Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/228

 BIBLICAL SOCIOLOGY. IV

LOUIS WALLIS Ohio State University

We have now sketched the early institutions of Israel. Our approaching problem is the rise of the distinctive system of Judaism. There still remains for attention, however, one out- standing topic before we turn to the social process that followed the settlement in Canaan. Consideration of this topic is not a matter of choice; it comes naturally between the subjects pre- viously taken up and those that follow.

I. THE COVENANT WITH YAHWEH

Most religions of antiquity contemplate their gods as the physical fathers of their worshipers, connected with them by ties of actual kinship. The relation between a people and its god is thus not a matter of choice, like that of husband and wife, but of necessity, as in the case of all relatives by blood. But many of the biblical documents declare that Yahweh and Israel became connected by a definite covenant, at a given time, and at a par- ticular place. In the words of Hosea, "I am Yahweh thy god from the latid of Egypt" (Hos. 12:9). In accordance with this declaration, we are told that Yahweh chose Israel for his people at the time they were encamped in Goshen, on the borders of Egypt ; and that the people and the god entered into a solemn covenant at Mount Horeb-Sinai. It is. indeed, upon a cove- nant, or testament, that the Bible turns. The familiar word "testament," in one of its earlier usages, indicates a covenant; and in this way it finds application to Scripture. "I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a god" (Exod, 6:7), "And thou, Yahweh, became their god" (II Sam. 7:24). Now the question here is, How came the religion of Israel to have a covenant character? What are the objective facts underlying the tradition that Yahweh and Israel were not at first related, but that they came into connection at a particular time and place?

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