The main divisions of our subject will thus be —
I. SuKVKV OF Conditions. 11. TiiK PiriiLic Ministry of Jesus, preceded by that of thft
Baptist. in. 8epiM.HMKNTAT, MATTER, not included In the Public
.Ministry, and derived tVom special sources. IV. The VERi)icT of History.
I. Si'Kvm' OF Conditions. — The picture which we form for ourselves of Palestine in the time of our Lord is apt to be wanting in jilay and variety. A few .strong and simple colours are all tliat are used ; we do not allow enough for their blending, or for the finer and subtler tones which mingle with them. We see the worldly ambition of the Sadducees, the self-seeking and formalism of the I'hari.sees ; over both, the rough stern rule of the Roman ; and under both, the chafing tide of popular passion, working itself up to its outburst of fury in the Great War. Perhaps we throw in somewhere in a corner the cloistered communiti^'s of the K.ssenes ; but if so, it is rather as standing apart by them- selves than as entering into the general life.
It is not so much that this picture is wrong as that it needs to be supplemented, and it needs a little toning down of the light and shade. This is the case especially with the internal conditions, the state of thought and of the religious life.
A. E.XTKrtXAI. COXDITIOSH: GOVKIl.V.yiEXT.
Sects, axd Pm;tie.<. — The external conditions are so comparatively .simple and so well known that a rapid glance at them will suffice.
At the time of our Lord's public mini.stry, Judiea and Samaria were directly subject to the Komans, and were governed by a procurator (Pontius Pilate, A.I). 20-86), who was to some extent subordinate to the leqatus of Syria. Pilate had a character for cruelty (cf. Lk 1.3i). And the Roman rule was no doubt as a whole harsh and unfeeling: we read of wholesale executions, which took the horrible form of crucifixion. But the people whom Rome had to govern were turbulent in the extreme ; and so far as the Koman authorities come before us in N'l', we cannot refuse them the credit of a desire to do a sort of rough justice.
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHRIST
605
Tliu cMliuiis duty of collecting lulls and taxes for tlio Romans led to the employment of a class of underlings (reXui-ai, publkdni), who were regarded almost as outcasts by their Jewish countrymen.
The north and east of Palestine were still in the hands of sons of llerod. Antipas (4 i!.c. to 39 A.n.) held Galilee and Penea ; and his brother Philip (4 n.c. to 34 A.l).), Itunea and 'I'rachonitis. The name given to the former, ' that fox ' (Lk l:!'-), will sulliclently describe him ; he was living in open sin with llerodias, the wife of another brother, but was not wholly unvisited by remorse, and had at least curiosity in matters of religi<m (Mk 0^||, Lk ii'!"). His capital was at Tiberias, on the Sea of (iaiilee, and he also held possession of the strong fortress of Machajrus* E. of the Dead Sea. Herod Philip governed his dominions quietly, and was the best and most popular of his father's sons.
The Sadducees (Zadokite priests) consisted mainly of certain aristocratic prie.stly families (.Vc 4"') who held almost a monopoly of the high priesthood, and who playeil an intluontial and active part in the Sanhedrin, which under the Romans wielded considerable jjower. They were typical opportunists, and were bent above all things on keeping their own rights and privileges. Ilence they were sensitive on the subject of popular dis- order, which was likely to serve .as an excuse to the Hoiuans for displacing them (,Jn 11**). It was a coalition of Pharisees and Sailducees which pro- cured the death of our Lord, but in the period of the Acts the Sadducees were the more active pei-secutors. Heligion with them was secondary, but they differed somewhat both in doctrine and in pivactice from the Pharisees (Ac 23** ; cf. Kder- slii'im. Life and Times, i. 31 1-321, etc.). They did n it encumber themselves with the Pharisaic tradi- tions, but took their stand upon the Pentateuch. They were notoricms for strictness in judgment.
As contrasted with the Sadducees, the Pharisees (lit. Separatists or Purists) were es.sentially the religious party. They numbered more than tiOUO (.l)((. XVII. ii. 4). and were pledged to a high standard of life and scrupulous performance of religious duties (Mt 23*'). Unfortunately, the high standard was outward rather than inward. The elaborate casuistry to which the Pharisees had recourse was used as a means of evading moral obligations (.Mk 7'-"|| 12''*-"'i|, Mt 23'*^), and re- sulted in a spirit hard, narrow, and self-righteous.
Not e.\actly coextensive with the Pharisees, though largely to be identified with them (we read of 'scribes of the Pharisees.' Mk 2'" UV ; i.e. 'scribes who belonged to the party of the Pharisees'), were the Scribes (ypaiinaTe!!, hohikoI, foiioSiSdiTKaXoi), or professed students of the law, wlio supplied the Phari.sees with their principles. They had to a large extent taken the place of the priests as the ])reaeliers and teachers of Juilaism. Their chief lields of action were the synagogues and the U.abbinical schools. The most highly respected of the scribes were the great religious authorities of the day. It was their successors who built up the Talnunl. There were differences of jpinion within the body (e.g. the rival schools of Hillel anil Shammai, contemporaries of Herod the (ireat), but, without, their dicta were unquestioned. This veneration was, as a rule, only requited with contempt.