Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Girton College, who lectured on Greek heroines to a class of factory and work girls. They listened eagerly to those beautiful classical stories, and two of them told me that, as they were working together in the factory, they would often discourse with each other on the stories of Iphigenia, Electra, and Antigone. Miss Macdonald, M.A. and Fellow of the London University, gave her pupils a course of English History, and Lady Morpeth taught her class History and Composition; Mr. Arthur Davies, occupied during the daytime in the city, has come every evening for eight months of the year for the last ten years to teach a class in our club gymnastics and musical drill.

Of the visits to country houses I have not space to speak at present. As I said, our members are many of them occupying the houses lived in in former days by the great people of England; now they often go forth from these houses to the country homes of the rich and noble as visitors for a week or a

fortnight. One especially enchanting visit was made by me with eighteen girls to Losely Hall by the invitation of Lady Sligo. The girls filled the guest-rooms, and were supremely happy. Of very many more happy days and weeks spent in castles or manors or smaller houses we cannot write. Times and views of life have indeed changed in the last one hundred years, and work for the poor is not carried on as formerly in the Lady Bountiful fashion, but in a friendliness of spirit, with a warmheartedness and a wise discretion, that do still more than the ways of old to give happiness and to brighten the lives of toil. A very large proportion of England's children from many classes are working together for the benefit of the Fatherland. The intimation of the party cry, "The classes against the masses," is not fair, and is growing less true daily. More truly could we say, "The classes for the masses;" and may we not hope soon to say, "The masses with the classes"?

A

The Real Isaiah

By Clifton H. Levy

SK ten readers of the Bible which book is their favorite, and nine, if not ten, of them will reply, "The Book of Isaiah." It is appreciated as being both powerful and poetic, thrilling and inspiring. It is full of appeals to lofty idealism, and unsparing in rebuking the materialism of that age. It is because it is so real and genuine, so spiritual in its teachings, that it has retained its power over men, even in our day. Yet the very fact of its popularity has led to many abuses and misapprehensions. The real Isaiah is a literature, and is to be comprehended only as the production of no single individual.

[ocr errors]

Behind the book stand several personalities. That tradition attributed prophetic utterances and lyrical productions of three centuries to the great "Isaiah of Jerusalem is not at all surprising to the student of Oriental literature. Isaiah was in fact and by repute the greatest of the prophets surrounded by the halo of a nation's tender recollections of its own apparent dissolution. He who had faced king and people with divine denunciation, with announcements of the "Impending Day of the Lord" (ii., 11),

The haughtiness of humankind shall be bowed down,

And the loftiness of man brought low,
And in that day shall JHVH' alone be exalted,

rightfully became the most commanding figure in the memory of the exiles. The greatest of his successors were called Isaianic; the most inspiring orations or stirring oracles were as

sociated with his name in the minds of the

people. This was in the long ago when tradition and history were one, when the line

between fact and fancy was as yet indistinct, if drawn at all.

The demand of to-day is different. Before us lies the Book of Isaiah, and just because it is the most remarkable book in the Bible we want to comprehend it clearly. Not for its theological value, great as that may be, not for its moral power; but if we would make any proper use of this book religiously or ethically, we must first have it adequately presented in literary form.

Literature is more than the forms of prose and poetry, more than ode, lyric, or blank The literary study of any production is inextricably interwoven with the conditions

verse.

1 Pronounced Yahwé.

[graphic]

under which it was produced. Matthew Arnold appreciated this point fully when he prefaced his "study" of Isaiah of Jerusalem by a lengthy historical introduction. He knew, as we should know, that we cannot appreciate the words of Isaiah unless we are conversant with the conditions under which they were uttered. We require the historical setting to understand his pregnant orations. That we must know American history to understand Daniel Webster's reply to Hayne requires no long argument, yet it is just as needful to know the prevailing conditions in Palestine and Babylon to comprehend Isaiah. That this fact has been obscured is largely due to the misappre

hension of the function of the

Hebrew prophHe was not

who, besides a genius to that art, is not a master both of his author's language and of his own; nor must we understand the language only of the poet, but his particular turn of thoughts and expression, which are the characters that distinguish and, as it were, individuate him from all other writers." What is true of the poet is just as true of the prophet, who is a religious poet in elevation of style and thought, even in rhythm. It is unfortunate that such a man as Matthew Arnold was not a Hebrew scholar with critical training-he would have given us the real Isaiah. For one not a Hebrew scholar, no matter how expert in other tongues, to

attempt to give

us a version of Isaiah, is as if Jowett had translated Plato from some other English translation of the Greek. He cannot even appreciate the forms of language used in the original; he lowers poetry into prose, and misses altogether the rhythmic cadences of Hebrew prophecy, comparable to nothing so well as to Shakespearean blank verse. Some German might just as well write

[graphic]

Professor of Semitic Languages in the Johns Hopkins University.
a version of "Hamlet" in prose.

have the book so arranged that we can read
his prophecies in their right order and in their
right connection;" and he saw, as the best
scholars do, that the book as it is found in
existing and accepted versions is incompre-

We want to get the most we can from any great book, and cannot be satisfied with the misty, jumbled conception which is the only possible one to be carried away from the sixty-six chapters as they are heaped together in the "Accepted Version."

