[1154] Ab. iii. 9
[1155] Comp. Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' pp. 159 &c. The enigmatic mode of wording and writing was very common. Thus, the year is marked by a verse, generally from Scripture, which contains the letters that give the numerical value of the year. These letters are indicated by marks above them.
[1156] Ps. cxiii. - cxviii.
[1157] Baba B. 21 a; Keth. 50 a.
[1158] Jos. Ant. xvii. 6. 2.
[1159] Baba B. 21 a.
[1160] Yebam. 61 a; Yoma 18 a.
[1161] He was succeeded by Matthias, the son of Theophilos, under whose Pontificate the war against Rome began.
[1162] Shabb. 119 b.
[1163] Sanh. 17 b.
[1164] Shabb. u.s.
[1165] Shabb. 127 a; Moed K. 16. a.
[1166] Among the names by which the schools are designated there is also that of Ischoli, with its various derivations, evidently from the Greek schol, schola.
[1167] Is. xxx. 20.
[1168] The proof-passages from the Talmud are collated by Dr. Marcus (Pædagog. d. Isr. Volkes, ii. pp. 16, 17).
[1169] For example, Shabb. 11 a.
[1170] Ab. v. 21.
[1171] Altingius (Academic. Dissert. p. 335) curiously suggests, that this was done to teach a child its guilt and the need of justification. The Rabbinical interpretation (Vayyikra R. 7) is at least equally far-fetched: that, as children are pure and sacrifices pure, it is fitting that the pure should busy themselves with the pure. The obvious reason seems, that Leviticus treated of the ordinances with which every Jew ought to have been acquainted.
[1172] 1 Macc. i. 57; comp. Jos. Ant. xii. 5. 4.
[1173] Jer. Meg. iii. 1, p. 73 d.
[1174] Herzfeld (Gesch. d. V. Isr. iii. p. 267, note) strangely misquotes and misinterprets this matter. Comp. Dr. Müller, Massech. Sofer. p. 75.
[1175] Sopher. v. 9, p. 25 b; Gitt. 60 a; Jer. Meg. 74 a; Tos. Yad. 2.
[1176] The most painful instances of these are the legendary accounts of the early history of Christ in the Apocryphal Gospels (well collated by Keim, i. 2, pp. 413-468, passim). But later writers are unfortunately not wholly free from the charge.
[1177] I must here protest against the introduction of imaginary Evening Scenes in Nazareth,' when, according to Dr. Geikie, friends or neighbours of Joseph's circle would meet for an hour's quiet gossip.' Dr. Geikie here introduces as specimens of this quiet gossip' a number of Rabbinic quotations from the German translation in Dukes' Rabbinische Blumenlese.' To this it is sufficient answer: 1. There were no such learned Rabbis in Nazareth. 2. If there had been, they would not have been visitors in the house of Joseph. 3. If they had been visitors there, they would not have spoken what Dr. Geikie quotes from Dukes, since some of the extracts are from mediæval books and only one a proverbial expression. 4. Even if they had so spoken, it would at least have been in the words which Dukes has translated, without the changes and additions which Dr. Geikie has introduced in some instances.
[1178] St. Luke iv. 16.
[1179] See Book III., the chapter on The Synagogue of Nazareth.'
[1180] St. Matt. v. 18.
[1181] St. Luke xvi. 17.
[1182] This may be gathered even from such an expression as One iota, or one little hook' - not tittle' as in the A.V. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER X. IN THE HOUSE OF HIS HEAVENLY, AND IN THE HOME OF HIS EARTHLY FATHER - THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM - THE RETIREMENT AT NAZARETH.
(St. Luke ii. 41-52.)
Once only is the great silence, which lies on the history of Christ's early life, broken. It is to record what took place on His first visit to the Temple. What this meant, even to an ordinary devout Jew, may easily be imagined. Where life and religion were so intertwined, and both in such organic connection with the Temple and the people of Israel, every thoughtful Israelite must have felt as if his real life were not in what was around, but ran up into the grand unity of the people of God, and were compassed by the halo of its sanctity. To him it would be true in the deepest sense, that, so to speak, each Israelite was born in Zion, as, assuredly, all the well-springs of his life were there. [1183] It was, therefore, not merely the natural eagerness to see the City of their God and of their fathers, glorious Jerusalem; nor yet the lawful enthusiasm, national or religious, which would kindle at the thought of our feet' standing within those gates, through which priests, prophets, and kings had passed; but far deeper feelings which would make glad, when it was said: Let us go into the house of Jehovah.' They were not ruins to which precious memories clung, nor did the great hope seem to lie afar off, behind the evening-mist. But glorious things were spoken of Zion, the City of God' - in the past, and in the near future the thrones of David' were to be set within her walls, and amidst her palaces. [1184]