HEBREW 



of Enoch) were Alexandrians ; but 

 the chief Jewish -Hellenistic writers 

 were Philo of Alexandria and 

 Josephus of Jerusalem. 



Philo seems to have been born 

 between 30 and 20 B.C., and to have 

 died between A.D. 45 and 50. Among 

 other works he wrote a Life of 

 Moses and a history of the persecu- 

 tions endured by the Jews in his 

 own time, of which only part has 

 been preserved. The treatise On 

 the Contemplative Life, ascribed 

 to him, perhaps belongs rather to 

 the 3rd or 4th century A.D. Jose- 

 phus, the Jewish historian, who 

 was born A.D. 37-38 and died about 

 100, completed his book on the 

 Wars of the Jews before 79, and 

 wrote his Antiquities and his Reply 

 to Apion about or soon after 93-94. 



After the destruction of Jeru- 

 salem in A.D. 70 a reaction against 

 the use of Greek set in. When all 

 else was lost, the sacred writings 

 and the sacred language assumed 

 a new sanctity. Hebrew was re- 

 suscitated and developed, not 

 indeed as a popular speech, but as 

 the language of books and scholars. 

 Hence arose Post-Biblical or Tal- 

 mudic Hebrew. 



Books of the Law 



The Hebrew law (the Torah) be- 

 came the text for numerous com- 

 ments and legal discussions by the 

 Jewish rabbis. These pronounce- 

 ments at first constituted an oral 

 tradition ; afterwards (c. A.D. 200) 

 they were written down and in- 

 corporated, probably by pupils of 

 Shammai and Hillel, in the Mish- 

 nah, a work that forms the basis of 

 the larger work known as the 

 Talmud (g.v.). 



Closely related to these discus- 

 sions is a branch of literature which 

 consists of commentaries on the 

 sacred text, called Midrashim 

 (singular, Midrash). The earliest 

 of these belong to the 2nd century 

 A.D. The Talmudists (2nd-5th 

 centuries) were succeeded by the 

 Masoretes (5th-8th centuries), the 

 Jewish scholars who fixed the text 

 of the O.T. 



Another revival of Hebrew took 

 place about the 10th century. 

 There arose, in emulation of the 

 Arab grammarians, a notable 

 school of Hebrew grammarians and 

 exegetes. Representatives of this 

 school include Saadia of the Favum 

 (892-942), Rashi ( 1040-11 05 ),"Ab- 

 en-Ezra (1088-1167), Moses Mai- 

 monides (1135-1204), and David 

 Kimchi( 1160-1240). Thelanguage 

 used is a new development, and is 

 even less pure than Talmudic He- 

 brew. It is known as New Hebrew 

 or Rabbinic Hebrew (not to be 

 confused with Yiddish). Aben- 

 Ezra was also a poet whose name 

 recalls the fact that the 10th cen- 



3908 



tury saw the rise, especially in 

 Spain, of a rather remarkable 

 school of New Hebrew poets. 



The beginning of the 18th cen- 

 tury brought another renaissance 

 in Hebrew letters, which started in 

 Italy with the activities of M. H. 

 Luzzatto, philosopher, poet, and 

 dramatist. The movement spread 

 to Germany, which in course of 

 time became its centre (the so- 

 called Haskalah period, c. 1750- 

 1850). Then, in the early part of 

 the 19th century, the centre of 

 activity was transferred to Galicia 

 (the Galician period). 



By the middle of the 19th cen- 

 tury the lead was taken by Russia, 

 which produced such famous 

 writers as Abraham Mapu (1808- 

 67), a creator of the Hebrew novel, 

 Judah Loeb Gordon (1831-92), the 

 poet, Peretz Ben Moshe Smolenskin 

 (1839-84),the essayist and novelist, 

 and Constantino A. Shapiro (1840- 

 1900), the poet. In our own time 

 poets like H. N. Bialik, Saul 

 Tschernihovsky, Jacob Cohen, and 

 Z. Schneer have greatly enriched 

 the storehouse of Hebrew litera- 

 ture. The language of the modern 

 writers, popularly known as Modern 

 Hebrew, aims at keeping as close 

 to the classical model as possible. 



Bibliography. Introduction to He- 

 brew Literature, J. W. Etheridge, 

 1856; Lehrbuch der Neuhebraischen 

 Sprache und Litteratur, H. L. S track 

 and C. Siegfried, 1884 ; the Jewish 

 Encyclopaedia, 1904; The New He- 

 brew School of Poets, H. Brody 

 and K. Albrecht, 1906; Introduc- 

 tion to the Hebrew Bible, A. S. 

