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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

The second Isaiah is more pronounced in his heaped upon the worshipers of idols. Yet the quarrel is not because some or many deny God. Their censure is evoked by the fact that some or many worship gods that have no claim upon the 27, 28).

ridicule

recognition of Israel, the people of Yhwh. Again, Atheism always is the result of criticism and skepticism. Both in the individual and in the race it is, as it were, an afterthought. No people

out with Atheism. The original religiousness of man is always spontaneously theistic in one form or another. And as long as the religious consciousness of man is in its prime vigor, there is no provocastarts

tion for critical analysis of its contents. Periods of decline in religiousness produce skepticism, .which, in turn, breeds

ditions for

Atheism.

Atheism

—in

Atheism cism.

to the Exile the con-

—

were lacking in the Exile, though fatal to the religious fervor of a great number as is apparent by a study of the " 'Ebed " hymns, portraying as they do the indignities and ridicule to

Even

Israel.

the Result of Skepti-

Up

this sense

—

Yhwh

which a pious minority were exposed hands of their compatriots brought to bear upon the minds of the Jews influences much more potent in the opposite direction. Contact with the Bab3'lonian- Assyrian, and shortly after with the Persian, civilization had a pronounced tendency to develop an abiding predisposition toward mysticism, which is always fatal to sober Atheism. In this connection it is well to remember that Jewish angelology and demonology took their rise in the Captivity and certainly an age susceptible to suggestions of the order vocalized in the belief in angels and their counterparts is not very propitious for the cul-

—

at the



tivation of atheistic proclivities.

The

literature as-

signed to the Exile evidences the prevalence of the very opposite inclination. It is safe to hold that anterior to the Greek period there was but little cause among the Jews to pay attention to atheistic This fact accounts for the absence of enunciations. a term to denote both the professor and the system of Atheism. Psalm liii., preserved in a double version (in Ps. xiv.), mentions the speech of one who maintains that there is no God. The professor of this belief is styled "nabal," and in the context is contrasted with the " maskil " (verse 3) wherefore the word was understood to be " fool, " or, as Ibn Ezra has it in his commentary, the contrary of " hakam" (wise). This

meaning the Targum to Psalm xiv. also accepts, Other commentators rendering it by "shatya." bold that the psalm does not register a general proposition, but records the utterances of some definite person Titus or Nebuchadnezzar. From the character of these men it may be inferred that the interpreters who refer the expression in the Psalm to them, took the word " nabal " in the secondary sense of "knave," implying that foolishness which always " Nabal characterizes a corrupt or pervert mind. would thus be a synonym of "rasha"' or "zed." The nearest approach to a phrase which might be considered the equivalent of our modern "atheist " is the rabbinical "kofer be'ikkar," one who denies a fundamental tenet of the Jewish religion namely, the existence and then the unity of God. Of all

—



Athanasius Atheism

the other designations applied in rabbinical writings to heretics, none other seems so directly to suggest or to stand for avowed and open Talmudic negation of the Deity's existence and Dessupremacy (B. B. 156 Pesik. p. 163).

ignations.

Atheism is included anion g the heresies charged against the "minim" (Shab. 1166; and Maimonides, Yad ha-Hazakah, Teshubah, iii. where he enumerates among the heretics " minim, " those that declare that there is no God and that the world has neither governor nor leader "). ,

But as in the case of the Biblical "nabal," so in the descriptions of the atheist by the Rabbis it would appear that Atheism was much more a matter of perverse and immoral conduct than of formulated philosophical or metaphysical assertion and conviction.

At

Atheism

least it is is

from the conduct of man that his Observance of the Sabbath

inferred.

was regarded

as evidence of belief in the Creator; while neglect to keep the day of rest holy gave point to the presumption of atheistic leanings. The passage in Sifra, Behukkotai, iii. 2, shows that the observance or the rejection of the "laws and ordinances " was the decisive factor in the attribution of Atheism, according to rabbinical understanding. Adam is said to have been an atheist for in hiding himself to escape, he gave proof of his belief that God was not omnipresent (Sanh. 386). How far the term "Epicurean," Dfllp'SK (see Apikokos), served to denote an atheist, is not very clear. It is patent that by this name were designated men who denied the doctrine of resurrection and revelation. As both of these may be said to be involved in the (rabbinical) doctrine concerning the Godhead, the appellation " Epicurean" may in a loose way have been synonymous with the k>r-day atheist. Connecting this Greek word with the Aramaic root " pakar " (to free oneself), the rabbinical sources —even

Maimonides— assumed as the characteristic trait of an Epicurean's conduct disregard of all that made " Scoffer " might, therefor reverence and decency. fore, be suggested as the best rendering in English. As one that would scoff at the words of the learned and wise, of the God-fearing and pious (Ned. 23a; Sanh. 996), the Epicurean naturally created the impression by his conduct that he shared the views of the " nabal " and was under suspicion that in his insolence he would go so far as to deny the existence of God and to stand in no awe of His providential guidance of life and the world. Hence the advice always to be ready to refute the arguments of the Epicurean (Abot ii. 14). Strange to say, the Jews often had to defend themselves against the charge of being atheists, though, in the conception of the Prophets, Israel's history

was

the convincing proof of God's providence. Isto be His witness. The prime solicitude of Moses (Ex. xxxii. 12, 13) lest the "Egyptians " should put a wrong construction on the events of Israel's career and become confirmed Jews in their false conceptions of Israel's Accused of God, is also, as it were, the " leitmotif " Atheism, of the theology of later Biblical writers. The appeal of the Seventy-ninth Psalm is for God to manifest Himself in His avenging splendor, lest, from the weakness of Israel, the rael

was chosen