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Abraham down, pledges Israel to "put away the strange gods" and serve Yahweh only, prophesying prosperity in case of obedience and calamity otherwise, and erects a great stone" under the oak in the sanctuary for a witness. The story then relates the death and burial of Joshua, adding that during the lifetime of Joshua and the men of that generation Israel was faithful to the pledge, and concludes with a passage whose terms and allusions we shall recognize :

"And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 kesitahs of money: so they became the inheritance of the children of Joseph."

Once more, it is conceivable that not only Moses took pains to supply the sequel to all the unfinished data of a document employed by him for the patriarchal period, using the same style and vocabulary, but that Joshua, or some still later writer, continued the practise after Moses' death, and still another after Joshua's death. But can such an assumption stand for one moment before the probability that a narrative thus interconnected in its several parts at the same time that it often disagrees with the adjoining material, is a single unbroken work?

But while the document P reaches an appropriate conclusion with the occupation of Canaan, it is far otherwise with E, the document we are now following. Not only is there as yet no completeness to the author's purpose, but the same signs which indicated in Genesis that more was to follow, are present here at the close of Joshua; and as those were corroborated by unmistakable fragments of the same narrative in the books following, so the expectations raised by the farewell address of Joshua are met by an element of the story in Judges and the books of Samuel and Kings.

The story of the Judges in E is not, as in the parallel, which in many ways is identified as J, the account of how the tribes gradually enlarged and established their foothold against the native peoples, but how all Israel underwent a succession of reverses at the hands of foreign invaders, according as they suc

cessively fell away to the worship of "strange gods," then repented, and Yahweh "raised them up a deliverer." The last and greatest of these prophet-deliverers is Samuel, the story of whose career begins a new epoch.

In I and II Samuel E's story contrasts with that of J, first by making Samuel the prophet the most important figure, relating his career from birth and childhood, as in the case of Moses, instead of merely introducing him as J does in full maturity, when his part is to be played, and subordinating his role to that of Saul. On account of the unfaithfulness of the priesthood Israel is reduced to subjection by the Philistines. At the instance of Samuel the people repent and turn to Yahweh with all their heart, "putting away the strange gods." Samuel leads them to complete victory at Ebenezer, and rules the country in peace and justice. The origin of the monarchy is traced to the discontent and vanity of the people, who demand a king in imitation of the neighboring peoples. Samuel reveals to them their folly and sin in rejecting the theocracy they have hitherto enjoyed, but at Yahweh's command grants their request, selecting the king by lot at Mizpah. Moved by Samuel's speech of abdication the people repent and secure Samuel's promise of intercession and the promise of suspension of punishment during good conduct. Immediately thereupon. Samuel, as representative of Yahweh's sovereignty, enjoins upon Saul, the newly-appointed king, a holy war against Amalek (cf. I Sam. xv. 1ff. with Ex. xvii. 8–14; Dt. xxv. 17–19). Saul at once proves his unfitness, and the story of the shepherdboy David and his conflict with Goliath introduces the worthy successor. For their favor shown to David, whom Saul's jealousy has driven into hiding, Saul exterminates the house of Aaron (cf. Ex. xxxii. 33f.). A brief version of the romantic story of David, Jonathan and Saul ends in E with the account of David's sparing Saul's life (I Sam. xxvi.), whereupon Saul confesses his sin and is reconciled to his "son David." Afterward David hears of the death of Saul and Jonathan in the battle of Gilboa. His informant, an Amalekite, testifies to havDavid has him slain. David thereupon con

ing killed Saul.

ducts the war against the Philistines to a successful issue, and when firmly established in Jerusalem consults with "Nathan the prophet" as to "building a house for Yahweh." Nathan responds at first with approval, but, receiving a message from Yahweh the same night, reports that Yahweh will have none of the proposed house of cedar, though for David's pious design He will "build him a house," i. e. establish his posterity upon the throne (cf. Ex. i. 21). There is no further report from E upon the reign of David and he appears to have proceeded at once to the accession of Solomon.

Solomon's reign imposed a "grievous yoke" upon Israel in the building of his temple and palaces, and at his death the people seek relief. At Shechem all Israel had gathered to make Rehoboam king. The folly of the young prince repels the ten (eleven?) tribes. Under the leadership of Jeroboam, who had previously been instructed by the prophet Ahijah, they rebel and set up the kingdom of Ephraim. "There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only." Jeroboam sins by establishing bull-worship at Bethel (and Dan?”*) and is rejected by Yahweh at the mouth of Ahijah (I Kgs. xiv.).

