Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/140

 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ia. fancy of their genius, and exalted them into proportions that had no existence in reality ; whilst the great work of redemption accomplished in Judaia has caused all nations professing Chris- tianity to accept them as they are presented in the Sacred Writings. For if considered dispassionately and without reference to these peculiar circumstances, what remains ? A few nomadic tribes from beyond Jordan, who successfully crossed the river in order to possess themselves of a much-coveted and desirable country, rich in corn and wine, in honey and milk ; whose hills were clad with fig and olive and all manner of fruitful trees. Was the conquest carried out systematically and achieved in a short space of time, as we read in Joshua, written centuries after the immigration? 1 Against this theory, however, many a passage in Joshua, Samuel, the Judges, and Kings lead to quite a different solution of the manner in which was effected the establishment of the Israelites in the land of promise. Closer examination suggests doubts as to whether a conquest properly so called took place ; for if the intruders had frequently to use violence in order to obtain a place in the land, at other times, slow and gradual advance among the older inhabitants and a mutual understanding were equally success- ful. Thus they were obliged to take Jericho after they crossed Jordan ; but Judah went round the Dead Sea on the south, whilst Ephraim and Manasseh in the north penetrated into Galilee through numerous fords, and spread from stage to stage among the settled inhabitants. Once within the borders, they mixed with the Canaanites, frequented their sanctuaries, and adopted some of their traditions. In these favourable circumstances, their numbers quickly increased and enabled them to prosecute their onward pro- gress, until they were arrested by the powerfully constituted con- federacy of the Phoenicians and Philistines, masters of the sea-coast. Most of the tribes followed on the trail made by the first detach- ments, and successfully occupied the table-land, still partly wooded, that extends between Horah of Jordan — el Ghôr — and the Mediterranean, as far north as Hermon, and south-west to the 1 M. Kuenen, in his masterly survey of Joshua, has pointed out (torn. i. chap, ii.) the artificial nature and post-arrangement of the conquest, which he ascribes to a writer profoundly imbued with the Book of Deuteronomy. Stade (Geschichte, torn. i. pp. 64-66), although not in accord with Kuenen as to details and the date of the Book of Joshua, which he places in the days of Nehemiah, agrees in the main with him.