A critical review of Jewish history from the earliest times to the return from Babylonish captivity

Preface

In offering the following pages to the public, I act with the assurance that very many, at the present day, hold to the same, or nearly the same, views therein presented. I know, too, that insurmountable barriers seem to exist between the author’s views and those of many religious teachers of to-day; but I also know that, forty years ago, it was a great exception to the general rule to see a person who had lost faith in the high claims of the Hebrew records. But now, not only the millions who lay no claims to the doctrines of the old school of theology, but very many within the pale of the Christian Church, and in some cases high oflicials, deny that a great part of the early Bible history is more to be depended upon than the tradi¬ tions and early history of peoples, other than the- Jews, in corresponding periods.

IV

PREFACE .

In writing the following pages, it has been the author’s endeavor to follow the Hebrew records cor¬ rectly, and to omit no essential part of the history; and he confidently hopes and believes that he has presented that history, to those of limited time for reading, in a clearer light and completer form than it has been presented heretofore, even though the reader may widely differ with the author on his com¬ ments and criticisms.

WILLIAM HOWES.

St. Margaret’s, Md.,

December $8, 1886.

CONTENT'S.

Chapter I. The Ahtediluviaes

In writing a history of the Jews, it might be deemed proper to begin with the career of the first patriarch, Abraham. But as it is not the author’s intention to write a history of the Hebrew people, but simply to review and make comments on the narratives which that peculiar people wrote concerning their early career, and which have come down to us in books known as their sacred writings, it seems more proper to begin with their earliest accounts.

These writings were held sacred by the Jews for many centuries preceeding the Christian era, and were believed by them to be the word of God; and as such, they were received by the early Christian church; and the same Christian church has held them till quite recently, as writings that could be doubted by no one but an infidel. But science has made such rapid strides within two centuries, and especially so for the past fifty years, that scholars generally, includ¬ ing many Christians, reject much that is found in the sacred writings, or try to explain many of the so-called miracles by natural causes, or by vague and uncertain theories that die with their authors. But the records still stand, and will outlive all the theories that may be invented to try to make Genesis and science agree. And judging from the failures in the past, we can 2

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

only conclude, that, if science is founded on a true basis, Genesis must soon lose all claim to being a true record of any part of the world’s history.

In Genesis, we first read an account of the creation of the world, all of which is now admitted to be inconsistent, and at variance with, all known laws of cause and effect. And the whole account, in its literal sense at least, is rejected now by Christian and skeptic alike. We read an account of the Garden of Eden, where God has prepared an earthly paradise for the creatures He has made, or is about to bring into existence, where sorrow and death are unknown. But by the inquisitiveness of Eve, the sole companion of Adam, who is induced to partake of the forbidden fruit, by the deception of the serpent, and who per¬ suades Adam to commit a like offense, man forfeits his fair abode, and is driven hence to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. And henceforward man is in a fallen state, and sin and degredation are insepa¬ rable from his nature, until new life is offered, condi¬ tionally, four thousand years hence.

In process of time, Eve becomes the mother of two sons, Cain and Abel. And when these grow up to be young men, they make their offerings to God, who is more pleased with the offering of Abel than with that of Cain. This creates a feeling of jealousy in Cain’s bosom, and he slays his brother Abel. God condemns Cain for the murder of his brother, and pronounces a curse on him and his posterity forever. The account of the Garden of Eden has always been a perplexing subject to modern Christian scholars, each of whom has located it in his own ideal spot, but each has failed to persuade the world of his great discovery; and the locality of the Garden is still a mystery, and I dare say will be for all time to come. Any further discus¬ sion on the subject would be a fruitless task, and its discovery should be left to some explorer who has nothing else to do.

But Cain is cursed and goes out from the presence of his Maker to find a wife in the land of Hod.

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

Was this wife his sister? She could be no other; for . Adam had declared only a few years before, that Eve was the mother of all living. But why should Cain’s sister be off in the land of Nod, even if he had one? The human family at that time was very young, and we do not know that Eve gave birth to a third child for more than one hundred years after the birth of Cain, and that was a son. Now, in the name of truth, how could Cain find a wife in the land of Nod, or any where else, while his father and mother were the parents of all living, and they, as yet, having had but two children, both sons? The only possible wife would be his own sister; and when Eve exclaims at the birth of Seth, “God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew,” it implies that she had borne no other child since Abel, and certifies that Seth was the third son. The account of Cain’s generations is suddenly brought to a close, and we are left in ignorance in regard to them. The record closes with a speech from Lamech to his two wives, declaring that he had killed a young man. This speech may have been recorded to show that Cain’s descendants were murderers to the last; be this as it may, the descendants of Seth were but little better.

