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destiny by the repeated interplay of foreign influence and native endowment. The nomadic Beni-Israel learned from the Canaan- ites what they knew of the raising of grain, the culture of the vine, the arts of the smith and the potter. Other great waves of foreign influence came in in consequence of Solomon's alliances.
The horse took the place of the ass ; metal weapons and tools supplanted the rude ones of flint and wood; walled cities arose on the sites of the primitive towns with their mud and stone hovels.
The customs, institutions, and gods of Egypt, Tyre, and Damas- cus were also imported. When Ahab sealed his alliance with Tyre,
new ambitions filled the minds of the rude shepherds and farmers as they came in contact with foreign life and civilization. With Phoenician wares and customs came inevitably Phoenician religion.
This influx precipitated a conflict between the rich and voluptu- ous Baal worship of Tyre, and the simple nomadic worship of Yahweh. In the heat and stress of this long struggle, the genius of the great literary prophets differentiated Yahweh, not only from the Syrian Baals, but also from his own original nature. The tribe-god became the god of the world, just and righteous himself, and demanding justice and righteousness in his followers.
Although this burst of development evoked by conscious opposition to an alien culture followed its own lines, the Hebrew religion was not fixed until certain foreign strands had been woven in. During the captivity of the Jews
the literary habits, and above all the intense religious zeal of their conquerors, the Babylonians, undoubtedly influenced them. The dazzling spectacle of lordly temples and of a wealthy influential priesthood also could not have failed, indirectly at least, to foster the tendency towards ritualism.
From the Persian religion Judaism received the idea of a resur- rection with rewards and punishments, the idea of a hierarchy of messengers (angels) between God and man, the figure of Satan (Ahriman), and possibly the practice of meeting for prayer, singing, and reading from the sacred books.
Another great cross-fertilization occurred after Alexander's conquests and colonizations in southwestern Asia and in Egypt
