Human nature in the Bible

Front matter

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Introduction

Priests, atheists, sceptics, devotees, agnostics, and evangelists are generally agreed that the Authorised Version of the English Bible is the best example of English literature that the world has ever seen. It combines the noblest elevations of thought, aspiration, imagination, passion and religion with simplicity of diction.

Everyone who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may truly be called educated; and no other learning or culture, no matter how extensive or elegant, can, among Europeans and Americans, form a proper substitute. Western civilisation is founded upon the Bible; our ideas, our wisdom, our philosophy, our literature, our art, our ideals, come more from the Bible than from all other books put together. It is a revelation of divinity and of humanity; it contains the loftiest religious aspiration along with a candid representation of all that is earthly, sensual and devilish. I thoroughly believe in a university education for both^men and women; but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without the Bible. For in the Bible we have profound thought beautifully expressed;

x INTRODUCTION

we have the nature of boys and girls, of men and women, more accurately charted than in the works of any modern novelist or playwright. You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York.

The Elizabethan period — a term loosely applied to the years between 1558 and 1642 — is properly regarded as the most important era in English literature. Shakespeare and his mighty contemporaries brought the drama to the highest point in the world's history ; lyrical poetry found supreme expression; Spenser's Faerie Queene was a unique performance; Bacon's Essays have never been surpassed. But the crowning achievement of those spacious times was the Authorised Translation of the Bible, which appeared in 1611. Three centuries of English literature followed; but although they have been crowded with poets and novelists and essayists, and although the teaching of the English language and literature now gives employment to many earnest men and women, the art of English composition reached its climax in the pages of the Bible.

The translators made more mistakes in Greek than they did in English. When we remember that English is not a perfect language, for as a means of expression it is inferior tp both Russian and Polish, it is marvellous to consider what that group of Elizabethan scholars did with it. We Anglo- Saxons have a better Bible than the French or the

INTRODUCTION xi

Germans or the Italians or the Spanish ; our English translation is even better than the original Hebrew and Greek. There is only one way to explain this; I have no theory to account for the so-called "inspiration of the Bible," but I am confident that the Authorised Version was inspired.

Now as the English-speaking people have the best Bible in the world, and as it is the most beautiful monument ever erected with the English alphabet, we ought to make the most of it, for it is an incomparably rich inheritance, free to all who can read. This means that we ought invariably in the church and on public occasions to use the' Authorised Version; all others are inferior. And, except for special purposes, it should be used exclusively in private reading. Why make constant companions of the second best, when the best is available?

The so-called Revised Version and modern condensed versions are valuable for their superior accuracy in individual instances; they may be used as checks and comments; but for steady reading, and in all public places where the Bible is read aloud, let us have the noble, marbly English of 1611. I suggest that one reason why so many people cease reading the Bible after childhood, is because most copies are printed in abominably thin and small type. It is easy to obtain a Bible in convenient shape and weight, printed in large, black type, which pleases the eyes instead pf destroying them.

xii INTRODUCTION

In this book I shall consider the Old Testament as a work of literature, revealing the grandeur, the folly, the nobility, the baseness of human nature. I shall not consider it primarily as "the history of the Hebrew people," for the Hebrew people are much like other people, having the same passions, impulses, purity, filth, selfishness and self-sacrifice that dwell side by side in the heart of every man and woman in the world. I shall consider it as I would a play, an essay, a novel, a poem. The characters in the Bible are just as real to me as Theodore Roosevelt. I shall therefore point out and try to interpret interesting and significant episodes and passages, with one hope in the back of my mind all the time — that those who read these pages will re-read the Bible with renewed zest.

W. L. P.

Yale University,

Tuesday, 22 August, 1922.

