Mazdean beliefs came under the influence of the erudite theology of the Chaldeans of Babylonia. In the eighth century the Babylonians adopted an exact system of chronology and began the measurement of time in the era of Nabonassar in 747 B.C. Scientific astronomy became possible and the periodic character of celestial phenomena was discovered and reduced to a numerical expression by which repetitions could be predicted. In recognizing the unchangeable character of celestial revolutions they imagined they had discovered laws of life. The influence of the stars was formulated in dogmas of absolute rigidity and a cosmic religion was based on science. Human activity and relations with astral divinities were brought into a general harmony of organized nature. During the short-lived restoration of the second Babylonian empire in the sixth century astral religion became established and acted as a powerful force in the dissolution of older beliefs.[77] The sacerdotal character of these conceptions laid the basis for a learned theology which had its influence on Persian religion in the addition of other deities, including Anahite or the planet Venus, and destroying the exclusive position of Ahura-Mazda.
In Persia speculative monotheism possibly became a starting-point for revealed religion, but the organization of an empire attempting to dominate Egypt and Babylonia prevented religion from becoming too strongly nationalized. The toleration of Persian rule and the advantage of a flexible alphabet on the other hand favoured an intensely nationalized form of religion as it was revealed or consciously constructed by priests of the Jewish theocratic state. The God of the universe was nationalized and not the national god universalized.[78] During the Babylonian captivity, after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., Ezekiel subordinated the political state to the religious community and attempted to turn from intense nationalism to a more cosmopolitan personalism. Jeremiah had spiritualized religion and separated it from all outward institutions, even from the nation. It was discovered that religion could be practised in Babylonia as well as in Judah. The strong solidarity of society was broken into atoms. Life was composed of countless single acts. Contact with other religions, including Chaldean astrology during the captivity, possibly strengthened the concept of duality and of the devil, and a belief in immortality, but it accentuated the distinction of a culture which kept Israel apart from the world and preserved a moral standard and an ethical god. The unconditional omnipotence of God created the problem of evil.
After return from the exile reaction favoured exclusive particularism. It has been suggested that the priests returned from Babylonia with the idea of a universal god and with no king or nobility arranged a compact with the people.[79] The temple became a rallying ground for the community. Music assisted in consolidation as psalms were sung by a temple choir. The Jewish ideal of direct government by God implied opposition to the deification of kings who were never recognized as divine by nature but were subject to law and threatened by the prophets if they disregarded it. A covenant god gave the prophets an enormous advantage over kings. Jahweh was a God not because of blood relationship but because of a definite agreement. Monopoly of the scriptures rigidly maintained by the priesthood strengthened the position of the prophet as a threat to the prestige of the king and a check to the abuse of absolute power.
The prophets of the seventh and sixth centuries reduced a multitude of gods to one and transformed Judaism by giving religion an ethical basis. With few abstract terms and without powers of rationalization the Judaism of antiquity produced no philosophers. Religion was made ethical by ‘a personal, direct, vivid vision’. The great prophets conceived duty as righteous and made righteousness the most effective way of gaining the favour of God. Spirit and conduct rather than cult was emphasized. Righteousness alone could save people. The conception of a supreme god was expressed in terms of spiritual power and the ethical content of the monotheistic view of divine government of the universe. The pentateuchal works breathed the spirit of ethical monotheism and with the historical books emphasized absolute obedience. In the fifth century, under the influence of Ezra and Nehemiah, religion was purified and the law was revised. The teaching of the prophets was an intensified form of group morality. Israel remained a group united by blood relationship but with an ethical code imposed by a covenant God and entered on a spiritual mission.
The universal demands of the covenant put special emphasis on ceremonials of attainment. The prophets emphasized morality and the priests ritual holiness. The age of Deuteronomists was followed by the age of priests. The document P with its chief interest in the temple, showed how religion could be practised without sacrifices. The Priests' code was probably completed about 500 B.C. and became the norm of Jewish life after 444 B.C. A theocratic organization strengthened ritual.[80] Religion became the sole cause of all history and historical narratives a device for religious education. History illuminated the truths of religion and was used to teach the origin and sanctity of various writers and institutions. Political and economic forces were subordinated. The Priests' code with the heavy economic burdens of a cultic system left no place for a king. With these tendencies Hebrew ceased as a spoken language about 400 B.C. and became the language of religion and of the schools. The priests were concerned with the interpretation of the scriptures in a sacred language. The growth of exclusiveness in turn brought conflict with the Persian empire and illustrated again the problem of religion and empires.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Studies in the History of Science (Philadelphia, 1941).
