XXI
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES AND THE PROPHETS[1]
§ 1. The Place of the Israelites in History. § 2. Saul, David, and Solomon. § 3. The Jews a People of Mixed Origin. § 4. The Importance of the Hebrew Prophets.
§ 1
WE are now in a position to place in their proper relationship to this general outline of human history the Israelites, and the most remarkable collection of ancient documents in the world, that collection which is known to all Christian peoples as the Old Testament. We find in these documents the most interesting and valuable lights upon the development of civilization, and the clearest indications of a new spirit that was coming into human affairs during the struggles of Egypt and Assyria for predominance in the world of men.
All the books that constitute the Old Testament were certainly in existence, and in very much their present form, at latest by the year 100 b.c. They were probably already recognized as sacred writings in the time of Alexander the Great (330 b.c.), and known and read with the utmost respect a hundred years before his time.[2] At that time some of them were of comparatively recent composition; others were already of very considerable antiquity. They were the sacred literature of a people, the Jews, who, except for a small remnant of common people, had recently been deported to Babylonia from their own country in 587 b.c. by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean. They had returned to their city, Jerusalem, and had rebuilt their temple there under the aus-
277