Besides the lack of proper arrangement, there is another desideratum not supplied by the old version. Dryden said somewhere: "No man is capable of translating poetry

To get at the real Isaiah, scholarship and literary power are alike necessary, coupled with lifelong study. If we are to have the book both well arranged and sympathetically translated, it must be done by no ordinary men. Hebrew lexicon and grammar must have been long outgrown-a man must have lived into Isaiah to interpret it.

The book becomes not less effective, but more powerful, by being correctly divided, arranged, and translated; for these make it intelligible-and is not understanding the chief aim of every real student of literature?

It is true that there are prejudices to be put aside, misconceptions to be dissipated.

[graphic]

PROFESSOR HAUPT AND DR. FURNESS AT WORK

From a photograph taken expressly tor this article by Dr. W. H. Furness (son of Dr. H. H. Furness).

[graphic]

We have so long taken it for granted that Isaiah wrote the whole book which bears his name, we have become attached to a phrase here and another phrase there, and it is somewhat of a shock to learn that the very first chapter, for instance, was delivered thirtynine years later than the second, and properly refers to the time when Sennacherib's army was about to besiege Jerusalem. We may be surprised to learn that even the more advanced theory of a first and second Isaiah which was beginning to be accepted does not cover the book as we have it; that chapters xxiv.-xxvii., for instance, are the last part of the book, having been composed between 334 and 332 B.C. Where, then, shall we find the "Real Isaiah" arranged in chronological order and reproduced in fitting English literary form? I believe it will be found in the Book of Isaiah of the Polychrome Edition of the Old Testament" just about to appear. This edition of the Bible is under the general editorship of Professor Paul Haupt, of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. The associate editor is Dr. Horace Howard Furness, the famous Shakespearean scholar, editor of the "Variorum Shakespeare." Dr. Haupt and Dr. Furness revise the English translation of this Bible in conference, but Dr. Furness's special work is the arrangement of all the poetical or rhythmical portions metrically or rhythmically. His long-continued study of our greatest English poet makes him especially competent for this undertaking, and his rhythmical rendering of certain passages in Isaiah is almost an inspiration. Canon T. K. Cheyne, the man who contributes the Book of Isaiah to this edition, is probably the most eminent living authority upon that book. In 1870 he published his first study of the book in the shape of a new translation chronologically arranged. Later he published a revised translation and exhaustive commentary in two volumes, and in 1895 he sent forth a thick volume, "Introduction to Isaiah," discussing the book thoroughly and at length. The version of which advance sheets have been placed before me by the courtesy of Professor Haupt, the general editor, represents the result of more than thirty years' devotion and labor. It is illus

trative, exact, scientific, yet clear and far more open to popular comprehension than any other version that I have seen. But the public will soon have an opportunity to judge for itself; here only a few indications of the method and matter can be given, Canon

Cheyne (who, by the way, will lecture in the United States in November) has divided Isaiah into five books, rearranging the matter whenever it is found necessary. Backgrounds of different colors are used to indicate the various authors. Passages written by the editors of the Book of Isaiah are printed on a light blue background; prophetic or poetic passages written neither by Isaiah nor by the editors, on light red; and the passages (xliv., 1-4, etc.) in which the "Servant of JнVн" speaks appear on a ground of light purple. Subsequent additions to the text are relegated to the foot of the pages. Notes bearing on historical and archæological points are appended.

Canon Cheyne holds that chapters i.xxxix., when provisionally completed (about 400 B.C.), were the only book of Isaiah then known. He dwells upon the fact, as exemplified also in Jeremiah and Zechariah, that "it was a practice of the later editors to insure the preservation of anonymous prophecies by inserting them in the acknowledged works of well-known prophetic writers." But where these additions appear to be in touch with the genuine portions of Isaiah, they are retained, though marked off by separate headings and dates. For example, we read (iii., 16ff.) under the heading "Punishment of the Proud Ladies of Jerusalem " (735 B.C.): "And JHVH said,

Because Zion's daughters are haughty, And walk with neck thrown back and leering eyes,

Tripping along as they go, and making a chime

with their ankles.

With scabs will the Lord encrust the crowns of their heads,

JHVH will expose their shames; Instead of perfume there shall be rottenness, and instead of a girdle a rope,

Instead of artful curls, baldness, and instead of a flowing mantle, girding of sackcloth.

