194 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



accounts for the prophet s firm conviction that he speaks, 

 not his own words, but the words of Jahveh. It was the 

 belief of the age that Jahveh did exercise an immediate 

 influence in nature. Hence mental phenomena really 

 natural could honestly be ascribed to Him by men unable 

 to trace their origin. It naturally followed that visions 

 and dreams were viewed as desirable, and this very desire 

 operated to make them more common. Yet, on the 

 other hand, Kuenen seems to allow that with the greatest 

 prophets visions were not very frequent. The operation 

 of a single ecstasy occurring at a decisive moment of life, 

 might produce upon the prophet the impression of a 

 consecration to Jahveh which would give him confidence 

 to speak as His messenger during all his future life. But 

 how was it possible that a whole class of men could come 

 to be characterised by ecstasy ? How could such a 

 phenomenon attain such a measure of organization as to 

 become identified with a peculiar function in society ? 

 The origin of prophecy, answers Kuenen, falls in the 

 days of Samuel. 1 Before his time the &quot; seers &quot; of Israel 

 were little different from vulgar sooth- say ers. The 

 prophetic ecstasy was associated, not with Jahvism, but 

 with Canaanite nature- worship, to which indeed, in the 

 period of the Judges, the Hebrews had no formed aversion; 

 but towards the end of that period a more hostile attitude 

 sprung up between the Hebrew invaders and the old 

 population. In the religious sphere this hostility appears 

 in the rise of the Nazarites, of whom Samson is the type, 

 and whose simple and austere life betokens a reaction 

 against the sensual worship of the Canaanites. Such a 

 reaction was not without its historical justification ; for 

 though, according to Kuenen, Jahveh was to Moses still a 

 nature-god, of whom fire and light were the essence, and 



1 The less negative criticism, on the other hand, makes Samuel the 

 founder, not of prophecy, but of the prophetic order. Before Samuel, 

 says the latest writer on this point, &quot; prophecy had no special determin 

 ate form, no enduring position among the powers of the state.&quot; 

 (Schultze, Alttestamentliche Theologie, i. p. 151 ; Frankfurt, 1869.) 



