* For a description of the demands of society for which the trade of the day caterefl, see Friedliinder, Dargtellungen aiit der Sittengeach. Boms, iii. ' Der Luxus.'
740 TRADE AND COMMERCE
TRADES
Jews in Roman times did not scruple to bring against them the most ridiculous charges, but pre- cisely this charge of dishonesty in business re- lations is not found. In the Talmud usurers are regarded as in the same category with gamblers {Rosh ha-shana, i. 8). Surely, too, the close con- nexion between business and religion, which is so often emphasized in the Bible {e.g. Lv 19^^- ^^ 2536- 37^ Dt 152 2320, Pr 111 ign 20i» 23«- 2%'^'\ Am 8^, Mic 6'o- 1', cf. Sir 42*), and of which the Talmudic writers have so much to say (cf. Herzfeld, p. 162 f . ), was not without its effect upon mercantile morality. That trade was directly recognized as having the sanction of religion would appear from an allusion (Joma, v. 3) to a prayer oft'ered by the high priest on the Day of Atonement for ' a year of trade and traffic' The indignation of Jesus when He ejected the traders and money-changers from the Temple courts (Mt 2V^- ^\ Mk IV^''^^ Lk j945-47^ Jn 2""!^) must no doubt have been prompted partly by a knowledge of the dishonesty of their dealings ('a den of robbers') ; but His de- nunciation is a quotation from Jeremiah (V'^), and must not be pressed. What stirred His wrath was the conjunction of unscrupulousness with high religious pretensions. It was because their prac- tice was not in harmony with their principles that He drove them forth. That they suffered it with so little resistance seems to show a tacit admission on their part that they were departing from the strictness of Jewish law. Jesus never singles out the trader, as such, as an example of covetousness or fraud ; when He inveighs against corrupt prac- tices, it is rather the Pharisees ' who devour widows' houses ' (Mk 12**'), and who are ' full from extor- tion ' (Mt 23^^) that are selected for castigation. If, as is not improbable, the Good Samaritan of Lk jp3o-37 ^va,s suggested by the merchants who tra- velled regularly on the trade-route that led through Jericho (cf. v.^^), we have an instance of the way in which Jesus contrasted the humanity often characterizing men of the world with the inhu- manity which professors of religion may be capable of showing.
4. Relations of Jesus with the mercantile com- munity.— It has been said * that the trade of Palestine is often reflected in the parables of Jesus spoken as He passed along the busy trade-routes of Galilee and Judjea. Typical of these is the parable of the Merchant seeking Goodly Pearls (Mt 13''*- *^). Jesus would be sure to meet traders on His frequent journeys. Merchandise was still carried, for the most part probably, on pack- animals — asses, mules, or camels (cf. Jos. Vit. 26 f . ) ; for, though under Imperial Rome there had been a great development of the means of transit, and a fast service of conveyances had been estab- lished on the great trunk roads of the Empire, this would hardly be the case in Palestine in the time of Jesus. But conditions had arisen more favourable to commerce : the roads were safer ; brigandage was put doAvn with a strong hand (Jos. Ant. XIV. ix. 2, XV. 4) ; in addition to the usual town-markets, which in the time of the Maccabees seem to have been held monthly, and to which the country people came in (1 Mac 1^, cf. Herzfeld, p. 75 f.), there was a good deal of trade done at the regular stopping-places of the caravans, and at the inns ; periodical fairs also sprang up at certain places, e.g. Gaza, Acco, and Tyre (Herz- feld, p. 134). In the towns, at any rate the larger towns, merchants would have their recognized exchange for corn, wool, etc., and their bazaars for manufactured articles. They had their trade guilds, capable sometimes of exercising a con- siderable influence (cf. Ac lO^^"^-). and their trade leagues between neighbouring towns, e.g. those * EBi, art. 'Trade and Commerce,' 5191a.
of Decapolis (Herzfeld, p. 148 ; HGHL p. 595) ; there were trading corporations, which had their representatives in the important centres. Thus, there were Antiochian Jews settled in Jerusalem presumably for purposes of trade (2 Mac 4^- ^^), and there is little doubt that at the times of the great feasts, many who came up to Jerusalem combined business with religion, and used the opportunity to establish trade relations with their fellow-countrymen coming from other parts of the Empire. The sea, now cleared of pirates, no longer offered obstruction to the spread of com- merce ; the Jews had at last ports of their own ; Philo (in Flaccum, 8) refers to Jewish shijmiasters at Alexandria ; Josephus (Ant. xvill. ix.) and the Talmud refer to the wealth of Babylonian Jews. Through Galilee ran some of the most frequented trade-routes ; and in this province, more than else- where, the influence of the enterprising Greek was in evidence.
Jesus was in close contact, then, with the busy traffic of His day, and the allusions to it in the Gospels are many ; e.g. the trade in oil (Mt 25®), in spices (Mk 16^ 14^, Jn 19^® ; an indication of the extent of this traffic may be gathered from the statement made by Josephus, that at Herod's funeral there were 500 spice-bearers [Ant. XVII. viii. 3]), in clothes (Mk 15'"', Lk 22^6), in cattle (Lk 141**), in weapons (Lk 22^'*). It is a little remark- able that there is no special reference to what must have been the trade best known to Christ's disciples, that in dried fish, for which Taricheee on the Lake of Galilee was a famous centre (Strabo, XVI. ii. 45 ; BJ III. x. 6 ; HGHL p. 455). Absorption in trade is hinted at in the case of the man who neglects the king's invitation, that he may go to his merchandise (Mt 22^), and in Mt 18^^ we get a glimpse into a trade the dimensions and importance of which must have been much greater than is indicated by anything in the NT, — the slave-trade. This, however, would be wholly in the hands of foreigners, its chief centre being at Delos (Strabo, XIV. v. 2), where as many as 10,000 slaves might be found at one time. Phoenician mer- chants seem to have been the usual intermediaries in this traffic (1 Mac 3", 2 Mac 8", Ant. xil. vii. 3) ; and, while the only direct allusion to the slave-merchant in the NT is Rev 18^^ this person- age must have been a too familiar figure on the roads of Galilee.