The disciples were employed in the study of tlie Oral Law— the Tradition of the Elders (Mt 15=), which in those days was regarded with even greater veneration than the Written Law,** and which until, at the earliest, the 5th cent, of our eratt was preserved in the memories of tlie Rabbis and orally transmitted from generation to generation. The method of study was Mishna, i.e. ' repeti- tion,'JJ the lesson being repeated over and over again until it was fixed in the memory ; and pro- ficiency lay in faithful reproduction of the ipsissinm verba of the Tradition. It was a high eulogy of Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a disciple of R. Jolianan ben Zakai, when he was likened to ' a plastered cistern which loses not a drop.' §§
This mnemonic drill was not the sole employ- ment in the House of the Midrash. Whatever diffi- culties they felt, the disciples propounded to the Rabbis for elucidation.
Often their questions were ridiculous quibbles, lilie tliat put to R. Levi ben Susi in connexion with Dt 259 • if his brotlier's wife have lost her hands, how is she to loose his shoe?* |! || But the\- were not always quite so trivial. One much discussed quamtto theologicalis was, 'Are they few that are being saved?' Some Rabbis held that ' all Israel would have a portion in the world to come ' ; others, that as only two of all that came out of Eg}i)t entered into the land of Canaan, so would it be in the days of the Messiah.HU Another question was, 'Mav a man divorce his wife for any cause V (cf. .Mt 193). The strict school of Shammai peniiitted divorce only on the fround of unfaith- fulness ; but that of Hillel granted greater facilitv, allowin" a man to put away his wife if he hated her ; if he wis dissatisSeil with her cooking ; if she went deaf or insane ; if he saw another woman whom he fancied more.***
Not being designed for a Rabbi, Jesus never studied at any of the Scribal Colleges ; but once
* Lightfoot on Mt 423 ; cf. Lk O". t BJP ii. ii. p. 49
t Ant. IV. viii. 12 ; c. Apion. ii. 25.
5 ' The Midrash may be defined as an imaginative develop, uient of a thought or theme suggested by Scripture, especially a didactic or homiletic exposition, or an edifying religious storv"' (Driver, LOr« p. 629). J s b ry
II Lightfoot on Ac 11" ; Taylor, Sayings of Fathers, i. 4 : 'Let thy house be a meeting-bouse for the wise.'
IT Taylor, Sauhurs vt' Fathen, i. 4, n. 11.
'• Lightfoot on Mt 15-.
tt .See Margoliouth in Expositor, Dec. 1904, p. 403.
tIThe Greek term iiyrif.:ti7it (cf. Jer. Algax. Qutest. x) is a literal rendering of Mishna.
15 Taylor, Sayings of fathers, ii. 10.
II II Lightfoot on Lk 2-10. tf lb. on Lk 1323.
••• n. on Mt 5M.
He sat at the feet of the Rabbis in the House of the Midrash at .Jerusalem — on that memorable occasion wlien, on atttiining the age of twelve years and Ijecomiiig ' a son of the Law,' He for the lirst time (?) accompanied Joseph and Maiy on their annual pilgrimage to the sacred capital to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. He lingered in the city when His jmrents set forth on their return journey, and they found Him on the third day after in the school of the Rabbis. ' Raise up many disciples' was the Rabbinical maxim,* and tlie new recruit would be welcome when He took His place among the disciples. He was ' sitting in the midst of the Teachers, both listening to them and ques- tioning them ' (Lk 2*), and evincing an intelligence which amazed them.
5 a singularly unhappy miscon I confounding the wise men bi
The Arab. Erang. Inf. (l.-lii." : them with questions abou
metaphysics, and anatomy
hibition of Divine w declares that He was i
'things which tlie Origeii says : ' He was questioning the Teachers ; and because they could not answer. He Himseif was answering the questions which He asked.' 'He was questioning the Teachers, not that He might learn aught, but that by questioning He might insti-uct them." t This is rank Docetism, and is refuted by the Evangelist's testimony that 'Jesus made progress in wisdom
ere, pai^ pa^
He had
body.
It made Jesus an object of disdain in the eyes of the rulers that He had never attended a Rab- binical College. They called Him ' a Samaritan,' which was a nickname that they had for one who had never sat at the feet of the Rabbis. J At the same time they could not deny that He had a knowledge of the things of God far transcending their theological lore. Again and again He en- countered the wise men of Israel in debate, and worsted them on their own proper field (cf. Mk 12^-« = Mt223^-«'; Mt22"-"' = Mk 1235-s' = Lk20«-«). And once, when thej' heard Him discoursing in the Temple-court, they marvelled whence He had de- rived His wisdom. ' How,' they asked, 'hatli this man learning, though he hath not studied?' (Jn 1"). His wisdom flowed from a higher source. The lofty truths whicli they were blindly groping after and ignorantly reasoning about, the Fatlier had revealed to Him (cf. Jn 5-°).