Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

First, there are the particular circumstances of the Israelites in Palestine.70 They were a small tribe, surrounded by powerful enemies. They were continually fighting, their numbers always threatened. The ark of Yahweh (the portable altar), in its house at Shiloh, seems to have formed the general meeting-place for Hebrew patriotism. Containing the golden calf (i.e., the bull), the ark was always carried before the Hebrew army. There was thus just one god in the ark, and although Solomon (tenth century BC) built temples dedicated to other Hebrew gods, which remained in existence for some centuries, Yahweh became in this way the main deity.71 For generations the two tiny Israelite kingdoms maintained a precarious independence between the great empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Beginning in the eighth century BC, however, this balancing act broke down and they were defeated in battle, first by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians. The very existence of Israel was at stake and, in response, ‘there broke out an ecstasy of enthusiasm’ for Yahweh. In this way was generated the ‘Age of the Prophets’, which produced the earliest masterpieces of Hebrew literature, designed to shock the sinful Israelites into compliance with the wishes of their god, Yahweh who, by the end of this period, had become supreme. ‘Prophet’ is a Greek word, meaning one who speaks before the sacred cave of an oracle.72

Jewish faith beginning