Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 89:353 (Jan 1932)
Article: The Religion Of Israel-Evolution Or Revelation?
Author: Albert H. Baldinger

BSac 89:353 (Jan 1932) p. 19

The Religion Of Israel-Evolution Or Revelation?

A. H. Baldinger, D.D.

Professor George Adam Smith has characterized the Semitic peoples as “the great middle-men of the world.” They have well earned the title. Located as they are on that great parallelogram known as the Arabian Peninsula, and concentrated as they always have been in that fertile northwest strip of the peninsula known as Syria-Palestine, the descendants of Shem have been the world’s middlemen in geography, in history, in commerce, in war, and in religion.

Geographically, the Semitic home occupies middle ground with respect to three continents. Stretching away to the east is Asia, on the northwest lies Europe, southwest is Africa. By virtue of its central location, Syria-Palestine was bound to play an important role in the history of ancient civilization. A glance at the map reveals at once its strategic position.

Historically, the Semitic people stand midway between the past and the present, between the great empires of yesterday and those which go to make up the modern world. To travel across the land of the Semite from the Taurus mountains to the Persian Gulf, and from the Tigris-Euphrates to the Suez Canal, is to see the dead past in the living present. Furthermore, it is impossible to uncover the records of ancient civilization without digging in oriental soil that has always been and remains to this day in the possession of the sons of Abraham, of Ishmael and Isaac, of Jacob and Esau, and their numerous kinsmen.

From time immemorial they have been also the middlemen of commerce, the carriers between east and west. For considerably more than three thousand years the commerce of Europe flowed into Asia, and the wealth of Asia into Europe and Africa over the historic trade routes that ran zigzag across Syria-Palestine.

In no sphere is the intermediary position of the Semite more dramatically illustrated than in the military history

BSac 89:353 (Jan 1932) p. 20

of the world, ancient and modern. Standing between Europe and Africa, and between Africa and Asia, he has seen the armies of the east and the armies of the west, northern armies and southern armies in endless procession marching by and through his home, and has had to bear the brunt of their battles whether he would or no. From the days of the Assyrian to the days of Allenby countless military thrusts have been delivered across his territory. Some one has rightly observed that if Belgium has been the cock-pit of the continent of Europe, Syria-Palestine has been the cook-pit of three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Finally, the Semitic peoples have been the religious “middle-men of the world.” In a very unique w...