608 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1887 



II 



Histoire du Peuple d Israel. Par ERNEST RENAN. Tome I. 

 (Paris: Calmann Levy. 1887.) 



THE first volume of M. Kenan s new work carries down the 

 history of Israel to the establishment of Jerusalem as the 

 capital of King David. Two more volumes are written, 

 though they still await the author s final touches ; these 

 will continue the narrative &quot; to the epoch of Ezra, that is, 

 up to the definitive establishment of Judaism.&quot; To these 

 volumes, for the revision of which he allows himself two 

 years, M. Renan hopes to add a fourth, upon the period of 

 the Hasmoneans ; but to this part of his plan he attaches 

 less importance, believing that the fourth volume will be 

 comparatively easy to write, and that in case of necessity 

 a translation of one of the many German books on the 

 subject would suffice to stop the gap. It is somewhat 

 difficult to understand how M. Renan, who is fully possessed 

 by the idea that the whole significance of the history of 

 Israel lies in the sphere of religion, comes to hold that 

 the period subsequent to the work of Ezra has been already 

 so satisfactorily elucidated that (as he puts it) &quot; one may 

 almost say that there are not two ways &quot; of writing about 

 it. It would seem that he attaches little importance 

 to the obscure tract of two and a half centuries which 

 separates Ezra from the Maccabee revolt, and no doubt 

 as regards the political record that period is almost an 

 absolute blank. But for the history of religion these 

 centuries are of the highest importance. It was during 

 them that the religious and social life of Israel re-shaped 

 itself in accordance with the institutions of Ezra. The 

 legal establishment of Judaism was completed by Ezra 

 and Nehemiah ; but the establishment of the law in the 

 hearts of the people was another matter. No one who 

 passes from the memoirs of Nehemiah to the first book 



