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 ORACLE

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the 11th day of the montli of Abti of this year, within tliese hundred days and these hundred nights. . . within this fixed space of time will Kashtariti with his troops, or the troops of the Cimmerians ... or all other enemy, succeed in their designs? By as- sault, by force ... by starvation, by the names of the god and goddess, by parley and amicable confer- ence, or by any other method and stratagem of siege, shall they take the town of Kishassu? shall they enter the walls of this town of Kishassu? . . . shall it fall into their hands? Thy great godhead knoweth it. Is the taking of this town of Kishassu, by whatsoever enemy it be, from this day unto the [last] day ap- pointed, ordained and decreed by the order and man- date of thy great godhead, O Shamash, great Lord? Shall we see it? Shall we hear it? etc. Observe the preoccupation of leaving the god no avenue of elusion — every possible contingency is named.

Among the nomad Arabs the priest is primarily a giver of oracles (by means of arrow-shafts, cf . Ezech., xxi, 21), though named Kahin the Hebrew 'fC- But since in Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Ethiopian Kohen means priest, and cannot be etymologically con- nected with 'divination", we must conclude (La- grange, op. cit., 218) that the Arabian oracle-monger is a degenerate priest, not (Wellhausen) that all Se- mitic priests were aboriginally oracle-mongers.

II. The Hebrews. — Oracles were vouchsafed to the Hebrews by means of the Urim and Thummim, which are to be connected with the Ephod. The "ilCX (see Ephod) was (i) a linen dress worn in ritual circum- stances (by priests, I Sara., xxii, 18, the child Samuel, ibid., ii, 18; David, II Sam., vi, 14); (ii) 'the' ephod, described in Exod., xxviii, peculiar to the high-priest; over it was worn the pectoral containing Urim and Thummim; (iii) an idolatrous, oracular image, con- nected with the Teraphim (also oracular) ; that which Gideon erected weighed 1700 sikels of gold (Judges, viii, 27; xvii, 5; xviii, 14, 20; Osee, iii, 4 etc.). But why was this image called an ephod (a dress)? In Isaias, XXX, 22, 'icy the silver overlaying of idols, is parallel to iN, their golden sheath. If then the Israelites were already familiar with an oracle operating in close connexion wit h a j ewelled ephod, it will have been easy to transfer this name to a richly plated oracular image. See van Hoonacker, "Sacerdooe levitique" (Louvain, 1899), .372.

The law directs (Num., xxvii, 18) that the leader of the people shall stand before the priest, and proffer his request: the priest shall "inquire for him by the judg- ment of Urim and Thummim before Yahweh". The priest alone [for the Ahi-jah of I Sam., xiv, 3, 18, is the Ahi-melek of x-x-i, 1; x.xii, 9, with the Divine name corrected] carries the ephod before Israel, and inquires on behalf of the chief alone (for Ahiraelek, I Sam., xxii, 1.3-1.5, denies having inquired for David while Saul still is king: see van Hoonacker, op. cit., 376). Thus history would agree with the Law as to the unity of the oracle, and its exclusive use by priest and prince.

Josephus thought the B"?:."!! C^'X were stones of changing lustre. The meaning of the names is un- known. Though they seem to have been used for sacred lots, and though I Sam., xiv, 37sqq. (especially in LXX) makes it fairly clear that they gave answer by Yes and Xo (in I Sam., x.xiii, 2, 4, 11, 12; x.xx, 8, the long phrasing is priestly commentary), and though I Sam., xiv, 42 (if indeed this still refers to the oracle and not to a private ordeal offered by Saul to, and rejected by, the people) by using the word "^'CD /SdXXtTf, "throw (between me and Jonathan) ", suggests a casting of lots, yet the U and T were not mere pebbles (e. g., black and white), for besides answering Yes and No, they could refuse answer altogether. This happened when the inquirer was ritually unclean (so Saul, in the person of his son, I Sam., xiv, 37; cf. the exclusion from the new-moon meal, ibid., xx, 26; sexual inter-

course precludes from eating sacred bread, ibid., xxi, 4). — Observe the lack, in Yahweh's oracle, of the magical element, and extreme complication, which disfigure those quoted in I. Notice, too, how Hebrew priest and prince alike submit unquestioningly to the Divine communication. The prince docs not dare to seek to cajole or terrify the priest; nor the priest to distort or invent the answer. Finally, when once the era of the great prophets opens, it is through them God manifests His will; the use of the ephod ceases; the Urim and Thummim are silent and ultimately lost.