E probably traced briefly the story of the kings of Israel as far as Ahab, and his work may have incorporated the great narrative of the prophets which begins abruptly with the story of Elijah in I Kgs. xvii.-xix., and continues in II Kings ii., iv.– viii. 15. Cornill thinks it probable that the source of II Kings xiv. 8-16 is E, and I would add in that case as extremely probable, vv. 23-29, in vs. 28 reading we-jehudah, "and Judah," for le-jehudah," to Judah," of the text. It would seem therefore that in its present form the narrative of E came down very near, if not quite, to the fall of the northern kingdom, and in any case he must have brought his narrative down to date. The great catastrophe of 722 B. C. establishes a positive terminus ad quem for the Ephraimite history, not because literature

*Cf. Farrar's article: "Was there a golden calf at Dan?" Expositor, Dec., 1893.

ceased in Samaria after the loss of its independence, but because the hopeful and even triumphant patriotic feeling which pervades the bulk of this history is incompatible with the experience of utter national ruin. Again such a narrative would scarcely have grown up in independence of its Judean parallel after the coalescence of the two kingdoms. But perhaps the most conclusive argument for a limit within the eighth century B. C. is that in 701 the work seems to have been known to Isaiah the son of Amoz (cf. Is. x. 24-26). The brilliant reign of Jeroboam II. (circ. 800-759), marked by an at least attempted incorporation of Judah and restoration of the Davidic monarchy, fulfills the conditions under which such a document might naturally arise, and we are safe in concluding that its story reached to about the middle of the eighth century.

The argument for the continuity of the document J of Genesis throughout the preëxilic historical books very nearly, if not quite down to the revolution of Jehoiada, is exactly analogous to that presented in favor of P and E, but a mere perusal of the document should dissipate from any candid mind the notion that the materials the analysis sets aside from P and E in Genesis and the later Pentateuchal books are mere disconnected fragments, or even two or more separate though mutually supplementary narratives. The scope of J is far wider than that of either E or P, but a comprehensive purpose is intelligently pursued from its introductory chapters tracing the ethnological pedigree of Israel to "the Man" of Eden, down to the story of the great Yahwistic rebellion against the "house of Omri," which in Ephraim set Jehu, whom we might call the "flail of Elijah," upon the throne of Ahab, and in Judah, under the leadership of Jehoiada, overthrew the usurped throne of Athaliah, and set in her place the child Joash with the powerful chief-priest as regent.

Let the reader conceive, in the absence of adequate synopsis, what the history of Israel would be like, as written in the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel and Kings, down to the epoch just defined, if the Deuteronomic and Priestly Codes,

and the elements of P and E above reviewed were omitted. In Genesis the origins of the Hebrew stock are related in legends of idyllic beauty. Their affinity with all surrounding peoples is traced back to the creation of man. Primitive my

thology is employed to account for the beginnings of moral and physical evil, with faint foreshadowing of an ultimate victory of humanity. The growth of art and invention accompanies the ramification of the race and the rise of corrupt civilizations. Presently the stock of Abram emerges as divinely chosen to inherit the land of Canaan. The folk-tales of Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba, the sacred wells, trees, altars, sanctuaries of the land are attached to the story of the patriarchs, and find their justification in it, while the splendid tribe-legend of Joseph leads over to the bondage of Egypt. That noble national lyric the Blessing of Jacob forms the subscript to the story of the primitive age. In the rest of the Pentateuch the story continues with the account of the origin of the national institutions. The tradition of the plagues and deliverance from Egypt culminates in the story of the Passover and its ritual legislation, and affords a manifestly historical nucleus to the tradition of the battle at the Red Sea. At Sinai the same brief ritual law incorporated by E is given to Moses, who writes it on "tables of stones." Here also the primeval institutions of worship are supplemented by a Levitical priesthood and a portable sanctuary. Certain legends of the desert and the long "nomadic " period in the steppes of Kadesh, reveal a historical basis, as does the story of the conquest of the land of the Amorites (Gilead), which is subsequently allotted to Gad and Reuben. The period of the wilderness wandering concludes with the unsought Blessing of Balaam, the "diviner," foretelling the glory of the Davidic monarchy. A second magnificent national poem centering the national life in the sanctuary at Jerusalem, where Yahweh abides "on the mountain shoulders of Benjamin,” and in a faithful Levitical priesthood preserving the rule of civil and religious order, is “the Blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death."

The story of the conquest under Joshua is a comparatively