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    834 Life and Writings of Herdet*

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    : Account Of Herder's Life And Writings.

    impresses them with a character of moral unity . About the same period , he found a delightful recreation in translating the popular songs of different nations * This was an employment peculiarly accordant with his genius ; and 9 shared by his accomplished partner , lent a new charm to his hours of

    domestic felicity . In August , 17749 his happiness was still further increased by the birth of a son ; an event in which the Count and Countess took a lively and most friendly interest * His relations with the former became daily more agreeable and confidential ; and * on the death of the superintendent of the churches at Biickeburg , Herder was advanced to the vacant office , which devolved on him the duty of examining , ordaining , and inducting , the ecclesiastical functionaries of the district ,

    In 1775 , appeared his " Illustrations of the New Testament from a newly opened Oriental Source ; " and the " Epistles of Two Discip les of Jesuso " In the latter work , he endeavours to shew , from psychological reasoning , that James and Jude were brothers of Jesus ; of the former ^ as it throws some light on the theological opinions of Herder , we shall give a brief account . * " When the Jewish people were carried captive to Babylon , they not only lost the familiar use of their own language , hut their modes of thinking

    became greatly assimilated to the doctrines of the Magian philosophy , which they found still subsisting in Chaldaea . This appears from the writings of Daniel , Ezekiel ., and Zechariah . From the same Chaldaean source Zoroaster had drawn the elementary principles of his religion $ which , originally promulgated in the neighbourhood of Balk , was afterwards diffused , with the extension of the Persian dominion ,, from the Araxes to the Nile , The key , therefore , to the interpretation of these later Jewish writings would be found

    In the doctrines of the Chaldaean philosophy , did any authentic record of them exist ; or , in the absence of these , might be obtained by examining the system of Zoroaster , which sprang" out of them , and in its fundamental principle , is essentially the same . In consequence of the conquests of Alexander an extraordinary mingling took place of Grecian and Asiatic Ideas : or rather perhaps the Greek language became the vehicle of Asiatic ideas : Asiatic angels became Grecian Gods , Demi-Gods , Heroes , . / Eons . The wisdom of the Magi passed into the form of Hellenism , the

    New Platonic philosophy , and Gnosticism . Had we access , therefore , to the original fountains of this philosophy in Chaldsea or Media , many peculiarities in the language of the Alexandrine school , of the Apocryphal writers ,, of the Septuagint , and of the Gnostics , would probably be susceptible of elucidation . At the time of our Saviour ' s appearance , the universal empire of the Romans had broken down tthe partition walls between different nations , and , by facilitating tthe intercourse between them , occasioned a confused mingling both of the ideas and of the idioms peculiar to various parts of the world .

    The popular language , in which Christ addressed himself Ho the popular feelings and conceptions of his age , must necessarily have been influenced by these circumstances ; and we must look for the source of its peculiarities in the prevalence of that Asiatic philosophy which had powerfully affected both the Jewish and the Hellenistic mode of speaking and thinking . It might have a remoter reference to the phraseology of the Old Testament ; but to search for its meaning exclusively in the then almost extinct language of the ancient Jewish writing's , and to omit the consideration of those nearer causes which influenced its character , in the interval between the return from

    the captivity and the appearance of Christ ; to look for Hebraisms whcTe Hellenisms ought rather to be the object of attention , would argue the same

    * Samintlichc Werke . Ziar Religion uud Theologie . Acftiter Theil . We wmy notice here , in passing , the extreme elegance with which Herder has applied , his ; i motto to this work , the following words ot the Kvangelist : 1 $ & , [ xotyoi olttq avooTo' kcov irocpayavovTO , —kul ocvoi £ ; ocvrreq ireq ^ fyicrotv ^ sq ocvtco v ,, irpocryjvEyx-oc v hoopoe .

    834 Life And Writings Of Herdet*

    834 Life and Writings of Herdet *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 834, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/34/