THE HEBREW AND THE STRANGER.

PRELIMINARY ESSAY.

ONE of the surest tests of a people's character and aspirations, is the attitude it assumes to other nations in contrasts and points contact. These relations, if well understood, will be found to reflect a large portion of its destinies and moral education and conclusively to prove how far it advanced towards the final goal of universal sympathy. Such an enquiry is of singular interest with regard to the Hebrews, who have so constantly been described by themselves and others as 'a peculiar people,' and yet long to unite one day all the races of the earth; who, even in their wide and lasting dispersion, desire and believe to be faithful to the ancient principles of their fathers, and yet are anxious to feel themselves in completest harmony with the Gentile populations among whom they live as citizens; and who, by teaching and example, have exercised the most decisive influence upon the course of civilisation.

But what are the ancient principles? To many the reply will appear exceedingly simple and easy. And yet the subject embraces questions of Hebrew antiquities hardly more momentous than complicated. It has called. forth two extreme views in almost diametrical opposition; for while some glorify the Hebrew law and practice respecting strangers as the ideal of enlightenment and humanity, others find both in the law and the practice clear evidence of the narrowest intolerance and the harshest cruelty. And yet it would be as unjust to charge the former with servile reverence, as to reproach

B

the latter with blind prejudice. How is it possible, between these contradictions, to discover the truth? Solely by the application of that historical method which, in all similar investigations, alone ensures safe conclusions by recognising stages of development and by separating periods. The conduct of the Hebrews towards aliens has a history, which the present state of Biblical science fortunately enables us to trace with a considerable degree of accuracy, and which is the more remarkable because, ast we hope to establish, it forms an organic part of the Hebrew people's general history, of which it reproduces nearly every shade and phase.

I. FROM ABRAHAM TO SOLOMON.

AT a remote period, but hardly earlier than the nineteenth or twentieth century B. C., there took place an Aramaean immigration into Canaan, which is represented by the names of Abraham and Lot. But Lot and his followers soon 'separated themselves' from their kinsmen ;b they went their own paths and founded the distinct tribes of Moabites and Ammonites in the eastern countries of the Jordan, where they were soon estranged from their ancestral stock. Thus Abraham, who had departed from 'his country and from the place of his birth, and from his father's house', was a stranger in a strange land.d The natives might, ere long, have assigned to him the name of Hebrew (y), that is, of one who had come to them from the other side of the Euphrates or Jordan, and thus have marked him as a foreigner;e or he might himself have assumed that appellation, to signify his deep and undiminished affection for the land of his forefathers.f

He was, however, by his condition compelled to assimilate himself to a certain extent with the natives and, being brought into constant intercommunication, to adopt their language. He ceased to speak Aramaic and spoke the kindred and likewise Shemitic language of the Canaanites', which at that time had perhaps its most perfect representative in the Phoenician dialect, but is also clearly traceable in many Canaanite names of persons and localities, and which, diffused by Abraham's descendants, and developed by a rich literature, became in the lapse of centuries 'the holy tongue', because, as the medium of the sacred writings, it was to be distinguished from the 'profane' languages, especially the Greek.d

Abraham and his immediate progeny moved freely in the land, gained wealth in cattle and other possessions, and lived with the people and their chiefs in amicable intercourse which was but rarely disturbed by petty jealousies or collisions. Yet they did not coalesce with the Canaanites. They continued to regard themselves as strangers and do not seem to have acquired landed property, so that, when Sarah died, Abraham entreated the Hittites in Hebron to sell him a cave and a field for a burial place, protesting, 'I am a stranger and a sojourner with you'. Two circumstances chiefly operated against an amalgamation. First, it was the strong attachment to their Mesopotamian connections, which was long preserved in the family with such freshness, that wives were only chosen from those relations, though living in a distant land, while matrimonial alliances with Canaanites were held in detestation. To my country,' Abraham enjoined upon his faithful servant, 'thou shalt go, and take a wife to my son;' Esau's Hittite wives were to his parents 'a

גר ותושב אנכי 4 .Genes. xxiii .etc ,לִישָׁן קוּדְשָׁא לְשׁוֹן הַקְדֶשׁ

.עמכם

grief of mind;' and Rebekah vehemently declared that she loathed her life on account of the daughters of Heth, and that if Jacob selected from them a wife, she would prefer to die.a

But it is not improbable that this antipathy would gradually have passed away and yielded to a feeling of confidence and friendship-for the strange wives of Judah, Joseph, and Moses are mentioned without reserve—had not, in the course of time, a merely extraneous rite proved a most powerful barrier. For Abraham and his clan had not come into Canaan as hostile invaders, nor with the intention of making that country merely their temporary abode; the Canaanites themselves testified, "These men are peaceable with us, therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein, for the land, behold, is large before them;' and with the charge given to his steward to select a wife for Isaac in Mesopotamia, Abraham coupled the no less energetic command, 'Beware that thou dost not bring my son thither again'. However, Abraham himself came into contact with the Egyptians, and his descendants dwelt among them for many generations. They could thus not fail to imitate some of the customs, and to be deeply imbued with many of the peculiar notions, prevalent in the land of the Pharaohs. But one of the most prominent of Egyptian customs was circumcision, and from an early period the view gained ground that its omission was a blemish and a disgrace, since circumcision was brought into the closest connection with the most essential principles of holiness and religion. This rite which, as we know, was not practised in Mesopotamia,f was doubtless adopted by the Hebrews at a remote

a Gen. xxiv. 2-4, 7, 37-39; xxvi. 34, 35; xxvii. 46; xxviii. 1-9, etc.

b Gen. xxxviii. 2; xli. 45, 50; Exod. ii. 21; comp. Num. xii. 1. c Gen. xxxiv. 21.

d

Gen. xxiv. 6, 8.

e Gen. xxii. 10-20, etc. f In the Babylonian 'Contract concerning the house of Ada' (col. iii), we read among the most fearful curses invoked upon a hated