III. Greece and Rome. — ["Oraculum: quod inest in his deorum oratio", Cic, "Top.", xx, "Voluntas divina hominis ore enuntiata", Senec, "Controv.", I. prf. 'Mai/Teiof. .j/MA as in /ialvo/iai, mens. The ixavm was the mouthpiece, the irpo(p^TTj!, the interpreter of the oracle (so already Plato, "Tim.", l.xxii, B). XpTi^Tiipiov: xP<^w, "furnish what is needful"; hence (active), to give (middle), to consult an oracle].

Oracles in the familiar sense flourished best in Greek or hellenized areas, though even here the ec- static element probably came, as a rule, from the East. The local element, however (for Hellenic oracles es- sentially localize divination), and the practice of in- terpreting divine voices as heard in wind, or tree, or water (^W'? Bidv; Sa-ira, <i/i07; A165 — Zeus was Trapopixpaios cf. the Italian /a ujit, karmentes) were rooted in Greek or pre-Greek religion. An enormous history lies be- hind the oracles oif "classical" times. Thus at Delphi the stratification of cults shows us, undermost, the prehistoric, chthonian worship of the pre-Achseans : Gaia (followed by, or identical with, "Themis"?) and the impersonal nymphs are the earliest tenants of the famous chasm and the spring Kassotis. Dionysos, from orgiast Thrace, or, as was then held, from the mystic East, invaded the shrine, importing, or at least accentuating, elements of enthusiasm and religious delirium; for the immense development and Orphic reformation of fiis cult, in the seventh century, can but have modified, not introduced, his worship. Apollo, disembarking with the Achjeans on the Krisean shore, strives to oust him, and, though but sharing the year's worship and the temple with his predeces- sors, eclipses what he cannot destroy. Echoes of this savage fight, this stubborn resistance of the dim, old- fashioned worship to the brilliant new-comer, reach us in hymn and drama, are glossed by the devout ^schylus (Eumen. prol.), and accentuated by the rationalist Euripides (Ion etc.); vase paintings picture the ultimate reconciliation- For, in the end, a com- promise is effected: the priestess still sits by the cleft, drinks of the spring, still utters the frantic inarticulate cries of ecsta.sy; but the prophets of the rhythmic Apollo discipline her ravings into hexameters, and thus the will of Zeus, through the inspiration of Apollo, is uttered by the pythoness to all Greece.

Apollo was the cause at once of the glory and the downfall of Delphi. Partly in reaction against him, partly in imitation of him, other oracles were restored or created. In our brief limits we cannot describe or even enumerate these. We may mention the ex- tremely ancient oracle of Dodona, where the spirit of Zeus (6 Toi> AiJs a-niiaivei — the oracles began) spoke to the priestesses in the oak, the echoing bronze, the waterfall ; the underground Trophonius oracle in Le- badsea, with its violent and extraordinary ritual (Paus., IX, 39, 11: Plut., "Gen. Soer.", 22); and the incubation oracles of Asklepios, where the sleeping sick awaited the epiphany of the hero, and miraculous cure. Thousands of votive models of healed wounds and straightened limbs are unearthed in these shrines; and at Dodona, leaden tablets inquire after a vanished blanket, whether it be lost or stolen; or by prayer to what god or hero faction-rent Corcyra may find peace. Other especially famous oracles were those of Apollo at Abse, Delos, Patara, Clares; of Poseidon at Onches-