When the Israelites
settled in Palestine they found it inhabited by a population
superior to themselves both in numbers and in civilisation, which
they did not extirpate, but on the contrary gradually subdued
and absorbed. The process was favoured by affinity of race
and similarity of speech; but, however far it went, it never had
the effect of making Israelites Canaanites; on the contrary, it
made Canaanites Israelites. Notwithstanding their inferiority,
numerical and otherwise, they maintained their individuality,
and that without the support of any external organisation.
Thus a certain inner unity actually subsisted long before it
had found any outward political expression; it goes back to
the time of Moses, who is to be regarded as its author.
The foundation upon which, at all periods, Israel's sense of its
national unity rested was religious in its character. It was the
faith which may be summed up in the formula, Jehovah is the God
of Israel, and Israel is the people of Jehovah. Moses was not the
first discoverer of this faith, but it was through him that it
came to be the fundamental basis of the national existence and
history.
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