308 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY viii 



were familiar with this doctrine in the time of the 

 captivity is suggested by the well-known reference 

 of Ezekiel (xxxii. 27) to the " mighty that are 

 fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down 

 to [Sheol] hell with their weapons of war, and 

 have laid their swords under their heads." 

 Perhaps there is a still earlier allusion in the 

 " giving of food for the dead " spoken of in 

 Deuteronomy (xxvi. 14). 1 



It must be remembered that the literature of 

 the old Israelites, as it lies before us, has been 

 subjected to the revisal of strictly monotheistic 

 editors, violently opposed to all kinds of idolatry, 

 who are not likely to have selected from the 

 materials at their disposal any obvious evidence, 

 either of the practice under discussion, or of that 

 ancestor-worship which is so closely related to it, 



1 It is further well worth consideration whether indications 

 of former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular 

 weight attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth 

 commandment. It is the only positive commandment, in 

 addition to those respecting the Deity and that concerning the 

 Sahbath, and the penalties for infringing it were of the same 

 character. In China, a corresponding reverence for parents is 

 part and parcel of ancestor- worship ; so in ancient Rome and in 

 Greece (where parents were even called Scvrcpoi Kal eVfyeoi 0eoi). 

 The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent 

 compromise between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The 

 larger hereditary share allotted by Israelitic law to the 

 eldest son reminds one of the privileges attached to pri- 

 mogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely connected 

 with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in 

 favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have 

 been a relic of ancestor- worship ; but that topic is too large to 

 be dealt with incidentally in this place. 



