Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/142

 124 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.«a. from being swallowed up by the older inhabitants, who, at the out- set must have been their superiors in every respect ? What was the moral link that bound together the various members of the Hebrew family ; which was drawn tighter from year to year and resulted in political oneness ? The consciousness of a common origin and common traditions would not have sufficed ; something more was required, and this was found in community of creed and religious rites. In olden days the parent tribe had held the Sinaitic peninsula, where, in places, water and grass abound. Here Moses, their great prophet and religious reformer, revealed unto them Jehovah. Whether he was the real founder of Jewish religion, or whether, as seems not unlikely, he borrowed the first elements from the Midianites and Kenites, matters little. How much or how little he may have derived from older sources, it is impossible to ascertain ; as it is impossible to gauge how much of his own genius was infused into it, except that his towering figure well deserves to head their early records. With him and through him the Hebrews first knew Jehovah ; he it was who taught them to put their trust in Him ; to fear him as the God of hosts, of thunder and lightning ; who was pleased to dwell on the summits of Sinai and Horeb, and subsequently in various sanctuaries of Canaan, until, towards the latter part of their political existence, He had but one habitation — the temple of Jerusalem. 1 It would be a vain and thankless task that should try to unravel historical from legendary elements surrounding the grand outlines of a character who has been credited with a whole literature contain- ing documents and dates widely different in value ; as it would be hard to believe that a name which has ever been held in deep reverence by the Israelites is but shadowy, and rests on no sure foundation. Once established on the right bank of the Jordan, the Israelites were brought in incessant contact with the Philistines, Phoenicians, and Canaanites. The strips of land where they had settled were as so many dots on the territory of the older inhabitants, in whose cities they sometimes lived side by side. 2 Numbers intermarried 1 The various traditions recorded in the Old Testament, whilst varying as to names, are all agreed in making Moses the son-in-law of the high priest of one of the Arabian tribes of the peninsula. — Stade, loc. cit., torn. i. pp. 130, 131. 2 The opening passage in Judges (i.-ii. 5) would of itself prove our assertion, without calling to our aid the circumstantial evidence scattered in abundance up and down Judges and Kings, and which may be read between the lines.