The account now sweeps over many centuries, and we are left in ignorance in regard to the affairs of the world. All that we learn more about the human family, in the Antediluvian world, is that the sons of God married the daughters of men; that mighty men and giants existed; that the world was full of wickedness; that God was continually provoked and perplexed; that God repented that He had made man, and decided to destroy him from the face of the earth. To this I can only say, I wonder how the intelligent of this age can place any reliance on the narrative.

We come now to an event, as recorded in Genesis, that seems to harmonize with scientific research no more than do the events that precede it. The lan-

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

guage used in the description of the flood is so simple and so plain, that we must receive it as a fact—a real fact in every particular, as recorded, or we must reject it altogether, and class it with the nomadic tent-tales of oriental lands. Preceding the events of the flood, as recorded, the moral condition of mankind was anything but satisfactory to God. Therefore, He concluded to destroy from the face of the earth, the ungovernable creatures He had brought into existence, by a universal deluge.

Ho half way work was to be done in this event. Ho locality in particular was to be submerged, but the whole face of the earth. And not on man only was the destroying flood to fall, but also upon everything that breathed upon the face of the earth, except Hoah and his family and pairs of all kinds of animals.

Hoah, being a just man, found grace in the sight of God, and was commanded to build an ark in which he and his family were to be saved, together with pairs of all creatures that existed, whereby the earth might be re-peopled and re-inhabited after the deluge. We may now ask, what means had Hoah for building such a monstrous craft ? Where did he find mechanics in those days equal to the task ? What inducements could he offer to those hundreds of men for the per¬ formance of such a prodigious work ? Whom could he find to visit every country and to collect together the indigenous creatures of every clime where the sun shone? Where did the waters come from to submerge the a highest mountain, and where did they recede to when dry land appeared ? It was not a great geolog¬ ical change; it all occured within one year. Mount Ararat was the highest mountain that the Jews had any knowledge of in early times, so they found it most convenient to make the ark rest there. Yes, they brought the ark to land on that mountain about 2,348 years before Christ. Here let us pause a moment in all candor, and take a glance at the world.

On Mount Ararat we behold the ark resting after its eventful voyage of some seven months. Within

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

its apartments exist now, all the creatures of the animal kingdom that have been saved from destruc¬ tion. Within that ark is every creature that lives and breathes. From that craft must come forth the parents of all creatures that are to inhabit the arctic regions and the torrid zone. From that ark are to come forth eight human beings of one race, of one language, of one family and necessarily of one color. From these eight human beings are to spring all the races and tribes of people, with all their varied physical characteristics of form and color, that are to be found on the surface of the earth centuries later. While we look upon that ark as it rests on Mount Ararat, the rest of the world is but a blank if Genesis is true. Gaze where you will on continent or island and no sign of life is there This condition, and this alone, must have been the case, a little over four thousand years ago, if Genesis is the word of God.

But now let us turn from Genesis to secular history, and from Mount Ararat to view other parts of the world. If we travel south-eastward, we shall pass through country after country, thickly inhabited by people of varied physical characteristics and languages where mighty temples are already erected in honor of the different national deities, and for places of worship. We shall find the countries inhabited by all the varied types of creatures that live and breathe as freely as those we have left in the ark. Not only this, but we shall find these countries inhabited by people who claim an antiquity that reaches back into the past for thousands of years. After taking a glance at India with all her mighty temples, at her institutions, at books that are already ancient, let us pass on to the north-east, through tribe after tribe, until we reach that grand old country, China. There we shall find a dense population with institutions and language peculiar to that people, and older than the Adamic race. Let us retrace our steps, and repass Mount Ararat while Noah is yet in the ark in charge of the whole animal kingdom; and if we travel 2 *

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.

south-westward, and visit the valley of the Nile, we shall find kings sitting upon time-honored thrones, in countries where time-worn temples speak of long centuries of history in the already past. There, too, we shall behold descriptions of a long line of events, and paintings that will tell us that the negro lives, and has lived for long ages, having all the character¬ istics of form and color, that he will have four thousand years hence. We shall see an old empire th?„t bears all the marks of time-worn institutions that have passed through a growth of long centuries. We shall also be able to learn from these paintings and inscriptions, in and about the temples, that the countries, bordering on Egypt, are already peopled by tribes, having the same physical forms and colors, that will be found in the same localities in the nineteenth century of the Christian Era.

