I)ISi>EESION
DISPERSION
465
and that in this way Jesus was able to convey privately to Judas the fact that He knew of the tatter's intention.
2. A very good example of the way in which the didactic sayings of Jesus were caught up and handed down by His different liearers is atlbrded by the Matthiean and Lukan versions of the words by which He denounced the legal quibblings and Pharisaic hypocrisy of His day (Mt iS'"-, Lk 11^"'-). There is just sufficient identity both in language and sense to guarantee the genuineness of the teaching. At the same time there is a marked variety in details as to locality, wording, and even as to tlie particular olijective of Jesus' remarks. According to St. Luke, Jesus denounces the Pharisees, while a guest in the house of one of their number, for their punctiliousness in keeping the outside of their vessels clean, their own hearts all the time being full of uncleanness. The con- trast is between the outside of their utensils (xA l^affev . . . Tov irimKos) and their own inner lives or characters (t6 5^ la-aeo' OnQv, Lk IP"). Here we may notice that the word translated ' platter ' is the word used to denote the flat dish (EV 'charger') on which (tTri wbaKi) the Baptist's head was sent to Herodias (Mt U"-" = Mk 6==--*). On the other hand, St. ISLattliew makes .Jesus utter this discourse to 'the iiiiiltitnrlps and to his disciples' in the Temple (Ml ■_■:;'. if. -iti). Tlie denunciation is more susl.iin.d .ui.! i hrioricH], as becomes the situation. W Immi iIm- \\ lidT cihik-s to the contrast spoken of altove, lie makes Jesus institute one between the outside of the dish and its contents, looked on as the outcome of rapacity and gluttony (e^ apirayij! Kal d/cpa(r(os). This is again more suitable to the word he employs, which is the only place in the NT «here it is found (t6 l^uiBfv . . . Tijs wapoij/ldos stands opposite to (aijjdfv = Tb ivrds . . . t^s vapoxpiSoi, see Mt 23-''^'- ; cf., however, WH's te.\t in Mt -iS-").
The word Totpa^is •ntries or dainties (set a,me to be applied
oripnall.v, in Atiio Greelt, used of Idell and .Scott, .s".*'.). It afterwards
' Meals • in Eiwyc. BiU. iii. a998, n. 1) fved ; and, lastly, it became a name ; table.
In both these cases of variation it is see the hand of the editor carefully compiling and arranging his materials before their publication in permanent form. J. R. Willis.
DISPERSION (omtTTopd).— The word (RV of Jn T\ Ja 1\ IP 1') is ;i collective term denoting either the .lews resident outside their native country, or the lands in which they lived.
1. The Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to arrest our Lord, and He told them that in a little while He would go where they could not find Him or be al)le to c-ome to Him. The Jews who were present asked where He could possibly go that they could not find Him. Would He go to the ' dispersion among the Greeks ' {d^ rrjv Sia<nropav Tuf 'EWrii/oii/) * and teach the Greeks? i.e. would He make the dispersed .Jews a starting-point for teaching the Greeks? Narrow-minded Jews, dis- tinct from ' the people ' (6 6x^os) of vv.^'- ■'", they would not dream of defiling themselves by going out and mixing with Gentiles, and they sarcastic- ally suggested that that was the only way in which Jesus could esca|ie tlieni.
2. It i- iimi-.-^-:n\ in this aificlc to deal fully with IIm' hi .1 . :. ... i.iiluiii-^ cif (lie Dispcrsion; but a \< ■ '' ' ' ' ' li iii^iy !"■ n~.ful. In the timeof I 111] I i!ii.l.\\-< nf tin' ] )i^prrsi<in were to be found in six main colonies : Babylonia, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.
{a) Babylonia.— The Jews in the far East were * For the genitive, cf. 1 P l'. VOL. I.— M
the descendants of those who remained when small bodies returned under Zerubbabel and Ezra. And their numbers were afterwards increased by a transportation of Jews to Babylonia and Hyrcania under Artaxerxes III. Ochus (358-338). Many have thought that 1 P 5'^ refers to a comnninity of Christians among the Jews in Babylon ; but this is improbable (see Hort, 1 Peter, pp. 5 f., 167- 170). From Babylon, Jews moved in many direc- tions to Elam (cf. Is 11"), Persia, Media, Armenia, and Cappadocia. The Babylonian Jews were the only portion of the Diaspora which maintained its Judaism more or less untouched by the Hellenism which permeated the West. Their remoteness, however, did not prevent the loyal payment of the annual Temple-tax, which was collected at Ne- hardea and Nisibis and sent to Jerusalem (see below).
(b) JS/ji/pt.—Jeviii had migrated to Egypt as early as 586, when Johanan son of Kareah conducted a small body of them, including Jeremiah, to Tah- panhes (Jer 42. 43). Jews also settled (Jer 44') in Migdol, Noph (Memphis), and Pathros (Upper Egypt). The great majority of tlio colonists in Alexandria must have .settleil tlun- (■•■nly in the_ period of the Ptolemies, in wliirh <■■,<. r lii. y may have been among the earliest inl].il>iUini^ ni Alex- ander's new city; and they umlouljicdly received special privileges (.Jos. c Apion, ii. 4 ; BJ II. xviii. 7 f.). The kindness which they received in Palestine from Ptolemy I. Soter induced numbers of them to migrate to Egypt during his reign. And many more may have been transported as prisoners of war during the subsequent struggles between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. Philo (in Flaee., ed. M;inj;ey, ii. ri2.':) less tlian ten years after our Lord's di.-illi ,^,iy^ lli.il t\\<p eiil iie .|ii;irtei's of Alexandria were kne«ii :i.s 'tli- iewi-li,' ,and