Far more was this the case after the captivity. The revival of the existence of Israel was hallo\ved by the new and solemn publication of the law by Ezra, and the institution of the synagogue, through which it became tleeply and familiarly known. See Ezra. The loss of the independent monarchy, and the cessation of proph- ecy, both combined to throw the Jews back upon the law alone as their only distinctive pledge of nationality and sure guide to truth. The more they mingled with the other subject-nations under the Persian and Grecian empires, the more eagerly they climg to it as their dis- tinction and safeguard; and opening the knowledge of it to the heathen by the translation of the Septuagint, tlicy based on it their proverbial eagerness to proselytize. Tliis love for the law, rather than any abstract patriot- ism, was the strength of the Maccaba;an struggle against the Syrians (note here the question as to the lawfulness of war on the Sabbath in this war [1 I\Iacc. ii, 23-41]), and the success of that struggle, enthroning a Levitical l)ower, deepened the feeling from which it sprang. It so entered into the heart of the people that open idolatry became impossible. The certainty and authority of the law's commandments amidst the periilcxities of pagan- ism, and the spirituality of its doctrine as contrasted with sensual and carnal idolatries, were the favorite boast of the Jew, and the secret of his influence among the heathen. The law thus became the moidding in"- iluence of the Jewish character; and, instead of being Ijoked upon as subsidiary to the promise, and a means to its fulfilment, it was exalted to sujireme importance as at once a means and a pledge of national and individual sanctity.
This feeling laid hold of and satisfied the mass of the people, harmonizing as it did with their ever-increasing sjiirit of an almost fanatic nationality, until the destruc- tion of the city. The Pharisees, truly rejiresenting the chief strength of the \>V(<\,U'. systematized this feeling; they gave it fresh food, and assumed a predominant leadership over it liy the lloating mass of tradition which they gradually accumidated around the law as a nu- cleus. The popular use of the \vord '• lawless" (drofioc) as a term of contempt (Acts ii, 23^ 1 Cor. ix, 21) for the heathen, and even for the uneducated mass of their fol- lowers (John vii, 49), marked and stereotyped their prin- ciple.
Against this idolatry of the law (which, when import- ed into the Christian Church, is described and vehe- mently denounced by St. Paul) there were two reactions. The first was that of the Sudducees; one which had its basis, according to common tradition, in the idea of a higher love and service of God, independent of the law and its sanctions, but which degenerated into a specu- lative infidelity and an anti-national systein of politics, and -which probably had but little hold of the people. The other, that of the Kssenes, M'as an attempt to burst the bonds of the formal law, and assert its ideas in all fidness, freedom, and purity. In its practical form it assiuned the character of high and ascetic devotion to God ; its speculative guise is seen in the school of Philo, as a tendency not merely to treat the commands and history of the law on a symbolical principle, but actu- ally to allegorize them into mere abstractions. In nei- ther form could it be permanent, because it had no sulH- cient relation to the needs and realities of human na- ture, or to the personal subject of all the Jewish prom- ises ; but it was stdl a declaration of the insufiiciency of the law in itself, and a preparation for its absorption into a higher principle of unity. Such was the history of the law before the coming of Christ. It was full of effect and blessing when used as a means; it became hollow and insufficient when made an end.
2. The relation of the law to the advent of Christ is also laid down clearly by St. Paul. The law was the TraiSaywyvQ ti'c Xptarui', the servant (that is) whose task it was to guide the cliild to the true teacher (Gal. iii, 24) ; and Christ was " the end" or object " of the law" (Rom. X, 4). As being subsidiary to the promise, it had accomplished its purpose when the promise was fultilled. In its national aspect it had existed to guard the foith in the theocracy. The chief hinderance to that faith had been the difficulty of realizing the invisible pres- ence of God, and of conceiving a communion with the infinite Godhead which should not crush or absorb the finite creature (compare Deut, v, 24-27 ; Numb, xvii, 12, 13; Jobix,32-35; xiii,21,22; Isa.xlv, 15, Ixiv, l,etc,). From that had come in earlier times open idolatry, and a half-idolatrous longing for and trust in the kingdom ; in after times the substitution of the law for the prom- ise. The difficulty was now to pass away forever, in the incarnation of the Godhead in one truly and vis- ibh' man. The guardianship of the law was no longer needed, for the visible and personal presence of the Jles- siah required no farther testimony. Moreover, in the law itself there had always been a tendency of the funda- mental idea to burst tlie formal bonds which confined it. In looking to God as especially their king, the Israelites were inheriting a privilege, belonging originally to all mankind, and destined to revert to them. Yet that ele- ment of the law which was local and national, now most prized of all by the .Jews, tended to limit this gift to them, and place them in a position antagonistic to the rest of the world. It needed, therefore, to pass away before all men could be brought into a kingdom -where there was to be "neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free."