CRITICAL NOTE

THE EARLIEST SOCIAL PROPHET

The remarkable document which enables us to discuss the above subject at all is a papyrus long in the possession of the Leyden Museum, but only recently in any measure understood. As unrolled, the document is about twelve feet long, and seven and one-half inches high, containing seventeen pages or columns of hieratic writing, usually of fourteen lines each. It is a copy probably as late as the twelfth or thirteenth century B. C. of an older document displaying language and literary connections which would probably put it in the Middle Kingdom in the vicinity of 2000 B. C., though a date as late as the sixteenth century B. C. is not impossible.

Although long since published by the Leyden Museum, the language of the document is so excessively difficult and the state of preservation so bad that attempts to understand its content have failed. In 1903, Professor H. O. Lange, director of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, published a communication in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Berlin1 in which he stated that a study of the document had convinced him that it contained the messianic prophecies of an Egyptian sage. He did not, however, publish the document, and quoted only the more significant portions. During the past year the entire document has been published in extenso, with careful Commentary and all other critical apparatus, by the able young Oxford Egyptologist, Mr. Alan H. Gardiner. Mr. Gardiner's volume2 may be regarded avstandard edition of the text. His exhaustive study and acute comments have done much to further our understanding of the text, and, although he disagrees with Professor Lange in his main contention, yet even on Gardinet's theory of the nature of the document it still remains a most important monument in the history of prophecy in the East.

The content of the document may briefly be sketched as follows: An Egyptian sage named Ipuwer stands in the presence of the king and some others, probably his court, and in response to a lost utterance of the king, the wise man addresses them in a long harangue filling the first fourteen and a half pages of the seventeen in the document. The bulk of this speech is

1903, pp. 601-10.

The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage. From a papyrus in Leiden. (Pap. Leiden 344 recto), by Alan H. Gardiner, M.A., Laycock student of Egyptology at Worcester College, Oxford. With 18 plates in autograph and 1 in collotype. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1909.

occupied with a lurid description of the decadence and disorganization of Egypt. The land resounds with the tumult of warfare and "blood is everywhere." Even "the river is blood." Not only do Egyptians smite Egyptians, but the land is also overrun by foreigners and the Delta swarms with Asiatics. Robbery and violence rage on every highway, and foreign commerce has ceased. "No longer do men sail northward to Byblos," laments the sage. "What shall we do for cedars for our mummies, with the produce of which priests are buried and with the oil of which chiefs. are embalmed as far as Caphtor (Egyptian Kftyw)." Industry is at a standstill and the artisan has left his tools to take up the weapons of war. The rulers are helpless and indifferent. "The laws of the judgment hall are cast forth; men walk upon them in the public places." The old social order is upset and turned about as a potter's wheel turns, says the sage. "He who possessed no property is a man of wealth. The poor of the land have become rich and the propertied man has become one having nothing." In religion iniquity and impiety rule. Even the royal tombs are robbed and the palace lacks its revenues. In all the land misery and wretchedness are everywhere. The prophet regards himself also as involved in this ruin and asks in despair, "What shall we do concerning it ?" Or again he cries out, "Woe is me for the misery of these times!" Again his denunciation takes the form of curses: "Would that there might be an end of men; no conception, no birth!" The sage then takes up his admonitions to defend and set the land in order, admonishing especially to virtuous living, with homage and offerings to the gods. As he does so he sets forth his own ideal ruler "who brings cooling to the flame. It is said he is the shepherd of men. There is no evil in his heart. When his herds are few he spends the day to bring them together. . . . . Where is he today? Is he sleeping? Behold, his might is not seen."

The king is made directly responsible for these conditions. A brief reply of the king follows but it is too broken and obscure to discern its import. A paragraph containing the brief rejoinder by Ipuwer concludes the document.

The Hebrew prophets have always been supposed to have been the first men who possessed the detachment and the insight to contemplate the moral, social, and political wrongs of a people and contrast these with an ideal state in which they passionately believed, connecting with this ideal state an ideal person who was to usher it in and maintain it. This is the essence of messianism. Gardiner denies Lange's interpretation of the sage's utterances as prophecy, seemingly because Lange thought them predictive in character, but Gardiner himself summarizes the subject of the

sage's remarks as “social and political well-being." The existence of such a tractate displaying the detachment necessary to contemplate and set forth the social and political wrongs of a people contrasted with ideal prosperity and happiness—the existence of such a tractate on the very threshold of Palestine, centuries before the rise of the social prophets there, is very significant and can hardly be separated from the origin of the capacity to produce similar discourses among the Hebrews. There are passages in Ipuwer which strongly remind one of the first chapter of Isaiah or similar descriptions in Amos, Hosea, and Micah. The hitherto unexplained phenomenon of the sudden rise of literary prophets in Palestine in the latter half of the eighth century B. C. receives a flood of light from the existence of such a document as the Admonitions of Ipuwer.

