The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) đź“•
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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houses and the sheikhs of tribes, that Eloah, the God of Abraham, had
appeared to him in Sinai and had revealed his true name—it was
Jehovah—and had sent him to Egypt to bring away his people, to carry
them to Canaan. The elders believed in his mission and accepted him as
their chief. He went to Pharaoh and delivered the message of Jehovah:
the king received it as he would have received the message of an Arab
chief—gods were plentiful in Egypt. But whenever a public calamity
occurred Moses declared that Jehovah was its author, and there were
Egyptians who said that their own gods were angry with them for
detaining a people who were irreligious, filthy in their habits, and
affected with unpleasant diseases of the skin. The king gave them
permission to go and offer a sacrifice to their desert god. The Israelites
stole away, taking with them the mummy of Joseph and some jewellery
belonging to their masters. Guides marched in front bearing a lighted
apparatus like that which was used in Alexander´s camp, which gave a
pillar of smoke by day and a flame by night. Moses led them by way of
Suez into Asia, and then along the weed-strewn, shell-strewn shore of the
Red Sea to the wilderness of Sinai and the Mount of God. There with
many solemn and imposing rites he delivered laws which he said had
been issued to him from the clouds. He assembled the elders to represent
the people, and drew up a contract between them and Jehovah. It was
agreed that they should obey the laws of Jehovah, and pay the taxes
which he might impose, while he engaged on his part to protect them
from danger in their march through the desert and to give them
possession of the Promised Land. An ark or chest of acacia-wood was
made in the Egyptian style, and the agreement was deposited therein with
the ten fundamental laws which Moses had engraved on stone. A tent of
dyed skins was prepared and fitted with church furniture by voluntary
subscription, partly out of stolen goods. This became the temple of the
people and the residence of Jehovah, who left his own dwelling above the
vaulted sky that he might be able to protect them on the way. Moses
appointed his brother Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; they wore
the surplice, but to distinguish them from Egyptian priests they were
ordered not to shave their heads. The men of Levi, to which tribe Moses
himself belonged, were set apart for the service of the sacred tent. They
were in reality his bodyguard, and by their means he put down a mutiny
at Sinai, slaughtering three thousand men.
When thus the nation had been organised the march began. At daybreak
two silver trumpets were blown, the tents were struck, the tribes
assembled under their respective banners, and the men who bore the ark
went first with the guides to show the road and to choose an encampment
for the night. The Israelites crossed a stony desert, suffering much on the
way. Water was scarce; they had no provisions, and were forced to
subsist on manna or angel´s bread, a gummy substance which exudes
from a desert shrub and is a pleasant syrup and a mild purge, but not a
nourishing article of food.
As they drew near the land of Canaan the trees of the desert, the palm and
the acacia, disappeared. But the earth became carpeted with green plants
and spotted with red anemones like drops of blood. Here and there might
be seen a patch of corn, and at last in the distance rounded hills with trees
standing against the sky. They encamped, and a man from each tribe was
deputed to spy the land. In six weeks they returned bringing with them a
load of grapes. Two scouts only were in favour of invasion. The other
ten declared that the land was a good land, as the fruits showed—a land
flowing with milk and honey; but the people were like giants; their cities
were walled and very great; the Israelites were as grasshoppers in
comparison, and would not be able to prevail against them.
This opinion was undoubtedly correct. The children of Israel were a
rabble of field slaves who had never taken a weapon in their hands. The
business before them was by no means to their taste, and it was not what
Moses had led them to expect. He had agreed on the part of Jehovah to
give them a land. They had expected to find it unoccupied and prepared
for their reception like a new house. They did not require a prophet to
inform them that a country should be theirs if they were strong enough to
take it by the sword, and this it was clear they could not do. So they
poured forth the vials of their anger and their grief. They lifted up their
voice and cried; they wept all the night. Would to God they had died in
the wilderness! Would to God they had died in Egypt! Jehovah had
brought them there that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives
and little ones might be a prey. They would choose another captain; they
would go back to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb, the two scouts who had
recommended invasion, tried to cheer them up, and were nearly stoned to
death for their pains. Next day the people of Canaan marched out against
them: a skirmish took place and the Israelites were defeated. They went
back to the desert, and wandered forty years in the shepherd or Bedouin
state.
And then there was an end of that miserable race who were always
whining under hardship, hankering after the fleshpots of the old slave life.
