Judaism in the First Three Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of Tannaim, 3 volumes

JUDAISM

JUDAISM In the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of Tannaim

VOLUME I GEORGE FOOT MOORE

Jfel HENDRICKSON

Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. RO. Box 3 4 7 3

Peabody, Massachusetts 1960 ISBN 1-56563-286-9 Printed in the United States of America 7

First printing Hendrickson Publishers edition, March 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the original publisher. Volume 1, JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, THE AGE OF THE TANNAIM, by George Foot Moore, © 1927 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by arrangement with Harvard University Press.

IN MEMORIAM

OBIIT MDCCCCXXIV

PREFACE T H E aim of these volumes is to represent Judaism in the centuries in which it assumed definitive form, as it presents itself in the tradition which it has always regarded as authentic. These primary sources come to us as they were compiled and set in order in the second century of the Christian era, embodying the interpretation of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch and the definition and formulation of the Law, written and unwritten, in the schools, in the century and a half between the reorganiza­ tion at Jamnia under Johanan ben Zakkai and his associates, after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, and the promulgation of the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah. i\.bout the schools of the preceding century, especially about the two great masters, Hillel and Shammai, and the distinctive differences of their disciples, our knowledge comes incidentally through their suc­ cessors. The whole period, from the time of Herod to that of the Patriarch Judah is the age of the "Tannaim," the represen­ tatives of authoritative tradition. The learned study of the two-fold law is, however, much older, and other sources of various kinds disclose not only the continu­ ity of development in the direction of the normative Judaism of the second century, but many divergent trends — the conflict of parties over fundamental issues, the idiosyncrasies of sects, the rise of apocalyptic with its exorbitant interest in eschatology — a knowledge of all of which is necessary to a historical under­ standing of the Judaism which it is the principal object of this work to describe. In the Introduction I have sketched the external and internal history of the centuries with which we are concerned so far as religion was affected by it, and have given a summary account of the sources on which the presentation is based. The chapters on Revealed Religion are meant to make plain at the outset the

Vlll

PREFACE

fundamental principle of Judaism and some of the ways in which it was applied. The succeeding parts treat of the Idea of God; the Nature of Man, and his relation to God; the Observ­ ances of Religion; Morals; Piety; and the Hereafter. I have avoided imposing on the matter a systematic disposi­ tion which is foreign to it and to the Jewish thought of the times. The few comprehensive divisions under which it is arranged are not sharply bounded, and the same subject often naturally be­ longs in more than one of them. In such cases repetition has seemed preferable to cross-references. The nature of the sources makes simple citation insufficient, and large room has therefore been given to quotations from them or paraphrases of them, thus, so far as possible, letting Judaism speak for itself in its own way. The translations keep as close as may be to the expression of the original, even at some sacrifice of English idiom. A peculiar difficulty arises in the biblical quotations, which rabbinical exegesis, following its own rules or giving rein to the ingenuity of the interpreter, frequently takes in a way quite different from the familiar versions of the Bible or our philological commentators. But when the meaning or the application hinges on the turn given — at least for the nonce — to the words, the translation must try to convey the peculiar interpretation, however strange it may be. References are given in the footnotes to the sources from which the quotations are taken or on which the statements in the text are based. In many cases these references are a selection from a large array of different age, character, and authority. It has seemed desirable to represent this range and variety of attesta­ tion even by what might otherwise appear a superfluity of learn­ ing. The homiletical Midrashim, for example, illustrate the popularization of the teaching of the schools as well as the fertil­ ity of the homilists, and give evidence of the perpetuation of the tradition in later centuries. For the rest, I have confined the footnotes to things necessary to immediate understanding, reserving all discussions for an

PREFACE

IX

eventual volume of detached notes and excursuses. In the first volume anticipatory references to such detached notes are made in full-faced type; in order not unduly to delay the publication of the work itself, similar references are not made in the second volume. The transliteration of Hebrew words and names follows, with slight adaptation, the simplified system adopted in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Proper names familiar to English readers are left as they are in the Authorized Version. These volumes are the outcome of studies which have ex­ tended over more than thirty years and ranged over a wide variety of sources. The plan of the present work was conceived ten years since; the execution has taken much more time than I foresaw, but I venture to hope that the presentation has gained thereby in maturity as well as in completness. When I projected it, I contemplated a similar work on Hellenistic Judaism; the occasional parallels and comparisons in these volumes may serve at least to illustrate the fundamental unity of Judaism, as well as to indicate the influence of Greek thought on the religious conceptions of men like Philo. The material in these volumes is drawn in great part from ex­ tensive collections made in the course of my own reading, but it will be evident on every page that I have availed myself largely of the work of others, especially of the mustering and critical sift­ ing of tradition in Wilhelm Bacher's Agada der ^annaiten. Exhaustiveness I have not aimed at; inerrancy is the last thing I should pretend to; but I trust that no essential point has been altogether overlooked, and I am confident that those who know the material best will be the most considerate in their judgment. My colleague, Professor Harry A. Wolfson, has taken upon him the onerous task of verifying in the proof-sheets the thous­ ands of references to the Talmuds and Midrashim, and by his painstaking examination of the passages quoted or cited has contributed much to the accuracy of the text as well as to the correctness of the references.

X

PREFACE

A work like the present is made possible by the labors of gen­ erations of scholars who have given their lives to the study of this literature; an enumeration even of those from whom I have learned much would read like a bibliography. Special obliga­ tions are acknowledged in the notes. The living repositories of this learning of whom I have made inquiry on particular points have been most generous in their response. If among them I name especially Professor Louis Ginzberg, of the Jewish Theolo­ gical Seminary in New York, it is in acknowledgment not only of his ready helpfulness, but of the constant encouragement I have derived from his interest in my undertaking.

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I.

HISTORICAL

CHAPTER

I.

PAGE

T H E FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

II.

3

EZRA AND THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE

29

III.

T H E SCRIBES

37

IV.

T H E RELIGIOUS CRISIS

48

V. VI.

RISE OF THE PHARISEES

56

SHAMMAI AND HILLEL

72

VII.

REORGANIZATION AT JAMNIA

83

VIII.

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

93

IX.

CHARACTER OF JUDAISM II.

I. II.

no

THE

SOURCES

CRITICAL PRINCIPLES

125

COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS

135

III.

FORMULATION AND CODIFICATION

150

IV.

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

161

VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

174

V. VI. VII. VIII.

PRAYERS

EXTRANEOUS SOURCES TESTAMENTS.

JUBILEES.

179 SECTARIES AT DAMASCUS

HISTORICAL SOURCES

. . . .

190 205

AIDS TO THE USE OF THE SOURCES

215

PART I REVEALED I. II.

RELIGION

NATIONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY

219

T H E SCRIPTURES

235

III.

T H E UNWRITTEN LAW

251

IV.

T H E PERPETUITY OF THE LAW

263

T H E SYNAGOGUE

281

T H E SCHOOLS

308

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

323

V. VI. VII.

xii

CONTENTS P A R T II THE I. II.

IDEA

OF

GOD

GOD AND THE WORLD

357

T H E CHARACTER OF GOD

3^6

III.

MINISTERS OF GOD

401

IV.

T H E WORD OF GOD.

V.

T H E SPIRIT

MAJESTY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

414 423

P A R T III M A N , SIN, I. II.

ATONEMENT

T H E NATURE OF M A N

445

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

46°

III.

T H E ORIGIN OF SIN

474

IV.

RITUAL ATONEMENT

497

REPENTANCE

5°7

V. VI. VII. VIII.

2

T H E EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

5°

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

535

EXPIATORY SUFFERING

546

INTRODUCTION I HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I THE FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

T H E centuries which we designate politically by the names of the dominant powers of the age successively as the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods of Jewish history constitute as a whole an epoch in the religious history of Judaism. In these centuries, past the middle of which the Christian era falls, Judaism* brought to complete development its characteristic institutions, the school and the synagogue, in which it possessed not only a unique instrument for the education and edification of all classes of the people in religion and morality, but the centre of its religious life, and to no small extent also of its intellectual and social life. Through the study of the Scriptures and the discussions of gen­ erations of scholars it defined its religious conceptions, its moral principles, its forms of worship, and its distinctive type of piety, as well as the rules of law and observance which became authori­ tative for all succeeding time. In the light of subsequent history the great achievement of these centuries was the creation of a normative type of Judaism and its establishment in undisputed supremacy throughout the wide Jewish world. This goal was not reached without many conflicts of parties and sects and more than one grave political and religious crisis, but in the end the tendency which most truly represented the historical char­ acter and spirit of the religion prevailed, and accomplished the unification of Judaism. The definitive stage of this development was reached in the latter half of the second century of our era and the beginning of 1

1

The name Judaism is now generally appropriated to the religion of this period and what came after it, in distinction from that of the preceding cen­ turies down to the fall of the Kingdom of Judah (586 B.C.), which is called the religion of Israel. 3

4

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

the third. The terminus is formally marked by the completion and general acceptance of the body of traditional law (Mishnah) redacted by the Patriarch Judah and promulgated with his au­ thority. The recognized Palestinian scholars of the preceding generations from about the beginning of the Christian era, as transmitters of the unwritten law, are called ^annaim, "Traditioners," or, more generally, "Teachers." Their successors are the Amoraim,— we might say, "Expositors," — a name given in both Palestine and Babylonia to the professors who taught the law as formulated in the Mishnah and discussed its provisions with their colleagues and pupils. This branch, or stage, of study was called Talmud', "Learning," and eventually gave its name to the great compilations in which the discussions of the schools through many generations are reported, the Pales­ tinian and the Babylonian Talmuds. The former reached sub­ stantially the shape in which it has come down to us in the schools of Galilee in the last quarter of the fourth century; the latter in Babylonia about a century later. 1

2

3

4

The beginning of the period is connected by both Jewish tra­ dition and modern criticism with the name of Ezra, a priest and scribe who came from Babylonia, bringing the Book of the Law of Moses, as a royal commissioner to investigate conditions in Judaea, with authority to promulgate and administer this law among the Jews in the province west of the Euphrates. According to the Book of Ezra, the company of Jews who re­ turned from Babylonia to the land of their fathers under the lead of Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the seventh year of Arta5

6

1

The date of his death is put, on probable grounds, about 219 A.D. Both the method and the name come from the age of the Tannaim. The name Jerusalem Talmud commonly given to the former is a mis­ nomer. On the Mishnah and the Talmuds, see further below, pp. 150 ff.. Sofer was in earlier times a scrivener or secretary. In the present in­ stance, and generally in later usage, it is a man learned in the Scriptures. Ezra 7, 6, 11, 12, 21; Neh. 8, 1, 4, 9, etc.; 12, 26,36. So ypafx/JLarevs in the Gospels. See W. Bacher, Die alteste Terminologie der jiidischen Schriftauslegung, p. 134. Ezra 7, 14, 25 f. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

1

5

2

xerxes. The proclamation of the law did not take place, how­ ever, according to the present order of the narrative, until more than a dozen years later, after Nehemiah had come, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, as governor of the district of Judaea, and had restored the fortifications of Jerusalem. The Artaxerxes of Ezra and Nehemiah has generally been identified with the first of the name, who reigned from 465 to 424, on which assumption Ezra's advent in Jerusalem falls in the year 458 and Nehemiah's in 445. The reading of the Law before the assembled people is commonly put in the autumn of the latter year, at the beginning of the month Tishri. These are the dates adopted by the majority of historians, and the docu­ ments of the colony at Elephantine brought to light in 19071908 lend additional probability to this interpretation. Others have dated the events under Artaxerxes II, Mnemon (reigned 404-359), which would bring Ezra to Jerusalem in 397 and Nehemiah in 384. The internal difficulties of the account in Ezra-Nehemiah are the same in either case. In the attempt to relieve them it has been proposed to introduce Ezra's mission in Nehemiah's second governorship, shortly after 432, by trans­ posing Ezra 7-10 to a place between Neh. 13, 4-36, and Neh. 9-10 (followed by Neh. 8); or even thirty-five years later, in 3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

2

Ezra 7, 8. Neh. 8. Hitzig, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1869, pp. 283 f. (cf. 287), cancelling on critical grounds the cross-connections of Ezra and Nehemiah in Neh. 8, 9; 10, 2, 12, 26, 36, puts the reading of the Law two months after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem. In Hitzig's view Ezra was the redactor of our Penta­ teuch (ibid., p. 288 f.), which he brought with him complete from Babylonia. Neh. 2, 1. nna, Neh. 5, 14; 12, 26, and elsewhere; KnEnn, Neh. 8, 9; 10, 2. Neh. 3-6. Neh. 7, 73b. No year is named in the account of the reading of the Law; it is inferred that the leaders would have proceeded to the introduction of the Law as soon as possible after the defences of the city were restored (Neh. 6, 15). J. Elhorst; Marquart, Fundamente israelitischer und judischer Ge­ schichte, p. 31. See C. C. Torrey, Composition and Historical Value of EzraNehemiah (Giessen, 1896), p. 65; cf. Ezra Studies, 1910, pp. 233~33SW. H. Kosters, Herstel van Israel in het Persische Tijdvak, 1894. Ger­ man translation, Die Wiederherstellung Israels, u. s. w. 1895. 3

4

5

6

7

8

9

HISTORICAL

6

[INTRODUCTION 1

the seventh year of Artaxerxes II (398 /7). Nehemiah 8 is obvi­ ously misplaced where it stands. It belongs to the story of Ezra, the chief actor in it, not to that of Nehemiah, who is brought in (harmonistically) only in 8, 9; and the appropriate place for it, on all the presumptions of the narrative, is after Ezra 8. These critical questions were quite foreign to the Jewish notions of Ezra and his work. As for the dates, they had not the Canon of Ptolemy to operate with, but only four names of Persian kings in the confusing disorder in which they occur in the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, and they were conse­ quently always far out of the way in their chronology of the Persian period. The oldest rabbinical manual of chronology, the Seder 'Olam Rabbah, allows for the dominion of the Medes and Persians but fifty-two years in all, and from the rebuilding of the temple to the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by Alexander only thirty-four. This compression of the history brought Ezra into the same generation with Zerubbabel and Joshua, who rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. With this genera­ tion he is consistently associated in Jewish tradition. He was, it is said, a student of the law in Babylonia under Baruch son of Neriah, the disciple and amanuensis of Jeremiah, and went up to Jerusalem only after the death of his master; this explains why he did not accompany Zerubbabel and Joshua in their return. According to the Seder 'Olam, Ezra and his party 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Van Hoonacker, Nehemie et Esdras, 1890; Nehemie en Tan 20 d'Artaxerxes II, 1892. See especially Ezra 7, 14, 25 f. C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies, 1910, pp. 252 ff. His order is: Ezra 8; Neh. 7, 7o-73a; 7, 730-8, 18; Ezra 9, 1-10, 44; Neh. 9, 1-10, 40. Seder 'Olam Rabbah c. 30 (ed. Ratner, f. 7 1 a ; cf. f. 69a and note 15); ' Abodah Zarah 8b~9a (R. Jose bar IJalafta, a special authority in chronology). Leaving the Medes ("Darius the M e d e " in Daniel) out of the reckoning, our chronology (after Ptolemy) gives, from the first year of Cyrus as king of Babylon (538) to the end of Darius III (332), 206 years, and from the completion of the second temple (516) to the same terminus, 184 years. On the names of the Persian kings see also Rosh ha-Shanah 3b, bottom; Seder 'Olam c. 30 (Ratner, p. 68b, and notes). See Note 1. Ezra 1-6. See Haggai; Zechariah 1-8. Jer. 36 and 43. Megillah 16b, bottom. They did not find his name in Ezra 2, 2. 2

3

4

5

7

6

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

7

arrived in Jerusalem the year following the completion of the temple. Others, however, have him go up with Zerubbabel and Joshua and begin with them the building of the temple, finding his name in Neh. 7, 7, Azariah (of which Ezra is an abridged form; cf. Neh. 12, i ) . The most probable conjecture about the three "sheep" who, at the opening of a new epoch, began to build up the ruinous house in Enoch 89, 72, is that Zerubbabel, Joshua, and Ezra are meant. These differences do not touch the main agreement, which as­ sociates Ezra with the men of the restoration. His great part in it was the restoration of the law. He had brought the Book of the Law of Moses with him from Babylonia, and, as the Jews presumably combined the dates, a few months after the completion of the temple, made it public by reading it aloud in a great assembly of the people, as narrated in Neh. 8. The light in which this transaction appeared to later generations is expressed in the sentence: When the law had been forgotten in Israel, Ezra came up from Babylonia and established it. Ezra was qualified to have given the law originally, if it had not already been given by Moses. To the observance of this law the people, after a solemn day of fasting and humiliation, with confession of the sins of their forefathers and their own, bound themselves by a covenant 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Seder 'Olam Rabbah c. 29 (ed. Ratner, f. 67b); cf. Seder '01am Zuta, where it is added that Zerubbabel returned to Babylon and died there. Pirke de-R. Eliezer c. 38, near the end. The list of members of the Great Synagogue in a commentary on Abot by R. Jacob ben Samson, a pupil of Rashi, begins: "Azariah, who is Ezra." Mahzor Vitry, p. 463; cf. p. 481. Ezra 6, 15-22; Neh. 7, 73b. See Rosh ha-Shanah 3b, below; 'Arakin 13a (Baraita): Ezra came to Jerusalem in the year following the completion of the temple. Sukkah 20a, below. It is not implied that the law was altogether un­ known in Judaea, as is clear from the sequel, in which it is said that when it had been again forgotten Hillel came from Babylonia and did the same thing, and later still R. IJiyya and his sons. The words are attributed to R. Simeon ben Lakish, a Palestinian teacher of the third century. Cf. Sifre Deut. §. 48 (ed. Friedmann, f. 84b, above): Shaphan, Ezra, Akiba. Sanhedrin 21b, end; Tos. Sanhedrin 4, 7. 2

3

4

5

6

HISTORICAL

8

[INTRODUCTION

under the signature and seal of the notables, and for the whole community by an oath and curse. The restoration of the law by Ezra is the theme of 4 Esdras 14, 18—48. The date of the first vision is given as the thirtieth year after the destruction of Jerusalem; the seer is in exile in Babylon. The situation in c. 14 is the same. The Law of God has been destroyed (so also 4, 23), not only the legislation but history and prophecy (14, 21). Ezra prays that he may be in­ spired to reproduce it and "write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in Thy Law, that men may be able to find the way, and that those who would live in the last days may live." His prayer is granted, and in mantic ecstasy he dictates day and night to five stenographers for forty days the sum of ninety-four books, the twenty-four of the Hebrew Bible and seventy others. The former are to be made public, to be read by worthy and un­ worthy alike; the latter Ezra is to reserve to transmit them only to the wise (sapientibus de populo tuo), "in his enim est vena intellectus et sapientiae fons et scientiae flumen." He is imagined as the restorer, not of the Law alone but of the whole 1

2

3

4

1

Neh. 9-10. Compare the ratification of the Book of the Law in the reign of Josiah, 2 Kings 23, 1-3. The significance of this parallel struck Lagarde and Kuenen simultaneously in 1870. This apocalypse was written toward the close of the first century of the Christian era. G. A. Box (The Ezra-Apocalypse, p. 1 f.), following Kabisch, is so sure that "no Jewish writer could have made such a blunder as to transfer Ezra to a time so remote from his true situation," that he strikes out the name Esdras in 3, 1, and thus obtains a "Salathiel Apocalypse." That the Jews did make precisely this "blunder" and maintained it consistently has been shown above. See Note 2. The esoteric seventy are commonly taken to be apocalyptic books like his own. It is much more probable, however, that these books, which are to be entrusted to the learned (D^EDJl) only, are the traditional law (F. Rosen­ thal, Vier Apokryphische Bucher aus der Zeit und Schule R. Akiba's, 1885, pp. 41, 57 f.). L. Ginzberg, 'Tamid. The Oldest Treatise of the Mishnah/ Journal of Jewish Lore and Philosophy, 1919 (and separately 1920), thinks that seventy is not a round number, but a summation of the number of the books which constituted the entire halakic literature of the Tannaim (58 Parts of the Mishnah, 9 of Sifra, Mekilta, Sifre Num. and Deut. = 70). 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

9

Bible, and reproduces by revelation the post-exilic literature before it had been produced, to say nothing of the seventy other books. This autobiographic account of the restitution of the sacred books was taken as authentic by many Christian writers from Irenaeus down. Jerome had it in mind when he wrote^ in reference to the phrase "unto this day" in the Pentateuch (Gen. 35, 4; Deut. 34, 6 ) : Certe hodiernus dies illius temporis aestimandus est, quo historia ipsa contexta est, sive Moysen dicere volueris auctorem Pentateuchi, sive Ezram eiusdem instauratorem operis, non recuse 1

2

3

Ezra has been a great figure in modern biblical criticism also. The surmise that Ezra was the compiler or editor of the Penta­ teuch was enounced in one form or another by several scholars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The leading critics of the middle of the nineteenth century were agreed, however, that all the sources into which they divided the Pentateuch were older than the Babylonian exile, and the prevailing opinion was that they had been united in the composite whole as we now have i t in the generation between the introduction of Deute­ ronomy (621) and the fall of Jerusalem (586), or that, at the latest, it was completed in Babylonia in the following generation. They were agreed also that the source which begins in Genesis 1 and includes the bulk of the legislation in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, though not all of the same origin or age, was the oldest stratum of narrative and law in the Pentateuch, and Deuteronomy the latest. Ezra was, as in the traditional view, 4

5

6

1

Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, pp. n 56-1160. These words played a prominent part in the beginnings of doubt about the Mosaic authorship of the whole Pentateuch. Adversus Helvidium c. 7 (ed. Vallarsi, II, 211 f.). Andreas Masius (1574); Spinoza (1670); Richard Simon (1685); van Dale (1696), and others. More or less extensive reserve being made for minor additions, glosses, textual changes, and the like. It is sufficient here to name Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 3 ed., IV (1864), 173, cf. I, 190 f.; and Kuenen, Historisch-kritisch Onderzoek, enz., I (1865), 165 f. According to Kuenen, the redactor of the Pentateuch, 2

3

4

5

6

HISTORICAL

IO

[INTRODUCTION

the restorer of the law. He brought up the Pentateuch from Babylonia, and was chiefly instrumental in getting it put in force as the law of the returned exiles in Judaea. A radically different theory of the age of the constituent ele­ ments of the Pentateuch had been put forward a generation earlier, namely, that the Levitical law as we find it in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers was not the earliest stratum, but the latest: it originated among the exiles in Babylonia, in priestly circles under the influence of the ruling ideas of Ezekiel. That the redaction of the Pentateuch as a whole was completed by Ezra was regarded as probable; but no material part in it was attributed to him. The ruling critics of the day promptly and emphatically rejected this construction based on the history of the religion and its institutions, pronouncing on it the veto of the critical analysis and of the language, and the episode was almost forgotten. Conclusions substantially agreeing with those of Vatke and George were reached independently of them by K. H. Graf in 1866, with whom the modern period of criticism may be said to begin. By an exhaustive comparison of the three strata of legislation among themselves and with the historical books and the prophets he argued that the ritual and ceremonial laws in the three middle books of the Pentateuch, in the form in which we have them, represent a development in general character as well as in many particulars posterior to Deuteronomy and be­ yond Ezekiel. To this mass of laws many authors in the course of a century or more had contributed. Graf surmised that Ezra 1

2

3

a member of the priesthood of Jerusalem, completed his task between 600 and 590 B.C. See Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 3 ed., I V (1864), 173 fF., 213 ffW. Vatke, Die Religion des Alten Testaments, 1835. A similar result was reached independently, through a different approach, by G. F. L. George, Die alteren jiidischen Feste, 1835. Die geschichtlichen Biicher des Alten Testaments. Graf had been a pupil of Eduard Reuss at Strasbourg, who had propounded a similar theory in a series of unpublished theses as early as 1834. 1

2

3

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

n

collected these various writings and brought them with him to Jerusalem, where in the fifteen years or so that elapsed between his arrival and the promulgation of his Book of the Law of Moses he compiled and redacted them, perhaps with additions of his own. The account of the introduction of the law shows that the community in Jerusalem till then had possessed no copy of this book and had no definite knowledge about it. Kuenen, whose earlier position has been referred to above, was led by Graf's presentation of the evidence to revise his opinion about the general priority of the levitical legislation. Graf had detached the laws from the corresponding narrative in Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, the early date of which he did not question; Kuenen made the theory consistent by bringing this strand of the narrative also down to the exile, and reuniting it with the legislation. The hypothesis with which Kuenen's name is properly asso­ ciated goes, however, very much further than Graf. It was, in brief, that both the history and the laws in what is called the Priests' Code were composed in Babylonia in circles of which Ezra, at once priest and scholar, is representative. "It was not laws long in existence which, after having been for a time for­ gotten, were now proclaimed anew and adopted by the people. The priestly ordinances were then for the first time made known and imposed on the Jewish nation." The introduction of Ezra's new lawbook, the Priests' Code, made an epoch in the history of the religion comparable to that made by Hilkiah's Book of the Law (Deuteronomy) in the reign of Josiah, and, like the latter, was composed for the end which it accomplished. Kuenen is inclined to conjecture that Ezra found it advisable 1

2

3

4

1

Graf, op. cit., pp. 70-72. Colenso and Popper had prepared the way for this step, in which Graf himself eventually followed Kuenen. De Godsdienst van Israel, II (1870), 136. He is speaking of the pro­ mulgation of the law (444 B.C.), as narrated in Neh. 8-10. The correspondence between the role of Shaphan (2 Kings 22, 8 ff.) and that of Ezra had not escaped Jewish observation. Sifre Deut. § 48 (ed. Friedmann, p. 84 b, above). 2

3

4

12

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

to adapt some provisions of the book he brought from Baby­ lonia to the established usage of the priesthood in Jerusalem whose support it was necessary to ensure, and to actual condi­ tions of other kinds; and that he did so in the years that inter­ vened between his arrival and the promulgation of the law; but to this accessory hypothesis he attaches no great importance. In Kuenen's construction the Book of the Law of Moses which Ezra, with the support of Nehemiah, introduced was the socalled Priests' Code only? At a later time the older historical and legal sources were worked into the scheme of the Priests' Code by an unknown editor in such a way as to give a semblance of unity and continuity to the whole, and Deuteronomy ap­ pended. Thus was eventually formed the composite work which we call the Five Books of Moses. To the wide acceptance of the new conception of the nature and significance of Ezra's work Wellhausen contributed equally with Kuenen, and the modern critical school is often named after him. Graf's transposition of the sources solved for him at one stroke difficulties for which he saw no solution, and he found the evidence Graf adduced of the exilic origin of the levitical law completely convincing. In regard to the introduc­ tion of the law and its effect on religion he was in accord with Kuenen, with one important exception: in his opinion the Priests' Code which had been drawn up in Babylonia was already united with the older historical and legal literature that was in the hands of the Jews in Jerusalem, presumably by Ezra 1

3

1

Godsdienst, II, 137 f. Historisch-kritisch Onderzoek, 2 ed., I, 294 f. So also E. Reuss, Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften Alten Testaments, pp. 460 ff., 474; B . Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, II, 183, and others. All these critics recog­ nized that more or less extensive additions to the laws in the original Priests' Code were made after Ezra. The most complete development of Kuenen's theory is Eduard Meyer's Die Entstehung des Judenthums, 1896, in which the trustworthiness of the account of the introduction of the law in Neh. 8 (from Ezra's Memoirs through an intermediate source) and the authenticity of the documents in the Book of Ezra are maintained. With Stade he lays weight on the interest of the Persian government in the ordering of affairs in Judaea. 2

3

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

13

himself, before the transactions recorded in Neh. 8-10, so that the book to the observance of which the people then covenanted themselves was not the Priests' Code alone but the Pentateuch, minus later additions. Wellhausen recognized also that the Law made no abrupt break in the development of the religion. It choked it only gradually. A long time passed before the kernel turned wooden inside the shell. Until Pharisaism prevailed, the freer impulses emanating from the prophets remain in living force. The older Judaism is the forecourt of Christianity. The greater part of what in the Old Testament still exerts an influence today and can be relished without previous historical training is a product of the post-exilic age. In general, Wellhausen had a much juster estimate of the character of Judaism than many of those who came after him. 1

2

3

For the history of Judaism the radical thing in the theory of Kuenen is not the chronological order of the sources discovered by criticism in the Pentateuch, nor the date assigned to the Priests' Law and the narrative that goes with it, but the thesis that the introduction of Ezra's lawbook changed the whole character of the religion. It was, in the words of Kuenen, the origin of Judaism. The nature of the change is set out by him in pointed antitheses: There (i.e., before Ezra) the spirit ruled, here (after him) the letter; there the free word, here the scrip­ ture. The outstanding figure of the preceding centuries was the prophet; after Ezra his place was taken by the scribe. The re­ form was anti-prophetic and anti-universalistic; inevitably the law extinguished the remnants of prophecy, and it fastened exclusiveness on the religion for all time to come. 4

5

1

Israelitische und jlidische Geschichte, 7 ed., p. 167. Ibid., p. 193 f. See the chapters, Die judische Frommigkeit, and Die Ausbildung des Judaismus, — in the latter, particularly p. 285. De Godsdienst van Israel, II, 152. See the foregoing and following pages, 146-156. Ibid., p. 146. 2

3

4

5

14

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

It is evident in this contrast that when Kuenen speaks of the age before Ezra what he has in mind is not the actual religion of Judah under the kingdom or after the restoration, but the ideal of religion propounded by the prophets from Amos down to the author of Isa. 40 ff.; and when he speaks of the age after Ezra he has at least in the background of his mind the Judaism of the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament, and in the remote distance the Talmud. Kuenen is aware that his anti­ theses are too categorical, but they do not exaggerate the change in the character of the Jewish religion which he believed to have been wrought by the introduction and ratification of the Priests' Code, nor misrepresent its nature as he conceived it. That there are many and great differences between Judaism in the centuries with which the present volumes have chiefly to do and the religion of the kingdom of Judah needs no words; the differences, as we shall see, are in fact much profounder than those which Kuenen emphasizes. The question is whether the adoption of Ezra's lawbook as related in Neh. 8 is the prime cause of these differences, or, as he puts it, the origin of Judaism. Antecedently, nothing would seem less likely to bring about such a revolutionary result than a book like the Priests' Code, which, as the name imports, is a law for the priests, chiefly oc­ cupied with the ritual of sacrifice and festivals; the interdictions (sacred and abhorred) with the proper purifications or expia­ tions, about which laymen had always had to go to the priests for expert advice; and the rights and privileges of the sacerdotal caste. These things belong in themselves to the most primitive elements of religion, and neither enrichment of the cultus, nor more minute rules about interdictions and expiations, nor in­ crease of priestly revenues and prerogatives, affect their essential character. Nor can it easily be imagined that a compact to ful­ fil their obligations under such a lawbook made a thorough and permanent change in the attitude of the Jews toward the in­ stitutions of their religion. Nehemiah 13, 4-31, which Kuenen derives from the Memoirs of Nehemiah, Malachi, which he puts

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

15

in his second governorship, Joel, and the various prophetic writings which critics date in the later Persian and Greek periods, are strong testimony to the contrary. On the other hand, the Jews in the Persian period, before the days of the supposed reforms of Ezra as well as after them, had all that we possess of the pre-exilic and exilic literature, with the increments it received in the age of the restoration. What had been preserved and collected of the words of the prophets had acquired, through the fulfilment of their predictions of doom, an estimation and authority such as their contemporaries had never accorded to their spoken words. The whole history of the people was recast to impress upon it the moral of prophecy in what is often called a deuteronomic pragmatism. The influence of the prophets on the religion of the people was in fact the greatest in the age in which it is supposed to have been finally suffocated by the law. The revolutionary changes in the cultus which Josiah made in 621 on the authority of the book produced by Hilkiah (2 Kings 22-23) hardly have lasted long after his death; in any case it was less than half a century to the end of the kingdom and cultus together. The opinion of most critics is that Hilkiah's Book of the Law was expanded into the book we call Deutero­ nomy after the fall of the kingdom. It is presumable that it was the law of the community which rebuilt the temple at the ur­ gency of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and thereafter. Deuteronomy is, however, much more than a book of laws; it is the quintessence of the prophets, a monument of Hebrew religious genius, and a chief cornerstone of Judaism. Of other foundation stones, such as the stories of the patriarchs and God's dealing with them in Genesis, the lawgiving at Sinai in the older narratives, with the revelation of God's character in Exod. 33, 17-23; 34, 5-7, on which the Jewish conception of God is c a n

1

2

1

Always assuming that in details it was supplemented by the tradition of the priesthood (see, e.g., Deut. 17, 9; 24, 8). Think, for example, of the ideal of faith in Abraham. 2

16

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

based, and the idea of holiness in Lev. 17-26, it is unnecessary here to do more than make passing mention. The writings which critics assign to the Persian and Greek periods — many of the finest Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, the later additions to the prophetic scriptures — prove that the achievement of those centuries and their legacy to succeeding generations was the appropriation and assimilation of the religi­ ous and moral teachings of the writings that have been named. That Ezra's lawbook turned Judaism into an arid ritualism and legalism is refuted by the whole literature of the following time. This is equally manifest in the Palestinian literature outside the canon, particularly in the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), whose author was himself a Scribe. The predominance of this element in the Judaism of a later age is attested by the juristic exegesis (Tannaite Midrash) of the second century of the Christian era, and by the influence of the highest religious and moral teaching of the Pentateuch and the Prophets on the legal norms (Halakah) defined in the Mishnah and kindred works. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that, whatever part Babylonian Jews returning to Jerusalem may have had in the restoration or subsequently, the Judaism which is the subject of our present study was not a new kind of religion introduced from Babylonia, but a normal and fruitful growth on Palestinian soil. 1

The definition and administration of the levitical law was in the hands of the priests. Various practical modifications of the laws to adapt them to changing conditions in Judaea in the Persian period are recognized by critics. The permissive sub­ stitution, for example, of a pair of doves or pigeons for a lamb in several species of sacrifice, which is a manifest appendix to the older provision, is taken as a concession to poverty, and seems to contemplate an urban population. Besides such natural 1

See Note 3.

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

17

accommodation to circumstances, there are supplements of a different kind, such as the cumulative scheme of sacrifices at the festivals in Num. 28 f., or the scale of sin offerings in Lev. 4 for the high priest, the whole congregation, the ruler, one of the common people, which seem to represent an ideal — like the whole of Ezekiel's programme in chapters 40-48 — rather than an actuality. In fact, criticism since 1870 has by degrees come to regard so large a part of these laws as "secondary," that is, of Palestinian origin and of the later Persian period, that the supposed original Babylonian Priests' Code threatens to become a superfluous hypothesis, and it would not be surprising if the next phase of criticism should maintain that the whole development of the Law took place in Judaea. In matters of ritual and of permissions and interdictions, clean and unclean, purifications and expiations, it must be understood that the great bulk of the law was always the tradi­ tional practice and rule of the priesthood; what is set down in writing, primarily as a manual for the priests themselves, is in general a bare outline which at every step requires the interpre­ tation of usage and technical tradition. And the vastly more extensive unwritten law was a living and growing thing. Of the development of civil and criminal law we have no in­ formation. The Jews possessed a few fragmentary pages from a code of the kingdom, preserved in Exod. 21-23. From the first section — the solitary one that remains intact — and the surviving parts of others, it is evident that the code was ordered and formulated with a precision that testifies to juristic experi­ ence and skill; it was plainly laid out on a large scale, and must have made a considerable volume. The loss of this code cannot be too greatly regretted; it would have given a survey of the civilization of the age such as nothing else can give. Some of the lacunae in the text have been filled by matter of similar content, but in a preceptive form. The Book of Deuteronomy also pre­ serves remnants of ancient laws (e.g., in chap. 22). But these survivals are clearly not sufficient for the administration of

18

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

justice. Here also it must be assumed that the elders of the town or village — the heads of the families or family groups that made up the community — administered the law in ac­ cordance with custom and precedent, a consuetudinary law in essence older than the written law and underlying it. Like all such common law it adapted itself to new situations by judicial interpretation and application without the aid of legislation. Under Persian rule the Jews were doubtless left, as in the succeeding empires, to live under their own laws and judicial procedure in matters that involved Jews only. The principle of all ancient law was not uniformity for all within the territorial limits of a state, but different laws and jurisdictions determined by the status or nationalities of the subjects. Deuteronomy 17, 8-13, provides for a reference to the priests in Jerusalem and "the judge that shall be in those days" of cases too hard for local adjudication, and binds the local judges to ac­ cept and enforce the decision. Through a central court of this kind, a sufficient uniformity would be secured. In later times the Senate or Sanhedrin in Jerusalem performed this function. There was no conflict between this legal development, priestly or judicial, and the appropriation and assimilation of the great principles of religion of which we have spoken above. In a religion which had inherited, as Judaism did, sacred scriptures of various kinds which were all believed to embody divine revela­ tion (Torah), in which God made known his own character and his will for the whole conduct of life, there is no incompatibility between the most minute attention to rites and observances, or to the rules of civil and criminal law, and the cultivation of the worthiest conceptions of God and the highest principles of morality, not only in the same age, but, as we see in the litera­ ture of the schools and the synagogue, by the same men. On the contrary, the seriously religious man could not be indifferent to any part of the revealed law of God. The same rabbis who 1

1

This probably belongs to the programme of the Deuteronomic reforms. Cf. the account of Jehoshaphat's judicial institutions, 2 Chron. 19, 5—11.

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

19

extended the law of tithing to garden herbs paraphrased the principle, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, as Let thy neighbor's property be as dear to thee as thine own, and thy neighbor's honor as thine own, and developed the prohibition of interest ('usury') into laws of bargain and sale and definitions of unfair competition which to modern ideas of business seem Utopian. They made love to God the one supremely worthy motive of obedience to his law; and found in Exodus 34, 6 f., not only the character of God revealed — "God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" — but in the imitation of these traits the ideal of human character. In the conditions that existed in Judaea in the age of the restor­ ation and afterwards, an urgent part of the task of the religious leaders was to resist the admixture of heathenism and lapses from Judaism through the intimate relations between Jews and the surrounding peoples, and especially through intermarriage. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah represent those worthies as greatly concerned by the frequency of such connections in all classes, even in the priesthood, and describe the drastic measures they resorted to to abate the evil. In their attitude the origin of Jewish exclusiveness, or, in Kuenen's phrase, the " anti-universalistic" character of the reform, is sought. The opposition to intermarriage with other peoples was, however, no new thing; it is categorically prohibited in earlier laws (Exod. 34, 16; Deut. 7, 3 f . ) ; Ezra's prayer puts the prohibition into the mouth of "the prophets" (Ezra 9, 11 f.). Nor is there anything peculiarly Jewish in the restriction of marriage to the members of a people, citizens of a state, or even to a class of citizens in the state. In Rome marriage was con­ fined to members of the patrician families; the offspring of a 1

2

1

Ezra 9-10; Neh. 10, 28-30; 13, 23 ff. It is to be noted that there is no corresponding law in the Priests' Code, though the patriarchal story makes plain enough the feeling of its author. 2

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

patrician by any other connection could not be Roman citizens, nor represent either family or state in any capacity. The Canuleian law of 445 B.C., legitimizing intermarriage between patricians and plebeians, was violently opposed by the former, on the ground that it would contaminate their blood and throw into confusion the laws concerning the gentes? In Athens, Pericles put through a law that only those both of whose parents were Athenian citizens should be reckoned Athenians. The law was not immediately enforced and seems to have been generally regarded as a dead letter; but when occasion later arose, the consequences, as recounted by Plu­ tarch, make the proceedings in Ezra 10 appear tame by com­ parison. Nearly five thousand were proved to be the offspring of such illegitimate alliances, and were not only struck from the register of citizens but sold into slavery. The text of a law of similar effect is quoted in the prosecution of Neaera, which pro­ vides that an alien who cohabits with an Athenian woman under any pretext whatever shall, on conviction, be sold into slavery; his property also was sold, one third of the proceeds going to the man who instituted the prosecution. In the converse case of an Athenian citizen and an alien woman, she was to be sold into slavery, and the man fined ten thousand drachmae. The mo­ tive of such legislation is to perpetuate a pure-bred race, especi­ ally to keep unmixed the blood of the citizen body; it is a meas­ ure of self-preservation, and nothing more. There is no equity in judging it otherwise in the case of the Jews under the pre­ judicial title of exclusiveness. Among the Jews, however, the preservation of the purity of 1

2

4

5

6

1

W. Warde Fowler, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, V I I I , 463. The date curiously coincides with that generally taken for the adoption of Ezra's lawbook. Livy, iv. 1 ff.; Cicero, De republica, ii. 37. In 451/50. The date is again to be noted. Plutarch, Pericles, c. 37. Among the orations of Demosthenes, lix. 16. The speech is assigned by critics to ca. 340 B . C 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

21

the national religion is emphasized both in the laws and in the account of Ezra's reform. This consideration comes out strongly in the argument of the Roman patricians; and, in consequence of the relation of the citizen body to the religion of the city, is implicit in the Athenian example. But the Jews under Persian rule had no political existence; they had only a national religion, and in its preservation lay their self-preservation. That the religious leaders had the insight to perceive this and the loyalty to contend with all their might against the dissolution of both nationality and religion, whether in the age of the restoration or in the crisis of Hellenism, or after the destruction of the temple and the war under Hadrian, is certainly not to their dis­ credit. The separateness of the Jews, their d/zt^ta, was one of the prime causes of the animosity toward them, especially in the miscellaneous fusion of peoples and syncretism of religions in the Hellenistic kingdoms and the Roman world; but it accomplished its end in the survival of Judaism, and therein history has vin­ dicated it. It seems still sometimes to be imagined that the laws about clean and unclean in the Priests' Code, including the interdic­ tions of various kinds of food and the prescription of a peculiar mode of slaughtering animals, not only had the effect of putting hindrances in the way of intercourse with the heathen, especially at table, but that they were invented or revived on purpose to accomplish this end. Of this there is neither internal nor ex­ ternal evidence. They were ancient customs, the origin and reason of which had long since been forgotten. Some of them are found among other Semites, or more widely; some were, so far as we know, peculiar to Israel; but as a whole, or, we may say, as a system, they were the distinctive customs which the Jews had inherited from their ancestors with a religious sanction in the two categories of holy and polluted. Other peoples had 1

2

1

2

Livy, iv. 2; cf. vi. 4 1 , 4 ff. Converts to the religion (proselytes) were naturalized in the race.

HISTORICAL

22

[INTRODUCTION

their own, some of them for all classes, some, as among the Jews, specifically for the priests, and these systems also were distinctive. The interdictions, which in the Pentateuch fall into a few general classes, were, no doubt, as among other peoples, known to everybody as part of the tradition of custom in which all grew up. Haggai 2, 11-13, shows that responses were asked of the priests in cases of clean and unclean; but the priests' Torah was principally concerned with the appropriate remedies for the inadvertent or accidental transgression of the interdictions, the piacula and purifications prescribed or performed by them, whereby the incommensurate consequences of intrusion into the sphere of the holy or contact with the unclean might be nullified. This is a salient feature of the treatment of this subject every­ where in the Pentateuch, not peculiarly in the Priests' Code. The idea of one only God has for its corollary one religion. That this God would one day be acknowledged and served by all mankind was proclaimed by the prophets from Isaiah 40 ff. on, and became the faith of the following centuries. It was self-evident that the universal religion of the future would be that which God had revealed, immutable as himself, and en­ trusted meanwhile to one people, that it might be his prophet to the nations. The Jews were the only people in their world who conceived the idea of a universal religion, and labored to realize it by a propaganda often more zealous than discreet, which made them many enemies; and precisely in the age when 1

2

3

1

See Frazer, Golden Bough, III, chapters iii-vii (pp. 100-418); X , chap, ii (pp. 22-100, passim). Priests, in Greece, P. Stengel, Griechische Kultusaltertumer, §§ 20-22; at Rome, G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer, § 67; Samter, in Real-Encyclopaedie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, V I , col. 2486 ff.—Anyone who will take the trouble to compare Aulus Gellius, x. 15, on the restrictions to which the Flamen Dialis was subject with the corresponding laws for the Jewish high priest will find that the latter are few and simple by contrast. See Zech. 8, 20-23; Zech. 14, 16-21; 14, 9; etc. On Nationality and Universality, see below, Part I, chapter i, and Vol. II, pp. 371 ff. 2

3

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

23

the " anti-universalistic" law was enthroned in the completest authority in Judaism was its expansion at its height. 1

Of the history of the Jews in Palestine under Persian rule there is no record. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah give a glimpse of the internal situation at the time of the rebuilding of the temple (520-516 B.C.) and let us divine the flaring up of the hope of national restoration which attached to the person of Zerubbabel. The fragmentary Memoirs of Nehemiah, eighty years or more later, show that Jerusalem had recently passed through a crisis — we do not know what — in which its fortifi­ cations had been dismantled, and tells how he restored them, and of the domestic and foreign difficulties of his task as gover­ nor. The discovery a few years ago of a series of documents from a Jewish military colony on the upper Nile, ranging over the greater part of the fifth century, gives a surprising picture of the religion of this remote and isolated community, and reveals some­ thing of their relations to the authorities in Palestine. Bagohi, the governor of Judaea, and Johanan the high priest in Jerusa­ lem, to whom the Jews of Elephantine write in 408, are doubtless the Bagoses and Johannes of the story in Josephus, Antt. xi. 7, 1. Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, named in the same letter, is generally taken to be identical with the Sanballat with whom Nehemiah had so much trouble. With the conquest of Alexander (333 B.C.) the Jews come at least casually within the view of the Greek historians. With the expulsion of one of the sons of Joiada the son of Eliashib the high priest, who had married a daughter of Sanbal­ lat (Neh. 13, 28 f.), is commonly connected the so-called Sa­ maritan schism, with its rival temple at Shechem. There is, indeed, nothing of this in the text cited, but it is thought to furnish the true date for events which Josephus narrates as oc2

1

See Part I, chapter vii. If this identification is right, it would settle the question about the Artaxerxes of Nehemiah in favor of Artaxerxes I. 2

2

HISTORICAL

4

[INTRODUCTION 1

curring in the times of the last Darius and Alexander the Great. The Alexander part of the story in Josephus is not embellished legend but pure fiction of a species very familiar in the Hellenis­ tic literature of the Jews. The romance of Manasseh and Nikaso, which puts the brand of illegitimacy on the whole succession of Samaritan high priests, the founding of the temple on Gerizim by a heathen, the accession to the Shechemites of reprobates who fled from Jerusalem under charges of eating the unclean or vio­ lation of the sabbath, and the like, are from the same hand and display the same motive. A historian may properly decline to admit such testimony as to either fact or date. It is probable that Shechem, one of the most venerable religi­ ous sites in the land, had all along been a place of worship, with a priesthood of its own and a cultus not unlike that in Jerusalem, though, of course, lacking the sacra publica •— in rabbinical phrase, a public high place. As such there was no reason why the Jews should concern themselves particularly about it. All this took an entirely different complexion when the claim was set up that Gerizim, and not Zion, was the place which God had chosen for his habitation, or "to put his Name there" (Deut. 12, 5, and often), the only place in the land where sacrifice was legitimately offered, vows absolved, festivals observed, and the rest. It is this claim, not the mere building of the Shechemite temple, that constitutes the Samaritan schism. Jews and Sa­ maritans worshipped the same God with the same rites; they 2

3

4

5

1

Antt. xi. 7, 2; 8, 2-7. Josephus' source, as appears from internal evi­ dence, was a historical work by an Alexandrian Jew whose ambition it was to magnify his own nation in the eyes of Greek readers, and who lost no oc­ casion to vilify the "Samaritans" of Shechem. See, besides the present passage, his account of the disputation before Ptolemy Philometor, Antt. xiii. 3, 4, and the next note. Antt. xi. 8, 7. As to date he may take warning from the story of Bagoses and the high priest John. See John 4, 20; cf. Josephus, Antt. xiii. 3, 4. It is to be observed that, as the name of a religious body, Samaritans does not mean the people of the city of Samaria, or of the old kingdom of Israel, but only those who worshipped on M t . Gerizim. 2 3

4

5

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

25

had the same law, the complete Pentateuch. The differences between them in the interpretation and application of this law, when we begin to know about them, are not fundamental. But on the sole place where God had ordained that he should be wor­ shipped the breach was irremediable. The Samaritans, as has been said, had the entire Pentateuch, which they have preserved to this day in an archaic script, a peculiar variety of the old Hebrew alphabet, while the Jews before the Christian era adopted for the Scriptures the new "Syrian" style of letters. They had their own interpretation of the laws, which often coincided with that of the Jews, and we have Jewish testimony to the strictness with which they observed such as they accepted. The date of the schism was formerly debated in its bearing on the introduction of the Law among the Samaritans, as a terminus post quern non for the final redaction of the Pentateuch. The nature of the testimony, as we have seen, does not warrant any chronological decision. All other considerations, however, incline the scales of probability to the fourth century, rather than the fifth. For the rest, if we had no testimony, we should infer from the following history that the elevation of Shechem from provincial obscurity to a religious capital of high pretensions was more likely to have come about through an abrupt change than by the slow growth of local ambitions. The temple may have been built and a high priest of indisputable legitimacy installed, and a complete copy of the Judaean lawbook, the Pentateuch, procured, with no further intention than to match Jerusalem. The idea of supplanting Jerusalem came from the law itself. In it they found that Moses had enjoined the people, as soon as they came into the land, to put the blessing on Mt. Gerizim and the curse on Mt. Ebal (Deut. 11, 29; cf. 27, 11-26; Josh. 8, 33 f.). In Deut. 27, 4, the Jewish text has "Mount Ebal," 1

2

1

They ascribed this exchange to Ezra; see below, p. 29. Cf. 4 Esdras 14, 42: scripserunt quae dicebantur successione notis quas non sciebant. Berakot 47b, and repeatedly; ljullin 4a; Niddah 56b. (Matters of tithes, etc., slaughtering of animals, uncleanness, tombs.) 2

HISTORICAL

26

[INTRODUCTION

where the whole tenor of the context demands " Gerizim/' as the Samaritan Hebrew reads; the same change has been made in the Jewish text in Josh. 8,30. A t Shechem, also, Joshua, at the end of the complete conquest, made the final covenant with the people and set up a memorial of it by the sanctuary of the Lord. Shechem-Gerizim was therefore manifestly the place so often spoken of in Deuteronomy where God would put his name; Jerusalem had usurped a precedence never meant for it. So far as the letter of Scripture went, the Shechemites could make out an embarrassingly good case; but it was worthless against pre­ scriptive possession. The hostility of Jerusalemites and Shechemites was deep and lasting; it was carried into the Diaspora, especially in Egypt. Sirach relieves himself: "Two peoples my soul abhors, and the third is no people: The inhabitants of Seir, the Philistines, and that fool nation that dwells in Shechem." Antiochus Epiphanes made no fine distinctions of locality among worshippers of the God of the Jews, and dedicated the temple on Gerizim to Zeus Xenios, as he converted that of their rivals in Jerusalem into a temple of Zeus Olympios. John Hyrcanus destroyed it when he took Shechem in 128 B.C., but a religion that has no idol to house has no real need of a temple, and the Samaritans were as much of a thorn in the side of the Jews afterwards as before. The durable animosity of the two parties appears in the Gospels and the Tannaite literature, and in many later testimonies. 1

2

3

1

On the passages cited see Eduard Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstamme, pp. 542 ff., and on the whole subject, C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies, pp. 321 ff. Ecclus. 50, 25 f.; cf. Deut. 32, 21. 2 Mace. 6, 2. The letter of the Samaritans to the king in Josephus (Antt. xii. 5, 5), in which they disclaim any kinship or sympathy with the Jews and ask the king to name their "anonymous temple," temple of "Zeus Hellanios," to which Antiochus graciously accedes, comes from the same source with xi. 7, 2; 8, 2-7; xiii. 3, 4, and is on the face of it fraudulent. In the revolt of the Jews under Nero, the Samaritans (in 67 B . C ) assembled under arms on M t . Gerizim, evidently to attempt on their own account to throw 2

3

CHAP, i]

FOUNDATIONS OF JUDAISM

27

The Samaritans took over only the Pentateuch, and later ex­ pressly rejected the Prophets and the rest of the Jewish Scrip­ tures. They thus excluded themselves from the religious and intellectual progress of Judaism to which that literature contri­ buted so much. Of a learned study even of the Law, like that of the Scribes and their successors, there is no trace. Their reactionary conservatism meant stagnation from the beginning. Through the Persian and into the Macedonian period a good deal was written which got into the final collection of Jewish Scriptures. Chronicles (of which Ezra-Nehemiah was once a part) was probably written somewhere between 300 and 250 B.C. In the Psalter there are psalms from the heat of the Maccabaean struggle. The collection of prophetical writings contains oracles for which a situation and occasion can be found only in the Persian age or later. In our ignorance of the history of those centuries, the attempt to assign more definite dates to these compositions by what seem to be allusions to events of the time is unprofitable guesswork which frequently moves in a circle. What is more important is the character of this late prophecy, particularly the large place taken in it by what in the wider sense may be called eschatological motives — the final crisis and deliverance — the foreshadowing of apocalyptic without the mechanism of visions or the fiction of ancient seers, for which anonymity as yet suffices. A striking feature of many psalms is the note of intestine strife. Society is divided into two classes, the righteous, pious, lowly, on the one side, and the rich and powerful, the wicked and ungodly, on the other — in the phrase of more modern puritans and pietists, the godly and the worldly. What is new here is not the condemnation of the wicked but the self-con1

2

off the Roman yoke. Vespasian's prompt offensive extinguished the rising in blood. Josephus, Bell. Jud. iii. 7, 32. This was noted by Theodore of Mopsuestia in the fourth century and in the Reformation age by Calvin and others. Isa. 24-27 is a striking example. See also Zech. 9-14. 1

2

28

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

sciousness of the righteous and the outcry of personal grievance. The same note is heard in the Hellenistic Wisdom of Solomon and in the Judaean Psalms of Solomon. Of the active intellectual life of this period, the discussion of the problem of theodicy in the Book of Job is conclusive proof, as it is the most conspicuous achievement in Hebrew literature.

1

1

It is worth noting incidentally that the problem of the Book of Job does not arise from the Law, but from the doctrine of retribution in Ezekiel, pushed to the end of its logic by what was evidently the current orthodoxy of the times.

CHAPTER

II

EZRA A N D THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE

this critical and historical survey it is time to return to the point of view of the Jews themselves, from which all their notions of this period were formed. As we have seen, Ezra was for them the restorer of the law received in its entirety by Moses from the mouth of God, and delivered by him at various times to the Israelites, from Sinai to the Plains of Moab. Neither Ezra nor any other had ever added a word to this law or sub­ tracted a word from it. They found in Neh. 8 that Ezra had not only read the law in the Hebrew in which it was given, but taken pains that it should be understood by having it rendered orally into the vernacular Aramaic as it was read; hence the institution of the Targum was referred to him. To Ezra is ascribed the substitution, in the copying of the Scriptures, of the "Assyrian" (Syrian) characters, with which we are familiar in manuscripts and printed books, for the old Hebrew alphabet which was retained by the Samaritans. Ten ordinances {taklzanof) of his are enumerated, some of which have to do with the service of the synagogue, the rest with domestic and personal matters, most of them, from our point of view, of a somewhat trivial character. It appears that in this case, as in others noted below, customs the origin of which was lost in antiquity were carried back to the beginning of the new era. What is of importance, however, is that the exercise of legislative authority is ascribed to Ezra and his contemporaries and succesFROM

1

2

1

Sanhedrin 2ib-22a; Jer. Megillah 71D-C. Origen on Psalm, 2, 2; Jerome, Prologus Galeatus. Synagogue service on Sabbath afternoon, and on Monday and Thursday mornings (market days), on which days the courts should be open. Megillah 31b adds that the comminations in Lev. 26 should be read before Pente­ cost and those in Deut. 28 before New Year's. See Note 3. 2

29

30

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

sors. The Book of the Law of Moses might be a final law, but it was not a finished law. Many things which had, from a time when the memory of man ran not to the contrary, been gener­ ally observed and were regarded as necessary and binding were not contained in it at all. Some of these figure in later times as "traditions of Moses from Sinai"; others as ordinances of Ezra, or of the prophets of his time, or the men of the Great Synagogue, or more indefinitely of the Soferim, or the Early Elders. Nehemiah 10, 29-40, which is the conclusion of the history of Ezra, records the compact which the notables and the people entered into ' to walk in God's law which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the command­ ments of the Lord our lord, and his statutes and ordinances,' pledging themselves particularly not to intermarry with the people of the land, not to trade with them on a sabbath or a holy day; to leave (the produce of) the seventh year free to all, and in that year to cancel all loans. Then follow obligations which they imposed on themselves for which there was no pre­ scription in the law: a poll-tax of one third of a shekel for the maintenance of the public cultus, an arrangement for purveying the wood for the altar by families in turn through the year; and, in connection with a pledge faithfully to bring to the temple the various primitiae assigned for the support of the priests and to let the Levites have their tithes, a regulation for the super­ vision by a priest of the Levites in their collection of tithes, to make sure that the priests got the tithe of the tithe that was coming to them. Here was an example of ordinances supple1

2

3

4

5

6

1

See p. 256. Zelienim ha-rishonim. Cf. Exod. 23, 10 f.; Lev. 25, 3-7. Deut. 15, 1-3. Miswot, the usual word for the particular commandments of the law. According to M . Ta'anit 4, 5, in the Herodian temple wood was brought in by the families who had this privilege on nine days in the year. The fifteenth of Ab was a general festival of wood-offering. Megillat Ta'anit 5; cf. Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 17, 6. 2

3 4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

EZRA. T H E G R E A T SYNAGOGUE

31

mentary to the law, framed, it would be assumed, by the leading men, whom Ezra associates with himself when he says, " W e imposed on ourselves obligations." It is probably from this precedent that the idea of the body commonly called the Great Synagogue arose. It was imagined as a kind of council which in that generation made ordinances and regulations as they found necessary, and promulgated them with authority. In tracing the continuous tradition of the Law from Moses to the days of Shammai and Hillel — Moses, Joshua, the elders, the prophets, — the Pirke Abot has, "The prophets transmitted it to the men of the Great Synagogue." The last in the prophetic succession were Haggai and Zechariah, who had a leading part in the rebuilding of the temple, and Malachi, whom the Jews made a contemporary of the other two. These were the link between their predecessors in the prophetic tradition and the Great Synagogue. In the Abot de-R. Nathan, these prophets of the restoration have a place by themselves: "Haggai, Zech­ ariah, and Malachi received the tradition from the prophets; the men of the Great Synagogue received it from Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi." They are doubtless reckoned among the prophets in that body. Ezra was one of the leading mem­ bers, and, in the light of Neh. 8-10, was naturally thought of as presiding over the body. Nehemiah was associated with him, as in those chapters. Others were Zerubbabel and Joshua; also Mordecai. In a commentary on Abot in the Mahzor Vitry 1

2

3

4

5

1

Keneset ha-Gedolah. It was not, in our use of the word, a synagogue at all; a better rendering is Great Assembly, or Convention. In Hebrew this distinction is indicated by the epithet ' G r e a t / for which a far-fetched ex­ planation is given in Yoma 69b. See Note 4. Some identified Malachi with Ezra. Megillah 15a; Targum on Mai. 1, i ; Jerome, Preface to Malachi. Nehemiah was similarly identified with Zerubbabel. Abot de-R. Nathan 1,3. Megillah 17b. In M . Peah 2, 6 (Gamaliel II) the Pairs receive the tra­ dition from the Prophets. Page 463. T o harmonize Neh. 10, 3, with 12, 1. 2

3

4

5

HISTORICAL

32

[INTRODUCTION

the following list is given: "Azariah (that is Ezra, who came up from Babylon with his company of returning exiles), Zerubba­ bel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Mordecai-Bilshan." In older texts the Great Synagogue is represented as a large body, numbering one hundred and twenty members, and including other prophets besides those named. To the Men of the Great Synagogue is ascribed the completion of the collection of sacred books, adding to it the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Esther, and the Twelve Prophets, in which group Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were appended to the earlier prophets. Ezra wrote his own book (of which our Nehe­ miah was a part), and Chronicles as far as his own genealogy. A number of slight alterations of the text from motives of rever­ ence are sometimes called corrections of Ezra, sometimes cor­ rections of the Soferim, who are identified with the men of the Great Synagogue. They are also said to have prescribed the benedictions and prayers (in the daily prayer), and the benedic­ tions ushering in holy time or marking its close (Kiddush and Habdalah). They authorized the observance of the Feast of Purim, and fixed the days that were to be kept. Some thought that they prescribed the curriculum of study in the three chief branches of Jewish learning, Midrash, Halakah, and Haggadah. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

After Neh. 7, 7. The identification of Mordecai with the Bilshan of that verse, Menahot 65b; Targum Cant. 7, 3; cf. 6, 4. Another list (Mahzor Vitry, p. 481, from Seder Tannaim we-Amoraim) makes Azariah (Ezra) the intermediary between Zechariah and the Great Synagogue, viz., Zerub­ babel, Joshua, Nehemiah, and Mordecai-Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah (Ezra 2, 2). Cf. Berakot 33a with Megillah 17b and Jer. Berakot 4d; Megillah 2a with Jer. Megillah 7od. On the discrepancies in these statements see W. Bacher,' Synagogue, The Great/ Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 640 f. Baba Batra 15a. This must be what is meant when it is said that they " w r o t e " these books, as when it is said in the preceding context that Hezekiah and his associates " w r o t e " Isaiah, Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes. Ibid. airy ^ipn. D n a i D ^Ipn. Tanhuma, Beshallah § 16 (on Exod. 15, 7). See Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 205 n.; Terminologie, I, 83 f. Berakot 33a. Megillah 2a. See below, p. 319. Jer. Shekalim 48c. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

CHAP, ii]

EZRA. T H E G R E A T SYNAGOGUE

33

Thus the distinctive religious institutions of Judaism as it was in the first centuries of our era were carried back to its be­ ginnings. Ezra and the Men of the Great Synagogue were be­ lieved to have introduced these institutions and regulations by ordinances {talzkanot) having the force of law, as their successors, the Soferim, and the Rabbis who succeeded them did. The motto of the Men of the Great Synagogue in Abot 1 , 1 , is: " B e deliberate in giving judgment, and raise up many disciples, and make a barrier about the law." The first two clauses contemplate the learned, to whom these hortatory coun­ sels are directed, as judges and as teachers of the law; the third is addressed to them as makers of law. We have seen how the ordinances (takkanoi) attributed to the leaders of the restora­ tion and of the authorities in later generations formed in reality a body of legislation supplementary to the written law in the Pentateuch. Another side of the law-making of the same au­ thorities was enactments meant to guard against any possible infringement of the divine statute. This is what is here meant by making a barrier around the law. Thus — to take an example from the first page of the Mishnah — things which by the letter of the law must be completed before morning, by rabbinical rule must be done before midnight, " to keep a man far removed from transgression." The distinction between the ordinances and decrees of the Scribes (Soferim) and the biblical law is constantly made in the juristic literature, but the authority of the Scribes or the Learned to make such regulations was not questioned, nor was the trans­ gression or neglect of their rules a venial offense. On the con1

2

3

4

1

E.g., Simeon ben Shatah, Hillel, Johanan ben Zakkai; the Synod at Usha, etc. Authority for such an extension of the law was found in Lev. 18, 30, interpreted, " Y e shall make an injunction additional to my injunction." Sifra Ahare, end; Yebamot 21a. Perpetuity; annulment, Gittin 36b. See, e.g., Lev. 7, 15; 22, 30._ M . Berakot 1 , 1 . The technical name for such prohibitions is gezerot which we might render decrees.' On the whole subject see Weiss, Dor, II, 50 ff.; Jewish Encyclopedia, 'Gezerah' and 'Takkanah.' 2

3

4

y

34

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

trary, a more serious matter is made of the words of the Scribes than of the words of the (written) law. It is clear that the Jews in the early centuries of our era had no other knowledge of the restoration or of Ezra and the Great Synagogue than what they gathered from the sources we possess, combined in an artificial and erroneous chronological scheme. They imagined that body in the likeness of a rabbinical council, legislating like one by ordinance and decree, and thus founding the distinctive institutions of Judaism. Its individual members were, like the rabbis in their time, both teachers in the law schools and judges in the courts, and, in a way, law-makers. The maxim attributed to them embodies the ideal of Jewish scholars in all after time. 1

2

3

One of the last survivors of the Great Synagogue was Simeon the Righteous, and it is in conformity to the rabbinical chronol­ ogy, which has room for but one generation (thirty-four years) between the rebuilding of the temple and the fall of the Persian Empire, that Simeon is the high priest who, arrayed in full pontificals, went out to meet Alexander the Great. Historically, this Simeon the Righteous is probably the high priest Simeon son of Onias, contemporary of Jesus son of Sirach, with an eloquent eulogy of whom (50, 1-24) that author brings his Praise of the Forefathers (41, 1-50, 24) to a close. The public works for which Simeon is here lauded, the repairs on the temple and the strengthening of its fortifications and those of the city, 4

5

6

7

8

1

A collection of utterances to the same effect in Jer. Berakot 3b, apropos of the instance in M . Berakot 1, 3. The prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, and the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. See Note 4. Abot 1, 2. See Note 5. Completed, by our dates, in 516 B.C. Above, p. 6. In our chronology, 332 B.C. Yoma 69a. Josephus (Antt. xi. 8, 4 §§ 325 ff.) tells the story of Jaddua (Neh. 12, 11, 22), who in his succession of high priests is Simeon's grandfather. Ca. 200 B.C. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, ii]

EZRA. T H E G R E A T SYNAGOGUE

35

would fit very well with this date when Jerusalem had recently been taken and retaken in the struggle between Syria and Egypt. It will be observed that in his catalogue of worthies Sirach passes at once from Zerubbabel and Joshua and Nehemiah, who rebuilt the temple or restored the walls of Jerusalem, to his contemporary Simeon, who did the like. He apparently knew no notable name between. No more did the author of Abot 1, 1-2; and inasmuch as to be of any use such a chain of tradition must possess unbroken continuity, it followed of necessity that Simeon must have been associated with the men of the Great Synagogue. He is, however, not only one of the last survivors of that group, but the beginning of a new succession of teachers, singly or in pairs, who are known by name, and who by degrees come into historical light. Simeon's memorable word was: "The world rests on three pillars, on the Torah, on the cultus, and on works of charity " — we may paraphrase, knowledge of divine revelation, the worship of God, and deeds of lovingkindness to men. Antigonus of Socho, who received the traditional law from Simeon, said: " B e not like slaves who serve their masters with the expectation of receiving a gratuity; but be like slaves who serve their master without expectation of receiving a gratuity, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you," the often repeated principle that duty should be done for God's sake, or for its own sake (because it is duty), not for the reward of obedience. 'The man who fears the Lord delights greatly in His commandments' (Psalm 112, 1 ) : "In His commandments, not in the reward of His command­ ments." 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

It is a tempting conjecture that, in the story from which Yoma 69 was derived, the king whom Simeon went out to make his peace with was not originally Alexander, but one of these contending monarchs, most likely Antiochus III. See Note 5. Ezra is nowhere named. Abot 1, 2. Ibid. 1, 3. See Vol. II, pp. 95 ff. 'Abodah Zarah 19a. R. Eleazar (ben Shammua'), quoting the words of Antigonus. 2 3

5

6

4

36

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

These sayings are set down at the beginning of the Sentences of the Fathers as recognized fundamentals of Judaism. They have so many counterparts in the Tannaite literature that they might be called Maxims of the Pharisees. 1

1

See the Catena on Abot by Noah Kobryn (Wilna, 1868).

CHAPTER

III

THE SCRIBES

THE book of Jesus son of Sirach, commonly cited by the ab­ breviated title, Sirach, is a landmark in the history of the Jewish religious literature of this age. It is the work of a single author who has put his own name to it (50, 27), and who makes his individuality felt throughout. It was plainly not composed as a whole on a preconceived plan, and may perhaps be de­ scribed as a collection of short essays, written probably at in­ tervals of time. The situation, however, is the same in them all, and the external and internal evidence coincide to fix the date in the vicinity of 200 B.C. The author makes it abundantly evident that he was a teacher, and we may imagine that he set down from time to time in writing such lessons as he was accustomed to give to young men of the upper classes in Jerusalem, or that he worked up his notes for the purpose of publication. The subject of his instruc­ tion was "wisdom" ((ro0la) in the sense of that word which the Book of Proverbs made familiar. Another common term is 7 r a t 5 e t a , for which "education" is perhaps our nearest equiva­ lent, with the understanding that, like the Hebrew musar which it commonly represents, it is primarily moral instruction and dis­ cipline. The wisdom which he aimed to impart was not theoreti­ cal philosophy or ethics but a practical guide for the conduct of life in the various stations and relations in which those who frequented his instruction might find themselves. Jewish wisdom was, however, fundamentally a religious ethic. Its first principle, its mainspring and motive, was "the fear of 1

2

3

1 2 3

In the Latin Bible, Ecclesiasticus. The case is unique. In Hebrew, Eokmah. 37

38

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

the Lord," and its normative principle was the law of God revealed in the Scriptures. Sirach explicitly identifies Wisdom, which has just sung its own high praises (24, 1-22), with "the law which Moses commanded, an inheritance to the congrega­ tion of Jacob." Judaism is the only true wisdom, as it is the only true religion. The emphasis on this uniqueness is explained by the circum­ stances of the times. The inclination to adopt the Hellenic civilization, which was fast becoming oecumenic, was not far from its climax in Jerusalem in his day, and was nowhere stronger, we may be sure, than among the young aristocrats who were sent to school to him. Sirach was himself a cultivated man of their own class; he had broadened his mind by travel, and perhaps been in the service of one or another of the Hellen­ istic rulers. That he knew Greek may fairly be presumed. There was all the more force in his words when such a man declared his conviction that whatever there was in the wisdom of the Greeks, however excellent their science, art, and letters, — their culture, in a word, — the wisdom of the Jews, even in the classic Greek definition, "knowledge of things divine and human," was vastly superior, because it came from God himself. It is upon this axiomatic premise that he treats every subject. Wisdom is the condition of well-being and happiness, and wisdom is conformity to the will of God as He has revealed it. Man is accountable for his own conduct, he cannot shift the responsibil­ ity upon God (15, 11 ff.); His judgment is inescapable (16, 17 ff.). The evils which experience shows to be the consequence of misdoing are retributive. The religious point of view prevails throughout, and is emphasized at points where it evidently encountered skepticism. Significant also is the prominence of the national note. The Praise of the Forefathers is a swift summary of the great things God did for them and through 1

2

1

Ecclus. 24, 23 (32); cf. 1, 1-15. On this identification in rabbinical sources see pp. 263 fF. A comparison with Proverbs on this point is instructive. 2

CHAP, i n ]

T H E SCRIBES

39

them, well fitted to inspire the loyalty of Jews to their religion and their people. Sirach has faith also in the national future, his conception of which is set forth in a prayer for the speedy realization of this hope. What makes the Book of Sirach of peculiar importance in our present inquiry is not only that he was a teacher of religious morals to young men in a critical age, but that in his primary calling he was a biblical scholar and a teacher of the Law, a representative of the class of Soferim. His eminent attainments in the Scriptures are commemorated by his grandson and trans­ lator in his preface, and the book itself fully confirms this esti­ mate. Sirach himself calls his school, to attendance on which he invites the unlearned, by a name which is later appropriated to the seat of more advanced biblical studies. It may fairly be presumed that besides such instruction in religion and morals as we have in the Book of Sirach, law in the narrower sense was in his time studied in schools. On matters of ritual, and in questions of clean and unclean with the proper purifications and expiations, the priests were the recognized authorities; but a knowledge of the civil and criminal law was necessary for the judges before whom such cases were brought, and that compe­ tence in this field could be acquired only by what we should call the professional studies of the Scribe, Sirach strongly reiterates. It involved not only the juristic interpretation of the laws in the Pentateuch, but knowledge of the common law that went be­ side it and supplemented it, and of the ordinances and decrees of earlier or contemporary authorities. We need not assume that didactic lectures were given on these subjects; it may be that students acquired their knowledge by frequenting the sessions of the learned and listening to their discussions; but whatever 1

2

3

4

1

Ecclus. 33, 1-22 (Swete). Here also the contrast to Proverbs is to be noted. Ecclus. 51, 23: avXladrjTe h OLKOJ iraidelas, for which the recently dis­ covered Hebrew has ^VJD IVM W\. Cf. also 51, 29, VU*B*3. Ecclus. 38, 33; 39, i ; cf. 39, 8. See Abot I , 4, and below, p. 46. 2

3

4

HISTORICAL

4
[INTRODUCTION

the method may have been, there was an effective provision for legal education. That small matters as well as great received attention is illus­ trated in Ecclus. 42, where the author exhorts his reader not to be ashamed to conform to the "law and covenant of the Most High" because others (Gentiles or hellenized Jews) ridiculed such scrupulousness. Such matters are care for the accuracy of weights and measures, and in buying and selling. The Hebrew Sirach is more explicit. It speaks of dusting scales and balances and of wiping off measures and weights, on which the Mishnah lays down the rule: " A shopkeeper must wipe his measures twice a week and wipe off his weights once a week and wipe his scales every time he uses them." An attentive reading of Sirach shows many striking parallels not only to religious and moral sentences such as are collected in the Pirke Abot or are scattered through the rabbinical litera­ ture, but to the rules and regulations which are finally formu­ lated in the Mishnah and kindred lawbooks. In a memorable passage Sirach draws the portrait of the ideal Scribe: 1

2

3

Learning is the privilege of leisure. Husbandmen and artisans are the support of the social structure, but, wholly occupied as they must be in their several callings and often highly expert in them, they have no time for the wide-ranging studies that make the scholar. They are therefore not qualified to be called to the council or to take the lead in the assembly; they cannot sit on the judge's bench, for they do not understand the princi­ ples of the law, and cannot bring out the rights of the case and a just judgment. Different is the case of the man who gives his whole mind to it, and concentrates his thought on the law of the Most High. He will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and 1

M . Baba Batra 5, 1 0 . Compare also the sequel in the Mishnah with Ecclus. 42, 4D~5a. The schoolmen of the Tannaite period cultivated the art of condensing wisdom into pithy aphorisms which we associate with the class of proverbmakers, and did quite as well in it. Tpafxfiarevsy "1S1D. See Ecclus. 38, 24-39, • 2

3

1 1

CHAP. I l l ]

T H E SCRIBES

4i

occupy himself with the study of prophecies, and pay attention to expositions of famous men, and will penetrate into the elusive turns of parables. He will search out the hidden meaning of pro­ verbs, and will be versed in the enigmas of parables. He will serve among the magnates and appear in the presence of the ruler. He will travel in foreign countries, for he has ex­ perience of good and evil among men. He will resolve to rise early to the service of the Lord his creator, and will make his petition to the Most High; he will open his mouth in prayer, and beseech forgiveness for his sins. If the great Lord please, he will be filled with a spirit of understanding, and will himself pour out like rain his words of wisdom, and praise the Lord in prayer. He will direct aright his counsel and knowledge, and reflect on the hidden things of God. He will make public the instruction he has to impart, and his pride will be in (knowledge of) the law of the covenant of the Lord. Many will praise his understanding, and his reputation will never be obliterated; the memory of him will not pass away, but his name will live to countless generations. Other nations will talk of his wisdom, and the congregation (of Israel) will tell forth his praise. If he lives he will leave a greater name than the multitude; and if he rests from his labors, it will be greater still. 1

2

The Scribes, as Sirach here represents them, were a professional class, with a wide range of learning and activities. Of the pre­ vious history of this class little is to be known. Ezra appears in the name and character of a Scribe, and the Men of the Great Synagogue were thought of after the same pattern. In Sirach, however, they are an institution, for which a history must be assumed to bring it to the stage on which we find it there. The biblical scholars, students and teachers of the law written and unwritten, not only have attained great proficiency in their calling, but as a class have taken an independent place alongside 1

His studies embrace all parts of the Scripture. The Praise of the Fore­ fathers (c. 44 ff.) takes us over Sirach's canon, and his familiarity with all parts of it is evident throughout his book. The Scribe seems here to be thought of as holding discourse and leading the prayers in a religious assembly. 2

42

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

the priesthood, in whose hands in older times was the law and its interpretation. The importance of this can hardly be overestimated. It is here, and not in the introduction of the Priests' Code, which would presumably have tended in quite the opposite direction, that Judaism as we know it has its antecedents. Many of the early Scribes may have been priests, as some of the most eminent rabbis were in later times; but there is no indication that Sirach was one, or that priests had any precedence, much less preroga­ tive, in the calling of the Scribes. Manifold as the activities of the Scribes, or of individuals among them, may have been, the field in which their labors had most to do with shaping the future of Judaism was un­ questionably what in a wide sense we may call jurisprudence. The development of a lay jurisprudence, not dependent on the priesthood, the hereditary custodians of the law, presumes the publication of a body of written law accessible to any who chose to occupy themselves with the study of it. According to the narrative in Ezra and Nehemiah, an official publication of the Book of the Law of Moses took place in Ezra's time; and, apart from this account, there is evidence in the later books of the Old Testament of the existence of such a work, substantially our Pentateuch, in the Persian period. The history of Roman jurisprudence offers a partial analogy. It was the surreptitious publication about 300 B.C. of a digest of forms of legal procedure which had previously been kept to themselves by the pontifices that made possible the rise of professional jurisconsults and of legal education. It is a natural supposition that the lay Scribes did not concern themselves so much about points of ritual with which the priests alone had to do as about other spheres of the law. Later, however, they extended their research to that field, and at last, relying on popular support, undertook to regulate or reform 1

1

See the article, ' Jurisprudential in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, X , col. 1159 ff.

CHAP, in]

T H E SCRIBES

43

priestly practice in conformity with the letter of the law or their own exegesis of it. The character and conduct of the priesthood, particularly of the sacerdotal aristocracy, was frequently very remote from such an ideal of the office as would be formed from the study of the Law. After Simeon the Righteous, who perhaps owed the laudatory cognomen to the contrast with his succes­ sors, high priests who bought their appointment from the king were willing tools of his hellenizing plans, and turned the Scribes, with all the Jews who were zealous for their own religion (the Hasidim), against them. The national high priests, from John Hyrcanus in his later years, went over to the Sadducean party, and the priestly nobility under Herod and the procurators were of the same stripe. The Scribes, on the other hand, had the support of the Pharisaean party, to which many of them be­ longed. The Pharisees in turn had the people behind them, and with the growing importance of the synagogue, the profession­ ally educated class gained increasing influence as the teachers of the people. Both the scope and the methods of study in the schools of the law changed, as we shall see, with time and chang­ ing conditions, and scholars became more and more the dominant factor in the conservation and development of Judaism through all the vicissitudes of the centuries. The old name, Scribes, was apparently the only one in use in the age from which the Gospels come. In the Tannaite litera­ ture scholars are called Hakamim, in the sense of "the learned," students are Talmide Hakamim, disciples of the learned, the name Soferim, Scribes, being restricted to the learned of an older time. The sources at our command do not disclose the reason for this change in usage or the date at which the new designation was introduced. It may perhaps be connected with the reorgani­ zation of the schools after the destruction of Jerusalem and the 1

2

1

The Talmud tells a scandalous story about his own sons. Menahot 9 b ; Jer. Yoma 43c; Tos. Sotah 13, 6 ff. One of these sons was the founder of the Onias Temple in Egypt. The latter name, as the more modest, is often used of those who have passed beyond the student stage. I 0

2

44

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

use of Rabbi as a title for what we might call a diplomaed Doctor of the Law. In sketching the history of the Scribes we have run ahead of our subject. To return to Sirach, it remains to direct attention to another aspect of his book which is of even greater importance than those which have hitherto engaged us. More completely and more certainly than any other writings of the period the Book of Sirach shows us the extent to which the higher religious and ethical principles of the Law and the Prophets had been selectively appropriated, coordinated, and assimilated by the best learning and thought of his time, and were digested for ends of education. No less clearly does it prove the progress which had been made since the beginning of the Persian period in the direction of later Judaism. The same thing, in different degrees, may be observed in other writings of the Persian and Mace­ donian centuries when we bring them into parallel with Sirach. The value of the book as a landmark is very great in another respect, because it enables us to assure ourselves that the theology and ethics of the Tannaim in the second century of our era were substantially the same as those of the Soferim at the beginning of the second century before it. Hardly less instructive in comparison with the rabbinical literature is the silence of the book on some points on which the Tannaim laid great stress, particularly on retribution after death or the revivification of the dead (resurrection of the body). On this account Sirach has been labelled Sadducee. It does not appear that the rabbis entertained any such suspicion. The book of Ben Sira in Hebrew was well known in the Tannaite period and later, highly esteemed, and not infrequently quoted, sometimes with the formula usual with quotations from the Bible. It was, in fact, found necessary sometime about 1

1

See Cowley and Neubauer, The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus, etc. (1897), p. xix-xxx; I. Levi, Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 390.

CHAP.

Ill]

T H E SCRIBES

45

the end of the first century of our era to make a formal deliver­ ance to the effect that it was not sacred Scripture. This did not imply any depreciation of the book itself; it was sufficient that it was written at a time when, with the death of the last prophets, the inspiration of biblical books had ceased. After Antigonus of Socho the tradition is said to have been carried on by a couple of colleagues in each succeeding generation, beginning with Jose ben Jo'ezer of §eredah and Jose ben Johanan of Jerusalem, and ending with Shammai and Hillel. The first pair fall in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B . C . ) . Between them and the last, in the time of Herod, three pairs have to fill a space of more than a century and a quarter. What is historically established is that Shemaiah and Abtalion were the most highly reputed teachers of the Law and heads of the Pharisees in the earlier part of Herod's reign (37-4 B . C . ) ; and that Simeon ben Shatah was active under Alexander Jannaeus (103-76) and had great influence with his successor Queen Alexandra (76-67), who is said to have been Simeon's sister. Most of the members of these pairs are hardly more than names; besides the sentences ascribed to them in the Abot, what little is told of them is chiefly legendary. It is evident that the Tan­ naim had nothing like a continuous historical tradition of the lives and labors of their predecessors. 1

2

3

4

1

Tos. Yadaim 2, 13. Abaye, a Babylonian scholar of the 4th century, in answer to the question why the book was disapproved, quotes utterances that might seem objec­ tionable or foolish. Sanhedrin 100b. Abot 1, 4 ff. According to M . Hagigah 2, 2, the first named in each pair was the president, the second the vice-president, of the Sanhedrin. This is carrying back into antiquity the organization of the high court after the de­ struction of Jerusalem. A midrashic legend makes Jose ben Jo ezer one of the company of scholars who paid with their lives for their confidence in the high priest Alcimus (162/161 B.C. 1 Mace. 7, 16). Gen. R. 65, 22; Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 1 , 7 . The death of Jose ben Jo'ezer and his colleague is remembered as a disastrous crisis in the history of the schools. M . Sotah 9, 9; Sotah 47a-b; Temurah 15b. 2

3

4

f

46

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

The maxims of Jose ben Jo'ezer testify to his zeal for the study of the Law: "Let thy house be a meeting place of the learned, and sit in the dust at their feet and thirstily drink in their words." Jose ben Jo'ezer and his colleague Jose ben Johanan are the first in this series of authorities in whose names decrees {gezerot) are reported. They are said to have pronounced heathen soil unclean, and also that glass vessels are unclean. Looking back out of the controversies of schools and conflict of individual opinions in a later age, scholars idealized a past of which they had no record, and sometimes went so far as to imagine that previous to this pair the authorities had always been in complete accord: the two Jose's differed on a single point in the ritual of private sacrifice on holy days, and down to Shammai and Hillel this was the sole controversy. Shammai and Hillel raised the number of contentions to four, but, "When their disciples increased in numbers and did not attend their masters as diligently as they ought, the divisions of opinion multiplied in Israel. They formed two parties, the one declaring unclean what the other declared clean; and things will not re­ turn to their former state (of unanimity) till the Son of David comes." From our point of view, the actual tradition of the disputes of the schools begins in the generation before the Christian era. The differences of the "houses" of Shammai and Hillel are in the foreground from that time to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, and were not wholly composed for a good while after that. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Abot 1, 4. Compare the advice of Joshua ben Perahiah (ibid., 1, 6): " T a k e to yourself a master (teacher), and get for yourself a comrade (in studies); and judge every man in the most favorable light." Widening the scope of prohibitive laws. See p. 33. Shabbat 14b; the explanations in the Talmud, ibid. 15b. Other deliver­ ances of Jose ben Jo'ezer on questions of clean and unclean are found in 'Eduyot 8, 4; cf. Sifra, Shemini Perek 9, end (ed. Weiss f. 55b). t h e nyQD h& '•an, Temurah 16a, top; cf. 15b. Jer. Hagigah 77d; Tos. IJagigah 2, 8. Jer. Hagigah I.e. See below, pp. 80 f., 86. 2

3

4 5

7

CHAP, in]

T H E SCRIBES

47

Simeon ben Shatah, the restorer of the Law in the reign of Queen Alexandra, is the first in the series of pairs who stands out with a certain distinctness of character. He was the author of several ordinances {tafylzanot), perhaps the most important of which have to do with the marriage contract (ketubah). 1

2

1

2

]£iddushin 66a. See below, p. 58 n. 6. See below, Vol. II, pp. 122 f.

CHAPTER IV T H E R E L I G I O U S CRISIS

a few years after the death of Sirach there came a momentous crisis in the history of the Jews in Palestine. He had probably seen Judaea pass finally from the dominion of the Ptolemies to that of the Seleucids by the battle of Panium in 198 B . C , and the restorations of the walls of the temple and city under the high priest Simon may have been made possible by the favor of Antiochus III. But evil times soon followed. The Seleucids were much more zealous for disseminating the blessings of Hellenic culture among their subjects than the Ptolemies, and in the cities of Syria, long since completely de­ nationalized, the populations displayed a gratifying alacrity in adopting the newest fashion in civilization. Of the finer intel­ lectual and aesthetic influences of Greek culture little is discerni­ ble; the difference in this respect between Antioch and Alex­ andria is salient. The picture which Poseidonios, himself a native of Apameia, paints of the Syrian cities in his day was probably no less true at an earlier time. In the century of Ptolemaic rule, knowledge of the Greek language must have been common among the upper classes, especially among the higher priesthood in Jerusalem, to whom, indeed, their relations with the government on the one hand, and intercourse with the large Greek-speaking Jewish population of Egypt and the Cyrenaica on the other, made it a necessity. Nor is there any doubt that Greek civilization exercised over many Jews the same fascination it had for other Orientals, and that among them its customs and fashions were imitated, its luxuries

WITHIN

1

2

3

1 2 3

Ecclus. 50, 1 ff. Josephus, Antt. xii. 3, 3 §§ 138 ff. ^ Frag. 18. C. Muller, Frag. Historicorum Graecorum, III, 258. 48

CHAP, iv]

T H E RELIGIOUS CRISIS

4 9

eagerly sought after. Some families acquired great wealth in farming the taxes by the usual methods of extortion and oppres­ sion, and with riches their power grew and their ambitions rose, as we read in the romance of the Tobiads. They made no effort, so far as we know, to promote the spread of foreign ways among their countrymen otherwise than by setting a bad example. Shortly after the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, however, a calculated attempt of this kind was made, and the initiative came from the highest quarters. A brother of the high priest Onias, who hellenized his Jewish name Jesus into Jason, in­ gratiated himself with the new king by displaying a flattering zeal for civilization and by his willingness to pay well for it. Besides the high price he offered for the appointment to the high priesthood in the room of his brother, he promised other large sums for the privilege of establishing a gymnasium in Jerusalem with the institution of ephebi, and for the enrolment of Jews as Antiochian citizens, enterprises which were doubtless quite to the mind of Antiochus, especially when accompanied by tangible considerations. With the Jews the argument for assimilation ran, "Let us go and make alliance with the peoples around us, for since we separated from them many evils have befallen us." Jason was made high priest in 175/4 B.C. The privileges con­ ferred by Antiochus III were annulled; Jerusalem was given a Greek constitution, with a right for its citizens to acquire — doubtless not gratuitously — Antiochian citizenship also. A gymnasium was built below the citadel; athletic young Jews enrolled as ephebi scandalized their pious elders by putting on broad-brimmed Greek hats. Priests hurried through their office in the temple to take part in the sports. Many submitted to a surgical operation to efface the blemish of circumcision, which provoked the ridicule of bystanders when the Jewish youths stripped for gymnastic exercises. When Greek games were being 1

2

3

4

1 2 3

Josephus, Antt. xii. 4, 1 ff. Jeshu'a (Joshua). Jason of Cyrene is probably a parallel instance. 1 Mace. 4, 8 f. 1 Mace. 1, 1 1 . 4

HISTORICAL

5°

[INTRODUCTION

held at Tyre in the presence of the king, the Jewish high priest, Jason, sent ambassadors with a contribution for the sacrifices to Hercules. The hellenization of Jerusalem was thus in full swing. Jason's success encouraged a certain Menelaus to imitate his example, and he supplanted Jason in the high priesthood by larger prom­ ises. That he did not get possession without bloodshed may be inferred from 2 Mace. 4, 25, which on this occasion remarks, " H e had the passions of a cruel tyrant and the fury of a ferocious wild beast." He prevailed, however, and Jason found a refuge beyond the Jordan, whence later, upon a rumor of Antiochus' death in Egypt, he emerged, took Jerusalem by a coup de main, and executed sanguinary vengeance on the defenders, but was unable to maintain his conquest and was soon in flight again. That the efforts of the king and his creatures to heathenize them ran counter not only to the attachment of the Jews to their religion but to their national sentiment is clear. The high priest and the senate had received Antiochus III as a deliverer from the misgovernment of the recent Ptolemies, and he was politic enough to assume the role. But notwithstanding the new politi­ cal constellation, Judaea was closer in every way to Egypt than to Syria, and the associations of a hundred years were not sun­ dered in a day. Whatever expectations of better times may have been raised by the first acts of Antiochus III were speedily dashed. The chronic financial straits of the Seleucid empire, especially in consequence of the crushing indemnity imposed by 1

2

3

1

Qeoopoi, such as the Athenians sent to the four great Hellenic games. It was a religious function. The ambassadors were not so completely emanci­ pated as the high priest, and asked that the contribution be expended on the fleet. 2 Mace. 4, 18-20. With whom Melkart, the god of Tyre, was identified. In good Jewish, Menahem. It has been inferred from 2 Mace. 4, 23 (Menelaus brother of Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, ibid., 3, 4), that Menelaus was not of priestly extraction. There was, however, an order of priests, Miniamin (Neh. 12, 17, cf. 12, 5; 1 Chron. 24, 9), for which some Greek MSS and the Syriac have Benjamin; cf. Ta'anit 12a. See Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen, pp. 221 f. 2

3

CHAP, iv]

T H E RELIGIOUS CRISIS

51

the Romans after Magnesia, made the burden of taxation more onerous than ever; Seleucus IV had tried to rob the temple in Jerusalem of its treasures and the large private deposits laid up in it; Menelaus appropriated some of its golden vessels to use in bribing Syrian officials, and left his brother Lysimachus to get the rest. To crown all this came the aggressive hellenizing policy of Antiochus IV. From such an evil and threatening present it would be strange if the Jews had not looked back to the good old times of Ptolemaic rule, when, whatever other grievances they had, at least nobody tried to modernize them, and they were left to isolate themselves in their national religion and customs as completely as they liked. Such was the situation when the war between Antiochus IV and Egypt opened. That the sympathy of very many Jews should be on the Egyptian side was inevitable, and Antiochus was doubtless apprised by Menelaus of their disloyal sentiments. On his way back from this campaign in the autumn of the year 169 he came up to Jerusalem with a considerable force. Under the conduct of the high priest, Menelaus, he entered the adytum of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and when he left carried off the altar of incense, the candelabra, the table of shewbread, the golden utensils of the cultus, and everything else he could lay his hands on, even stripping the gold plating from the front of the edifice. In the spring of 168 B.C. Antiochus invaded Egypt a second time, but in the midst of his operations the Roman senate inter­ vened and peremptorily ordered him out of the country. The temper in which he returned to Syria may be imagined, nor would it be strange if he vented it on anything that came in his way. Whatever vindictiveness there may have been, however, in his dealing with the Jews, the measures he took in Judaea 1

2

1

According to 2 Mace. 5, 11, to punish the city for its supposed connivance in Jason's raid, construed as a revolt. 1 Mace. 1, 20-24; Mace. 5, 15 f.; cf. Josephus, Antt. xii. 5, 3. These accounts speak of much bloodshed in the city, which, according to 2 M a c e , he turned over to his soldiers to sack. 2

2

52

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION 1

were themselves justified by political reasons. His promising scheme for hellenizing the Jews, so to say from within, by the agency of the high priests and an upper-class minority had had an effect diametrically opposite to his expectations. It had created a national opposition which was strengthened by every­ thing he did to accomplish his end. This national opposition had become an Egyptian party, whose rejoicing in his discom­ fiture was probably more sincere than discreet. Even if he could have brought himself to reverse his policy, he could not hope to regain their allegiance by the sacrifice of the only supporters he had. On the other hand, elementary strategical considerations forbade him to leave a stronghold like Jerusalem in the posses­ sion of a thoroughly disloyal population so near the frontier of a hostile empire. He proceeded therefore to demolish the walls of the city and pull down or burn many of its houses. On the eastern hill, south of the temple, he built and strongly fortified a smaller city, and colonized it with foreigners. What was in his eyes the loyal remnant of the Jews was also established there under the pro­ tection of a mercenary garrison in the citadel which held it for the king through all vicissitudes until 142 B.C. When this had been accomplished Antiochus converted the temple to the worship of the Olympian Zeus. The great altar in the court became the pedestal of a smaller altar of Greek fashion (fiufxos), on which swine were offered in sacrifice. The whole Jewish cultus was thus superseded. Antiochus understood perfectly well that the heart of the op­ position to him was religious. He resolved to extirpate the religion. All its observances, particularly circumcision and the 2

3

1

The essentially political motive of the religious persecution is evident from the fact that it was confined to Palestine. There is no evidence that the Jews in Syria or Babylonia were molested in the observance of their religion. The Samaritan temple on Gerizim was similarly dedicated to Zeus Xenios. The high priest Menelaus remained in office as the political head of the nation. It is not to be supposed that he officiated in the worship of the new god who had usurped the temple. 2

3

CHAP, iv]

T H E RELIGIOUS CRISIS

53

keeping of sabbaths and festivals, were prohibited under pain of death. Copies of the Law were destroyed and the possession of such a volume was made a capital offense. Altars were set up in the towns and villages, and participation in the heathen sacrifices was made a test of loyalty. Many obeyed the king's edict either voluntarily or under duress. Those who refused thus publicly to apostatize were put to death. Many fled and concealed themselves from the king's officers. This persecution provoked an insurrection headed by Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers. Their bands roved through the country, destroying the altars, circumcising the children, and ruthlessly harrying the "apostates" who had submitted to the royal decree. The Syrian commanders made the mistake of underrating their enemy, and the defeats they suffered in the first encounters led larger numbers to rally to Judas and raised the confidence of his followers. Antiochus himself had greater enterprises, which took him to the far east of his empire never to return. The expeditions successively despatched by the regent Lysias failed to suppress the revolt. In the autumn of the year 165 Judas got possession of the temple, which he re­ stored and reconsecrated. Law-abiding priests were installed and the worship resumed in its ancient forms. The temple was strongly fortified, especially against attack from the side of the citadel. The regent Lysias was by this time convinced that the attempt to root out the religion was a failure. After negotia­ tions with Judas, full liberty was guaranteed to the Jews to worship their own God in their own way and live according to their national law and custom, and an amnesty was offered in the king's name to all who had taken part in the rebellion, on condition that they came in within a month. This change in the policy of the government did not bring peace. Judas and his brothers did not deem their task accom­ plished so long as their countrymen beyond Jordan and in 1

2

1

2

Kislev (roughly December) 25, 165 B.C. Antiochus V , Eupator.

