That ideal world— so far ahead of the most spiri- tual of us all, yet so persistently claiming us as its children and beckoning us to the courageous re- newal of our broken attempts to reach it — is a world whicii could have Ijeen constructed for man only bj^ God incarnate in One who was a poet.
LiTERATrRE. — Various modem Lices of Jesus ; cf. Schurer, BJP : Hausrath, Hiit. of ST Times— Time of Jesus ; Pe.non, Memorabilia of Jems, in Oscar Wilde's De Pro/undis there is a passage in reference to Jesus as Artist, which, though marked by the paradoxical excess and wayward imagination ot the book which contains it, is vet brilliant and suggestive.
JoHX Kelmax.
POLICE.— The traditional and unsettled charac- ter of goveraraental relations in Palestine in the time of Christ, and the scarcity of definite informa- tion as to the organization of civil procedure in the provincial courts, make it difficult to ascertain exactly what were the ordinary provisions for the administration of justice. We cannot {wsitively say, for instance, how far the earlier methods which obtained under Jewish custom were overshadowed, and at times overridden, by the interference of Roman and military law. One fact, however, seems to emerge, viz., that as a rule, and as a matter of ix)licy on the part of the Romans, the Jewish courts were left free to administer justice in their own way. and were permitted to retain a sufficient force of subordinate officers to execute the ordinarj- penalties of the law. It would only be in times of considerable disturbance, or in cases of the extreme penalty, that the Imperial jjower would come into evidence, and that soldiers would supplant the usual civil officers. 'The ordinary administration of the law, both in criminal and ei\al matters, was left in the hands of the native and local courts' (Schurer, HJP I. ii. 57). Gener- ally, it may be safely affirmed, the Mosaic law- still formed for the Jew the basis on which all such administration was conducted ; justice was a de- partment of religion, and the officers employed in its execution were Temple officials or servants of the local Sanhedrin.
There were two considerable exceptions to this rule — one arising from the arbitrary way in which the Herotls exercised their power, and the other due to the invasion of Hellenistic ideas. In a city like Til)erias, e.g., where the Greek element was very large, administration was on the Greek model. The citj' had a council {^ovXrj) of 600 meml>ers (.Jos. BJ II. xxi. 9), with such officers as nrrhon, hypnrchoi, figorri nomas, etc. (see Schurer, HJP II. i. 145). The Greek cities of the Decapolis, while their local authorities were always liable to be sufierseded by the Imperial power (G. A. Smith, HGHL, p. 605), had 'communal freedom, their own councils. . . . the right of jirojierty and administration in the surrounding districts' (ih. p. 594). Even in purely Jewish towns, Greek influence was modifying the old usage. The large number of Greek and Latin words found in the Mishna (Schiirer, HJP ii. i. 31-32) shows that after the 1st cent. a.d. the ex- ample of Hellenic institutions was producing a change in the methods of conducting civil govern- ment ; and already in the Gospels we find traces
of this, e.g., in the passage in which Jesus makes His most explicit reference to the processes of law (Mt 5^- ■■*^ = Lk 12*) : whereas Mt. uses terms which indicate .Jewish usage (».-piT7)j, virripeTrjs), Lk. employs as equivalents words which suggest the Roman procedure (apxi^", TrpdKTwp) ; see below, and cf, Holtzmann, Hand-Corn, in loco. In Mt 5- (' Every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council ") Jesus is referring to the ordinary Jewish courts, the ' judgment ' (/cpiffts) being the 'provincial court of seven ' (see EGT, in lac, and below), the 'council ' the Sanhedrip.
In Jenisalem there api)ear to have been two stipendiary magistrates, who were precluded from engaging in other occupations, and whose special province it ^\5.s to superintend the observance of the police regtilations of the citv (see Edersheim, LT ii. p. 287). The ' Unjust Judge' of Lk IS'^ is probablj" an instance of a provincial police magis- trate ; but, while his unprincipled character is onlj' too typical of Oriental judges, past and present (cf. Bruce, Purabolii' Teaching of Christ, p. 158), it is not to be infeiTed from this parable that Jesus intended to reflect on the administration of justice as a whole. The usual number of judges for each city was, in accordance with ancient custom, seven (Jos. Ant. IV. viii. 14). Josephus, when in Galilee, ' api)ointed seven judges in every city to hear the lesser quarrels : for, as to the greater causes and those wherein life and death were concerned, he enjoined they should be brought to him and the seventy elders' (BJ il. xx. 5).
The Mishna assumes the existence throughout the country of local Sanhedrins which possess very considerable powers. It is to these local Sanhedrins that Jesus makes reference when He tells His dis- ciples : ' Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils' (Mt 10'"= Mk 13^). The supreme court was the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, before which Jesus was tried, and in this body the religious and hierarchical character of the Jewish courts of justice was naturally more clearly preserved than elsewhere. They had under their control a body of Temple police, who were Levites, and were under the command of ffTparrr^oi, at whose head was an officer called arpaTrpfbi roG Upov (Jos. Ant. XX. vi. 2 ; BJ VI. V. 3 : Ac 4' 5-^ ; the plural is used in Lk 22^- 5-). The latter office was one which would be no sinecure, the numbers of people who thronged the Temple courts, even at ordinary times, being so great as to necessitate special provisions for keeping order. These Temple police were not armed or regularly trained ; ' the gieater part of them were unarmed and unskilled in the allairs of war' (Jos. BJ IV. iv. 6; cf. Edersheim, LT ii. p. 540). During the great feasts the Temple was guarded by a Roman cohort, which was stationed in the Tower of Antonia (BJ v. v. 8). The force which arrested Jesus in Gethsemane clearly con- sisted of two parts : (1) a detachment of the Roman gaiTison ; (2) a body of Temple police (Jn 18' ; Westcott, in loc). As to the guard whicii watched the tomb(Mt 2'*^ ^28'^"''), there is room for doubt whether this was a small body of soldiers detached by Pilate at the request of the Sanhedrin, or a band of the Temple gendarmerie. J'ilate's words, ?x^~^ KoivT(i}5iavi'2~^), are capable equally of the interpre- tation, ' Take a guard ' or ' Ye have a guard.' The fact that they report to the chief priests (Mt 28") suggests that they were the satellites of the Sanhe- drin, and that Pilate scornfully permitted them to use their own measures ; but v." ' If this come to the governor's ears,' is in favour of the other in- terpretation.