The New Gospel

The stature of this [Hebrew] God, the way he was completely different from other divinities in the religions of the world, was now apparent, and the faith of Israel at last took its true form and stature.  This God could afford to let others have his land because he was not tied down to any country.  He could allow his people to be defeated so as to awaken it thereby from its false religious dream.  He was not dependent on this people, yet nonetheless he did not abandon them in their hour of defeat.  He was not dependent on the Temple or on the cult celebrated there, as was then commonly supposed … No, he did not need this cult, which to some extent concealed his real being. 

Every great human utterance reaches beyond what was consciously said into greater, more profound depths; there is always, hidden in what is said, a surplus of what is not said, which lets the words grow with the passage of time.