The material monuments embodying a great civilization like that of Egypt may easily be traced into Palestine, as we find such remains there in the excavations of mounds like that of Megiddo or Jericho; but in the absence of early literary remains in Palestine the transmission of such work as this discourse of Ipuwer is a difficult matter to trace. Such things are too elusive to be found in the pots and kettles of a Canaanitish kitchen or the foreign amulets and charms worn by Hebrew women; these and similar material documents are the things found in Palestine, which can be unmistakably traced back to Egypt, rather than the elusive elements of an intellectual and religious life. But just as we conclude that a certain artistic motive which appears at a certain stage of civilization in Palestine must have been derived from a neighboring source where we know it has long been at home, so must we begin to discern similar lines of communication along which less easily traceable influences unquestionably pass between two civilizations as closely associated geographically, commercially, and otherwise, as were Egypt and Palestine.

As Gardiner has observed, the Admonitions of Ipuwer enable us to understand other documents and literary compositions in Egypt which show clearly that the manner of life, both of the individual and of the social and political body, were subjects of contemplation and discussion among them. That this kind of discussion and admonition should have been common in Egypt for many centuries before the rise of literary prophecy in Palestine can hardly be disconnected from this similar development among the Hebrews. However, study of this difficult document and future discovery in Egypt will undoubtedly throw much more light upon this interesting question.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

JAMES HENRY BREASTED

RECENT THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE

POPULAR BIBLICAL STUDIES

The final instalment of the first volume of the great translation of the Old Testament edited by Kautzsch has appeared. The second and final volume will contain the Minor Prophets and "The Writings." This section before us1 is all the work of Rothstein and runs from the thirtysixth chapter of Jeremiah through the Book of Ezekiel. The introduction to Ezekiel as a whole is brief but clear and frank, not hesitating to say that even this book, so long regarded as having come directly from the prophet's own hand, has suffered many things at the hands of editors and contains some later materials. Each section of the book is preceded by a foreword giving the historical situation out of which it came and such other information as is necessary for an intelligent approach to the section. The comments on the text are attached as footnotes and are rigidly restrained. The text itself consists of a new translation which is not content with merely carrying the thought of the Massoretic text over into German, but ventures to emend that text freely wherever it seems unintelligible. The speedy completion of the second volume will give the German Bible student who lacks special technical training an excellent compendium of the results of modern criticism and interpretation of the Old Testament.

There have just been issued the first two parts of a new German translation and interpretation of the Old Testament intended for the educated laity and clergymen. It aims to be less technical than Kautzsch's standard work of similar character and so to make its appeal to a larger number of readers. All the dry details of textual criticism are omitted, though the results of such work are incorporated in the translation.

1 Die Heilige Schrift des Alten Testaments, in Verbindung mit Professoren Budde, Guthe, Hölscher, Holzinger, Kamphausen, Kittel, Löhr, Marti, Rothstein und Steuernagel, übersetzt und herausgegeben von E. Kautzsch. Dritte, völlig neu gearbeitete, mit Einleitungen und Erklärungen zu den einzelnen Büchern versehene Auflage. Dreizehnte bis fünfzehnte Lieferung. Tübingen: Mohr, 1909. 769-952 pages. M. 2.40.

Die Schriften des Alten Testaments, in Auswahl neu übersetzt und für die Gegenwart erklärt von Professoren H. Gressmann, H. Gunkel, Hans Schmidt, und W. Staerk. 1. Lieferung, von Professor H. Gressmann. 2. Lieferung, von Professoren H. Gressman und W. Staerk. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909. 112+ 48 pages. M. 1.60.

Furthermore, the less valuable and edifying parts of the Old Testament are likewise left out. This excludes genealogical and statistical materials. The arrangement places the translation of a given section first with the explanatory material directly following. The interpretative notes deal with such matters of introduction as the literary character, the analysis of the section, historicity of the narrative, archaeology, and religious ideas. The names of the editors guarantee that the work will bear the stamp of the new pan-Babylonian school. Gressmann's interpretation of I Samuel and the Balaam story here offered is dominated by the ideas made familiar to Old Testament scholars by the works of Gunkel, and the Eschatologie of Gressmann himself. Staerk's treatment of the lyric poetry of the Old Testament is fresh and stimulating. The selections are taken almost wholly from the Psalter. Psalms read in the light of interpretative notes such as are given here will glow with new meaning for many, even though long familiar with the phraseology of the Psalter. It is greatly to be desired that American and English publishers may feel warranted in undertaking more work of a popular character similar to this and the Heilige Schrift of Kautzsch. There is a crying need at the present time for works such as will make the English-speaking public familiar with the results of modern interpretation at its best.

Professer Kent has reached with the present volume3 the half-way point in the progress of his latest series, "The Historical Bible." Two volumes have preceded dealing with the "Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History" and the "Founders and Rulers of United Israel." Three more will follow, one on the post-exilic age, another on the life of Jesus, and the third on the apostolic age. For the intelligent layman who desires to know what the modern interpretation of the Bible really is and is willing to do a little work in order to get that knowledge, this is decidedly the best set of books available. The text of the Bible is presented in a new and fresh translation, thus bringing old facts and thoughts before the mind in a new dress. The text is analyzed into its logical sections and each section is followed by the necessary explanatory materials. Little attention is paid in the present volume to questions of literary analysis, though the main results of said analysis are taken for granted. The utterances of the prophets are inserted in the midst of the historical narratives at the points where they respectively belong, thus bringing them into immediate connection with the historical circumstances amid which they originated. A

3 The Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah from the Division of the Kingdom to the Babylonian Exile. By C. F. Kent. With Maps and Chart. New York: Scribners, 1909. xv+323 pages. $1.00.