In that day seven women will seize upon one man, saying:

Our own bread will we eat, and with our own garments will we be clad; only let us be called by thy name, take thou away our disgrace.

-Messianic Appendix. (Post-Exilic.) In that day, to those of Israel who have escaped, etc.," to verse 6.

Why does Canon Cheyne mark the passage iv., 1-6, "Messianic Appendix "? Because in style and ideas it bears no resemblance whatever to the preceding passage, and does not even pursue its thought.

If we would see in how far this version

catches the spirit of Isaiah and presents it to eye and mind, we could not have a happier instance than the famous "Parable of the Vineyard." The prophet, remarkable for the many-sidedness of his genius, assumes the character of a popular singer, catches the attention of his audience by a lyric, chanted, perhaps, to some melody of the day (v., 1-7):

A song will I sing of my friend,
A love-song touching his vineyard.

A vineyard belongs to my friend,

On a hill that is fruitful and sunny.
He digged it, and cleared it of stones,

And planted there vines that are choice;

A tower he built in the midst,

And hewed also therein a wine-vat;

And he looked to find grapes that are good,
Alas! it bore grapes that are wild.

Ye, in Jerusalem dwelling,

And ye, who are freemen of Judah,
Judge ye, I pray, between me
And my cherished vineyard.

What could have been done for my vineyard
That I had not done?

When I looked to find grapes that are good,
Why bore it grapes that are wild?

And now let me give you to know
What I purpose to do to my vineyard :
I will take away its hedge,
That it be eaten up,

I will break through its walls,
That it be trodden down;

Yea, I will make it a waste,
Neither pruned nor weeded;

It shall shoot up in thorns and briars,
And the clouds will I enjoin that they rain not
upon it.

For the vineyard of JHVH Sabaoth is the House of Israel,

And the men of Judah His cherished plantation; And He looked for justice, but behold! bloodshed,

For righteousness, but behold! an outcry.

The indignation of the prophet bursts the bounds of the lyrical before his parable is quite finished, and he adopts the long, swinging prophetic rhythm. Now, if the "King James" or "Revised Version" be placed by the side of this poem, the difference may be noted. Here we have the height of poetic art, appreciable by even the cursory reader; there, is a prosaic presentation in which the point of the prophet's method is obscured, if not entirely lost.

Canon Cheyne finds that the Genuine Prophecies of Isaiah (of Jerusalem) were occasioned by three great national crises-the Syro-Israelitish invasion (734), the siege and fall of Samaria (722), and the western campaign of Sennacherib, In connection with

the first of these we read "Sixfold Denunciation," which begins:

Woe unto those who join house to house, who add field to field, till there is no more room. And ye are settled alone in the midst of the land! (v., 8).

Prophecy 3 and Prophecy 4 discuss the "Successive Stages of the Judgment upon Israel " (ix., 8, etc.), with that powerful refrain:

For all this His anger turned not away, And still was His hand outstretched. This editor believes that a "Second Prophetic Collection" of Isaianic Prophecies opens with the "Vision of his Consecration;" and here prose and prophetic rhythm appear so unmistakably that it is comparatively easy to see how much is lost by the usual prosaic rendering (vi., 8):

And I heard the voice of JHVH saying: Whom shall I send? and who will go for us? And I said: Here am I send me. And he said: Go, and say to this people :

Hear on, but understand not! See on, but perceive not!

Make fat this people's heart, make dull their ears, and besmear their eyes,

Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,

And their heart understand, and their health be restored.

The "Oracle on Tyre" may be partially Isaianic, but if so, it bears the mark of late editing, and has a Post-Exilic Appendix (xxiii., 15, 16):

In that day Tyre will pass into oblivion for seventy years, during the reign of one line of kings; at the end of seventy years Tyre will fare like the Harlot in the song:

Take thy lute, and go about the city,
Harlot, forgotten now by men !
Play thou with skill, sing many a ditty,

To win remembrance then.

For at the end of seventy years JHVH will take notice of Tyre, so that she will return to her hive, and play the harlot with all, etc.

Professor Cheyne, after the completing of the first book of genuine Isaianic prophecies, collects the "Narratives founded on the acts of Isaiah" and the prophecies and songs of disputed origin in the second book (chapters xxxvi.-xxxix)., while the third book contains "Appendices to the Genuine Isaiah," including Isaianic fragments. Book 4 contains "Prophecies on the Fall of Babylon" by unknown writers at the close of the exile, opening with the "Exile's Vision " (B.C. 550-545), the Oracle on Chaldea, xxi., 1–10, and the Fall of Babylon, xiii., 1-xiv., 23. The heading of the latter, "Oracle on Babylon

« PredošláPokračovať »