that the burden of ceremonies was a
paedagogic necessity with reference to a people stiff-necked and prone to
idolatry, i.e., a defence of monotheism, and gave an interpretation to
the sign of circumcision which made it no longer a blessing, but rather
the mark for the execution of judgment on Israel.[224]

Israel was thus at all times the pseudo-Church. The older people does
not in reality precede the younger people, the Christians, even in point
of time; for though the Church appeared only in the last days, it was
foreseen and created by God from the beginning. The younger people is
therefore really the older, and the new law rather the original
law.[225] The Patriarchs, Prophets, and men of God, however, who were
favoured with the communication of God's words, have nothing inwardly in
common with the Jewish people. They are God's elect who were
distinguished by a holy walk, and must be regarded as the forerunners
and fathers of the Christian people.[226] To the question how such holy
men appeared exclusively, or almost exclusively, among the Jewish
people, the documents preserved to us yield no answer.

Sec. 5. _The Knowledge of God and of the World. Estimate of the World._

The knowledge of faith was, above all, the knowledge of God as one,
supramundane, spiritual,[227] and almighty ([Greek: pantokrator]); God
is creator and governor of the world and therefore the Lord.[228] But as
he created the world a beautiful ordered whole (monotheistic view of
nature)[229] for the sake of man,[230] he is at the same time the God of
goodness and redemption ([Greek: theos soter]), and the true faith in
God and knowledge of him as the Father,[231] is made perfect only in the
knowledge of the identity of the God of creation and the God of
redemption. Redemption, however, was necessary, because at the beginning
humanity and the world alike fell under the dominion of evil
demons,[232] of the evil one. There was no universally accepted theory
as to the origin of this dominion; but the sure and universal conviction
was that the present condition and course of the world is not of God,
but is of the devil. Those, however, who believed in God, the almighty
creator, and were expecting the transformation of the earth, as well as
the visible dominion of Christ upon it, could not be seduced into
accepting a dualism in principle (God and devil: spirit and matter).
Belief in God, the creator, and eschatological hopes, preserved the
communi