E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, William A. Pifer-Foote, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
The Historical Bible
1911
The period represented by this volume is in many ways the most complex andconfusing in Israel's history. The record is not that of the life of anation but of the scattered remnants of a race. It was inevitable thatunder the influence of their varied environment, the survivors of theJewish race should develop very different beliefs and characteristics.The result is that many different currents of thought and shades of beliefare reflected in the literature of this period; some of it is dross, butmuch of it is purest gold. While the period following the destruction ofJerusalem was a reflective and a retrospective age in which the teachingof the earlier priests and prophets gained wide acceptance, it was also acreative era. Fully half of the literature of the Old Testament and all ofthe important writings of the Apocrypha come from these tragic fivecenturies. Although the historical records are by no means complete, thegreat crises in Israel's life are illuminated by such remarkablehistorical writings as the memoirs of Nehemiah, the first book ofMaccabees, and the detailed histories of Josephus.
The majority of the writings, however, reveal above all the soul of therace. Out of its anguish and suffering came the immortal poems found inIsaiah 40-66, the book of Job, and the Psalter. Instead of the distinctlynationalistic point of view, which characterizes practically all of thewritings of the pre-exilic period, the interest becomes individual and theoutlook universal. During these centuries Israel's prophets, priests,and sages became not merely teachers of the nation but of humanity.Conspicuous among the great teachers of his day stands the noble sage,Jesus the son of Sirach, who gleaned out and presented in effective formthat which was most vital in the earlier teaching of his race. In hisbroad, simple faith in God and man, in his emphasis on deeds andcharacter, as well as ceremonial, and in his practical philosophy of lifehe was a worthy forerunner of the Great Teacher whose name he bore.
This period represents the culmination and fruition of the divineInfluences at work in Israel's early history. It was during this periodthat Judaism was born and attained its full development, Israel acceptedthe absolute rule of the written law, and the scribes succeeded the earlierprophets and sages. Out of the heat and conflict of the Maccabeanstruggle the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees sprang into existenceand won their commanding place in the life of Judaism. Hence this periodis the natural historical introduction to the study of the birth and earlydevelopment of Christianity. It is also the link that binds the revelationfound in the Old Testament to that of the New.
The volume of literature coming from this period is so vast that it hasbeen necessary to abridge it at many points in order to utilize that whichis most valuable. This has been done by leaving out those passages whichare of secondary origin or value, and by preserving at the same time thelanguage and logical thought of the original writers. In the verbose andvoluminous writings of Josephus the resulting text is in most cases farcle