[1480] This chapter contains, among other matter, a detailed and critical examination of the great Jewish Sects, such as was necessary in a work on The Times.' as well as The Life,' of Christ.
[1481] i. 19-28.
[1482] This point is fully discussed by Lücke, Evang. Joh., vol. i. pp. 396-398.
[1483] Comp. St. John v. 15, 16; ix. 18, 22; xviii. 12, 31.
[1484] So Professor Westcott, in his Commentary on the passage (Speaker's Comment., N.T., vol. ii. p. 18), where he notes that the expression in St. John viii. 3 is unauthentic.
[1485] Sanh. i. 5.
[1486] Of this the Sanhedrin must have been perfectly aware. Comp. St. Matt. iii. 7; St. Luke iii. 15 &c.
[1487] For ex. Yoma 1. 5.
[1488] Comp. The Temple, its Ministry and Services,' p. 75. Dr. Geiger (Urschr. u. Uebersetz. d. Bibel, pp. 113, 114) ascribes to them, however, a much wider jurisdiction. Some of his inferences (such as at pp. 115, 116) seem to me historically unsupported.
[1489] St. Matt. iii. 7 &c.
[1490] Comp. Book I. ch. viii.
[1491] I use the term metaphysical here in the sense of all that is above the natural, not merely the speculative, but the supersensuous generally.
[1492] The word aresis has received its present meaning chiefly from the adjective attaching to it in 2 Pet. ii. 1. In Acts xxiv. 5, 14, xxviii. 22, it is vituperatively applied to Christians; in 1 Cor. xi. 19, Gal. v. 20, it seems to apply to diverging practices of a sinful kind; in Titus iii. 10, the heretic' seems one who held or taught diverging opinions or practices. Besides, it occurs in the N.T. once to mark the Sadducees, and twice the Pharisees (Acts v. 17; xv. 5, and xxvi. 5).
[1493] I mean on historical, not theological grounds.
[1494] I here refer to the following passages: Jewish War ii. 8. 14; Ant. xiii. 5. 9; 10. 5, 6; xvii. 2. 4; xviii. 1, 2, 3, 4.
[1495] For a full discussion of the character and writings of Josephus, I would refer to the article in Dr. Smith's Dict. of Chr. Biogr. vol. iii.
[1496] Jos. Ant. xvii. 2. 4.
[1497] Chag. ii. 5, 7; comp. Tohor. vii. 5.
[1498] For ex. Kidd. 33 b.
[1499] Bekh. 30.
[1500] Abba Saul would also have freed all students from that formality.
[1501] Bekhor. 30.
[1502] Comp. the suggestion as to the significant time when this alteration was introduced, in Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' pp. 228, 229.
[1503] Dem. ii. 2.
[1504] Demai ii.3.
[1505] In St. Luke xi.42; xviii. 12; St. Matt. xxiii. 23.
[1506] In St. Luke xi. 39, 41; St. Matt. xxiii. 25, 26.
[1507] Sot. 22 b; Jer. Ber. ix. 7.
[1508] Sot. iii. 4.
[1509] Pes. 70 b.
[1510] Abhoth de R. Nathan 5.
[1511] Jer. Chag. 79 d; Tos. Chag. iii.
[1512] Erub. 54 a. I give the latter clause, not as in our edition of the Talmud, but according to a more correct reading (Levy, Neuhebr. Wörterb. vol. ii. p. 102).
[1513] It could serve no good purpose to give instances. They are readily accessible to those who have taste or curiosity in that direction.
[1514] So, erroneously, Wellhausen, in his treatise Pharisäer u. Sadduc.'; and partially, as it seems to me, even Schürer (Neutest. Zeitgesch.). In other respects also these two learned men seem too much under the influence of Geiger and Kuenen.
[1515] Megill. Taan. Per. iv. ed. Warsh. p. 8 a.
[1516] Wellhausen has carried his criticisms and doubts of the Hebrew Scholion on the Megill. Taan. (or Roll of Fasts') too far.
[1517] Even such a book as the Meg. Taan. does not accuse them of absolute ignorance, but only of being unable to prove their dicta from Scripture (comp. Pereq x. p. 15 b, which may well mark the extreme of Anti-Sadduceeism).