veh in the kingdom of the ten tribes under the form of a
calf.[36]

From all this it seems fair to conclude that the religion of the oldest
forefathers of Israel had its root originally in one and the same soil
with the religion of the other Semites. Out of an earlier
nature-religion there developed among the Semites the conception of
Baal, the lord of nature, and of Molech with his inhuman worship. While,
however, the other Semites remained in this lower stage, or rather sank
back more and more into the immorality of the nature-religion,--an
hypothesis suggested by a comparison of the religious state of the
nations of Canaan in Abraham's time with their state at the time of the
conquest of the land by Joshua and afterwards,--in the family of
Abraham, religious consciousness rose to the recognition of a deity,
who, although he had a right to human sacrifices, yet did not claim such
sacrifices, but was satisfied with men's willingness to bring them to
him. With this higher development of religion, the names of the Supreme
Being, Baal and Molech, originally common to the whole race, came more
and more into contempt, and were regarded as the expression of
abominable idolatry,[37] while even the worship of Jahveh under the form
of a calf, originally permitted, was later branded by the prophets as
heresy.

Though it was in the family of Abraham that even in Mesopotamia[38] the
beginning of this higher development of the Semitic religion showed
itself, which, after his migration to Canaan became the heritage of his
family, yet the patriarch of Israel did not stand alone in this respect
among the Semites. The old Canaanitish chieftains also of the
patriarchal period, Melchizedek and Abimelech, worship the same God as
he,[39] while on the other hand in his own family not all traces of
polytheistic superstition have disappeared,[40] and these traces are
also visible still later in Israel.[41]

The patriarchal religion, which afterwards with the great majority fell
into oblivion, was recalled afresh to men's minds by Moses, and the God
of the fathers was preached by him under the name before unknown of
Jahveh,[42] to whom, with the exclusion of all other gods, religious
worship is due.[43] The Jahveh of Moses, like the El Eljon of the
patriarchs, is the one only object of worship (Deus Unus), yet without
excluding the possibility of other gods existing.[44] Not until later
did the more developed conception of Jahveh arise as t