All the expenses are then naturally superfluous by
which a people usually safeguards it own existence. That this
view is unhistorical is self-evident; and that it contradicts the
genuine tradition we have seen. The ancient Israelites did not
build a church first of all: what they built first was a house
to live in, and they rejoiced not a little when they got it
happily roofed over (xi. 15). But we have still to add, in
conclusion, that the idea here before us can only have arisen in
an age which had no knowledge of Israel as a people and a state,
and which had no experience of the real conditions of existence in
these forms; in other words. It is the offspring of exilic or
post-exilic Judaism. At that time the nation was transformed into
a religious community, whose members were at liberty to
concentrate themselves on what they held to be the great business
of life, worship and religiousness, because the Chaldeans or the
Persians had relieved them of all care for worldly concerns. At
that time, accordingly, the theocracy _existed_, and it is from
that time that it is transported in an idealised form to early
times.
Pages:
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578