53); the Greeks, too, were defiled by contact with a corpse, and could not resort to the temple (Tbeophrast. Charact. 16; Eurip. Tpkig. Taur. 367; Diog. Laer.viii,
33); both the Parsees and the Greeks regarded a woman in childbirth as unclean ( Kleuker, Zend-Avesta, hi. 222, •-'•_':'i : Eurip. Tpkig. Taur. 367 ) : and - no Egyptian would
salute a Creek with a kiss, nor use a Creek knife, spits, caldrons, nor taste the meat of an ox which had been cul by a (.reek knife. They drank out of bronze ves- sels, rinsing them perpetually. And if any one acci- dentally touched a pig he would plunge into the Nile without stopping to undress" i Herodot. ii. 37, II. 17 i.
III. The Tunis inn! Practices of th Pharisees. To state the doctrines and statutes of the Pharisees is t"
give a history of orthodox Judaism ; since Pharisaism
was after the return from the Babylonian captivity, and
is :., i i,c presenl day. the national faith of i lie orthodox Jews, developing itself with and adapting itself to the
ever-shifting circumstances ,,\ the nation. See l; vr.- binism. Of the oiher two sects, viz. the Essenes and the Sadducees, the former represented simply an inten- sified form of Pharisaism | see L>m m s |, wink' I hi' kil- ter were a very small minority. See Sunn t kks. The Pharisees, as the erudite Ceiger has conclusively shown.
were the democratic party, the true representatives of
the people, whose high vocation they endeavored to
develop by making them realize, both in their prac- tices and lives, thai "Cod has given to all alike the kingdom, priesthood, ami holiness" (2 Mace, ii, 17 i; in opposition to the small caste of the priestly aristocracy
of Sadducees. w Im set I he highest \ alue upon I In ir spir- itual office, and who. by virtue .if their hereditary rights, tried to arrogate everything to themselves, and manifested little sympathy with the people at large.
Hence the Pharisaic enactments were such as to make the people realize that they were " peopl I'/jn n sts, a holy nation; that by becoming a diligent student of the law. and by preparing one's self for the office of a rabbi
or teacher, every such person, though not literally of th<' priestly caste, may lie a priest in spirit, and occupy quite as important and useful a position as if he were actually of the Aaronic order, and even arrange his
1 le of life according to the example of those w ho
minister in holy things. Thus the very name ~". iraipia, which in olden times denotes a priestly frater- nity i Hos. iv. 17: v i. !'i. and was so used by the Jews on i he Maccabsean coins (C"~"n"n "— H), was adopted by the Pharisees for their lay association. Tin ir social meals were invested with a solemn character i" resem- ble i lie social meals of the priests, made up from the
Sacrifices in the Temple. If the piies|s I cara thai
the sacrifices which they offered up, and portions of
which constituted their social meal, especially on the Sabbath and festivals, should he clean and without blemish, the Pharisees also took the utmost precaution that their meals should he free from the different de- grees of defilement: they washed before partaking thereof, recited prayers b< fore and after the repast, had a cup of blessing, and offered incense. It is only from this point of view that some of the differences hi t ween the Pharisees and the Sadducees can Ik explained: as. for instance, tki ideal connection of places for Sabbatic purposes, called -'"'". mixture, adopted by the former and rejected by the latter. In consequence of the rig- orous laws about the observance of the Sabbath (Exod. xvi, 29; Jer. .xvii. 21, with Neh. xiii. 1.".. etc.), it was enacted that no Israelite is to walk on the Sabbath he- yond a certain distance, called a Sabbath-day's journey, nor carry anything from one house t" .another. The Sadducees. nr priestly parly, who celebrated their meals on the Sabbath in different places, could go from one place to another, and carry to and fro anything they liked, because they regarded these meals as constituting part of their priestly and sacrificial service, which set, aside the sanctity of the Sabbath. Put the Pharisees, who made their Safliatic repast resemble the priestly social meals, had to encounter difficulties arising from the rigorous Sabbatic laws. The distance which they had sometimes to walk to join a company in the social meal was more than a Sabbath-day's journey; the carry- ing from one place to another of the things requisite for the solemnities was contrary to the enactments about the sanctity of the day. Hence tiny contrived the ideal connection of places (STPS i, which was effected as follows: Before the Sabbath commenced ii. e. Friday afternoon), an article of food was deposited by each member in the court selected lor the social gathering.
so that it might thereby become the common place foi
all; the streets «,,, made to form one large dwelling- place with different gates, by means of beams laid across on the lops of the houses, and doors or gates put in the front ; and meals wire (Hit in a house at the .aid of the distance permitted to walk, in older to constitute it a domicile, and thus another Sabbath-day's jniirnev could he undertaken from the lirsi terminus. By this means the Pharisees could evade the law. and. like the priests,