e. This deplorable condition, however, soon passed by, and the Scribes were again in the ascendency in the reign of Alexander Janna>us, son of John Hyrcanus, when Simon ben-Shetach (q. v.), brother of queen Salome {Berakoth, 48 a), was the president of the Sanhedrim, and Jehudah ben-Tabai vice-president (B.C. 110-65). Tiiough Simon ben-Shetach had for a time to quit the court and hide himself, because he was accused of trea- son against the sovereign, j'et Alexander .Jann;eus rein- stated him upon the solicitation of the Parthian ambas- sadors, who missed at the royal table the wisdom of this scribe, which they had so much enjoyed on a former occasion. He allowed himself to be elected member of the Sanhedrim, which was then filled with the Saddu- cees whom John Hyrcanus had put there, and by bia
SCRIBES, JEWISH
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wisdom repeatedly in the presence of the queen and king confounded these Sadducees b)' puzzUng questions about the treatment, without tradition, of such legal cases as are not mentioned in the Mosaic law, so much so that they gradually quitted the supreme court, and Simon filled the vacancies with the scribes. The ca- lamitous event which happened at the Feast of Taber- nacles while Alexander Jannasus was officiating in the Temple [see Tabernacles, Feast of] checked for a time the progress of the scribes, but it was more than made up by the fact that this sovereign, on his death- bed, committed his wife to the care of the Pharisees (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 10, 1, 2). Under Simon ben-She- tach and Jehudah ben-Tabai the Sanhedrim was en- tirely cleared of the Sadducees, and a festival day was instituted (March 17, B.C. 78) to commemorate the re- turn of the residue of the scribes (X^IS'^D HU'^PS) who went into exile in the days of John HjTcanus. The reconstruction of the Sanhedrim, however, was not the only important work effected by these two doctors of the law. To render divorce difficult, Simon ben- Shctach decreed that the money of marriage-settlement, which was at first deposited with the wife's father, and afterwards laid out in household furniture — thus being no loss to the husband in case he divorced his wife — should amount at least to two silver miiue (about £7 lOs.) if the bride were a maiden, and half that sum to a widow; that the husband should invest it in his busi- ness, so as to render it a matter of great inconvenience and difficulty to draw it out, and that the whole of his property should be pledged for the payment of this set- tlement (nniTiD, avyypa<p{]), thus precluding the pos- sibility of her being defrauded of it by unprincipled heirs (Babylon Kethubotk, 82 b ; Jerusalem Kelkiiboth, cap. viii, end; Sabbath, xiv, 6; xvi, C). See Mak- ijiAGE, Simon ben-Shetach, moreover, introduced su- perior schools into every provincial town, and ordained that all the youths from the age of sixteen should visit them (Jerusalem Kethuboth, viii, 1 1), which created a new epoch in the education of tiie nation. See Schools. Their zeal, however, to uphold the law in opposition to the Sadducees led them to commit rigorous acts towards their antagonists (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 16, 1); and on one occasion Jehudah ben-Tabai, to eradicate the Sad- ducean notions from the people [see Sadducee], con- demned to death a false witness in a capital trial (Mac- coth, V, b). But when Simon ben-Shetach reprimanded his colleague for this unlawful act, Jehudah ben-Tabai, who was then president of the Sanhedrim, was so tridy penitent that he at once gave up the presidency, threw himself on the grave of the man he had condemned, crying most bitterly, and beseeching God to take his own life as an atonement for the one he had judicially taken away {ibid.'). Th\g rash act taught him greater leniency for the future, and accounts for his precept to judges: " Onl\' as long as the accused stand before thee regard them as transgressors of the law; but regard ■them as innocent immediately after they are released, and have suffered the penalty of the law" {Ahoth, i, 8). The following may be mentioned as an instance of Si- mon ben - Shetach's extraordinary conscientiousness, which must have greatly impressed itself upon the minds of the people, and prepared the way for the re- ception of the truth as it is in Jesus. The Sadducees, out of revenge for his rigorous measures against tiiem, suborned two witnesses, who testirted that his son com- mitted a capital crime. He was accordingly sentenced to death. As he was led to tiie place of execution, the witnesses, being filled with horror that they had con- demned innocent blood, confessed tliat they had borne false Avitncss. But as the law from time immemorial had enacted that " the evidence once given and accept- ed cannot be revoked" (Maimonides, Jad Ha-Chezaka Ililchoth Eduth, iii, 5), and though Simon's fatherly feelings for a moment made him hesitate about the pro- priety of the execution, yet his son, to uphold the dig-
nity of the law, exclaimed to him, "Father, if thou wishest that salvation should come to Israel through thee, pay no regard to my life," and accordingly the son died a martyr to the honor of the law (Jerusalem Char/iguh, ii, 2; Sanhedrin, i, 5; vii, 3). 'Ihis noble sacrifice on the part of Simon ben-Shetach evidently made him lay down the maxim, '• Test witnesses most carefullj', and be cautious in questioning them, lest they learn therefrom how to impart to their falsehood the garb of truth" (Aboth, i, 9). No wonder that tradition celebrates- Simon ben-Shetach as "the restorer of the divine law to its pristine glory" (Kiddushin).