[48] S. H. Hooke, ‘The Early History of Writing’ (Antiquity, xi, 1937, p. 275).
[49] See C. J. Gadd, Ideas of Divine Rule in the Ancient East (London, 1948). For a discussion of the conflict between force and religion as the basis of law see N. S. Timasheff An Introduction to the Sociology of Law (Cambridge, 1939).
[50] See G. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 59.
[51] Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (New Haven, 1944), p. 47.
[52] T. Eric Peet, A Comparative Study of the Literatures of Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia (London, 1931), p. 26.
[53] Ibid., p. 88.
[54] T. Eric Peet, A Comparative Study of the Literatures of Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, p. 128.
[55] Ibid., p. 97.
[56] William Ridgeway, The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards (Cambridge, 1892), p. 268.
[57] Studies in the History of Science (Philadelphia, 1941), p. 8.
[58] Ibid., p. 1.
[59] A. E. Cowley, The Hittites (London, 1920), p. 85.
[60] D. G. Hogarth, Kings of the Hittites (London, 1926), p. 55.
[61] John Garstang, The Hittite Empire (London, 1929), pp. 43-4.
[62] W. M. Flinders Petrie, The Formation of the Alphabet (London, 1912), pp. 17-19. ‘A gradually formed signary, spread by traffic far and wide, was slowly contracted and systematized until it was reduced to a fixed alphabet.’ Signs, ‘by the systematic arrangement of some of them, ... were rendered easier to learn and to remember, they supported each other to the exclusion of the unregulated signs, and so obtained a permanent preference, and lastly they were adopted as manuals, and thus they were thrust upon all the world of trade as an exclusive system.’ Ibid.
[63] Assyrian phrase cited G. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 72.
[64] See C. J. Gadd, Ideas of Divine Rule in the Ancient East (London, 1948), Lecture II.
[65] ‘The Egyptian Origin of the Semitic Alphabet’ (Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, iii, London, 1916, pp. 1-16) and The Legacy of Egypt, ed. S. R. K. Glanville (Oxford, 1942), pp. 53-79. See G. R. Driver, op. cit., p. 121, for a conclusive discussion on the close relationship between Egyptian and Phoenician scripts in the absence of vowel signs, recognizably pictorial signs, direction of writing, the use of papyrus and the potsherd, and of the reed pen and ink.
[66] See J. W. Jack, The Ras Shamra Tablets, Their Bearing on the Old Testament (Edinburgh, 1935), p. 43, and C. F. A. Schaeffer, The Cuneiform Texts of Ras Shamra-Ugarit (London, 1939).
[67] Lewis, L'Industrie du papyru
s, p. 81.
[68] J. H. Breasted, ‘The Physical Processes of Writing in the Early Orient and their Relation to the Origin of the Alphabet’ (The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, xxxii, pp. 230-49).
[69] See The Legacy of Egypt, ed. S. R. K. Glanville (Oxford, 1942), pp. 246-7, for Hebrew and Egyptian parallels.
[70] C. Leonard Woolley, The Sumerians (Oxford, 1928), p. 165.
[71] Morris Jastrow, Hebrew and Babylonic Traditions (New York, 1914).
[72] See C. H. W. Johns, The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew People (London, 1912).
[73] Buried Empires, p. 113.
[74] See A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago, 1948).
[75] See D. Diringer, The Alphabet, a Key to the History of Mankind (London, n.d.), p. 187.
[76] Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago, 1903), p. 7.
[77] Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans (New York, 1912), p. 26.
[78] Thomas Whittaker, Priests, Philosophers and Prophets (London, 1911), p. 128.
[79] Thomas Whittaker, Priests, Philosophers and Prophets, p. 103.
[80] Law closely identified with religion and dominated by belief in its divine origin implied great efforts to supply more detailed and exhaustive regulations. See Jerome Frank, Law and the Modern Mind (New York, 1935), P. 297.
III
THE ORAL TRADITION AND
GREEK CIVILIZATION
A flexible alphabet contributed to the spread of Aramaic, of Phoenician, and of Hebrew. It facilitated the development of effective expression in literature in Indo-European languages. In part it was responsible for the rise and fall of the Persian empire. The problems of later political empires in the West followed its adaptability to languages.