54

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

Galilee, or on the seaboard and in Idumaea, were harassed by the heathen, and undertook what are now called punitive ex­ peditions for their relief. Nor were they content to leave the citadel of Jerusalem itself in foreign hands. When Judas laid siege to this fortress, however, it was relieved by a Syrian army, and Judas was in turn besieged in the temple and reduced by famine to the verge of capitulation. Lysias was in a position to dictate terms, and besides requiring Judas to evacuate the temple made it indefensible by breaching its fortifications. But religi­ ous liberty was again guaranteed; that phase of the struggle was ended. The attempt to hellenize Judaea by force aroused, in the act of resistance to it, a violent hostility to heathenism with all its works and ways. The neighboring peoples reciprocated this enmity in full measure and made the Jews settled among them suffer from it on every occasion, partly as a vent to their own feelings and a pretext for violence and rapine, partly perhaps as a demonstration of loyalty. In defense of their outraged coun­ trymen the Maccabees, when they were able, retaliated in kind. At home they had to reckon with the loyalist party. The revolt was not, as is sometimes imagined, the uprising of the Jewish people with one heart to save its imperilled religion. To say nothing of the high priests and their ilk, what would nowa­ days be called the solid part of the community, the men of prop­ erty and position in Jerusalem, would have been unlike their kind if peace and order in which to enjoy their privilege had not seemed to them the condition of all earthly good. Many of them had compromised themselves too deeply by compliance with the king's edict to hope to make their peace with the rebels who were so merciless against all "apostates." After the re­ covery of the temple and the guarantee of religious liberty by the compact between Lysias and Judas, the cause for which the Maccabaean faction had taken up arms was no longer a living issue, but peace and order were as far away as before. The more evidently the aim of this party now developed into the autonomy

CHAP, iv]

T H E RELIGIOUS CRISIS

55

of Judaea under one of the rebel chiefs, the more strongly the royalists were opposed to the movement. For a quarter of a century there was always a possibility that in some of the overturnings of the times they might come into power again. The subsequent chapters of the political history of Judaea need not be summarized here. Suffice it to say that in the twenty years that followed the death of Judas his brothers Jonathan and Simon by adroit and unscrupulous use of the opportunities political conditions put in their hands achieved the goal of in­ dependence. Demetrius II recognized Simon as high priest and the autonomous ruler of a Jewish state. First Maccabees records that in the year 170 the yoke of the heathen was removed from Israel, and the people of Israel began to date documents and contracts, 'In the year (so and so) of Simon, the great high priest and commander-in-chief and ruler of the Jews' (13, 41 f.). 1

2

3

1 2 3

In the spring of 160 B.C. Of the Seleucid era, equivalent to 143/2 B.C. The use of a native era was the formal attestation of independence.

CHAPTER RISE

OF

THE

V

PHARISEES

son and successor, John Hyrcanus (135-104 B . C ) , waged aggressive wars on all sides. He made a campaign east of the Jordan in the old territory of Moab; took Shechem and destroyed the temple on Mt. Gerizim which pretended to rival Jerusalem; conquered the Idumaeans in the south and made Jews of them by compulsory circumcision; recovered Joppa and Gazara; and finally, toward the end of his reign, after a long siege conducted by his sons, captured the city of Samaria and totally destroyed it. Aristobulus, who assumed the title King, in his brief reign (104 B . C ) , pursued a similar policy in judaizing Galilee. His brother and successor, Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B . C ) , conquered the remaining cities on the coast, including Gaza, and waged war with varying fortunes beyond Jordan. At the height of his success his dominion extended almost to the traditional bounds of the empire of Solomon. The wars in which the Jews engaged, first for religious liberty, then for the independence of Judaea, and finally for the reconquest of the whole land of Israel, aroused an aggressive national spirit which was reflected in religion. Triumphant Judaism was under no temptation to assimilate itself to the religions of the heathen over whom its God had given it the victory. Some enthusiasts saw in the events of the time the Lord's deliverance foretold in ancient prophecies and the dawning of the yet more glorious day that was to follow. The Jews in other lands shared in this exaltation of spirit. As in older times, the triumphs of the Lord were a revival of religion, in the sense, at least, of enthusiasm for it and heightened loyalty to it. SIMON'S

1

1

Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 3, 1. Jannaeus was the first to put the title in the Greek legend on his bilingual coins. 56

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

57

That otherwise this century was favorable to religious ad­ vance can hardly be imagined. Its history is written in a suc­ cession of wars at home and abroad which must have wrought wide devastation and, according to all experience, demoraliza­ tion on a corresponding scale, all the more because they were in some sort wars of religion. Our sources deal, however, almost exclusively with political history, and tell us nothing about the everyday doings of com­ mon men. We can well believe that in the intervals of peace and even amid the disorders of war scholars stedfastly pursued their studies in Scripture and tradition, and pious men were as scrupulous in the observance of their religious duties as in happier times. In the early years of the period we read of a company of scholars (trvvaycayq ypafjLfjLaTeaiv) who presented themselves to the newly appointed high priest Alcimus, and had reason to rue their simplicity; and though we have no other notice of them it is certain from later events that the learned succession was not broken off. Later we find the guild of scholars (Scribes) with their tradi­ tion supported by what may properly be called a party of tra­ dition, the Pharisees. The first mention of the Pharisees in Josephus is in a paragraph injected without relation to the context in the midst of Jonathan's wars with Demetrius II and his negotiations with the Romans and the Spartans, telling that "about this time" there were three schools, or sects (alpeaets), of the Jews, who entertained different notions about fate and free will, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, for fuller information about which the reader is referred to what he had written previously in the second book of the Jewish War. A little further on the Pharisees emerge on the historical stage in conflict with John Hyrcanus, and here we find them in their true character as the partisans of the unwritten law. "The Pharisees have delivered to the common people by tradition 1

2

3

4

1 3

1 Mace. 7, 12 ff. In 139 B.C.

2 4

Antt. xiii. 5, 9 §§ 171-173. Antt.xiii. io, 5 f.

58

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

from a continuous succession of fathers certain legal regula­ tions which are not written in the Law of Moses, on which ac­ count the Sadducean sort rejects them, affirming that what is written is to be regarded as law, but what comes from the tradi­ tion of the fathers is not to be observed." On this point the Pharisees have the mass of the people on their side, and they have so much influence that anything they say, even against a king or a high priest, finds ready credence. Elsewhere the im­ portance they attach to the exact interpretation and application of the laws is noted. According to Josephus, John Hyrcanus was a disciple of the Pharisees and highly esteemed by them. Later, however, he broke with them upon a personal grievance, and went over to the Sadducees. In conformity to the Sadducean position that the Bible only is law, he abrogated the ordinances the Pharisees had established, and punished those who observed them. This, it is added, was the cause of the hatred of the commonalty toward him and his sons. What is patently a doublet of this story is told in the Talmud of King Jannai (Alexander Jannaeus); with a sequel which makes it certain that Jannai is not here a confusion of names with Johanan (Hyrcanus), as has sometimes been assumed. That John Hyrcanus went over to the Sadducees is attested by another Baraita: " D o not put confidence in yourself till the day of your death; for there was 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Cf. Antt. xvii. 2, 4 § 4 1 . Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 1 4 § 162. The implication is that they had previously been backed by his authority. The difficulties of Hyrcanus with the Pharisees are elsewhere ascribed to the jealousy of the latter. See Bell. Jud. i. 2, 8 § 67, and Antt. xiii. 10, 5 § 288 (ultimately from the same source); cf. also Antt. xiii. 10, 7. Jannai is here a nickname for Jonathan, as is proved by his coins. " T h e y slew all the leading scholars of Israel, and the world was upside down until Simeon ben Shatah came and restored the law to its old place." This restoration took place under Queen Alexandra. IjLiddushin 66a. Cf. Josephus, Antt. xiii. 13, 5 § 372; 14, 2 § 383. Of which of the two the story was first told is of no great moment. That there was an estrangement between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees seems to be sufficiently attested independently of the legend of its origin. 2 3

4

5 6

7

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

59

Johanan the high priest (Hyrcanus), he ministered for eighty years, and became a Sadducee at the last." It is clear that in the latter part of the second century before our era the Pharisees were already established in a position of great influence, and thenceforward they bore a leading part in the development and triumph of normative Judaism — so prom­ inent, in fact, that the name Pharisaism is sometimes given to it. Of the origin and the antecedents of the Pharisees there is no record. It is commonly surmised that they were the succes­ sors of those who in earlier generations called themselves Hasidim, to distinguish themselves as what we call religious men from their worldly and indifferent countrymen. Their temper is illustrated by the fact that, at the beginning of the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, a body of refugees of this kind let themselves be slaughtered, with their wives and children, in their retreat in the wilderness, rather than profane the sabbath by raising a hand to defend themselves, saying, "Let us all die together in our innocency." Before long, however, the "Asidaeans" joined forces with the Maccabaean leaders, consenting under the stress of circumstances to a suspension of the sabbath observance to permit fighting in self-defence. When religious liberty was secured, and a new high priest, Alcimus, was appointed in the room of Menelaus, the Asidaeans were the first to seek to make peace with him and the Syrian general Bacchides who came to see him installed in his office. Alcimus was not disposed to condone their part in the rebellion, and, as Judas and his brothers declined his treacherous overtures for a conference, executed sixty of the Scribes and the religious 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Yoma 9a also gives him 80 years. Berakot 29a. Literally, the Pious, or the Religious. The name Asidaean does not occur in this narrative. 1 Mace. 2, 29-38. Ibid. 2, 42-44: rore (Tvvi}xSy](Tav Tpos avrovs away coy rj 'AaiBaLcov laXvpol 8vvafjL€L curd 'Icrparjk, iras 6 eKOV(Xia^6p.evos rw vofxeo. This reading (Cod. A. al., Vulg.) is obviously right; see 1 Mace. 7, 13; 2 Mace. 14, 6. 1 Mace. 2, 40 f. Cf. 2 Mace. 14, 6. 1 Mace. 7, 13 ff. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

HISTORICAL

6o

[INTRODUCTION

who indiscreetly put themselves in his power, to the disillusion­ ment and consternation of the rest. This is all that our sources tell us about the attitude or the conduct of the Asidaeans in the Maccabaean struggle, and if the connection of the Pharisees with them were established it would add nothing to our knowledge of the latter. The word Pharisee represents the name in its vernacular form, Perlsha. The derivation from the verb perash (Hebrew par ash) is plain; not so the significance and occasion of the name. The interpretation that first suggests itself is 'one who is separated, or, is separate'; but from whom or from what — a complement which is necessary to give it meaning — the word contains no intimation; nor does either usage or tradition supply the deficiency. From the peculiar rules and customs of the Pharisees it is commonly inferred that they were so called because they religi­ ously avoided everything that the law branded as unclean, and for fear of contamination kept aloof from persons who were suspected of negligence in such matters. Definitions in this general sense were current among the Church Fathers. In the ' A r u k the name is defined: " A Pharisee is one who separates himself from all uncleanness and from eating anything unclean," in distinction from the mass of the common people, who were not so particular. In the Tannaite and Amoraic sources the name Perushim is used only in contrast to 'Am ha-Ares, the ignorant and negligent vulgusJ 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Qapicraios, Pharisaeus. In rabbinical texts it appears only in the equivalent Hebrew form, Pariish. "Separatist," which is sometimes used as an equivalent, is objectionable, because, through its English associations, it may suggest that the Pharisees separated themselves as a sect from the body of the Jewish church. So Wellhausen, Pharisaer und Sadducaer, pp. 76 ff. Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, u. s. w., II, 398 f. See Schtirer, I.e. A lexicon to the Talmud by Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (died 1106). Professor L. Ginzberg in a letter to the author. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP. V ]

61

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

Such an appellation might have been bestowed on them in a derogatory sense by those who resented their pretensions to superior purity or were otherwise prejudiced against them, and, as has happened in similar cases — the Methodists, for instance — been accepted with a favorable implication by the Pharisees themselves. On the other hand, it may have been a name origin­ ally assumed by them. In the latter case, it may be observed that in the Tannaite Midrash parush is frequently associated with Izadosh, 'holy.' In Lev. n , at the end of the chapter of unclean beasts, fishes, birds, and vermin with which the Israel­ ites are forbidden to defile themselves, this prohibition is en­ forced by the motive: 'For I am the Lord thy God. Hallow yourselves therefore and be ye holy; for I am holy.' On this the Sifra: " A s I am holy, so be ye also holy; as I am separate {parush), so be ye also separate {perushim)." Similarly, on Lev. 19, 2 ('Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy'): " B e ye separate {perushim)." Again, in the Mekilta on Exod. 19, 6 ('Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation'): "Holy — holy, hallowed, separated from the peoples of the world and their detestable things." Separateness in these con­ texts is synonymous with holiness in God and in man; the ideal of holiness for Israelites is the ideal of separateness, and it is easy to see how those who made it their end to fulfil this ideal might take its name Perushim as a less presuming title than Keddshlm. Others look for the origin of the name in an historical situation and conjecture that it was originally applied to the Asidaeans who separated from Judas Maccabaeus when freedom of religion was achieved and a legitimate high priest succeeded Menelaus. An alluring parallel is adduced from the early history of Islam, when the ultra-religious faction in his army seceded from Ali 1

2

3

1

It is applied to them by their opponents, the Sadducees. Shemini Perek 12 (ed. Weiss, f.57 b). Exactly so also on 20, 26 (£edoshim, end, f. 93d, top), in a similar connection. Ed. Friedmann, f. 63a; ed. Weiss, f. 71a. 2

3

HISTORICAL

62

[INTRODUCTION

in his conflict with Mo'awiya and from this secession were called Kharijites, * Come-outers.' In more than one place in Josephus the Pharisees are said to be noted for their precise and minute interpretation of the laws, and it is thought by some that the name may be derived from this activity. The verb parash, perash, in fact, means not only 'separate' but 'distinguish,' or 'express distinctly,' and so, ' interpret.' The Pharisees would, in this view, be ' the exegetes.' To this theory it is objected that perushim is not a natural ex­ pression in Hebrew for 'exegetes.' Others would take the name in the more general sense, something like 'precisians,' to which this difficulty need not apply. The foregoing cursory survey of the proposed explanations of the name may suffice to show that etymology has no addition to make to what is known of the Pharisees from historical sources. 1

2

3

The breach between John Hyrcanus and the Pharisees has already been mentioned. In the later years of his rule he had to put down a seditious movement which grew to the proportions of war. The motive of the insurrection is said to have been envy inspired by the king's success. In the corresponding passage in the Antiquities the same motive is alleged, but mention is somewhat inconsequentially introduced of the illdisposition of the Pharisees toward him, and their influence with the people. We have already seen that the hostility of the masses toward him and his sons is attributed to his abrogation 4

5

1

E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Chris ten turns, II, 283 f. (1921). The same theory of the origin of the name was propounded by Professor Mary I. Hussey in the Journal of Biblical Literature, X X X I X (1920), 66-69. Bell. Jud. i. 5, 2 § 110; ii. 8, 14 § 162; Antt. xvii. 2, 4 § 4 1 . This explanation was, so far as I know, first advanced by Graetz. It has recently found an advocate in Leszynsky, Die Sadduzaer (1912), pp. 27 ff., 105 ff. Bell. Jud. i. 2, 8 § 67. It is generally recognized that Josephus here reproduces the statements and judgment of his source, presumably Nicolaus of Damascus. Antt. xiii. 10, 5 § 288. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

63

of the ordinances of the Pharisees. If this enmity broke out in overt act it would give a more intelligible reason for the sedi­ tion than the vague " e n v y " of Josephus' first source. After the suppression of the revolt, both accounts relate that Hyrcanus lived in prosperity and ruled well. Josephus concludes with a eulogy of him as one whom God had deemed worthy of the three greatest things, the government of the nation, and the high priesthood, and the gift of prophecy. The conflicts of Alexander Jannaeus with his people were much more serious. The beginning was a riot in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles where he was officiating as high priest. The multitude, incensed by his negligence in a part of the cere­ mony, threw at him the citrons they carried in the festal pro­ cession, and shouted the slander that his mother had been a captive in war, and that he, therefore, was disqualified for the priesthood. He turned his Pisidian mercenaries on the mob, and the disturbance was quelled after six thousand had been killed. In the sequel of Alexander's disastrous defeat in a war with the Arabs in which he lost almost the whole of his army, the malcontents took advantage of his calamity to rebel against him. The civil war lasted six years, and cost fifty thousand lives; but, although beaten, his enemies rejected his overtures of peace — nothing but his death could reconcile them to him. The implacables called in the Seleucid Demetrius Eukairos to deliver them from their native king, and joined forces with him. Despite the gallantry of his mercenaries, who were cut to pieces in the battle, Alexander was defeated and put to flight. The very completeness of their success, however, caused a revulsion, and six thousand of the Jews who had fought under the Syrian banner decamped from the victorious army and went over to Alexander, out of pity for him in his fallen fortunes, it is said; more likely because in the moment of triumph it dawned upon 1

2

3

1

Antt. xiii. 10, 7 § 299. Cf. Jer. Sotah 24b; Sotah 33a. Etrogim. Like all the tyrants of the time, the Asmonaean princes maintained a guard corps of foreigners, as, for that matter, David had done. 2

3

6

HISTORICAL

4

[INTRODUCTION

their tardy intelligence that the collapse of the Judaean na­ tional kingdom meant inevitable subjection to the Seleucid dominion from which the Asmonaeans had delivered them. Demetrius abandoned such inconstant allies and withdrew. Left a free hand, Alexander at length completely crushed the rebellion. He celebrated his triumph by the crucifixion of eight hundred of his prisoners at Jerusalem with circumstances of ingenious atrocity, which caused such a panic that eight thousand who had reason to fear a like fate fled the country and did not venture to return till after the king's death. This intestine strife is frequently represented in modern books as a conflict between Alexander Jannaeus and the Pharisees. This rests, however, on an inference from the character of the two parties rather than on the testimony of the sources. Neither in the primary account of the civil contention in the War nor in the secondary one in the Antiquities do the Pharisees figure at all. In the former they come in only after the events of Alex­ ander's last years, the accession of Queen Alexandra, and a description of the character and conduct which won for her the good-will of the people. "The Pharisees associated themselves with her administration, a body of Jews who profess to be more religious than the rest, and to explain the laws more precisely. Alexandra, being fanatically religious, paid great attention to them. By degrees they insinuated themselves into the confidence of the foolish woman, and soon got the management of affairs, banishing or recalling, liberating or imprisoning, whomsoever they pleased. In a word, the advantages of royalty were theirs, the cost and the troubles were Alexandra's." 1

2

3

4

1

Taken at the capture of the rebels' last refuge, the city of Bemeselis (or Bethome; the site is unknown). Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 4, 3-6; Antt. xiii. 13, 5 - 1 4 , 1. However greatly some or all of the numbers may be exaggerated, the ferocity of the longcontinued struggle is beyond question. Bell. Jud. i. 4, 7-5, 1. Ibid. i. 5, 1 §§ n o f . This is the first mention of the Pharisees in the War. The characterization and the depreciatory judgment are taken bodily 2

3 4

RISE OF T H E

CHAP. V ]

PHARISEES

65

Nor is there any mention of the Pharisees as agitators, insti­ gators, or belligerents anywhere in the parallel account of the civil war in the Antiquities. They appear only in the melo­ dramatic deathbed scene, where the dying king counsels the weeping queen, as soon as she returns to Jerusalem, to give some measure of power to the Pharisees, who would laud her for this honor, and make the people favorable to her; it was by affront­ ing them that he had come into collision with the nation. Act­ ing on this advice, she let the Pharisees do anything that they pleased, and commanded the populace to obey them. She also restored all the ordinances that the Pharisees had introduced in accordance with ancient tradition and her father-in-law Hyrcanus had annulled. According to the rabbinical sources, this restoration took place under the superintendence of Simeon ben Shatah, a brother of the queen. How they exercised their power when Alexandra let them have their own way in internal affairs is illustrated by their treatment of the counsellors and loyal supporters of the late king. They themselves killed Diogenes, a distinguished man and friend of Alexander, whom they accused of advising him to execute the eight hundred prisoners that he crucified, and they persuaded the queen to put to death the others who had incited him against them. When she yielded to them for reli­ gious reasons, they themselves put out of the way whomsoever they wished. The nobles appealed to Aristobulus, who per­ suaded his mother to spare their lives on account of their rank, but to banish them from the city if she deemed them at fault. 1

2

3

4

from Josephus* source in this part of the book, the historian Nicolaus of Damascus. Antt. xiii. 15, 5* Note also the king's directions about what was to be done with his body, and the effect of this stratagem. The historical value of the story of the king's dying counsels in the Antiquities may be zero; but the power of the Pharisees is no less apparent in the account of their relations with Alexandra in the War. Antt. xiii. 16, 1 § 408; cf. 16, 1 § 405. vwo deiaidai/jLOvLas in Josephus' source is meant in a derogatory sense, ^'out of superstition." ol SvvaroL 1

2

3

4

66

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

Amnesty being granted on these terms, they were scattered through the country. 1

The succinct definition of the Pharisees quoted above, " A body of Jews who profess to be more religious than the rest and to explain the laws more precisely," describes them as they appeared to an outside observer who had ample opportunity of acquaintance with them in the days of Herod. These are exactly the traits that characterize them in the first three Gos­ pels and the Acts of the Apostles. In those writings they are frequently bracketed with the Scribes in the phrase "Scribes and Pharisees." The Scribes, as we have seen, were a learned class whose vocation was the study and exposition of the Law. In the first instance biblical scholars, as the name suggests, they became authorities also in the unwritten branch of the law, in the development of which they had the leading part. The Pharisees were a party whose endeavor it was to live in strict accordance with the law thus interpreted and amplified, and to bring the people to a similar conformity. Most of the Scribes were of this party, but the bulk of the Pharisees were not scholars. The devotion of the Pharisees to the traditional law, with its manifold regulations or ordinances (vofjufxa), is signalized by Josephus (or his sources) in numerous passages, some of which have previously been cited. This was in fact their distinguishing characteristic — they were the zealous partisans of the unwritten law. The fundamental issue in their controversy with the Sad­ ducees was the obligation of traditional rules and observances 2

3

4

1

Bell. Jud. i. 5, 3 § 1 1 4 . In the parallel account in Antt. xiii. 16, 2 f. they set forth the peril they are in, plead their services to the king and their loyalty to his house, and beg that if the queen was resolved to prefer the Pharisees, she would assign them to garrison duty in the fortresses. It may be observed that the sources on which Josephus draws in both ac­ counts are distinctly hostile to the Pharisees, though from different sides. Bell. Jud. i. 8, 14 § 162; cf. Antt. xvii. 2, 4 § 4 1 ; xviii. 1, 3 § 12. §§ 4 1 1 - 4 1 7 ,

2

3

4

Note ol ypaix/iarets

T&V QapLaaiuv,

Mark 2, 16.

Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 14 § 162; Antt. xvii. 2, 4 § 4 1 ; Vita c. 38 § 191. How they were abrogated by John Hyrcanus (Antt. xiii. 10, 6 § 296) and reenacted by Alexandra (xiii. 16, 2 § 308) has already been told.

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

67 1

for which there was no direct biblical authority. Herein lies the historical importance of the Pharisees. They mediated to the people the knowledge of the law, impressed upon them by precept its authority, and set them the example of punctilious observance of its minutiae. They were the better able to do this because their adherents were drawn from various social classes, but principally, it appears, from that medium layer of society in which puritan movements in all religions have found their chief support. In opposition to the Pharisees, the Sadducees maintained that the written law alone was valid, and rejected the additions the Pharisees made to it on the alleged authority of ancient tradi­ tion. The written law, however, requires interpretation, and in their interpretation the Sadducees were in general more literal, and in matters of criminal law more severe, than the Pharisees. These interpretations and the precedents estab­ lished under them could not fail to constitute what may in a proper sense be called a Sadducean tradition; but, however tenaciously they may have adhered to it in practice or in con­ troversy, they did not ascribe to it intrinsic authority as the Pharisees did to their " tradition of the elders." The Sadducees were all the more under the necessity of having such a body of common law because for a long time the actual administration was in the hands of the classes among whom they were most numerously represented. In later times, at least, they had schools of their own; and the different temper of the two parties is illustrated when we read in Josephus that, while the Pharisees showed the greatest deference to their seniors and had not the audacity to contradict their utterances, among the Sadducees it was counted a virtue to dispute the teachers whom they frequented. 2

3

4

1

Antt. xiii. i o , 6 §§ 297 f. This is confirmed by the Mishnah. Ibid, xviii. i, 4 § 16. Matt. 15, 1 ff.; Mark 7, 1 ff. Ibid. xx. 9, 1 § 199; cf. xiii. io, 6 § 294. Ibid, xviii. 1, 3 § 12; 1,4 § 16. Josephus is probably describing things as they were in his own youth. 2 3

4

HISTORICAL

68

[INTRODUCTION

The primary cleavage between the Sadducees and the Phari­ sees was on the doctrine of revelation. Scripture is the only authority, said the Sadducees; Scripture and Tradition, said the Pharisees. Next to this the most important doctrinal dif­ ference between the two was in the field of eschatology. The Pharisees believed in the survival of the soul, the revival of the body, the great judgment, and the life of the world to come. The Sadducees found nothing in the Scriptures, as they read them in their plain sense, about the resurrection of the dead or retri­ bution after death, and rejected these new imaginations along with the subtleties of exegesis by which they were discovered in the Law. In Acts 23, 8, the Sadducees are said to deny not only the revival of the dead but the existence of angels and spirits. That they consistently rationalized the biblical appearances of angels into men acting as the messengers of God is unlikely; but it is in accord with their whole attitude that they should repudiate as vulgar superstition the exuberant angelology and demonology which flourished in that age and was cultivated in apocalyp­ tic circles. With it would fall the belief in the individual guardian angel (Acts 12, 15; Matt. 18, 10), as well as in ghosts, the spirits of dead men (Luke 24, 37, 39). The statement of several of the Fathers that the Sadducees (like the Samaritans) acknowledged as Scripture nothing but the Pentateuch may be a misunderstanding of what Josephus says about their rejection of everything but the written law, meaning that they did not admit legal or doctrinal deductions from the Prophets. The origin or occasion of the name Sadducee is as obscure as that of the Pharisees. It is evidently formed from the proper name which is familiar in the English Old Testament as Zadok, 1

2

1

Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 14 § 175; Antt. xviii. 1, 4 § 16. Cf. Mark 12, 18-27 (Matt. 22, 23-33; Luke 20, 27-40); Acts 23, 6-9. For specimens of the rab­ binical proofs see Sanhedrin 90b; cf. also Matt. I.e. Take the Book of Enoch for an example. For the esoteric lore of the Essenes about the names of angels see Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 7 § 142. 2

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

69

and the derivative would mean ' a follower of Zadok' — in the English 'a Zadokite.' The most widely accepted surmise con­ nects the name with that Zadok whom Solomon installed as chief priest in the room of Abiathar, when he deprived him on account of his participation in Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne. As the priesthood of Jerusalem before the exile, " the sons of Zadok" are, in EzekiePs ideal of the restoration, to be the only priests of the new temple; the descendants of the old local priesthoods, the priests of the high places, being degraded to a lower order of the clergy, and strictly excluded from all higher sacerdotal functions and privileges. On the testimony of the Chronicler, not all the priests of the second temple traced their lineage to Zadok, but the descendants of Zadok were more numerous among the leading men. The name Zadokite (Sadducee) may thus first have desig­ nated an adherent, or partisan, of the priestly aristocracy, and in time have been extended to all who shared the principles or opinions current in those circles. In Acts 5, 17, we read, "The high priest stood up and those that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees)." In Acts 4, 9, also, the high priests and the Sadducees act together, just as elsewhere the Scribes and Pharisees are coupled. In the Abot de R. Nathan (c. 5) it is narrated how the twin heresies of the Sadducees and the Boethusians about retribution after death started in the schools of two disciples of Antigonus of Socho named respectively Zadok and Boethus. They 1

2

3

4

1

1 Kings 2, 35. So A. Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel, 1857; Sadducaer und Pharisaer, 1863; Wellhausen, Pharisaer und Saddu­ caer, 1874. Ezek. 44, 10-16; 48, 1 1 ; 43, 19; 40, 46. Cf. 2 Kings 23, 8-9; Deut. 18, 6-8. 1 Chron. 24, 1-6. The author, there as elsewhere, makes the conditions existing at his own time an institution of David. See also the Hebrew text of Sirach, 51, 12 (in a psalm-like passage to which there is no Greek or Syriac counterpart), and the writing of the Damascene sect, ed. Schechter, page 4, lines 2 f. There is a strong probability that the Boethusians really got their name from a high priest of Herod's creation. 2

3

4

7o

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

reasoned that Antigonus would never have exhorted men to serve God without hope of reward if he had believed that there was another world and a resurrection of the dead. The existence of such an explanation shows that it had not occurred to the Jews to connect the name with the Zadokite priesthood. The possi­ bility remains that the party, or sect, perpetuates the name of some (to us) unknown founder or leader. The adherents of the Sadducees were found only in the class of the well-to-do; they had no following among the masses, who were on the side of the Pharisees. This item in the char­ acterization of the Sadducees has of late years been greatly emphasized. They were, it is said, not properly a religious party, or sect, as the Pharisees were, but primarily a social class, the aristocracy of the priesthood, together with the wealthy and in­ fluential laity whom community of interests and culture attached to the sacerdotal nobility, with whom they were frequently allied also by marriage. Their position on the sole authority of Scrip­ ture or on the new eschatology was the instinctive conservatism of the upper classes, clerical and lay, in the face of an aggressive and popular party which threatens their primacy. This repre­ sentation, closely associated with the first theory of the origin of the name Sadducee reported above, is a reaction from the older notions which made the division between Pharisees and Sadducees purely dogmatic. It gives a good explanation of the fact that the Sadducees were almost exclusively of the upper classes. But in laying the whole stress on the hierarchical and social affiliations of the Sadducees, it runs counter to the un­ animous testimony of the sources. Whatever their origin, they were, in contemporary eyes, a religious party in Judaism, char­ acterized by the distinguishing beliefs — or negations — which have been set forth above. The triumph of the Pharisees under Alexandra was the restora1

2

1

So most recently Eduard Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, I I , 209 f. Josephus, Antt. xiii. 10, 6 § 298; xviii. 1, 4 § 17. "Their doctrine reaches only a few men, but those who hold the highest offices."

CHAP, v ]

RISE OF T H E PHARISEES

7i

tion of their regulations, which were in effect a legislation sup­ plementary to the Law in the form of an interpretation of it or a fence about it. Of the particular regulations and ordinances which were then at issue no record has come down to us. The subsequent elaboration in the schools and the ultimate compre­ hensive and codified collections made in the second century of our era superseded all earlier formulations. The extra-canonical books illustrate in various ways the existence of an unwritten law scrupulously observed by religious people. Judith, for example, breaks her voluntary fast in mourning for her husband on the Sabbath and the day before it, on the New-Moon and the day before, on the Festivals, and the joyous days of the house of Israel. When she set out for the camp of Holophernes she took with her her own victuals, wine, and oil, in order not to have to eat the unclean food of the heathen. Daniel and his comrades are unwilling to defile them­ selves with their rations of food and wine from the king's table, and persuade the chief eunuch to give them pulse to eat and water to drink, on which they thrive miraculously. Tobit shows that the unwritten law about the burial of the neglected dead was regarded as a duty of the highest obligation, as it is in rabbinical law. Evidently much which we otherwise know only in the rabbinical sources of the first and second centuries after our era was custom and law in the preceding centuries. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

The ordinances of Simeon ben Shatah are from the reign of Alexandra. On sectarian Halakah from this age, see below, pp. 198 f., 200-202. Judith 8, 6. Cf. the prohibition of fasting on the Sabbath, Jubilees 50, 12; and perhaps the Damascus text (p. 1 1 , 1. 4), on which see Ginzberg, p. 90 f. (reading for mjtfV). Judith 10, 5; 12, 1-4, 19. The reason for the specification of ' pulse ' is perhaps that, being dry, it did not contract uncleanness by contact. See M . 'Uksin 3, 1; Maimonides, Hilkot Tum'at Okelin 1 , 1 . Tobit I , 17-19; 2, 1-9. The iTMD TO. It takes precedence even of the study of the Law, the circumcision of a son, or the offering of the paschal lamb. Megillah 3b, et alibi. Priests — even the high priest — and nazirites are allowed to make themselves unclean by burying a n». Sifre Num. § 26; cf. Sifre Zuta on Num. 6, 7. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAPTER VI SHAMMAI A N D HILLEL

T H E recognition given by Queen Alexandra to the Pharisees doubtless augmented their already dominant influence with the great body of the people, a leadership they never lost. What part they took in the strife between her sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, is not recorded. We have seen that Aristobulus was not in sympathy with her policy of letting the Pharisees have their own way in dealing with those who were obnoxious to them, and pleaded the cause of the officers and friends of Jannaeus who were in fear of their lives from them. It is natural to suppose that this class supported the energetic younger son, who evidently had a good deal of his father about him, rather than his faineant brother Hyrcanus whom Alexandra had made high priest and presumptive successor to the crown. But whether the Pharisees were any better content with the latter, especially when he let himself be managed by the Idumaean Antipater for his own ambitious schemes, is doubtful. Certain it is that when the two brothers appeared before Pompey in Damascus with their rival claims to the throne, " the nation" (TO WVOS) protested against them both: By their an­ cestral constitution the Jews were subject to the priests of the God they worshipped; these men, though descendants of the priests, were trying to change the form of government so as to bring the nation into servitude. Against Aristobulus in particu­ lar more than a thousand of the most distinguished of the Jews, "whom Antipater had suborned," testified in support of Hyr­ canus' accusations. The protest, it is not superfluous to remark, is against the royal form of government, of which the Asmonaeans had given them all the experience they wanted; not on 1

1

Antt. xiv. 3, 2 § 4 1 . 72

CHAP, vi]

SHAMMAI A N D H I L L E L

73

the ground that these priests had usurped the throne of David and were no legitimate kings — an interpretation sometimes read into the passage. The supporters of Aristobulus were a lot of swaggering young bloods whose garb and mien made a bad impression on the Romans; the cause of Hyrcanus was in the hands of Antipater. Pompey talked softly to them both, and postponed a decision till he should visit Judaea. The suspicious actions of Aristo­ bulus brought him thither sooner than he had planned. The supporters of Hyrcanus let the Romans into the city; the par­ tisans of Aristobulus occupied the temple and prepared to stand a siege. The Romans proceeded to a regular investment, in which labors they had every assistance from Hyrcanus. The walls were finally breached and the temple taken, with much slaughter not only of the defenders but of the priests, who went on unflinching with the routine of their office till their blood was mingled with that of the sacrificial victims. As a reward for his other services to the Romans and for keeping the Jews in the country from fighting on the side of Aristobulus, Pompey gave the high priesthood to Hyrcanus; the "authors of the war" he executed. The inland cities which the Jews in the preceding reign had subjected were separated from Judaea and put under the ad­ ministration of a Roman official; those on the coast were made free cities of the province of Syria. "The nation which a little while before had been so highly exalted, he shut up in its own boundaries." The royal authority, which had been a preroga­ tive of the high priest, was done away; the government was an aristocracy. Aristobulus and his sons, Antigonus and Alex­ ander, made repeated unsuccessful efforts in the next quarter of a century to regain their dominion by arms. Antipater and his sons, Phasael and Herod, with their puppet Hyrcanus, were always on the Roman side, and in the vicissitudes of the civil wars managed to be always in the end on the winning side. 1

1

Josephus, Antt. xiv. 4.

74

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

The restoration of Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, by the aid of the Parthians, which drove Herod out of the country and sent him as a suppliant to Rome, proved to be the making ot his fortune, for the Senate, at the instance of Mark Antony supported by Octavian, made Herod king, and promised him aid to get possession of his kingdom. Three years elapsed, how­ ever, before Jerusalem itself, after a protracted siege ending with the storming of the temple, fell into the hands of the allied forces of the Romans under Sosius and of Herod. Antigonus surrendered himself to the Romans, and shortly after, at Her­ od's instance, was decapitated by Antony's orders in Antioch. The sentiment of loyalty to the Asmonaean house, from which had sprung their rulers for a century and a quarter, and with which were connected the memories of the wars of liberation and of conquest that seemed to bring back the glorious times of the old monarchy, was still strong. As often as Aristobulus or his sons raised the standard of revolt they found a following waiting for them. When the Parthians released Hyrcanus, whom they had carried off as a prisoner, and allowed him to go to Babylonia, the Jews in the whole region east of the Euphrates treated him with the honor due to a high priest and king, and urged him to remain with them and not return to Jerusalem, where he could expect no such recognition. The resistance of the Jews to Herod was to a king imposed on them by the' Romans — a king who was not only not of the blood royal, but not even of the Jewish race. Antony caused Antigonus to be beheaded — the first time the Romans had in­ flicted such ignominy on a king — because he was convinced that in no other way could the Jews be brought to acknowledge Herod; they held their former king in such esteem that not even tortures could force them to give Herod that title. One of Herod's first measures when he had taken Jerusalem was to put to death forty-five prominent men of the party of Antigonus and 1

2

1

2

Josephus, Antt. xv. 2, 2. Strabo, quoted in Josephus, Antt. xv. i , 2 §§ 9 f.

CHAP, vi]

SHAMMAI A N D H I L L E L

75

confiscate their property, and to punish many others, while he promoted men of private station who had been well disposed to himself. He especially honored the two leading Pharisees, Pollio and Sameas, because when he besieged Jerusalem they counselled their fellow citizens to surrender the city. Pollio, we are told, had an additional claim on his favor, because, when Herod had been summoned before the Sanhedrin by Hyrcanus for executing the brigands in Galilee without a trial, and that body let itself be intimidated by Herod's defiant mien, he had foretold that if they let Herod off he would be the undoing of them a l l — a prediction which he fulfilled to the letter. 1

2

From the Jewish aristocracy Herod had nothing to expect. His double alliance with the Asmonaean house through his marriage with Mariamne did not legitimate the Idumaean parvenu in their eyes, and his hand in the death of Antigonus, and later of the aged Hyrcanus himself, made reconciliation with the partisans of either branch impossible. Alexandra's ambition was to have her son Aristobulus (III) made high priest in suc­ cession to his grandfather Hyrcanus; Herod's interest, after he had been made king by the Romans, was to let no Asmonaean fill that office with its traditions of royalty. When, acting on this policy, he installed a Babylonian Jew named Ananel, of priestly lineage but unrelated to the aristocratic priesthood of Jerusalem, 3

4

1

Josephus, Antt. xv. i, i. Ibid. xiv. 9, 4 § 176. Her father Alexander was the eldest son of Aristobulus II; her mother, Alexandra, a daughter of Hyrcanus. It is a probable surmise that the initia­ tive in this alliance came from the girl's mother or from Hyrcanus himself. — Mariamne was apparently very young when she was betrothed to Herod (perhaps as early as the year 42). In his flight from Jerusalem before the Parthians (40) he carried off to security in the fortress of Masada, with his own kindred, Alexandra and her daughter. The marriage itself was cele­ brated at Samaria in 37, on the eve of his siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, Bell. Jud. xiv. 15, 14 § 467. Josephus, Antt. xv. 2, 4 § 22 (cf. 3, 1 § 39 f.). In M . Parah 3, 5, Hanamael is called an Egyptian. Possibly he was a Jew of Babylonian extraction living in Egypt. The Boethus family, which furnished at least four high priests, came from Alexandria (Antt. xv. 9, 3 § 320). What the 2

3

4

HISTORICAL

y6

[INTRODUCTION

Alexandra secretly besought Cleopatra to use her influence to persuade Antony to have Herod confer the high priesthood on Aristobulus. The intrigue was no secret to Herod; but he yielded to the importunity of Mariamne in behalf of her brother, de­ prived Ananel, and made Aristobulus high priest in his place, though he was still a youth in his teens. The discovery of a fresh intrigue of Alexandra with Cleopatra, and a demonstration by the people at the Feast of Tabernacles of their attachment to Aristobulus and the memory of his fathers, made plain to Herod that he had not made peace in his family by his concession, but had given a figure-head if not a rallying point to the old loyalties; and he lost no time in arranging a drowning accident at Jericho, followed by a magnificent funeral by which the youth's kindred and friends were not deceived. Ananel was restored to the high priesthood, and thenceforward Herod made and unmade high priests as it pleased him, but raised none to that rank who had any other claim to it than that they were his creatures. By war and proscriptions the upper classes, among whom the Sadducees were numerous, had been brought to low estate. Herod exerted himself, on the other hand, to put the mass of the people under obligation to him by remission of taxes in bad years, and in a time of famine by distribution of grain which he imported from Egypt, and by using his influence with the Roman authorities to gain exemptions and privileges for the Jews in foreign parts, particularly in Asia Minor and the Greek islands. The rebuilding of the temple in fabulous splendor grati­ fied the passion for such works which he had indulged in many other cities, but it was doubtless meant also to display himself to his subjects as a munificent patron of religion. In this en­ deavor to win the loyalty of the common people he had every reason to keep on good terms with the Pharisees, and when they refused to take the oath of allegiance which he demanded, he was 1

religious Jews thought of these priests may be read in Pesahim 57a; Tos Menahot 13, 21. On the disaffection of the people and its religious causes, see Antt. xv. 10. 4 § 3 51

6

CHAP, vi]

SHAMMAI A N D H I L L E L

77

politic enough to let it pass and to exempt the Essenes also from the requirement. The Pharisees on their side did not meddle in politics or incite the people against Herod. They were not a dynastic or nation­ alist party, and were content with the freedom they enjoyed to pursue their religious studies and practices, and to labor with their countrymen for a better observance of the divine law. With this harmless employment of the intellect of the nation Herod was doubtless well pleased, and he had no motive for interfering with regulations and ordinances for the Jewish life. When it came to laws for the kingdom, he made them himself as occasion required, without concern for the ancient legislation, as when in his zeal to suppress crime he enacted a law that house­ breakers should be deported from his kingdom — a punishment, as Josephus remarks, unheard of in Jewish law, and very un­ pleasant for the burglars. 1

2

With the reign of Herod coincides roughly the activity of the last of the Pairs, Shammai and Hillel, and the beginning of the Tannaite school tradition. Shammai was a native Judaean, while Hillel came from Babylonia to Jerusalem when already a mature man. There were schools of the Law in Babylonia, as in other centres of Jewish population, and there is good reason to believe that Hillel had been a student in his own country before he migrated to Jerusalem to sit under the most eminent teachers and expositors of the time, Shemaiah and Abtalion. The name of Hillel is associated with certain hermeneutic norms for juristic deduction and analogy which are called Hillel's Seven Rules. 3

4

5

1

Antt. xv. 10, 4 §§ 370 f.; cf. xvii. 2, 4 § 42. Ibid. xvi. 1 , 1 . For many other examples of Herod's tyrannical disregard of Jewish law, see Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, II, 127 ff. See also Josephus, Antt. xv. 10, 4 § 365. Jer. Pesahim 33 a, below, specifies three problems which he had solved and proved before he went up to Palestine. Cf. also Kiddushin 75a. The story of the privations and hardships he overcame in the pursuit of learning is told in a Baraita (Yoma 35b) to show that poverty is no excuse for neglecting the study of the Law. Middot. They are found in Tos. Sanhedrin 7, 1 1 . 2

3

4

5

HISTORICAL

78

[INTRODUCTION

They are obvious principles of interpretation for a divinely re­ vealed law every word of which was significant and authorita­ tive, and had doubtless been thus applied by scholars before his time; but with Hillel they became a method, defining certain ways in which logically valid conclusions in the juristic field are derivable from the written law. It is a surmise for which some probability may be claimed that, in germ at least, this method came from the Babylonian schools. In Jerusalem the doctors of the Law sat at the fountainhead of tradition and were able to draw directly upon that source for answer to the questions that arose in practice or in discussion. In remoter lands this appeal to tradition must often have been unavailable, and the necessity of arriving at an au­ thoritative conclusion from the biblical text itself must have been correspondingly more strongly felt. However this may be, an old Baraita instructively illustrates the attitude of the strict traditional school toward an attempt to settle questions of law by reasoning in lieu of authority, and their low opinion of Babylonian scholarship. The Elders of Bathyra were in doubt whether, in case the fourteenth of Nisan fell on a Sabbath, the slaughter and preparation of the paschal victim was an obligation superior to the sabbatical prohibition of labor. Hillel was recommended to them as a dis­ ciple of Shemaiah and Abtalion who might know the tradition on the point. Instead of the tradition they asked, however, he undertook to demonstrate to them by three distinct arguments that the Passover took precedence of the Sabbath. They con­ temptuously exclaimed, "How could we expect anything of a 1

2

3

1

The same difference, as is well known, existed in Moslem jurisprudence between the traditional school of Medina and the jurists in other lands, who gave larger scope to logical deductions and analogical inferences (kiyds). The name r w r D is usually thus transliterated on the supposition that it is the place Badvpa in Batanaea where Herod in the last years of his reign established a small garrison colony of Babylonian Jews. Josephus, Antt. xvii. 2, i f. For the conflicting opinions on this question, see Chwolson, Das letzte Passamahl, pp. i 8 f f . ; Ginzberg, Eine unbekannte judische Sekte, pp. 99 f., 204. 2

:

CHAP, vi]

SHAMMAI A N D H I L L E L

79

Babylonian!" and proceeded to pick his reasoning to pieces. Though he sat and argued to them all day, they did not accept his conclusion, until he said to them, "Thus I heard it from Shemaiah and Abtalion." As soon as he fell back from argu­ ment to recognized authority, they rose from their seats and elected him their president (Nasi). He requited them for their previous disrespect with reproaches: If they had used their op­ portunities for study under the two great scholars who taught in their own country, they would have had no need to call in a Babylonian. Many anecdotes about Shammai and Hillel illustrate the contrasted temperaments of the two men, and set the rigorousness of the one over against the humanity of the other. In the interpretation and application of the laws Shammai was nearly always more stringent than Hillel, and that not merely from a harsher disposition but in consequence of his traditional prin­ ciple. It has been remarked above that what has been called the old Halakah, whether exemplified in the schools or the sects, was in general stricter than that which eventually pre­ vailed. In this sphere Shammai was conservative of the letter of tradition and developed its consequences in the same spirit. Hillel came from another environment. In Babylonia a large part of the legislation, including the ritual of the temple, and many laws which were not in force "outside the Land," had only an academic interest, and the traditions on these matters were not binding rules of practical observance as the Palestinian teachers endeavored to make them. It was natural under these circum­ stances that the unwritten law should be more largely deduced from the text itself by certain exegetical principles. 1

2

1

In this long debate he had opportunity to exemplify the rest of his rules, which are introduced as "the seven norms that Hillel expounded in the presence of the elders of Bathyra." See above, pp. 77 f., and Sifra, Intro­ duction, end (ed. Weiss, f. 3a). Jer. Pesahim 33a; Pesahim 66a, and elsewhere. On the deference of the Bene Bathyra, see Baba Mesi'a 84b-85a. Who the Elders of Bathyra were, and what is meant by their Nasi, are curious questions which do not here concern us. 2

8o

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

When he came to be the head of a school in Jerusalem, Hillel recognized that the laws must take account of actual conditions. The septennial cancellation of debts in Deut. 15, for example, might have been a benevolent institution in the society for which the law was framed, but in his time it worked great hardship to the necessitous borrower, who in the later years of the period could get no accommodation. To remedy this evil he devised the "Prosbul," which left the law unchanged, but by a legal fiction secured the creditor against the loss of his loan through the coming of the year of release. More important than such striking adaptations of the law to circumstances was eventually the application of his hermeneutic principles to establish the harmony between tradition and Scripture. It may be conjectured that at least one motive of this endeavor was to silence the Sadducees with their contention that tradition is devoid of authority — only Scripture is law — by proving from Scripture that what is explicit in tradition is implicit in Scripture. From particular instances the schools went on to a consecutive juristic exegesis of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch, the Tannaite Midrash, and by the results amplified the unwritten law. To this phase of the work of the schools, especiallyjn the second century, we shall have occasion to recur further on. Whatever may have been the relation between the members of the preceding Pairs, there is no intimation that they were the heads of rival schools. Shammai and Hillel, however, rep­ resent such different tendencies that a division of this kind was inevitable. It perpetuated itself after the death of the two masters, and the school differences between the "House of Shammai" and the "House of Hillel" fill a large room in what is recorded of Jewish tradition from about the beginning of the Christian era to the war of 66-72. More than three hundred 1

2

1

The reason and the legal form of words are given in Sifre Deut. § 1 1 3 ; M . Shebi'it 10, 2, etc.; cf. Gittin 36a-b. See above, p. 46. 2

CHAP, vi]

SHAMMAI A N D H I L L E L

81

conflicting deliverances of the two schools on matters of law and observance are reported in one connection or another in the Talmud. In their very zeal for the Law they were fast making of it "two laws." The evil consequences of these dissensions were so obvious that even partisanship could not be blind to them. We hear of what we should call rabbinical conferences, in which members of the two schools came together to discuss their dif­ ferences and to reach a decision by a majority vote. A t one such meeting, in which the Shammaites outnumbered the Hillelites, eighteen restrictive decrees (gezeroi) were adopted, and there is mention of other meetings later. Some have thought that such conferences were a regular institution with periodical sessions; but the sources give no support to this theory. It seems that in the middle decades of our first century the Shammaites were the more numerous, as well as the more ag­ gressive, and it was perhaps only after the fall of Jerusalem that the Hillelites gained the ascendency. The rigorist tendencies of the former school were perpetuated in certain leading rabbis of the following generations; and it is possible that some irreconcil­ able Shammaites were left on one side by the movement of uni­ fication, but danger that the differences of the schools would split their adherents into sects was over. The dissidence of these two schools may be regarded as an inner crisis in the history of Pharisaism, from which the more progressive tendency emerged superior. Hillel, of all the rabbis, is the most familiar name to most Christians. He owes this reputation to the anecdotes which illustrate his genial temper and to the fine religious and moral aphorisms that are quoted from him; but his great significance in the history of Judaism lies not so much in these things as in the new impulse and direction he gave to the study of the Law, the new spirit he infused into Pharisaism. 1

2

1

A classified enumeration of them with references in Weiss, Dor, I, 168 ff. See Jewish Encyclopedia, III, 115 f. M . Shabbat 1, 4 ff.; cf. Tos. Shabbat 1, 8 ff. (see 1, 16). 2

82

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

Under the procurators the Jews had larger room to manage their own affairs in their own way than under Herod. The Roman administration had need of a representative and re­ sponsible intermediary between it and the people, and found such an organ in the Council, or Sanhedrin, which under Her­ od's autocratic rule had probably cut politically a very small figure. In this body, under the presidency of the high priest, besides the heads of the great priestly families, lay elders, men of rank and authority, had seats; among both, probably, there were legal experts, Scribes. The upper priesthood was prevail­ ingly Sadducean; among the other members of the Sanhedrin the Pharisaean party was represented. In religious matters the Romans did not interfere at all. Sacrifices for the emperor were regularly offered in the temple according to the Jewish rite; but, except for the project of Caligula to instal an image of himself in the temple and an oc­ casional faux pas of a procurator, the peculiarities of the Jews were respected. Cases between Jew and Jew were left to the adjudication of their own tribunals, from the village judges up to the high court in Jerusalem. 1

2

3

4

5

1

In Josephus usually fiovXr].

2

crvvebpiov.

3

dvvaroi. The composition of the Council, or Senate as it had earlier been called, and the mode of election to it, are nowhere described in our sources. The nearest modern analogy is the status of the several so-called 'na­ tional' churches, millets (e.g., the Armenians), in the former Turkish empire. On the power of the Sanhedrin under the procurators to pronounce and execute sentence of death according to Jewish law, see Juster, Les Juifs dans 1'empire romain, II, 133 ff. 4

5

CHAPTER

VII

REORGANIZATION A T JAMNIA

IN the commotions which grew into the rebellion under Nero the most eminent of the Pharisees joined the high priests and the influential men of the city in futile efforts to restrain the people from plunging headlong into war and ruin. After the failure of Cestius Gallus' attempt to take Jerusalem by assault, and his retirement, which pursuit turned into precipitate flight, seeing that there was no more hope of peace, they tried to keep the control of affairs in their own hands, making the high priest Ananus and Joseph ben Gorion governors of the city, and ap­ pointing military commanders for the several districts to pre­ pare for the impending war. Their efforts were in vain. One faction outdid another in atrocities, and things took their inevi­ table course to the fall of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple in 70 A.D. It is related that in the midst of the internecine strife within the walls in which the Jews were destroying themselves while the Romans looked on, Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai made his escape from the city to the Roman camp, and (in one form of the story) obtained from the commander permission to settle in Jamnia and establish a school there. Thus, even before the final catastrophe, the study of the Law had found refuge in the new seat from which the restoration was to proceed. What is certain is that at Jamnia (Jabneh), under the lead of Johanan 1

2

3

1

It is a probable view that these measures were taken by the Sanhedrin, which was the only authority left in the city. In support of this opinion it may be noted that the generals appointed seem all to have been members of priestly aristocracy, like Josephus who was sent to organize the defense of Galilee. Lam. R. on Lam. 1, 5; Abot de-R. Nathan c. 4; Gittin 56a-b. On the coastal plain a little north of the parallel of Jerusalem, in a region which had been spared the devastation of war. 2

3

83

84

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

ben Zakkai in the years immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem, the work of conservation and adaptation was ac­ complished with such wisdom that Judaism not only was tided over the crisis but entered upon a period of progress which it may well count among the most notable chapters in its history. In the succession of teachers Johanan ben Zakkai is said to have received the tradition from Shammai and Hillel, and there is a story that Hillel, when his disciples gathered around his sick-bed, declared Johanan, the youngest of them all, to be the greatest, "father of wisdom and father of future generations." Unless we could stretch our imagination to allotting to each of them, like Moses, a hundred and twenty years of life, as the rab­ binical scheme does, there is some difficulty in supposing that Johanan was an immediate pupil of Hillel, but that in a larger sense he deserves to rank as the greatest of his disciples may be freely admitted. Before the war he was a man of impor­ tance in Jerusalem, and his teaching attracted many students, some of whom were themselves scholars of renown before the migration to Jamnia. It seems that they accompanied him thither or soon followed him. After the fall of the city other scholars and students resorted to the new seat of learning, or established thernselves in neighboring places. The re-opening of the schools was not, however, the only contribution of Johanan to the restoration of Judaism. There was urgent need of a body competent to determine matters of the utmost importance to all Jews, foremost among which was the fixing of the calendar with the correct dates of all the festi­ vals and fasts, for which the law prescribed days certain as of the essence of the observance. Innumerable questions arose also from the cessation of the temple worship, for which there was no rule or precedent, and about which an authoritative decision was necessary if there was not to be endless perplexity of con­ science and confusion of practice. 1

2

1

2

Jer. Nedarim 39b. Five are named, with the master's estimate of them, in Abot 2, 8.

CHAP, vii]

REORGANIZATION A T JAMNIA

85

The doctors of the Law in Jamnia and its vicinity, under the lead of Johanan ben Zakkai, accordingly formed themselves into a council, which assumed such of the functions of the Sanhedrin as did not inevitably lapse with the loss of its political character. But, however it may have regarded itself as a successor to the Sanhedrin, the Great Bet Din at Jamnia was a very different body from its predecessor. The Sanhedrin, under the procura­ tors, was a national council, having recognized political powers and responsibilities. A t its head was the high priest, and the aristocracy of the priesthood constituted a large part of its membership. The lay notables were closely allied to them and shared their Sadducean leanings. In the Sanhedrin the Sad­ ducees were therefore, to the end, a strong, if not the predominat­ ing party. Johanan ben Zakkai was a leader of the Pharisees, and anecdotes about him laid in the time before the war tell with sat­ isfaction how he worsted the Sadducees in controversy, and even thwarted a high priest who was going to burn the red heifer ac­ cording to Sadducean rule and precedent. His disciples and colleagues were from the same party, and his rabbinical council was a purely Pharisaean body. It was the definitive triumph of Pharisaism. The two tendencies in Pharisaism, represented by the Sham­ maites and the Hillelites respectively, persisted, but the influence of Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples contributed much to the ultimate predominance of the Hillelites. The outcome is re­ corded in legendary form: A voice from heaven {bat kol) was heard (at Jabneh), saying, The teachings of both schools are words of the Living God, but in practice the Halakah of the school of Hillel is to be followed. The classes to which the Sadducees chiefly belonged had been reduced to insignificance. Many had perished in the war or by 1

2

3

4

1

High Court. The name 'Sanhedrin* was not assumed by the Bet Din at Jamnia, nor by the Bet Din, or academy, of the Patriarchs (L. Ginzberg). Mark 14,53, 55 (Matt. 26, 57, 59); Acts 4, 5 f.; 5, 27, 34, 4 1 ; 6, 12. See L. Ginzberg, ' B e t D i n / Jewish Encyclopedia, III, i i 4 f . Jer. Berakot 3b, end; 'Erubin 13b. 2

3

4

HISTORICAL

86

[INTRODUCTION

the daggers of assassins, others had been executed by the Romans or carried into slavery. In the new order of things the Sadducees lost the extrinsic importance which the high station of their adherents had given them, and subsided into a sect which, be­ sides preserving memories of controversies the subject of which had ceased to exist, and making itself disagreeable by cavilling at specific rules or dicta of the Pharisees, had for its differential doctrine the rejection of the whole Pharisaean eschatology. The Pharisees made a dogma of the resurrection of the dead, and thus the Sadducees became heretics: the Israelite who denies that the resurrection is revealed in the Torah has no lot in the World to Come. Before the death of Johanan ben Zakkai, Gamaliel I I suc­ ceeded him, with the title Nasi, which Greek and Latin writers render "Patriarch," but for which we might use "President." His great endeavor was to secure the recognition of all Jewry for the Bet Din at Jamnia and submission to its authority. His colleagues thought him too arbitrary in asserting his own pre­ eminence, and he was for a time deprived of the presidency of the academy (yeshibaK). It was probably in his time that the long-standing strife between the schools of Shammai and Hillel was terminated by a general decision in favor of the latter, and the grave evil of conflicting observances, with the possibility of schism about them, overcome. The controversy between the two schools over the question whether Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs were holy scripture was decided by a majority vote in favor of both of them, follow­ ing the opinion of the school of Hillel. Another decision in this period — the time and place are unknown — concerning what we call the canon of Scripture was that the Book of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) was not sacred scripture, nor any other books written from his time on. The passages in the Tosefta which report this 1

2

1

Called Gamaliel of Jabneh to distinguish him from his grandfather of the same name. ' N a s i ' is, in Ezekiel 40 fT., the title of the civil head of the Jewish people, and as such the Patriarch was recognized by the Roman government. 2

CHAP, VII]

REORGANIZATION A T JAMNIA

87

decision name specifically "the gospel" (euangelion) and the books of the sectarians (or heretics), among which, in the con­ text, it is fair to presume that Christian writings are at least included. 1

The older and younger contemporaries of Gamaliel II, and their disciples and successors in the next generation, are the funda­ mental authorities of normative Judaism as we know it in the literature which it has always esteemed authentic. One main division of their learned labors was the definition and exact for­ mulation of the rules of the unwritten law (Halakah), as they had been received through tradition, or were adapted to meet new conditions, or were developed by biblical exegesis or casuis­ tic discussion. Along with this ran the minute study, in course, of the written law in the Pentateuch from Exodus to Deuteron­ omy, in primary intention a juristic exegesis with constant ref­ erence to the Halakah. In the interpretation of the Law large use was made of the Prophets and the Hagiographa, and the numerous quotations from these writings prove that the Tannaim were no less familiar with them than with the Pentateuch itself. An index to one of the Tannaite Midrashim, such as Friedmann has appended to his edition of the Mekilta, is ample evidence of this. The quotations from Isaiah in the 250 pages of the Mekilta fill three closely printed pages; those from the Psalms take five. Ruth is the only book of the Twenty-Four from which there is no quo­ tation. Hoffmann's index to his Midrash Tannaim is equally to the point. The two great scholarchs of the generation before the war under Hadrian were R. Akiba ben Joseph and R. Ishmael ben Elisha. To Akiba is due the systemization of the Halakah with which we are familiar in the Mishnah, distributing the rules by 2

3

1

Tos. Yadaim 2, 13; cf. Tos. Shabbat 13 (14), 5. Say, from 80 to 140 A.D. These books contained the " tradition" (Kabbalah) by the side of the Law (Torah), from which parallels, explanations, and illustrations were drawn. 2

b

HISTORICAL

88

[INTRODUCTION

subjects under six capital divisions with numerous subdivisions, thus giving the unwritten law the form of a code. This arrange­ ment greatly facilitated a mastery of its vast and varied con­ tents and the exact transmission of its concise phraseology. In the interpretation of Scripture, Akiba went on the principle that in a book of divine revelation no smallest peculiarity of ex­ pression or even of spelling is accidental or devoid of significance, and evolved certain new hermeneutic rules for the discovery of the meaning thus suggested by the letter. By these methods, and by fabulous acumen and ingenuity in the employment of them, Akiba found in the written law many things for which theretofore it had been possible only to allege tradition. For Greek-speaking Jews the proselyte Aquila, who had imbibed the principles of Akiba, provided a translation in which he endeav­ ored to reproduce in Greek the peculiarities of the Hebrew so literally that the reader might apply to it the Akiban hermeneutics. There was another reason for a new version in the fact that the Gentile Christians had appropriated the Septuagint, and based their apologetic and polemic on its renderings, proving, for example, the conception of Christ by a virgin mother from its rj irapdevos in Isa. 7, 14, which Aquila corrected to rj veavis. Ishmael adhered more closely to the methods of interpreta­ tion embodied in the seven norms of Hillel. These he analyzed and subdivided, with some modification, into thirteen, which became the standard principles of juristic hermeneutics. In contradiction to Akiba he held that the Torah speaks ordinary human language; varieties in the mode of expression of which 1

2

3

4

5

1

Topical treatment of parts of the material was older; Akiba carried it through the whole. In the rules about extension and restriction, of which he made a great deal, he had a predecessor in Nahum of Gimzo. Attention has been so focussed on these curiosities that Akiba's real merits as an exegete are seldom recognized. They are prefixed to Sifra. For purposes of homiletic " improvement the strict logic of legal deduction is not insisted on. Dn« ^3 rmn m n . Sifre Num. § 112 (ed. Friedmann, p. 33a, end)„ and in many other places. 2

3

4

5

tr

p&6a

CHAP, vii]

REORGANIZATION A T JAMNIA

89

in common speech no notice would be taken are not to be forced to yield a hidden significance. From these schools there is preserved a series of Tannaite Midrash on the books from Exodus to Deuteronomy, which, though incomplete and in part fragmentary, far outrank all other sources in the disclosure they make of the biblical inter­ pretation of the schools and of the religious and moral teachings they based upon the Books of Moses. This flourishing epoch in the history of the schools was brought to an abrupt end by the war under Hadrian. According to Cassius Dio the Jews rebelled because the emperor, on his visit to Judaea in the spring of 130, gave orders for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, with a temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to be erected on the site of the ruined Jewish temple. The revolt did not actually break out, however, until 132, after Hadrian had left Syria. The Jews had cherished the expectation that in time they would be allowed to rebuild the temple as they had done after its destruc­ tion by Nebuchadnezzar. So long as it lay in ruins nothing for­ bade such hope; but, apart from the profanation of the holy place which renewed the days of Antiochus Epiphanes and his "abomination of desolation," it could not be imagined that the Romans would ever permit a temple of the Jupiter of the Capitol to be razed to make room for the God of the Jews. The con­ version of Jerusalem into a heathen city must be prevented or all was lost. The leader of the Jews was acclaimed by Akiba the "Star out of Jacob" of Balaam's prophecy (Num. 24, 17), a militant Messiah, whence the name (preserved in Christian writers) Bar Cocheba, "the Star man." Early in the revolt 1

2

3

1

See below, pp. 135 ff. Was there a deliberate irony in dedicating this temple to the god to whom, since Vespasian, the Jews had had to pay the didrachm poll tax previously levied for the temple in Jerusalem? From coins it is learned that his name was Simeon. In Jewish sources he is called Bar Kozibah, probably from the name of his native town. Not all his colleagues shared Akiba's enthusiasm. When he declared Bar Kozibah to be the messianic king, Johanan benTorta replied, "Akiba, grass will be growing on your cheeks long before the Son of David comes." Jer. Ta'anit 68d. 2

3

HISTORICAL

9
[INTRODUCTION

the Jews got possession of the ruins of Jerusalem and held it for some time. The war itself lasted three years and a half, and ended with the fall of Bether, a few miles from Jerusalem, in 134A35The war had one incidental result of which mention must be made briefly here: it brought about the final separation of the Nazarenes from the rest of the Jews. Hitherto these "disciples of Jesus the Nazarene" had been a conventicle within the syna­ gogue, rather than a sect. Their peculiarity was the belief that the Messiah foretold in the Scriptures had appeared in the reign of Tiberius in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been executed by the procurator of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, at the instance of the chief priests, as a prospective revolutionary, " the king of the Jews." His followers believed that he had come to life again and been taken up to heaven, whence he would soon come again in power and glory, to execute the divine judgment on those who had rejected him and usher in the expected golden age. For the rest they were pious and observant Jews, who wor­ shipped in the temple and in the synagogues like others. Their efforts to make converts to their belief, especially at the begin­ ning, when they gathered crowds around them in the courts of the temple to argue about it, led to the intervention of the au­ thorities to prevent disturbances, but there was no attempt to put a ban on the belief itself. The Jews had no doctrine about the Messiah invested with the sanction of orthodoxy, and on the fundamental articles of Judaism, the unity of God, his peculiar relation to Israel, the revelation of his character, will, and pur­ pose in Scripture, the Nazarenes were as sound as any Jews could be. On the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment they held with the Pharisees, with all the more tenacity because the resurrection of Jesus was the cornerstone of their faith, and in their observance of the Law conformed to tradition as expounded by the Scribes and Pharisees. 1

2

1

2

Matt. 24, 29 ff. (Dan. 7, 13 f.); Acts i , 1 1 . See Matt. 5, 17 ff.; 23, 2.

CHAP, VII]

REORGANIZATION A T JAMNIA

91

The destruction of Jerusalem, interpreted as a judgment of God on the nation which had repudiated the Messiah He had sent and the precursor of the greater crisis to follow, lent to their propaganda a revived activity and a new argument; and, to judge from the acutely hostile utterances of several of the lead­ ing rabbis of the two generations after the war, it had consider­ able success. The commination which Rabban Gamaliel II caused to be introduced in the daily prayer was presumably meant to make it impossible for a Nazarene to lead the prayers in the synagogue or to join in them. What effect this had in driving them out of the synagogues is unknown. It was impossible, however, for those who had their own Mes­ siah in Jesus of Nazareth, and saw in the commotions of the times the signs of his imminent coming from heaven to judgment, to acknowledge the revolutionary Messiah, Bar Cocheba, and join their countrymen in the revolt. According to Justin Martyr, Bar Cocheba took dire vengeance upon them if they refused to deny Jesus their Messiah. That their disloyalty to the national cause should have been visited upon them by the revolutionists is natural enough, without emphasizing the motive of persistent religious antipathy as Justin does in the context. Probably those who could sought refuge outside the area of war. When the war was over, they, as Jews, were forbidden to enter Aelia equally with the rest. The succession of bishops of the circumcision in Jerusalem ended; the church that replaced them was a Gentile church. The Nazarenes and off-shoots from them are found thenceforth east of the Jordan, and later in the region of Aleppo. Coincidently, the rabbinical invective sub­ sided when they became a sect outside the synagogue. Meantime the messianic faith of the disciples of Jesus had 1

2

3

4

1

See Tos. Yadaim 2, 13; Tos. Shabbat 13 (14), 5; (Jer. Shabbat 15c; Shabbat 116a in uncensored texts). Apology, c. 31. Justin was a native of Neapolis in Palestine (Shechem). and a contemporary. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iv. 5-6. Later controversy is with catholic Christians. 2

3

4

92

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

spread through Greek-speaking Jews to Gentiles, and in the process had become Christianity, which presently cut loose from Judaism altogether, throwing off the Law, written as well as un­ written, even to the cardinal observances of circumcision and the sabbath, and by its worship of "the Lord Christ," the Son of God, seemed to infringe the principle of monotheism. In Jewish eyes it was not a heretical Judaism, but — whatever it might have owed to Judaism in its origin — was in its nature a wholly different religion. There can be no doubt that the know­ ledge of this development abroad increased the prejudice against the Nazarenes at home, although they were as averse as the rabbis themselves to its antinomian trend. Christianity made many converts among Greek-speaking Jews and many more in the Gentile fringe of the synagogue; but neither the Nazarenes in Palestine, whom the church soon branded as heretics for their backwardness in Christology and their adherence to Jewish observances, nor Gentile Christianity made any mark on Judaism. Even reminiscences of controversy are infrequent in the Tannaite literature. 1

1

More of them are preserved in the Tosefta than in any other source. .

CHAPTER

VIII

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

T H E reconquest cost the Romans very dear, but it was almost the destruction of the population of Judaea. Hadrian under­ stood the religious motive of the war, and took vengeance on the religion. Jerusalem was rebuilt with many splendid public edifices, and, as Aelia Capitolina, was made a Roman colonia; Jupiter Capitolinus got his temple, in which stood an equestrian statue of Hadrian. Jews were forbidden to enter or even ap­ proach the city on pain of death. Circumcision of children and the observance of sabbaths and festivals were prohibited under the same penalty. The edict struck at the root when it made the study and teaching of the Law, and even the possession of a copy of it, a capital crime. Antoninus Pius relaxed these vindictive enactments, and scholars were at liberty to resume their calling. Some eminent rabbis had perished in the war; others, foremost among them Akiba, had been put to death for defying the edict; the rest had been dispersed. There was danger that the results of the labors of the previous two generations might be lost. The im­ mediate task of the survivors was to recover and complete the work of their predecessors. Judaea and the adjacent region had been so completely de­ vastated by the war that when it became possible to revive the schools and convene a rabbinical synod Galilee was the seat of this restoration. The first assembly of this kind was held at Usha, only nine or ten miles inland from Haifa. Later, the centre of Jewish learning and authority in Palestine shifted to the eastward into Galilee proper, to Sepphoris and its vicinity, 1

1

Usha and the neighboring Shefar'am were probably outside the jurisdic­ tion of the governoi of Judaea. 93

94

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

1

and ultimately to Tiberias. The rabbis who are named in the account of the synod at Usha are the most distinguished of the disciples of Akiba, and there is no question that the men who had sat under him had the leading part in the revival. Scholars set up schools in various places, and soon attracted large numbers of students. Hitherto Galilee had in this respect been behind other parts of Jewry, but now that learning knocked at their doors they responded to its invitation with the zeal for which they were noted. The branches and methods of study were the same as before the war. In the field of the Halakah the first thing was to make sure that nothing was lost of the accumulated mass of tradi­ tional laws, and that they were reproduced in their exact terms, and then to complete the distribution and ordering of these laws upon Akiba's plan. Every head of a notable school did this in his own school, and, where there were diverse traditions or con­ flicting opinions among his predecessors, exercised his right to choose among them or to add his own opinion. Thus every principal school had its own Mishnah. The Mishnah of R. Meir was taken by the Patriarch Judah in the next generation as the basis of his own, which soon ac­ quired what may flot inaptly be called canonical authority not only in Palestine but in Babylonia, and is always meant when "the Mishnah" is named without other qualification. The filia­ tion is defined in an often cited dictum of R. Johanan (bar Nappaha): "In the Mishnah when no authority is specifically named it is understood to be R. Meir; in the Tosefta R. Nehe­ miah; in Sifra R. Judah (ben Ila'i); in Sifre R. Simeon (ben Yohai); all of them following R. Akiba." Modern criticism 2

3

4

5

1

Ten successive migrations of the high court are enumerated in Rosh haShanah 3 i a - b . Cant. R. on Cant, a, 5. R. Judah (ben Ila i), R. Nehemiah, R. Meir, R. Jose (ben IJalafta), R. Simeon ben Yohai, R. Eiiezer son of R. Jose the Galilean, and R. Eiiezer ben Jacob. Cf. the lists of his disciples in Gen. R.61,3. Judah ha-Nasi; generally cited simply as " R a b b i . " Third century. Sanhedrin 86a, and elsewhere. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

95

has its reserves about some of these, and even in the Mishnah R. Johanan's simplification holds only for the general relation of our Mishnah to that of R. Meir, and of Meir's to Akiba. Of all the disciples of Akiba, R. Meir was probably the best qualified to undertake the redaction of the Mishnah. He had studied under R. Ishmael also, and not only learned tradition in his school but became familiar with his method of connecting Halakah with Scripture. He did not, however, addict him­ self unreservedly to the hermeneutic principles of either school, discerning, presumably, that deduction by rule may be as un­ intelligent as interpretation by guess, and no more conclusive, inasmuch as the contrary result can in most cases be arrived at by another rule. On the other hand, his own dialectic, in which considerations were adduced on both sides of a question, often left his hearers in doubt what his conclusion was. R. Meir is said to have died in Asia (probably meaning the province), and to have been buried, by his own direction, beside the sea which washed the shores of the Land of Israel. Other passages speak of missions or visits to Asia on more than one occasion, and it has been conjectured that he was born there, in which case it would be supposed that, like Saul of Tarsus, his mother tongue was Greek. He taught chiefly at Tiberias and the vicinity, and there are several stories in the homiletic Midrash about his intercourse with a philosopher, Abnimos ha-Gardi, in whom it has been proposed to recognize the cynic Oinomaos of Gadara, whose gibes at the gods and their oracles would have been much to the liking of a Jew. 1

2

3

4

5

1

The third of his masters was Elisha ben Abuyah, with whom, to the scan­ dal of some of his colleagues, he remained in intimate relations even after the revered teacher became an infidel. 'Erubin 13b; cf. 53a. This is given as the reason why, although he had no equal in his generation, it was not decided that the rule (Halakah) is as defined by R. Meir. Jer. Kilaim 32c, below. His tomb is now shown in Tiberias. That he was of proselyte parentage is an independent legend. " A contemner of all things divine and human." Julian, Orat. vi. (199 A). — Gadara and Tiberias were within an easy day's journey of each other. 2

3

4 5

96

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

Besides the Mishnah of R. Meir, Judah digested much ma­ terial not only from other Mishnah collections but from the juristic Midrash. Some important sections had been brought to substantially their present form in earlier generations; others had been especially worked up by individual contemporaries in their schools. It is probable that in this redaction Judah had the cooperation of his Bet Din, and that the preeminence which his Mishnah immediately attained was due to the fact that it represented the deliberations of this body as well as the authority of the patriarch and his right of ordination. Our Mishnah is frequently concise to an extreme; the Halakah is formulated in a few words, with no indication of the grounds, biblical or logical, for the decision. In the schools the meaning and reason of the rule were expounded and discussed, and it is probable that in some of them the Halakot were not so com­ pletely skeletonized as in the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah; somewhat of the elucidation was included in their Mishnah col­ lections. Three such "Large Mishnahs" are known by reference to them in the Talmud, under the names of R. Hiyya, Bar Kappara, and R. Hosha'ya, the first two of whom were disciples of Rabbi, the last a pupil of theirs. These Large Mishnahs ampli­ fied, explained, and sometimes corrected our Mishnah. The Mishnah is often described as a code of rabbinical law. If this expression is used of it, however, it must be understood that it was not meant to be a legal code in the sense those words first suggest to us, a corpus of law systematized for practical use, but an instrument for the study of the law, an apparatus of instruction. One work of a similar character to the Mishnah has survived, 1

2

3

1

Those which deal with the worship in the temple were probably com­ posed in the generation following the destruction, from the tradition of priests (of whom there were in the schools a number who had ministered in the tem­ ple), to preserve the tradition for the expected restoration. It is known that certain scholars were regarded as special authorities on particular subjects or fields of the law. Jer. Horaiyot 48c; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 122a; Eccles. R. on 2, 8, etc. 2

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

97

theTosefta. The (Aramaic) name, which means "Supplement," probably expresses the opinion of a later generation about its relation to the Mishnah rather than the compiler's intention. It is laid out on the same lines as the Mishnah and is in large part parallel to it, but differs in many particulars and contains much additional matter which gave ground for its name. Other scholars of that generation set themselves to collect and edit the Tannaite Midrash, the juristic interpretation of the Mosaic legislation, as it had been developed on older founda­ tions in the schools of Ishmael and Akiba. The literature is thus extensive and varied. The writings that have come down to us and those that are known only through extracts or quotations were all redacted in substantially their ex­ tant form toward the close of the second century or in the first quarter of the third. They are all compilations, in which the work of previous generations of scholars is preserved, reviewed, and continued to the date of redaction. The question whether this body of teaching — to avoid for the moment the question-begging word "literature"—was trans­ mitted solely memoriter, and when it was first committed to writing, is acutely controversial. In the Middle Ages, R. Jacob ben R. Nissim on behalf of the Jews of Kairwan addressed the latter question (with others about the Tannaite literature) to Sherira Gaon, head of the Babylonian school at Pumbeditha. Sherira replied that the Mishnah was first reduced to writing and published by Rabbi (the Patriarch Judah), in whose age this became necessary, as it had not been before, and this became the accepted opinion among North African and Spanish scholars. On the other hand, Rashi maintained that the Mishnah 1

2

3

4

1

See below, pp. 155 f. The Response is dated in the Seleucid year 1298, corresponding to 987 A.D. Two recensions exist, which are contradictory on this point. They are printed side by side in Lewin's edition, p. 18; cf. p. 23. Comparison leaves no uncer­ tainty as to the authenticity of the so-called Spanish recension. Nissim, Samuel ha-Nagid, Abraham ben David, Maimonides, and others. See Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5th ed. (1921), p. 15. Died in 1105. 2

3

4

98

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

as well as the Talmud was not reduced to writing till after the age of the Amoraim; through all those centuries the enormous and ever-growing mass of tradition and discussion was deposited solely in the memories of the learned. In this he was followed by the French Talmudists, and the so-called French recension of the Letter of Sherira was made to support the theory that the writing down of Halakah had always been forbidden. When, by virtue of the excellence of his commentary, Rashi became the supreme interpreter through whom all European students were inducted into the Talmud, his appeal to Talmudic tradition itself, and the internal evidence he adduced that in the age that made the Talmud there was no Talmud — no written compila­ tion — his doctrine was widely accepted and tenaciously held. The critic who, disregarding this controversy, takes the in­ ternal evidence of the literature itself will find in it as much proof as can be had in such matter, that in the compilation of these works written sources were used not only by the final redactors, but in all probability by those predecessors who, in the middle of the second century, revived the schools of the Law after the rescinding of Hadrian's edict. The use of written sources is peculiarly clear in the composition of the Midrash books, but there are whole treatises in the Mishnah which are probably a century or more older in writing than the publication of the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah. No doubt in the earlier period, as in Talmudic times, the theory was that tradition was strictly oral. No manuscript was allowed in the school; the teacher quoted from memory, and the students were required to memorize the Halakot. Such manuscripts as existed were, therefore, in the private posses­ sion of teachers for use as an aid to memory in preparation or reference. They may frequently have been memoranda on particular topics. 1

2

3

1 2 3

See D . Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, 1887. The history of Moslem tradition is an instructive parallel. See Maimonides in the Introduction to his Mishneh Torah.

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

99

In the oral transmission of tradition in the schools the aim was to secure not only substantial correctness but verbal ac­ curacy, and a comparison of the reports that have reached us through different channels and in works of different character indicate that this aim was in large measure attained not only in individual schools but in the interchange between them. This is especially the case in the Halakah, where it was most important. The exact and concise formulation was adapted to memorizing and memoriter reproduction, and the order fre­ quently seems to be intended to make it easier for the memory by more superficial associations, rather than determined by the logical development of the topic. Such associations are often found in the connection or juxtaposition of biblical laws, which was naturally reflected in the halakic conclusions of the juristic Midrash. This Tannaite Midrash itself was scholastic, and its transmission and reproduction was subject to a kind of control which did not exist in the freer homiletic Midrash that had for its object the instruction and edification of popular audiences in the synagogue. One further remark may be made about these sources, namely that, notwithstanding all the deference to the "traditions of the elders" attributed to the Pharisees in the New Testament and by Josephus, there is in the Tannaite literature no apparent tendency to attach traditions to the great names of former generations in order to give them the prescription of antiquity or the authority of famous masters. The principle that in de­ fining the law the high court of each generation or the consensus of its scholars had the same authority as those of every other removed the motive for such antedating.

1

The language of the Tannaite literature is Hebrew, but a Hebrew with characteristic peculiarities of its own which dis­ tinguish it sharply from that of even the latest books of the Old Testament. The Jews were fully aware of the difference, 1

Sifre Deut. §§ 153-154; Midrash Tannaim, ed. Hoffmann, on Deut. 17, 1 1 .

HISTORICAL

IOO

[INTRODUCTION

and call one "the language of the Bible/' the other "the lan­ guage of scholars." The latter is neither simply a degenerate Hebrew whose idiom was disintegrated by the influence of the Aramaic vernacular, nor is it an artificial language, a kind of academic jargon. It is a scholastic language, which has its roots not only in biblical Hebrew.but in living speech, and was devel­ oped and adapted to serve as a medium for technical definition and discussion. Classical Hebrew owes its charm to the wealth of its diction and the subtlety of its syntax, neither of which excellences is conducive to the juristic precision which the schools of the Law aimed at. Their idiom, on the other hand, is admir­ ably fitted to their purpose, and it may fairly be inferred that it had had a long evolution in the schools before it attained the stage in which we have our first acquaintance with it. There are peculiarities of terminology which distinguish the Midrash of the school of Ishmael from that of Akiba, for example; but the scholastic language was established before their time, and it continued through the whole period unchanged. To have created and perfected such an instrument is a part of the work of the Tannaim not to be underestimated. Perhaps something similar may be said about the language of the official Targums. The closeness with which they repro­ duce the Hebrew original trammels the freedom of Aramaic idiom, but apart from this these Targums make the impression of a conventional rather than of a colloquial vehicle, another "language of scholars," one might guess. A learned language it must have been, at least in Babylonia, where the vernacular belonged to a different branch of the Aramaic family. The method of interpretation employed in the schools, es­ pecially in that of Akiba, which deduced rules of law and obser­ vance, or religious and moral lessons, from minute peculiarities 1

1

R. Johanan (3d century) objected to mixing the two by using biblical words or conforming to the biblical gender of nouns instead of following the usage of the schoof language: niyxyb D^Mn mm . Hullin 137b; 'Abodah Zarah 58b; cf. Jer. Nazir 51a. Both are "the holy language," mpn POT.

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

of expression and even of orthography, presumes a standard text, copies of which consistently agreed in these peculiarities. In earlier centuries there was no such uniformity, as appears not only from a comparison of the Hebrew text used by the early Greek translators with that which we have in manuscripts and printed editions, but from a collation of parallel passages in the Hebrew Bible itself. The later Greek versions, beginning with Aquila, on the other hand, are evidently based on a Hebrew text substantially identical with ours (without vowel points and and accents), and the Tannaite Midrash frequently operates with what we should call its eccentricities. It is a good inference from these facts that the fixing of a standard text was the work of the biblical scholars of this period. The need was greatest in the case of the Pentateuch, and probably this was earliest taken in hand. From the second century of our era the Jews had a standard Hebrew text which was transmitted with great fidelity, and if the fixing of this text is to be attributed to their prede­ cessors in the schools, as seems probable, it must be regarded as in all its consequences one of the most important things they did. Aquila translated this text with extreme literalness for Greekspeaking Jews; others made more readable versions of it, some keeping closer to the Septuagint, some rendering with more freedom and a literary aim. Christian scholars revised their Septuagint by the aid of these new Jewish translations, to bring it into accord with the Hebrew. 1

In the lands of Aramaic speech the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogue was accompanied by an oral trans­ lation into the vernacular. An effort to create a standard 2

1

Aquila is said to have made his version under the auspices of R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus) and R. Joshua (ben Hananiah), contemporaries of Rabban Gamaliel II (Jer. Megillah 7 1 c ) ; in another place (Jer. Kiddushin 59a, above) he is associated with Akiba. The version would thus be earlier than the war under Hadrian. The first reference to it by name in a Christian author is in Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. iii. 24 (a/. 21). The custom was believed to go back to the time of Ezra (Neh. 8, 8). Jer. Megillah 74d; Nedarim 37b. 2

HISTORICAL

102

[INTRODUCTION

Aramaic version was made in the Tannaite period in the socalled Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch. The dialect of this version is Palestinian, and it certainly originated in that country, though the language has suffered some adaptation to Babylonian usage, and it was in Babylonia that it obtained official recognition and authority. It is cited in the Babylonian Talmud as "our Targum/' and quotations are introduced with the words, " as we translate," sometimes over against the render­ ing of the Palestinians. The Hebrew text represented by this version is what has been called above the standard text of the second century. The translation for the most part follows the text closely, and in its interpretation agrees with the schools of the period, particularly with that of Akiba. This is especially evident where the inter­ preter indicates (generally in an unobtrusive way) the Halakah implied in the text. The Babylonian Jews had an authorized Aramaic version of the Prophets also, which, like that on the Pentateuch, they got from Palestine. It resembles the latter in its general char­ acter, but, as was unavoidable in the interpretation of the prophecies, paraphrases more freely. That both these Targums were redacted in writing there is no more reason to question than that Aquila wrote down his translation. The Jews in the region of Nisibis spoke an Aramaic dialect so different from those of Palestine on the one side and of Baby­ lonia on the other that they must have felt the need of a trans­ lation of their own, and it is highly probable that what we call the Syriac version of the Pentateuch and some of the other books of the Old Testament was made by Jewish scholars, though it 1

2

D ^ p J I K is a Babylonian pronunciation of D ^ p y ('AfcuXas, Aquila), whose Greek version is repeatedly mentioned in the Talmudic literature. What in Jer. Megillah 71c (near the top) is said of this version is in the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 3a) erroneously transferred to the Aramaic translation (Targum). See A . Berliner, Targum Onkelos, Theil 2, pp. 224-245. 1

2

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

103

has come down to us only as part of the Bible of the Syrian church. It, also, is based on the Hebrew standard text, and shows many traces of Jewish interpretation. This might be accounted for by the hypothesis that the translation was made by Jewish converts to Christianity, but the simpler supposition, especially in view of the antiquity of the version, is that it was appropriated from the Jews. Aphraates and Ephrem show how close was the intercourse between Christians and Jews in that part of the East. The former has a larger and more accurate knowledge of Jewish teaching than any of his contemporaries, and himself utilized a good deal of the Haggadah. Besides their labors in the fields of Mishnah and Midrash, the Tannaim presumably had their part in the development of worship in the synagogue. The introduction of features of the temple cultus such as the blowing of the horn at New Year's and the festal procession at Tabernacles was older, but it went further after the destruction of the temple, when the erection of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on its site, ending all hopes of an early restoration, left the synagogue the one seat of religious worship. The revision of the old daily prayers under the direction of R. Gamaliel II has already been mentioned, and various other regulations about prayers are ascribed to him, some of which did not meet the approval of all his contemporaries. The dis­ cussions in the Mishnah show the importance that the rabbis, particularly after the war under Hadrian, attached to uniformity, and how they endeavored to attain it in many points in which there had previously been variety of usage and about which there were divided opinions. Our sources are more concerned with modalities and circumstances than with the content of the prayers. There is good reason to think, however, that by the end of this period the framework of the liturgy had been fixed substantially as, with much variety in particulars and large ex­ pansion, it has remained ever since. Prayer books with fixed forms for all occasions came much later.

104

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

The study of the Law was pursued in Babylonia from a time at least before the Christian era, but little beyond the mere fact is known. Students went thence to sit under famous Palestinian doctors, as we have seen in the case of Hillel. Before the war under Hadrian, Hananiah, a nephew of R. Joshua ben Hananiah, migrated to Babylonia and established there a school of great repute. In the suspension of the schools in Palestine he under­ took to regulate the calendar independently, a step which, if acquiesced in, would have thrown the observance of the festivals into confusion, and divided the Babylonian Jews from the rest, who took their calendar from Palestine. The remonstrances of the Palestinian authorities when they began to function again did not move him, but he was persuaded by Judah ben Bathyra, head of the school at Nisibis, to desist, and the schism was averted. Under Simeon ben Gamaliel, R. Nathan — called, from his native land, the Babylonian — came to Palestine, and was ap­ pointed by the patriarch vice-president of his Bet Din. He may have owed this elevation to the fact that he was a son of the civil head of Babylonian Jewry, the Resh Galuta, but he could not have filled the post in such company unless he had been a respectable scholar. No mention is made of his teachers, and it is a fair presumption that at least the foundations of his learn­ ing were laid in Babylonian schools. Of much greater consequence for the future of Judaism in Babylonia was the migration to Tiberias of R. IJiyya in the days of the Patriarch Judah. With him came two sons, Judah and Hezekiah, who became scholars of note in Palestine. His nephew, Abba Areka, generally called simply Rab, Master, by way of eminence (in the same way that Judah I is called Rabbi), was brought up by R. Hiyya as a son. Besides the in­ struction he received from his uncle, he early became a member of the rabbinical academy over which the Patriarch Judah pre­ sided at Sepphoris, where in time he became eminent equally 1

1

See Bacher, Tannaiten, I , 385-389.

