The Library 
 University of California, Los Angeles 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 L. Campbell
 
 Worfes b# tbe 1Re\\ professor IReoforo. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S PLEA AGAINST 
 MODERN UNBELIEF. 
 
 A HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE. 
 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d., cloth. 
 
 STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF JONAH. 
 
 A DEFENCE AND AN EXPOSITION. 
 Crown 8vo, 5s., cloth. 
 
 LONDON : HODDER & STOUGHTON, PATERNOSTER ROW.
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 FROM MALACHI TO CHRIST.
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE; 
 
 on, 
 
 FROM MALACHI TO CHRIST. 
 
 REV. R. A. REDFORD, M.A., LL.B., 
 
 PUOFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND APOLOGETICS, NEW COLLEGE, LONDON ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE CHRISTIAN'S'PLEA AGAINST MODERN UNBELIEF," 
 " STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF JONAH," ETC. ETC. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 JANSEN McCLURG & CO., 
 
 117 WABASH AVENUE. 
 1885.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 v H^HE aim of this volume, it will be understood 
 v. from the title, is to characterise a period, 
 
 rather than to set forth a history. The author 
 ^ has no claim to be regarded as having thrown 
 ^ any new light, by independent researches, on 
 ^questions, some of which are involved in much 
 f obscurity. But he has brought together, within 
 ^ a limited space, a number of facts, which will 
 < serve to confirm the faith of those who accept 
 the authority of Scripture, while they illustrate 
 ^ the wonderful method of Divine Providence, in 
 so preparing the way for the higher revelations of 
 Christianity. 
 
 Too little attention has been given by the 
 students of revelation to the deeply interesting 
 subjects briefly sketched in these pages. The 
 author has been led by this consideration to 
 write these chapters, which appeared as separate 
 papers in a monthly periodical. 1 He publishes 
 
 1 Tlte Homiletic Magazine. 
 
 283646 

 
 VI PKEFACE. 
 
 them now, in a collected form, in the hope that 
 they will open the way, in some minds, to a 
 deeper study of the state of the Jewish Church 
 during the long period intervening between the 
 Old and New Testaments. He is not without 
 the conviction that such a study will do much 
 to promote the cause of Truth. The whole 
 question of revelation is one of profound and 
 momentous interest in the present day. It is 
 one which will never be firmly and finally 
 settled on any other than an historical basis. 
 
 PUTNEY, July 13, 1885.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE LAST OP THE PROPHETS 1 
 
 II. THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE . . . . . .16 
 
 III. THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. . . . . .36 
 
 IV. THE SEPTUAGINT 59 
 
 V. THE APOCRYPHA . . . 81 
 
 VI. THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS .... 102 
 
 VII. THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS 125 
 
 VIII. THE GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION . . 145 
 
 IX. THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM 169 
 
 X. PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA 192 
 
 XL THE DAWNING LIGHT 216 
 
 XII. THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS .... 238
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 FROM MALACHI TO CHRIST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 HHHE two volumes which now stand side by side 
 in our Bible, preserve, in their separate titles, 
 the memory of a great gulf of time, dividing the 
 old from the new. Four hundred years is a long 
 period in the history of any nation. They were 
 eventful years in the annals of the Jewish people. 
 Is it possible, we naturally ask, that during all 
 that time no gleams of Truth should have come 
 forth upon the sky ? There was once, in the age 
 of the great prophets, a bright glow of spiritual 
 glory spreading along the horizon ; faith and hope 
 and love flaming in the souls of lofty-minded men, 
 full of patriotic ardour, aud ecstatic visions of the 
 future, breathing the highest strains of poetic rap-
 
 2 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 ture, and lifting up the people of God into a 
 prayerful expectation of the coming day. 
 
 That wonderful evening sky continued to cheer 
 true hearts through centuries of trouble and change. 
 The captives of Israel and Judah, scattered over 
 Eastern lands, divided from one another, mourning 
 over the desolation of their homes, and bitterly 
 repenting the ages of unfaithfulness which had cul- 
 minated in so gloomy a destiny of judgment, still, 
 through the long sad years of exile, kept before 
 them the lovely tints of prophetic radiance ; they 
 spoke to them of a rising Sun of Righteousness, 
 which should bring with it the day of salvation. 
 The seventy years of Judah's banishment went by. 
 The time of restoration arrived. Band after band 
 of exiles returned to Palestine. For a hundred 
 years the history of the Jewish people was the 
 history of a reawakening nationality. But the 
 sky was not again lighted up with the same bril- 
 liancy. The colours seemed to fade. There were 
 prophets still sent to accompany the work of res- 
 toration. Zerubbabel had his Zechariah and his 
 Ilaggai. But the glow of the prophetic inspiration 
 was rather declining than increasing. At last the 
 New Jerusalem seemed to be complete. The ener- 
 getic measures of the Persian cup-bearer, Nehemiah, 
 tilled with zeal for his beloved land, had raised up
 
 THE LAST OF THE PKOPHETS. 3 
 
 the fallen city, and re-established the neglected 
 Temple service. The land had rest; and the 
 people could look away from the sphere of their 
 earthly environment to the heaven of their hopes. 
 Once more, as the faithful reformer (Nehemiah) set 
 his diligent hand to the building up of their civil 
 and religious establishment, there was a new light 
 shooting across the sky, and brightening the hori- 
 zon with fresh colours of Divine appeal and invita- 
 tion. It was not so rich and glowing as that which 
 flamed like a fire three hundred years before, but 
 which had since so much faded from the view of 
 the people. But it was still beyond all doubt a 
 heavenly gift. And after that evening of prophecy 
 there followed a night of four hundred years ; 
 during which it was only here and there that 
 the sky was faintly illuminated by some star of 
 wise, devout reflection, borrowing its light from 
 the past, but pointing on very distinctly to the 
 future. 
 
 We learn much from the study of that remark- 
 able silence of prophecy in Israel. We are able to 
 distinguish all the more clearly the voice of God 
 when it did certainly speak. We call on the Jews 
 themselves to be our witnesses, that in putting 
 the New Testament beside the Old we are not 
 dishonouring the fathers, but giving them their
 
 4 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 true place, while we are hailing the risen glory 
 of the day of grace. There were many writers 
 after the time of the Old Testament. But there 
 was no prophet after him whose words were 
 placed by the Jews themselves at the end of their 
 Scriptures. Why did they thus distinguish be- 
 tween their prophets and their scribes ? Was it 
 not because there arose no messenger whose words 
 and ministry seemed to them at all like those who 
 had gone before ? The sacred volume of the Old 
 Testament was put together by the labours of 
 Ezra, Nehemiah, and others of their contemporaries. 
 And the reverence which immediately gathered 
 about the collection of sacred writings became a 
 "hedge" about it, not to be broken through. From 
 that time nothing but the surpassing claims of an 
 inspired teacher, who manifestly came from God, 
 would lift up any of his words into the sky. And 
 alas ! the formalism of the schools, the cloudy 
 disputations of the Eabbis, the mists of earthly 
 disorders and national decay floating upwards, 
 obscured more and more the light of the horizon, 
 until the time of the sunrising came, when there 
 was again the morning glow that " prepared the 
 way of the Lord." 
 
 Let us, then, first take our stand at that point 
 of time which is indicated by the close of the Old
 
 THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS. 5 
 
 Testament canon ; and let us look at that evening 
 sky of the Jewish Church, lighted up as it was by 
 the last gleam of prophetic inspiration in the words 
 of the Prophet Malachi. 
 
 Although the fiery trial of the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity completely removed from the Jewish, nation 
 all the dross of idolatry in the form, of pagan rites 
 and worship of pagan deities, it by no means de- 
 livered them from the temptation to which they 
 were still exposed, to put their trust in that which 
 was a means of grace, but not necessarily grace 
 itself. The Levitical Eestoration brought back the 
 law of Moses into its place of supremacy. The 
 rebuilding of the Temple, and recommencement of 
 Temple services and national festivals, renewed 
 in the minds of the people the sense of their 
 peculiar vocation as a consecrated and holy nation, 
 to offer sacrifices continually unto Jehovah, accept- 
 able in His sight because of His gracious election. 
 But while the first glory of the reformation glowed, 
 no doubt, very brightly through all the land, and 
 hopes were kindled afresh iu all hearts that the 
 time of their triumph was approaching, generation 
 followed generation, and the climax was still de- 
 layed. We can easily imagine that the first zeal 
 of the newly-founded nation began to grow cold ; 
 the legal prescriptions faded out of recollection,
 
 6 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and the Temple lost somewhat of its attraction. 
 The children of those who surrounded Zerubbabel 
 were less enthusiastic than their fathers. The 
 grandchildren began to grow weary in their re- 
 ligious services. And when Nehemiah, in the 
 century following that of the return of the captives, 
 rebuilt the ruins of Jerusalem, he found it neces- 
 sary to take stern and even fierce measures to 
 enforce the observance of the law, and to purify the 
 Temple from defilers. During his absence in Persia 
 the people had fallen back into disorder. " And I 
 came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil 
 that Eliashib did for Tobiah in preparing him a 
 chamber in the courts of the house of God. And 
 it grieved me sore : therefore I cast forth all the 
 household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. 
 Then I commanded, and they cleansed the cham- 
 bers : and thither brought I again the vessels of the 
 house of God, with the meat offering and the frank- 
 incense. Then contended I with the rulers, and 
 said, Why is the house of God forsaken ? " (Neh. 
 xiii. 7-9, 11). As a result from this laxness in 
 religious observance, the social bonds of the people 
 were being loosened. For it must be remembered 
 that for the Jews to become careless of their Temple 
 and of their law was not to rise above that legal 
 economy, but to fall below it. Just as there is
 
 THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS. 7 
 
 many a man still, .who forsakes the accustomed 
 place of worship, not because he is living a more 
 spiritual life and is able to dispense with an ex- 
 ternal form, but because the sense of the Divine, 
 the need of an outlet of worshipping feelings, is 
 gone. So, a hundred years after the restoration of 
 the Mosaic system under Zerubbabel, Ezra and 
 Nehemiah found that the moral life of the Jews 
 was sinking rapidly, in the decay of religious insti- 
 tutions. There was one survival of the captivity, 
 however, which, though it was scarcely likely that 
 the zealous reformers should appreciate all its im- 
 portance, contributed much to preserve the spiritual 
 element of the people. That was the practice of 
 meeting together in synagogue. It had grown up 
 into a general and well-established religious insti- 
 tution, during the time of exile ; though it doubt- 
 less took a fresh start in the new circumstances of 
 the restoration, especially during the time of Ezra, 
 when the study of the ancient Scriptures, and their 
 diffusion among the people, induced many to seek 
 the public assembly and the exposition of God's 
 Word by wise and learned men. Thus " the Word 
 of God and prayer" came to be regarded as the 
 substance of religion. There are indications, as 
 early as the time of Elisha the prophet, that the 
 people gathered together, on occasion, to listen to
 
 8 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 exhortations elsewhere than in the Temple. The 
 long suspension of the Temple services during 
 the Captivity would call out such, occasional ser- 
 vices into more regular observance. And the large 
 number of psalms attributed to the same period cf 
 the exile, points to the congregational worship as 
 that which then prevailed. Thus, at the close of 
 the fifth century before Christ, the two facts meet 
 us in the history : on the one hand, the general 
 decline of religious observance and moral health 
 among the people ; and on the other, the appear- 
 ance of a congregational worship which, while it 
 promoted the growth of the Eabbinical spirit, and 
 the class of scribes and learned doctors, did yet, at 
 the same time, nourish the development of indi- 
 vidual piety, and knowledge of the Word of God. 
 
 These remarks will prepare the way for a brief 
 account of the mission of Malachi. It is remark- 
 able that there should be no personal allusion 
 throughout the four chapters which compose this 
 last book of the Old Testament, by which we 
 should be able to refer it to any one author. The 
 title, which is, of course, of later origin than the 
 book itself, seems to be purposely ambiguous. We 
 are left in doubt whether the name Malachi is to 
 be taken as the name of a prophet, or refers to the 
 nature of the message itself. "Malachi" may be
 
 THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS. 9 
 
 a shortened form for Malachijah (cf. LXX.), 
 " Angel of the Lord ; " or it may be translated, 
 " My angel." The title may, therefore, read, " The 
 Book of the "Word of the Lord to Israel by my 
 angel," or, " by the angel of the Lord," or, " by the 
 hand of Malachi " (the prophet). But it is well to 
 bear in mind the remark made by Ewald that, see- 
 ing the very word "Malachi" is employed (chapter 
 iii. i) to denote the Divine messenger, "Behold, I 
 will send my messenger," no prophet would have 
 ventured to take such a name upon himself. 
 Perhaps the book was named the " Book of the 
 Angel," as containing the prediction ; and then 
 afterwards, when the early title was lost, it was 
 supposed to be written by a prophet named 
 Malachi. It has been attributed to Ezra himself, 
 and to Nehemiah ; but the authorship remains 
 quite undecided. Internal evidence leads to the 
 conclusion, that it was a message sent to the con- 
 temporaries of the two reformers ; and that it was 
 the last of the Jewish canon, because, after the 
 time of Nehemiah, there would be great hesita- 
 tion on the part of the Jews in adding to the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Casting a look over the pages, we are struck 
 first with the element of condemnation and the 
 threat of judgment which runs through them.
 
 10 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 The priesthood is corrupt. The services of 
 the Temple are fallen into disorder. The whole 
 religious ceremonial has become a weariness and a 
 loathing. There is scepticism eating away the 
 heart of piety. Immorality is increasing in the 
 land. Domestic life is like a withered flower. 
 The "proud" are " called happy," and "they that 
 work wickedness are set up." Sorcery, adultery, 
 false swearing, oppression of the hireling in his 
 wages, the widow and the fatherless, and the turn- 
 ing aside of the stranger from his right. Such are 
 the flagrant sins which defile the land. And the 
 allusion, at the end of the book, to the alienation 
 of the children from their fathers, doubtless refers 
 to the sceptical, rationalistic, innovating spirit, 
 which broke out in such sayings as, " The table of 
 the Lord is contemptible." "Behold, what a 
 weariness is it ! " " Every one that doeth evil is 
 good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth 
 in them." "Where is the God of judgment?" 
 " It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that 
 we have kept His ordinance, and that we have 
 walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts ? " 
 "We have not far to go to find the parallel of such 
 sayings. They are the scum of pride and irreligion 
 floating on the top of a great seething mass of 
 unbelief and worldliness in a time of transition ;
 
 THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS. 1 1 
 
 such as was the time of Ezra, and such as is the 
 time in which we live. With such a state of mind 
 and manners to deal with, how did the prophetic 
 voice appeal to the people ? 
 
 The keynote is Love. " I have loved you, saith 
 the Lord" (verse 2). The whole of the message 
 comes out of this. What is their present state but 
 an ungrateful rejection of Divine love, and dis- 
 honouring of the Divine covenant ? It is but an 
 unfolding of the original covenant of love that is 
 set forth in the third chapter, as a bright glow of 
 promise on the horizon of the true Israel. " Be- 
 hold, I will send my messenger." " The Lord 
 whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple, 
 even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye 
 delight in : behold, He shall come, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts" (iii. i). There is something especially 
 inspiring to the people in the promise that the same 
 Angel of mercy who had been at the head of Israel 
 all through the history of the past should reappear ; 
 and that to be their delight and their glory. 
 True, it would be a terrible time for sinners. The 
 " day of His coming " would l>urn like fire. The 
 brightness of His face would purge their lives like 
 "fullers' sope." But the subsequent purity and 
 pleasantness was a prospect for all that feared the 
 Lord and waited for Him to keep before them.
 
 12 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 The spiritual renovation and revival would in- 
 augurate a period of general prosperity. "All 
 nations shall call you blessed : for ye shall be a 
 delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts." 
 
 Another striking feature in the book is the very 
 emphatic recognition of the Church within the 
 Church, of the germ of a new Israel in the midst 
 of the decay and rejection of the old. " Then they 
 that feared the Lord spake often one to another, 
 and the Lord hearkened and heard it : and a book 
 of remembrance was written before Him for them 
 that feared the Lord and that thought upon His 
 name. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels, and 
 I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son 
 that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and dis- 
 cern between the righteous and the wicked, be- 
 tween him that serveth God and him that serveth 
 Him not" (iii. 16-18). This doctrine of a true 
 Israel, as distinguished from a merely fleshly Israel, 
 which was brought out so distinctly by the Apostle 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Eomans, was the con- 
 stant theme of the prophets : no doubt it was 
 nominally accepted by the people, but practically 
 it remained in abeyance until the time came when 
 it was conspicuously revealed in the ministry of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
 THE LAST OP THE PROPHETS. 13 
 
 We must also notice the cosmopolitan tone of 
 this last book of the Old Testament. While the 
 priests and Levites are rebuked for their neglect of 
 the Mosaic Law, there is no Jewish exclusiveness 
 in the Divine message. On the other hand, the 
 rejection of the fallen Israel is made the oppor- 
 tunity for the proclamation of a universal gospel. 
 "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your 
 hand. For from the rising of the sun, even unto 
 the going down of the same, My name shall be 
 great among the Gentiles ; and in every place in- 
 cense shall be offered unto My name and a pure 
 offering : for My name shall be great among the 
 heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts " (i. 10, 1 1). There 
 seems to be an allusion to this breadth of the 
 gospel of salvation in the prediction of the "Day 
 of the Lord" with which the book concludes. It 
 is a day of judgment on the ungodly, which shall 
 " burn up the wicked like stubble ; " but it is not a 
 mere day of destruction, it is the rising of " the 
 Sun of Righteousness " into the heavens. There is 
 11 healing in His wings." Surely those who read 
 such a prediction would recall the language of the 
 nineteenth Psalm, where the sun is described as 
 lighting all the world : " His going forth is from 
 the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of
 
 14 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 it : and there is nothing hid from the heat there- 
 of." Some of the critics have made a great deal of 
 the parting admonition to " remember the Law of 
 Moses with the statutes and judgments," and the 
 prediction of the advent of Elijah ; as though the 
 spirit of Malachi were merely that of Levitical 
 obedience and formalism. They have certainly 
 misapprehended the language. The meaning evi- 
 dently is, that all true revival and restoration of 
 Israel must proceed along the lines of faithfulness 
 to Jehovah and His covenant. The children will 
 not be better than their fathers by despising and 
 trampling under foot the old things ; but by 
 developing the germ which was in the old in the 
 new ; putting " new wine into new wine-skins," but 
 getting the new wine out of the old vineyard. 
 Elijah was a great reformer ; but he was followed 
 by Elisha, whose ministry extended over a much 
 larger sphere, and was much more beneficent. The 
 herald of the kingdom preached repentance; but 
 the Messiah Himself baptized with the Holy Ghost, 
 and sent forth His apostles to preach the Gospel 
 " to every creature." These, then, were the main 
 features of that last message, which, like a glow in 
 the evening sky, remained to keep alive the ex- 
 pectation of the rising day. The voice of a loving 
 Father addressed them. They were invited to put
 
 THE LAST OP THE PKOPHETS. 15 
 
 away mere legalism and formalism, and live a 
 spiritual life in fellowship with one another. They 
 w r ere pointed to the Temple, and bid to wait 
 around it, in simple obedience and faith, until the 
 Great Messiah should be revealed, and the Day 
 of the Lord should come. We shall see, in the 
 chapters which follow, how far this gracious appeal 
 found a response among the Jewish people during 
 those four long centuries when, amidst many and 
 -terrible trials, and much defection from the .old 
 standards, they still preserved the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures which had been handed down to them and 
 put in order by Ezra and his fellow-labourers, 
 but when no new message directly from God was 
 heard in their midst. It was a time of de- 
 generacy and spiritual decay. But here and 
 there, as we shall see, a gleam of light appeared 
 upon the horizon.
 
 1 6 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 
 
 Jewish Church, at the commencement of the 
 fourth century before Christ, when the message 
 of the last of the prophets, Malachi, was still fresh 
 in their memory, held but few elements of spiritual 
 growth and progress among them. The Scriptures 
 were no doubt in common use, and their authority 
 was clearly defined by the labours of Ezra, Nehe- 
 miah, and others of the religious leaders. The 
 services of the Temple were restored, and for a 
 time were punctually and carefully observed. The 
 censures which were pronounced by the Prophet 
 Malachi upon those who neglected the payment of 
 tithes, who offered unworthy offerings, and who 
 offended against the marriage laws, are evidence 
 that the obligations of the law of Moses were 
 publicly and universally recognised, and that the 
 defections of the people from that law could not be 
 excused either on the ground of their ignorance of 
 what the law prescribed, or their doubt of its bind-
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 1 7 
 
 ing force. But there is no power in law alone to 
 maintain the religious life of a people. The cap- 
 tives who returned from Babylon brought with 
 them, in all probability, a very strong feeling of 
 the necessity of repentance toward Jehovah, and 
 of watchful care over their spiritual state in the 
 future. For a hundred years a succession of emi- 
 nent men, full of zeal for the law and a devout 
 spirit, from Zerubbabel to Nehemiah, including 
 many prophets, and some whose writings have 
 come down to us, laboured to maintain the reli- 
 gious life of the new settlers in Palestine. But the 
 external conditions of that life were very unfavour- 
 able. There was much disorder and confusion, 
 which even the utmost patriotic efforts of the re- 
 formers were unable to remove. The spirit of the 
 Persian rule, which under the great Cyrus had been 
 protective towards the Jews, changed for the worse 
 under his successor. The ambition which had 
 sought for universal empire produced its usual 
 pernicious fruits. Persia, under the weak-minded 
 and vacillating Xerxes, hurled its forces against 
 Eastern Europe under the leadership of Greece, 
 was driven back with terrible loss and defeat, and 
 sought to recover, its prestige by attacks upon less 
 formidable foes. The struggle for the complete 
 subjection of Egypt went on for a considerable
 
 18 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 period in a number of separate expeditions. Judea 
 suffered much by the passage of Persian armies 
 through it. As an instance of this we may men- 
 tion that, between the years 377 B.C. and 374 B.C., 
 there were two hundred thousand barbarian soldiers, 
 besides twenty thousand Greeks, in their neigh- 
 bourhood, of course making requisitions upon them, 
 and otherwise burdening them ; at Acco were three 
 hundred ships of war, besides store ships ; and the 
 Persian army marched along the coast of Palestine 
 to Egypt. It must have been very difficult, under 
 such circumstances, to preserve anything like the 
 order and regularity of religious life. The institu- 
 tions of the Jews fell into decay. 
 
 It was the policy of the Persian Empire, when 
 its central strength was waning, to depend more 
 and more on its representatives, in its various pro- 
 vinces or satrapies. The satrap, knowing himself 
 virtually a monarch, deputed his power to his 
 subordinates as his responsibility enlarged. The 
 Persian governor of Syria was no doubt compelled 
 to put more and more authority into the hands of 
 the Jewish high priest, who, though professedly a 
 religious ruler, soon became a kind of satrap within 
 his own domain. The people themselves looked to 
 him as their representative. And the high priest, 
 in his turn, used his religious position to exalt his
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 19 
 
 authority. The moral corruption which ensued 
 we can easily understand when we remember the 
 history of the Papacy during the Middle Ages. 
 Josephus relates an instance which reveals a fear- 
 ful state of things. On the death of the high 
 priest Joiada, Bagoses, the Persian general, who 
 was in the neighbourhood at the time, nominated 
 Joshua as a successor ; his brother John murdered 
 him in the Temple, and left his dead body lying 
 within the sacred precincts. Bagoses, hearing of 
 the outrage, went in haste to Jerusalem, made his 
 way into the sanctuary, and when the Jews ex- 
 claimed at his violation of the sanctity of the 
 Temple, replied, "What, am I not as pure as the 
 dead carcass of the murdered man which lies in 
 your Temple ? " He laid a heavy fine upon the 
 nation, which was rigorously exacted for seven 
 years. 
 
 The high priests were not only political despots, 
 they were, by their dissensions and worldly ambi- 
 tion, corruptors of the people and of their institu- 
 tions. It was the result of their irreligious spirit 
 that the nation was led away into ruinous adven- 
 tures. Such was the attempt made by some to 
 support the Phoenicians of Tyre in their rebellion 
 against the Persian power, which led the Persian 
 king, Darius Ochus, to lay siege to Jericho to cap-
 
 20 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 ture it, and carry off many of its inhabitants to 
 Egypt, sending others to Hyrcania to people it. 
 Jonathan, or John, the high priest, who murdered 
 his brother, still retained the high priesthood, and 
 continued in office until the year 340 B.C., when he 
 was succeeded by Jaddua, the high priest who met 
 Alexander the Great when he came to Jerusalem. 
 When the chief representative of a religion is cor- 
 rupt, what can be expected ? The high priest 
 Eliashib was rebuked by Nehemiah for his laxness 
 in carrying out reforms, which he rather hindered 
 than promoted ; and his successors in the office for 
 nearly a century seem to have been worthless 
 characters. At the same time, the scene which 
 occurred on the advent of the great Macedonian 
 conqueror shows that the external pomp of wor- 
 ship, and the gorgeousness of the Temple rites, 
 were maintained. The solemn procession suddenly 
 emerged from the city : " The priestly tribe," says 
 Dean Stanley, "in their white robes; the high 
 priest, apparently the chief authority in the place, 
 in his purple and gold attire, his turban on his 
 head, bearing the golden plate on which was 
 inscribed the ineffable name of Jehovah." " ' Who 
 are these ? ' said Alexander to the Samaritan 
 guides, who had gained from him the promise of 
 the destruction of the Temple, arid the possession
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 21 
 
 of Mount Moriali. ' They are the rebels who deny 
 your authority,' said the rival sect. They marched 
 all night, in two ranks, preceded by torches, and 
 with the band of priestly musicians clashing their 
 cymbals. It was the sunrise of a winter morning 
 (December 2ist), long afterwards observed as a 
 joyous- festival, when they stood before the king. 
 To the astonishment of the surrounding chiefs, 
 Alexander descended from his chariot and bowed 
 to the earth before the Jewish leader. None ven- 
 tured to ask the meaning of this seeming frenzy 
 save Parmenio alone. ' Why should he, whom 
 all men worship, worship the high priest of the 
 Jews?' 'Not him,' replied the king, 'but the 
 God, whose high priest he is, I worship. Long 
 ago, when at Diuni in Macedonia, I saw in my 
 dreams such an one, in such an attire as this, who 
 urged me to undertake the conquest of Persia and 
 succeed ! ' Hand in hand with the high priest, 
 and with the priestly tribe running by his side, he 
 entered the sacred enclosure, and offered the usual 
 sacrifice ; saw with pleasure the indication of the 
 rise of the Grecian power in the prophetic books ; 
 granted free use of their ancestral laws, and speci- 
 ally, of the year of jubilee inaugurated so solemnly 
 a hundred years before under Nehemiah ; promised 
 to befriend the Jewish settlements of Babylonia
 
 22 FOUE CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and Media ; and invited any who were disposed, 
 to serve in his army, with the preservation of their 
 sacred customs" ("Jewish Church," vol. iii. pp. 239, 
 240). There may be a large amount of exagge- 
 ration and fable in this account, which is taken 
 from Josephus ; but it is certain that the priestly 
 authority was high enough at that time to be so 
 influential for the people, and that the ceremonial 
 system was largely maintained by the Jews. 
 Indeed the fact that there was a rival temple set 
 up by the Samaritans, on Mount Gerizim, would 
 itself warrant the belief that the people of Jeru- 
 salem would be careful to exhibit their own ritual 
 as superior to that of the sectarians. 
 
 Before referring to the indications which we are 
 able to discover of surviving religious life among 
 the Jews during this period of the high priest- 
 hood, it will be well to give some account of that 
 rival worship which was set up by the Samaritans, 
 which had important influence upon some of the 
 religious views and practices of the Palestinian 
 Jews for the next four hundred years. In the 
 year 408 B.C. one Sanballat, 'chief of the Samari- 
 tans, obtained permission of the reigning Persian 
 king, Darius Nothus, to build a temple on Mount 
 Gerizim. His power over the king arose from the 
 fact that he had furnished the Persian army with
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 23 
 
 provisions on its way to Egypt. Manasseh, son of 
 the high priest of Jerusalem, Joiada, was married 
 to the daughter of Sanballat, and on that account 
 was expelled by Nehemiah from Jerusalem (Neh. 
 xiii. 28). He carried with him no very friendly 
 feelings towards Judea. And it was through his 
 influence that the rival worship was commenced. 
 Josephus tells us that criminal and disaffected 
 Jews, from time to time, fled to Samaria and in- 
 creased the number of the opposing sect. But 
 the preponderating number of Jews preserved the 
 Samaritans from idolatry. They worshipped Jeho- 
 vah, though with imperfect rites and with a frag- 
 mentary Bible. Whether the Samaritan Penta- 
 teuch dates from this time, or from much later, 
 cannot be certainly known. Ewald says, " At what 
 time the temple on Gerizim was actually erected, 
 and whether its construction was begun by Ma- 
 nasseh, with the powerful aid of Sanballat, we do 
 not exactly know. It is true that even in the 
 Persian times, and still more in the Greek, the 
 Samaritans, like the Jews, certainly had their 
 historians. In particular they possessed trust- 
 worthy records of the succession and fortunes of 
 their chief priests, who, like the high priests in 
 Jerusalem, constituted the only continuous links in 
 their history. Special mention is made of a chief
 
 24 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 priest named Hezekiab, who composed sacred 
 songs, and was still alive at the time of Alex- 
 ander. But it is much to be regretted that the 
 only works which we now possess from the Sama- 
 ritans, treating of their o\vn ancient history, are 
 of very late date and extremely unsatisfactory. 
 So far as we can see from the traces which still 
 survive, a small sanctuary at any rate was in 
 existence on Gerizim before Alexander, chiefly 
 under the zealous interest of Manasseh of Jeru- 
 salem, whose name continued to be honoured 
 among the Samaritans for a long time afterwards 
 to a quite remarkable extent. A larger sanctuary, 
 for which fresh permission from the supreme gov- 
 ernment was requisite, in consequence of the neces- 
 sary cost of building and the continuance of large 
 expenditure, was probably not erected there until 
 the Greek supremacy. It is undeniable that the 
 old city of Samaria was still the capital at the 
 time of Zerubbabel ; but the greater fame which 
 Shechem very soon acquired could only have been 
 due to the temple on Gerizim" (vol. v., p. 220). 
 The temple of the Samaritans stood for about two 
 centuries. It was destroyed in 130 B.C. by the 
 high priestly ruler, John Hyrcanus I. (135-105 
 B.C.) The feeling of enmity against the Jews was 
 promoted by the building of the Samaritan temple ;
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 25 
 
 and it found many occasions of violent expression 
 in subsequent times down to the clays of our Lord, 
 when " the Jews had no dealings with the Sama- 
 ritans " (John iv. 9). But it is due to this 
 separation and enmity between the two peoples 
 that the Samaritans preserved their copy of the 
 Pentateuch, and that the Jews jealously guarded 
 their own copy of the Law and boasted of its 
 superior value. The special care which was taken 
 of the writings of Moses extended to all the books 
 of the Canon, and led to the growth of a school of 
 learned men who devoted themselves to the pre- 
 servation of the ancient Scriptures. But the Sama- 
 ritan Pentateuch was the support of a false system 
 of worship at Mount Gerizim, and in order to 
 make it so the text was tampered with, while at 
 the same time the Mosaic ritual was as far as 
 possible preserved. The command, Deut. xxvii. 
 4, to set up the memorial stones at Mount Ebal, 
 and to build there an altar to Jehovah, was 
 changed in the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch 
 into a command to consecrate Mount Gerizim. 
 Shechem had very special sanctity through its 
 connection with the history of the patriarchs. 
 
 A recent writer, Dr. Edersheim, thus sums up 
 the history of Samaria: "In 320 B.C. it passed 
 from the rule of Syria to that of Egypt (Ptolemy
 
 26 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Lagi). Six years later it again became Syrian 
 (Antigonus). Only three years afterwards, Pto- 
 lemy reconquered and held it for a very short 
 time. On his retreat he destroyed the walls of 
 Samaria and other towns. In 301 it passed again 
 by treaty into the hands of Ptolemy ; but in 
 298 it was once more ravaged by the son of 
 Antigonus. After that it enjoyed a season of 
 quiet under Egyptian rule, till the reign of Antio- 
 chus III., the Great, when it again passed tem- 
 porarily, and under his successor Selenius IV. 
 (Philopator), permanently, under Syrian dominion. 
 In the troublous times of Antiochus IV. (Epi- 
 phanes) the Samaritans escaped the fate of the 
 Jews by repudiating all connection with Israel, 
 and dedicating their temple to Jupiter. In the 
 contest between Syria and the Maccabees which 
 followed, the Samaritans, as might be expected, 
 took the part of the former." 
 
 After the destruction of the temple on Mount 
 Gerizim, the city of Samaria was laid in ruins 
 by the sons of Hyrcanus, and remained so for 
 about a hundred years, until, under Gabinius, 
 and subsequently under Herod, it was rebuilt, 
 and renamed Sebaste, in honour of the Emperor 
 Augustus. But notwithstanding all these vicis- 
 situdes in the external condition of the Samari-
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 27 
 
 tans, they seem to have preserved some remnants 
 of religious life among them. In some of the 
 Mosaic observances they were even stricter than 
 the Jews themselves. At the time of our Saviour 
 considerable change had taken place in the views 
 and feelings of the Jews concerning them, and 
 whereas at one time they were denounced as 
 unclean, they were then acknowledged as admis- 
 sible to the synagogue when they had given up 
 their attachment to Mount Gerizim and estrange- 
 ment from Jerusalem, and their food, which was 
 once spoken of as swine's flesh in the sight of 
 a Jew, was declared to be clean. It seems pro- 
 bable that among the remnants of the old Hebrew 
 faith retained among them were the doctrine of 
 the unity of God, angels and devils, and the 
 resurrection of the dead. " They were most strict 
 and zealous in what of Biblical or traditional law 
 they received, and, most important of all, they 
 looked for a Messiah in whom the promise would 
 be fulfilled, that the Lord God would raise up 
 a prophet from the midst of them, like unto 
 Moses, in whom His words were to be, and unto 
 whom they would hearken." 
 
 Now that a people so closely akin to the Jews 
 should be at their doors for several hundred years, 
 with an alien worship and a rival Scripture, had
 
 28 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 an important effect upon the Jews themselves in 
 several particulars. It obliged them to look well 
 to the authority of their own religious rites, and 
 it promoted the study of the Scriptures and the 
 growth of the school of Scribes. It seems to be an 
 undoubted fact that after the restoration under 
 Ezra and Nehemiah there were many who wrote 
 books (cf. Eccles. xii. 12). The two Books of 
 Chronicles are a proof that historical literature 
 was cultivated. Commentaries and expositions 
 began to abound (see 2 Chroii. xiii. 22, where 
 the story or commentary of the Prophet Iddo 
 refers to some later Scriptural writer). There is 
 a tradition preserved among the Rabbinical writ- 
 ings of a number of learned men who were called 
 the Great Synagogue, including among them Ezra 
 and Nehemiah ; and out of them came the body of 
 Scribes, whose " one aim was to promote reverence 
 for the Law, to make it the groundwork of the 
 people's life. They would write nothing of their 
 own, lest less worthy words should be raised on a 
 level with those of the oracles of God. If inter- 
 pretation were needed, their teaching should be 
 oral only. No precepts should be perpetuated as 
 resting on their authority. In the words of later 
 Judaism they devoted themselves to the Mikra 
 (i.e. recitation, reading, as iii Neh. viii. 8), the
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 29 
 
 careful study of the text, and laid down rules for 
 transcribing it with the most scrupulous precision 
 (cf. the Tract Sopherim in the Jerusalem Gemara) " 
 (Smith's Diet., Art. Scribes). It is a remarkable 
 fact that there is no writing, which, has any claim 
 to be received as proceeding from the Jewish com- 
 munity as a religious book, for a hundred years 
 after the time of Ezra ; a silence which no doubt 
 was the effect of the labours and principles of the 
 Scribes, and contributed much to the preservation 
 of the Scriptures in their purity. Towards the 
 end of the fourth century, however, and after the 
 Greek period had commenced, it seems possible 
 that one or two of the Apocryphal Books we now 
 possess appeared. Ewald goes so far as to place 
 both Baruch and Tobit in the fourth century. But 
 in this he is followed by very few critics. The 
 Books which were written after the rise of the 
 school of Scribes would undergo a very severe 
 scrutiny. It cannot be proved that any one of 
 those included in the Old Testament was wiitten 
 after 400 B.C. That of Esther was probably the 
 work of Mordecai, and must have been composed 
 not later than 450 B.C. Possibly parts of the 
 Chronicles were as late as 400 B.C., though the 
 history itself breaks off with Cyrus. Ezra and 
 Nehemiah were written by the men whose names
 
 30 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 they bear, and the Book of Malachi, as we have 
 seen, was probably collected together before the 
 death of Nehemiah. 
 
 The Book of Baruch is so evidently a mere imi- 
 tation of the style of the prophets that it could not 
 have been published during the generation which 
 remembered Malachi. As, however, so great a 
 critic as Ewald places it during the Persian period, 
 a passing reference to it will help us to understand 
 what was the kind of reKgious life which was 
 maintained among the Jews of that time. We 
 may divide the book into three portions : 
 
 1. That which may be regarded as an original 
 Hebrew composition, probably the work of some 
 Jew in Babylon, following up the suggestions of 
 the Prophet Jeremiah, that the people should sub- 
 mit themselves patiently to the Lord's hand. He 
 has had before him the prophecies of Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, and Daniel, and the Book of Psalms, and has 
 borrowed from them all, especially from Daniel. 
 This portion extends from chapter i. i to chapter 
 iii. 8. 
 
 2. The second part extends from iii. 8 to v. 9, 
 and was written in Greek about the year 150 B.C. 
 It is full of Alexandrian thought and language, and 
 evidently was not a translation from an original in 
 Hebrew.
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 31 
 
 3. The last portion is an epistle of Jeremiah, a 
 spurious composition, dating about A.D. 100, added 
 to the main book by some Christian writer. 
 
 The Hebrew portion, if not composed during the 
 Babylonish captivity, may be assigned to the Per- 
 sian period. In that case the recommendations to 
 submission to the rule of the Babylonian monarch 
 must be regarded as applying to the Persian power. 
 But the objection to this is, that there would seem 
 to be scarcely any reason for such admonitions, for 
 the Persians did not oppress the returned captives, 
 but rather favoured them. Ewald thinks the 
 motive may have been to help the Jews to bear 
 the exactions and confusions resulting from the 
 wars between the Persians and the Egyptians. But 
 this appears far-fetched and unnecessary. It is 
 better to suppose that some original fragment came 
 into the hands of the Greek translator, and that 
 Baruch, if not the companion of Jeremiah, lived 
 not very long after him, possibly at the court of 
 Babylon. There is not, however, any great value 
 in the few chapters which seem to be a relic of the 
 captivity. They contain nothing more than con- 
 fessions and prayers taken from the prophets. In 
 so far as they point to a sense of sin and acknow- 
 ledgment of Divine righteousness, they testify to 
 real religious life. A collection of money is sent
 
 32 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 from the captive king of Judali and his nobles to 
 Jerusalem, " And they said, Behold, we have sent 
 you money to buy you burnt offerings, and sin 
 offerings, and incense, and prepare ye incense, and 
 offer upon the altar of the Lord our God : and pray 
 for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
 and for the life of Belshazzar, his son, that their 
 days may be upon earth as the days of heaven : 
 and the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our 
 eyes, and we shall live under the shadow of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, king of Babylon, and under the shadow 
 of Belshazzar, his son, and we shall serve them 
 many days, and find favour in their sight " (chapter 
 i. 10-12). 
 
