Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 539

THE FACTORS OF INSPIRATION

§ 83.

CiiAP. II]

515

and therefore more susceptible to the Divine influence viro rov deov^ which is the characteristic of all While we are more ready to speak, the Oriental inspiration. is more inclined to listen; he does not know what conversation is, in our sense of the word, and that very inclinauie,

(jrda')(eLv

tion to listen aids his predisposition to inspiration.

we may

add, that

among

the nations of the

To

this

East, Israel

possessed these peculiarities in that modified form which prevented one-sidedness. It was Eastern, but formed the fron-

The

the West.

tier against

intuitiveness of the Israelitish

consciousness, therefore, did not easily turn into an extrava-

gant fancifulness, neither was

Jew

it

lost in a

deep revery.

The

possesses all needful qualities to secure a position of in-

Within himself he carried two worlds, and this rendered Israel more capable than any other people of receiving inspiration and of reproducing it intelligibly to the Western world. Paul, the dialectician, and Zachariah, the seer of visions, were both from In connection with this, the Jew in the East had Israel. that peculiarity, which still marks the French of to-day, of being inflamed by an idea, which is no result of logical thought, but springs from national life. The promise given to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees becomes the pole-star to That one animating thought eleIsrael's life as a nation. vates Abraham above Lot, and presently Jacob above Esau, maintains Israel's independence in Egypt, appears again and fluence for himself in the

Western world.

again during the period of the Judges, finds at length

its

acme in the expectation of the Messiah, and preserves Israel in Babylon under Antiochus Epiphanes, under Herod, and in its periods embodiment

in the idea of the King, finds its

From

of deformation.

the nature of the case, such an idea

animating an entire people

is

a valuable preparation for in-

accustoms the whole nation to live under a higher inspiration. It has its disadvantages; life in an imagispiration.

It

nary world

may tempt

hood

especially,

which

to sin, as it did is

this is the defect of its qualit//,

lence in the least.

Tamar, and feeds

one of Israel's characteristic

and does not

false-

sins,

but

affect its excel-

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