The Hebrew Sense of Sin in the Pre-Exilic Period: A Dissertation (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Hebrew Sense of Sin in the Pre-Exilic Period: A Dissertation In the early Hebrew community the pressing needs of life were met as they arose; there was little co-ordination of interests, for tribal or social solidarity was not so much a recognition of com munity interests as a proof of the vagueness of man's ideas con cerning the boundaries of his own selfhood.7 His concepts of the natural forces were indefinite and incoherent like the concept of his own interests. Good and the means of its attainment were related in inconsequential and magical ways. Death, misfortune, disease were not the mechanical outworking of the natural forces but they were the punishment exacted by the wilful, animistic powers on the general principle of vengeance controlling human society. This confusion of thought was manifest both in the treat ment of disease and in the half-physical, half-moral concept of sin as illustrated by the infection of clean and unclean. Unclean taboos were certain forbidden animals (deut, chap. 14; Lev., chap 11; Gen. I Sam. F.; Lev. Exod. Certain persons and things connected with birth (exod. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.