among the Egyptians. He says, "concerning the two oracles, namely, among the Greeks and in Lybia, the Egyptians gave me the following account: The priests of Jupiter at Thebes said that two holy women (literally priestesses) were carried away from Thebes by the Phoenicians, and they had learned that one of them was sold in Lybia and the other in Greece. And these women were the first founders of the oracles among these people." Further, it is said: "If the Phoenicians really carried away the holy women,” and: “As was natural, she who ministered at Thebes in the temple of Jupiter was mindful of him in the place to which she came.”+ Besides Herodotus also alludes to the institution of the holy women in Egypt in other places. "In the temple (of Belus at Babylon) there stands a great couch beautifully spread and near it is placed a table of gold. But there is no image there and no mortal passes the night there, except sometimes one native-born woman, whoever, as the Chaldeans say, the God chooses from all who are his priests. These same Chaldeans relate also, but I do not believe them, that the God comes sometimes into the temple and sleeps upon the bed, just as the Egyptians relate of Thebes, for there also a woman sleeps in the temple of the Theban Jupiter. Both these women they say, never have intercourse with man. So also at Patara in Lycia, there is a chief priestess of the God when he is there, for there is not always an oracle at this place, but when he is there, she is shut up at night with him in the Temple."

Diodorus of Sicily speaks of "The concubines of Jupiter," that is, of Amon. Stra bo|| says: "But to Jupiter whom they most honor, a very beautiful and noble young woman is devoted, whom they call the Grecian Pallas; but this one has intercourse with whatever men she wishes

until she arrives at the age of womanhood. After that she is married. But before her marriage there is a lamentation made for her. What Strabo here says of the impurity of the young woman devoted to Amon rests without doubt upon the misunderstanding of the expression, "The concubines of Amon." Herodotus gives us a contrary account: "These women are said never to have intercourse with a man," and in another place, he says that among the Egyptians impurity is excluded from the circuit of the holy places, in which these women had their abode.*

The monuments confirm the accounts of classical writers. The data which they furnish are found collected in Wilkinson, where there is also an engraving‡ of the holy women given, and in Rosellini, according to whom these young women bore the title of "bride of God." See also Minutoli's Travels where it is said in the innermost part of the temple at Carnac: "Near the king and the priests maidens are also seen represented."

The characteristic peculiarities in which the Israelitish agrees with the Egyptian institution of the holy women are the following: 1. Among the Israelites as among the Egyptians, the holy women with all the respect which they enjoy, still are not priestesses; among both the priesthood belongs only to the men. What Herodotus mentions in B. 2. c. 35 as a distinguishing peculiarity of the Egyptians: "A woman never performs the office of a priest for a god or goddess,"¶ applies also accurately mutatis mutandis, to the Israelites.

2. That the holy women among the Israelites had no ex

* The declaration of Strabo concerning the impurity of the holy women is confuted also by Rosellini I. 1. p. 216, and Wilkinson, Vol. I. p. 259.

† Vol. 1. p. 258 seq.

§ I. 1. p. 216

+ p. 260.

|| S. 181.

Ιρᾶται γυνὴ μὲν οὐδεμία οὔτε ἔρσενος θεοῦ οὔτε θηλέης, ἄν δρες δὲ πάντων τε καὶ πασέων.

ternal service in the tabernacle of testimony, that their service was rather a spiritual one, we have already seen. Just so is it among the Egyptians. That their holy women were not as Bä h r* supposes, servants of the priests, (hierodulen) is sufficiently proved by the quotations from Herodotus. He says, indeed, that they served the temple of Jupiter at Thebes. But that their service, just as in Ex. xxxviii, is to be understood as spiritual service, the account shows, since these Egyptian women are supposed to have founded the oracles in Greece and Lybia. If they served Jupiter in these countries by foretelling future events, they were also employed in at similar manner in their father-land.

3. That also among the Israelites, noble women especially were devoted to the service of the temple was previously shown. Just so was it among the Egyptians. According to Strabo, the most beautiful and the most noble maidens were devoted to Jupiter or Amon. Wilkinson says, whilst speaking of the tombs of the holy women described by Diodorus, which are now seen at Thebes in a valley 3000 feet behind the ruins of Medeenet Haboo: "The sculptures show that they were women of the highest rank, since all the occupants of these tombs were either the wives or daughters of kings." Rosellini says: "We shall find in the sequel, also other examples of royal young maidens devoted to Amon, from which it may be inferred that it was a custom in the earliest period of the Pharaohs to place by this rite some of the king's daughters in a nearer relation to religion."