 Now, there is no doubt that Jeremiah did recom- 
 mend this peaceful submission to the king of Baby- 
 lon, as we see in his 29th chapter. Ewald's theory 
 is, that some late writer in the fourth century is 
 writing as if Baruch, the companion and assistant 
 of the prophet, were sent on a commission from his 
 master to the captives, and indited a letter to the 
 Holy Land in the cause of the captive people. He 
 thinks that it was written at the time of dangerous 
 risings against the Persians. But such risings were 
 quite local in their character, and not of sufficient 
 importance to account for the origin of the book. 
 Moreover, the very distinct separation of the latter
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 33 
 
 part from the former makes it impossible to sustain 
 the theory. Professor J. J. Kneucker, in his very 
 learned work published in 1879, has gone very 
 thoroughly into the critical question as to the 
 authenticity and antiquity of the Book of Baruch, 
 and comes to the conclusion that it proceeded from 
 the Pharisaic school after the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, and that it aimed at the revival of Jewish 
 feeling under the Roman supremacy. But while this 
 view is widely separated from Ewald's, it seems 
 scarcely tenable. The small portion which har- 
 monises with the spirit of the ancient prophets, if 
 it be a genuine relic of the Captivity, must have 
 served to keep alive in the Jewish Church feelings 
 of penitence, and hope in the future glory of Israel. 
 " Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in 
 anguish, the troubled spirit crieth unto Thee. 
 Hear, Lord, and have mercy ; for Thou art 
 merciful : and have pity upon us, because we have 
 sinned before Thee. For Thou endurest for ever, 
 and we perish utterly " (chapter iii. 1-3). And the 
 promise is repeated, " I will bring them again into 
 the land which I promised with an oath unto their 
 fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they shall 
 be lords of it, and I will increase them, and they 
 shall not be diminished. And I will make an ever- 
 lasting covenant with them to be their God, and 
 
 c
 
 34 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 they shall be my people ; and I will no more drive 
 my people of Israel out of the land that I have 
 given them " (chapter ii. 34, 35). 
 
 On the whole it is impossible to attach any im- 
 portance to the book. It was not noticed among 
 the early fathers of the Christian Church. And 
 when it was quoted, as it was by the writers of 
 the third century, it was taken to be the genuine 
 work of Jeremiah. It cannot be said to break the 
 silence of the fourth century B.C. We are left to 
 face the fact, that after the time of Malachi no 
 Scripture was produced, nor was the religious state 
 of the people such as would suggest the likelihood 
 of any writing being added to the sacred rolls. As 
 we shall see in subsequent chapters, the formality 
 which increased with the spiritual decline of the 
 nation became itself a preservative against the 
 multiplication of sacred books. The sense of a 
 departed inspiration, as it became deeper in the 
 course of time, "hedged about the law" with a 
 rampart of superstitious reverence. Such rever- 
 ence promoted the work of transcription. The 
 law which authorised the Temple-worship at Jeru- 
 salem had to be maintained ; and the same class of 
 learned men who employed themselves in searching 
 the Scriptures for the support of the priesthood, 
 devoted themselves to the preservation of the
 
 THE JEWISH PONTIFICATE. 35 
 
 historical and prophetic writings, which came to 
 be held in a respect only a little lower than that 
 which surrounded the Pentateuch. The practical 
 discipline which the Jews received during the time 
 of their captivity, and for a long period after their 
 restoration, must have raised in their estimation 
 the value of those Books of Scripture which spoke 
 to them of their future. This we can see from 
 the fact that the Samaritans, who were not in 
 sympathy with such prospects, did not appreciate 
 the prophets, and retained only the Books of Moses. 
 It was probably during the Persian period that 
 the learned Jews fully recognised the necessity of 
 closing their Canon ; and the tradition which tells 
 us of " the Great Synagogue," to whose labours the 
 completion of the Canon was due, gives the date 
 of Simon the Just soon after the commencement of 
 the Grecian period (3 10-290 B.C.), as the last date 
 in connection with that important body which is 
 said to have continued for two centuries. It has 
 been observed by Canon Westcott that there is no 
 sound authority for the belief that any book was 
 added to the Old Testament between the time of 
 Malachi and that of Christ. The Greek Books 
 which constitute the Apocrypha were no doubt 
 added to the Septuagint at a very late period.
 
 36 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 
 
 are periods in the history of nations 
 which seem to be blanks ; when there is little 
 or nothing to record, or when a state of external 
 disorder and confusion has clouded the atmosphere 
 of the national life to so great an extent that no 
 clear outlines of historical delineation can be dis- 
 cerned. It has already been remarked that the 
 century which followed the close of the Scripture 
 canon, from about 420 B.C. to 320 B.C., must be 
 described as one of stagnation and decay in the 
 history of the Jewish Church. The rule of the 
 high priests was maintained, but it was a mere 
 preservation of the old in its formal completeness, 
 not a development of its vital elements in new 
 growth and higher instruction. There was, we are 
 told, " a certain uniform culture of religion and 
 morals " in the nation generally. But that did not 
 hinder the process of corruption in the higher 
 classes. Neither was the spirit of the people roused
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 37 
 
 by any messenger who appealed to its national voca- 
 tion or rebuked its slothful lethargy. The State, 
 which had been restored by the remarkable favour 
 of the Persian monarchy, was in considerable dan- 
 ger when the Persian Empire was broken up into 
 satrapies, and threatened by the rising power of 
 Greece. The New Jerusalem, which had been 
 erected round the new Temple, depended upon 
 the maintenance of the priesthood. And the 
 priests knew their power, and took care that the 
 people should feel it. But Divine Providence 
 ordained a course of external events which won- 
 derfully changed the spiritual history of the Jewish 
 people. 
 
 The Greek period, as it is generally called, which 
 might be said to begin with the defeat of Xerxes 
 by the Greeks, in the middle of the fifth century, 
 and which culminated in the conquest of Syria by 
 Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., brought about 
 most radical changes in the Jewish Church ; and 
 it is of the utmost importance that these changes 
 should be thoroughly examined and understood 
 in order to appreciate the subsequent appearance 
 of new lights, or what claimed to be so, on the 
 horizon. The great military monarchies of Asia 
 were under the necessity, in order to maintain 
 their prestige, to undertake from time to time 
 
 283646
 
 38 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 some great enterprise of conquest. The Persian 
 kingdom in 480 B.C. was driven by the force of 
 circumstances to lead its armies towards the west. 
 Egypt had succumbed to its sword. India on the 
 east had been conquered. Thrace and Macedonia 
 had vainly resisted its progress. It remained 
 to descend from the higher and more moun- 
 tainous regions, to the fruitful plains and well- 
 watered fields of Greece. An immense multitude 
 of soldiers was collected together, and a large 
 and well-appointed fleet. But both availed no- 
 thing against the heroism and intellectual force 
 of that extraordinary people, whose rapid develop- 
 ment within the small territory of the Greek 
 coasts and Peloponnesus is one of the wonders 
 of the world. For a hundred years after the 
 defeat and retirement of Xerxes the Persian 
 monarchs sought to recover their military power ; 
 partly by corrupting Greek statesmen, and taking 
 advantage of the internal troubles of Greece, and 
 partly by expeditions against revolting satraps. 
 But the end could not be far off, and it was 
 brought about by that extraordinary man Alex- 
 ander the Great, who burned to revenge the 
 ancient dishonour of his Macedonian fatherland 
 by the conquest of its enemy. A weak prince 
 was seated on the Persian throne, Darius III.
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 39 
 
 Alexander was a mere youth when he crossed 
 the Hellespont and invaded Asia Minor in the 
 spring of 334 B.C. Darius despised the young 
 man's inexperience, and left the extremities of 
 his empire unguarded. The battle of Granicus, 
 in the neighbourhood of Sardis, opened the eyes 
 of the careless and weak-minded Persian. All 
 Asia Minor lay at the feet of the Macedonian 
 conqueror. Persia was compelled to act on the 
 defensive, while Alexander marched rapidly and 
 without opposition towards Babylonia. Two great 
 battles, Issus and Arbela the one, as it were, at 
 the gate of the Persian stronghold, and the other 
 in the very chosen spot of Persia, the Plains of 
 Adiabene brought the conflict to an end in the 
 utter overthrow of the Eastern despotism. All 
 Syria then submitted to Alexander. Damascus, 
 Tyre, Si don fell into his hands, and he became 
 the prominent figure of the world. That he was 
 a cruel man there can be no doubt at all, as we 
 see in the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah 
 in the siege and destruction of Gaza (ix. 5) ; but 
 he was not without his better impulses, and the 
 influence on his mind of his great teacher, the 
 philosopher Aristotle, may have prepared him to 
 deal somewhat more considerately with a people 
 so remarkable, and so famed for wisdom and
 
 40 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 virtue, as the Jews. Josephus in his work, 
 "Against Apion" (i. 22), refers to the conferences 
 which Aristotle is said to have had with a learned 
 and philosophical Jew, as related by Clearchus, 
 one of Aristotle's disciples. It is impossible to 
 determine whether there is any truth in this story 
 or not. But it is certain that Aristotle, before 
 he became the tutor of Alexander, was in Mysia, 
 and married there a relative of the King of 
 Atarnea, at whose court he is said to have found 
 the Jewish teacher. There is no difficulty, there- 
 fore, in accounting for the origin of the story. 
 The one consideration which weighs against its 
 credibility is the carelessness of Josephus and 
 his evident desire to glorify his nation. The 
 conduct of Alexander, however, certainly requires 
 explanation. He was wounded at the siege of 
 Gaza, and was no doubt greatly enraged against 
 that city for its stubborn defence. In his cruel 
 passion he put ten thousand citizens to death, 
 and sold the rest as slaves, with the women and 
 children. It is said that he put the commander 
 to death in the most barbarous fashion, fastening 
 his feet to his chariot by thongs thrust through 
 the soles, and dragging " him round the city with 
 swift horses." We learn from Josephus that an 
 order of submission was sent to Jerusalem and
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 4 1 
 
 received by Jaddua, the high priest. The answer 
 was, that the oath which the Jewish nation had 
 sworn, to serve Darius, King of Persia, could not 
 be violated. And Alexander raved with passion, 
 and threatened Jerusalem with destruction. This 
 was before his subjugation of Tyre and Gaza, and 
 the circumstances attending the prolonged resist- 
 ance of these cities would certainly not tend to 
 allay the irritation of the young and impetuous 
 general, before whom a whole empire had fallen. 
 We have already referred to the extraordinary 
 change which took place in Alexander's feelings 
 and conduct when he arrived at Jerusalem. 
 Whether the account of his dream and its ful- 
 filment in the appearance of Jaddua with his 
 procession of priests be a fabrication or not, we 
 have to face the fact that not only did Alexander 
 spare the city, but from that time favoured the 
 Jews iii the most remarkable manner, It is said 
 that certain predictions in the Jewish Scriptures 
 were shown to him, and that they made a great 
 impression on his mind. These were the predic- 
 tions in Daniel vii. 6; viii. 1-7, 21 ; xi. 3 ; and 
 that in Zech. ix. 1-8, concerning the cities wbich 
 he had just subdued. The Jews were freed from 
 tribute in the Sabbatical year ; they were to have 
 entire liberty to follow out their own religious
 
 42 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 institutions and laws ; and it is said that at the 
 same time Alexander invited the Jews, as many as 
 pleased, to join his army with the same indul- 
 gences, which invitation was accepted, according 
 to the testimony of Hecatseus, as recorded by 
 Josephus. Such treatment is an indication that 
 the Jews were regarded as an exceptional people. 
 Alexander was himself full of intelligence, and he 
 may have discerned an elevation of mind and char- 
 acter among the Jews which led to his milder 
 dealings with them. At all events, it is an indis- 
 putable fact that from the time of Alexander's 
 visit to Jerusalem, 332 B.C., commenced a new 
 period in the national history. They continued 
 for more than a century to be favoured by rulers 
 and princes, and their intellectual qualities were 
 rapidly developed under the fostering influence of 
 the Ptolemies, so that they rose in some of their 
 Egyptian representatives to the highest eminence 
 as thinkers and scholars. 
 
 It has been remarked by Ewald that Alexander 
 was himself a type in his own person of the char- 
 acter of the Greco-Macedonian empire. There was 
 great intensity and marvellous daring, but little 
 steadfastness and permanence, and fearful corrup- 
 tion. The conquests of Alexander were like the 
 raging of a sudden storm, which " convulsed all
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 43 
 
 the kingdoms to their very depths, and hurled 
 them against one another, and if they were not 
 instantly dashed to pieces, roused them violently 
 to assume new forms." " In Israel, also, at once 
 so old and so young, far more violent changes were 
 speedily produced by this storm and its after- 
 effects, than by the Persian supremacy. On 
 the soil of its ancient fatherland it had again 
 acquired sufficient strength and firmness to take 
 a more active part in the mighty efforts and new 
 destinies of the world. The past had secured to it 
 enough preparatory culture, and recent vicissitudes 
 had sufficiently excited and strained its attention, 
 to prevent it from remaining unaffected by the 
 peculiar characteristic of the Greek spirit, to ren- 
 der it susceptible to the powerful attractions of its 
 charm, and to enable it speedily to rival it in 
 everything. When the Israelite and the Greek 
 were first brought into contact, it was inevitable 
 that the union and fusion of the two should appear 
 easy. Israel had saved enough from the high cul- 
 ture of its ancient days. Activity of mind and a 
 readiness to learn were common to both nations ; 
 and there were, in addition, many reasons why the 
 greater purity of morals, for which Israel was dis- 
 tinguished among many Asiatic nations, could be 
 nothing but acceptable to the Greek ruler. But
 
 44 FOUU CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the growing fusion only brought the deeper-seated 
 antagonisms between the nationalities and religions 
 on either side into sharper collision. In breaking, 
 therefore, the heavy shell which still covered Israel, 
 and bringing in the largest amount of activity and 
 freedom possible at the time, the Greek age forced 
 the whole spirit which prevailed during that period 
 of the history into the most violent labour and an 
 attitude of the most energetic decision " (vol. v., 
 pp. 223-4). 
 
 One of the most influential of Alexander's wars 
 was that which he carried on in Egypt ; and one of 
 the most remarkable events of that Egyptian career 
 was the selection of a new harbour, opposite the 
 island of Pharos, and the order which was given 
 for a city to be built there and named Alexandria. 
 This was in the same year with his visit to 
 Jerusalem, 332 B.C., and before his final victories 
 over Persia. The death of the great Macedonian 
 took place at the city of Babylon, in the spring of 
 323 B.C., chiefly through his own debaucheries. 
 His body was embalmed, and after two years 
 carried to Egypt, where it was interred, first at 
 Memphis, and subsequently in his new city of 
 Alexandria. His new and rapidly conquered 
 empire had yet to be consolidated, and for this pur- 
 pose it was divided among his generals and minis-
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 45 
 
 ters by Perdiccas, the regent of Macedonia. The 
 name of Ptolemy Lagus, to whom Egypt was 
 assigned, is associated for some years to come with 
 the Jewish people ; for several provinces were 
 speedily subjugated by the Egyptian ruler, Judea, 
 Samaria, Phoenicia, and Coelo-Syiia, and it is said 
 that Ptolemy went himself to Jerusalem for the 
 purpose of sacrificing in the Temple, and declared 
 himself master of the country. One form of the 
 story is, that he took advantage of the Sabbath, on 
 which he knew that the Jews would make no 
 resistance, and seized the city without striking a 
 blow. Many thousands of Jews were on this 
 occasion taken from Judea to Egypt, and many 
 others followed them voluntarily, so that Egypt 
 soon became flocked with them. They manned the 
 garrison ; they formed part of the army ; and they 
 were settled with special privileges in Alexandria, 
 being placed on an equality with the Macedonians 
 there, so that they had much to do with the first 
 formation of that new commercial centre, where, 
 we maybe sure, their remarkable business capacities 
 would find abundant scope as the advantages of the 
 city were developed. Josephus refers to letters of 
 Alexander and Ptolemy which were extant in his 
 time, and to the testimony of the writings of 
 Hecatseus, which, however, are now lost to us.
 
 46 FOUR CENTUKIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 It will be necessary, before we proceed with tins 
 account of the Jewish religion, to estimate the in- 
 fluence of Alexandria upon the nation ; for the 
 migration which took place was so large and long 
 continued that, from the beginning of the third 
 century B.C., it may be said there were two Jewish 
 nations, one in Judea and the other in Egypt. 
 It was little more than the project of a com- 
 mercial centre at Alexandria which was due to 
 the genius and insight of the great conqueror him- 
 self. The realisation of that project was the work 
 of a man whose greatness rivalled that of Alex- 
 ander. Ptolemy I. was the son of Lagus, a mere 
 Greek adventurer, and his mother was a woman of 
 low repute, but at the Court of Philip of Macedon 
 he rose to eminence, as the intimate friend of the 
 heir to the throne and an able soldier. A clear- 
 minded, acute, and powerful intellect, thoroughly 
 Greek in its character, was united in him with all 
 the energy and determination of a great general. 
 His advice it was that led to the partition of the 
 Macedonian empire, and his shrewdness which 
 selected Egypt for himself. But he was no mere 
 worshipper of material wealth. He aimed at the 
 highest ends; the promotion of the prosperity of 
 his subjects through their intellectual and moral 
 elevation. " Mind was the secret of Greek power ;
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 47 
 
 for that Ptolemy would work. He would have an 
 aristocracy of intellect ; he would gather round 
 him the wise men of the world, and he would 
 develop to the highest the conception of Philip 
 when he made Aristotle the tutor of his son Alex- 
 ander. The consequences of that attempt were 
 written in letters of blood over half the world. 
 Ptolemy would attempt it once more with gentler 
 results. For though he fought long, and often, and 
 well,, as despot of Egypt, no less than as general of 
 Alexander, he was not at heart a man of blood, 
 and made peace the end of all his wars " (Kingsley, 
 " Alexandria and her Schools," page 14). In carry- 
 ing out the ideas of the conqueror, Ptolemy re- 
 solved that Alexandria should not only be a 
 metropolis of trade, but of learning as well. 
 According to his lights he revived religion, and 
 founded the celebrated Alexandrian Library and 
 Museum. This latter was of much importance, as 
 the collection of books in it was a gathering-place 
 of the learned under the protection of the ruler, 
 and it was erected close to the royal palace. It 
 was a vast building w r ith porticoes, where the great 
 scholars could meet and converse; lecture - rooms 
 where they could address audiences ; a banqueting- 
 hall where they could enjoy festivity and put 
 forth their witty sallies ; and a staff of teachers
 
 48 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 supported at the royal expense, together with 
 collections of curiosities and botanical and zoo- 
 logical gardens. Hence arose very rapidly into 
 existence and working the celebrated Alexandria 
 School, numbering among its scholars eminent 
 mathematicians, artists, and metaphysicians, and 
 men of culture in almost all departments of 
 knowledge. 
 
 The city of Alexandria was divided into three 
 regions : one of which was named the Jewish 
 Quarter (Eegio Judseorum), the others Brucheium 
 and Rhacotis, that is, the Greek Quarter and the 
 Egyptian Quarter. The number of the Jews it is 
 very difficult to estimate with any certainty, but 
 in the time of Philo, that is, shortly before the 
 Christian era, they were reckoned at one million, 
 and are said to have formed two-fifths of the 
 population. It was the policy of Ptolemy to 
 favour the Jews. They were not only granted civil 
 privileges, but we can have little doubt that some 
 of their learned men were admitted into the 
 highest circle of the Alexandrian University, 
 where their Jewish wisdom would have full scope 
 to influence the Greek mind, just as, on the other 
 hand, the Greek Philosophy and Science would, in 
 turn, modify the views of Jewish teachers. We 
 must here refer to the writings of Hecatseus of
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 49 
 
 Abdera, who is said to have published a work giv- 
 ing an account of the Jews during the reign of 
 Ptolemy. The reality and genuineness of this 
 work, which has not come down to us, has been 
 doubted. (See Origen against Celsus (i.) and Eich- 
 horn's " Bibliothek "). But the time of its appear- 
 ance was favourable to the production of such a 
 book, and there seems no improbability in its being 
 written by a Greek. Josephus stands up boldly for 
 its authority. In this work it is said there was an 
 account of a certain chief priest of the Jews, named 
 Hezekiah, who went voluntarily to Egypt at the 
 time when Ptolemy invited them to enter his 
 service. He was sixty years old, and much re- 
 spected among his own people ; learned and 
 eloquent, and skilful in business. " This vener- 
 able man became acquainted with us, and he 
 read to some of his friends a description of the 
 peculiarities of his nation, for he had with him a 
 written account of their institutions and civil 
 polity." We may add to this reference to Heze- 
 kiah the testimony which Hecataeus bears to the 
 steadfastness and purity of the Jews and their 
 superiority to superstitions which prevailed at that 
 time. The following singular incidents will illus- 
 trate the general tone of his remarks : "As I was 
 
 once travelling by the Ked Sea, there was one among 
 
 D
 
 50 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the horsemen who attended us named Masollam, a 
 brave and strong man, and according to the testi- 
 mony of all the Greeks and barbarians, a very skil- 
 ful archer. Now when the whole multitude was on 
 the way, an augur called out to them to stand still, 
 and this man inquired the reason of their halting. 
 The augoir showed him a bird, and told him that if 
 
 o * 
 
 that bird remained where he was, it would be 
 better for them all to remain ; if he flew on, they 
 might proceed; but if he flew back, they must 
 return. The Jew said nothing, but bent his bow 
 and shot the bird to the ground. This act 
 offended the augur and some others, and they 
 began to utter imprecations against the Jew, 
 but he replied, 'Why are you so foolish as to 
 take care of this unfortunate bird ? How could 
 this fowl give us any wise directions respect- 
 ing our journey, when he could not save his own 
 life ? Had he known anything of futurity, he 
 surely would not have come here to be killed by 
 the arrow of Masollam the Jew'" (Jos., Ag. Ap. 
 i. 22). "Wherever the Jews went," says Ewald, 
 " they carried with them their ancestral faith, 
 and the peculiarly tenacious and inflexible pride 
 which was so closely knit with it. They were 
 conscious of being raised above the thousand forms 
 of heathen superstition, and accordingly felt them-
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 51 
 
 selves everywhere impelled, among the heathen, to 
 maintain or aspire after a certain elevation of life ; 
 especially when they came to be sought for by so 
 many potentates of the time. When the Jews 
 serving in Alexander's army were set in Babylon 
 to assist in restoring the temple of Belus, they 
 obstinately refused ; and. those who lived in Pales- 
 tine destroyed all the altars which the first 
 Macedonians tried to erect in their country." 
 
 The two motives which wrought in the minds of 
 the Jewish emigrants, to maintain their religion, 
 and yet promote their influence and prosperity 
 among the strange people with whom they mingled, 
 led them to strive jealously for privileges and 
 position, so that they secured to themselves a 
 large degree of power. "In every city they en- 
 deavoured to secure a magistracy of their own, 
 to form an exclusive community, not merely for 
 their religious duties, but even for everything 
 relating to taxes and property, so as to have all 
 their internal disputes, whether about sacred or 
 civil matters, adjusted within then: own limits. 
 In each town of any size, accordingly, they con- 
 stituted a Politeuma, i.e. an organised community 
 with a large body of gerontes (senators), a small 
 number of archons (executive officers), and a chief, 
 who, in a country of importance, might even bear
 
 52 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the title and dignity of an ethnarch, or national 
 prince ; in Alexandria lie was generally designated 
 alabarch. This struggle on the part of the Jews 
 resident among the heathen, for higher respect, 
 liberty and independence, was so vigorous, and the 
 air of the Greek age so mild, that even those who 
 had been at first transported as prisoners or slaves 
 almost everywhere regained their freedom, just as 
 at a later day the community of Rome was formed 
 chiefly out of the liberti settled on the other bank 
 of the Tiber." 
 
 There can be no doubt that while the Jews thus 
 maintained a very independent position in Egypt 
 and elsewhere among the heathen, they kept up 
 for a considerable period very closely their con- 
 nection with Jerusalem. This they did by regu- 
 larly contributing to the support of the Temple, 
 and by the synagogue worship, which helped them 
 to realise their brotherhood and nationality. But 
 it was not possible for so great a force as that 
 which was represented in the Greek mind and 
 spirit to be brought into contact with the Jews 
 without greatly modifying their religious character. 
 This we shall show in subsequent chapters ; but 
 meanwhile we must call the reader's attention to 
 the fact that .hitherto, while the Jews possessed in 
 their sacred books treasures of wisdom and know-
 
 THE COUKT OF THE GENTILES. 53 
 
 ledge given them directly by the Divine Spirit, 
 which lifted them both morally and spiritually 
 high above heathen nations, they had been very 
 little under the influence of great philosophical 
 minds; indeed, philosophy strictly so-called was 
 unknown among them. At Alexandria there were 
 two main currents of intellectual influence, the 
 mathematical and the metaphysical, which began 
 to bear upon the Jewish teachers very decidedly 
 from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the suc- 
 cessor of Ptolemy I. The Greek version of the 
 Old Testament was made by the command of the 
 Egyptian monarch. But it would be a misrepre- 
 sentation to say, that the one sole ground of that 
 command was to gratify the curiosity of the Greek 
 and Egyptian population. The Jewish Rabbis 
 who were employed in the translation were as 
 truly under the influence of the Greek spirit, as 
 the Greeks, for whom the translation was made, 
 were under the influence of Jewish teaching. The 
 subsequent history of the Alexandrian school of 
 Jewish writers clearly shows that there was an 
 intermingling of Greek philosophy and Hebrew 
 doctrine, which produced a very strange result 
 in a mystical theology as decidedly distinct from 
 the teaching of the Old Testament as it was from 
 the spirit of the old Grecian sages.
 
 54 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 But before we proceed to describe more fully the 
 effects of Alexandrian scholasticism and philosophy 
 on the Jewish Church, we must glance at the other 
 side of the picture, and describe one prominent 
 figure which remains identified with the old Jewish 
 spirit still surviving at Jerusalem, and in the 
 Palestinian branch of the nation. In 300 B.C. 
 the high priest Onias died, and he was succeeded 
 by his son Simon, who is generally known as 
 Simon the Just. A few words with regard to 
 his character and work will help us to understand 
 the religious state of the Jews during that long 
 period of rest and external prosperity which they 
 enjoyed under the early Ptolemies and the 
 Egyptian rule. In the Book of Ecclesiasticus 
 (chapter 1.) we find a description of this remark- 
 able man, which will show how he was regarded 
 by the Jews about a hundred years after his 
 death. " How was he honoured in the midst of 
 the people on his coming out of the sanctuary? 
 He was as the morning star in the midst of a 
 cloud, and as the inoon at the full : as the sun 
 shining upon the temple of the Most High, and 
 as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds ; 
 and as the flower of roses in the spring of the 
 year, as lilies by the rivers of waters, and as the 
 branches of the frankincense-tree in the time of
 
 THE COUET OF THE GENTILES. 55 
 
 summer : as fire and incense in the censer, or as 
 a vessel of beaten gold set with all manner of 
 precious stones, and as a fine olive-tree budding 
 forth fruit, and as a cypress- tree which groweth 
 up to the clouds. When he put on the robe 
 of honour, and was clothed with the perfection 
 of glory, when he went up to the holy altar, he 
 made the garment of holiness honourable." This 
 is evidently an ideal description from the point 
 of view of the most extreme ritualism. Simon is 
 regarded as the ideal high priest, and his appear- 
 ance is celebrated as the perfection of high priestly 
 splendour, and therefore as the central figure of 
 a perfect Temple service. It is said in the Rabbi- 
 nical traditions that an angel appeared to Simon 
 every year during his Pontificate. The spirit of 
 his rule is well represented in the threefold saying 
 which is represented as the legacy of the Great 
 Synagogue, or Assembly of Jewish Divines, to 
 their successors : " Be careful in judgments, set 
 up many Talmidim (i.e. learned students), and 
 make a hedge about the Thorah (law)." On three 
 things, Simon said, the permanence of the world, 
 that is of the Jewish world, depends ; on the 
 Thorah (faithfulness to the law and its pursuit) ; 
 on worship (the non-participation in Grecianism, 
 i.e. strict Judaism) ; and in works of righteous-
 
 56 FOUU CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 uess. It is difficult to determine the exact time 
 when Simon lived, that is, whether the title 
 Simon the Just is to be referred to the first Simon 
 or the second Simon ; but it is of little conse- 
 quence to settle the controversy, as the general 
 fact remains the same, that there was, about the 
 commencement of the third century, or a little 
 later, a great reformer and spiritual leader, who 
 did his best to restore the material structure of 
 the Temple and its internal splendour, and to 
 revive among the people the devout observance 
 of the law. 
 
 " All the traditions combine in representing 
 Simon as closing the better days of Judaism. 
 Down to his time it was always the right hand 
 of the high priest that drew the lot of the con- 
 secrated goats ; and after his time the left and 
 right wavered and varied. Down to his time the 
 red thread round the neck of the scapegoat turned 
 white, as a sign that the sins of the people were 
 forgiven ; afterwards its change was quite un- 
 certain. The candlestick at the entrance of the 
 Temple burned, in his time, without fail ; after- 
 wards it often went out. Two faggots a day 
 sufficed to keep the flame on the altar alive in his 
 time; afterwards piles of wood were insufficient. 
 In his last year he was said to have foretold his
 
 THE COURT OF THE GENTILES. 57 
 
 death, from the omen that whereas on all former 
 occasions he was accompanied into the Holy of 
 Holies on the Day of Atonement, to the entrance 
 only, by an old man clothed in white from head 
 to foot ; in that year his companion was attired 
 in black, and followed him as he went in and came 
 out. These were the forms in which the later 
 Jewish belief expressed the sentiment of his tran- 
 scendent worth, and of the manifold changes which 
 were to follow him" (Stanley, vol. iii., p. 248). 
 There was some remnant iu Simon of the old 
 reverence for purity of heart and life. There was 
 a gentle spirit in him, which is preserved in some 
 of the traditions concerning him. He is said to 
 have hated the severe asceticism of the Nazarites, 
 and when a young man came to be consecrated, 
 he reluctantly yielded to his request to remove 
 all personal attractions, until he found that the 
 vow was the true offering of his heart, when he 
 " embraced his brow, and exclaimed, ' Would that 
 there were many such Nazarites in Israel.' ' 
 
 No doubt there are some signs of regretful re- 
 membrance of a departed glory in the traditional 
 Simon. He represents the people's sense of their 
 own degeneracy. But the mere worship of a great 
 name has little influence in arresting spiritual de- 
 cline. Kabbinism took the place of devout study
 
 58 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 of the Old Testament. Mere slavish Eitualism 
 cast out spiritual life. " Israel made void the law 
 by its traditions. Under a load of outward ordi- 
 nances and observances its spirit had been crushed. 
 The religion as well as the grand hope of the Old 
 Testament had become externalised " (Edersheim). 
 Palestine, while it still held fast to the letter of 
 the law, and, therefore, rendered a great service 
 to the cause of religion by handing on the Scrip- 
 tures, sank both intellectually and morally to a 
 lower level. It was at this time that another 
 form of Judaism appeared in Egypt, distinguished 
 both by its intellectual form and moral breadth, 
 and thither our attention must be carried awhile.
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 
 
 TT has often been observed that the connection of 
 the Bible with history supplies one of the most 
 convincing evidences of the Divine authority of 
 the written Word. There is nothing in the whole 
 course of the Jewish annals more remarkable than 
 the series of events which led to the preparation 
 of the Greek version of the Old Testament. What 
 that work has accomplished in the diffusion of 
 revealed truth through the world no human mind 
 can ever estimate. How the way of the Lord was 
 prepared by it, how it laid the foundations on 
 which Christianity itself built up its higher and 
 fuller communications, we can never perfectly 
 describe, although the fact that it to a large ex- 
 tent superseded the Hebrew Bible, and was for 
 a considerable period the sacred volume of the 
 Christian Church, must be sufficient to show that 
 it was a chosen instrument of Divine providence in 
 the work of human salvation. Everything which
 
 60 FOUR CENTUPilES OF SILENCE. 
 
 throws light on the earliest history of the Septua- 
 gint must therefore be of value in looking forward, 
 as we do, in studying the history of the Jewish 
 Church, to the appearance of the Universal Keligion, 
 the one " Word of God," which shall break down 
 the " middle wall of partition " between Jew and 
 Gentile, and " make one new man, so making 
 peace." 
 
 We have already noticed the singular providence 
 in the favour shown towards the Jews, both by 
 the Persian monarchs and by the Macedonian. 
 Whether the mind of Alexander the Great was 
 influenced by his great teacher Aristotle, as the 
 result of intercourse with learned Jews, or whether 
 special Divine communications were sent to the 
 young conqueror, as he is said to have intimated 
 when he visited Jerusalem, it is impossible now to 
 say. It is certain, that Alexander treated the Jews 
 with great indulgence, and that his policy was 
 followed by the Ptolemies of Egypt, who for a 
 very long period had possession of Palestine. 
 Ptolemy Lagi, in 320 B.C., sent his general, Ni- 
 canor, to subdue Judea, Samaria, Phoenicia, and 
 Coelo- Syria. After a short war Laomedon, the 
 general of the Syrian monarch Antiochus, was 
 driven out, and the people were glad to exchange 
 a time of war and uncertainty for the rule of a
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 61 
 
 benevolent prince. We are informed by Josephus 
 that on this occasion Jerusalem was again visited 
 by a conqueror, and Ptolemy is said to have sacri- 
 ficed in the Temple after the example of the Mace- 
 donian conqueror, Alexander. It is also stated 
 by Agatharchides that the possession of Jerusalem 
 was the result of a stratagem, the Egyptian ruler 
 entering the city on the Jewish Sabbath, when it 
 was not lawful for the people to resist his entrance 
 by force of arms. But there was doubtless little 
 inclination on the part of the Jews to oppose one 
 who was evidently so well disposed to protect 
 them. Many Jews and many Samaritans were 
 taken prisoners and carried to Egypt at this time. 
 But, though nominally slaves, they were very soon 
 liberated and employed by Ptolemy in defence of 
 his garrisons. Some were sent to Gyrene. Some 
 were located in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, 
 privileges being granted them similar to those 
 granted by Alexander the Great to Macedonian 
 settlers. , 
 
 It is not wonderful that after this time many 
 Jews emigrated from Palestine, and shared in 
 those remarkable regulations by which they were 
 provided with a new sphere of ambition and a 
 prospect of great influence and prosperity. Jose- 
 phus informs us that letters were extant in his
 
 62 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 time, both of Alexander and Ptolemy, confirming 
 these facts, which are also described by Hecataeus 
 although we are not able to prove that the so- 
 called history of Hecatseus was genuine. There 
 was no part of the world where the Jews congre- 
 gated in such large numbers as at Alexandria, 
 where they are said to have been almost half the 
 population, and in the time of our Lord numbered 
 one million. As we might naturally suppose, they 
 soon came under the influence of Greek thought 
 and culture, although they gave as much as they 
 received. They preserved their strict separation 
 from the heathen in the forms of their worship. 
 They had in Egypt their prayer-houses or syna- 
 gogues, and they diligently studied their law, 
 maintaining their contribution to the support of 
 the central seat of their religion in the Temple 
 at Jerusalem. " The close connection established 
 between the Hagiocracy and a school of trained 
 interpretation of the Bible and teaching of the law, 
 which from the time of Ezra had its principal seat 
 in Jerusalem, rendered this the sacred centre from 
 which all the minuter ordinances and decisions 
 of religious duty were constantly issued into all 
 heathen countries ; and this bond of union was 
 necessarily tightened, and a stricter watch kept 
 over the remotest Jews, to counteract the danger
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 63 
 
 to which every Jewish element was exposed, of 
 evaporating when it was so widely dispersed. 
 Thus, in a certain sense, there now arrived an age 
 when, as one of the most ancient prophets had fore- 
 told, the 'law and justice' of the true God went 
 forth from the hill of Zion into all the world, and 
 the pilgrimages of foreign Jews to the feasts at 
 Jerusalem, which were evidently regarded with 
 great favour and promoted by the priests, afforded 
 on a small scale a prelude to the universal dominion 
 of this religion over the whole w r orld " (Ewald, v. 
 244). 
 
 But there very soon arose among the prosper- 
 ous Jews of Alexandria a school of cultured and 
 thoughtful men, whose minds had been brought 
 into contact with the best results of heathen philo- 
 sophy ; and the translation of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures 'into Greek was in some measure, no doubt, 
 the work of this school, or at least went on side 
 by side with its growth. We must now relate 
 the circumstances which led to the formation of a 
 Greek Bible, the fruit of centuries and the joint 
 product of many hands, but the initiation of which 
 can certainly be dated in the earliest years of the 
 Ptolemaic period. 
 
 One of the most remarkable men of the fourth 
 century B.C. was the Athenian Demetrius Pha-
 
 64 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 lereus. He had governed the city of Athens for 
 ten years under Cassander of Macedonia with so 
 much moderation, wisdom, and humanity, that he 
 was worshipped by the people. In Athens, it is 
 said, there were as many statues erected to Deme- 
 trius as there were days in the year. It was the 
 policy, however, of, Cassander's great rival and 
 enemy, Antigonus, to give autonomy to the cities 
 of Greece in order to detach them from the oppo- 
 site cause. Demetrius Poliorcetes was sent to 
 Athens in 307 B.C. to proclaim this new liberty to 
 Athens. Finding Demetrius Phalereus there he 
 immediately banished him. His statues were de- 
 molished, and the materials of which they were 
 made were used to form various vessels of a meaner 
 sort. Demetrius fled to Cassander, but his pro- 
 tector soon died, and he then betook himself to 
 Egypt, and placed himself at the disposal of 
 Ptolemy L, who had a quick eye for merit, and 
 knew how to gather round him those who would 
 be his efficient helpers in the raising of a new and 
 powerful state. Demetrius was one of the most 
 learned men of antiquity, and the influence of his 
 Alexandrian activity may be said to have extended 
 itself over the whole world. It was he who sug- 
 gested to Ptolemy the founding of the museum and 
 the great library connected with it, and he be-
 
 * THE SEPTUAGINT. 65 
 
 came the president of the new school which may be 
 dated from that time, in which many of the most 
 eminent men of the world were gathered together. 
 It seems not unlikely that Demetrius suggested to 
 Ptolemy Lagi that a Greek translation of the law 
 of Moses should be placed in the Library. But 
 this cannot be ascertained. There is no improba- 
 bility, however, in what is stated by Aristeas, that 
 Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, who certainly com- 
 menced the work of the Septuagint, was led to do 
 so by the persuasion and under the direction of 
 Demetrius. In 285 B.C. Ptolemy Lagi abdicated 
 in favour of his son. Demetrius did not approve 
 of this step, and after the death of the old king 
 in 284 B.C., Philadelphus banished the man who 
 opposed his accession. He died in prison, it is 
 said, by the bite of an asp. Archbishop Usher 
 ascribes the work of translation of the Pentateuch 
 into Greek to the year 277, the eighth year of 
 Philadelphus, but he does so on the authority of 
 Aristeas, whose account has indeed been followed, 
 until comparatively modern times, with implicit 
 reliance, but is now universally discarded as a mass 
 of fables. The chief particulars, however, of the 
 story, which is now familiar to most, must be 
 briefly recounted for the sake of the better dis- 
 crimination of the true from the false. 
 
