THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. 697 



on earth: botli ideas being paralleled by those of some 



existing savages. 



Seeing then that Jahveh was originally one god among 

 many the god who became supreme ; let us ask what was 

 his nature as shown by the records. Not dwelling on 

 the story of the garden of Eden (probably accepted from the 

 Accadians) where God walked and talked in human fashion ; 

 and passing by the time when &quot; the Lord came down to see 

 the city and the tower, which the children of men builded ; &quot; 

 we may turn to such occasions as those on which Jacob 

 wrestled with him, and on which &quot;the Lord spake unto 

 Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.&quot; 

 These, and many kindred statements, show that by the 

 Hebrews in early days, Jahveh, &quot; the strong one,&quot; &quot; a man 

 of war,&quot; having been originally a local potentate (like those 

 who even now are called gods by the Bedouins), was, in after 

 times, regarded as the most powerful among the various 

 spirits worshipped : the places where sacrifices to him were 

 made, being originally high places (2 Kings xii, 3), such as 

 those habitually used for the burials of superior persons ; as 

 they are still in the same regions. Says Burkhardt of the 

 Bedouins &quot;the saints tombs are generally placed on the 

 summits of mountains,&quot; and &quot;to him [a saint] all the neigh 

 bouring Arabs address their vows.&quot; Here we see parallelism 

 to the early religious ideas of Greeks, Scandinavians, and 

 others ; among w T hom gods, indistinguishable from men in 

 appearance, sometimes entered into conflicts with them, not 

 always successfully. Moreover, this &quot; God of battles,&quot; 



whose severe punishments, often inflicted, were for insubordi 

 nation, was clearly a local god &quot;the god of Israel.&quot; The 

 command &quot; tliou shalt have none other gods but me,&quot; did not 

 imply that there were none other, but that the Israelites 

 were not to recognize their authority. The admission that 

 the Hebrew god was not the only god is tacitly made by the 

 expression &quot; our &quot; god as used by the Hebrews to distinguish 

 Jahveh from others. And though with these admissions that 