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

105

for erudition and acumen. Thus equipped with all the learning of the Palestinian schools, and with a restricted ordination by the Patriarch, Rab returned to Babylonia before the death of Rabbi, and taught for a time in the school of Rab Shela at Nehardea, but after the death of the latter established at Sura a school of his own which was frequented by a concourse of students from many quarters. At Nehardea, R. Shela was succeeded by Mar Samuel, a native of that city, whose wide learning in secular as well as religious subjects became famous, and under whom that school also flourished greatly. In both schools the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah was made the textbook of instruction in the traditional law, and thus the unity of Judaism was assured. On the other hand, the posses­ sion of the Mishnah and the eminence of the heads of the two schools, who were not surpassed in learning and ability by any of their generation in Palestine, made it unnecessary for advanced students to go to Palestine to complete their education, and thus the foundation was laid for the independent development of Talmudic studies in Babylonia. The coming and going of scholars between the two centres of Jewish learning, however, kept up close intercourse, and counteracted any tendency to provincialism. Other parts of the Tannaite literature, especially the Midrash of the school of Akiba, and other Mishnah collec­ tions, had a recognized though secondary place in the Baby­ lonian schools. There was a school at Nisibis before the destruction of the temple, presided over by Judah ben Bathyra. A second of the same name, presumably a grandson or nephew of the first, was head of the school there in the first half of the second century, 1

2

3

1

Sanhedrin 5a-b; Weiss, Dor, III, 133. In 219 A.D. Nehardea was the chief centre of Babylonian Jewry, residence of the Exilarch. It was situated not far from ancient Babylon, to the south. Sura was one or two days' journey farther south, in the vicinity of the later city of Kufa. Pumbeditha succeeded Nehardea, in the vicinity of which it was. 2

3

io6

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

as we have seen. In the time of persecution under Hadrian, R. Eleazar ben Shammua', one of the disciples of Akiba who was ordained by Judah ben Baba, withdrew to Nisibis and heard R. Judah ben Bathyra there, as did also R. Johanan ha-Sandelar. Judah ben Bathyra had himself been a student under R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, and discussions between him and Akiba are re­ ported. His intervention to dissuade R. Hananiah, nephew of R. Joshua, from fixing the calendar independently is evidence that his counsel carried much weight. Rome had long had a considerable Jewish population, partly attracted by trade, partly carried thither as prisoners of war from Pompey on. Many of the latter had been redeemed from slavery by their countrymen or emancipated by their masters. The victory of Titus brought a fresh influx of Jewish captives, among whom were many of high station in their own people, and the war under Hadrian brought others. The leaders of Palestinian Jewry took a great interest in the Roman commun­ ity, and we read more than once of missions or visitations under­ taken by them. Under Domitian, Gamaliel II made a journey thither in company with Eleazar ben Azariah, Joshua ben Hana­ niah, and Akit>a, and it is related that they discoursed in the synagogues and school-houses, and discussed religious subjects with heathen and Christians. After the war under Hadrian we hear of a visit to Rome by R. Simeon ben Yohai and R. Eleazar, son of Jose ben Ilalafta. There was already a school of the Law in Rome, presided over by R. Mathia ben IJeresh, whose name is associated with R. Jonathan and R. Josiah, the chief disciples of R. Ishmael. A t the same time that Judah ben Bathyra went 1

2

3

4

5

1

Sifre Deut. § 80. Ishmael ben Elisha, later famous head of a school, is said to have been one of these; see, however, Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 166. On the numbers of Jews sold into slavery at different times see Juster, Les Juifs dans l'empire romain, II, 17 f. The references to this journey and what happened on it are collected by Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 79. See Vogelstein und Rieger, Geschichte der Juden in Rom, I, 28 f. Yoma 53b~54a; Me'ilah I7a-b. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

107

to Nisibis, R. Mathia ben IJeresh went to Rome, and planted there, so far as is known, the first regular rabbinical school. The relation of these schools to those in Palestine tended to bring the Jews in the Diaspora into line with those of the home land. Not only was the traditional law as formulated and codified in those schools accepted as final authority, but their principles and methods were perpetuated and their work carried on by succeeding generations in the same spirit. In time the Babylonian schools outshone those of Palestine and were aware of it, but they remained true to the type which had been im­ pressed on them at the beginning. About the relations of the Palestinian schools to the Greekspeaking part of the Jewish world comparatively little is known. The writings of Philo precede our rabbinical sources by a cen­ tury or more, during which time the schools .had been most active in the discussion and definition of the traditional law, and the question how the Alexandrian Halakah of his day was related to contemporary Palestinian teaching cannot be posi­ tively answered. Agreement in many points may signify no more than that the Scripture was explicit or the custom ancient and uniform; disagreement, that the Palestinian Halakah had not reached the stage in which we know it. On the whole, how­ ever, it seems probable that Alexandrian scholars of his day did not feel themselves bound by the authority of their Palestinian colleagues. It appears, from the absence of quotations or references in Christian writers like Clement of Alexandria, that the age of a flourishing Hellenistic Jewish literature in Alexandria did not last long after Philo. The war of 66-72 was attended by some com­ motions in Egypt, which led to the closing of the temple of Onias, but had no other effect of which we are informed. Jewish cul­ ture in those regions must have suffered much more severely from the ravages of war in the reign of Trajan. While the emperor was engaged in his Parthian campaign (116-117 A.D.) the Jews in the Cyrenaica and Egypt and in Cyprus rose in a formidable

108

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

insurrection. The rebellion was put down with vindictive sever­ ity, and the outcome, however large subtractions we may be in­ clined to make from the numbers in which the narrators in­ dulge, must have been a vast calamity to the Jews of those countries. The wars under Nero and Vespasian and under Trajan were not only revolts against the imperial government but inter­ necine conflicts between the Jewish and Greek (Gentile) civilian population of the regions affected, with all the atrocities of which mobs doubly inflamed by enmities of race and religion are capable. Pagan opinion made the Jews everywhere the ag­ gressors, and the dislike in which they were widely held deepened into animosity toward these irreconcilable enemies of gods and men. It is a reasonable inference that this hostile temper had its natural effect on conversions to Judaism, which in the pre­ ceding generations had been numerous. The law prohibiting circumcision, also, remained in full force for proselytes, the ex­ emption made by Antoninus Pius applying only to the case of Jews circumcising their own sons. The new Christian movement drew into itself many of the looser adherents of the synagogue and some of its proselytes, and probably a still larger number of the kind of Gentiles from which these Greek-speaking accessions had come. Jews like the Alexandrian Apollos and Aquila from Pontus, with his wife Prisca, were active in spreading the gospel before or with Paul, and they had numerous successors. Such defections would tend to stiffen the conservatism of the stricter sort among the Jews of the dispersion, and lead them to look to Palestine for guidance and support. The patriarch, who was recognized both by the Jews and by 1

2

1

See Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 18; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iv. 2; Cassius Dio, lxviii. 32. Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, II, 182-190. The ' religious persons' (aefibjievoi) of the New Testament. 2

CHAP, VIII]

CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM 1

the Roman government as the head of the Jewish nation, main­ tained intercourse with the communities in the dispersion by delegates whom he sent periodically to visit them. One object of these missions was to collect the tax imposed for the support of the patriarch. Another was doubtless the publication of the calendar. Eusebius says that they delivered the circular letters of the patriarch. They may very well have been an effective in­ strumentality in bringing about uniformity of observance be­ tween the Greek Diaspora and Palestine in other matters. The history of Greek-speaking Jewry in these centuries is ex­ tremely obscure; but in the end the triumph of normative Judaism as it had been developed in the schools of Palestine and Babylonia seems to have been complete; not only was law and usage uniform, but the intellectually hellenized Judaism which flourished in the century or two before our era disappears. 2

3

4

5

1

The Jews in the Parthian empire (Babylonia, Mesopotamia, etc.) had a similar civil head, the Resh Galuta, ' Chief of the Exile/ for whom, as for the patriarchs in Palestine, Davidic ancestry was claimed; but in religious matters the authority of the Patriarch was recognized. Shelihim, aird(XTo\oi; in Roman law apostoli. The Theodosian Code calls it durum coronarium. See the letter of Rabban Gamaliel II to the Jews in Babylonia, Media, Greece, etc., announcing the intercalation of a thirteenth month, Jer. San­ hedrin i8d, and the letters of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel and Johanan ben Zakkai, Midrash Tannaim, pp. 175 f. Eusebius on Isa. 18, 1. 2

3

4

5

CHAPTER

IX

CHARACTER OF JUDAISM

O F all the religions which at the beginning of the Christian era flourished in the Roman and Parthian empires Judaism alone has survived, and it survived because it succeeded in achieving a unity of belief and observance among Jews in all their wide dispersion then and since. The danger of a widening gulf be­ tween Aramaic-speaking Jews and Greek-speaking Jews, which at the beginning of our era was not inconsiderable, was com­ pletely overcome. The influential party which we know by the name of Sadducees, who maintained that the Scripture alone was law, denying authority to the traditional law of their op­ ponents, the Pharisees, shrunk after the war of 66-72 A.D. to a heretical sect whose distinguishing mark was the rejection of the doctrine of retribution after death. In the second century Pharisaism was completely triumphant both in establishing the authority of the traditional law and in making its eschatology Jewish orthodoxy. Down to the rise of the Karaites fti the eighth century and their revolt against the Talmud there was nothing that deserves the name of schism, and that movement, after a period of vigorous and often violent controversy lasting some four centuries, gradually subsided into an innocuous sect. The ground of this remarkable unity is to be found not so much in a general agreement in fundamental ideas as in com­ munity of observance throughout the whole Jewish world. Wherever a Jew went he found the same system of domestic ob­ servance in effect. This was of especial importance in the sphere of what are now called the dietary laws, because it assured him 1

1

Zoroastrianism, represented by about 100,000 Parsees in India, ,chiefly in Bombay and the vicinity, and perhaps 10,000 in Persia, is the sole ex­ ception. no

CHAP, i x ]

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

in

against an unwitting violation of their manifold regulations. If he entered the synagogue he found everywhere substantially the same form of service with minor variations. The prayers (Shema' and Tefillah) might legitimately be said in any lan­ guage, but in the public prayers Hebrew seems to have been generally used wherever Palestinian example was followed. In the same area the lessons were read in Hebrew accompanied by an Aramaic translation. The often cited Novel of Justinian shows that at that time there was a party among the Jews who contended that Hebrew was the only proper language for this purpose, while others, in accordance with the older usage of the Grecian synagogues, maintained that the lessons might also be read in a Greek translation. The decision of the emperor author­ izes the use of Greek, commending the Septuagint but permit­ ting the version of Aquila. "The Synagogue of Israel" (Keneset Israel) — we should say the Jewish church — might with good right have taken to itself the title catholic (universal) Judaism in an inclusive sense, not, like catholic Christianity, with the implied exclusion of a multitude of sects and heresies. This unity and universality, as has been said, was not based upon orthodoxy in theology but upon uniformity of observance. But the same authorities which had regulated and systematized the worship and observance had also set forth the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion and its religious ethics and ex­ emplified its characteristic piety, and these also were dissemi­ nated through the schools and the synagogues as an integral part of traditional belief and practice. The character of this catholic Judaism can only be appre­ hended and appreciated through a detailed exhibition of its au­ thentic teachings, but some of its distinctive features may be briefly summarized here. 1

2

1

M . Sotah 7, i ; Tos. Sotah 7, 7; cf. Shabbat 12b. Maimonides, Hilkot Tefillah I , 4. Novel. 146 (553 A.D.). See Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, I , 3% ^ 2

112

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

The foundation of Judaism is the belief that religion is re­ vealed. What man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man, he has made known in one form or another by revelation. Specific commandments had been given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jacob; to Moses the complete revelation was given once for all. The prophets who came after him re­ peated, explained, emphasized, applied, what was revealed to Moses; they added nothing to it. The revelation to Moses was in part embodied in writing in the Pentateuch, in part trans­ mitted orally from generation to generation in unbroken suc­ cession down to the schools of the Law in which tradition was defined, formulated, and systematized. The whole of religion was revealed — "nothing was kept back in heaven" — and the whole content of revelation was religion. There could be but one religion properly deserving the name, for God is One; and revelation was not only consistent but identical throughout, for God is ever the same. • The forefathers had fallen away from the true religion, not only by worshipping other gods and by worshipping their own God in a heathenish way, but by tolerating injustice and immorality. Later genera­ tions were far from living up to the acknowledged standard set for them in the twofold Law. But whatever the sins or short­ comings of the people, however negligent or however zealous in the practice of their religion, religion itself was neither impaired nor improved. It was perfect from the beginning, and therefore unalterable. Modern students approach Judaism with prepossessions of so radically different an order that it requires an effort of imagina­ tion to put ourselves at this point of view. The idea of historical development in religion, as in science and in institutions — in civilization as a whole — so dominates us that it is hard to un­ derstand a religion to which it is a contradiction in terms. But it is idle to try to comprehend Judaism at all unless we are pre­ pared to accept its own assumptions as principles of interpreta­ tion, and not substitute ours for them.

CHAP, i x ]

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

113

Nevertheless, theory to the contrary notwithstanding, Juda­ ism had made great progress between the days of the last proph­ ets and the end of the age of the Tannaim, and it had made it chiefly through the appropriation and assimilation of the pro­ phetic teaching, including the prophetic element in the Law. In this process a notabie change took place. The mission and the message of the prophets was to the nation. The people in its solidarity was responsible for the evils, individual, social, political, which they denounced, and upon the guilty nation the judgment of God was about to fall. In its ruin the whole people would suffer the doom which collectively they had deserved. The only way of averting the catastrophe or repairing it was a religious and moral reformation in which the whole people should turn from their evil ways to God and the doing of his will, and to the allegiance and obedience of its origins. For this thoroughgoing reformation, our word, coming through the Latin version of the prophetic Scriptures, is Repentance. The previsions of the prophets were fulfilled in the extinction of the national state and the breaking up of the people. In the dissolution of the political community and the band of a com­ mon cultus, and often in close contact and association with heathen, adherence to the religion of his fathers became for the individual not a matter of course but a matter of choice. Many, doubtless, fell away and were absorbed in the surrounding hea­ thenism. The saving remnant was the true Israel. Into this situation came an individualizing of the doctrine of sin, retribution, and repentance, such as we find in Ezekiel. That God bestows his favor on those who please him by conformity to his will and visits his displeasure on those who transgress or ig­ nore it was in a general way an old and universal belief. Ezekiel converts it into an inexorable law of retribution, and as a coun­ terpart he makes repentance the sole but all-sufficient ground for the remission of all former offences of the individual, as the earlier prophets from Hosea on had done for those of the nation. The 1

1

Ezek. 18; Hosea 14, 2-10 (cf. 2, 16-25).

114

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

law of retribution, especially when construed quantitatively as it is by Job's friends, conflicts with experience, and if such retri­ bution in this life is insisted on as a necessary corollary to God's justice, can only lead to a denial of his justice, as the author of the book set himself to show by the example of Job. From this dilemma an escape was ultimately found in the transfer of the final sphere of retribution to an existence beyond death. The individualizing of repentance was of vastly greater religious consequence. It not only became a cardinal doctrine of Juda­ ism — its doctrine of salvation — but it impressed upon the religion itself its most distinctive character. The piety of the Psalmists is a testimony to the penetration of this idea. The interpreters of the Law taught that the promises of divine for­ giveness attached to the prescribed sacrifices and expiations, in­ cluding those of the Day of Atonement, contain the implicit con­ dition of repentance, and when sacrifices and expiations ceased with the destruction of the temple, that repentance of itself suf­ ficed. Religion thus became a personal relation of the individual man to God. Long before the sacra publica in behalf of all Jews everywhere came to an end, the synagogue had become for the vast majority the real centre of the common religious life, and the cessation of sacrifice, however deeply it was deplored, caused no crisis. Re­ ligion had its seat in the home also, in the domestic rites, the table blessings, the private prayers, and parental instruction of children. The personalizing of religion was furthered by the many observances obligatory on every individual, on the head of the family, the wife and mother, and gradually on the children as they grew up. The synagogue was not in Jewish apprehension primarily a house of worship, but a place where the common prayers were said together and individuals offered their private petitions, and where the Scripture was read, interpreted, and expounded — a 1

1

See Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, cols. 4223-4225 (§§ 50-52).

CHAP, i x ]

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

115

place of religious instruction and edification. It was a unique institution in the ancient world and it had a unique purpose, to educate a whole people in its religion. In this it was supple­ mented by the more advanced study of the Bet ha-Midrash, the Lecture-Room, and by what we may call professional schools for the study of the traditional law and the juristic exegesis of the written law. The idea of God in Judaism is developed from the Scriptures. The influence of contemporary philosophy which is seen in some Hellenistic Jewish writings — the Wisdom of Solomon, 4 Mac­ cabees, and above all in Philo — is not recognizable in normative Judaism, nor is the influence of other religions, among which it is natural to think first of Zoroastrianism, to be discovered. The tendency of Zoroastrianism to exempt God from responsibility for the evil in the world by attributing the latter to another au­ thor conflicted so obviously with the fundamental idea of unity and with the explicit teaching of the Scriptures that it was re­ jected by Jewish religious thinking with all other forms of the heresy of "two powers." In the development of older conceptions both reflection and selection have a part, especially in regard to the moral character of God. Jewish monotheism was reached neither by postulat­ ing the unity of nature nor by speculation on the unity of Being — the physical or the metaphysical approach of science and philosophy — but by way of the unity of the moral order in the history of the world, identified with the will and purpose of God. In it, therefore, the personality of God was as integral as his unity. Nothing in the universe could resist God's power or thwart his purpose. His knowledge embraced all that was or is or is to be. Though his abode was in the highest heaven, there was no place and no humblest thing on earth devoid of his presence. He was 1

1

Superficial acquaintance with Philonic conceptions was apparently me­ diated in the third century by contact with Christian theologians in centres like Caesarea.

n6

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

at once above all and in all. He was wholly righteous, and could not abide unrighteousness. But he was at the same time merci­ ful, compassionate, and long-suffering. His two moral attributes were justice and mercy, but it was mercy that best expressed his nature. These ideas are derived from the Law and the Prophets. They were illustrated and confirmed by God's dealing with the patriarchs and by the history of the nation interpreted in the light of prophetic teaching. The thought of God as father has its antecedents in the same sources, but has a much more prominent place in Judaism. While in Philo the phrase "father and maker," adopted from Plato, is used in the sense of 'author/ in Judaism, "Father in heaven " expresses a personal relation to the people collectively and to the individual. Taking it not as a theological proposi­ tion but as the attitude of piety, it is a summary of the whole re­ lation between God and the religious man. God's love to the forefathers is constant to their descendants also; they may be rebellious and sinful children, but they are his children still. What God demands of men is a responsive love, the love of the whole man, mind, soul, possessions, and effort. This is the sole worthy motive of obedience to God's re­ vealed will, and it gives to right conduct the religious touch of emotion. The corollary of the law, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' is Thou shalt love thy fellow as thyself,' and, lest we should suppose this to be restricted to the fellow Israelite, the same chapter contains the additional injunction, 'Thou shalt love the stranger (ger) as thyself.' The rabbis defined this obligation, The property and the good name of another should be as precious to you as your own, and applied the principle to the laws of trade and to competition in business, and they made it prohibit in­ jurious gossip as well as slanderous defamation. Sin, in a revealed religion, is "any want of conformity unto, 1

4

1

Especially in such passages as Exod. 34, 5-7; Deuteronomy, passim, and among the prophets particularly Hosea and Jeremiah; cf. also 1 Kings 8.

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

CHAP. I X ]

1

117

or transgression of, the law of God," equally whether the act or neglect itself is malum per se, or is morally indifferent. This conception, whether entertained by Jew or Puritan, is often called "legalism," and many bad things are said about it. The far-reaching religious consequences of the establishment of this relation between sin and law are commonly overlooked. For where sin is the violation or the neglect of a divine law, the only remedy is God's forgiveness. The primitive expiations and puri­ fications are perpetuated in the Mosaic laws, but they no longer possess in themselves a mysterious, or if we choose, a magical, efficacy; they are rites which God has appointed for men to seek pardon through, and are thus conditions of forgiveness. Judaism, as we have seen, made repentance the condition sine qua non of them all, and eventually the substitute for them all. Correspondingly, transgressions of what we call the moral law, for which the Mosaic law has no specific expiations — only the universal riddance by the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement — are not forgiven except upon condition of individual repent­ ance. In other words, the legal conception of sin leads directly to the recognition that the only remedy for sin is God's forgiving grace, having its ground in his mercy, or his love, and its indis­ pensable condition in repentance, a moral renovation of man which is compared to a new creation, with its fruit in works meet for repentance. To the Jewish definition of repentance belong the reparation of injuries done to a fellow man in his person, property, or good name, the confession of sin, prayer for forgive­ ness, and the genuine resolve and endeavor not to fall into the sin again. The Jews in their wide dispersion looked forward to the day when they should be gathered again to their own land as the prophets had foretold, and an era of peace and prosperity should follow. The implicit or explicit condition of this restoration was a reformation (repentance) so complete that it amounted to a transformation of the whole character of the people. The mag1

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1 4 .

118

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

nitude of this change so impressed Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they could conceive it possible only as the work of God himself, who should not only cleanse them but put a new heart and a new spirit — his own spirit — in them and cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments and do them/ Repent­ ance itself is a gift of God, for which he is besought in prayer by the congregation and by the individual. The prophets had depicted the golden age in various forms and frequently with idyllic imagery. The common element which was in the foreground of Jewish religious thought was freedom to live their own life and follow their own religion unhindered by foreign dominion, enjoying the favor of God. Some prophecies foretold a restoration of the monarchy under a prince of the line of David, and greater stress was perhaps laid on the legitimate succession out of antipathy to the Asmonaean kings. The Scion of David, or the Son of David, or the Anointed (Messiah) son of David are titles of the expected king in the Tannaite literature and in the liturgy. The character of this ruler in the golden age to come is set forth in Isaiah n , i ff., which the official Targum closely follows. In other prophecies, notably in Isaiah 40 ff., there is no men­ tion of an earthly sovereign; God himself is the king of Israel. Borrowing the word from Josephus, we may call this the theo­ cratic, in distinction from the political, type of the national hope. There is in the prophecies no indication of the human instrumen­ talities through which the will of the divine king is effectuated. In the thought of the makers of normative Judaism we may be sure that it was not a hierocracy, in which God was represented on earth by the priesthood. Rather it was the "learned," the 1

1

2

3

4

x

E z e k . 36, 25 ff; cf. 1 1 , 19 f.; Jer. 31, 31 ff.; 17, 1 4 ; Psalm 51, 9, 1 2 . See M . Yoma 8, 9, R. Akiba: Blessed are ye, Israelites. Before whom are ye purified and who purifies you? Your Father who is in heaven. (Ezek. 36, 25 ff., combined with Jer. 17, 14). Psalms of Solomon 2, and especially 17. " T h e Messiah," without anything more, is not found in the older sources. The Nasi (E.V. "Prince") in Ezek. 40 ff. has no such general commission. 2

3

4

CHAP, i x ] •

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

119

authoritative interpreters of the divine law, who would in that age not only teach the law but as judges apply it. The time when the Messiah should appear, or the rule of God be estab­ lished in power, was fixed in God's plan, and signs of its ap­ proach were given in the prophets, but it was God's secret, into which it was not for men to pry. The idea of God's rule in his own people widened into the ex­ pectation of a day when his sovereignty should be established and acknowledged by all mankind, when 'the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be One and his name One' (Zech. 14, 9). The universality of the true reli­ gion is the origin and meaning of the phrase, Malkut Shamaim, "the reign of God," or, in the familiar rendering of our version in the New Testament, " the kingdom of Heaven," for the coming, or in their phrase, the revealing, of which prayer is made. The utterances of the prophets about the fate of the heathen nations in this consummation were various. In the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel there are collections of vindictive oracles which consign them all and single to destruction, while others foretell only the overthrow of the great powers which suc­ cessively oppressed Israel. The conversion of the remaining heathen appears in both the royal and the theocratic forms of the expectation. One of the most salient differences between Judaism and the older religion of Israel is in the beliefs about what is beyond death. The ancient Israelites shared the primitive notions of survival, and imagined the dead, shadows of their living selves, as inhabiting the family tomb or gathered with the great multi­ tude of the dead of all nations in a dismal cavern in the inwards of the earth, the common lot of all. To the end of the Old Testa­ ment and beyond, this continued to be the general belief. Other 1

2

1

This . caution was perhaps accentuated by the disillusion of the Bar Cocheba war. Akiba had deduced in his way that the deliverance was due. See Sanhedrin 97b. For the latter see Isa. 14, 4 ff.; Ezek. 32, 17 ff. 2

120

HISTORICAL

[INTRODUCTION

peoples with whom the Jews were in contact had earlier sepa­ rated the good from the bad dead — however they discriminated these categories — and their religions and philosophies developed the idea of divine retribution in the hereafter, frequently pictur­ ing the wicked there in torments apt to their offence. The pre­ vailing representation was that the soul is by nature imperish­ able, and at death goes to the place and lot in another sphere of existence which the individual has deserved by his character and conduct in this life. Such conceptions were current in the Hel­ lenistic world, and were appropriated by some of the Greekspeaking Jews, as we see in the Wisdom of Solomon. In Judaea the belief in retribution after death took a different form. A t the end of the present age of the world there was to be a universal judgment. The bodies of the dead would come out of the tomb and be reunited with their souls, that both together, the man entire, might be judged in the great assize. Those who were justified in the judgment would live forever on a transfig­ ured earth, exempt from all the infirmities of flesh and the evils of the present world, while the wicked would be condemned to the unquenchable fire. This new eschatology was not unop­ posed. The Sadducees, as we have seen, rejected it for want of warrant in Scripture. The Pharisees were zealous for it, and in­ sisted that it could be found in the Law. In the second century, if not earlier, they made a dogma of it by attaching an anathema to the proposition — whoever denies that the revivification of the dead is taught in the Torah has no part in the Future World. Eventually the doctrine triumphed completely. The transfer of the sphere of final retribution to another ex­ istence not only put theodicy beyond the reach of refutation be­ cause beyond experience, but — what was of far greater religious consequence — reversed the whole interpretation of the experi­ ences of this life. The afflictions of the upright are no longer punishments, but chastisements of love, evidence of God's favor, not of his displeasure. The prosperity of the wicked is God's way of letting irreclaimable sinners heap up for themselves

CHAP, i x ]

C H A R A C T E R OF JUDAISM

121

greater condemnation. Nowhere is the effect of the individual­ izing of religion more conspicuous than in this eschatology. In the universal judgment every man is judged on the ground of his personal character and conduct. The new eschatology did not displace the national hope. When the necessity of an adjustment was felt, it was accomplished by making the old golden age, the Days of the Messiah, which had once been final and perpetual, an intermediate and temporary period of determinate length, after which, with convulsions among the nations and cataclysms in nature, the last act in the history of "this world" was ushered in. There was no attempt to construct a doctrine of the Messianic Age or the Last Things. The apocalypses in their enthusiastic vagaries make up shifting combinations of native and alien elements. The sobriety and reticence of the authentic literature is a testimony to the good sense of the rabbis. Some of them had their own adventures in the occult, cosmological or theosophical, but they did not profess to reveal the secrets of the hereafter, and they evidently had little taste for such revelations. Judaism thus made religion in every sphere a personal relation between the individual man and God, and in bringing this to clear consciousness and drawing its consequences lies its most significant advance beyond the older religion of Israel. It was, however, a relation of the individual to God, not in isolation, but in the fellowship of the religious community and, ideally, of the whole Jewish people, the Keneset Israel. Not alone the syna­ gogue but the entire communal life — even what we should call the secular life — knit together by its peculiar beliefs, laws, and observances was the expression and the bond of this fellowship. Thus Judaism became in the full sense personal religion without ceasing to be national religion. 1

2

1

Adherence to the true religion is, as in Zoroastrianism, a weighty factor in this judgment, but that upright Gentiles have a lot in the Future World is an opinion frequently expressed. There were various opinions about its duration, of which the thousand years (millennium) in the Revelation of John is one. 2

II THE Mekilta, 135 Mekilta de-R. Simeon b. Yohai, 138 Sifra, 140 Sifre on Numbers, 143 Sifre Zuta, 144 Sifre on Deuteronomy, 145 Midrash Tannaim, 146 The Mishnah, 150 Tosefta, 155 Pirke Abot, 156 Abot de-R. Nathan, 158 Seder ' Olam, 158 Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis), 163 Shemot Rabbah (Exodus), 167 Ekah Rabbati (Lamentations), 167 Pesikta de-R. Kahana, 168 Pesikta Rabbati, 169 Wayyikra Rabbah (Leviticus), 169

SOURCES Tanhuma, 169 Debarim Rabbah (Deuteronomy), 170 Bemidbar Rabbah (Numbers), 171 Sirach, 179 Psalms of Solomon, 180 Gospels and Acts, 183 Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 187 Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 190 Jubilees, 193 The Schismatic Sect in Damascus, 200 1 Maccabees, 205 2 Maccabees, 206 Flavius Josephus, 208 Philo, 211

CHAPTER CRITICAL

I

PRINCIPLES

T H E aim of the present work is to exhibit the religious concep­ tions and moral principles of Judaism, its modes of worship and observance, and its distinctive piety, in the form in which, by the end of the second century of the Christian era, they attained general acceptance and authority. The evolution of this norma­ tive Judaism and the causes of its supremacy have been outlined in the historical part of this Introduction. It remains to give account briefly here of the sources from which the following representation of Judaism is derived. This survey is not intended to serve a bibliographical purpose, but to put readers who may not be familiar with this literature in a position to use these volumes understandingly. For more detailed information recourse may be had to H. Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed. (1921); E. Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 4 ed. (1901-1909), 3 volumes; J. Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain (1914), 2 volumes; and to the relevant articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906), 12 volumes. For the Apo­ crypha and Pseudepigrapha see also the introductions to the several books in R. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913), 2 volumes. In any such undertaking the primacy is properly given to those sources which are recognized by the religion itself as au­ thentic. The historian who attempts to set forth the theology and ethics of the Christian church, say in the Ante-Nicene period, takes as fundamental the men and the books which the church has accepted as in the line of the catholic tradition, authentic ex1

1

Schiirer is cited by the pages of the 3d edition, which are carried in the headlines of the 4th. 125

SOURCES

126

[INTRODUCTION

ponents of its doctrine and discipline; and especially the consen­ sus of the representative leaders and the official acts of synods and councils. There are many other writings to which no such authority was accorded. Some of them the church at large ig­ nored; some it repudiated as infected with error or as plainly heretical. The interest of much of this material is considerable, and its value to the historian as a whole very great for the insight it gives into the varieties of belief and opinion among Christians, and the way in which the doctrine of the church was formed in conflict with sects and heresies, and ultimately prevailed. The number of Christians who were addicted to one or another of these factions was large; some of them in certain regions were serious rivals of the catholic church, and themselves professed to be the true church. But whatever use the historian may make of their literature, he does not form from it his conception of Christianity or mix it up with the sources which contain the recognized teachings of the church. The same obvious methodical principle applies to Judaism. It may properly claim to be represented by the teachers and the writings which it has always regarded as in the line of its catholic tradition, all the more because the resulting consensus is authori­ tative, and is embodied in a corpus of tradition possessing not only universal authority but in some sense finality. Numerous other Jewish writings have come down to us from these centur­ ies, to which neither biblical nor rabbinical authority attached. With the exception of Sirach, they are ignored in the Tannaite literature and in the Talmud, or only included as a class in a pro­ hibition of reading from "extraneous books." Considering the character of the rabbinical literature on the one hand and of these writings on the other, there is nothing particularly signifi­ cant in this silence. Some of these books are edifying popular tales, such as Judith and Tobit, or moral counsels in a setting of ancient story like the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs; Jubilees is bent on a radical reconstruction of the calendar which 1

1

With a solitary exception, in Christian hands.

CHAP, i]

CRITICAL PRINCIPLES

127

would not commend itself to conservatives. From such books the historian gets glimpses of the religion of the times outside the schools, and inasmuch as these writings come chiefly from the centuries preceding the Christian era this evidence is welcome, even when not intrinsically of immense importance. A singular genus of literature which was in vogue in this period has an especial interest, namely the apocalypses, in which, in fantastic visions demanding angelic interpretations, the time and circumstance of the end of the present order of things, the secrets of nature, the interiors of hell and heaven with their occupants, are revealed to ancient seers and recorded by them for far distant times. Of these compositions we shall have occasion to speak further on. In the present connection it is sufficient to say that not only are the writings themselves ignored in the Tannaite literature, but many of the subjects with which they deal are foreign to it. It may be inferred from their number and volume that they found eager acceptance, particularly in times of tribu­ lation which inspired new ones and caused old ones to be re­ vamped to match a postponement of the date. One of the latest (4 Esdras) was written by a man of genius, and another (the Syriac Baruch) had an author full of haggadic lore. But it may well be doubted whether the exegetical and juristic studies of the rabbis, and under ordinary circumstances the hard realities of life for the people, let them get more excited about the end of the world and afterwards than either scholars or the mass of Chris­ tians today over the cabalistic combinations and chronological calculations of our own millenarians. However that may be, inasmuch as these writings have never been recognized by Judaism, it is a fallacy of method for the historian to make them a primary source for the eschatology of Judaism, much more to contaminate its theology with them. That Christians set a high value on the apocalypses is natural. The imminent return of Christ, as Daniel had seen the Son of 1

1

It does not appear that the authorities ever felt it necessary even to repudiate them.

SOURCES

128

[INTRODUCTION

Man in his vision, was a corner-stone of their faith. For Jews it was at most one of various ways in which, with prophetic au­ thority, the deliverance of Israel and the inauguration of a golden age could be conceived; to Christians it was the only one, for it was his own prediction. It is indeed not impossible that the earliest form of this belief accessible to us was influenced by such revelations as are preserved in the Book of Enoch (cc. 37-64). Christians had, therefore, the strongest motive for appropri­ ating every apocalypse they found in the hands of Jews, besides recasting similar material for themselves as in the Revelation of John. The entire tradition of the Jewish apocalyptic literature (excepting of course the Book of Daniel) is Christian, and the many versions of 4 Esdras show how wide and lasting its influ­ ence was. In Judaism nothing of the kind is to be discovered. The eschatological apocalypse, which from the days of Antiochus IV to those of Domitian had apparently revived in every crisis of the history, disappears completely. Personally conducted visits to Paradise and Gehenna were attributed to some favored rabbis, notably to Joshua ben Levi; and much later Enoch reemerges in a similar role with descriptions of the Heavenly Courts and the like, showing that some reminiscence of his journeys through the universe had survived or been revived. When we come to deal with Jewish teaching concerning the hereafter of the nation, the world, and the individual, we shall have occasion to take the testimony of the apocalypses for a type of eschatology which, at least in some circles, for two or three centuries attracted writers and readers, though, so far as the evidence goes, without countenance from the exponents of what we may call normal Judaism. But upon this, as on other points, normal Judaism must be allowed to speak for itself. 1

2

3

4

1

The Son of David (Messiah) coming with the clouds of heaven (Dan. 7, 13), or, lowly and riding on an ass (Zech. 9, 9). Sanhedrin 98a. See Part V I I . Mark 13 and parallels; cf. Acts 1, 1 - 1 1 ; 3, 19-23; I Thess. 4, 1 4 - 1 7 , etc. Several pieces of this sort are to be found in Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch (1853-1877, six parts). Among these particular mention may be made of that in Part V, pp. 170-190. Vol. II, pp. 278 ft. 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

CRITICAL PRINCIPLES

129

The most mischievous consequence of basing a representation of Judaism upon the apocalypses is not, however, in the sphere of eschatology but of theology — the idea of God. The concep­ tion of an extramundane God, remote and inaccessible in his majesty and holiness, — "transcendent" God, as they say,— which is set down in so many modern books as characteristically Jewish, is created in this way. As I have written elsewhere: "Whoever derives the Jewish idea of God chiefly from apoca­ lypses will get the picture of a God enthroned in the highest hea­ ven, remote from the world, a mighty monarch surrounded by a celestial court, with ministers of various ranks of whom only the highest have immediate access to the presence of the sovereign, unapproachable even by angels of less exalted station, to say nothing of mere mortals; and this not because theological re­ flection has elevated him to transcendence, but because the en­ tire imaginative representation is conditioned by the visionary form. If the prophet has a vision of the throne-room of God's palace, as in Isaiah 6, or the seer is conducted by an angel through one heaven after another to the very threshold of the adytum, what other kind of representation is possible? To extract a dogma from such visions is to misunderstand the origin and na­ ture of the whole apocalyptic literature." There are several reasons for the precedence given by many modern Christian authors to writings which Judaism does not recognize over those sources which it has always regarded as authentic. The first is that the prime interest of almost all who have written on the subject is in the beginnings of Christianity, to which Judaism serves as a background, an environment, and often, with a more or less conscious apologetic motive, as a con­ trast. Another, of a more temporary character, is the elation of discovery by which the just proportion of things is dislocated, as may be observed in the recent boom of the mysteries in the re1

1

'Christian Writers on Judaism/ Harvard Theological Review, X I V (1921), 247-248. For another source of this error see ibid., pp. 227-228, 33" 34.

2

2

I30

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

construction of early Christianity. The apocalypses and kindred writings, the most important of which (except the Latin of 4 Esdras) have come down to us chiefly in Oriental languages (Ethiopic, Syriac, Armenian, etc.), had engaged the attention of philol­ ogists well back in the last century, and much excellent work was done on them, not only in the editing and translating of texts and the investigation of the critical problems, but in the discussion of the bearings of these discoveries on the history of Judaism and Christianity, but these labors made little stir outside the circle of the learned. In the present generation, the English scholar R. H. Charles has been indefatigable in editing, translating, and commenting on these books, and in popularizing the whole sub­ ject. These writings are therefore accessible in modern translations; the Apocrypha and such books as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs have long been known in Greek or Latin. Of the rabbinical sources, on the contrary, a great part, including those which are of the first importance for such an investigation, are not available in translation at all; while their nature is such that the best translation is in many cases intelligible only to those who are acquainted with the ways of the original. Quite natu­ rally recent Christian scholars who have written on Judaism have drawn chiefly on the sources they could read rather than on those they knew only through select quotations, and, when they introduce rabbinical parallels, not seldom exemplify the danger of quotation — frequently at several removes — without knowledge of the context or the hermeneutic method. In justification of the preference for the Apocrypha and Pseud­ epigrapha over the rabbinical sources it is often urged that the former are considerably the older; with the exception of the two great apocalypses, 4 Esdras and the Syriac Baruch, toward the end of the first century, almost all the rest precede the Christian era, while the oldest books in which the teachings of the Tannaim are preserved date, as such, from the end of the second century. 1

1

See Harvard Theological Review, u. s., pp. 235 f.

CHAP, i]

C R I T I C A L PRINCIPLES

131

Here, as not infrequently, the Christian era is taken as if in some way it marked an epoch in the history of Judaism. The point really in mind is that the books assigned to the preceding period were in circulation in the generation in which Jesus appeared and in that which produced the first three Gospels or their sources, and may, therefore, so far as dates go, have had some influence on the beginnings of the religious movement that became Chris­ tianity; while on the other hand, it is said, we cannot know how much of the teaching of the Tannaim, which we have only in compilations from the end of the second century, was really current in the time of Jesus and his immediate disciples. This chronological discrimination of sources has evidently no significance for Judaism itself, but only for the Jewish ante­ cedents of Christianity. Even from the latter point of view it is fallacious. If Jesus and his immediate disciples had any ac­ quaintance with notions such as we find in the apocalypses, say in Enoch 45-58, it may be taken for certain that they did not get them by reading the books, but by hearsay, perhaps remote hearsay. In the same way they had their knowledge of the teachings of the Scribes from the homilies of the synagogue and other religious discourses. With our Gospels the case is ante­ cedently somewhat different. One or more of the writers may have looked up things in books, as they undoubtedly looked up Bible texts and brought in more Scripture. But that even they drew immediately on apocalyptic writings is not demonstrable. The series of Tannaite sources begins to flow in any volume only with the reestablishment of the schools at Jamnia after the destruction of Jerusalem, that is, about the time when our trio of Gospels may be supposed to have attained the form in which we know them. But the task of Johanan ben Zakkai and his fellows was one of conservation, not of reformation. The following gen1

2

1

That in the sphere of religion and morals this skepticism is not justified will be abundantly evident in the sequel. There are places in the Gospel of Matthew which suggest contributions by a more learned hand. Cf., e.g., Matt. 5, 30, with Niddah 13b (R. Tarfon). See Vol. II, pp. 268 f. 2

132

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

erations made great progress both in the formulation and order­ ing of the rules of the oral law and in connecting them with the biblical law, and the interrupted work was taken up again after the war under Hadrian, but of anything like a new departure or a new religious attitude there is no indication. The Gospels themselves are the best witness to the religious and moral teaching of the synagogue in the middle forty years of the first century, and the not infrequent references, with ap­ proval or dissent, to the current Halakah are evidence of the rules approved in the schools of the Law and taught to the people. It is this relation between the Gospels and the teaching of the rabbis, whether tacitly assumed or criticized and controverted, which makes them the important source they are for a knowledge of the Judaism of their time, and on the other hand makes the rabbinical sources the important instrument they are for the understanding of the Gospels. The Gospels with the first part of the Acts of the Apostles are thus witnesses to authentic Jewish tradition, while the apocalypses (and the kindred element in the Gospels) represent groups, or at least tendencies, outside the main current of thought and life. 1

What may for brevity be called the rabbinical sources divide themselves into three classes. In the first place there are the rules of the traditional law (Halakot), succinctly formulated, generally without citation of the relevant biblical law or reason for the particular rule, eventually codified in six grand divisions with many chapters under each. Systematic compilations are called Mishnah; the individual rules are Mishnayot. The Midrash of the schools, frequently distinguished by modern scholars as the Halakic, or Tannaite, Midrash, constitutes the second class. It is in primary intent the juristic exegesis of the 2

1

On the opinion that much of this literature comes out of movement, by some identified with the Essenes, see Vol. II, pp. When Mishnah in the sense of ' study of tradition' is used in Mikra, 'study of the Bible/ it includes Halakah, Midrash, and See below, p. 319. 2

a sectarian 280 f. contrast to Haggadah.

CHAP, i]

C R I T I C A L PRINCIPLES

133

biblical laws, by means of which the rules of the traditional law are derived from the written law or connected with it. The third class is the Homiletical Midrash (Midrash Haggadah), which may be roughly described as collections of sermonic ma­ terial for ends of religious and moral instruction and edification. Like modern compilations made for a similar purpose, the Hom­ iletical Midrash draws largely upon the discourses of favorite preachers in the school or the synagogue, often by name; and these quotations, with or without an author's name, are passed on from one book to another for centuries. The Homiletic and Expository Midrashim are compilations for practical purposes. Their contents had no place in the school tradition like the Halakah and the Halakic Midrash; for the Haggadah, however highly it was valued, had no such authority. The oldest collections of this kind in our hands are from a time not far removed from the completion of the Palestinian Talmud. Many earlier authors are quoted in them by name, and the at­ tributions are frequently confirmed by other testimony or by in­ ternal evidence. The large body of anonymous matter, unless in particular instances it can be otherwise dated, may be of any age down to the final editing of the book — so far as there was such a stage in its history — or may have been introduced in copies of it after that from the Haggadah of the Talmud or from other ex­ tant or lost Midrashim. In this state of the case the anonymous Haggadah in these works can be used to any critical purpose for the period with which we are concerned only when it is parallel to known teaching of that time. There is indeed in most of this matter little originality of ideas, but great ingenuity in getting familiar lessons and morals into and out of biblical texts where nobody had ever looked for them, or in illustrating them by exempla, biblical or legendary, or newly invented parables. For our purpose the second class, the Tannaite Midrash, is first in importance. A3 has been said above, the books in which we have it all come substantially from the second century, and embody the authoritative teaching of the schools from the restor-

SOURCES

134

[INTRODUCTION

ation at Jamnia under Johanan ben Zakkai to the generation of the Patriarch Judah. They represent both the great schools of the beginning of that century, those of Akiba and Ishmael, and it may be assumed that where they agree, especially in principles or interpretations for which no authority is named and no dissent recorded, they reproduce the common tradition of the preceding generations, and in many cases, as can often be proved, of a longer past. The Mishnah collections are of the same age, and the established Halakah is in many instances of the highest value as evidence of the way and measure in which great ethical principles have been tacitly impressed on whole fields of the traditional law. The concise technical formulation of the rule requires ex­ planation outside itself, for which recourse must be had to the Talmud, and that in its turn often recurs to the Halakic Midrash. 1

2

1

2

Some striking examples in the laws of bargain and sale are cited in Part V . Like any code, the Mishnah demands a juristic commentary.

C H A P T E R II COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS

T H E Halakic Midrash is primarily interpretation of the laws in the Pentateuch. It does not, however, confine itself strictly to juristic exegesis even in the laws, and where narrative accom­ panies the laws sometimes includes the former also. The pro­ portion of legal and non-legal matter (Halakah and Haggadah) differs in the different books of the Pentateuch, but in all of them the latter forms a large, and in some instances even the larger, part of the contents. It is this religious and moral element by the side of the interpretation of the laws, and pervading it as principle, that gives these works their chief value to us. The Tannaite Midrash on Exodus is known as Mekilta. This Aramaic term (like the Hebrew Middah) means measure, norm, rule. Thus the hermeneutical rules of R. Ishmael are the Thir­ teen Middot. In the homiletical Midrash on Leviticus the books which a Bar Mekilan (Mekilta scholar) is supposed to have mastered (besides the Halakot) are called collectively Middot. Elsewhere we read that the professional reciter of traditions (Tanna) must be able to cite Halakot, Sifra, Sifre, and Tosefta. The name Mekilta is first found specifically appropriated to the Midrash on Exodus after the close of the Babylonian Talmud. It begins with the first piece of legislation, the law of the Passover in Exod. 12; goes on with the narrative from 13, 17, 1

2

3

1

Middot (Mekilata) in Lev. R. 3, 8 presumably correspond to the Sifra and Sifre of Kiddushin 49b. The Sifre of the Babylonian schools included Exodus as well as Num. Deut. See Hoffmann, p. 45 ff. Lev. R. 3, 1. See D . Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, p. 36. In a Response of one of the Geonim (Harkavy, no. 229, p. 107) it is referred to as the Palestinian Mekilta (IwiB* p&H). R. Nissim of Kairwan and R. Samuel ha-Nagid (first half of the n t h century) call it the Mekilta of R. Ishmael, by which name it has since been generally known. 2

3

135

I36

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

through eh. 19 to eh. 20 (Decalogue 20. 2-17), and the laws in 21 1-23, 19. After this only the sabbath laws in Exod. 31, 1 2 17, and 35, 1-3, are taken up. The conclusion of the covenant (Exod. 24, 1-11), Moses' ascent of the mount to receive the tables of stone (24, 12-18), with the sequel, the golden calf, the breaking of the tables of the law, etc. (Exod. 32-34), as well as the plans and specifications for the tabernacle and its furnish­ ings (25, 1-31, 11) and the execution of these directions (35, 4 40, 38) are not commented on. There is some reason to think that the original work covered more of Exodus than what is now extant. The basis of the Mekilta is a Midrash of the school of R. Ishmael, as is especially evident in the legal chapters, but many rabbis of the second century who were not of the school are quoted in it, down to the Patriarch Judah, whose name occurs over fifty times; his great contemporaries appear seldom, and later authorities hardly at all — not even R. Hiyya. It may fairly be inferred that the editor had for his additions a parallel second-century source (or sources), the chief authorities in which were Akiba with some of his contemporaries and disciples. On the single verse, Exod. 14, 15, utterances of a score of rabbis are adduced, from Shemaiah and Abtalion in the time of Herod to the Patriarch Judah at the end of the second century. Of peculiar interest in the Mekilta are the chapters on the de­ liverance of Israel at the Red Sea (Exod. 14) and the Song (15, 1--21). The former closes with a eulogy of faith (on 14, 31, 'They had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses'), in which biblical texts and examples are lavished on the theme, "Great is faith," the Jewish counterpart to Hebrews 11. To the literary beauty of that chapter there is no approach; but in the conception of faith as invincible trust in God, and in recog­ nition of such faith as the fundamental principle of religion, there is a full parallel. "Through faith alone Abraham our father ac­ quired this world and the world to come, as it is written, And 5

1

1

Such profusion, it should be said, is not the rule.

CHAP, ii]

C O M M E N T A R I E S ON T H E LAWS

137

Abraham had faith in the Lord, and He imputed it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15, 6). 'The righteous shall live through his faith' (Hab. 2, 4). The Midrash on the Song (Exod. 15) brings together clause by clause in profusion the biblical sentences on the greatness and the majesty of God; his might and his mercy; his relation to his people and his interventions on their behalf throughout their history and in the future; his incomparable godhead, sole in power and knowledge and above all in holiness; his eternal kingship. The hundreds of quotations introduced under these heads, and the lessons drawn from them in a few words scattered through the catena, come nearer than any other passage in this literature to being a connected exhibition of these topics in what may be called the biblical doctrine of God, as that doctrine was interpreted by Jewish scholars. Other aspects of the divine character are treated in the Tannaite Midrash in appropriate contexts. The most fruitful of these for the Jewish conception of God (in Exod. 33-34) is unfortunately not covered by the Mekilta. The editions of the Mekilta now in common use are: I. H. Weiss, Mechilta. Der alteste halachische und hagadische Cornmen tar zum Zweiten Buche Moses. Vienna, 1865. With an in­ troduction and commentary by the editor (in Hebrew). — M . Friedmann, Mechilta de-Rabbi Ismael, der alteste halachische und hagadische Midrasch zu Exodus. Vienna, 1870. With an introduction, critical and explanatory notes, and indexes (in Hebrew). The latter is the more highly esteemed, and in recent works the Mekilta is prevailingly cited by the pages of Fried­ mann's edition. Since this volume has become extremely rare, I have regularly given references to the pages of Weiss also, as well as to the chapters and sections of the Midrash itself, and sometimes to chapter and verse of Exodus. — J. Winter und A. Wiinsche, Mechiltha. Ein tannaitischer Midrasch zu Exodus. Erstmalig ins Deutsche iibersetzt und erlautert. Leipzig, 1909. With introduction, notes, indexes of biblical texts cited in the Mekilta, of the Tannaim whose names appear in it, and to its technical terminology. The volume answers all the purposes

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

which such a translation can be expected to serve. The notes give the most necessary elucidation. Some mediaeval authors cite a Midrash on Exodus, in which they found both legal and non-legal matter, under the name of Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, and scholars here and there down to the early sixteenth century show acquaintance with this work. That it was not identical with our Mekilta was demon­ strated by Friedmann in the introduction to his edition of the latter (pp. li-lv). In a conglomerate Midrash on the Pentateuch brought to Europe from Southern Arabia, called Midrash ha-Gadol (The Large Midrash), extracts from a Tannaite Midrash on Exodus different from our Mekilta were observed, and the conjecture was hazarded that they were taken from the lost Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai. A collection of these extracts was made by David Hoffmann, of Berlin, from a manuscript of the Midrash ha-Gadol in the Royal Library there, and published in parts in a periodical, Ha-Peles. In 1905, after further critical study, and with the control put in his hands by the independent tradition of the fragments (twelve scattered leaves) of a manuscript found in the Genizah at Cairo, Hoffmann issued a greatly revised edition of the whole, under the title Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai. The Midrash ha-Gadol is a compilation of the thirteenth cen­ tury at the earliest, the author of which drew freely on authors as late as Maimonides (d. 1204). Unlike the comprehensive Midrashic catena on the Bible, the Yalkut Shim'oni, the Midrash ha-Gadol gives no indication either in general or in particular of the sources from which its materials were taken, nor has the 1

2

3

1

R. Moses ben Nahman (d. ca. 1270) in his commentary on the Penta­ teuch in a half-dozen places. See Hoffmann, Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, p. 48; Introduction to his edition of Mechilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai (1905), p. vi. Vols. I - I V (1900-1904). In justification of this attribution see L. Ginzberg in the Lewy Fest­ schrift, pp. 403 ff. 2

3

CHAP, ii]

C O M M E N T A R I E S ON T H E LAWS

139

compiler any conscience about trimming his texts, or mixing up extracts from the dictionary and mediaeval commentators with those from the Talmuds and the ancient Midrashim, and, worse yet, about dressing up passages from Maimonides' Code and other authors in Talmudic style and introducing them by the technical formula for Tannaite tradition. Nor did he take the trouble to mark the place where he dropped one source and went on with another. The extrication of a single lost source from this medley and the reconstruction of it in continuity is an enterprise in criticism, on the difficulty of which it is unnecessary to expatiate. Two circumstances came to the critic's help. One was that for Exodus the compiler appeared to have had only one source of the kind, so that extensive conflation had not to be reckoned with; the second, that the dozen pages of the Genizah manuscript furnish for several considerable passages an opportunity to test the com­ piler's method. That there is a large residuum of uncertainty, the editor fully recognizes. The legal part turns out to be, as was anticipated, a Midrash of the school of Akiba, and here the differences, formal and ma­ terial, from the Mekilta of R. Ishmael are salient. In the nonlegal portions (Haggadah), on the other hand, the differences between the two are few; the greater part of the matter is com­ mon to both. It has been surmised with some probability that this Midrash is identical with a collection cited in the Talmuds as Tane Hizkiah, or Tanna de-Be Ilizkiah, attributed to R. Hezekiah son of R. Hiyya, in the early third century. Among the names of the Tannaim the contemporaries of the Patriarch 1

2

3

4

5

1

S. Schechter, Midrash Hag-gadol (Genesis), 1902, p. xiii. The Midrash ha-Gadol on Exodus (to Exod. 20, 21) was edited by D . Hoffmann, Berlin, 1913, and the completion of the book is expected from L . Ginzberg. Hoffmann, Preface, § 2, p. viii. Namely, the Parashahs Beshallah and Yitro to the end of Exod. 19. Hoffmann, Preface, § 3, p. xi. Hoffmann remarks that the same thing is true in the Sifre of Numbers (school of Ishmael) and the Sifre Zuta: the haggadic parts are almost the same. Ibid., § 4, p. xii. 2

3

4

5

SOURCES

I4O

[INTRODUCTION

Judah are more numerous than in our Mekilta, but there the array ends. It is noteworthy that in Hoffmann's index neither R. Hiyya nor his son Hezekiah appears. The parts of the Book of Exodus over which the Midrash ex­ tends are the same as in the extant Mekilta of R. Ishmael, ex­ cept that the volume edited by Hoffmann begins with Exod. 3, 1 (the call of Moses and his deprecation), followed by 6, i. In an appendix (pp. 167-173) the editor has collected other pieces on verses here and there in chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. 1

The edition is: D . Hoffmann, Mechilta de-Rabbi Simon b. Jochai, ein halakischer und haggadischer Midrasch zu Exodus. 1905. Pp. xvi, 180. With an introduction (in German), notes (in Hebrew), and an index of names. The Tannaite Midrash on Leviticus was known in the Baby­ lonian schools as Sifra de-Be Rab, The Book of the School, more frequently abridged to Sifra. The old name of the Book of Leviticus was Torat Kohanim, the Priests' Law, and the legal Midrash on the book is known by this name also. The contents of the Book of Leviticus are almost wholly legal, though there is a slender thread of narrative connection, and the law is sometimes, as in cc. 8-1 o, precedent instead of formal prescript. It deals not only with ritual but with many of the laws which regulated the religious life of the individual and the family, and with fundamental moral precepts. It was "filled with a multitude of legal rules" (Halakot), and it attached to them great promises on condition of obedience, and denounced the direst woes on unfaithfulness (Lev. 26, 3-45). It was well fitted, therefore, as, so to say, a compendium of the law, to be 2

3

4

5

6

1

The rabbis who contribute on 6, I , are specially worthy of note. Berakot l i b , 18b. Hoffmann, Einleitung,u.s. w. p. 35; cf. i6f. Others take Rab as a proper name (R. Abba Areka, head of the school at Sura; died in 247), understand­ ing either that he composed the work, or edited it, or that this was the recen­ sion used in his school. M . Megillah 3, 5. With which 16, 1 f., connects. See also Lev. 24, 10-23. 2

3

}

4 5

6

CHAP, ii]

COMMENTARIES ON T H E LAWS

141

the beginning of study in the schools both elementary and ad­ vanced. The Sifra is a continuous legal commentary on Leviticus, fol­ lowing the text almost clause by clause. Where the same law occurs in more than one context the comment also is occasionally repeated, but elsewhere a reference to the place where the sub­ ject is treated suffices. The redaction of Sifra is ascribed on internal evidence to R. Hiyya, an associate of the Patriarch Judah, and falls, therefore, in the early decades of the third century. The Talmud attri­ butes that part of the work for which no authority is named to R. Judah (ben Ila'i), and the inference is that R. Hiyya took the Midrash of R. Judah as the basis of his work. Another consid­ erable source was a Midrash of R. Simeon ben Yohai. Both these scholars were disciples of R. Akiba, and the book as a whole bears all the distinguishing marks of his school. It was redacted after the completion of our Mishnah, which the editor evidently had before him in some places in his work. The rabbis whose names occur most frequently in Sifra, besides Judah and Simeon and their common master Akiba, are Akiba's contem­ poraries, R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus), R. Jose the Galilean, R. Ishmael; his disciples, R. Meir and R. Jose (ben Halafta); and in the following generation, Rabbi himself and, less frequently, some of his distinguished colleagues. Later authorities are not quoted. The account of the installation of Aaron and his sons, Lev. 8, I - I O , 7, not being properly laws, seem not to have been dis­ cussed in the school of Akiba, and the editor had for them no commentary from R. Judah or R. Simeon ben Yohai. The gap is filled from other sources which show their different origin by 1

2

3

1

It has been suggested that the earliest schools were for the young priests, whose studies naturally began with this book. See D . Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, pp. 2off. As the anonymous element in the Mishnah is attributed to R . Meir. 'Erubin 96b; Sanhedrin 86a, etc. 2

3

SOURCES

I42

[INTRODUCTION

diversities in phraseology as well as substance. The chapters on incest (Lev. 18 and 20) were skipped in the public lectures in Akiba's school, and it is to be presumed that a Midrash of his school would also pass over these laws. Internal evidence sup­ ports this inference: the comment on them bears the marks of the Midrash of the school of Ishmael which was taken to fill the gap. From a similar source comes the so-called Baraita de-R. Ishmael prefixed to the Sifra, containing his thirteen hermeneutic rules. Notwithstanding its predominantly legal character, Sifra is one of the most valuable sources for the religion of the Tannaite period. In it the idea of the holiness of the people as the corre­ late of the holiness of God has its completest expression. 1

2

3

The editions most in use are: M. L. Malbim, Sifra, i. e., the Book Torat Kohanim, with the commentary (by the editor) HaTorah we'ha-Miswah. Bucharest, i860. — I. H. Weiss, Sifra de-Be Rab, i. e., the Book Torat Kohanim, with the commentary of Abraham ben David of Posquieres (d. 1198), etc. Vienna, 1862. — M . Friedmann had an edition of Sifra in hand, but his death left it unfinished. A fragment (as far as Lev. 3, 9) was published posthumously: Sifra. Der alteste Midrasch zu Levi­ ticus. 1908. There is no translation in a modern language, and the Latin translation in Ugolini Thesaurus cannot be depended on. 3

In my citations from the Sifra the folios and columns of Weiss' edition are given, as well as the name of the current division of the work and number of the section (Perek). 4

1

M . Ilagigah 2, 1, and Jer. Hagigah 77a. Ahare 13, 3 - 1 5 ; ^edoshim 9, 1-7; and 9, 1 1 - 1 1 , 14 (Weiss' numera­ tion). These passages are not in the first printed edition (Venice, 1545). See Weiss' notes on f. 85d, 91c. They are commented on, however, by R. Abraham ben David (d. 1198), and were therefore in the manuscripts known to him. See Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung, u.s.w., p. 29 f. Title in Hebrew. There was an older division into nine parts, but it is now divided into fourteen: 1. Wayyikra Nedabah (Lev. 1-3); 2. Wayyikra Hobah (Lev. 4-5); 3. Sau (Lev. 6-7); 4. Mekilta de-Millu'im (Lev. 8); 5. Shemini (Lev. 9 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

C O M M E N T A R I E S ON T H E LAWS

143

Under the name Sifre are comprehended two works which, though of diverse origin, have long been treated as one, namely, a Midrash on Numbers and one on Deuteronomy. Sifre is ap­ parently an abbreviation of Sifre de-Be Rab, Books of the School, that is, Midrash collections recognized in the Baby­ lonian schools by the side of Sifra on Leviticus. Into the diffi­ cult questions that arise about this nomenclature we have here no occasion to go; for us it is only the title of the volume gen­ erally known as Sifre. The Talmud makes R. Simeon (ben Yohai) the authority for Sifre so far as no other is named; but the Talmudic Sifre cannot be off-hand identified with the work that has reached us under this name; in fact, there are good grounds to the contrary. Our Sifre on Numbers begins with 5, 1, the first legal passage, and ends with the next to last chapter in the book (35, 34). On very considerable parts of Numbers, however, there is no Mid­ rash. These vacancies are chiefly in the narrative chapters, but are not confined to them. It would be rash to infer that these large gaps existed in the ancient Midrash; they may result from a subsequent curtailment which cut the book down to the legal part, and there are some indications that this was the case. Sifre on Numbers is from the school of R. Ishmael, like the Mekilta on Exodus, to which it has in all respects a close affinity. The disciples of R. Ishmael, R. Josiah and R. Jonathan, and others who hardly figure at all in Sifra, are here frequently quoted. The interpretations of the leaders of the rival school, 1

2

3

4

11); 6. Tazria* (Lev. 12); 7. Tazria* Nega'im (Lev. 13); 8. Mesora' Nega'im (Lev. 14); 9. Mesora' Zabim (Lev. 15); 10. Ahare Mot (Lev. 16-18); 11. ]£edoshim (Lev. 19-20); 12. Emor (Lev. 21-24); 13. Behar (Lev. 25); 14. Behukkotai (Lev. 26, 3-27, 34). See above on Sifra. Sifre de-Be Rab, Alfasi, R. Hananel, Rashi. Sanhedrin 86a. Solid omissions, ch. 13-14 (the spies, etc.); 16-17 (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram); 20-24 (from the death of Miriam to the death of Aaron); 22-24 (Balak, Balaam); 31, 25-35, 8. Thus, for instance, the offerings on New Year's and the D a y of Atone­ ment, 29, 1 - 1 1 , and the abbreviation of the rest of the chapter (Tabernacles). 1

2

3

4

144

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

Akiba, Simeon ben Yohai, R. Judah (ben Ila'i), also are often given, and those of Rabbi (the Patriarch Judah). As in the other Tannaite Midrashim, his contemporaries appear rarely, and with them the list ends. The redaction, therefore, like that of the others, probably falls in the early third century. Besides his principal source, the editor seems to have made use of others. A number of haggadic comments elsewhere ascribed by name to R. Simeon ben Yohai which are found in Sifre Num. are prob­ ably derived from a special source. The edition generally cited is: M . Friedmann, Sifre debe Rab, der alteste halachische und hagadische Midrasch zu Numeri und Deuteronomium. Vienna, 1864. With an introduction, critical and explanatory notes, and indexes. —The most recent edition is: H. S. Horovitz, Siphre d'be Rab, Fasciculus primus: Siphre ad Numeros adjecto Siphre Zutta, cum variis lectionibus et adnotationibus, ed. H. S. Horovitz. Leipzig, 1917. The introduction (in German) discusses the critical problems. The Sifre is cited by the numbered paragraphs, and, when they are long, by the pages of Friedmann's edition. As in Exodus the Midrash of the school of Ishmael (Mekilta) had a parallel from the school of Akiba, so in Numbers also there was a parallel to Sifre which is cited by some mediaeval authors as Sifre Zuta (Minor Sifre), which name has passed into modern books. Sifre Zuta is somewhat largely excerpted, by the side of our Sifre, in the Yalkut Shim'oni, and these extracts have the unmistakable marks of the school; on the other hand, they pre­ sent peculiarities which distinguish them from the most familiar works of that school as we know them in Sifra. It is inferred that the Midrash came from a less conspicuous branch of the school. The homiletic Midrash on Numbers, Bemidbar Rabbah, has drawn upon the Sifre Zuta in numerous places, and in the 1

2

3

1

Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai. For other names, see Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage der Juden, ed. 2, p. 51, n.d. For a list see Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung, u.s.w., pp. 61 f. In these com­ pilations there is no indication of the source. 2

3

CHAP, ii]

C O M M E N T A R I E S ON T H E LAWS

145

Midrash ha-Gadol on Numbers there are many extracts which are not in our Sifre, and of which the Sifre Zuta may be sur­ mised to be the source. Where there is no other evidence, the habits of the compiler very often leave the ascription highly dubious. In Horovitz's edition of the Sifre on Numbers the prob­ able (or possible) remains of the Zuta are collected (pp. 227336), the most doubtful being marked with a °. A fragment of a manuscript from the Cairo Genizah containing Num. 31, 23 f.; 35, 11-20, was printed by Schechter in the Jewish Quarterly Review, VI (1894), 657-663. The half of our Sifre containing the Midrash on Deuteronomy is not all of one piece. The legal part (Deut. 12, 1-26, 15) comes from the school of Akiba, resembling Sifra but with minor pe­ culiarities of its own. One of these is the frequent formal deduc­ tion of the Halakah from the exegesis of the text. Differences of our text from that of quotations in the Babylonian Talmud suggest that, as in the case of Sifra, the book has come down to us in a Palestinian recension, and Hoffmann, attributing the original redaction to R. Simeon ben Yohai, conjectures that this recension represents the school of R. Johanan (bar Nappaha). The references to the Halakah seem to point to our Mishnah, and the recension in our hands is evidently later than Rabbi. The exegesis of the laws, beginning with Deut. 12, is preceded by Midrash on passages in the earlier chapters (1, 1-30; 3, 2329; 6, 4-9 (Shema*); 11, 10-32 (containing the second para­ graph in the recitation of the Shema', Deut. 1 1 , 13-21). The last two are from the school of Ishmael; the first two are ap­ parently composite, the predominant element being from Simeon ben Yohai combined with extracts derived from the school ol Ishmael. What follows the legislation (Deut. 31, 14; 32, 1-34, 12) is, like the Midrash on the laws, from the school of Akiba (R. Simeon ben Yohai). The comment on the Deuteronomic legislation (12-26) occupies 1

1

They contain, however, passages from Simeon ben Yohai, e.g., § 3 1 , where he claims that his interpretation of four passages is better than Akiba's

I46

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

1

less than half of the Sifre, and such passages as are named above in Deut. 6 and 11 are peculiarly fruitful sources for religious and moral instruction. Of especial interest in another way is the topographical section on the boundaries of the land at different times, and on its towns and cities (§51). From the nature of much of the legislation in Deuteronomy, a great deal in the Midrash on chapters 12-26 is of quite as great value for the religious and moral teaching of Judaism in this period as the parts called haggadic; take for illustration the topic of charity and the relief of the poor, or the principles of justice. References are made to Friedmann's edition, as on Numbers. Of the Sifre on Deuteronomy there is a recent German trans­ lation by Gerhard Kittel: Sifre zu Deuteronomium. Part I. Stuttgart, 1922. With useful notes. The Sifre has evidently not reached us in its original extent, as appears from quotations in the Talmuds and later writings which are no longer found in our copies. The Midrash ha-Gadol on Deuteronomy contains, besides many excerpts which sub­ stantially agree with our Sifre and are doubtless taken from it, much that obviously comes from a different Tannaite source (or sources). D. Hoffmann, whose reconstruction of the Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai (on Exodus) has been described above, has collected from the Midrash ha-Gadol and elsewhere these remains of Tannaite Midrash on Deuteronomy, to which he has properly given the non-committal title, Midrasch Tannaim zum Deuteronomium (two parts, Berlin, 1908,1909). The preface (in German) sets forth the relation of this material to our Sifre, and the editor's method. Indexes of the biblical quotations, of the names of the Tannaim and others, and of places, add to the usefulness of the volume. Three fragments of Tannaite Midrash on Deuteronomy from the Cairo Genizah were printed by S. Schechter in the Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, IV (1904), 446-452 and 6951

Three sevenths, Hoffmann reckons.

CHAP, ii]

COMMENTARIES ON T H E LAWS

147

697, containing respectively Deut. 11,31-12, 3, and 12, 27-13, 1; Deut. 11, 26-29; and Deut. 13, 14-19, which Hoffmann reprints (pp. 56-62, and 69-71). Through the recent additions to our resources (Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, Sifre Zuta, Midrash Tannaim) we possess large parts of two series of Midrash on Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which, though more or less incomplete, supple­ ment one another in such a way as to constitute an amply suffi­ cient source for the religious and moral teaching of the Tannaim, and for the interpretation of the particular laws controlled by the fundamental principles of religion and morals. The value of these works to the historian is enhanced by the fact that they fall in a sharply circumscribed period, beginning with the associates and disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai and closing a century and a half later with the contemporaries of the Patriarch Judah, while much the larger part of it proceeds from the schools of the great disciples of Akiba, transmitting and de­ veloping the teachings of their master, and correspondingly from the immediate disciples of Ishmael. A mean lower limit for the bulk of this Midrash may be set about the year 175. The crisis of the war under Hadrian, and the edicts against the study of the Law, of which Akiba and Ishmael are reputed martyrs, di­ vides the period in the middle. It is a significant fact that, however much the two schools or individual authorities in them differed about what verse of Scripture a religious conception or a moral principle was to be derived from, or by what exegetical arts it was to be got out of the text, on the ideas and principles themselves there is virtual unanimity. There could be no better proof that this consensus is not an achievement of these generations but their common inheritance by tradition from a time long before the beginning of the rabbinical literature. 1

2

1

Cf. Midrasch Tannaim, pp. iv f. The accounts of the fate of Ishmael are less well attested than those about Akiba. 2

SOURCES

I48

[INTRODUCTION

From the legal Midrash in the narrower sense a long previous development of the Halakah is to be inferred, according with other evidence. But there is every probability that in the exact definition and formulation, and especially the organization, of the Halakah, there was much greater activity in the schools after the crises of 66-72 and 132-134 and much more of new de­ velopment than there was need or room for in the field of longestablished religious ideas and moral principles. The stability of the latter is attested by the Gospels, the Book of Sirach, and the popular writings of the intervening centuries, and by the Scrip­ tures themselves. In the discussions of the Mishnah in Babylonian schools cer­ tain writings containing Midrash on the legislative books of the Pentateuch were cited with formulas which imply that more deference was paid to them than to others of a similar kind from which quotations are also made. That this authentic Midrash of the school represented the tradition of the school of R. Akiba through his eminent disciples, R. Judah ben Ila'i, R. Simeon ben Yohai, and others, is unquestioned, though, with the exception of Sifra, their precise relation to the books in our hands is un­ certain. The Midrash of the school of R. Ishmael also is very frequently cited in the Babylonian Talmud as well as in the Palestinian Talmud and the homiletical Midrashim. There are, besides these, very many quotations from Tannaite Midrash without the name of any authority. The same is true in Palestine, where the schools do not seem to have fixed upon any one series of Midrash as in a sense official, just as they had no official Targum such as Onkelos was in Babylonia. Such quotations in the Talmuds from Tannaite sources are called Baraita, 'extraneous' tradition, i. e., outside the authoritative Mishnah; and this name is given both to quotations of formulated rules (Halakah) from our Tosefta and other Mishnah collections, 1

2

3

1 2 3

Tanna de-Be R a b ; contrast Tanna de-Be R. Ishmael (Tane R. Ishmael). See the Response of R. Sherira, ed. Lewin, pp. 39-41. A list of the places is given by Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung, u.s.w., pp. 18 f.

CHAP, ii]

C O M M E N T A R I E S ON T H E LAWS

i

4 9

and to those in the form of Midrash, the connection of the rule with Scripture or derivation from it, so that we may distinguish Mishnah Baraita and Midrash Baraita. A good deal of the matter thus embodied in the Talmud is from the Midrash books described above; but there is also much from lost works of the same character and age. The general accuracy of the quotations which we can verify warrants confidence in those that we cannot. The Baraitas in the Talmuds are of great use in the critical study of the extant Midrash books; and they add not immaterially to the volume of authentic second-century (Tannaite) teaching.

CHAPTER

III

FORMULATION AND CODIFICATION

the name Mishnah is used in contrast to Midrash, as we have already seen, it designates the branch of Jewish learning which has particularly to do with the rules of the traditional law (Halakot) as such. The question which is the older method of study, Midrash or Mishnah, is one of those simplified alterna­ tives to which a simple answer cannot be given. There is a strong presumption that the biblical studies of the ancient Soferim and of the learned in the priesthood were primarily di­ rected to the interpretation of the Scriptures, so far as they dealt with the laws, and the more precise understanding and applica­ tion of what the Scripture enjoined or forbade. In this sense the Midrash form is the older. On the other hand, a multitude of traditional laws were of im­ memorial antiquity and had prescriptive authority independent of Scripture, and there were besides the numerous ordinances and injunctions (Takkanot and Gezerot) of earlier authorities. From the second century before the Christian era, if not earlier, probably in some connection with the Pharisaean movement, the Scribes annexed the whole field of traditional law, and made it their business to know and to teach its rules as a distinct branch of learning. This led to a more technical formulation, and to the endeavor to group them in some association, by num­ bers or otherwise, in order to facilitate memorizing them. If

WHEN

1

2

1

This definition is a potiori. There is in our Mishnah one whole book (Pirke Abot) the contents of which are pure Haggadah in a precise formula­ tion resembling the Halakah, and there are pieces of Haggadah elsewhere, e.g., at the end of M . 'Eduyot, on the mission of Elijah. So also there are elements derived from the juristic Midrash, which in the Tosefta are much more common. On this subject see J. Z. Lauterbach, * Midrash and Mishnah,' Jewish Quarterly Review, N . S., V (1914-15), 503-527; V I , 23-95, 3°3-^ 2

150

CHAP, in]

FORMULATION A N D CODIFICATION

151

this reconstruction of the history is sound, it may be said that, as a discipline conscious of the task of connecting the written and the unwritten law, the Tannaite Midrash assumes the existence of Halakot. The discovery of biblical texts for traditional laws was facilitated by new methods of exegesis, especially in the school of Akiba. Some weight may be laid also on the order of studies in the school, which began with the memorizing of the Halakot or Mishnayot (single sentences of the Mishnah), and went on thence to the biblical Midrash. In the schools of the second century both branches of learningwere cultivated; there were numerous Mishnah collections as there were numerous Midrash collections. Early in the third century the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah acquired unique authority in Babylonia as well as in Palestine, but the others were not thereby extinguished. They are frequently cited in the Talmuds with the formula for Tannaite tradition, and occasion­ ally in the name of the master from whose school they came. They contribute thus to the volume of Baraita which represents to us the teaching of second-century Judaism. It may not be superfluous to say that this matter, like the whole survival of Tannaite tradition, including the Baraita, is in " the language of the learned, the scholastic Hebrew of the Tannaim. ,,

1

The Mishnah — to use this name henceforth not generically, for a kind of literature, but specifically for the codification issued by the Patriarch Judah — traces its lineage through R. Meir to R. Akiba. The actual process was much more complex than this simple formula, which is in fact not concerned with history but with authority. We have no occasion, however, to involve our­ selves in the origins of the Mishnah. The classification of the rules of the traditional law under certain topics for memory and discussion was probably as old as the need for it. The complete systemization is attributed to Akiba; the carrying out of the 1

The often-repeated statement that Hebrew is the language of the Mishnah, while that of the Gemara is Aramaic, is true, so far as the latter is concerned, only a potiori.

SOURCES

i5*

[INTRODUCTION

system, to his disciples; the particular redaction which gained unique authority, to the Patriarch Judah. In this, as in the Mishnahs of other teachers, the rules of the traditional law are brought under six heads, constituting so many grand Divisions of the work, called Sedarim, viz.: i, Zera'im; 2, Mo'ed; 3, Nashim; 4, Nezikin; 5, Kodashim; 6, Toharot. Zera'im ('Seeds') contains the laws on agriculture, such as the prohibition of mixed plantations, and especially the taxes for religious and charitable purposes imposed on the prod­ ucts of the soil. To it is prefixed the important Berakot, on the Prayers. Mo'ed (' Festivals') is sufficiently described by its name. It includes the laws for the Sabbath, New Moon, New Year's, and all the seasonal and occasional feasts and fasts. Nashim ('Women'), laws dealing with marriage and divorce, the levirate, adultery, etc.; Nezikin ('Injuries'), civil and criminal law; godashim (' Consecrated Things'), sacrifices and offerings, ritual, etc.; Toharot ('Cleanness'), laws of clean and unclean in things and persons, purifications, etc. Each of these principal Divisions is made up of a number of Parts (Massektot), embracing laws on particular subjects that fall under the general head, e. g., in the Division on Festivals, the Sabbath, Passover, Day of Atonement, etc. Each Part is subdivided into Chapters (Perakim), and the Chapters into Para­ graphs, each of which is called a Mishnah (in the Palestinian Talmud, a Halakah). The Massekta (Part) is cited by name, the Chapters and Paragraphs in the editions of the Mishnah now 1

2

3

4

1

'Orders,' i. e., orderly arrangement of the laws on the several subjects. Cf. Seder, or Siddur, for a book in which the prayers are arranged in order. T o Nezikin is appended Pirke Abot, the Chapters of the Fathers — aphorisms, maxims, sentences, of the teachers of successive generations from the Men of the Great Synagogue down. Euphemistic for 'Uncleannesses.' Masseket, Massekta, has an etymology and an evolution of meaning similar to the Latin textus. The Latin translation of the Mishnah rendered it by Tractatus, whence in English the Parts are often called 'tractates' or 'tracts,' or 'treatises,' a name which gives the uninitiated reader a notion very unlike the thing. 2

3

4

CHAP, in]

FORMULATION A N D CODIFICATION

153

1

usually by number, e. g., M . Pesahim 2, 4, i. e., Mishnah, Mas­ sekta Pesahim (Passover), Chapter 2, Paragraph 4. The disposition of the Mishnah answers its practical purposes, though it sometimes brings in subjects in a place where in a strictly logical arrangement they would not be looked for. Thus, Vows (Nedarim) are put in the division Nashim, evidently be­ cause in Num. 30, 2-17, women's vows, and the right of the father or husband under certain conditions to annul them, are the princi­ pal subject; only verse 2 has to do with the vow of a man who is sui juris. The only other passage which treats of the subject in any detail, Lev. 27, is concerned only with the valuation of com­ muted vows, which in the Mishnah is dealt with under 'Arakin ('Valuations'), in Division V (Kodashim). The subsumption of Vows under Women has for a further consequence that the Nazirite's vow (Nazir), the rules to be observed by him, and the ritual for the dissolution of the vow at its term (Num. 6), are also drawn into the same division. Similar observations may often be made on the contents of the several Parts (Massektot). Didactic reasons frequently prevail over strictly systematic con­ siderations, and quite properly, inasmuch as the Mishnah was not a code but an educational instrument. Different Parts of the Mishnah vary considerably in character, partly in consequence of the nature of the diverse subjects with which they have to do, partly because they are based upon earlier works proceeding from different individual scholars or different schools. That this was the case is recognized in traditions such as those which attribute the anonymous element in Tamid (the Daily Burnt Offerings) and Yoma (Day of Atonement) to a certain (otherwise obscure) R. Simeon of Mizpah, a contempor­ ary of Rabban Gamaliel I ; of Middot (description of the Herodian temple) to R. Eiiezer ben Jacob (generally taken for 2

3

4

1

2

Or simply Pesahim ii. 4. Cf. Deut. 23, 21-23. Yoma 14b (alleged for Tamid by R. Huna; for Yoma by R. Johanan). The only other notice of this Simeon is in M . Peah 2, 6. R. Huna in Yoma 16a, above. See Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, p. 73 (ed. Warsaw, 1923, p. 76); Bacher, Tannaiten, I , 62 f. 3

4

SOURCES

154

[INTRODUCTION

the older of the name, contemporary with Akiba); and other like testimonies. There is strong probability for the opinion that some if not all of these remoter sources of our Mishnah were in writing, as well as the mid-century Mishnahs and Midrashes of Akiba's dis­ ciples. That the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah was redacted and published in writing — so far as publication can be said of such a work — is affirmed by Sherira Gaon in the Response re­ ferred to above. It is demonstrable that additions and changes crept into the text of the Mishnah after the Patriarch's death; such can almost always be certainly recognized, and do not amount to anything serious. The Mishnah has been transmitted in manuscripts and in print as an independent work, and also in the two Talmuds as the text for the discussions of the Amoraim. Each of the Tal­ muds, again, has had its own channels of transmission. Some textual diversity has arisen in this way, but on the whole the constancy of the tradition is satisfactory. A critical edition of the Mishnah, as a philologist would use that phrase, does not exist, though some individual parts have been edited unpretentiously for learners, but with a critical text and well-selected apparatus, by Hermann Strack. A more am­ bitious enterprise is: G. Beer and O. Holtzmann, Die Mischna. Text, Ubersetzung und ausfuhrliche Erklarung. Several parts edited by different scholars have appeared, of very variable quality. The commentary is frequently quite inadequate, while some of the authors expatiate, especially in the introductions, on things that have no relevancy to the matter in hand. The edition that has been most useful to Christian scholars in the past is that of Surenhusius, in six folio volumes (i698-1703), with a Latin translation of the text and of the most approved Jewish commentaries (Maimonides and Obadiah of Bertinoro), together with additional comments and notes by Christian schol­ ars, and extensive indexes. Modern Jewish editions commonly give the commentary of Bertinoro (died ca. 1500) and the notes and glosses (Tosafot) of Y o m T o b (Lipmann Heller, died 1654). 1

Beginning in 1913.

CHAP, in]

FORMULATION A N D CODIFICATION

155

The commentary of Maimonides (d. 1204) is printed in modern editions of the Babylonian Talmud after each Part. The Tosefta is a work of the same class with our Mishnah. The disposition in six grand Divisions, the order of the primary subdivisions, and in the main the subjects treated in each are the same, and in many instances the formulation of the basic Halakah is identical. On the other hand, the Tosefta treats the subjects more at large than the Mishnah, very often giving the biblical ground of the rule or the reason for it, which the Mish­ nah rarely does. There is, thus, a close connection between the two, and a strik­ ing difference of method which points to a different school. R. Johanan reports that the Mishnah derives from Akiba through R. Meir, the Tosefta through another of Akiba's disciples, R. Nehemiah; but this schematic filiation throws no light on the salient difference of method in two collections both of which go back to Akiba, nor does it account for the frequent obvious dependency of the Tosefta on our Mishnah. The name Tosefta (probably originally plural, Tosefata), 'Supplement' (Supple­ ments), indicates the relation which the work was thought to have to the Halakic tradition or to our Mishnah. It is, however, in many cases an amplified Mishnah giving the text of our Mishnah with additions, rather than supplementary notes to the Mishnah, while in others it has matter which is intelligible only by recourse to sentences in our Mishnah which are not reproduced. The redaction of the Tosefta of the Babylonian schools is at1

2

3

4

1

Abot, Tamid, Middot, and Kinnim are lacking. In the subdivisions the Tosefta occasionally follows a different and perhaps an earlier arrangement of the Mishnah. It has thus an obvious affinity to the Tannaite Midrash, with which as Baraita it is coupled, and sometimes approximates a Talmudic treatment. Sanhedrin 86a. Did Akiba himself employ both methods? See Frankel, Darke haMishnah, pp. 304-307 (ed. Warsaw, 1923, pp. 322-325); Lauterbach, in Jewish Encyclopedia, X I I , 207-209. This theory has not found much ac­ ceptance. 2

3

4

156

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

tributed by mediaeval authorities to R. Hiyya, an associate of the Patriarch Judah, to whom the editing of Sifra is now ascribed. Whatever the relation of the work to R. IJiyya, the compiler probably drew on other contemporary collections, the "Large Mishnahs" of R. Hosha'ya and others. The internal evidence goes to show that the compilation falls in the first part of the third century, but also makes it probable that various additions were early made to it. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the relations of the Tosefta and the Mishnah which need not be discussed here. What is to our purpose is that, while in the Talmudic dis­ cussions of the traditional law it ranks only as a collateral au­ thority like the Tannaite Midrash, the Tosefta is, from the his­ torical point of view, a no less authentic, and, from its peculiar character, a more fertile, source. It has also escaped the attention of the censorship, which excised, especially from the Babylonian Talmud, whatever it found offensive to Christian sensibilities. 1

The Tosefta is found appended to the editions of Alfasi's Halakot (Venice, 1521, and thereafter). A separate edition, with the use of two manuscripts, was published by M . S. Zuckermandei, Pasewalk, 1881. With a supplement containing a synopsis of the contents of the Tosefta, indexes, and a glossary (Trier, 1882). In the Mishnah there is one tractate which demands especial notice, namely the Pirke Abot, appended to the Division Ne­ zikin. These Chapters of the Fathers are wholly different in character from the rest of the Mishnah, for in an otherwise ex­ clusively Halakic collection it contains no Halakah. Its appro­ priateness, and the probable reason for its inclusion, lies in the fact that it begins with the concatenated tradition of the Law from Moses down to Shammai and Hillel, with whom the school tradition starts. From the Men of the Great Synagogue on, there is attributed to each of the living links in this chain a pithy sentence, which is, so to say, his individual motto. The series was continued in the same way to Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai 1

Sherira Gaon, ed. Lewin, pp. 6, 34 f.; cf. p. 39 (3Jiyya and Hosha'ya).

CHAP, in]

FORMULATION A N D CODIFICATION

157

and his disciples, from whom more numerous sayings are re­ ported. The collection grew by accretion, other memorable utterances of the older generations being introduced into it, and by extension, each new generation contributing of its wisdom. Chapter 5 is made up of numerical groups, without authors' names, e. g., by ten utterances the world was created, ten generations from Adam to Noah and ten from Noah to Abra­ ham, ten trials of Abraham, ten miracles for the forefathers in Egypt, etc. Chapter 6, called the Baraita of R. Meir from the fact that the first sayings in it are in his name, is a loose ap­ pendix of obviously later date. The first four chapters consist of moral and religious aphor­ isms, a kind of rabbinical Book of Proverbs with the authors' names indicated. They differ from the Proverbs of Solomon and the Wisdom of Ben Sira in being especially applicable to scholars and students. They are in a sense the ethics of a class, but of a class to which ideally all Jews should belong. It is significant that the Chapters of the Fathers were ultimately taken up into the synagogue service and are regularly read on sabbath after­ noons during a certain part of the year. The custom is at least as old as the age of the Geonim, being referred to in the Siddur of Rab Amram. The level of these sayings is very high, and, for a knowledge of the ideals of rabbinical ethics and piety, no other easily accessible source is equal to the Abot. 1

2

3

4

There is an edition with translation and commentary by C. Taylor: Sayings of the Jewish Fathers. Cambridge, 1877 and 1897. — A Talmudic catena by Noah Kobryn (Warsaw, 1868) brings together parallels to each sentence of the Abot from the Talmuds and the Midrashim, with a running commentary, and is a most useful key to the whole body of ethical Haggadah. See Strack, 1. c , p. 54: Kern der Sammlung 1, 1 - 1 5 ; 2, 8-14; 5, 1-5, 7-10, 13-18. Soweit reicht der Parallelismus mit Aboth d Rabbi Nathan. Also called ]£inyan Torah, "Acquisition of the L a w / ' from the content of these initial sayings. This is the use of the German and Polish rites. See I . Abrahams, Com­ panion to the Daily Prayer Book, pp. clxxvi ff. See below, pp. 176 f. 1

e

2

3

4

SOURCES

I58

[INTRODUCTION

With the Abot must be mentioned the Abot de-R. Nathan which is sometimes called a Tosefta (supplement) to Abot. The R. Nathan in the title is probably meant to be Nathan the Baby­ lonian, who filled the office of vice-president (Ab Bet Din) under R. Simeon ben Gamaliel. If there is anything in the attribution, it cannot apply to any form of the work that we know, which plainly comes from a much later time than the middle of the second century. The relation to Abot is not the same through­ out. The first p a r t may be described as an expansive Midrash on Abot chapters 1 and 2; the second (cc. 19-30) is rather a par­ allel in form and content to Abot chapters 3 and 4 than an am­ plification and exposition like the preceding; cc. 31-41 are numerical like Abot chapter 5. 1

In editions of the Babylonian Talmud the Abot de-R. Nathan is printed in an appendix to the fourth Order (Nezikin), along with other minor tractates, chiefly from the Gaonic age, which are no part of the Talmud itself. There are manuscripts repre­ senting a different recension, which Schechter's edition puts in parallel to the common text; the latter is also revised on manu­ script authority. 2

3

A work of a different kind, the core of which at least belongs to the Tannaite period, and which enjoyed great authority in its field, is the Seder 'Olam, a chronological synopsis of biblical his­ tory from Adam down to the age of Alexander (Daniel), and a continuation in brief to the destruction of the second temple and the war under Hadrian. The endeavor to fix the dates of He­ brew history by the data given in the Scriptures had been made by an earlier chronologer, Demetrius, probably an Alexandrian Jew, of whose work only scanty fragments have survived. The 4

1

Chapters 1-18 in the common numeration. On these see H. Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed., pp. 72-74, and the relevant articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Among them the tracts on morals and manners (Derek Eres) may be particularly noted. Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan (Vienna, 1887), ^ introduction, develop­ ing a critical theory of the antecedents of the work. C. Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, III, 214-217. See Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, III, 349-351. 2

3

4

w

t n

a

n

CHAP, in]

FORMULATION A N D CODIFICATION

159

Book of Jubilees imposes its peculiar system on the history from Adam to Moses. For the post-exilic period the author of Seder 'Olam had no sufficient sources, and his schematic chronology of the Persian centuries and thereafter, as has been shown above, is widely in error. In c. 30 the destruction of the temple (70 A.D.), 490 years after the first destruction, begins a new era (from the Destruction of the Temple), while, as the author remarks, in the Diaspora the Seleucid era (312 B.C.) was commonly employed. The last chapters are evidently mutilated, and, between that and the attempts to fill up the conclusion, are often unintelligible. The author of the Seder '01am displays great ingenuity both in his method and in the application of it, and, whether that was his intention or not, laid the foundation for a chronology based on the Era of Creation. A computation from the creation in even millenniums is found in 'Abodah Zarah 9a, citing Tanna de-Be Eliahu. Seder '01am is several times cited in the Talmud with the introductory formula for Tannaite tradition (Baraita). The authorities cited in it are almost all prominent teachers of the early and middle second century. R. Johanan attributed the transmission of the work to R. Jose (ben Halafta), who had studied under Akiba and took part in the Galilean restoration after Hadrian. In several places in our Seder '01am, R. Jose is introduced by name (e. g., c. 28, near the end), from which it may be inferred either that these passages were inserted by a later hand (Zunz), or, if they are from his own, that for the bulk of the book he was only transmitting an older tradition. The Seder '01am is in Hebrew, like the rest of the contempor­ ary literature. 1

2

3

4

The edition cited in the present volumes is that of B. Ratner: Seder 01am Rabba, die Grosse Weltchronik. Wilna, 1897. With 1

Not for historical purposes, but for the date of the beginning of the messianic age in God's original plan. See Seder Eliahu Rabba, ed. M . Friedmann, p. 6, below; and Friedmann's Introduction, p. 46. 'Abodah Zarah 8b; Megillah l i b ; Shabbat 88a, etc. Yebamot 82b; Niddah 46b, below. 2

3

4

i6o

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

critical and explanatory notes (in Hebrew). —The same author published separately an introduction (Mebo leha-Seder 'Olam Rabbah). An edition of the first ten chapters, with an intro­ duction by A. Marx, 1903, has not been completed. In this connection mention may be made of the Megillat Ta'anit, "Fasting Scroll," a calendar of days commemorating joyous seasons or events in the history of the people on which public fasting is not permitted and on some of which mourning also is forbidden. The occasion is generally indicated, but with such brevity that, especially in our fragmentary and accidental knowledge of whole periods of the history, the reference is fre­ quently impenetrably obscure. The calendar, the whole of which could be printed on an octavo page, is in Aramaic, presumably because it was meant for the guidance of the unlearned as well as the educated. It is referred to as a well-known and authoritative writing in the Mishnah (Ta'anit 2, 8) and often elsewhere. A Baraita in Shabbat 13b attributes the composition of the scroll to Hananiah ben Hezekiah (ben Garon) and his associates; the scholiast names his son Eleazar, which would put it in the latter part of the first or beginning of the second century, but in any case would only mean the redaction, with additions to date, of a list that began much further back. On this calendar scholia in Hebrew were written in postTalmudic times, the author of which attempts a historical com­ mentary on the obscure allusions in the text. It is a critical error to take his learned combinations for tradition. Of modern investigations it is sufficient here to refer to Solo­ mon Zeitlin, Megillat Taanit as a source for Jewish Chronology and History in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, 1922. 1

2

3

4

1 2 3 4

Jer. Megillah 70c; 'Erubin 62b, end. On c. 12, end. So also Halakot Gedolot, ed. Hildesheimer, p. 615. See Judith 8, 6. For the earlier literature see Zeitlin, pp. 65 f.