 E
 
 66 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Aristeas was one of the officers of the guards in 
 the army of King Ptolemy II. He and Sosibius of 
 Tarentum, and Andreas, one of the nobles of the 
 court, being much interested in the Jews, when 
 they heard of the project of Demetrius, and the 
 commission given him by the king to procure a 
 Greek version of the Hebrew law, took occasion 
 to plead for the liberty of the Jewish slaves, who 
 were at that time very numerous in Egypt. Their 
 motive, they explained, was that the people of the 
 Jews might be the more disposed to assist the 
 king. It is said that Ptolemy was persuaded, and 
 not only ordered the slaves to be manumitted, but 
 paid for them and for their wives and children at 
 an immense price. Demetrius then laid before the 
 king the outlines of his method. A copy of the 
 original Law of Moses was to be obtained from 
 Eleazar, the high priest at Jerusalem. Six learned 
 men from each of the twelve tribes, competent for 
 the work of translation, were to be sent by him. 
 Aristeas and Andreas, who were the chosen depu- 
 ties, carried with them gifts and sacrifices of great 
 value, were received with great respect, and re- 
 turned with all that was desired. The Jewish 
 elders were first tested by questions by Ptolemy 
 himself, and then shut up in separate cells in the 
 Island of Pharos. They agreed in the version
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 67 
 
 which each made, Demetrius writing it down. 
 The work occupied seventy-two days, was approved 
 by the king, and handsomely rewarded. This is 
 the story, but it is evidently a fabrication. There 
 were not seventy-two learned Greek scholars to be 
 found in Palestine at that time, and certainly not 
 six of each tribe. The numbers themselves betray 
 the hand of the inventor. Demetrius, again, would 
 not resort to such a method ; and he was not alive 
 at the time referred to. Moreover, the miraculous 
 features of the narrative show that it was the pro- 
 duct of a later age, and of the Rabbinical School. 
 The tradition, however, such as it is, was handed 
 down. . It was repeated by Aristobulus in 125 B.C. 
 It was added to by Philo, and believed by all the 
 early fathers of the Christian Church ; appearing 
 in the writings of Irenseus, Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 Eusebius, Athanasius, Cyril, Epiphauius, Jerome, 
 Augustine, Chrysostom, Hilary of Poitiers, and 
 Theodoret. Jerome, however, threw discredit upon 
 it, and after his time it was received with consider- 
 able reserve. It is well to bear in mind that there 
 was another tradition, which came from the Samari- 
 tans. They said that Ptolemy Philadelphus, hear- 
 ing of the differences between the Jews and the 
 Samaritans in respect to the Jewish law, called 
 together a small body of translators, three of whom
 
 68 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 were Samaritans, one was a Jew, and one assessor. 
 The Samaritans undertook to translate the Penta- 
 teuch, and the Jews the rest of the Scriptures. The 
 king approved of the version made by the Samari- 
 tans. This is no doubt a mere invention arising 
 out of the jealous feeling of the Samaritans, and 
 possibly from the fact that there were Samaritans 
 at Alexandria at that time. On the whole, the 
 probability is that the version originated quite 
 naturally from the requirements of the Jews in 
 Alexandria, as they adopted the Greek language, 
 and became less familiar with Hebrew and Chal- 
 dee. The Palestinian Jews were never favourable 
 to the Greek version. Hence it is likely that, in 
 process of time, an attempt would be made by 
 Hellenistic Jews in Egypt and elsewhere to give 
 authority to their Bible, and the fictitious letter of 
 Aristeas was written for that purpose. That the 
 letter is a fiction is evident from many internal 
 marks. It is written in the name of a Greek, but 
 is manifestly the composition of a Jew; and it 
 appeared at a time when such spurious productions 
 were common. 
 
 It is an interesting question how far the Septua- 
 gint has been founded on earlier Greek versions. 
 There is no impossibility in the case. Portions of 
 the Pentateuch may have been translated for the
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 69 
 
 use of Greek-speaking Jews before 285 B.C. That 
 the earlier books were rendered by a different 
 hand from the later is manifest iii the Greek 
 itself. Traces of Egyptian influence, it is said, 
 can be discovered in the Pentateuch. There are 
 also forms and phrases of the Greek of Macedonia, 
 which, of course, would be used in Alexandria at 
 that time. The practice of reading and explaining 
 the Law in the Synagogues would very early lead 
 to the rendering of the Hebrew into Greek. And 
 when the books of the prophets were read, as they 
 were subsequently, the same necessity would lead 
 to their being translated. There were, we know, 
 other Greek versions, made at a much later date, 
 which the great Greek father, Origen, compared 
 with the Septuagint in his celebrated Hexapla. 
 But it is a remarkable fact that, however early the 
 Old Testament was translated into Greek, and 
 though the evidence is satisfactory that a portion 
 at least, probably the first six books, were placed 
 in the Alexandrian Library in the time of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus, still it was read almost exclusively 
 by the Jews. " None of the Greek authors," says 
 Prideaux, "now extant, nor any of the ancient 
 Latins, have ever taken the least notice of it. For 
 all of them, in what they write of the Jews, give 
 accounts of them so vastly wide of what is con-
 
 70 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 tuined in the Holy Scriptures, as sufficiently show 
 that they never perused them, or knew anything 
 of them. There are, indeed, out of Eupolemus, 
 Abydenus, and other ancient writers now lost, 
 some fragments still preserved in Josephus, Euse- 
 bius, and other authors, which speak of the Jews 
 more agreeably to the Scripture history, but still 
 with such variations and such mixtures of falsity 
 that none of them remain, excepting only what we 
 find taken out of Demetrius, in the ninth book of 
 Eusebius, De Preparatione Evangelica, to give us 
 any ground to believe that the writers of these 
 ever consulted those books, or knew anything of 
 them. This Demetrius was a historian that wrote 
 in Greek, and an inhabitant of Alexandria, when 
 he compiled a history of the Jews, and continued 
 it down to the reign of the fourth Ptolemy, who 
 was Ptolemy Philopator, the grandson of Phila- 
 delphus. How much longer after this it was that 
 he lived is not anywhere said. He having written 
 so agreeably to the Scripture, this seems to prove 
 him -to have been a Jew. However, if he were 
 otherwise, that is, not a Jew but a heathen Greek, 
 that no heathen writer but he only should make 
 use of those Scriptures, after they had been trans- 
 lated into Greek, sufficiently shows how much that 
 copy of them which was laid up in the King's
 
 THE SEPTUAG1NT. 71 
 
 Library at Alexandria was then neglected, and 
 also how carefully the Jew?, who were the first 
 composers of this version, kept and confined all 
 other copies of it to their own use. " They had the 
 stated lessons read out of it in their synagogues, 
 and they had copies of it at home for their private 
 use, and tbus they seem to have reserved it wholly 
 to themselves till our Saviour's time" (vol. ii. pp. 
 46. 47). Dr. Prideaux states tLe case perhaps too 
 strmgly. The fact that we have no traces of the 
 use of the Septuagint among Greek writers is 
 scarcely sufficient proof that the contents of the 
 Mosaic law were unknown. Ewald makes a very 
 dfferent remark. " As soon," he says, " as these 
 Greek versions began to circulate, they naturally 
 became known by degrees, even without special 
 (ffbrt, to the heathen philosophers, poets, and 
 scholars of the day. In this way the first tolerably 
 trustworthy medium ivas supplied them for making 
 a closer acquaintance with Israel, and it could not 
 fail to be instructive if we could trace in detail 
 the impression produced on the heathen by those 
 strange books, especially in the period when they 
 first appeared" (vol. v. p. 255). But although 
 there may be differences of opinion as to the 
 amount of influence which the Jewish Scriptures 
 exercised over the minds of heathen writers, there
 
 72 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 can be none at all as to the very rapid change 
 which took place in the Jewish mind, and which 
 continued for more than a century, by the close 
 connection of the Jews and Samaritans with 1/lie 
 heathen world. It was about the time of the pro- 
 mulgation of the Greek version of the Scriptures 
 that the Hellenistic School of Jews arose, and it 
 will be necessary to give some account of its 
 characteristics and influence. 
 
 For a considerable period after the return of the 
 Jews from Babylon there still remained among 
 them a reluctance to draw closer the bonds of 
 fellowship with Gentile nations. The Babylonian 
 School of Jews was quite as strict in all Jewish 
 doctrine and rites as that of Jerusalem. But 
 events did much to break down that severity. Ths 
 Persian wars, followed by those of Alexander, not 
 only scattered the people in various directions, but 
 led to many occasions of profitable intercourse with 
 the wealthy conquerors. The Jews were oppressed 
 still, and multitudes of them were carried away 
 into slavery. As they gradually obtained their 
 liberty it became necessary for them to seek out 
 means of livelihood, and they were thus brought 
 into closer contact with alien races. This was 
 especially the case with those Jews who were either 
 transported by violence to Egypt or settled there
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 73 
 
 as emigrants. They very soon found opportunities 
 of amassing wealth, and were tempted to lay aside 
 the prejudices of their nation for the sake of 
 pleasant and profitable friendship with their 
 heathen neighbours. The children of the first 
 generation of emigrants and emancipated slaves 
 were in a very different position from their fathers. 
 They were taught Greek as their native language, 
 and were soon versed in the scholarship of Egypt. 
 We cannot, therefore, be surprised that Greek 
 philosophy and culture opened their stores freely 
 to the more learned and intellectual Jews, and that 
 they became cosmopolitan in their spirit. It was 
 not a philosophy of antiquity which they were 
 invited to study, but the systems which were in 
 vogue in their own time, the representatives of 
 which were in Alexandria exercising a powerful 
 fascination over their contemporaries. It is true 
 that there were different schools, which in some 
 sense opposed one another. But they were all 
 comparatively new to the Jewish mind, and per- 
 haps as the Jews came from a system where variety 
 of individual opinion was forbidden, and almost 
 impossible, they would yield themselves all the 
 more readily to the spell of Greek speculation. 
 
 The three great systems which had most attrac- 
 tion for the Jews were the Platonic, the Peri-
 
 74 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 patetic, and the Stoic. All had points of congruity 
 with the Old Testament. The depth and idealism 
 of the old Platonic philosophy must have laid hold 
 with great force of the more profound spirits 
 among them ; and the Stoic severity and purity of 
 life matched well with the Jewish ritual. There 
 were very few Jews who openly adhered to the 
 Epicurean system. But it is well to remember 
 that while the learned Jews would study these 
 Greek philosophies, there was no occasion for them 
 to renounce Judaism in order to utilise their 
 newly-acquired wisdom. They would naturally 
 turn to their own Scriptures, and try to find in 
 them all that the new teachers revealed to them. 
 This some of them did, to their own entire satis- 
 faction, proving, as they thought, that Pythagoras 
 and Plato and Aristotle and Zeno had borrowed all 
 that was distinctive in their systems from the 
 Books of Moses. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that at the very time 
 when the Je\vs were drinking deep at the fountains 
 of heathen thought and wisdom, they were de- 
 nouncing heathenism itself as a fanatical system, as 
 loudly as ever. We can see this exemplified in the 
 later Books which were included in the Apocrypha, 
 in some of the strange fictions by which heathenish 
 practices were ridiculed, and in the Books, such as
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 75 
 
 Ecclesiasticus (written not very long after the 
 Alexandrian connection began), the intention of 
 which was to exalt the God of Israel and His 
 people as against the ungodly of the Gentile world. 
 " Like our scattered colonists in distant lands, the 
 Grecian Jews would cling with double affection tc 
 the customs of their home, and invest with the halo 
 of tender memories the sacred traditions of their 
 faith. The Grecian Jew might well look with con- 
 tempt, not unmingled with pity, on the idolatrous 
 rites practised around, from which long ago the 
 pitiless irony of Isaiah had torn the veil of beauty, 
 to show the hideousuess and unreality beneath. 
 The dissoluteness of public and private life, 
 the frivolity and aimlessness of their pursuits, 
 political aspirations, popular assemblies, amuse- 
 ments in short, the utter decay of society in all 
 its phases would lie open to his gaze " (Edersheim). 
 But notwithstanding this separation from heathen- 
 ism, there was a recognition of a revelation of 
 Divine truth in the midst of the darkness which 
 led the better minds to make advances towards 
 Greek philosophy. Some of the Rabbis denounced 
 it, but it was studied notwithstanding. And the 
 result was a new school among the Jews, a school 
 of Hellenising Jews, who remained for centuries 
 separate from the Jews of Palestine, and who in-
 
 76 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 troduced into what was subsequently their Bible 
 the broader view's of their Hellenistic Judaism. 
 The Books which supported such views, and were 
 included in the Septuagint,.were at first somewhat 
 countenanced by the Rabbinical party, but in the 
 end they were denounced and forbidden, because 
 they were supposed to exercise a kind of rational- 
 istic influence over their readers, an influence 
 which undermined the authority of the stricter 
 Judaism. The contact between the Jewish and 
 Greek minds, however, having been once brought 
 about, could not be again resolved. The fact re- 
 mained, that Jews read Greek literature, and were 
 largely influenced by it. The school of Alexandria 
 was too powerful to be ignored. The result was 
 a compromise, as generally is the case, between the 
 written Word and the new tendency. This com- 
 promise betrayed itself in some striking features 
 of method, which we must briefly describe. 
 
 It has already been observed that the Jews of 
 Alexandria preserved their traditional respect for 
 the sanctity of the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem. 
 The high priest of the nation was still regarded 
 as a kind of ecclesiastical chief of the whole 
 scattered Israel. The Old Testament was still the 
 Authorised Scripture, which was not to be tam- 
 pered with. But the study of Greek philosophy
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 77 
 
 introduced into the minds of learned men in Egypt 
 new thoughts, which they found it difficult to 
 harmonise with the language of the Jewish Scrip- 
 tures. This was especially the case in the specula- 
 tions which the Platonists encouraged on the 
 Divine essence. The Books of the Old Testament 
 were written by men who believed in the person- 
 ality of God, and who freely employed anthro- 
 pomorphic representations in speaking of Divine 
 intercourse with the patriarchs and prophets. In 
 like manner had the Greek poets filled their writ- 
 ings with mythical and humanistic language, and 
 creations of the imaginative genius which the 
 philosophical minds of Greece had turned into 
 mysteries and dim shadows of higher truths, 
 discovering in them, or professing to discover in 
 them, allegories which were full of the precious 
 truth of a higher wisdom. Why might not the 
 Books of the Old Testament, while still accepted 
 as of Divine authority, be utilised, in a similar 
 manner, by the new school of philosophical Jews ? 
 This, as we shall see, became a fixed principle of 
 interpretation among those who remained faithful 
 to the authority of Scripture, while surrendering 
 themselves to Greek speculation. From the 
 middle of the second century B.C. to the time of 
 the Alexandrian School of the Christian Church,
 
 78 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 represented by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen, 
 the allegorical method prevailed. It was the 
 source of great defection from the simplicity of 
 faith, though at the same time it rendered some 
 service to the cause of the true Church in attach- 
 ing to it the more speculative minds, which would 
 probably have held aloof otherwise from what 
 could not be brought into any intelligible relation 
 to their cherished philosophies. Ewald has re- 
 marked that there were prescriptions in the Book 
 of the Law no longer applicable in their literal 
 meaning, or of which the grounds were obscure, 
 which by means of this allegorical method of in- 
 terpretation still retained their sanctity, such as 
 the regulations as to food and sacrifice. The his- 
 tory of the people, too, became a fruitful source 
 of suggestion to such minds, from the account of 
 creation downwards. There is scarcely any part; of 
 the Pentateuch which is not treated in this specula- 
 tive manner by Philo, and he is said to have 
 borrowed his ideas from previous writers ; indeed, 
 there are some traces of the same spirit in the Sep- 
 tuagint version itself. 
 
 But apart altogether from the connection which 
 we have thus indicated between the Greek version 
 and the Alexandrian School, there is a special in- 
 terest to the Christian mind in the fact that the
 
 THE SEPTUAGINT. 79 
 
 writings of the Old Testament were put into the 
 hands of the Gentiles, and spread through a large 
 extent of the world before the time of our Saviour. 
 Although it was only a small portion of the 
 Hebrew Bible which was placed at first in the 
 Library of Alexandria, still it was the foundation on 
 which the whole edifice of Greek Scriptures was 
 subsequently reared. The remarks of Dr. Stanley, 
 while somewhat too free, will be read with interest 
 in connection with the facts which w r e have de- 
 scribed : "If ever there was a translation which, 
 by its importance, rose to a level with the original, 
 it was this. It was not the original Hebrew, but 
 the Septuagint translation through which the 
 religious truths of Judaism became known to the 
 Greek and the Eoman. It was the Septuagint 
 which was the Bible of the Evangelists and 
 Apostles in the first century, and of the Christian 
 Church for the first age of its existence, which is 
 still the only recognised authorised text of the 
 Eastern Church, and the. basis of the only author- 
 ised text of the Latin Church. Widely as it differs 
 from the Hebrew Scriptures, in form, in substance, 
 in chronology, in language ; unequal, imperfect, 
 grotesque as are its renderings, it has, nevertheless, 
 through large periods of ecclesiastical history, 
 rivalled, if not superseded, those Scriptures them-
 
 80 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 selves" (" History of the Jewish Church," v. 258- 
 9). To the critic the Greek version is of incalcul- 
 able value in preserving the traditional remem- 
 brance of the Hebrew where we have reason to 
 doubt the accuracy of our present Masoretic text. 
 And we may add that the additional Books which 
 were included in the Septuagint, and which we now r 
 separate from the Old Testament, as the Jews of 
 Palestine did always, assist us to discriminate what 
 was given under inspiration of God from those 
 later writings, which, while they were read and 
 revered by the Alexandrian Jews, betrayed the 
 spiritual degeneracy of the nation, and the influence 
 both of heathen speculation and of Gentile manners. 
 The Apocrypha, as we shall be able to show here- 
 after, bears witness for God. It stands side by 
 side with the true Bible, but it seems to say to all 
 who read it, the holy men of God who wrote the 
 Books of the Old Testament spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost. A corrupt Bible is the 
 index as well as the fruit of a corrupt Church.
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 81 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 
 
 rFHERE are many reasons why a close and ac- 
 curate study of the collection of writings 
 usually called the Apocrypha, is of special impor- 
 tance at the present time. We are in the midst of 
 a controversy on the subject of Scripture autho- 
 rity. It is well that we should become familiar- 
 ised with the grounds upon which the canonical 
 books were separated from others, and it is, above 
 all, necessary that we should estimate, more clearly 
 and decisively than many do, the position of the 
 Jews in Palestine, as distinguished from those in 
 Alexandria. Some, who have given too little 
 attention to the facts, are contented to admire 
 passages here and there which they find in the 
 Apocrypha, without regarding the sources from 
 which such passages have come. They are apt to 
 forget that the best words which are to be found 
 in these later writings of the Jews were only 
 echoes from the Old Testament. The light which
 
 82 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 in some books shines upon the pages of the Apoc- 
 rypha, and glows with Biblical, almost Christian, 
 splendour, is the lingering light of the western sky. 
 The contact of the Jewish mind with the Gentile 
 world produced, especially in the Alexandrian 
 writers, a considerable change in the style of 
 thought and language ; in some cases, no doubt, a 
 broader tone and more philosophical spirit ; but it 
 is certain that the Jews of the Hellenistic School, 
 from whom almost all the later didactic books 
 came, had no deep spiritual insight of their own, 
 and added nothing of permanent value to the body 
 of Divine truth already given to the world in the 
 canonical Scriptures. 
 
 Another reason why these books should be more 
 carefully studied is, that the fact may come more 
 prominently before us that there was a long in- 
 terval of time between the closing of the Old 
 Testament and the production of these later books. 
 When we remember that there is nothing to be 
 ascribed to the period between Malachi and the 
 beginning of the second century B.C., at least with 
 any degree of certainty ; that an interval must be 
 supposed of at least a hundred and fifty years, 
 during which the voice of the Jewish nation was 
 
 O 
 
 silent ; and that such books as Tobit, Baruch, and 
 Ecclesiasticus, even if they should be dated at the
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 83 
 
 earliest period possible, still leave a broad space of 
 time, marking off the canonical books from all 
 others, we must surely feel the force of the argu- 
 ment for the authority of the Old Testament. 
 
 And then we must add to these reasons another, 
 wliich is perhaps still more striking ; these Apoc- 
 ryphal books come to us from the Alexandrian 
 School, not from the Jews of Palestine. It is true 
 that there is in them a great deal of strong Jewish 
 feeling; they are defensive of Judaism; and in such 
 books as Bel and the Dragon the writer plainly 
 has the deliberate intention to exalt the religion of 
 the Jews by sarcasm and ridicule against the 
 heathen idolatry. Moreover, such writings as The 
 Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, and The Maccabees, 
 prove that there was no intentional departure from 
 the old standpoint ; no relaxing of Jewish nation- 
 ality ; no desire to be absorbed in the Gentile 
 world. The spirit of the Apocrypha, as a whole, 
 is not really cosmopolitan, although it is here and 
 there apologetic and conciliatory towards the best 
 side of heathenism, especially in Ecclesiasticus and 
 The Wisdom of Solomon. But the preservation of 
 this lower class of Jewish literature did not, in the 
 least degree, obscure the distinction, which re- 
 mained clear and decided in the minds of the 
 leading religious men of Palestine, however it was
 
 84 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 at Alexandria, between what was called the first 
 canon and the second canon. Tfie " Deutero-can- 
 onical " books were read, especially by the Hel- 
 lenists and by the Jews who were of the Dispersion, 
 but it is doubtful whether even the most advanced 
 school of the philosophical Jews of Alexandria ever 
 regarded the second canon, containing the Apoc- 
 rypha, as possessing Divine authority. By the 
 Jews of the Eastern schools they were quoted, and 
 at first treated with respect ; but at last they were 
 condemned by the Rabbis, because their influence 
 was thought to be unfavourable to the strict Juda- 
 ism which resented the growth of Gentile influence: 
 So that the result of this rise of a second canon was 
 to confirm the authority of the first. It is true 
 that in the early Christian Church the familiar use 
 of the Septuagint, into which, by degrees, the 
 Apocrypha had been incorporated, led to the read- 
 ing of the non-Scriptural books in the churches. 
 But that may be accounted for from the fact that 
 there was no disposition at that time to examine 
 closely the authority of the books, and as they 
 were included in the Greek Bible they would be 
 often read as though they were inspired. And 
 their general agreement with the Old Testament 
 would be more thought of than their legendary 
 and superstitious features, which would be less
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 85 
 
 offensive in those early times than they are now. 
 But there never was a time when the books of the 
 Apocrypha were not recognised as outside the line 
 of canonical authority. They were never quoted 
 by any Apostolic writer. They never received the 
 sanction of our Lord. As soon as the early Church 
 entered upon the question of distinguishing Scrip- 
 ture from other books they were decisively relegated 
 to a lower place. 
 
 There are many Jewish writings besides those 
 which were included in the Septuagint. Without 
 assuming to be able to give a perfectly exhaustive 
 catalogue, we may mention the following as a 
 tolerably complete enumeration of the works which 
 were produced after the time of Malachi : Ecclesi- 
 asticus, Baruch, The Epistle of Jeremy, Tobit, The 
 Wisdom of Solomon, Judith, I. Esdras, II. Esdras, 
 Esther x.-xvi., the Song of the Three Holy Children, 
 the History of Susannah, Bel and the Dragon, the 
 Prayer of Manasses, I. Book of Maccabees, II. Book 
 of Maccabees. All these are included in the Apoc- 
 rypha. Then we are informed in the Talmud of 
 other books which are not now extant, such as "The 
 Roll of the Building of the Temple" and "The Out- 
 side Books" which are thought to have represented 
 the works of heretics, as well as those of Helle- 
 nistic Jews, not recognised by the Rabbis. " In
 
 86 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the second, and even in the third century B.C., 
 there were Hellenist historians, such as Eupolemus, 
 Artapanus, Demetrius, and Aristeas; tragic and 
 epic poets, such as Ezekiel, Pseudo-Philo, and 
 Theodotus, who, after the manner of the ancient 
 classical writers, but for their own purposes, de- 
 scribed certain periods of Jewish history, or sang 
 of such themes as the Exodus, Jerusalem, or the 
 rape of Dinah" (Edersheim). These writers are 
 referred to by Eusebius, and extracts from them 
 are found in his Preparatio Evangelica (ix. 20, &c.). 
 But there are other works which have come down 
 to us which represent a distinct class of writings, 
 generally named the Pseudepigraphic or Pseudo- 
 nymic, because they were written with false names 
 of authors attached to them. Dr. Edersheim, who 
 gives a very interesting account of these writings, 
 says : " It is difficult to arrange them otherwise 
 than chronologically, and even here the greatest 
 difference of opinion prevails. Their general cha- 
 racter (with one exception) may be described as 
 anti-heathen, perhaps missionary, but chiefly as 
 Apocalyptic. They were attempts at taking up 
 the keynote struck in the prophecies of Daniel; 
 rather, we should say, to lift the veil only partially 
 raised by him, and to point alike as concerned 
 Israel and the kingdoms of the world to the past,
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 87 
 
 the present, and the future, in the light of the 
 kingship of the Messiah. Many of these works 
 must have perished. In one of the latest of them 
 (4 Esdras xiv. 44, 46) they are put down at 
 seventy, probably a round number, having refer- 
 ence to the supposed number of the nations of the 
 earth, or to every possible mode of interpreting 
 Scripture. They are described as intended for the 
 " wise among the people," probably those whom St. 
 Paul, in the Christian sense, designates as " know- 
 ing the time " of the Advent of the Messiah. 
 Viewed in this light, they embody the ardent 
 aspirations and the inmost hopes of those who 
 longed for the " consolation of Israel," as they un- 
 derstood it. The most interesting, as well as the 
 oldest of these books, are those known as " The 
 Book of Enoch, The Sybilline Oracles, The Psalter 
 of Solomon, and The Boole of Jubilees, or Little 
 Genesis " (Edersheim). Then we have, in addi- 
 tion, The Fourth Book of Esdras (included in 2 
 Esdras, chapters iii.-xiv.), The Ascension and 
 Vision of Isaiah, The Assumption of Moses, The 
 Apocalypse of Baruch, The Third Book of Mac- 
 cabees, found in the Greek Bible, probably dating 
 about 50 B.C. ; The Fourth Book of Maccabees, in- 
 cluded in the works of Josephus, but wrongly 
 ascribed to him, probably 4 B.C. an amplification
 
 88 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 of 2 Mace. vi. 1 8; vii. 42; The Fifth Book of 
 Maccabees, written perhaps after the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, containing the history of the Asmoneans 
 and of Herod. (See Cotton's Maccabees, 1832; 
 Stanley's Jewish Church, vol. iii.) 
 
 Now with regard to the books which we now 
 call The Apocrypha, it must be remembered that 
 they were placed side by side with the books of 
 Scripture in the Septuagint by men who had fallen 
 away from the strict notions of the Jews of Pales- 
 tine. " Their ecclesiastical constitution was less 
 definite, and the same influences which created 
 among them an independent literature, disinclined 
 them to regard with marked veneration more than 
 the Law itself. The idea of a canon was foreign 
 to their habits ; and the fact that they possessed 
 the sacred books, not merely in a translation, but 
 in a translation made at several times, without any 
 unity of plan or without any uniformity of execu- 
 tion, necessarily weakened that traditional feeling 
 of their real connection which existed in Palestine" 
 (Westcott, in Smith's Diet., art. Canon). At the 
 same time it is evident that while the books were 
 regarded as almost on a level with the Hagiographa, 
 there was a distinction, even in Alexandria, between 
 all such writings and those which preceded the 
 Persian period. It does not follow because they
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 89 
 
 were collected into the same volume with the Scrip- 
 tures that they were esteemed as highly ; for 
 among the Alexandrians all literature on sacred 
 subjects would be regarded with reverence. 
 
 There is very great variety in the books of the 
 Apocrypha, and they cover a period of nearly two 
 hundred years. The earliest cannot be dated be- 
 fore the third century B.C., and the latest was 
 probably about 30 B.C., or later. Some portions 
 were written by Christians after the time of our 
 Lord. It was at the time of the Jewish revival 
 under the Maccabees that the best of the extra 
 Scriptural writings were gathered together, and 
 when once such a collection was made it would be 
 natural to add one and another until the political 
 disturbances of Palestine and Egypt under the 
 lloman power put an end to literary pursuits for a 
 time. We must now proceed to characterise these 
 Apocryphal books, regarding them in their 
 general features, and giving a short account of 
 some which are the most valuable as revealing the 
 religious state of the Jews. 
 
 i. The first and most conspicuous feature of 
 these later books of the Jews is their legendary and 
 superstitious character. This, it has been observed, 
 may have arisen as a natural development of the 
 national genius during the Captivity. The literary
 
 90 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and poetical gifts of the people would be called 
 out among the Babylonians and Persians. In 
 i Esdras iii. 4, there is an allusion to such gifts 
 and to the honours with which they were rewarded. 
 " The transition from this to the practice of story- 
 telling was, with the Jews, as afterwards with the 
 Arabs, easy and natural enough. The period of 
 the captivity, with its strange adventures, and the 
 remoteness of the scenes connected with it, offered 
 a wide and attractive field to the imagination of 
 such narrators. Sometimes, as in Bel and the 
 Dragon, the motive of such stories would be the 
 love of the marvellous mingling itself with the 
 feeling of scorn with which the Jew looked on the 
 idolater. In other cases, as in Tobit, and Susannah 
 and the Elders, the story would gain popularity 
 from its ethical tendencies. The singular varia- 
 tions in the text of the former book, indicate at 
 once the extent of its circulation and the liberties 
 taken by successive editors. In the narrative of 
 Judith, again, there is probably something more 
 than the interest attaching to the history of the 
 past. There is, indeed, too little evidence of the 
 truth of the narrative for us to look on it as history 
 at all, and it takes its place in the region of his- 
 torical romance, written with a political motive. 
 Under the guise of the old Assyrian enemies of
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 91 
 
 Israel, the writer is covertly attacking tlie Syrian 
 invaders against whom his countrymen were con- 
 tending, stirring them up by a story of imagined 
 or traditional heroism, to follow the example of 
 Judith, as she had followed that of Jael. The 
 development of this form of literature is, of course, 
 compatible with a high degree of excellence, but it 
 is true of it at all times, and was especially true of 
 the literature of the ancient world, that it belongs 
 rather to its later and feebler period. It is a 
 special sign of decay in honesty and discernment 
 when such writings are passed off and accepted 
 as belonging to actual history" (Westcott in 
 Smith's Diet., art. Apocrypha). At the same time 
 it is well to notice that the legends of the Apoc- 
 rypha are few and moderate in character compared 
 with those of the Talmudical writings. In them 
 there are not only fabulous stories with which are 
 connected religious, moral, or political lessons and 
 aims, but there are also legendary incidents intro- 
 duced into the references to the Old Testament, 
 especially in the era of Moses, whose life is em- 
 bellished with wonders in the later times of the 
 Jews, as we see in Josephus and Philo, and in 
 some of the allusions in the New Testament. We 
 should also connect with this fictitious element in 
 the Apocrypha the spurious use of great names,
 
 2 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 as Ezra, Daniel, Esther, Jeremiah, Solomon. This 
 would certainly not be attempted at a time when 
 the greatest men were living, and when the Jewish 
 Church was pervaded with the feeling of rever- 
 ence for Scripture ; it was the sign of a degene- 
 rate Church and a degenerate people. 
 
 2. Another characteristic of the Apocryphal 
 writings is the lower religious tone., which expresses 
 itself in ritualism, the advocacy of good works as 
 the ground of acceptance before God, and the 
 bigotry of national pride. The ritualistic extrava- 
 gance is seen in such an instance as the descrip- 
 tion of Simon in the fiftieth chapter of Ecclesias- 
 ticus ; but it may be observed that the rhetorical 
 splendour of the words is perhaps almost more 
 the aim of the writer than the exaltation of ritual 
 itself. In many passages which it is unnecessary 
 to quote, good works are dwelt upon as specially 
 acceptable to God (see Tobit iv. 7-11, xii. 9); 
 indeed it was the praise of almsgiving and the 1 
 sanction of the worship of saints which no doubt 
 led the Eomish Church to cling to the Apocrypha, 
 and include it in the canon by the decree of the 
 Council of Trent. National pride was the lead- 
 ing element in the historical books, and in the 
 
 O ' 
 
 mockery poured upon heathen nations. Even the 
 best portions of such works as Ecclesiasticus and
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 93 
 
 the Wisdom of Solomon, are tainted with that in- 
 flated Judaism which was the sign of a falling 
 people. The mere rhetorical hero-worship which 
 we find in the Apocrypha is a very different thing 
 from the pious celebration of Divine goodness to 
 the fathers, which mingles with humble acknow- 
 ledgment of unworthiness in the Psalms. The 
 record of great bravery and patriotism under the 
 Maccabees is rather like the outburst of feeling in 
 a people remembering a great past, and regretting 
 it, than the token of a vigorous spiritual life. It 
 was the despairing courage of a small band of 
 patriots rousing the nation for a while to great 
 efforts, rather than the calm strength of a great 
 people filled with the Spirit of God. There is 
 nothing throughout the Apocrypha which bears 
 witness to anything like a diffused and sustained re- 
 ligious life. The prophets were long gone, and the 
 prophetic spirit had not returned. The sages had 
 taken their place, and instead of Divine messages 
 were wise sayings and lofty flights of eloquence, and 
 attempts to clothe the predictions of the ancient 
 times with the new dress of sensational realism. 
 All was in vain. Eabbinism with its traditionalism, 
 Pharisaism with its worship of the letter of the law, 
 swallowed up every other form of religion except 
 in a few chosen spirits in the nation. The stricter
 
 94 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Jewish life became narrowed into a hateful bigotry 
 and intolerance and exclusiveness. The broader 
 Judaism which associated itself with the philosophy 
 of the Gentile world, and with the wider thoughts of 
 those who were seeking after God amid the varied life 
 of other nations, while it by no means restored the lost 
 tone of the prophets, certainly prepared the way, in 
 some degree, for a new revelation of Divine truth. 
 
 3. Much the most interesting feature in the 
 Apocrypha, however, is the presence there of what 
 may be called a new religious philosophy, which was 
 due to the influence of the Alexandrian school of 
 thought on the Jewish writers. This we must 
 briefly illustrate in a few examples, although the 
 fact is patent on the very surface of several of the 
 books. It has been observed by Dean Stanley that 
 the two writings which tower above all the rest, 
 have both a distinct object in view, and that con- 
 nected with " wisdom," as the end sought after 
 by both Jews and Gentiles. The " Wisdom of 
 the Son of Sirach," the "Wisdom of Solomon," are 
 manifestly books of a similar character, connecting 
 links between the Old Testament and the New. 
 The Son of Sirach aims to enlighten the wise 
 men of Alexandria by a recommendation of Jewish 
 theology. The writer of the Wisdom of Solomon 
 aims to reconcile the Jewish mind to the specula-
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 95 
 
 tions of the Greeks. There is no doubt that the 
 Jewish book, the "Wisdom of Joshua, or Jesus, 1 ' is 
 earlier in date than the Alexandrian "Wisdom of 
 Solomon." It is called Ecclesiasticus, because it 
 was the first of the "Libri Ecclesiastici" that is, 
 books which were read in the Christian Churches, 
 though not canonical. " It was for the Jews of 
 Alexandria first, and therefore the Christians, 
 ' The Church Bookl ' the favourite book of eccle- 
 siastical edification/ ' the Whole Duty of Man/ 
 ' the Imitation/ ' the summary of all virtues/ as it 
 was called in its original title" (The Jewish Church, 
 III., 267). We may place it at about the year 180 
 B.C. " The grandson of its author arrived in Alex- 
 andria in the close of the troubled reign of Ptolemy 
 Physcon (132 B.C.), the second of those kings who 
 were renowned amongst the Gentiles for bearing, 
 seriously or ironically, the name of 'benefactor' 
 (Euergetes). When amongst his countrymen in 
 the foreign land, he discovered 'no slight differ- 
 ence of education/ and at the same time a keen 
 desire to become instructed in the customs of their 
 fathers, he found no task more worthy of his labour, 
 knowledge, and sleepless study than to translate 
 into Greek this collection of all that was most prac- 
 tical in the precepts and most inspiring in the 
 history of Lis people. Jerusalem is still the centre
 
 96 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and Palestine the horizon of his thoughts. A 
 priesthood, with their offerings, their dues, and their 
 stately appearance, are to him the most prominent 
 figures of the Jewish community. Nor is the modern 
 institution of the scribes forgotten. He draws his 
 images of grandeur from the cedars of Lebanon, 
 and the fir-trees that clothe the sides of Hermon, 
 from the terebinth with its spreading branches ; 
 his images of beauty from the palm-trees in the 
 tropical heat of Engedi, or from the roses, and lilies, 
 and fragrant shade by the well-watered gardens of 
 Jericho. The drops of bitterness which well up 
 amidst his exuberant flow of patriotic thanksgiv- 
 ing are all discharged within that narrow range 
 of vision, which fixed his whole theological and 
 national animosity on the three hostile tribes that 
 penned in the little Jewish colony, the Edomites 
 on the south, the Philistines on the west, and the 
 Samaritans on the north. And in accordance with 
 this local and almost provincial limitation is the 
 absence of those wider oriental or western aspects 
 which abound in other canonical or Deutero-canoni- 
 cal books of this period. It is, after Malachi, the 
 one specimen of a purely Palestinian treatise during 
 this period" (Stanley, III., 268). 
 
 This book was written in Hebrew, and translated 
 into Greek by the grandson of the author. The
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 97 
 
 short preface, which is attached by the translator 
 or by some other hand, evidently aims to connect 
 the book with the earlier writings of the prophets. 
 The Joshua who wrote the book had a grandfather 
 Joshua, who " lived after the people had been led 
 away captive and called home again, and almost 
 after all the prophets." He was " a man of great 
 diligence and wisdom among the Hebrews, who did 
 not only gather the grave and short sentences of 
 wise men that had been before him, but himself 
 also uttered some of his own, full of much under- 
 standing and wisdom." The book was begun by 
 the elder Joshua, left unfinished to his son Sirach, 
 and handed on to the Joshua or Jesus, the son of 
 Sirach, who gave it his name, compiling it into one 
 volume, " intituling it both by his own name, his 
 father's name, and his grandfather's." The grand- 
 son of the writer of the book tells us that he has 
 translated it into Greek, and asks pardon " wherein 
 we may seem to come short of some words, which 
 we have laboured to interpret. For the same 
 things uttered in Hebrew and translated into 
 another tongue have not the same force in them; 
 and not only these things, but the law itself and 
 the prophets and the rest of the books, have no 
 small difference when they are spoken in their own 
 language." He sets it forth " for them also, which 
 
 G
 
 98 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 in a strange country are willing to learn, being 
 prepared before in manners to live after the law." 
 There is rather a mixture in the book of the old 
 and the new. In some places the moral law is 
 placed above the ceremonial, but in others the 
 ceremonial is exalted. There is a tone of mild 
 wisdom running through the whole, which plainly 
 is intended to attract the foreigner and harmonise 
 with the broader spirit of the Gentile world; at 
 the same time there is a strong national feeling 
 expressed at times, and especially at the end, in 
 the celebration of the heroes of old, " Let us now 
 praise famous men and the fathers that begat us." 
 The hero-worsbip which begins in remote antiquity 
 culminates in the magnificent description of the 
 typical Simon the Just, who probably lived about 
 the time of the grandfather of the author. The 
 book was well adapted for its purpose, to recom- 
 mend Jewish thought and custom to the Alexan- 
 drians. 
 
