nsiderable time under Egyptian,
Babylonian, and Persian influence, and there have not been wanting
persons of ability who have regarded Judaism as a mere offshoot of the
religion of one or the other of these three peoples. But, with the
knowledge that we have now obtained of the religions in question, such
views have been regarded as untenable, if not henceforth impossible.
Judaism stands out from all other ancient religions as a thing _sui
generis_, offering the sharpest contrast to the systems prevalent in the
rest of the East, and so entirely different from them in its essence
that its origin could not but have been distinct and separate.... The
sacred books of the Hebrews cannot possibly have been derived from the
sacred writings of any of these nations. No contrast can be greater than
that between the Pentateuch and the 'Ritual of the Dead,' unless it be
that between the Pentateuch and the Zendavesta, or between the same work
and the Vedas.... In most religions the monotheistic idea is most
prominent _at the first_, and gradually becomes obscured, and gives way
before a polytheistic corruption.... Altogether, the theory to which the
facts appear on the whole to point is the existence of a primitive
religion, communicated to man from without, whereof monotheism and
expiatory sacrifice were parts, and the gradual clouding over of this
principle everywhere, unless it were among the Hebrews."[51]

Medicine is indebted for its advancement to the Hebraic religion to a
greater extent than is generally believed. In the early Christian
centuries there existed three great creeds: the Christian, Hebraic, and
Mohammedan. The Christian Church was in a perplexing condition. As
observed by Draper,[52] it was impossible to disentangle her from the
principles which had, at the beginning, entered into her political
organization. For good or evil, right or wrong, her necessity required
that she should put herself forth as the possessor of all knowledge
within the reach of the human intellect. But the monk and priest were
prohibited from studying medicine,[53] as by so doing the church saw
that she would have to relinquish the spiritual control of disease were
medicine a matter of scientific research; she preferred to hold on to
her spiritual dominion, and let science slumber in darkness. On the
other hand, the Mohammedans, recognizing the principle of fatalism in
their religion, it was not to be expected that they should cultivate an