CHAPTER

IV

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

T H E third class of sources is the Homiletical Midrash. The works with which we have been thus far engaged are primarily Halakic. Their intention is either to define the rules of the tra­ ditional law or to connect these rules with the written law by the exegesis of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch. The classes to which we now turn are Haggadic. In the dichotomous divi­ sion Halakah is law, and whatever is not Halakah is Haggadah; but this definition gives no idea of the wealth and variety of the Haggadah. The value set on the latter is strongly expressed in Sifre on Deut. n , 22: "Those who interpret the implications (of Scripture) say: If you would learn to know Him at whose word the world came into being, learn Haggadah, for by this means you will come to know the Holy One and cleave to his ways." On Deut. 32, 14, the Sifre has: "'With the kidney-fat of wheat'; these are Halakot, for they are the substance [lit., 'body'] of the law; 'and of the blood of the grape, thou drinkest wine/ these are Haggadot, which attract a man's heart like wine." With a reminiscence of such eulogies Zunz wrote: "The Haggadah, 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

A summary account of the most important may be found in Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed., pp. 74-76. Cf. A. Marx's review of Strack, Jewish Quarterly Review, N . S., X I I I , 354. For a masterly survey of this literature see J. Theodor, 'Midrash Haggadah/ Jewish En­ cyclopedia, V I I I , 550-569, and 'Midrashim, Smaller,' ibid. 572-580. From a verb meaning 'to walk, g o ' ; figurative like the English 'walk,' a way of living or acting; in Hebrew, specifically a rule to go by. Etymologically, 'teaching' (of Scripture); in use, specifically, non-legal teaching. JTlBIKn " ^ n . See Bacher, Tannaiten, 1,31; Terminologie, 1,183 f. Bacher connects these ancient interpreters with the times of Johanan ben Zakkai. Sifre Deut. § 49 (ed. Friedmann, f. 85a). R. Joshua ben Levi took the neglect of "the works of the L o r d " in Psalm 28, 5, to be neglect of the Hag­ gadot. Midrash Tehillim in loc. Sifre Deut. § 317. 161 2

3

4

5

6

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

whose aim it is to bring heaven nearer to men and again to lift men up to heaven, appears in this mission as the glorifying of God and the comfort of Israel. Hence, religious truths, moral lessons, discourse on just reward and punishment, inculcation of the laws in which the nationality of Israel is manifested, pictures of the past and the future greatness of Israel, scenes and stories from Jewish history, parallels between the divine institutions and those of Israel, encomiums on the Holy Land, inspiring nar­ ratives, and manifold consolation — these constitute the chief content of the synagogue homilies. The high aim of the Haggadah is religious and moral instruc­ tion and edification; but its authors are aware that to catch and hold the attention it must make itself interesting, and it is not beneath its dignity to be entertaining. It is supposed to be in­ terpretation and application of Scripture, as the name Midrash implies; but it brings freely to the illustration of the text and its lessons matter not only from all over the Bible but from far outside, and is in some ways the most characteristic product of Jewish literature and life through many centuries. High as the estimation was in which the Haggadah was held, it did not possess authority like the Halakah. In the latter, where there was a conflict of juristic opinion, it was necessary to determine which was to be followed, and so far as it is proper to speak of Jewish orthodoxy (correctness of opinion) it is solely in this field; there was no such thing as an orthodox Haggadah. The wide agreement on the main topics of theology and morals was due to the fact that the Scripture was plain and the tradi­ tional understanding and application long established. Where this was not the case there was free diversity. There was, for example, no Jewish "doctrine of the Messiah" such as Christian scholars have often tried to construct, no "doctrine of the Last Things" (Eschatology), but many attempts to combine in an imaginable sequence the diverse representations of the Scriptures, none of which had any claim to being the sole true combination. ,, 1

1

Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage der Juden, p. 349 (2 ed., p. 36a).

CHAP, iv]

H O M I L E T I C COMMENTARIES

163

It has been rightly said that the completion of the Mishnah, which closes an epoch in the schools of the Law, was of no conse­ quence in the history of the Haggadah. The following century concedes nothing to its predecessor, either in the wealth of the material that has come down to us and the number of eminent names associated with it, or in the independence and originality of its contents. The Haggadah with which we are concerned flourished chiefly in Palestine, and among the compilations presently to be de­ scribed none is of Babylonian origin. "Haggadah books" are mentioned repeatedly in the third century as in the hands of several rabbis of the time, though one of the most famous Haggadists of the age, Joshua ben Levi, vehemently condemned these writings. We catch only one glimpse of what was in them when the same rabbi tells that the only time he ever looked into such a book he found in it some numerical "correspondences" between the Pentateuch and some­ thing else in the Bible; but the memory of this one experience gave him the nightmare. Other rabbis had no such prejudice against Haggadah books. R. Johanan and R. Simeon ben Lakish are reported to have consulted one on a Sabbath, and Johanan is said to have frequently had one about him, and to have re­ marked that, if a man learns Haggadah out of a book, it is assured that he will not soon forget it. 1

2

3

4

5

6

Among the Midrashim of this class the expository Midrash on Genesis known as Bereshit Rabbah holds first place by virtue 1

W. Bacher, Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer, I, viii. The voluminous Haggadah of the Babylonian Talmud is in the main of a different stamp. Jer. Shabbat 15c, middle. Gittin 60a; Temurah 14b. It is about the reading on the Sabbath that the question is raised. Berakot 23a, below. Jer. Berakot 9a, above. Along with other circumstances of learning about which there is a "ratified covenant" to the same effect, e. g., learning in an humble spirit (Prov. 11, 2). 2

3

4

5

6

164

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

of its age and of the extent and importance of its contents. From its first words, " R . Osha'ya (Rabbah) opened" (sc. his discourse on Genesis 1, 1 ff.) with the text Prov. 8, 30, the catena got the name Bereshit de-Rabbi Osha'ya, and the like, under which it is cited in mediaeval authors; and the same explanation is prob­ ably to be given of the assumption that R. Osha'ya (or Hosha'ya), one of the most eminent scholars of the third century, was the author of the work. The title Bereshit Rabbah has been thought to have originated by transferring to the book the epithet Rab­ bah ('the Great/ i.e., the older) which properly belonged to R. Hosha'ya; but this explanation is dubious: the name may designate the work itself as the Large (Midrash on) Genesis. What is more certain is that from Genesis the title "Rabbah" was extended to the other Midrashim on the Pentateuch, and later to those on the five Megillot when these were appended to the series on the Pentateuch, and that a plural, Rabbot, was made to cover them all. Bereshit Rabbah is an expository commentary which almost to the end follows the text of Genesis verse by verse, and espe­ cially in the earlier chapters almost word by word, skipping only bare genealogies and repetitions which required no fresh remark, such as Gen. 24, 35-48 (after vss. 12-27). It is especially ex­ pansive on Gen. 1-3 (Creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden), where a whole chapter of comment is sometimes devoted to one or two verses of the text: chapter 1, for example, to Gen. 1 , 1 , chapter 2 to Gen. 1, 2, etc. This part of the work is of peculiar interest; it sets forth the biblical teaching on these points in 1

2

3

4

5

1

See Theodor's edition, p. 1, note; Jewish Encyclopedia, III, 62. Theodor, ibid. I l l , 64. A mediaeval work entitled Bereshit Rabbah, by R. Moses ha-Darshan, quoted in Raimund Martini, Pugio Fidei, is not to be confounded with our Midrash. Note the extract from Halakot Gedolot in Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage, u. s. w., p. 177 (2 ed., p. 187), where the adjective Rabbah is used of Genesis only. Ekah Rabbati is a different case, being taken from Lam. 1, 1, ha-ir rabbati *am. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, iv]

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

165

Jewish interpretation in reply to cavils of objectors and in oppo­ sition to the theories of alien philosophies. It is highly probable that some of the contributors were acquainted with Philo — with his ideas, if not with his writings — which is not strange since R. Hosha'ya had his school at Caesarea and was contem­ porary there with Origen, whose biblical studies brought him into association with Jewish scholars. Caesarea was one of the chief centres of Christianity in Palestine. It had a considerable Jewish population, and it is likely that there had been contro­ versies between Jews and Christians there before the end of the second century, as there certainly were in the third. Echoes of such discussions in Caesarea or elsewhere may be heard here and there in Bereshit Rabbah, for example, c. 8, 9 (on Gen. 1, 26). The opponents are by this time catholic Christians, and the Jew­ ish polemic is outspokenly directed against the deification of Christ, as in the utterances of Abahu. The controversial ele­ ment in the Midrash is, however, rare, and of minor interest. It has been fitly said of it: "This Midrash is eminently rich in sublime thoughts and finely worded sentences, in all kinds of parables, in foreign words, especially Greek, used freely and in­ tentionally for the sake of elegance of diction." It begins on a very large scale, nearly one fourth of the whole work being given to the section Bereshit (Gen. 1, 1-5, 8) alone. Toward the end (from about Gen. 44) it is much more cursory, and the method changes. It is suggested that it may have been left incomplete, and the deficiency supplied by other hands and from different sources. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Origen (d. 253) established himself there in 231 A.D. and labored there till the Decian persecution in 250. He mentions (on Psalm 1) his acquaintance with 'IoOXXos 7rarptdpx^s, probably a scribal error for 'lovdas (Judah II). Abahu. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 96 f., 115-118; Jewish Encyclo­ pedia, I, 36 f. R. Simlai; the same series of questions and answers, with two more, in Jer. Berakot I2d, below. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 555 f. Jer. Ta'anit 65 b, below; Exod. R. 29, 1. J. Theodor, * Bereshit Rabbah/ Jewish Encyclopedia, III, 63. 2

3

4

5

166

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

The homiletic character is marked by the introductions pre­ fixed to nearly all the sections, which start from a text in another part of the Bible, most frequently from the Hagiographa, and more or less ingeniously make the transition to the verse in Genesis which is to be commented on. Many of these introduc­ tions bear the names of the homilists who invented them, or whose interpretation of the text was utilized for the purpose; the greater number, however, are anonymous, and not a few are composite. Once the introduction — sometimes lengthy — is despatched, the exposition goes its way without further reference to it. The age of such a catena is a question to which a simple answer cannot be given. It contains much material which comes from the second and third centuries, and may have been compiled from previous collections. On the other hand, the redaction, in the nature of the case, was not definitive, thus excluding later additions. The intimate relation to the Palestinian Talmud makes it probable that the redaction was made in the same en­ vironment and in the same age with that Talmud, say the early part of the fifth century. The authorities named are nearly all Palestinian, and form a succession from the second century to well on in the fourth. A critical edition of Bereshit Rabbah was begun in 1903 by J. Theodor: Bereschit Rabba mit kritischem Apparate und Kommentare. The ninth part (pp. 641-680), issued in 1916, brings the work to section 63 (Gen. 25, 19), in extent about three fifths of the whole. Text, apparatus, and commentary are everything that such an edition should be. It is greatly to be hoped not only that this work may be completed, but that it may serve as an inspiration and a model for future editions of other books. There are many collective editions of the Midrashim on the Pentateuch and the Megillot, with a steadily increasing flow of commentaries. The most comprehensive and the most fre­ quently used nowadays is that published by the house of Romm, in Wilna. The references in the present volumes are to this edi-

CHAP, iv]

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

167

1

tion. There is a German translation of Bereshit Rabbah and of the other so-called "Rabbot" on the Pentateuch and the Megillot, by August Wiinsche, under the general title, Bibliotheca Rabbinica (1880 sqq.). The Midrash on Exodus (Shemot), down to the end of Exod. 11 (c. 14), resembles that on Genesis described above, and may have been planned as a supplement to it, carrying on the narra­ tive to the point where the laws and the Mekilta begin (Exod. 12). The introductions, or proems, are regularly followed by a running exposition of the entire lection, as in Bereshit Rabbah. From chapter 15 (Exod. 12) on, the whole economy of the work is different. The matter is largely taken bodily from homi­ lies in other Midrashim, especially of the Tanhuma type. The compilation is unquestionably late; Zunz inclines to put it in the eleventh or twelfth century. 2

An expository Midrash of character similar to Bereshit Rab­ bah and of not far from the same age is the Ekah Rabbati, on Lamentations. Since the latter book was not divided into lec­ tions, the proems in Ekah Rabbati, thirty-six in number, are prefixed in mass to the running comments on the book verse by verse. The proems regularly begin, "Rabbi N . N . opened (his discourse)," with a text from somewhere else in the Bible, apt, or applied, to the content of the Book of Lamentations taken as an elegy on the fallen glory — an appropriate theme for the com­ memoration of the ninth of Ab, the destruction of the temple, and for the eve of that day. The body of the Midrash has many stories of the unhappy fortunes of the Jews, the disasters of the Bar Cocheba war, the persecutions they suffered from the Ro­ mans, the mockery of which they were made the butt in comedy, and the like, by the side of which, for variety, may be put the match of wits between Jews and Athenians, in which the Greeks 3

1

It is an inconvenience that the subdivisions do not correspond in al editions, and for that reason chapter and verse of the biblical text are fre­ quently added. See below, pp. 169 f. The older editions count 33. 2

3

SOURCES

i68

[INTRODUCTION

come off second best. Stories make up more than one fourth of the contents (leaving out the proems). The Midrash on Lamentations, like that on Genesis, stands close to the Palestinian Talmud, though somewhat later than those two works, and had apparently certain older collections as a source in common with Bereshit Rabbah and the Pesikta of Rab Kahana. Here also the first chapter is treated on a much larger scale than those that follow, as is not strange in view of the monotony of the theme. Like Bereshit Rabbah, it abounds in Greek words. This Midrash is cited by chapter and verse of Lamentations. Of a different type from the expository Midrash thus far de­ scribed is the homiletical Midrash in the stricter sense, which is more numerously represented. One of the oldest of these, and that in which the type is most clearly seen, is the Pesikta (Pesikta de-Rab Kahana). It contains homilies on the lections for the high days of the ecclesiastical calendar, not for the continuous series of Sabbath pericopes. In the arrangement adopted by Buber in his edition there are first six homilies for the special Sabbaths; then follow homilies for the Feasts (Passover to Pentecost inclusive, nos. 7-12); homilies on lections from the Prophets for the Sabbaths of retribution and consolation (three Sabbaths preceding the ninth of Ab, and seven after it); homilies on lections from the Prophets (nos. 13-22); for New Year's (no. 23); Penitential homilies, between New Year's and the Day of Atonement (nos. 24-25 [26]); the Day of Atonement (no. 27); Tabernacles (nos. 28-31). In the manuscripts there are differences in order and in some measure in contents, but the general scheme is the same. The structure of the proems is more elaborate than of those in the Midrash on Genesis or on Lamentations; the exposition, on the other hand, seldom gets far beyond the beginning of the lesson, 1

2

1

Four of the five or six preceding the first of Nisan (M. Megillah 3, 4 ) . From the seventeenth of the month Tammuz to the season of Taber­ nacles: Krwjnan xrbn ,Knonn njn&>. 2

CHAP, iv]

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

169

The Pesikta is one of the earlier Midrashim; that it is later than Bereshit Rabbah and Ekah Rabbati is agreed; on the question whether it is older or younger than the Midrash on Leviticus, which it strikingly resembles and with which it has some homilies in common, opinion is divided. The only edition of the Pesikta is that of S. Buber: Pesikta, die alteste Hagada, redigirt in Palastina, u. s. w., 1868. With an extended introduction, and commentary.—A German translation by August Wiinsche is included in his Bibliotheca Rabbinica. The Pesikta Rabbati is a mediaeval work; if in the figures near the beginning of the first homily the author himself gives his date, it was composed in 845. It makes large use of older sources, including the Pesikta de-R. Kahana, from which five entire homilies are taken bodily, but in general it is of a very dif­ ferent character. The lucid and often elegant Hebrew is note­ worthy. The latest edition is by M . Friedmann, Pesikta Rab­ bati, u. s. w., Vienna, 1880. Whatever the relation between the Pesikta and the Midrash on Leviticus (Wayyikra Rabbah), there is no doubt that the latter is another of the older Midrashim. It is not an exposition of the Book of Leviticus, but a series of homilies on passages in Leviticus, most of them on the Sabbath lections (Sedarim) of the triennial cycle; five of them are on lessons for the Feasts, and, apart from minor variations, are identical with five homilies in the Pesikta. An interesting feature of this Midrash is the frequent introduction of popular proverbs in Aramaic, to illustrate the turn given by the homiiist to a verse of Scripture. 1

Another variety of the homiletic Midrash is represented by what are called the Tanhuma homilies, by a generic extension of the title of one such collection, the Midrash Tanhuma, named after one of the most prolific homilists of the fourth century, R. Tanhuma bar Abba, who frequently appears in it. This collec­ tion, which exists in two recensions, covers the whole Pentateuch, 1

Wayyikra Rabbah, Parashahs 20, 27-30; Pesikta 27, 9, 8, 23, 28.

SOURCES

I70

[INTRODUCTION

though by no means evenly, following the Sabbath lections of the triennial cycle, and has homilies also on the Festival cycle which we have seen in the Pesikta. A peculiarity of this species is that many of the homilies start with a morsel of halakic caviar as an appetizer. The audience — perhaps the Meturgeman for them — asks a question of this kind, for example: "Let our master teach us how many kinds of clean animals there are in the world. — Thus have our rabbis pronounced; There are ten such animals" (the catalogue fol­ lows). From the standing formula of the question, Yelammedenu rabbenu, the Midrash (or one of its sources) is cited as Yelam­ medenu. On this hors d'oeuvre follow several proems, and an exposition of the first verses of the lection. Many of the homilies close with a forward look to the great deliverance and the fulfil­ ment of the hope and promise of the better time to come — what moderns sometimes loosely call "messianic" conclusions. There are, as has been said, two recensions of the Tanhuma, one in many editions following the first (Constantinople, 15201522), the other edited by Buber from manuscripts in 1885. They differ widely in Genesis and Exodus, and agree more nearly in the three other books. The critical problems, which are even more tangled here than in the other Midrashim, need not detain us. Buber's contention that his Tanhuma is older than Bereshit Rabbah, and even than the Pesikta to which he formerly gave the seniority, has not found much acceptance. 1

2

3

4

The Midrash on Deuteronomy (Debarim Rabbah) is a series of twenty-seven homilies on lessons of the triennial cycle. Each 1

The question is not always on the Halakah, e. g., " H o w many things preceded the history of the world?" (i.e., the account of creation in Gen. 1). " The tradition of our rabbis is that seven things were created while as yet the world was not created/' etc. The question and answer are usually chosen for some relevance to the subject in hand. The author of the Yalkut cites both Tanhuma and Yelammedenu, as if he had them separately. Compare many of the homilies in Pesikta Rabbati. For the theory of the three Tanhumas see Lauterbach in the Jewish Encyclopedia, X I I , 45 f. 2

3

4

CHAP, iv]

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

171

begins with a halakic exordium, introduced in a peculiar stereo­ typed form and sometimes of considerable length; upon this follow the proem (or proems) and the text at the beginning of the lesson. The discourse regularly concludes with promises or consolation. Bemidbar Rabbah, on Numbers, is less homogeneous. The last third of the book (cc. 15-23, on Num. 8-35) is a series of Tanhuma homilies, with a Halakah at the beginning. Chapters 1-5 are a large and free amplification of homilies of a similar type. The inordinately long section Naso (cc. 6-14) is a com­ pilation which accompanies the text continuously. It draws on mediaeval sources, and is not older than the twelfth century. In an account of the sources used in the present volumes it is unnecessary to describe particularly the Midrashim on the Megillot, Esther, Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes. They also draw largely on their predecessors; in that on Ecclesiastes there is considerable use of the Palestinian Talmud and some loans from the Babylonian Talmud; even post-Talmudic tractates are quoted. The value of the older expository and homiletical Midrashim (Bereshit Rabbah, Ekah Rabbati, Wayyikra Rabbah, Pesikta) lies in the fact that they not only preserve much of the religious and moral teaching of the second century in the names of its authors, but are our only source (besides incidental matter of the kind in the Talmuds) for that of the third century, in which several of the rabbis flourished who most excelled in this branch of tradition and instruction, such as Joshua ben Levi, Johanan, Simeon ben Lakish, Samuel ben Nahman; nor was the fourth century lacking in eminent representatives of the art. 1

2

1

The halakic exordium is simply noted, Halakah, instead of the Yelam­ medenu formula. E.g., Halakah. A man of Israel, is it licit for him to write a Torah (Pentateuch) in any language? — Thus have the learned (rjakamim) taught: There is no difference between books (copies of the Pentateuch) and Tefillin and Mezuzot, except that books may be written in any language, etc. (M. Megillah 1, 8). These passages sometimes represent an older and better text than our editions of their sources. 2

SOURCES

172

[INTRODUCTION

The fertility and originality of the third-century Haggadah especially has been remarked above. It must be understood, however, that the originality is not in the substance of the teach­ ing but in the ingenuity with which familiar lessons are discov­ ered in unsuspected places in Scripture and new lessons in hack­ neyed texts, and in the art with which they are developed, illus­ trated, and applied. The doctrines of religion and the principles of morals were long since unalterably established; need, or possibility, of progress beyond them did not enter the mind of the teachers of theology and ethics. Their task, as they con­ ceived it, could not be more aptly expressed than in the words of the Gospel about a particular topic: "Every scribe who has been instructed in the (nature of the) kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who produces out of his storeroom new things and old." To assure ourselves that in the substance of the teaching, whether the form be new or old, there is no change, it is only necessary to compare what we have in the Midrashim and in the Talmudic Haggadah from the third and fourth centuries with the older homilists and the standard authority of the Tannaite Midrash, with which again the various writings from Sirach on are in essential agreement. But while we thus establish the continuity through four or five centuries, we do not overlook the fact that Judaism had made much history in that period. The conflict over the au­ thority of the traditional law had ended in the complete triumph of the Pharisees; the controversy about the life after death had elevated the resurrection to the rank of a dogma and made here­ tics of the Sadducees. Other sectarians and schismatics had been sloughed off or reabsorbed. The Essene order had appar­ ently long since disappeared. The disciples of Jesus the Naza1

2

1

Matt. 13, 53. See the preceding parables on the Kingdom, vss. 14-51, which may be taken as examples of the "new things" that such a scribe can bring out. There is no recognizable mention of it in the whole body of rabbinical literature. 2

CHAP, iv]

HOMILETIC COMMENTARIES

rene, who had made some stir for a generation or two after the fall of Jerusalem, had finally put themselves outside the pale of Judaism in the Bar Cocheba war. The Christianity which the rabbis had to do with thereafter was Greek, and the contro­ versy was with catholic doctrine. There were always skeptics to be refuted, especially on the old issue of retribution, and per­ haps here and there foreign philosophical influences to be re­ sisted. These changes of complexion can be observed in the incidence of controversy and the shifting emphasis on particular points in successive generations; but of differences in the funda­ mental conceptions of Judaism there is no evidence. What is true of the Midrashim holds good equally of the con­ temporary Haggadah in the Talmuds, which in the Palestinian Talmud is intimately related to the Midrashim. Not only is the Baraita an important source for the second century, but so too are the utterances of the Amoraim for the third and fourth. In the present volumes the Talmuds are cited in the custom­ ary way, the Palestinian (Jerushalmi) by the folio and column of the Krotoschin edition (1866), the Babylonian by the folios of each tractate, which are the same in all editions. Of the former there is a French translation by Moise Schwab: Le Talmud de Jerusalem traduit pour la premiere fois. 11 volumes, 1871-1889. (Vol. 1,2ded., 1890.)—Of the latter, a German trans­ lation by Lazarus Goldschmidt: Der Babylonische Talmud . . . moglichst sinn- und wortgetreu iibersetzt. Thus far, 8 volumes, 1897-1922. The text follows the first Bomberg edition (Venice, 1520-1523). — A translation of the haggadic parts of both Tal­ muds by August Wiinsche: Der Jerusalemische Talmud in seinen haggadischen Bestandtheilen iibertragen, 1880; Der Baby­ lonische Talmud in seinen haggadischen Bestandtheilen, wort­ getreu iibersetzt, u.s.w. (4 volumes, 1886—1889). 1

It is proper to say that the Talmud is one of the books of which even the best translation is in large part to be understood only with the aid of the original and of the Hebrew commen­ taries. 1

Rodkinson's so-called English translation is in every respect impossible.

CHAPTER VERSIONS OF

V

SCRIPTURE.

PRAYERS

The older Aramaic translations (Targums) of the Pentateuch and the Prophets, of which something has been said above, are of Palestinian origin and probably date from the second century. They show in many ways affinity to the exegesis of the Tannaim of the school of Akiba. We have the text in a Babylonian recen­ sion of perhaps the third century, which, however, does not seem to have gone much deeper than accommodation to the vocabulary of the Babylonian Jews in the use of certain words. Both were in intention as near to verbal translation as was consistent with bringing out the meaning; the midrashic element which occa­ sionally runs loose can sometimes be proved by external evidence to be a later accretion, and in other cases the same thing may fairly be suspected. In Palestine they did not obtain the official recognition they had in Babylonia, but it may be inferred that the Babylonian schools took these Targums, along with the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and the Tannaite Midrash of the school of Akiba, because they also represented this school and were au­ thenticated by their origin. Besides the use that the interpreter (Meturgeman) might make of a written version in preparation for his oral rendering of the lessons in the synagogue, such translations could hardly fail to be found great aids in private study, as a supplement to oral instruction in the Scriptures. References to such a use of them are, however, rare. In Sifre Deut. § 161, in what may be called the progress through learning to virtue and piety, the first biblical discipline, Mikra (learning to read the Hebrew Bible), is followed by Targum (learning translation), but this need not have been from a book. A certain reference to the latter is found, however, in the precept given by R. Joshua ben Levi, 174

CHAP, v ]

VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE

175

head of a school at Lydda in the first half of the third century, to his sons, that they should read the lesson of the week privately twice in the course of the week, and the Targum once. Later in the same century R. Ammi made this a rule for all. The latter prescription supposes that copies of an Aramaic version were in the hands of the educated. This rule became general practice, and was perpetuated to times and regions where Aramaic was not spoken by the Jews; and the disuse of it evoked strong pro­ test. The Targum of Onkelos was thus read for centuries, and it is a reasonable inference that it was this that Joshua ben Levi and Ammi meant. The usefulness of a standard version as an authentic interpre­ tation of the Scripture needs no words. And inasmuch as it undertook in the main only to give the "plain sense" interpre­ tation, it did not hamper the freedom of the search for deeper meanings and new combinations which was the province of Midrash. The Palestinian Targum on the Pentateuch ("Targum of the Land of Israel") is frequently called Targum of Jonathan (ben Uzziel, the reputed translator of the official Targum on the Prophets) or, by moderns, "Pseudo-Jonathan." The former name first appears in the fourteenth century, and probably originated in an erroneous resolution of an abbreviation. A similar origin may be conjectured for the name "Jerusalem Targum," which goes back to the twelfth century. In the form in which the Palestinian Targum is in our hands it is late, con­ taining the names of a wife and daughter of Mohammed, and, in some manuscripts, references to still later events. Such pass­ ages, however, prove only that the popular Targum was kept up to date, so to speak, as it was copied from age to age, and do not determine the age of the bulk of the work. The relation to Onkelos is capable of more than one interpretation, and both interpretations may be partially right. The translation is sometimes close, elsewhere freely para1

2

3

1

Berakot 8b.

2

Ibid. 8a, below.

3

On Gen. 21, 21.

176

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

phrastic; in many parts the Targum runs into Midrash. For the purposes of the present volumes, it is seldom of consequence; and the same is true of the Fragment Targum which is related to it. The Targums on the Hagiographa are all of too late a date to serve us as sources, and need not be described here. The Targums had a time of being very much overworked by Christian scholars in consequence of the erroneous notion that they antedated the Christian era; and in particular the messianic expectations of the Jews in that age were looked for in them. Afterwards they were still more abused in the search for the Jewish idea of a God-out-of-reach who negotiated with the world only through the Memra and other intermediaries. Their true value lies in the evidence they give to the exegesis of the Tannaite period — to the real understanding of what the Bible said for itself. 1

2

In treating the subject of Piety (Part VI) much is made of Jewish prayers. It is therefore necessary to say something here about this subject. It is to be premised that prayer-books do not make their appearance for many centuries after the period with which we are here dealing. The oldest known work of the kind, the Seder Rab Amram, composed after the middle of the ninth century of our era by the head (Gaon) of the Academy at Sura in Babylonia, at the request of Spanish communities, was widely disseminated, and served as a basis for subsequent com­ pilations and as an authority on liturgical questions. In this wide use the rules for the order of prayers and the like were preserved with little change, but the text of the prayers themselves was extensively accommodated to the established custom of the 3

1

See W. Bacher, ' T a r g u m / Jewish Encyclopedia, X I I , 61 f. See Moore, ' Intermediaries in Jewish Theology/ Harvard Theological Review, X V (1922), 41-85; Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II (1924), 302-333 (on John 1, 1). Rab Amram died ca. 875. On the succession of mediaeval prayer-books see I. Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, pp. 358 ff. 2

3

CHAP. V ]

PRAYERS

177

several regions, so that the testimony of the edition or of the manuscripts (which exhibit many variations) cannot be taken as representing the Babylonian use in the ninth century. It appears, however, that prayer-books were already in use in Amram's time. Next in order of time came the Collection of Prayers and Hymns of Praise by Saadia (d. 942), who was led to undertake the task by the variations of usage and the liberties which scholars took in the way of innovations. Maimonides (d. 1204) treats the regulations concerning prayer at length in the second book of the Mishneh Torah, to which is appended an Order of Prayers for the whole year. The Mahzor Vitry, compiled by Simhah ben Samuel (d. 1105), a pupil of Rashi, is a much more extensive work, belonging to the so-called Ashkenazic branch of the liturgical tradition. The Mahzor Vitry was edited by Simeon Hurwitz (Berlin, 1893; anastatic reprint, Niirnberg, 1

2

3

2

I9' 3)-

Of modern editions of the Prayer-Book mention is to be made, in the first place, of Seligman Baer, 'Abodat Israel (Rodelheim, 1868; anastatic reprint, 1901). — The Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire. With a new translation by the Rev. S. Singer (London, 1891, and repeatedly since); with A Companion to the Authorised Daily Prayer Book, etc., by Israel Abrahams (revised edition, London, 1922). Both of these represent the Ashkenazic rite. — A modern edition of the Sefardic rite is that of D. A. de Sola, revised by M. Gaster. London, 1901. While the text of the prayers in our hands in these books is, at the utmost, mediaeval, there is abundant evidence that the prin­ cipal prayers themselves were in use as far back as our sources go, and were, in the age of the Tannaim, believed to be of im­ memorial antiquity. The Men of the Great Synagogue ordained 1

Probably drawn up for the use of Jews in Egypt. It is incompletely pre­ served, and has not been edited. Much abridged in manuscripts and editions. French (Northern) and German Jews. 2

3

i 8 7

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

the benedictions, prayers, and forms for ushering in and marking the close of sacred time (Kiddush and Habdalah). Particular benedictions or parts of the synagogue prayers are cited by the initial words, assuming that the sequel is in everybody's memory, and these incipits are prevailingly identical with those of the prayers still in use and known by the same titles. The school discussions, which reach back to the generations before the destruction of Jerusalem (Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel) are about modalities, not matter. Substance and phrase­ ology have biblical antecedents; extracanonical writings of the centuries before our era afford numerous parallels. But the prayers of the synagogue differ from these on the one hand in their comprehensiveness and on the other in the conciseness of their formulation, adapted in both respects to congregational and individual use. The words were not prescribed, but they tended to become fixed by repetition, and to vary chiefly by verbal amplification. Extensive additions appear in the festival liturgies, not in the standard prayers. In using these and the private prayers of individual rabbis as witnesses to the character of Jewish piety, the date to be assigned to them is less important, because in this respect no significant difference is to be discovered between the religiousness of the first centuries of our era and that of the following periods down to the invasion of mysticism. 1

2

1

2

Berakot 33a (in the name of Johanan). For a list see Elbogen, p. 247, and Notes (2 ed., pp. 554 f.).

CHAPTER VI EXTRANEOUS SOURCES

O F Sirach and his importance as a witness to the stage at which Judaism had arrived in the class to which he belonged, two cen­ turies before the common era, enough has been said in an earlier chapter. It remains here to add something about his book. The title in the Greek Bible is So^ta 'Irjaov vlov Selpax, or, abridged, 2o0ta Setpax; Latin and the modern versions after it, Ecclesiasticus. That it was written in Hebrew is beyond question. It was translated into Greek by a grandson of the author who went to Egypt in the thirty-eighth year of Ptolemy Euergetes, that is, in 132 B . C His translation was probably made there some years later. Among the spoils of the Genizah in Cairo were found con­ siderable fragments of two manuscripts of the work in Hebrew, and a scrap of a third, besides some extracts. Altogether they contain about two thirds of the book. The text of these eleventhor twelfth-century manuscripts differs widely, as would be ex­ pected, from the Greek and Syriac versions. These variations may be ascribed in part to transcriptional errors of the Hebrew scribes, in part to an archetype already remote from the copy in the hands of the first translator. The translations have had a more intricate history, and manuscripts of the Greek version and the secondary versions made from the Greek vary materially. The critical problems thus presented are complicated and very difficult. m

1

2

3

4

5

1

Cyprian; Rufinus, In symbolum, c. 38. 'EK/cX^ctao-rtfcos, Photius; title of cod. 248 H - P . In Syriac, KTD"OT KJlMn, The Wisdom of the Son of Sirach. See the translator's Preface. Marginal notes in one of them record readings from two other codices. The Syriac was made from the Hebrew, though it did not escape the influence of the Greek Bible. See Peters, Der . . . hebraische Text des Buches Ecclesiasticus, 1902 (Prolegomena).—For the Greek version, Cod. Vaticanus Gr. 336 (Holmes and 2

3

4

6

179

SOURCES

i8o

[INTRODUCTION

One question was raised shortly after the first publication of a part of the Hebrew text: is it a descendant of the original Wisdom of Ben Sira, or a translation from the Greek or the Syriac ? Though the case would not be without example, scholars generally agreed in rejecting the hypothesis of translation. Sev­ eral attempts have been made to reconstruct what Sirach actu­ ally wrote, on the basis of the three primary witnesses (Hebrew, Greek, Syriac), but whatever success may have been achieved in particular instances, as a whole the result of such a contamina­ tion of recensions is not convincing, and the method must be pronounced fallacious. 1

A convenient edition of the Hebrew text, with the variants of the manuscripts, and the most important readings of the Greek and Syriac, is: H. Strack, Die Spriiche Jesus' des Sohnes Sirachs, u.s.w., 1903. — Norbert Peters, Der jiingst wiederaufgefundene hebraische Text des Buches Ecclesiasticus, 1902. Text and trans­ lation, with critical prolegomena and commentary. — R. Smend, Die Weisheit des Jesus Sirach. Hebraisch und Deutsch, 1906. — Die Weisheit des Jesus Sirach erklart, 1906. See also Box and Oesterley, in R. H. Charles, Apocrypha, etc. With an extensive critical apparatus to the composite translation. A very important source from the middle of the first century before the Christian era are the so-called Psalms of Solomon, which in certain Christian lists stand with First and Second Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Judith, Tobit, etc., as " Antilegomena," in a kind of appendix to the books of the Hebrew Bible. They are found in a few cursive manuscripts of 2

Parsons no. 248) is of peculiar importance. — An edition of this manuscript with an ample critical commentary by J. H. A. Hart, Ecclesiasticus in Greek, was published in Cambridge, 1909. See V . Ryssel, in Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments. Substantially corresponding to what in Protestant versions of the Bible are entitled "Apocrypha." — Another list puts the Psalms of Solomon, along with Enoch and other apocalypses, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, etc., among the Apocrypha in the ancient and catholic use of the word, for which "Pseudepigrapha" is now commonly used. 1

2

CHAP, v i ]

E X T R A N E O U S SOURCES

181

the Greek Bible, either following the Psalms of David or in the Solomonic group, and they once stood in the Codex Alexandrinus (5 th century) at the very end, after the New Testament and the Epistles of Clement. These Psalms are preserved only in a Greek version and in a secondary Syriac translation from the Greek; but there is no question that the original language was Hebrew. The age of several of them is determined by unmistakable references to the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey (63 B.C.) and to his death (48 B.C.). Inasmuch as there is no reference in them to Herod, who took Jerusalem with the aid of the Romans in 37, or to the restoration of the Asmonaean Antigonus by the Parthians (40 B . C ) , it is probable that the latest of the Psalms were written before these events. It is not certain that they are all the work of one author, but the internal situation so far as it is reflected in them corre­ sponds to conditions under the last Asmonaean princes, say from the death of Queen Alexandra (67 B . C ) ; that the earlier rulers of the family are included in the same condemnation is no indication of date. The author was evidently a resident of Jerusalem, and writes with personal knowledge and feeling of the calamities that befell the city and its inhabitants in those troubled times. He lays all these evils at the door of the rulers and their partisans, whom he charges with all manner of enormities. Besides all this, they were usurpers of the throne of David, which God had sworn should belong to his posterity forever. Pompey was the instrument of God's judgment upon them; but his arrogance was visited upon him in his dishonored death. The author paints a shocking picture of the demoralization of the times. It was not, however, universal. The familiar division of men into righteous and wicked, sinners and saints, runs 1

2

3

1

In the sole known manuscript they are appended to what are called the "Odes of Solomon," Christian compositions with which they have no con­ nection except Solomon's name. See particularly Psalms 2; 8; 17. "Oo-ioi (D^TDn). 2

3

182

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION 1

through these Psalms, as in so many of the Psalms of David. The author rails at the profane who "live in hypocrisy with the pious " and "sit in the pious congregation, though their heart is far remote from the Lord." The contrast between these two kinds of men in character and destiny is a recurrent theme. 2

Man is free and chooses his conduct for himself, and with it his fate. "Our deeds are in the election and power of our soul, to do righteousness or unrighteousness in the works of our hands/' etc. (9, 7-9). Directly opposite are the way in which the righteous man receives the chastisement of the Lord and the be­ havior of the sinner when misfortune befalls him and he goes on heaping sins upon sins. Diverse, too, are their ends. "The destruction of the sinner is forever, and when God visits the righteous no notice will be taken of him. . . . But those that fear the Lord will arise to everlasting life, and their life in the light of the Lord will never fail" (Psalm 3). The Psalms that have no such salient features are not less instructive for the piety they represent; both the conception and the sentiment are those of normal Judaism. The author of the Psalms of Solomon (or the authors) was a religious-minded man, full of the Scripture, reminiscences of which are pervasive. He shared the belief of the Pharisees in the resurrection of the righteous dead, of which he speaks without emphasis or argu­ ment as though it were accepted doctrine among those for whom he wrote. He prays that God raise up for his people their king, the son of David, in the time He has appointed, to be king over Israel His servant, endued with all the qualities of which the prophets had told. The picture of his reign is a composite of ancient prophecies, free from apocalyptic fantasies. When we 3

3

Cf. also the Wisdom of Solomon. The portrait of such a one, a man in high station, is drawn, perhaps from life, in Psalm 4. That they were sung in the synagogues (Ryssel) is extremely improbable in view of anything we know of the service; but so far as the contents go they would not have been unacceptable. 2

3

CHAP, v i ]

EXTRANEOUS SOURCES

come to treat of Jewish expectations of the future of the nation we shall have occasion to discuss this Psalm more particularly. 1

The Psalms of Solomon have been repeatedly edited. Those editions whose text is based on a collation of several manu­ scripts are: Ryle and James, ^faK/ioi I^OXOIJLCOVTOS. Psalms of the Pharisees, commonly called the Psalms of Solomon, etc. With introduction, English translation, notes, appendix and indexes. Cambridge, 1891.—v. Gebhart, ^aX/xot HOXO/JL&VTOS. Die Psalmen Salomo . . . herausgegeben. Leipzig, 1905 (Texte und Untersuchungen, u.s.w., XIII, 2). — Swete, The Old Testa­ ment in Greek, etc., I l l (1894), 765-787. English Translation in Ryle and James, above. Turning now to the sources to which Judaism has never ac­ corded any authority, the so-called Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are of the first interest, for they witness to the prevailing Jewish teaching of their time. Of the fundamental Judaism of these writings enough has been said above; their messianic and eschatological features in relation to Jewish ideas on those subjects will be discussed in that connection. The severe strictures they pass on the religious leaders who opposed the movement are ex parte testimony, to be impartially weighed. In so doing it is to be observed that this censure is directed against persons or classes, and does not convey an implicit criticism of Judaism itself. The whole point of the scathing denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees is that they are not true to the religion they profess and their own better knowledge. Criticism of their teaching on particular points is sometimes severe, and even goes on to the sweeping charge of nullifying the word of God by their tradition. But this is not to be taken as a rejection of tra­ dition in principle, like that of the Sadducees, or of the authority of the Scribes as its custodians and expositors. Our concern, however, is not with a critical estimation of the testimony of the Gospels but with the sources themselves. And, it must be noted, 2

1

2

Psalm 17; cf. also Psalm 18. See Vol. II, p. 328. Vol. II, Part vii.

184

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

as sources for contemporary Judaism, not as sources for the life and teaching of Jesus. The Gospels in our hands in Greek are the Gospels of Gentile churches, and all of them, in different ways and measures, bear marks of this early non-Jewish Christianity. It is the prevailing opinion among critics that none of them — unless it be Mark — in its present form is earlier than the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70. Mark tells more of the works of Jesus than of his words, but early brings him into conflict with the Pharisees on points of observance. Matthew has the events as in Mark, but exhibits the teaching of Jesus much more fully from another source. Luke has much of this matter, but distributed in quite a different way, and has besides a good deal to which there is no parallel in Matthew. The matter which Luke has in common with Matthew was clearly not taken from Matthew, and it is therefore inferred that in both Gospels it is derived independently from a common source (generally designated by the cipher Q), which the two authors used each in his own way. Neither Jesus nor his immediate disciples spoke Greek. The primitive tradition of his teaching was in the vernacular Aramaic dialect of Galilee, and the first written precipitate of their tradi­ tion, collected and set down for their own use, was also in Ara­ maic. It would be nothing strange if subsequently some scholar converted to their belief should have put the Gospel (Euangelion) of Jeshu ha-Nosri into the Hebrew which the learned used for such purposes. It was perhaps such a work that was in the latter part of the fourth century in the hands of the Nazarenes at Beroea (Aleppo). The Greek in which the Synoptic Gospels have come down to 1

2

3

4

1

Matthew, Mark, Luke are used here as titles of books, not as authors' names. If they knew any Greek for market purposes, they certainly did not use a foreign language instead of their mother tongue to talk to their countrymen or with one another about religious subjects. Not, however, in dialect, but in the written language. The synagogue homilies were in the common Aramaic, but all the homiletic Midrashim are in Hebrew. 2

3

4

CHAP, vi]

E X T R A N E O U S SOURCES

185

us bears in itself unmistakable evidence of translation from Ara­ maic. The dialect which Jesus and his Galilean disciples spoke is not sufficiently known to make it possible to obtain by retro­ version from the Greek the actual words he used, even if we could suppose that the Greek was a verbal translation of a verbatim original. The teaching of the Synagogue, on the other hand, to which so much in the Gospels is akin in substance and phrase, is accessible to us only in the " language of the learned," the He­ brew of the Midrash. The Aramaic link between the synagogue exposition and the primitive Nazarene tradition underlying the Gospel is lost. For our purpose the loss is not serious. If in most cases we do not know verbally how the rabbis expressed themselves in the language of the people, we do know how they said the same thing in their discussion with one another, and if through the Greek of the Gospels we hear this immediately, we have made the connection not only with the popular instruc­ tion of the synagogue but with the larger development in the discussions of the schools. It is to this that the interpreter of the Gospels must resort at every turn for the understanding of his text — not only its terms but its ideas, and frequently for the association of ideas. While the Gospels are thus in large measure witnesses to the rabbinical teaching of the time, they were from the beginning apologetic documents. As with the first part of the Acts of the Apostles which is their sequel, their characteristic is the identi­ fication of their teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, with the Messiah. How far the Old Testament texts they appealed to had been interpreted messianically by the authorized expositors of Scrip­ ture, or by the greater freedom of the homilists, can, unfor­ tunately, seldom be known. We can be sure, however, that the proof-texts the disciples of Jesus alleged as predictions of the death of the Messiah, and of the resurrection and ascension, 1

2

1

See G. Dalman, Grammatik des judisch-palastinischen Aramaischen, u. s. w., 1894 (2 ed. 1905). Peculiarities of dialect may sometimes explain textual variations. 2

SOURCES

186

[INTRODUCTION

were used in that way for the first time by them. It seems clear also that in identifying their Messiah in the second stage with the apocalyptic "Son of M a n " they were not giving an original interpretation of Daniel 7, 13 f., but either a bit of rabbinical Haggadah, or were drawing upon eschatological developments of that vision such as are found in the so-called "Parables" of Enoch. The Gospel according to Matthew is, of the three, the most important source for Judaism, not only for its contents but for its attitude; it is at once the most conservatively Jewish of the Gospels and the most violently anti-Pharisaic. For the prominence of both these features it may be surmised that the history of the Nazarenes in their relations to Gentile Christianity on the one side and to the Jewish authorities on the other was decisive. In the fourth century Jerome, then pursuing the ascetic life in the desert of Calchis, consorted with a Nazarene sect in Beroea (Aleppo), which endeavored to combine the observance of the Law with the grace of the Gospel, but condemned the Scribes and Pharisees, and by name the heads of the Tannaite schools. The "houses" of Shammai and Hillel were "the two houses of Israel" in Isa. 8, 12, who by their traditions and bevrepcoaeis (Mishnah) dissolved and defiled the Law. They did not accept the Saviour, who became, in the words of the prophet, their downfall and stumbling-block. In Isa. 8, 23 they found, first, the preaching of Christ in Galilee by which the land of Zebulun and Naphtali was freed from the errors of the Scribes and Phar­ isees, and shook off from their necks the exceeding heavy yoke of Jewish traditions; afterwards, by the gospel of the Apostle Paul, who was the last of the Apostles, the preaching was ex­ tended, and the gospel of Christ shone abroad to the boundaries of the nations and the way of the great sea (Isa. 8, 23). They 1

2

3

4

4

1

See below, Part V I I . Comm. on Ezek. 16, 16 (Vallarsi V , 161). He applies to them Matt. 7, 16 f., the patch of new cloth on the old garment. The name Shammai is etymologized, dissipator; of Hillel, prof anus. Comm. on Isa. 8, 11 f. (Vallarsi IV, 122 f.). 2

3

4

CHAP, v i ]

187

E X T R A N E O U S SOURCES

evidently held that it was not for them, as born Jews, to emanci­ pate themselves from the l a w ; their hearty recognition of the missionary labors of Paul shows that they did not hold, as one wing of the believing Jews had insisted in Paul's time, that con­ verts to the Gospel were bound to put themselves under the law. While Matthew is a Jewish Gospel, even in its antipathies, the author of Luke pays more attention to the point of view of Gentile Christians, to which class many, in ancient as well as modern times, think that he himself belonged. The first part of the Acts of the Apostles tells how the leading disciples of Jesus, Galileans all, shortly after his death estab­ lished themselves in Jerusalem in expectation of his reappearance from heaven, and tried to convert those who would listen to them to their faith that Jesus was the Messiah of prophecy, by arguing from the Scriptures that its predictions had been ful­ filled not only in his life but by his death, and that Daniel's predictions of the coming of the Son of Man to judgment also would presently be fulfilled in him. The interference of the religious authorities with this propaganda, the growth of the movement, and the internal history of the society of believers are the principal subjects of this narrative, in which the historian has used, directly or indirectly, Aramaic sources containing tra­ ditions of the church in Jerusalem in those eventful years. It was not a schismatic body; its leaders and the mass of their fol­ lowers were, aside from their peculiar messianic and eschatological beliefs, observant Jews, as their teacher had been. Some of their Greek-speaking converts, however, were more radical, and there were premonitory symptoms of the new direction which the movement took with Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle. With the Gospels may be mentioned in this connection the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (Didache). Critics are al1

2

1

Comm. on Isa. 8, 23. (Vallarsi IV, 129 f.). See Matt. 5, 17-20. Whether this position is tolerable in Christianity is a point on which Augustine and Jerome disagreed. See Jerome, Ep. 112 ad Augustinum; Augustine to Jerome, ibid., Epp. 56 and 67. 2

i88

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

most unanimously agreed that the first part of this little book, the Two Ways (cc. 1-6), is of Jewish origin, perhaps a compend of elementary moral instruction for Gentile converts such as are called God-fearing men (or women). This little manual was early taken over by Christians for the same purpose. The Greek text of the Didache discovered by Bryennios has an unmistak­ ably Christian passage (i, 3-2, i ) which is not found in the old Latin translation; but otherwise the Two Ways has not been Christianized. The Two Ways often appears in early Christian literature from the so-called Epistle of Barnabas on, while of the rest of the book there is no such evidence, which leads to the conjecture that the Two Ways circulated by itself. Chapters 7-15 are Christian, representing a very simple type of rites, doctrine, and organization. The separation from the Jews is signalized in the appointment of Wednesday and Friday as the weekly fast days, instead of Monday and Thursday, as is the custom of "the hypocrites. Baptism is into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit — which it is an anachronism to read as a trinitarian formula. Relieved of this interpretation, the formula is one in which it is quite unneces­ sary to suspect the influence of Gentile Christianity. Jewish believers may well have deemed it the most appropriate for the reception of Gentile converts, who confessed their faith in the one true God, the Father, and in his Son, the Messiah, and in the Holy Spirit of inspiration in the society of believers and par­ ticularly in their prophets. Baptism into the name of Jesus Christ (the Messiah), or of the Lord Jesus, was sufficient in the 1

2

3

4

,,

5

6

*2,efibiievoi (or (jyofiovixevoi) TOP Oeov. Actual proselytes required much more specific instruction in the Law. See, e.g., pp. 331, 333. Part, even of this, has its closest parallels, not in the Gospels but in Jewish sources (1, 5-6). Chapters 18-20 (lacking in the single manuscript of the Latin version, which ends with c. 17). It is thought by some that the eschatological close, c. 16, has a Jewish core. Matt. 28, 19. Cf. Didache 7 , 1 (ravra irapra irpoelTovres — namely, the Two Ways), with Matt. 28, 20. Didache 11, 7 ff. 1

2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, vi]

EXTRANEOUS SOURCES

189

case of Jews or Samaritans, who had no need to profess mono­ theism. The Christian part of the Didache shows the hand of an au­ thor familiar with Jewish customs and forms. The observance of two fast days in each week, with the substitution of Wednes­ day and Friday for Monday and Thursday, has already been mentioned. So the three daily hours of prayer with the recita­ tion of the prayer "the Lord commanded in the Gospel," instead of the prayer used by "the hypocrites" (the Tefillah). Even more conclusive is the character of the liturgical prayers prescribed for the Eucharist (c. 9), and the Blessing after the Meal (c. 10). The content is Christian; but they are through­ out reminiscent of the Jewish forms of prayer, the place of which they take. They begin with a substitute for the Kiddush, then for the blessing of the bread, and finally a Birkat ha-Mazon in three parts, each closing with an ascription, and a conclusion to the whole. In what region the Christian community existed which has left us this picture of itself is a question to which no answer can pretend to be better than a guess. There is no reason to doubt that the original language was Greek; not, like the primitive Gospel or the first part of Acts, Aramaic. Its age can only be inferred from the rudimentary character of the institutions, which would incline us to a relatively early date — say, the be­ ginning of the second century; but primitive conditions may have lasted much longer in outlying places than in the great centres, and especially in Jewish-Christian communities. Nor is the date, which is of interest in relation to the development of Christian doctrine and discipline, of so much importance from our point of view. 1

2

3

4

1

Cf. Didache 9, 5 (ol PaTTTLadevTes els ovofxa Kvplov—condition of admission to the Eucharist). The Lord's Prayer as in Matthew, with the doxology, from which " the kingdom " is omitted. Therefore the blessing of the cup precedes that of the bread (cf. Luke 22, 17). See G. Klein, Der alteste Christliche Katechismus (1909), pp. 214 if. 2

3

4

CHAPTER VII TESTAMENTS.

JUBILEES.

SECTARIES A T DAMASCUS

may properly be made here also of one or two writ­ ings which, though exhibiting idiosyncrasies which mark them off from the main line of development, nevertheless in funda­ mental things are at one with it. Such is that entitled The Testaments of the Twelve Patri­ archs, in which, taking the suggestion from the Blessing of Jacob in Genesis 49, and the Blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 33, each of the sons of Jacob, when his time comes to die, gathers his descendants about him and delivers to them his parting charge. Drawing a lesson for them from his own life, he dwells particularly on the sin (or sins) into which he had fallen, with the consequences in his case and in general, warns his children against the occasions and temptations which lead men into the like sins, and commends the contrary virtues with the disposi­ tion by which they are cultivated. In one or two cases the tri­ umph over temptation (Joseph), or the superiority of the simple life in single-mindedness (Issachar), is the main theme; the patriarch is an illustration of virtue, rather than a warning against vice. In the exemplification of these moralizings the biblical story is followed so far as it goes, but amplified and supplemented by legendary matter, in which the wars of Jacob and his sons with the kings of the Amorites and with Esau and his army are prom­ inent. These prototypic conflicts, spun out of Gen. 35, 5 and 36, 6, were evidently a favorite subject; we have them in the Book of Jubilees and in the late Midrash Wayissa'u.

MENTION

1

1

2

Jubilees 34 and 37. Found in the Yalkut on Genesis § 133; edited thence by Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, III, 1-5. 2

CHAP, vii]

SECTARIAN WRITINGS

191

The moralizing itself is throughout sound, and frequently on a high plane. Its basis is scriptural, but it shows the same kind of advance beyond its texts, by combination and by interpreta­ tion in the light of the higher principles of morality, which is characteristic of the teaching of the Scribes — for example in the repeated coupling of the commandments of love to God and love to fellow man. There is nothing of sectarian eccentricity about it. Noteworthy is the place of repentance, and the conception of it. The affinity of the Testaments with Jubilees appears not only in the Haggadah but in the prominence of "Beliar" as the name of the chief of a realm of evil. In Beliar's train is a multitude of "deceiving spirits" which tempt and prompt men to particular sins. These spirits have no concrete reality, and are hardly more than personifications of the prompting man feels in himself of lust, covetousness, envy, jealousy, hatred, or what not. It is a kind of analysis of the "evil impulse." It is, however, much more elaborated than in rabbinic sources, in which moreover the name Belial occurs only in biblical contexts. Besides the moralizing and legendary Haggadah there is an­ other element in the Testaments of which notice must be taken. In almost every one of them there is an exhortation to be loyal to Levi and Judah, to obey them, to love them, honour them, be united to them. Sometimes this is reinforced by a prediction that the tribe will fall away from them with dire consequences. The Testament of Levi narrates as a vision a tour of Levi through the scale of heavens, and in another his investiture there with the pontificals of the high priest, and how his grandfather Isaac taught him the duties of the priesthood. The exhortation he gives his sons (c. 13) to fear the Lord, and instruct their children in the law, and do righteousness, and get wisdom, is a high ideal of the office. 1

2

3

1

See e. g. Test. Reuben 3, 3-6. T o call this sort of thing " a vast demonology" (Charles) is a misnomer. Cf. the 8vo 8t.al3ov\La Test. Asher 1, 2. Levi has regularly the precedence and the emphasis. See e.g. Reuben 5, 8; Judah 2 1 , 4. 2

y

3

SOURCES

I92

[INTRODUCTION

By the side of these passages which magnify the priesthood there are, however, others, in predictive form, which match the worst things the Psalms of Solomon have to say about the priest­ hood in the days of the degenerate Asmonaeans. These pieces seem to be thrust into their context, and are generally attributed to a later author. On the other hand the eschatological closes of some of the Testaments seem to be original, though they have frequently been interpolated or glossed by Christian copyists. The Testaments have been transmitted to us in Greek and in an Armenian translation from the Greek. The Greek is less palpably a translation than the most, but there are not lacking indications that the original language was Hebrew. The Testaments were long regarded as a Christian composi­ tion. The Christianity of many passages is indeed salient and of others is strongly probable. On the other hand the bulk of the book is prima facie Jewish, the morals no less than the legends. Grabe, who first edited the Greek text (1698; 1 ed. 1714), saw in it a Jewish work, interpolated by Christian hands. Evident as this solution seems, it found no favor with following critics, who disagreed only on what kind of Christian the author was; and it is only in recent times that scholars generally have re­ verted to Grabe's view, a confirmation of which is found in the fact that some of the Christian patches were not in the Greek manuscript from which the Armenian version was made. Before the Christian interpolators, Jewish hands had made additions to the Testaments, the most striking of which have been mentioned above. In this state of things, and with the uncertain interpretation of references to historical situations, it is not strange that opinions 1

2

3

4

1

See especially Levi 14, 5-16, 5. A book of Enoch is sometimes cited as the source of these predictions of degeneracy. Some fragments in Aramaic, and a Testament of Naphtali in Hebrew whose relation to our Greek is very remote, may here be ignored. On the Armenian version see F. C. Conybeare, in Jewish Quarterly Re­ view, V (1893), 375-398; V I I I (1896), 260-268, 471-4852

3

4

CHAP, vii]

SECTARIAN WRITINGS

193 1

differ somewhat widely about the age of the original work. The Asmonaean restoration is the earliest date in this period at which such enthusiasm for the priesthood of Levi as is manifest in the Testaments is probable; nor is it likely to have survived the doings of Alexander Jannaeus and his successors, who corre­ sponded only too well to the character given the degenerate priests in an addition to the Testament of Levi, chapters 14 and 15. For our purpose greater precision is not essential. Editions of the Greek text: Robert Sinker, Testamenta X I I Patriarcharum, etc. Cambridge, 1869. (Based on a Cambridge manuscript, with the readings of an Oxford MS. in foot notes.) Appendix (containing a collation of the Roman and Patmos MSS.). Cambridge, 1879. — H. Charles, The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs edited from nine MSS., together with the variants of the Armenian and Slavonic versions and some Hebrew fragments. Oxford, 1908. Translations: R. H. Charles, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Translated from the Editor's Greek Text . . . with Introduction, Notes, and Indices. 1908. — F. Schnapp, 'Die Testamente der zwolf Patriarchen' (in E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, II (1900), 458-506). The Book of Jubilees, to which a passing reference has been made, has its name from the chronological scheme in which the author dates every event from the creation to the eve of the exodus by Jubilee periods of forty-nine years and their subdi­ vision by sevens: thus the birth of Abram was in the thirtyninth Jubilee, in the second week (heptad of years), in the seventh year of the week. Frequently the exactness is carried out to the day of the month. With this chronological system goes a reconstruction of the calendar. Instead of a year of twelve lunar months rudely adjusted to the solar year by the intercalation, 2

1

It is generally believed that the Testaments, or parts of them, are related in some way to the Book of Jubilees; but that work is itself datable only within rather wide limits. Jubilees n , 14 f. 2

194

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

when necessary, of a thirteenth month, the author would have a solar year of fifty-two weeks (364 days), divided into four quar­ ters of thirteen weeks each, on the first day of each of which a memorial day was appointed, without regard to the moon, which disorders all measures of time, getting ten days out of the way every year. In consequence of the abandonment of this divinely appointed and revealed system, the festivals and the new moons were not kept at the proper times; and inasmuch as the time was of the essence of the observance, this was a grave religious lapse which was attended by many others. The angel who makes this revelation to Moses takes pains to affirm that the system is no innovation: he has it written in a book in his hands, and in the "heavenly tables" the division of days is ordained, "lest they forget the feasts of the covenant and walk according to the feasts of the Gentiles after their error and their ignorance." The same kind of a solar year of 364 days is defined in a de­ scription of the movements of the sun and the stars, and of the moon, that has come down to us in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (cc. 72-75; 78), and was doubtless meant to be taken for the astronomical observations of that explorer of the heavens. Into this eccentric calendar system it is unnecessary to enter here. The motive for it was probably not the mere charm of symmetry, but the desire to create a distinctively Jewish divi­ sion of time fundamentally unlike those of other peoples, and particularly that of the Greeks. In the reaction against Hel­ lenism in the second century such a motive is intelligible enough, 1

2

3

4

5

5

1

Twelve lunations occur in 354 days; the intercalary year has 384 days. See Jubilees 6, 29-38. In the author's scheme there would be eight months of thirty days each, and four (presumably the first month of each season) of thirty-one days, or — what comes to the same thing — twelve months of thirty days, and an unnumerated day at the beginning of each season (Enoch 2

See also 49, 14 f. Jubilees 6, 35. Enoch 74, 10-12; 75, 2. For the lunar year cf. 74, 13-16; 78, 9, 15 f. See Enoch 76, 14; 82, 1-8. See Jubilees 6, 35. The author of Enoch seems to be acquainted with the eight-year cycle of intercalation (Octaeteris); see 34, 13-16. 3

4

5 6

CHAP, vii]

SECTARIAN WRITINGS

195

and the end to be achieved may well have seemed of sufficient moment to outweigh the inconveniences of a year that was a day and more shorter than a mean solar year, especially as the con­ sequences would become serious only by accumulation. There is no indication that an attempt was ever made to get this calen­ dar into use, nor that it was a party issue as the reckoning of the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Book of Jubilees may be described as a Midrash on Gen­ esis and the first twelve chapters of Exodus, but it is peculiar in being the work of one author, composed on a preconceived plan and with a definite purpose. It presents itself as a revelation made to Moses on Mt. Sinai, where "the angel of the presence who went before the hosts of Israel," at God's command, with the heavenly chronological tables in his hands, dictated to Moses the history from the beginning (including even Moses' own bi­ ography) from the point of view of an angelic eyewitness and participant. One of the chief ends of the author was to carry back the origins of the distinctive observances of Judaism to a remote an­ tiquity and to connect them with epochs in the history of the patriarchs or of Noah and the antediluvians, and that not merely as ancestral customs but as laws then and there delivered by God for all future time. For this there were precedents in the Pentateuch in particular cases, such as the law against eating flesh with blood in it given to Noah and the law of circumcision given to Abraham. Later rabbis could not imagine the pious patriarchs otherwise than as knowing and keeping the whole personal and domestic law, even to its rabbinical refinements, when there was as yet no written law. But whatever anticipa­ tions of this kind there were, the Law in its completeness and 1

1

Biblical authority for a solar year of 364 days (twelve lunar months plus ten days) may have been found in the narrative of the flood in Genesis, as was acutely conjectured by B . W . Bacon in Hebraica, V I I I (1891-92), 7 9 88; 124-139; Charles, The Book of Jubilees (1902), p. 55.

SOURCES

I96

[INTRODUCTION

finality was given by Moses. The festivals — Passover, Un­ leavened Bread, Tabernacles — were memorials of events in the history of the escape from Egypt; the designation of Levi as the priestly tribe was made after the exodus, and the whole sacri­ ficial system and ritual was instituted only after the erection of the tabernacle and the installation of Aaron and his sons. According to Jubilees, on the contrary, the Feast of Weeks was first kept on earth by Noah in commemoration of the eter­ nal covenant God made that there should not again be a flood on the earth. It fell into desuetude after Noah's death, but was observed by Abraham and his descendants down to the generation of Moses, when it was again forgotten till it was re­ established at Sinai as is prescribed in "the first law" (Penta­ teuch). Tabernacles was first celebrated on earth by Abraham for seven days. Jacob kept it at Bethel, and added the eighth day. On this occasion Levi was invested with the priesthood, and the laws of tithing were given. The ritual of these festi­ vals is described in much detail, even to the recipe for the compound incense burnt by Abraham (16, 24), following in gen­ eral the laws in the Pentateuch, but with some features of later observance not found in Scripture, such as the procession around the altar at Tabernacles (16, 31), and some which are not men­ tioned in Tannaite sources. The occasion for the introduction of many laws is given: for example, purification after childbirth in the days of the first parents (3, 8-14); the laws against incest after the crime of Reuben (33, 10-20), repeated in fuller form in connection with Judah's sin with Tamar (41, 25 f.). 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

It had been celebrated in heaven from the creation till the days of Noah, Jubilees 6, 18. Ibid. 6, 16 f. Ibid. 6, 19; 14, 20; 15, I f.; 22, 1-5. Jubilees 16, 20-31. Ibid. 32, 4-7, 27-29. Ibid. 32, 8-15. For an enumeration see Charles, Book of Jubilees, Introduction, pp. lii-liii. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, v i i ]

S E C T A R I A N WRITINGS

197

The author speaks of books of the forefathers (Enoch, Noah, a i , 10) handed down from father to son, as from Noah to Shem, from Jacob to Levi (10, 13 f.; 45, 16). The laws are preestablished in the heavenly tablets, or recorded in them; these tablets contain predictions also. Authority is thus occasionally given to the peculiar rules of the book (Halakah). The Book of Jubilees sometimes follows the biblical narrative very closely, and in other places embroiders upon it freely. Much of this legendary embellishment was probably drawn from a common fund of Haggadah, but the selection from it as well as what seems to be the author's own contribution to the story is apposite to his purpose. He passes over incidents in Genesis which put the patriarchs in an unfavorable light, and makes slight omissions or changes in the narrative with the same motive. Similarly he makes Mastema (his name for Satan) responsible for things that might seem to reflect on the character of God, after the example of the Chronicler in the case of David's census. Great emphasis is laid in Jubilees on the separation of Jews from Gentiles. Israel alone was chosen by God to be His people. The many nations and peoples indeed all belong to Him, " and over them He gave spirits power, that they might lead them to go astray from following Him. But over Israel He did not ap­ point any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler," etc. (15, 31 f.). Abraham in his dying charge enjoins on Jacob: "Sepa­ rate thyself from the nations, and do not eat with them, and do not do as they do, and do not be their associate; for their work is uncleanness and their ways defilement," etc. (22, 16-18). Above all, intermarriage with them is stringently forbidden under pain of death (30, 7 - 1 7 ) ; a man who causes his daughter to be thus defiled has given of his seed to Moloch. Peculiar enmity is manifested toward the Philistines, the Edomites, and 1

2

3

4

5

1 2 3 4 5

See Charles on Jubilees 3, io, note. For which there was especial need in the story of Jacob. Cf. 2 Sam. 24, 1 with 1 Chron. 21, 1. See also 22, 20; 25, 9. Lev. 18, 21. See the Palestinian Targum on this verse.

SOURCES

I98

[INTRODUCTION

the Amorites — names suitable enough to the assumed situation, but under which are to be recognized the peoples against whom the Jews in the author's time had the best grounds for hostility. The sacramental observances of Judaism, if the word may be allowed, are circumcision and the sabbath, which are shared with the two highest orders of angels. Both belong to Israel alone. The violation of these ordinances is rank apostasy and entails the supreme penalty by the hand of man and of God. What is said about the omission or the obliteration of circum­ cision (15, 33 f.) evidently refers to conditions such as are de­ scribed in 1 Mace. 1, 13 f.; 2 Mace. 4, 9-14. The neglect of parents to circumcise their children perhaps accounts for the in­ sistence of the author that the rite must be performed without exception on the eighth day (15, 12, 14, 25 f.), as reaction from the neglect or lax observance of the sabbath may explain the un­ paralleled stringency of his application of that law (50, 6-13). In opposition to the opinion of the hellenizers that the law was anti­ quated, and the time had come to modernize it, if not to abandon it, and be like other civilized people, he unweariedly reiterates that the law is divine in origin and authority, and will continue unchangeable to the end of the present order of things. The Judaism of the book is unimpeachable. It glorifies the Law, as the revelation in parts on earth of the Law that was in­ scribed on the heavenly tables before the creation of the world, and was, as we have just seen, to endure unchanged to the end. Compromise with the ways of the heathen, intermarriage with them, even commensality, are apostasy, and call down the wrath of God not only on individual offenders but on the nation. The interpretation of the biblical laws and the expansion and appli­ cation of them are in cases of difference stricter than the corre­ sponding Halakah of the Mishnah and contemporary works, 1

2

3

1

On the exclusiveness of the Sabbath see Jubilees 2, 31. Cf. 2, 45. On the king's prohibition, 1, 48, 60; 2, 46. This is, however, the literal law in Scripture. It is unnecessary to sup­ pose that he is controverting the opinion that in certain circumstances the rite might be postponed one or two days. 2

3

CHAP, vii]

SECTARIAN WRITINGS

199

especially in the rules for the observance of the sabbath, for every infraction of which death is the penalty. Besides the Halakah and the solar calendar there are other peculiarities which are regarded as evidences of a sectarian origin. It is possible, however, that these singularities may have been entertained, in whole or in part, in circles which did not separate themselves in practice from others of strict observance or con­ stitute a sect in any proper sense of the term. There was evi­ dently much ferment of opinion in those days; the standardiza­ tion of Judaism was still a long way in the future. Jubilees was probably written in the latter half of the second century before the Christian era. It looks back upon the Syrian crisis from some distance, and has no quarrel with the present such as men of the author's kind had with Alexander Jannaeus. 1

2

The Book of Jubilees is preserved as a whole only in Ethiopic; and in parts (amounting together to about one third of the book) in Latin. Both were translated from the Greek, of which there are numerous traces in the Church Fathers, and the Greek ver­ sion from a Hebrew original. — The Ethiopic text was edited by Dillmann in 1859, and a second time, with additional and su­ perior manuscript authority, by R. H. Charles, The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees, etc. (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series, Part VIII. 1895). —The remains of the Latin version were published by Ceriani from a manuscript in the Ambrosian Library in Milan in 1861 (Monumenta Sacra et Profana, T. I., fasc. 1). They were reprinted by Hermann Ronsch in his important study of the work, Das Buch der Jubilaen, u.s.w., 1874. A German translation from the Ethiopic by Dillmann was published in Ewald's Jahrbucher der biblischen Wissenschaften, Volumes II and III (1850, 1851). A more recent translation (after Charles's edition of the text) by Enno Littmann is found in Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, II (1900), 31-119. — English translation, R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees, etc., 1902. With introduction, indexes, and a full commentary. 1

2

Jubilees 2, 25-30; 50, 6-13. See Isaac's blessing of Levi, Jubilees 31, 1 1 - 1 7 .

SOURCES

200

[INTRODUCTION

The only parties in Palestinian Jewry about which we have any information are the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the singu­ lar sect of the Essenes. Our informants are interested, however, only in those which had some importance in their own time, and there may have been various others of greater or less moment in their day of which no mention has survived. The literature we have been surveying and the apocalyptic writings which we have still to consider show that there were conflicting opinions on many points, whether or not those who maintained them should be denominated sects. Whatever may be true of the Book of Jubilees and its con­ geners, there is no question about the schismatic character of a book discovered a few years ago among the manuscripts in the Genizah at Cairo, and published by S. Schechter, in Documents of Jewish Sectaries, Vol. I. (1910). The discovery was of unique interest because it gives in the original Hebrew the sect's own account of its origin, its secession from the Jews in Judaea and migration to the region of Damascus, its organization and the laws under which it lived there, and its expectation of the future. The history and the expectation are, unfortunately for us, written in a figurative style, weaving in a midrashic tissue of biblical reminiscences a kind of Haggadah on their own story, which was doubtless intelligible to those who knew the story itself, but is mystifying to those whose knowledge does not supply the key to the allusions. The constitution and laws, on the contrary, are written plainly, and the difficulties in them are chiefly due to the state of the text. The peculiar interest and importance of the document for our purpose does not lie in the history of a short-lived and longforgotten schism, nor in its singular organization, but in the legal part, which exhibits the Halakah of the sect on various topics. The rules of Sabbath observance are laid down more at large than

1

1

In a book of this kind we should expect to find a selection of the Hala­ kah, comprising the things which it was most necessary for laymen to know, or on which especial stress was laid.

CHAP, vii]

S E C T A R I A N WRITINGS

201

the others; but fundamental rules are given on forbidden kinds of food ("dietary laws"), uncleanness and purifications, oaths, judicial and private, judges, witnesses and testimony, vows, things lost and found, communal charities, dealings with Gen­ tiles, etc. Among the obligations assumed by those who entered into the new covenant in the land of Damascus, were, " to set apart the sacred dues as they are prescribed, and that a man should love his neighbor as himself, and sustain the poor and needy and the proselyte, and seek each the welfare of his brother; that no man transgress the prohibited degrees, but guard against fornication according to the rule; and that a man should reprove his brother according to the commandment, and not bear a grudge from one day to another; and to separate from all kinds of uncleanness according to their several prescriptions; and that a man should not defile his holy spirit, even as God separated for them (be­ tween clean and unclean)." The opposite vices are often held up as the cause of divine wrath and ruin. Wandering in the de­ vices of a sinful imagination and adulterous eyes destroyed great men, caused the fall of the Watchers of heaven (Gen. 6, 4), and brought the great flood. A minute examination of the legal rules in the book in com­ parison with the standard Halakah as it is in the Tannaite sources proves that, except in relation to the lawfulness of cer­ tain marriages to which we shall return below, the differences between them, taken singly, are not wider than existed between great legal lights in the first and second centuries. In general the covenanters are stricter than the later rabbis; but not so liberal with the death penalty as the Book of Jubilees. Their affinities are throughout with the Pharisees, not with any other variety of Judaism. The two points of striking diversity are, first, that the sect brands as incest the marriage of a man with his niece (daughter 1

1

Such an investigation by a most competent authority in the Halakah is made in Professor Louis Ginzberg's Eine unbekannte jtidische Sekte, 1922.

SOURCES

202

[INTRODUCTION

of his brother or sister), which is not so classed in the biblical law, and by the rabbinical authorities was regarded as legitimate and even given a preference; and second, that it condemns bigamy as adultery. The former of these prohibitions is derived by analogy from the biblical prohibition of such a union between aunt and nephew. Bigamy was prohibited, according to their interpretation, by Lev. 18,18. They support this by Gen. i, 27, ' a male and a female created He them,' and 7, 9,' by pairs they went into the ark'; also by the law that the prince shall not multiply wives (have more than one wife at a time), Deut. 17, 17. This condemnation of polygamy, like that of the marriage of uncle and niece, is not to be attributed to what are called moral considerations, but to a peculiar exegesis of the biblical laws in question. The violence of the language in which those with whom their interpretation conflicted are assailed shows that the controversy on these points was most acute. What is more important than particular differences is that the whole method, both of the halakic interpretation of the laws and the midrashic use of the Law and the Prophets, is of the same kind with which we are familiar in Tannaite literature. And more important still is the fact that the sect had an authorita­ tive body of Halakah, topically arranged, and formulated with a precision which reveals experience. From the nature and pur­ pose of the writing before us, which is a warning and exhortation to the members of the sect, it may be inferred, as has been said, that only a selection of this Halakah is presented; the Sefer ha­ lt ago, by which the officials, judges, and priests were to be guided, was presumably much more extensive — " a sectarian Mishnah." 1

2

3

4

1

Yebamot 62b-63a; Sanhedrin 76b. See Maimonides, Issure Bi'ah 2, 14. For cases of such marriages among the Tannaim see Ginzberg, Eine unbekannte judische Sekte, p. 182 n. 2. Lev. 18, 12. " T h o u shalt not take one wife to another . . . in her (the first wife's) life­ time." On the reasoning in this interpretation see Ginzberg, op. cit., pp. 24 ff., and on the whole question, pp. 181 ff. The inference that they allowed no divorce is erroneous. Ibid., pp. 70 f. 2

3

4

CHAP, V I I ]

S E C T A R I A N WRITINGS

203

A further fact of no little significance is that this organized Halakah was committed to writing not only in a book for the use of the authorities of the community, but in part at least for the people at large. Nor is there any reason to think that this was a sectarian innovation. Professor Ginzberg has shown that the affinity of the legal ele­ ment of the document to the Halakah of the Pharisees extends also to its theological position, which is in the main in accord with their teachings, with differences chiefly attributable to sectarian narrowness. The book has certain resemblances to the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The former is cited by its title, The Book of the Divisions of the Times ac­ cording to the Jubilee Periods and their Weeks. The "three nets of Belial of which Levi the son of Jacob spoke, with which he (Belial) caught Israel" is generally thought to be a reference to the Testament of Levi, though the quotation is not found in the Testament as we have it. It is quite possible, however, that some other moralizings of Levi are cited. Whether the resem­ blances signify anything more than proximity in time and en­ vironment— whether, in other words, there is a literary de­ pendence of one on another — is not certain. The citation of Jubilees is apparently to say that an exact explanation of the world-periods is to be found in that work, presumably in refer­ ence to a computation of the end; but this is apropos of nothing in the context, and is not further developed. It is possible, but not self-evident, that when God "revealed to them the secrets wherein all Israel went astray, his holy sabbaths and his glorious festivals, and his righteous testimonies, and his true way, and the pleasure of his will — things which if a man do he shall live by them," the repristinated calendar of Jubilees is included; but the author at least shows no zeal about it. 1

2

1

Eine unbekannte jiidische Sekte, p. 299. Ginzberg, op. cit., p. 134, suspects an unintelligent gloss to the preced­ ing words. 2

204

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

The age of the migration to Damascus and the organization of the seceding community there is a point in dispute. Several of the early investigators thought of the hellenizing high priests and the vengeance inflicted by "the head of the Greek kings," which is the last event in the national history that seems to be clearly alluded to. Eduard Meyer has more recently argued strongly for a date about 170 B.C., laying some stress on the fact that there is no sign in the book of the desecration of the temple and the Maccabaean wars, nor of the Book of Daniel. Since he thinks that the author knew the Testaments and made much use of Jubilees, he accordingly puts both these writings back into the third century. Ginzberg, on the other hand, dates the origin of the movement under Alexander Jannaeus, during whose con­ flicts with the Pharisees its adherents sought refuge in the region of Damascus, where they developed into an intransigent sect which would have nothing to do with the moderate Pharisees in Judaea. Jubilees and the Testaments (in their original form) are now put by most critics shortly before the breach between the Asmonaeans and the Pharisees. The stage of halakic development attested in our document is a consideration of some weight in favor of the later date of which due account must be made. 1

The Apocalypses — Enoch, the Syriac Baruch, Fourth Esdras, and minor works of the class— will be discussed in Part VII. 1

' D i e Gemeinde des Neuen Bundes im Lande Damaskus, eine jiidische Schrift aus der Seleucidenzeit.' Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1919.

C H A P T E R VIII HISTORICAL

SOURCES

IT remains here briefly to enumerate works on Jewish history in biblical times and later, or on the religion of the Jews. For the history of the Maccabaean rising and the achievment of autonomy down to the death of Simon and the acces­ sion of John Hyrcanus (135 B . C ) , a period of about forty years, the First Book of Maccabees is the primary source. The book, which is extant only in Greek and translations from the Greek, was written in Hebrew after Old Testament models. The author was a Palestinian Jew, a partisan of the Asmonaeans who had come to the rescue of their imperilled religion and delivered their people from the dominion of the heathen, and he tells the story accordingly. It is told in a straightforward way, with fre­ quent dates of the Seleucid era, and makes the impression of be­ ing the work of a well-informed man who stood near the events and the actors in the history he narrates. It may be probably dated in the last quarter of the second century before our era. Loyalty to their God and the institutions of their people was the mainspring of the revolt. The author's heroes and their fol­ lowers were zealous for the observance and enforcement of the laws prohibiting worship of other gods and all idolatry, and those prescribing circumcision and the sabbath and the sabbatical year; they execute ruthlessly the stern Deuteronomic law on the apostates. They manifest throughout a firm confidence in the power and purpose of God and in his will to deliver those who put their trust in him, and they fortify their faith by biblical ex­ amples from the ancient history down to the stories in the Book 1

1

Many scholars since Whiston think that chapters 1 4 - 1 6 (or 1 4 , 15-16, 23) are an addition to the original work, unknown to Josephus; but in view of Josephus' habits of compilation the inference is unsafe. 205

2o6

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

of Daniel; but this faith is in a God who helps those that help themselves. There is no expectation of miraculous intervention as distinguished from providential support, and no hint of any­ thing resembling miracle. Nor is there any trace of the religious pragmatism that is so strongly impressed on Kings and Chron­ icles. There is no appeal to prophecies of deliverance and the future greatness and glory of the Jewish people. In contrast to 2 Maccabees, there is no suggestion of a life beyond death. For God, the author regularly says Heaven, or employs a pronoun the reference of which is self-evident. Second Maccabees is an abridgment of a larger work in five books by an otherwise unknown Jason of Cyrene, written in a turgid rhetorical Greek. Prefixed to the book are two letters (i, 1-2, 18) from Jerusalem Jews to their brethren in Egypt, which may be left out of consideration here. The epitomator's preface occupies 2, 19-32; with 3, 1, the history begins. The period covered is much shorter than that in 1 Maccabees, ending with the victory of Judas over Nicanor in 161, at the cul­ minating moment of Judas's career. On the other hand the events which led up to the revolt, the intrigues and bribery by which Jason and Menelaus got themselves into the high priest­ hood, about which 1 Maccabees has not a word, are narrated at some length, glossing nothing of the scandal. In striking contrast to First Maccabees, the second book, not only freely employs the common Old Testament names and titles of God, but abounds in descriptive epithets and phrases, some of which come from the Old Testament, others occur only in the later Jewish literature, or seem to be original with the author. God is the Most High, whose abode is in heaven; he is the Almighty, the King of Kings, the Creator of the World, the Great Lord of the World, the Master of Life and the Spirit, the 1

1

1 Mace, makes the movement for Hellenization proceed from some Jewish "sons of Belial," but names no names. Perhaps regard for the honor of his people may have stayed his hand rather than particular reverence for the priesthood.

HISTORICAL SOURCES

CHAP, VIII]

207

All-Seeing One, the Just Judge, the Merciful God, the Lord of Spirits (3, 24). Angelic apparitions and miraculous interven­ tions are frequent. The most striking instance is the physical intervention of the splendid horseman and his two satellites who defeat Heliodorus purpose to seize the temple treasure; others are the apparition of the mounted angel in white garments with golden weapons who leads Judas and his army in the battle with Lysias (11, 8, 10), and the five celestial horsemen who put them­ selves at the head ot the Jews in 10, 29. The theological prag­ matism ot the history is well-defined in 5, 17 ff.: The Lord for a short while was angry with the city because of the sins of its in­ habitants, and for this cause permitted Antiochus to work his will upon it; after the Mighty Ruler was reconciled, it was ex­ alted again with glory. Moralizing reflections, grounded on this doctrine, are com­ mon, as for example, 4, 16 ff. In individual cases the author is fond of pointing out how the divine retribution overtakes sinners in kind. These edifying comments on the ways of God give oc­ casion to exhibit a rhetorical pathos which smacks of the Greek schools rather than of the Old Testament precedents; examples of this pathos in different associations are also found, e. g., 4, 47; 3,15-21, etc. The confident belief in a restoration of life after death is the sustaining hope of the martyrs in chap. 7, in the form of a resto­ ration of the tortured and mutilated bodies of the victims; see also 14, 45 f. For Antiochus and such as he there is no resurrec­ tion to life. Judas offers prayers and has expiatory sacrifices offered in the temple for some of his men who were killed in battle and were found to be wearing heathen amulets under their shirts; and the author adds that herein he did well, having re­ gard to the resurrection: "For had he not expected that those who had fallen would rise from the dead, it would have been idle ,

1

2

3

4

1

2

See also 6, 12-17. See further 5, 6, 17 ff.; 6, 12 f.; 12, 43. See 9, 5-10; 13, 4-8, etc. 7, 17 might seem to imply a conscious existence for the tyrant after death, but perhaps should not be pressed so hard. 3

4

2o8

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

and foolish to pray for dead men; and he reflected further that for those who sleep in piety the fairest reward is laid up — a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made this expiation for the dead, that they might be relieved from their sin " (12, 38-45). Jason plainly wrote at a distance from the scene of the strug­ gle he relates, but it cannot safely be inferred from the miracu­ lous element in the story that it was composed long after the events. In a favorable environment the growth of legend may begin with the earliest reports of what happened. How long a time elapsed between Jason and the epitomator can only be con­ jectured. For our purpose it is enough that the book as we have it probably comes from the first century before our era. It is very instructive that 2 Maccabees, and the work of Jason of Cyrene which it epitomizes, though coming from Grecian Jewry, has a closer resemblance to popular Palestinian Judaism than appears in First Maccabees, which was written in Palestine and in Hebrew. Especially noteworthy is the prominence of the life after death as a bodily life, and the denial of such a here­ after to the tyrant. The difference between this and the Hellen­ istic conception in the Wisdom of Solomon, and especially from the use of the same martyr stories in Fourth Maccabees, on the one hand, and the complete Pharisaean doctrine on the other, is evident. 1

For the history of the war of 66 to 72 and its immediate ante­ cedents Josephus writes as an eye-witness and participant in the events he narrates, or of things at least within his memory. He begins, however, much farther back, with the taking of Jerusa­ lem by Antiochus Epiphanes and the desecration of the temple in 168 B . C , and for a period of more than two centuries he was evidently dependent on preceding historians. First Maccabees is the only recognizable Jewish source, and Josephus seems 2

3

1

Apparently entered on by the martyrs at once, not (as in Daniel) at the great assize. Titus Flavius Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 13, 1 ff.; Vita. Bell. Jud. i. 1, i - i . 2, 4. 2

3

HISTORICAL SOURCES

CHAP, VIII]

209

not to have used this directly but to have taken the very sum­ mary account of the struggle as he found it in the comprehensive historical work which he made his principal authority. The treatment of Herod's reign points to a Greek historian who was not only well informed about the events of the reign but had the knowledge which enabled him to correlate them with the political history of the times. The general opinion of critics identifies this historian with Nicolaus of Damascus, in whom these conditions are completely fulfilled. Nicolaus lived for many years at the court and in the confidence of Herod, and was repeatedly employed by the king in public affairs; he was the author of a universal history, in the writing of which he was encouraged by Herod. Whether Josephus, in the War, drew di­ rectly on the work of Nicolaus, or through an intermediate source, is not essential to our inquiry. In either case Josephus has evidently abridged his source for his own purpose. It is a fair presumption that he used the same source for the preceding period, from the Maccabaean rising on, and this is confirmed by internal evidence of the unity of the narrative and its consistent point of view, which is that of an outsider not at all prepossessed in favor of the Jews, and particularly not of the Pharisees. The famous passage in the second book of the Jewish War, in which the three Jewish philosophies are classified by their attitude to the problem of fate (elfxapfievq), is most prob­ ably ultimately from the same non-Jewish source. The problem of the sources in the corresponding part of the Antiquities is more complicated. The later work not infre­ quently differs materially from the earlier, and it is evident that Josephus employed other sources, in particular a Jewish author 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Compare the ampler narrative in Antt. xii. 5—xiii, 7. So most recently Holscher, in the article 'Josephus* in the Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, I X (1916), col. 1943 ff. W. Otto, art. 'Herodes/ ibid., Supplement, I I , 1 ff. (to vol. V I I I ) . See above, pp. 64-66. Bell. Jud. viii. 8, cf. Antt. xiii. 5, 9. The long description of the Essenes is a question for itself. Beginning with xii. 5. The War was written between the years 75 and 79; the Antiquities was finished in 93-94. 2

3 4 6

7

5

SOURCES

CLIO

[INTRODUCTION

(or authors) strongly hostile to Herod. In the history of the Asmonaeans there is a Jewish strand which sympathizes with the nobles who supported Alexander Jannaeus, and does not like the Pharisees much better than did Nicolaus. In consequence of Josephus' easy-going way in the compilation of his work, there are many inconsistencies which he either made no attempt to harmonize or an ineffective one. For the religion of his times Josephus is a somewhat disap­ pointing source. As he tells us in his autobiography, he experi­ mented with all three of the sects, and with a solitary in the desert besides, and finally addicted himself to the Pharisees. He professes also, before this perambulation, and while still very young, to have acquired an extraordinary reputation for legal learning. And he was a member of one of the great priestly families. It would not be unreasonable to expect to learn of him much about the religion of his times, especially in the Antiquities where he takes us over the Old Testament history and describes the Mosaic legislation. It is true that he writes to display to Gentile readers the antiquity and excellence of the Jewish people and its institutions, and is naturally guided by this intention; yet it is a striking fact that, if we were dependent on the works of Josephus alone, we should know very little about the religion of his contemporaries. In illustration it may be noted that of so important an institution as the synagogue there is no mention; the word itself occurs, if I am not in error, only of a building in Antioch in which was deposited by later Syrian kings some of the plunder of the temple carried off by Antiochus IV. It may, I think, be fairly inferred that Josephus, like most of the aristocratic priesthood to which he belonged, had little in­ terest in religion for its own sake, and that his natural antipathy to all excess of zeal was deepened by the catastrophe which religious fanatics had brought upon his people. 1

2

3

1

Whether the paraphrase of the laws is Josephus' own, or was taken with much else from some Alexandrian predecessor, does not affect the point. Cf. Contra Apionem ii, 16 ff., especially §§ 164 ff. Bell. Jud. vii. 3, 3. 2 3

CHAP, VIII]

HISTORICAL SOURCES

211

With Philo the case is quite the reverse; his dominant in­ terest is in Judaism as a religion. He was of a family of high standing in Alexandria. A brother of Philo had filled an im­ portant post in the excise; his son, Philo's nephew, Tiberius Alexander, who abandoned the religion of his fathers, rose in the Roman service to be procurator of Judaea under Claudius, and was made Governor of Egypt by Nero, where he sternly re­ pressed a tumult of the Jews on the eve of the rebellion in Pales­ tine. During the siege of Jerusalem he was on the staff of Titus as praefectus castrorum. Philo himself was the head of the dele­ gation of Alexandrian Jews to protest to the emperor Caligula against the wrongs they suffered under the administration of Flaccus. Such diversion from his philosophical pursuits into political affairs, however necessary, was regretted as a grave mis­ fortune; he thanks God that he was not wholly submerged in them. Philo had had a broad and thorough education according to the encyclical scheme of studies followed in the Greek schools, embracing Grammar (including History and Literature), Arith­ metic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, and Rhetoric. With this preparation he went on to the study of philosophy in its three branches, Physics, Ethics, and Logic, and attained an extensive rather than profound acquaintance with Greek philosophical learning. Like most of his contemporaries, and probably like his teachers, he was an eclectic, taking good things where he found them, so that the result is a congeries of opinions, not a close-knit system. If we had to give his own philosophy a name, we should label it a Stoicizing Platonism with a penchant for Pythagorean number-jugglery. But we should have to add that 1

2

3

4

1

This visit to Rome in the year 40 is the one fixed date in his life. He has given his own account of it in the Legatio ad Gaium. De spec, legibus iii. 1 (ed. Mangey II, 299 f.). On the necessity of these preparatory disciplines (propaedeutic) he re­ peatedly insists; see De Cherubim c. 30 (Mangey I, 157 f.); De agricultura Noe cc. 3-4 (Mangey I, 302 f.); De congressu, cc. 3, 4, 14, 25, 26 (Mangey I, 520 f., 529f.>.53?-54i). The Stoic division. De agricultura, 1. c. 2

3

4

SOURCES

212

[INTRODUCTION

adaptability to Jewish theology enters as a factor of choice into his personal eclecticism. Of his Jewish education he tells us nothing. Yet, apart from his frequent references to the interpretations of others, it is con­ stantly evident that he has at his command a wealth of such ma­ terial accumulated by his predecessors or contemporaries. How much of this he acquired from the discourses in the synagogues of which he speaks in laudatory terms, how much he may have got from earlier writers on similar subjects, there is no means of knowing; but in either case the most natural supposition is that the discourses or the writings came out of the study of the Scrip­ tures in Alexandrian schools of the Law, and that Philo himself had been a student, and was perhaps a teacher, in such a school. Philo set himself to prove that between sound philosophy and revealed religion there is complete accord — they are two ways of expressing the one divine truth. With his philosophical the­ ology and the methods by which he discovers and verifies it we are not here concerned. Neither his conception of a transcendent God, nor the secondary god, the Logos, by which he bridges the gulf he has created between pure Being and the phenomenal world, and between God so conceived and man, had any effect on the theology of Palestinian Judaism. His summary of the biblical doctrine of God as he derives it from the first chapter of Genesis in five propositions, the Existence of God, the Unity of God, the Creation of the World, the Unity of the World, the Providence of God, is framed in explicit antithesis to as many false doctrines of Greek philosophical schools. The articles themselves are the belief of all Jews; Palestinian Judaism had to combat some of the same errors in popular form, but never felt the need of such a formulation of the items of true doctrine. We may therefore pass over Philo's philosophy of religion, which he no doubt valued most highly of all his work. His im­ portance for an inquiry such as ours lies in the fact that he was 1

2

1

2

De opificio mundi c. 61 (ed. Mangey I , 41). Skeptics, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans.