 But the other work which we have mentioned, 
 The Wisdom of Solomon, though its object was 
 similar, to conciliate the Greek mind and the 
 Jewish to one another, is very different and pro- 
 bably much later in date. Some, as Jerome and 
 others of the Fathers, have ascribed it to Philo ; 
 though it is not likely to have been composed so
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 99 
 
 late as his time. Some have even traced, as they 
 supposed, the hand of a Christian. It is best 
 regarded as proceeding from the Alexandrian 
 school of devout, contemplative Judaism, and 
 was possibly written about a hundred years be- 
 fore Christ. The whole subject of its authorship 
 and date is still under discussion, and cannot as 
 yet be decided. But the character of the book 
 forbids the supposition that it was written by a 
 Christian hand. As coming from Alexandria it is a 
 most impressive and deeply interesting illustration 
 of the influence of philosophical thought on the 
 Jewish mind. We must reserve a full examination 
 of its doctrine as preparatory to Christianity to a 
 later opportunity. Meanwhile we would draw at- 
 tention to the very distinct mixture of philosophy 
 with religion which, although, as the title seems 
 to imply, there may be some early indications in 
 the writings of Solomon of a tendency which 
 might be developed into some such form, was 
 yet a new feature in Jewish thought, and almost 
 unknown in Palestine in such bold utterances. 
 There can be no doubt that the writer of the 
 " Wisdom of Solomon " was a Platonist. Such 
 lofty teaching was suited to the atmosphere of 
 Alexandria, and was taken up by men like Philo, 
 " who laboured to show that all that was true and
 
 100 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 good in heathen speculations could be found in 
 the Law of Moses and in the writings of the 
 prophets." " The spirit of the Lord filleih the 
 world, and that which containeth all things heath 
 knowledge of the voice" " Wisdom, which is the 
 worker of all things, taught me ; for in her is an 
 understanding spirit, holy, one only, manifold, 
 subtle, lively, clear, undejiled, plain, not subject to 
 hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, which 
 cannot be letted, ready to do good, etc. She passeth 
 and goeth through all things by reason of her 
 pureness. For she is the breath of the power of 
 God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory 
 of the Almighty ; therefore can no defiled thing fall 
 into her. For she is the brightness of the Everlast- 
 ing Light, the unspotted mirror of the power of 
 God, and the image of His goodness. And being 
 but one she can do all things; and remaining in 
 herself she maketh all things new, and in all ages, 
 entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of 
 God and prophets'" (Wisdom vii. 22-27). " Pw- 
 ludings of a high philosophy and faith," these may 
 be said to be, as Dean Stanley calls them. They 
 were more than philosophical ; they were deeply 
 religious. They express the yearning of the Alex- 
 andrian mind after the higher revelations, which 
 were supplied by the more definite teaching of
 
 THE APOCRYPHA. 101 
 
 Christianity. Immortality and Resurrection are 
 very clearly there though not as in the Gospel of 
 Christ, based upon facts. The preciousness of the 
 soul is connected with the Divine Truth and Love. 
 " God created man to be immortal, and made him 
 an image of His own eternity. To know God 
 is perfect righteousness. To know His power is 
 the root of immortality" (Wisdom iii. 2, iv. 13, 
 v. 15, xv. 3). But it must not be forgotten 
 that this book stands, in some sense, by itself in 
 the Apocrypha. Even the Wisdom of the Son of 
 Sirach does not approach it in elevation of lan- 
 guage. The other books of these later centuries, 
 while they give us the evidence of great tenacity 
 of national feeling among the Jews, betray a lax- 
 ness of religious life, a general feebleness and self- 
 righteousness, which show that the Books of Wis- 
 dom were the . composition of sages, who were no 
 proper examples of the people generally ; while in 
 some of the later compositions, as Esdras and 
 Esther, there is a wild excitement of Messianic 
 expectation, betokening the spirit of despondency 
 and of fanaticism which had taken the place of 
 vital religion.
 
 102 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTEK VL 
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 
 
 fPHERE is no more important fact in the history 
 of the Jewish people than the change which 
 was necessitated in their mode of worship, and in 
 their religion generally, by the national disinte- 
 gration which took place in the two captivities, 
 of the ten tribes to Assyria, and of Judah to Baby- 
 lon. There could be nothing like the old Temple 
 worship resumed in the land of their oppressors. 
 The generation which grew up in Mesopotamia 
 must have depended upon congregational services 
 for their mutual instruction and edification, in so 
 far as it was public and united. It is not likely, 
 however, that in the " strange land " edifices would 
 be erected, especially as the captivity would endure 
 but seventy years, and the people would be con- 
 tinually reminded by their prophets and preachers 
 that the Temple would be rebuilt and the worship 
 of former times restored. The " congregation" was 
 recognised from the beginning of the nation. And
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 103 
 
 it would seem that the Greek word "synagogue" 
 was at first employed as exactly equivalent to the 
 Hebrew words which represented the gathering 
 together of the people in an appointed meeting and 
 to one place. The word " House " was added when 
 the custom of meeting in one building became 
 fixed. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Jews themselves have 
 held that synagogues are very ancient, even dating 
 from patriarchal times. In the time of the pro- 
 phets there certainly must have been "gatherings," 
 which resembled the subsequent services held in 
 synagogues. In 2 Kings iv. 23 there is an allusion 
 to such periodical meetings. The prophets were 
 preachers, and they were disconnected altogether 
 from the Temple. The existing books of prophecy 
 are the remains of ministries, in some cases extend- 
 ing over many years, exercised, it is true, in various 
 places, but by means chiefly of popular gatherings. 
 We can well imagine, therefore, that when the 
 Temple was destroyed the religious life of the 
 Jews was maintained by congregational worship. 
 The Book of Ezekiel contains several very pointed 
 allusions to such gatherings, and the ministries of 
 Ezra and Nehemiah must have given a fresh im- 
 petus to what was virtually an institution, the 
 regular service of an assembly. At what time
 
 104 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 synagogues were erected it is impossible to say, 
 but we cannot be far wrong if we assign them to 
 the period of Ezra, when the Scriptures were re- 
 published and no doubt began to be copied and 
 spread once more among the people. Maimonides 
 tells us that the rule became fixed, that where 
 there were " ten persons of full age and free con- 
 dition always at leisure to attend a religious 
 service, there a synagogue was to be erected." 
 Ten such persons were considered the nucleus of 
 a permanent congregation or church, that the 
 services might be punctually performed. 
 
 Now the service of the synagogue consisted 
 mainly in the reading of the Scriptures and the 
 offering of prayers. At first there is no doubt 
 that the reading was confined to the Pentateuch ; 
 but in later times, and probably from the closing 
 of the Old Testament Canon, about the third cen- 
 tury before Christ, the reading of the prophets was 
 added to that of the Law, and eventually the 
 Hagiographa was admitted into the service. It 
 will be seen at once that this systematising of the 
 public gatherings and solemn reading of the Scrip- 
 tures amongst the people, would enlarge the num- 
 ber of those who devoted themselves to the work 
 of multiplying copies of the sacred books, and of 
 reading them intelligently to the congregation.
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIK, TEAD1TIONS. 105 
 
 Out of such a beginning there came great issues. 
 The whole religious life of the Jews was most 
 materially affected by the rise of the school of 
 Scribes, which might be said to follow upon the 
 period of prophetic ministry, and which developed 
 the very powerful element of Rabbinism, dominant 
 for centuries in the synagogues of the East, both 
 in Palestine and in Mesopotamia ; and at the time 
 of our Lord the prevailing religious influence 
 among the educated and strict Jews, especially at 
 Jerusalem. We must describe briefly the growth 
 of this remarkable element in the Jewish religious 
 world, for without a clear understanding of the 
 state of mind which characterised the Jews of 
 Palestine and the East generally, we cannot appre- 
 ciate the importance of that division which took 
 place about three centuries before Christ in the 
 religious views of the people. Those who came 
 under the influence of Gentile thought in Egypt 
 formed a school of Judaism very different from the 
 school of the Scribes. Traditionalism may be said 
 to be the main feature of the Eastern Jews who 
 remained in Palestine. While separate from that 
 traditionalism, really although not nominally op- 
 posed to it, there grew up in Egypt the school of 
 philosophical Jews, who made less of traditions 
 because they made more of the broader and more
 
 106 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 human teaching of the Old Testament. How it 
 was that traditions came to be so vital a part of 
 the religion of the Scribes we must now explain. 
 
 The fundamental fact round which the whole of 
 the Jewish religion gathered, was the giving of the 
 Law to Moses upon Mount Sinai. Upon that Law 
 as a basis the constitution in Church and State was 
 built up. The Books of Moses, which contained 
 the records of that special Divine revelation at 
 Sinai, were the Pentateuch, which the Jews called 
 The Law or Thorah, because of the close connec- 
 tion of all contained in those .books with the 
 worship of the Temple and the constitution of the 
 nation. But after the giving of the Law there 
 were other Divine gifts, as the wisdom of the 
 elders, the expositions and interpretations which 
 first were orally delivered by Moses himself to his 
 contemporaries, and then subsequently were em- 
 bodied in the writings of the prophets and psalmists, 
 and others who were under the power of Inspira- 
 tion. This, in distinction from the written Thorah, 
 was the Kabbala, that which was "received" from 
 God. At first, and probably until about two 
 centuries before Christ, the view held in regard to 
 this inspiration outside the Thorah was that it was 
 authoritative but secondary. Hence the Prophets 
 and Hagiographa were never placed in exactly the
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 107 
 
 same position as the Pentateuch, and until the time 
 of Simon the Just, about three hundred years be- 
 fore Christ, were not publicly read in the syna- 
 gogue. But there grew up, in course of time, an 
 immense amount of traditional matter, some of 
 which no doubt was very ancient and of genuine 
 worth, as having come down through Ezra from 
 the best days of the Jewish Church; but other 
 traditions were the result of the studies and public 
 expositions of the Scribes. 
 
 When a passage out of the Law was read from 
 the ancient Scriptures, which were written in 
 Hebrew, it was necessary to expound the meaning 
 of it, besides translating the very words themselves, 
 in the current language of the people, which was 
 Chaldee or Aramaic, varying with the district 
 where the synagogue was situated. The interpret- 
 ing scribe was the Meturgeman, and the interpre- 
 tation itself was the Targum. These Targums 
 were for a time, no doubt, mere extempore dis- 
 courses, but they were remembered and at last 
 . were written down. Hence we find, shortly before 
 the time of our Lord, the celebrated Targum 
 of Onkelos, and about two hundred years after- 
 wards the Targum of Jonathan. 
 
 But the preservation of the Targums was by no 
 means all that came out of the school of the
 
 108 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Scribes and the study of the Scriptures after the 
 Captivity. There was another result which was 
 perhaps even more momentous in its influence on 
 the Jewish people. The motto which Simon the 
 Just is said to have left behind him was prophetic. 
 It pointed to the developments of the Rabbinical 
 school. "Be careful in judgment, set up many 
 Talmidim (i.e., learned men), and make a hedge 
 about the Thorah." The prosperity of the Jewish 
 world, he said, depended "on faithfulness to the 
 Law of Moses, on preservation of the Levitical 
 worship, and on works of righteousness." This is 
 the true basis of the religion which grew up after 
 Simon's time during the three centuries which 
 preceded Christianity. Learned Eabbis did arise, 
 and they were multiplied. They studied the Law, 
 and in order to make a hedge of defence about it, 
 they taught the doctrine that the authority of 
 traditions was equal to, if not greater than that of 
 the written Law. The writing down of those 
 traditions was not at first necessary, because they 
 were comparatively few and might be remembered, 
 but they naturally had to be written as they multi- 
 plied and were mingled with the comments and 
 opinions of successive teachers. The current view 
 was that Ezra and his contemporaries collected the 
 chief traditions and handed them down ; but they
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 109 
 
 (the Rabbis) can give no authority for this beyond 
 the mention of a line of learned men, as, e.g., 
 Antigonus of Socho, Joses Ben Jochanan, Joses Ben 
 Joezer, Nathan the Arbelite, Joshua Ben Perachiah, 
 Judah Ben Tabbai and Simeon Ben Shabach, She- 
 maiah and Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai, and so 
 on to Simeon, Gamaliel, Simeon Ben Gamaliel and 
 Gamaliel Ben Simeon, and others, to Rabbi Judah 
 Hakkadosh, who is said to have written them down 
 in the Mishna. There were traditions of all kinds, 
 corrections of the text, various readings, explana- 
 tions, paraphrases, ritual expansions, rubrics, and 
 then opinions and illustrations, fables and myths, 
 which became an almost immeasurable accumula- 
 tion of the learning and folly of scholars and 
 preachers during five hundred years, and perhaps 
 for a still longer time. 
 
 The Talmud is formed of three parts, which are 
 supposed to include the bulk of this tradition. 
 The Mishna, or Second Law, is the original text 
 of the traditions, and the two Gemaras, one 
 emanating from Jerusalem and the other from 
 Babylon, contain learned commentaries upon the 
 Mishna, the one of the fourth and the other of the 
 sixth century of our era. There was another im- 
 portant distinction which the Jews held in regard 
 to these writings. Some of them were Halacha,
 
 110 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 i.e., doctrines and rules of life those which con- 
 cerned the walk of the faithful Jew (" Halach" 
 meaning to walk), others were Haggadha (that 
 which is said), expositions and illustrations, which 
 were of a broader and looser character, like the 
 pleadings of an advocate in distinction from the 
 decisions of a judge. The Mishna contains both 
 Halacha and Haggadha, i.e., both rules and com- 
 mentary, and was itself an accumulation of sixty- 
 three tractates, divided into chapters and verses; 
 and then followed the miscellaneous mass of tra- 
 ditions and opinions which is found in the later 
 books of the Gemaras. " In course of time," says 
 Dr. Edersheim (whose account of the Talmud is very 
 full and interesting in his " Life and Times of 
 Jesus the Messiah," vol. i., chapter viii.), "the dis- 
 cussions, illustrations, explanations, and additions 
 to which the Mishna gave rise, whether in its 
 application or in the Academies of the Eabbis, were 
 authoritatively collected and edited in what are 
 known as the two Talmuds or Gemaras. If we 
 imagine something combining law reports, a Kab- 
 binical ' Hansard,' and notes of a theological debat- 
 ing club all thoroughly Oriental, full of digres- 
 sions, anecdotes, quaint sayings, fancies, legends, 
 and too often of what, from its profanity, super- 
 stitions, and even obscenity, could scarcely be
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. Ill 
 
 quoted, we may form some general idea of what 
 the Talmud is." 
 
 But there is one kind of tradition which we must 
 admit is of the greatest value in the transmission 
 of the sacred writings. That is the Masora y a 
 tradition of the Jewish scribes themselves in copy- 
 ing the Scriptures. The copyists were accustomed 
 to write down on the margins of their copies, and 
 wherever they could find space, not only traditional 
 readings varying from the text, but many different 
 kinds of notes, which were held to be worth pre- 
 serving, with respect to the Scripture. These 
 traditions remained for centuries locked up in 
 manuscripts, and hidden from the public eye by a 
 strange enigmatical method of writing ; but they 
 were partly deciphered and published in the six- 
 teenth century by a great Jewish scholar who be- 
 came a Christian, Rabbi Jacob Ben Chayim. He 
 was followed by another great scholar, Elias Levita, 
 who published the "Massoreth Hammasoreth," 
 (Traditio Traditionis), 1538. These works pre- 
 pared the way, though at an interval of three 
 hundred and fifty years, for the edition of the 
 Masora lately published by Dr. Ginsburg, who has 
 devoted a quarter of a century to his laborious 
 inquiries, and has collected the traditional read- 
 ings and comments of centuries into one great
 
 112 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 work. The result of this toil cannot be estimated. 
 Our present Hebrew Bible is received by us with- 
 out question at the hands of the later Jews of the 
 sixth century. We are now able to compare it 
 with the traditions which have come down through 
 many ages, and which, when placed side by side 
 with all the different forms of the text which can 
 be gathered from the Targums and from the Tal- 
 mud, as well as from ancient versions, will enable 
 us to purge away any errors which have crept into 
 the Authorised Text, and so to obtain, as nearly 
 as possible, the very words of the sacred writers. 
 Had the Eabbis devoted themselves in the same 
 manner to the preservation of the exact form of 
 the sacred books which they have to the accumula- 
 tion of their opinions and usages, the Old Testa- 
 ment would have been handed down to us in a 
 more perfect state, and the toil of our modern 
 scholar would have been rendered unnecessary. 
 
 But what was Rabbinism, regarded as an element 
 in the religious life of the Jewish people ? We 
 must clearly understand the difference between the 
 spirit of these traditions, whether we regard them 
 in the Targums, or in the Talmud, or in the Masora, 
 and the spirit of the Old Testament. This distinc- 
 tion has a most important bearing on the general 
 subject with which we are concerned in these
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 113 
 
 chapters, viz., the preparation which was made in 
 the Jewish people for the new doctrine, the " Truth 
 as it was in Christ Jesus." Now the evidence of 
 the Targums is very valuable as showing that the 
 farther we go back the more authority seems to 
 have been attached to the written Word of God, 
 the less to the mere explanations and illustrations 
 which were added. The later Targums, as those 
 of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, and that of Jerusalem, 
 were full of extraneous matter which corrupted the 
 Word of God ; but the following account of the 
 earliest Targum, that of Onkelos, given by the late 
 Emanuel Deutsch, in Smith's Dictionary of the 
 Bible, will show that the earlier Scribes had no 
 intention to overlay the Bible with tradition. 
 " The language of the Targum is Chaldee, closely 
 approaching in purity of idiom to that of Ezra and 
 Daniel. It follows a sober and clear, though not a 
 slavish, exegesis, and keeps as closely and minutely 
 to the text as is at all consistent with its purpose, 
 viz., to be chiefly and above all, a version for the 
 people. Its explanations of difficult and obscure 
 passages bear ample witness to the competence of 
 those who gave it its final shape, and infused into 
 it a rare unity. It is always concise and clear and 
 dignified, worthy of the grandeur of its subject. 
 
 It avoids the legendary character with which all 
 
 H
 
 114 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the later Targums entwine the Biblical word, as 
 far as even circumstances allow. Only in the 
 poetical passages it was compelled to yield, though 
 reluctantly, to the popular craving for Haggadah ; 
 but even here it chooses and selects with rare taste 
 and tact. Generally and broadly it may be stated 
 that alterations are never attempted, save for the 
 sake of clearness ; tropical terms are dissolved by 
 judicious circumlocutions, for the correctness of 
 which the authors and editors in possession of* 
 the living tradition of a language still written, if 
 not spoken in their day certainly seem better 
 judges than some modern critics, who, through 
 their own incomplete acquaintance with the idiom, 
 injudiciously blame Onkelos. Highly characteristic 
 is the aversion of the Targum to anthropopathies 
 and anthropomorphisms ; in fact, to any term which 
 could in the eyes of the multitudes lower the idea 
 of the Highest Being. Yet there are many pas- 
 sages retained in which human affections and 
 qualities are attributed to Him. He speaks, He 
 sees, He hears, He smells the odour of sacrifice, is 
 angry, repents, &c. The Targum thus showing 
 itself entirely opposed to the allegorising and 
 symbolising tendencies which in those, and still 
 more in later days, were prone to transform 
 Biblical history itself into the most extraordinary
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 115 
 
 legends and fairy tales, with or without a moral. 
 The Targum, however, while retaining terms like 
 the arm of God, the right hand of God, the finger 
 of God, for power, Providence, &c., replaces terms 
 like foot, front, back of God, by the fitting figura- 
 tive meaning. We must notice, further, its repug- 
 nance to bring the Divine Being into too close 
 contact, as it were, with man. It erects a kind of 
 reverential barrier, a sort of invisible medium of 
 awful reverence, between the Creator and the crea- 
 ture. Thus, terms like ' the Word ' (Logos, Sansc. 
 Oin), the Shechinah (Holy Presence of God's ma- 
 jesty, ' the Glory ') ; further, human beings talk- 
 ing not to but before God, are frequent. The same 
 care, in a minor degree, is taken of the dignity of 
 the person of the patriarchs, who, though the Scrip- 
 ture may expose their weaknesses, were not to be 
 held up in their iniquities before the multitude, 
 whose ancestors and ideals they were. That the 
 most curious vcrrepa irporepa and anachronisms 
 occur, such as Jacob studying the Thorah in the 
 academy of Shem, &c., is due to the then current 
 typifying tendencies of the Haggadah. Some ex- 
 tremely cautious, withal poetical, alterations also 
 occur when the patriarchs speak of having acquired 
 something by violent means ; as Jacob (Gen. xlviii. 
 22) by his 'sword and bow,' which two words be-
 
 116 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 come in the Targum, ' prayers and supplications ; ' 
 but the points of the Targum which deserve serious 
 study are those which treat of prayer, study of the 
 Law, prophecy, angelology, and the Messiah." 
 
 It will be seen from this descriptiou of the most 
 ancient Targum, that while the full-blown Kab- 
 binism of the Talmud is not to be found there, the 
 germ of much which was afterwards developed can 
 be recognised. The absence of direct spiritual mani- 
 festations in prophets who were able to testify to 
 what God had spoken to them, led to a superstitious 
 use of the Scripture, and an endeavour to supply 
 the deficiency of personal inspiration by means of 
 a doctrine of "emanations" Sephiroth, of which 
 there were said to be ten, viz., Crown, Wisdom, 
 Intelligence, Mercy, Judgment, Beauty, Triumph, 
 Praise, Foundation, Kingdom. The basis of this 
 doctrine was the necessity for some medium of 
 intercourse between the infinite and the finite. 
 The first of these emanations, " The Crown," was 
 the source of all the others, " En-Soph" the Foun- 
 tain of Light. This may be a dim perception of 
 the truth which, no doubt, underlies all the teach- 
 ing of the t 01d Testament, that God comes into the 
 world that He may bring back the world to Him- 
 self; but the real principle which was at work in 
 the minds of the later Jews was the dread of an-
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 117 
 
 thropomorphism, the worship of the Divine majesty, 
 the sense of estrangement from God, and therefore 
 the fear of offending Him by undue familiarity. 
 We recognise the same loss of fellowship in the 
 distinction which the Rabbis made so emphatic 
 between the justice of God and the mercy of God. 
 They were groping in the dark. They had re- 
 nounced the great truth of the Divine Fatherhood. 
 They were going about to establish a righteousness 
 of their own which should satisfy the claims of 
 Divine justice, and they had ceased to believe in 
 the Divine righteousness as the gift of Divine love. 
 It is very interesting to notice the attempt to 
 qualify the idea of Divine revelation by such terms 
 as Memra and Shechinah, which no doubt arose 
 from the felt necessity of some veil upon the coun- 
 tenance of God, lest man should be consumed by 
 its brightness. The term Memra occurs 179 times 
 in the Targum Onkelos, and very many times in 
 other Targums. The word seems to point to some 
 kind of medium of revelation. It is thought by 
 some learned writers to be distinguishable from the 
 Logos. And the term Shechinah is employed along 
 with it, though as distinct from it. There seems 
 to be the idea of personification included in both, 
 and yet they are not used as identical with " Mes- 
 siah." Rather the words would appear to be a
 
 118 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 recollection of the whole system of revelation 
 which was vouchsafed to the fathers, and which 
 included both personal appearances and glorious 
 manifestations. , To some degree such, language 
 may be said to represent the lingering light on the 
 horizon, the remains of primitive revelation ; but 
 it also bears witness to the darkness which was 
 deepening in the minds of the Jewish people. 
 They were satisfying themselves with such terms 
 instead of the simple and practical phraseology of 
 the Scriptures. We see the results in the growth 
 of philosophical mysticism in such men as Philo of 
 Alexandria, and in the rapid deterioration of the 
 Eabbinical schools which soon substituted the 
 follies of the Scribes for the doctrine of the Inspired 
 Word. The Eabbis set the traditions of their 
 schools above the written Bible. " He who busies 
 himself with Scripture only, has merit and yet no 
 merit." They professed the greatest reverence for 
 the letter of Scripture, but, like the Eoman Catho- 
 lics, they regarded it as a mystery which was com- 
 mitted to those who were learned in the traditions 
 to unfold. The " hedge about the Law " was of 
 greater importance than the Law itself, so that, as 
 the Lord Jesus told them, they "made void the 
 Law through their traditions." The Sanhedrim is 
 declared to be "the foundation-stone of the oral
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 119 
 
 law and the pillars of the doctrine ; and from them 
 the statute and the judgment goes forth to all 
 Israel. They have the warrant of the law, for ifc 
 is said, ' According to the sentence of the Law 
 which they shall teach thee,' &c. (Deut. xvii. 1 1), 
 which is an affirmative precept, and every one who 
 believes in Moses our master, and in his Law, is 
 bound to rest the practice of the Law on them, 
 and to lean on them" (Hilchoth Mamrim, c. i. i). 
 And yet, strangely enough, the infallibility of the 
 Sanhedrim is denied by the Eabbis. They were 
 not bound to follow any particular council, but 
 only that which is largest and wisest. It has been 
 well said, by an anonymous writer on the subject, 
 that " the defectiveness, inconsistency, and false- 
 hood manifested in the testimony of the Kabbis 
 on the authority of the Sanhedrim is sufficient to 
 throw discredit on all their claims. They have 
 not only no proof from Scripture, but are not able 
 themselves to find in tradition an unbroken chain 
 of testimony. They fail at the very outset. After 
 producing two links they leave a chasm of above 
 two hundred years unaccounted for." 
 
 Rabbinism was a usurpation of the learned class, 
 seeking by means of a false authority to obtain 
 power over the mass of the nation. The old 
 hierarchy had, in fact, perished, and the power of
 
 120 FOUE, CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the Pontificate had passed away. Eabbinism sought 
 to succeed to that power. There was no distinct 
 body of doctrine which could be identified with 
 the Eabbis. "They had no system of theology, 
 only what ideas, conjectures, or fancies the Hag- 
 gadah yielded, concerning God, angels, demons, 
 man, his future destiny and present position, 
 and Israel with its past history and future glory. 
 What a terrible mass of conflicting statements and 
 debasing superstitions ; legendary colouring of 
 Biblical narratives and scenes, incongruous and 
 degrading to them ; the Almighty Himself and His 
 angels taking part in the conversations of Rabbis 
 and the discussions of Academies ; nay, forming a 
 kind of heavenly Sanhedrim, which occasionally 
 require the aid of an earthly Rabbi ! The mira- 
 culous merges into the ridiculous, and even the 
 revolting. Miraeulous cures, miraculous supplies, 
 miraculous help, all for the glory of the great 
 Rabbis, who by a look or word can kill and restore 
 to life. At their bidding the eyes of a rival full 
 out and are again inserted. Nay, such was the 
 veneration due to Rabbis, that Rabbi Joshua used 
 to kiss the stone on which Rabbi Eliezer sat and 
 lectured, saying : * This stone is like Mount Sinai, 
 and he who sat on it like the ark I ' Modern 
 ingenuity has, indeed, striven to suggest deeper
 
 THE SCRIBES AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 121 
 
 symbolical meaning for such stories. But it may 
 be asserted, without fear of well-grounded contra- 
 diction, that if, in respect of substance, there is not 
 a difference, but a total divergence of fundamental 
 principles between Eabbinism and the New Testa- 
 ment, comparison between them is not possible as 
 regards their spirit. Here then is absolute con- 
 trariety" (Edersheim). And to these remarks it 
 may be added that the spirit of Kabbinical tra- 
 ditionalism was just as truly a departure from the 
 teaching of the Old Testament as it was reproved 
 and contradicted by the New. There are very 
 few quotations in the Talmud from the books of 
 the Old Testament. Most of thosra in the Mishna 
 are taken from the Pentateuch. "References to 
 any other Old Testament books are generally 
 loosely made, and serve chiefly as points d'appui 
 for Rabbinical sayings. Scriptural quotations 
 occur in 5 1 out of the 63 tractates of the Mishna, 
 the number of verses quoted being 430." The 
 chief object of the Talmud is to glorify the Rabbis, 
 not to open the meaning of God's Book. This, no 
 doubt, was partly the result of the legal spirit 
 which prevailed among the Scribes. They begau 
 with the worship of the Law simply as Law. The 
 worship of Law must necessarily produce a legalism 
 in the spirit of the people. " It lies in the nature
 
 122 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 of every such law, of every informal, half-systematic 
 code, that it raises questions which it does not 
 solve. Circumstances change, while the Law 
 remains the same. The infinite variety of life 
 presents cases which it has not contemplated. A 
 Eoman or a Greek jurist would have dealt with 
 them on general principles of equity or polity. 
 The Jewish teacher could recognise no principles 
 beyond the precepts of the Law. To him they all 
 stood on the same footing, were all equally Divine. 
 All possible cases must be brought within their 
 range, decided by their authority. The result 
 showed that in this, as in other instances, the 
 idolatry of the letter was destructive of the very 
 reverence in which it had originated. Step by step 
 the Scribes were led to conclusions at which we 
 may believe the earlier representatives of the order 
 would have started back with horror. Decisions 
 on fresh questions were accumulated into a complex 
 system of casuistry. The new precepts, still trans- 
 mitted orally, more precisely fitting into the cir- 
 cumstances of men's lives than the old, came 
 practically to take its place. 'The words of the 
 Scribes' were honoured above the Law. It was a 
 greater crime to offend against them than against 
 the Law. They were as wine, while the precepts
 
 THE SCRIBES AKD THEIR TRADITIONS. 123 
 
 of the Law were as water " (Dr. E. H. Plumptre, 
 art. Scribes, Smith's Diet.). 
 
 But there was one result of this degeneracy of 
 the learned class among the Jews which has been 
 overruled, in the providence of God, to the welfare 
 of His people and the promotion of His glory. 
 The wide separation which took place between the 
 writings of such men and of those who were under 
 their influence, and the sacred books which they 
 continued nominally to hold in reverence, greatly 
 assisted subsequent ages in the determination of 
 the authority of Scripture. We can plainly dis- 
 tinguish between the inspiration which was em- 
 bodied in the Old Testament and the usurped 
 authority of mere ecclesiastics and scholars. 
 Whether we look into the Talmud or into the 
 Apocrypha it is evident that the Spirit of God had 
 ceased to speak as of old. There are utterances 
 here and there in both which remind us that the 
 truth of God still exercised a powerful influence 
 over the hearts of men ; but such utterances are 
 rather like reflections of what had been already 
 given to the world in a previous age, than fresh 
 and original vouchsafements. And it is remark- 
 able that the most valuable of these reflections of 
 the Old Testament teaching are not to be found
 
 124 FOUR CENTURIES OP SILENCE. 
 
 among the Eabbis of Palestine or Mesopotamia, but 
 in the region where the light of the Old Testament 
 was beginning to mingle with that which had been 
 discernible among the most cultured of the heathen, 
 which had gleamed, if it could not be said that it 
 had shone like a sun in the heavens, in Greek 
 sages and Alexandrian scholars. - Thus the facts of 
 history became prophetic. The Word of God was 
 about to be taken from those who would not 
 follow its guidance, and would be given to another 
 nation, to the whole world, that the fruits thereof 
 might be brought forth ; that the ancient promise 
 might be fulfilled, that in the covenant made with 
 Abraham " all the families of the earth should be 
 blessed." The Scribe who is instructed to that 
 larger kingdom is not one that is learned in 
 Eabbinical lore, but one that has sat at the feet of 
 Him "of whom Moses in the Law, and the Pro- 
 phets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth/' " the Son of 
 God, the King of Israel"
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 125 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE RISE OP JEWISH SECTS. 
 
 history of the Jewish Church is full of very 
 striking lessons. None, perhaps, is more 
 significant than that which we learn from a close 
 attention to the facts connected with the develop- 
 ment of Jewish Sects. It is remarkable that, 
 amidst all changes and disturbances in the Jewish 
 mind, from the time of the Restoration from Cap- 
 tivity onwards, there was nothing that could be 
 properly described as the appearance of a sect, until 
 about two centuries before the Christian era. One 
 might have expected that the vigorous work of 
 reformation carried on by Ezra and his successor, 
 Nehemiah, and others of the Great Synagogue, 
 would not merely have awakened a spirit of oppo- 
 sition, which it undoubtedly did, in those who were 
 more or less under the influence of Gentile thought 
 and life, but have led to the initiation of distinct 
 religious parties, with separate designations, within 
 the limits of the Jewish Church. But there is no
 
 126 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 evidence that there was any such formal resistance 
 to the Judaistic revival. If it had existed in any 
 other shape than a laxness of religious life on the 
 part of individuals, it would certainly have revealed 
 itself in some form which would be regarded as 
 part of history. But, while it has been attempted, 
 by some scholars of the German school, to prove 
 that the influence of such a party is to be traced 
 in books of the Old Testament, as, e.g., in Jonah, 
 the argument breaks down. It is fatal to such a 
 view that there is no literature outside the Scrip- 
 tures which can be assigned to the period immedi- 
 ately following upon Nehemiah and Malachi, which 
 there certainly would have been had the reforms 
 carried out by Ezra produced anything like a theo- 
 logical division among the people. 
 
 The rise of the Egyptian School of Judaism is 
 a fact quite distinct, and enables us, by its distinct- 
 ness, to study the more accurately the development 
 of Judaism in Palestine. It was a natural result 
 of the favour shown to Jews by the Ptolemies, and 
 the rapid growth of Greek influence, through the 
 power which the Seleucidse had in Palestine, all of 
 which we may date from about 285 B.C. to 185 B.C., 
 that is about a hundred years that vast numbers 
 of Jewish people, both within and without the Holy 
 Land itself, renounced the extreme strictness of
 
 THE KISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 127 
 
 former times ; and, while preserving their external 
 allegiance to Jerusalem, were more and more with- 
 drawn from it in spirit and life. But it must be 
 remembered that in the great majority of instances 
 this widening of thought and relaxation of disci- 
 pline was accompanied by a moral corruption, 
 and often by an imitation of heathen manners, 
 which threatened the entire destruction of the 
 nation. There were great abuses, no doubt, at 
 Jerusalem itself, in the rule of the High Priests. 
 But so long as the temple service was maintained 
 there was a rallying point for Judaism. And we 
 may believe that the synagogue worship, which 
 had increased largely after the time of Ezra, and 
 was spread over Palestine, supported, as it was, 
 by the reading of the Scriptures, as the fathers had 
 delivered them, especially of the Pentateuch, con- 
 tributed to keep alive, in many hearts, the hope 
 that a Divine blessing would yet be poured out on 
 Jerusalem. It was the work of Divine Providence, 
 however, in the external events of the world, 
 which brought about the climax from which we 
 must date the revival of Judaism. 
 
 Now it would be a great misapprehension of the 
 facts to suppose, as some have done, that there was, 
 for two hundred years, a large-minded and catholic- 
 spirited school among the Jews, who desired to
 
 128 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 find all that was true and healthy among the 
 heathen religions and modes of life and thought, 
 in order to amalgamate it with a progressive 
 Judaism. There is no evidence of any such school. 
 There were individuals who, by their contact with 
 Greek philosophy, about two hundred and fifty 
 years B.C., were led to think that they might 
 fulfil the hopes of their people for universal 
 dominion by influencing the leading minds of other 
 nations to study the religious views of the Jewish 
 nation, and to become proselytes. But there was 
 no school of rationalistic or catholic Jews out of 
 Egypt. The Jews of Palestine must be regarded 
 as the true Jewish Church. In that, until the end 
 of the third century before Christ, there was no 
 appearance of division, though there was no doubt 
 much indifference and moral corruption. The real 
 cause of a new state of things was the disturbance 
 of the political atmosphere. 
 
 For fifty years and more the two great neigh- 
 bouring powers of Syria and Egypt, represented 
 by the Seleucidse and the Ptolemies, made the in- 
 termediate country of Palestine a battle-ground for 
 supremacy. The effect was very disastrous on the 
 Jewish people. Not only were they exposed to 
 the evils of war, but their leading men were 
 seduced into a most demoralising connection with
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 129 
 
 the rival powers, leading them to disgraceful acts 
 of treachery to their own nation. It was still 
 more injurious to the interests of the Jewish 
 religion that the Greek power, which ruled from 
 the centre of Antioch, at last gained the victory 
 over the degenerate family of the Ptolemies. An- 
 tioch could exercise a much more direct and irre- 
 sistible influence than Egypt. Alexandria was, no 
 doubt, the most learned city, but learning does 
 not always go with political supremacy. The 
 Greek mind was dominant. Although it was 
 speedily to succumb before the rising military 
 power of Rome, still for a time it prevailed in the 
 lingering remnants of Alexander's empire. The 
 tyranny and corruption of the Syrian rulers came, 
 as a blast of trouble, to quicken into flame the 
 dying embers of religious and patriotic zeal in 
 the hearts of the Jewish people. From 203 B.C. 
 to 198 B.C., it must have been evident to all true- 
 minded Jews that unless there was a rising-up of 
 their national life against their oppressors, they 
 would be crushed into absolute ruin, between the 
 upper and nether millstones. " The decisive con- 
 test which was impending was in the most inex- 
 orable manner driving all the still hidden impulses 
 of the age, both good and evil, into the light of 
 day, so as to bring out clearly what was within the
 
 130 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 power of those who represented the aim and the 
 force of the whole period of the new Jerusalem, 
 viz., the pious" (Ewald). 
 
 It will not be possible in this place to describe 
 the course of events which led to the revival of 
 Judaism. The extraordinary family of the Asmo- 
 neans or Maccabees were, no doubt, only represen- 
 tatives of a large number of zealots, who were 
 brought out of their obscurity by the force of great 
 events. Mattathias, the father of Judas Macca- 
 baeus, was a man himself of great character, and 
 the ruling spirit of his time. He must not, how- 
 ever, be regarded as an adventurer, called out by 
 political troubles. He was a religious devotee, in- 
 spired to great efforts by the danger which threat- 
 ened the future of his people, regarded as the 
 people of Jehovah, and dependent upon the temple 
 at Jerusalem. It was " the abomination of desola- 
 tion " witnessed in the holy place which roused the 
 Maccabees and their companions to fury. It was 
 the recovery of the temple and the revival of the 
 religious position of Judaism, which, identified as 
 it was with their political prosperity, became the 
 ruling aim of the patriots. And the rise of sects 
 in the Jewish Church dates from this remarkable 
 period. The Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and 
 others had no distinct existence before the Macca-
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 131 
 
 bean Eevival. They took their character from the 
 religious elements at work at that time. 
 
 In several places in the Books of the Maccabees 
 we find a reference to what is there called " the 
 Mingling." By this is. intended the "mingling" 
 of Jews with Gentiles, beyond the permission of 
 the Law of Moses. From the time of Ezra, who 
 protested so strongly and practically against the 
 laxness of the people in their intercourse with sur- 
 rounding nations, there had, no doubt, been a party 
 among the Jews of Palestine which was, more or 
 less, opposed to strict Judaism. But it is an error 
 to suppose that this party was recognised as repre- 
 senting any religious authority. It was simply 
 the moral refuse of the nation. There was a school 
 of sages, but they must be distinguished from the 
 political men who, for their own selfish ends, played 
 into the hands of Gentile rulers. But it is not 
 wonderful that there should be a conviction still 
 surviving in Palestine, that the old Ezra-spirit was 
 the true safety of the nation. On the basis of the 
 Law of Moses the Jewish State rested. Those 
 who really loved Israel would be faithful to the 
 Law. Hence arose, during the Greek period, a band 
 of religious patriots, who were called the Chasidim 
 by the Jews, and the Assideans by the Greeks. 
 They were the godly or pious, the Puritans of *that
 
 132 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 time, who resisted the process which, they felt, was 
 fatal both to religious and to national prosperity, 
 of intimacy with, and imitation of, the heathen. 
 Now it has been alleged by some that, long before 
 the time of the Maccabean Reformation there was 
 a school of broad thinkers and heretics who derived 
 their origin from one Antigonus of Socho, through 
 a disciple Zadok, and nourished in the first half of 
 the third century B.C. But the tradition, if it can 
 be said to be worthy of the name, is quite worth- 
 less. It is now generally agreed that the Sadducees 
 could not have received their name from Zadok, 
 nor have come into existence as early as the third 
 century. There are historians of the rationalistic 
 school, like Ewald, who would fain persuade us 
 that the Sadducees were a continuation of a school 
 of thinkers among the Jews, who had been in 
 existence from the time of Ezra, but their view is 
 not borne out by evidence. The Chastdim were 
 the true beginning of both the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees. 
 