Contents

Page

Introduction v

I. The Creation and the Flood 3

II

The Destruction of Sodom — Character of Lot—^Lot's Wife — The Laughter of Abraham — The Sacrifice of Isaac and Its Repetition in the Twentieth Century — i Isaacs Mother — Courtship of Rebekah — Jacob's Treachery to Esau — The Vision in the Night — Joseph and His Brothers — Joseph in Egypt — The Great Recognition Scene

II

We learn that because of its wickedness, the population of the earth, with the exception of one family, was destroyed by cloud-bursts; the twin cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, were destroyed by a rain of fire and brimstone, and they seem to have deserved extinction. Lot, Abraham's nephew, is an interesting person; he was a man of business, shrewd and clear-headed, hospitable and fair-spoken, but not religious like his distinguished uncle ; he was a man of the world. He prospered so abundantly that even in those broad lands the passion of earth-hunger, which has caused so many devastating wars, started a small fight between his herdsmen and those of Abraham. This might have led to serious consequences but for the wisdom and forbearance of the man of God. Abraham suggested that perhaps there was room enough in the world for both, and generously gave Lot the first choice of territory. Lot looked eastward, saw a charming, well-watered plain, and accordingly pitched his tent toward Sodom. Then came the battle of the kings, four against five, and Lot was taken prisoner. Either there was something particularly lovable about Lot, which appealed to Abraham, or it was merely the impelling force of blood-relationship; Abraham fought with the captors, and rescued Lot, his family, and his possessions. After this battle we have that mysterious and inexplicable picture of Melchizedek, a picture that torments one's curiosity:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God.

And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth;

And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

There is one reference to Melchizedek in the Psalms, and eight in the letter to the Hebrews, but I doubt if the writer of the letter knew anything about him. He was, however, obsessed by the mysterious man, saying of him in the seventh chapter of Hebrews, "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."

The King of Sodom offered to let Abraham keep the captured goods provided he would hand over Lot and his family, which request was refused. Then Abraham's affection for Lot was still further shown when, after he had entertained three angels, who gave him a strong hint as to the immediate future of the city of Sodom, he pleaded with the Lord to spare the city. There is something humorously Oriental about Abraham's bargaining with Jehovah. Just as accuracy in statement is a modern virtue, so a fixed price in selling is both recent and Occidental. No trader in the East expects his first price to be the final one, nor does the buyer expect his original offer to be accepted. They are never in a hurry under the sun; both seller and purchaser rejoice in the artistry of bargaining and stretch it out as long as possible. Each understands the other's simulated frankness. So when Abraham first begged Jehovah to spare the doomed town, if it contained fifty righteous persons, and finally beat the number down to ten — the bottom figure — he showed himself a man of his time.

Two angels visited Sodom at even, and were entertained by Lot. On that night, the last night in the history of the city, the inhabitants completely demonstrated their fitness for damnation.

After the evil dark came a terrible dawn. Lot lingered, for he had warned his sons-in-law of the imminent disaster, and although they had sneered at him he may have hoped that at the last moment they would start. But he could not wait. Just before sunrise the angels took Lot, his wife, and two daughters by the hand and told them to escape to the mountain. To the disordered mind of the fugitive the mountain seemed almost as bad as brimstone, and he prayed that he might enter a tiny town close at hand:

Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.

This request was granted, and the city was thereafter called Zoar, which means "little." Lot entered this refuge just after sunrise :

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

And the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

I have much sympathy for her. Lot lost some of his property, but she lost her home. A home means so much more to a woman than to a man that it is easy to understand why she looked back. Lot was thinking of his safety, but she was thinking of her house, and all the pretty things in it — all the furniture, all the ornaments, all the family china — burning up. Although her feet were carrying her away from the sulphurous flames, she looked back to what she loved, even as Orpheus looked back to his most precious treasure, coming out of hell.

There are many interesting men and women in the book of Genesis, and four great personalities: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Abraham is a magnificent ancestor. Unlike most Old Testament heroes, hardly anything evil can be charged against him. He lied twice when the truth would have been practically as well as morally an improvement; but everything else he said and did is admirable. He came out of a pagan country, Ur of the Chaldees ; his father Terah started with his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, his grandson Lot, from Ur to settle in Canaan; but on their way they stopped at Haran; and Terah died in Haran.