HISTORICAL SOURCES

CHAP, VIII]

213

the first to undertake a complete exposition of Judaism from the point of view of a man who had abundant observation of other religions and a wide acquaintance with the religious and ethical aspects of contemporary philosophy. That he employs the comparative method which thus imposed itself in the full conviction of the intrinsic excellence and the immeasurable su­ periority of Judaism, and exhibits it in its self-evidence to Jews and Greeks, does not diminish the value of his work. This series of writings is introduced by the Life of Moses, the lawgiver; followed by the treatise on the Decalogue, subsuming under each of the Ten Commandments the positive and negative obligations expressed or implied in it in a fashion similar to Christian catechisms in later times. Then, in a corresponding distribution, he takes up in detail the specific laws in the Penta­ teuch in four books; supplemented by a book on the Virtues in which (as in the last chapters of Book iv, De iustitia) he groups precepts which could not so well be brought under any one of the Ten Commandments. This book seems not to have reached us complete; a lost section on Piety (evae^ela) once preceded that on Philanthropy. The remaining subtitles are De fortitudine, De humanitate, De nobilitate? To this again is appended a book on Rewards and Punishments, closing with the comminations in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28 (De exsecrationibus). In the treatment of the moral precepts of the Law, and espe­ cially in the book on the Virtues, the influence of Greek, particu­ larly Stoic, ethics is obvious. On the other hand, the allegorical interpretation so prominent in the other works of Philo plays here a relatively insignificant part. The method is unlike either that of the Tannaite Midrash or of the organized Halakah in the Mishnah. One striking differ1

2

1

De specialibus legibus, i-iv (ed. Mangey II, 210-374). The parts of these books have in the manuscripts and editions separate titles taken from the subjects treated in them, by which they are frequently cited. The two great commandments. See De humanitate c. 1 § 51 (ed. Man­ gey I, 383). See Cohn-Wendland, V, pp. xxvi f., and p. 266. irepl avdpeias, irepi (frikavdpooirias, irepl evyeveias. 2

3

SOURCES

214

[INTRODUCTION

ence is that Philo does riot rest the obligation of conformity to the law on the authority of revelation, but endeavors to find a rational and moral excellence in the individual prescriptions which commends them to intelligence and conscience. Another is that he makes no place for tradition beside exegesis, nor for the enactments or the precautionary rules of the Scribes — the oral law. The unwritten law is for him the Stoic law of nature. In particulars he is often in agreement with Tannaite Halakah, often at variance with it. No small part of these differences are attributable to the fact that Philo operated exclusively with the Greek translation of the Pentateuch. In what relation the Alexandrian Jews stood to the Palestinian schools in his day and before it, is not known. Nor would it be safe to infer, as is sometimes done, that Philo is a representative of Alexandrian Jewry as a whole. It is probable that there was a more or less steady and considerable influx of Jews from Pales­ tine, and there may have been as wide differences between the newcomers and those whose ancestors had been in Egypt for generations as we see under similar circumstances in modern cities. Philo's digest of the laws had no discoverable influence on the rabbinical law; but it is of great interest in itself, and frequently offers instructive parallels. 1

2

1

Another noteworthy feature of Philo's exposition is that he so seldom looks outside the Pentateuch, even for illustration. The abundance of apposite citation from the Prophets and the Psalms in the Tannaite Midrash has no counterpart in Philo, even when the quotation would seem almost to force itself on the attention. See B . Ritter, Philo und die Halacha, and the notes to the "Einzelgesetze" in the German translation edited by L . Cohn, Die Werke Philos von Alexandria, II (1910). 2

CHAP, VIII]

HISTORICAL SOURCES AIDS TO THE U S E OF THE SOURCES

215 1

1. Rabbinical Sources: J. Winter und Aug. Wiinsche, Geschichte der judisch-hellenistischen und talmudischen Litteratur. Vol. I. 1894. Pp. 696. A description of the various sources with selected extracts from each in translation, whence the sub-title, "Eine Anthologie fur Schule und Haus." "Litteraturnachweise," pp. 692-696. W. Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten. 2 vols. I, Von Hillel bis Akiba. Von 30 vor bis 135 nach der gew. Zeitrechnung. 1884, 2 ed. 1903. II, Von Akiba's Tod bis zum Abschluss der Mischna. (135 bis 220 nach der gew. Zeitrechnung.) 1890. In chronological order, with brief biographical notices. The teachings of the several masters are arranged under appropriate topics, with notes on the text, the attribution, parallels, etc., making a critical and exegetical commentary of the highest value to the student. The author reserved the anonymous Haggadah for separate treatment; but the carrying out of the plan was prevented by his death. Indexes of the Tannaim and of the Amor aim quoted are given in each volume, and a subject index to both at the end of vol. II — the latter, unfortunately, in a very inconvenient form. The student who actually works his way through these two volumes will acquire a knowledge of the authentic religious and moral teaching of the period which he could get in no other way. W. Bacher, Die Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer. 3 vols. 1892-1899. The first volume, from the close of the Mishnah to the death of R. Johanan (279 A.D.), includes the great homilists of the third century. H. Strack und P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testa­ ment aus Talmud und Midrasch. I (1922), Das Evangelium nach Matthaus. Pp. 1055; H ( 9 4)> Das Evangelium nach Markus, Lukas und Johannes, und die Apostelgeschichte. Pp. 867 . (With a provisional index to the two volumes.) Other volumes, containing the rest of the New Testament, Excursuses, etc., are to follow. An immense collection of parallels and illus­ trations from all parts of the rabbinical literature, in trustworthy translation, with the necessary introductions and explanations. 2

I

1

2

2

Those which are of use only to the advanced scholar are not included. " Agada'' (Haggadah) includes all teaching that is not legal in character.

2l6

SOURCES

[INTRODUCTION

The itemized index of subjects, which will be followed by fuller indexes in vol. IV, makes it possible to use the volumes not only as a commentary on New Testament passages in their relation to Judaism but as a conspectus of Jewish teaching on various topics. 2. Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: R. H. Charles, editor. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, with introductions and critical and explanatory notes to the several books. In conjunction with many scholars. 2 vols. 4 1913. (I Apocrypha, II Pseudepigra­ pha.) The most comprehensive undertaking of the kind, and the only one in English. On some of the books, as on Tobit and Sirach, the critical notes on the text are very full. The compre­ hensive index at the end of the second volume is worthy of especial notice. E. Kautzsch, editor. Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments. With the cooperation of numerous scholars. 2 vols. 1900. A similar enterprise in German; less in­ clusive, on a smaller scale, and in less luxurious form. Translations of particular books and commentaries on them are mentioned in connection with the books. On the Apocrypha as a whole the commentary of Fritzsche and Grimm has not been superseded: Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zu den Apokryphen des Alten Testamentes, 18511860. The only critical edition of the Greek text of the Apocrypha, with apparatus is O. F. Fritzsche, Libri apocryphi Veteris Testamen ti graece. 1871. It is not superfluous to note that Swete's Old Testament in Greek is not such an edition, and was not intended to be. It gives accurately the text of the Vatican codex 1209 (B), with the variants of certain other uncial manuscripts, and this text and apparatus is, especially in some of the Apocrypha, altogether in­ adequate. 0

1

1

It includes the Psalms of Solomon, the Latin of 4 Esdras, a Latin trans­ lation of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Assumption of Moses. With an index of names, and of Greek words.

PART

I

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

CHAPTER I NATIONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY

To understand what Judaism was at the beginning of the Chris­ tian era it is necessary to bear in mind the twofold character of nationality and universality which had been inseparably im­ pressed upon it by its history. It had been a national religion: Jehovah is the god of Israel; Israel is the people of Jehovah. The propositions are correlatively exclusive. However wide the power of Jehovah over the nations of the world, he has no nation of his own but Israel; and whatever power may be attributed to the gods of other nations, the nation of Israel has no god but Jehovah. This is the corner stone of the religion of Israel both in the popular apprehension and in the explicit affirmation of the re­ ligious leaders in all periods. The wars of the Israelites with the Canaanite inhabitants of Palestine or with the neighboring peoples are the wars of their god; the continually reiterated charge in the prophets and the laws is that the Israelites, leaving the worship of their own god, worship foreign gods, or other gods. 1

2

3

1

T o express these aspects of religion the words 'particularism' and 'universalism' are often used. Inasmuch as in this contrast 'particularism' fre­ quently implies a depreciatory judgment, while these ' i s m ' words of them­ selves suggest a conflict of theory or principle, this terminology should be eschewed by historians. On the twofold character of the religion, see Schiirer, Geschichte des jlidischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, 3d ed. I l l , 1 1 4 , and the literature there cited. On the history of the pronunciation 'Jehovah,' which has been estab­ lished in the languages of Western Europe since the sixteenth century, see Note 1. See, e.g. Judges ch. 5; 1 Sam. 17, 45; 25, 28 (cf. Num. i i > 14); 2 Sam. 7, 24; Hos. 2, 25 (23); Jer. 7, 23; 1 1 , 4; Amos 3, 2; Lev. 26, 12; Deut. 26, 17-19; Exod. 20, 2 f.; 34, 14. Jehovah is a 'jealous god,' Exod. 20, 5; 3 4 , 1 4 ; Deut. 4, 24; 5, 9; 6, 15. 2

3

219

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

220

[PART I

The common man in ancient times doubtless regarded the relation between Israel and its god as a matter of course: it was natural that every nation should have a national god, and though it was part of his religious patriotism to believe that the god of Israel was greater, that is, more powerful, and better to his people, than the gods of the neighboring peoples, the relation between Jehovah and Israel was in his mind not different in nature from that of Chemosh and Moab. The religious leaders, on the contrary, at least from the eighth century, taught that the relation between Jehovah and Israel was peculiar in that it was constituted by his choice, and rested on a compact the terms of which he had prescribed and Israel had accepted. The elec­ tion by which Israel alone of all the nations of the earth was made the people of Jehovah is Israel's glorious prerogative; but it also imposes peculiar and heavy obligations. As a national religion the religion of Israel has certain features which should not be overlooked. The national god was not the head of a national pantheon, like Assur in Assyria or the Egypt­ ian Amon-Ra in the Theban empire; nor is his position similar to that of the chief city-gods of the Phoenicians and Syrians, nor those of the Greeks and Romans, like Athena in Athens or Jupi­ ter in Rome. An organized polytheism of this kind never existed in Israel. Apart from any exclusiveness supposed to be inherent in the religion itself or in the minds of the people, the conditions which usually create such polytheisms were absent. Jehovah was the god of a group or confederacy of tribes which invaded and eventually conquered Palestine. The gods of the petty citystates into which the country was divided were not incorporated in the pantheon of the conquerors. They had apparently little individuality, they were just the baals (divine proprietors) of 1

2

1

See Judges 11, 23 f.; 2 Kings 3,4 ff. For the counterpart of this attitude see the inscription of Mesha, king of Moab, G. A. Cooke, Text-book of NorthSemitic Inscriptions (1903), pp. 1-14; or Encyclopaedia Biblica, III, cols. 3040-3048. Amos 3, 2; Hosea; especially Deut. 7, 6 - 1 1 ; 9, 9ff.; 10, 12 ff.; 14, 2; 26, 18 f.; see also 4, 37 ff.; 5, 2 ff.; 29, 9 ff.; Exod. 19, 5 f.; 24, 3-8. 2

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY A N D UNIVERSALITY

221

this or that place. They were the protectors of the communities that worshipped them, and in that capacity they succumbed to the god of the invaders; they were also the givers of the in­ crease of the land, and in this character, the Israelites, as they passed over to husbandry, learned from the older inhabitants with the art of agriculture the rites of the baal cultus. With completer occupation, the god of Israel became the god of the land of Israel; the ancient 'high places' were appropriated by him with the agricultural festivals. The baals were thus ab­ sorbed by Jehovah, not given a place beside or beneath him, as the clan gods of the Israelite tribes had probably already been absorbed. In the eyes of many, the Canaanite cultus, in what­ ever name it was celebrated, was heathenism and idolatry; Hosea stigmatizes it as like the unfaithfulness of a wife who abandons her husband to play the harlot with other lovers. The exclusiveness of the relation between the national god and his people could not find a more drastic figure; and long after the Canaanite population had been absorbed in Israel by inter­ marriage, as their gods had been absorbed by Jehovah, the wor­ ship of the baals remained the typical apostasy. When the kingdom of Israel entered into political alliance with Phoenicia and the alliance was cemented by the marriage of Ahab with a Tyrian princess, the worship of the Baal of Tyre (Melkart) was introduced in the capital, with no more thought of supplanting the national god than Ethbaal would have had if in reciprocity he had built a temple of Jehovah in Tyre. But Elijah was of another mind. No foreign god should be worshipped in Israel; there can be no divided religious allegiance — Jehovah or Baal! The zealots for Jehovah wrought the ruin of the dynasty of Omri; the principle of exclusiveness triumphed. In the seventh century foreign gods and cults flourished rankly in Judah. Manasseh earned for himself a particularly 1

1

Functional deities other than agricultural do not seem to have been much developed among the Canaanites; but whatever they were, their functions also were taken over by the national god. The goddess of fertility or mater­ nity alone seems to have kept her place in the household.

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

222

[PART I

bad name by the introduction of such religions from far and wide. Under Josiah the party loyal to Jehovah had their day, and the reforms of his eighteenth year swept away the gods whom Manasseh had installed in the temple of Jehovah itself, the altars of the Queen of Heaven and the horses of the Sun, as well as the Tophet in the Valley of Hinnom just outside the city, where children were offered by fire to the divine King (Moloch). When the final catastrophe of Judah came, the prophets bade their stricken countrymen see in it the vengeance of their own god for the sins of Manasseh and his generation: Jehovah was a jealous god, who would share the worship of Israel with no other; the proof of this doctrine, enounced long ago, had overtaken them. If there were those at the moment who explained the disaster in a contrary way (Jer. 44,15 ff.), the prophetic interpretation soon came to be uncontested. This interpretation had momentous consequences. It was not the Babylonians in the might of their gods who had tri­ umphed over Judah and its impotent god; it was Jehovah him­ self who had launched Nebuchadnezzar and his hosts against the doomed city to execute his judgment on religious treason. Henceforth for all time the principle was established that for a Jew to worship any other god is apostasy. For centuries this had been reiterated by the religious leaders in law and prophecy; the event gave their words a divine authentication. The recognition of the exclusive right of the national god to the religious allegiance of the nation and of every member of it is sometimes described as a 'practical monotheism.' The exclusive worship of one god, whether by the choice of individu­ als or by the law of a national religion, is not monotheism at all in the proper and usual meaning of the word, namely, the theory, doctrine, or belief, that there is but one God. This is the only sense in which the term has hitherto been used of Judaism, 1

1

It has also been named 'monolatry/ in the sense of the worship of one god only. Others call it 'henotheism/ a term already appropriated to a wholly different phenomenon.

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY

Christianity, and Mohammedanism; and since the word is needed to describe this type of religion, it is inexpedient to de­ flect it to another sense, even with a contradictory qualification. This is not a mere contention about words. In Israel monothe­ ism in the proper sense was not the outcome of the exclusive principle; it was reached by a different way, and as soon as its implications were recognized they were found to collide with the exclusiveness of the reciprocal relation between God and Israel in the national religion. Another feature of the religion of Israel which distinguishes it from those of other peoples of the time is its antipathy not only to images but to aniconic representatives of the deity, the pillars and posts at the places of worship. The opposition to these things was at first because they belonged to other religions, Canaanite or foreign; but the religious leaders advanced to the higher ground that Jehovah is invisible, and therefore cannot be represented in any visible likeness, of man or beast, in earth or sky or sea, or by the host of heaven on high (Deut. 4, 12-19). The narrative of Josiah's iconoclastic reforms (2 Kings 23) pic­ tures a very different reality. But here again the fall of Judah, in the prophetic interpretation, set the stamp of Jehovah's ab­ horrence on idolatry in every form. The principle that God cannot be seen in any natural object nor imaged by man's hands in any likeness is frequently called a doctrine of the 'spirituality' of God. If 'spirit' were taken in the biblical sense, there would be no other objection to the phrase than its abstractness; but in modern use spirit is the contrary of matter, and 'spiritual' equivalent to 'immaterial.' In this sense the spirituality of God is a philosophical theory derived from the Greeks, not a doctrine of Judaism in biblical times or thereafter, any more than Jewish monotheism is a doctrine of the unity of God in the metaphysical sense. Philo 1

2

1

See Encyclopaedia Biblica, 'Idol, Idolatry,' 'High Place,' 'Massebah,' 'Asherah.' See Encyclopaedia Biblica, II, cols. 2157 f. 2

224

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

has both conceptions from Plato, and reads them into the Bible with the rest of his philosophy; but he did not get them from the Bible nor from Judaism at all. The fall of the kingdom of Judah; the deportation of con­ siderable bodies of its people, especially of the upper classes, to Babylonia, where they were settled in colonies; the flight of others during and after the wars to the neighboring countries or to Egypt, was the beginning of a dispersion which grew more extensive in the following centuries and reached great propor­ tions under Alexander and the Macedonian kings. But however widely the Jews were scattered, they felt themselves members of the Jewish nation. Even as a subprefecture of a Persian province or in similar subordination in the empire of Ptolemies or Seleucids, Judaea, within its narrow limits, had an acknow­ ledged political existence of a kind, and even after generations in other lands the Jews still looked to it as their native country; the national spirit survived the collapse of the national state. There were hopes, often disappointed but permanently inex­ tinguishable, of the revival of national autonomy, and even dreams of the recovery of vanished power and glory. The temple had been rebuilt early in the Persian period (520516 B.C) and the worship of the national god reestablished in its ancient seat. But the national religion was no longer as it had been in the days of the kingdom the religion of a people occupy­ ing its own land, where men were born and brought up in the ways of their fathers without reflection or choice of their own. Now the great majority of the Jews lived in foreign countries, in daily contact with men of different races, customs, and re­ ligions. In such an environment, as the history of emigration and colonization in modern times teaches us, fidelity to the religion of their ancestors, was a matter of individual determination; and these external conditions concurred with the turn to individual­ ism which the religion itself had received from Jeremiah and Ezekiel to give it a somewhat different character. The older ideas of national solidarity were supplemented and to some

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY

225

extent superseded by personal responsibility. We shall have occasion to revert to the consequences of this change at a later stage in our investigation. The national feeling of the Jews throughout the world was greatly exalted by the achievement of Judaean independence and the reestablishment under the Asmonaeans of a national state, with boundaries extended to the frontiers of Solomon's empire; and whatever might be thought about Herod, it could not be questioned that he made the kingdom of Judaea one of the most conspicuous powers in the Nearer East. Moreover, the friendly relations of the Asmonaeans and of Herod with Rome secured for the Jews throughout the sphere of Roman dominion or influ­ ence extraordinary privileges and exemptions, which in the main they retained through the following period. Great numbers of Jews at the beginning of our era were de­ scendants of families which had been settled in other and often remote countries as long as the present-day descendants of the English colonists in America; they spoke another language and had appropriated more or less of alien culture. To them Judaism was in reality not so much the religion of the mother-country as the religion of the Jewish race; it was a national religion not in a political but in a genealogical sense. But notwithstanding this distinction — of which they were doubtless unconscious — the Jews were still in their own belief the only people of God, and the one God was still in a peculiar sense the god of the Jews. To them alone he had made himself known, not in nature and conscience only, but by the word of revelation; to them alone he had given in the twofold law his will for man's whole life; theirs were "the adoption (which made them alone sons of God) and the glory and the covenants and the legislation and the (di­ vinely ordained) worship and the promises" — so Paul sums it up in Romans 9, 4. The golden age in the future, the goal toward which all history moved, was, above everything else, 1

1

Juster, Les Juifs dans P empire romain, I, 213 ff., 339 ff.

226

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

the fulfilment of Israel's destiny. essential character of Judaism.

[PART I

Nationality was thus an

For centuries, however, it had been the fundamental dogma of Judaism that there is but one God, creator and ruler of the world. The most elementary reflection on the implications of monotheism makes it clear that a universal god's interest in mankind cannot be confined to a particular nation. The very elevation of Jehovah to the place of sole God thus seemed to threaten the foundations of the national religion, the peculiar and exclusive relation between Jehovah and Israel. The first consciousness of this antinomy is perhaps expressed in more emphatic assertions of the arbitrariness of the divine election. In particular the existence of the polytheistic religions of the heathen was a new problem. According to the author of Deut. 4> 9 f-> Jehovah assigned the sun, moon, and stars, the whole host of heaven, which all antiquity believed to be glorious divine beings, to the other nations, but took Israel to be a hereditary nation of his own. It is obvious that this solution, which made God himself the author of polytheism, could not permanently satisfy. In Deut. 32, 8 f. we read: 'When the Most High gave the heathen their inheritance, when he divided the children of men, he established the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the portion of Jehovah is Israel; Jacob, his hereditary lot.' For the last words of verse 8 the Septuagint Greek has, 'according to the number of the angels of God,' rendering (literally 'sons of God') in place of fwip* ^ 3 . Many modern scholars think that the Septuagint here represents the original reading: there were 1

2

1

3

4

1

On the character of Jewish monotheism see pp. 360-362, 401, 432. Deut. 7, 6 - 1 1 ; 10, 14 ff.; 4, 32-39. Cf. Deut. 29, 24 f.: The Israelites 'forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers . . . and went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods that they had not known, and he had not assigned to them.' De Goeje, Stade, Cheyne, and others; most recently, with an original interpretation of the verse, K. Budde, Das Lied Mose's, Deut. 32, pp. 17 ff. (Tubingen, 1920). 2 3

4

CHAP, i]

N A T I O N A L I T Y A N D UNIVERSALITY

as many nations as there were inferior divine, or superhuman, beings, among whom in the author's age the heavenly bodies stood in the first rank. The passage would then correspond in meaning to 4, 19 f.: each nation has among the 'sons of God' its own national deity. Others connect the phrase, as perhaps the Greek translators understood it, with the angel champions (princes) of the nations in Dan. 10, 13, 20, 21; 12, i ; Ecclus. 7> 7 ("For each nation He appointed a prince, and the portion of the Lord is Israel"); cf. also Isa. 24, 21. The reading of our Hebrew text, and of all the versions from Aquila on, gives, how­ ever, an entirely acceptable sense: the 'number of the sons of Israel* was seventy (Exod. 1, 5), and seventy is the number of nations sprung from the three sons of Noah (Gen. 10), as the Jews early observed; the seventy nations are a standing feature of Jewish ethnography. The Palestinian Targum on Deut. 32, 8 combines the seventy nations, corresponding to the seventy sons of Israel who went down to Egypt, with seventy angels, princes of the nations, who were distributed to the several nations by lot at the time of the dispersion of the peoples after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel. Monotheism is the fundamental dogma of the theologian among the prophets, in Isaiah 40 ff.: 'I am Jehovah, and there is none else: beside me there is no G o d . ' The negations are as emphatic and insistent as the affirmations. The author lavishes his sarcasm on the idols the heathen worship as gods, the work of men's hands in which is no help. The sole God is the creator l

l

1

2

3

4

1

E. g. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 16a; 48a. There are correspondingly seventy languages, e.g. Sanhedrin 17a, end; Tos. Sotah 8, 6. See below, p. 278. Christian authors (Epiphanius, Augustine, al.) generally count seventytwo. On the Jewish enumeration see further Note 2. Isa. 45, 5; see also 43, 10-15; 44, 6, 8; 45, 14, 18; 46, 9; and cf. 41, 4; 42, 8, etc. Observe the pregnant use of ?N (without the article), ' I am G o d ' (Isa. 43, 12; cf. 40, 18). See also Deut. 4, 35; 32, 39. Isa. 40, 18-20; 41, 6 f.; 45, 20; 46, 1 f., 5-7; at length, 44, 9-20; cf. Jer. 10, 1-16. Some of the descriptions of the image-maker's shop may be from later hands; but they are only variations on a given theme which has many echoes in Jewish literature. 2

3

4

228

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

1

of the heavens and the earth; they bear witness alike to his incomparable wisdom and his almighty power. The stars which he has made come out when he musters them by number and name; not one of them fails to respond to his summons. His creative activity did not cease when once the world was made; the events of the present are created in their day (48, 7 ) . The destiny of nations is in his hands; he orders the whole course of history in accordance with his plan. He alone can foretell the future, for he foreordained it and brings it to pass in his time. The heathen are challenged to produce any such evidence in behalf of their gods. He is the eternal God, ever the same. In the same breath with the assertions of the unity and uni­ versality of God, his unique relation to Israel is affirmed with the utmost emphasis: " I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." The author's monotheism is not a theological reflection on the nature of God, it is his religious faith: Israel's god is the only God; the almighty is the saviour of his people. The antinomy thus takes its extremest form. But in these chapters a reconciliation is also found. If there be but one God, there can be only one religion; and the idea of unity in religion carries with it the idea of universal­ ity. Now, indeed, Israel alone knows and worships this God, but in his larger purpose it must one day be the religion of all mankind. Israel is his instrument for the accomplishment of this end; it is his prophet among the nations. It is his servant which he has chosen; he has called it to this high mission, has endowed it with his spirit and given it his message; he sustains it amid difficulties and discouragements till it shall achieve final success; it is to be a light to the nations, that God's salvation may be as wide as the world. Isaiah 52, 13-53, 12 seems to be2

3

4

5

6

1

Isa.

40,

1 2 - 1 7 , 26, 28;

4 4 , 24;

45, 12, 18;

48, 1 3 ,

etc.

2

Isa. 4 0 , 2 6 . Not improbably aimed at Babylonian worship of the heavenly bodies and astrological divination. Isa. 4 1 , 26; 4 5 , 1 - 6 , etc. Isa. 40, 28; 4 1 , 4; 44, 6; 48, 1 2 , etc. 3

4

5

Isa.

4 1 , 2 1 - 2 6 ; 44, 6-8.

6

Isa.

4 2 , 1 ff.;

49,'1

ff.

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY

229

long with the passages just cited. Israel is not only the prophet of the true religion but its martyr, its witness in suffering; it bears uncomplaining.the penalty that others deserved, and when its day of vindication comes and God greatly exalts it, the nations which despised it in the time of its humiliation will confess in amazement that through its sufferings they were saved. It does not appear, however, that the Jews at the beginning of our era understood the passage in this way. To be more exact, they did not interpret the passage as a whole in any way, but only verses here and there in it in the way of midrash, which gives no war­ rant for extending the interpretation even to the next verses, much less to the whole. The only continuous exposition, the Targum, refers the sufferings to Israel (deserved punishment, or trials by which God purposes to refine and purify the rem­ nant of his people and cleanse their souls from sin), while the triumph, and the deliverance of the people by intercession in their behalf and by the overthrow of the power of the heathen, are ascribed to the Messiah. The pregnant idea of the mission of Israel found little com­ prehension or response in the centuries that immediately followed; and it is not clear that when the Jews zealously addressed themselves to the conversion of the Gentiles in the Greek period these prophecies in Isaiah were in their mind. The belief that the true religion must in the end be the universal religion of itself made Judaism a missionary religion. God had revealed it to one nation that through them it should be proclaimed to all the nations; Israel's exclusive possession of it was not the end, but the means to a greater end. The belief in the future universality of the worship of the one true God runs like a red thread through all the later literature, a day when "the Lord 1

2

3

1

See Note 3. Some manuscripts have 'the wicked of his people/ R. Simlai (fl. early third century) applies Isa. 53, 12 to Moses (Sotah 14a); R. Jonah (fourth century) to Akiba; others find in it the Men of the Great Assembly (Jer. Shekalim 48c). 2

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one/ The forms in which the religion of the golden age to come were imagined were naturally those of the national religion interna­ tionalized. The temple in Jerusalem should be the religious centre of the world, to which worshippers from all lands should stream bringing their sacrifices and precious gifts. The Jews will not lose their prerogative in the universality of religion: they will be called the priests of the Lord, and the other peoples will minister to them in temporal things as the Jews are their ministers in sacred things. The way in which the triumph is to come about is also conceived in national forms; it is by a stupendous historical catastrophe in which the heathen will be constrained to recognize the hand of the sovereign of the world vindicating his own honor in the overthrow of those who would not acknowledge him and in the deliverance and exaltation of his people. Special encouragement is given in Isaiah 56 to alien converts who felt themselves excluded by such laws as Deut. 23, 1-8, from incorporation in the people of God and participation in the promises of a glorious future made to it. Those who attach themselves to Jehovah, ministering to him, loving his name, and becoming his servants, if they keep the sabbaths and hold fast by his covenant (i.e. the law which is the condition of the promises), God will bring them to his holy mountain and make 1

2

3

4

1

Zech. 14, 9. This is one of the fundamental verses for the Jewish con­ ception of the Kingdom of Heaven. See pp. 432-434; II, 346. The pro­ vidential care of God for all mankind and the future recognition of the true God by all nations are common themes in the Psalms. See Bertholet, Die Stellung der Israeli ten und Juden zu den Fremden, pp. 191 f. Zech. 2,14-17 (E. V . 10-13); Isa. 2,2-4, etc. This is the common expec­ tation, but not the only form. See Isa. 19, 18-25; Mai. 1, 11, 14. Cf. Sibyll. v, 492-502, where the temple of Onias is meant (Josephus, Antt. xiii. 3), but the foundation is attributed to an Egyptian priest. See Geffcken, Texte und Untersuchungen, X X I I I , i (1902), p. 26. Isa. 60-61; 66, 23 f.; Zech. 14, 16 ff. See the passages cited in the preceding note; also Isa. 24-27; Dan. 2, 44 7> 9-*4> etc. 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY A N D UNIVERSALITY

231

them joyful in his house of prayer, accepting their sacrifices as graciously as those of Israelites by race, 'For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples/ It is probable that the inferiority and uncertainty of their status had been impressed upon such converts by Jews who deemed the peculiar favor of God a matter of heredity, and that the principle of equality enounced by the prophet is meant to be taken to heart by them as much as to encourage the proselytes. But the question of the religious status of converts indicates the existence of a class sufficiently numerous to raise it. The age of the passage is not certain, but it probably falls at a relatively advanced time in the Persian period. The precedence given to the keep­ ing of the sabbath as the most distinctive external observance of Judaism is to be noted. 1

So long as the outlook of the religion was purely terrestrial and national, naturalization in the Jewish people was the only way by which an alien could hope to share its glorious future. The persistent denunciation of the catastrophe that was pres­ ently to overwhelm all the nations that forget God in common and irremediable ruin doubtless had its effect, especially in times when the world seemed to be on the verge of the predicted disaster. In the centuries preceding the Christian era, however, visions of a golden age when all men worship the one true God and obey his righteous and holy law amid universal and permanent peace and boundless prosperity, when nature is all beautiful and beneficent, and the very beasts of prey recover their paradisaical manners, ceased to express the sum of human desires. The thought of what is after death began to haunt men; the doc­ trine of resurrection and the last judgment, and the ideas of immortality and of retribution in a disembodied existence, came 2

1

On the legal and social status of proselytes in later times see below, P P - 3 7 , 3 9 - ; 335Psalm 9, 17. 2

2

2

f f

232

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

in, and the questions they raised would not be silenced. Salva­ tion took a new meaning and religion a new task — to show man the way and give him the assurance of a blessed hereafter according to his conception of it. Judaism met this demand without changing its character. The way to the life of the age to come or eternal life was the old way: knowledge of the true God, faith in him, love to him, worship of him alone, obedience to his revealed will. But as the idea of salvation after death is purely individual, Judaism, in offering itself as a way of salvation in this sense, entered on a new stage of its missionary career, and prosecuted it in the dispersion with zeal and evidently with large success. In this new response to its own principle of universality the historical limitations of nationality maintained themselves. It was not enough to accept the religious doctrines of Judaism, conform to its moral standards, and even practise its peculiar observances. The significance of its initiatory rite was not entrance into a religious community, it was naturalization in the Jewish nation, that is — since the idea of nationality was racial rather than political — adoption into the Jewish race, the convert entering into all the rights and privileges of the born Jew and assuming all the corresponding obligations. For the covenant promises of God in Scripture are made inseparable from the obligations. This denationalization of its converts together with the interdiction of all those civic acts and public festivities which involved the recognition of other gods was undoubtedly a serious obstacle to the missionary efforts of the Jews; nevertheless the number of proselytes in the two centuries before our era must have been considerable. Far larger was the number of those who in modern missionary phrase would be called adherents' of the synagogue, who em­ braced its monotheism, frequented its services and contributed to its support, kept the sabbath, abstained from swine's flesh 1

2

c

1

This is the perfectly logical ground for insisting on circumcision. The opponents of Paul reasoned in the same way. See below, pp. 348 f. 2

CHAP, i]

NATIONALITY A N D UNIVERSALITY

and from blood, and observed other fundamental rules of the Jewish law. In the New Testament (Acts) this class is frequently mentioned under the names aefioixevoiy or <j>ofiovixevoi (rbv de6i>) those who revere, or fear, God. The synagogues of the Jews were the centres of this propa­ ganda, and gathered into them converts of both classes. Through these again. Judaism penetrated more and more deeply into the circles of society from which they came. The analogy of the early Christian church and its missionary activities inevitably presents itself; but far too much is made of this resemblance when Judaism itself in that age is regarded as a church, and the transformation of a national religion into a church in the cen­ turies between the Maccabaean struggle and the fall of Jeru­ salem is taken to be the most significant outcome of the history of that period. It is distinctive of a church, according to this theory, that in it religion is internationalized and in the process denationalized. In this definition the mysteries of Mithras, for example, were a church. The religion of Mithras, with rites and myths later embodied in the mysteries, was originally a national or tribal religion, most probably in Commagene and adjacent parts; but the Mithraic church (mystery) lost all connection with nationality, race, or locality. The initiate to the degree of Persa, did not become a Persian, any more than as a neophyte he was a crow, or later in his progress a lion. The Jews, on the contrary, were, both in their own mind and in the eyes of their Gentile surrounding, and before the Roman law, not adherents of a peculiar religion, but members of a nation who carried with them from the land of their origin into every quarter where they established themselves their national religion and their national customs. It is upon this that their excep­ tional legal status and religious privileges are based; and so far as Roman law came to take cognizance of the matter, the

y

1

2

1

See Psalm 135, 20; 115, 1 1 , 13; 118, 4. See further below, pp. 325 f. In the Roman codes and legal text books they are called natio> gens populus, in Greek ^idvos. See Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, II, 20; cf. I, 416. For the testimony of Cassius B i o see Note 4. 2

y

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

234

[PART I

hereditary privilegia of born Jews were not conceded to other subjects who became proselytes to Judaism. Juster therefore rightly says: "II faut avoir present a Pesprit le caractere ethnico-religieux des Juifs et ne pas essayer de diviser des choses indivisibles/' It was in fact this indivisibility that determined the alto­ gether anomalous treatment of the Jews by the emperors and in Roman law. The Patriarch in hereditary succession from Hillel, for whom a Davidic genealogy was found, was, for the purpose of the Roman administration, treated as the head, not of a religious body, but of the Jewish people. According to Origen, the patriarchs exercised in his time an authority in no way different from that of a king of the nation, even condemning men to death, with the sufferance of the Roman authorities. Inasmuch as the law of the Jews was not only a religious law, but by inheritance from the days of their political autonomy included as an integral part and under the same sanctions a civil law, the Romans left them their own jurisdiction in cases in which both parties were Jews; and since offenses against the religious law were visited with corporal punishment, such meas­ ure at least of penal jurisdiction was vested in their tribunals. Even the transformation after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. of the didrachm poll-tax for the maintenance of worship in the national temple in Jerusalem into the fiscus judaicus applied to the Jews throughout the empire as members of a people. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

1

2

Juster, op. cit. II, 19 f. Ibid., I, 233 n. 2. Hebrew Nasi. In Ezek. 40-48 this title is constantly given to the politi­ cal head of the Jewish commonwealth in the future restoration. Gen. R. 98, 8 (on Gen. 49, 10): R. Levi said, a genealogical scroll was found in Jerusalem, in which it was written, 'Hillel from D a v i d / Christian writers contraverted the claims of the Jewish patriarchs to Davidic lineage in the interest of their own application of Gen. 49, 10 to Christ. See Pamphilus, Apologia pro Origene, in Routh, Reliquiae Sacrae, ed. 2, IV, 310. The title of the patriarch in Greek is kdvapxWy Rufinus's Latin, patriarcha. See Note 5. Origen, Epist. ad Africanum c. 14. See Note 6. On the subject of jurisdiction see Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire romain, II, 94 ff. Juster, op. cit. II, 282 ff. 3

4

m

5

6

7

CHAPTER THE

II

SCRIPTURES

T H E characteristic thing in Judaism at the beginning of our era is not its resemblance to a church, but that it conceived itself as revealed religion, and drew all the consequences of this con­ ception. God had not only made himself known to men, but had given them in his twofold law a revelation of his will for man's whole life, and of the way of salvation through the fulfil­ ment of his righteous and holy will. This attitude resulted no less from the teaching of the prophets than from the possession of the Law. In this aspect Judaism falls into the same class with Zoroas­ trianism, the prophetic reform religion of the Iranians, and with the religions of India, Brahmanic, heretical, and sectarian. Wherever, indeed, men have taken the idea of revealed religion seriously and logically, a divine law embracing not only what we call the principles of religion but their manifold application to all man's relations to God and to his fellow men, a law not only of rites and observances but for the civil and social side of human life, forms a large and fundamental part of the revela­ tion; and partly under the necessity of new situations, partly by scholastic interpretation and casuistic development, it be­ comes progressively more comprehensive and more minute. As revelation, explicit or by clear implication, all this law has the same divine origin and authority; the infraction of even the seemingly most trivial prescription may be followed by incom­ mensurable consequences, for it is not the trivial rule that is transgressed or neglected, but the unitary law of God which is broken. Such religions are often called 'nomistic,' that is to say, reli­ gions founded on and concluded in a law (nomos) given by God. 23s

236

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

The important thing is not what we call them, but the recogni­ tion that this development is a logical consequence of the idea of revealed religion; for in the ancient world religion was not a sphere apart from, or above, everyday life, but a system of ob­ servances which embraced every side of life. Even Christianity, in spite of its Pauline antinomianism and its actual emancipa­ tion from the Old Testament law, had hardly got fairly started in the Greek and Roman world when it began to think of itself and talk of itself as a 'new law/ and to develop this idea not only in the sphere of ritual, where it made large borrowings from the laws of the Levitical priesthood, but with much more serious consequences in the realm of doctrine. Eventually, recondite dogmas derived from alien philosophies were denned not only as revealed truth to guide man in his search for God, but as a divinely prescribed norm of opinion and belief upon intellectual conformity to which the issues of eternal life depended. This tendency has appeared also in other nomistic religions. It was only in its beginnings in Judaism in the age with which we are here engaged, but in some later theologians it is strongly as­ serted. Maimonides, after defining the faith of Judaism in his famous Thirteen Articles, adds that the Jew is bound sincerely to accept every one of these articles, and is not to be regarded or treated as a Jew if he does not. In Mohammedanism, which is a thoroughly nomistic religion, the theologians got so far as to assert that a man is not only bound to accept the creed and understand it, but even to understand and accept the argu­ ments by which the theologians professed to establish or demon­ strate it. 1

2

For the Jews at the beginning of our era the revelation of God was in part embodied in writings which had come down 1

See M . Sanhedrin 10, i : An Israelite who denies that the resurrection of the dead is proved from the Law, or that the Law is from Heaven (God), and the Epicurean (here perhaps a man who denies divine retribution), have no part in the world to come. Maimonides, Comm. on M . Sanhedrin i o , i ; Article 13 of the "Funda­ mentals." M . was doubtless influenced by Moslem and Christian examples. 2

CHAP. I I ]

T H E SCRIPTURES

2

37

from earlier times — the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the his­ tories attributed to prophetic authorship and conveying religious and moral lessons, the poetry of religious devotion in the Psalms, prudent counsels for the guidance of life in the Proverbs, and story books like Ruth and Esther, to all of which the quality of inspiration, the character of sacred Scripture belong. Various modes of revelation are described in the Old Testa­ ment: actual appearances of God, or of a messenger of God ('angel') in human form, visions, dreams, communications by speech in murmured or distinctly uttered words. In all except the first two forms, the experience is often associated with, or mediated by, the spirit of God or of Jehovah. This is especially the case in the prophets. God's promise (Deut. 18, 15 ff.) to raise up prophets in Israel and put his words in their mouth to deliver to the people is fulfilled by putting the holy spirit in the mouth of the prophets after Moses. The holy spirit is the spirit of prophecy; all the prophets spoke by the holy spirit. The holy spirit is so specifically prophetic inspiration that when Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the last prophets, died, the holy spirit departed from Israel. Consequently all inspired men were reckoned prophets — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; David and Solomon; Ezra and Mordecai, besides all those to whom the name prophet is given in the Old Testament. Ac­ cording to a Baraita, forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied to Israel. 1

2

3

1

Z e c h . 7, 12. Sifre on D e u t . 18, 18 (§ 176); cf. also T a r g u m I s a . 40, 13, " W h o p u t the h o l y spirit in the m o u t h o f all the p r o p h e t s . " T h e phrase * t h e h o l y s p i r i t ' is v e r y rare in the O l d T e s t a m e n t (Isa. 63, 10 f.; P s a l m 51, 1 1 ) , and n e v e r in connection w i t h p r o p h e c y . I t is c o m m o n in rabbinical literature of prophetic inspiration and the inspiration o f S c r i p t u r e . O n the v a r i o u s uses of the phrase see the classified collection o f instances in B a c h e r , T e r m i nologie, I I , 202-206; on its m e a n i n g , ibid. I , 169 f. T o s . S o t a h 13, 2; S a n h e d r i n 11a. S u b s e q u e n t r e v e l a t i o n s w e r e g i v e n b y a bat fcol; see below, p p . 421 f. M e g i l l a h 14a. S e d e r ' O l a m R . c c . 20-21 e n u m e r a t e s t h e m , w i t h t h e s a m e total. A bare c a t a l o g u e in R . H a n a n e l on M e g i l l a h /. c. B e s i d e s these, w h o h a v e a place in S c r i p t u r e , there w e r e innumerable p r o p h e t s n o n e o f whose u t t e r a n c e s w e r e w r i t t e n (Seder ' O l a m c. 21). 2

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

From the books of the prophet Moses and the books contain­ ing the oracles of prophets and bearing their names it was an easy and perhaps unconscious step to the position that all the books of the Bible were written by prophets, that is, by men who had the holy spirit. This is the assumption of the oldest cat­ alogue of the authors of the canonical books. Josephus held a similar theory, and his singular classification of the books is apparently due to his desire to include as many as possible in the number of prophetic histories, the motive being to vindicate the superior trustworthiness of biblical history. What has been written since the time of Artaxerxes (I) is not deemed equally trustworthy, because the exact succession of prophets no longer existed. The production of the books of the Bible was thus connected through their prophetic character with the holy spirit. It was perhaps the question about the canonicity of the writ­ ings attributed to Solomon that led to reiterated and emphatic assertions of the inspiration of his writings: "The holy spirit rested upon him, and he spoke three books, Proverbs, Ecclesi­ astes, and the Song of Songs." A somewhat similar controversy about Esther leads to a singular distinction in the Talmud, evoked by the reported opinion of a Rabbi of the third century that the roll of Esther is not sacred: Did he think that it was not spoken through the holy spirit? He did not deny that it was spoken through the holy spirit, but only to be recited, not to be written. The notion of inspired scripture thus grew naturally out of the nature of prophecy, and it was held that everything in the Scriptures is inspired, though not everything that had through the centuries been given by the holy spirit was contained in the books of Scripture, or had ever been written at all. There had been many prophets who produced no books. 1

2

3

4

1

Baba Batra I4D-I5a. J o s e p h u s , C o n t r a A p i o n e m i. 8 § 4 1 . J o s e p h u s p u t s E s t h e r in the reign o f A r t a x e r x e s (I) son o f X e r x e s , a n d assumes the s a m e age for the b o o k ; A n t t . x i . 6, 1. C a n t . R . on C a n t . 1, 1 (ed. W i l n a f. 2 a ) . M e g i l l a h 7a. 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

THE

SCRIPTURES

239

The rabbinical schools had no theory of the mode of prophetic inspiration such as Philo appropriates from Plato, a state of ecstasy or enthusiasm; but it was with them an uncontested axiom that every syllable of Scripture had the verity and author­ ity of the word of God. It followed that the contents of the sacred books were throughout consentaneous, homogeneous. There were not only no contradictions in them but no real dif­ ferences. The notion of progressive revelation was impossible: the revelation to Moses was complete and final; no other prophet should ever make any innovation in the law. The forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses who came after him neither took away anything that was written in the Law, nor added anything to it except the reading of the roll of Esther. Moses is the fountain head of prophecy in so literal a sense that it is said that he spoke all the words of the prophets besides his own. The prophetic books are comprehended with the hagiographa under the name 'tradition' (kabbalah)^ the prophets are transmitters of a continuous tradition beginning with Moses; the Prophets and the Hagiographa explain the Pentateuch. Thus all the rest of the sacred books, with no detraction from their divine inspiration and authority, are an authority of the second rank: they repeat, reinforce, amplify, and explain the Law, but are never independent of it. Proof-texts are often quoted in threes, a verse from the Pentateuch, another from the Prophets, and a third from the Hagiographa, not as though 1

2

3

4

6

1

P h i l o , D e spec. legg. i. 9 § 65 (ed. M a n g e y , I I , 122); esp. i v . 8 § 49 ( I I , 343); cf. Q u i s rerum d i v i n . heres c. 53 § 265 (I, 511). P l a t o , T i m a e u s 71 E; I o n 534 B. D e u t . 4, 2; 13, 1 ( E . V . 12, 32); L e v . 27, 34. S h a b b a t 104a; M e g i l l a h 2b. M a i m o n i d e s , Y e s o d e h a - T o r a h 9, 1. M e g i l l a h 14a. S e e b e l o w , p . 245. Joshua ben L e v i and S a m u e l ben N a h m a n (third c e n t u r y ) , E x o d . R . 42, 8. B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I , 164, cf. 500. T h r o u g h o u t the age o f the T a n n a i m and A m o r a i m , d o w n to the close o f the T a l m u d s , K a b b a l a h is used only o f the tradition in S c r i p t u r e , n o t o f the u n w r i t t e n l a w , nor o f the theosophic tradition to w h i c h the n a m e w a s s u b ­ s e q u e n t l y a t t a c h e d . B a c h e r , T e r m i n o l o g i e , I , 165 f. See B a c h e r , T e r m i n o l o g i e , I , 155. 2

3

4

5

6

240

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

the word of the Law needed confirmation, but to show how the Scripture emphasizes the lesson by iteration. In consequence of their origin the books of the Bible as a whole are 'The Scripture' or 'The Holy Scriptures,' and by this character separated from all other writings. With this the usage of the New Testament agrees. A sense of the unity of Scripture endows it with a kind of personality in such phrases as 'the Scripture says,' 'the Scripture speaks,' 'the Scripture teaches,' and many other more technical terms. Quotations are also often introduced by, "it is written," sc. in the Scripture, as in the New Testament. The author of Zechariah 13, 1-6 speaks very ill of the pro­ phetic profession in his day: when God purines his people he will make the very names of their idols to be forgotten, and exterminate from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit together; public opinion will be so strongly against them that their lives are not safe even in their parents' houses. A century or two later the Maccabaeans have no prophet at hand to tell them what to do with the stones of the polluted altar, and put them in safe keeping till one shall come. So also Simon is created ruler and high priest permanently, "until a trustworthy prophet shall arise." From another passage in the same book we learn that it had already been long since a prophet was seen. Probably the author meant, since the time of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, with whom, according to Josephus as well as the rabbis, prophecy ceased. 1

2

3

4

5

6

Inspiration being thenceforth a thing of the past, men had the ancient word of God in the Scriptures that had come down from 1

E . g . M e g i l l a h 31a ( J o h a n a n ) . B a c h e r , T e r m i n o l o g i e , I , 193, cf. p . 65; m a n y e x a m p l e s in B l a u , Z u r E i n l e i t u n g , p p . 22 f. See N o t e 7. T h u s , rj ypa(j)T], o f Scripture g e n e r a l l y or o f a p a r t i c u l a r p a s s a g e ; at ypa4>ai, ypa<j>al cryuu. r d lepa ypafipLara in N e w T e s t , o n l y 2 T i m . 3, 15 ( P h i l o , Josephus). See B a c h e r , T e r m i n o l o g i e , I , 90-92. C f . D e u t . 13, 1-5; E z e k . 14, 6 - 1 1 . 1 M a c e . 4, 46; 14, 4 1 ; 9, 27; cf. P s a l m 74, 9. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

T H E SCRIPTURES

241

former times, a closed body of books differing from all others in possessing the quality of inspiration. Since such books alone were normative, it was of fundamental religious importance to determine what they were. When this need first made itself felt, prescription left no room for question about the Pentateuch or the Prophets; for generations lessons had been regularly read from these books in the synagogues. Besides these there were other books of more miscellaneous character for which no more descriptive and distinctive name was found than 'The Writings.' The last named books were not read in the synagogue, and consequently had not the same prescription of liturgical use as the Law and the Prophets. Some of them were probably rarely found in private possession. There were, moreover, other books of similar kinds, some of which enjoyed much popularity, as their adoption by Christians in Greek translations proves — story books like Judith and Tobit, the Proverbs of Jesus son of Sirach, apocalypses such as have been preserved to us in the Book of Enoch, and many more. It was here, therefore, that discrimination was necessary and dispute possible. About the Psalms there was no question; though they furnished no lessons for the synagogue, some of them had a place in the temple liturgy which was believed to have been instituted by David himself; many of them were ascribed in their titles to him, 1

2

3

4

1

T h e P r o p h e t s are J o s h u a , J u d g e s , S a m u e l , K i n g s ; I s a i a h , J e r e m i a h . E z e k i e l , and T h e T w e l v e ( M i n o r P r o p h e t s ) , eight b o o k s in all. B a b a B a t r a 14b. ( T h e order i s : J e r e m i a h , E z e k i e l , I s a i a h , T h e T w e l v e . ) Ha-ketubim properly the n a m e for all S c r i p t u r e s , and often so u s e d . Since the L a w a n d the P r o p h e t s h a d n a m e s o f their o w n , Ketubim c a m e to b e used specially for t h e rest o f the S c r i p t u r e s w h i c h h a d no such proper n a m e . See N o t e 8. T h e c u s t o m of reading five o f these b o o k s (the F i v e R o l l s , M e g i l l o t ) , Song of Songs, R u t h , Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, at Passover, Pente­ cost, the N i n t h o f A b , T a b e r n a c l e s , a n d P u r i m r e s p e c t i v e l y , w a s n o t e s t a b ­ lished till long after our period. E s t h e r alone w a s from t h e beginning i n ­ s e p a r a b l y c o n n e c t e d w i t h P u r i m . T h e reading o f the others c a m e in g r a d u ­ ally in p o s t - T a l m u d i c times. See E l b o g e n , D e r j u d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p p . 184 ff.; B l a u , in the Jewish E n c y c l o p e d i a , V I I I , 429 f. 1 C h r o n . 15, 16-16, 36; E c c l u s . 47, 8-10. 2

y

3

4

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

22 4

[PART I

and he was universally regarded as the author of the whole collection. Undoubtedly most of the other Writings which now constitute the third part of the Jewish Bible were at the beginning of our era by long established consent included in the class of inspired and sacred scriptures. But this was not true of all of them, while there were other books for which this char­ acter was claimed. The Jewish authorities thus found it neces­ sary to define the canon of Scripture, as the Christian church subsequently did under a similar necessity. The most serious controversy was over Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, the dissensus about which seems to have lasted through most of the first century after Christ. The Mishnah affirms specifically that both these books are sacred, i.e. canoni­ cal, and records a tradition in the name of Simeon ben 'Azzai, who had it on the authority of the members of the council itself, that it was so decided on the memorable day on which the council at Jamnia deposed the patriarch Gamaliel II and installed R. Eleazar ben Azariah in his room, and this tradition is declared in the Mishnah to be authentic. It preserves, how­ ever, diverse reports of the differences. Ecclesiastes was one of the old disputes between the rival schools of Shammai and Hillel, the former rejecting, the latter accepting the book as sacred, and the decision at Jamnia did not secure unanimity of opinion. Not only does a contemporary of the Patriarch Judah assert that while the Song of Songs is canonical because it was spoken by the holy spirit, Ecclesiastes is not, because it is Solomon's own wisdom, but Jerome, at the end of the fourth century, heard from his Jewish teachers that it had been pro­ posed to commit the book to oblivion on internal grounds, but 1

2

3

4

5

1

D a v i d included P s a l m s b y ten o t h e r poets. B a b a B a t r a I 4 b - i 5 a . I t m a y not be superfluous to s a y t h a t b o o k s w r i t t e n on rolls w e r e n o t p h y s i c a l l y u n i t e d as t h e y w e r e later in m a n u s c r i p t codices and in printed editions. M . Y a d a i m 3, 5. See N o t e 9. M . ' E d u y o t 5, 3; M . Y a d a i m 3, 5; M e g i l l a h 7a (Simeon ben Y o h a i ) . S i m e o n ben M e n a s y a , T o s . Y a d a i m 2, 14; cf. M e g i l l a h 7a. 2

3

4

6

T H E SCRIPTURES

CHAP. I I ]

2

43

the rabbis had been withheld from doing so by the closing words (Eccles. 12, 13 f.), which of themselves warranted putting it among the divine books. That the right of the Song of Songs to a place among the sacred Scriptures was also contested would be evident from the neces­ sity of a formal affirmation of it in the Mishnah even if we had not direct testimony to the fact; and if any further evidence were needed, the vehemence of Akiba's protest would supply it: "God forbid! No man in Israel ever dissented about the Song of Songs, holding it not to be sacred. The whole age altogether is not worth as much as the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the holiest of all. If there was a division, it was only over Ecclesiastes." About the same time with the deliverance concerning Eccle­ siastes and the Song of Songs, though the occasion is unknown, a decision was given that certain other books are not canonical: "The gospel and the books of the heretics are not sacred Scrip­ ture. The books of Ben Sira, and whatever books have been written since his time, are not sacred Scripture." For the exclusion of Sirach, a book highly esteemed by the Jewish mas­ ters, more than one reason may be conjectured; but one is sufficient: the author was known to have lived in comparatively recent times, in an age when, with the death of the last prophets, the holy spirit had departed from Israel. The same principle applied a fortiori to later writings, including the Gospels and other Christian books. The specification of the latter, however, is one of several indications that in the generation following the disastrous end of the Jewish war the ' disciples of Jesus the Nazarene,' finding an effective argument in the calamity of the people and the destruction of the temple, which they interpreted as a judgment on the nation for its rejection of the Messiah 1

2

3

1

2

3

C o m m . in E c c l e s . 12, 13 f. See N o t e 10. M . Y a d a i m 3,5. See N o t e 9. T o s . Y a d a i m 2, 13; cf. T o s . S h a b b a t 13 (14) 5.

S e e N o t e 11.

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

244

[PART I

and the precursor of the direr judgments to follow, had had such success as to rouse the apprehension of the rabbis and prompt them to take measures to check the growth of the sect. The chief book of the Nazarenes was their ' gospel/ for which they evidently claimed the character of sacred Scripture. The holy spirit might have departed from Israel centuries ago, but it had come back again and rested upon their apostles and prophets; inspiration was no longer a thing of the past, and inspired books were again possible. The vehemence with which the leading rabbis of the first generation of the second century express their hostility to the gospel and other books of the heretics, and to their conventicles, is the best evidence that they were growing in numbers and influence; some even among the teachers of the Law were suspected of leanings toward the new doctrine. The war under Hadrian brought about a com­ plete separation of the Nazarenes from the body of Judaism, and after the war the animosity diminished with the danger of the spread of infection within the synagogue. Besides Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, there was debate about some other books of the Hagiographa. In the account of these differences in Megillah 7a, R. Simeon ben Yohai, after .remarking that Ecclesiastes was in controversy between the schools of Hillel and Shammai, continues, "but Ruth, and the Song of Songs, and Esther are sacred Scriptures, that is, three other of the smaller Writings. Esther was, however, not un­ contested. From as late a time as the third century we have the opinion of Samuel that the volume was not sacred, a position which caused embarrassment to later teachers and led to the apologetic distinction noted above. 1

2

3

,,

4

5

1

T h e y called it euangelion, and b y this n a m e , or p u n n i n g distortions o f it, it is referred to in r a b b i n i c a l literature. M a r k 1, 10; A c t s 2, 1 ff.; 4, 3 1 ; 1 C o r . 1 4 , etc. S e e N o t e 11. A B a r a i t a in B e r a k o t 57b names three larger Ketubim, P s a l m s , P r o v e r b s , a n d J o b , and three smaller, S o n g o f S o n g s , E c c l e s i a s t e s , a n d L a m e n t a t i o n s , and mentions E s t h e r in the i m m e d i a t e c o n t e x t . R u t h is n o t n a m e d , b u t no significance is to be ascribed to the omission. P a g e 238. See N o t e 12. 2

4

5

3

CHAP, ii]

T H E SCRIPTURES

245

The nature of the objection that the Book of Esther at once raises is plainly stated in Jer. Megillah 7od. The keeping of the new Days of Purim conflicted with the fundamental principle that the law of Moses was complete (Lev. 27, 34), and that no other prophet should ever arise after him to introduce any new institution; yet here were Mordecai and Esther trying to do that very thing. According to tradition this difficulty was felt when the letters of Mordecai and Esther enjoining the observance (Esther 9, 20 ff.; 29 ff.) first reached Palestine, and was re­ solved at that time by an assembly of eighty-five elders among whom were thirty prophets and more, who succeeded in finding the necessary warrant in all three parts of the canon. We know that the Mordecai Day, Adar 14, was a calendar date at the time when 2 Maccabees was written (2 Mace. 15, 36). The Book of Esther was read at Purim; but as that festival had a markedly popular and even secular character, it does not necessarily follow that Esther was at once accepted as sacred Scripture. That inevitably followed however; and when in the third century Johanan said that (in the days of the Messiah) the books of the Prophets and the Hagiographa were destined to be abrogated, but the five books of the Law will not be abrogated, Simeon ben Lakish amended him, saying that the roll of Esther also and the rules of the traditional law (Halakah) will not pass away; while an array of rabbis, including Bar Kappara and Joshua ben Levi, declared, as has been noted above, that the roll of Esther was spoken to Moses from Sinai. 1

2

3

1

See N o t e 13. Jer. M e g i l l a h 700I, b e l o w , alleging D e u t . 5, 22. T h e burden o f the later revelations is reproof and correction for Israel's sins; i f Israel h a d n o t sinned, a later rabbi s a i d , t h e y w o u l d n o t h a v e been g i v e n ( A h a b a r H a n i n a , N e d a r i m 22b; B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I I I , 543). E s t h e r on the c o n t r a r y is necessary to the o b s e r v a n c e o f P u r i m . O n the p e r p e t u i t y o f the rules o f t h e u n w r i t t e n l a w see b e l o w , p . 271. Jer. M e g i l l a h 1. c , on the principle, " t h e r e is n o earlier and later (chrono­ logical order) in the B i b l e . " O n this rule o f the e x e g e t i c a l school o f Ishmael see B a c h e r , T e r m i n o l o g i e , I , 167 f. T h e B o o k o f E s t h e r w a s n o t supposed to h a v e been w r i t t e n until the d a y s o f M o r d e c a i a n d E s t h e r , b u t as it had been r e v e a l e d to M o s e s it is no illegitimate addition to M o s a i c institutions. 2

3

246

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

Much weight has been attached to the fact that in the list of the books of the Old Testament obtained in Palestine by Melito, Bishop of Sardis in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Book of Esther is not named, from which it is inferred that Melito's in­ formants did not acknowledge Esther as inspired Scripture. In view of the whole character of the list the inference is by no means certain; but, granting its correctness, if Melito got his information from Christian Jews, as is most probable, it would prove nothing about the estimation in which the book was held by others. Christian Jews, after the complete breach with their countrymen made by the Bar Cocheba war, can hardly be sup­ posed to have kept up by themselves so emphatically national a festival as Purim, and with the observance the book would fall into desuetude. The Mishnah and Tosefta are proof that in Melito's time the Jewish authorities in Palestine, so far as we know without dissent, treated Esther as sacred Scripture. The objection to Ecclesiastes, that it contradicted itself, could be raised against Proverbs also. Proverbs 26, 4 bids, 'Answer not a fool according to his folly;' verse 5, 'Answer a fool ac­ cording to his folly.' There is no difficulty, it was replied; the former verse refers to discussions of words of the Law, the latter to secular matters. The account does not make the impression that there was a serious move to put away the Book of Proverbs; it sounds more like an incident in the argument about Eccle­ siastes. About Ezekiel we have a more picturesque story: The learned considered putting away the Book of Ezekiel because it con­ tained things in conflict with the Pentateuch, and they would have done so but for the labors of Hananiah ben Hezekiah, who, supplied with three hundred jars of oil, sat in his study on the roof of the house until by a profounder exegesis he harmonized 1

2

1

M e l i t o ' s c a t a l o g u e is preserved in E u s e b i u s , H i s t o r i a E c c l e s i a s t i c a i v . 26. U n c e r t a i n t y a b o u t E s t h e r appears in s e v e r a l later C h r i s t i a n l i s t s ; these a r e , h o w e v e r , w i t h o u t significance for the canon o f the J e w s . S h a b b a t 30b; cf. M e g i l l a h 7a. 2

CHAP, ii]

T H E SCRIPTURES

247

1

them. The programme for the age of restoration in Ezek. 40 ff. differs in many and not unimportant points from the Law of Moses, and much midnight oil might well be consumed in con­ verting difference into sameness. The case of Ezekiel was, how­ ever, wholly different from that of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs in the Mishnah, or of Sirach. The question was not, Is this book sacred, or inspired, Scripture? but, assuming its pro­ phetic authorship and inspiration, is it expedient to withdraw the book from public use lest the unlearned or the half-learned, be stumbled by the apparent discrepancies between it and the Law? The word I have rendered 'put away' (ganaz) means 'store away in safe-keeping/ and is used only of things of in­ trinsic value or things of sacred character. The translation, 'pronounce apocryphal,' is erroneous. According to Talmudic authority, a copy of the Pentateuch in which there are as many as three (or four) errors to a column must be 'put away' in a place where it cannot be used but is safe from profanation; it is assuredly not declared apocryphal! The Torah which God had kept by him in heaven for nine hundred and seventy-four generations was a 'hidden treasure' (hamudahgenuzah)*— cer­ tainly not an apocryphon! 2

3

4

5

The principles and method of interpretation were determined by the idea of revealed religion embodied in sacred Scripture. In all its parts and in every word the Scripture was of divine origin and authority, being either an immediate revelation, such 1

H a n a n i a h ben H e z e k i a h b e n G a r o n w a s the head o f the school o f S h a m ­ m a i in the generation before the fall o f Jerusalem. See B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I , 18 f. F o r the story see S h a b b a t 13b; H a g i g a h 13a; M e n a h o t 45a. I.e., " D o e s it m a k e the h a n d s u n c l e a n ? " (see N o t e 9), or " W a s it s p o k e n b y the h o l y s p i r i t ? " T h e v e r b ganaz is a d e n o m i n a t i v e from a P e r s i a n noun m e a n i n g ' treas­ u r e / w h i c h w a s b o r r o w e d b y t h e J e w s in the form genazim, E z e k . 27, 24; E s t h e r 3, 9; 4, 7. See W . B a c h e r , ' G e n i z a h / in E n c y c l o p a e d i a o f Religion and E t h i c s , V I , 187-189; a n d N o t e 13. M e n a h o t 29b, below. S h a b b a t 88b, b e l o w ; B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I , 160 f. O r hemdah genuzah. S e e D i k d u k e Soferim in loc. 2

3

4

5

6

248

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

1

as was made to Moses by God propria persona, or through visions and dreams, or given to the prophets and the authors of the various sacred books through the inspiration of the holy spirit. What is of no less importance, though it is less frequently re­ marked, is that the Scriptures are throughout a revelation of religion? in the widest meaning of that word. They are all Torah not by an extension a potiori of the name of the Penta­ teuch to all the Scriptures, but because in them all, woXvjJLep&s Kal TTokvTpoirus (Heb. I , i), God has revealed what he has chosen to make known of his character and his ways, and what he re­ quires of men in their relations to him and to their fellows. This is the content and meaning of every word of Scripture; some­ times in the plain letter intelligible even to the superficial reader, sometimes to be discerned only by those who know how to penetrate to the deeper sense that lies beneath the letter. The conviction that everywhere in his revelation God is teaching religion and that the whole of religion is contained in this revela­ tion is the first principle of Jewish hermeneutics. To discover, elucidate, and apply what God thus teaches and enjoins is the task of the scholar as interpreter of Scripture. Together with the principle that in God's revelation no word is without signifi­ cance, this conception of Scripture leads to an atomistic exegesis, which interprets sentences, clauses, phrases, and even single words, independently of the context or the historical occasion, as divine oracles; combines them with other similarly detached utterances; and makes large use of analogy of expressions, often by purely verbal association. So important a work was not left to the competitive ingenuity of individuals. Besides the training and tradition of the schools, certain hermeneutic rules were evolved as norms of method and criteria of the validity of a particular procedure. The formula­ tion of seven such rules was attributed to Hillel, about the be­ ginning of the Christian era; a century or more after him R. y

1

2

" M o u t h t o m o u t h , " N u m . 12, 6-8; " f a c e to f a c e , " D e u t . 34, 10. T h i s is t h e nearest e q u i v a l e n t to t h e Jewish conception o f T o r a h .

CHAP, ii]

T H E SCRIPTURES

249

Ishmael expanded them to thirteen without material change in their substance, and in this form the rules became the standard of rabbinical exegesis, particularly in juristic deductions and inferences — homiletic interpretation for ends of edification was less strictly regulated. The methods and results of this exegesis must be viewed in the light of its own presuppositions as they have been exhibited above, not of ours. We need to remind ourselves that the conception of development as applied to re­ vealed religion, or in theological phrase an economy of revela­ tion, is eminently modern. To the rabbis, if it could have been explained to them, it would have seemed a contradiction of the very idea of religion: the true religion was always the same — how otherwise could it be true? The revelation of God's char­ acter and will was unchanging as God himself was unchanging. With the consequences of this apprehension of the nature of revelation in the development of the unwritten law by juristic exegesis we are not at this point concerned. In the sphere of what we should call religion and morals the result was that by their methods of interpretation, however faulty they may seem to those who are accustomed to regard modern philological and historical methods as the only legitimate art of interpretation, the Jewish teachers found in all parts of the Scriptures their own worthiest conceptions of God's character and man's duty, con­ ceptions which, as we shall see hereafter, were derived from the highest teachings of the Scriptures and are in some important respects an advance beyond them. Hellenistic Jews accom­ plished the same thing by means of the more elaborate and selfconscious methods of sustained allegory, and in literary forms. In this way Philo discovers in the Scriptures not only the loftiest teachings of his religion, but the most recondite doctrines of his philosophy, which he holds to be equally of divine origin, and in essence identical with the truth revealed in Scripture. The interpretation of the Scriptures in the New Testament is of precisely the same kind. Familiar illustrations of an exegesis 1

2

1

See N o t e 14.

2

S e e N o t e 15.

250

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

comparable to that of the Palestinian rabbis are Jesus' proof of the resurrection of the dead from the Pentateuch in Matt. 22, 31 f., and Paul's allegory of Hagar in Gal. 4 , 2 4 f., or his alle­ gorizing upon Jewish midrash in 1 Cor. 10, 1 - 4 , while the Epistle to the Hebrews exemplifies throughout the Hellenistic art. It was on the same assumption of the consistency of revela­ tion, and with methods from our point of view as uncritical, that Christians from the beginning found the distinctive doctrines of Christianity expressed or implied in all parts of the Old Testa­ ment, and that in more recent times Protestant dogmatists found the mystery of the Trinity revealed in the first chapters of Gene­ sis, or proved the deity of the Son from Psalm 2 , 7 and Prov. 30,4. In fact the application of modern historical and critical methods to the Scriptures, and above all the introduction of the idea of development, involves, consciously or unconsciously, a complete change in the idea of revelation, a change which orthodoxy, whether Jewish or Christian, has resisted with the instinct of self-preservation. 1

1

R a b b i n i c a l d e d u c t i o n s o f t h e resurrection from passages o f S c r i p t u r e : Sifre D e u t . § 329 (on D e u t . 32, 29); S a n h e d r i n 90 b . F o r others see S t r a c k , K o m m e n t a r z u m N e u e n T e s t a m e n t aus T a l m u d u n d M i d r a s c h , on M a t t .

CHAPTER I I I THE

UNWRITTEN LAW

The whole revelation of God was not comprised in the sacred books. By the side of Scripture there had always gone an un­ written tradition, in part interpreting and applying the written Torah, in part supplementing it. The existence of such a tradi­ tion in all ages is indubitable. The priests' traditional knowl­ edge of details of the ritual, for instance, is constantly assumed in the laws in the Pentateuch on the subject of sacrifice. The rules for the private burnt offering and peace offering in Lev. i and 3 are formulated with expert precision, but in the actual offering of even such simple sacrifices they require at every step to be supplemented by a customary practice. The law requires a lamb as a burnt offering every morning and evening, with the accompanying quantum of flour, oil, and wine (Exod. 29, 38-42), but gives no further particulars. As these perpetual daily sac­ rifices for the whole people were the constant element in the sacra publica and so to speak the basic rite of the cultus, they were doubtless always celebrated with a solemnity accordant to their importance. But the whole elaborate and splendid ritual as it was developed in the use of the temple was preserved and trans­ mitted only in tradition until after the worship ceased with the destruction of the temple in the year 70. For the performance of the solemn piacula of the Day of Atonement the directions in Lev. 16 are altogether inadequate; the actual conduct of the complicated rites must always have been directed by priestly 1

2

1

T h e tradition o f the E l d e r s , M a r k 7, 3 - 1 3 ; see J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 10, 6. N o t e 16. F o r t h e ritual as it w a s in t h e generation before the destruction o f t h e t e m p l e see M . T a m i d — p e r h a p s t h e oldest title o f the M i s h n a h — a n d T o s . Tamid. 2

251

252

R E V E A L E D RELIGION 1

[PART I

tradition. Doubtless in the course of time the ritual developed in practice by that tendency to enrichment which is strong in all liturgies, or was revised by recurrence to the prescriptions of the Law; but whatever it was, it rested on tradition and was embodied in tradition. These instances may suffice to illustrate what was true of the whole ritual and ceremonial law. Nor was the Scripture by itself more sufficient in the field of civil and criminal law. What is found in the Pentateuch appears to modern critics to be the fragmentary remains of codes or col­ lections of laws from the times of the kingdoms. One such "code, of which a single title intact and several others more or less in­ complete are preserved in Exod. 21-23, was formulated with juristic precision and evidently laid out on a large scale. Much the greater part of it, and of other collections of the same age, probably perished with the fall of the national state; and in the following ages under foreign rule the lost parts were never metho­ dically replaced, though patched in many places with material that is distinguished by an entirely different formulation. Nor was any considerable attempt made to adapt or extend the civil law to the changed conditions of the Jews in this period by addi­ tions to the Pentateuch. The major part of the native law under which the Jews lived during the centuries of Persian and Greek dominion must have been an unwritten common law, the custom of the community, preserved particularly by the elders or judges before whom cases came. Their jurisdiction itself rested on the same ground. The Pentateuch directs the ap­ pointment of judges in cities and towns (Deut. 16, 18), but says little or nothing about the constitution or procedure of the tribunals. The law in Deut. 24, 1-4, on the remarriage of a divorced woman, presumes that a legal divorce demands a certificate of repudiation (sefer keritui) given to the woman by the man as evidence that she was free to marry again. There is however no law prescribing such a writing nor any direction concerning its 1

M . Y o m a , T o s . Y o m h a - K i p p u r i m , Sifra on L e v . 16.

CHAP, in]

THE UNWRITTEN LAW

253

form, though as a legal instrument it must be supposed that a certain form, and probably also the proper witnessing of the instrument, were necessary to its regularity if not to its validity, since in such matters ancient law was as insistent as modern on formal correctness. In many other things enjoined in the re­ ligious law, e.g. the payment of the taxes for the support of the priesthood and other ministers of worship, the obligatory offer­ ings, the observance of holy days, the mode of fulfilment must have followed custom which had the force of law, and when defined became tradition. The prohibitions of labor on the Sabbath in the Pentateuch are as general and indefinite as they are emphatic. The prophets are more explicit. Amos condemns trading on that day (8, 5), Jeremiah the bearing burdens on the Sabbath day and carrying them into the city or out of houses (17, 21-24; Neh. 10, 32), thus giving testimony to the antiquity of some of the most important principles of Jewish sabbath observance. But nowhere in the Old Testament is there such a definition of the works which are forbidden on the Sabbath that a man could know in all cases whether the thing he was doing was permissible or prohibited. The necessity of definition in this case was pecu­ liarly great because of the severity of the penalties denounced in the Pentateuch against the profanation of the day. The regu­ lations which we find in the Mishnah are in part the formulation of custom, in part of exegetical study of the Scriptures, in part of juristic casuistry; but upon the premises of revealed religion such things cannot be too exact or too minute. Thus in every sphere there always existed beside the written law a much more extensive and comprehensive body of unwritten law more or less exactly and permanently formulated. From our point of view the authority of this consuetudinary law was common consent or the prescription of long established usage. To the Jews, on the contrary, inasmuch as the written law took into its province all spheres of life, the unwritten law, dealing with the same subjects and often defining how the former should

254

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

be carried out or enforced, was equally of religious obligation. And since religion with all its duties and observances was re­ vealed by God, the revelation necessarily included the unwritten as well as the written law. The written law, again, was all re­ vealed to Moses, and it was a very natural inference that its inseparable complement the unwritten law, which shared the immutability of all revelation, was revealed to him at the same time. Sweeping statements to this effect are, however, homiletic hyperbole rather than juristic theory; this character is par­ ticularly alleged only of a few laws. 1

Between the written and the unwritten law there could be no conflict. It was one of the principal works of the schools to ex­ hibit and establish the complete accord between Scripture and tradition; not as though the authority of the unwritten law as such depended on the written, but because the agreement was a criterion of the soundness of a particular tradition or interpreta­ tion. For not every thing that was customary at any time had by that fact the force of divine law; nor, where revelation was the only norm, could usage at variance with it acquire authority by prescription. In the methodical study of the written law as it was prose­ cuted in the schools many questions of interpretation and appli­ cation arose and were discussed, the implications of the law were followed out and compared with other rules, and the results of all this investigation were concisely and clearly formulated. This process led to the discovery of many things which formed no part of existing custom or tradition; but when they were as­ certained, the effort was made to secure conformity to them, not as innovations, but as a revival of ancient commandments of God which had fallen into desuetude and oblivion. When God said to Moses: " I f ye shall diligently keep all this command­ ment which I command you," etc. (Deut. n , 22), the words, 'all this commandment' include the juristic exegesis, the formu1

See N o t e 17.

CHAP, in]

THE UNWRITTEN

LAW

255

1

lated rules, and the edifying applications. The Pharisees were especially zealous in this endeavor, which brought them into conflict with more than one of the Asmonaean rulers, and into many controversies with the Sadducees. An expansion of the unwritten law came about also by the search in the Scriptures for a principle, an implied provision, or a precedent, by which a new question could be answered or new actual conditions or emergencies met. In such cases also the result, if approved by the authorities as deduced by valid exegetical procedure from the Scripture in which it was implic­ itly contained, was itself revealed, and became part of the Mosaic tradition. The authenticity of the unwritten law delivered by Moses could be assured only by an uninterrupted and trustworthy transmission from generation to generation down to the schools of the first century of our era. Such a chain of tradition is given at the beginning of M . Abot: "Moses received the Law (written and unwritten) from Sinai (from God) and transmitted it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it to the men of the Great As­ sembly. . . . Simeon the Righteous was one of the last sur­ vivors of the Great Assembly. . . . Antigonus of Socho received the tradition from Simeon the Righteous." . . . He was suc­ ceeded by the so-called Pairs: Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben Johanan (in the time of the Maccabaean struggle); Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai of Arbela; Judah ben Tabai and Simeon ben Shatah (under Alexander Jannaeus and in Queen Alexandra's time); Shemaiah and Abtalion (in the days of Herod); the last 2

3

4

1

See below, p . 256 f.

2

J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 10, 6; 15, 5; 16, 1.

3

See N o t e 18.

4

M . H a g i g a h 2, 2. A c c o r d i n g to this M i s h n a h the first n a m e d in e a c h pair w a s president o f the Sanhedrin (nasi), the second, vice-president (ab bet din), the old political Sanhedrin presided o v e r b y the high priest being organized after the model o f a rabbinical council. See H . S t r a c k , E i n l e i t u n g in T a l m u d u n d M i d r a s c h , 5 ed. p . 117 f., and N o t e 18a.

256

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

pair being Shammai and Hillel at the beginning of the Christian era, with whom the school tradition proper begins. Certain rules of the unwritten law are specifically called 'Mosaic rule of law from Sinai/ that is, a rule that was given to Moses by God. These rules come in part from the school of Gamaliel I, in part from the school at Jamnia, and are thus designated to give the authentication of immemorial prescrip­ tion and divine origin to traditional laws for which no biblical support could be adduced. Many rules of the unwritten law were found, by more pene­ trating exegesis or by combination with other passages in the Pentateuch or elsewhere in the Scriptures, to be implicit in the written law. It was assumed that these were made known to Moses, to whom the whole twofold law was revealed; but it was not necessary to suppose that they had been handed down in continuous tradition Jike the Mosaic rules from Sinai. Many which were delivered by Moses to his contemporaries were for­ gotten even in the first generation. In the days of mourning for Moses, it is said, grief caused no less than three thousand thus to fall into oblivion; Joshua himself forgot three hundred as a punishment for his self-sufficiency, and neither was he nor were the priests and prophets who came after him able to restore them. Many hundreds of exegetical proofs were also forgotten, but these the acumen of Othniel rediscovered. Evidently, scholars in later times could do the same thing, if they were acute enough. Akiba, in particular, by a more subtle hermeneutic and a fabulous ingenuity in the exercise of it, found in the written law many rules for which before him there had been only the traditional authority of Moses from Sinai. We have seen that in Sifre on Deut. n , 22 the words, 'all this command­ ment,' are understood to include juristic exegesis {midrash), 1

2

3

TDK* nt?c6 !"D^n. See N o t e 19. T e m u r a h 16a. T h e s e legends c o m e from r a b b i s o f the third and fourth centuries. T h e y are a d d u c e d o n l y as illustrations o f t h e general a t t i t u d e t o w a r d t h e M o s a i c revelation. M e n a h o t 29b. B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I , 263 ff. See N o t e 20. 1

2

3

CHAP, in]

THE UNWRITTEN LAW

257

formulated rules (halakot), and practical religious and moral ap­ plication (haggadot), as well as the text of Scripture itself. In all religions which profess to be wholly and solely based on a revelation, fixed and final, embodied in certain books, tradi­ tion is necessarily called in to interpret and supplement the scriptures; the origin of this tradition must lie in the age of revelation itself; and to be authoritative it must ultimately derive from the fountain-head of revelation. In Mohammedan­ ism an oral tradition is therefore traced back through an un­ broken line to the companions of the Prophet, witnesses of his words and example. In Christianity the record of the words and deeds of Jesus in the Gospels was ascribed to the Apostles immediately or through disciples under their direction; the Apostles were the inspired authors of the other books which, with the Gospels, constitute the Scriptures of the new dispensa­ tion. Apostolic tradition was the formative and normative principle of the ancient catholic church in organization, worship, doctrine, and discipline. A long series of writings, from the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles early in the second century to the eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions with the ap­ pended Canons in the fourth, bear witness to the strength of the feeling that whatever is Christian ought to be apostolic. The symbol called the Apostles' Creed was early imagined to have been framed by the Apostles in a kind of symposium, each of them contributing an article. The theory of apostolic tradi­ tion is still held unchanged by the great body of Christian churches, East and West. It was uncompromisingly affirmed by the Council of Trent against the contention of the Reformers that the Scriptures alone had divine authority; and the dogma of papal infallibility defined at the Vatican Council in 1870 is declared to be in accord with a tradition which has been received from the beginning of the Christian faith. The rabbinical doctrine, therefore, so far from being singular, is essentially the same as that of other 'book religions.' Over 1

1

See further N o t e 21.

258

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

it Karaites and Rabbanites divided in the eighth century, and it is the primary line of cleavage between Reform Judaism and the Orthodox, as it is between Protestants and Catholic Chris­ tians. The Christian church, however, very early developed a strong and gradually unified organization, whose bishops in regu­ lar succession from the Apostles, custodians of the apostolic tradition, and themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, exercised an authority in the definition of doctrine and the regu­ lation of life for which neither of the other religions possessed a comparable organ; and because it had this living tradition, Christianity had no need to create a great corpus of traditions, like the Talmud or the Moslem Hadith collections, to be the norm and final authority for codes of law and the conduct of life. Whatever the critic may think about the historical character of the actual traditions of any of these religions or of the doctrine of tradition itself, he cannot deny that upon their premises, namely, that everything that is of religious obligation is revealed and that revelation is long since closed, nothing but a belief in such an interpretative and complementary tradition could main­ tain unity and continuity, conserve the acquisitions of the past, and adapt the religious law to the changing conditions of the present. The actual content of Jewish tradition was of diverse origin. Part of it was long established custom for which the schoolmen might seek an explicit or implicit scriptural warrant, or, failing that, fall back on the half-conscious fiction of a Mosaic rule from Sinai. But an important part consisted, as they were well aware, of regulations or prohibitions issued and imposed by those in whom at different times such virtually legislative authority was vested. Enactments of this kind, whether proceeding from an individual or a corporate body, are called 'decrees' (gezerot) or 'enactments' (talzkanot), using the former term for prohibitions, the latter for ordinances of a positive character. One of the 1

See J e w i s h E n c y c l o p e d i a s. v v . ' G e z e r a h / ' T a k k a n a h . '

CHAP, in]

THE UNWRITTEN LAW

259

maxims ascribed to the men of the Great Assembly (Abot 1 , 1 ) is, "Make a fence for the Law," that is, protect it by surrounding it with cautionary rules to halt a man like a danger signal before he gets within breaking distance of the divine statute itself. A warrant for this was found in Lev. 18, 30, interpreted, "Make an injunction additional to my injunction." The explicit pro­ hibition in Deut. 4, 2, ' Y e shall not add unto the word which I command you, nor shall ye take aught from it,' was easily got over by the exegesis of the schools: in Deut. 17, 11 they found implicit confidence in the courts of each generation and obedi­ ence to them prescribed, and they extended the same authority to the decisions and decrees of the rabbinical bet din? Nor were these deliverances confined to laying down the proper way of fulfilling the requirements of the law under changing con­ ditions, or to protecting the law from infringement by a thick­ set hedge of prohibitions more stringent than the letter. When the exigencies of the time seemed to them to demand it, the rabbis in council or individually did not hesitate to suspend or set aside laws in the Pentateuch on their own authority, without exegetical subterfuges or pretense of Mosaic tradition. Where justification is offered for extraordinary liberties of this kind, Psalm 119, 126 is frequently quoted, with a peculiar interpreta­ tion. Instead of, "It is time for the Lord to do something, they have made void thy law," the verse is taken, "It is time to do something for the Lord." There are in fact numerous rabbinical enactments from all periods which are more or less directly at variance with the plain letter and intent of the law. Among the most noteworthy was the legal fiction called prozbul (or prosbul) devised by Hillel. 1

2

4

5

1

See N o t e 22. M o ' e d £ a t o n 5a; cf. Sifra, A h a r e , end (f. 86d, ed. W e i s s ) ; W e i s s , D o r D o r w e - D o r e s h a u , I I , 47. Sifre D e u t . § 154; M i d r a s h T a n n a i m on D e u t . 17, 11 (p. 103). S e e N o t e 23. M . B e r a k o t 9, 5, end. See N o t e 24. W e i s s , D o r , I I , 50-52. 2

3

4

5

260

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

The law of Deut. 15, 1-3 by which all loans were cancelled at the beginning of every seventh year worked as, in human nature, such a Utopian economic experiment might be expected to work. Notwithstanding the pathos of the exhortation in verses 7 - 1 1 , and no matter what the distress of the borrower might be, money­ lenders could not be induced to make a loan in the fifth or sixth year which would automatically become a donation in the seventh. Like much equally well-meant legislation in later times, the effect of the law was the diametrical opposite of its intent. Hillel's remedy was the execution in court of an instru­ ment, attested by the seals of the judges or witnesses, by which the lender retained the right to reclaim the loan at any time he saw fit. Shortly before the outbreak of the Jewish War in 66 A.D., in consequence of the multitude of adulterers, R. Johanan ben Zakkai did away with the ordeal of jealousy (Num. 5, 11-31), alleging as a warrant for the abrogation of the law Hos. 4, 14: ' I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; for they themselves go apart with harlots and sacrifice with the pros­ titutes of the sanctuary.' In a similar way the frequency and boldness of murders led, we are told, to the abolition of the antique rite prescribed in Deut. 21, 1-9, when the victim of a murder by an unknown hand was found lying in the open field. There was thus a large body of law that grew out of the needs of the times and changed with them. Such laws and regula­ tions were probably made in the Persian and earlier Greek periods by the priests and the council of the elders in their re­ spective spheres or concurrently; many are attributed to the Men of the Great Assembly. The Asmonaean princes and kings doubtless made law by their own edicts, encroaching especially on the powers of the elders. It is not without significance that 1

2

3

1

M . S h e b i ' i t 10, 3 f.; M . G i t t i n 4, 3, etc. Jewish E n c y c l o p e d i a s. v . ' P r o s b u l ' ; Schiirer, G e s c h i c h t e des jiidischen V o l k e s , I I , 363. See N o t e 25. M . S o t a h 9, 9. T h e w o r d s of the p r o p h e t are t a k e n as a w a r r a n t for a b a n d o n i n g the ordeal in a time o f general corruption o f morals. M . S o t a h 9, 9. 2

3

CHAP, in]

THE UNWRITTEN LAW

261

the older name yepavaia (senatus) is replaced by awkbptov (Sanhedrin), which in the language of the time had come to mean 'court' rather than 'council.' It is to be remembered, hew ever, that a sharp distinction between legislative and judicial pewers is very mcdern; and, further, that law is made by the decisions of a court as much as by the enactment of statutes, especially if the court decides cases submitted in thesi, as seems to have been the Jewish practice. That under the later Asmon­ aeans, their supporters, the party of the Sadducees which em­ braced the priestly aristocracy, constituted the majority in the Sanhedrin was but natural, and as natural that they made laws and ordinances in accordance with their own traditions or their cwn notions. Meanwhile the scholars of the rival party of the Pharisees were busy with their juristic studies of the law of Moses and the traditions of the elders, and arrived at results often widely at variance with those of the Sadducees. Under John Hyrcanus they came into open conflict with the rulers, which in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus grew into a civil war. From Queen Alexandra they demanded and obtained the abrogation of the Asmonaean-Sadducean code of civil and criminal law and the substitution of their own ordinances (pofitfia) which had been annulled by John Hyrcanus. They even constrained the priest­ hood to make modifications in the ritual of the temple and mat­ ters connected with it to conform to their interpretation of the law/ The representation and influence of the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin was doubtless much increased in Alexandra's time, a rid probably maintained after her. With the fall of Jerusalem the Sanhedrin as a council or court recognized by the government came to an end. What suc­ ceeded it, taking its name 'high court' and claiming succession to its functions, was in fact only a self-constituted body of scholars, at first under the presidency of Johanan ben Zakkai at 1

1

See Schiirer, G e s c h i c h t e des jiidischen V o l k e s , I I , 194. T h e Jewish n a m e for it is Bet din ha-gado/, w h i c h w e m i g h t render the S u p r e m e C o u r t . J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 16, 2, cf. 10, 6. See N o t e 26. 2

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

262

[PART I

Jamnia, later under the Patriarchs, beginning with Gamaliel II. So completely did this character predominate that the Jews of later times imagined the old political Sanhedrin as in all respects similar to their rabbinical assemblies. 1

The unwritten law, as we have seen, was in no wise inferior in authority to the law written in the Pentateuch, both being God's revealed will. The covenant at Sinai, the Magna Charta of Judaism, was made upon both. As in other religions where it is thus raised to an equal rank with Scripture, tradition, as the living word, interpreting, supplementing, adapting, applying, the written word, asserts its superior authority, and its claims are wont to be more strongly expressed if its authority is ques­ tioned either in general or on a particular point. So it was in Judaism. Thus it is declared: " A more serious matter is made of the words of the scribes than of the words of the (written) Law." A later teacher sets himself formally to prove that the words of the elders are of more weight than those of the prophets: the prophet has to authenticate himself and his message by a sign (Deut. 13, 2), while for the teachings and decisions of the elders (i.e., the members of the high court in Jerusalem) un­ questioning obedience is commanded (Deut. 17, n ) . This is 2

the irapahodLs rcov irpeaPvTepcov, against which Jesus directs his 3

criticism. It is to be observed, however, that notwithstanding all the fault he finds with the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus recog­ nizes them as the legitimate interpreters of the law, and bids his disciples obey their injunctions, but not follow their example in shirking the heavy burdens they load on other men's backs. 4

1

O n the Sanhedrin see Schiirer, op. cit.^ I I , 188-213; J u s t e r , L e s Juifs d a n s Fempire r o m a i n , I , 400-402; Jewish E n c y c l o p e d i a s. v . ' B e t D i n / I I I , 114 f. ( L . G i n z b e r g ) , and s. v . ' S a n h e d r i n / X I , 41-46 ( L a u t e r b a c h ) . See N o t e 27. M a r k 7, 1-13; M a t t . 15, 1-19. M a t t . 23, 1 ff. I t is indeed laid d o w n b y r a b b i n i c a l a u t h o r i t y t h a t a d e c r e e is n o t to b e i m p o s e d on t h e p u b l i c unless t h e m a j o r i t y are a b l e to a b i d e b y it ( H o r a i y o t 3b, a n d elsewhere); b u t t h a t t h e restrictions a n d pre­ scriptions w e r e often onerous is i n d u b i t a b l e . S e e W e i s s , D o r , I I , 50. 2

3

4

C H A P T E R IV THE PERPETUITY OF THE LAW

T H E comprehensive name for the divine revelation, written and oral, in which the Jews possessed the sole standard and norm of their religion is Tor ah. It is a source of manifold misconceptions that the word is customarily translated ' L a w , ' though it is not easy to suggest any one English word by which it would be better rendered. ' L a w ' must, however, not be understood in the restricted sense of legislation, but must be taken to include the whole of revelation — all that God has made known of his nature, character, and purpose, and of what he would have man be and do. The prophets call their own utterances 'Torah'; and the Psalms deserved the name as well. To the unwritten law the religious and moral teachings of the Haggadah belong no less than the juristically formulated rules of the Halakah. In a word, Torah in one aspect is the vehicle, in another and deeper view it is the whole content of revelation. For the Jewish conception of law in this broad sense it is fundamentally significant that it was early identified with wis­ dom. In Deut. 4, 6, it is urged upon the Israelites as a motive for keeping the statutes and ordinances which Jehovah has en­ joined upon them: 'For this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' Since this law, the distinctive wisdom of Israel, was revealed by God, it, like all true human wisdom, was God's 1

2

3

4

1

I n the G r e e k P e n t a t e u c h yo/xos, and correspondingly in all s u b s e q u e n t versions. O n the w o r d T o r a h see N o t e 28. See S c h e c h t e r , S o m e A s p e c t s o f R a b b i n i c T h e o l o g y , p p . 116 ff. N o t e t h e w h o l e c o n t e x t , D e u t . 4, 1-20. 2

3

4

263

264

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

wisdom, of which so much is said in the Proverbs and other works of the Jewish sages. Prov. 8, 22 ff. is the most fruitful of the passages in which this identification of divine revelation (Torah) with the divine wisdom (Hokmah) is made, but many others contributed to the doctrine. In the eulogy of wisdom in Ecclus. 24, which like Prov. 8 is put into the mouth of Wisdom itself, verse 23 (32) continues: "All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded, an inheritance to the congrega­ tion of Jacob," and goes on to compare the way the Law pours out wisdom in a flood with the inundations of great rivers (verses 25-29). It is inexhaustible; all the generations that have studied it have not discovered its whole meaning (vs. 28). In the first of the poems in the Book of Baruch, reminiscent of the praises of Wisdom in Proverbs 8 and Job 28, God, the omni­ scient creator, who alone knows wisdom (3, 32), "Found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved. After that it was seen upon earth and con­ versed among men. This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law which abideth forever; all who hold it fast are (destined) to life, but those who abandon it shall die" (3, 374, i ) . The author of 4 Maccabees, after the definition: "Wis­ dom (ao(t>ia) is a knowledge of things divine and human, and of their causes" (1,16), continues: "This (wisdom) is the education 1

2

3

4

5

1

Tavra iravTa is t h e logical p r e d i c a t e : t h e L a w is all t h a t is said in the foregoing verses. T h e G r e e k translator o f Ecclesiasticus h a s K\rjpovofxlav (Tvvaywy als 'ICLK&B, as in D e u t . 3 3 , 4 ( H e b r e w , singular), h a v i n g in mind t h e reading o f t h e L a w in t h e religious assemblies o f his time. Cf. E c c l u s . 2 1 , 1 : " A l l w i s d o m is from t h e L o r d , a n d w i t h h i m it is etern­ a l l y " ; 19,20: " I n all w i s d o m is a doing o f t h e l a w . " C f . E c c l u s . 2 4 , 10 ff. T h i s verse w a s often q u o t e d b y G r e e k a n d L a t i n F a t h e r s as a proof-text for t h e incarnation o f t h e L o g o s ( W i s d o m ) . S o m e m o d e r n scholars, similarly misunderstanding t h e w o r d s , reject t h e m as a C h r i s t i a n interpolation. I t is as r e v e a l e d in t h e L a w t h a t W i s d o m abides a m o n g m e n u n t o life. 2

3

4

T h e a u t h o r h a s in m i n d D e u t . 30, 1 1 - 1 8 . N o t e also B a r u c h 4 , 4, " Blessed are w e , Israel, for w h a t is well-pleasing t o G o d is k n o w n t o u s . " T h e current Stoic definition. See N o t e 29. 5

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

265

given by the law, through which we learn divine things in a manner befitting them, and human things in a way profitable to us" (1, 17). In the apostrophe to the martyr Eleazar he ex­ claims, c5 (Tvix<j)Ci)ve vofiov Kal 0tX6cro0e deiov j3iov (7, 7; cf. also 7, 21-23). Philosophy is for him equivalent to revealed religion; piety and wisdom are interchangeable terms. The identification of revelation, and more specifically of the Mosaic Law, with divine Wisdom, was thus established in Jew­ ish teaching at least as far back as Sirach (ca. 200 B . C ) , and his way of introducing it makes the impression that it was a common­ place in his time, when the study of the law and the cultivation of wisdom went hand in hand, and as in his case were united in the same person. The identity of the Law and Wisdom is of frequent occurrence in the rabbinical books also, and even in the oldest passages is assumed as something universally acknowledged, from which further inferences are drawn. Besides Prov. 8, 22 ff*., several other passages are quoted in which 'Wisdom' is made equiv­ alent to 'Law.' Bar Kappara so interprets Prov. 9,1-3 (combined with 2, 6; 8, 22); and, by reckoning Num. 10, 35 f. as a book by itself, finds seven books of the Law, corresponding to the seven pillars with which Wisdom built her house (Prov. 9, i). Once this equivalence was established, all that was said in the Scriptures about the nature of wisdom, its source, its fruits, and its inestimable worth, was applied to the Law, either in the larger sense of revelation, or with special reference to the law of Moses; and in the same way Law acquires the vivid poetical personification that is given to Wisdom in the higher flights of the sapiential books. 1

2

3

4

5

AVTTJ 8rj Tolvvv karlv TJ rod vojiov TcudeLa, 8L' rjs rd deia crefxv&s Kal rd avBptoinva cv/jLcfrepovToos navdavofiev. See N o t e 30. Sifre D e u t . § 37 and elsewhere. See N o t e 31. L e v . R . 1 1 , 3. B a r K a p p a r a , a pupil o f the P a t r i a r c h J u d a h , t a u g h t a t C a e s a r e a in the e a r l y third c e n t u r y . I n S h a b b a t 116a this c o m b i n a t i o n is a t t r i b u t e d to J o n a t h a n . S e e B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I I , 509 n. P r o b a b l y the A m o r a o f t h a t n a m e , t e a c h e r o f S a m u e l b a r N a h m a n , is m e a n t . See N o t e 32. 1

2

4

5

3

266

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

The most important consequence of this appropriation to the Law of the attributes of the divine Wisdom is that the Law is older than the world. In Prov. 8, 22 ff., Wisdom (the Law) says of itself: 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his way, first of his works of old. I was installed ages ago, from the beginning, before the earth was,' etc. Thus, in Sifre on Deut. 11, 10, to prove that, in God's way of doing, what is most highly prized by him precedes what is less prized: "The Law, because it is more highly prized (literally, 'dearer') than every­ thing, was created before everything, as it is said, The Lord created me as the beginning of his w a y " (Prov. 8, 22). The Law stands first among the seven things which were created before the creation of the world, with Prov. 8, 22 again for the proof-text; and repentance is next to it. This collocation is not accidental. That God did not make the Law, with all its commandments and prohibitions and its severe penalties, with­ out knowing that no man could keep it, nor without creating a way by which his fault might be condoned, is as firm a convic­ tion as there is in all the Jewish thought of God. Repentance must therefore be coeval with Law. And so they found it re­ vealed by God himself in the ninetieth Psalm: 'Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to contrition, and sayest, Repent, ye children of men.' 1

2

3

' Wisdom was present at the creation of the world, not as a pas­ sive onlooker, but a sharer in the work of making it and the joy of the maker (Prov. 8, 30 f.); she was at God's side, a skilled craftsman, or artist. The identification of Wisdom with the Law led in this way not only to the antemundane existence of the Law but to a connection of the Law with creation. Akiba called it the instrument of God in creation: "Beloved (of God) are 1

3

Sifre D e u t . § 37 (f. j6&-b).