 For a considerable time, at least fifty years, there 
 was only the one name and the one party, that of 
 the religious zealots, who were identified with the 
 Maccabees. A few references to these are made in 
 the books which describe the history of the great 
 struggle with Antiochus Epiphanes and his sue-
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 133 
 
 cessors. There were freethinkers, no doubt, at 
 that time ; but Ewald himself admits (vol. v. 
 p. 282), " They were not yet called Sadducees, 
 but simply the ' lawless ' or ungodly, and some- 
 times, in stronger language, 'sinners.' " This clearly 
 proves that there was no practical recognition, at 
 that time, of the necessity of intellectual ortho- 
 doxy. There was substantially no difference of 
 creed among the Jews ; but the school of the Pious 
 or Chasidim was formed for the better observance 
 of the Law as a rule of worship and life. " They 
 recovered the Law out of the hand of the Gentiles 
 and out of the hand of kings, neither suffered they 
 the sinner to triumph" (i Mace. ii. 48). It has been 
 suggested by Dr. Edersheim (" Life and Times of 
 Jesus the Messiah," vol. i. p. 323) that both the 
 names of the two religious sects were given them 
 with reference to the original designation of the 
 "godly" There would naturally arise two parties 
 out of such a movement as that which was com- 
 menced by the Maccabees. Some would be pre- 
 pared to go auy length in the cause of reformation 
 and faithfulness to the Law. Others would consider 
 themselves the moderate party, and they would be 
 likely to be the richer and more worldly men, who 
 did not feel the obligations of religion so supreme, 
 but sought to conciliate the heathen rulers. The
 
 134 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 zealots became Pharisees, that is, " Perushim," the 
 separated ones, who would be regarded by them- 
 selves as the only pious, but in the eyes of their 
 opponents were " righteous over much." Dr. Eder- 
 sheim 'thinks that in contrast with this extreme 
 party, those who would be regarded as the repre- 
 sentatives of moderation were called " The Righte- 
 ous" i.e., those who laid more stress on practical 
 righteousness than on punctilious observance of 
 the letter of the Law, " Zaddiquim " or Sadducees. 
 " There is, indeed, an admitted linguistic difficulty 
 in the change of the sound i into u (Zaddiquim 
 into Zadduquim), but may it not have been that 
 this was accomplished, not grammatically, but by 
 popular witticism ? Such mode of giving a ' by- 
 name ' to a party or government is, at least, not 
 irrational, nor is it uncommon. Some wit might 
 have suggested Eead uot ' Zaddiquim,' the righte- 
 ous, but 'Zadduquim' (from Zadu), 'desolation,' 
 ' destruction.' Whether or not this suggestion ap- 
 proves itself to critics, the derivation of Sadducees 
 from Zaddiquim is certainly that which offers most 
 probability." The question of names is, however, 
 of comparatively little importance. It is certain 
 that both parties, both the Pharisees and Saddu- 
 cees, were faithful to Judaism so far as external 
 attachment was concerned. They remained within
 
 THE EISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 135 
 
 the Synagogue. They were not " separatists " in 
 the modern sense of the word ; neither were they 
 driven away from Judaism by any adverse decree 
 of the council. 
 
 But there was a remarkable body of men who 
 appear somewhere about that time, or a little later, 
 the Essenes or Esscei, numbering at the most only 
 about four thousand, who withdrew themselves 
 from the Temple and from the worship of the 
 Jews, and retired into a kind of hermit life, 
 for the purpose of carrying out vows of celibacy 
 and asceticism. But little is known of them. They 
 are not mentioned in any book of the New Testa- 
 ment, and not very distinctly in the writings of 
 the Eabbis. But they are referred to with great 
 respect by Philo and Joseph us. Whether they 
 were, at the earliest time, what they afterwards 
 became, it is impossible to say ; but their name 
 seems to denote that they were " outsiders" and 
 their peculiar views would exclude them from fel- 
 lowship with the orthodox Jews. In some respects 
 they were connected with both Pharisees and Sad- 
 ducees. They perhaps borrowed from the former 
 their extreme views of purification, and from the 
 latter their denial of the Resurrection. But while 
 there would be points of sympathy, it seems most 
 probable that the Essenes were simply Jews who
 
 136 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Lad been influenced by the Parsee religion, which, 
 at that time, began to affect powerfully the creed 
 of the more western nations. They worshipped the 
 sun and held the evil of matter, which were two of 
 the leading distinctions of the Persian religion. 
 They might be said to be in some sense the fore- 
 runners of the gnostics, who, three centuries later, 
 seriously affected the doctrine of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 These remarkable " outsiders " were the only in- 
 stance of a break in the external uniformity of the 
 Jewish Church, and as they numbered so few and 
 removed so entirely away from the neighbourhood 
 of Jerusalem, they can scarcely be said to form an 
 exception to the rule of adherence to the syna- 
 gogue, which the Jews observed so consistently 
 through many ages. Their unique character sets 
 off very distinctly the true features of the Phari- 
 sees and the Sadducees, and shows that we should 
 greatly misapprehend the position of those two 
 parties in the Jewish Church if we regarded them 
 as in any sense contending for the supremacy of 
 rule, and attempting to exclude one another. They 
 represented rather tendencies of thought and life 
 than opposing sects. They corresponded more with 
 the different schools of theology which now exist 
 within the same Established Church in our own
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 137 
 
 country such as the High Church and the Broad 
 Church than with the distinct religious denomina- 
 tions of our time, worshipping with different rites 
 and in different sanctuaries. Pharisees and Saddu- 
 cees alike recognised the Scriptures as their autho- 
 rity, and nominally, at least, united in maintaining 
 the services of the Jewish Temple. This is an impor- 
 tant fact, because it shows us very clearly that the 
 extra-scriptural books did not proceed from either 
 of these so-called sects, unless they were such 
 books as the Maccabees, which had a merely his- 
 torical authority ; or, as in the case of the Second 
 Book of the Maccabees, were intended to exalt the 
 martyrs of Judaism. Such works as Ecclesiasticus, 
 aud the Wisdom of Solomon, and Tobit, and 
 Judith, and the Book of Enoch, and the Psalter 
 of Solomon, and other such writings, although 
 those who wrote them might have been attached 
 to one or other party among the Jews, were cer- 
 tainly not put forth with any sectarian bias, or for 
 any purpose of rivalling the authority of Scripture. 
 In some cases their aim was merely to help the 
 Jews to be faithful to their Law ; in others, to help 
 the Gentiles to study the Jewish Scriptures ; and 
 in others, to promote the Messianic sentiment, 
 which, as time went on, became a source of conso- 
 lation to those who were weary of their national
 
 138 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 troubles. There is no evidence that the Jewish 
 Church, as represented by its leading teachers and 
 councils, ever placed such works side by side with 
 their ancient Scriptures. They were called " The 
 outside books," and as such were looked upon as 
 identified with the "outsiders." We cannot, of 
 course, at this distance of time, specify which 
 books were so stamped with disapproval. Some, 
 no doubt, for their piety would be favourably re- 
 garded. But it is certain that the extravagant 
 doctrines which are found in later books, especially 
 on the subject of angels, and the fabulous stories 
 which mingled with historical records, as we see in 
 the Second Book of Maccabees and others, were 
 not formally sanctioned by the Jews as though 
 they were in books of Scripture. There is a great 
 difference between the miracles of Scripture and 
 those in the extra-scriptural books, and between 
 the theology of the prophets and that of the post- 
 prophetic times. Thus the Word of God stands by 
 itself. The Jews with all their faults did not wil- 
 fully tamper with their Scriptures. The different 
 parties in their Church kept watch over one 
 another, and Pharisees and Sadducees alike ap- 
 pealed to the same standard of faith. 
 
 In confirmation of this view we cannot bring 
 forward a better witness than the rationalistic critic,
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 13.9 
 
 Ewald. Speaking of the Pharisees, he says that 
 during the period of persecution and external 
 trouble it was of little importance to find exact 
 Scripture authority for their beliefs, because 
 they were beliefs that were the demand of the 
 age. "But piety had no sooner gained the 
 upper hand in the nation than it began to con- 
 found with the instruments of its triumph the 
 source from which it had obtained them ; it 
 placed the Holy Scriptures still higher, and 
 paid them a more scrupulous veneration than 
 ever before" (v. 365). "In respect of the sub- 
 stance of their teachings, they proceeded wholly in 
 accord with the grand line of development which 
 had been running through strict Judaism ever since 
 the days of Ezra, They placed the Law above 
 everything else, without on that account rejecting 
 the other records, traditions, and usages of religion 
 inherited from the past; they approved of the 
 customary interpretation of Scripture, without 
 commending the extravagance of allegory which 
 was striving to prevail, and in other respects were 
 glad to attach themselves somewhat closely in 
 every way to national and established practices, as 
 well as to good moral principles, such as reverence 
 for age. Of Greek philosophy and foreign litera- 
 ture they did not seek much knowledge, nor did
 
 140 FOUH CENTUPJES OF SILENCE. 
 
 their origin permit them to, though they were too 
 prudent to repudiate it altogether in this age. But 
 they well understood that their power over the 
 people depended particularly on the knowledge 
 and application of the Holy Scripture, and some of 
 their ablest teachers accordingly occupied them- 
 selves in establishing a special service of the Law 
 with the further view of being able to dispute with 
 the Sadducees on all important subjects" (p. 368). 
 Thus it is evident that the Pharisees were great 
 preservers and defenders of the Word of God. But 
 as we know that they were opposed by the Sad- 
 ducees, and the Sadducees were, on some points, 
 such as the doctrine of angels and the future life, 
 certainly condemned by the teaching of the Old 
 Testament, as the Lord Jesus Christ distinctly told 
 them, we are naturally led to ask, whether the 
 existence of the less orthodox school, for a hundred 
 and fifty years before Christ, may be taken as any 
 argument against the view which we are accus- 
 tomed to hold of the Jewish Scriptures, viz., that 
 they were received without a dissentient voice in 
 the Jewish Church as the supreme authority in 
 doctrine and life. We will, in concluding this brief 
 notice of the Jewish sects, give our remaining space 
 to this important point. 
 
 The one chief distinction between the Sadducees
 
 THE EISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 141 
 
 and the Pharisees consisted in the denial, on the 
 part of the former, of the authority attached by the 
 latter to the Oral Law. We have already referred 
 to this subject. The traditions of the scribes were 
 no doubt very ancient. But it was not until the 
 rise of the Pharisaic school that they were persis- 
 tently ascribed to Moses himself. The attempt 
 was made, on the part of the Traditionalists, to 
 suppress by such means all opposition to the teach- 
 ing of tradition. Now the Sadducees did not deny 
 the value of traditions as such. But they dis- 
 tinctly opposed the attempt to manufacture an 
 external sanction by the falsification of history. 
 They revered the general authority of the fathers, 
 but they distinguished between the Word of God 
 and the customs which had accumulated in the 
 course of ages. The result was that the authority 
 of the Scriptures was confirmed. An appeal to the 
 written Word at any time silenced discussion, as we 
 see in the instance of our Lord's rebuke of the 
 Sadducees. They did not dare to deny what was 
 on the page of Scripture, though they had suffered 
 a false view of its meaning to remain among them. 
 The later Sadducees had no doubt carried much 
 further than their predecessors the sceptical ten- 
 dency which had arisen among them. At first 
 they were simply remonstrants against an extreme
 
 142 FOUR CENTURIES OP SILENCE. 
 
 traditionalism ; but they soon became doubters on 
 some of the doctrines of the orthodox creed. The 
 Pentateuch, which alone was regarded as the legal 
 standard of reference on disputed points of belief, 
 contained no distinct statement of the doctrine of 
 man's resurrection after death. But after the 
 Captivity, whether under the influence of heathen 
 teaching or as a natural effect from the many 
 troubles which came upon the people, the doctrine 
 of a future life and of a resurrection from the dead 
 became a leading point of the orthodox creed. The 
 Pharisees, who maintained it strongly, sought 
 support for their view outside the letter of Scrip- 
 ture, in the traditions of the fathers and, perhaps, 
 were inclined to put the later Scriptures higher in 
 authority, and almost on a level with the Penta- 
 teuch, for their argument's sake such a doctrine, 
 they said, could not have been left by God uncer- 
 tain. If it was not on the face of the Law, it must 
 have been communicated orally. "A supple- 
 mentary tradition was necessary, indispensable. 
 This tradition exists. Moses received the Law 
 from Sinai, transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the 
 Elders, the Elders transmitted it to the Prophets, 
 and the Prophets to the men of the Great Syna- 
 gogue " (Klein). Now the Sadducees in opposing 
 this theory did real service to the cause of Scrip-
 
 THE RISE OF JEWISH SECTS. 143 
 
 ture authority. Just as in the Eeformation, 
 Luther and his followers, by their opposition to 
 the Eoman Catholic view of tradition, brought out 
 more clearly and positively the great principle of 
 Protestantism, " the Bible and the Bible alone," so 
 these opponents of traditionalism in the Jewish 
 Church, while not themselves sound in the faith, 
 were witnesses for the Word of God. It may be a 
 matter of surprise that the Sadducees should have 
 rejected the existence of angels or spirits. But it 
 is not certain that even those of our Lord's days 
 denied a spiritual world altogether, but only the 
 traditional views which were current as to angelic 
 ministry and the complicated system of angelic 
 existences which we find in such " outside works " 
 as the Book of Enoch. There is no trace, either in 
 the writings of Josephus or of the Rabbis, of an 
 entire denial of angelic existence on the part of the 
 Sadducees. Possibly some of their number went 
 farther than others, and sank into a lower depth of 
 scepticism. But the main point to which we desire 
 to draw attention, is the concurrence of both sects 
 in upholding the authority of the Scriptures. The 
 Pharisees assumed to be more reverent towards 
 Scripture than their opponents, maintaining that 
 the touch of the sacred book denied the hands; 
 but the Sadducees, in denying that doctrine of
 
 144 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 defilement, only resisted the extreme ceremonialism 
 of the Pharisees. It must never be forgotten that 
 they were both parties within the Jewish Church. 
 There was no real break up of the religious system 
 and unity. The Scriptures, as they came down to 
 the time of Christianity, were the deposit which 
 the Jews, with all their faults, faithfully kept and 
 handed on to their successors. Notwithstanding 
 the rise among them of divisions of opinion and 
 practice, especially in the observances of the Law, 
 there was no desire on the part of any portion of 
 the Jewish nation to renounce the standard given 
 them by Divine Inspiration. From the time of the 
 Maccabees, at latest, the written Word was a clearly 
 defined limit, and it was never wilfully trans- 
 gressed.
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 
 
 TT is matter of history that, at the time when 
 our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, 
 there was a widespread expectation of a personal 
 Deliverer. The testimonies of Tacitus and Sueto- 
 nius, the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem, and other 
 well-known facts, point to the prevalence of such 
 feeling among heathen nations. Some would ac- 
 count for this by the intercommunication between 
 Jews and Gentiles, which had become common for 
 many years before Christ. Whether this was so or 
 not can scarcely be now determined. It is, how- 
 ever, an interesting question, which is not beyond 
 the limits of research, though occasionally sur- 
 rounded with obscurity ; what was the growth of 
 the Messianic expectation from the time when the 
 Jews were no longer visited by inspired prophets ? 
 We must not be perplexed by what appears, at first 
 sight, an enigma, that, with the canon of Scripture 
 
 in their hands, so little was really understood and 
 
 K
 
 146 FOUft CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 believed by the Jewish people concerning their 
 promised Deliverer. 
 
 After the restoration of the religious and politi- 
 cal commonwealth in the time of Ezra and Nehe- 
 miah, it was natural that the chief attention of 
 the Scribes, and those who followed their guidance, 
 should be directed to the observance and preserva- 
 tion of the Law. No doubt there was always in- 
 cluded in the conception of the Law that of the 
 kingdom of God. But as the spiritual life of the 
 people declined, and as political troubles absorbed 
 their attention, the true theocratic idea became 
 buried in the heap of confusion, brought upon the 
 nation by their difficult and dangerous position 
 between Syria and Egypt. It must not be for- 
 gotten, as is well observed by Dr. Edersheim, that 
 in the Old Testament "the Messiah and His history 
 are not presented as something separated from, 
 or superadded to, Israel. The history, the institu- 
 tions, and the predictions of Israel ran up into 
 Him." We look back from a personal narrative to 
 the Old Testament, and find there predictions or 
 anticipations on almost every page, which were 
 fulfilled in Christ ; but while the personal facts 
 were still in the future, it required more insight 
 than was common among the people to separate 
 the substance from the shadow. At the same time
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 147 
 
 it is evident, from the later writings of the Eabbis, 
 tli at there was, all along the ages from the time 
 of the prophets, a clear and decided expectation. 
 Sometimes it was obscured by the more exciting 
 thoughts which were stirred by events of the day ; 
 but it was never completely lost. The general and 
 deeply laid confidence in a Divine vocation and in 
 a future Divine restoration kept alive the more 
 particular hope that a son of David would appear, 
 who would be the ideal Israel, the Prince of God, 
 the Prophet, Priest, and King. The Eabbis per- 
 verted the Scripture, and lowered the expectation 
 to the level of their own unspiritual minds ; but 
 the evidence of their own writings, which they 
 themselves declare to be a revival of the tradition 
 of the elders, proves that the main ideas of the 
 Old Testament were, at least, nominally preserved. 
 Dr. Edersheim states that " a careful perusal of 
 their Scripture quotations shows that the main 
 postulates of the New Testament concerning the 
 Messiah are fully supported by Rabbinic state- 
 ments. Thus, such doctrines as the premundane 
 existence of the Messiah, His elevation above Moses, 
 and even above the angels, His representative cha- 
 racter, His cruel sufferings and derision, His violent 
 death, and that for His people, His work on be- 
 half of the living and of the dead, His redemption
 
 148 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and restoration of Israel, the opposition of the 
 Gentiles, their partial judgment and conversion, 
 the prevalence of His Law, the universal blessings 
 of the latter days, and His kingdom, can be clearly 
 deduced from unquestioned passages in ancient 
 Eabbinic writings. Only, as we might expect, all 
 is there indistinct, incoherent, unexplained, and 
 from a much lower standpoint" (vol. i. pp. 364, 
 
 365). 
 
 As we might naturally conclude, the Septuagint, 
 being under the influence of the Alexandrian 
 school, seems to make light of the hope of Israel, 
 or rather to sublimate it into philosophical termi- 
 nology, which deprived it of the real and personal 
 element which it retained in the old Hebrew 
 language. In the passage of Isaiah (chap. ix. 6) 
 which seems to predict the Divine Sonship of the 
 Messiah, the Seventy have toned down the words 
 into "Angel of the great Council ;" though another 
 reading is nearer the Hebrew. " Among the Jews 
 of Egypt," says Dr. Payne Smith, "a belief in 
 a personal Messiah soon entirely ceased. Thus, 
 whereas in Psalm ex. 3, the words of the Hebrew 
 are ' Of the womb of the morning is the dew of 
 thy birth,' the Septuagint paraphrases it thus, 
 ' Of the womb have I begotten thee before the 
 morning dawn.' They acknowledge the pre-
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 149 
 
 existence of the Messiah, but were offended at the 
 doctrine of His birth in time. Their idea probably 
 was a kind of Arianism, that the Messiah was a 
 superior angel or pre-angelic being. But their 
 chief dread was anthropomorphism, bringing God 
 down to the level of man." 
 
 It has been sometimes remarked that there is no 
 indication of Messianic expectation in the Apo- 
 crypha. But that is only partly correct. There is 
 no distinct allusion to the personal Messiah by 
 name, but in several books there is an undercurrent 
 of hope which evidently rests upon the promises 
 given to the fathers. The Book of Ecclesiasticus 
 dates, according to some critics, from before the 
 time of the Maccabees, and, as Ewald has observed, 
 "The Messianic hopes are expressed in it with 
 plenty of force in various passages," though the 
 general tone of the work is rather expository and 
 practical than predictive. The House of David is 
 singled out as the line of rule, and the triumph of 
 Israel in the future is clearly set forth (see Ecclus. 
 iv. 15 ; x. 13-17 ; xi. 5, 59 ; xxxii. 17-19 ; xxxiii. 
 1-12; xxxvi. 11-17; xxxvii. 25; xxxix. 23; xlv. 
 2 5> 59 ; xlviii. 10, 15). Again, in the first Book of 
 Maccabees we read, " The Jews and priests were 
 well pleased that Simon should be their governor 
 and high priest for ever, until there should arise a
 
 150 FOUR CENTUKIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 faithful prophet" (xiv. 41). They pulled do\vn 
 the stones of the defiled Temple and laid them up, 
 we are told, " in the mountain of the Temple in a 
 convenient place, until there should come a prophet 
 to show what should be done with them" (iv. 46). 
 " Thus," says Ewald, "in the slow course of the 
 centuries the Messianic hope penetrates once more 
 without resistance through all their feelings, not 
 merely in periods of deep distress and longing, but 
 in those also of the highest exaltation and joy ; 
 without this outlook and expectation there is no 
 pure satisfaction and tranquillity. In the book 
 called The Wisdom of Solomon, dating probably 
 as late as 50 B. a, or even still nearer the Christian 
 era, and coming from the philosophical school, we 
 meet with the doctrine of the Logos, so prominently 
 expressed that the work has been ascribed to Philo, 
 whose writings are filled with that term, though 
 employed in an Alexandrian sense. The character 
 of the true Kuler, and the manner in which He is 
 to become so, are exhibited at the close in language 
 of the utmost eloquence and power. It is, indeed, 
 only the Messianic hopes of eternal retribution and 
 judgment which here take the deepest hold ; and all 
 the turns and steps of the discourse have their 
 original type in the Old Testament" (Ewald). 
 " Thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 151 
 
 of Thy royal throne, as a fierce man of 'war into 
 the midst of a land of destruction." "It touched 
 the heavens, but it stood upon the earth." "In all 
 things, Lord, Thou didst magnify Thy people and 
 glorify them, neither didst Thou lightly regard 
 them, but didst assist them in every time and 
 place" (Wisd. xviii. 15, 16, 19, 22). The whole 
 teaching of the book is the personification of 
 Divine Wisdom and Love, which was evidently 
 regarded as the doctrine of the Old Testament, and 
 blended with the hope of a personal Deliverer. The 
 Alexandrian School, however, were inclined to sink 
 the expectation in a wider philosophico-religious 
 system. Some of the books now included in the 
 Apocrypha are of very late origin, as, e.g., the 
 Second Esdras (or fourth Book of Esdras, as it is 
 sometimes called), which was probably written by 
 a Christian about a hundred years after Christ. It 
 is chiefly Apocalyptic in character, and is of no 
 value as evidence of the Jewish expectations before 
 Christ. 
 
 There are several remarkable remains of the 
 period between the time of the Maccabees and the 
 Christian era, which we must now notice. They 
 leave us in no uncertainty as to the prevalence 
 of Messianic expectations. Indeed, they clearly 
 show that duriug the last hundred years of the pre-
 
 152 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Christian period, the predictions of Messiah were 
 very prominently before the Jewish mind, and 
 became something like a fever of anticipation. 
 This was especially the case after the Eoman con- 
 quest of Jerusalem under Pompey, when the 
 political state of Palestine was one of great de- 
 pression and fear. Then the people began to look 
 for a Deliverer from heaven as they had never 
 done before, and the worldly-minded amongst 
 them found the language of Scripture suit their 
 purpose as they put into it their own sordid and 
 ambitious views. 
 
 The Books of the Sibylline Oracles (see 
 Fridlieb, Oracula Sibyllina, 1852) is a very 
 mingled collection of Greek verses in twelve 
 books, with several fragments. Most of the 
 Vork is worthless, as it was the composition of 
 Christians, endeavouring to support Christianity 
 by forging predictions which correspond to the 
 facts of Christian history. There is one book, 
 however, the third, which is regarded by critics as 
 dating from the middle of the second century be- 
 fore Christ. This part of the work was composed 
 by a Hellenist Jew, and is full of allusion to the 
 Messianic hope. We find a picture drawn of the 
 times of the Messiah in verses 652 to 807, and on 
 this, it is generally admitted, Virgil founded the
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 153 
 
 predictions of the golden age which he has intro- 
 duced in his fourth Eclogue, and which is found 
 also in Hesiod [Works and Days, 109], and in 
 Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Book I. 89 (cf. 
 Euseb., Prsep. Evan., i. 7; xii. 13). Messiah is 
 described as the King sent from heaven, who 
 would judge every man in blood and splendour of 
 fire (vers. 285, 286). He is the King whom God 
 will send from the sun. AVhether these Sibylline 
 verses are the genuine remains of heathen antiquity 
 or not must remain doubtful. Oracles of the 
 Sibyls are referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Varro, 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Livy ; but if there 
 ever were such, they probably perished, and the 
 mere fact that they had existed was employed as 
 a basis on which to build up the forgeries of later 
 times. 
 
 But of much greater value than those oracles is 
 the remarkable book on which a great deal has 
 been written during the last half century, The 
 Book of Enoch and from which it is supposed by 
 some that a quotation is made in the Epistle of 
 Jude (vers. 14, 15). Archbishop Laurence pub- 
 lished a translation of an Ethiopic version in 1838, 
 but since that time other manuscripts have been 
 collected, and a new translation made by Professor 
 Dillmann (Leipzig, 1853). It is supposed to have
 
 154 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 been originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, but 
 we possess no other remains of it than we find 
 either in Ethiopia or Greek. Some have professed 
 to be able to recognise three different elements in 
 the work: (i.) An original portion, chapters i. to 
 xxxvi., and Ixxii. to cv., which is supposed to date 
 about 175 B.C. (2.) The Parables, chapters xxxvii. 
 to liv. 6 ; Iv. 3 to lix. ; Ixi. to Ixiv. ; Ixix. 26 to Ixxi. 
 This portion is dated about the time of Herod the 
 Great. (3.) The Noachian Sections, together with 
 chapters cvi., cvii., and the later conclusion in 
 cviii., as to the date of all which chapters there is 
 great doubt. It is impossible here to refer more 
 directly to these chapters, but one or two quota- 
 tions from what is now regarded as the oldest 
 portion of the work will give an idea of its general 
 character. " He will go forth from His habitations, 
 the Holy and Mighty One, the God of the world, 
 who will hereafter tread upon Mount Sinai ; 
 appear with His hosts, and be manifested in the 
 strength of His power from heaven. All shall be 
 afraid, and the watchers shall be terrified." " Be- 
 hold He comes with ten thousand of His saints, to 
 execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, 
 and reprove all the carnal for everything which 
 the sinful and ungodly have done and committed 
 against Him " (chaps, i., ii.) - This may be said
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 155 
 
 to be the text on which the book is written. It 
 is a description of the judgment which shall be 
 executed on the ungodly, and an exhortation to 
 the righteous to stand firm and be patient: "In 
 these days, saith the Lord, they shall call to the 
 children of the earth, and make them listen to their 
 wisdom. Show them that you are their leaders; 
 and that renumeration shall take place over the 
 whole earth ; for I and my Son will for ever hold 
 communion with them in the paths of uprightness, 
 ivhile they are still alive. Peace shall be yours. 
 Rejoice, children of integrity, in the truth " (chap, 
 civ.) Dr. Edersheim thinks that Professor Schtirer 
 has conclusively shown that The Parables are 
 pre-Christian in date, and they are full of Messianic 
 allusions. In this portion of the work "Messiah 
 appears by the side of the Ancient of Days, His 
 face like the appearance of a man, and yet so 
 lovely, like that of one of the holy angels. This 
 1 Son of Man ' has, and with Him dwells, all 
 righteousness; He reveals the treasures of all that 
 is hidden, being chosen by the Lord, is superior to 
 all and destined to subdue and destroy all the 
 powers and kingdoms of wickedness (chap, xlvi.) 
 Although only revealed at the last, His name had 
 been named before God, before sun or stars were 
 created. He is the staff on which the righteous
 
 156 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 lean, the light of nations, and the hope of all who 
 mourn in spirit. All are to bow down before Him, 
 and adore Him, and for this He was chosen, and 
 hidden with God before the world was created, 
 and will continue before Him for ever (chap, 
 xlviii.) This ' Elect One ' is to sit on the throne 
 of glory and. dwell among His saints; heaven and 
 earth would be removed, and only the saints would 
 abide on the renewed earth (chap, xlv.) He is 
 mighty in all the secrets of righteousness, and un- 
 righteousness would jlee as a shadow, because His 
 glory looked from eternity to eternity, and His 
 power from generation to generation (chap, xlix.) 
 Then would the Earth, Hades, and Hell give up 
 their dead, and Messiah, sitting on His throne, 
 would select and own the just, and open up all the 
 secrets of wisdom, amidst the universal joy of 
 ransomed earth" (chaps, li., Ixi., Ixii.) 
 
 The remarks of Ewald on the Book of Enoch are 
 so full of interest that it will be well to introduce 
 them here at length. "The anxious inquiry into 
 the course and issue of human history, and the 
 zealous search for the finger of God in the great 
 stages both of past and future, even in separate 
 events, had been from the first in Israel a true pro- 
 phetic task. But the attempt to adapt, with a 
 certain nicety, the period of the past to an appar-
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 157 
 
 ently sacred and Divine member, in order to infer 
 from it with the more confidence a Divine termina- 
 tion of their sufferings and trials, only came into 
 fashion in those last centuries, in the complete 
 extinction of the living prophetic ministry. For 
 in this age the long and seemingly unproductive 
 lapse of time during which the Messianic expecta- 
 tion was awaiting its fulfilment had given to this 
 hope a greater tension and solicitude, while the 
 historical survey of all ages embraced a much wider 
 scope and was much better trained ; and the pro- 
 phetic writer, because he could be nothing more 
 than a writer, had now more leisure and induce- 
 ment for the learned pursuit of such historical con- 
 templations. The longer the accomplishment of 
 the Messianic hope was delayed, the further did 
 the prophetic historical survey, impelled by a sort 
 of internal necessity, extend itself over the remotest 
 past, as though it could find no rest until it 
 reached the two extreme limits of universal history 
 itself. Some of the authors of the Book of Enoch, 
 accordingly, have striven to fathom the primeval 
 ages of Christianity. Amid these they have fixed 
 their gaze chiefly on the appearance and spiritual 
 significance of Enoch, distinguished in the most 
 wonderful way among the patriarchs of this earliest 
 epoch of the world. As the first pious man, stand-
 
 158 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 ing at the highest stage of holiness, and living not 
 too long before the Flood, he seemed the fittest to 
 discourse with deep emphasis from his distant and 
 elevated point, covering the sins of the whole 
 world and their consequences, to describe in grand 
 pictures the steps of universal history pre-deter- 
 inined from eternity down to its anticipated end ; 
 and to set forth the ultimate advent of the Messi- 
 anic salvation as certain to arrive, even though late, 
 and not till after many and long vicissitudes. At 
 the same time one writer specially avails himself 
 of the opportunity, as Enoch had once been known 
 as the protector of all deeper inquiry and know- 
 ledge, and had consequently been himself regarded 
 as the first great sage of the world, to make him 
 proclaim, as though it was the result of his own 
 experience, a sort of deeper view into the whole 
 structure of the universe and the realm of spirits. 
 This noble grasp of all the wonders of history and 
 of the spiritual and physical world, and the at- 
 tempt to combine all these departments more 
 perfectly together, and employ them collectively 
 for exhortation, constitute the second novelty in 
 this book. The great diffuseness which naturally 
 results, especially in comparison with the rapid 
 verity of the Book of Daniel, proves that in the 
 form in which we now have it the book is, as it
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 159 
 
 were, the precipitate of a literature, once very 
 active, which revolved in this age round Enoch. 
 Though, however, his exhortations flow on in a 
 broad stream, they are, at the same time, well 
 calculated to seize and terrify the mind ; and it is 
 these, together with the fragments and signs of 
 secret wisdom which it contains, that must have 
 procured for it a very large number of readers in 
 that day. It succeeded in hitting off with suffi- 
 cient power what there was to be said at the time ; 
 and its earliest portions, which appeared in fugi- 
 tive leaves, are directed with the utmost keenness 
 against the heathen potentates and their allies " 
 
 (v. pp. 347-349). 
 
 Another relic of the pre-Christian times is the 
 small w r ork called " The Psalter of Solomon" 
 This is a collection of eighteen hymns, which have 
 been evidently composed on the model of the 
 canonical Psalms, and although in a Greek version, 
 as they have come down to us, are supposed by 
 the critics to have been originally written in 
 Hebrew. Some, as Ewald, have dated them as 
 early as the time of the Maccabees, but the greatest 
 weight of opinion inclines to a later period, about 
 fifty years before Christ. The wail of national 
 depression is distinctly heard in these hymns. But 
 at the same time the spirit of the Pharisee breathes
 
 160 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 in them. Although they were composed after the 
 heat of the great struggle was over, they bear 
 traces of the patriotic uprising of the second cen- 
 tury. But the most remarkable feature of these 
 strains is their Messianic character. In the eleventh 
 Psalm there is an anticipation of the kingdom of 
 Messiah. In the seventeenth and eighteenth, 
 there is a prolonged description of the hope of 
 Israel, and how it will be realised. The following 
 particulars may be gathered from this poetic lan- 
 guage. The expected Messiah was to be a King of 
 the House of David ; He is the Son of David. He 
 will come at a time of which God alone knows, 
 and He will reign as a King over Israel. In char- 
 acter He will be perfect, a righteous King who is 
 taught of God. In the Greek version, it is remark- 
 able that the language should correspond exactly 
 with that of the Septuagint for the name of the 
 expected King is said to be Christ the Lord (xpia-ros 
 Kvpios) (cf. LXX. Lam. iv. 20). Another striking 
 element in the description is the absolute purity 
 ascribed to the Messiah. "He is pure from sin" 
 and is able to banish sinners by His Word. 
 "Never in His days will He be infirm towards 
 His God, since God renders Him strong in the 
 Holy Ghost, wise in counsel, with might and right- 
 eousness. The blessing of the Lord being upon
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 161 
 
 Him, He does not fail. This is the beauty of the 
 King of Israel, whom God hath chosen, to set 
 Him over the house of Israel, to rule it. Thus 
 invincible, not by outward might, but in His 
 God, He will bring His people the blessings of 
 restoration to their tribal possessions and of righte- 
 ousness, but break in pieces His enemies, not by 
 outward weapons, but by the word of His mouth, 
 purify Jerusalem, and judge the nations, who will 
 be subject to His rule, and behold and own His 
 glory" (see especially Psalm xvii. vers. 25, 35, 
 36, 41, 43, 47). Ewald thinks that these striking 
 Psalms were certainly the work of a single poet. 
 "Amid the ashes of the Messianic hopes, which had 
 slumbered for centuries, they were kindled anew 
 with the most marvellous glow, and in not adduc- 
 ing the utterances of similar expectations at an 
 earlier date, these songs do but testify to the 
 greater purity and force which mark the inward- 
 ness and warmth of the resurrection of these hopes 
 as they are presented here. On the whole, the 
 songs are certainly, in many passages, only an 
 echo of various pieces in the Old Testament, and 
 their beauty simply consists in their great sim- 
 plicity and sincerity; but they afford the most 
 striking evidence of the vigour with which much 
 
 that was finest and most lasting in the contents of 
 
 L
 
 162 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the Old Testament was striving to reappear in 
 outward life." These remarks of the critic, which 
 are made on the supposition that the book dates 
 about a century and a half before Christ, have still 
 greater force if the time of its publication must be 
 placed a century later for the political degene- 
 racy of the nation proceeded at a rapid rate, and 
 after the introduction of the Romans on the scene, 
 and the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey, it is very 
 full of significance that there should be a writer 
 capable of so much genuine Old Testament feeling ; 
 calling upon his contemporaries to recognise that 
 their sufferings were due to their violation of the 
 covenant and their departure from the true stan- 
 dard of Judaism, and pointing to the Hope of 
 Messiah as the one true consolation of Israel, to 
 which all were invited to cling. 
 
 We have some direct evidence in addition to the 
 language of this book, the Psalter of Solomon, in 
 the character ascribed to Anna, the prophetess, and 
 the aged Simeon, in the reference made to them 
 in St. Luke's Gospel (ii. 25-38). Anna had at- 
 tended for eighty years in the Temple with fast- 
 ing and prayer, waiting for the appearance of the 
 Messiah. We cannot doubt that there were, as we 
 shall see in a later chapter, in Judea at least, a 
 number of faithful souls who were imbued with the
 
 GROWTH OP THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION". 163 
 
 same expectation. Josephus himself acknowledges 
 that, for years before the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 such a state of mind was widespread in the nation. 
 Why should we not regard the Psalter of Solo- 
 mon as proceeding from such a remnant of the 
 people, actuated by a lively faith, and encouragiug 
 one another to find in their ancient Scriptures the 
 hope which they could not find in their external 
 condition ? No doubt there were great differences 
 among those who entertained such expectations. 
 Some were mere political zealots and dreamers, 
 others were deeply religious students of the Word 
 of God and Israelites indeed, like Nathaniel; but 
 the evidence of the fact that the nation was per- 
 vaded with the Messianic idea is not invalidated 
 by the signs of division and separation between 
 the true and the false Israel. We must notice, 
 therefore, before leaving this subject, the language 
 of the Eabbinical writers, much of which, no 
 doubt, was written down after the Christian era, 
 but none the less bearing witness to the state of 
 mind which prevailed before the advent of Messiah. 
 It has already been observed that the Targums or 
 Chaldee paraphrases are, for the most part, of later 
 date than the New Testament. That of Onkelos, 
 however, which is on the Pentateuch, is now gene- 
 rally admitted to be before our era ; that of Jonathan
 
 164 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 is not very much later. The familiar passages in 
 the Old Testament, which we are accustomed to 
 apply to the Messiah, were plainly so interpreted 
 by the Je.ws themselves at that time, as, e.g., Gen. 
 iii. 15 : "It shall bruise thy head, and thou sbalfc 
 bruise his heel;" Gen. xlix. 10 : "The sceptre shall 
 not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 
 his feet, until Shiloh come." Modern Jews would 
 fain interpret the word "sceptre" as meaning rod of 
 chastisement, that is, that Judah shall be punished 
 for rebellion until Shiloh come ; but both Onkelos 
 and Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum in addi- 
 tion, confirm the Christian view. The prophecy of 
 Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 17) is thus rendered by On- 
 kelos : "A king shall rise out of the house of Jacob, 
 and the Messiah shall be accounted out of the house 
 of Israel, who shall rule over all the sous of men." 
 Targum Jonathan is substantially the same. Mai- 
 monides says : " A sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 
 this is the King Messiah, and shall smite the corners 
 of Moab ; this is David, as it is written (2 Sam. 
 viii. 2), And he smote Moab, &c. And He shall 
 bear rule over the children of Seth ; this is the 
 King Messiah, of whom it is written (Psalm Ixxii. 
 8), He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and 
 from the river to the ends of the earth (Tract, 
 Melakin, chap. xi. sect. i)." The same coincidence
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 1G5 
 
 between the Christian and Jewish interpretations 
 may be seen in such passages as Isaiah ix. 6, 7 ; 
 xi., lii., liii. ; Micah v. 2 ; Psalms ii., xiv., Ixxii. ; 
 and other instances might be easily adduced. It 
 has been remarked, as a proof of the general ap- 
 plication of such passages to the Messiah by the 
 Jews of the time preceding the Christian era, that 
 works which came from the Eabbinical school after 
 the appearance of the Gospels rather exalted than 
 lowered the conception of Messiah's dignity. Had 
 such views been inconsistent with the traditional 
 ideas they would certainly not have been published. 
 What the prevailing ideas were we may see from 
 such a work as the Apocalypse of Baruch, pub- 
 lished about 100 A.D., or from the Fourth Book of 
 Esdras (2 Esdras in the Apocrypha). The Eabbis 
 said, in the Midrash on Prov. viii. 9, that there 
 were seven things created before the world the 
 Throne of Glory, Messiah, the King, the Thorah, 
 ideal Israel, the Temple, Repentance, and Gehenna. 
 " In the Talmud," says Dr. Edersheim, " it is not 
 only implied that the Messiah may already be 
 among the living, but a strange story is related, 
 according to which He had actually been born in 
 the royal palace at Bethlehem, bore the name of the 
 Comforter, was discovered by one Eabbi Judan by 
 a peculiar device, but had been carried away by a
 
 166 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 storm. Similarly, the Babylon Talmud represents 
 Him as sitting at the gate of Imperial Eome. In 
 general, the idea of the Messiah's appearance and 
 concealment is familiar to Jewish tradition." There 
 are many passages which teach the pre-existence 
 and the premundane existence of Messiah, that He 
 should subdue Satan, and cast him into hell. The 
 life and work of Moses is taken as typical of that 
 of the Messiah, and it is declared that He would 
 be "greater than the Patriarchs, higher than Moses, 
 and even loftier than the ministering angels." The 
 teaching of the Rabbis was the teaching of the syna- 
 gogue. We cannot doubt that what was inserted 
 in the Talmud, though exaggerated in language, 
 was regarded as representing the tradition of pre- 
 ceding ages. The Jewish Church was filled with 
 the expectation of Messiah. Those who rejected 
 altogether the Christian facts did not dare to meet 
 them with the bold denial that they corresponded 
 with Old Testament predictions. Rather they set 
 over against the cross of Christ, which condemned 
 the Rabbinical spirit, the old views which they 
 would not admit had been proved erroneous by 
 the history of their people, and which would yet 
 be vindicated by a future manifestation of the true 
 Messiah. 
 
