[4258] Yoma 74 b.
[4259] Bezeh 16 a.
[4260] As always in the East, there were many kinds of bakemeat, from the coarse barley-bread or rice-cake to the finest pastry. We read even of a kind of biscuit, imported from India (the Teritha, Ber. 37 b).
[4261] Ber. 41 b.
[4262] Ber. 35 a.
[4263] Ps. xxiv. 1.
[4264] So rigid was this, that it was deemed duty to speak a blessing over a drink of water, if one was thirsty, Ber. vi. 8.
[4265] Ber. 36 a.
[4266] This, also, was matter of controversy, but the Rabbis decided that the blessing must first be spoken, and then the loaf cut (Ber. 39 b).
[4267] Ber. vi. 6.
[4268] Ber. 43 a.
[4269] Ber. 47 b.
[4270] Ber. 40 b.
[4271] Ber. 46 b.
[4272] According to Ber. 46 b, the order in Persia was somewhat different. The arrangement indicated in the text is of importance as regards the places taken at the Last Supper, when there was a dispute among the disciples about the order in which they were to sit (comp. pp. 493-495).
[4273] Tradition ascribes this benediction to Moses on the occasion when manna first fell.
[4274] Ber. vii. 5.
[4275] Nidd. ii. 7.
[4276] Pes. 108 b.
[4277] Mentioned in St. Mark xv. 23.
[4278] Terum xi. 2.
[4279] Comp. Ber. 40-44 passim.
[4280] Derekh Erets Suta v. and vii.
[4281] Erub. 65 b.
[4282] For a full account of the laws concerning the washing of hands and the views entertained of the rite, see Book III. ch. xxxi.
[4283] Ber. 51 b to52 b.
[4284] In connection with St. Matt. xxiii.
[4285] St. Luke xi. 39.
[4286] On the origin and meaning of the ordinance, see Book III. ch. xxxi.
[4287] ver. 40.
[4288] ver. 41.
[4289] St. Matt. xv. 1-9.
[4290] St. Matt. xv. 10, 11.
[4291] St. Luke xi. 42.
[4292] On the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes,' see Book III. ch. ii. In fact, the fraternity of the Pharisees were bound by these two vows, that of tithing, and that in regard to purifications.
[4293] ver. 43.
[4294] St. Luke xi. 44. The word Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,' are an interpolation.
[4295] St. Luke xii. 1.
[4296] See previous Note.
[4297] As to the estimate of the Pharisees, comp. also Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' p. 237.
[4298] Sot. iii. 4.
[4299] See previous Note.
[4300] St. Luke xi. 45.
[4301] ver. 46.
[4302] vv. 47-52.
[4303] This is both the correct reading and rendering of St. Luke xi. 53, 54, as given in the Revised Version. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XIII. TO THE DISCIPLES - TWO EVENTS AND THEIR MORAL.
(St. Luke xii. 1 - xiii. 17.)
The record of Christ's last warning to the Pharisees, and of the feelings of murderous hate which it called forth, is followed by a summary of Christ's teaching to His disciples. The tone is still that of warning, but entirely different from that to the Pharisees. It is a warning of sin that threatened, not of judgment that awaited; it was for prevention, not in denunciation. That such warnings were most seasonable, requires scarcely proof. They were prompted by circumstances around. The same teaching, because prompted by the same causes, had been mostly delivered, also, on other occasions. Yet there are notable, though seemingly slight, divergences, accounted for by the difference of the writers or of the circumstances, and which mark the independence of the narratives.
1. The first of these Discourses [4304] naturally connects itself with what had passed at the Pharisee's table, an account of which must soon have spread. Although the Lord is reported as having addressed the same language chiefly to the Twelve when sending them on their first Mission, [4305] [4306] we shall presently mark several characteristic variations. The address - or so much of it as is reported, probably only its summary - is introduced by the following notice of the circumstances: In the mean time, when the many thousands of the people were gathered together, so that they trode upon each other, He began to say to His disciples: "First [above all, {hebrew}], [4307] beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."' There is no need to point out the connection between this warning and the denunciation of Pharisaism and traditionalism at the Pharisee's table. Although the word hypocrisy' had not been spoken there, it was the sum and substance of His contention, that Pharisaism, while pretending to what it was not, concealed what it was. And it was this which, like leaven,' pervaded the whole system of Pharisaism. Not that as individuals they were all hypocrites, but that the system was hypocrisy. And here it is characteristic of Pharisaism, that Rabbinic Hebrew has not even a word equivalent to the term hypocrisy.' The only expression used refers either to flattery of, or pretence before men, [4308] not to that unconscious hypocrisy towards God which our Lord so truly describes as the leaven' that pervaded all the Pharisees said and did. It is against this that He warned His disciples - and in this, rather than conscious deception, pretence, or flattery, lies the danger of the Church. Our common term, unreality,' but partially describes it. Its full meaning can only be gathered from Christ's teaching. But what precise term He may have used, it is impossible to suggest. [4309]