i8 7 o] PROPHECY IN CRITICAL SCHOOLS 199 



itself.&quot; Most Israelites probably remained blind to the 

 real difference between the Jahveh of Moses and their old 

 god. They still continued to worship other gods, though 

 they never quite lost hold of the idea of a peculiar moral 

 covenant between Israel and Jahveh. We have seen how 

 Kuenen connects Samuel with a revival of Mosaic ideas. 

 From the time of this revival, we are told, Jahvism grew 

 steadily but slowly. But Jahveh was not yet a spiritual 

 God. The steer -worship of Jeroboam, though a retro 

 gression from Solomon s temple- worship, was not incon 

 sistent with the conceptions of Jahveh that prevailed 

 even among the prophets. The continual struggle of the 

 true prophets against the idolatrous Jahveh worship of 

 Bethel and Dan, depicted in the Book of Kings, is rejected 

 by our author as a fable. Jehu, he urges, could not have 

 upheld the steer- worship against the wishes of the prophets, 

 who raised him to the throne. In one word, the prophets 

 of the tenth century had not yet reached that spiritual 

 view of God which Ewald, Hitzig, and the whole weight of 

 German critics ascribe without hesitation to Moses and 

 himself. Towards the end of the tenth century, Ahab 

 ascended the northern throne, and influenced by his 

 Tyrian queen, though he did not forswear Jahvism, 

 favoured and endowed the worship of Baal. The prophets 

 of Jahveh were jealous of the innovation, and did not 

 hesitate to express their displeasure in a way that trans 

 formed the naturally liberal Ahab into a persecutor. 

 The struggle lasted for many years, till Jehu, the champion 

 of Jahvism, overthrew the dynasty of Ahab and extin 

 guished the worship of Baal. But the contest had left 

 deep marks on the national faith. Jahvism had gained 

 in the bloody struggle a deeper and more spiritual char 

 acter. How great must that God be than to forsake 

 whom it was better to die ! Not by calm arguments, but 

 by passionately earnest thought, the persecuted Jahvists 

 learned to contrast their God with all other gods in a way 

 they had never done before. And then, when at length 



