Lampe on Church History: The Church under Judges

I.  This second period of the Mosaic Church lasted about three hundred and thirty-two years, which we gather from 1 Kings 6:1, In the four hundred and eightieth year, after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month Zif (this is the second month) of Solomon’s reign over Israel, he began to build the house of Jehovah.  From the top of these four hundred and eighty years are cut away the sixty-five years of the preceding period:   then from the total are removed the forty years of Saul, the forty years of David, and the three of Solomon:  the remainder is three hundred and thirty-two years.

II.  It is true, that the numbers recounted in the Book of Judges compose a greater sum of years:  but on this difficulty it is best to have recourse the Men that thought that the numbers of diverse servitudes and deliverances are not to be subordinated, but rather coordinated, although they vary among themselves in the computation of the individual parts.

III.  According to our opinion, the just number of years that we require is able best to be found, when there is first consideration of the three hundred years, wherein, as Jephthah affirms in the speech made through legates to the King of the Ammonites, Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her villages, Judges 11:26.  For, we, making comparison with verse 21, begin these years from the occupation of the kingdom of the Amorites in the final year of Moses, granted to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, Numbers 32:  and we calculate them in this way:

Twenty-five years from the death of Moses to the death of Joshua.

The time of the Elders that lived after Joshua, out of Judges 2:7, and of the idolatry, wherewith, with the former dead, the Israelites were polluted, Judges 2:10, etc.; 3:6, 7; is not related in Scripture, but we tentatively assign to it no less than sixteen years.

The servitude of Israel to Mesopotamia under Chushan-rishathaim, Judges 3:8:  eight years.

The deliverance wrought by Othniel and the quiet of the land, Judges 3:11:  forty years.

The servitude of Israel to Moab under Eglon, Judges 3:14:  eighteen years.

The vengeance wrought by Ehud and the rest of the land again eastward of Jordan after it, Judges 3:30:  eighty years.

This space of eighty years absorbs the Israelite servitude to the Canaanites under King Jabin in the northern reaches of Palestine, which followed immediately upon the death of Ehud, Judges 3:30; 4:1-3, with the greater part of Palestine at the same time remaining quiet.  This servitude of twenty years, Judges 4:3, with the deliverance of Barak and Deborah, and with the quite of forty years added, Judges 5:31, are not reckoned in our computation.

At the beginning of this servitude, it happens that there is a narration of the attack of the Philistines and the victory of Shamgar, Judges 3:31.

The Israelite servitude to Midian, Judges 6:1:  seven years.

Vengeance through Gideon and the quiet of the land, Judges 8:28:  forty years.

In this interval the history of Ruth is most suitably placed.

Abimelech as Judge, Judges 9:22:  three years.

Tola as Judge, Judges 10:2:  twenty-three years.

Jair as Judge, Judges 10:3:  twenty-two years.

Israelite servitude to Ammon, Judges 10:8:  eighteen years.

Total:  three hundred years.

IV.  With these things thus supposed, and with the twenty-five years having regard to the preceding period removed from this sum, we now have the two hundred and seventy-five years of the present period, whence only the fifty-seven years after the war of Jephthah remain, or, which is coincident, the seventy-five years from the servitude under Ammon to the anointing of Saul.

V.  Now, although Scripture does not precisely express those years, and the rest recorded in the Book of Judges appear at first glance to compose far more years, still all things shall flow easily, when the beginning of the servitude to the Ammonites and to the Philistines is taken as the same, which is expressly indicated in Judges 10:7, in such a way that as from the east of Jordan the Ammonites threatened, whom Jephthah forced into order in the eighteenth year; so from the west at the same time the Philistines invaded, who vexed Israel for forty years.  To these forty years is bound the history of Samson and of Eli the Priest, and so we readily discover the seventy-five years, that we were desiring from the first beginnings of the servitude, whether to the Ammonites or to the Philistines.

To the servitude under the Philistines, Judges 13:1, forty years are assigned.

With those finished, the ark, returned by the Philistines, remained in Kiriath-jearim, 1 Samuel 7:2, for twenty years.

After these things, it is transported to Mizpeh, where Samuel judges the children of Israel, 1 Samuel 7:6.  By divine power he subdues the Philistines, undertaking new aggressions, verse 14; then for some years, verse 16, he visits the cities of Israel in a circuit; finally, with old age impending, he takes his sons into joint pursuit of his office, 1 Samuel 8:1, with whom abusing their power Saul is at length chosen as King.  Although chronologists do not everywhere have an computation of these events, to them we safely assign fifteen years.

The total:  seventy-five years.

VI.  Therefore, while it is evident from these, that it is not necessary, that we assign more than three hundred and thirty-two years to this period, by this hypothesis also the genealogy of David, on record in Ruth 4:18-22, is left intact, which only has four Men between Nahshon, living in the times of Moses,[1] and David.[2]

VII.  Wherefore no difficulty remains, except what is moved by some out of Acts 13:20, where four hundred and fifty years appear to be attributed to the Judges alone.  But every dividing line vanishes with a ὑποστιγμῇ/comma add to the words, ταῦτα, these things, and πεντήκοντα/fifty, in this manner:  καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα, ὡς ἔτεσι τετρακοσίοις καὶ πεντήκοντα, ἔδωκε κριτὰς ἕως Σαμουὴλ, and after these things, as for four hundred and fifty years, He gave judges until Samuel.  For, in this way the number here expressed is referred to the beginning of verse 17, the election of the Fathers, which, if it be computed from the birth of Isaac, unto the death of Joshua, makes up four hundred and fifty-five years, in the place of which the Apostle substituted the round number of four hundred and fifty.  With which ancient Codices agree, connecting the words ὡσει ἔτεσι τετρακοσίοις καὶ πεντήκοντα, as four hundred and fifty years, with verse 19.

