Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 51:203 (Jul 1894)
Article: Israel And The Gospel
Author: George H. Schodde

BSac 51:203 (July 1894) p. 468

Israel And The Gospel

Prof. George H. Schodde

It is the most natural thing in the world that the interest taken in the Jews and their history knows no abatement. Their mission has been of such a unique kind that they constitute a sui generis factor and force in the development of history, offering an attractive problem, not only to the theologian and Bible student, but to the historian in general. If the teaching of the philosophy of history is correct, that a people is entitled to the rank of an historic nation in so far as they have contributed permanent elements to the culture and civilization of the world, then the Jews can claim a position in the front rank of the favored few. Beyond doubt or debate, the most potent factor in the ups and downs of the thought and activity of both individuals and nations is the religious. It is superior in influence to the ties of language, nationality, and even of kinship and blood. The mighty ideas and ideals which have contributed most to the development of Christian civilization, and to the present day yet continue in the world of faith and morals, in all the ramifications of individual and social life, to rule the hearts and minds of countless millions, are substantially rooted in Jewish soil, and have assumed their historic and present proportions in the Newer Covenant, supplementing and complementing the Older. The best civilization of this and preceding centuries is practically the further development of elements drawn from chiefly three ancient peoples—the Greeks, the Romans, and the Israelites. The first have contributed more than all others

BSac 51:203 (July 1894) p. 469

to the intellectual and aesthetical departments of modern culture, and their permanent influence is felt in the methods and manners of thought, in the ideals of the arts, in the systems of philosophy, and kindred lines. The Romans have supplied later generations with the forms of government, with the legal systems controlling states and society, property and rights. In Israel, however, were first planted those all-powerful principles of religious faith and worship and life which, as developed later by Christianity, have become the master influences in the development of everything that really can be called good and an advance in the history of mankind. In other spheres of activity and thought Israel was greatly the inferior of both Greeks and Romans, as also of some other nations which have left little or no abiding impress on the destinies and fate of mankind. Not in the sciences or arts, not in architecture or sculpture, not even in literature purely as such, can Israel claim equality, much less superiority, over some other peoples. Political power and supremacy to any notable degree was never hers. Among the powerful nations of antiquity, ...