viii THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 313 



himself and not to have employed Abiathar as a 

 medium. How the answer was given is not clear, 

 though the probability is that it* was obtained by 

 casting lots. The Urwi and Thummim seem to 

 have been two such lots of a peculiarly sacred 

 character, which were carried in the pocket 

 of the high priest's " breastplate." This last was 

 worn along with the ephod. 



With the exception of one passage (1 Sam. 

 xiv. 18) the ark is ignored in the history of Saul. 

 But in this place the Septuagint reads " ephod " 

 for ark, while in 1 Chronicles xiii. 3 David says 

 that " we sought not unto it [the ark] in the days 

 of Saul." Nor does Samuel seem to have paid 

 any regard to the ark after its return from 

 Philistia ; though, in his childhood, he is said to 

 have slept in " the temple of Jahveh, where the 

 ark of Elohim was " (1 Sam. iii. 3), at Shiloh, 

 and there to have been the seer of the earliest 

 apparitions vouchsafed to him by Jahveh. The 

 space between the cherubim or winged images 

 on the canopy or cover (KapporetJi) of this holy 

 chest was held to be the special seat of Jahveh 

 the place selected for a temporary residence of 

 the Supreme Elohim who had, after Aaron and 

 Phineas, Eli and his sons for priests and seers. 

 And, when the ark was carried to the camp at 

 Eben-ezer, there can be no doubt that the 

 Israelites, no less than the Philistines, held that 

 " Elohim is come into the camp " (iv. 7), and that 