 There was a sceptical school, no doubt, among
 
 GROWTH OF THE MESSIANIC EXPECTATION. 1G7 
 
 the Jews, and there were worldly-minded men like 
 Josephus, who made light of the ancient prophe- 
 cies, but they did not represent the strict and 
 devout Scribes rather they were those who came 
 under the influence of foreign nations, and resigned 
 the exalted hope of their fathers for the sake of 
 sordid advantages and the favour of princes. 
 
 The language of Josephus (Jewish War, bk. vi. 
 chap, v.) is itself his condemnation, for that any 
 intelligent reader of the Old Testament should so 
 speak of Messianic hopes plainly proves that he is 
 either wilfully blind or culpably ignorant. " There 
 was an ambitious prophecy," he says, "found in 
 the Sacred Books, that about those times One shall 
 arise out of their own borders and put the whole 
 world under His obedience. Which they, indeed, 
 applied as peculiar to themselves, and several wise 
 men were deceived in the gloss they put upon the 
 passages. For the prophecy meant no more than 
 Vespasian's empire, who was declared emperor in 
 Judea." Josephus would have his readers believe 
 that the Jews founded their hopes on a single pre- 
 diction. He was writing to please the powers that 
 were, and he knew that he was misrepresenting 
 the Old Testament. There were some, however, 
 who, without being corrupt and degenerate, like 
 Josephus, were yet sophisticated by the influence
 
 168 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 of heathen speculation and an attempt to accommo- 
 date the ideas of Judaism to the current philosophy 
 of the world. By their exceptional position they 
 enable us to see all the more distinctly that the 
 strict Jews of Palestine were still, even though 
 unintentionally so, witnesses to the Divine idea 
 embodied in their nation. The light which glowed 
 on the horizon of the Jewish Church foretold the 
 rising of the Sun of Righteousness.
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 169 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 
 
 TN studying the state of the Jewish Church during 
 the period which intervened between the close 
 of the Scripture canon and the ccming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, one of the most suggestive and help- 
 ful facts is the rise of The Jewish Sanhedrim. 
 This great council or court was certainly in exist- 
 ence at the time of Christ, but it was by no means 
 what it had been at previous periods. It was shorn 
 of much of its power. The claims which it put 
 forth are obscure ; and beyond the fact that it 
 could be called together, and in an emergency 
 sought to exercise something like its former juris- 
 diction, we are not able to ascertain much. Whether 
 the power of life and death was ever, properly speak- 
 iog, in the hands of the council, as a council, we 
 can scarcely decide. The reference to such a power, 
 as no longer legally claimed, may have been a wil- 
 ful confusion, in the language of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees, between the judicial powers of ancient
 
 1 70 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 times and the supposed identification of the Sanhe- 
 drim with the Courts of Justice. No doubt such 
 powers had been exercised by the Sanhedrim, but 
 it was at a time when they were mere creatures of 
 heathen rulers, who would put their own agents 
 at their head. 
 
 We have already, in another place, referred to 
 the tradition which existed among the Jews, that 
 Ezra called together a number of learned and 
 devout men to assist him in his work of religious 
 and national reformation. They were called The 
 Great Synagogue. Simon the Just is said to have 
 been the last of that body, the meetings of which 
 would probably cease when the condition of Pales- 
 tine became politically unfavourable to them. It is 
 impossible to trace the links of connection between 
 such a body and the Sanhedrim. There is no 
 evidence that any decisions were placed on record 
 or that any meetings were held after the time of 
 Malachi. But there would naturally be occasions 
 when the leading men in Jerusalem would be called 
 together for deliberation, and there is some refer- 
 ence to such occasions to be found in the Books of 
 the Maccabees (2 Mace. i. 10), "the Council," "the 
 Senate" (cf. iv. 44; xi. 27). The word "Sanhe- 
 drim " is not the word employed in these references, 
 but Tepova-ia. It was not necessarily a religious
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 171 
 
 body of which the historian speaks. The name 
 "Sanhedrim" although it is formed after the 
 Hebrew, is certainly nothing else than the ordinary 
 Greek word Zvtfefyuov, and the fact that the Eabbis, 
 notwithstanding their desire to give ancient pres- 
 tige to the Sanhedrim, have been unable to derive 
 the name from any Hebrew word, clearly proves 
 that it had its origin in the Greek period, and pro- 
 bably, as a distinct assembly, did not exist before 
 200 B.C. It is an attested fact (see Livy xiv. 32) 
 that the Macedonian name for such a council was 
 " Sunedroin" which became " Sanhedrim " amono- 
 
 * . o 
 
 the Jews. 
 
 But the Eabbinical writers have done their best 
 to connect their council with precedents which have 
 Scripture authority. The miserable failure of such 
 an attempt is sufficient evidence of the lack of his- 
 torical authority. Had it been possible to trace 
 the antecedents of the Sanhedrim, no doubt we 
 should have found them in the Talmud, but instead 
 of that we have passages adduced out of the Penta- 
 teuch, which every most superficial reader can see 
 have no relevance whatever to the subject. One 
 passage referred to is Exodus xviii. 24-26, the 
 appointment of judges over Israel by Moses at the 
 suggestion of Jethro. Another is Deuteronomy 
 xvii. 9, where the command is " Thou shalt come
 
 172 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge 
 that shall be in those days, and inquire." In Hil- 
 choth Mamrim (chap. i. i) we read, "The Great 
 Council in Jerusalem is the foundation-stone of 
 the Oral Law and the pillars of the doctrine ; and 
 from them the statute and the judgment go forth 
 to all Israel. They have, the warrant of the Law, 
 for it is said, 'According to the sentence of the 
 Law which they shall teach thee/ &c. ; which is an 
 affirmative precept, and every one who believes in 
 Moses, our master, and in his Law, is bound to rest 
 the practice of the Law on them, and to lean on 
 them." The other passage on which great stress is 
 laid is Numbers xi. 16, the appointment by Moses 
 of the seventy elders. Hilchoth Sanhedrim, ch. i. 
 2, " How many councils (or tribunals) ought to be 
 established in Israel, and of how many members 
 ought they to consist ? Ans. The great council in 
 the Temple called the Great Sanhedrim ought to 
 be established first, and the number of its members 
 ought to be seventy-one ; for it is said, ' Gather 
 unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel ; ' and 
 to them Moses is to be added, as it is said, ' And 
 they shall stand there with thee.' This makes 
 seventy-one." 
 
 In the same work we read, " A king is not to 
 be appointed except by the decision of the Great
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 173 
 
 Council of Seventy -one. The minor councils 
 through the tribes and towns are not to be 
 established except by the Council of Seventy-one. 
 Judgment is not to be passed on a tribe that has 
 been entirely seduced, nor upon a false prophet, 
 nor upon a high priest in capital cases, except by 
 the Great Council. (In mere money matters the 
 tribunal of three is competent.) In like manner 
 an elder is not declared rebellious, nor a city dealt 
 with as seduced, nor the water-bitters administered 
 to the suspected adulteress, except by the Great 
 Council. Neither is an addition made to the city 
 nor to the courts. Neither are armies led forth to 
 the wars of permission ; nor the elders led forth to 
 measure in case of a slain person (Deut. xxi. i, &c.), 
 except by command of the Great Council, for it is 
 said, ' Every great matter they shall bring to thee ' ' 
 (Exod. xviii. 22). The reasoning by which the 
 Rabbis try to support the authority of the Sanhe- 
 drim, and so of the Oral Law, is nothing better 
 than a tissue of absurdities and falsehoods. In one 
 case they suppose a person living in the time of 
 Moses to be also living in the time of David. And 
 they leap one great period of two hundred years 
 without pretending to prove that there was any 
 council in existence. But it may be admitted that 
 there probably were some lingering remains of the
 
 174 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 Great Synagogue in the Greek period, and that the 
 assembly spoken of in the first Book of Maccabees, 
 which conferred the supreme power on Simon, 
 father of John Hyrcanus, was the same council 
 that was subsequently styled the Sanhedrim. " At 
 Saramel in the Great Congregation of the priests 
 and people and rulers of the nation and elders of 
 the country were these things notified unto us." 
 So was it written on the tables of brass set upon 
 pillars in Mount Zion, after Simon had confirmed 
 his league with the Koman Senate. There are 
 coins on which the Sanhedrim is described as the 
 Chebber or Senate of the Jews. John Hyrcanus 
 was Greek in his sympathies, and adopted the title 
 'lovSa (SacnXevs. His successor, Alexander Jannseus, 
 quarrelled with the leading party among the Jews, 
 who were Pharisees, but on his death-bed recom- 
 mended his wife Salome to trust true Pharisees, 
 while she avoided the painted ones. Salome ac- 
 cordingly gave them such privileges during her 
 reign of nine years that they ultimately ventured 
 to summon her son Hyrcanus II. before their 
 tribunal. It was on that occasion that the name 
 "Sanhedrim" was first given. Previous to that 
 time, whatever council there was, was not called 
 by the Greek name, but by the Jewish, the Great 
 Synagogue or the House of Judgment (Beth Din).
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 175 
 
 In the days of Herod we find a notice of the 
 Sanhedrim which shows that they had little real 
 power, though still the show of it. In the year 
 47 B.C., Herod, who was then governor of Galilee, 
 had ventured to put to death some Jewish 
 robbers, and was called before the council that he 
 might be rebuked for his presumption. Hyrcanus, 
 the ruling high priest, as the president of the- 
 council, yielded to the entreaties of the mothers of 
 the victims and summoned the offender before the 
 Sanhedrim. Josephus tells us that Herod appeared 
 surrounded with armed men, and that Sextus, the 
 prefect of Syria, sent a letter to Hyrcanus calling 
 upon him to renounce the trial. The Sanhedrim 
 therefore dismissed him without pronouncing any 
 punishment on his crimes. " One of the council, 
 Samceus, told them plainly that they would repent 
 of their leniency, and when Herod had fixed him- 
 self in the kingdom he slew every one presiding in 
 this court, nay, and Hyrcanus himself, but excepted 
 Samceus, who, for his extraordinary moderation 
 and justice, he held in great honour, and because 
 when Herod and Sextus laid siege to Jerusalem he 
 was the only person who admonished the citizens 
 to receive Herod, representing that as they were 
 so very wicked it was next to an impossibility 
 to escape falling into his power." The judges in
 
 176 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the Sanhedrim were exceedingly mortified that 
 Herod escaped, but we may see in the whole occur- 
 rence a proof that their power was already gone, 
 and that henceforth they would confine their atten- 
 tion almost entirely to ecclesiastical matters. (See 
 Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 9.) 
 
 It is, however, to the influence of the Sanhedrim 
 on the religious views of the people, and its con- 
 nection with the growth of Rabbinical opinion, that 
 we must now turn. It seems probable that the 
 extreme arrogance of their tone, as the assumed 
 teachers and authorised religious rulers, was the 
 quite late development of the fifty years imme- 
 diately preceding our Lord, when the purer spirit 
 of the patriotic Asmoneans had died out and the 
 Pharisaic party had degenerated into a school of 
 self-righteous dogmatists and ritualists. It was 
 about the time of Herod that the title "Rabbi" 
 came into use, a lengthened form of the title 
 " Rob" which no doubt was adopted from the old 
 Hebrew or Chaldee, meaning chief or prince, and 
 was common in compound words, as we see in 
 Rabshakeh, Eabmag, Rabsaris, &c. The applica- 
 tion of such a term to religious teachers points to 
 the usurpation of authority and political power by 
 the Sanhedrim. There were two chief officers in 
 the council, the President and the Vice- President.
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 177 
 
 The Latter was the "Father of the House of Judg- 
 ment" i.e., the president over that portion of the 
 council which sat as a court in ordinary cases. 
 The chief man, however, was called the Prince, or 
 " Nasi," and the fact that the council had two 
 heads, or presidents, led to the distinction of 
 schools which subsequently arose. Each head 
 gathered round him a number of followers, who 
 gave special heed to his judgments and upheld his 
 authority. It is on the ground of these appoint- 
 ments that the later Eabbis endeavour to place the 
 authority of their tradition. They carry back the 
 line of eminent teachers as far as Simon the Just. 
 He delivered the tradition to Antigonus of Socho. 
 Antigonus of Socho handed it on to Joses Ben 
 Joezer and Joseph Ben Jochanan, which were the 
 first of the "couples." After that time they set 
 forth a succession of "couples," although they are 
 quite unable to make out a chronological order. 
 We have Joshua Ben Perachiah and Nathan the 
 Arbelite, Simeon Ben Shetach and Jehuah Ben 
 Tabbai, Shemaiah and Abtalion, Hillel and Sham- 
 mai. Shemaiah and Abtalion are said to have 
 been proselytes and brothers, descended from 
 Sennacherib, King of Assyria, by an Israelite 
 woman, and to have perished in the great slaughter 
 
 M
 
 178 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 of the Sanhedrim, perpetrated by Herod in revenge 
 for their severity towards him. 
 
 A great gap of more than a hundred years is found 
 between those men of the time of Herod and their 
 predecessors of the time of the Maccabees, plainly 
 showing that the line of succession is a mere fabri- 
 cation previous to the time of Hillel and Shammai. 
 Josephus (Ant. xiv. 9, 4) refers to two men, Pollio 
 and Sammoeas, whom some have identified with 
 Abtalion and Shemaiah, others with Hillel and 
 Shammai. It seems as though Abtalion was a 
 mythical personage, and was really identical with 
 Hillel. At all events, we can certify that Hillel 
 and Shammai were the two presidents of the 
 council in the time of Herod. Hillel is said to 
 have been descended, on his mother's side, from 
 King David, through Shephatiah, the son of Abital, 
 David's wife. He was an eminently learned man, 
 and is placed by the Eabbis in the chief place of 
 their ancient authority. For forty years he was 
 president of the Sanhedrim, and was succeeded by 
 his lineal descendants in the same offices, amongst 
 whom were Simeon, who took the infant Jesus into 
 his arms in the Temple and sung his " Nunc 
 Dimittis" and Gamaliel, at whose feet the Apostle 
 Paul sat, and before whom, as President, the 
 apostles were summoned (Acts v. 34). " Gamaliel
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 1 79 
 
 the old " he was called, because he survived to the 
 eighteenth year before the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 A descendant of Hillel, Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh, 
 was the author of the Mishna. Hillel was born in 
 Babylonia, and resided there until he was forty 
 years old, when he removed to Jerusalem. He 
 then devoted himself to the study of the Penta- 
 teuch, and became so eminent that at eighty years 
 of age he was made President of the Council, 
 living, it is said, to the extreme old age of one 
 hundred and twenty years. Some have dated his 
 presidency 30 B.C., but this has been probably in 
 order to make it exactly one hundred years from 
 the destruction of Jerusalem. The name of 
 Manahem occurs in Josephus, as contemporary 
 with Hillel. He is said to have been withdrawn 
 by Herod's influence into court life, and been suc- 
 ceeded by Shammai, who was a scholar of Hillel. 
 The scholar soon became the rival of the master. 
 The followers of each disputed with those of the 
 opposite school. They differed on many points, 
 and some have maintained that their spirit was 
 diverse, that Hillel was of a mild and conciliatory 
 disposition, and that Sbammai was very prejudiced 
 and violent. In order to help their theory of 
 authority the Eabbis have introduced the fiction of 
 a Divine voice from heaven, sent to give decision
 
 180 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 between the two disputants and their followers. 
 Dr. Edersheim, however, is of opinion that in both 
 respects scholars have been misled. "It is not 
 correct," he says, " to describe Hillel as consistently 
 the more liberal and mild. The teaching of both 
 was supposed to have been declared by the ' Voice 
 from heaven ' (the Bath-Kol), as ' the words of the 
 living God ; ' yet the Law was to be henceforth 
 according to the teaching of Hillel." 
 
 Dr. Stanley has given an interesting account of 
 Hillel, though it rests only on tradition. " Like 
 Ezra, to whom his countrymen often compared 
 him, Hillel belonged to the vast Babylonian settle- 
 ment. Unlike Ezra, he was not of the priestly 
 class ; but like One who was shortly to come after 
 him, descended from the house of David ; and, like 
 that other One, a humble workman, drawn to Jeru- 
 salem only by the thirst for ' hearing and asking 
 questions.' He came with his brother Shebna, 
 and worked for the scanty remuneration of half a 
 denarius, the coin known in Latin as ' victoriatus,' 
 in Greek as 'tropaicon,' from the figure of the 
 goddess Victory upon it. This he divided between 
 the pay for his lodgings and the pay to the door- 
 keeper of the school where Shemaiah and Abtalion 
 taught. On a certain occasion, when he had failed 
 in his work, the churlish doorkeeper would not let
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 181 
 
 him enter. It was the eve of the Sabbath, there 
 were no lights stirring, and he took advantage of 
 the darkness to climb to the window-sill to listen. 
 It was a winter night, and the listening youth was 
 first benumbed and then buried three cubits deep 
 under a heavy snowfall. As the day dawned, 
 Shemaiah turned to his colleague and said, 'Dear 
 brother Abtalion, why is our school so dark this 
 morning ? ' They turned to the window and found 
 it darkened by a motionless human form, en- 
 veloped in the snowflakes. They brought him 
 down, bathed, rubbed him with oil, placed him 
 before the fire in short, broke for his sake their 
 Sabbatical repose, saying, ' Surely he must be 
 worth a violation of the Sabbath ! ' He was, in 
 regard to the traditionary lore, what Ezra was sup- 
 posed to have been in regard to the written Law. 
 He it was who collected and codified the floating 
 maxims which guided the schools" (iii. 447). 
 
 In an interesting excursus to his " Life of 
 Christ," Archdeacon Farrar gives several of the 
 Rabbinical stories about Hillel, which, however, 
 must be received with the utmost caution. "VVe 
 cannot even accept the general tone of them as 
 indicating the breadth or mildness of Hillel as a 
 teacher, for there can be no doubt at all that the 
 Eabbis were greatly influenced by Christian senti-
 
 182 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 ments, being desirous of proving that their great 
 Rabbi, who preceded Jesus of Nazareth, was the 
 source of all that was good in the Saviour's doc- 
 trine. The school of Hillel was the majority, and 
 Dr. Edersheim thinks that "generally only one side 
 of his character has been presented by writers, and 
 even this in greatly exaggerated language. His 
 much-lauded gentleness, peacefulness, and charity, 
 were rather negative than positive qualities. He 
 was a philosophic Rabbi, whose real interest lay 
 in a far other direction than that of sympathy with 
 the people, and whose motto seemed indeed to im- 
 ply, ' We, the sages, are the people of God ; but this 
 people, who know not the Law, are cursed.' The 
 school of Hillel, which henceforth commanded the 
 majority, were men of no political colour, theo- 
 logical theorists, self-seeking jurists, vain rather 
 than ambitious. The two schools of the Hillelites 
 and the Shammaites were violently opposed and 
 on occasion came to blows." 
 
 It is difficult, says Dr. Edersheim, to ascertain 
 what occurred, but the Shammaites had the majority 
 of votes, and eighteen decrees were passed in which 
 the two schools agreed, eighteen questions were 
 carried by a majority, and eighteen remained un- 
 decided. " In general, the tendency of these 
 eighteen decrees was of a most violently anti-
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 183 
 
 Gentile, intolerant, and exclusive character. Yet 
 such value was attached to them, that while any 
 other decree of the sages might be altered by a 
 more grave, learned, and authoritative assembly, 
 these eighteen decrees might not, under any cir- 
 cumstances, be modified" (ii. 14). "Although the 
 school of Hillel was supposed in general to make 
 the yoke lighter, and that of Shammai heavier, 
 yet not only did they agree on many points, but 
 the school of Hillel was not unfrequently even 
 more strict than that of his rival. (Twenty- four 
 points are mentioned.) In truth, their differ- 
 ences seem often only prompted by a spirit of 
 opposition, so that the serious business of religion 
 became in their hands one of rival authority and 
 mere wrangling. (Many, very many of these are 
 so utterly trivial and absurd, that only the hair- 
 splitting ingenuity of theologians can account for 
 them ; others so profane that it is difficult to 
 understand how any religion could co-exist with 
 them " (vol. ii. p. 407). 
 
 The remarks of Dr. Stanley may be placed beside 
 these, and the more favourable view which he gives 
 of Hillel will be received the more carefully as it 
 is seen to be modified by that of Jewish scholars. 
 " At first sight, as we turn the dreary pages of 
 the Mishna, there seems to be little to choose be-
 
 184 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 tween Hillel and Shammai. Their disputes turn, 
 for the most part, on points so infinitely little that 
 the small controversies of ritual and dogma which 
 have vexed the soul of Christendom, seem great in 
 comparison. They are worth recording only as 
 accounting for the obscurity into which they have 
 fallen, and also because Churches of all ages and 
 creeds may be instructed by the reflection that 
 questions of the mode of eating and cooking, 
 and walking and sitting, seemed as important to 
 the teachers of Israel on the eve of their nation's 
 destruction, and of the greatest religious revolution 
 that the world has seen as the questions of dress 
 or posture, or modes of appointment, or verbal 
 formulas, have seemed to contending schools of 
 Christian theology. But in the darkness of the 
 Rabbinical schools of Palestine, Hillel was, as it 
 were, the morning star of the bright dawn that was 
 rising in the hills of Galilee. It has been reserved 
 for modern times to recognise this extraordinary 
 merit. The teacher over whom both Josephus and 
 Eusebius pass without word, saw further than any 
 other man of his generation into the heart and 
 essence of religion. In him the freedom, the eleva- 
 tion, the latitude which had breathed through the 
 poetic imagery and grand idealism of the psalmists 
 and prophets in the days of the higher inspirations
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 185 
 
 of Judaism, now expressed themselves for the first 
 time in the direct practical maxims of what we 
 may call the modern thought of the Herodian, the 
 Augustan age. Even amidst the trivial casuistry 
 and ceremonial etiquettes which furnish the mate- 
 rials for the larger part of Hillel's decisions, they 
 lean, not indeed invariably, but as a general rule, 
 to the more liberal and spiritual side, and they 
 encourage the rights of the congregation and the 
 nation as against the claims of a grasping sacer- 
 dotal caste. And even when he appeared to submit, 
 he introduced, if he did not create, a logical pro- 
 cess by which, under a peculiar name acquired in 
 his hands (Prosbol), he contrived to minimise the 
 stringent effects, not only of the tradition, but 
 of the Law itself. But there are sayings which 
 tower not only far above those questions of tithes, 
 anise, and cummin, into the weightier matters of 
 the Law, but above the merely presidential aphor- 
 isms of the earlier Rabbis, and which must have 
 created around them an atmosphere not only in 
 which they themselves could live and be appre- 
 ciated, but which must have rendered more possible 
 both the origination and the acceptance of any 
 other sayings of a kindred nature in that other 
 coming age. " Be gentle as Hillel and not harsh 
 as Shammai," was the proverb which marked the
 
 186 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 final estimate of the latitudinarian compared witli 
 the rigorist teacher, when the spirit of partisanship 
 had cooled before the calmer judgment of posterity. 
 Two practical sayings alone have survived of the 
 sterile teaching of Shammai. " Let thy repetition 
 of the law be at a fixed hour," was the hard and 
 fast line by which his disciples were to be bound 
 down, as by an inexorable necessity, to the punc- 
 tual reading of the Sacred Book, as of a breviary, 
 at hours never to be lost sight of. " Speak little 
 and do much, but do what thou hast to do with a 
 cheerful countenance." That voice has a touching 
 accent, as though he felt that the frequent profes- 
 sions and austere demeanour which were congenial 
 to his natural disposition might perchance prove a 
 stumbling-block to the cause which \vas dear to 
 him. But when from these " scrannel pipes " of 
 Shammai we turn to his less popular but more 
 deeply beloved rival, we find ourselves listening 
 to strains of a far higher mood. "Be of Aaron's 
 disciples, who loved peace, pursued peace, loved all 
 creatures, and attracted them towards the Law." 
 Although not a priest himself, and by his position 
 thrown into antagonism to the order, he yet had 
 the rare merit of seeing in an ancient institution 
 the better side of its traditions and its capabilities, 
 and of commending it to his countrymen. " He
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 187 
 
 who makes his own name famous, and does not 
 increase in wisdom, shall perish. He who learns 
 nothing is as though he has done something worthy 
 of death. He who makes a profit of the crowning 
 glory of a teacher's place, away with him ! " This 
 represents the religious passion for mental improve- 
 ment the sacred duty of diligence, which carries 
 within it the stimulus of all modern science, the 
 true ideal of the " scholar." It shows also the 
 Socratic disinterestedness in imparting knowledge 
 transplanted into a sphere where it will give birth 
 to one of the most striking characteristics of a 
 future apostle. " If I am not mine own, who is 
 mine ? Yet, if I am mine own, what am I ? And 
 if not now, when ? " It is one of those enigmas 
 in which, from the time of Solomon downwards, 
 the Jewish sages delighted, yet full of deep mean- 
 ing. It expresses the threefold mission placed 
 before the human soul the call to absolute inde- 
 pendence, the worthlessness of selfish isolation, 
 the necessity of immediate exertion to fortify the 
 one and to correct the other. " Had Hillel," says 
 Ewald, " left us but this single saying, we should 
 be for ever grateful to him, for scarce anything 
 can be said more briefly, more profoundly, or more 
 earnestly." A heathen came to Shammai, and 
 begged to be taught the whole Law while he stood
 
 188 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 on one foot. Shammai, indignant at the thought 
 that the Law could be taught so simply and so 
 shortly, drove him forth with the staff which he 
 held in his hand. The Gentile went to Hillel, who 
 accepted him, and said, " What thou wouldst not 
 thyself, do not to thy neighbour. This is the 
 whole Law, and its application is, Go and do this I 
 Wish not to be better than the whole community, 
 nor be confident of thyself till the day of thy death. 
 Think not of anything that it will not be heard, for 
 heard at last it surely will be ; think not that thou 
 canst calculate on the time when thou shalt have 
 anything, for how easily will it come to pass that 
 thou shalt never have it at all. The more meat 
 at his banquets a man hath, so much the more 
 is the food for worms ; the more wealth he hath, 
 so much the more care ; the more wives, so much 
 the more opening for superstition ; the more maid- 
 servants, so much the more temptation to license ; 
 the more slaves, so much the more room for plunder. 
 But the more of Law, so much the more of life ; 
 the more of schools, so much the more of wisdom ; 
 the more of counsel, so much the more of insight ; 
 the more of righteousness, so much the more of 
 peace. If a man gains a good name he gains it for 
 himself alone; if he gains a knowledge of the Law, 
 it is for eternal life." These are maxims which are
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 189 
 
 more than philosophical, they are almost Apos- 
 tolical. 
 
 Dr. Stanley has, however, followed too implicitly 
 the views of Ewald and others of the Germans, 
 and it must be remembered that much \vhich is 
 reported of Hillel has come to us through the Kab- 
 binical traditions, and cannot be received except 
 with the greatest reserve, especially as it was the 
 deliberate aim of the post- Christian Rabbis to set 
 off Hillel in opposition to Jesus, in which they 
 have been too much followed by the rationalistic 
 school of Germany. As Dr. Farrar has observed 
 " Hillel was undoubtedly a great and good man, 
 and he deserved the wail uttered over his grave 
 ' AL, the gentle, the holy, the scholar of Ezra ; ' 
 but to compare his teaching with that of the 
 Saviour is absurd. It was legal, casuistic, and 
 narrow, while that of Jesus was religious, moral, 
 and human. Let any candid reader consult the 
 translation of the Talmudic treatise Berachoth, by 
 M. Schwab, and see the kind of miserably minute 
 questions of infinitely little matters of formalism 
 which occupied the mind and life of Hillel, and 
 calmly consider the mixture of scorn and pity 
 with which Jesus would have treated the notion 
 that there was in such questions any intrinsic im- 
 portance. He will then be able to judge for him-
 
 190 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 self of the folly and untenability of the statement 
 that Hillel was the true master of Jesus " (" Life 
 of Christ," vol. ii. p. 460). 
 
 At the same time, making all abatement from 
 the exaggerated views of the Eabbis, it may be ad- 
 mitted that there appeared in the Sanhedrim, to- 
 wards the end of the period between the last of the 
 prophets and the advent of our Saviour, something 
 like a new spirit, a spirit of dissatisfaction with the 
 dead legalism of the past hundred years, and a 
 craving after a higher teaching and a freer life. 
 There was no room for such a spirit to expand 
 itself and grow into a living power in Judaism 
 so long as it was confined within the limits of 
 Eabbinical tradition. Hence it was that He who 
 came to set His people free, and open the gate of 
 righteousness to the world, was not a Kabbi, did 
 not teach as a so-called " Master in Israel ; " but, 
 on the other hand, received His appointment di- 
 rectly from God, by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
 and distinctly opposed His spiritual doctrine to 
 that which had been " said by them of old time." 
 The light which was in the Jewish Sanhedrim was 
 turned into darkness. But the night passed away, 
 and the True Light shone forth in the " Teacher 
 come from God," who did not "destroy the Law" 
 by the subtleties of a self-righteous pedantry, but
 
 THE JEWISH SANHEDRIM. 1.91 
 
 fulfilled it by the gracious freedom and inexhaus- 
 tible sufficiency of the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit 
 of Light and Love, cleansing, purifying, renewing 
 and saving, bringing forth the true Israel out of 
 the old, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of 
 heaven from God.
 
 192 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 are now drawing near, in our view of the 
 Jewish Church, the close of that long period 
 which separates the last of the prophets, Malachi, 
 from the advent of the Saviour. We have already 
 described the character of that remarkable revival 
 of Jewish sentiment and faith which was identified 
 with the patriotic efforts of the Maccabees, and 
 which continued for some time to animate the re- 
 ligious life of Palestine. But in proportion as this 
 religious revival was overshadowed by political dis- 
 order and depression, it changed its character and 
 became a narrow Eabbinism, which robbed Judaism 
 more and more of its best features, and cut it off 
 from intercourse with surrounding nations. The 
 resource of despairing patriots, in the land of their 
 fathers, lay in the wild dreams of a Messianic reve- 
 lation, in which it was hoped the zeal and devoted- 
 ness of the strictest Jews would be rewarded, and 
 the Law of Moses, as interpreted by the Rabbis,
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 193 
 
 would be made the Law of the world. There had 
 grown up, however, during the last two centuries, 
 another form of Jewish life, which, chiefly through 
 the influence of one remarkable man, was hence- 
 forth destined to a great place in the future re- 
 ligious history of the world. Alexandria had its 
 Jewish nation, almost a nation to itself, in contrast 
 with that in Palestine. Ever since the Ptolemies 
 had favoured the Jews, and their Scriptures were 
 translated into Greek, the intercourse between the 
 more learned and wealthy among them and the 
 Gentiles, with whom they were compelled to as- 
 sociate, had been breaking down prejudice and 
 enlarging their views. The intellectual life of 
 Alexandria was based upon the principle of Eclec- 
 ticism. The situation of Egypt was favourable to 
 the cultivation of a cosmopolitan spirit. East and 
 West there came into contact, and freely mingled 
 together. The magnificent Library with its neigh- 
 bouring School was the meeting-place of Jew and 
 Gentile, European and Asiatic, men of profound 
 thought, and men of active business talent, and 
 the Jew could scarcely resist for long the influ- 
 ence of such an atmosphere. He began to philo- 
 sophise himself, as his neighbours did, although his 
 nation had never encouraged philosophical studies ; 
 he began to read his Scriptures with a view to find 
 
 N
 
 194 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 in them the decisions of Divine authority on the 
 questions which were being agitated in the School. 
 The result was the rise of what was subsequently 
 called " Hellenism" a compromise between the 
 strict Judaism of Palestine and the broader spirit 
 of Greek religion and philosophy. It was in no 
 sense a renunciation of the claims which the 
 Jewish people preserved among them to superi- 
 ority over the world. It was not a lowering of 
 Scripture authority. But it was an attempt to 
 accommodate Judaism to the new circumstances 
 in which it was placed in Egypt, by calling in 
 all that Gentile philosophy and culture could 
 afford to unfold and develop the hidden trea- 
 sures of the Old Testament. The chief represen- 
 tative of this new Judaism, for such it should be 
 called, was the Alexandrian Philo, born probably 
 about 20 B.C., and a man who, both by his great 
 wealth and high social position, and by his extra- 
 ordinary intellectual power, might be regarded 
 as the leading Jew of that great and flourishing 
 Hebrew colony. 
 
 We have already referred to the works of a much 
 earlier Alexandrian, Aristobulus. We find that 
 the Jews of Palestine in their time of distress and 
 danger, sent a letter to " Aristobulus, master of 
 King Ptolemy, and of the stock of the anointed
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 195 
 
 priests " (2 Mace. i. 9). This Ptolemy was Pto- 
 lemy VIL, or Philometor, and there was probably 
 a " Judas " who became his instructor and was 
 named "Aristobulus," a man of great learning, 
 who, with others, such as Demetrius, Eupolemus, 
 Artapanus, Cleodemus, Jason, and others like them, 
 laboured to bring Jewish views into closer union 
 with Greek thought and literature. Aristobulus 
 flourished about 180 B.C. His chief work was en- 
 titled " Explanations of the Mosaic Law." " His 
 object," says Ewald, " was, before the eyes of the 
 king himself, to dissipate certain prejudices against 
 the Law. The fragments which remain prove the 
 work to have been the composition of a refined 
 mind ; and in the treatment of such questions as 
 how arms, face, and feet could be ascribed to God 
 in the Holy Scriptures, how the descent of God on 
 to Sinai in fire and other symbols of the same 
 nature were to be understood, how God could have 
 rested on the seventh day we observe, in fact, 
 the earliest and tenderest attempt at connected 
 allegorical explanation placed as far as possible on 
 a philosophical basis." There were other works 
 besides those of Aristobulus which aimed at the 
 same reconciliation between Gentile philosophy and 
 Jewish religion. But this allegorical method of 
 interpretation was not applied very extensively to
 
 196 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the Old Testament until the time of Philo. In 
 considering, however, the sources from which he 
 drew in his writings, it is important to keep before 
 us the two Books of the Apocrypha, to which 
 allusion has been already made, and which cer- 
 tainly preceded Philo in time, the Book of Ecclesi- 
 asticus or The Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, and the 
 Book of The Wisdom of Solomon the former, per- 
 haps, dating as early as the time of Aristobulus, 
 and the latter certainly composed before the time 
 of Herod, and probably published eighty years be- 
 fore the birth of Philo. We must briefly describe 
 the teaching of these books as introductory to our 
 notice of Philo's doctrine, as he seems to have freely 
 used them. 
 
 In Ecclesiasticus, which was originally composed 
 in Hebrew and afterwards translated into Greek, 
 the aim of the translator was to adapt the work of 
 an enlightened and devout Jew of a former period 
 to the people of Alexandria, to commend to them 
 Jewish doctrine and practical maxims. It is not 
 an attempt to harmonise Greek thought and Jewish 
 theology, for it is thoroughly Jewish throughout, 
 but rather to select that which was best in the 
 Old Testament and commend it to the attention 
 of the Gentiles. It begins with proverbs, wise 
 sayings, full of practical sagacity, and applying to
 
 PH1LO OF ALEXANDRIA. 197 
 
 the whole extent of human life. These are fol- 
 lowed by a higher strain, in which wisdom is re- 
 garded as not a mere regulation of common life, 
 but as a Divine gift for all nations. " We possess 
 in this work," says Ewald, " the finest composition 
 in continuation of the Psalms which the Apocry- 
 phal books contain. The whole style is more ar- 
 tistic ; single maxims are often extremely pointed ; 
 the language is full of images and flowers, and 
 while the writer seeks to describe with great detail 
 the whole compass of morality, he depicts certain 
 special moral relations with peculiar ease (as in the 
 proverbs about slaves, Ecclus. xxxiii. 24-31)." 
 The conclusion, in which the heroic men. of Israel 
 are celebrated, and which is highly poetical, is 
 full of intense national feeling, and yet, at the 
 same time, is intended to attract the Greek world 
 by its spirit of hero-worship. There is also, in 
 chapter xliii., a very beautiful description of the 
 glory of the natural world, and an invitation to see 
 God in it and above it. "When ye glorify the 
 Lord, exalt Him as much as ye can ; for even yet 
 will He far exceed ; and when ye exalt Him, put 
 forth all your strength and be not weary ; for ye 
 can never go far enough. Who hath seen Him 
 that he might tell us ? and who can magnify Him 
 as He is ? There are yet hid greater things than
 
 198 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 these be, for we have seen but a few of His works. 
 For the Lord hath made all things, and to the 
 godly hath He given wisdom " (vers. 30-33). 
 But the portion of this interesting work to which 
 Philo would be most indebted, is the twenty-fourth 
 chapter in praise of wisdom. Here we plainly per- 
 ceive a recollection of the language of the Book of 
 Proverbs, but, at the same time, the personification 
 of wisdom is carried out with more detail, and 
 here and there are traces of an Alexandrian style 
 of thought. " I came out of the mouth of the 
 Most High, and covered the earth as a cloud. I 
 dwell in high places, and my throne is in a cloudy 
 pillar. I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, 
 and walked in the bottom of the deep. In the 
 waves of the sea, and in all the earth, and in every 
 people and nation I got a possession. With all 
 these I sought not : and in whose inheritance shall 
 I abide ? " The answer to this question plainly 
 declares that the True Wisdom is laid up in Zion, 
 but all are invited to receive it. "I will yet make 
 doctrine to shine as the morning, and will send her 
 light afar off. I will yet pour out doctrine as pro- 
 phecy, and leave it to all ages for ever. Behold 
 that I have not laboured for myself only, but for 
 all them that seek wisdom " (vers. 32-34). There 
 is no compromise of Judaism in this book, but
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 199 
 
 there is an evident desire to call in the world to a 
 participation in Divine blessings. 
 
