Evening star., 1927-11-13
BY WILL DURANT, Ph. D.,
Author Of
"The Story of Philosophy"
The Story Of Civilization BY ~

settled states. Persia fwhose story
will come as the background of Mara
thon) had grown to such supremacy
and repute that when its armies ap-
preached Babylon the great capital
surrendered without siege (539 B.C).
The enlightened Cyrus permitted the
Jews to return to Jerusalem, and en-
couraged and protected them while
they labored to establish their civil
ization.
Disaster may destroy states,' but it
nourishes religion. The Jews re.
turned from Babylon almost destitute
of political organization, but their
priesthood was still organized and
powerful. AS later the Roman papacy
succeeded to the Roman empire in the
midst Of chaos. so now the high priest
of the temple became the ruler of the
Jews. The ancient warlike faith and
trust in arms gave way to a passion
ate belief that soon Yahveh would vim
dicate himself as ruler not Of a tribe
only, but Of the world. 1t was now
that the priests collected the hymns
sung in the temple. and made up that
book Of psalms which marks the high.
est reach to which lyric poetry has
ever risen. 1t was now Tea. 440 B.C)
that the priest Ezra put the Torah or
Pentateuch into its present form, and
made it a staff Of strength for his
suffering people. Perhaps, if they
were faithful to the law, Yahveh
would send a savior, a Messiah, who
would lead them out of misery into
happiness and peace.
But Yahveh did not appear: in his
stead came Alexander, further scourge
Of a bitter god; and the genial pro-
tectorate OF Persia passed into the
0P hn
Alexander was generous enough, but
when he died he left his empire "to
the strongest" who had had no Aris.
totles to refine them. In 319 Be.
Antiochus entered Jerusalem to collect
human material for a colony at Alex
andria. Unable to understand the re-
sistance of the Jews, he descended to
the most brutal revenge, and set about
to destroy their religion as well as
their remaining state.
Thousands of Inhabitants were
killed, thousands We're sold into
slavery: many thousands more fled,
SO that there came a time when
Jerusalem contained hardly a single
Hebrew. Circumcision and other
Jewish rites were prohibited; no reli-
allowed; and all copies Of the Torah
that the government could find were
destroyed. Horrible things. no doubt
exaggerated, were told. Two mothers
were brought before the judges
charged with having circumcised
their children. They were hung up
by the breasts, and then flung from
the city wall. Some people who had
taken refuge in a cave, to keep the
Sabbath there, allowed themselves to
be suffocated with smoke rather than
to defend themselves" Renan, His
tory Of the People of Israel, vol, iv;
PIP. 27 0.3.) TO fill the void left by
persecution, deportation and flight,
non-Jews were brought in from every
quarter of the Mediterranean. '"The
courts Of the temple became the scene
Of pagan orgies; pagans came here
with their concubines and gave them.
selves to debauchery."
It was against the background of
desolation that some nameless but i'm
mortal Jew wrote the Book Of Job.
Picture a people that had believed it.
self favored and chosen" of Yahveh.
now destitute and enslaved, every
heart broken, every home laid waste;
was 1t possible to hold this faith
clear Of doubt? Or was it not inevi-
table that voice should arise asking
in despair whether this evil history
could be reconciled with this loving
God? Here in this strange chapter
Of the Bible Is another man against
the sky" questioning the heavens in
the name of justice. OF what use
was it for q people to worship its god
with passionate reverence, if he was
to pour upon 1t the bitterest suffer.
ing? OF what~suse to be honorable,
to be generous, to be loyal to. wife
and children. as Job had been. If in
the end one Is to lie on a bed of
ashes, rotting with sores? Was It
true. then, as Shakespeare would
phrase 1t awfully, that =.
From hour to hour we ripe and ripe.
And then from hour to hour we rot
and rot, s..... .,- t-.'"te+:
With Job the Jews pass from the
ology and blind faith to philosophy
that reasons why. Read the book
again and see how near Job comes
to a resentful atheism, and how, to
console him, his friends breach, al
most for the first time in Hebrew
literature, the idea of Immortality:
surely IL the Just man Is defeated
here, there is another life in which
he shall find reward. "Shan mortal
man be more just than God? Shall
a man be more pure than his Maker?"
Continued on Page Nineteen.)