The Earliest Jews

This series has six easy 5-minute installments. This first installment: Challenge to Established Religions.

Introduction
From the times of Ancient Egypt and Babylon to Nazi Germany and to the Middle Eastern problems of today, the Jewish people have been prominent. Einstein was Jewish. So was Hollywood’s Jack Benny. So is today’s Zelensky of Ukraine. This is the story of how they established themselves in world history.

This selection is from Universal History: The Oldest Historical of Nations and Greece by Leopold von Ranke published in 1884. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) championed objective and scientific approach to research and writing history. So, how was he going to relate this topic, so fraught with miraculous elements?

The history of the creation in Genesis is not merely a cosmogonic account of primitive date, but above all else it is an express counter-statement opposed to the conceptions of Egypt and of Babylon. The latter were formed in regions either naturally fertile or early animated by commercial intercourse; the Mosaic idea emerges upon the lonely heights of Sinai, which no terrestrial vicissitudes have ever touched, and where nothing interposes between God and the world.

With the Egyptians and Babylonians everything is developed from the innate powers of the sun, the stars, and the earth itself Jehovah, on the other hand, appears as the Creator of heaven and earth, as both the originator and the orderer of the world. It would almost seem as if the assumption of a chaos, or, as it is given in a more modern version, a primeval flood, was not completely excluded; but this conception itself rested on the idea of a previous creation. The creation of man is the point in which all centers. With the Egyptians man is not distinguished in kind from the sun from which he issues rather as a product than as a creature, and the same is true of the Babylonian cosmogony, where the divine element in man is only revealed through the blood of a God chancing to fall down to earth. All creatures are generically the same with man. In the Mosaic cosmogony, on the other hand, the elements, plants, and animals are called into being by a supreme intelligent Will, which creates in the last place man after His own image. The divergence is immeasurable. God appears prominently as a Being independent of the created world ; He appears to the prophet in the fire, but yet is not the fire ; He is in the Word which is heard out of the fire. Speech is bestowed upon man, who gives each created thing its name. In this his pre-eminence consists ; for he alone, as Locke has remarked, possesses an innate faculty of framing an abstract idea of species, whereas other creatures can grasp nothing beyond the individual. Whilst the descent of some from the sun and others from the stars establishes a difference between man and man, creation by the breath of God makes all men equal. Under the Godhead as independent of the created world the dignity thus implanted in men appears, it might almost be said, as a principle of equality.

In a passage which criticism asserts to belong to the oldest form of the original account, to man is assigned lordship over the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and all beasts which move upon the earth. This is a conception distinct from that prevalent in Egypt, where the bull is worshipped with divine honors as symbolizing the creative power of nature. The idea of Jehovah, far from having arisen from nature worship, is set up in opposition to it. The Mosaic history of the creation is a manifesto against the idolatry which was predominant in the world. It is this opposition which gives to the national tradition of the Hebrews, beyond doubt an inestimable relic from times of remotest antiquity, its principal value.

The Hebrew memories cling to the ancestor of the race, who migrates with his flocks and herds from Northern Mesopotamia into Canaan, and forms a connection with the Hittites, the most important of the inhabitants of Canaan at that time, in consequence of which a portion of land is transferred to him, by purchase, for a sepulcher. Abraham receives, as the progenitor of a group of nations, a widespread reverence which has endured for centuries upon centuries. He is not, like the Egyptian kings, himself a god, but he is a friend of God. In this friendship he lays the foundations of his people. The traditional account has preserved some traits of him in which the ideas of the oldest religion in Canaan, before it became the national religion, are easily recognized.

Lot, brother’s son to Abraham, ancestor of the tribes of Moab and Ammon, and, like Abraham himself, a shepherd prince and tribal chieftain, becomes embroiled in the wars of the petty princes in whose district he is settled, and is led away captive by the conqueror. The action of Abraham in consequence prefigures the later independence of Israel. Though dwelling in the dominions of another prince, he takes up arms with his family and dependents, and, overthrowing the victorious enemy, frees his brother’s son and restores him to his home. I do not venture to pronounce the whole of this story to be historical; to do so would be to substantiate too much that is miraculous and incredible. The essential point to note in the legend is the imposing figure which the patriarch presents among the native inhabitants of Canaan and the new intruders. With this, however, is associated another trait, which indicates a conception of more than merely national range. There is a chief, Melchizedek, whose authority extends over all these tribes and their princes. He blesses Abraham and brings him bread and wine. He is a priest of El Eljon, the Most High God, Lord of heaven and earth. The religion he professes is identical with that which the Israelites have always maintained. Under Abraham it appears as a higherreligion of universally recognized authority. Abraham gives tithe to the priest king, whilst the latter praises God, who has given Abraham the victory. But, with the worshippers of Baal surrounding him on every side, even Abraham is tempted to give in his adherence to this system of worship, and, as a necessary consequence, to sacrifice his son. He has gone so far as to prepare to conform to this usage, when the Most High God prevents by a miracle the completion of the sacrifice. The narrative of the victory and blessing of Abraham, and of the sacrifice thus frustrated, are the most splendid episodes in the five books of Moses, and amongst the most beautiful ever penned.

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