Abraham was a spiritually minded man; he seemed to be in communication with God. He was invariably obedient to the divine voice, no matter what inconvenience or suffering resulted; for he had an unfaltering trust, which was rewarded. To signify his success as an ancestor his name was changed from Abram to Abraham. Abram means father of height, but Abraham means father of a multitude. His wife's name was changed from Sarai, which means Jehovah is prince, to Sarah, which means princess.

Abraham and Sarah are two of the very few characters in the Bible of whom it is recorded that they burst out laughing. There is almost no laughter in the Bible, except the mocking laughter of destiny; yet laughter was regarded as good, and promised to those who lived righteously. Both husband and wife were amused by the same promise — that they should have a son. Abraham was shaken by uncontrollable mirth, so that he rolled on tlie ground in merriment. Can't you see him holding his sides, and then unable to stand up?

Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

Then as if to say, "Don't let's talk nousense, let's keep to the facts," he cried to God, "O that Ishmael might live before theel"

Evidently in a very few generations, longevity had come near to what we regard as normalcy; Abraham's ancestors apparently had children at what we should call a very advanced age.

The Associated Press reported that on 6 July, 1922, John Shell died in Kentucky at the age of 134, and that he left two sons, one ninety and the other seven years old!

Sarah was about ten years younger than her husband, and also laughed at the idea, but in a more contained manner, as became a lady; yet when her son was born, she said with fine spirit, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." And the child was named Isaac, which means laughter.

The Arabs regard Ishmael as their ancestor; it is rather remarkable that Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, should be respectively the fathers of the Hebrews and of the Mohammedans.

I do not share the common opinion that Abraham did wrong in offering up his son Isaac. On the contrary it is one of the most splendid of all his recorded deeds. The twenty-second chapter of Genesis gives this story with such brevity and simplicity/ that the effect is startlingly dramatic. There are to-day many conscientious objectors; they say that Abraham's /obedience to God is fine, but when he was asked to give the life of his own son, he would have shown more nobility and righteousness had he flatly refused. Indeed, there are Christian divines who have found it hard to swallow this story, and it is plain they wish it had never been written. Yet men in our day not only consider it right to give the lives of their sons for what they regard as a higher call, but are universally honoured for doing so. What would be the general opinion of a man who, during the years 1914-18, had said, "No; I love my son too much to sacrifice his life at his country's command; it cannot be right for a father to give up his own son." Millions of parents followed Abraham's example, and gave their sons in response to what they believed was the call of duty. Nor did they feel any shame; they felt exalted. "I have two sons at the front!" And those who carried gold stars were assigned the place of honour in public celebrations. Do you remember Lincoln's wonderful letter to the woman who had sacrificed five sons for her country?

The attacks on Abraham's character are based on a lack of faith in God. He really believed in God, just as nowadays every man believes in his own country. If it be not only right but glorious to give one's son for one's country, so it was right for Abraham to sacrifice his son when the divine voice called. To-day, in public addresses and public documents, God receives a complimentary vote ; but when it comes to making a real sacrifice for Him the lack of actual faith is often painfully apparent. Men and women are proud of having sons at the front in time of war; but if they really believe in God they ought to be just as proud of having them away as foreign missionaries, in time of peace. Are they?

Indeed, the supreme example of divine sacrifice is in the words, "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." We give our sons for our country; according to the Gospel, He gave His for the contemptible world. Some persons have said ironically that many men will die to save others, and that if they had the chance to save the world by dying, anybody would do it. They rather miss the point: the sacrifice mentioned in the Gospel is as if a man should give his life to save a hill of ants.

Let us not condemn Abraham till we have begun to understand human nature in the twentieth century; for Abraham did exactly what millions of fathers have done in our day.

As the medieval Mystery Plays interjected slap-stick farce when they represented the comedy, Noah's Flood, so they added an original and more poignant note in the tragedy of Abraham and Isaac. They knew well enough that the love of mother and son is universal and elemental. Now the Bible says nothing of Sarah's feelings at the proposed sacrifice, nor of Isaac's thought of her in the supreme moment.

Attention Is wholly centred on the father and son, as It is in Barrie's tragedy, The New Word. But in one of the old Mysteries we have a scene that must have produced a powerful effect, for it is impossible even now to read it coldly. Isaac becomes uneasy at the nonappearance of the animal for sacrifice, and asks his father some embarrassing questions. At first Abraham puts him off, but finally is forced to blurt out the truth.