2

See N o t e 33.

T h i s is the J e w i s h interpretation o f the w o r d s rendered in the E n g l i s h v e r s i o n s , ' T h o u turnest m a n to d e s t r u c t i o n / See N o t e 34.

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

267

Israel, for to them was given the instrument with which the world was created; still greater love is shown in that it was made known to them that there was given to them the instru­ ment with which this world was created, as it is said, 'For good instruction have I given you, my Law forsake not (Prov. 4,2). An interesting development of this idea is given in Genesis Rabbah: " Amon (Prov. 8, 30) is equivalent to Omen ('artificer^ architect'). The Law says, I was an architect's apparatus for God. As a rule an earthly king who is building a palace does not build it according to his own ideas, but to those of an archi­ tect; and the architect does not build it out of his head, but has parchments or tablets to know how he shall make the rooms and openings; so God looked into the Law and created the w o r l d / ' The resemblance of this interpretation to a passage in Philo's De Opificio Mundi is obvious. When God proposed to create this visible world, he first made the intelligible world (KOCFPLOP vo-qrbv, the universe of ideas) as a model, in order that employ­ ing an immaterial and most godlike pattern he might produce the material world, a younger copy of the elder. The parallel is made the more striking by the fact that in the sequel Philo illustrates this Platonic philosophy of creation by a comparison of God's procedure to that of a king who proposes to found a new city: he calls to his aid an expert engineer, who, having surveyed the ground, lays off the whole city in his mind, and then, looking into the plan, proceeds to reproduce it in stone and wood. Just so God, being minded to create this megalo­ polis (the world), first conceived its types, by combining which in a system he produced the intelligible world, and, using it as a pattern, the sensible world. 1

2

3

4

5

T h e w o r d pftK in P r o v . 8, 30 b e i n g t a k e n as the ' i n s t r u m e n t ' o f an art or craft. G e n . R . 1, 1. S e e N o t e 35. A b o t 3, 14. niCD npi> is G o d ' s T o r a h . B e r a k o t 5a. G e n . R . 1, 1. D e opificio m u n d i c. 4 § 16 f. (ed. M a n g e y , I , 4); cf. P l a t o , T i m a e u s 28 ff. P h i l o m a y well h a v e h a d in m i n d the l a y i n g o u t o f the c i t y o f A l e x a n d r i a b y the engineers o f A l e x a n d e r the G r e a t . 1

2

3

4

5

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

268

[PART I

R. Hosha'ya, to whom the midrash in Genesis Rabbah is attributed, taught in Caesarea, and was a contemporary there of Origen, whose Old Testament studies, as we know, brought him into intercourse with Jewish scholars. It is not impossible, therefore, that Hosha'ya may have been acquainted with Philo's ideas, if not with his writings; but the coincidence is not of a kind to demonstrate dependence. Another teacher of the third century, R. Simon, arrives by an entirely different route at a similar goal: God studied Genesis, the first chapters of which are, so to speak, a programme of creation, and created the world to correspond. Another idea which finds frequent expression is that the world was created for the Law. So R. Benaiah: "The world and every­ thing in it was created solely for the sake of the Law, as it is said, The Lord founded the earth for the sake of Wisdom" (Prov. 3, 19). Much older is the aphorism of Simeon the Righteous: "The stability of the world rests on three things, on the Law, on worship, and on deeds of personal kindness." In such utterances, under forms that strike us as fantastic, and supported by an exegesis more subtle than convincing, ideas are expressed which lack neither insight nor significance. Religion was not an afterthought of God; it was impossible to conceive a world like this without religion. Since the two are thus indissolubly connected, the world must be made, we might say, on a religious plan. And since religion was in Jewish ap­ prehension a complete system of divinely revealed beliefs and duties, obligatory, not discretionary — a law — this system in its integrity must have existed before the world, and the world must have been made to correspond to it. It is a finer concep­ tion still that the world was made for the Law — for religion, 1

2

3

4

5

1

See B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I , 107 (cf. p . 92); J. F r e u d e n t h a l , Hellenistische S t u d i e n , I , 73; J e w i s h Q u a r t e r l y R e v i e w , I I I , 357-360. 2

3

4

5

G e n . R . 3, 5. C f . P h i l o , L e g g . allegor. i. 8 § 19. See N o t e 36. A b o t 1, 2. See N o t e 37. See P h i l o , D e opificio m u n d i c. 1 § 3, q u o t e d in N o t e 38.

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

269

we should say — that is, as a sphere for the realization in thought and life of the true relation between God and man through man's conformity to God's holy will. This law, being perfect, is unchangeable. The Law that was in time revealed in writing and by word of mouth to Moses is the same that was with God before the world was created; and it shall endure in its entirety unchanged as long as the world exists. Philo, contrasting it with the ever changing legislation of other nations, writes: "The provisions of this law alone, stable, unmoved, unshaken, as it were stamped with the seal of nature itself, remain in fixity from the day they were written until now, and for the future we expect them to abide through all time as immortal, so long as the sun and moon and the whole heaven and the world exist." The association of the Law with the divine Wisdom was an­ other ground for asserting the perpetuity of the Law. We have already seen this result in Baruch 4, 1, where the wisdom God has searched out and given to Israel is "the book of the com­ mandments of God and the Law that exists to eternity," and in Sirach where the wisdom that says of itself: "Before time, from the beginning He created me, and unto the end of time I shall not cease" is "the law which God commanded Moses." It is the "eternal law" in Enoch 99, 2, cf. 14; its prescriptions are an "eternal commandment" in Tobit 1, 6. It could serve no purpose to multiply quotations. The rabbinical doctrine could not be better expressed than in Matt. 5, 18: "Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not an apex of a letter, shall pass away from the Law till it all be done." Note also the sequel: "Whoever shall 1

2

3

4

1

N o other M o s e s will c o m e and bring another L a w , for there is no L a w left in h e a v e n . D e u t . R . 8, 6. P e r h a p s a g a i n s t the Christians a n d their "new law." P h i l o , V i t a M o s i s , ii. 3 §§ 14-16 (ed. M a n g e y , I I , 136 f . ) ; J o s e p h u s , C o n t r a A p i o n e m ii. 38 §§ 277 f., cf. i. 8 § 42; A n t t . iii. 8, 10 § 223. E c c l u s . 24, 9 w i t h v s . 23; see a b o v e , p . 264. T h a t i s , n e v e r ; J o b 14, 12. 2

3

4

270

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

relax one of these very least commandments and teach men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven.'' So also Luke 16, 17: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one apex of the Law to fall." A parallel is found in Genesis Rabbah (10, 1) on Gen. 2, 1, whence, by combination with Psalm 119, 96 and Job 11, 9, it is elicited that heaven and earth have measures (limit), but the Law has none; a statement which the commentators understand of time as well as space: heaven and earth will have an end (Isa. 51, 6), but the Law will not. Such utterances are not to be pressed into the strict sense of eternity: the author may not push his vision at the farthest beyond the present order of things, the world as it now is. But the Jews, through all the vicissitudes of their fortunes, held fast to the faith that there was a better time coming, as the Scriptures foretold. The visions of this time in the prophets are numerous and diverse. Many of them are the promise of a kind of national millenium, deliverance from subjection to the Gen­ tiles, the restoration of an independent Jewish state expanded to its ancient boundaries and exercising dominion over the countries around it far and wide. Some of these prophecies predict a revival of the Davidic monarchy, while others say nothing about the political constitution of the state. All agree in picturing, often in idyllic imagery, a time of lasting peace and prosperity under the favor of God. The seventeenth of the Psalms of Solomon best represents to us, in a composite of Old Testament prophecies, how the messianic times were imagined by an orthodox Jew a half century before our era. Philo shows us how the golden age could be conceived without reference to a restoration of the monarchy. But there were also in the Prophets predictions of a greater change, of a catastrophe in which all nature is involved, of new heavens and a new earth, and of a new order of things, a new age of the world, beyond this crisis. For this new order of 1

2

3

1

See N o t e 39.

2

See N o t e 40.

3

E . g . I s a . 24-27; 65, 13 ff.

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

271

c

things the Jewish name is "the age to come" ( o/am ha-bd) in contrast to "this age" ('olam ha-zeh), the world we live in. The vaguer phrase, "the future" i^atid la-bo), refers sometimes to the messianic times, sometimes to the age to come, sometimes includes them both without distinction. Even between the two more descriptive terms the distinction is not strictly main­ tained; the biblical imagery of the national golden age in the present order being carried over into the age to come, while the convulsions of the final crisis are made to usher in the days of the Messiah. Added to all this, the difficulty of distinguishing earlier from later ideas is at its greatest just here where it is most important. The temptation to be clearer than our sources or their authors is here peculiarly strong, and must be guarded against at every step. So much, in anticipation of a fuller dis­ cussion in a later chapter, it seems necessary to premise here. Inasmuch as the days of the Messiah are the religious as well as the political consummation of the national history, and, how­ ever idealized, belong to the world we live in, it is natural that the law should not only be in force in the messianic age, but should be better studied and better observed than ever before; and this was indubitably the common belief. The priesthood and the sacrificial worship in the new temple are constantly assumed. The harps of the temple musicians will have more strings than now. A high priest in the messianic times is frequently men­ tioned; religion without sacrifice was in fact unimaginable. Nor are the expiatory institutions of the law unnecessary, for even in the messianic times men will not be without sin; their super­ abundant prosperity may even be the cause of such rebellious­ ness as their fathers so often fell into when they were too well off. The rules of the unwritten law will remain beside the written, and there must of course be schools for the study of both. A Palestinian rabbi in the circle of the Patriarch Judah 1

2

3

1

See P a r t V I I , c h a p , ii ( V o l . I I , p p . 377 ff.). T o s . ' A r a k i n 2, 7 ( R . J u d a h ) , a n d elsewhere; see F r i e d m a n n ' s n o t e on P e s i k t a R a b b a t i 99a. B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I I , 223. D e u t . 32, 15; Sifre D e u t . § 318. 2

3

272

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

even discovered in the Scripture that the synagogues and schools of Babylonia would then be transplanted to Palestine. With the Law in the Age to Come the case was different. The scene of that age was indeed the earth, but a transformed and glorified earth, where all the conditions of existence were so un­ like those of human experience as to be imaginable only by con­ trast. Between this and that lay the judgment that was the end of history and of the very stage on which the tragedy of mankind had been played. The new age began, so the Pharisees taught and the mass of the people believed, with the resurrection of the dead, who entered thus on a new and different life. To the cavil­ ling question of the Sadducees, to which of her seven husbands the woman should belong who had six times been passed on from brother to brother in levirate marriage, Jesus answered, When men rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." It is sound Pharisean doctrine: "The age to come is not like this age. In the age to come there is no eating and drinking, no begetting of children, and no trading, no jealousy, no hatred, and no strife," etc. In the Mishnah itself it is taught that there is no death there, no sorrow, and no tears (Isa. 25, 8). The following quotation also is apposite: "In this age Israelites contract uncleanness and get themselves purified according to the directions of a priest; but in the future it will not be so, but God himself is going to purify them, as it is written, I will dash pure water upon you and you shall be pure; from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will purify you" (Ezek. 36, 25). It is evident that in such a world the greater part of the laws in the Pentateuch would have no application or relation to any1

2

3

4

5

1

M e g i l l a h 29a. O n the l a w in the messianic age see K l a u s n e r , D i e messianischen V o r s t e l l u n g e n des jiidischen V o l k e s im Z e i t a l t e r der T a n n a i t e n , p p . 115 ff. See N o t e 41. M a r k 12, 25. 2

3

B e r a k o t 17a, and often. A f a v o r i t e s a y i n g o f R a b (first half o f the third century). M . M o ' e d £ a t o n ^ 9. 4

5

P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. 41b; T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , H u k k a t § 28 (f. 60b).

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

273

thing actual. This was true, however, of many of the laws in the rabbis' real world. Not only the laws for the king, but much of the civil and criminal law, necessarily fell into desuetude under foreign rule; many of the laws, especially those concerning agriculture and the taxation of agricultural produce for the sup­ port of the ministry and public worship, applied only to the land of Israel; after the destruction of the temple not alone the laws regulating the cultus and the functions of the priesthood, but many laws treating of uncleanness requiring offerings for purification were no longer practicable. Yet the Law was studied with more diligence than ever, not only that a knowledge of it might be preserved for the restoration they believed to be near, but because the occupation of the mind and heart with laws which were for the present in abeyance, like those of sacri­ fice, was a surrogate for the fulfilment in act that had for the time been rendered impossible. Nor is this all. No one can read the works in which the re­ sults of the scholastic occupation with Scripture are embodied without feeling that teachers and learners not only took keen intellectual pleasure in their labors, but that many approached the subject in a truly religious spirit, and sought edification as well as enlightenment in the profound study of God's character, will, and purpose, as revealed in his word. It is not strange, therefore, that they should have imagined this study, the oc­ cupation of mind and heart with religion, as continuing in the Age to Come, and that then God himself would be their teacher. They knew that it would not content them forever to sit "with their crowns on their heads enjoying the effulgence of the divine presence." They could not imagine themselves in another life without the intellectual interests of the present life; and, like the rest of us, they found many things in nature and revelation 1

2

3

4

1

F o r the discrimination b e t w e e n l a w s e v e r y w h e r e binding and those o b l i g a t o r y o n l y ' i n the l a n d / see Sifre D e u t . § 59, cf. § 44. See N o t e 42. M e n a h o t 110a; P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. 60b; T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , A h a r e § 16 (f. 35a), e t c I t is a c c e p t e d as an a t o n e m e n t in lieu o f all sacrifices. See N o t e 43. B e r a k o t 17a. 2

3

4

274

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

that they would like to have God explain, especially those com­ mandments and prohibitions of the law for which they could discover no rational or moral ground. As religious men they obeyed the divine statutes without question; as reasonable men they could not help wanting to know the reason of them. Such explanations, they thought, must have been given to Moses, but they had not been handed down in the unwritten tradition. God doubtless meant to put men in this world to the test of im­ plicit obedience; but in the Age to Come this motive would no longer exist. 1

The Jews could no more conceive a world in the past without a revelation of God's will for man's life than in the present or the future. Accordingly they believed that certain laws for all man­ kind were given to Adam. Six such commandments are enume­ rated with slight variations 4rL, order and exegetical derivation. The following is the list given by Levi: i. Prohibition of the worship of other gods; 2. Blaspheming the name of God; 3. Cursing judges; 4. Murder; 5. Incest and adultery; 6. Robbery. Levi's teacher Johanan, gives them thus: Command to establish courts of justice; prohibition of blaspheming the name of God; of the worship of other gods; murder; incest and adultery; theft. These commandments were given again to Noah after the flood for all his descendants, with the addition of a seventh, con­ sequent upon the permission then given to eat the flesh of animals (Gen. 9, 3); namely, the prohibition of flesh with the blood of life in it (Gen. 9, 4).° Other laws were held by some authorities 2

3

4

5

1

See N o t e 44. T h a t there w a s a p r i m a e v a l r e v e l a t i o n o f t h e u n i t y o f G o d a n d t h e sin o f i d o l a t r y w a s c o m m o n l y a s s u m e d . M o r e p h i l o s o p h i c a l l y m i n d e d m e n like the a u t h o r o f the W i s d o m o f S o l o m o n s a w in n a t u r e e v i d e n c e to w h i c h m e n s h u t their e y e s ( W i s d o m 13, 1 f f . ) ; P h i l o , e.g. D e d e c a l o g o c c . 13 f. (ed. M a n g e y I I , 190, 191). C f . P a u l , R o m a n s 1, 18 ff.; see also A c t s 14, 17; 17, 24 ff. G e n . R . 16, 6. B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I I , 316 a n d n. 3. O n this c o m m a n d m e n t see T o s . ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 8, 4; S a n h e d r i n 56b, end. Sanhedrin 56b. S e e N o t e 45. T o s . ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 8,4; S a n h e d r i n 56a, end. S e e N o t e 45. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

275

to be binding on the descendants of Noah (Gentiles); but the prevailing opinion limited them to these seven. The Gentiles, it was taught, had undertaken to keep these laws, but did not do so, or they proved unable to live up to them. Other command­ ments were given to the patriarchs; circumcision to Abraham, the prohibition of 'the sinew that shrank' to Jacob. Whereas in the Pentateuch the whole system of festivals, the ritual of sacrifice with the functions and prerogatives of the priesthood, are revealed first at Sinai, the Book of Jubilees narrates how they were introduced upon some specific occasion centuries before. Thus Pentecost was instituted by Noah after the flood, and was kept by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and by their descendants down to the generation of Moses (6, 176°.); Tabernacles was celebrated by Abraham in booths (16, 20 flf.), and later by Jacob, who added to it the eighth day (32, 4 ff., 27); the fast of the Day of Atonement is given a historical motive in the life of Jacob (34, 17-19); the priesthood has its beginning in the solemn consecration of Levi himself (32, 1—15); the elaborate sacrificial ritual of the priests' law in the Pentateuch is practiced on the proper occasions from Noah down (see, e.g., c. 7); the injunctions given by Abraham to his children (20, 1-10), espe­ cially to Isaac (c. 21), anticipate not only the legislation of Moses but in part the temple regulations of the Greek period (21, 12 f.). There are also in Jubilees many legal regulations differing from those of the Mishnah and kindred works, generally in the direction of greater strictness, which are attributed to the ages before Moses. In rabbinical circles the question was raised whether the laws given to Israel by Moses had not been known to the Patriarchs — does it not say that the law which Moses gave was an "in­ heritance of the congregation of Jacob," coming to them, that is, from the Fathers ? Abraham, in particular, it was said, was 1

2

1

G e n . 17, 10 ff.; 32, 33. T h e r e is no prohibition in the L a w o f e a t i n g the ' s i n e w t h a t s h r a n k . ' A c c o r d i n g to M . H u l l i n 7, 6 s u c h a l a w w a s g i v e n a t S i n a i , " b u t it Was w r i t t e n o n l y in its p l a c e , " sc. in the n a r r a t i v e . D e u t . 33, 4; Sifre D e u t . § 345. 2

276

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

thoroughly versed in both the written and the unwritten law, and kept them both. He followed all the commandments most scrupulously; even the erub tabshilin was observed in his household. c

1

Whatever previous revelations there had been, they were all included in the complete and final revelation, the twofold Law given to Israel at Sinai. The religion thus revealed was the religion of Israel and of no other nation — that was the history of the past and the present fact. But the Jews had long since come to believe that as the one true religion it was destined to be the religion of,all mankind; and the question which emerged with the beginning of reflection on the implications of the idea of universal revealed religion still pressed for an answer: How can the revelation have been made to one nation only? The author of Isa. 40 ff., who found his solution in the prophetic mission of Israel, confronting the idolatrous polytheism of his surroundings, concentrated the idea of true religion into a pure monotheism and a moral life; of Jewish observances he empha­ sizes only the sabbath, which in the exile became the symbol of Judaism. A similar situation produced a similar simplification in much of the literature of Jewish apologetic and propaganda in the Hellenistic dispersion. In Jewish Palestine, however, monotheism was not a question; there was no active propaganda, and the condemnation of idolatry was not addressed to Gentiles. Naturally, therefore, when men thought of revealed religion, it was religion as a rule of life rather than as the recognition of the one true God; and this the more because it was the interpretation and application of the rule of life, not the knowledge of God, on which there was discussion in the schools and controversy between sects. With the emphasis thus given the divine law as the content of revelation — a law to which the intrinsic universality of true religion itself was neces1

T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , L e k l e k a § 1 (see B u b e r ' s n o t e ) , and cf. § 23; Y o m a 28b. I n o t h e r parallels the 'erub haserot is specified, e.g. G e n . R . 64, 4. See N o t e 46.

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E LAW

sarily ascribed — the exclusiveness of the revelation to Israel was a more difficult problem. The difficulty was enhanced by the fact that, as it was now conceived, not only the fortunes of nations were determined by their attitude toward the true religion, but the fate of individuals after death. Did it consist with the justice of God that the heathen of all generations should be doomed for not keeping a law which neither they nor their fathers had ever known? Some such reflections, I conceive, gave rise to the persuasion that the law must have been revealed to the Gentiles also; not alone the rudimentary law given to Adam and repeated to Noah, but the Law in its Sinaitic completeness. From the conviction a priori that God must have done something to the assertion that actually he did, and then to the discovery in Scripture of proofs of the fact, is a process too familiar in the history of relig­ ious thought to require explanation or extenuation in the par­ ticular case. That the whole law was revealed at Sinai to all nations and offered to them for their acceptance, but refused by all except Israel, is not, like many of the things we have had occasion to note — like Abraham's expertness in the study and practice of the twofold law, for example — a scholastic conceit or a play of homiletical subtlety; it was the teaching of both the great schools of the second century, the schools of Ishmael and Akiba, and is therefore presumably part of the earlier common tradition from which they drew; and it is repeated in many places with vary­ ing circumstantial details. The law was given in the desert (Exod. 19, 1), given with all publicity in a place which no one had any claim to, lest, if it were given in the land of Israel, the Jews might deny to the Gentiles any part in i t ; or lest any nation in whose territory it was given might claim an exclusive right in it. It was given in the desert, in fire and in water, things which are free to all who are born into the world. It was 1

1

M e k i l t a , B a h o d e s h 2 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 62a; 19, 2. See N o t e 47.

ed. W e i s s f. 70a), on E x o d .

278

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

revealed at Sinai, not in one language but in four — Hebrew, Roman, Arabic, and Aramaic. The foreign languages here named — "Roman" being the language of Seir (Esau) — are those of peoples living, one might say, within hearing distance of the thunder tones of revelation at Sinai, and it is these three neigh­ boring peoples which in the often repeated story refused the law because it forbade the sins to which they were by heredity ad­ dicted, murder, adultery, and robbery. In Jewish computation, however, based on Gen. 10, the nations of the world were seventy, and the notion that the law was given to all nations takes the form of a revelation in seventy languages. Sometimes it is God's voice at Sinai that is heard in all seventy at once; or Moses in the plains of Moab interpreted the law in seventy languages; or, again, the law was inscribed on the stones of the altar on Mount Ebal (Josh. 8, 31 f.), and the nations sent their scribes who copied it in seventy different languages. Everywhere the-n^tions refused to receive the law thus offered to them; Israel alone accepted it and pledged obedience to it. God foreknew that the Gentiles would not receive it, but he offered it to them that they might have no ground to impugn his justice; it is not his way to punish without such justification, he does not deal tyrannously with his creatures. That Israel alone among the nations has the true religion argues, therefore, no partiality or injustice in God; it is because, while all the rest refused the revelation he made of his character and will, Israel joyfully received it and solemnly bound itself to live in conformity to it. In content and intention the Law is 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Sifre D e u t . § 343 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 142b, near the t o p ) . I b i d . See N o t e 48. S h a b b a t 88b. See N o t e 49. G e n . R . 49, 2; T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , L e k l e k a § 23 (f. 40a); A g a d a t Bereshit c. 16, 2. T o s . S o t a h 8, 6 (Judah ben I l a ' i ) ; cf. S o t a h 35b. P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. 200a; T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , B e r a k a h § 3 (f. 28a). See N o t e 50. I n t h a t m o m e n t and b y t h a t a c t the R e i g n o f G o d (malkut Shamaim, ' K i n g d o m o f H e a v e n ' ) , w h i c h till then h a d been a c k n o w l e d g e d o n l y b y in­ d i v i d u a l s , b e c a m e national. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, iv]

P E R P E T U I T Y OF T H E L A W

279

universal; and, notwithstanding the collective rejection by the Gentiles, individual Gentiles who obey its commandments share in its promises. Thus, in Lev. 18, 5, ' Y e shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them/ R. Meir is reported to have found proof for the assertion that even a foreigner (or heathen) who occupies himself with the Law is like the high priest; for in that verse it is not said that priests, levites, and (lay) Israelites shall live by them, but "a man" therefore even a heathen. This view is set forth more fully in Sifra on Lev. 18, 5 in the name of R. Jeremiah: " I f you ask whence we learn that even a Gentile who obeys the law is like the high priest, the answer is found in the words, 'Which if a man (any human being) do, he shall live by them.' So again it is said, 'This is the law of mankind, Lord God' (2 Sam. 7, 19); not this is the law of priests and levites and Israelites, but of mankind. And again, 'Open the gates that a righteous Gentile keeping faithfulness may enter by it' (Isa. 26, 2); not open the gates that there may enter priests, levites, and Israelites, 'This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it' (Psalm 118, 20); not priests, levites, Israelites. It does not say, Rejoice, priests and levites and Israelites, but, 'Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord' (Psalm 33, 1). Not, Do good, O Lord, to the priests, levites, Israelites, but 'Do good, O Lord, to the good' (Psalm 125, 4). Hence it follows that even a Gentile who obeys the law is like the high priest." The Sadducees denied the authority of the unwritten law; they acknowledged no revelation but that in Scripture. They had traditions of their own, ritual and jural, but their authority rested on prescription or the legislative powers of rulers or 1

2

3

4

1

Sanhedrin 59a; B a b a ] £ a m m a 38a; ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 3a. P r i e s t s , l e v i t e s , l a y Israelites, are n o t social classes, b u t the three w o r ­ shipping c o n g r e g a t i o n s . T h e high priest is n o t c o u n t e d a m o n g t h e m , a n d therein lies the resemblance b e t w e e n the G e n t i l e s t u d e n t o f the L a w a n d t h e high priest specifically. 2

3

4

Sifra, A h a r e P e r e k 13 (ed. W e i s s f. 86b). See N o t e 51. J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 10, 6; see a b o v e , p p . 57 f.; 68.

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

28o

[PART I

of the Sanhedrin, not on supplementary instructions given to Moses at Sinai. In their interpretation of the written law for practical purposes — they had no scholastic interest in the sub­ ject — the Sadducees were common-sense literalists, and conse­ quently often more rigorous than the Pharisees, not only in the field of criminal law, but in various other matters in regard to which the' tradition' of the Pharisees was more accommodating. On the other hand, they ridiculed the absurdity of the Pharisaic dictum that manuscripts of sacred Scriptures render unclean the hands of one who touches them, while profane books do not. The points in dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees in the days when the latter were a powerful or even a dominant party were undoubtedly much more serious than the trivialities that are incidentally reported in our sources. Even in the first gen­ erations after the fall of Jerusalem the real issues had fallen into oblivion. The destruction of the temple and the abolition of the Sanhedrin left me surviving Sadducees a mere sect, small in numbers, without influence among the people, and standing for nothing in particular except their hereditary antipathy to the Pharisees, an antipathy which found expression in cavilling questions and paltry annoyances rather than in serious contro­ versy. Thenceforth the authority of the unwritten law and of the Pharisaean interpretation of the Scriptures was uncontested; the teaching of the schools and the decisions of rabbinical as­ semblies more and more completely dominated Judaism not only in Palestine but in the Dispersion. 1

2

1

2

J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 10, 6. M . Y a d a i m 4, 6.

CHAPTER V THE

SYNAGOGUE

A consequence of the idea of revealed religion which was of the utmost moment in all the subsequent history of Judaism was the endeavor to educate the whole people in its religion. Such an undertaking has no parallel in the ancient Mediterranean world. The religion of the household in Egypt or Greece or Rome was a matter of domestic tradition, perpetuated by ex­ ample rather than by instruction, and no attempt was ever made to systematize it and make it uniform, or even to fix it; the religion of the city or the state was a tradition of the priesthoods, in whose charge the public cultus was, and who gave directions and assistance pro re nata to individuals in private sacrifices and expiations. If the usage of the sanctuary was reduced to writing, it was done privately for the convenience of the priests them­ selves. The possession of a body of sacred Scriptures, including the principles of their religion as well as its ritual and the ob­ servances of the household and the individual, of itself put the Jews in a different case. What gave the motive to the unique endeavor of which we have spoken was not the mere possession of such sacred Scrip­ tures, but the conviction that in these Scriptures God had re­ vealed to his people his will for their whole life, and that the welfare of the nation and the fulfilment of its hopes for the future depended upon its conformity to his revealed will. The recovery of independence, with all the political and material prosperity the prophets depicted in such splendid imagery, would not come until they proved themselves fit for it by doing their best to fulfil the obligation they had undertaken when at Sinai their fathers professed, " A l l that the Lord hath spoken will we do 281

282

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

1

and obey." This was the religious motive in the zeal with which the Pharisaic party in New Testament times not only took pains to instruct the masses in the proper observance of the law but strove to impose on them the "traditions of the elders/' and to induce individuals voluntarily to pledge them­ selves to be scrupulous in certain matters about which there was general laxity. It was for this that they made an ever thicker and thornier hedge about the letter of the law "to keep men at a distance from transgression/' The Pharisees made of the resurrection of the dead an article of faith, and taught that between death and the resurrection the souls of the righteous awaited the last judgment in blessed­ ness and those of the wicked in misery. Inasmuch as righteous­ ness and wickedness are defined by man's conformity to the divinely revealed norms of character and conduct or disregard of them, the well-being of the individual after death as well as the realization -o£? the national hope demanded education in religion. For with the Jewish conception of religion it was not to be imagined that a man or a people could be righteous without knowing God's holy character, and what was right in his eyes and what wrong. And if God had revealed these things, plainly revelation was the only place to go to learn them. To those who are accustomed to regard religion as primarily a way by which a man may be assured of salvation for his own particular soul, this personal motive for study and observance might seem more compelling than the desire to bring near the national salvation, and this impression is strengthened by Paul's argument, which implies that the salvation of the individual by the works of the law was the chief end of Jewish religiousness. The inference would, however, be erroneous, at least for Pales­ tinian Judaism in the period under our consideration, as will be made clear in a subsequent chapter. 1

T h e A s m o n a e a n failure, c h a r g e d to t h e religious s h o r t c o m i n g s o f princes a n d people (Psalms o f S o l o m o n 2, 15-18, and p a s s i m ) , doubtless c o n t r i b u t e d t o this c o n v i c t i o n , a n d the m e m o r y o f this failure m a d e the Pharisees a v e r s e t o messianic enthusiasm a n d a g i t a t i o n s for independence.

T H E SYNAGOGUE

CHAP.V]

283

For the education of the whole people in the principles and practice of its religion Judaism had two institutions, outgrowths of the religion itself, which were in their respective spheres admirably adapted to this end, the synagogue and the school; and these two, though of independent origin and never organic­ ally connected, worked together in a harmony which resulted in substantial unity of instruction. It is not probable that the synagogue began with so definite a purpose. Its origin is unknown, but it may be reasonably surmised that it had its antecedents in spontaneous gatherings of Jews in Babylonia and other lands of their exile on the sab­ baths and at the times of the old seasonal feasts or on fast days, to confirm one another in fidelity to their religion in the midst of heathenism, and encourage themselves in the hope of restora­ tion. In such gatherings we may imagine them listening to the words of a living prophet like Ezekiel or the author of Isa. 40 ff., or reading the words of older prophets; confessing the sins which had brought this judgment upon the nation and be­ seeching the return of God's favor in such penitential prayers as ere long became an established type in Hebrew literature, or in poetical compositions of similar content such as are found in the Book of Lamentations and in the Psalter. The proved religious value of such gatherings would lead to custom and to the spread of the institution to other communi­ ties; the things which it would be most natural to do and say under such circumstances at least contain the elements of the later synagogue service. Wherever and however it arose, the 1

2

3

4

1

2

S e e N o t e 52. Z e c h . 7, 5; I s a . 58. E z e k . 8, i ; 14, 1; 20, 1. M a n y o f the prophecies o f E z e k i e l m a y h a v e been delivered on s u c h occasions. P e r h a p s such c h a p t e r s as D e u t . 4; 29 f., m a y h a v e been c o m p o s e d to be read in s u c h assemblies; cf. also L e v . 26. P o s s i b l e m e n t i o n o f such associations in the O l d T e s t a m e n t : D H ^ D n ^ n p , eKKkrjaia 6ato)v P s a l m 149, i ; D ^ p H ^ my, P s a l m 1, 5; cf. ot ayair&VTes avvayooyas baiuv, P s a l m s of S o l o m o n 1 7 , 1 8 . S e e also E n o c h (Parables) 3 8 , 1 ; 53, 6; 62, 8. I n 53, 6 w e read t h a t " t h e righteous a n d elect one shall c a u s e the house o f his c o n g r e g a t i o n to a p p e a r , " w h i c h C h a r l e s a n d B e e r u n d e r s t a n d o f s y n a g o g u e s (restored b y the M e s s i a h — B e e r ) . I s it r a t h e r t h e t e m p l e o f t h e new age ? 3

4

y

284

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

LPART

J

synagogue was at the beginning of our era already an institution of long standing, which like all the religious institutions of Juda­ ism was believed to have been established by Moses, while the liturgical prayers were said to have been appointed by the Men of the Great Assembly. It was to be found in the Dispersion wherever there were Jews enough to maintain one. In Palestine there were synagogues in all the cities and towns; there were many in Jerusalem itself, under the very shadow of the temple, and even one within its precincts. 1

2

3

If the synagogue as we know it in New Testament times or from the Mishnah is compared with the voluntary private assemblies which we have supposed to be its forerunners, two important differences appear: First, before the beginning of the Christian era it had become a public institution, commonly possessing an edifice for religious gatherings erected by the community or given to it by individuals — sometimes by pious Gentiles (Luke, 7, 5). It was no lbnger a surrogate for the worship in the temple among Jews who were deprived of participation in the cultus by the cessation of sacrifice or by their remoteness from Jerusalem, but had attained an independent position as the seat of a wor­ ship of different character, a rational worship without sacrifice or offering. And, Second, regular instruction in religion had taken its place as an organic part of worship, and even as its most prominent feature. In this double character the synagogue was a wholly unique institution. To the observation of the Greeks it suggested a school of philosophy. The preliminary purifications and the prayers which preceded the reading and exposition of its books were not without analogies in certain Greek religious and philo­ sophical circles such as the Pythagoreans. The teaching of the 4

1

P h i l o V i t a M o s i s iii. 27 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 167 f . ) ; J o s e p h u s , C o n t r a A p i o n e m ii. 17. B e r a k o t 33a. S e c N o t e 53. M . Y o m a 7, 1; M . S o t a h 7, 7 f.; T o s . S u k k a h 4, 1 1 . See N o t e 54. E z e k . 1 1 , 16; see N o t e 55. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

285

synagogue also, particularly its fundamental monotheism and its emphasis on morals, was to Greek apprehension purely philosophical doctrine. Hellenistic Jews like Philo described the Sabbath services of the synagogue for Greek readers in the same way: the Jews laid aside all their ordinary occupations, not to take the time for sports and shows, but to devote them­ selves wholly to philosophy — real philosophy, their national philosophy. To the Jews, however, as appears clearly enough in Philo himself, the synagogue was a place for instruction in the truths and duties of revealed religion; and in imparting and receiving this divine instruction no less than in praise or prayer they were doing honour to God — it was an act of worship. The con­ sequence of the establishment of such a rational worship for the whole subsequent history of Judaism was immeasurable. Its persistent character, and, it is not too much to say, the very preservation of its existence through all the vicissitudes of its fortunes, it owes more than anything else to the synagogue. Nor is it for Judaism alone that it had this importance. It deter­ mined the type of Christian worship, which in the Greek and Roman world of the day might otherwise easily have taken the form of a mere mystery; and, in part directly, in part through the church, it furnished the model to Mohammed. Thus Judaism gave to the world not only the fundamental ideas of these great monotheistic religions but the institutional forms in which they have perpetuated and propagated themselves. 1

How the synagogue became a universal public institution of Judaism, and when the regular reading and exposition of the Law came to have a central place in the worship, history gives no hint. There is indeed no mention of synagogues at all in Jewish writings surviving from the centuries preceding the Christian era, unless, as is commonly thought, Psalm 74,8, 1

V i t a M o s i s iii. 27 § 211 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 167); cf. D e septenario c. 6 §§ 61 f. ( I I , 282); D e somniis ii. 18 ( I , 675). S i m i l a r l y o f the T h e r a p e u t a e , D e v i t a c o n t e m p l a t i v a c. 3 §§ 30 if. ( I I , 476). C f . J o s e p h u s , A n t t . x v i i i . 1, 2. See N o t e 56.

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

286

[PART I

"They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land/' be such a reference. It is hardly likely that this double development of the syna­ gogue came about of itself by a kind of natural evolution uncon­ scious of its ends. In its singular adaptation to the religious education of the whole people it seems rather to give evidence of intelligent purpose; and all that we know about the times, as well as the subsequent history of the synagogue, would incline us to conjecture that the leading part in this development was taken by the Pharisees from the second century before our era. The Pharisees were an outgrowth of the Hasidim, represent­ ing the active and progressive element in that party—those who thought that when men had nullified God's law, it was " time to do something for the Lord." The Maccabaean struggle was eminently such a time, and men of insight must have learned from the apostasy of many in high places and the indifference of the most that there was nothing more urgent to do than to inculcate and"cbnfirm religious loyalty by worship, knowledge, and habit, through some such means as the synagogue. The permanent security.of the religion, to say nothing of the greater things it held in prospect, could only be attained by bringing all classes to an understanding of the distinctive nature of Judaism, an appreciation of its incomparable worth, and a devotion to its peculiar observances like that which the Pharisees them­ selves cultivated in their pledge-bound societies. Education in revealed religion which has its revelation in sacred scriptures is of necessity education in the Scripture: methodical instruction in the Law, was, under these conditions, the foundation of every­ thing. Hence the regular readings from the Pentateuch, ac­ companied by an interpretative translation into the vernacular, and followed by an expository or edifying discourse, usually taking something in the lesson as a point of departure, became constant elements of the synagogue service. Among the Pharisees were many of the Scribes (biblical 1

1

See N o t e 57.

CHAP. V ]

T H E SYNAGOGUE

287

scholars), who seem hitherto, as we gather from the references to them in Sirach, to have stood as a class somewhat aloof from the populace, conscious of a learning and intelligence beyond the comprehension of the vulgar. Once drawn into the move­ ment, however, they naturally took an important part in in­ struction of the people, and the interpretation of the Scripture in the synagogue was thus directly connected with the tradi­ tional learning of the Scribes as it was in later times with that of the schools. Whether or not the Pharisees adapted the syna­ gogue more completely to the ends of religious education in some such way as has been suggested, it is certain that they took possession of it and made most effective use of it. Through it, more perhaps than by any other means, they gained the hold upon the mass of the people which enabled them to come out victorious from their conflicts with John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus and to establish such power as Josephus ascribes to them. The synagogue in the hands of the Pharisees was doubtless the chief instrument in the Judaizing of Galilee. In the days of Judas Maccabaeus, the Jews, or at least those who were faith­ ful to their religion, were a very small part of the mixed popula­ tion of Galilee — so few that Simon, after defeating the heathen who threatened to exterminate them, carried the Galilean Jews and all their belongings off to Jerusalem for safety. Within not much more than a century, Galilee had become as Jewish as Judaea, and more inclined to excesses of national and religious zeal which brought them repeatedly into conflict with the Roman government. The necessity of such an institution as the synagogue was even greater outside of Palestine than in it; for while at home the Jews had a religious centre in the temple and a bond of union in its worship, especially at the festivals, in foreign lands there was nothing of the kind. It is probable that the Jews in the Disper1

2

3

1

E c c l u s . 6, 32 ff.; 9, 14 ff.; 14, 20 ff.; especially 38, 24 ff. J o s e p h u s , A n t t . xiii. 10, 5 f.; 15, 5; 16, 1 f.; B e l l . J u d . i. 5, 1-3. 1 M a c e . 5, 21-23. M a k i n g all a l l o w a n c e for e x a g g e r a t i o n , it remains t h a t G a l i l e e in those d a y s w a s m a i n l y h e a t h e n . 2

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

288

[PART I

sion were from the beginning accustomed to gather on the sab­ bath as a day of leisure, if only to meet their countrymen, and their gatherings would naturally assume in some degree a religi­ ous character. Without some such association, indeed, it is hardly imaginable that the Jewish communities, deprived of every form of public cult, should have maintained the religion of their fathers. It is now the general opinion of scholars that the Greek translation of the Pentateuch early in the third century B.C was undertaken, not to enrich Ptolemy's Library as the fictitious letter of Aristeas narrates, but for the use of Jews among whom knowledge of Hebrew was becoming rare; though it does not follow that it was made especially for public reading in the Alexandrian synagogues. Much in the history of the synagogue is thus obscure, but what is certain is that for several generations, at least, before our era the synagogue had been what it was in subsequent centuries, an institute of religious education, universal, unique in aim and method, and in a'high degree effective. A good measure of this effectiveness is given by the earliest Gospels. Jesus and his disciples were Galilaeans, from a region in which the expansion of Judaism was comparatively recent, and where the great rabbinical schools were still of the future. Jesus himself grew up in an obscure little town even the name of which is not found outside of the New Testament. All were men of the people; there was no scholar among them. What they knew of the words of Scripture and its meaning they had learned in the synagogue from the readings and the homilies; no other sources of knowl­ edge were accessible to them. Many apposite references to the Scriptures, or quotations from them, were probably introduced into the Gospels in the course of transmission, but when all deductions are made, and within the limits of what has the pre­ sumption of being authentic tradition of the words of Jesus, the range of quotation and allusion is remarkably wide, embracing the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, and occasionally some 1

1

See N o t e 58.

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

289

others of the Hagiographa; the number of references is large, and the aptness with which they are adduced evinces notable intimacy with Scripture. That the synagogue gave opportunity to acquire such familiarity is sufficient testimony to the quality of its instruction. For the Hellenistic synagogues, the knowledge of Scripture which Paul assumes that his hearers possess gives similar witness. Each synagogue was presided over by a Head of the Syna­ gogue, probably chosen from among the ' elders' by cooptation, who had general oversight of the exercises in the synagogue, maintaining order (Luke 13, 14), inviting strangers to address the assembly (Acts 13, 15), and the like. A salaried officer was the synagogue attendant, the 'minister' (Luke 4, 20). In his charge were the synagogue building and its furniture, especially the rolls of the Scriptures; sometimes he had his dwelling under the same roof. From the roof of the synagogue he gave the signal to stop work on the approach of the sabbath or a holy day by a thrice repeated blast on a trumpet, and similarly gave notice of the close of a holy day. In the service of the synagogue the attendant brought the roll of Scripture from the press and delivered it to the reader; when the reading was concluded he received it back (Luke , 20), rolled it up, and after holding it up to the view of the congregation returned it to the press. He also indicated to the priest the point at which the benediction should be pronounced, and at the fasts he told the priests when to blow the trumpets. In smaller communities the Hazzan often had to fill a variety of other offices. When there were not readers enough at the 1

2

3

4

4

5

6

1

Rosh ha-keneset, M . S o t a h 7,7 f., and elsewhere; apxtcrvvay coy os M a r k 5, 22, etc. See N o t e 59. Qazzan ha-keneset. M . S o t a h 7, 7 f. a n d often. S e e N o t e 60. T o s . S u k k a h 4, 11 f.; S h a b b a t 35b. C o m p a r e the m o r e e l a b o r a t e c e r e m o n y described in M . S o t a h 7, 7-8. Sifre N u m . § 39, e n d ; S o t a h 38a. T a ' a n i t 16b. See in general W . B a c h e r , ' S y n a g o g u e / in H a s t i n g s D i c ­ t i o n a r y o f the B i b l e , I V , 640 ff. y

2

3

4

5

6

2o

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

9

[PART I

service he had to fill out the number, or even to read the whole lesson himself; he might also have to lead in prayer. The inhabitants of Simonias asked the Patriarch Judah to give them a man who could serve them as preacher, judge, sexton (hazzari), school master, teacher of the traditional law, and what­ ever else they needed, and he sent them such a universal func­ tionary in the person of Levi ben Sisi. Especially frequent was the combination of sexton and schoolmaster. The synagogues in prosperous communities were often fine edifices according to the taste of the time and place; the com­ munity did not spare money on the decoration and furnishing. The essential parts of the synagogue furniture were a chest, or press, in which the rolls of the Scriptures were kept, usually standing in an alcove or recess shut off by a curtain from the body of the synagogue; and a bema, or platform, with a reading desk on which the roll of the Pentateuch or the Prophets was laid for the reading of the lessons. Lamps and candelabra also belonged to the-^urnishings of the synagogue. The. notices we possess about tne internal arrangement and furniture of the Palestinian synagogues are from the second century, and it is not improbable that after the destruction of the temple there was a tendency to assimilate the synagogue in such externals to the temple, as certain features of the temple worship were taken over into the service of the synagogue and terms of the sacrificial cultus were appropriated to prayers of the synagogue; but we have no reason to question that the synagogue and its services had essentially the same character before the destruction of Jerusalem as after. This is confirmed by the descriptions Philo gives of the worship in Alexandrian synagogues. 1

2

3

4

5

1

F o r an e x a m p l e see M e g i l l a h 25b. W h e n the H a z z a n r e a d , another h a d to t a k e u p o n him the H a z z a n ' s o r d i n a r y offices, T o s . M e g i l l a h 4, 2 1 . A n instance, Jer. B e r a k o t I 2 d , middle. Jer. Y e b a m o t 13a. L e v i did not a c q u i t himself o f the t a s k to their satis­ faction. C f . Jer. S h e b i ' i t 36d, t o p , the s t o r y o f R . S i m e o n ben L a k i s h a t Bosra. See N o t e 61. O n t h e a r c h i t e c t u r e a n d furnishings o f the s y n a g o g u e s see N o t e 62. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

291

The constant parts of the synagogue service were prayer, the reading of the lessons from the Scripture, followed, if a competent person was present, by a homily. The prayer was preceded by the recitation of what may be called the Jewish confession of faith, usually named from its first word, the Shema': 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might' (Deut. 6, 4 f.), introduced and followed by sentences of ascription, called Berakot because they regularly begin, after the pattern of similar ascriptions in the Psalms, with the word, ' Blessed.' Thus in the first of the ascriptions which constitute the regular preface to the Shema', whether said priv­ ately morning and evening or in public worship, runs: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, former of light and creator of darkness, author of welfare (peace), and creator of all things." The recitation of the Shema' is followed by the prayer, Tefillah. In the oldest form in which it is known to us, it consists of a series of 'Benedictions,' so called from the responses at the close of each ascription or petition: "Blessed art thou, O Lord," etc. In an arrangement made toward the end of the first century there were eighteen such prayers, whence the common name, 'The Eighteen' (sc. Benedictions), Shemoneh 'Esreh* and this name was perpetuated unchanged when subsequently a nine­ teenth was added; it is popularly used also of the prayers on sabbaths and festivals, when only six of the eighteen (nineteen) 1

2

3

4

1

T h a t i s , ' sole G o d / T h i s is d o u b t l e s s the w a y in w h i c h the w o r d s w e r e construed and understood. C f . D e u t . 4, 35, 39; 7, 9. M a r k 12,29 f. and parallels. O n the S h e m a o f the l i t u r g y and the B e r a ­ k o t see N o t e 63. T h e D e c a l o g u e once h a d a p l a c e in t h e s y n a g o g u e l i t u r g y , b u t w a s d r o p p e d to g i v e n o occasion to " the cavils o f h e r e t i c s . " S e e N o t e 64. Tefillah is the B i b l i c a l w o r d for p r a y e r as petition (Isa. 1 , 1 5 ; 1 K i n g s 8, 38) or intercession (2 K i n g s 19, 4; Jer. 7, 16; 1 1 , 1 4 , e t c . ) . F o r the J e w i s h use see N o t e 65. E . g . M . B e r a k o t 4, 3: R a b b a n G a m a l i e l s a i d , " A m a n should p r a y the Eighteen every d a y . " 2

4

3

4

5

292

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

1

are said. The prayer opens with the praise of God (Nos. 1-3); and closes with thanksgiving to God (Nos. 17-19); the petitions (Nos. 4-16) are thus enclosed in ascriptions. The ordaining of the ascriptions and of the prayers in general was attributed to the Men of the Great Assembly, with whom so many others of the institutions of Judaism were reputed to have originated. The same body is probably meant when it is said elsewhere that " a hundred and twenty elders, among whom were a number of prophets," prescribed the Eighteen Benedic­ tions in their order. But by the side of this stands a historical statement that a certain otherwise unknown Simeon ha-Pakuli, in the presence and presumably under the direction of R. Gamaliel (II) at Jamnia, arranged the Eighteen Benedictions in the order in which they were to be said. Inasmuch as Gamaliel made the daily repetition of the Eighteen obligatory on every man — a rule which was disapproved by some of his influential contemporaries — fixing of the order of the prayers was a natural corollary^and perhaps the exact number of prayers that should constitute a complete Tefillah (eighteen) was fixed at the same time. The prayer for the extirpation of heretics, for­ mulated by another of his disciples, Simeon the Little, was in­ troduced into the prayers by order of Gamaliel. All forms of the Tefillah that are known to us in the past or the present go back to this redaction by the authority of Ga­ maliel II about the end of the first century of our era, and, with many verbal variations and much amplification, they exhibit a constant order and an essential unity of content. There is no doubt, however, that the work of the redactor was principally, as the tradition describes it, to arrange in appropriate order 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

S e e b e l o w , p . 295.

5

2

6

3

7

M e g i l l a h 17b; B e r a k o t 28b, end.

Sifre D e u t . § 343. See N o t e 66. M . B e r a k o t 4, 3. B e r a k o t 33a. See N o t e 67. M e g i l l a h 17b; Jer. B e r a k o t 4d. T h e oldest P a l e s t i n i a n form o f this petition i s : " F o r a p o s t a t e s m a y there be no h o p e , a n d m a y the N a z a r e n e s a n d t h e heretics s u d d e n l y p e r i s h . " S e e N o t e 68. 4

8

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

293

existing topics of prayer, probably with the exercise of a certain selection among nearly equivalent petitions and the adoption of a normal, though not obligatory, phraseology. The petitions themselves, upon internal evidence, had their origin at various times and under different circumstances, and they have often been recast or modified to adapt them to changed situations. In their religious spirit they resemble the Psalms, from which their diction also is chiefly drawn. Some of them were brought over into the service of the synagogue from the temple liturgy; others were perhaps originally framed for the private use of individuals; while others still, expressing feelings and desires of the community or the people, seem to have their origin in the synagogue itself. Certain evidences of the age of individual petitions are rare. The resurrection of the dead in the second benediction is an indication not only of age but of the circles in which the prayer was framed; it is specific Pharisaic doctrine, and cannot well have got into the synagogue prayers till the Pharisees obtained control of the synagogue. There are, as we should expect, ex­ pressions which imply the destruction of Jerusalem and the cessation of the sacrificial cultus, but these seem to be engrafted on older petitions or to be modifications of them, rather than the substance of new ones. On the other hand the nucleus of the prayers is doubtless of greater antiquity. In second century sources and thereafter there is abundant evidence of familiarity with the prayers, which are cited by their opening phrase or by characteristic words. The three prefatory benedictions bless the God of the Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Mighty God, who nourishes the living and revives the dead; the Holy God. Petitions follow for knowledge, repentance, forgiveness, deliverance from afflic­ tion, healing, for a bountiful year, the gathering of the dispersed 1

2

3

1

See N o t e 69. S e e E l b o g e n , D e r j i i d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p . 30. T h e n a m e s o f the first three and the l a s t t w o are g i v e n in M . R o s h haS h a n a h 4, 5. See N o t e 70. 2

3

294

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

of Israel, the restoration of good government, the destruction of heretics and apostates, for the elders of the people and upright converts, for the rebuilding of the temple and the reign of the Davidic dynasty, for the hearing of prayer, the restoration of sacrificial worship; closing with thanksgiving for God's goodness and loving-kindness, and a final prayer for peace and the wel­ fare of all God's people. It will be observed that the first group of petitions are of a personal nature, though they are the needs of all men, and that religious needs — knowledge and intelligence, repentance, for­ giveness of sins — take precedence of natural needs. These are succeeded by a less coherent and well-ordered group of petitions chiefly for public or national goods, which, as might be expected, have suffered more extensive changes than the pre­ ceding individual petitions. Repeated changes have been made also in the names of the adversaries in the Birkat ha-Minim, in consequence of the change of times or environment. An in­ creasingly eschatabgical direction of the individual hope led also to the more frequent mention of the resurrection of the dead. The last three prayers are, as we have seen, called 'Thanks­ givings'; in fact, however, this character belongs only to the penultimate, the other two being petitions. After the prayer of thanksgiving came the priestly benediction when it was pro­ nounced; and this was followed by a prayer for peace which was a kind of congregational response to the priest's benedic­ tion, whose words, "The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace," are taken up: "Bestow peace . . . upon us," etc., with the corresponding benediction, "Maker of peace." From this relation, the last prayer is itself called 'the priests' 1

benediction' {Birkat

2

Kohanim).

The priestly benediction was taken over into the synagogue from the temple, where, in conformity with Num. 6, 22-28, the 3

1

I n Jer. B e r a k o t 40! t h e petition is s u m m a r i z e d , " B r i n g l o w o u r a d v e r ­ saries." S e e N o t e 68. M . R o s h h a - S h a n a h 4, 5; M . T a m i d 5, 1. S e e N o t e 71. 2

3

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

295

priests blessed the worshipping congregation in the words: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace." In the temple the blessing was pronounced in the course of the regular daily burnt-offering, where, as soon as the parts of the victim had been laid on the altar, the priests took their place on the steps leading up to the portico. In the synagogue it occupied a corresponding position, following the prayer for the acceptance of sacrifices, or (after 70 A.D.) for the restoration of sacrifice. The blessing was not pronounced at every service of the syna­ gogue: in the first centuries of our era it was given at daily morning prayer when a legal congregation (ten men) was as­ sembled and a priest was present, and at additional services on the sabbaths and festivals. Of the regular daily morning prayer {Tefillah, Shemoneh *Esreh) described above only the first three and the last three prayers are recited on sabbaths and festivals, and the concur­ rence of all the rites in this gives good ground for inferring that it was the oldest custom. The place of the thirteen intervening petitions is filled by a single prayer having for its subject the day and its proper observance, so that the prayer consists of seven parts; New Year's, however, has in this place three special prayers instead of one. The ascriptions and petitions in the prayer in their earliest form were all short, several of them consisting of but two clauses with a correspondingly brief benediction; and even in the ex­ panded form of later times they are of moderate dimensions compared with other parts of the liturgy. The Shema' and the Tefillah may be said in any language; the priestly benediction must be in Hebrew. After the end of the public prayer, place 1

2

3

1

F o r references to benediction b y priests see L e v . 9, 22; D e u t . 10, 8; 21, 5; Josh. 8, 33; 2 C h r o n . 30, 27. M . T a m i d 7, 2, w h e r e the differences b e t w e e n the use in t h e temple a n d in the s y n a g o g u e are e n u m e r a t e d ; cf. M . S o t a h 7, 6; T o s . S o t a h 7, 8. M . S o t a h 7, 1-2; T o s . S o t a h 7, 7. 2

3

296

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

was made for the private silent petitions of individuals out of their own hearts. Such prayers might be prolonged even to the extent of the longest prayer in the liturgy, the confession of sins on the Day of Atonement. Whether the use of select Psalms had established itself in the service of the synagogue at as early a time as that with which we are here occupied is not entirely certain, though it would seem natural that with other features of the temple worship the songs of the levites at the morning and evening sacrifices should be imitated in the synagogue. The first group of Psalms to be so employed was Psalms 145-150; but it appears that in the middle of the second century the daily repetition of these Psalms was a pious practice of individuals rather than a regular observance of the congregation. 1

2

The reading of the Scriptures was, as has been said above, a characteristic feature of the synagogue service, and probably goes back in some form or other to the beginnings of the in­ stitution. Moses is -said to have ordained that portions of the Law should be read on sabbaths, holy days, new moons, and the intermediate days of the festivals; while Ezra is said to have prescribed the reading on market days (Monday and Thursday) and at the afternoon service (minhaJi) on the Sabbath — another way of saying that at the beginning of our era the custom was of immemorial antiquity. In the Bible itself the only prescription for the public reading of the Scriptures is in Deut. 31, 10, where Moses directs that "this law" (that is, in the writer's intention, the Book of Deu­ teronomy or some part of it) be read in the hearing of the as3

1

T o s . B e r a k o t 3, 10; cf. B e r a k o t 31a. A t a m u c h later t i m e a t e x t for such tahnunim w a s p r o v i d e d in the p r a y e r - b o o k s , b u t the use o f t h e m w a s optional. S h a b b a t 118b (Jose ben H a l a f t a ) ; cf. Soferim 17, 1 1 . Jer. M e g i l l a h 75a. E l s e w h e r e the r e a d i n g on S a b b a t h s a n d m a r k e t d a y s is an ordinance o f the p r o p h e t s and elders (of the G r e a t A s s e m b l y ) ; M e k i l t a on E x o d . 15, 22 (ed. F r i e d m a n n 45a, e d . W e i s s 52b, e n d ) . C f . also M . M e g i l ­ lah 3, 6, e n d ; Sifra on L e v . 23, 44 (ed. W e i s s f. 103b); Sifre D e u t . § 127. S e e E l b o g e n , D e r j i i d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p p . 156 f., 538. 2

3

T H E SYNAGOGUE

CHAP. V ]

1

sembled people once in seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles. In Nehemiah 8 a description is given of the public reading, at the request of the people of Judah, of the book of the Law of Moses which Ezra the scribe had in his possession. Some ot the features of this narrative, as will be shown further on, have a striking resemblance to the reading of the Scriptures in the synagogue. It would be most natural that at the festal seasons passages from the Pentateuch in which the feast is appointed and its rites prescribed should be studied in the schools and read and expounded in the synagogues, and that among several possible selections of this kind one should become customary. This is the case in the oldest list of appointed lessons, M . Megillah 3, 4-6, which includes not only readings for the great festivals, and for New Years and the Day of Atonement, but for all the eight days of Tabernacles, the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), Purim, New Moons, Fast Days, and for four sabbaths out of five or six preceding the first day of Nisan. The lessons are desig­ nated by the first words of the pericope, or by a general descrip­ tion of the passage, without indication where the reading ended. The natural limits of most of the lessons are not large; that for the Passover, for example, contains only five verses, New Years only three. The longest, that for the Day of Atone­ ment, has but thirty-four verses if the whole was read. Evi­ dently, the principal thing must have been the exposition of the ritual and proper observance of the day, based on these short 2

3

4

5

1

See N o t e 72. T h e C h r o n i c l e r , from w h o s e h a n d w e h a v e this n a r r a t i v e , w r o t e a b o u t 300 B.C. and a p p a r e n t l y h a d D e u t . 33, 10-13 m i n d . H a d he also t h e e x ­ a m p l e o f t h e s y n a g o g u e ? T h e c o n t r a r y — t h a t his n a r r a t i v e s e r v e d as m o d e l for the s y n a g o g u e — is c o m m o n l y a s s u m e d . 2

m

3

S e e M e g i l l a h 32a, e n d : M o s e s ordained t h a t t h e traditional l a w (halakah) s h o u l d be s t u d i e d in connection w i t h the s e a s o n ; the l a w s o f the P a s s o v e r a t P a s s o v e r , etc. Sifre D e u t . § 127; T o s . M e g i l l a h 4, 5. See N o t e 73. T h e blessings a n d curses on public fasts ( L e v . 26; D e u t . 28) are l o n g e r ; b u t this w a s an exceptional a l l - d a y service. 4

5

298

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

pericopes and introducing the substance of other laws in the Pentateuch on the same subject with the definitions of the oral law, rather than the mere reading of the paragraph which served as the starting point. The four special sabbaths mentioned above had fixed lessons, from the catch-words of which they got their names (Shekalim, Zakor, Parah, ha-Hodesh). The motives for the selection of these passages for the particular sabbaths to which they are assigned are easily discovered; Shekalim reminds the people of the approaching collection of the annual half-shekel poll-tax; Zakor, with its command to exterminate Amalek, is associated with Purim through Haman the Agagite; Parah suggests the purifications necessary in preparation for the Passover; haHodesh (on the sabbath preceding the first of Nisan or falling on that day) is the law of the Passover itself, the celebration of which comes in the middle of the month. The provision in this Mishnah for all kinds of holy days has a systematic look^jand may be later than the fall of Jerusalem; but the lessons for the high festivals and the Day of Atonement are probably much older, and this may be the case also with the special sabbaths, or the most of them. About the lessons from the Pentateuch on other sabbaths nothing is certainly known, nor is it known when the custom of reading it through in order and within a certain number of sabbaths established itself. It is intrinsically probable that when readings on ordi­ nary sabbaths first came to be customary, a passage from the Pentateuch was freely selected by the head of the synagogue or by the reader, as long continued to be the case with the Prophets; and even that successive readers might take passages from dif­ ferent parts of the volume; the prohibition in M. Megillah 4, 4, 1

2

3

4

1

E x o d . 30, 1 1 - 1 6 ; D e u t . 25, 1 7 - 1 9 ; N u m . 19, 1-22; E x o d . 12, 1-20. D e s c e n d a n t o f A g a g , k i n g o f the A m a l e k i t e s , 1 S a m . 15. T h e introduction o f P u r i m into the calendar is the e x t r e m e u p p e r limit for Z a k o r , w h i c h i s , indeed, something o f an intruder in a natural series pre­ p a r a t o r y to the P a s s o v e r . I t m a y be n o t e d t h a t in the lists o f lessons the special s a b b a t h s precede the feasts. See N o t e 74. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

T H E SYNAGOGUE

299

"Readers may not skip from place to place in the Pentateuch" (as they may in the Prophets), would otherwise be meaningless. Of the reasons given for this rule in later discussion the most probable is, "that Israel may hear the Law consecutively." It may not be inferred from this rule, which has reference only to the reading at a single service, that the reading was continu­ ous from one service to another. This was a natural next step, and is represented in the middle of the second century by R. Meir: " A t the place where they leave off at the Sabbath morn­ ing service, they begin at the afternoon service; where they leave off at that service, they begin on Monday; where they leave off on Monday, they begin on Thursday; and where they leave off on Thursday, they begin on the following Sabbath/ Meir's contemporary, R. Judah (ben Ila'i), holds that the proper order is to begin at each Sabbath morning service where the reading ended at the morning service of the preceding Sabbath. It is clear from this that authorities recognized no division of the Pentateuch into lessons of fixed length, or of a cycle of lessons to be finished within a fixed time. Assuming the normal number of readers prescribed in the Mishnah and the minimum number of verses for each reader, it has been reckoned that on R. Meir's plan it would take about two years and a third to go through the Pentateuch, and on R. Judah's not less than five and a half. Ultimately the Pentateuch was divided into sections (sedarim) of such length as to complete the cycle at the completion of a definite time. In the Babylonian Talmud it is noted that the Jews in the West (Palestine) read the Pentateuch through once in three years, at variance with the Babylonian Jews, who at that time were accustomed to finish it in one year. Inasmuch as there is no suggestion of such a division or practice in the 1

y

2

3

1

Jer. M e g i l l a h 75b. T h e practical reason t h a t rolling and unrolling the v o l u m e to find a n e w place w a s tedious for the c o n g r e g a t i o n is also c o n ­ sidered. T o s . M e g i l l a h 4, 10; M e g i l l a h 31b. See N o t e 7 5 . E l b o g e n , D e r j u d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p . 160; cf. 539. 2

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

3oo

[PART I

Mishnah or Tosefta, which minutely regulate so many things about the reading of the Law, it may be inferred that it was not authoritatively established before the third century, though it may have earlier become customary. The Babylonian custom, which eventually prevailed everywhere, is presumably later than the triennial system; its lessons (parashiyot) are in the average three times as long. The sequence of regular readings in the Pentateuch was probably at first suspended on the four special sabbaths and on sabbaths which fell in a festival; later the proper lessons for these sabbaths were made a second lesson, following the section for the day in the order of continuous reading. The reading at certain services in the synagogue of a selec­ tion from the Prophets as a close to the lesson from the Penta­ teuch is mentioned in the Mishnah as a familiar custom, but without any regulations concerning it further than that a legal congregation (ten men) must be present, and that Ezek. i is not to be read. \ The Tosefta gives the proper selections for the four special sabbaths, chosen for their relevancy to the occasion and to the preceding lesson from the Pentateuch. Evidence of the reading from the Prophets is given by Luke 4, 16 ff*., which tells how Jesus, going into the synagogue in Nazareth on a sabbath, stood up to read; the volume that was handed to him was the Book of Isaiah; he opened it and found the place where it is 1

2

3

4

5

1

I n d i c a t i o n s o f such a c u s t o m m a y perhaps b e found in t h e direction o f R . Simeon b e n E l e a z a r t h a t t h e curses in L e v . 26 b e read before P e n t e c o s t a n d those in D e u t . 28 before N e w Y e a r s ( M e g i l l a h 31b). T h i s w a s , a c c o r d i n g to S i m e o n b e n E l e a z a r , an ordinance o f E z r a . N o t e also t h e e x a m p l e s in T o s . M e g i l l a h 4 (3), 31 ff. (authorities o f t h e e a r l y s e c o n d c e n t u r y ) . 2

3

See N o t e 76. M . M e g i l l a h 4, 3; cf. 4, 9, end.

See Note 7 7 .

4

T h e merkabah, forbidden b e c a u s e o f t h e u s e m a d e o f it in theosophical speculations. E z e k . 16, i f f . also w a s forbidden b y s o m e (cf. T o s . M e g i l l a h 4, 34). U l t i m a t e l y b o t h w e r e p e r m i t t e d . 5

T h u s t h e H a f t a r a h to S h e k a l i m ( E x o d . 30, II~I6) is 2 K i n g s 12, 3 ff. (English B i b l e 12, 9 ff.); t o Z a k o r ( D e u t . 25, 1 7 - 1 9 ) , 1 S a m . 15, 2-9; to P a r a h ( N u m . 19, 1-22), E z e k . 36, 25 ff.; t o h a - H o d e s h ( E x o d . 12, 1-20), E z e k . 45, 18 ff.

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

301

written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me/' etc. (Isa. 61, 1 f.); having read the verses, he rolled up the book and handed it back to the attendant, and sat down to expound the passage. The language leaves it uncertain whether Jesus selected the passage himself, or whether the roll had been so prepared beforehand that when it was opened the column containing it was exposed. Inasmuch, however, as there was never any thought of continu­ ous reading in the prophetic books, it is likely that on ordinary sabbaths the selection was left to the head of the synagogue, or to the reader — for this lesson there was only one reader. In the choice of the selection from the Prophets appropriate­ ness to the preceding reading from the Pentateuch, such as has been observed above in the case of the special sabbaths, is else­ where noted. In a Baraita in Megillah 3 i a - b we find lessons selected on this principle not only for the three great festivals but for the sabbaths in the festival weeks, sabbaths on which a new moon falls, the Feast of Dedication, and the Ninth of Ab. For other sabbaths the choice was apparently still free. The assigning of a particular lesson from the Prophets as a pendant to every lesson from the Pentateuch must be later than the division of the Pentateuch into sections ot definite length and the establishment of the custom of reading not only in course but in cycle. The lessons from the prophetical books (haftarah) designated in the older lists to which reference has been made above are, like the readings from the Pentateuch in the same lists, generally short; and this is true of many of the Haftarahs in the Pales­ tinian triennial cycle. Even more evidently than in the oldest Pentateuch pericopes the prophetic selections were texts rather than lessons. In the Mishnah the number of readers for the lesson from the Pentateuch at the various services is exactly prescribed: on 1

2

1

T h e description corresponds a c c u r a t e l y to the u s a g e o f the s y n a g o g u e as w e find it in the M i s h n a h a n d later t e x t s . M e g i l l a h 29b. 2

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

302

[PART I

Monday and Thursday and at the Sabbath afternoon service, three; on New Moons and the days in the festivals which are not sabbatical, four; and so on. At the Sabbath morning service seven are called up for the reading of the L a w ; and since each reader must read at least three verses, the shortest possible Pentateuch lesson had twenty-one verses. At a later time the text of each sabbath lesson (parashah) of the annual cycle was divided for the guidance of readers into seven sections or para­ graphs, which are indicated in manuscripts and editions. This subdivision is evidently comparatively late, and has only the authority of usage. The first reader pronounced a benediction before beginning his portion of the Law, and the last said one after his portion. In calling up the readers precedence was given to a priest, if one was present, and after him to a levite. 1

2

3

4

,The necessity of a translation of the lessons from the Scriptures must have been early felt, perhaps as early as the institution of the reading itself. The language of the Bible had long since ceased to be the vernacular of the Jews anywhere. In Palestine and Babylonia and interior Syria they spoke distinct dialects of Aramaic; in Egypt Aramaic had given way in our age to Greek, which was the speech of almost all the Jews in the west­ ern Dispersion; in the remoter provinces of the Parthian empire they spoke the languages of their surroundings, perhaps in addi­ tion to Aramaic. However great the reverence of the Jews for the 'sacred tongue,' they had no superstition about it, and put understanding above sentiment. The traditional interpretation 5

1

See M . M e g i l l a h 4, 1 - 4 . T h e provision for a large n u m b e r o f readers points to a time w h e n , as in t h e latter p a r t o f the second c e n t u r y , there w e r e schools in a l m o s t e v e r y c i t y , a n d m u l t i t u d e s o f scholars. T h e divisions v a r y g r e a t l y in different m a n u s c r i p t s . M a i m o n i d e s (d. 1204) gives a list copied from an ancient s t a n d a r d codex of the B i b l e a t t r i b u t e d to the famous M a s s o r e t e , B e n A s h e r (first h a l f o f the n i n t h c e n t u r y ) . See M i s h n e h T o r a h , Sefer T o r a h c. 8. M . M e g i l l a h 4 , 1. M . G i t t i n 5, 8. N o t as an a c k n o w l e d g e d r i g h t , b u t " f o r the s a k e o f p e a c e . " O n t h e p r e c e d e n c e of scholars see M . H o r a i o t 3, 8. O n the following see E l b o g e n , D e r j u d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p p . 186 ff. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

303

of Neh. 8, 8 is that the reading of the Law by Ezra was ac­ companied by a translation into Aramaic. In the Palestinian synagogues the lessons were read in Hebrew, and an interpreter standing beside the reader translated them into Aramaic. The rules for the readers and the interpreter are laid down in the Mishnah with considerable detail. In earlier times the practice was probably simpler and more elastic. With such short pericopes as seem at first to have been customary there can hardly have been more than one reader, who may even, upon occasion, have been his own interpreter. It must be borne in mind that for the order of worship in the synagogue the Mishnah is a late source, representing things as they were after the destruction of Jerusalem and especially after the war under Hadrian, a period in which the new importance of the synagogue would naturally lead to amplification and regulation of the service. The older custom can be read in it only as in a kind of palimpsest. So far as the rule went, any competent person, even a minor, might act as interpreter, subject of course to the control of the head of the synagogue. The number of qualified interpreters in an ordinary synagogue must usually have been small, and it is probable that the synagogue attendant, who was frequently also the school teacher, often served in this capacity. The translation was supposed to be extempore; the interpreter listened to the reading of a verse (in the Prophets it might be three, if the subject was the same) and gave the meaning of it to the congregation in their own language. Nothing hindered 1

2

3

4

5

1

M e g i l l a h 3a a n d parallels.

2

See N o t e 78.

See N o t e 7 9 . I n L u k e 4, 16 ff. there is no m e n t i o n o f translation; b u t the a u t h o r o f the G o s p e l w a s doubtless better a c q u a i n t e d w i t h the Hellenistic s y n a g o g u e s , in w h i c h there w a s no need o f one, t h e reading being in G r e e k . T h e regulations in the M i s h n a h sometimes seem to b e ideals or desider­ a t a r a t h e r t h a n realities. T h e y w o u l d d o v e r y well in the cities w h e r e there were g r e a t rabbinical schools, and such m a y h a v e been chiefly in m i n d . A n i n s t a n c e , Jer. M e g i l l a h 74d. T h e s t o r y is told o f S a m u e l ben I s a a c , e a r l y in the fourth c e n t u r y . 3

4

5

3o

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

4

[PART I

his preparing himself beforehand; but in the synagogue he must have nothing written before him. The object of the trans­ lation was not to turn the scripture word for word into another language, but to give the hearers an understanding of the sense; it was in intention, therefore, a free interpretation rather than a literal reproduction. The vagaries to which such freedom is exposed did not fail to arise. In an example adduced in the Mishnah the congrega­ tion is bidden to silence the interpreter who takes liberties with his text and give him a smart admonition besides. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) sets a difficult standard for the translator: "He who translates a verse with strict literalness is a falsifier, and he who makes additions to it is a blasphemer." The synagogues were, however, not under rabbinical control, and it is hardly to be questioned that the early interpreters in some cases exercised considerable freedom in paraphrase. The Palestinian Targums, as we have them, come from a much later time, but in^the freedom with which translation runs into mid­ rash they m^y be taken to illustrate the fashion of the older in­ terpreters, though in their actual form the midrashic element may be largely literary contamination. It is even possible that in the first age of the institution translation and homily were not yet differentiated, and the interpreter was also the expository preacher. In the second century the attempt was made to pro­ vide a standard Aramaic translation of the whole Pentateuch, and the result is in our hands in the Targum of Onkelos. In 1

2

3

4

1

See Jer. M e g i l l a h 74c!. T h e reason w a s t h a t the T a r g u m m i g h t n o t seem to be a kind o f second Scripture. O r a l tradition a n d S c r i p t u r e m u s t be s h a r p l y distinguished. T o a v o i d a n y possible confusion t h e reader w a s for­ bidden to p r o m p t the translator, lest s o m e m i g h t t h i n k t h a t t h e translation w a s in the roll before h i m . 2

L i t e r a l translation i s , h o w e v e r , ordinarily the easiest, a n d the s y n a g o g u e interpreters often stick close to their t e x t . M . M e g i l l a h 4 , 9. W i t h the rendering o f L e v . 1 8 , 11 here c o n d e m n e d c o m p a r e the P a l e s t i n i a n T a r g u m . See N o t e 80. 4

T o s . M e g i l l a h 4 , 4 1 ; K i d d u s h i n 49a. f

*73 -

See B e r l i n e r , T a r g u m O n k e l o s , I I ,

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

305

Babylonia it soon came to authority, but whatever esteem it enjoyed in Palestine, it did not supersede the freer kind. 1

How early the homily became an independent part of the syna­ gogue service is not known. It was so in the times of Jesus; it was so in the Hellenistic synagogues of which Philo writes, Paul in his missionary expeditions habitually used the oppor­ tunity the discourse gave to introduce his gospel to Jews and proselytes and Gentiles frequenting the synagogue. Preaching in the synagogue was not the prerogative of any class, nor was any individual regularly appointed to conduct this part of the service; but it was only natural that those whose life study had been the Scriptures and the religion of their people should be found more profitable for instruction than unschooled men, and that such as had the gifts of interesting and edifying dis­ course (Haggadah) were more popular than those who excelled only in juristic refinements. The homily was in the nature of the case the freest and most variable part of the service, and its fashion changed greatly with changing times and circumstances. We find in the Mishnah and kindred authorities no attempt to regulate either its matter or its method. The homiletical and expository Midrashim which have come down to us from the fifth century and later give a good notion of the nature of the Haggadah in all its varieties; the sermonic form is perhaps most nearly represented in the Pesikta. The important thing for our present purpose is that the homilists in all ages worked into their discourses a great deal of quotation, not only from the Law and the Prophets but from the Hagiographa, thus familiarizing their hearers with books that were not regularly read in the synagogue, and with which, consequently, the mass of the people could hardly otherwise have been extensively acquainted. The sermon in the synagogue was in the mother tongue; the discourses in the school (Bet ha2

3

1

3

2

See N o t e 81. See N o t e 82. O n these M i d r a s h i m see a b o v e , p p . 161 ff.

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

o6

[PART I

midrash), being addressed to scholars and students, were prob­ ably, at least in Palestine, in ' the language of the learned,' the Hebrew of the schools. The preacher closed his homily with a brief prayer in the language of the discourse itself (Aramaic), upon which followed the ascription, " M a y his great name be blessed forever and for ever and ever." The precise language of this closing prayer, as in other cases, was not at first fixed. In the course of time it was much expanded, and was introduced, with variations for which there are distinctive names, in other places in the liturgy, retain­ ing by exception the Aramaic language, and being known by an Aramaic name, the Kaddish. Philo briefly describes the service of the Hellenistic synagogue, particularly as an institute of instruction in the Scriptures. Moses commanded that the Jews should assemble on the seventh day, and being seated should reverently and decorously listen to the Law, in order that no one might be ignorant of it; and such is the present custom. One of the priests who is present, or one of the elders, reads to them the divine laws and expounds them in detail, continuing till some time in the late afternoon; then the congregation disperses, having acquired knowledge of the divine laws and making much progress in religion. In another work Philo writes: "Innumerable schools (didao-KaXela) of practical wisdom and self-control and manliness and uprightness and the other virtues are opened every seventh day in all cities. In these schools the people sit decorously, keeping silence and listening with the utmost attention out of a thirst for refreshing discourse, while one of the best qualified stands up and instructs them in what is best and most conducive to welfare, things by which their whole life may be made better." The two comprehensive 1

2

3

4

1

T h e M i d r a s h i m in our h a n d s are w i t h small exceptions in H e b r e w . See N o t e 83. S e e N o t e 84. F r a g m e n t (from the first b o o k o f the H y p o t h e t i c a ) in E u s e b i u s , P r a e p a r a t i o E v a n g e l i c a v i i i . P h i l o , ed. M a n g e y , I I , 630 f. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

THE SYNAGOGUE

307

topics of this manifold discourse are piety and holiness toward God, and benevolence and uprightness toward men. It does not lie in Philo's purpose in these places to speak of the worship of the synagogue, but the name 'places of prayer' is of itself testimony to the fact that instruction was not their sole function. 1

2

1

D e special, legg. ii. D e septenario c. 6 §§ 62 f. (ed. M a n g e y I I , 282). See N o t e 85. UpoaevxaL S e e N o t e 5 9 . O n the D a y o f A t o n e m e n t the J e w s spend this w h o l e d a y in prayers and s u p i n a t i o n s ; P h i l o , D e septenario, c. 23 § 196 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 296). 2

CHAPTER VI THE

SCHOOLS

T H E second of the great institutions of religious education in Judaism was the school. In some form or other the school is as old as the synagogue if not older, and the synagogue was always dependent upon it. The reading of the Scriptures in the ancient language; the vernacular interpretation; the homiletical exposi­ tion drawing out of the Scripture its religious and moral lessons; the instruction in the peculiar observances of Judaism and their significance, all required a considerable measure of education, while to fulfil its possibilities as a school of revealed religion the synagogue needed to have behind it a higher learning upon which it could draw directly or indirectly. When in d*^ Bible the instruction of the people in the Torah is spoken of as an office of the priesthood, it is doubtless the Torah of the priests that is primarily meant, their answers and instructions about clean and unclean, purifications and expia­ tions, obligatory offerings, and the like. In the narrative of Ezra's reading of the Law, however, the levites expounded its provisions more generally; the Chronicler has such more general instruction in mind also in describing the mixed commission which Jehoshaphat sent around to teach in the cities of Judah, 'having the book of the law of the Lord with t h e m / It is certain, however, that the study of the Scriptures and the teach­ ing of religion from them was not a prerogative of the priesthood. The men who took the lead in this work in the last century of Persian rule and the Greek period that followed are called 1

2

3

1

D e u t . 33, i o ; Jer. 2, 8; 18, 18; M a i . 2, 4-9. E . g . , H a g g a i 2, 1 1 - 1 3 . 2 C h r o n . 17, 7-9; cf. 15, 3. C o m p a r e the institution o f a m i x e d court o f last resort in J e r u s a l e m , 2 C h r o n . 19, 8-11. 2

3

308

CHAP, vi]

T H E SCHOOLS

309

soferim, commonly translated 'scribes/ more exactly, 'biblical scholars.' The ideal of such a scholar is well expressed in Ezra 7, 10: 'Ezra (the priest, the sofer, ibid. vss. 11 f.) had set his mind intently to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statute and ordinance/ A century later Jesus son of Sirach describes in eulogistic terms the station and occupation of the scribe, contrasting him with the classes who have to give all their time and thought to making a living. The learning of the scholar (sofer) can be acquired only by such as are free from these necessities and have the opportunity of leisure to consider and discuss matters of higher interest. The ideal scholar of Sirach is a cultivated man, who has broad­ ened his mind by travel in foreign countries and had experience of the good and the bad in men, and was a presentable person in the highest company. His studies have a wide range. He devotes his mind to the understanding of the law of the Most High, and is thus qualified to take a leading part in the assembly of the people or to sit on the judge's bench and give out right and just sentence. He occupies himself with prophecies, and seeks out the wisdom of all the ancients, and preserves the utterances of famous men; he is well versed in the elusive turns of parables and in making out enigmatical utterances. He sends up his petition at the beginning of the day to the Lord who made him, opening his mouth in prayer and in supplication for his sins. " I f the great Lord will, he shall be filled with an understanding spirit and will pour out words of wisdom, and celebrate the praises of God in prayer." It is worthy of particular notice in this description of the scholar's pursuits that the study of the Scriptures and skill in 1

2

3

4

5

1

See N o t e 86. T h e obligation o f the learned t o t e a c h is s t r o n g l y expressed b y R . Jose ben H a l a f t a (second c e n t u r y A.D.): " T O learn a n d n o t to t e a c h — there is n o t h i n g m o r e futile t h a n t h a t ! " E c c l u s . 38, 24-39, - See N o t e 87. E c c l u s . 39, 4 if. E c c l u s . 39, 6. T h i s verse and the following seem to refer to a public o c ­ casion, s u c h as a h o m i l y in the s y n a g o g u e or a discourse in t h e s c h o o l . 2

3

4

5

l l

3io

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

parables and proverbs go hand in hand. Of the author's profici­ ency in the latter art the book is proof; his familiarity with the Scriptures is manifest throughout, and is brilliantly exhibited in the Hymn in Honor of the Fathers, which is an epitome of the famous men and memorable events of the Bible from Genesis down to his contemporary, Simon son of Onias, whose ministry as high priest in all the splendor of the temple liturgy he extols in his loftiest style. It is common to think of the sages, such as the authors of Proverbs and Jesus son of Sirach, as a new kind of teachers in the later Persian and Greek centuries, whose calling it was to impart to youths, especially of the higher classes, principles or maxims of moral and social conduct — a kind of Hebrew sophists, dis­ tinct from priests on the one hand and scribes on the other. In Sirach's case, at least, the latter distinction does not hold; a scribe (sofer) is precisely what he was, a man expert in the Scrip­ tures and in the religious learning of his people, such as he de­ scribes in the passage summarized above. His grandson and translator writes of him: "Having given himself especially to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the other ancient books of his people, and having acquired much proficiency in them, he was moved himself to write something on subjects profitable for education and wisdom." It should be noted that the schoolmen of later times also cultivated the parable and the apophthegm as an art, and some of them achieved a notable mastery in it. The Chapters of the Fathers (Pirke Abot), appended to the fourth series (Nezikin) of treatises in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud, contains favorite maxims or memorable aphorisms of eminent teachers from the Men of the Great Assembly down to the first half of the third century of our era (chapters 1-4); and a great many maxims of similar form and content from every 1

2

3

4

1

Ecclus. 44-49.

2

E c c l u s . 50. T h i s S i m e o n w a s himself, a c c o r d i n g to Jewish tradition ( A b o t 1, 2), one o f the last s u r v i v o r s o f the G r e a t A s s e m b l y , t h a t is o f the e a r l y S o f e r i m , w h o s e institutions and decrees are so often referred to. Translator's Preface. Cf. E c c l e s . 12, 9-12. See N o t e 88. 3

4

CHAP, v i ]

T H E SCHOOLS

311

period are scattered through the Talmud and Midrashim. Such epigrammatic sayings were evidently one of the most highly ap­ preciated features of homiletic discourse in the synagogue and the school house. The teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels exhibits the same popular forms. The sayings attributed to the oldest authorities in the Pirke Abot revert frequently to study and teaching as one of the funda­ mental institutions of Judaism. The Men of the Great Assembly themselves are said to have given three injunctions: " B e delib­ erate in giving judgment, and raise up many disciples, and make a fence about the Law." The favorite maxim of Simeon the Righteous is: "The world rests on three supports: the Law (i.e. the study of God's revelation, the sacrificial worship, and deeds of personal kindness." Jose ben Jo'ezer, in the beginning of the Seleucid dominion, said: "Let thy house be a regular meeting place for learned men, and sit in the dust at their feet, and thirstily drink in their words." In the next generation, Joshua ben Perahiah's word was: " G e t thyself a master (teacher, rab), and take to thyself a fellow student, and judge every man on the good side." 1

2

It is probable that organized schools such as emerge in our sources shortly before the beginning of the Christian era were preceded at an earlier time by stated or occasional meetings of the Soferim for study and discussion, the results of which were sometimes embodied in decisions or in rules promulgated by their authority. Younger scholars, who pursued their studies, we may conjecture, under the guidance of individual masters, fre­ quented these conventions as auditors, and profited by listening to the discussions of their elders. To such gatherings, held in private houses, Jose ben Jo'ezer seems to refer in the words quoted above from the Pirke Abot. The phrase bet wa ad 'stated place of meeting,' there employed occurs frequently, 3

c

y

1

njn nu.

2

T h a t is, D o not t r y to learn o f yourself or b y yourself. Gezerot a n d tafcfcanot; see a b o v e , p . 33 and p . 258.