 The Wisdom of Solomon is a much more philo- 
 sophical book than Ecclesiasticus ; it is regarded 
 by some as proceeding directly from the Alexan- 
 drian School, and as " the most beautiful and im- 
 portant of all the Hellenistic productions." The 
 author has "steeped his mind," says Ewald, "in 
 the principal books of the Old Testament, and 
 there recognised the eternal foundations of all true 
 religion with such living power that he beheld 
 none but these pure and ever- quickening truths in 
 all their brightness, and before this great light all 
 'its lower and imperfect elements vanished away. 
 He had in the same way saturated himself with 
 Greek culture, and nurtured his spirit with many 
 thoughts and principles of the higher Greek philo- 
 sophy, particularly the Platonic." The idea of the 
 book is that the wise king, Solomon, is addressing 
 the powers and princes of the world, and the 
 searchers after wisdom, and he is instructing them 
 in the Way of Life. The first six chapters are an 
 address to the judges of the earth, an appeal to 
 them to find true wisdom in the teaching of the 
 Divine Spirit : " For the Spirit of the Lord filleth 
 the world ; and that which containeth all things 
 hath knowledge of the voice" (i. 7). The great
 
 200 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 principle which is set forth is the eternity of man : 
 " For God created man to be immortal, and made 
 him to be an image of Sis own Eternity" "The 
 souls of the righteous are in the hand of God." 
 " Wisdom is glorious, and never fadeth away : yea, 
 she is easily seen of them that love her, and found 
 of such as seek her." " Love is the keeping of her 
 laws." " The desire of wisdom briugeth to a 
 kingdom." "If your delight be then in thrones 
 and sceptres, ye kings of the people, honour 
 wisdom that ye may reign for evermore." Then 
 follows a discourse on Wisdom itself, " What she 
 is, and how she came up." Taking the history of 
 Solomon as an example of success in seeking wis- 
 dom, the writer insists on the power of prayer, and 
 the direct inspiration of the Spirit. There is 
 much in the description of wisdom which reminds 
 us of the language of the Schools : " If a man love 
 righteousness, her labours are virtues : for she 
 teacheth temperance and prudence, justice and 
 fortitude ; which are such things as man can have 
 nothing more profitable in this life." " By means 
 of her I shall obtain immortality, and leave behind 
 me an everlasting memorial to them that come 
 after me." The ninth chapter is a sublime prayer, 
 which Solomon is supposed to have uttered, and 
 whereby he obtained wisdom. Then we have the
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 201 
 
 memorable instances of the great and good in 
 former ages, all inspired of God. Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites. 
 Speaking of the sparing mercy of God towards 
 mankind, we find a philosophical idea, which was 
 common at that time, introduced, the pervading 
 influence of the Divine Spirit in all men. "For 
 thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things." Re- 
 ference is made in the thirteenth chapter to the 
 perverse philosophies of the heathen, how they 
 " deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or 
 the circle of the stars, or the violent waters, or the 
 lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern 
 the world." " But yet for this they are the less 
 to be blamed, for they peradventure err, seek- 
 ing God, and desirous to find Him. For, being 
 conversant in His works, they search Him dili- 
 gently, and believe their sight, because the things 
 are beautiful that are seen." In the fourteenth 
 chapter we meet with that doctrine of the Word 
 of God which was afterwards so fully wrought 
 out by Philo: "Thy Word, Lord, healeth all 
 things." " The Word preserveth them that put 
 their trust in Thee." It is the "Almighty Word" 
 which " leaped down from heaven out of Thy royal 
 throne as a fierce man of war, into the midst of 
 a land of destruction," and punished the Egyptians
 
 202 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 and all idolaters. The book is, undoubtedly, full 
 of Messianic expectation, and it has been observed, 
 by Ewald, that it is "so far before all the other 
 Hellenistic productions, so abounding in words and 
 thoughts which remind us strikingly of the New 
 Testament, that it has even been attempted to 
 detect a Christian in its author. He is, however, 
 no other than a highly inspired Jew ; and in no 
 single case can it be proved that he derived any 
 one of his words or thoughts from Christianity. 
 Of the Law he says little, as he is engaged in 
 deeper contemplations ; and he rises far above the 
 narrow-heartedness and hypocrisy of the Pharisees 
 into shining heights; yet it is clear that, in his 
 view, there is nothing holy but the contents of the 
 Law." It has been suggested that the work may 
 have been by Philo himself, but the style is not 
 that of Philo, and the entire absence throughout 
 the book of the allegorical method, and the simple 
 practical directness of the appeals to the heathen 
 to accept the teaching of the Spirit of God, are 
 decided proofs that it proceeded from some other 
 hand. It was from the Messianic impulse that it 
 came. It is the opinion of Ewald that on that 
 account it cannot be dated much more than a 
 generation before Philo, but, at all events, it is 
 quite possible that at the time when he would be
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 203 
 
 writing, that is twenty or thirty years after the 
 birth of Christ, the book would be regarded as 
 comparatively old, some seventy or eighty years 
 having passed away since it was given to the world, 
 or even more. There seems a large concurrence 
 of opinion that it dates about one hundred years 
 before Christ, but the date of its publication re- 
 mains an open question. We are now prepared to 
 look more closely into the teaching of Philo him- 
 self, many of whose remarkable writings have been 
 preserved to us. 
 
 Very little is known of the history of Philo. 
 He was an Alexandrian by birth, and probably 
 belonged to a priestly family. The only fact by 
 which we are able to learn anything of his position 
 in his native city is the embassy to the Roman 
 Emperor, Caligula, in which Philo took the chief 
 part, and which arrived in Rome in the winter of 
 39 A.D., lasting until the spring of the following 
 year. Philo was then, as he tells us, an old man, 
 being sixty years of age. The main object of the 
 embassy was to procure the revocation of the Im- 
 perial decree requiring divine honours to be paid 
 to the statue of the Emperor. The statue of Cali- 
 gula was ordered to be set up in the Temple at 
 Jerusalem, and would have been placed there had 
 not the mad Emperor been called away by death
 
 204 FOUft CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 in 41 A.D. The writings of Philo which remain 
 to us are very various, but chiefly take the form 
 of commentaries on the Pentateuch. The subjects 
 are those which are suggested by the Scriptures. 
 The Doctrine of Creation, the meaning of the 
 Levitical Law, the Cherubim, the sacrifices of 
 Cain and Abel, the division of the human family 
 into the good and the bad, the giants, the un- 
 changeableness of God, the incidents in the life of 
 Noah, drunkenness, the Confusion of Languages, 
 the Migration of Abraham, the Wise Man as 
 typified in Abraham, the Statesman as typified in 
 Joseph, Moses, his office and his institutions, the 
 Monarchy, Special Laws of the Jews, the Sacred 
 Festivals, Justice and Magistrates. These are 
 some of the subjects which Philo finds in the 
 Pentateuch, and on which he treats. Then there 
 are other miscellaneous writings and fragments 
 from various sources, some of which are of very 
 doubtful authenticity. The Doctrine of the Con- 
 templative Life, the Incorruptibility of the World, 
 and two very interesting works, that Against Flac- 
 cus, giving an account of the persecutions to which 
 the Jews were subject, and that on The Virtues 
 and on the office of Ambassadors, addressed to 
 Caius, giving an account of the embassy to Kome . 
 of which Philo formed part.
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 205 
 
 It will not be possible, in our brief space, to 
 describe all these writings. There is a great deal 
 of repetition and verbiage in them, which, to our 
 modern ideas, render them tedious and almost un- 
 readable, but they are of great value as indicating 
 the method and spirit of the School of which Philo 
 was the greatest representative. The first thing 
 that strikes us in these works is the intimacy 
 displayed in them with Greek philosophy and 
 literature. They are full of allusions to the poets 
 of Greece, and the phraseology employed is fre- 
 quently that of the philosophical systems. The 
 names of sixty-four different Greek writers occur 
 in Philo's pages. It is evident that he had studied 
 the works of Plato and Aristotle, and that he knew 
 familiarly the later systems of Greek philosophy. 
 But at the same time, Philo does not write as an 
 advocate of any of these systems. His object is 
 not to adduce Scripture for their support. The 
 underlying principle in all his comments on the 
 Old Testament is that of a universal truth com- 
 municated to men in every age and every nation, 
 in. greater or less degree, but pre-eminently revealed 
 in the books of Moses. It is very evident that he 
 reads into the words of the Pentateuch the ideas 
 which he has derived from the speculations of 
 heathen philosophers, with the intention of show-
 
 206 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILEXCE. 
 
 ing that whatever truth has been discovered was 
 given by God to His ancient people, the Jews, and 
 is laid up in their Scriptures. As an example of 
 this we may quote the following words from his 
 commentary on the first chapter of Genesis. 
 Having referred to the foundation of great cities 
 and states, in the imagination of a ruler, he says, 
 "We must form a somewhat similar opinion of 
 God, who, having determined to found a mighty 
 state, first of all conceived its form in his mind, 
 according to which form he made a world per- 
 ceptible only by the intellect, and then completed 
 one visible to the external senses, using the first 
 one as a model" (cbap. iv.) This, of course, is 
 Platonism applied to the interpretation of Genesis, 
 and the treatise from which it is taken is full of 
 the same kind of thought. His use of the term 
 vovs intellect, as the central part of the soul, as he 
 calls it, the soul of the soul, is thoroughly Platonic. 
 "Let no one think that he is able to judge of the 
 likeness of man to God from the characters of the 
 body ; for neither is God a being with the form of 
 a man, nor is the human body like the form of 
 God ; but the resemblance is spoken of with refer- 
 ence to the most important part of the soul, 
 namely, the mind (vovs) ; for the mind which exists 
 in each individual has been created after the like-
 
 PH1LO OF ALEXANDRIA. 207 
 
 ness of that one Mind which is in the universe as 
 its primitive model, being in some sort the God of 
 that body which carries it about and bears its image 
 within it" (chap, xxiii.) Like all the philosophic 
 writers of that time, Philo laboured hard to be rid 
 of what he and others dreaded so much anthropo- 
 morphism. It seemed to him that all human speech 
 with respect to the Divine nature hides it from the 
 intellect, and that it is the work of the philosopher 
 to penetrate through the veil of language, and dis- 
 cover that which is beyond it, the absolute truth 
 of the Divine. It must be remembered that Philo 
 had the Greek Bible in his hands, and in that there 
 is a very evident tendency to soften down the old 
 Hebraic methods of speech into harmony with Greek 
 modes of thought. It was this philosophical spirit 
 which lay at the foundation of the allegorical treat- 
 ment of the Old Testament, which, while it can 
 be traced much earlier than Philo, was certainly 
 wrought out most fully by him. There must be a 
 meaning beyond and behind the letter of Scripture. 
 " The letter of the text must be held fast ; and 
 biblical personages and historians were real. But 
 only narrow-minded slaves of the letter would stop 
 here ; the more so, as sometimes the literal mean- 
 ing alone would be tame, even absurd ; while the 
 allegorical interpretation gave the true sense, even
 
 208 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 though it might run counter to the letter. Thus, 
 the patriarchs represented states of the soul ; and 
 whatever the letter might bear, Joseph represented 
 one given to the fleshly, whom his brothers rightly 
 hated ; Simeon, the soul, aiming after the higher ; 
 the killing of the Egyptian by Moses, the subjuga- 
 tion of passion, and so on " (Edersheim). It is for 
 the purpose of discipline, and for the sake of those 
 who are of a lower order of mind, that these an- 
 thropomorphic representations are employed. And 
 the duty of those who seek after truth is to lay 
 aside that which is only due to the evil of man's 
 heart, and retain that which may be discovered 
 under the literal meaning. If there is anything 
 unworthy of Deity recorded, that must be put 
 aside. Sometimes special and profound meanings 
 are indicated by the modification of words and by 
 minute particles, and changes which seem, at first 
 sight, meaningless. Philo, like many others of the 
 later Jews, believed in the Divine authority of the 
 Septuagint; he therefore lays stress on the Greek 
 meanings of words, and ventures, at times, on 
 changes in the letters, in order to bring out the 
 significance desired. It will be evident that such 
 a method is most dangerous when applied to the 
 Word of God. It became so to the Christian 
 Church, in subsequent ages, and the Alexandrian
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 209 
 
 School, which may be said to have built itself up 
 to a great extent on the writings of Philo, prepared 
 the way for much of the corrupt teaching of the 
 Middle Ages. The Gnostic errors of the Church 
 may have been derived from Persian sources 
 originally, but the mingling of Eastern theosophy 
 with Christian teaching found very great assist- 
 ance in the Alexandrian method, which Philo may 
 be said to have given to the second century. 
 
 With respect to the particular views which may 
 be found in Philo' s writings, it is only right to 
 acknowledge that, side by side with that which is 
 false and injurious, there are occasionally passages 
 of great beauty and great elevation- of moral feel- 
 ing, showing that the general sentiment which 
 possessed the mind of this philosophical Jew was 
 one of reverence for the Word of God and for the 
 comparatively pure standard which is put before us 
 in the Law of Moses. He seems to be a kind of 
 Eclectic in his doctrine of the Divine nature God 
 is to be distinguished from the material world ; 
 He is without qualities and unchangeable; He 
 is infinitely above man, and therefore cannot be 
 defined in any terms of human life or expression. 
 But then, again, he seems to believe in a doctrine 
 of Immanence, following the teaching of the Stoics. 
 
 He is One and All. The world is the realm of 
 
 o
 
 210 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 God. When he comes to explain how this Divine 
 Person has wrought out the world, he very plainly 
 teaches the Gnostic doctrine of demons or lower 
 powers and rulers of the material world. Speaking 
 of the words used in Genesis i. 26, "Let us make 
 man," he says they show that God " assumed other 
 beings to Himself as assistants, in order that, as 
 the Governor of all things, He might have all the 
 blameless intentions and actions of man, when he 
 does right, attributed to Him ; and that His other 
 assistants might bear the imputation of his contrary 
 actions ; for it was fitting that the Father should, 
 in the eyes of His children, be free from all imputa- 
 tion of evil and vice and energy in accordance with 
 sin and evil " (xxiv.) 
 
 There are two points, however, which must be 
 touched upon in this notice of Philo before we pass 
 away from him. He may have derived some of his 
 notions from Rabbinical sources. His doctrine of 
 the Logos certainly has more affinity to the teach- 
 ing of the Eabbis than to that of the Apostle 
 John, who is supposed by some to have borrowed 
 from him. Both these points have been dwelt 
 upon at some length by Dr. Edersheim. " There 
 is an analogy," he says, " between his teaching 
 and that of Jewish Mysticism, as ultimately fully 
 developed in the 'Kabbalah.' The very term
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 211 
 
 Kabbalah (from Kabal, to hand down) seems to 
 point out not only its cfescent by oral tradition, 
 but also its ascent to ancient sources. Its ex- 
 istence is presupposed and its leading ideas are 
 sketched in the Mislmah. The Targums also bear 
 at least one remarkable trace of it. May it not be 
 that as Philo frequently refers to ancient traditions, 
 so both Eastern and Western Judaism may here 
 have drawn from one and the same source we will 
 not venture to suggest how high up while each 
 made use of it as suited their distinctive wants ? 
 Neither Eastern mystical Judaism nor the philo- 
 sophy of Philo could admit of any direct contact 
 between God and creation. The Kabbalah solved 
 the difficulty by their Sephiroth or emanations from 
 God, through which the contact was ultimately 
 brought about, and of which the En-soph, or 
 crown, was the spring, the source from which the 
 infinite light issued. If Philo found greater diffi- 
 culties, he had also more ready help from the 
 philosophical system to hand. His Sephiroth were 
 ' Potencies ' (<W/A?), words ' (Xo-yot), intermediate 
 powers ; ' Potencies,' we imagine, when viewed 
 Godward ; ' words,' as used creationwards. They 
 were not emanations, but, according to Plato, 
 ' archetypal ideas,' on the model of which all that 
 exists was formed ; and also, according to the Stoic
 
 212 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 idea, the cause of all, pervading all, forming all, 
 and sustaining all. Then these Potencies were 
 wholly in God, and yet wholly out of God. If we 
 divest all this of its philosophical colouring, did 
 not Eastern Judaism also teach that there was a 
 distinction between the Unapproachable God and 
 God Manifest ? " A connection between the two 
 doctrines may also be traced in the view given of 
 the moral character of God. He is Elohim, the 
 God of justice, and Jehovah, the God of mercy, 
 according to the Jewish teachers. " Philo places, 
 next to the Divine Word, goodness as the creative 
 potency, and power as the ruling potency. He 
 saw these two potencies in the two cherubims, and 
 in the two angels which accompanied the Divine 
 Word when on His way to destroy the cities of the 
 plain." He enumerates other potencies, but the 
 great point is that he regards them as intermediate 
 between the Divine Essence and the world, media 
 through which revelation was made. 
 
 Philo's doctrine of the Logos is a mixture of 
 philosophical and scriptural ideas. " In Talmudi- 
 cal writings we find mention not only of the Shem 
 or 'Name/ but also of the ' Shechinah/ God as 
 manifest and present, which is sometimes also 
 presented as the Holy Spirit. But in the Targums 
 we meet with yet another expression, which,
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 213 
 
 strange to say, never occurs in the Talmud. It is 
 that of the Memra, Logos, or * Word.' Not that 
 the term is exclusively applied to the Divine 
 Logos. But it stands out as perhaps the most 
 remarkable fact in this literature that God not 
 as in His permanent manifestation or manifest 
 Presence, but as revealing Himself is designated 
 Memra. Altogether, that term, as applied to God, 
 occurs in the Targum Onkelos 179 times, in the 
 so-called Jerusalem Targum 99 times, and in the 
 Targum Pseudo- Jonathan 321 times. A critical 
 analysis shows that in 82 instances in Onkelos, 
 in 71 instances in the Jerusalem Targum, and in 
 213 instances in the Targum Pseudo - Jonathan, 
 the designation Memra is not only distinguished 
 from God, but evidently refers to God as re- 
 vealing Himself. But what does this imply ? 
 The distinction between God and the Memra 
 of Jehovah appears in many passages. Equally 
 the Memra of Jehovah is distinguished from the 
 Shechinah. Nor is it used instead of the word 
 Jehovah, nor for the well-known Old Testament 
 expression 'the angel of the Lord/ nor yet for 
 the Metatron of the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and 
 of the Talmud. Does it then represent an old 
 tradition underlying all these ? Beyond this, 
 Rabbinical theology has not preserved to us any
 
 214 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 doctrine of personal distinction in the Godhead. 
 And yet, if words have any meaning, the Memra 
 is a hypostasis, though the distinction of permanent, 
 personal subsistence is not marked. Nor yet, to 
 complete this subject, is the Memra identified 
 with the Messiah. In the Targum Onkelos dis- 
 tinct mention is twice made of this, while in the 
 other Targums no fewer than seventy-one biblical 
 passages are rendered with explicit reference to 
 Him " (Edersheim, vol. i. pp. 47, 48). The Logos 
 of Philo, while it may be founded upon these 
 ancient Jewish ideas, is yet a less definite and more 
 philosophical conception. It seems to be a com- 
 bination of the Memra of Onkelos with the Idea 
 of Plato. It is the archetypal Man, the image of 
 God, upon which man was made. Philo, no doubt, 
 endeavoured to find the "idea" of the Platonic 
 philosophy in Scripture, and the Greek Logos was 
 ready to his hand. The Logos separates the world 
 from God, and yet unites them as intermediate. 
 There is, in Philo's language, some degree of re- 
 semblance to that of St. John, but it is only 
 partial. The Logos is interpreter and prophet, 
 mediator, high priest, taking away the sins of man, 
 and by His intercession procuring for us the mercy 
 of God. He is even called the Paraclete, the Sun, 
 the Manna of the soul, the Indwelling Word, the
 
 PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA. 215 
 
 Melcliizedek, King of Righteousness and King of 
 Peace. But this Logos imparts itself to the true 
 and the good, not to the sinful. He is not a 
 person, but rather reason personified. The mind 
 of the philosopher is evidently struggling with 
 thoughts which are too great for him. He is not 
 yet delivered from the pride of intellect which led so 
 many of the ancient thinkers into error. There is no 
 compassion for the ignorant and for them, that are 
 out of the way in such a doctrine ; it is a doctrine 
 for the elect souls, i.e., for the wise men apart from 
 the multitude. But such gropings after truth, so 
 close upon the time of our Saviour's Advent, are 
 exceedingly instructive. The .horizon of the Jewish 
 Church was brighter in the West than in the East. 
 Such men as Philo were witnesses for God. They 
 testified at once to the vast superiority of the 
 Mosaic revelation to the confused thinkings of the 
 heathen, and to the hope which was treasured up 
 in the Jewish Scriptures, destined to appear in a 
 new light, again rising in the Eastern sky the 
 dawn of an eternal day.
 
 216 FOUR CENTUBIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 
 
 have already described the growth of the 
 Messianic expectation and the very extra- 
 ordinary development of it in the last century 
 before Christ. Our review of the history has 
 brought us very near to the time when the pro- 
 mised revelation should be made when the great 
 Deliverer should come, who should fulfil the desire 
 of the Jewish people and confirm the covenant 
 made to the fathers. It has been remarked in 
 a former place that there were great differences 
 among those who entertained the same expecta- 
 tion of a personal advent. " Some were mere 
 political zealots and dreamers, others were deeply 
 religious students of the Word of God, and Israel- 
 ites indeed, like Nathanael." It is of the utmost 
 importance to keep in mind this distinction as we 
 approach the time of our Lord. The question 
 naturally suggests itself to the outsider, why was 
 Jesus Christ rejected, if the people were full of the
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 217 
 
 anticipation that their Messiah would appear ? The 
 answer is a very simple and sufficient one. Under 
 the influence of Kabbinical teaching, the bulk of 
 the nation was blinded to the true conception 
 of the promised deliverance. They allowed the 
 political circumstances of the times, which were 
 depressing to their national pride, to obscure, not 
 to say obliterate, the true spiritual elements of 
 the Old Testament prediction. No doubt even 
 the Rabbis expected a great Teacher and religious 
 Reformer. But they indulged in most exagge- 
 rated language with respect to the Messiah's 
 triumph over His enemies and the splendour of 
 His kingdom, without recognising the true con- 
 nection of such hopes with the principles of Divine 
 revelation. They were very partial and preju- 
 diced in their study of the Old Testament. The 
 cross of Christ was a stumbling-block to them, 
 simply because they would not see it in the 
 prophetic writings which they acknowledged 
 because they could not, in their spiritual blind- 
 ness, reconcile it with the prospect which they 
 dwelt upon of victory and worldly glory. 
 
 But it would be a great mistake to suppose that 
 there were no exceptions to this wide-spread per- 
 version of the Jewish mind. The synagogues 
 were under the influence of the Rabbis. The
 
 218 FOUR CENTURIES OP SILENCE. 
 
 Eabbis no doubt were chiefly guided by the tradi- 
 tional views which were enforced upon them by 
 their leaders. The tone of the Sanhedrim at Jeru- 
 salem would be given to all the synagogues, more 
 or less, throughout the land. But times of great 
 national suffering and depression generally favour 
 independence of thought and individuality of cha- 
 racter. The religious life of the people is called 
 out into more practical expression. "They that 
 fear the Lord speak often one to another." The 
 humbler worshippers in the sanctuary have their 
 minds awakened to attend to the signs of the 
 times. The Scriptures are the ready resort of such 
 inquirers. They have no opportunity of mingling 
 with the great and learned. In their own homes 
 and in the privacy of their own chambers they 
 are asking the question, " Lord, how long ! 
 "When shall the salvation of Israel come out of 
 Zion ? " It will be well to give a closer attention 
 to those few, but by no means insignificant, indi- 
 cations which we find in the opening pages of the 
 Gospel narrative of the existence among the people 
 of Palestine, immediately previous to the birth of 
 our Lord, of a devout and simple-minded study of 
 the ancient predictions and an expectation founded 
 upon it, not of mere political change and external 
 splendour, but of that which in the best sense
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 219 
 
 would be "the consolation" of the true Israel, 
 their rising to their Divine vocation, and becoming 
 the Light of the world. 
 
 Our first glance at the religious condition of 
 Palestine must be directed to the capital, the 
 centre of the national life. There we find, in the 
 midst of a seething mass of political and ecclesi- 
 astical strife, a small group of watching and wait- 
 ing souls, upon whom the first rays of the new 
 day fell with wonderful quickening power, as upon 
 a true germ of a new birth, a "remnant according 
 
 o x O 
 
 to the election of grace," the initial Kingdom of 
 Heaven, which was soon to be proclaimed as "at 
 hand." There was, as has been pointed out by 
 Dr. Edersheim and others, a strange mixture of 
 two worlds in Jerusalem. It was not only a Greek 
 and Hebrew world which there came together, the 
 influence of Gentile thought and Jewish tradi- 
 tionalism, but " piety and fidelity also." " The 
 devotion of the people and the liberality of the 
 rich were unbounded. Fortunes were lavished on 
 the support of Jewish learning, the promotion of 
 piety, or the advance of the national cause. Thou- 
 sands of their offerings and the costly gifts in the 
 Temple bore evidence of this. If priestly avarice 
 had artificially raised the price of sacrificial animals, 
 a rich man could bring into the Temple at his own
 
 220 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 cost the number requisite for the poor. Charity 
 was not only open-handed, but most delicate, and 
 one who had been in good circumstances would be 
 actually enabled to live according to his former 
 condition." Painful evidence comes to us of the 
 luxuriousness at Jerusalem at that time, and of 
 the moral corruption to which it led. But, not- 
 withstanding that ritualism was at its height and 
 morality in a very low state among the people, 
 there is very interesting evidence in the sacred 
 narrative of a real and vigorous spiritual life 
 among select souls. Scarcely sufficient attention 
 has been paid by students of Scripture to the 
 remarkable fact that there was a prophetess resid- 
 ing in some precinct of the Temple, who was not 
 only revered because of her great age and Nazarite- 
 like devotion, but who would seem to have been 
 specially inspired and gifted with prophetic insight 
 and speech. " There was one ANNA, a prophetess, 
 the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she 
 was of a great age, and had lived with an husband 
 seven years from her virginity. And she was a 
 ividow of about fourscore years and four, which 
 departed not from the Temple, but served God with 
 fastings and prayers night and day" She must 
 have been at least a hundred and six years old. 
 It is certain, therefore, that she would be well
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 221 
 
 acquainted with the popular expectations with 
 respect to the coming of the Messiah. She pro- 
 bably devoted herself to a life of prayer and 
 religious vigils with the feeling of special prepa- 
 ration for the coming manifestation. Her life was 
 one of singular and most lofty self-consecration. 
 It is not likely that one so distinguished would 
 have remained altogether silent for so many years. 
 Her designation of prophetess points to her having 
 been visited by the Spirit, and having spoken to 
 the people, perhaps, on many occasions. This is 
 rendered the more probable from the fact that 
 when she recognised, under inspiration, the birth 
 of the Messiah, she immediately resumed her pro- 
 phetic office, though at so advanced an age, and 
 not only lifted up her voice in a prophetic strain 
 of praise and thanksgiving, but "spoke of Him to 
 all those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" 
 How large was her audience we cannot say, but it 
 must have been more than those who were gathered 
 in the Temple at the time of the Saviour's presen- 
 tation. The fact that she could speak to "all those 
 who looked for redemption," that her voice would 
 be heard by many, is full of significance. There 
 was a baud of faithful souls in the midst of that 
 corrupt population. Another reading, which has 
 been followed in the Eevised Version, leaves it an
 
 222 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 open question whether the address of Anna was 
 delivered to more than those in the Temple. " She 
 spoke of Him to all them that were looking for the 
 redemption of Jerusalem." But yet another read- 
 ing would substitute "Israel" for "Jerusalem" 
 So that any way the reference may be taken as 
 capable of a wide interpretation. Such a pro- 
 phetess would not be likely to limit her address 
 to a single occasion. The very name Anna is 
 suggestive. The mother of Samuel was herself an 
 inspired woman, and heralded with her prophetic 
 word the dawn of a very bright period in the re- 
 ligious history of the population. After the long 
 silence of hundreds of years, it was a striking fact 
 that the lips of the aged widow should be opened. 
 The people of Jerusalem must have been startled, 
 and led to think that wonderful times were near. 
 
 Side by side with Anna the Prophetess stands 
 the venerable Simeon. He is introduced, not as a 
 prophet, but as one of the " devout," who at any 
 time might be inspired to communicate a Divine 
 message. There are other instances in Scripture in 
 which prophetic words have come forth suddenly 
 from those who were not trained and recognised 
 as prophets. " Behold, there was a man in Jeru- 
 salem whose name was Simeon, and the same man 
 was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 223 
 
 Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it 
 was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he 
 should not see death before he had seen the Lord's 
 Christ ; and he came by the Spirit into the Temple, 
 and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to 
 do for Him after the custom of the Law, then took 
 he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 
 Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, 
 according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy 
 salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face 
 of all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
 the glory of Thy people Israel" (Luke ii. 25-32). 
 Here there are several points which are remarkable. 
 Simeon not only waited for consolation, but he waited 
 for a person in whom that consolation would be 
 ministered. He was not only under the influence of 
 a pervading expectation, but he had a special revela- 
 tion sent to him by winch the prospect was brought 
 within the scope of his own life. Under the direct, 
 supernatural guidance of the Spirit he went into 
 the Temple, and the familiar sight of parents pre- 
 senting their child before the Lord was imme- 
 diately lifted up in his mind into the sphere of ful- 
 filled prophecy, so that he could see the Divine 
 Deliverer in a sleeping infant. Then another im- 
 portant feature of that interesting crisis was the 
 spiritual, elevated utterances of this Old Testament
 
 224 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 saint, standing, as it were, on the meeting-point of 
 the two economies, departing in peace with the 
 sight of the rising Sun, but under the inspiration 
 of the moment foretelling the character of the com- 
 ing day. The salvation which is now already on 
 the horizon is " before the face of all people " (/caret 
 TrposcvTTov Trdvrwv rwv \aS)v). It is " a light to lighten 
 the Gentiles" (</>? Y axo/ca\u\|^ii/ e6vu>v} } "and the 
 glory of Thy people Israel." And to Mary, Simeon 
 spake, wrapping up an inspired prediction in his 
 fatherly blessing on the parents and their Child. 
 " Behold this child is set (/remu) for the fall and 
 rising again of many in Israel ; and for a sign 
 ivhich shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall 
 pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts 
 of many hearts may be revealed" It would be diffi- 
 cult to find a shorter summary of the leading 
 characteristics of Messiah's kingdom than in this 
 swanlike song of the dying Simeon. The univer- 
 sality of the Gospel is there. The cross is there. 
 The Divine judgments coming into Israel with the 
 Great Day of the Lord which had now dawned. 
 The brightness of the new kingdom casting out all 
 the darkness of human error and the clouds of 
 ignorance and doubt. The glorious new Israel 
 coming forth in this Child, whose personality shall 
 be the starting-point of the regenerated race. They
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 225 
 
 were all, if not distinctly visible, yet dimly re- 
 vealed to the prophetic vision of this saint. His 
 voice was an anticipation of the voice from heaven 
 which subsequently testified to the Beloved Son in 
 whom the Father was well pleased. Now if such a 
 man as Simeon was to be found in Jerusalem at the 
 time of our Saviour's birth, and for years before, we 
 cannot doubt that there was much of prayerful, 
 devout, and even inspired thought and utterance 
 among the religious people of the capital. No 
 doubt the revelations of the Spirit came to those 
 who were highest in their religious life, least under 
 the influence of the deadening ritualism and tradi- 
 tionalism of the time ; but the account which the 
 Evangelist gives us of Simeon and Anna does not 
 exclude the supposition that they were surrounded 
 by a number of kindred spirits, who were waiting 
 with them for the first streaks of light on the 
 horizon, that they might hail them with thanks- 
 giving and praise. To such an ecclesia, in the 
 midst of the moral wilderness of Jerusalem, mes- 
 sages of grace were sent from time to time, and 
 faith was thus maintained. 
 
 But we must now look away from the central 
 point of Judaism, and attend to other instances of 
 the same Divine work of preparation among the 
 Jewish people instances which prove to us that it
 
 226 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 was work spread over the whole land from north to 
 south. The hill country of Judea was separated 
 from Jerusalem by no great distance, but it was 
 distinguished from it by the broad difference of 
 peasant life from that of a metropolis, and the 
 simplicity of a secluded pastoral country from a 
 city peculiarly exposed to excitements, both political 
 and ecclesiastical. Zacharias and Elizabeth were 
 very different from such priests and their wives, as 
 would often be seen in Jerusalem. The Eabbis and 
 the learned priests of the great city would look 
 down on such a man. He would be regarded as a 
 rustic priest, and by some treated even with con- 
 tempt. But what kind of piety was at that time 
 not uncommon in these rural districts, we can see 
 from the study of that devout couple, " both righte- 
 ous before God, and walking blameless in all the 
 commandments and ordinances of the Lord." The 
 shepherds of the neighbourhood of Bethlehem " keep- 
 ing watch over their flocks by night" to whom the 
 angelic appearance came, and upon whom the glory 
 of the Lord descended, shining round about them, 
 must have been pious watchers for the signs of the 
 coming Redeemer, or they would not have received 
 the heavenly announcement, neither would they 
 have gone at once to see the great sight in Bethle- 
 hem. They became the first preachers of the glad
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 227 
 
 tidings, and were doubtless filled with the influence 
 of the Holy Ghost, that they might fulfil aright 
 such a mission. It must not be forgotten when we 
 are thinking of these rural districts of Palestine, 
 that the synagogue worship, which, since the time 
 of Ezra, had spread through the land, was a great 
 help to the religious life of the people ; and we can 
 easily understand that when the Temple, with its 
 magnificent ritual, was out of reach, the study of 
 the Scriptures and the simple explanations of the 
 synagogue could feed the minds of those whose 
 hearts were open to Divine grace. So that there 
 would be many scattered through the country who 
 were like Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Joseph and 
 Mary, and the shepherds ready to follow the lead- 
 ing of the Spirit. It is said that in Jerusalem itself 
 there were as many as four hundred and eighty 
 synagogues, and there would be one in every com- 
 munity where there were ten families gathered 
 together. Speaking of the general diffusion of 
 religious influences in Palestine, Dean Stanley 
 says, " Nothing is more difficult than to detect 
 the popular sentiment of a nation apart from 
 its higher culture and its public events. Yet in 
 this case it is not impossible. For the first time 
 we are now entering on a period when ' the people 
 of the land/ the peasants of Palestine, found a
 
 228 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 voice in the literature and took a part in the 
 struggles of the nation. In the provincial towns 
 the system of schools had kept alive the knowledge 
 of the sacred books, though often of another class 
 than those studied in the capital. The parables 
 and riddles with which, even in the grave colleges, 
 the teachers were wont to startle their drowsy 
 hearers into attention, were yet more congenial 
 amongst the rural villagers. Instead of the tedious 
 controversies of legal ministry which agitated the 
 theologians at Jerusalem, the Prophets, with their 
 bright predictions, were studied or read in the 
 synagogues. Instead of the Halacha, or the 
 authoritative rule for legal action, the rustic or 
 provincial teachers threw themselves on the Hag- 
 yadha, the 'legendary' or the poetical branch of 
 the Scriptures. The Talmudical writers never 
 mention the Haggadists the Haggadists rarely 
 mention the Talmudists ; but not the less truly 
 did they exist side by side." The inspiration which 
 was poured out on such simple-minded people 
 would correspond with their accustomed thoughts. 
 They were familiar with the Psalms and the Pro- 
 phets, and the utterances which came forth from 
 their lips were steeped in the very spirit of the Old 
 Testament psalmody and prophecy. Dr. Eiler- 
 sheim has shown that the hymn of Zacharias closely
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 229 
 
 corresponds "with ancient Jewish prayers, but those 
 prayers were derived from the prophets. "This 
 analogy between the hymn of Zacharias and the 
 prayers of Israel will best appear from the bene- 
 diction with which these eulogies closed. For, 
 when thus examined, their leading thoughts will be 
 found to be as follows : God as the shield of Abra- 
 ham ; He that raises the dead, and causes salvation 
 to shoot forth ; the Holy One ; who graciously 
 giveth knowledge ; who taketh pleasure in repent- 
 ance ; who multiplieth forgiveness ; who redeemeth 
 Israel ; who henleth their (spiritual) diseases ; who 
 Hesseth the years; who gathereth the outcasts of 
 His people ; who loveth righteousness and judg- 
 ment ; who is the abode and stay of the righteous ; 
 who buildeth Jerusalem ; who causeth the Horn of 
 Salvation to shoot forth ; who heareth prayer ; who 
 bnngeth back the Shechinah to Zion; God the 
 gracious One, to whom praise is due ; who blesseth 
 His people Israel with peace" (vol. i. p. 159). The 
 pious priest was familiar with such language, and 
 it only needed that his mind should be lifted up 
 by Divine communications and by the miraculous 
 events which had occurred, that he should pour 
 forth his hymn of praise full of the feeling of a 
 great time, when that which was "spoken by the 
 mouth of the holy prophets " should come to pass,
 
 230 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the "promised mercy" should be performed, "the 
 holy covenant" remembered, "the oath" divinely 
 kept. The vision was before the mind of the in- 
 spired man, the herald preparing the way of the 
 Lord, "the day spring from on high giving light to 
 them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
 death, and guiding the feet of the true Israel into 
 the way of peace" 
 
 We have referred to the religious life of the hill 
 
 O 
 
 country of Judea, twenty miles from Jerusalem. 
 Galilee, in the north, was more remote from the 
 central point of Jewish life, and its people were 
 different in physical and mental characteristics 
 from the people of the south ; but when we think 
 of Nazareth we can have no hesitation in believing 
 that in Galilee also there were elect souls, chosen 
 vessels, into which the gracious influences of the 
 Divine Spirit were poured, not by means outside 
 the channels of the Old Testament, but through 
 them by their sanctified use. It would be a great 
 mistake to represent Nazareth as entirely cut off 
 from intercourse with Jerusalem, as a mere secluded 
 country town where rustic ignorance shut up its 
 inhabitants within a narrow circle of ideas, and the 
 constraints of poverty and toil " froze the genial 
 currents of their souls." It was not so Nazareth 
 was on the highway of commerce, and it was the
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 231 
 
 meeting-place of priests on their road to the Tem- 
 ple. "Men of all nations busy with another life 
 than that of Israel, would appear in the streets of 
 Nazareth ; and through them thoughts, associations, 
 and hopes connected with the great outside world 
 would be stirred. But, on the other hand, Naza- 
 reth was also one of the great cities of Jewish 
 Temple life. The priesthood was divided into 
 twenty-four courses, which in turn ministered in 
 the Temple. The priests of the course which was 
 to be on duty always gathered in certain towns, 
 whence they went up in company to Jerusalem, 
 while those of their number who were unable to 
 go spent the week in fasting and prayer. Now 
 Nazareth was one of those priest - centres, and 
 although it may well have been that comparatively 
 few in distant Galilee conformed to the priestly 
 regulations, some must have assembled there in 
 preparation for the sacred functions, or appeared 
 in its synagogue. Even the fact, so well known 
 to all, of the living connection between Nazareth 
 and the Temple, must have wakened peculiar feel- 
 ings" (Edcrsheim). 
 
 In addition to these associations with the world 
 and with the Temple, which would be felt more or 
 less by all the inhabitants of the little town, the 
 Davidic descent, the consciousness of a fleshly bond
 
 232 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 with the favoured family, acted powerfully no doubt 
 upon the feelings of that group of pious people, who 
 there waited for the consolation of Israel. Both 
 Joseph and Mary were directly descended from 
 David, and nearly related to one another. No 
 historical details have come down to us with 
 respect to the early life of the Virgin. But we 
 cannot require them. When she first appears in 
 the sacred narrative, she appears as one full of 
 theocratic feeling, highly favoured, in a state of 
 deep spiritual recipiency. " The handmaid of the 
 Lord." She is not only pious in the sense of obe- 
 dience to the Divine commands, and observant of 
 religious ordinances, but she is in a very elevated 
 state of mind, thinking much of the Messiah and 
 His kingdom, possibly thinking of herself as one 
 who, being in the line of David, might be chosen 
 of the Lord to be His anointed priestess. 
 
