The Religion of the Post-Exilic Prophets (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... "Ezek. xiv. 7; Isa. lxiii. 4. 10 Ezek. xvi. 30, so E.V.; Hebr. ("HEN, 'imula. The text, however, may be corrupt; cf. Bertholet. u Ezek. xliv. 7, 9. u Ezek. xxviii. 2; Obad. 3, "the pride of thine heart ." When Malachi2 says that Elijah shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their father, he does not mean only that they shall be made mutually affectionate, but also that they shall be united in harmony and in a common purpose. Volitional acts, as we have seen, are ascribed to the nephesh, the spirit, and especially to the heart.8 Ezekiel T wn sPeaks of God giving over Israel to the nephesh of its enemies,4 E.V. the "will " of its enemies, where, however, the reference may be rather to malice than to will. Will, in the sense of "that which is willed," is often denoted by hepheg, E.V. "pleasure"; Cyrus is to perform "all my hepheg," all that God purposes; men should not do their own hepheg, i.e., do just as they like, on the Sabbath.5 The absence of exact terms for the will shows that the Jews of our period did not distinguish the will as a special organ or function of the personality. Neither were they conscious of the philosophical problem of the freedom of the will. At the same time the teaching of the prophets involves, though it does not state, the question of the relation of human freedom to Divine Sovereignty. As is usual in popular teaching, the two apparently contradictory aspects of religious truth are set forth and emphasised in separate 1 Joel ii. 12 ff.; Zech. vii. 12. "Mai. iv. 6; cf. Nowack. 3 Pp. 232 ff. Ezek. xvi. 27. VDn, Isa. xliv. 28, lviii. 13. passages; but our prophets only rarely and tentatively touch upon the...