A. Ah! Isaac, Isaac! I must kill thee! J. Kill me, father? Alas! what have I done?,

If I have trespassed against you aught,

With a rod you may make me full mild.

And with your sharp sword kill me not,

For surely, father, I am but a child. A . I am full sorry, son, thy blood for to spill,

But truly, my child, I may not choose. /. Now I would to God my mother were here on this hill!

She would kneel for me on both her knees to save my Ijfe.

And since my mother is not here,

I pray you, father, change your cheer, And kill me not with your knife.

Then Abraham explains that it is God's will and Isaac, while he cannot understand why God wishes him slain, submits.

/. Therefore do our Lord's bidding,

And when I am dead, then pray for me: But, good fathdr, tell ye my mother nothing, Say that I am in another country dwelling.

Jews and Egyptians, Mohammedans and Christians, have usually buried dead bodies with care and ceremony; Hindoos burned them, and Parsees left them to be devoured. The first funeral mentioned in the Bible was that oi Sarah, and for that purpose Abraham bought the first graveyard. Sarah died at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven, and after publicly mourning for her, Abraham bought of Ephron the cave of Machpelah, to be used as a family burying ground. The conversation between the two men has a modern flavour. Abraham offered to pay well for the place, and Ephron answered :

My lord, hearken unto me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; "what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.

And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

Sarah was an interesting and charming woman and was mourned sincerely by both her husband and her son. When Isaac married Rebekah, we are told that "he was comforted after his mother's death."

Abraham lived to be one hundred and seventyfive, which was then regarded as old.

Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

Abraham had many other children, but Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Sarah and Hagar, took charge of the funeral, and buried him by Sarah's side in the family lot. To his sons by other women Abraham had made gifts and sent them away; to Isaac he left his entire estate.

The unquestioning obedience that Isaac displayed when prepared for sacrifice by his father was symptomatic of his character ; as a man, he seems to have lacked force and initiative. (What would have happened if Adam had tried to sacrifice Cain?) Isaac was a dreamy, romantic person, who accepted the wife his father provided for him, and then went under her thumb. He became a pathetic, childish, spoiled old man, over-fond of food, like many old people; and was easily bamboozled by his scoundrelly son Jacob. He was always in love with his wife, as we know by an amusing passage in the twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis. He lied to Abimelech, like his father before him, and said that Rebekah was his sister. Some time after, the good Abimelech looked out of a window and saw Isaac kissing Rebekah in a manner unusual between brothers and sisters. So here again a lie nearly brought disaster, where the truth would have been safer.

The courtship of Rebekah by the envoy sent by Abraham — who seems to have been a first-rate diplomat — is a pretty story. Rebekah at the well* with her pitcher on her shoulder, is a picture not easily forgotten. The messenger placed a gold ring in her nose. She ran into the house to show the presents given her by the stranger; and when her brother Laban saw those gifts he was impressed. We can see the greed in his eyes, for we know his later history. Perhaps Rebekah was glad to get away from him, for when asked if she would follow the ambassador home to marry a man she had never seen, she gave an unhesitating and unqualified affirmative :

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide; and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming.

And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.

For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master; therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

This first courtship is told with much interesting detail, and is a true pastoral, unequalled in idyllic beauty until we come tothe story of Ruth.

The twin sons of-J^w^and Rebekah were the rufous Esau and the smooth Jacob ; the former his father's and the latter his mother's favourite. Esau grew up to be a hunter and Jacob a "plain man dwelling in tents." The thick-headed, downright, injipetuous fellow was no match for his crafty brother, who had learned sharp dealing in business. Although Jacob was blessed by God and became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, it is impossible to admire him, or to forgive him for his treatment of his unsuspecting brother. When Jacob sod — boiled — pottage, it is probable that he knew what he was about, for the distinguishing characteristic of this young man was foresight. Esau came in from hunting with a hunter's appetite; and the smell of the cooking was too much for him, as Jacob had expected. So when he asked for food he found he had to pay his birthright for it. This privilege seemed to him an empty honour in comparison with eating; and like many other men, he sacrificed the future for an immediate and material good. The author of the letter to the Hebrews condemned Esau for selling his birthright; but from our point of view Jacob is more to be condemned for buying it.