 It has been observed by Dr. Lange that " such 
 hearts as were to be capable of welcoming and 
 receiving the highest revelation of grace in its 
 bodily manifestation, had to be prepared not 
 merely by the bestowal of noble dispositions, but 
 by their development not merely in the School 
 of Israelite doctrine, but of Israelite experience. 
 They had to be thoroughly unhappy in the truest 
 sense, to be brought to despair of the goodness of
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 233 
 
 the old exterior world, and to experience, in the 
 annihilation of their former ideals, the judgment of 
 God upon its sinfulness, in which they also saw its 
 misery and sadness. Thus only could they have 
 given up those false notions of a Messiah which 
 were the ruin of their nation ; thus alone have 
 known the happiness of receiving, with a poverty 
 of spirit deep in their knowledge of the world, the 
 Prince of the Heavenly Kingdom, who was to 
 change judgment into salvation, and to build up 
 a new world on the ruins of the old." We must 
 suppose Mary to have passed through such an 
 experience. There may have been something in 
 her personal circumstances, in her connection with 
 Joseph, that quickened the work of Divine grace 
 in maturing her soul for the higher revelations 
 which were to be vouchsafed her. It may be, as 
 Dr. Lange has suggested, that Joseph did not 
 understand her in her deepest experiences " She 
 was unceasingly feeling the sad condition of the 
 House of David and of Israel, which was so secretly 
 forming into a judgment upon the inner life of the 
 solitary heart. But, like a true daughter of Israel, 
 she anointed her face ; from the burnt sacrifice in 
 which she offered up her first dreams of life and <>f 
 the world, to the great L-raelite duty of legal obedi- 
 ence, she came forth as the virgin, in whom the
 
 234 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 new world was to have its beginning, the promise 
 of the Kedeemer to work with the Divine creative 
 power, in whose womb the Gospel was to assume 
 flesh and blood." It is exceedingly interesting, in 
 illustration of this view that Mary was especially 
 prepared by the Spirit of God for the revelations 
 to be made to her to study her Magnificat in the 
 light of the Old Testament. She made haste, 
 when the annunciation of the angel Gabriel was 
 made to her, to visit her kinswoman, in the hill 
 country of Judea. The two women stood in each 
 other's presence as mutual witnesses to the truth 
 of the Divine Word, beaming in each other's eyes 
 with the light of the celestial world. It has been 
 well said of the sacred music which burst forth in 
 that house of Zacharias, "It was the antiphonal 
 morning - psalmody of the Messianic Day as it 
 broke, of which the words were still all of the Old 
 Dispensation, but their music of the New ; the 
 keynote being that of ' favour/ ' grace,' struck by 
 the Angel in his first salutation ; ' favour ' to the 
 virgin ; * favour,' eternal ' favour ' to all His humble 
 and poor ones; and 'favour' to Israel, stretching 
 in golden line from the calling of Abraham to the 
 glorious future that now opened. Not one of these 
 fundamental ideas but lay chiefly within the range 
 of the Old Testament ; and yet all of them now lay
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 235 
 
 beyond it, rather in the golden light of the new 
 day " (Edersheim). Referring to the Magnificat, it 
 has been often remarked that it was founded upon 
 Hannah's song of praise and thanksgiving, which 
 we find in i Sam. ii. i-io. Possibly, therefore, it 
 had been the growth of many days of meditation 
 and prayer and study of the Scriptures under the 
 influence of the Spirit of God. It may have been 
 an immediate inspiration, or composed during the 
 three mouths of Mary's residence with Elizabeth. 
 However we regard it, it is certain that it is de- 
 rived from the Old Testament, and breathes the 
 very spirit of Old Testament piety. No one can 
 doubt that the Psalms and the prophets, together 
 with the Pentateuch, were all familiar to Mary's 
 mind. Even the personal reference is borrowed. 
 "From henceforth all generations shall call me 
 blessed." This was little more than an application 
 to herself of the ancient words of Leah (Gen. xxx. 
 1 3). " And Leah said, Happy (blessed) am I, for 
 the daughters will call me blessed " (cf. Prov. xxxi. 
 28; Matt. iii. 12; James v. n), together with a 
 remembrance of the angel's words, "Blessed art 
 thou among women" "Hail, highly favoured!" 
 And yet, at the same time, Mary's Magnificat is 
 truly from herself, it is thoroughly original. The 
 circumstances in Hannah's case and her own were
 
 236 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 somewhat similar. It was " the lot of the poor, 
 the despised, the oppressed," as it has been well 
 said by Lange, " that she experienced, and especi- 
 ally of those rejected ones who bear in their hearts 
 the nobility of a higher vocation, of deeper reflec- 
 tion, and greater devotedness of life. She went, 
 during her journey from Nazareth to Judea, to visit 
 Elizabeth, who looked upon herself as a princess of 
 such rejected ones. The greeting of her friend and 
 relative gave to her a higher assurance. She now 
 sees the whole world glitter in the sunshine of that 
 grace which raises the rejected ; that realm of glory 
 to which God elects the humble and lowly was now 
 displayed before her eyes. She had a presentiment 
 of the Good Friday and Easter Day of her Son." 
 
 Truly this was the dawning Light. The King- 
 dom was already sketched in outline by the hand 
 of this lowly woman. " The strength which scat- 
 tereth the proud, putteth down the mighty from 
 their seats, is the strength which is mercy to them 
 that fear Him from generation to generation ; 
 exalting those of low degree, filling the hungry with 
 good things, helping His servant Israel in remem- 
 brance of His mercy, as He spake unto our fathers, 
 to Abraham and to his seed for ever." Much as 
 we deprecate the superstitious use which has been 
 made of the name of the Virgin, it is impossible to
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 237 
 
 contemplate such a piety as hers, coming forth out 
 of the Old Testament, and not acknowledge that so 
 fair a flower was worthy of the soil in which it 
 grew. No human art can ever do justice to it. 
 By looking closely at that lovely blossom out of 
 the Dispensation which was passing away, we are 
 prepared to hail the advent of Him who gathered 
 up all the past into Himself, who at once satisfied 
 the yearning which the ages of revelation had left 
 behind them in the heart of man, and opened a 
 new Kingdom, a Kingdom of Heaven to all be- 
 lievers. The light first came upon the horizon in 
 the varied colours and broken lines of personal and 
 individual character, scattered all along the land of 
 Palestine from Jerusalem and the hill country to 
 the south of it, to Galilee and the romantic neigh- 
 bourhood of its beautiful sea, but when thirty years 
 had gone by the morning twilight had grown into 
 the manifest beginning of the Day. We shall com- 
 plete this review of the interval between the last 
 of the prophets and the ministry of our Lord by a 
 short study of that prophetic messenger whose ap- 
 pearance in the wilderness awakened the whole 
 land of Israel to the rising of the Sun of Right- 
 eousness in the heavens.
 
 238 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 T^IIE state of the Jewish Church at the time of 
 our Lord's birth was not that of complete in- 
 difference to the horizon which was before it. We 
 have seen that there were watchers on the heights 
 of faith, who looked forth prayerfully and with 
 eager gaze for the first indications of the " dawning 
 Light." There was a scattered seed through the 
 land, which promised a renewed spiritual life, when 
 the time to pour out the blessing came and the 
 believers should be multiplied. Although the 
 small band of humble people connected with Naz- 
 areth and the hfll country of Judea, may have 
 drawn to themselves others who, under the in- 
 fluence of the wonderful facts connected with the 
 birth of Jesus and John, were quickened into lively 
 expectation yet we have no reason to suppose 
 that during the thirty years which intervened be- 
 tween the nativity and the public appearance of our 
 Saviour, there was anything which could be called
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 239 
 
 a widespread " stirring among the dry bones." The 
 condition of Palestine, social, political, religious, 
 grew worse during that generation, instead of 
 better. The Roman sway under Tiberius was 
 much more oppressive than under Augustus. " The 
 first procurator whom Tiberius appointed over 
 Judea, changed the occupancy of the high priest- 
 hood four times, till he found in Caiaphas a suffi- 
 ciently submissive instrument of Roman tyranny. 
 The exactions, and the reckless disregard of all 
 Jewish feelings and interests, might have been 
 characterised as meeting the extreme limit, if worse 
 had not followed when Pontius Pilate succeeded to 
 the procuratorship. Venality, violence, robbery, 
 persecutions, wanton, malicious insults, judicial 
 murders, without even the formality of a legal pro- 
 cess, and cruelty such are the charges brought 
 against his administration. If former governors 
 had, to some extent, respected the religious ex- 
 amples of the Jews, Pilate set them purposely at 
 defiance ; and this not only once, but again and 
 again, in Jerusalem, in Galilee, and even in Samaria, 
 until the Emperor himself interposed " (Edersheim). 
 There was no hope to be found in any of the 
 established institutions of the land. The schools 
 of the Rabbis wrangled over mere questions of 
 ritual or legality. The Scriptures were not ex-
 
 240 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 pounded by the Scribes in any new sense to lift up 
 the hearts of the people with the thought of com- 
 ing redemption. The political zealots, while they 
 talked of conspiracies and fanned the flame of 
 earthly ambition, wrought no change in the dark 
 cloud of oppression and despondency which hung 
 over all the land. But there was one name which 
 still had a magic spell to rouse all classes of the 
 nation it was the name "Messiah." No one 
 could hear that name pronounced and not at once 
 direct a look to the horizon. It will be some day 
 a great Light shining in the heavens. When He 
 shall appear all the night of our misery will roll 
 away like a cast-off vesture, and we shall be clothed 
 in His brightness as with garments of salvation and 
 victory. But when and where shall Messiah 
 appear ? It was a question which no doubt was 
 often agitated among learned Priests and Kabbis, 
 but which never took any one of them away from 
 the precincts of the Temple or the synagogue, or 
 led them to look forth in any new direction for 
 the sign of His advent. The visitor to the Alpine 
 summit waits in the dim twilight of early morn- 
 ing to see the glories of the sunrise. He turns his 
 face towards the east, but he knows riot the exact 
 spot where the first golden streak will appear. At 
 last the sound of the Alpine horn proclaims the
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 241 
 
 approach of the great monarch of day. The 
 watcher hails the sight with fixed gaze and glow- 
 ing admiration. So it was that when the public 
 ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was about to 
 commence, the herald-prophet was sent to wake up 
 the multitude throughout the whole land, to direct 
 their attention to the right place, and eagerly ex- 
 pect the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 But why was the mission of John the Baptist, 
 as a preparatory mission to that of our Saviour, 
 characterised by the novel features which distin- 
 guish it both from anything which, for hundreds 
 of years, had been sent to the Jews, and from the 
 ministry of the Christ Himself which it preceded ? 
 In order to answer this question aright, let us review 
 the principal facts, in their connection with the 
 subject which has been before us the Divine lead- 
 ing of the Jewish Church up to the height of their 
 faith. 
 
 The first and most striking fact in the account 
 of John the Baptist and his mission, is the entire 
 separation of it from the old lines of Judaism, 
 while, at the same time, it is equally distinct from 
 the new lines of Christianity. It is a " Voice in the 
 wilderness" John was the son of a priest ; but he 
 does not commence his ministry from the Temple. 
 He is not a Kabbi, lifting up his voice in the syna- 
 
 Q
 
 242 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 gogue. He is not a learned Scribe, poring over 
 the rolls of Scripture. He is not a Sadducee, 
 mingling among the banquets of the wealthy and 
 luxurious, and dropping seeds of rationalistic doubt 
 into the minds of his hearers. Neither can we say 
 that he represents any sect whatever among the 
 religious zealots of the time. He is not the emis- 
 sary of any party. He is not the mouthpiece of 
 any religious movement or organisation. He is a 
 man completely by himself, who for some years 
 had been passing from wilderness to wilderness, for 
 the purpose of solitary meditation and study, and 
 also, perhaps, that he might look with his own 
 eyes upon some of the remarkable religious de- 
 votees, who had retired into the neighbourhood of 
 the Dead Sea and the Jordan, and lived lives of 
 great simplicity and purity. He was certainly 
 more at home in such places, and among such 
 people, than in the scenes of strife and religious 
 bigotry, and dead, corrupting formalism round the 
 Temple of Jerusalem. There was no nurture for 
 such a spirit as his to be found among Scribes and 
 Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees. Moreover, 
 the voice, if it is to be a voice which shall summon 
 all Israel to look for the Messiah as the rising Sun 
 of Righteousness, must be a voice which calls them 
 away from the old to the new from Temple, syna-
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 243 
 
 gogue, and palace, to the horizon of the spiritual 
 world. This Elijah must come out of the wilder- 
 ness. He must be a man like neither priest nor 
 Eabbi. He must break the bondage of custom and 
 the sleep of self-complacency, and draw out all 
 classes and conditions of men into the place where 
 they shall feel that their consciences are open to 
 the lightning stroke of heaven, and they shall 
 tremble before God. He must be able to effect a 
 twofold change a turning from the old ways a 
 turning to the open gate of the Kingdom. What 
 were the main features of John's mission, which 
 made it a special preparation of the people for 
 Messiah ? Let us distinguish the following four 
 constituents of this remarkable history, regarded as 
 preparatory to the work of our Lord, (i.) The 
 doctrine which was contained in it, which sum- 
 marised the teaching of the Old Testament, and 
 so formed a link between the Old and the New. 
 (2.) The baptismal rite, which was instituted by it, 
 and which prepared the way for the baptism of the 
 kingdom of heaven. (3.) The proclamation, which 
 formed its central fact, pointing to the person and 
 the ministry close at hand. (4.) The striking self- 
 abnegation of the man himself, by a sudden and 
 complete eclipse denoting all the more conspicuously 
 the supremacy and uniqueness of the Messiah.
 
 244 FOUK CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 I. It has not been sufficiently recognised that 
 John the Baptist, while he was pre-eminently, no 
 doubt, the preacher of repentance, was, as a herald 
 of the kingdom of God, a "voice," repeating in the 
 wilderness the leading notes of the Old Testament. 
 We have but very scanty notices of his discourses, 
 but we have the facts of his ministry before us, 
 and we are able to form a tolerably adequate con- 
 ception of its effect upon the minds of those who 
 came into the wilderness to listen to the Voice. 
 Now the whole significance of the Old Dispensation 
 lies along these lines, the priestly or sacrificial, the 
 pro%)hetic or didactic, the theocratic or social. 
 The people were imbued with the three ideas re- 
 presented in those terms, by their institutions, 
 sacred books, the personalities which were vividly 
 in their remembrance, and the incidents of their 
 national life and history. But what they especially 
 needed in the time of their decay and degeneracy 
 was that such ideas should be before their minds 
 in their naked majesty as divine and heavenly. 
 When they heard them preached by a stern, 
 solitary, spiritual man, like John the Baptist, away 
 from all ceremonies and all sanctified buildings, 
 and all political entanglements and disturbances, 
 their souls realised their greatness, they saw that 
 they were the constituents of a kingdom which
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 245 
 
 might, at any moment, be proclaimed in their 
 midst. Sacrifice had been, all through the Jewish 
 history, one of the prominent facts of their national 
 life. But did not their own Scriptures tell them 
 that the mere sacrifice of the altar, the mere offer- 
 ing up of bullocks and goats, was not what God 
 required ; but that which sacrifice represented and 
 symbolised a Divine Lamb, a righteousness which 
 was real, perfect righteousness, put in the place of 
 their iniquities, and bringing them back into a 
 state of reconciliation and fellowship with God ? 
 That John did preach that, we may feel quite sure, 
 because he both summoned them to repentance 
 before God, as preparatory to the blessings pro- 
 mised in the New Kingdom, and he connected 
 with that summons to repentance the announce- 
 ment that the Lamb of God was amongst them, 
 who should take away the sin of the world. The 
 effect which was produced by his preaching was 
 very widespread and very wonderful. The people 
 came to him by their thousands and confessed their 
 sins, and in doing so acknowledged that the mere 
 ritualistic repentance in which they had been trust- 
 ing was not sufficient. There was a better sacrifice 
 required, there was a higher priesthood for which 
 they must look there was a divine righteousness 
 which must come to them from heaven. If the
 
 246 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 aim of John's preaching had been to revive their 
 faithfulness to the observance of the temple rites, 
 to make them more Pharisaical and legal, he would 
 certainly not have chosen the wilderness for his 
 sphere of ministry. But the Eitualistic and 
 Rabbinical party held aloof from him, because 
 they felt instinctively that such preaching aimed 
 a heavy blow at their formalism, and exposed 
 their hypocrisy. "Wisdom was justified of her 
 children." Again, it was not only the sacrificial 
 doctrine of the Old Testament which was thus 
 cleared of its superstitions, and held forth in the 
 clear light of day, but another great fact to which 
 Jewish history bore witness that God by His 
 Spirit holds intercourse with men and communi- 
 cates to them His mind and will. The prophe- 
 tic vocation was not limited to those who were 
 especially distinguished as prophets. The whole 
 nation was a kingdom of prophets. " To them 
 were committed the oracles of God" They were 
 set apart by a divine calling, and by special 
 divine gift, to be the light of the world "to 
 give light to them that sit in darkness and in the 
 shadow of death." The Rabbis had lost this great 
 truth in their miserable pedantry. The very con- 
 ception of personal inspiration was buried in the 
 obscurity of the past. It was transferred from
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 247 
 
 the individual men to the sacred books, which 
 were being dealt with not as the voice of a living 
 God amongst them, but as a mere dead relic 
 of the past, to be worshipped with superstitious 
 reverence and turned into food for intellectual and 
 spiritual pride. For four hundred years there had 
 been no voice among the people, moving freely 
 through the land, and speaking as a voice of God 
 with authority and power. The nearest approach 
 to it had been the outburst of religious zeal and 
 devotion in the family of the Maccabees, but that 
 had very quickly gone out into political and mili- 
 tary fanaticism. There was nothing, as we have 
 seen, which could be placed side by side with the 
 ministry of the Old Testament prophets. But 
 John, the son of Zecharias, is manifestly an in- 
 spired man. He speaks as with a voice of God. 
 They cannot resist the energy and the faithfulness 
 with which he appeals to their consciences, and 
 calls them to the bar of judgment in the word of 
 God. But John's own personality was by no means 
 the sole testimony to the Truth. It was part of 
 his message that God was about to pour out of His 
 Spirit as He had done of old. He declared that 
 there was One coming immediately, upon whom 
 the Spirit would descend and rest, as a dove, who 
 should be not only a word of God, but the word of
 
 248 FOUE CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 God and, moreover, such would be the gracious- 
 ness of that time that they themselves might be 
 baptized as freely and fully in (or with) that Spirit 
 of God as he baptized them in (or with) the water. 
 It would be a baptism of fire, as well as a baptism 
 of water ; that is, it would not only cleanse them, 
 but it would burn up and consume their sins, and 
 make them new creatures, like gold seven times 
 purified. And yet this was very far from all that 
 the Herald had to announce. ' What was the mes- 
 sage of the Old Testament to their nation ? Did it 
 not make them a theocracy ? Did they not glory 
 in their privilege as God's peculiar people ? Did 
 they not esteem their position as much higher than 
 that of all the nations of the earth, because they 
 had Jehovah as their King ? And yet what had 
 come of all that Jewish distinction ? They were 
 miserable slaves to the Komans. They were held 
 down in iron bondage. There was no hope in any- 
 thing they possessed except the promises of God. 
 But He who gave the promises is able to fulfil 
 them. He can raise up children to Abraham out 
 of the very stones on the river bank. " Why 
 should you despair ? Is it not because you have 
 no faith in spiritual power ? because you are looking 
 to the earth, instead of to heaven ? The Kingdom 
 of Heaven is at hand. The promises are now about
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 249 
 
 to be fulfilled. God will lift you up as a nation, if 
 you will believe in Him, and restore to you all that 
 you have lost ; and you shall yet be the heralds of 
 His salvation to the whole world." No doubt that 
 Voice in the Wilderness was not as clear and dis- 
 tinct as the voices of Apostles and Evangelists. 
 Jesus declared that "the least in the Kingdom of 
 Heaven was greater" than John the Baptist, because 
 he could not speak like those who had seen and 
 handled the Word of Life. But we must not mis- 
 construe the comparative silence of the record as to 
 John's teaching. He laboured through some months 
 in public preaching. We cannot suppose that his 
 sermons were mere repetitions of the call to repent- 
 ance. They were intended to prepare the way of 
 the Lord. They were to form a link of connection 
 between the revelations of the Old Testament and 
 the revelations of the New. The chief points of 
 doctrine which were henceforth to be the main lines 
 of the Christian faith, would undoubtedly be the 
 chief tones of the Voice in the Wilderness, thus 
 preparing the people for One who was to be their 
 Priest, their Prophet, and their King. No greater 
 prophet, Jesus said, had been born into the world 
 than John the Baptist, and with such a testimony 
 to his greatness we cannot doubt that he was one 
 who had deeply studied the sacred writings, and
 
 250 FOUR CENTUKIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 who was able under the influence of the Spirit of 
 God to set forth their very substance, in outline at 
 least, before the multitudes. This view of the 
 preaching of John the Baptist will help us to 
 understand what is very often misunderstood, the 
 significance and intention of his baptism, which 
 was not a mere appendage to his preaching, and 
 certainly had no mere personal motive underlying 
 it, but was a distinct preparation for the baptism 
 of the Holy Ghost. To this subject we must now 
 give attention. 
 
 II. The baptism of John was an integral part 
 of his mission, and heralded the baptism of the 
 Christian Church. " Why baptizest thou" was the 
 question asked of John by the deputation from the 
 Pharisees, "if thou be not that Christ, nor JZlias, 
 neither that prophet?" Evidently the Jews con- 
 nected baptism with some special distinction in the 
 mission of the baptizer. It would seem to them to 
 imply that John regarded himself as in some way a 
 messenger of God, and not a merely ordinary ex- 
 pounder of the Scriptures. The answer which John 
 gave to the question was that the baptism was in- 
 tended to prepare the way for another person, and, 
 therefore, was only a subordinate baptism ; but on, 
 other occasions it is described as a baptism "unto
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 251 
 
 the remission of sins" (Mark i. 4; Luke in. 3). 
 We are also told that the people were " baptized of 
 him in Jordan, confessing their sins," Matt. iii. 6. 
 It did not, therefore, represent by the water the 
 actual forgiveness and reconciliation with God of 
 the person baptized, but rather that acknowledg- 
 ment of sin which accompanied, under the Mosaic 
 Dispensation, the offering up of sacrifice. It was 
 entirely an initiatory rite. The baptized person 
 was regarded as prepared by it for the reception of 
 the Kingdom of God. We are able, by this view of 
 the rite, to connect it with the baptisms which were 
 customary among the Jews. They were ablutions 
 which preceded or accompanied the act of worship, 
 but they were not regarded as containing in them- 
 selves any gift of God conveyed through the water. 
 So in the case of John's baptism there is no inten- 
 tion to teach that by baptism the sinner is cleansed 
 from sin and brought back into a covenant relation 
 with Jehovah. Such an idea would be inconceiv- 
 able to the Jewish mind. But those who confessed 
 their sins and were baptized stood at the altar ready 
 for the sacrifice. They were prepared to offer it 
 acceptably. They had already stretched forth their 
 hands, and it only needed that the Head of the 
 nation should be revealed unto them that the sacri- 
 fice should be complete, and they should rejoice in
 
 252 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the blessings of the Kingdom. There was a pro- 
 phetic element, therefore, in the baptism of John, 
 which gave it its distinctive value. He said plainly, 
 There cometh One who taketh away the sin of the 
 world. Hence the Baptist was not content to re- 
 nounce all merit in his baptism, but he, at the same 
 time, explained it as a mere typical rite which 
 would be abolished by the fulfilment of its meaning 
 in the true baptism, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
 The Jews were well able to grasp the meaning of 
 this, if only they were not blinded by prejudice. 
 The great day of atonement taught them that sin 
 was not to be done away by mere words or gifts. 
 God had promised them to provide a sacrifice. They 
 were required to prepare themselves by repentance 
 and confession for the acceptance of His gift. We 
 must avoid the error into which some have fallen, 
 and amongst them Dr. Stanley, of representing John 
 as inculcating by his baptism the doctrine of self- 
 righteousness that by repentance we enter into the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. "He took advantage," says 
 the Dean, " of that leap into the river or the reser- 
 voir to call upon one and all to spring into a new 
 life, to wash off the stains upon their honour and 
 their consciences, which choked up the pores of 
 their moral texture and impeded the influx of the 
 new truths with which the air around them was
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 253 
 
 shortly to be impregnated. He proclaimed the one 
 indispensable condition of all spiritual religion, that 
 the regeneration of the human spirit was to be 
 accomplished, not by ceremonies or opinions, not 
 by succession or descent, but by moral uprightness. 
 The substitution of the wholesome, inspiriting, 
 simple process of the bath, in which the head and 
 body and limbs should be submerged in the rush- 
 ing river, for the sanguinary, costly gifts of the 
 sacrificial slaughter-house, was a living representa- 
 tion in a single act of the whole prophetic teaching 
 of the supremacy of Duty ! " We quote such words 
 for the sake of pointing out that they are in the very 
 teeth of John's own declarations that he did not 
 baptize with the Holy Ghost, but only prepared the 
 way for One who did. Dr. Stanley refers in a note 
 to the identical use of repentance and regeneration 
 by the early fathers, but he omits to state that IN 
 the Kingdom of God the act of repentance is an act 
 of faith, because the Eedeemer has been revealed as 
 an object of faith, but until Christ came repentance 
 was only unto the remission of sins which should 
 be declared in the Messiah. The Baptist invited 
 the people to find their salvation in the Lamb of 
 God. 
 
 III. The central fact in the Baptist's mission
 
 254 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 was bis proclamation of the kingdom. What, 
 then, was that proclamation ? It was the personal 
 testimony of the greatest of all the prophets to the 
 diviner authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence 
 we find it placed in the most prominent position 
 by the fourth Evangelist, who by his profound 
 insight into the truth of the kingdom prepared the 
 way for the conquest of Christianity over the false 
 doctrines which were springing up round the early 
 Church. He begins at once with the fact that the 
 chief errand of the Bnptist was " to bear witness 
 of the light, that all men through him might 
 believe." The day after the deputation from the 
 Pharisees had received from the Baptist the solemn 
 renunciation of all claim to be himself the Messiah, 
 and the announcement that already the Great One 
 was in their midst, therefore, while still the multi- 
 tudes were under the influence of that startling 
 news that Messiah was come, "John seeth Jesus 
 coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
 This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man 
 which is preferred before me : for He was before 
 me. And I knew Him not : but that He should be 
 made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come 
 baptizing with water. And John bare record, 
 saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 255 
 
 like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I 
 knew Him not : but He that sent me to baptize 
 with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom 
 thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining 
 on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the 
 Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that 
 this is the Son of God." The next day the same 
 proclamation was repeated to disciples, and they 
 were bidden to follow Jesus, which they did, for- 
 saking their master John. The same directness 
 and completeness of the testimony given by John 
 is implied, though not so fully expressed, in the 
 synoptical gospels. The preaching which was the 
 preaching of the Kingdom of God is thus declared 
 to have been a proclamation of the personal Ee- 
 deemer. In what aspects of His personal character, 
 then, did the Baptist identify Jesus Christ and 
 the Kingdom of God ? He was the Lamb of God. 
 He was the baptizer with the Spirit. He was the 
 Son of God, i.e., the King of Israel. The three 
 essential elements of the Kingdom of God were 
 thus embodied and realised in Christ, the sacrificial 
 atonement which cleansed away sin ; the gift of the 
 Divine Spirit which communicated light to those 
 that were in darkness, and life to those that 
 were dead ; and the restoration of the fallen state, 
 the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the setting up of
 
 256 FOUR CENTUEIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 the Throne of Eighteousness and Peace in the 
 world, according to the ancient promise that in 
 Abraham and his seed all the families of the earth 
 should be blessed. It is in this very decided testi- 
 mony of John to the Messiah that we find the 
 explanation of the words in which Jesus replied to 
 the Baptist when he expressed his reluctance to 
 perform the rite on One so great : " I have need 
 to be baptized of Thee, and comest thou to me ?" 
 i.e., I have need of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
 and dost Thou who givest the baptism apply for 
 the baptism which was a preparation for it ? Jesus 
 answered, " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it be- 
 cometh us to fulfil all righteousness." You and I 
 are not acting independently of one another, you 
 are my witness and I am your Lord. You give 
 your witness to me by baptism, and I give my 
 approval to you by submitting to your baptism. 
 The Son was baptized not because He was a 
 penitent but because He was a believer, accepting 
 before all the people the righteous appointments of 
 God, and the promises which were contained in 
 them. If the baptism of John meant, as Dr. 
 Stanley maintains, that the person baptized had 
 passed through repentance into regeneration, it 
 was a mockery upon the part of the Son of God 
 to be baptized; but if it meant no more than
 
 THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 257 
 
 acceptance of John's message that the Kingdom of 
 Heaven was at hand, then Jesus was the appro- 
 priate subject of such a baptism, and He himself 
 Avas the most distinguished of John's disciples. 
 But this memorable scene between the Forerunner 
 and the Saviour leads us to the last point to which 
 we have referred. 
 
 IV. The Baptist retired into obscurity in view 
 of the manifested Christ. " Rabbi," said the dis- 
 ciples of John, " He that was with thee beyond 
 Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the 
 same baptizeth, and all men come to Him." It was 
 an important crisis. How did the Baptist meet it ? 
 By entire self-abnegation and faithfulness to his 
 own' mission. " This my joy is fulfilled." It is 
 the Bridegroom's voice. My voice must be silent, 
 except as the voice of the Bridegroom's friend. 
 " He must increase, but I must decrease." It was 
 in accordance with this retirement of the Baptist 
 that the history records his speedy disappearance 
 by martyrdom from the scene. It would have been 
 a very perplexing state of things had the ministry 
 of John been prolonged, for notwithstanding his 
 distinct announcement of the Messiah, there would 
 have been multitudes who were unable to distin- 
 guish between the voice of the Bridegroom and the 
 
 R
 
 258 FOUR CENTUKIES OF SILENCE. 
 
 voice of the Bridegroom's friend. But the work 
 of preparation was now completed. The promised 
 Elijah had come, and for a time the people were 
 willing to rejoice in that light, which was a true 
 light from heaven. But the Day of the Lord is a 
 greater trial of fuith than the early morning. The 
 " burning and shining Light " is as nothing when 
 compared to that which the Prophet Malachi said 
 would be " the great and dreadful Day of the 
 Lord," the day which " shall burn as an oven." 
 The horizon of the Jewish Church, on which, as we 
 have seen, there were gleams of light which were 
 never wholly lost for hundreds of years, was hence- 
 forth all ablaze with the great facts of the Gospel. 
 Divine righteousness was unveiled. The " going 
 forth" of this Sun of Infinite truth and love "is 
 from the end of the heaven, and His circuit unto 
 the ends of it ; and there is nothing hid from the 
 heat thereof." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY BALLANTYNB, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON.
 
 NISBET'S THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY. 
 
 I. 
 Crown 8vo. Price 6s. 
 
 I M MORTALITY: 
 
 A Series of Papers by tlie 
 Eev. Principal CAIRNS, D.D., 
 Ecv. Canon KNOX-LITTLE, M.A., 
 Eight Eev. THE BISHOP OF AMYCLA (Coadjutor of H.E. 
 
 Cardinal MANNING), 
 
 Eev. Professor J. EADFORD THOMSON, M.A., 
 Eev. EDWARD WHITE, 
 Eev. J. E. PAGE HOPPS, 
 Eev. CROSBY BARLOW, M.A., 
 
 And Others. 
 Reprinted from the Symposium in the Homiletic Magazine.. 
 
 II. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ZECH ARI AH : 
 
 HIS VISIONS AND WARNINGS. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., EDINBURGH. 
 
 III. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF SILENCE; 
 
 OR, FROM HA LAC HI TO CHRIST. 
 BY THE REV. R. A. REDFORD, M.A., LL.B., 
 
 Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, New College, London ; 
 Author of " The Christian's Plea against Modern Unbelief," &c. 
 
 I
 
 NISBET'S THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY Continued. 
 
 IV. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ATONEMENT: 
 
 A Clerical Symposium on the Atonement. 
 
 By the Revs. Dr. LITTLEDALB, A. MACKENNAL, J. PAGE HOPPS, 
 Dr. OLVER, Principal RAINY, D.D., EDWARD WHITE, 
 Professor ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Dr. PATON GLOAG, Ven. 
 Archdeacon FARRAR, Right Rev. BISHOP OP AMYCLA, 
 and Others. 
 
 CRITICAL OPINIONS. 
 
 The Literary Churchman. 
 
 "We recommend our readers to purchase the work. Although 
 the papers are naturally argumentative and not devotional, the 
 record of the effort of different minds to grasp the doctrine of the 
 Atonement caunot hut he helpful." 
 
 The Irish Eeelesiastieal Gazette. 
 " The volume contains many thoughts of value." 
 
 The Literary World. 
 "A valuable addition to the theological literature of the day." 
 
 The Baptist. 
 
 "To the trained theologian it will have all the interest of a well- 
 ordered battle between well- trained disputants." 
 
 Liverpool Mercury. 
 
 "The volume is one of permanent value, and will save both time 
 and research in wading through theological dictionaries to find what 
 lies here ready to hand." 
 
 Newcastle Journal. 
 
 "We question if any volume has yet been published on the 
 Atonement which sets forth the views of Christendom in so many 
 varied lights, and at the same time with so much mutual toleration 
 and modesty. This is a book which ought to find a place in every 
 theological library."
 
 NISBET'S THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY Continued. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 INSPIRATION: 
 
 A Clerical Symposium on In what Sense and Within what 
 Limits is the Bible the Word of God? 
 
 By the Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR, the Rev. Principal CAIRNS, 
 the Rev. Prebendary STANLEY LEATHES, D.D., the Rev. 
 Prebendary Row, the Rev. Professor J. RADFORD THOMSON, 
 the Right Rev. the BISHOP OP AMYCLA, and Others. 
 
 CRITICAL OPINIONS. 
 
 The Church Times. 
 
 " The volume is an interesting one, written tnroughout in a tem- 
 perate and scholarly spirit, and likely to prove useful to the higher 
 stamp of theological students." 
 
 The Scotsman. 
 
 "These clever papers, written for the most part by men of mark 
 and standing, although they may have an unsettling tendency, are 
 well calculated to attract attention and to repay perusal." 
 
 The Freeman. 
 
 " Every side of the question is, if not fully, at any rate candidly 
 and reverently discussed ; and as an epitome of the various con- 
 ceptions which are now current on this momentous theme, there can 
 be no better or more useful work than this." 
 
 The Literary Churchman. 
 
 " If any book were designed to show that the Bible was never 
 intended to stand alone, but that a supernatural revelation must of 
 necessity be committed to a supernatural custodian, it could not have 
 better fulfilled its object than this ' Clerical ' Symposium." 
 
 The Edinburgh Courant. 
 
 " A most valuable contribution to inspirational literature. A jrreat 
 variety of views, all falling within the lines of recognised orthodoxy, 
 are brought together, and made to act and react on each other. Their 
 individual weight is thus more clearly ascertained, and a stronger 
 impression is given of the force of argument in favour of inspiration." 
 
 Aberdeen Free Press. 
 
 "This valuable and suggestive book ought to have a place in every 
 minister's library."
 
 NEW AND RECENT WORKS 
 
 BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JAMES NISBET & CO. 
 
 AN EXPOSITION OF THE THIKTY-NINE ARTICLES 
 OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 By the Rev. EOBEBT Louis CLOQUET, Rector of Covenham St. 
 Bartholomew, Louth, Lincolnshire. 
 
 Demy 8vo, 18s. 
 
 A New Work by the Rev. A. F. MITCHELL, D.D. 
 
 THE CATECHISMS OF THE SECOND 
 REFORMATION : 
 
 PART 1. 
 
 THE SHORTER CATECHISM AND ITS PURITAN 
 PRECURSORS. 
 
 PAUT 2. 
 
 RUTHERFORD'S AND OTHER SCOTTISH CATECHISMS 
 OF THE SAME ERA. 
 
 By ALEXANDER F. MITCHELL, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History, 
 
 St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, Author of "The Westminster 
 
 Assembly ; its History and Standards," &c. 
 
 Crown 8vo
 
 5 
 
 AN EXPOSITOEY COMMENTARY ON THE 
 BOOK OF JUDGES. 
 
 By the Rev. A. R. FAUSSET, M.A., Editor of Bengel's "Gnomon" in 
 
 Euglish, and Author in part of the "Critical and 
 
 Experimental Commentary." 
 
 Demy 8vo, 10s. 6d. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 IIOR^E PSALMIC.E. STUDIES IN THE CL. PSALMS: 
 
 Their Undesigned Coincidence with the Independent Scripture 
 
 Histories Confirming and Illustrating Both. 
 
 Second Edition. Demy 8vo, 10s. 6d. 
 
 CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY. ESSAYS. 
 
 By PHILIP SCHAFP, D.D., Author of "The Person of Christ," &c. 
 Demy 8vo, 10s. 6d. 
 
 BIBLE HEATHENS. 
 
 By the Rev. CHARLES M. GRANT, Dundee. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. 
 
 By F. WHITFIELD, M.A., Vicar of St. Mary's, Hastings, Author of 
 
 " Voices from the Valley," &c. 
 
 Itiiuo, Is. 6d. 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 By JOHN GREGG, D.D., late Bishop of Cork. 
 
 Second Series. Crown Svo, 6s. 
 
 GATES INTO THE PSALM COUNTRY. 
 
 By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. 
 New Edition. Crown Svo, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES: 
 
 A Page of First Century Christian Life, with Translation, Notes, 
 
 and Dissertations. 
 
 By Canon SPKNCK, M.A., Vicar of St. Pancras. 
 Crown Svo, 6s. 
 
 " Canon Spence's notes are generally excellent. The excursus In this volume are 
 an able though far from exhaustive treatment of the several points of interest raised 
 by this treatise." Academy.
 
 THE EMPIRE OF THE HITTITES. 
 By WM. WRIGHT, D.D. 
 
 With Decipherment of Hittite Inscriptions by Professor SAYCE, LL.D. ; 
 
 A Hittite Map by Col. Sir CHARLES WILSON, F.K.S., and 
 
 Captain CONDER, R.E. ; and a complete set of Hittite 
 
 Inscriptions by W. H. RYLANDS, F.S.A. 
 
 Second and Revised Edition, with Additions, and Six New Plates. 
 Royal 8vo, 17s. 6d. 
 
 " Any one who wishes to know more about this remarkable people must read this 
 book, in which Dr. Wright has brought together in a popular form all that lias been 
 yet extracted from the various sources that have recently been laid open. Its value 
 is attested by no less an authority than Mr. Gladstone." Guardian. 
 
 METAPHORS IN THE GOSPELS : 
 
 A Series of Short Studies. 
 
 By the Rev. DONALD ERASER, D.D. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. 
 
 " It will open the eyes of ministers to a fact of which they often seem unaware, 
 that in the Gospels a metaphor is never introduced for the mere purpose of deco- 
 rating a sentence or gratifying a poetic fancy." Daily Chronicle. 
 
 FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY: 
 
 A Manual of Homiletical and Pastoral Theology. 
 
 By W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Apologetics and of 
 
 Ecclesiastical and Pastoral Theology, New College, Edinburgh. 
 
 Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 "A volume which displays a considerable amount of wide and varied reading, 
 much thought and ability, great good feeling, and an earnest and charitable desire 
 to further the attainment of the highest ends of all right human thought and 
 action." Guardian. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE PUBLIC MINISTRY AND PASTORAL METHODS 
 OF OUR LORD. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. 
 
 "Should be very acceptable and profitable, not only to those whose life-work is 
 the ministry of the Gospel, but also to those who in other ways take their share of 
 active service for the spiritual good of men, and we heartily commend it to them." 
 Metsenger. 
 
 of CALIFORNIA
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 .HsS^gjfflffl- 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 from which it was borrowed.
 
 A 000 876 381 5