In this period, the only authorities for Jewish opinions and usages, are the following books of the Old Testament, which we shall set down in their supposed chronological order :15 Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, larger part of the Psalms, and of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Job, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel; of which the last three were written, either wholly or in part, in the beginning of the captivity. Nearly the whole of the books of Kings and of Chronicles must also be placed in this catalogue; since, though written afterwards, the facts which they relate belong here. From the death of Moses, till the time of David, a space of about five hundred years, we meet with no allusion to our subject, unless in a single occurrence of the significant phrase, gathered unto their fathers' and also all that generation [which entered Canaan under Joshua,] were gathered unto their fathers,'16 although their bodies were buried far from those of their ancestors. This dearth of allusion, however, for so long a space, may be owing to the scantiness of the remains which have descended to us from that time, consisting only of the books of Joshua, 15 It is well known that the date of some of these books is quite uncertain, I have arranged them in the order, which I supposed to be most generally approved, except in the case of the book of Job. In placing this, I have disregarded the common notion of its extreme antiquity, and followed Rosenmuller, who dates it between the times of Hezekiah and Zedekiah.— Scholia in Job. in Compend, redact. Prolegom. §7. 16 Judges ii. 10, Judges, and Ruth, which contain, moreover, little but narrative of the simplest kind. That the views of the people with respect to a future state, remained about the same as formerly, is probable, from the fact that such was the case immediately afterwards, when the traces of their opinion again appear. 1056 B. C.—In the reign of Saul, the pretence of consulting the dead seems to have been common in Israel, since that monarch is said to have cut off those that had familiar spirits, the necromancers, and the wizards, out of the land.17 But he himself,before the battle in which he lost his kingdom and his life, was at length driven by despair to seek the aid of one of these impostors ; which shows his belief both in their art, and in the existence of the dead from whom they affected to extort the required information. As the story will serve to illustrate several points in the popular notions of that day, we shall rehearse it with some particularity: Samuel, the patron and inspired counsellor of the king, was dead and buried at Ramah, about six miles north of Jerusalem. The ingratitude and transgressions of Saul had incurred the divine judgments: the Philistines were gathering their hosts against him; and he, in his dismay, felt himself forsaken by the Lord. He obtained no answers to his inquiries with respect to the approaching battle, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.' Overcome with fear and anxiety, he stole away, by night, to Endor, about seventy miles north of 17 1 Sam, xxv. 1; xxviii, 3, 9. Jerusalem, where was a woman that, in the language of the day, had a familiar spirit ; and he said to her, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whom I shall name unto thee:' that is, bring him up from beneath. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring me up Samuel.' Now, Saul cannot have referred to Samuel's dead body, since he knew that that was buried at Ramah, nearly seventy miles distant. He supposed the personal existence of the prophet still to survive, in some state, and in such a place, moreover, as that, in order to bring him to the scene of consultation, it was necessary to bring him up, or through the earth. And the language of the woman, which was no doubt accommodated to the prevalent notions, recognizes this idea having cried with a loud voice, as at the sight of an apparition, she said to Saul, 'I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? and she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived, [not saw, but understood, for such is the force of the Hebrew verb,] that it was Samuel,' &c. The dead, then, were supposed on these occasions, to arise, like gods, out of the earth, probably from Sheol, certainly not from their graves. It seems, too, that they were thought to retain, like the manes of the Greek and Roman nacrology, and the ghosts of modern superstition, somewhat of the appearance that identified them while living. The narative proceeds: And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Account how we may for the pretended address of the prophet, we should remember, that whether we ascribe it to Saul's imagination, agitated as he was, or to the artifice of the woman, it must, at all events, have been conformed to the popular notions, so that we may take it as a faithful index of them. Now, it is remarkable that Samuel is made to represent himself as having been disquieted by the summons which brought him up into the land of the living. He had reposed in Sheol, at rest and in silence, till the voice of enchantment roused him from his heavy languor : an idea which comports with those of the Scandinavian mythology, as described in Gray's Descent of Odin.18 A knowledge of futurity was indeed attributed to the slumbering prophet; but if we may indulge a conjecture, it was supposed to remain inert, as in the case of the northern spirits, till evoked by the magician. Samuel is next represented as foretelling the result of the approaching combat: the Lord also will deliver 18 Facing to the northern clime, Slowly breathed a sullen sound: [Prophetess.] What call unknown, what charms To break the quiet of the tomb ? Who thus afflicts my troubled sprite, And drags me from the realms of night? Long on these mouldering bones have beat The winter's snow, the summer's heat, [presume The drenching dews, the driving rain! Who is he, with voice unblest, That calls me from the bed of rest?' &c. Descent of Odin. 19 Israel with thee into the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me, probably in Sheol; not, at any rate, in the grave; for their bodies were left, the next day, on mount Gilboa, where they fell, and were afterwards burnt, and their bones buried at Jabesh-gilead, 20 beyond the Jordan, about fifty miles from Ramah. Such are the particulars in this narrative; and such the ideas it discovers concerning the state of the dead. 1056 B. C.-975 B. C.-David and Solomon make frequent mention of Sheol; often, indeed, without defining their views of it, though the general tenor of their allusions shows that they regarded it as the common receptacle of all the dead, of what character soever: What man,' says David, what man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? 21 Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol?' that is, all that live, must die, and be confined in Sheol. In several cases, it is difficult to determine whether it denotes the subterranean world, or merely the sepulchre; and those who are acquainted with the manner in which the Greeks and Romans sometimes confounded their hades or infernum, with the place of burial, will not think it improbable that a similar confusion of ideas may, now and then, occur among the Hebrew writers. In other passages, however, the reference is definite; as when the Psalmist represents the spirit of God reaching to the utmost extent, in height, in depth, in length 19 1 Sam. xxviii. 3-19. 20 1 Sam. xxxi. 8, 12, 13. 2 Sam. ii. 4, 5. 21 Ps. lxxxix. 48. |