VIII.  The doctrine of grace was preserved at this time through diverse appearances of the Son of God and the prophetic gift, with which were especially illuminated Deborah,[3] Hannah,[4] and Samuel, who, whether he was of priestly order, is uncertain, under the last of which schools of the Prophets appeared.[5]  Literary monuments were added, among which we refer the Book of Jasher or of the Just,[6] of which mention is made in Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18.  Whether the histories of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth were composed at this time, is variously disputed.

IX.  Public worship, in accordance with the prescription of the Mosaic laws, was exhibited by God at Shiloh, whither the tabernacle had been transported.  Yet the ark of the covenant was absent from it, from which it was taken by the Philistines; having been returned by them, compelled by a singular divine judgment, it remained at Kirjath-jearim until the times of David.[7]

X.  The rest of the face of religion was sad, with the hearts of the Israelites inclined to polytheism.  Specifically, they began to worship the Baalim and the Astaroth.  Even Gideon, in erecting from the spoils of the enemy an Ephod as a sign of victory, furnished an occasion for gross superstition.[8]  But also Micah, by instituting a Priesthood and images at his house, seduced Israel.[9]  And the very worship of God was contaminated with a great many blots, and the profaning of sacred rites, various examples of which this era exhibits.

XI.  For that reason, many judgments were inflicted by God through their Canaanite neighbors and peoples, which, nevertheless, with Heroes raised up time and again, whom the Epistle to the Hebrews does not allow us to doubt to have been partakers of the true faith, delivering Israel from the hand of their enemies, who exercised the office of Judges, and then subsided.

XII.  The Kingdom of Satan among the nations cast outside the communion of the people of God grew by degrees.  Among the idols of the Phœnicians, besides those just now mention, in the Book of Judges are found Baal-berith,[10] Chemosh,[11] and Dagon.[12]  One may draw a more abundant knowledge of the religion of the Phœnicians from fragments of Sanchuniathon in Eusebius.[13]  Superstition of the Greeks also gained more and more strength with the diverse Kingdom founded in Greece.  The principal supports of idolatry were the frauds of the Priests:  pretended oracles, among which the Delphic Oracle excelled:  Pseudo-prophets, among which the Sibyl herself[14] was to be numbered according to some:  the Poets, among whom are Orpheus,[15] Musæus,[16] and Linus:[17]  finally, the Philosophers, coating the worship of dæmons with greater splendor, Hermes Trismegistus,[18] and others.  The κακοζηλία/affectation of Satan is added, studiously imitating the sacred rites of the Hebrews in idolatrous worship, of which matter there is a clear example in the sacred rites of the Syrian Goddess and other mysteries of the Pythian Apollo.

[1] See Numbers 1:7; 2:3; 7:12, 17; 10:14.

[2] See 1 Chronicles 2:10-15.

[3] Judges 4; 5.

[4] 1 Samuel 1; 2.

[5] 1 Samuel 10; 19:18-24.

[6] Hebrew:  ‎סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר.

[7] 1 Samuel 4-6.

[8] Judges 8:27.

[9] Judges 17; 18.

[10] Judges 8:33; 9:4.

[11] Judges 11:24.

[12] Judges 16:23.

[13] Sanchuniathon is a Phœnician author, almost as old as Moses.  His works, including material on creation and the history of the gods, survive only in fragments.  His history of Phœnicia was translated by Philo of Byblos circa 100 AD, fragments of which are preserved in Eusebius’ Preparation of the Gospel.

[14] The Sibylline Oracles claim to be the work of ten pre-Christian Sibyls, prophesying of the coming of Christ and the spread of Christianity.  They appear to have been the work of multiple authors of differing dates, and modified later by Jewish and Christian scribes.

[15] In Greek mythology, Orpheus was the son of the Thracian river god Oiagros and the Muse Calliope.  He is reckoned as the chief of the poets and musicians, and a pioneer in a great many aspects of civilization, including theology.  The Orphic Hymns are traditionally ascribed to the mythical Orpheus, but they were likely composed by a multiplicity of authors, possibly as late as the early centuries of the Christian Era.

[16] Musæus of Athens was a semi-legendary poet, musician, philosopher, historian, prophet, and priest, said to have been the son/disciple of Orpheus.  Herodotus alleges that one Onomacritus gathered and arranged Musæus’ oracles, but with some interpolations.

[17] Linus was an ancient Greek poet.  It is said that he was the son of Amphimarus, son of Poseidon, and Ourania, the Muse.

[18] Hermes Trismegistus is a legendary figure, a composite of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth.  There is a body of literature attributed to him, the Hermetica, which includes material on philosophy and religion, astrology, medicine, alchemy, and magic.  The oldest material comes from the second century AD.