198 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



by this, that the ark, the dwelling of Jahveh, 1 accompanies 

 the Israelites during the wandering, and afterwards is set 

 up in their midst. . . . But, on the other hand, the people 

 must remain true to the conditions of the covenant with 

 Jahveh. The chief of these conditions are moral. Jahveh 

 is distinguished from other gods by deserving to be served, 

 not only by offerings and feasts, but, in the first place, 

 by the following of the moral commands, which make up 

 the main contents of the ten words. &quot; 2 



But was this great step a fruit of natural development ? 

 Yes, according to our author. The Israelites indeed were, 

 before Moses, in a very low stage of development. But 

 Moses was educated as an Egyptian, and in Egypt ethics 

 were developed in connection with religion to no incon 

 siderable extent. The revulsion of feeling which Moses 

 undoubtedly experienced against Egyptian religion might 

 not extend to this sphere. On the religion of his own 

 fathers he engrafted the moral ideas of the Egyptian 

 priests. There is surely something violent in this hypo 

 thesis. If, as Kuenen is persuaded, Moses borrowed 

 absolutely nothing from the religion of Egypt, could he 

 have looked on Egyptian moral teaching in a more 

 favourable light ? Or again, if he valued the ethics of 

 the Egyptian priests so highly, could he ever have become 

 such an enemy of their gods ? And yet we are to believe 

 that the monotheism of Moses was based on his persuasion 

 that Jahveh had covered these gods with the shame of a 

 crushing defeat ! Once more, why did the Egyptian 

 ethics remain without advance while the same teaching, 

 brought over to a much less cultivated nation, bore fruits 

 so remarkable ? 



So far is Kuenen from ascribing to Moses a truly 

 creative influence, that he tells us that &quot; what distinguished 

 Moses from his people remained the personal property of 

 himself and a few kindred spirits ; the popular way of 

 thought assimilated only so much as was reconcilable with 



1 According to Kuenen, Jahveh was thought by Moses really to 

 dwell between the Cherubim. 



2 Godsdienst, p. 289. 



