While the Pharisees at this date for the most part (though not entirely) held aloof from politics, on the ground that religion as they conceived it cnuld be practlseil indifferently under any domina- tion, and their own experiences under the national
• In Ant. xviii. V. 2 MacliaTUB l« In tho po»!»osslon of AnUpfts. In tlio prt'vloiit § It lieloniT!* In ArvtAn; but tho r<\a(llii|f of this liitt4V pasHojro is'ntiestluuable (of. 8chQror, KTZO I. ^(12 u., S<V> n. \ll.ir\. II. 'il, ■.'.•.]i.
line, represented by Alexander Jannaius, had been the reverse of happy, the mass of the people were burning to throw off the yoke of the stranger. The party of action, which was jirepared to go all lengths, was known as the Zealots. One member of tliis party was numbered among the apostles (Mt 10», .Mk 318, Lk ,ii5^ Ac l"j. In the siege of Jerus. they took the lead, and were distinguished at once by heroic courage and by horrible crimes.
The dynasty of the Herods had from the first claimed alliance with Hellenic culture. The founder of the dyna.sty had mixed with advantage to himself in the haute piditique of his day ; and he had signalized his reign by buildings in the Greek style, but on a .scale of barbaric magnifi- cence. The courts of the Herods nmst always have had a tincture of Helleni.-;m about them But the reaction against this was .strong, and its influence probably did not extend very far, though it inspired the historians Nicolaus of Damascus, Justus of Tiberias, and Josephus. More likely to affect the lower and middle strata of the population would be the ' Greek cities ' founded by the Syrian kings before the JIaccabiean rising, such as the clu.ster known as Decapolis, for the most part east of the Jordan, with later foundations like the flourishing port of Ciesarea. But more important still would be the influence of the Jews of the Dia.spora, constantly coining and going to the great feasts at Jerusalem, and with synagogues for their special use permanently established there (Ac 6'). The greatest of the centres with which the Jews were thus brtiught in contact were Alexandria aiul Antioch. And there is reason to think that the amount of intellectual intercourse and inter- change was by no means inconsiderable.
There inust have been other foreign influences at work, but rather by what might be called underground channels. The connexion of Pales- tine with Habylonia and the Ka.st, which goes back to immemorial antiquity, had been revived and deepened by the Cai)tivity. It was kept up by intercourse with the Jews who remained in tliose regions. lint whether or not they had come pre- cisely in this way. there can be no doubt that Oriental, and indeed specifically Persian influences were present in the sect of the Essenes. The cere- monial wa.shings, and the reverence paid to the sun, can hardly have had any other origin. The asceti- cism and community of goods have a Pjlhagorean cast, and may have come from (ireece by way of Kgypt, while the rejection of sacrifice and wliat we know of the speculative tendencies of the Essenes may well be native to the soil of Palestine. The Kssene settlements were coiigregati'd near the Deiul Sea.
H. I.VTK/l.Y.iL Coyrt/TW.V.'! : TlfE St.\TE OF
Jtf:/./t;/(>is TnoniiiT Axn Life.
1. General Candilions. — To descri'LO justly the state of Judaism in the time of Christ is a (''flicult and delicate thing. It is too apt to seem like an indictment of the Judaism of nineteen centuries, which not only on general grounds, but specially in view of the attituile of some Jewish apologists of the present day. a Christian theologian will be loth to bring. He will desire to make all the allowances that can rightly be made, and to state all the evidence (so far as be knows it) for as well as against. Hut at the same time he must not gloss over real faults and defects, without a state- ment of which Christianity iuself can be but imperfectly undei-stood.
Truth lioes not, as a rule, lie in compromi.ses. Ami its interests will be perhaps best .servwl if we .set down without reserve both the darker and the brighter sides, only asking the reader to ri'member while he has the one before him, that the other is ahso there. That we attempt this diflicuit task at
80G
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS cm; 1ST
all is due to no waiiti>!! assumption of a right to judce, l".il to the uiiavuiilable Ufcessity that what IS so iininiali.'ly bouiiil up with history should be seen in the full lifjhl which history throws upon it.
(a) The JJarkir Sidf (if the Ciintemfinrary Jiuhi- i.im. — As we look broadly at the rclifiious condition of Palestine in the time of our Lord, there can be little doubt that it was in need of a drastic reformation. This is the impression inevitably conveycil by the tiospeis, and by the searching criticisms of St. Paul. Nor is it belied by the witness of Josephus, and in iiarticular by the outbreak of untamed pa.ssioii, with the horrors to which it iiavc rise, in the Jewish War. And althoufrh it may be easy to make a selection from the I'almud of sayinps of a different character, it can hardly be (piestioned that the same source supplies proof enouirh that the denunciations of the Gospels were not without foundation. There is too evident a connexion between the inherent prin- ciples of Judaism and the defects charjred against it to permit us to regard these as devoid of truth.