Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/798

 764 D J U D who died at tlie age of 110, ruled 30 years, if in point of age he was a man of the same standing with Caleb (Josh, xiv. 10). Add to these 30 years 6 for Jephthah and 4 for Solomon and we get 10 x 40. There remain but 80 years for the elders who outlived Joshua, the interregna or times of oppression previous to the Philistine period, the minor judges, and Saul. But the interregna alone are 71 years, and the minor judges 70, or with Abimelech 73 or 74. _ It is plain that there is no room for both in the chronological scheme, and the two series correspond so nearly that they must be held to be alternative items in the reckoning, leav ing a slightly different length for Saul s brief reign. _ But as a matter of fact the minor judges are not so placed in the narrative as to coincide with the periods of oppression. Thus the apparent consecutiveness of the narrative breaks down. The minor judges really lie outside of the chrono logical scheme of the history as well as of the system of religious cycles ; and we infer that even the main stock of the book of Judges is not all constructed by one hand or on a uniform plan. 1 The religious interpretation of the history corresponds with the prophetic teaching of the 8th century B.C. The use of Baal as a title peculiar to false deities as opposed to Jehovah hardly fits an earlier date than the time of Hosea, and the hostile attitude taken up towards the ashera (sacred tree or pole) was not shared by the religious leaders of the period of Jehu. Critics have spoken of chaps, ii. and x. as Deuteronomic, and no doubt the last hand that touched all the earlier historical books and reduced them to unity may be so named ; but the main ideas are not necessarily so late, and are rather akin to the non-Levitical Elohist, the author of Josh. xxiv. In particular the wor ship of the high places is not condemned, nor is it excused as is done in 1 Kings iii. 2. But the sources of the narrative are obviously much older than the theological exposition of its lessons. The com poser of the book has generally transcribed them with little change, so that in reading the story of each great deliverance vouchsafed to Israel we feel ourselves in living contact with the earliest strain of Hebrew patriotism and religion. In this respect the book of Judges is one of the most valuable and interesting in the Old Testament. The song of Deborah and the history of Abimelech carry us back to the beginnings of national life in Israel, when Judah lived outside the main current of the history the tribe is not even named by Deborah -and when Israelite and Canaanite populations existed side by side and struggled together for supremacy. In these chapters Israel is still in some sense a nation foreign to Canaan, and Jehovah Himself has His seat not on the mountains of Israel but beyond the fields of Edom on the southern heights of Sinai. The importance of such documents for the scientific historian lies not so much in the events they record as in the unconscious witness they bear to the state of things in which the narrator or poet lived. From this point of view all parts of the book are by no means of equal value, and in some instances, particularly in the histories of Deborah and Gideon, critical analysis appears to show that two narra tives of different age have been fused together, the older story giving more prominence to ordinary human motives and combinations, while the later version is coloured by religious reflexion, and shows the characteristic tendency of the Old Testament to retell the fortunes of Israel in a form that lays ever increasing weight on the work ol Jehovah for His people. The history of the minor judgei is plainly not related from such lively and detailed remin 1 The minor details of the chronology appear not to be derivec throughout from tradition, but to be got by subdividing the rounc number 40. See Wellhausen, op. cit. , and Nb ldeke, Untersuchungen p. 173 sq. iscence as gives charm to the longer episodes of the book ; and some of the names, as Noldeke (op. cit.) and others lave shown, are those of personified families or communi ties rather than of individuals. This indeed is a charac teristic feature of the earlier Hebrew history, which older expositors failed to recognize, but which modern science can no longer ignore. The third and last part of the book embraces chaps. xvii.-xxi., and consists of two narratives independent of one another and of the main stock of the book, with which they are not brought into any chronological connexion. The first narrative, that of Micah and the Danites, belongs to the most primitive strata of the Old Testament history, and is of the highest interest both as a record of the state of religion and for the accurate picture it gives of the way in which one tribe passed from the condition of an invad ing band into settled possession of land and city. The history of the Levite and the Benjamites is of quite another character, and presupposes a degree of unity of feeling and action among the tribes of Israel which it is not easy to reconcile with the rest of the book. In its present form this episode appears to be not very ancient ; it resembles the book of Ruth in giving a good deal of curious archaeo logical detail (the feast at Shiloh) in a form which suggests that the usages referred to were already obsolete when the narrative was composed. Literature. On questions of introduction the latest and best in vestigations are those of Wellhausen in Bleek s Einleitung, 4th ed., Berlin, 1878, and in his Geschichte, chap. vii. For the historical questions compare also Ewald s Geschichte, vol. ii. The most useful modern commentary is that of Studer, Bern, 1835. Later works are those of Bertheau, Leipsic, 1845 ; Keil, Leipsic, 1863, English translation, 1865 ; Cassel, in Lange s Bibehcerk, Bielefeld, 1865 ; in the Speaker s Commentary ; and in Reuss s Bible. On the song of Deborah see Ewald, Dichter, i. 1, p. 173; Bb ttcher, ATliche Biihnendiclitungcn, Leipsic, 1850; Kemink, De Carm. Deb., Utrecht, 1840; Meier, Bcboralicd, Tubingen, 1859. (W. R. S.) JUDGMENT is the last stage in an action, being the definitive order or sentence of the court or judge, enforceable by the appropriate mode of &quot;execution&quot; appointed by law. In English law the writ of execution remains in force only for one year unless renewed, but a writ of execution may be obtained at any time within six years of the judgment, and after six years the application may be made to the court by any person entitled to execution, and execu tion may issue accordingly. Judgments by courts of an alien jurisdiction are not immediately enforceable as judgments in England, but they constitute a cause of action, and may be sued upon. They are in fact conclusive as be tween the parties, although objections going to deny the jurisdiction of the court, or showing that the defendant had not been summoned and had never really been before it, would be a good defence. It has lately been held no defence to an action in a foreign judgment that it disclosed on the face of it a manifest misapprehension by the foreign court of a rule of English law. JUDICATURE, JUDICATURE ACTS. The Judi cature Acts are an important series of English statutes having for their object to simplify the system of judicature in its higher branches. They are the following : 36 & 37 Viet. c. 66 ; 37 & 38 Viet. c. 83 ; 38 & 39 Viet. c. 77 ; 39 & 40 Viet. c. 59 (the Appellate Jurisdiction Act) ; 40 & 41 Viet. c. 9. The movement which ended in the Judicature Acts has b^en promoted by all the recent holders of the office of Lord Chancellor and by most of the leading judges, but it required a long time to bring it to a successful issue, on account of the difficulty always experienced in creating a sufficient amount of public interest in legal reform to over come the obstacles to legislation. The principal Judicature Act is framed on the basis of a report by a commission which was appointed in 1867. It was carried in the