 Gederi, 1909 ; Hebrew Grammar, 

 F. H. W. Gesenius and E. Kautzsch, 

 ed. A. E. Cowley, 1910 ; The Re- 

 ligion and Worship of the Syna- 

 gogue, W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H. 

 Box, 2nd ed. 1911 ; The Evolution 

 of Modern Hebrew Literature, A. S. 

 Waldstein, 1916 ; A Short Survey 

 of the Literature of Rabbinical and 

 Mediaeval Judaism, W. O. E. Oester- 

 ley and G. H. Box, 1920. 



HEBREW RELIGION. This claims 

 exceptional consideration as the 

 parent of two other great and 

 world-wide monotheistic faiths, 

 Mahomedanism and Christianity. 

 Its wonderful development was not 

 quite an ordinary evolution, be- 

 cause in a special degree it was 

 carried from one stage to another by 

 a series of great men who appeared 

 suddenly as leaders and prophets. 

 Among the patriarchs an outstand- 

 ing figure is that of Abraham, who 

 is said to have led a migration of 

 certain nomadic tribes from Meso- 

 potamia (Ur of the Chaldees) to 

 Palestine ; and there is a persistent 

 tradition that Abraham was spiri- 

 tually the father of Israel. It has 

 even been suggested that the migra- 

 tion of Abraham was due essen- 

 tially to a religious impulse ; it 



HEBREW 



was a protest against degeneration 

 in the Babylonian moon-worship, 

 or against the polytheism culti- 

 vated in Babylonia by the Ham- 

 murapi dynasty (so Jeremias). 



Moses, however, was the first 

 prophet, and the founder of the 

 Hebrew religion. At first the mi- 

 grating tribes seem to have shared 

 the beliefs of other Semitic nomads. 

 They believed in powerful demons 

 or spirits which inhabited stones 

 (the sacred stone of Bethel, Gen. 

 xxviii, 22), trees (the sacred oracu- 

 lar tree at Shechem, Gen. xii, 6; 

 Deut. xii, 3), springs (the sacred 

 wells at Kadesh, Gen. xiv, 7, and at 

 Beertheba, Gen. xxi, 28-30, 31), 

 and even animals (the brazen ser- 

 pent, Nehushtan, Num. xxi, 4-9; 

 2 Kings xviii, 4). Natural boulders 

 were used for altars, and sacrifices 

 were not prominent. Where blood 

 was shed, it was for the most part 

 used for blood-covenants. 



In Egypt the Hebrew tribes do not 

 seem to have been much impressed 

 or affected by the more developed 

 religion which they found there. 

 But here a leader arose, who had 

 clearly been uplifted and inspired 

 by stirring religious experiences 

 (Exod. iii, 2-4). It is possible, as 

 Jeremias has suggested, that, when 

 Moses fled from the court of Egypt 

 into Midian, where he became a 

 shepherd in the service of Reuel or 

 Jethro, the priest of the Midianites, 

 he did so because on religious 

 grounds he had become unpopular 

 at the Egyptian court. In any case, 

 if he was seeking a fresh religious 

 stimulus, he would seem to have 

 found it among the Midianites. 



Recent research indicates that 

 before Yahweh (Jehovah) was pro- 

 claimed by Moses the covenant God 

 of Israel, he had long been a tribal 

 deity of the Kenite-Midianites. 

 Moses founded the priesthood, being 

 himself both prophet and priest. 

 Inspired by Yahweh, he gave the 

 people ten simple commandments 

 (Exod. xxxiv). The sanctuary of 

 Yahweh was a sacred ark, probably 

 an ancient object which had ac- 

 quired a new significance. 



At this stage the religion may be 

 described as monolatry. Yahweh is 

 the one officially recognized God of 

 Israel, but he is not the only God. 

 In Canaan the Hebrews met with a 

 rather elaborate Canaanite cultus. 

 This in course of time they appro- 

 priated in large measure. Sacred 

 shrines and fixed altars were taken 

 over for the use of Yahweh. The 

 sacrificial system and the agricul- 

 tural festivals of the Canaanites 

 were adopted. Sacrifices are now 

 regarded for the most part as gifts, 

 and special importance is attached 

 to first fruits. Three times in the 

 year all the males in Israel are 



