English
The world is much older, and in that long campaign against sin, it ought to have harvested a great amount of wisdom. But instead of advancing in civilization with the passing centuries, the Jews are furiously engaged in slaughtering rams and bulls and goats, and burning parts of their bodies, to make atone- ment for their sins. When the victims were slain, the priests sprinkled the blood round the altar, and they received the hides of the animals for their fee. ( i ) They likewise had their new moon offerings, wherein they burned flesh unto the Lord. (2) In some instances they "waved the breast" of the animal before the Lord, and then (1) Jos., Antiq., book 3, ch. 9. A thank offering was the same except that the priest received a part of the flesh for his services. Ezra, eh. 3, v. 3 to 6. (2) Jos., Antiq., book 3, ch. 10, sec. 1. 193 194 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES gave it to "Aaron and his sons." (3) But the right shoulder tliey bestowed upon the priest for a heave offering. But neither a flat-noscd man, (4) nor a lame one, nor a dwarf, nor any one having a blemish, could make an offering unto the Lord. Even if the flat-nosed man salted his offering, the Lord would not accept it. (5) The Jews seem to have loved the Hindu God, Agni, for they delighted in burning their victims, and even so late as 600 years B. C, they burned their sons and daughters in the valley of Hinnon. (6) Moses says God told him ''to offer sheep and oxen," (7) and if it be true that the Lord desired such sacri- fice, he must have been immensely pleased with Solo- mon when he offered twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. (8) But after Hilkiah, the high priest, found the book of Deuteronomy, all sacrifices were strictly forbidden everywhere in Palestine except in that old Jebusite cap- ital, Jerusalem. (9) (3) Leviticus 7, v. 28 to 34. (4) Leviticus, ch. 21. Moses had undoubtedly heard of th "flat nosed Eakshas" mentioned in sections 4 and 5 in the pre- ceding chapter. (5) Leviticus, ch. 2, v. 12 to 14. (6) Jeremiah, ch. 7, v. 32, also ch. 32, v. 35; Second Kings, ch. 17, V. 17; Ezekiel, ch. 16, v. 20 to 21; Micah, ch. 6, v. 6 and 7. I know some writers try to apologize for the blood-loving Jews, by offering the plea that the children were first slain, then burned. But even if that be admitted, was not the whole thing an abomination of horrors? (7) Exodus, ch. 20, v. 24. (8) First Kings, ch. 8, v. 63. (9) The "finding" of that book (2nd Chron., ch. 34, v. 14 to 24) is one of the strangest "finds" in all history. Moses had been dead more than eight hundred years. Where had that book been all those centuries? The truth about the matter, no doubt, A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 195 Thither the Jews flocked in vast numbers three times every year. (10) Nisan (March and April) was a noted time for them, in memory of pascha (the feast of the passover) . Fifty days later came the festival of Pentecost, wherein, in imitation of the Hindus, they offered the first fruits of the harvest unto the priest; also a lamb to be burned and some ivine for the Lord. This was followed by the feast of the tabernacles, cele- brated by living in tents and booths in memory of their long journey through the wilderness ; this lasted eight days, during which they sacrificed seventy-one bulls, fifteen rams and one hundred and five lambs. (11) This centering of all sacrifices in Jerusalem made it at once, to the Jews, not only a holy city, but the most holy place in all the earth to them. It became likewise a great center of traffic and commerce. The Jew would sacrifice in the Temple, but he would also, if possible, cheat his neighbor out of his inheri- tance. Moreover, after the finding of Deuteronomy, the Jews became puffed up and pride-blown ; for they were taught that they were an holy people unto the Lord (12) and that "He had chosen them to be a special is that Shaphan, the scribe, or Hilkiah, the high priest, wrote it. It was to their special interest that all sacrifices should be offered in Jenisalem. (10) Exodus, eh. 23, v. 17 and 19. The Hindus offered first fruits, but they did not offer wines; in lieu thereof they gave Agni and Indra some rice, boiled in milk. (11) Numbers, ch. 29, v. 12 to 35; Leviticus, ch. 23, v. 34 to 43; Nehemiah, ch. 8, v. 14 to 18. (12) Deut., ch. 7, v. 6. 196 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES people unto Himself, above all people on the face of the earth." Thenceforward, in greater degree than ever, all sur- rounding nations and peoples became gentiles or heathen unto them, from whom they bought their slaves, and could buy the children of people (not Jews) who dwelt among them. (13) If they stormed a city and took it, they murdered every male, but kept the women and little children as slaves. (14) But when they devastated Midian, they slew every male, old and young; and Moses was "wroth with the officers" that they had saved all the women alive, and he directed that every one be killed. But he kept thirty-two thou- sand little girls for even a worse fate. (15) Section 2. Such was the law, and such was the practice, nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus was born. If he obeyed the law of Exodus (16), he visited Jerusalem frequently, and there met great concourses of people gathered from every quarter of Palestine. Josephus tells us that in A. D. 65, three mil- lions were there at the Passover. But as no census was then taken, his guess was per- haps a million or so too many. This Temple was (13) This horrible stuff is put into our Bible as being inspired of God (Leviticus, ch. 25, v. 44 to 46). It is cruel history, not inspiration. (14) Deut., ch. 20, v. 10 to 14. (15) Numbers, ch. 31, v. 9 to 48. Josephus, Wars of the Jewa, book 2, ch. 14, section 3. It is probable there were about 2,500,000 Jews in Palestine. Moses writes himself down as a bloodthirsty wretch by giving such an order. (16) Ch. 23, V. 17. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 197 finished only a few years before Jesus was born, at a vast outlay of money and labor. A thousand wagons hauled the white stones for it, and ten thousand men polished them and put them in place. Yet it was com- pleted in one year and a half. (17) But the Temple itself occupied only a small portion included in the dif- ferent enclosures or courts. The Royal Porch alone was six hundred feet long, studded with one hundred and sixty white marble columns, each forty feet high. The Court of the Gentiles was wide and roomy, but here a warning was carved, where all could see it, for it was death for any Gentile to pass beyond it. (18) The whole space occupied by the Temple, the outer court, the royal cloisters, the court of the Gentiles, court of Israel, the woman's court, priest's court, the Holy of Holies, the cattle yards, the sheep pens, the dove cotes, the slaughter houses for the victims, the stalls or booths for the money changers — all these cov- ered about eighteen or nineteen acres. Moreover, the Jews never sacrificed for any but circumcised Jews. Just before the Feast of the Passover and the feast of the Tabernacles and Pentecost, the lowing of cattle and the bleating of flocks of sheep and the plaintive cry of lambs were heard everywhere in the surrounding hills, as they approached the Temple to be sacrificed to appease God's wrath toward the Jews. Herdsmen were (17) That means the Temple proper — the Jews told Jesus it was forty-six years in building. (John, ch. 2, v. 20.) (18) Paul was arrested and came near losing his life, because he took some Greeks beyond the court of the Gentiles (or heathen) — that included every one not a circumcised Jew. (Acts 21.) 198 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES there, driving bargains, haggling about prices for sacri- ficial animals ; money changers were also on hand yell- ing, "Here's your shekels for the sanctuary." (19) At every feast great nuniljers of Jews came without the proper sacrificial offering, hence the custom of keeping in the Temple, sheep, oxen and doves for sale. This custom was less repulsive to the Jews than it would be to us, because the whole Temple was used in a manner that would utterly shock the sensibility of men educated in Christian churches.