exile, an orthodoxy much more rigid and much more nationally exclusive than that which had
prevailed while they were independent. The Jews who remained behind and were not
transplanted to Babylon did not undergo this development to anything like the same extent.
When Ezra and Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem after the captivity, they were shocked to find
that mixed marriages had been common, and they dissolved all such marriages. *
The Jews were distinguished from the other nations of antiquity by their stubborn national
pride. All the others, when conquered, acquiesced inwardly as well as outwardly; the Jews
alone retained the belief in their own pre-eminence, and the conviction that their misfortunes
were due to God's anger, because they had failed to preserve the purity of their faith and ritual.
The historical books of the Old Testament, which were mostly compiled after the captivity, give
a misleading impression, since they suggest that the idolatrous practices against which the
prophets protested were a falling-off from earlier strictness, whereas in fact the earlier strictness
had never existed. The prophets were innovators to a much greater extent than appears in the
Bible when read unhistorically.
Some things which were afterwards characteristic of Jewish religion were developed, though in
part from previously existing sources, during the captivity. Owing to the destruction of the
Temple, where alone sacrifices could be offered, the Jewish ritual perforce became non-
sacrificial. Synagogues began at this time, with readings from such portions of the Scriptures as
already existed. The importance of the Sabbath was first emphasized at this time, and so was
circumcision as the mark of the Jew. As we have already seen, it was only during the exile that
marriage with gentiles came to be forbidden. There was a growth of every form of
exclusiveness. "I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people." †"Ye
shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." ‡ The Law is a product of this period. It was
one of the chief forces in preserving national unity.
What we have as the Book of Isaiah is the work of two different prophets, one before the exile
and one after. The second of these, who is called by Biblical students Deutero-Isaiah, is the
most remarkable of the prophets. He is the first who reports the Lord as saying "There is no god
but I." He believes in the resurrection of the body, perhaps
* Ezra IX-X, 5.â
€
Leviticus XX, 24.â
€
¡Ibid., XIX, 2.