Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/209

 Enumeration of Documents Consulted. 191 first and only time, thus precluding comparison or analogy. The ingenuity of the learned, therefore, has been taxed to the utmost in endeavouring to grapple with it. 1 This may have been due to the compiler having been unfamiliar with the works he struggles to describe, but signally fails to do. He views men and events from the narrow platform of the temple, or at best, from his own surroundings. His disquisitions upon the Mosaic Law leave the impression that this codex was the beginning and end of all things, as though it had been a rule to his forefathers long before they were called to the Land of Promise. Historical sense is violated in his exaggerated account of the treasure of David and the military force of the kings of Judah. 2 In his hand the picturesquely quaint portrait of the former is transformed into a lay figure— a kind of sacerdotal king. In addition to this, casual allusions are made in Kings and Chronicles to the various repairs and the enlargement of the temple, ranging from Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar, which may have been of daylight transparency to his contemporaries, but sadly the reverse for us who have not the monument to refer to. On the other hand, this very slipshod mode of procedure i9 warranty that the particular passage was not touched up, but was written on the spur of the moment. 3 From the paucity of details in these books, we pass to the wealth and amplitude rolled forth in Ezekiel (chaps, xl., xli., xlii., and xliii.). Properly to understand this remarkable fragment, let us pause and try to view it from the standpoint the prophet regarded it himself. It is the last portion of the book; having been written during the captivity, when the glorified vision of the prophet perceived a new dawn for the chosen people. His youth had been spent at Jerusalem, whence he had been transported to Babylon, 597 b.c. ; and told off to Tel Abid, where the news of the final overthrow of the city had travelled to him. 4 From that moment the one idea that filled his thoughts was the future restora- tion of the temple. In those pages, that read like the testamentary 1 The annotations of Reuss betray hesitation at every step. 2 Reuss, Introduction to Chronicles^ pp. 38, 39. See also chap. vi. torn. i. Kuenen, loc. cit., where this tendency, in the author of Chronicles, to gross exaggeration is pointed out. Stade, Geschichte, torn. i. p. 81. 3 We have followed Reuss and Kuenen, and Stade (loc. cit., p. 83) formally states, "La Chronique n'est pas une source;" nevertheless he admits the validity of certain portions not generally met with in Kings. 4 Ezek. i. 3.