From the Preface “In this first volume, the great religious movement of Israel, which swept the world along with it, has scarcely begun. The vocation of Israel is not yet clearly marked. That people had not, as yet, any clear mark upon its forehead to distinguish it from its neighbors and congeners. At first it might have been taken for a small Syro-Arabian tribe like so many others. But the childhood of the elect is full of signs and prognostics, which are only recognized afterwards. The most important period in the life of great men is their youth, inasmuch as it is then that their future is mapped out, as it were, behind a veil. It was during the patriarchal age that the destiny of Israel began to be written—nothing in the history of Israel can be explained without reference to the patriarchal age. This epoch, like all childhood, is obscured by the night of time; but it is the duty of the historian, who is searching into the causes of things, to pierce this obscurity by the aid quite as much of psychology as of philosophy. It will be objected that the golden age of the Aryans has quite as many documents to back it up as the patriarchal age, and yet the former is only a dream. The two cases do not run on parallel lines. The patriarchal age existed; it exists in those countries where the nomad life of the Arabs is preserved in its original purity. . . . ” Keywords: History of the People in Israel: Till the time of King David, Israel, King David, Joseph ERnest Renan, Israel, Syro-Arabian, Veil, Arabs, Epoch, Philosophy,

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