But it was especially the Maecabayin crisis that sharpened the contrast between the two tendencies. The desecration of the temple by Antiochus was the occasion of the war. The recovery and recon- secration of the temple was the great deed of
• Ootteadiemtlichen Fvrtrage der Judm 2 Aufl. 1892, p. 106.
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Judas. This meant to the scribes the re-observance ol the law, and with tliat they wore content. It meant to Judos the lirst step toward a recovery of political independence. Judaism was organised about its temple. Its supreme authority was the high priest. So that the Alaccab.tan princes coveted the high priesthood as a political power, and tinallj' gained it. But this was a %'iolation of the law, and alienated the legalists, who became a party of separatists, Pharisees, with the scribes at their head and the synagogue as their institution. Against them the adherents of the temple and the new high priests became an opposing party, the Sadducees. The priestly tenilency issued in a political party, the scribal in a religious party; and in the conflict of these parties the inner his- tory of Judaism chiefly consisted until the fall of Jerusalem. Since Saaduceism was bound up with the temple and the national life, it ceased to be after the destruction of temple and State ; and since its views were as obnoxious to Christianity as to sur- viving Judaism, none of its distinct literary pro- ducts could survive. The A., however, owing partly to its Alex, selection, partly to its com- paratively early date, is not a purely Pharisaic product, and stands aside from the controversy Detween the two parties of which we know (from the Pharisaic side) in Ps-Sol, Enoch, etc. Two books of the A. are Sadducean in tendency. Sirach writes before the Maccabiuan wars, so that his book can be called Sadducean only by anticipa- tion. Sadducean in tone was not only his attach- ment to the temple and the priesthood (above), but also his reserve in regard to angels, his sceptical attitude as to demons (21") and the future life {e.ff. n""*' H""" 41''*), perhaps his insistence on the entire freedom of man (15"'" 17'-'), and his spirit of liberality toward outside sources of knowledge and culture {e.ff. 39^). There is, indeed, a polemic against a Pharisaic spirit of ceremonialism in 34i3-« 35iff._
1 Mac follows the crisis ont of which the parties arose, but precedes their serious conflicts. The writer's admiration for Judas and his brothers, ' through whose hand salvation was given to Israel,' is unbounded (5", cf. 3'-» 9^"- 13»-« H^"- 16» etc.). He paints Simon's reign in thoroughly Messianic colours (14*'"), and in the decision that 'until a trustworthy prophet should arise . . . Simon should be their prince and high priest for ever,' his political and religious creed was summed up. It was the creed of Smlduceism. Sadducean also is the writer's attachment to the laws and customs of the nation, and his opposition to innovations (2'"^ 331. 39QM etc.); but laws are for thostren^heningand safety of the nation, and, when the observance of even BO eacred a law as the Sabbath exposed the nation to danger, its non-observance was decreed (2»-«). He looks to the valour of the hero to win victories (no miracle even in 9"-" 11"""); as Jos. Bays, 'The Sadducees take away fate ... we are ourselves the causes of good,' etc. {Ant. XIII. v. 9). Hia interest is in man more than in God, and in the present more than in the future.
The essence of Pharisaism was that it pave religion (i.e. legali.sm) the lirst place. The Sudducce attempted to further the welfare of the individual and of the nation by direct means (politics, war, etc.) ; the Pharisaic faith was that if tlie individual and the community kept the law, God would by a Bupematural act secure their welfare. The Saddu- cees would set aside the law in smaller things (Sabbath), or in greater (high priesthood), wliun circumstances required. To the Pharisee the law was inviolable, whatever the extremity. This is the iirincijile of Pharisaism. Out of it various developments issued.
That the law might never be broken by inadvert-
ence, the scribes put about it a ' hedge ' of addi- tional precautionary rules, the Ualacha, or oral law, which the Sadducees did not recognise. The belief that well-being was God's reward for the observance of the law, and misfortune His punish- ment for its transgression, though applied at flrst to the present life and lot of men and nations, might easily be referred to the future, and foster the thought of a coming national glory for Israel, and of an individual life after death. It might also stimulate the belief in miracles and in angels and demons as agents of God's blessings and judg- ments. Yet these marks of later Pharisaism are not uniformly or conspicuously present in the A.
Fasting is almost the only addition which we find to the Mosaic law (To l-2\ Jtli 8" etc., cf. Dn 9^ lO'), with a further ascetic emphasis upon ihe laws regarding food (Jth 10^ 11" 12'-», To l'"'-. Ad. Est 14", 2 Mac 5" 6-"'). The creed of tlie Bk of Jth is that no enemy can prevail against Israel so long OS it keeps the ceremonial law, but if it breaks it, under whatever stress, it ■mh fall (5"'''' jia-iu jjn-aj) Moreover, Judith's deliverance of the nation is conditioned upon her individual fulfilment of the law even amid the greatest difliculties (8^'' 121-8). fiii^ jg jrue Pharisaism, and yet the book contains neither Messianic hope, nor rewards aftei death (16" is not to be so understood), nor miracle, nor angel. Tobit illustrates the Pharisaic prin- ciple in the life of an individual. Legal righteous- ness is rewarded by deliverance from evil, long life and prosperity ; while sin is always punished by evil, and all evil is due to sin (3'" I*'-"' 14^-»-"j. Here angels and demons play a far greater part than in any other book of the A. The national hope also is expressed (13. 14^'), but there is no resur- rection. I'lie Hk of Bar contains the national hope (2*'" 4»-»' 5'"), but no individual resurrection. 2 Mac views the work of Judas as an illustration of I'harisaism. It knows of no laxity regarding the law (cf. 6" 6" S-" 12^ 15'). The history is helped forward by angels and miracles and signs (3'»*-" 5«-9» 10»'- 11" lu"''-). The national hope finds frequent expression (l"-*» 2'-" etc.); and, here only in the A., the resur. of the bodies of the righteous is insisted upon (7». "•"■*' 12*^'- 14*').