic progress. All this contributes to make the Bible, from beginning to end, the most forward-looking book in the world. "These people have a secret," writes Matthew Arnold of the Hebrews; "they have discerned, the way the world was going, and therefore they have prevailed." I Oracles Tribal and Racial. This prophetic strain is enhanced by numerous passages of early literature, in the form of poetic oracles, which we find incorporated at the fitting places in the text of the history. These, tracing back to the primitive times when the family was the social unit, embody the hopes and presages connected with the promise made to Abraham and confirmed in increasingly specific terms to 1 See above, pp. 37, 38. his posterity. They relate to the destiny of families, clans, tribes, and the whole nation; recording, as it were, the state of the prophetic consciousness at the time and in the circumstances purported by them. It is uncertain how far these oracles are actually the words of the persons to whom they are attributed. In their present form they are probably later; but at all events they are earlier than the completed text in which they occur, being incorporated from some ancient source. It is in such oracles as these that formal and articulated prophecy begins; and by these it is represented until the time of the literary prophets. Examples may be seen in the oracle given at the birth of Esau and Jacob (Gen. xxv, 23); the blessings pronounced later by their father Isaac on Jacob and Esau (Gen. xxvii, 27-29, 39, 40); the blessing pronounced by Jacob on his posterity when his sons had become the heads of clans (Gen. xlix, 2-27); and the blessing pronounced by Moses on the tribes when they, as constituent elements of a nation, were about to enter the promised land (Deut. xxxiii). All these are prophecies from the heart of the Hebrew people, embodying its sacred consciousness of the calling and destiny appointed for the heirs of Abraham's faith, as far as could be realized in that stage of their development. A Testi The most remarkable example, perhaps, of such early prophecy, remarkable because coming from a seer of alien race and religion, is seen in the oracles of monial from Balaam, with the accompanying episode of hisWithout tory, in Numbers xxii to xxiv. These verses (mashals they are called) predict in glowing terms the mission and fortunes of Israel, as seen by one to whom against his desire is vouchsafed a vision from Jehovah concerning this rival and hated people. Balaam has been hired to curse Israel; but in spite of all his efforts he can only pronounce a blessing: How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy, whom Jehovah hath not defied?... And shall not be reckoned among the nations. . . Jehovah his God is with him, And the shout of a king is among them. . . I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh; There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, And shall smite through the corners of Moab, Incidentally this strange Balaam episode reveals the relatively crude conception that heathen nations had of the nature of a Deity, and of the way to deal with his mind and will. For Balaam and the king Balak who has hired him to voodoo a nation find to their dismay that the God of that nation is one who cannot be bought, who cannot be fooled, who cannot be changed. God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent. This idea of the changeless self-consistency of God became, so to say, the axiom on which real prophecy, as distinguished from divination, was founded. Divination thought of the divine will as something to be managed or bent to human purposes. Prophecy identified it rather with the most steadfast element of character, removing it thus from caprice or arbitrariness. It was a lesson only gradually learned, and by some costly experiences. In Saul's time, when the king would play fast and loose with God's bidding, Samuel had to tell him, almost in the words of Balaam, "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent (1 Sam. xv, 29). The oracles of this ancient seer Balaam, purporting to come from the eve of their entrance upon the land cf Canaan, must have had great influence upon the subsequent hopes and principles of Israel. The story of Balaam was to late time one of the best known of their early traditions, and was used by later prophets as a warning and monition. NOTE. The following are the places in Scripture where the story of Balaam is referred to: Deut. xxiii, 4, 5; Josh. xxiv, 9, 10; Neh. xiii, 2; Mic. vi, 5; 2 Pet. ii, 15; Jude 11. The Old Testament passages commemorate the turning of the curse into a blessing; the New Testament passages condemn the prophet rather for "loving the wages of wrong-doing." II Evolution of the Prophetic Order. In a general sense the prophet, or seer, was a familiar figure from earliest times. Moses, the nation's great founder and lawgiver, was called a prophet (Deut. xxxiv, 10), and predicted the coming of a successor like himself (Deut. xviii, 15); Deborah, who acted as champion and magistrate in Israel, was a prophetess (Judg. iv, 4); and soon after her time the visit of an unnamed prophet is mentioned (Judg. vi, 8), who bids the people not to fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land they dwell. The Primitive The father of prophecy in its more distinctive sense, however, was Samuel, whose activities as judge, counselor, and king-maker were of great importance to Beginnings: Israel. It was through the influence of his stern Personal yet sterling personality that the people were prepared to drop their tribal jealousies and become an organized state; it was by him also that the original constitution of the monarchy was determined (1 Sam. x, 25). He was reared as an acolyte in the temple at Shiloh, having been consecrated to the priesthood by his mother (1 Sam. i, 24; ii, 18, 19). While he was yet a child, and at a time when prophetic vision was rare (1 Sam. iii, 1), he received divine communications predicting the doom of the corrupt priesthood (1 Sam. iii, 10-14); and as a young man he was honored throughout Israel as a prophet of Jehovah (1 Sam. iii, 19–iv, ↳). We next read of him as counseling the people against taking up with strange gods (1 Sam. vii, 3, 4), and as interceding for them in their weakness against the Philistines (1 Sam. vii, 5-14). Not much more is told of him until he was an old man; but it would seem that after the temple at Shiloh was broken up, so that there was no longer a main center for worship, sacrifice, and oracle, he made journeys about the land, ministering both as priest and prophet at various local sanctuaries in turn, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and his own birthplace Ramah (1 Sam. vii, 15-17); and thus he spent a long and useful life of judgeship. The Primitive He seems also to have been instrumental in forming, or at least sanctioning, bands of prophets, who perhaps dwelt at the various sanctuaries and went about the country Beginnings like modern dervishes (1 Sam. x, 5, 6, 10, 11); Communal he himself, however, was not identified with them. In the actions of these roving bands we get the most primitive idea of prophetic communication with supernatural powers. They seem to have induced a kind of ecstasy by means of music, and in that hypnotic state to have uttered. emotional ejaculations which according to primitive ideas were supposed to be the voice of the deity within. They were probably disciples of Samuel, and like him zealous for the religious and patriotic welfare; but not having his breadth and poise of character, their emotions in their ill-disciplined personality got beyond the control of intellect and will, and expressed themselves in odd and unintelligible ways. Such phenomena are apt to occur in all primitive religions, and are by no means unknown in uncultivated communities in modern times. They represent a primal stage in the development of prophetic gifts, before prophecy had become so amenable to reason and intellect as to express itself in ordered literary utterance. Such trancelike performances were not |