3

3

i2

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

especially in the Palestinian Talmud, apparently always of a meeting-place of scholars, or school, not of the gathering of the congregation in the place of prayer, or synagogue. As early as Sirach another term is found which eventually pre­ vailed, bet ha-midrash, 'place of study,' a name often coupled with that of the synagogue in combinations which show that the two were distinct, though closely associated. It is fairly to be inferred that as early as the generation before the attempt of Antiochus IV on the Jewish religion the school was an established institution. A generation later, a considerable company of scholars (o-wayuyi) Y p a j u j u a r e W ) , went to meet Alcimus, the new high-priest sent by Demetrius. As has been already remarked, in the eulogy of wisdom (c. 24), Jesus son of Sirach identifies Wisdom with the Law which Moses gave, applying to it Deut. 33, 4: " A l l this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded, an inheritance to the assemblies of Jacob." Wisdom is not only the Jewish religion but specifically the revelation of it in the Pentateuch. Subjectivel-y^visdom is "the fear of the Lord" (Ecclus. 1, 1—15); objectively it is the law of Moses. Of this law Sirach was a teacher. In his school he doubtless imparted to his hearers such religious and moral aphorisms as are collected in his book, as the rabbis did in later times; but that he also interpreted to them the Scriptures and inculcated the rules which earlier authorities had made to define the law and to keep men far from transgression by putting a fence about it is as certain as any inference can be. It may also be surmised with much probability that what he has to say about public discourse reflects his own experience as a preacher in the synagogue or school. 1

2

3

4

1

See N o t e 89. E q u i v a l e n t to a H e b r e w D ^ D I D Whether the sixty whom A l ­ cimus p u t to d e a t h on one d a y were all scribes is n o t q u i t e clear. See 1 M a c e . 7, 12-18. O n Jose ben Jo'ezer see p p . 45 f. S m e n d , D i e W e i s h e i t des Jesus S i r a c h , p . xxiii. E c c l u s . 39, 6 ff. A b o v e p . 309. 2

3

4

CHAP, v i ]

T H E SCHOOLS

313

It is difficult to form a definite notion of the schools before the fall of Jerusalem, because in later references to them it was natur­ ally assumed that they were altogether like those of the authors' own time. For our present purpose, however, this question is not of prime importance. The existence of many biblical scholars (Soferim) from the third century B . C down shows that there was regular provision for transmitting the learning of former gene­ rations and adding to it. An anecdote narrated to illustrate Hillel's eagerness for learn­ ing tells how he supported himself and his family by day labor, and out of his wages of a victoriatus a day paid one half to the janitor of the school. One day he had not earned anything, and as the janitor would not let him in without the entrance fee, he climbed up, fastened himself, and sat on a window-sill, "that he might hear the words of the living God from the lips of Shemaiah and Abtalion," the greatest scholars and the greatest exposi­ tors of the generation. In this situation he was found next morning buried in snow and nearly frozen to death. Hillel had come to Palestine from Babylonia when already a mature man to study under these masters. He had, however, already been a student of the Law, and we are told that he brought with him from Babylonia certain definitions or inter­ pretations which he desired to compare with those accepted in Palestine, and perhaps to get the judgment of the authorities there on his method of interpretation. It is to be inferred from this instance that schools of the Law were already established in 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See N o t e 90. A small coin w o r t h a b o u t h a l f a denarius. Y o m a 35b. P e s a h i m 70b. A b t a l i o n is c o m m o n l y identified w i t h the ' P o l l i o n ' o f J o ­ s e p h u s , A n t t . x v . 1, 1 (cf. 10, 4 § 370), a leader o f the Pharisees in the reign of H e r o d . ' S a m a i o s ' his disciple (in x v . 1, 1) w o u l d seem t o be S h a m m a i r a t h e r t h a n A b t a l i o n ' s colleague S h e m a i a h . S e e N o t e 89a. Jer. P e s a h i m 33a. Jer. P e s a h i m I.e.; T o s . N e g a ' i m 1, 16; Sifra, T a z r i ' a P e r e k 9, end (ed. W e i s s f. 66d-67a). See B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I , 2. O n Hillel's hermeneutic rules ( T o s . S a n h e d r i n 7, 11) see H . S t r a c k , E i n l e i t u n g in T a l m u d u n d M i d r a s c h , 5 ed. p p . 96 if. 2

3

4

5

6

7

3H

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

Babylonia, where a method of juristic deduction was developed in advance of the Palestinian schools, which rested more exclu­ sively on the authority of tradition. In the following century, before the fall of Jerusalem, there was a famous school at Nisibis, presided over by Judah ben Bathyra, and doubtless there were others in many of the Jewish centres. In Palestine, and probably elsewhere, the school (bet hamidrash) was frequently adjacent to the synagogue, and in later accounts it is assumed that each synagogue had its own, which implies, of course, that they were not exclusively what we should call professional schools, but ministered to the instruction of the whole educated part of the community as in more recent times. The building occupied by a synagogue may be transformed into a school, but not contrariwise; it would be a descent in rank, such as is forbidden in M . Megillah 3, i. The hall of the school was used on Sabbath afternoons for popular instruction both in the Scripture and in the rules of the unwritten law. It was forbidden to read the Hagiographa pri­ vately on^the Sabbath (at least till after Minhah), because the readers were in danger of becoming so much interested in them as to neglect this opportunity of instruction and edification. An anecdote about R. Eleazer ben Azariah, in the first generation 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

T h i s is the point o f the discussion w i t h the B e n e B a t h y r a in Jer. P e s a h i m

I.e. 2

3

Sanhedrin 32b. See a b o v e , p . 104. M e g i l l a h 27a, t o p ( R . J o s h u a ben L e v i , first h a l f o f t h e third c e n t u r y of our e r a ) . N o t e the distinction there b e t w e e n the bet ha-midrash as a p l a c e w h e r e m e n m a g n i f y the l a w a n d the s y n a g o g u e as a place w h e r e t h e y m a g n i f y p r a y e r ( R . J o h a n a n and R . Joshua ben L e v i ) . T h e earliest m e n t i o n of this c u s t o m comes from the second c e n t u r y ( R . N e h e m i a h , S h a b b a t 116b); b u t there is n o reason to infer t h a t it w a s o f recent origin. T h e hour o f p r a y e r , corresponding to the time of the afternoon sacrifice in the t e m p l e . M . S h a b b a t 16, I ; S h a b b a t 116b; Jer. S h a b b a t 15c, t o p . T h e s e w r i t ­ ings m i g h t h o w e v e r be t a u g h t and e x p o u n d e d in the school. A t a l a t e r time lessons from the H a g i o g r a p h a w e r e read in B a b y l o n i a ( N e h a r d e a ) a t the S a b b a t h afternoon service ( S h a b b a t 116b). See E l b o g e n , D e r j u d i s c h e G o t t e s d i e n s t , p . 118. — F r e q u e n t blessings are p r o n o u n c e d on s u c h as hasten from the s y n a g o g u e t o the school. 4

5

6

7

CHAP, vi]

T H E SCHOOLS

315

of the second century, illustrates the character of the discourse in the school house. Two rabbis, Johanan ben Beroka and Elea­ zar Hisma, on their way to Lydda from Jabneh, then the seat of the great rabbinical academy, where they had spent the Sab­ bath, passed on the way through a village where the aged R. Joshua (ben Hananiah) was living and called on him. He asked them, What did you have new in the school today? They made an evasive reply, politely implying that they could bring nothing new to so eminent a scholar, but he understood their reticence and pressed his question. Impossible that there should be a meeting in the school without something new! Whose sabbath was it? It was the sabbath of R. Eleazar ben Azariah, they answered. And what did he preach about? Thereupon they told him how Eleazar applied Deut. 31, 12 ('Assemble the people, men, women, and children') to the congregation: the men come to learn, the women to hear, but what are the children there for? To acquire a reward for those who bring them. He had also expounded two other texts, Deut. 26, 17 f., and Eccles. 12, 11 ('The words of the learned are like goads,' etc.), giving on the latter a characteristic piece of midrash, with an application for the benefit of students who were distracted by the conflict of authorities to the point of abandoning the attempt to become scholars. The combination of instruction in the rules of the unwritten law with the exposition of Scripture in these discourses in the school has perhaps left a memorial in certain Midrash collections where the homilies are introduced by a juristic question: "Let our rabbi teach us," etc. {yelammedenu)? with its answer; and others which begin, without the formal fiction of a question, with a sentence or two of the same kind, designated 'Halakah,' though the extant collections of this type are more recent than the period under our present consideration. 1

2

See V o l . I I , p . 220. T o s . S o t a h 7, 9 ff.; H a g i g a h 3 a - b ; Jer. I J a g i g a h 750!. iten, I , 213 f. i r m iriDPV S e e a b o v e , p p . 170, 171 n. 1

2

3

Bacher, Tanna­

3

i6

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

Elementary instruction was doubtless for a long time left to parents, and was given by them or by tutors employed by them, or in private schools. This restricted education in general to the children of parents who were able to teach them or to pay for having them taught, and had the interest to do it. Such a limitation could not be to the mind of the leaders, whose ideal was the education of the whole people in revealed religion. The studies of the high school, as we might call it, the Bet haMidrash, required a knowledge of the ancient Hebrew language in which the Scriptures were written and of the Hebrew of the schools, the 'language of the learned,' in which the unwritten law was always taught, and in which throughout our period the discussions of the school were conducted. The latter might be learned in the high school itself; but reading and writing and a grounding in the language of the Bible must be acquired pre­ viously. To meet this need elementary schools were established, called, in distinction from the Bet ha-Midrash, or advanced school, Bet li|>Sefer, or Bet ha-Sofer — we might paraphrase, reading and writing schools. Private schools of this kind had doubtless long existed before any attempt was made to establish public schools in every community, and they continued to exist beside the public schools. About the institution of the latter we have no certain information. It is evident, however, that whatever may have been done before the fall of Jerusalem had to be begun anew after the war, and again after the war under Hadrian. In the latter period, at least, it was regarded as the normal thing for each community to maintain, besides the synagogue, an ele­ mentary school and an advanced school (Bet Sefer and Bet Midrash). R. Simeon ben Y o h a i said: If you see cities in the land of Israel that are destroyed to their very foundations, know that it is because they did not provide pay for teachers of the Bible and of tradition, according to Jer. 9, 11 f., 'because they 1

2

3

1

3

2

See N o t e 91. See N o t e 92. D i s c i p l e o f A k i b a , after the w a r u n d e r H a d r i a n .

THE

CHAP. V I ]

SCHOOLS

3*7

1

abandoned my L a w . ' In the same context it is related that the Patriarch Judah sent but a commission headed by R. Hiyya to make a tour of the cities in the land of Israel and establish in each a teacher of the Bible and one of the tradition. They found one small place where there was a village watchman, but no teacher at all, and proceeded to impress on the townsmen that the true keepers of a city were the teachers of the Bible and tra­ dition, for which they found authority in Psalm 127. The obligation to maintain schools is repeatedly emphasized. A scholar should not take up his abode in a town in which there is not, among other requisites of civilization, an elementary teacher. A town in which there are no children attending school is to be destroyed, or, as another reporter has it, put under the ban. The salary of the school teachers of both grades was paid by the community, who taxed themselves for this purpose; and the collector was authorized to distrain for this tax, which he might not ordinarily do for the poor-rates. The school teacher is given a rank in the hierarchy of education beneath the learned (hakamim) but above the synagogue attendant (hazzan) f though in eligibility as a husband he is put at the bottom of the list, perhaps because the class, though respectable, was poorly paid. As has been noted above, in small communities the same man often served as school teacher (sofer) and as synagogue attend­ ant (hazzan), and sometimes one scholar presided over both the advanced and the elementary schools, as in the case of R. Levi 2

3

4

5

7

1

Jer. H a g i g a h 76c; P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. 120b. C o m p a r e R . H i y y a ' s a c c o u n t o f w h a t he did in a t o w n w h e r e there w a s no teacher o f the B i b l e , K e t u b o t 103b; B a b a M e s i ' a 85b. mpim Sanhedrin 17b, end. S h a b b a t 119b. B a c h e r , P a l . A m o r a e r , I , 347, n. 2. P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. I78a-b; cf. B a b a B a t r a 8b. A p p a r e n t l y o n l y m e n w h o h a d children w e r e assessed for the s u p p o r t o f the teacher. P a r t i c u l a r praise is g i v e n b y a fourth c e n t u r y p r e a c h e r t o a b a c h e l o r w h o v o l u n t a r i l y c o n t r i b u t e s to the s a l a r y of the teachers o f the B i b l e a n d o f t r a d i t i o n : G o d will r e w a r d h i m b y g i v i n g him a b o y o f his o w n ( L e v . R . 27, 2). F o r o t h e r passages on teachers a n d school children see N o t e 9 3 . S o t a h 49a, end. P e s a h i m 49b, t o p . S e e N o t e 9 3 a . 2

3

4

5

6

7

3

i8

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

ben Sisi cited above; still oftener, probably, the school teacher was the interpreter {meturgeman) in the synagogue. The boys' school maintained by the community was held in the synagogue, as the mosque is used today in Mohammedan countries. There were also private schools in the teachers' houses, and the children often made so much noise coming and going and shouting their lessons in concert, that the neighbors seem at one time to have had a right to prevent the setting up of a school in the block, as they might the introduction of a trade that created a nuisance. Boys learned to read in the Hebrew Bible as Moslem boys today learn to read in the Koran. School copies of parts of the Pentateuch were given them for this purpose, and by long es­ tablished custom the beginning was made with the Book of Leviticus in the elementary school, as well as subsequently in the advanced school in which tradition was studied. The read­ ing was necessarily accompanied by an explanation in the mothertongue^and the pupils thus learned the meaning of Scripture along with the words. In an age when dictionaries and gram­ mars were unheard of, it was the only way, and a very effective way as far as it went. From the Pentateuch the reading pro­ gressed to the Prophets and the Hagiographa. It is probable that many pupils did not follow this course to the end; but what we might call a graduate in Scripture was expected to be able to read all three groups of books. The religious leaders regarded the study of the Scripture as the foundation of all learning, but, if it stopped there, as an in­ complete education, since it dealt only with the letter and the literal sense, to the exclusion of that comparison of scripture with scripture by which its more recondite teachings were discovered, 1

2

3

1

B a r a i t a s q u o t e d in B a b a B a t r a 21 a. S e e B a c h e r in Jahrbiicher fur jtidische G e s c h i c h t e u n d L i t e r a t u r , 1903, p . 67. T h e rule in M . B a b a B a t r a 2, 3; T o s . B a b a B a t r a 1, 4 is to the c o n t r a r y . C o m p a r e the a t t e m p t e d re­ conciliation in B a b a B a t r a 21a. P e s i k t a ed. B u b e r f. 60b, end; L e v . R . 7, 3. R e a s o n s are g i v e n for n o t beginning with Genesis. K i d d u s h i n 49a. See N o t e 94. 2

3

CHAP, vi]

T H E SCHOOLS

319

and of the unwritten tradition, religious as well as juristic, which supplemented the written word and interpreted it. They felt much as a trained Old Testament scholar today feels about a man who, ignoring all the learning of the past embodied in an exegetical, historical, and theological tradition that fills hundreds of volumes, and ignorant of the methods of what is called biblical science, or ignoring its worth and rejecting its authority, under­ takes to interpret the Scriptures out of his own head. To occupy one's self exclusively with the study of Scripture "is a way, but not the real way." 1

The higher religious education had for its principal subject matter tradition in a wide extension of the term. The name for this tradition in its whole extent is Mishnah? in distinction from Milzra, Bible study. In this wider sense, Mishnah, or the teach­ ing and learning of tradition, included, in our period, three branches, Midrash

(also called Talmud)?

Halakah,

and

Hagga­

dah. ' Midrash' was the higher exegesis of Scripture, especially the derivation from it, or confirmation by it, of the rules of the unwritten law; 'Halakah,' the precisely formulated rule itself; 'Haggadah,' the non-juristic teachings of Scripture as brought out in the profounder study of its religious, moral, and historical teachings. All this belonged to the Jewish science of tradition. Even a moderate proficiency in it was not to be attained without long and patient years of learning; mastery demanded unusual 4

1

2

R . S i m e o n ben Y o h a i , Jer. S h a b b a t 15c.

See Bacher, Tannaiten, I I ,

T h i s use of the term is not to be confounded w i t h the specific use in w h i c h * M i s h n a h ' is applied to rules o f the u n w r i t t e n l a w (halakot) as t h e c r o w n i n g b r a n c h o f the s t u d y o f t r a d i t i o n , a n d still more n a r r o w l y to the collection o f the P a t r i a r c h J u d a h w h i c h w e call ' t h e M i s h n a h . ' J e r o m e uses the w o r d devrepoocreis as e q u i v a l e n t t o M i s h n a h in the w i d e r sense. A g a i n not to be confounded w i t h the g r e a t b o d y of o r g a n i z e d tradition and discussion w h i c h w e call ' t h e T a l m u d / O n the v a l u e set on the H a g g a d a h see Sifre D e u t . § 49, end (on 1 1 , 22): " T h o s e w h o search o u t the i n t i m a t i o n s o f S c r i p t u r e s a y , if y o u w i s h to k n o w the C r e a t o r o f the w o r l d , learn H a g g a d a h ; from it y o u will c o m e t o k n o w G o d a n d c l e a v e t o his w a y s . " 3

4

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

2o

3

[PART I

capacity. The method of the schools developed not only exact and retentive memory and great mental acuteness, but an ex­ haustive and ever-ready knowledge of every phrase and word of Scripture. A late appendix to the Pirke Abot (5, 21) would have a boy begin in the Bible school at five years, go on to the study of tradition (Mishnah) at ten, advance to Talmud at fifteen, marry at eighteen, and so on. It is needless to say that reality did not exhibit so neat a scheme; but it is probable that boys ordinarily passed from the elementary school to the more advanced studies of the Bet ha-Midrash between the years of twelve and fifteen, an age in which they came to personal responsibility for com­ pliance with all the rules of the law. Before this age, boys who knew how were competent to take part in the reading of the lessons from the Pentateuch or Prophets in the synagogue, and to serve as translator. This of itself does not prove very much, for they could be coached on the particular paragraph, as has often been done since. Only 2f small proportion of those who went through the ele­ mentary school, or even of those who began the study of tradi­ tion, had either the opportunity or the ability to go on to the higher stages by which men advanced to the rank of what we 1

2

might call professor, with the venia docendi

(et decernendi).

A

later Midrash gives this turn to the words, ' I have found one man out of a thousand' (Eccles. 7, 28): "Such is the usual way of the world; a thousand enter the Bible school, and a hun­ dred pass from it to the study of Mishnah; ten of them go on to Talmud study, and only one of them arrives at the doctor's degree (rabbinical ordination)." But the measure of education attained by many men enabled them to profit by the expositions in the Bet ha-Midrash on Sabbath afternoons and at other 3

1

' M i s h n a h ' is here used in the narrower sense, f o r m u l a t e d and m e m o r i z e d rules (halakot); ' T a l m u d , ' in the later m e a n i n g , e x p l a n a t i o n and discussion of the rules. T h i s classification m a k e s four disciplines: B i b l e , M i s h n a h (i.e. H a l a k a h ) , T a l m u d , H a g g a d a h . S o Jer. P e a h 17a, b e l o w , and parallels. M . M e g i l l a h 4, 5 f. E c c l e s . R . in loc* 2

3

T H E SCHOOLS

CHAP. V I ]

321

times, and to listen with interest to the lively discussions of the teachers and more advanced students. When such opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of religion were open to all, it is not strange that those who neglected them and consequently remained in ignorance of the revealed will of God, unconcerned about the distinctions of clean and unclean further than they had become matters of habit among their kind — that such * ame ha-arasot should be regarded by the Pharisees as little better than the indigenous heathen who were properly designated by that opprobrious name. As has been already remarked, our definite information about the schools comes from the second century, and chiefly from a time after the war under Hadrian, and it may well be that the leaders who reorganized Jewish institutions after that catastrophe made the school system more universal and regular than it had been previously; but it is certain that they introduced nothing novel into its character. Schools of a similar kind existed in Babylonia before the Christian era, as is shown by the case of Hillel; and that the Greek speaking Jews had schools for the study of the Scriptures and of their religious law, we have the testimony of Philo: The Jews, "from their very swaddling clothes are taught by parents and teachers and masters, and above all by their sacred laws and unwritten customs, to acknowledge one God, the father and creator of the world." Philo's own acquaintance with parts of the traditional law and the current homiletical exegesis is well established. 1

2

3

4

1

T h e v e r y a s s u m p t i o n t h a t in an o r d i n a r y S a b b a t h m o r n i n g s y n a g o g u e service s e v e n readers, besides a t least one interpreter, a n d one (or more) l e a d ­ ers in p r a y e r , took p a r t , indicates t h a t the B i b l e schools o f the l a t e r s e c o n d c e n t u r y w e r e well a t t e n d e d a n d effective. " P e o p l e s o f the l a n d . " L e g a t i o ad G a i u m c. 16 §115 (ed. M a n g e y , I I , 562); cf. ibid. c. 31 §210 f. ( I I , 577). T h e similar expressions in Josephus refer t o J e w s in g e n e r a l , n o t p a r t i c u l a r l y to P a l e s t i n i a n J e w s ; see C . A p i o n e m , i. 12 § 60; ii. 18. B . R i t t e r , P h i l o u n d die H a l a c h a , 1879; Z . F r a n k e l , U e b e r den Einfluss der palastinensischen E x e g e s e a u f die alexandrinische H e r m e n e u t i k , 1851, 2

3

4

p p . 190-200.

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

322

[PART I

The Hellenistic Jews, having provided themselves with Greek translations of the Scriptures, used this version in their syna­ gogues and schools, and emancipated themselves from the task of learning to read the original Hebrew. Learned men might study the ancient language, but it had no such place in general education as in Palestine or in Babylonia. If Philo knew He­ brew, the chief use he makes of it is to perpetrate etymologies which have sometimes led to the inference that he had only that little knowledge which in this field, if anywhere, is a dangerous thing. It should not be forgotten that these interpretations of names were not put forth for the satisfaction of modern philo­ logists but for the edification of his contemporaries; and they are not, after all, so much worse than similar adventures of Palestinian scholars whose knowledge of Hebrew is beyond question. It is likely, however, that in Philo's time knowledge of Greek was more common among the upper classes in Jerusalem than of Hebrew in Alexandria. In conclusion it may be repeated that the endeavor to educate the whqie-rpeople in its religion created a unique system of universal education, whose very elements comprised not only reading and writing, but an ancient language and its classic literature. The high intellectual and religious value thus set on education was indelibly impressed on the mind, and one may say on the character of the Jew, and the institutions created for it have perpetuated themselves to the present day. 1

2

1

See N o t e 95. T h i s seems to be assumed in the a c c o u n t o f the translation of the P e n t a ­ t e u c h g i v e n in the L e t t e r o f A r i s t e a s . N o t o n l y the a u t h e n t i c c o p y of the L a w b u t the qualified translators are b r o u g h t from Jerusalem. — Since w e are here concerned o n l y w i t h religious e d u c a t i o n and the schools in w h i c h it w a s g i v e n , it is u n n e c e s s a r y to discuss the e x t e n t to w h i c h secular s u b j e c t s , especially the G r e e k l a n g u a g e and G r e e k science, w e r e c u l t i v a t e d in P a l e s ­ tine in the centuries u n d e r i n v e s t i g a t i o n , or the a t t i t u d e of the religious a u ­ thorities t o w a r d s u c h studies. T h e o n l y b r a n c h o f science t h a t c o u l d be b r o u g h t i m m e d i a t e l y into the service o f religion w a s m a t h e m a t i c s a n d as­ t r o n o m y for calendar purposes, p a r t i c u l a r l y the d e t e r m i n a t i o n of the e x a c t time o f the lunar conjunction, the solstices and e q u i n o x e s , etc. 2

CHAPTER VII CONVERSION OF

GENTILES

T H E conviction that Judaism as the one true religion was destined to become the universal religion was a singularity of the Jews. No other religion in their world and time made any such preten­ sions or cherished such aspirations. It was an exclusiveness the rest of mankind did not understand and therefore doubly re­ sented. And it must be admitted that the manner in which the Jews asserted their claim and descanted on the sin and folly of polytheism and idolatry and the vices of heathen society was not adapted to make them liked in an age that knew nothing of jeal­ ous gods, and when all manner of national and personal religions, native and foreign, lived amicably and respectfully side by side. If the Jews alone were excepted from this universal toleration, as Philo complains, it was chiefly because they alone were intolerant. The Christians, who inherited their exclusive and aggressive monotheism, provoked the same exceptional intoler­ ance in the habitual laissezfaire of pagan religion. But if some of the methods of Jewish apologetic and polemic provoked prejudice rather than produced conviction, the belief in the future universality of the true religion, the coming of an age when " the Lord shall be king over all the earth," when " the Lord shall be one and his name One," led to efforts to convert the Gentiles to the worship of the one true God and to faith and obedience according to the revelation he had given, and made 1

2

3

4

1

T h e religion o f the E g y p t i a n s , w i t h its beast-gods and its strange t a b o o s , was indeed a c o m m o n o b j e c t of ridicule for G e n t i l e s as well as J e w s ; see e.g. J u v e n a l , S a t . 15. L e g a t i o ad G a i u m c. 16 § 117 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 562). T h e a n t i p a t h y t o the J e w s as a people h a d m a n y o t h e r causes. S e e Schiirer, G e s c h i c h t e des j u d i s c h e n V o l k e s , I I I , 105 f. See a b o v e , p . 229 f.; and V o l . I I , p . 346. 2

3

4

323

324

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

Judaism the first great missionary religion of the Mediterranean world. When it is called a missionary religion, the phrase must, however, be understood with a difference. The Jews did not send out missionaries into the partes injidelium expressly to proselyte among the heathen. They were themselves settled by thousands in all the great centres and in innumerable smaller cities; they had appropriated the language and much of the civil­ ization of their surroundings; they were engaged in the ordinary occupations, and entered into the industrial and commercial life of the community and frequently into its political life. Their religious influence was exerted chiefly through the synagogues, which they set up for themselves, but which were open to all whom interest or curiosity drew to their services. To Gentiles, in whose mind these services, consisting essentially of reading from the Scriptures and a discourse more or less loosely connected with it, lacked all the distinctive features of cultus, the syna­ gogue, as has been observed above, resembled a school of some foreign philosophy. That it claimed the authority of inspira­ tion for its sacred text and of immemorial tradition for the in­ terpretation, and that the reading was prefaced by invocations of the deity and hymns in his praise, was in that age quite con­ sistent with this character. That the followers of this philosophy had many peculiar rules about food and dress and multiplied purifications was also natural enough in that time. The philosophy itself, whose fundamental doctrines seemed to be monotheism, divine providence guided by justice and bene­ volence, and reasonable morality, had little about it that was unfamiliar. Even what they sometimes heard about retribu­ tion after death, or a coming conflagration which should end the present order of things, was not novel. But at the bottom Judaism was something wholly different from a philosophy which a man was free to accept in whole or in part as far as it carried the assent of his intelligence. It might be a reasonable religion, but it was in an eminent degree a religion of authority; a re­ vealed religion, which did not ask man's approval but demanded 7

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

325

obedience to the whole and every part, reason and inclination to the contrary notwithstanding; an exclusive religion which tole­ rated no divided allegiance; a religion which made a man's eternal destiny depend on his submission of his whole life to its law, or his rejection of God who gave the law. Such, at least, was the rigor of the doctrine when it was completely and logically presented. It is certain that it was not always preached so uncompromis­ ingly. Especially in the Hellenistic world, polytheism and idolatry was so decisively the characterististic difference between Gentile and Jew that the rejection of these might almost seem to be the renunciation of heathenism and the adoption of Juda­ ism; and if accompanied by the observance of the sabbath and conformity to the rudimentary rules of clean and unclean which were necessary conditions of social intercourse, it might seem to be a respectable degree of conversion. Nor are utterances of this tenor lacking in Palestinian sources; e.g., The rejection of idolatry is the acknowledgment of the whole law. Such converts were called religious persons ('those who wor­ ship, or revere, God'), and although in a strict sense outside the pale of Judaism, undoubtedly expected to share with Jews by birth the favor of the God they had adopted, and were en­ couraged in this hope by their Jewish teachers. It was not un­ common for the next generation to seek incorporation into the Jewish people by circumcision. In those days it was nobody's business what gods a man be­ lieved in, or how many, or whether he believed in any; and the observance of the sabbath or the regulation of diet might ex­ pose him to social disapproval and to ridicule, but had no more tangible consequences. It was a different matter to refuse to take part in the ceremonies of the established religion of the city or 1

2

3

1

Sifre N u m . § 1 1 1 ; D e u t . § 54; IJullin 5a, and parallels. O n e w h o re­ nounces i d o l a t r y is called in S c r i p t u r e a J e w . M e g i l l a h 13a, t o p . QoftovfJievoi rbv 6e6v, ore/36/jLevoL rbv deov, or a b b r e v i a t e d , ae^Sfxevou. In H e b r e w , DTOP . See N o t e 96. J u v e n a l , S a t . 4, 96 ff. 2

3

326

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PARTI

in the cult of the emperors; but so far as the former was con­ cerned only those who had the rights and the corresponding ob­ ligations of citizens were affected by it; and as to the latter, unless a common man made ostentation of his disrespect, his neglect provoked no remark. Women in general had only their fathers or husbands to reckon with; and partly from excess of religiousness, partly because they had no public religious duties, women were in the large majority among these adherents of Judaism, and a still larger proportion, doubtless, of the proselytes. Men who occupied a place of prominence in the community, or held office in the city or state, must have made a compromise like Naaman between their belief and the duties of their station, and performed their part in the festivals and other ceremonies of the public religions — if you did not believe in the gods, it was an empty form. However numerous such 'religious persons' were, and with whatever complaisance the Hellenistic synagogue, especially, regarded these results of its propaganda, whatever hopes they may haye-held out to such as thus confided in the uncovenanted mercies of God, they were only clinging to the skirt of the Jew (Zech. 8, 23); they were like those Gentile converts to Christian­ ity who are reminded in the Epistle to the Ephesians that in their former state, when they were called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision, they were aliens to the Israelite common­ wealth, foreigners without right in the covenanted promises. 1

Much confusion has arisen from the habit of describing such adherents of the synagogue as a class of proselytes, or, as it is sometimes said, semi-proselytes, and trying to find a category for them in the rabbinical deliverances concerning proselytes. It may, therefore, be said at the outset that Jewish law knows no semi-proselytes, nor any other kind of proselytes than such 1

'AirTjWoTpioojjLevoL TTJS irokiTeias rod 'Iapar)\ Kal t-kvoi TCOV dLadrjK&v rijs kirayyehias, E p h e s . 2, 12. P r o s e l y t e s , o n t h e c o n t r a r y , h a v e come o v e r t o Kaivfj Kal <j>CkoQ'eco icokiTeiq., P h i l o , D e M o n a r c h i a c. 7 § 51 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 219).

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

327

as have, by circumcision and baptism, not only become mem­ bers of the Jewish church but been naturalized in the Jewish nation — to make a distinction where none existed. Proselyte, the Greek Trpoarj\vros is thus explained by Philo: They are such as have resolved to change over to (true) religion, and are called proselytes because they have become naturalized in a new and godly commonwealth, renouncing the mythical fictions and adhering to the unadulterated truth. . . . Under the law of Moses the proselytes enjoy equal rights in all respects with the native born, as is only just, inasmuch as they have left country, friends, and kinsfolk for the sake of virtue and holi­ ness. There can be no question that Philo means by 'proselyte' one who has deserted his gods and his people to cast in his lot with the Jews. Tacitus speaks of proselytes as transgressi in morem eorum. Such practice circumcision like the Jews: "nec quidquam prius imbuuntur, quam contemnere deos, exuere patriam, parentes liberos fratres vilia habere." An examination of all the passages in Philo shows conclusively 1

2

y

3

4

5

6

1

I t is n o t a question in w h a t loose senses we m a y use t h e w o r d * p r o s e l y t e / nor e v e n w h e t h e r t h e G r e e k TpoarjXvTOs is e v e r used l o o s e l y ; b u t w h e t h e r J u d a i s m — rabbinical a n d Hellenistic — recognized m o r e t h a n one k i n d o f proselyte in its sense o f t h e w o r d . P r e c i s e l y t h e s a m e conditions exist in m o d e r n C h r i s t i a n missions: there are t h e b a p t i z e d m e m b e r s o f t h e c h u r c h , and a fringe o f a d h e r e n t s , w h o m a y h a v e g i v e n u p some h e a t h e n practices and a d o p t e d s o m e C h r i s t i a n ones, b u t are nevertheless outside the pale o f the c h u r c h . D e m o n a r c h i a c. 7 §§ 51-53 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 219). S e e also D e sacrificantibus c. 10 § 308 f. ( I I , 258); D e iustitia c. 6 § 176 ff. ( I I , 365); D e h u m a n i t a t e c. 12 § 102 ff. ( I I , 392); D e p o e n i t e n t i a c. 1 § 175 ff. ( I I , 405), P h i l o , w h o s e fondness for e x h i b i t i n g t h e resources o f his v o c a b u l a r y is well k n o w n , e m p l o y s more frequently e7rrj\vTos ewrj\vT7]s, eTrjXvs — classical G r e e k w o r d s in a political sense. Tovrovs 8e KaXeZ irpocrijkbTOVs airb TOV TpoaekrfXvdevcu Kawfj Kal (frikodeco irokireiq. Josephus ( A n t t . x v i i i . 3, 5 § 82) describes F u l v i a as r&v ev & £ i c b / x a T t yvvaiK&v Kal vop.Ljj.OLS wpoaekTjXvdvZav rots Tou5ai/coTs, e v i d e n t l y w i t h t h e s a m e e t y m o l o g y in m i n d . 'laoTLjuLia, lo-ovo/ila, laoreXeia. T h i s is P h i l o ' s w o r d : t h e y are avTojj.o\ovvTes. S i m i l a r l y in t h e frag­ m e n t , ed. M a n g e y I I , 677, foreigners w h o j o i n Israel are eTrfjXvdes . . . VOJJ.LJJ.CJV Kal Woov. T a c i t u s , H i s t . v . 5. 2

y

3

4

5

6

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

328

[PART I

that irpoarjXvTos and its synonyms designate a man who has not merely embraced the monotheistic theology of Judaism, but has addicted himself to the Jewish ordinances and customs, and in so doing severed himself from his people, friends, and kins­ men; for which reason he is to be treated with peculiar benevo­ lence. He has become a naturalized citizen of a new religious commonwealth in which he is on a full equality of rights and duties with born Jews. In the Greek Bible irpoar)\vTos is the usual, though not the con­ stant, translation of the Hebrew ger. The older associations of this word were civil and social. The ger was an alien immigrant, or the descendant of such an immigrant, resident in Israelite territory by sufferance, without any civil rights, like the ixeroiKos in a Greek city. This is the position of the ger in the older Hebrew legislation and in Deuteronomy. They are distinguished from foreigners (nokrim), who may be casually and temporarily in the country, and from the descendants of the ancient Canaanites. Israelites are enjoined not to oppress these aliens, who had no legal remedy; and they are frequently presented as objects of charity. ' In the Persian period the word comes to be applied to foreign­ ers (men of other than Jewish descent) who join themselves to Jehovah, or to Israel as the worshippers of Jehovah. Thus in Isaiah 14, 1, in the restoration, when God reestablishes Israel in its own land, "the ger (the converts they have made in the exile) will join themselves to them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob." Such converts are described in Isa. 56, 6 ff.: 1

2

3

1

4

1

W h e n he s a y s t h a t w h a t m a k e s a p r o s e l y t e is n o t circumcision o f the flesh b u t the circumcision o f pleasures and appetites and the o t h e r affections of the soul ( F r a g m e n t , ed. M a n g e y I I , 677; cf. P a u l , R o m . 2, 28 f., and w i t h b o t h , Jer. 4 , 4 ) , he is n o t t a l k i n g a b o u t u n c i r c u m c i s e d p r o s e l y t e s ; he is o n l y s a y i n g of proselytes w h a t the p r o p h e t and the apostle P a u l s a y a b o u t Israe­ lites. Cf. D e sacrificantibus c. 9 §§ 304 f. (ed. M a n g e y , I I , 258). S e e N o t e 97. T h e y m a y often h a v e a t t a c h e d t h e m s e l v e s t o a citizen as clients for protection. T h e L X X here t a k e s o v e r the w o r d in A r a m a i c f o r m , yei&pas* S e e also E z e k . 1 4 , 7, c o n v e r t s {ger) w h o relapse t o the w o r s h i p o f idols. 2

3

4

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

329

1

'The aliens who join themselves to Jehovah to minister unto him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, every one that keeps the sabbath from profaning it, and holds firmly to my covenant (law), I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them rejoice in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah who gathers the dispersed of Israel, yet will I gather others unto him (Israel), besides those that are gathered of (Israel) himself.' The laws for the gerim in Lev. 17-25 put them, so far as religi­ ous duties and privileges go, in all respects on the same footing with Israelites by birth; they are subject to all the obligations of the law, precisely as the gerim (proselytes) in the rabbinical law are. This is true, not only of religious commandments and prohibitions (Lev. 17, 8 f., 10-12, 13, 15; 22, 18; 18, 26 ff.), but before the civil law (24, 15-22): " Y o u shall have one civil law; the proselyte (ger) shall be treated like the native born, for I am the Lord your God." This change in the meaning of ger from an advena in Jewish territory to an advena in the Jewish religion is significant at once of the change in the situation of the Jews in the world after the fall of the kindgom and of the changed conception of the character and mission of their religion — the metic has given place to the proselyte. This change is re­ flected in the language. For living as a resident alien (ger, in the original civil sense) in the land of Israel the verb is gur, 'so­ journ'; for conversion to Judaism and adoption into the people as well as the religion a new form was needed and created, the 2

3

1

najn p . T h a t is, m a n y other G e n t i l e c o n v e r t s will b e a d d e d to the Israelites w h o are g a t h e r e d from the dispersion, besides the c o n v e r t s t h e y h a v e m a d e there. See also L e v . 16, 29 ( D a y o f A t o n e m e n t ) ; N u m . 19, 10 f.; cf. 15, 1 4 16, 26, 29. E s p e c i a l l y i m p o r t a n t , as is recognized in the rabbinical l a w , are the prescriptions concerning the P a s s o v e r , E x o d . 1 2 , 1 9 ; N u m . 9 , 1 4 : " W h e n a ger (interpreted ' p r o s e l y t e ' ) dwells w i t h y o u and keeps t h e P a s s o v e r to t h e L o r d , he shall k e e p the P a s s o v e r a c c o r d i n g t o its s t a t u t e and o r d i n a n c e ; y o u shall h a v e one s t a t u t e for the p r o s e l y t e a n d for him w h o is n a t i v e t o the l a n d . " 2

3

330

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

denominative nitgayyer, 'become a proselyte* (ger in the religious sense), with a corresponding active denominative, gayyer, con­ vert some one to Judaism, make a proselyte of him. Another word used with the same meaning is hityahad (denominative from yehud), 'turn Jew/ adopt the religion and customs of the Jtws. A favorite figure in the Psalms for the confident security of the religious man is having a refuge, or shelter, beneath the wings of God, or beneath the shade of his wings, as the young of birds do under their mother's wings for safety from danger. The same figure is frequently employed of conversion. The proselyte comes beneath the wings of the Shekinah; one who converts a Gentile brings him under the wings of the Shekinah. The origin of this use is doubtless Ruth 2, 12, where Boaz be­ speaks for the Moabitish convert (1, 16) the reward for her goodness to Naomi from "the God of Israel, beneath whose wings thou art come to take refuge." The legislation in the middle books of the Pentateuch thus puts the gerim on the same footing with native Israelites, not only before the civfil law, but in religious duties and privileges, and Philo repeatedly emphasizes this parity of the naturalized and the native Jew as one of the notable features of the Mosaic polity. The same principle runs through the traditional law. The Passover, in its memorial features, was the most distinc­ tively national of all the festivals, but the law admits the prose­ lyte to it, though no foreigner, no settler, no hired servant (not Israelite) may eat of it. For such participation it is necessary 1

2

3

4

1

S e e N o t e 98. See P s a l m 17, 8; 36, 8; 57,2; 6 i , 5; 9 1 , 4 . H o s . 14,7 is interpreted in this sense and applied to p r o s e l y t e s ; see N u m . R . 8, 7 (beginning). See also I s a . 2

54, 15 L X X : ibov 7rpoarjKvTOL irpoaeKevaovTai col Kal eirl ae Karacjyev^oVTai. 3

vol hi eixov Kal 7ro.pOLKrjaovai

R u t h R . in he, q u o t i n g P s a l m 36, 8. "Ol p , n^in ,T3B>. T h e criterion, w h i c h decides w h e t h e r a m a n is a p r o s e l y t e or not is w h e t h e r he m a y p a r t i c i p a t e in the p a s s o v e r m e a l , as a m o n g c o n v e r t s to C h r i s t i a n i t y it w a s w h e t h e r he m i g h t p a r t i c i p a t e in the sacra­ m e n t of the E u c h a r i s t . C f . Sifre N u m . § 7 1 ; T o s . P e s a h i m 8, 4; cf. Jer. P e s a h i m 36b. I n K i d d u s h i n 70a, t o p , a definition of ger is d e d u c e d from the P a s s o v e r o f E z r a 6 ('til ^ n j n ^3, E z r a 6, 21). 4

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

331

that he should be circumcised, " for no uncircumcised man shall eat of it" (Exod. 12, 48). In Num. 9, 14, it is assumed that the proselyte is circumcised, and the only prescription is that he shall conform strictly to the ritual of the Passover: "Whether proselyte or native, you shall have the same ordinance." From the generality of the last clause, which contains no specific refer­ ence to the Passover, it is deduced that this scripture puts the proselyte on the same footing with the native in all the com­ mandments contained in the Law. " A s the native born Jew takes upon him (to obey) all the words of the Law, so the prose­ lyte takes upon him all the words of the Law. The authorities say, if a proselyte takes upon himself to obey all the words of the Law except one single commandment, he is not to be received." So Paul to the Galatians: " I solemnly warn every man that gets himself circumcised that he is under obligation to fulfil the whole law" (Gal. 5, 2). Paul had been brought up a Pharisee, and doubtless meant the unwritten as well as the written law. The Law was not solely the law written in the Pentateuch, but its complement and interpretation in tradition, the unwritten law; and with strenuous logic a contemporary of the Patriarch Judah held that the proselyte's acceptance of Judaism was incomplete and his admission not to be allowed so long as he made reserva­ tion of a single point in the rules established by the scribes without obvious support in the Scripture. 1

2

3

4

The initiatory rite by which a man was made a proselyte com­ prised three parts: circumcision, immersion in water (baptism), and the presentation of an offering in the temple. In the case of 5

1

Sifre N u m . § 7 1 ; M e k i l t a on E x o d . 12, 49 ( B o , 15, e n d ; ed. F r i e d m a n n , f. 18a; ed. W e i s s , f. 22a). A n obligation w h i c h he a c k n o w l e d g e s and renews e v e r y time he recites the Shema*. See b e l o w , p . 465. Sifra, K e d o s h i m P e r e k 8 (ed. W e i s s f. 91a); M e k i l t a d e - R . S i m e o n ben Y o h a i on E x o d . 12, 49; cf. also B e k o r o t 30b, t o p . See the passages cited in the p r e c e d i n g n o t e , and N o t e 99. Sifre N u m . § 108 (on N u m . 15, 14); M e k i l t a d e - R . S i m e o n ben Y o h a i on E x o d . 12, 48; K e r i t o t 9a. See M a i m o n i d e s , I s u r e B i a h , c. 13, 4. 2

3

4

5

332

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

a woman there was no circumcision, and after the destruction of the temple no offering. Circumcision alone is prescribed in the written law. The sacrifice of the proselyte is assimilated to four cases in which a sacrifice is required of Israelites who have other­ wise completed their purification but not offered the piacular victim. The practical effect of the rule was that if the proselyte went to Jerusalem, he, like Jews of the classes enumerated who were "lacking an expiatory offering," might not participate in a sacrificial meal and eat consecrated food (kodashim) until he had brought his piaculum. The sacrifice to be made by a proselyte was a burnt-offering for which doves or pigeons sufficed. The offering of a sacrifice is, thus, not one of the conditions of becoming a proselyte, but only a condition precedent to the exercise of one of the rights which belong to him as a proselyte, namely, participation in a sacrificial meal. As soon as he was circumcised and baptized, he was in full standing in the religious community, having all the legal rights and powers and being subject to all the obligations of the Jew by birth. He had "entered into the covenant." The origin of the requirement of baptism is not known. The rite has a superficial analogy to the many baths prescribed in the law for purification after one kind or another of religious uncleanness, and modern writers have frequently satisfied them­ selves with the explanation that proselytes were required to bathe in order to purify themselves, really or symbolically, from the uncleanness in which the whole life of the heathen was passed. This explanation seems to be nowhere explicitly propounded by 1

2

3

4

5

1

M . K e r i t o t 2, 1.

liodashim; 2

T h e y m u s t m a k e an offering before t h e y c a n e a t

L e v . 15, 13-15, 28-30; 12, 6-8; 14, 10 ff.

S o R . E l e a z a r b e n J a c o b . F o r a different e x p l a n a t i o n see N o t e 100. A n y G e n t i l e could h a v e a burnt offering m a d e for h i m a t his e x p e n s e , Sifre N u m . § 107, e n d , etc. Y e b a m o t 47b: " W h e n he is immersed a n d comes u p (from t h e w a t e r ) h e is in all respects like an I s r a e l i t e . " TVIlb H e n c e he is called JV^D p "li, ' a c o v e n a n t - p r o s e l y t e / in c o n t r a s t t o the (heathen) 2W)T) , ' r e s i d e n t a l i e n ' ; e.g. Sifra, A h a r e P e r e k 12 (ed. W e i s s , f. 84d, e n d ) . See b e l o w , p . 339. 3

4

6

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

333

1

Jewish teachers in the early centuries. The rite itself differs fundamentally from such baths of purification in that the pres­ ence of official witnesses is required. The ritual for the admission of proselytes in Palestine in the second century, after the war under Hadrian, is described in de­ tail in the following Baraita: When a man comes in these times seeking to become a prose­ lyte, he is asked, What is your motive in presenting yourself to become a proselyte? Do you not know that in these times the Israelites are afflicted, distressed, downtrodden, torn to pieces, and that suffering is their lot? If he answer, I know; and I am unworthy (to share their sufferings), they accept him at once, and acquaint him with some of the lighter and some of the weightier commandments; they instruct him about the sin he may commit in such matters as gleaning close, picking up the forgotten sheaf, reaping the corner of the field, and the poortithe. They acquaint him also with the penalties attached to the commandments, saying to him, Know that until you came to this status you ate fat without being liable to extirpation, you profaned the sabbath without being liable to death by stoning, but now if you eat fat you are liable to extirpation, and if you profane the sabbath you are liable to stoning. As they show him the penalty of breaking commandments, so they show him the reward of keeping them, saying to him, Know that the World to Come is made only for the righteous, and Israelites in the present time are not able to receive exceeding good or exceeding punishments. This discourse should not, however, be too much prolonged nor go too much into particulars. If he accepts, they circumcise him forthwith. . . . When he is healed they at once baptize him, two scholars standing by him and rehearsing to him some of the lighter and some of the weightier command2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

See N o t e 101. Y e b a m o t 46b; ILiddushin 62b, t o p ; M a i m o n i d e s , I s u r e B i a h , 13, 6. Y e b a m o t 47a-b. O n the a n t i q u i t y o f the rite, e t c . , see N o t e 102. L e v . 19, 9 (23, 22); D e u t . 24, 19; D e u t . 14, 28 f. C e r t a i n details of the o p e r a t i o n are here o m i t t e d .

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

334

[PART I

merits. When he has been immersed and has come up (from the water), he is like an Israelite in all that he does. In the case of a woman (proselyte), women make her sit in the water up to her neck, while two scholars standing outside re­ hearse to her some of the lighter and some of the weightier com­ mandments. In the whole ritual there is no suggestion that baptism was a real or symbolical purification; the assistants rehearse select commandments of both kinds as an appropriate accompaniment to the proselyte's assumption of all and sundry the obligations of the law, "the yoke of the commandment." It is essentially an initiatory rite, with a forward and not a backward look. Rabbi (Judah, the Patriarch) remarked the correspondence between the admission of a proselyte and the experience of Israel. As the Israelites came into the covenant only by three things, circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice, precisely so the proselyte comes into the covenant by the same three things. For the proselyte is equally a 'son of the covenant' with the born Jew. In discussions from the first half of the second century on, it is frequently adduced as a principle that the legal status of a proselyte who embraces Judaism is (at the moment of his 1

2

3

4

5

1

S o c o m p l e t e l y so t h a t if he s u b s e q u e n t l y relapses, he is legally treated (e.g. in questions o f marriage) as an a p o s t a t e Israelite (TO1E f>*Ofc^); Y e b a ­ m o t 47b, near end. I n religious m a t t e r s — sacrificial m e a l s , the P a s s o v e r , e t c . — the a p o s t a t e Israelite, and o f course the a p o s t a t e p r o s e l y t e , w a s t r e a t e d as a h e a t h e n ; M e k i l t a , B o 15 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 17a; ed. W e i s s f. 20b, t o p ) . B a p t i s m requires the s a m e m i n i m u m q u a n t i t y o f w a t e r as a w o m a n ' s b a t h o f purification, n a m e l y f o r t y seahs — one or t w o h o g s h e a d s , a c c o r d i n g t o v a r y i n g estimates o f the contents of a s e a h ; Y e b a m o t 47b. A s in ritual a b l u t i o n s , the w a t e r m u s t t o u c h e v e r y p a r t o f the flesh. O n the question w h e t h e r a m a n w h o h a d been circumcised b u t n o t b a p t i z e d , or b a p t i z e d b u t n o t circumcised, m i g h t be a d m i t t e d to the P a s s o v e r , see N o t e 103. T h e y were circumcised before l e a v i n g E g y p t (inferred from Josh. 5, 2 f., " t h e second t i m e " ) ; t h e y w e r e b a p t i z e d in the desert ( E x o d . 19, 10, " S a n c ­ tify y o u r s e l v e s " ) ; after t h e y pledged t h e m s e l v e s to k e e p all G o d ' s c o m m a n d ­ m e n t s t h e y were sprinkled w i t h the blood o f the c o v e n a n t sacrifice ( E x o d . 2

3

4

24, 3-8). 5

Sifra, A h a r e P e r e k 12: ma

p

*|K ma

p m?K

TO.

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

335

reception) like that of a new born child; the casuistic question is raised whether a son born before his conversion is his first­ born son and legal heir. This principle is cited in a discussion between scholars of the first half of the second century with a different application. The question there is, why in those days proselytes suffered so severely, and in reply to an opinion that it was because before their conversion they had not strictly observed the seven commandments given to the descendants of Noah (i.e. to all the heathen), R. Jose quotes, " A proselyte who embraces Judaism is like a new-born child." God cannot therefore now chastise him for deeds done or duties neglected before his new birth. In other words, all former sins are done away by conversion and reception into the Jewish religious com­ munity through circumcision and baptism. Equality in law and religion does not necessarily carry with it complete social equality, and the Jews would have been singu­ larly unlike the rest of mankind if they had felt no superiority to their heathen converts. To the old classification, Priests, Levites, (lay) Israelites, a fourth category was added, Prose­ lytes; and sometimes a subdivision puts them far down in the table of precedence, after (Israelite) bastards and Nethinim (descendants of old temple-slaves), and only above (heathen) slaves who had been circumcised and emancipated by their masters. 1

2

3

4

The autonomy of Judaea was achieved and successfully main­ tained by the Maccabaean brothers, Jonathan and Simon. Their successors entertained larger ambitions, and by a series of aggressive wars extended their dominion in all directions, to the 1

Y e b a m o t 62a; B e k o r o t 47a, t o p . T h e l a w s o f prohibited degrees also offer problems for c a s u i s t r y ; Y e b a m o t 22a; 62a, near the e n d ; 9 7 0 - 9 ^ ; 98b. Y e b a m o t 48b. T h a t the p r o s e l y t e s suffer for their neglect o f the l a w s w h i c h as h e a t h e n t h e y w e r e b o u n d t o o b e y is the v i e w o f R . H a n i n a , son o f R . G a m a l i e l ( I I ) ; the r e p l y is m a d e b y R . Jose ben IJalafta. O t h e r e x p l a n a ­ tions follow. T o s . K i d d u s h i n 5, 1. M . H o r a i y o t 3, 8; H o r a i y o t 13a. 2

3

4

336

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

south over Idumaea, to the north over Galilee, east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea to the edge of the desert, and on the Mediter­ ranean seaboard from the desert in the south to Mt. Carmel in the north. In the break up of the Seleucid kingdom, no neigh­ boring state arose permanently to contest their power; and this superiority the Asmonaean dynasty held for eighty years. John Hyrcanus imposed the Jewish religion on the Idumaeans by compulsory circumcision; his successor Aristobulus did the same for the mixed population of northern Galilee and the Ituraeans of the southern Lebanon; and it would be quite in character if Alexander Jannaeus multiplied Jews in a similar impromptu manner in the fields of his conquests. Besides such forcible and skin-deep conversions, many doubtless of their own accord sought to be enrolled in the governing people from mo­ tives in which religious conviction had small place. The Jews, thanks in part to their independence at home, in part to their dispersion abroad which gave them ready-made commercial con­ nections everywhere, were under the Asmonaeans and under Herod, a highly prosperous people; and in the Hellenistic cities and by Roman favor enjoyed exceptional privileges and exemp­ tions. Under such circumstances it is not strange that conver­ sions were numerous; all the more because the religions in which men had been born had little real hold upon them when civic duties and local associations were dissolved by distance and they mingled in the heterogeneous population of foreign lands. That many did in fact embrace Judaism from purely worldly motives the religious leaders were painfully aware. Several kinds of what we might call counterfeit converts are enumerated. There is the 'love proselyte,' a man who becomes a proselyte for the sake of marrying a Jewish woman, or a woman for the 1

2

1

I n an interesting passage in Sifre on D e u t . 33, 19 (§ 354), the s p e c t a c l e o f the J e w s , all w o r s h i p p i n g one G o d , all e a t i n g the s a m e kinds o f food, m a k e s so g r e a t an impression on h e a t h e n visitors to J e r u s a l e m , w h o h a v e m a n y different gods and different rules a b o u t food, t h a t t h e y m a k e haste to b e c o m e proselytes t o s u c h a u n i f y i n g religion. Jer. K i d d u s h i n 65b; cf. Y e b a m o t 24b. 2

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

CHAP, VII]

337

sake of taking a Jewish husband; another professes conversion for a place at the king's table (advancement at court), or like Solomon's servants (probably with a similar motive). Such are declared by R. Nehemiah to be no proselytes; and he passes the same judgement on 'lion proselytes' (like the Cuthaeans in Samaria, who took to the worship of the Lord out of fear of lions, but at the same time kept on with their heathen worship and ways; 1 Kings 17, 24-33); men who become proselytes in consequence of a dream (interpreted as commanding them to be­ come Jews); the proselytes of the days of Mordecai and Esther ("for the fear of the Jews was fallen upon them," Esther 8, 17)— "these are no proselytes!" Only those, he continues, who are converted in a time like this — the dire days after the war under Hadrian, when there was nothing to gain and nothing to fear from the Jews, no worldly advantage, therefore, to be got by casting in a man's lot with them — only such are genuine proselytes. Ultimately, however, the view prevailed that they are to be regarded and treated as proselytes so long as they have been properly received and do not openly apostatize; motives for conversion lie beyond legal cognizance. One class of converts who were brought into the body of Israel by improper motives are those who are called gerim gerurim, of which the Gibeonites (Josh. 9) are the typical example. The participle signifies 'dragged in,' and is applied to heathen who Judaize in mass, as whole peoples, under the impulsion of fear, like the Gibeonites. Instances of such mass conversions in more recent times were the Idumaeans, who were forced by John Hyrcanus to submit to circumcision, and the Ituraeans, who were similarly Judaized by Aristobulus. They doubtless proved for a good while to be very unsatisfactory Jews, and while 1

2

3

4

1

P r o s e l y t e s o f this v a r i e t y m a y h a v e been n u m e r o u s in the d a y s o f t h e later A s m o n a e a n s . Disciple of R . A k i b a . Y e b a m o t 24b. A c c o r d i n g to Jer. ELiddushin 65b p r o s e l y t e s o f the classes e n u m e r a t e d a b o v e " are not r e c e i v e d . " S o R a b , in the places c i t e d . 2

3

4

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

338

[PART I

there is, so far as I know, no specific mention of their case, it is very likely that they were thought of when the gerim gerurim were discussed. The rule finally established was that, although they did not accept Judaism for God's sake, they are legally proselytes, and to be protected in their rights as such. In contrast to all these spurious or dubious proselytes, the sincere and genuine proselyte is called ger sedek, 'righteous proselyte.' They are such as embrace the religion from religious motives,'for the sake of God,' {le-shem Shamaim)? and thence­ forth live in conformity to his will revealed in the twofold law as they pledged themselves to do at their reception. Another name applied to such converts is gere emet, 'true, or genuine, proselytes.' To the righteous proselytes are sometimes applied texts in the Old Testament which speak of the righteous, or of such as fear God, i.e. are truly religious. In the daily prayers, as we have seen, the petition for God's blessing upon the right­ eous proselytes stands in significant juxtaposition to an impreca­ tion of his wrath upon Jewish apostates. 1

2

4

5

The word ger by itself having come to mean proselyte, that is, a convert to Judaism who had been received by circumcision and baptism not only into the religion but into the Jewish people, it was necessary to find a distinctive term for the resident alien. 1

T h e p r o o f is t h e famine t h a t G o d sent on Israel for S a u l ' s t r e a t m e n t o f the G i b e o n i t e s a n d t h e expiation d e m a n d e d for his sin (2 S a m . 21, 1-9). Jer. ILiddushin 65D-C; M i d r a s h S h e m u e l 28, 5; N u m . R . 8, 4. p*l¥ 1J. S e e S h e m o n e h ' E s r e h 13; T W n 1»rP pTttl njl bv (Palestinian recension); "pDm IDiT pi¥n by\ . . . D^pnsn hv ( B a b y l o n i a n recension; cf. M e g i l l a h 17b, e n d ) ; Sifra, A h a r e P e r e k 13 (ed. W e i s s , f. 86b), citing P s a l m 118, 20. O t h e r references below, p. 340. T h e c o m m o n t r a n s l a t i o n , ' p r o s e l y t e o f r i g h t e o u s n e s s / in v e r b a l imitation o f t h e H e b r e w i d i o m , instead o f t h e i d i o m a t i c E n g l i s h * righteous p r o s e l y t e , ' h a s doubtless c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e erroneous notion t h a t t h e phrase w a s originally intended to distinguish the ' f u l l ' p r o s e l y t e from t h e ' h a l f ' p r o s e l y t e ( ' p r o s e l y t e o f t h e g a t e / see b e l o w , p. 340 f.). O n this m o t i v e as a principle of c o n d u c t , see V o l . I I , p . 98. nftK e.g. N i d d a h 56b; Sanhedrin 85b; HDK bw Dni, T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , B e m i d b a r § 31. T h e opposite is nj, Jer. B a b a M e s i ' a 10c. S o e.g. M i d r a s h T e h i l l i m on P s a l m 22, 24 (ed. B u b e r f. 98a). R . S a m u e l b a r N a h m a n . S e e N o t e 96. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

339

This term in rabbinical law is ger toshab. The doctrine of the lawyers about the ger toshab may be briefly summarized as fol­ lows: He is an alien, resident in Jewish territory by sufferance, but on condition that while thus resident he do not engage in the worship of other gods or in idolatrous practices, and do not blaspheme the name of God; that he hold himself subject to the jurisdiction of Jewish courts; that he keep himself free of flagrant crimes, homicide, robbery and theft, adultery and fornication; and finally, that he abstain from eating flesh with the life blood in it — the seven commandments which, as we have seen above, were said to have been given by God to Adam and Noah, and to be consequently binding upon all mankind. He was not required to join in the worship of the God of Israel, nor to take upon him any further obligation to observe the commandments of God to Israel, though he enjoyed with all others the exemption from labor on the Sabbath which gives rest on that day to slaves and hirelings of every race and estate, as well as to oxen and asses which precede him in the enumeration. Nothing but misunderstanding can come from calling the ger toshab a 'proselyte' or .'semi-proselyte'; he was not a convert to 1

c

Judaism at all. The ger toshab, as uncircumcised (ger arel), is ex­

pressly distinguished from the circumcised proselyte (ger ben berii) who has come into the covenant of God with Israel, or the ger mahul, which is the same thing. Conclusive proof that the ger toshab is a heathen may be taken from two items of the law: he may eat 'carrion' (nebelah), which no Israelite or proselyte may touch; and, in the sphere of civil law, it is permissible to take usury from a ger toshab equally with any other heathen, while it is strictly forbidden to take usury, either in the biblical or the rabbinical definition, from an Israelite, native or adventitious. 2

1

' A b o d a h Z a r a h 64b. O n the c o m m a n d m e n t s for the descendants o f N o a h , see a b o v e , p p . 274 f. A simpler definition of the ger toshab is " o n e w h o pledges himself in the presence o f three s c r u p u l o u s l y o b s e r v a n t persons (D^nn) to abstain from i d o l a t r y ' ; ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 64b; cf. 65a. Nebelah is the flesh o f animals not c o r r e c t l y slaughtered ( M . r l u l l i n 2,4). T h e ger to w h o m an Israelite m a y g i v e it ( D e u t . 14, 21) is the ger toshab; Sifre 2

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

34°

[PART I

Much of what is said in our rabbinical sources about the ger toshab was only of exegetical or casuistical interest in the age from which those sources come. Whatever definitions and rules the rabbis made applied only to the land of Israel and to times when it lay in the power of the Jews to determine upon what conditions aliens should be allowed to establish residence among them. Since the eighteenth century another category of proselytes has figured largely in the Christian books, the so-called 'prose­ lytes of the gate/ with whom, in contrast to the 'proselytes of righteousness/ or' full proselytes/ the God-fearing Gentiles dis­ cussed above are identified. The name, which to the unin­ formed might suggest converts who lingered at the door of the synagogue, is derived indirectly from passages in the Bible which speak of the ger (alien) who is in thy gates' (resident in Israelite cities or towns). In the second century the question was raised whether in the Fourth Commandment of the De­ calogue (Exod. 20, io) this ger was a ger sedelz, i.e. a proselyte, who was under a personal obligation to keep the sabbath like a born Jew, or a^ger toshab, who was subject to no such obligation. The former opinion prevailed. 1

2

1

3

4

in loc, § 104. T h e ger o f L e v . 17, 15, for w h o m the l a w o f nebelah is the s a m e as for the Israelite, is therefore the ger ben berit, n o t the ger toshab \ Sifra, A h a r e P e r e k 12 (ed. W e i s s , f. 84d, e n d ) . See N o t e 104. O n u s u r y (neshek, tarbit D e u t . 23, 20 f.; L e v . 25, 36 f.) on loans b e t w e e n Israelites and the ger toshab see M . B a b a M e s i ' a 5, 6. W h a t is to be done if a G e n t i l e becomes a p r o s e l y t e (nitgayyer) while a loan on interest b e t w e e n h i m a n d an Israelite is o u t s t a n d i n g , see T o s . B a b a M e s i ' a 5 , 2 1 ; Jer. B a b a M e s i ' a f. 10c; B a b a M e § i ' a 72a. O n the ger toshab, see further N o t e 104. I n an e n u m e r a t i o n o f l a w s and institutions t h a t fell i n t o d e s u e t u d e from the t i m e w h e n the y e a r of J u b i l e e ceased to be k e p t (i.e. since the exile), R . S i m e o n ben E l e a z a r (latter p a r t o f the second c e n t u r y ) includes the ger toshab (see L e v . 25, 47-54); ' A r a k i n 29a. T h i s m a y h o w e v e r refer o n l y to the p a r t i c u l a r case c o n t e m p l a t e d — a J e w in s l a v e r y t o s u c h an alien. Zefiofxevoi (ofiov}xevoL) rbv deov; see a b o v e p p . 325 f. E x o d . 20, 10; D e u t . 5, 14; 31, 12, etc. Often n a m e d in D e u t e r o n o m y , w i t h w i d o w s , o r p h a n s , and the landless l e v i t e s , as objects o f charitable pro­ v i s i o n ; e.g. D e u t . 16, 1 1 , 14; 14, 29; 26, 12. See also Sifre D e u t . on 14, 29 (§no). M e k i l t a on E x o d . 20, 10 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 69b; ed. W e i s s f. 77a); cf. on 23,12 ( F r i e d m a n n , f. 101a; W e i s s f. 107b); Y e b a m o t 48b. y

1

2

3

m

4

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

From much that has been written about the 'proselyte of the gate' it would be inferred that the name was in common use among the rabbis to designate a class of 'semi-proselytes/ This is an error. The phrase ger shaar,' gate proselyte/ is not found in any Talmudic source. I know no occurrence earlier than R. Moses ben Nahman (d. 1270), who uses it in his commentary on Exod. 20, 10 merely as an abbreviated expression for the ger "who is in thy gates/' and is so far from knowing it as an estab­ lished designation for a special class of 'proselytes' that he re­ verts to the old discussion whether the ger shdar was a ger sedek (proselyte) or a ger toshab, that is, an alien who eats the flesh of animals not properly slaughtered. The attitude of the religious leaders of Judaism toward prose­ lytes differed in different circumstances, and individual teachers had their own sympathies or antipathies. Shammai would have nothing to do with one who was not prepared to give implicit assent, before knowing its contents, to the unwritten law as well as the written. In the generation that came after the fall of Jerusalem, R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, in this also a true heir of Shammai's spirit, had a bad opinion of all proselytes: They are prone to fall back into their old ways, because they are natur­ ally bad; it is for this reason that the Scripture had so often to admonish Israelites not to give them offense by word or deed; such a relapsed proselyte is meant in Exod. 23, 4 by the word 'enemy.' Their misfortunes come from obeying the law not out of love to God, but out of fear of his punishments. It may be assumed that a foreigner's mind is always set on idolatry. 1

2

3

4

1

M e k i l t a , M i s h p a t i m 18, on E x o d . 22, 20 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 95a; ed. W e i s s f. 101a). A c c o r d i n g to M e k i l t a de R . S i m e o n ben Y o h a i on E x o d . 23, 9, R . E i i e z e r c o u n t e d thirty-six s u c h a d m o n i t i o n s ; a n o t h e r found f o r t y - e i g h t ( T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , W a y y i k r a § 3). S e e also B a b a M e s i ' a 59b, end. M e k i l t a , M i s h p a t i m 20 (on E x o d . I.e.), ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 99a; ed. W e i s s f. 104b. Y e b a m o t 48b. S e e also B a b a B a t r a 10b, m i d d l e . Jer. B e s a h 60a; G i t t i n , 45b. O n E l i e z e r ' s a t t i t u d e t o w a r d proselytes a n d h e a t h e n see B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I , 106 f. 2

3

4

342

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

The school of Hillel, on the contrary, like their master, wel­ comed converts, and admitted them even though their knowledge was imperfect and their observance faulty. Hillel's motto was: " Be one of the disciples of Aaron, a lover of peace, following after peace, loving mankind, and drawing them to the Law (religion)." In another anecdote illustrating the different temper of the two masters, a foreigner comes to Shammai saying, "Make a prose­ lyte of me, on condition that you teach me the whole of the Law while I stand on one foot. Shammai drove him off with a measuring-stick he had in his hand. Thereupon he repaired to Hillel with the same proposition; Hillel received him as a prose­ lyte and taught him: "What you do not like to have done to you do not do to your fellow. This is the whole of the Law; the rest is the explanation of it. Go, learn it." Speaking generally the tone of the utterances about proselytes is friendly, though not unduly enthusiastic. This is the more to be noted because the Jews' experience with proselytes must at times have been decidedly discouraging. It can hardly be doubted that in perilous times many apostatized. In the out­ side lands, at least, many went over to Christianity. In the persecution under Hadrian they were under strong temptation to clear their own skirts by turning informers. It would be nothing surprising if under such circumstances the rabbis should have looked askance at all proselytes. There is, however, little evidence of such a temper. The following extracts may serve to illustrate the biblical method of the schools as well as the sub­ stance of their teaching about the treatment of proselytes. The first is from the Mekilta on Exodus 22, 20, " A n alien (ger) thou shalt not injure nor oppress, for ye were aliens in the land of Egypt." Taking ger of an alien who has come over to the religion of Israel, a proselyte, it comments thus: 1

,,

2

3

4

1

A b o t 1, 12. S h a b b a t 31a. See V o l . I I , p p . 86 f. See N o t e 106. M e k i l t a , M i s h p a t i m 18 (ed. F r i e d m a n n f. 95a-b; ed. W e i s s f. i o i a - b ) ; cf. also B a b a M e s i ' a 58b, 59b. 2

3

4

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

Do not injure him with words and do not oppress him in money matters. One must not say to him, Yesterday you were worshipping Bel, £ores, Nebo, and with swine's flesh still between your teeth you answer back to me! And whence do we see that if you insult him, he can retort the insult? Because the Scripture says, * for ye were aliens.' Hence R. Nathan used to say, Do not throw up to your fellow a blemish you have yourself. Proselytes are dear to God, for he is everywhere admonishing about them, * Do not wrong a proselyte,' and 'you shall love the proselyte,' and you know the feelings of the proselyte.' R. Eiiezer said: It is on account of the proselyte's natural depravity that the Scrip­ ture admonishes about him in many places. R. Simeon ben Yohai said: It says, 'And those that love him are like the sun when it rises in its power.' Which is greater, he who loves the king or he whom the king loves? You must say, he whom the king loves, as it is said (of God), 'And he loveth a proselyte.' Proselytes are dear to God, for you will find that the same things are said about them as about Israel: the Israelites are called servants, as it is said, 'For to me the Israelites are servants' (Lev. 25, 53), and proselytes are called servants, as it is said, ' T o love the name of the Lord and to be servants to him' (Isa. 56, 6); the Israelites are called ministers, as it is said, 'And ye shall be called the priests of the Lord, ministers of our God shall be said of you' (Isa. 61, 6), and the proselytes are called ministers, as it is said, 'The foreigners who attach them­ selves to the Lord to minister to him' (Isa. 56, 6); the Israelites are called friends, as it is said, 'The offspring of Abraham, my friend' (Isa. 41, 8); the proselytes are called friends, as it is said (of God), 'Friend of the proselyte' (Deut. 10, 18); the word 'covenant' is used of the Israel­ ites, as it is said, 'And my covenant shall be in your flesh* (Gen. 17, 13); and so it is used of proselytes, as it is said, 4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

2

3

4

6

6

7

8

E x o d . 22, 20; D e u t . 10, 19; E x o d . 23, 9, etc. See a b o v e , p . 341, n. 1. J u d g e s 5, 31. D e u t . 10, 18. W i t h these parallels cf. also N u m . R . 8, 2. D H ^ y , ' bond servants.' D^mK'D, free s e r v a n t s , or a t t e n d a n t s . DUiTIN, literally, ' l o v e r s /

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

344

[PART I

'Who hold fast my covenant' (Isa. 56, 6); 'acceptance' is used of the Israelites as it is said, 'With acceptance before the Lord' (Exod. 28, 38); and of proselytes, as it is said, 'Their burnt offerings and sacrifices with acceptance on my altar' (Isa. 56, 7); 'keeping' is spoken of the Israelites, as it is said, 'He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep' (Psalm 121, 4), and of proselytes, as it is said, 'The Lord who keeps the proselytes' (Psalm 146, 9). Abraham calls himself a proselyte, as it is said, ' A stranger (ger) and a sojourner am I with you' (Gen. 23, 4 ) ; David calls him­ self a proselyte, as it is said, 'A stranger (ger) am I in the land' (Psalm 119, 19); and it says, 'For we are strangers and sojourners before thee like all our fathers, for our days are a shadow on the earth and there is no abiding' (1 Chron. 29, 15); and again, 'I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner like all my fathers' (Psalm 39, 13). Dear (to God) are the proselytes, for our father Abraham was not circumcised till he was ninety-nine years old. If he had been circumcised at twenty or at thirty a man could have become a prose­ lyte only at a lower age than twenty or thirty; therefore God postponed it in his case till he arrived at the age of ninety-nine, in order not to bolt the door in the face of proselyte^who come, and to give a reward for days and years, and to increase the reward of one who does his will, as it is said, 'The Lord was pleased for his righteousness' sake to magnify the law and glorify it' (Isa. 42, 21). And so you will find it of the four classes who answer and say be­ fore him who spake and the world came into being,' I am the Lord's'; for it says (Isa. 44, 5), 'One says, I am the Lord's, 1

2

3

1

A b r a h a m w a s n o t o n l y a proselyte w h o c a m e o v e r from heathenism t o the true religion, b u t a g r e a t m a k e r o f proselytes. G e n . 12, 5 , ' the souls t h e y had g o t t e n (literally, ' m a d e ' ) in H a r a n , ' are the proselytes t h e y had m a d e t h e r e ; see e.g. G e n . R . in loc. (39, near e n d ) : " T h e v e r b ' m a d e * is used to t e a c h t h a t one w h o brings a foreigner (nokri) near and m a k e s a proselyte o f him is as if he c r e a t e d h i m . " C f . G e n . R . 84, 2 (on G e n . 37, 1). T o ' b r i n g near* (sc. to G o d ) is frequent for ' m a k e a p r o s e l y t e / e.g. Jer. ]£iddushin 65b, end. See also b e l o w , p . 348, n. 4. T o illustrate G o d ' s singular l o v e for proselytes N u m . R . has a p r e t t y p a r a b l e of a king's affection for a s t r a y gazelle o f the desert t h a t h a d j o i n e d itself to his flocks and w e n t in and o u t w i t h t h e m . I n the parable o f the lost sheep ( M a t t . 18, 12 f.) the point is the shepherd's a n x i e t y o v e r one of his o w n flock t h a t has w a n d e r e d a w a y . See also N o t e 107. Cf. G e n . R . 46, init. (cf. G e n . 17, 1). 2

3

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF GENTILES

and one calls on the name of Jacob, and one inscribes with his hand, Unto the Lord, and (another) takes Israel for a surname/ 'I am the Lord's'—and may there be no admix­ ture of sin in me! 'One calls on the name of Jacob' — these are the righteous proselytes. 'One inscribes with his hand, Unto the Lord' — these are the penitents; 'And takes Israel for a surname' — these are they that fear Heaven." From the other great school of the period, that of Akiba, a corresponding deliverance is found in the Sifra on Lev. 19, 3 4 : "'Thou shalt not wrong him.' That is you shall not say to him, Yesterday you were an idolater and now you have come beneath the wings of the Shekinah. 'Like the native born.' As the native born is one who takes upon him all the com­ mandments of the law, so the proselyte is one who takes upon him all the commandments of the law. Hence the rule: A proselyte who takes upon him all the command­ ments of the law with a single exception is not to be ad­ mitted. R. Jose son of R. Judah says, Even one of the minutiae of the scribal regulations. 'Shall the proselyte be who sojourns with you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.' Just as it is said in relation to Israelites, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' so in relation to proselytes (gerim) it is said, 'Thou shalt love him as thyself, for ye were stran­ gers (gerim) in the land of Egypt/ Understand how prose­ lytes feel; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 1

These passages from the juristic Midrash express with author­ ity the teaching of the schools in the second century. There is no reason to doubt that it is what they taught before the war under Hadrian; it was preserved and transmitted by the disciples who restored the schools after the war, and is repeated in Baraitas in the Talmud as the accepted doctrine and rule. 2

1

Sifra, ]£edoshim P e r e k 8 (ed. W e i s s f. 91a). T h e c h a p t e r begins w i t h the reasonable r e q u i r e m e n t t h a t a m a n w h o comes t o a Jewish c o m m u n i t y professing to be a proselyte m u s t present e v i d e n c e o f the fact. Cf. M e k i l t a d e - R . S i m e o n ben Y o h a i on E x o d . 22, 20; B a b a M e s i ' a 58b; 59b. I n a m u c h later homiletical M i d r a s h , N u m . R . 8, is a large c o m p i l a t i o n of m a t t e r a b o u t proselytes from v a r i o u s sources and a g e s , b u t t h r o u g h o u t in the s a m e spirit. T h e p o s t - T a l m u d i c M a s s e k e t G e r i m brings t o g e t h e r chiefly j u r i s t i c material from the T a l m u d s . 2

346

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

It is not at variance with this attitude when it is taught that in the Days of the Messiah proselytes will not be received, as they were not received, it is said, in the times of David and Solo­ mon. The presumption is that those who sought to be natural­ ized when Israel was enjoying extraordinary power and prosper­ ity did so only from motives of self-interest, not from religious motives; how much more in the messianic age! Heathen who in that age profess Judaism in mass (gerim gerurim) and put on phylacteries and fringes, and fasten mezuzot on their door posts in imitation of Jewish custom, when the war of Gog and Magog breaks out will abjure their profession and desert the Jewish cause. This was not, however, a unanimous opinion. R. Jose (ben IJalafta) taught, on the contrary, that in the time to come (the messianic age) the heathen would come and become proselytes. In the same spirit we read in a later Palestinian Midrash: "God says, In this age, through the efforts of the righteous, individuals become proselytes, but in the Age to Come, I will draw the righteous (Gentiles) near, and bring them beneath the wings of the Shekinah, as it is written, 'For then will I give the peoples, in exchange for their own, a pure language, that they may all of them call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one consent," (Zeph. 3, 9). Strong antipathy to proselytes is rarely expressed. R. JJelbo, a Palestinian teacher of the latter part of the third century, declares that proselytes are as troublesome to Israel as the itch. This peculiar form of trouble is discovered by an ingenious com­ bination of the word sappahat (a cutaneous eruption, Lev. 13, 2 ) 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

4

2

5

Y e b a m o t 24b; ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 3b. ' A b o d a h Z a r a h 3b. S e e a b o v e , p . 337. Ibid. Ibid. T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , W a y y e r a § 38. S e e V o l . I I , p p . 371 ff. Y e b a m o t 47b, cf. 109b; l & d d u s h i n 70b; N i d d a h 13b. I n the p a s s a g e c i t e d l a s t it is said on T a n n a i t e a u t h o r i t y IJH) t h a t proselytes a n d nipUTO D^pn^D hinder the c o m i n g o f the M e s s i a h . O n the m e a n i n g o f the l a t t e r phrase see K l a u s n e r , D i e messianischen V o r s t e l l u n g e n des j i i d i s c h e n V o l k e s , u . s. w . , p . 37. 3

6

7

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

347

with nispahu (the proselytes 'will cleave' to the house of Jacob, Isa. 1 4 , 1 ) . Whether R. IJelbo was seriously ill-affected to proselytes or only proud of his pun, and if the former, what his grievance was, is not revealed. The contexts in which his words are quoted are not more enlightening, and in any case, come from a time that lies beyond our present concern. It gratified Jewish pride in the demonstrated superiority of the true God and the true religion to play with the imagination that bitter enemies of Israel had been constrained to acknowledge this superiority and become converts to Judaism, like Nebuzaradan, who was a righteous proselyte; or that their descendants were converted and became teachers of the Law in Palestine, like those of Sisera and Sennacherib. God would have brought the grandsons of Nebuchadnezzar beneath the wings of the Shekinah, had not the ministering angels made too strong a protest. Shemaiah and Abtalion were descendants of Senna­ cherib; descendants of Haman were also among the teachers of the Law. It must be observed, however, that in the latter cases there is another idea: The sins of heathen fathers are not an attainder which excludes their posterity from the Jewish people or from the highest honor the rabbis could conceive, that of being Doctors of the Law. Some of the most eminent schoolmen of the second century were, or are reputed to have been, of proselyte ancestry. This is said of both Akiba and his great disciple R. Meir. The name of the proselyte Aquila, is, thanks to his translation of the Bible, the best known of all to Christian scholars. The emphasis laid by the rabbis on sincerity in conversion led them, as appears in the rite of admission quoted above, to an inquiry into the candidate's motives, and to a setting forth of the difficulties and dangers to which a proselyte exposed himself which might well dissuade him from his purpose if it was not 1

2

1

Sanhedrin 96b; G i t t i n 57b. O n the legends o f the imperial p r o s e l y t e ' A n t o n i n u s ' (Jer. M e g i l l a h 72b, 74a) a n d his relations to the P a t r i a r c h J u d a h , see B a c h e r , T a n n a i t e n , I I , 457 f.; G i n z b e r g , J e w i s h E n c y c l o p e d i a , I , 6$6L 2

348

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

honest and strong. Caution is enjoined against carrying this dissuasive so far as to turn away even the sincere. The same caution is given elsewhere. R. Johanan quotes Job 31, 32: "The proselyte shall not lodge without; I will open my doors to the wayfarer," as a proof text for the rule that proselytes should be held back with the left (the weaker) hand and drawn near with the right; men should not do like Elisha, who thrust Gehazi away with both hands. So in a Baraita: "Always the left hand should repel and the right hand draw near; not like Elisha, who thrust Gehazi away with both hands; nor like Joshua ben Perahiah, who thrust away Jesus the Nazarene with both hands." A contemporary of R. Johanan, R. Abba Areka (Rab), the first great name in the history of the Babylonian schools, re­ marks on the dictum quoted in a previous connection that those who seek to become proselytes from motives of self-interest are not to be received: "The rule is, They are proselytes; and they are not to be repelled as proselytes are repelled at the outset, but received; and they must have friendly treatment, for perhaps after all they have become proselytes for religious motives (for God's sake)." There is no way of estimating statistically the results of Jewish propaganda in the centuries that fall within the limits of our inquiry, but they were indisputably very large, even if only proselytes in the proper sense be taken into account. The con1

2

3

4

5

1

See a b o v e , p . 333. Jer. Sanhedrin 29b. O n the legend o f G e h a z i and E l i s h a ' s fruitless j o u r n e y t o D a m a s c u s t o t r y to reclaim h i m , see J e w i s h E n c y c l o p e d i a , V , 580 f. Sanhedrin 107b; S o t a h 47a. O n the l a t t e r e x a m p l e o f such excess o f zeal and its consequences (which is suppressed in the censored editions o f the T a l m u d ) , see H . S t r a c k , D i e H a r e t i k e r u n d die C h r i s t e n n a c h den altesten jiidischen A n g a b e n , 1910, p p . 10 f., 32* f. Jer. K i d d u s h i n 65b (see a b o v e , p . 337). C f . M e k i l t a , Y i t r o 1 (ed. F r i e d ­ m a n n f. 58a-b; ed. W e i s s f. 66a, e n d ) . A s G o d b r o u g h t Jethro near and did not repel h i m , so, " W h e n a m a n comes to thee t o b e c o m e a p r o s e l y t e , he does n o t c o m e e x c e p t for G o d ' s s a k e (from religious m o t i v e s ) ; d o t h o u therefore bring him near and d o n o t repel h i m . " See N o t e 107. O n this point see H a r n a c k , A u s b r e i t u n g des C h r i s t e n t u m s , 4 ed., p p . 13 ff. 2

3

4

6

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

verts were of many races, and of all ranks in society. According to Dio Cassius, Flavius Clemens, an uncle of the emperor, consul in 95 A.D., who was put to death by Domitian in the same year on a charge of adeoTrjs, and his wife Flavia Domitilla, who was exiled on the same charge, were probably proselytes to Judaism. Josephus narrates at length and with evident satisfaction the conversion to Judaism of the royal family of Adiabene, which in the first century of our era was ruled by native kings in some kind of dependence on Parthia. In the first half of the century the queen, Helena, embraced Judaism, and her son, Izates, who was at the time living abroad, was independendy converted to the same religion. After Izates succeeded to the throne, he was circumcised, and many of his kindred were moved to follow his example. Queen Helena spent many years in Jerusalem, and her body was conveyed thither to be buried in a tomb that is still standing. Izates died about 55 A.D., and was also buried in Jerusalem, leaving the kingdom to his brother Monobazus II. His successors also adhered to Judaism. The dynasty came to an end in 116 A.D., when Trajan conquered Adiabene and made it the province of Assyria. It may safely be assumed, as in like conditions in the expansion of Christianity, that a large part of the people of Adiabene adopted the religion of their rulers, and the Judaizing of the population may have been furthered by the strong Jewish settlements and flourishing schools at Nisibis. 1

2

3

1

D i o C a s s i u s , lxvii. 14. See J u s t e r , L e s Juifs d a n s Pempire r o m a i n , I , 257, and the literature there listed. I t is t h o u g h t b y a m a j o r i t y of scholars t h a t D i o C a s s i u s did not discriminate C h r i s t i a n s from J e w s , a n d t h a t the v i c t i m s w e r e in fact C h r i s t i a n s . I f it w e r e certain t h a t the F l a v i a D o m i t i l l a w h o s e n a m e appears in a C h r i s t i a n inscription w a s the wife o f C l e m e n t , t h e e v i d e n c e w o u l d be d e c i s i v e . A d i a b e n e e m b r a c e d at this time m o s t o f the territory o f ancient A s s y r i a east o f the T i g r i s . I n Izates* reign the P a r t h i a n k i n g A r t a b a n u s a d d e d t o it the district o f N i s i b i s . J o s e p h u s , A n t t . x x . 2-4; B e l l . J u d . ii. 19, 2; i v . 9, 1 1 ; v . 2, 2; 3, 3; 4, 2; 6, 1; v i . 6, 3 f. See Schiirer, G e s c h i c h t e des j u d i s c h e n V o l k e s , I I I , 118 ff. (with literature). F o r the T a l m u d i c legends a b o u t this d y n a s t y see B r i i l l , Jahrbiicher, u . s. w . , I , 72-80. 2

3

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

35°

[PART I

The Jews in the Roman empire, as has been already said, en­ joyed certain extraordinary privileges and exemptions, the most important of which was that they were not required to do any­ thing which implied a recognition of another god. Thus, after Augustus, when the worship of the Roman emperors became an imperial religion and was cultivated with obsequious zeal in the provinces, the Jews, and they alone, were not required to manifest their loyalty in any of the usual forms of adoration such as burning incense before the image of the emperor, or to take oath by the emperors. In strictness this exemption would have ex­ tended only to peregrine Jews, not to such as acquired the status of Roman citizens, and particularly not to freedmen, who in law were bound to worship the sacra of their former masters. But here also an exception was made in their favor, and various other privileges were accorded to them. These rights and privileges belonged, however, only to those who were by birth members of the Jewish nation. If a proselyte did not worship the gods, he made himself liable to prosecution for 'atheism.' The abstention was not likely to attract remark except in the case of officials whose duty it was to conduct pagan rites or assist in them. Converts of this class were, however, not numerous, and probably few of those who would otherwise have embraced Judaism were deterred by apprehension that this law might be invoked against them. Domitian's energetic col­ lection of the special poll-tax on Jews, the fiscus Judaicus, which was exacted from those who without openly professing their ad­ hesion to Judaism lived like Jews, as well as from born Jews who concealed their race, gave occupation to the informers whom he 1

2

3

1

Hellenistic m o n a r c h s h a d l o n g before followed the s a m e p o l i c y , g r a n t i n g t o J e w s the rights o f c i t i z e n s , b u t e x e m p t i n g t h e m from p a r t i c i p a t i o n in h e a t h e n cults w h i c h otherwise w e r e i n c u m b e n t on all citizens. See on the w h o l e s u b j e c t , J u s t e r , L e s Juifs d a n s T e m p i r e r o m a i n , I , 245 f. ' A t h e i s m / in l a w , w a s n o t the theoretical denial o f the existence o f g o d s , b u t the failure t o w o r s h i p the gods t h a t the s t a t e r e c o g n i z e d . T h e half-shekel t a x raised b y the J e w s e v e r y w h e r e for the m a i n t e n a n c e o f the public sacrifices in the t e m p l e in Jerusalem w a s c o n v e r t e d b y V e s p a s i a n after the destruction o f the temple into a special t a x o f t w o d r a c h m a e per 2

3

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

351

encouraged; and their denunciations probably included some more highly placed in society than the mass of Roman Jewry. This seems to be implied in the measures of his successor, Nerva, who discharged those who were under accusation of do-efcia, recalled those who had been banished, and prohibited delations either for acrefieia and adopting the Jewish way of living, or about the poll-tax. The laws, however, were not changed. A much more serious check must have been given to the ac­ cession of proselytes when Hadrian made circumcision itself a crime, a measure which is said to have provoked the revolt of the Jews in 132 A.D. The law, which was not directed particu­ larly against the Jews, apparently put circumcision in the same category with castration, a capital crime. In the more general proscription of the Jewish religion after the war we read of fathers who were put to death for circumcising their sons. Antoninus Pius made an exception from this general law in favor of the Jews only, who could therefore legally circumcise their own sons. For all others the law remained in full force. The penalties underwent some changes in the history of legislation, but were always most severe. Notwithstanding the severity of the laws, proselytes continued to join themselves to the Jews, as the renewal of the laws itself proves; but probably in di­ minished numbers. The laws expressly forbid masters to cir­ cumcise their slaves. The preaching of Christianity made converts among the 1

2

3

4

5

c a p i t a to be paid i n t o the public t r e a s u r y o f R o m e (Josephus, B e l l . J u d . v i i . 6, 6). O n D o m i t i a n ' s enforcement o f this l a w , see S u e t o n i u s , D o m i t i a n , c. 12; a n d on the w h o l e s u b j e c t , Juster, L e s Juifs dans T e m p i r e r o m a i n , I I , 282 ff. D i o C a s s i u s , lxviii. 1, 2. M e d a l s w i t h the inscription, Fisci j u d a i c i c a l u m nia s u b l a t a . Juster, op. cit. I , 258; I I , 385. H i s t o r i a A u g u s t a , H a d r i a n , 14, 2. D o w n to his t i m e circumcision seems n o t to h a v e been against the l a w . Juster, op. cit., I , 264 ff.; cf. I I , 191. M e k i l t a , Y i t r o 6, e n d ; L e v . R . 32, 1. C i r c u m c i d e r e Judaeis fllios suos tan turn rescripto d i v i P i i p e r m i t t i t u r : in non eiusdem religionis q u i hoc fecerit castrantis p o e n a irrogatur. D i g e s t xlviii. 8, 11 ( M o d e s t i n u s ) . See Juster, L e s Juifs d a n s l'empire r o m a i n , I , 266 ff., w h e r e the l a t e r legislation is also c i t e d . 1

2

3

4

5

352

R E V E A L E D RELIGION

[PART I

proselytes to Judaism as well as among the looser adherents of the synagogue. There were such, according to Acts 2, 10, among the converts of the Day of Pentecost. One of the seven admin­ istrators of charity to the Hellenistic community in Jerusalem Cdeacons') was Nicholas, an Antiochene proselyte (Acts 6, 5). There were, on the other hand, proselytes to Judaism who came over from the Gentile church. Epiphanius narrates how Aquila, the translator of the Bible, embraced Christianity and was baptized, but subsequently, in resentment of church discipline, turned to the Jews. In the absence of any other support for the story, it receives, and probably deserves, little credit, though there is nothing intrinsically improbable in such a change of faith. In times of persecution Christians sometimes joined the Jews, presumably to evade the test applied by the officials, adora­ tion of the emperor, to which Jews were not subject. The edicts of Christian emperors against circumcision are not confined exclusively to Jewish proselytism; they strike also various Christian sects which practiced circumcision. The renewal of particular legislation about circumcision, was how­ ever, of less consequence, for the Christian emperors made con­ version of Christians to Judaism a crime in itself, with increas­ ingly severe penalties both for the Christian convert and the Jew who converted him. The net of the law is spread wide; it takes in adherence to Judaism and its teachings, frequenting the synagogue, and calling oneself a Jew; thus including not only male proselytes, who were also liable to the laws prohibiting circumcision, but to women proselytes in the strict sense, and to the looser adherents of Judaism. The penalty was at first ar­ bitrary with the magistrates; then the law added confiscation of property and the inability to make a will. For the proselyte1

2

3

1

E p i p h a n i u s , D e mensuris et p o n d e r i b u s , c c . 14 f. T o one s u c h , p r o b a b l y a m a n o f some s t a n d i n g , w h o s o u g h t thus to s a v e himself from prosecution u n d e r S e p t i m i u s S e v e r u s , S e r a p i o n , bishop o f A n t i o c h at the end o f t h e second c e n t u r y , addressed a letter. E u s e b i u s , H i s toria ecclesiastica v i . 12. O n these sects see J u s t e r , L e s Juifs dans T e m p i r e r o m a i n , I , 270 n. 2

3

CHAP, vii]

CONVERSION OF G E N T I L E S

maker the legislation went on to equate the crime to laesa maiestas and finally made it simply capital, whether the convert was freeman or slave. Against all such attempts of pagan or Chris­ tian rulers to shut up Judaism in itself and prevent its spread, the Jews persisted in their missionary efforts to make the re­ ligion God had revealed to their fathers the religion of all mankind. y

1

1

Q u i c u m q u e s e r v u m seu i n g e n u u m , i n v i t u m v e l suasione p l e c t e n d a , e x c u l t u C h r i s t i a n a e religionis in n e f a n d a m s e c t a m r i t u m v e t r a n s d u x e r i t , c u m d i s p e n d i o f o r t u n a r u m c a p i t e p u n i e n d u m . N o v . T h e o d o s . iii. § 4. S e e further J u s t e r op. cit. I , 260-262.