This is not all; for we shall learn that these varied tribes, including the Egyptians, have lived in their respective localities for ages, including the year of the Noachian flood, undisturbed by any such deluge. Therefore, as intelligent beings of the nineteenth century, we must reject the story of the flood; and who shall condemn us for coming to such a conclusion?

NOAH AND HIS DESCEND ANTS .

Chapter II. Noah And His Descendants

Tlie disembarkation of the precious cargo on Mount Ararat is left to our imagination; for no details are given. But we can readily see that it was no light undertaking. From the smallest creeping thing to the monstrous serpent, great caution was needed; and from the minutest quadruped to the ponderous elephant, great care and labor was required; and unless Noah had a large store of food on hand, it would not have been strange, if some of the carniverous animals had devoured some of the smaller creatures. But we must suppose that the animal kingdom was safely disembarked, and each pair went its way unmolested. After the deluge, Ctod made a covenant with Noah, and set His bow in the clouds, as a sign that the world should not again be destroyed by a flood. In this we see, that while the author of Genesis beheld the effect, he knew nothing about the cause. Shall we hold to the author of Genesis, and blind ourselves in the belief that the laws of nature did not work then as now ? or shall we follow science and say that the bow had spanned the heavens, whenever conditions were suited, since the morning when the first raindrops fell ? It might seem, that after Noah and his sons had witnessed such an awful event as the deluge, peace would reign in the family. But peace was foreign to the whole course of events, and one of the first acts of Noah, after the deluge,, was to drink too much wine and become intoxicated. While in this condition, Ham unwittingly saw his father, who, it appears, was naked at the time; and

NOAH AND IIIS DESCENDANTS,

Ham told his brothers about it. And they, being advised of their father’s condition, were prepared to take measures to cover him without seeing him in his nude state. For this unfortunate discovery of Ham, his father, when he becomes sober, curses him and his descendants forever; and the world is again plunged into sin. Yet, we find that about one hundred and thirty-one years after the flood, Noah and all of his descendants are still together, and try to build a tower that shall reach to heaven. The world is still but one community and of one language. But God does not like their new movement of building a tower, and frustrates their design. He, therefore, comes down from the higher regions and confuses their language. We learn but little more about them for nearly three hundred years. But about two hundred and ninetyseven years after Noah and his family were all in one community, Abraham goes to Egypt and is entertained by a king who reigns over an old mon¬ archy, whose history leads back into the past for a thousand years, and whose institutions are in no wise akin to those of Abraham’s native country. Four years later, Abraham is back in Asia where he finds kings warring against kings who seem to be strangers to one another and ruling over countries far apart. And al though Ohederlaomer is confederate with Tidal, king of nations, who together with their confederates, subdue the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and several others, and then return towards their own country, Abraham goes in pursuit of them with three hundred and eighteen of his own servants, subdues them, and rescues his nephew and a great amount of booty, and then returns and reaches his own camp in safety. Let us pause for a moment and ask in all candor, where did all of these nationalities come from? when were all of these kingdoms founded ? and how did the people become so estranged from one another, within so short a time from the flood, and while their earliest ancestors were yet alive ? The story is legend exaggerated, with no semblance of truth. Sodom

NOAH AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

and Gomorrah are soon destroyed by God, after the preceding events, on account of the enormity of their sins, and only three of the inhabitants escape death. These are Lot and his two daughters, who, though saved on account of their superior virtues, drink deeply at the cup of sin immediately after their escape from destruction. The daughters give their father wine to drink until he becomes intoxicated, and each, in turn, lies with him; and he, in an unconscious condition, becomes the father of two sons by his own daughters. The account of such a crime, committed under such conditions, is revolting to every law, social and physical. The only excuse the daughters are made to offer for their crime, is that they feared that there was no man left in the world whereby they might preserve seed to their father. Their patience and conscience must have succumbed to temptation very easily, or these model young crea¬ tures would have waited a little while until they dared to venture on a short journey, which would have brought them into the midst of peaceable communities, that had been undisturbed by the destruction of the cities of the plain.

But, the author of the narrative wished, at this stage of affairs, to create new nationalities that should be akin to, but forever at enmity with, the tribes to be introduced later on. And, in due time, we shall find that the Moabites and Ammonites prove to be no contemptible enemies of the Israelites. I feel that I cannot close this chapter without saying something about dates. The only source we have from which to form any idea about the time that elapsed from Adam to Abraham, is the genealogies before and after the flood. These genealogies are so straight¬ forward that they must be absolutely correct, or else without foundation. If the writer of Genesis was inspired, and received any part of it from God, he received all of it from the same source. If any part of it is true, the genealogies are true. If the gene¬ alogies are false, Genesis is a fiction. In regard to the

NO A U AND TITS DESCENDANTS.

great age of the patriarchs, I can only say, all the researches of scientists, into the mysterious past, have failed to discover anything that discloses the fact that men ever lived to a much greater age than they do at the present time. But, on the contrary, we have abundant evidence that men have, for four thousand years and more, died in every part of the world, from Egypt to China, at about the same age that men die to-day.