In adaptation to the demands of new languages script was conventionalized into the alphabet. Trade followed a conventionalized alphabet suited to the demands of large areas dominated by armed force supported by technological advances in improved breeds of horses, and the use of bronze and iron. Religion became conventionalized and monotheistic following adaptations of animistic religions dependent on agriculture. Finally, political organization became conventionalized as empires were compelled to recognize the religions of diverse centres. Conventionalization of script, religion, and political organization in Asia and Africa facilitated transmission across the Mediterranean to Europe. Separated from earlier civilizations by a body of water the Greeks escaped their full cultural impact and adopted cultural features suited to their needs. The alphabet escaped from the implications of sacred writing. It lent itself to an efficient representation of sounds and enabled the Greeks to preserve intact a rich oral tradition. The ancient world troubled about sounds.
The concept of empire in Babylonia arose in part from a conflict between a civilization based on clay and the stylus and a civilization based on stone and the chisel. In the north the use of stone in architecture, sculpture, and writing emphasized the importance of monarchy and centralized power. Religious organization in relation to the use of clay with an emphasis on time and continuity came into conflict with military organization in relation to the use of stone and technological advance represented by the use of iron and improved breeds of horses with an emphasis on space. Conflict between the Semitic king and Sumerian priest contributed to the growth of law evident in the work of Hammurabi. Religion became malleable and adapted to the demands of force. The gods were reduced to order and in turn laws dependent on the gods. An emphasis on military organization and space demanded uniformity of laws. Dominance of political organization over vast areas and control over religious organizations facilitated the spread of writing and the use of the alphabet as a more efficient instrument. In turn the spread of Aramaic hastened the growth of trading cities and the development of trading oligarchies under the shelter of the Assyrian imperial structure. The monopoly power over writing exercised by religious institutions in Egypt and Babylonia was destroyed by the development of a new simplified type of writing which became the basis of new developments in communication and political organization shown in the Assyrian and the Persian empires. The development of political organization in relation to improved means of communication led to the growth of trade and trading cities as interstitial institutions between political and religious organizations and to the development of trading oligarchies such as emerged in Carthage. The problem of political organization was in part that of efficiency incidental to the mobility with which ability was attracted to administrative positions. In part such efficiency was dependent on the success with which writing linked the written to the spoken word. A breach between the written and the spoken word accompanied the growth of monopoly incidental to complexity of writing and invited invasion from regions in which such breaches were not in evidence and in which technological advance was unchecked. Invasion involved compromise with the conquered in which the language of the conquered becomes sacred and a centre of appeal to the conquered and in the use of which religious institutions tempered the influence of the conquerors. In turn the administrative bureaucracy of military conquerors becomes linked to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and monopolistic, the breach between the written and the spoken word is widened and invasion from new peoples is invited. The efficiency of the alphabet and its adaptability to languages provided a temporary means of escape in facilitating, on the one hand, the expansion and development of empires by the Assyrians and the Persians and the growth of trade under the Arameans and Phoenicians, and on the other hand the intensification of religion in Palestine. The power of religion based on monopolies of complex systems of writing implied an emphasis on continuity and time, but the alphabet facilitated the growth of political organizations which implied an emphasis on space. The commercial genius of the peoples of Syria and Palestine ‘borrowed what was essential in the Sumero-Acadian or Egyptian systems, and adapted it to their own urgent needs’.[81] An alphabet became the basis of political organization through efficient control of territorial space and of religious organization through efficient control over time in the establishment of monotheism.
The task of understanding a culture built on the oral tradition is impossible to students steeped in the written tradition. The outlines of that culture can be dimly perceived in the written records of poetry and prose and in the tangible artefacts of the excavator. Recognition of its significance has been evident in the concern of scholars over centuries with interpretations of records.[82] But the similarity of the Greek alphabet to the modern alphabet and the integral relation of Greek civilization to Western civilization implies dependence on the complex art of introspection. Individuals in different ages and nations have looked into the pool of classical civilization and seen precise reproductions of themselves.[83] Renan wrote that ‘progress will eternally consist in developing what Greece conceived’. Grote described the democratic tendencies of Grecian civilization and E. A. Freeman stated that ‘the democracy of Athens was the first great instance which the world ever saw of the substitution of law for force’. More recently Marxian interpretation[84] has received its expected reward. The fundamental solipsism of Western civilization presents an almost insuperable barrier to objective interpretation of Greek culture.
Greek civilization was a reflection of the power of the spoken word. Socrates in Phaedrus reports a conversation between the Egyptian god Thoth, the inventor of letters, and the god Amon in which the latter remarked that
‘this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without th
e reality.’
Socrates continues:
‘I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question, they preserve a solemn silence, and the same may be said of speeches. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if you want to know anything and put a question to one of them, the speaker always gives one unvarying answer.’
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