J He was the first and one of the most contemptible

; in the long list of food profiteers.

But when Rebekah and Jacob — two of a kind — went into partnership to swindle both Isaac and Esau, the result was even more disastrous; the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis, in its dramatic narration of this outrage, must be regarded, from the artistic point of view, as one of the finest short stories in literature. Nor is it the only instance where a mother and son have united to get something out of the father of the house.

It is interesting to observe that the authors of the books in the Bible seldom attempt to shield their heroes, or to palliate their offences. We shall see later, when we come to study the lives of the kings, that an extraordinary feature of the biographies is their lack of the nationalistic bias; and so, at the very outset of the history of the Israelites, the duplicity and treachery and selfishness of the father of the twelve tribes are set down with amazing candour. Love of truth triumphed over partisan feeling; which is one reason why the stories in the Bible make such interesting reading. Human nature : as it really is arouses the interest of persons in all ages and in all countries; whereas plaster saints are dull. They are dull, not because people dislike goodness, but because the average man never likes to see men and women represented as untrue to human nature. There is only one perfect character in the Bible, and He was divine.

The worst service that can possibly be performed for a historical figure is for his biographer to represent him as perfect; readers lose interest in him. This is well brought out by Lytton Strachey, in his Life of Queen Victoria, where he accounts for the lack of interest among English people in the Prince Consort, who was really a man of extraordinary power, by the fact that the official biographies inade him a patterh of all the virtues instead of a human being. No such error is committed by Bible authors ; which is one reason why the men and women in the Bible are so vivid. It is a continual Revelation of Man,

Jacob had a well-founded fear that Esau would kill him; he fled to the stock farm of his uncle Laban, and there married two of his first cousins. On the way thither he had a vivid dream :

And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. /

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it . . .

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not.

And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

And he called the name of that place Bethel. (House of God.)

When Sarah Flower wrote her hymn* Nearer M$ God to Thee, which she and her sister sang as a duet in church, she was inspired by this particular incident in the life of Jacob.

Or, like the wanderer,

The sun gone down, Darkness be over me,

My rest a stone; Yet in my dreams I'd be Nearer, my God, to thee,

Nearer to thee!

There let the way appear

Steps unto heaven; All that thou sendest me

In mercy given; Angels to beckon me Nearer, my God, to thee,

Nearer to thee!

Then with my waking thoughts, Bright with thy praise, Out of my stony griefs,

Bethel I'll raise; So by my woes to be Nearer, my God, to thee,

Nearer to thee!

The best part of Jacob's nature and the best thing in his life was his love for Rachel. He was a lover, and fell in love at first sight:

And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them.

And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Leah was tender-eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and wellfavoured.

I used to think that this passage meant that Leah, although inferior in beauty to her younger sister, had lovely expressive eyes. Not at all; it means that Leah was sore-eyed. Poor Leah I

And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. . . .

And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

When Jacob offered to serve seven years for

Rachel, it was a high compliment to her worth. In Methuselah's time seven years were not very much, but later they were a goodly portion of a man's life.

Since the beginning of human history it has been sport to see the engineer hoist with his own petard; and it is not altogether with regret that we see the scoundrel Laban cheating his nephew, the scoundrel Jacob. They were an accomplished pair of robbers — diamond cut diamond, and Laban met his match. Jacob did not forget the trick Laban played on him. At the end of seven years rheumy-eyed Leah was worked off on him instead of Rachel; her father probably believing that this was the only way he could get his eldest daughter married, and at the same time he could keep Jacob another seven years. Jacob was a good workman, was plainly mad about Rachel, and would not go without her. So Jacob served another seven years for the woman he loved. Leah had more sons, but Rachel was the mother of Joseph, and subsequently died in child birth — the child was Benjamin. Sed duo leones.