According to Genesis, those old patriarchs all passed away about the nineteenth century B. C. But while Genesis tells us that Abraham died in a good old age, and well stricken in years, at the age of one hundred and seventy-five, we learn from the same source, reckoning by the genealogies, that Eber, the fifth in descent from Noah, was still living at the age of four hundred years, and lived sixty-four years after Abraham had passed away. And Rue, the seventh from Noah, died, after Abraham, at the age of two hundred and thirty-nine years.

From the foregoing we see what uncertainties we have to deal with in regard to the chronology of the times of the patriarchs. The Hebrew authors who wrote books on these early times, give us no clue to the ages in which the events they wrote about took place, except as we can glean them from the genealogies before and after the flood. But these genealogies are among the greatest uncertainties of traditional history. Therefore, we must grope our way, for ages, until the light of secular history helps us to dispel the darkness, and we find the Jewish people a real living nation, battling for existence among the nations of the earth.

ABRAHAM , ISAAC AMD JACOB.

Chapter III. Abraham, Isaac And Jacob

Genesis throws no light on the history of the world from the confusion of languages at Babel to the time of Abraham, a period of about three hundred years. We are told that Abraham was the son of Terah, a native of IJr, a locality somewhere above the con¬ fluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. There are many traditions about Terah and his family, all of which are worthless, of course. But it appears that Abraham was a worshipper of the one true God, while all his relatives were idolators. Being chosen of God, we may suppose that he had superior virtues; and spiritually, he must have stood far above his family and race to be the one exalted above all others. But we find him at times prevaricating and using a good degree of deception; and to say the least, he was of a very suspicious nature; and often mistrusted men in high positions, who seem to have been more honorable than Abraham might have been in their places. On various occasions, he represented his wife as being his sister, to deceive his hosts; but this was really the case, and it adds to his faults the crime of living in open incest with his sister, a crime which was looked upon with horrible disgust in many ancient nations, and which is made to appear so awfully appalling, when charged to a reckless Roman Emperor.

But if it be true that such persons as Abraham and Sarah ever lived, and that they were the parents of the Israelites, it follows that the Jewish people had their origin in an incestuous union of brother and sister. But the God of Abraham seems to have

ABRAHAM , ISAAC AAZ> JACOB.

tolerated many things, in those days, that the God of nations will not countenance to-day. He blessed Ishmael, Abraham’s illegitimate son, and made him the father of twelve nations; He blessed Abraham with many children by many concubines.

Down to the time of Christ the Jews worshipped the God of _Abraham as they do at the present time, but before Christ, God had never given them a law forbidding them to marry more than one wife; nor forbidding them to keep concubines for their sensual pleasures. The Jews had received no revelation from God for centuries preceding the Christian era, hut, within the mean time, they had learned, from the Gentile world, that the marriage tie was sacred, and that it was unlawful to have more than one wife at a time. Abraham finally departed this life, leaving a heterogeneous mass of children, who became the parents of tribes that were to people a great part of the land of Canaan and adjacent countries, and who, in the course of time, were to war with one another, and, finally, to meet in bitterest strife, on the return of the descendants of Jacob from Egypt.

Of the swarms of children, legitimate and illegi¬ timate, that Abraham left at his demise, Isaac was made sole heir to the promised inheritance. The rest, though natural children of Abraham, were destined to become the parents of heathen tribes, who, like the Gentile world, were to worship other gods.

Isaac procured a wife from among his father’s relatives, whose name was Rebekah, and who, at the time, seems to have been industrious and honest; but who, after giving birth to a pair of twin boys, became the very type of deception and fraud. Jacob, the last born of the two, became his mother’s favorite; and she at once began to lay plans to defraud Esau of his birtli-right, and to procure the father’s blessing for her favorite son. She succeeded in her plans, and enabled her favorite son to procure, by unmitigated lies, the blessing that should have fallen on the head of a truer man, his brother Esau.

ABRAHAM , ISAAC AND JACOB.

Strange it is to think of, in this enlightened age of the nineteenth century, that a blessing thus obtained by deception, fraud and lies, should be of any avail. A promise thus obtained, at the present time, would be counted worthless in the sight of God, and by the laws of nations. Esau was discarded and became the father of a heathen people, but Jacob, by fraud and lies, became the sole heir to God’s promises.

