448 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



of organic composition which characterises the race. But 

 these qualities would have modified the form of the 

 Semitic epos, rather than have rendered such composition 

 altogether impossible. 1 Nor is it just, with other critics, 

 to regard the Pentateuch as a Hebrew epic. For though 

 the epic poet selects a subject at least quasi-historical, his 

 method of treatment is the very opposite of history. 

 Elevating its heroes above the measure of common 

 humanity, and interweaving mythological with historical 

 characters, the epos seeks to separate the past from the 

 present by the widest possible gap, and so to gain an 

 isolated territory, in which it may freely use every creative 

 license. But even those critics who form a low estimate 

 of the accuracy of the earlier history of Israel will not deny 

 that the origin of the Hebrew race is told in such a way as 

 to emphasise the historical connection of the present with 

 the past. The religious pragmatism of the historical 

 books, so fully recognising the special providence which 

 gives unity to the whole story of Israel s fortunes from 

 the days of the Exodus, or even of the covenant with 

 Abraham, is directly opposed to the epical point of view. 

 The Israelite had no desire to isolate a part of past time, 

 adorning it with nobler motives and higher life than 

 subsequent ages could show. The God of Abraham, 

 Isaac, and Jacob is the everlasting God of Israel, as near 

 to His people now as in former days. And so more 

 accurate criticism has proved that the Pentateuch is not 

 an isolated epos, but that in composition, as well as in 

 subject, all the leading historical books of the Old Testa 

 ment possess a certain unity, stamped upon them by 



1 It is true that not only the Hebrews, but the Arameans and Arabs 

 are without an epic poetry. But this kind of composition was known 

 at least to the Semites of Babylonia and Assyria, who perhaps derived it, 

 along with the mythological lore so necessary to the epic poet, from 

 their mysterious Turanian predecessors. The epical legend of the 

 descent of Istar into Hades, discovered in the library of Sardanapalus, 

 may be read in English in the first volume of Records of the Past. The 

 exploits of Lubara and the epic of Izdubar, discovered by the late 

 George Smith, are given in his Chaldean Account of Genesis. 