4. That the holy women among the Israelites were always unmarried, either young women or widows, has been shown in the Contributions.¶ Just so also is it with the holy women

* Zu Herod. B. 2. c. 54.

t B. 2. c. 54-56.

†Ωσπερ ἦν οἶκος, ἀμφιπολεύουσαν ἐν Θήβῃσι ἱρὸν Διός, ἔνθα ἀπίκετο, ἐνθαῦτα μνήμην αὐτοῦ ἔχειν.

§ Εὐειδεστάτη καὶ γένους λαμπροτάτου παρθένος.

|| P. 217.

¶ Th. III. S. 142-3.

among the Egyptians. According to Herodotus* the brides of Amon were excluded from all intercourse with men.t According to Strabo the most beautiful and noble young women were devoted to Jupiter, and when they wished to marry, there was previously a great lamentation made for them as for one dead.‡

THE NAZARITES.

From the institution of the holy women we turn to that of the Nazarites. We must naturally expect an Egyptian reference more or less distinct here also. For the institution of the Nazarites originated, not by the appointment of the lawgiver, but it is implied, in Num. chap. vi, as an existing institution, and is there only sanctioned.

But if we examine the matter more closely, we perceive indications of Egyptian influence, yet it is less conspicuous here, than in the institution of the holy women. For the institution in general, Egypt furnishes no parallel. An Egyptian reference can be pointed out for only a single feature of the system, the leaving of the hair to grow, and that is one which has no connection with religion, but with the customs of the people. Finally, the single allusion to Egypt, although truly worthy of notice, is still not so characteristic that we could with full certainty assert its existence.

* B. 1. c. 182.

† Καὶ γὰρ δὴ ἐκεῖθι κοιμᾶται ἐν τῷ τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Θεβαιέος γυνή· ἀμφότεραι δὲ αὗται λέγονται ἀνδρῶν οὐδαμῶν ἐς ὁμιλίην φοιτᾶν.

† Πρὶν δὲ δοθῆναι, πένθος αὐτῆς ἄγεται μετὰ τὸν τῆς παλλακείας naugóv. This lamentation on leaving this coinmunity agrees remark. ably with the mourning of the daughter of Jephtha when she entered it. In both cases it depends upon the view of the exclusiveness of

the relation.

It is necessary for our purpose, that we first determine the significance of leaving the hair unshorn by the Nazarite. We begin with an examination of the view of Bähr.* The obligation of the Nazarite, he asserts, to let the hair grow freely, has its basis in the idea of holiness. Among the orientals, and especially among the Hebrews, the hair of the head is the same as the products of the earth, the grass of the field, and the growth of the trees. Especially in accordance with this is the naming of the vine in the year of jubilee, (nazyr), in Lev. 25: 5, since they prune it not this year, but allow its leaves and branches to grow freely. From this it is evident, that the growth of the hair, according to oriental view, signifies grass, shoots, blossoms of men. But in so far as the Hebrew looked upon men as distinctively moral beings, the human blossoms and shoots represent holiness.

This view is by no means new; but it is discarded by all judicious investigators, as mere mystical refinement. The following reasons are especially decisive against it.†

1. The proofs which are brought for the position, that according to oriental and especially Israelitish views, the growth of the hair is a symbol for the thriving condition of man, are very weak. The one derived from Lev. chap. xxv. is the only one which is worth the trouble of a closer examination. It is there said of the sabbatical year in verse 5: "The grain which groweth of its own accord thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vines (nazarites) thou shalt not gather, a year of rest is it for the land," after that it had been said before in verse 4, "Thy field thou shalt not sow, and thy vineyard thou shalt not prune." Then in verse 11,

t Compare, e. g. Carpzov. Appar. ad Antiq. p. 153: Ut eos taceam, qui mysticam commenti rationem, nutritionem capillamenti symbolum instituunt nutritionis interioris, quo Abarbanel in h. 1. et Gregorius, L. II. Moral. c. 26, tendit.