vin THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 315 



when they pleased and where they pleased, with- 

 out the least indication that they, or any one else 

 in Israel at that time, knew they were doing 

 wrong. There is no allusion to any special 

 observance of the Sabbath ; and the references to 

 circumcision are indirect. 



Such are the chief articles of the theological 

 creed of the old Israelites, which are made known 

 to us by the direct evidence of the ancient record 

 to which we have had recourse, and they are 

 as remarkable for that which they contain as for 

 that which is absent from them. They reveal 

 a firm conviction that, when death takes place, a 

 something termed a soul or spirit leaves the body 

 and continues to exist in Sheo) for a period of 

 indefinite duration, even though there is no proof 

 of any belief in absolute immortality ; that such 

 spirits can return to earth to possess and inspire 

 the living ; that they are, in appearance and in 

 disposition, likenesses of the men to whom they 

 belonged, but that, as spirits, they have larger 

 powers and are freer from physical limitations ; 

 that they thus form a group among a number of 

 kinds of spiritual existences known as Elohim, of 

 whom Jahveh, the national God of Israel, is one ; 

 that, consistently with this view, Jahveh was con- 

 ceived as a sort of spirit, human in aspect and in 

 senses, and with many human passions, but with 

 immensely greater intelligence and power than 



