ABSTRACT
The period which followed immediately upon the death of Moses had brought Israel into the country. The Canaanites of that time had already attained to a comparatively high standard of culture, so that the Israelites often had occasion to look to them for guidance. There were two fundamentally different religions in Israel: the popular religion and the higher religion, the one opposed to the other, but having this in common that they both confessed the name of Yahweh. Those who take a short-sighted view of the period succeeding the death of Moses always take, it amiss when it is described as a retrograde period. The nature-elements in Yahweh, instead of being overcome by the higher aspect of his being, were associated in Canaan with the nature-elements in baal and threatened to submerge the moral and spiritual elements. Those circles in Israel to whom the nature-elements in the Mosaic Yahweh had appeared of religious value, found here flesh of their flesh.
