m THE TRUE POSITION OF THE HEBREWS 



to have come from the direction of Arabia. Later, as 

 we saw, they were joined by the Philistines, who are 

 now regarded as the last relic of the Cretans. Long 

 before 1,000 b.c. there was a fair civilization, in con- 

 tact with Egypt and Babylonia. The main Egyptian 

 land-route ran along the coast of Palestine. 



The Arabian peninsula, which was mainly barren 

 desert, was meantime breeding a larger population 

 than it could sustain, and to these nomads of the 

 waste even the moderate land of Palestine seemed to 

 be " flowing with milk and honey." There seem to 

 have been constant irruptions, and about 1,300 b.c. 

 an exceptionally strong wave brought a group of 

 Semitic and barely civilized tribes bearing the now 

 familiar names of Moab, Edom, Ammon, and Israel. 

 There is reason to think that the Israelites adopted in 

 the desert the local mountain-god Jahveh. However 

 that may be, the tribes carved out their respective 

 corners of the land, and slowly assimilated its 

 civilization. 



This is how scholars now generally conceive the 

 appearance on the great stage of the early Israelites. 

 The account given in their own sacred book is entirely 

 discredited. The Old Testament as we have it — apart 

 from the latest books — was written in the fifth century, 

 and it is now impossible to determine what historical 

 documents or traditions the writers had before them. 

 The earliest part, Genesis, is plainly a collection of 

 Babylonian legends, which the Hebrews no doubt 

 found already adopted, and modified, in Palestine. 

 The kernel of the story of Abraham (a plainly 

 mythical name, as it means " the father of many 

 peoples ") may or may not be true. The story of the 

 sojourn in Egypt is rejected by nearly every scholar, 