Thus far, in Bible History, we have read of no family that preserved peace through two successive generations, even while under the direct guidance of their God, And, with such a beginning, we can scarcely look for anything better in the immediate future. Jacob was made sole heir to God’s promise to Abraham, that the latter should be th*e father of His chosen people, who should become a great nation, and, finally, possess the land of Canaan. He feared his brother Esau and started on a journey to elude his brother’s vengeance, and to find his father’s kindred, among whom he hoped to procure a wife. Jacob succeeded in making a bargain with his uncle Laban for his youngest and fairest daughter, for whom Jacob agreed to serve his uncle seven years. He was faithful to his agreement, and at the end of the time he demanded the fair Rachel in marriage. But in the morning, after the consummation of the marriage tie, Jacob woke up to find that the elder, weak-eyed sister, Leah, had been palmed off on him in place of the fair one. How Jacob was thus deceived we are not told, but the fraud must have been a severe trial to him. Discouraging as it might seem, Jacob worked seven years longer for Rachel, and finally gained her. He now found himself possessed of two wives and their two maids, all of whom brought him forth sons, who, in time, became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. After serving fourteen years for his wives, Jacob served Laban six years longer for a certain share in his flocks. In the twenty years that Jacob served Laban, decep¬ tion is played by both parties. Laban deceived Jacob in regard to his daughters, and the latter, by deception, 3

ABRAHAM , ISAAC AND JACOB.

got the best part of his uncle’s flocks. And finally, Jacob stealthily left Laban, taking with him the flocks which, to say the least, were raised in a very unfair manner. And in addition to this, his wives stole their father’s images and gods and carried them away with them; and, by deception, frustrated their father’s search for them when he overtook them on their journey. During all this time the blessings of Isaac were shielding Jacob and his family, and the spirit of God was guiding the patriarch in all of his undertakings. It is not my object to follow the story and speak of Jacob’s meeting with his brother Esau, nor of his relations with Sheehem and Hamor; but to pass over the journey as rapidly as possible until we follow the family to Egypt. Their relatives are soon left behind forever as friends, to be met, a few centuries later, sword in hand, when Jacob’s descendants return from Egypt, under Moses, to take possession of the land of Canaan. Jacob has twelve sons, one of whom is a dreamer. He tells two of his dreams to his brothers, who are disgusted with him, and plan to get rid of him by murder or otherwise; and who, finally, sell him to their cousins, the Ishmaelites, who are on their way to Egypt, to which country they take him and sell him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. The story thus begins like a romance, and continues so to the end. Joseph is young and probably handsome; his master’s wife falls in love with him and tries to lead him into sin. But Joseph, being a just man, shrinks from her evil designs. But his mistress, chagrined at her disap¬ pointment, seeks revenge by accusing Joseph, to her lord, of the evil design that she alone was guilty of.

Joseph is cast into prison, but fortune soon smiles upon his life. Pie has two fellow prisoners who dream, and Joseph interprets their dreams correctly. One of the dreamers is put to death, the other is restored to favor and reinstated in Pharoah’s palace. Within a short time, the king has a dream, but no one of his subjects can interpret it. The servant

ABRAHAM , ISAAC AND JACOB.

restored to favor, remembers Joseph and speaks a good word for him to the king, as he promised to do. Joseph is brought before Pharoah and interprets the dream that has so much troubled the latter. The interpretation foretells seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of dearth in Egypt and other countries. A wise man is needed to watch over the products and store them up in the seven years ,pf plenty, so as to provide for the seven years of scarcity. The king appoints Joseph to fill this important office, and he becomes the almost absolute ruler of Egypt. To carry out the story, which is very beautiful, a famine must also occur in Canaan, where his hither and brothers still live. This is the case; and in due time, Jacob, learning that corn can be procured in Egypt, sends ten of his sons to purchase some. They go on their errand and bow down to the great ruler of the stores, little thinking who he is. He inquires about their father and his family, and charges them what to do in order to see his face again. The story is familiar to every one, and it is not in the design of this book to repeat it. Jacob and his family remained and died in Egypt, and in course of time, Jacob’s descendants became the servants of the Egyptians. Their sojourn in Egypt, according to the narrative, was over four hundred years, ending at the beginning of the fifteenth century B. C. at which time, they left Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The story, so far as it relates to Jacob and his sons, is very beautiful, and will be read to the latest times, with delight by every one; but there is not the least shade of history to corroborate it, nor to show that such a people ever lived in Egypt, as bondsmen or otherwise.