f. Shemaja ( = 2rt|itf«e, Josephus, Ani. xiv, 9, 4) and Abtalion ( = noX\iojj', ibid. xv. 1, 1, 10, 4) are the two great doctors of the law who now succeeded to the presidency and vice-presidency (B.C. 65-30) as the fourth pair (mSIT). They are generally considered as having been proselytes; but this is precluded by the fact that they were at the head of the Sanhedrim, and that according to the Jewish law no proselyte could even be an ordinary member of the seventy-one. In- deed, Grittz (iii, 481) has shown that they were Alex- andrian Jews, and that the notion of their having been proselytes rests upon the misinterpretation of a passage in the- Talmud. Though verj' few of their enactments have come down to us, yet the influence which their great learning and unflinching integrity gave them among the people at large, and especially among the succeeding doctors of the law, was such as to secure for any question an authoritative reception if it could be traced to have been propounded by Shemaja and Ab- talion (Mishna, Edayoth, i, 3 ; Pesachim, 6G a), who were styled the two mar/nates of their day (TTin "ipTlS). The two maxiins of these distinguished scribes which have survived reflect the deplorable condition of the Jews under the Roman j'oke. Thus Shemaja urged on his disciples, " Love a handicraft, hate the rabbinate, and befriend not thyself with the worldly powers" {Ahoth, i, 10); while Abtalion said, "Sages, be careful in your utterances, lest ye draw upon yourselves the punishment of exile, and ye be banished to a place where the water is poisonous [i. e. of seductive influ- ence], and the disciples who go with you drink thereof and die, and thus bring reproach upon the sacred name of God" {ibid, i, 11). Some idea may be formed of Shemaja's unflinching integrity from his conduct at tlie trial of Herod before the Sanhedrim. When this mag- nate was summoned before the supreme tribunal to an- swer the accusation of the mothers whose children he had slain, and when his armed appearance and his retinue of soldiers frightened the other members of the court into silence, Shemaja, the president, had the courage to pro- nounce the sentence of death against him (Josephus, /I ??^ xiv, 9, 4). When he showed himself to be irresistible, they had the wisdom to submit, and were suffered to continue their work in peace. Their glory was, however, in great measure gone. The doors of their school were no longer thrown open to all comers so that crowds might listen to the teacher, A fixed fee had to be paid on entrance. The regulation was probably intended to discourage the attendance of the j'oung men of Jerusalem at the scribes' classes ; and apparently it had that effect (Jost, i, 248- 253). On the death of Shemaja and Abtalion, there were no qualified successors to take their place. Two sons of Bethera, otherwise unknown, for a time occupied it, but they were themselves conscious of their incom- petence, A question was brought before tliem which neither they nor any of the otlier scribes could answer. At last they asked, in their perplexit}', " Was there none present who liad been a disciple of the two who had been so honored V" The question was answered by Hillel the Baliylonian, known also, then or afterwards, as the son of David. lie solved the difficulty, appealed to princi- ples, and, when they demanded authority as well as ar- gument, ended by saying, "So have I heard from my masters Shemaja and Abtalion." This was decisive.
SCRIBES, JEWISH
472
SCRIBES, JEWISH
The sons of Bethcra withdrew. Hillel was invited by acclamation to enter on his high office. His alleged de- scent from the house of David maj' have added to his popularity.
g. The name of Hillel (born cir. B.C. 112) has hardly received tlie notice due to it from students of the Gospel history. The noblest and most genial representative of his ortler, we may see in him the best fruit which the system of the scribes was capable of producing. It is instructive to mark at once how far he (irepared the way for the higher teaching which was to follow, how far he inevitably fell short of it. The starting-point of his career is given in a tale which, though deformed by Rabbinic exaggerations, is yet fresh and genial enough. The j'oung student had come from (iolah, in Babylonia, to study under Sheraaja and Abtalion. He was poor and hail no money. The new rule requiring payment was in force. For the most part, he worked for his live- lihood, kept himself with half his earnings, and paid the rest as the fee to the college porter. On one day, how- ever, he had failed to find emploj-ment. The doorkeeper refused him entrance ; but his zeal for knowledge was not to be baffled. He stationed himself outside, under a window, to catch what he could of the words of the scribes v.itliin. It was winter, and the snow began to fall, but he remained there still. It fell till it lay upon him six cubits high (!) and the window was darkened and blocked up. At last the two teachers noticed it, sent out to see what caused it, and, when they found out, received the eager scholar without payment. "For such a man," said Shemaja, "one might even break the Sabbath" (Geiger, in Ugolini Thesaiir. xxi ; .Jost, i, 254). In the earlier days of his activity, Hillel had as his col- league Menachem, probably the same as the Essene Ma- naen of Josephus (.1 nt. xv, 10, 5). He, however, was tempted bj' the growing power of Herod, and, with a large number (eighty in the Kabbinic tradition) of his followers, entered the king's service and abandoned at once his calling as scribe and his habits of devotion. They appeared publicly in the gorgeous apparel, glit- tering with gold, which was inconsistent with both (Jost, i, 259). The place thus vacant was soon filled by Shammai. The two \vere held in nearly equal honor. One, in Jewish language, was the Nasi, the other the Ab-beth-din, of the Sanhedrim. They did not teach, however, as their predecessors had done, in entire har- mony with each other. Within the party of the Phar- isees, within the order of the scribes, there came for the first time to be two schools with distinctly opposed ten- dencies— one vehemently, rigidly orthodox, the other orthodox also, but with an orthodoxy which, in the lan- guage of modern politics, might be classed as liberal- conservative. The points on which they differed were almost innumerable (comp. Geiger, ut sup.). In most of them — questions as to the causes and degrees of unclean- ness, as to the law of contracts or of wills — we can find little or no interest. On the former class of subjects the school of Shammai represented the extremest de- velopment of the Pharisaic spirit. Everything that could possibly have been touched by a heathen or an unclean Israelite became itself unclean. "Defilement" was as a contagious disease which it was hardly possible to avoid even with the careful scrupulosity described in INIark vii, 1-4. They were, in like manner, rigidly Sab- batarian. It was unlawful to do anything before the Sabbath which would in any sense be in operation dur- ing it, e. g. to put cloth into a dye-vat, or nets into the sea. It was unlawful on the Sabbath itself to give money to the poor, or to teach children, or to visit the sick. They maintained the marriage law in its strict- ness, and held that nothing but the adultery of the wife could justify repudiation (Jost, i, 257-2G0). We must not tliink of them, however, as rigid and austere in their lives. The religious world of Judaism presented the inconsistencies which it has often presented since. The "straitest sect" was also the most secular. Sham- mai himself was said to be rich, luxurious, self-indulgent.