THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY

By Thomas Henry Huxley

THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY -We are all likely to be more familiar with the theological history of the Israelites than with that of any other nation. We may therefore fitly make it the first object of our studies; and it will be convenient to commence with that period which lies between the invasion of Canaan and the early days of the monarchy, and answers to the eleventh and twelfth centuries B.C. or thereabouts.

The evidence on which any conclusion as to the nature of Israelitic theology in those days must be based is wholly contained in the Hebrew Scriptures—an agglomeration of documents which certainly belong to very different ages, but of the exact dates and authorship of any one of which (except perhaps a few of the prophetical writings) there is no evidence, either internal or external, so far as I can discover, of such a nature as to justify more than a confession of ignorance, or, at most, an approximate conclusion.

In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book, when it is really a library comparable to a selection of works from English literature between the times of Beda and those of Milton, we have the stratified deposits (often confused and even with their natural order inverted) left by the stream of the intellectual and moral life of Israel during many centuries.

And, embedded in these strata, there are numerous remains of forms of thought which once lived, and which, though often unfortunately mere fragments, are of priceless value to the anthropologist. Our task is to rescue these from their relatively unimportant surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms of theology to make the dead world which they record live again.

In other words, our problem is paleontological, and the method pursued must be the same as that employed in dealing with other fossil remains.

Among the richest of the fossiliferous strata to which I have alluded are the books of Judges and Samuel. 1 It has often been observed that these writings stand out, in marked relief from those which precede and follow them, in virtue of a certain archaic freshness and of a greater freedom from traces of late interpolation and editorial trimming. Jephthah, Gideon and Samson are men of old heroic stamp, who would look as much in place in a Norse Saga as where they are; and if the varnish-brush of later respectability has passed over these memoirs of the mighty men of a wild age, here and there, it has not succeeded in effacing, or even in seriously obscuring, the essential characteristics of the theology traditionally ascribed to their epoch.

There is nothing that I have met with in the results of Biblical criticism inconsistent with the conviction that these books give us a fairly trustworthy account of Israelitic life and thought in the times which they cover; and, as such, apart from the great literary merit of many of their episodes, they possess the interest of being, perhaps, the oldest genuine history, as apart from mere chronicles on the one hand and mere legends on the other, at present accessible to us.

But it is often said with exultation by writers of one party, and often admitted, more or less unwillingly, by their opponents, that these books are untrustworthy, by reason of being full of obviously unhistoric tales. And, as a notable example, the narrative of Saul’s visit to the so-called “witch of Endor” is often cited.

As I have already intimated, I have nothing to do with theological partisanship, either heterodox or orthodox, nor, for my present purpose, does it matter very much whether the story is historically true, or whether it merely shows what the writer believed; but, looking at the matter solely from the point of view of an anthropologist, I beg leave to express the opinion that the account of Saul’s necromantic expedition is quite consistent with probability.

That is to say, I see no reason whatever to doubt, firstly, that Saul made such a visit; and, secondly, that he and all who were present, including the wise woman of Endor herself, would have given, with entire sincerity, very much the same account of the business as that which we now read in the twenty-eighth chapter of the first book of Samuel; and I am further of opinion that this story is one of the most important of those fossils, to which I have referred, in the material which it offers for the reconstruction of the theology of the time.

Let us therefore study it attentively—not merely as a narrative which, in the dramatic force of its gruesome simplicity, is not surpassed, if it is equaled, by the witch scenes in Macbeth—but as a piece of evidence bearing on an important anthropological problem.

We are told (1 Sam. xxviii.) that Saul, encamped at Gilboa, became alarmed by the strength of the Philistine army gathered at Shunem. He therefore “inquired of Jahveh,” but “Jahveh answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.”

Thus, deserted by Jahveh, Saul, in his extremity, bethought him of “those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards,” whom he is said, at some previous time, to have “put out of the land”; but who seem, nevertheless, to have been very imperfectly banished, since Saul’s servants, in answer to his command to seek him a woman “that hath a familiar spirit,” reply without a sign of hesitation or of fear, “Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor”; just as, in some parts of England, a countryman might tell anyone who did not look like a magistrate or a policeman, where a “wise woman” was to be met with. Saul goes to this woman, who, after being assured of immunity, asks, “Whom shall I bring up to thee?” whereupon Saul says, “Bring me up Samuel.”

The woman immediately sees an apparition. But to Saul nothing is visible, for he asks, “What seest thou?” And the woman replies, “I see Elohim coming up out of the earth.” Still the specters remain invisible to Saul, for he asks, “What form is he of?” And she replies, “An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a robe.” So far, therefore, the wise woman unquestionably plays the part of a “medium,” and Saul is dependent upon her version of what happens.

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