BIBLICAL SOCIOLOGY 229
than two hundred years. We shall go carefully into this phase of the subject at a later stage of our work. At present we can only reiterate that the history of Israel down to Elijah fails to disclose anything like the struggle against other gods which comes into evidence in the time of that prophet. It is a matter of fact that the prophets never appeal to the Pentateuch, with its elaborate system of laws and its remarkable predictions. Had there been a work of the kind in existence, how immensely would the prophets have been strengthened in their great campaign against injustice and the worship of other gx)ds. But they made no appeal to it because there was no Pentateuch to which they could refer. The promulgation of ethical monotheism by or through Moses at Sinai was not demanded by the situation. It would have been sheer supematuralism, in the dualistic sense, had it occurred ; and the subsequent work of the prophets and priests would merely have been application of Mosaic teaching to the conditions of later times. Of course, we do not deny the possibility of a supernatural revelation to Moses, in the sense just named. But it is not necessary to invoke anything of that kind in order to explain the social development of Israel after the Sinai period. And if no such invocation is necessary, then a supernatural revelation to Moses would have been superfluous.
II. THE SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN
In view of the facts thus far brought out by our examina- tion, it is clear that the history of Israel cannot be followed back with certainty to a period much before the settlement in Canaan. It is true that the Bible, as it now stands before us, professes to go back many centuries anterior to that exciting period. Accordingly, we find in the first five books of the Bible a series of narratives relating to affairs before the invasion of Canaan by Israel. At first glance these books treat history with a ful- ness of knowledge and authority equal to that which we find in the literature dealing with affairs after the settlement. To the un- critical reader there seems to be no difference between the Hexa- teuch, on the one side, and the Judges-Samuel-Kings narratives, on the other. For the wayfaring man there is no line of de-