In their stead rose up a new generation—genuine children of the desert—
who could live on a few dates soaked in butter and a mouthful of milk a
day; who were practised from their childhood in predatory wars; to whom
rapine was a business, and massacre a sport. The conquest of Canaan
was an idea which they had imbibed at their mothers´ breasts, and they
were now quite ready for the work. Moses before his death drew up a
second agreement between Jehovah and the people. It was to the same
effect as the covenant of Sinai. Loyalty and taxes were demanded by
Jehovah; long life, success in war, and fruitful crops were promised in
return. Within this contract was included a code of laws which Moses
had enacted from time to time, in addition to the ten commandments; and
this second agreement was binding not only on those who were present
but on their posterity as well.
Moses died; Joshua was made commander-in-chief, and the Israelites
began their march of war. This time they approached the land not from
the south but from the east.
The river Jordan rises in the Lebanon mountains, half way between Tyre
and Damascus; it runs due south, and ends its curling, twisting course in
the dismal waters of the Dead Sea. Its basin belongs to the desert, for it
does not overflow its banks.
Along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, parallel to the valley of the
Jordan, lies a fertile strip of land without good harbours, but otherwise
resembling Phoenicia, from which it is divided by two large
promontories, the Tyrian Ladder and the White Cape.
And thirdly, between the naked valley of the Jordan and this corn-producing line of coast there rises a tableland of limestone formation,
honeycombed with caves, watered by running streams of no great size,
and intersected by ravines and also by flat, extensive valley plains.
The coast belonged to the Philistines, the basin of the Jordan and the
pastoral regions on the south to roving Arab tribes; the tableland was
inhabited by farmers whose towns and villages were always perched on
the tops of hills, and who cultivated the vine on terraces, each vineyard
being guarded by a watch tower and a wall; the valley plains were
inhabited by Canaanites or lowlanders, who possessed cavalry and iron
chariots of war.
The Israelites differed from other Bedouin tribes in one respect—they
were not mounted, and they were unable to stand their ground against the
horsemen of the plain. The Philistines, a warlike people probably of the
Aryan race, also retained their independence. The conquests of the
Israelites were confined to the land of the south, the Jordan valley and the
mountain regions, though even in the highlands the conquest under
Joshua was not complete. However, the greater part of Palestine was
taken and partitioned among the Israelitish tribes. Some of these inclined
to the pastoral and others to the agricultural condition, and each was
governed by its own sheikh. During four hundred years Ephraim
remained the dominant tribe, and with Ephraim the high priest took up his
abode. At a place called Shiloh there was erected an enclosure of low
stone walls over which the sacred tent was drawn. This was the oracle
establishment, or House of God, to which all the tribes resorted three
times a year to celebrate the holy feasts with prayer and sacrifice, and
psalmody, and the sacred dance.
The Levites had no political power and no share in civil life, but they had
cities of their own, and they also travelled about like mendicant friars
from place to place performing certain functions of religion, and
supported by the alms of the devout.
It was owing to these two institutions, the oracle and the monkish order,
that the nationality of Israel was preserved. Yet though it escaped
extinction it did not retain its unity and strength. So far from extending
their conquests, after their first inroad under Joshua the Israelites
constantly lost ground. They were divided into twelve petty states,
always jealous of one another and often engaged in civil war. The natives
took advantage of these dissensions, and subdued them one by one. Now
and then a hero would arise, rouse them to a war of independence, and
rule over them as judge for a few years. Then again they would fall apart,
and again be conquered, sometimes paying tribute as vassals, sometimes
hiding in the mountain caves. However, at last there came a change. The
temporal and spiritual powers, united in the hands of Moses, were divided
at his death. Joshua became the general of Jehovah; the high priest
became his grand vizier. Joshua could do nothing of importance without
consulting the high priest, who read the commands of the Divine Sheikh
in the light and play of Urim and Thummim, the oracular shining stones.
On the other hand, the high priest could not issue laws; he could only
give decisions and replies. But now a Nazarite or servant of the Church,
named Samuel, usurped the office, or at all events the powers, of high
priest which belonged to the family of Aaron, and also obtained the
dignity of president or judge. He professed to be the recipient of private
instructions from Jehovah, issued laws in his name, and went round on
circuit judging the twelve tribes.
In his old age he delegated this office to his sons, who gave false
judgments and took bribes. The elders of the people came to Samuel and
asked him to appoint them a king.
Samuel had established a papacy, intending to make it hereditary in his
house, and now the evil conduct of his sons frustrated all his hopes. He
protested in the name of Jehovah against this change in the constitution;
he appealed to his own blameless life; he drew a vivid picture of the
horrors of despotism; but in vain. The people persisted in their demand;
they were at that time in the vassal state, and their liege lords,
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