PART

II

T H E IDEA OF GOD

CHAPTER I GOD AND THE

WORLD

JUDAISM, in the centuries with which we are concerned, had no body of articulated and systematized doctrine such as we under­ stand by the name theology. Philo, indeed, endeavored to har­ monize his hereditary religion with a Hellenistic philosophy, but the resulting theology exerted no discoverable influence on the main current of Jewish thought. As in the case of the Bible itself, any exposition of Jewish teaching on these subjects, by the very necessity of orderly disposition, unavoidably gives an ap­ pearance of system and coherence which the teachings them­ selves do not exhibit, and which were not in the mind of the teachers. This fact the reader must bear constantly in mind. It must further be remarked that the utterances of the rabbis on this subject are not dogmatic, carrying an authority compar­ able to the juristic definitions and decisions of the Halakah; they are in great part homiletic, often drawing instruction or edifica­ tion from the words of Scripture by ingenious turns of interpre­ tation, association, and application, which seized upon the at­ tention and fixed themselves in the memory of the hearers by the novelty, not of the lesson, but of the way the homilist got it into the text and out again. Large liberty in such invention has always been accorded to preachers, and every one knows that scholastic precision is not to be looked for in what is said for im­ pression. Even in the more regulated Midrash of the schools there was much freedom, especially in combining scripture with scripture according to the hermeneutic rules. But with this fertility in derivation, and notwithstanding a liberty that was only at two or three points restrained by any­ thing resembling a definition of orthodoxy, there is on most topics a real consensus in substance which is only made the more em357

358

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

1

phatic by the great variety of form. This essential unity of con­ ception exists not only in the rabbinical literature but may be traced back through the writings of the preceding centuries, thus showing, as should be expected, a continuity in the tradition of the schools and its reflection in popular instruction. The ulti­ mate source is the Bible itself, interpreted in the same sense and spirit. From the historical point of view the Bible of the Jews is the collective name for twenty-four — or as we count them, thirtynine — books, many of which are themselves collections of writ­ ings by different authors, or compilations from earlier sources; a national religious literature of widely varying character, cover­ ing many centuries, by many hands, and reflecting not merely different situations and circumstances in the life of the nation and the mind and temperament of individual authors, but suc­ cessive stages in the development of the religion itself. To the religious apprehension, on the other hand, the whole is one divine revelation, completely consentient in all its parts, and in the minutest particulars. However many human authors may have been concerned in recording it, the Scriptures have, in the lan­ guage of Protestant theologians, but one auctor primarius, even God. Upon these premises, what the modern historian calls the' development of religion' is properly only a divine paedagogic, an 'economy of revelation.' The Jews, whose minds were un­ troubled by any notions of development, had not even this con­ cession to make: the twofold revelation to Moses was com­ plete — nothing was held back in heaven. The Prophets and the Hagiographa reiterated, emphasized, and applied the Torah for their own and following generations; they added nothing. With a conception of revelation which made an axiom not merely of its unity but of its identity throughout, it might seem 2

3

1

T h e s u b s t a n t i a l d i v e r s i t y is g r e a t e s t , as w o u l d be e x p e c t e d , in the eschatological sphere — the d e s t i n y o f t h e nation a n d t h e rest o f the w o r l d , and the hereafter o f i n d i v i d u a l s . See a b o v e , p p . 239 ff., 269 f. See a b o v e , p . 239. 2

3

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

359

logically to follow that Jewish doctrine on any subject — say, on the character of God — would be drawn comprehensively or indiscriminately from the manifold utterances and exhibitions in the Scriptures, from the naive anthropomorphisms of Gen. 18 and Exod. 4, 24 ff., or such vindication and expiation as is narrated in 2 Sam. 21, to passages of incomparable elevation. In fact, however, Jewish conceptions are not drawn thus collec­ tively from everything in the Bible, nor are they an attempted harmony of discrepant representations; they are the result of a selective process. The unconscious principle in this selection was affinity with their own highest conceptions, and it fastened first of all on the passages in Scripture which most fully expressed these conceptions, and from which the latter were in fact his­ torically derived. The rabbis then deduced them exegetically from these texts, moving thus in a circle which is the real logic of doctrine in all similar matter. Christian theology has operated from age to age in just the same way with revelation in the Old Testament and the New. It is not the whole truth to say that Jewish teaching at the beginning of our era appropriated the best that there is in the Bible, virtually ignoring or ingeniously adapting much that did not tally with it. In the generations that intervened Judaism had advanced farther in the direction it had taken, if not in new ideas at least in new proportion and emphasis, as, for example, in the development of teaching concerning the 'reign of God* (kingdom of Heaven), and the prominence of the conception of God as 'our Father who is in heaven.' Nowhere is the selection by affinity more conspicuous than in Jewish teaching about God, to which we now turn. 1

In accordance with the principle of revelation, the existence of God is not a subject for question or argument; he has revealed himself in Scripture, and Scripture teaches men to recognize the manifestations of his power, his wisdom, his goodness, in nature 1

See p p .

229 f., 401, 432 ff. V o l . I I , p p . 346 f.; 201 ff.

T H E IDEA OF GOD

6

3 °

[PART II

and history and providence. Dogmatic atheism and theoretical skepticism are the outcome of philosophical thinking, to which the Jews had no inclination. They knew the man who thought there was no God and conducted himself accordingly; but what such men really meant was that no higher power concerned it­ self about men's doings — there was no providence and no retribution. Even the radical disbelief of the man who "denies the root" (namely, God), comes to this end by the practical, not the theoretical road; it begins with not hearkening to the word of the Lord as defined and expounded by scholars, and not doing all His commandments (Lev. 26, 14). Philo, living in a centre where all the conflicting currents of Hellenistic philoso­ phy met and strove together, had to debate this question from philosophical premises and with philosophical arguments, and to confute both skepticism and materialistic atheism. The first great question of religious philosophy, as Philo puts it, is Whether the Deity exists?; the second, What is it in its essential nature? The former he thinks it easy to prove; the latter question is not only difficult but perhaps unanswerable. In the ontological sense in which Philo means it, Palestinian Judaism, to which all metaphysics was alien, never speculated on the nature of God at all. Monotheism also, the corner-stone of Judaism, remains, as in the Bible, the religious doctrine that there is one God and no 1

2

3

4

5

1

T h e denial o f these w a s frequent. See E c c l e s . 7, 15; 8, 14; 9, 2, et passim. S o the u n g o d l y (acre/Sets) in W i s d o m o f S o l o m o n , 1, 16-2, 20. T h e w i c k e d m a n c o n t e m n s G o d , s a y i n g to himself, ' T h o u w i l t not r e q u i r e ' ( P s a l m 10, 13): pn n^l \n n*6, t h a t is, " t h e r e is no j u d g e m e n t and no j u d g e , " G e n . R . 26, 6. ip^n e.g. Sifra, B e h u k k o t a i P e r e k 3, end (ed. W e i s s f. m e ) , the nearest H e b r e w e q u i v a l e n t o f ' a t h e i s t / T h e d o w n w a r d progress o f such a one is there a n a l y s e d . See further below, p . 467. D e opificio m u n d i c. 61 § 170 (ed. M a n g e y I , 41). F o r a synopsis o f P h i l o ' s a r g u m e n t s see D r u m m o n d , P h i l o J u d a e u s , I I , 1 ff. D e m o n a r c h i a c. 4 §32 (ed. M a n g e y I I , 216). T h e t w o q u e s t i o n s : %v ]xkv el eaTi TO Oeiov . . . erepov 8e TO T L eaTL KOLTCL TTJV ovalav. T h e r e is no reason to think t h a t the t h e o s o p h y w h i c h c o u n t e d a m o n g its adepts some o f the leading schoolmen a t the beginning of the second c e n t u r y h a d a n y philosophy in its composition. See b e l o w , p p . 411 ff. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

361

other, or, if it must be expressed abstractly, the doctrine of the soleness of God, in contradiction to polytheism, the multiplicity of gods. There is no assertion or implication of the unity of God in the metaphysical sense such as Philo means when he says, "God is sole, and one (ev)> not composite, a simple nature, while everyone of us, and of all other created things, is many" (iroWa), etc. Wholly remote from Jewish thought is the idea of God as pure and simple being (TO OV), in his proper nature an un­ knowable and unnamable Absolute, as Philo conceives it when he develops his fundamental philosophy. Jewish monotheism was reached through the belief that the will of God for righteous­ ness is supreme in the history of the world; one will rules it all to one end — the world as it ought to be. In this way a national god became the universal God. Its origin was thus, to put it in a word, moral, rather than physical or metaphysical; and it was therefore essentially personal. Monotheisms of diverse characters and tendencies have arisen in other ways. The sovereign god in a monarchically organized pantheon may be exalted so far above all others that they become only the ministers of his sole supreme will. Not infrequently their godhead is saved by the discovery that they are names, forms, manifestations, of the god who is the whole pantheon in one (pantheus). A physical philosophy may call the whole of nature god, and more particularly the all-pervading energetic mind; while religious feeling, aided by the mere necessities of language, may give a measure of personality to this immanent reason of the universe in nature and in man. Or, again, the one 1

2

3

4

1

See above, pp. 112 ff., and Note 108. Philo's philosophy concurs with his religion in the proposition that there is but one God. See e.g. De opificio mundi c. 61 § 171 (ed. Mangey I, 41). In De confusione linguarum c. 33 § 170 (ed. Mangey I, 431) he quotes to this effect, Homer, Iliad ii, 204 f., just as Aristotle does at the end of Meta­ physics xi. On the unity and simplicity of the divine nature, see Legg. allegor. ii. 1 § 1 f. (ed. Mangey I, 66): 6 Oeds fiovos earl Kal ev ov avyKpiiia, (^VCLS 2

y

CLTkrj K.T.A. 3 4

See Drummond, Philo Judaeus, II, 16 ff. See above, Part I, chap. i.

362

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

reality of an idealistic monism, the Absolute, may be similarly personified, and become a god to worship. In none of these is the moral character of God predominant; and therefore in none of them was personality essential to the very idea of God, as it is in Judaism. Jewish monotheism had no tendency toward mon­ ism, whether ontological or cosmic, or to the religious counter­ part of monism, pantheism. The assertion of the soleness of God and argument against the many gods have naturally a larger room in the apologetic of Hellenistic Jews than in the Palestinian schools and synagogues. The authors of the former lived in the midst of polytheism; they wrote to exhibit the superiority of Judaism, whether it be con­ sidered philosophically, religiously, or morally, and in the en­ deavor to convert Gentile readers from their vain idols to serve the living God. They were conscious of having, so far as the unity of the godhead is concerned, the best Greek thought on their side. They made florilegia of the monotheistic, or mono­ theistic-sounding, utterances of Greek poets, and to make the volume of testimony more impressive fabricated many more. The venerable Sibyl became a prophetess of the one God: avros yap ixbvos earl deds KOVK ecrriv er'

dXXos

1

or, with more doctrine: els debs eari fxbvapxos adeac^aros aWepu valcov avrofpvrjs dbparos dp&fxevos CLVTOS diravra. 2

Polytheism did not confront them, however, as a theoretical pluralism of gods — in theory, most educated Greeks in that age were not pluralists — but practically as the worship of a multipli­ city of gods represented by images or, as among the Egyptians, by living animals. Idolatry was the universal concomitant of polytheism, and the Jews made no difference between them. The satire on idolatry which begins in the prophets is a common3

1 2 3

Oracula Sibyllina, iii, 629. Ibid, iii, 11 f.; cf. Frag. 1, 7 ff. (ed. Geffcken, p. 227 f.). See above, p. 227.

CHAP. I ]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

363

place of Hellenistic polemic; by its side are denunciations of it as the most heinous of sins, giving to the work of men's hands the honor that belongs to the God that made heaven and earth. So monstrous is this aberration that the author of the Wisdom of Solomon endeavors to explain it as a progressive declension from natural and comparatively harmless beginnings till the depth of degradation is reached in Egyptian theriolatry. In Judaea the hostility of the Jews to everything resembling idols or idolatry forced regard upon contemptuous governors, little wont to respect the prejudices of their subjects. They would not even suffer Roman ensigns to be brought into the city of Jerusalem because they had images on them, and when Pilate introduced them nevertheless, constrained him to withdraw them. It was not necessary to go far from Jerusalem, however, to find the obnoxious cults flourishing. Herod, who rebuilt the Jewish temple with such magnificence, erected in Samaria — renamed Sebaste — a great temple to the emperor Augustus. Caesarea, Herod's new seaport, and later the usual residence of the procurators, was predominantly a heathen city, as were the cities of the Decapolis. But however familiar the spectacle of heathenism may have been, the teachers of Palestine, addressing themselves to men of their own religion, did not feel it necessary to polemize against polytheism and idolatry as the Hellenistic literature does. 1

2

3

4

1

Wisdom of Solomon, 13-15; Ep. of Aristeas § i34fT.( ed. Wendland); Orac. Sibyll. iii, 29-31; 586-590; v, 75 ff.; Frag. 3, 21-31, and in many other places; Philo, De decalogo c. 2 § 6-9 (ed. Mangey II, 181); De monarchia c. 2 § 21 (II, 214), and elsewhere. Wisdom of Solomon, 15, 18 f.; cf. 11, 15; 12, 24; Ep. of Aristeas § 138; Philo, De decalogo c. 16 § 76-80 (II, 193 f.); Josephus, Contra Apionem, i. 28 init. etc.; Sibyllines, see the preceding note. Josephus, Antt. xviii. 3, 1. Cf. also the tearing down of the golden eagle which Herod had set over the main entrance to the temple, ibid. xvii. 6, 2-4. As Schechter says, the laws against idolatry were not a practical issue. (Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 141.) Such passages as Enoch 99, 7-9; Jubilees 11, 4-7; 12, 2-8; 22, 18-22; Test, of the Twelve Patriarchs, Naphtali, 3, 3 f., have a historical appropriateness in the mouth of the sup­ posed speakers rather than an actual interest. 2

3

4

T H E IDEA OF GOD

6

34

[PART II

Under the head of 'heathenism' {^abodah zarah) in the Mishnah and elsewhere they are concerned to ordain precautions, first, against acts which might seem by inference to recognize the ob­ jects and places the Gentiles regard as divine or sacred, as well as against becoming in even the most remote way accessory to idolatrous worship; and, in the second place, to warn Jews against the vices which they regarded as the offspring of heathen­ ism, and to avoid situations and associations which might invite suspicion that they were contaminated by such vices. 1

If the leaders of Palestinian Jewry had little fear of actual lapse into polytheism and idolatry, they had greater concern about a defection from the strict monotheistic principle of a different kind, the currency of the belief that there are ' two au­ thorities.' The references to this error do not define it. A theory of 'two authorities' might be entertained by thinkers who held that God is the author of good only, and that for the evil in the world another cause must be assumed; or by such as in their thinking so exalted God above the finite as to find it necessary to interpose between God and the world an inferior intermediate power as demiurge; or — as frequently happened — both these motives might concur. It is evident also that Gen­ tile Christianity, with its Supreme God, the Father, and its Son of God, creator and saviour, was founded on a doctrine of two powers. Judged by the standard of the numerically exclusive and uncompromisingly personal monotheism of Jewish ortho2

3

4

1

See Note 109. Or "two powers" ( n n B H V)B>). See Note n o . Philo attributes this doctrine to the Essenes. It is with them one of the evidences of godliness (rod <j>Cko6kov) rd iravruv fxev cuyad&v dlriov, KCLKOV 8e fxrjdevds vofxifav elvai rd Belov. Quod omnis probus liber c. 12 § 84 (ed. Mangey II, 458). The doctrine is Platonic, De republica ii. 379c: God is good, and therefore cannot be the cause of any kind of evils; cf. ibid. 380c. Philo himself often affirms it: e.g. De confusione lingg. c. 36 § 180 (ed. Mangey I, 432). Philo's own transcendent conception of the Deity requires such media­ tion, which he finds in the Logos, hi ov avfiiras 6 Koa/xos edrj/juovpyelro (De sacerdotibus c. 5, § 81 ed. Mangey II, 225). 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

365

doxy, all these were dualistic heresies, and in the condemnation of them the orthodox probably made no superfluous discrimi­ nations. This is no reason, however, why we should be equally indiscriminate and introduce a new confusion into a perplexed matter by labelling the Jews who held such theories 'Jewish Gnostics.' The controversy with catholic Christians over the unity of the godhead, considerable as it is both in volume and interest, lies outside our purpose. It is sufficient to remark that the argu­ ments employed on both sides are in large part the same as are found earlier in discussions of the ' two powers' in which both parties were Jews; they quote the texts of the Bible which most strongly affirm the soleness of God; and refute the inferences from the plural elohim ('God,' not 'gods') by scriptures equally relevant against heathen polytheists, Jewish dualists, and Christian apologists. How easily the pious desire to associate God with good only might glide into constructive heresy is illustrated by the inter­ diction of certain turns of phrase in prayer. Thus, to say "Good men shall bless Thee" is a 'heretical form of expression.' If the leader in prayer says, " T h y mercy extends even to the spar­ row's nest, and because of good (i.e. benefits bestowed) be Thy name remembered," he is to be silenced. Even a bare liturgical repetition such as " (We) thank, thank," is, with some excess of scruple, suspected of acknowledging 'two powers.' One of the earliest mentions of two powers is in Sifre on Deut. 1

2

3

4

5

1

On Jewish "Gnosticism" see L. Blau, Jewish Encyclopedia, V , 681-686, with the literature cited there (p. 686). Most of the rabbis of whom such discussions are reported taught or resided in Caesarea in the third century, when Caesarea was an important episcopal see and a noted centre of Christian learning in Palestine. See Note in. M. Megillah 4, 9. The nature of the heresy is not defined. Jer. Megillah 75c finds it in an implication of "two powers"; see also Tosafot on Megillah 25a, top. A different explanation is given by Rashi. See the passages cited in the preceding note; also M. Berakot 5, 3; Berakot 33b. See Note 112. M. Megillah, M. Berakot 11. cc. 2

3

4

5

366

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

32, 29, which verse is shown to be an arsenal of weapons against divers heretics — those who say that there is no ruling power in heaven, and those who say that there are two — ' there is no God beside me'; or such as hold that whatever power there is cannot bring to life nor cause death, cannot inflict injury or con­ fer benefits. On what grounds the assertion of two powers rested is not indicated. Nothing much more definite is to be got out of another relatively old passage in the Mekilta on Exod. 20, 2 (' I am the Lord thyGod')- These words guard against the infer­ ence of a plurality of gods from different ways in which God is described in Scripture — at the Red Sea as a man of war (Exod. 5 3)3 when the elders of Israel saw him, as a venerable man, full of compassion (Exod. 24, 10; Dan. 7, 9). Here the dualists are supposed to be Gentiles (D^IJJPI ™ D I K ) . R. Nathan, however, finds in the words (and in such parallels as Isa. 44, 6; 41, 4b, etc.) an answer for the heretics (minim) who assert that there are two powers; but gives no intimation who the heretics were or why they made the assertion. That two powers gave the Law and two powers created the world was argued by some from the elohim in Exod. 20, 1 and Gen. 1, 1, taken as a numerical plural; to which the answer is given that in both cases the verbs of which elohim is the subject are in the singular number. The first chapter of Genesis offered other opportunities for heretical argument, especially, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1, 26; cf. 3, 22) . The difficulty of reconciling the evils in the world with the goodness of God was so strongly felt in the early centuries of our era in the East and the West, and a dualistic solution of one kind or another was so widely accepted in philosophy and religion, 1

J

o r

5

2

3

4

1

Sifre Deut. § 329. Mekilta, Bahodesh 5 (ed. Friedmann f. 66b; ed. Weiss f. 74a). Gen. R. 8, 9'. See e.g. Gen. R. 8, 8. The heretics here were probably Christians; cf. Justin Martyr, Trypho, 62, 1 ff. See Sanhedrin 38a, where a number of such contentious plurals are adduced, including Dan. 7, 9 (cf. Justin, I.e. 31). 2

3

4

CHAP. I ]

GOD

A N D T H E WORLD

367

that it is idle to attempt to identify the Jewish circles which adopted this solution. It must suffice us to know that there were such circles; that they tried to fortify their position with texts of Scripture; and that the rabbis refuted them with their own weapons. It is certain also that, whatever leanings there may have been in this direction, Judaism, with its inveterate mono­ theism, was not rent by dualistic heresies as Christianity was for centuries. As in the Bible, heaven — the celestial spaces above the sky — is the place of God's abode. In later books and in the uncanonical literature the name "God of heaven" is frequently both in the mouth of foreigners and of Jews. In the next stage Heaven became a common metonymy for God, as in 1 Macca­ bees, and in the language of the Palestinian schools and syna­ gogues, e.g. " the kingdom of Heaven." That the heavens were the seat of the highest god was the universal belief of the age, and various Syrian gods of heaven were seeking their fortunes in the Roman world under the name of the sky-god Jupiter — Jupiter Heliopolitanus of Baalbek, Jupiter Dolichenus of Commagene, and the rest; while conversely the Zeus whom Antio­ chus IV installed in the temple in Jerusalem was in Syrian speech a "Lord of heaven." 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

1 Kings 8, 30-49, and parallel in 2 Chron. 6; Psalm 2, 4; 11, 4, etc. Cf. also Isa. 57, 15; Psalm 103, 19; 2 Mace. 3, 39. Ezra 1, 2 (Jehovah, God of heaven); 6, 9, 10; 7, 12, 21, 23. Ezra 5, 11, 12; Neh. 1, 4, 5; 2, 4; Dan. 2 , 1 8 , 19,37, 44; Psalm 136, 26; 1 Mace. 3, 18; Judith 5, 8; 6, 19; Tobit 10, 1 1 , 12. Enoch 13, 4; 106, 1 1 ; Jubilees 12,4; 20,7; 22,19; Testaments, Reuben, 1,6, etc. In the Sibyllines, Beds ewovpavios, ovpavios. 1 Mace. 3,50; 4,10,24,40; 1 2 , 1 5 ; 1 6 , 3 ; cf. Dan. 4,23. Not, however, it should be observed, in the nominative as subject. See Vol. II, 98. 2 Mace. 6, 2 bis, Zeus is rendered in the Syriac version p D G ^ j n . In Dan. 12, 11 DDfc? pp£? 035e\uy/*a eprjp.coaecos) is probably a substitute for an original DVDS? ijJD, the altar of Zeus which Antiochus set up on the great altar of burnt offering when he dedicated the temple to Zeus. See Nestle, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, IV (1884), 248; and on other such opprobrious substitutions, Encyclopaedia Biblica, II, cols. 21482150. 2

3

4

5

6

3

THE

68

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

From such expressions as "the heaven and the heaven of heavens/' a plurality of heavens was inferred. Under the in­ fluence of astronomical doctrine, a scheme of seven heavens was evolved, and Biblical names and proof-texts discovered for them. In the highest C arabot. Psalm 68, 5) are righteousness and judg­ ment; the treasuries of life and peace and blessing; the souls of the righteous dead; the souls and spirits that are yet to be created; the dew with which God will revive the dead; there are the ofannim and seraphim, the holy beasts ('living creatures') and the ministering angels; while above them is the glorious throne of the King, the living, lofty, and exalted God. From the earth to the firmament above us was said to be a journey of five hundred years, the thickness of the firmament was the same, and the same interval separated one heaven from another. But although God is thus supramundane, throned high above the world, he is not extramundane, aloof and inaccessible in his remote exaltation. The subject of the passage in the Talmud in which R. Levi's astronomical wisdom about celestial distances is introduced without dissent is the nearness of God, taking as its text Deut. 4, 7: 'What great nation is there that has a god as near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him ?' Near, with every kind of nearness, as is intimated by the plural of the predicate. A false god (idol) seems to be near, but is really remote (Isa. 46, 7); a man has such a god with him in his house, but if the man cry to him for help until he dies, he will not hear him nor save him from his straits. The Holy One (the true God) seems to be far off, but there is nothing nearer than He. For 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Deut. 10, 1 4 ; 1 Kings 8, 27; Psalm 68, 34. From Deut. 10, 1 4 , R. Judah (ben Ezekiel (?)) deduced that there were two firmaments (D^JPpl), rjagigah 12b; others counted three, Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 1 4 , 1, with Buber's note, f. 236a. Cf. Paul's rapture 2 Cor. 12, 2-4. The support of God's throne, Psalm 89, 15. rlagigah 12b, and elsewhere. See Note 112. rlagigah 13a; Jer. Berakot 13a, cf. ibid. 2c, below; Gen. R. 6, 6; Tan­ huma ed. Buber, Terumah § 8. D ^ n p DT6K, in which the cavillers found a plurality of gods; cf. Vul­ gate "deos appropinquantes sibi." 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

369

the seeming distance R. Levi is here cited, and a further calcula­ tion of the room occupied by the holy beasts, all showing how high the abode of God is above the world. " But let a man go into the synagogue and take his place behind the pulpit and pray in an undertone, and God will give ear to his prayer, as it is said: * Hannah was speaking within herself, only her lips moved, but her voice was not audible,' and God gave ear to her prayer; and so he does to all his creatures, as it is said, A prayer of the afflicted when he covers his face and pours out his thought before the Lord.' It is as when a man utters his thought in the ear of his fellow, and he hears him. Can you have a God nearer than this who is as near to his creatures as mouth to ear?" 1

2

c

3

4

God's earthly dwelling place was the tabernacle and after­ wards the temple. His great love to Israel is manifest in that, from his throne above the seven heavens, so far away, leaving them all, he came to dwell near his people in the goat-skin tent he bade them set up for him. A t the dedication of Solomon's temple, the cloud that hid God's glory filled the sanctuary (1 Kings 8, 10 f.). Even after the destruction of the temple, it was maintained by Eleazar ben Pedat that God's Presence {shekinah) still abode on the ruined site in accordance with his promise, ' M y eyes and my mind will be there perpetually' (1 Kings 9, 3). In Solomon's dedication prayer, however, there is clear dis­ tinction made between God's abode in heaven and his manifes5

6

1

Ezek. 1, 5 ff. 1 Sam. 1, 13. Psalm 102 (title). Jer. Berakot 13a. The passage is not older than the fourth century, but the doctrine was good in any century. The lesson from the Prophets at the principal service on the Day of Atonement begins with Isa. 57, 1 5 : 'Thus saith the lofty and exalted One, abiding for ever, Holy is his name; I dwell in the high and holy place (heaven), and with the contrite and lowly in spirit/ Megillah 31a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Terumah § 8; cf. ibid. Bemidbar § 14; Naso § 19. Ibid. Shemot § 10. Contrary to the opinion that at the destruction of the temple the Shekinah ascended to heaven (Samuel ben Nahman, ibid.), Eleazar ben Pedat quotes also Psalm 3, 5; Ezra 1, 3. 2

3

4

5

6

370

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

tation in the temple: 'The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, much less this house which I have built' (i Kings 8, 27). Solomon prays that when men present their offerings or their petitions in the temple, or turn toward it in prayer even though in exile, God in heaven, his dwelling place, will hear their prayer, and grant their supplication. If God has a tabernacle or temple on earth, it is not that he needs a place to dwell in, for his holy house on high was there before the world was created, but, we might put it, because men need some visible thing by which to realize his loving presence. In reality God is everywhere present. The whole vast universe is his house, as the author of the Book of Baruch, in an eloquent passage, sets forth. Because he is in one place he is no less elsewhere. In R. Levi's comparison: "The tabernacle was like a cave that adjoined the sea. The sea came rushing in and flooded the cave; the cave was filled, but the sea was not in the least diminished. So the tabernacle was filled with the radiance of the divine presence, but the world lost nothing of that pres­ ence." Another comparison for this all-pervading presence of God in the world is the soul of man. As the soul fills the body, so God fills his world, as it is written, ' D o not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.' The likeness of the soul to God is car­ ried out in particulars: The soul sustains the body — God sus­ tains the world (Isa. 46, 4); the soul outlasts the decrepit body — God outlasts the world (Psalm 102, 26); the soul is one only in the body — God is one only in the world (Deut. 6, 4); like God, the soul sees but is not seen; it is pure; it never sleeps, etc. This comparison must not be taken to imply that God was conceived as a kind of anima mundi, or as the all-permeating 1

2

3

4

1

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Naso § 1 9 . Baruch 3 , 24 ff. Cant. R. on Cant. 3 , 1 0 , and with slight verbal variations Pesikta ed. Buber f. 2 b ; Num. R. 1 2 , 4. Cf. Augustine's figure of the boundless sea and the sponge (Confessions vii. 5, 1 ) . God, who fills heaven and earth (Jer. 23, 24), spoke with Moses between the staves of the ark. R. Meir, Gen. R. 4, 4Lev. R. 4 , 8; Berakot 10a. 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

371 1

directing mind in the universe like the Stoic Logos. Its mean­ ing is that God is everywhere present. He appeared to Moses in a despised thorn-bush, not in a carob tree or a fig (trees that men value), it is explained, to teach that there is no place on earth void of the divine presence (shekinah). The ubiquity of God is affirmed in many other places, with diverse proofs. Thus from Job. 38, 35, 'Canst thou despatch lightnings, and they go, and say unto thee, Here we are?' it is deduced: "God's messengers are not like men's. Men's messengers have to return to him that sent them; but with Thee it is not so. Thou sendest lightnings and they go. It does not say 'and they return,' but 'they go, and they say' etc Wherever they go, they are constantly in Thy presence, and say, We have accomplished Thy commission, confirming what is written, 'Do not I fill heaven and earth?' " (Jer. 23, 24). On Exod. 17, 6, 'Behold I stand before thee there,' the Mekilta has: "In every place where thou findest the prints of a man's foot, there am I before thee." The interest of the Jews in affirming that God is in every place was not philosophical nor primarily theological, but immediately religious. The great text was Jer. 23, 23 f.: 'Am I a god at hand, saith the Lord, and not a god afar off? Can any hide him­ self in secret places that I shall not see him ? Do not I fill earth and heaven, saith the Lord?' No sin, however done in secrecy and in darkness, can escape the eye of him who fills heaven and earth. On the other hand, that wherever we are, and in what­ ever estate, God is present with us, gives a realizing sense of his providence. Hellenistic Jewish literature exhibits similar conceptions. "The spirit of the Lord fills the world, and the spirit that em2

3

4

5

6

1

Heinze, Die Lehre vom Logos in der griechischen Philosophie, 1872. Exod. R. on Exod. 3, 3 (c. 2, 5). Mekilta, Bo 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 2a; ed. Weiss f. 2a, below); Baba Batra 25a. See Note 113. Mekilta, Beshallah 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 52b; ed. Weiss f. 60b); cf. Mekilta de R. Simeon ben Yohai ed. Hoffmann, p. 81. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Naso § 6 (f. i 4 b - i 5 a ) . See further below, pp. 373 f. 2

3

i

6

6

372

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

braces the universe takes knowledge of every word; wherefore no one who gives utterance to unjust speech can escape notice, nor will reproving justice pass him by." So also the Letter of Aristeas: "Our lawgiver (Moses) . . . showed first of all that there is only one God, and his power is manifest throughout all things, every place being full of his dominion; and that nothing of all that men do secretly on earth escapes him, but whatever any one does stands open to his sight, and even what is not yet done. . . . Even if a man purposes in his mind to do an evil, he does not escape God's knowledge, to say nothing of the evil he has already done." Philo's religious doctrine is the same. God does not go anywhither, since he fills all things. On Gen. 3, 8, he comments: It is impossible to hide from God, "for God fills all things and pervades all things, and has left nothing, no matter how soli­ tary, void of himself. What kind of place can a man occupy in which God is not? As the Scripture testifies elsewhere: 'God is in the heaven above and on the earth beneath, and there is no other but He.' (Deut. 4, 39). And again: 'Here I stand, be­ fore thou dost' (Exod. 17, 6). For God exists prior to every creature and is found everywhere; wherefore no one can hide from him." Similarly, on Cain's words, ' I f thou dost drive me out today from the face of the earth, and from thy face I shall be hidden' (Gen. 4, 14): "What do you say, my dear sir? If you were cast out from the whole earth, would you then be hidden ? How? . . . Would it be possible for a man, or any creature, to be hidden from God, who is before him everywhere, whose 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Wisdom of Solomon 1, 7 f.; see also what follows. Aristeas, ed. Wendland § 132 f. With the inclination of these writers to avoid the semblance of anthropomorphism by speaking of the ubiquity of the spirit or the power of God, cf. pp. 434 ff. With his metaphysical doctrine we are not here concerned. Quod deus sit immutabilis c. 12 § 57 (ed. Mangey I, 281); see also De confusione linguarum c. 27 (I, 425). &5e eras eyeb irpb rod ak. Compare the turn given to these words in the Midrash, above p. 371. Legg. allegor. iii. 2 § 4 (ed. Mangey I, 88). 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

373

sight reaches to the ends of the earth, who fills the whole, of whom not the smallest of existing things is devoid?" The interest in the universal presence of God is in the univer­ sality and immediacy of his knowledge and of his providential activity. That God knows everything that is, and all that goes on in the world, is so often reiterated in the Bible and is illus­ trated and emphasized in so many ways, it is of such funda­ mental importance in a religion which sees the history of the nations and the life of individuals ordered by the moral will of a personal God, that the all-embracing and immediate knowledge of God is necessarily one of the pillars of Jewish faith. God knows all the secrets of nature as only the author of nature can know them, from the movements of the stars in the heavens to the habits of the shyest creatures of the desert (Job. 38 f.). To the ends of the earth he sees everything under the whole heaven (Job 28, 24); the abyss beneath, the abode of the shades, lies un­ covered before him (Job. 26, 6). He knows the past from the beginning of the world, and the future to its end, for he has ordained, and he brings to pass; what he reveals of his plan by his prophets infallibly comes true. For personal religion it is of even greater moment that he knows men with an all-embracing, an inescapable, knowledge — their fortunes and their character, their most secret deeds, their unarticulated words, their thoughts before they have taken shape in their own minds; no concealment and no deception avails aught with him. The theme is a favorite one with the moralists. Sirach frequently reverts to it: "He explores the great abyss and the mind of man, and sees through all their subtleties; he reveals bygone things and things yet to be, and 1

2

3

1

Quod detenus potiori insidiatur c. 41 § 150 f. (ed. Mangey I, 220). On God as roiros, encompassing all and encompassed by nothing (De somniis, i. 11) see Note 113a. See e.g. Isa. 41, 22-24; 43> ~ 3i 44, 6-8, etc. See e.g. Amos 9, 2-4; Jer. 23, 23 f.; Prov. 5, 21; 15, 3; Job 34, 2 1 ; Psalm 139, etc. 2

3

lo

l

374

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

uncovers the trace of secrets. He lacks no kind of intelligence, and nothing escapes him." That God knows the thoughts of all the multitude and variety of mankind is especially dwelt on in the Palestinian literature. " I f a man sees crowds of men, he should repeat the eulogy: ' Blessed is He who is wise in mysterious things,' for as the fea­ tures of no two are alike so the thoughts of no two are alike." From i Chron. 28, 9, 'For the Lord searches all hearts (minds), and understands all the formation of thoughts,' R. Isaac teaches: "Before a thought is formed in a man's mind, it is already manifest to Thee," or, according to another reporter, "Before an embryo is formed, its thoughts are already manifest to Thee." 1

2

3

The almighty power of God, also, is written large in the Bible. The creator of the heavens and the earth and all that in them is does in his world whatever he wills. Among the Jews in the age with which we are dealing, as among Christians in all ages, 'the Almighty' was frequently used by metonymy for ' G o d ' (ha-geburah, literally, 'the Might'). In the Greek Bible iravTOKpaTup, ' all-powerful ruler,' is common as a translation of sebaot especially in the phrase IHVH sebaot, nvpios iravToicpaT&p; also for shaddai. It is frequent also in later writings, both in translations from Hebrew and in works of Hellenistic origin. To the power of God, creation, the order of the universe, and the course of history bear witness. 4

5

1

Ecclus. 4 2 , 1 8 - 2 0 ; cf. 1 6 , 1 7 - 2 3 ; 17, 15-20; Wisdom of Solomon 1, 6 ff.; Baruch 3, 32; Psalms of Solomon 14, 8, etc. Jer. Berakot 13c; Tos. Berakot 7, 2; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Phineas §1. Gen. R. 9, 3. The idea is developed at length in Agadat Bereshit 2 (ed. Buber, p. 4). See Note 114. E.g. Sifre Deut. § 9 (on Deut. 1,9). Moses said to them: Not of myself do I say to you these things; I speak from the mouth of the Almighty OSD m D J n ) . See Note 115. Ecclus. 4 2 , 17; 50, 1 4 ; Judith 4 , 13; 8, 13; Wisdom of Solomon 7, 25; 2 Mace. 1, 25; 5, 20; 6, 26; 3 Mace. 2, 2, 8; 5, 7. In the New Testament Rev. 4 , 8; 1 1 , 17; 1 5 , 3 , etc. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

375

The almighty power of God was not in Judaism a theological attribute of omnipotence which belongs in idea to the perfection of God; it was, as in the prophets, the assurance that nothing can withstand his judgment or thwart his purpose. The omni­ potence of God is thus interlocked with the teleology of history. The creator and ruler of the world comprehends all things in one great plan, glimpses of which he has given to his prophets. This plan includes a golden age for his people, the visions of which merge into a golden age for all mankind, when in the universality of the true religion, and of conformity to his righteous and graci­ ous will, peace and prosperity shall also be universal, while nature itself shall be transformed to make the earth a fit dwell­ ing place for such transfigured inhabitants. The obstacles to the realization of this plan were to human view insuperable; but to God insuperable obstacles were noth­ ing. When His time came, the proud empire that bestrode the world like the colossus in Nebuchadnezzar's dream should col­ lapse at a stroke and utterly vanish away. In that dies irae the superhuman powers of evil share the doom of the human: 'The Lord will punish the host of high heaven on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth.' Faith in the fulfilment of God's promised purpose dwelt upon the mighty deeds of God in olden times, in Egypt and at the Red Sea, in the conquest of Canaan. The so-called historical Psalms which recite — sometimes in prosaic enumeration — such magnalia dei frequently have this for one of their motives. Omni­ potence, which, like finite force, has in itself no religious character, acquires profound religious significance through its relation to God's end in the world; it is a cornerstone of faith. God's power has no limit but his own will; he can do anything that he wills to do. In general, the power of God in nature is conceived as exercised directly; forces of nature acting as 'sec­ ond causes,' and laws of nature according to which these forces 1

2

3

4

1

2

See especially Isa. 40 ff. Dan. 2,31 ff.

3

4

Isa. 24, 21-23. E.g. Psalm 106.

376

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II 1

operate, have no place in the native religious thought of the Jews. The regularity of nature, so far as it is an observed fact, if it be reflected on at all, is merely the ordinary way of God's working. Of the uniformity of nature, the postulate of modern science — " a question begged at the outset" — no anticipation entered their minds. God was as free to act in an extraordinary way, if he saw occasion for it, as in his ordinary way; with this view of nature the one was as natural as the other. The contrast we make between natural and supernatural events did not exist; all events were equally the immediate work of God. To understand the Jewish conception of miracle, we must enter into their way of thinking about God and nature. A miracle, from this point of view, is an extraordinary phenomenon or oc­ currence wrought by God, presumably for some special purpose. It cannot be described as something at variance with the laws of nature, transcending or suspending them, for, as has been said, there was no idea of laws of nature in the modern sense. Nor is it the mere wonder of it that makes such an event a mir­ acle; it is the religious interpretation of the occurrence, the be­ lief that in this phenomenon or event God in a peculiar way man­ ifests his presence, reveals his will, or intervenes for the deliver­ ance of his worshippers and the discomfiture of their enemies, to provide for their needs in distressful times, to avert calamities, to heal mortal diseases, and to save from a thousand evils where human help is vain. The greatness, the power, of God is abund­ antly manifest in the ordinary course of nature; it is his good­ ness that is peculiarly revealed in the miracle as faith interprets and appropriates it. It could not be conceived, therefore, that the age of miracle was past. Signal interventions in history such as stood out on the pages of the ancient Scriptures there were not; but greater 1

God has imposed on the elements bounds and measures; for the move­ ments of the stars, and in the instincts of animals, he has established norms which they may not transgress and bring disorder into the cosmos. These ordinances are laws which God has imposed upon his creatures, as he has imposed laws upon men.

CHAP.

13

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

377

even than the deliverance from Egypt would be the wonders God would work in the greater deliverance that was to come. Meanwhile miracles on the individual scale continued; and if the question sometimes arose why they had become less frequent than formerly, it was a sufficient answer that their contempor­ aries were less worthy that God should work a miracle for them or by their hands. The coming of rain in a season of drought in answer to the prayers of individuals is a kind of miracle about which there are many stories, and some such rain-making saints are the subject of what may aptly be called a professional legend. Others wrought a greater variety of miracles. Among these Hanina ben Dosa, a disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai at the end of the first century of our era, is particularly remembered. By his prayers a son of his master Johanan ben Zakkai was healed of a grave illness. Again when a son of Gamaliel II was very ill, the father sent two of his disciples to Hanina ben Dosa that he might beseech God's mercy upon the son. Hanina at once went up to the chamber on the roof and prayed for him; when he came down he said to the messengers, Go, for the fever has left him. They asked, Are you a prophet? He replied, I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I have learned that if I have freedom in prayer, I know that it is accepted; if not, I know that it is rejected. They noted down in writing the hour at which he said this, and when they arrived at Gamaliel's house and reported the matter, he said: By the divine service! A t that exact hour, no more and no less, the fever left him and he asked for a drink of water. Hanina's prayers once caused a shower of rain to hold 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Berakot 20a. See Note 116. The Talmuds on Ta'anit iii. have various legends of this kind. The most famous name is rloni ha-Me'aggel in the first century B.C. See Jewish Encyclopedia, IX, 404 f., and Note 117. Berakot 34b. Berakot 1. c; Jer. Berakot 9d; cf. M. Berakot 5, 5. This sign is attrib­ uted in Tos. Berakot 3, 4 to Akiba. rnuyn. A common oath, especially after the destruction of the temple; e.g. Yebamot 32b. Berakot 34b. Compare the similar story of Jesus at Cana and the courtier's son at Capernaum, John 4, 46-53. 2

3

4

5

6

378

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

up for his own convenience, and then to fall again. His prayer on that occasion seemed to countervail that of the high priest. So great was his reputation that it is said, in an apocryphal Mishnah, "When IJanina ben Dosa died there were no workers of miracles left." Besides such saints in answer to whose pray­ ers God wrought wonders, there were healers and exorcists who effected their cures by the use of charms and the power of names, as the disciples of Jesus are said to have done by his name. That what we should call the ordinary operations of God's providence are no less wonderful than miracles is observed by more than one teacher. Mention of rain is made in connection with the resurrection of the dead in the second of the Eighteen Prayers (M. Berakot 5, 2), because in the Scripture the miracle of rain is made equal to the miracle of resurrection. Both are wrought by the hand of God; of both it is said 'God opens' (Deut. 28, 12; Ezek. 37, 12). . . . Nay, greater than the resurrection of the dead, for resurrection is only for men, rain for animals too; resurrection only for Israelites, rain for the other nations as well; or resurrection is for the righteous alone, while rain comes upon the righteous and the wicked. R. Eleazar (ben Pedat) said, The Scripture puts provision for man's needs in the same category with deliverance; as this pro­ vision is of every day, so deliverance is of every day. R. Samuel ben Nahman said, It is greater than deliverance, for deliverance comes by the hand of an angel — ' the angel who delivers me from every evil ' (Gen. 48, 16) — but provision for man's need's by the hand of God himself, who 'opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living being' (Psalm 145,16). R. Joshua ben 1

2

3

4

1

Ta'anit 24b. M. Sotah 9, 15 (a late appendix). On the meaning of the phrase 'men of deed* see Buchler, Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, pp. 79 ff. See also Vol. II, p. 206 n. For other stories of his miracles, see Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 214-216. Particularly one Jacob of Kefar Sekanya (or Samma) in Galilee. 'Abodah Zarah 27b; Tos. rlullin 2,22 f. Cf. Acts 3, 6; 4, 10, etc. Gen. R. 13, 6; Berakot 33a; Jer. Berakot 9a, below; Ta'anit 7a, top; cf. Matt. 5, 45. 2

3

4

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

CHAP. I ]

379

Levi declared that this constant provision was no less a wonder than the cleaving of the Red Sea (Psalm 136, 13 and 25). God is continually working miracles without men's knowing it, in protecting them from unknown evils (Job 37, 5). But a man should not needlessly expose himself to peril in the expectation that God will miraculously deliver him; God may not do so; and even if a miracle is wrought for him, the man earns demerit by his presumption. God has the power to do in his world whatever he wills, and he has the right of the creator to deal as he wills with his crea­ tures. But nothing is more firmly established in the Jewish thought of God than that he does not use this power wilfully like some almighty tyrant, but with wisdom and justice and for a supremely good end. A certain Pappos, paraphrased Job 23, 13 ('He is one, and who shall gainsay him; he wishes a thing and does it'): God is sole judge over all the inhabitants of the world, who can contradict his sentence? Against this implica­ tion of an arbitrary and irresponsible God Akiba protested ener­ getically. There is indeed no gainsaying him who created the world by a word, but his judgment is always according to truth and justice. The words of God in Isa. 27, 4 ('I would strde upon it') are interpreted as a reflection: If by one step I over­ stepped and transgressed justice, ' I should set it all on fire' — at once the world would be consumed. That God is almighty makes it possible for him to be lenient. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Gen. R. 20, 9; cf. Pesahim 118a; Pesikta R. ed. Friedmann f. 152a. (This bit of bread that a man puts into his mouth is a more difficult thing than the deliverance of Israel). See Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 178, 487; II, 21. Midrash Shemuel 9, 2; Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 106, ink. Bacher 1. c. II, 85. Shabbat 32a; Ta'anit 20b. See Note 118. Jer. 32, 17 ff. Jer. 18, 2-6; Isa. 45, 9; cf. Paul, Rom. 9, 14 ff. So the text was understood. Mekilta, Beshallah 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 33a: ed. Weiss f. 40a, top). Somewhat expanded, Tanhuma ed. Buber, Shemot § 14; ibid. Wayyera § 2 1 ; cf. Akiba, Abot, 3, 15. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mishpatim § 4. (Cf. Heraclitus, Frag. 29, Bywater.) 2

3

4

5

6 7

8

380

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

"Thou hast compassion upon all men because thou canst do all things, and dost overlook the sins of men unto repentance." " T h y might is the basis of justice, and that thou art sovereign over all makes thee spare all." The author implies that only conscious weakness in a government makes unsparing and indis­ criminate severity necessary even in the administration of jus­ tice, lest evil doing or rebellion get beyond control. A similar thought is expressed by R. Joshua ben Levi: Moses called God 'the great and mighty and terrible.' But when foreigners danced in his temple he seemed no longer terrible; when foreign­ ers reduced his people to servitude he seemed no longer almighty. Then came the men of the Great Assembly and restored the crown (of the divine attributes) to its ancient completeness, by teaching that the very culmination of his almightiness is that he represses his wrath and is longsuflfering with the wicked. 1

2

3

God is the creator of the heavens and the earth and all things in them. So it was written in the first columns of the Pentateuch by revelation of the Creator himself. The theme inspired some of the finest passages in Hebrew poetry: through the prophets it became a fundamental doctrine of religion. The growing selfconsciousness of Jewish monotheism and the proclamation and defence of it in the Gentile world gave the doctrine an enhanced importance; it figures largely in the uncanonical literature, both Palestinian and Hellenistic. In the Palestinian schools the study of the narrative of crea­ tion in Gen. 1-3 by the hermeneutic methods of the Midrash gave opportunity for much ingenuity and a great variety of 4

5

6

1

Wisdom of Solomon 11, 23; 12, 16-18. See the whole fine passage. Deut. 10, 17. Yoma 69b. Cf. Jer. Berakot 11c; Jer. Megillah 74c. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 182 f. See Note 119. E.g. Job 26, 7 - 1 4 ; 38 f.; Psalm 19, 1-7; 104; Prov. 8, 22-31. See especially Isaiah 40 ff. Baruch 3, 32 ff.; Ecclus. 16, 26-17, 95 4 > 5~43> 33; Enoch 69, 1 6 24; Jubilees 2, 1-33; 4 Esdras 6, 38-54; Orac. Sibyllina, iii, 20-28; Frag­ ment 3, 3-14, etc. 2

3

4

5

6

2

I

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

381

fragmentary interpretations in a field in which there was no authoritative orthodoxy. It was asked, for example, on what day the angels were created, of whom there is no express mention in the text. One put them on the second day, basing his opinion on the sequence in Psalm 1 0 4 , 3 f.; another connected them, as flying creatures (Isa. 6, 2 ) , with the creation of other flying things on the fifth day (Gen. 1 , 20). Either way, another adds, all agree that they were certainly not created on the first day, in order that no one might say that Michael and Gabriel helped God stretch out the canopy of heaven, which was the work of God alone (Isa. 4 4 , 2 4 ) ; he had no partner in the creation of the world. The jealousy with which the heresy that two powers created the world is rejected extends even to the suspicion that he employed the assistance of created beings such as angels. Even man was created only last of all God's works, at the end of the sixth day, for the same reason. The question whether the world the creation of which is de­ scribed in Genesis was brought into existence de nihilo, or whether the cosmos was formed from a chaos of previously ex­ isting formless matter, and in the latter case, whether this matter was created or eternal, did not excite discussion in the Pales­ tinian schools, and there are few utterances that bear on it in any way. A 'philosopher' (i.e. a skeptic) said to Rabban Gama­ liel: Your God was a great artist, but he found excellent colors at his disposal. What were they? asked the rabbi. Chaos (tohu wa-bohu) and darkness and water and wind and abysses. Gamaliel, with an imprecation, proceeded to quote texts to show 1

2

3

4

5

1

The discussion of some of these questions, e.g. whether the heavens or the earth was created first, engaged the schools of Shammai and Hillel in the first century of our era. rlagigah 12a; Gen. R. i, 15, and elsewhere. The harmonistic view is that they were both created at once, Gen. R. 12, 12. God " erects the framework of his upper chambers (the firmament) upon the waters (Gen. 1, 6 f.) . . . he makes his angels spirits." Gen. R. 1, 3; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 12. Jubilees 2, 2, on the contrary, puts the creation of all kinds of angels on the first day. Above, pp. 364 ff. Tos. Sanhedrin 8, 7; Sanhedrin 38a. 2

3

4

5

382

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II 1

that each of these is expressly said to have been created. From Eccles. 3, I I ('He made the whole (the universe) beautiful in its time') and Gen. I , 31 ('God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good'), a teacher of the end of the third century discovers that God had created and destroyed many worlds before he made this one, but did not get one till this to satisfy him. Abahu, to whom this is attributed, had a reputa­ tion for his knowledge of Greek, and it can hardly be doubted that his worlds before this one are a surreptitious piece of Greek wisdom. Such inspiration is by no means infrequent in the Midrash, especially in the cosmological parts, and the example may serve not only as a specimen of the kind but as a warning against the indiscriminate use that is often made of these rela­ tively late and heterogeneous sources. Whatever individuals may thus have picked up, Judaism firmly maintained the biblical doctrine that God, and God alone, made the world. That he made it in accordance with a precon­ ceived plan has already been noted. Unlike man, he made no changes in this plan when he came to carry it out. He created the world by a word, instantaneously, without toil and pains. Everything that he fashioned was perfect, as all his dealing with men is just and right (Deut. 32, 4). It is not for men to imagine improvements in his creation or question his providential rule in the world. And, finally, everything that God made belongs to the completeness of the created world, however superfluous flies and fleas and mosquitos may seem to men. 2

3

4

5

8

7

1

Gen. R. 1, 9. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 81 f. See Note 120. Gen. R. 3, 7; 9, 2. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 138. Freudenthal, Hellenistische Studien, pp. 71 f. Gen. R. 1, 13. Gen. R. 3, 2; 10, 9; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 1 1 . Cf. Jo­ sephus, Contra Apionem ii. 22 § 192. On creation by a word (fiat) see below, 2

3

4

5

6

7

This theme is developed at some length in Sifre Deut. § 307; cf. Gen. R.

Eccles. R. on 5, 8. God made nothing in vain; he employs frogs and mosquitos and hornets and scorpions on his errands. Tanhuma ed. Buber, tjukkat § 1; Shabbat 77 b.

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

383

To the question why the world was created different answers are given: it was made for man (not man for the world); or for the sake of the righteous, such as Abraham and the patriarchs; or for the sake of Israel; or for the sake of the Torah (religion). 1

2

3

4

Besides the public teaching of the school and synagogue, the first chapter of Genesis became the subject, or at least the start­ ing point, of cosmogonic or cosmological speculations which were carefully guarded from publicity. The name for this esoteric doctrine was Ma'aseh Bereshit, 'The Work of Creation/ and in the Mishnah it is forbidden to expound it except privately to a single auditor. The restriction, which is made on the authority of Deut. 4, 32, does not apply to the exposition of what took place on the six days of creation, nor to what is within the ex­ panse of heaven. But what was before the first creative day, or what is above, beneath, before, behind, it is forbidden to teach in public. There is no reserve about the seven heavens and what is in each; but of what is above the firmament that is over the heads of the beasts {hayyot, Ezek. 1, 22), one must not speak. Against such speculations Sirach had given a warning which is quoted in the Talmud in this connection thus: " D o not inquire into what is beyond thine understanding, and do not investigate what is hidden from thee. Reflect on things that are permitted to thee; thou hast nothing to do with the study of mysteries." 5

6

7

8

9

1

2

Syriac Baruch 14, 18; 4 Esdras 8, 44. Ibid. 15, 7; 21, 24. Sifre Deut. § 47 (on Deut. 1 1 , 21); Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 3 ; § 10; 4 Esdras 6, 55, 59; 7, 1 1 ; Assumption of Moses 1, 12. Similarly, Hermas Vis. 1. 1, 6: "God created that which is, out of that which is not . . . for the sake of his holy church"; cf Vis. ii. 4, 1. Gen. R. 12, 2. See above, pp. 268 f. On the subject of creation see further Note 121. M. gagigah 2, 1; Tos. rlagigah 2, 1. But there is presumption in professing to know the order of creation in detail. Gen. R. 12, 1. gagigah I 2 b - i 3 a ; Jer. gagigah 77c; Gen. R. 1, 10; 8, 2. See above, P. 368. Hagigah 13a. Ecclus. 3, 21 f. (Hebrew). Quoted gagigah 13a; Jer. gagigah 77c; Gen. R. 8, 12. 3

4

5

6

7

8

9

384

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

The following verses of Sirach are in the same vein: "With what is too much for thee do not concern thyself; for thou hast been shown more than thou art capable of. For men have many strange notions, and false conceits lead into error." Of the content of this esoteric cosmology we are left to make our conjectures, partly from the prohibitions themselves, partly from such apparent leakages as have been remarked elsewhere. Considerable parts of some of the apocalypses, especially of the Book of Enoch, purport to be exhibitions of the mysteries of the universe beyond the bounds of human ken, extending even to heaven and hell; but it would be rash to assume a relation, or even any special resemblance, between such revelations and the speculations which the rabbis communicated to initiates as a secret tradition. In leaving this subject it may be observed that the esoteric cosmology of the Ma'aseh Bereshit, like its counter­ part, the theosophic Ma'aseh Merkabah, was in high estimation among the most correct of the schoolmen. Its vulgarization was prohibited, not for any suspicion of the doctrine itself, but that it might not be exposed to vulgar misunderstanding, and mis­ understanding lead to skepticism or heresy. 1

2

3

God is not only the sole creator of the world, he alone upholds it, and maintains in existence by his immediate will and power everything that is. This universal teaching of the Bible is equally the doctrine of Judaism: "God created and he provides; he made and he sustains." The maintenance of the world is a kind of continuous creation: God in his goodness makes new every day continually the work of creation. The history of the world is his great plan, in which everything moves to the fulfil­ ment of his purpose, the end that is in his mind. Not only the great whole, but every moment, every event, every individual, 4

5

6

1

2 3 4 5 6

Cf. pp. 4 1 2 f. Particularly Enoch 17-36; 39-44; 72-82. See below, pp. 4 1 1 ff. E.g. Psalm 104, 10-30. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 24. So the old prayer, Yoser Or.

CHAP, i]

GOD A N D T H E W O R L D

385

every creature is embraced in this plan, and is an object of his particular providence. All man's ways are directed by God (Psalm 37, 23; Prov. 20, 24). A man does not even hurt his finger without its having been proclaimed above that he should do so. It is unnecessary to dwell further on this point here. The difficulties into which the belief in such providential order­ ing of men's lives and fortunes gets when it is confronted with the doctrine of retribution on the one hand, and on the other by the problem of human freedom and divine determination, re­ main for discussion in another connection; while the religious response of faith in this all-comprehensive providence will engage our attention when we come to treat of Jewish piety. 1

2

3

1 2 3

See Note 122. rlullin 7b, below; Matt. 10, 29 f. See below, pp. 453 ff.

CHAPTER

II

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

So far we have presented the theistic postulates of Judaism as it received them in the Scriptures and appropriated them in its own way. More distinctive is the Jewish conception of the character of God, to which we now proceed. This also is derived from the Bible, but here the selective process indicated above has larger room, and the advance beyond the highest attainments of the former centuries is most marked. Thus, the holiness of God, which in old times conveyed before all else the idea of inviolability, of exalted majesty and consum­ ing purity, or was his godhead in itself, all wherein he is unlike man, came more and more to signify his godhead morally con­ ceived, the sum of those moral perfections in which it is man's chief end to be in human measure like God, thus arriving at the sense which is now ordinarily attached to the word. In one of the most pregnant narratives in the Bible, Moses, on the point of departing from the Mount of God to lead the people to the land of promise, asks, as if the seal of his commis­ sion, to see the glory of God. That vision is denied to eyes of flesh and blood, but God promises: 'I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.' 'And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed: The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and faithfulness; keeping loving-kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; one who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children to the third and to the fourth genera­ tion.' The two aspects of God's character which are here dis1

2

1

2

Isa. 6; 57, 15; Psalm 99, etc. Exod. 33,19; 34,6 f.; cf. Deut. 5,9 f.; Jer. 32,17-19. See below, pp. 395 f. 386

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R O F GOD

387

played, his mercy and his justice, are the essential moral attri­ butes on which religion in Jewish conception is founded. Amos's message is the inflexible righteousness of God, Hosea's, his inex­ tinguishable love. These attributes, or their active manifesta­ tions in justice and mercy, run through the Bible like a cord of two colors intertwined. In the warnings and pleadings of the prophets, in the prayers of the servants of God, in the hymns of praise, the righteousness and the love of God, his justice and his gracious mercy, are ever-recurrent motives. In the Palestinian schools justice and mercy are frequently coupled as the two primary 'norms' of God's dealing with men individually and collectively. Jewish exegesis found in these two norms an explanation of the alternation in the Bible of the divine names the "Lord" and "God" (IHVH and Elohim) which has played such a part in modern analysis of the Pentateuch. The interchange is significant: Jehovah denotes God in his merciful and gracious character and attitude; Elohim in the character of strict judge. Thus R. Meir interpreted Hos. 14, 2 ('Return, Israel to (iy) the Lord, thy God:' "Repent while he is standing in the attitude (lit., 'attribute') of mercy (indicated by the name IHVH, the Lord); if you do not, he will be 'your God' {Elohim, the austere judge); repent, that is, before the advocate becomes the accuser." The conjunction of the two attributes of justice and mercy is so common that it is superfluous to adduce particu­ lar instances. God's justice is first of all man's assurance that God will not 1

2

3

4

6

1

2

3

4

E. g. Hos. 2. 21 f. E. g. Dan. 9, 7 and 9. E. g. Psalm 25, 8-10. IIVID;

respectively f H i l JTTD, D W i n

JTTD.

Jer. Ta'anit 65b, below;

Gen. R. 12, 15, and often. The juxtaposition of these attributes follows Bib­ lical precedent; see Jer. 9, 23; 32, 17-20; Psalm 101, 1; 103, 6-18; etc. 2 Mace. 1, 24. See further Note 123. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 164a. The interpretation turns on the unusual preposition iy taken to mean * while/ In the attitude of mercy he is advo­ cate (avvqyopos); in that of justice he is accuser (icaTrjyopos). Cf. also Gen. R. 33, 3; 73, 3 (Samuel ben Nahman). 5

y

388

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

use his almighty power over his creatures without regard to right. The remonstrance of Abraham at the very thought that in the doom of the cities of the plain God would destroy the righteous with the wicked, 'Far be it from Thee! shall not the judge of all the earth do justly!' is often recalled, and the homilists love to embellish the scene. From more than one example in the sacred history the lesson is drawn that God does not deal with men as a king does in putting down a rebellion, slaying the inno­ cent and the guilty indiscriminately because he does not know the one from the other. God, who knows men's thoughts and the counsel of their hearts and reins, knows who has sinned and who not, knows the spirit of each individual, and will distinguish the guilty from the guiltless. In relation to individuals, God's distributive justice is often represented as a strict suum cuique which gives its full meed to the good deeds of bad men, and inflicts on none more punish­ ment than he has deserved. This aspect of justice, however, will be more conveniently reserved for a later chapter. God's rectoral justice does not mean that, having given laws and attached general or specific penalties to the violation of them, he inflexibly exacts the whole penalty of every infraction by transgression or neglect. It is not the justice of inexorable law, nor of an impersonal divine attribute, but of an all-wise and almighty sovereign whose end is not the vindication of the law or of his own majesty, not the demonstration or satisfaction of a realistically conceived attribute, but the best interest of the individual, the people, the race, and the fulfilment of his great purpose in the universal reign of God. Even when sentence has been pronounced, he can revoke it and freely pardon. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Gen. 18, 25. E. g. Gen. R. 39, 6; 49, 20; Lev. R. 10, 1. See also the references be­ low, pp. 528 f. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Korah § 19; cf. ibid. Noah § 10, and Bemidbar 2

3

4

R. Akiba is frequently cited for this view of the divine justice; e. g. Gen. R- 3 3 , 1 See Note 124. 6

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

389

A theme with many repetitions and variations is that the world would never have been created and could not endure if justice were to rule in it untempered by mercy. On Gen. 2, 4, 'The Lord God (InvH-EIohim) made earth and heaven/ a Midrash represents God as deliberating: If I create the world in my merciful character (alone), sins will abound; if in my just char­ acter (alone), how can the world endure? I will create it in both the just and the merciful character, and may it endure! So when God is about to inflict just judgment on Sodom, Abraham argues with him: " I f thou seekest justice, there will be no world here; if thou seekest a world, there will be no justice here." God it is said, would take the string by both ends (have both alterna­ tives); he wants to have a world, he wants also to have exact justice; but unless he relaxes its demands somewhat, the world cannot endure. The same idea which is here expressed in what we may call homiletic form is put into theology by Philo in a passage where he is commenting on God's dealing with the generation of the Flood (Gen. 6, 7 f.). In the deliverance of Noah while the rest of mankind was destroyed, God's saving mercy was mingled with the judgment of the sinners, as the Psalmist says, 'I will sing of mercy and judgment' (Psalm 101, 1). For if God should will to judge the mortal race without mercy, he would render a con­ demnatory verdict, since no man goes through his whole life without a fall, some by voluntary slips, some by involuntary. "In order, therefore, that the race may continue to exist, even though many individuals go to the bottom, he mingles with jus­ tice, mercy, which in his benevolence he employs even to the unworthy; and not only has he mercy where he has inflicted judgment, but inflicts judgment where he has had mercy. For 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

The former standing for God in his merciful character (Psalm 145, 9; Gen. R. 33, 1), the latter in his justice. See above, p. 387. D ^ m n moa. pnn moa. Gen. R. 12, 15; cf. 8, 4 f. Gen. R. 39, 6; Lev. R. 10, i; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 139a. K a i ov JJLOVOV diKaaas eXeei aXXa, Kal eXe^cras biKa^ei. 2

4

5

6

3

T H E IDEA OF GOD

39°

[PART II

with him mercy is antecedent to judgment, inasmuch as he knows that a man is deserving of punishment, not after judgment rend­ ered, but before judgment." The manifoldness of God's mercy is brought out by an enumeration of the words and phrases in Exod. 34, 6 f., in which way thirteen 'norms of mercy' — specific forms or manifestations of the attribute of mercy — are dis­ covered. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ezek. 33, 12). The merciful qualities of God enumerated in the rabbinical sources after Exod. 34, 6 f. as the ' thirteen norms' are appealed to in 4 Esdras in a moving plea for mankind, which has no other escape from its doom. 1

2

" I know, Sir, that the Most High is called merciful (Dim) because he has mercy on those who have not yet come into the world; and gracious (tun), because he is gracious to those who turn in repentance to his law; and longsuffering (D^SK "p&0 because he shows longsuffering toward those who have sinned, as to his own works; and liberal (ION 21) because he had rather give than exact; and of abundant compassion (non n^o ?) because he makes his compassions abound to those now living and to those who are gone and to those yet to come, for if he did not make them abound, the world and those who inhabit it could not live; and the giver (py HBO ?), because if he did not give out of his goodness, that those who have done iniquities should be relieved of their iniquities, not the ten-thousandth part of men could survive; and the judge (npJi)> because if he did not pardon those who were created by his word, and blot out the multitude of their sins, very few would be left of all the innumerable multitude." A reconstruction of the orginal Hebrew text from a translation of a translation is impossible, and the somewhat eclectic render1

Quod deus sit immutabilis c. 16 (ed. Mangey I, 284). The whole pas­ sage is relevant. Sifre Deut. § 49; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 57a, and in other places. The list is taken up into the liturgy; see Note 125. In these qualities God is an ex­ ample for men to imitate, Sifre Deut. 1. c. See below, p. 396. 2

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

391 1

ing essayed above is in more than one place doubtful. The main thing, however, is not doubtful, namely that the passage is a kind of midrash on the middot, of which seven seem to be ac­ counted for; and that they are pleaded in Ezra's remonstrance quite as they might be in Jewish prayers for forgiveness (selihot). In the sequel Ezra concentrates it upon the fate of Israel (8, i

ff.).

5

_

R. Phineas bar Hama, a much quoted homilist of the fourth century, brings together texts to prove that God does not desire to convict any human being (Ezek. 18, 32; Psalm 5, 5); but to acquit (justify) all his creatures (Isa. 42, 21; 46, 10). He even appoints an advocate for sinners to bring out their good points, and gives him full opportunity to do so, for which biblical in­ stances are cited, such as Jer. 5, 7; Gen. 18 (Abraham's interces­ sion for Sodom); 1 Kings 18 (Elijah), etc. In his providential dealings with men, God is longsuffering; he seeks by warnings and chastisements to bring men to recog­ nize and acknowledge their sins, and to turn from them unto him in repentance, that he may forgive. God's inclination in judgment is always in man's favor. In a picturesque application of Job 33, 23 by a Rabbi of the second century, if nine hundred and ninety-nine angels give a bad ac­ count of man and only one a favorable account, God inclines the balance to the meritorious side; and even if nine hundred and ninety-nine parts of the one angel's report are bad and only one thousandth good, God will still do the same. It would be easy to multiply indefinitely such examples from the Haggadah. The proof-texts may seem to the uninitiated to be irrelevant and the exegesis ingeniously misdirected; the thing we are concerned to note is that God's justice and his mercy are thus constantly associated in Jewish thought, which here again 2

3

4

1

For a different distribution see Simondsen in Festschrift zu Israel Lewys siebzigsten Geburtstag (1911), pp. 270-278. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wa'era § 1 1 , see Note 126. See below, pp. 527 ff. Eiiezer ben Jose ha-Gelili. Jer. Kiddushin 6id; cf. Shabbat 32a. 2

3

4

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

is in the track of the Law and the Prophets. We shall see when we come to the article of retribution that much stricter views of divine justice prevailed than that which hyperbolically imag­ ines God rendering a verdict in accordance with a millionth part of the evidence; and that God's mercy is so related to repent­ ance as to give it a wholly moral character and value. 1

Justice and mercy, or benevolence, in the abstract, may be re­ garded as conflicting principles — they were so regarded by the Stoics — and it is evident that in the sphere of law, if justice is defined as the rigid exaction of the penalty, and mercy be understood as unwillingness to inflict suffering, they do conflict. Moses' maxim was, " L e t justice pierce the mountain"—fiat justitia ruat caelum I Aaron sought to make peace between men, and to recall men from their evil ways by mildness and persuasion. In striving for sermonic vividness, the justice of God is some­ times dramatically personified. If God had shown to the minis­ tering angels with whom he consulted about the making of man the wicked who would spring from Adam, "the attribute of justice would not have permitted him to be created." When God proposed to make Hezekiah the Messiah, the attribute of justice (suum cuique) objects that Hezekiah, who has not made a single hymn praising God for all the miracles wrought in his behalf, should not be thus preferred to David. No one at all acquainted with the ways of preachers will suspect in these per­ sonifications a philosophy of hypostatic attributes, or discover dogma in the precedence which is often ascribed to mercy over justice. 2

3

4

5

6

1

See below, pp. 393, 527 f.; II, 252. Tos. Sanhedrin 1, 2; Jer. Sanhedrin 18b; Sanhedrin 6b; homiletically amplified, Tanhuma ed. Buber, rlukkat (Addit.) f. 66a-b. Gen. 1, 26, "Let us make man." Gen. R. 8,4. In the preceding context the attribute of mercy is similarly personified; God made it his associate in creating the world. Sanhedrin 94a; Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 519. In the end it remains God's secret whom he has designated to this office. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tazri'a § 1 1 : In dealing with Adam, He gave the attribute of mercy precedence over the attribute of justice. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

393

For Jewish apprehension justice and mercy are not jealous attributes between which God is somehow distracted, but com­ plementary aspects of his character which are harmoniously ex­ hibited in his moral government of the world and his particular providence. 'Good and upright is the Lord; therefore doth he instruct sinners in the way' (Psalm 25, 8). " W h y is he good? Because he is upright. And why upright? Because he is good. 'Therefore doth he instruct sinners in the way'; because he teaches the way of repentance." Christian theologians have sometimes laid it down as an axiom that God must be just, he may be merciful. The rabbis, as we have seen, had confidence that upon such conditions God would never have made a world of peccable men; and in the theory that Justice could deter God from ruling his world in his own way, they would have scented the heresy of' two powers' in its most obnoxious form. To them, justice and mercy were not attributes of a Divine Being, but the character of a personal God, whom they could not imagine as either unjust or unmerciful; hence they did not even see the difficulty the theologian finds in reconciling the attributes. Mercy is not only a principle of the divine government of the world; it is the expression of a divine compassion which em­ braces all his creatures, men and women, the righteous and the wicked (Psalm 145, 9 ) ; it extends to the brute creation. The Midrash abounds upon this subject. God lamented the severe sentence he had to pass on Adam.; he mourned for six days be­ fore the flood; the death of Nadab and Abihu was twice as hard for him as even for their father Aa,ron. God himself suffers in the sufferings of men: 'In all their affliction he was afflicted,' etc. (Isa. 63, 9). He was with Israel in Egypt; he went into exile with them to Babylon, and was delivered with them. 'The 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

"Ifc^l The second word might be translated 'equitable/ Jer. Makkot 3id; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 158 b; Midrash Tehillim ed. Buber f. 107a. See Note 127. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Nissabim § 5. Ibid. Noah § 7 (f. 17a). Ibid. Bereshit § ii\ Shemini § 1; Ahare § 8, cf. § 13, etc Ibid. Beshallah § 1 1 ; Bemidbar § 10; Ahare § 18. 2

3

5

6

4

394

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up those that are bowed down' (Psalm 145, 14); it does not say, 'those that stand,' but those that are bowed down'—even the wicked. These illustra­ tions from a single compilation of ' sermon-stuff' suffice. The humanity of God is, indeed, written all over the revelation as it was read by philosophically unsophisticated men; the preachers at most did no more than seek to improve less obvious texts. Often they also held up this side of God's character as an ex­ ample for man's imitation and a motive to it. One point in which they go beyond the explicit teaching of the Old Testament deserves particular mention. We shall see that in its moral teaching Judaism is peculiarly sensitive to the injuries to the honor of a fellow-man or to his good name; these are graver wrongs than injuries to his person or property. In this also God sets man the example. Even in the infliction of merited punishment he spares the honor of the transgressor. Ezek. 29, 16 —by a contorted exegesis, it must be admitted— is made to teach that God does not allow anything that might serve as a memorial and reminder of a sin committed by an individual or the community. In the ordeal of the adulteress, for example, she is not allowed to drink the potion from a cup belonging to another woman, lest the latter should be able to say, This is the cup from which so-and-so drank the potion and died; the law says 'bull or sheep' not calf or sheep,' in order not to recall the sin of the golden calf; God did not reveal, nor will he reveal, the name of the tree whose fruit Adam ate with such disastrous consequences, lest whenever men saw a tree of the kind they might think, That is the tree that brought death into the world. All this is the communicative aspect of the goodness of God, an inexhaustible theme in the Scriptures, especially in the later writings, and equally in Jewish literature. This goodness is 1

1

2

1

3

1

Ibid. Wayyese § 10. In the sequel, the impartiality of God's love, com­ pared with man's. See below, p. 441. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 7^-763,; f. 142b; Gen. R. 15, 7, etc. 2

3

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

395

seen in the whole creation, with its adaptation to the well-being of all creatures; in the perpetual and unfailing provision not only for their needs but for their happiness; in protection and de­ liverance. With God's goodness, or his loving-kindness, his truth is often coupled, which is not only his fidelity to his word given, but his constancy in righteousness and grace. The good­ ness which he shows to all mankind is peculiarly manifested to his people, Israel; it extends to the unthankful and the evil, but embraces with peculiar graciousness the godly and upright. Here ajso Judaism is in full accord with the revelation of God in the Scriptures. From an endless abundance in the rabbinical literature a few illustrative examples may be taken almost at random. In a touching anecdote about R. Meir at the grave of his apostate teacher R. Elisha bar Abuya, he finds in Ruth 3, 13 (cf. Psalm 145, 9) God, the absolutely good, who would deliver even such a sinner. A contemporary, Jose ben Halafta, contrasts man's way toward one who has angered him with God's. A man would seek the life of the offender; but God provides even the serpent he cursed with his food wherever it goes. The Canaanite, whom his curse made a slave, has the same food and drink as his master; he cursed the woman, but all men run after her; he cursed the ground, but all get their living from it. Moses asked to be shown by what norm (attribute) God ruled the wojrld; God answers, ' I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee' (Exod. 33, 19). I am under no obligation to the creature at all; but I give to them gratuitously, as it is written, ' I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious' (ibid.). God has compassion like a father and comforts like a mother (Psalm 103, 13; Isa. 66, 13) . This side of God's character is naturally appealed to in the liturgy, especi1

2

3

4

h

6

1 2 3 4 5

6

Psalm 36, 6-10; 136, 1-9; 145; Wisdom of Solomon n , 23-26, etc. E. g. Psalm 25, 10; 57, 4; 61, 8; 69, 14. Jer. Hagigah 77c. Cf. Matt. 19, 17. Yoma 75a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ethannan § 3. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 139a.

396

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

laly in prayers for forgiveness. As has already been noted, God himself is said to have taught Moses the liturgical use of the thirteen norms of God's grace (Exod. 34, 6 f.), and promised to accept the prayer and pardon the sinner. The oldest prayers for forgiveness seem to have consisted chiefly of Biblical pas­ sages of similar tenor, largely from the Psalms. One of the two ancient benedictions before reciting the Shema' in the morning begins, "With abounding love thou hast loved us, O Lord our God, with great and exceeding pity hast thou pitied us." In the progressive amplification of the liturgy, more and more Psalms of this tenor have been incorporated in the prayer-books. 1

2

3

4

More than one of the words generally translated ' mercy/ 'lovingkindness,' and the like, might in many contexts quite as well be rendered 'love,' with the active forthputting of love more in mind than the affection itself. But the latter is often expressed by the commonest and by the strongest terms in the Hebrew language. God's love for his people Israel is a frequent topic in the Old Testament, especially in the prophets from the seventh century on. Thus Hosea: 'When Israel was young I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son' (11, 1). The in­ extinguishable love of God for his people, like the love of a hus­ band for the wife of his youth in spite of her unfaithfulness, is the subject with which the Book of Hosea begins (chaps. 1-3), and the ruling idea throughout his prophecies. Love is the power which shall at last reclaim the erring people, bringing it to re­ pentance and reviving its early lova The gifts of the reunion are set forth in one of the most significant verses of Scripture: ' I will espouse thee unto me forever. I will espouse thee unto me in rightousness and in justice, and in loving-kindness and in 5

6

1

Rosh ha-Shanah 17b; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 9. Selihot, Dan. 9, 9; for mercy and forgiveness. See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, pp. 221 f. n n n n n n N ; cf. the counterpart D^lJJ nana ('with eternal love'), Berakot l i b . Elbogen, op. cit. pp. 20, 100. See Note 128. See Note 129. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

397

compassion; and I will espouse thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord.' An echo of this is heard in Jer. 31, 1 ff. with its climax: 'With everlasting love have I loved thee, therefore with affection I have drawn thee' (31, 3). The peculiar love of God to the patriarchs, especially to Abraham, is empha­ sized; it is the confidence of their descendants that the same love is continued to them. It is in accordance with the whole tenor of prophecy, whose warnings and exhortations as well as its promises and consolations are addressed directly to the nation in its religious character, that the love of God should be usually his love for the people collectively; and the Jews of later times under­ stood it similarly as embracing all members of the people. But the same individualizing process which translated the prophetic doctrine of national retribution and national return to allegiance and obedience into individual retribution and individual repent­ ance, appropriated for the individual, not only the mercy and lovingkindness of God, but its origin, the personal love of God. The most striking proof of this is acceptance of the afflictive providences of God by the sufferer as ' chastisements of love,' the discipline of a father prompted by love for his child, to correct faults and develop character. Akiba deduced God's love to all mankind from the divine image in man: "Beloved is man, because he was created in the image (of God); still more beloved that it was made known to him that he was created in the image, as it is said, ' In the image of God he made the man.' Beloved are the Israelites, because they are called sons of God; still greater love that it was made known to them that they are called sons of God, as it is said,' Y e are sons of the Lord your G o d ' (Deut. 14, 1). Beloved are the Israe­ lites, because to them was given the precious instrument; still greater love that it was made known to them that to them was 1

2

3

4

1

See also Deut. 7, 8; 23, 6; 1 Kings 10, 9; Hos. 3, 1; Isa. 43, 4; Mai. 1, 2, etc. Deut. 4 , 3 7 ; 10, 15; Isa. 41, 8. See below, pp. 536 ff. See Vol. II, pp. 254 ff. 2

3 4

398

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

given the precious instrument with which the world was created (sc. the Torah-revelation). 'For good doctrine have I given to you, do not forsake my Torah.' " More pregnant expression of the Jewish conception of God's relation to men could hardly be given: God's love for mankind in making man alone of all creatures in the image of God; his peculiar love to Israel in call­ ing them his sons; the immensity of his love in giving to them the religion which was both instrumental and final cause in the creation of the world; and all these proofs of his love known not by inference or reasoning, but by revelation direct from God him­ self. It is not irrelevant to add that the same Akiba found the comprehensive commandment of the Law, we might say the essence of religion on its manward side, in the sentence, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor (fellow man) as thyself.' That the greatest gift of God's love is the revelation of the true religion is the burden of the very ancient benediction before the Shema', Ahabah Rabbah, or Ahabat 'Olam, of which men­ tion has already been made; for this reason it is called the 'Blessing of the L a w . ' The peculiar love of God for Israel is the ground of his choice of Israel to be their God and they his people. In the Scriptures the doctrine of an election which had its motive, not in any excel­ lence in them, but solely in unmerited favor, is pressed to under­ mine the presumption of the intrinsic superiority of Israel to the other nations, with its fruits in the pride of self-righteousness on the one hand and contempt of the heathen on the other. But God's partiality for Israel is manifested and explicitly affirmed in the Old Testament in a way that might have quite the op­ posite effect. God is Israel's lover; and when, moved by Israel's praises of his beauty, the nations say, We will come with you, as it is written, Whither has thy lover gone, thou fairest among women? (Cant. 6, i ) , the Israelites reply, You have no part in 1

2

3

1

Abot 3, 14. (Prov. 4, 2). See Vol. II, pp. 85 f. Elbogen, Der judische Gottesdienst, p. 20. pedia s.v. 'Ahabah Rabbah/ I, 281. 2

3

See also Jewish Encyclo­

CHAP, ii]

T H E C H A R A C T E R OF GOD

399

him, as it is written, ' I am my lover's and my lover is mine' (Cant. 6, ) . i More serious than such allegorizing are utterances like this: ' I have loved you, saith the Lord. Y e t ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord; yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau.' The execution of God's hatred upon 'the people with whom the Lord is wroth forever' is vividly depicted in the following verses. The predictions of the doom of the heathen nations in the prophetic books are in fact the expression of a vindictive hatred, and those against Edom are among the most sanguinary. The modern reader may explain such prophecies as the projection of the hatred the Jews felt towards the nations that wronged and oppressed them and their demand for divine vengeance, and he may describe such too human outbreaks of passion as a lapse from the higher teaching and spirit of the religion; but he will do well to remind him­ self that his rationalizing explanation and his discrimination of superior and inferior were not accessible to the Jews, who, con­ sistently with the principle of revealed religion as they appre­ hended it, could do nothing but take such prophecies as the literal word of God, true expression of God's feeling, and predictions to the fulfilment of which his truth was engaged. The furthest they could go was to emphasize the enormity of the crimes against God and man which deserved such an enormous doom. Over against these oracles, however, stand the prophecies of the conversion of all nations to the true religion, and the time to come when the Lord shall reign alone in all the earth with the allegiance and obedience of all men. The incongruities of Jewish notions in this sphere were thus given in Scripture itself, with the same authority of revelation. They come out most strongly, as we shall see hereafter, in the effort to combine them in a picture 3

2

3

1

Sifre Deut. § 343 (ed. Friedmann, p. 143a). Mai. 1, 2 f. See Note 130. See Isa. 13, 13-22 (Babylon); 34, 1—15; 63, 1-6; Jer. 49, 7-22; Obad. 1-21 (Edom); and in general Isa. 13-23; Jer. 46-51; Ezek. 25-32. 2

3

4

oo

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

of the great crisis with which the present chapter of the world's history ends, and of what the next age is to be like. The Jews would have been singularly unlike the rest of man­ kind if in the generation after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and even more after the disastrous end of the war under Hadrian, they had not found a bitter satisfaction in call­ ing to mind the prophecies of God's signal vengeance on the Babylonian destroyers, such as Isa. 13 and Jer. 50 f., with an application to modern Nebuchadnezzars and Antiochuses, and dwelt on the predictions of the doom of Edom (Rome) in Isa. 34, Jer. 49, 7-23, Isa. 63, 1-6. But, considering how much room the destruction of the heathen nations fills in the prophets and the fierce exultation over their fate that breathes in the prophe­ cies, the vindictive aspect of God's dealing with the oppressors of his people is far from being as prominent in rabbinical utter­ ances, even from that dreadful century, as we should expect. The same may be said of the apocalypses that reflect the fall of Jerusalem, Fourth Esdras and the Syriac Baruch; for the tragedy of Israel, which itself was but an act in the tragedy of mankind, vengeance was no solution. That within his people, God, who is righteous and loves righteousness (Psalm 1 1 , 7), has an especial affection for the righteous is taught in the Scripture both by word (e.g. Psalm 146, 8) and example. On the former verse a teacher of the second century remarked: " Y o u will not find a man who loves one of the same calling. The scholar, however, loves one of his calling, as, for example, R. Hiyya loved R. Hoshaya, and R. Hoshaya, R. Hiyya; and God loves one of his calling, as it is said, The Lord is righteous, he loves righteousness, his countenance be­ holds the upright.' This refers to Noah, for it is said, 'And the Lord said unto Noah, 'Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.' (Gen. 7 , 1 ) . 1

2

1

2

See Part VII. Gen. R. 32, 2; cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 1 , 7 (ed. Buber f. 51a).

CHAPTER I I I MINISTERS OF GOD

T H E title 'king' was probably first applied to God in his peculiar relation to Israel; but as the horizon of history widened and monotheism became more conscious of its implications, God was king as ruler of the nations, eternally sovereign in the whole world he had created. The religious interest in the sovereignty of God, as in monotheism itself, is altogether in the unity of the moral government of the world; and, like the interest in his omnipotence, it is above all in the certain fulfilment of that great purpose which he has revealed by his prophets, the good world that is to be. The sovereignty of God in Judaism is, therefore, in­ separable from the teleology of religion. The most expressive name for this ideal is malkut Shamaim\ all the hopes of humanity are in the coming of that day when 'The Lord shall be king in all the earth,' the day when His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. But meanwhile God is king, though men acknowledge him not, know it not. We shall see hereafter how vital these ideas are in Jewish piety. Jewish imagination pictured God in a royal palace seated upon a lofty throne, as Isaiah saw it in his vision (Isa. 6), surrounded by his ministers and an innumerable celestial court of many ranks and functions. A similar vision is found in I Kings 22, 195*., where Micaiah ben Imlah sees the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left, in council with him; while in Job they present them1

2

3

A

5

6

1

E. g. Isa. 43, 15; 44, 6; Zeph. 3, 15; Psalm 5, 2; 84, 4, etc. Jer. 10, 7, 10; 46, 18; 48, 15; Zech. 14, 9 , 1 6 , 17; Mai. 1, 14; Psalm 47, 35 95> 35 45> 3> Above, p. 375. Pp. 43 "434 ; II, 3 7 - . Matt. 6, 10. It is probable that the organization and ceremonial of the Persian court and of the orientalized Macedonian monarchies contributed to the concrete detail of this imagery. On God's palace and throne in the heavens see also Psalm 1 1 , 4; 103, 19; 123, 1. 2

J

3

J

e t c

4

2

1

6

401

ff

5

THE

402

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

selves before him at stated times, as officials of an empire or inspectors of the provinces might come up to court to give ac­ count of what was going on in the world. In Job they are called bene elohim, 'divine beings/ This expression was later avoided because of its liability to misunderstanding or cavil; the Greek versions substitute 'angels/ Another word for the members of God's celestial court is kedoshim, which also originally at least connoted 'divine beings,' but was understood 'holy beings' in the later senses of holiness. The general name for these beings is derived from their principal function as seen from man's side; they are God's mes­ sengers, or envoys, whom he employs in the world on various missions. Jacob in his dream at Bethel sees them in numbers going up and down between heaven and earth (Gen. 28, 12). They are the Lord's army, under a general (Josh. 5, 14 f.), 'the host of heaven.' On their errands they are usually sent singly; they appear to men in human form, are taken for men, and some­ times simply called so in the narrative, as in Gen. 18. They present themselves unexpectedly, deliver their message or ac­ complish their task, disclosing in doing so their true character, and sometimes vanish miraculously. In all the older narratives of the appearance of such divine messengers they are anonymous; and so they remain in the prophets, particularly in Ezekiel and Zechariah, where an angel is assigned to the prophet as the medium or interpreter of revelation. Names of individual angels are found within the canon first in Daniel; in succeeding apoca­ lypses they multiply. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Cf. also Zech. 1, 8 ff. Job. 1, 6; 2, 1; cf. 38, 7. Compare also Gen. 6, 2; Dan. 3, 25; bene elirn, Psalm 29, 1; 89, 7. See Note 131. See Psalm 89, 6, 8; Job 5, 1; 15, 15; Deut. 33, 2; Zech. 14, 5; and fre­ quently in the later literature. Lev. R. 24, 8. Other names, Note 132. MaVakim, ayye\ot angels; i.e. ' messengers.' Note 133. E. g. Judges 13, 20. Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah $6d below: The names of the angels were brought up from Babylon. Before the exile the seraphim are spoken of as a class (Isa. 6); after it appear (in Daniel) the names Gabriel and Michael. 2

3

4

5

y

6 7

y

CHAP, I I I ]

MINISTERS OF GOD

403

The giving of personal names to angels is a very significant step. Whereas the divine messenger formerly had individuality in men's apprehension only ad hoc, and in the errand upon which he was for the occasion employed, and even the angelus comes et interpres of Ezekiel has no other, Gabriel and Michael, though they do no other things than their anonymous prototypes, ac­ quire a permanent function and a distinct personality: Gabriel is the angel of revelation, Michael is the champion of the Jews; other nations have their own angelic princes as champions. In Tobit the angel who plays so important a part is Raphael (5, 4 et alibi). The author of the Book of Daniel does not introduce the names of Gabriel and Michael as if they were something new; on the contrary he assumes that both the names and the func­ tions of these angels were familiar, and it is evident from the ap­ proximately contemporary parts of Enoch that the Jews by that time had a much more extensive angelic lore. God's will in the world was executed by a multitude of such deputies. Not only is his revelation communicated through them, not only are they his instruments in providence and his­ tory, but the realm of nature is administered by them. The movements of the heavenly bodies are regulated by an angel who is appointed over all the luminaries of heaven. There are regents of the seasons, of months, and of days, who ensure the regularity of the calendar; the sea is controlled by a mighty prince; rain and dew, frost and snow and hail, thunder and lightning, have 1

2

3

4

1

Dan. 8, 16; 9, 21; cf. Luke 1, 19 f. Revelation, it should be added, is not his only employment. Dan. 10, 13-21. Other nations, Ecclus. 17, 17 (Deut. 32, 8, above, pp. 226 f.); Jubilees 15,31 f.: God gave the spirits power over the nations to lead them astray from Him, but over Israel neither angel nor spirit was given power; He himself alone is its ruler and protector, etc. According to R. IJama bar Hanina, the angel with whom Jacob wrestled was the champion of Esau. Gen. R. 78, 3. Enoch 75, 3. In the Slavonic Enoch 4 the angels who rule the stars are two hundred in number; cf. Enoch 80, 6; 4 Esdras 6, 3. More commonly the heavenly bodies were conceived to be themselves living and intelligent beings. Compare the 5wdjueis T&V ovpav&v, Matt. 24, 29. D"* h& W > Baba Batra 74b; Tanhuma ed. Buber, tjukkat § 1; Pesahim 118b. p K 5>B> Jer. Sanhedrin 28d, middle. 2

3

4

4

o

T H E IDEA OF GOD

4

[PART II

1

their own presiding spirits. There are angel warders of hell and tormentors of the damned; champions of nations and guardians of individuals/ recording angels — in short, angels for every­ thing. As the divine king, God received a worship that was more than royal homage; his palace was a temple in which angelic choirs perpetually intoned his praises and incense was burned upon the altar by a celestial priesthood. The angels thus con­ stitute a hierarchy in numerous orders Cherubim, Seraphim, Ofannim, and so on. How much of this development is indigenous; how far it was promoted or accelerated by acquaintance with other religions, particularly with that of the Persians, is an inquiry into which it is needless to enter here. However they came by it, an angelic mythology of this kind was widely current among the Jews in the centuries with which we are concerned. It is much more abundant and extravagant in popular writings, especially the apocalypses, than in the early rabbinical sources, and in the latter often seems to be an exhibition of homiletic ingenuity rather than serious opinion. There was nothing approaching a 'doctrine of angels/ The Synoptic Gospels and the first half of Acts are the best witnesses to the popular notions of the time; the Epistles of Paul are in the same vein; while the Revelation of John is exuberant in its use of the angelic stage machinery of the Jewish apocalypses. In relation to the idea of God, which is our present interest in it, what I have called the angelic mythology of Judaism is a naive way of imagining the mediation of God's word and will in 2

4

5

6

7

1

See in general Enoch 72-82; cf. Jubilees 2, 2. Princes of fire and of hail, B>K h& "IP , m *>W I P , Pesahim 118a, below. Enoch 53 f.; 63, 1; 66, 1. DttiTJI I P , 'Arakin 15b. Matt. 18, 10; Acts 12, 14 f.; Palestinian Targum on Gen. 33, 10; cf. Hagigah 16a; Ta'anit 11 a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mesora' § 2 (Eccles. 5, 5): Every word that issues from a man's mouth is written down in a book. See Note 134. IJagigah 12b; rjullin 91b; etc. See below, pp. 408 f. In the books we call the Apocrypha (except Tobit) references to angels are infrequent, and do not go beyond the Old Testament. 2

3

4

5 6

7

MINISTERS OF GOD

CHAP, III]

405

the universe by personal agents. They are not, like the good demons in the later phases of Neoplatonism, the product of an abstract or transcendent idea of God, but of one naively personal; and they do not consciously infringe upon the belief in his omnipresence or omniscience. The angels — using this familiar word comprehensively for the whole hierarchy — are spirits, not immaterial, but of an ethereal, fiery substance, blazing light. Or those which are employed on God's errands are winds; while those which form the heavenly choir are fire. They were created, as we have seen, together with the world, on the second day or the fifth. They do not eat and drink; therefore in Tobit, Raphael is at pains to explain that he did not really partake of food when he sat at meat with them, but only seemed to them to do so. Genesis 18, 8, where Abraham's guests eat the sumptuous meal his hospitality set before them (cf. also 19, 3), is interpreted in the same way in the Palestinian Targum — "they seemed to him to eat"— and in the Midrash. But whatever angels may do or seem to do in their visits to earth, there is general agreement that in heaven there is neither eating nor drinking. R. Akiba was sharply taken to task for interpreting Psalm 78, 25, 'Man did eat angels food' (the manna). "Bread of the mighty ones" (lehem abbirim), is the bread which the ministering angels eat. When this exegesis was reported to Rabbi Ishmael he bade the reporters tell Akiba that he erred—"Do the ministering angels eat bread!" — arguing that Moses, all the forty days he spent on the mount of revela­ tion, neither ate nor drank (Deut. 9,9,18) ? Afortiori the angels. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Psalm 104, 4. See Note 135. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 104, 4 (ed. Buber f. 221b). Above, p. 381. Tobit 12, 19. The oldest precedent is Manoah's angel, Judges 13, 16; cf. 6, 18 ff. Gen. R. 48, 14; Lev. R. 34, 8; Eccles. R. on 3, 14. See Note 136. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 57a. Yoma 75b. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 245 f. and Note 137. 2 3 4

5

6

7

406

T H E I D E A OF GOD

[PART II

In another respect angels are unlike men, they do not propagate their kind. Inasmuch as they are ever-living spirits there was no need to renew the generations, as mortals must do. That angels, although created, do not die, is the universal be­ lief; but of course they can be annihilated by God. The mis­ cegenation of the ' divine beings' with fair women, as narrated in Gen. 6, 1-4 — a fragment of an old myth which was evolved into a whole romance — made it impossible to affirm impeccability of the angelic nature; but it seems to have been assumed that the angels were sorted out in that crisis, and those who did not fall then were in no danger of falling similarly thereafter. The 'evil impulse' which prompts men to sin has no dominion over the angels, as it will have none over men in the Age to Come. The angels are not impassive spectators or disinterested mes­ sengers in the drama of life and history. The angel champions of the nations contend for their cause against the champion of the Jews; an adversary {s atari) among the angels appears as ac­ cuser of the high priest Joshua, and argues the nullity of the institutes of atonement which he administers; the angelic ad­ versary in Job has a cynical skepticism about disinterested good­ ness and unmistakable jealousy of Job's reputation with God. Judaism followed the Bible, therefore, in imagining the angelic princes of the heathen nations appearing before God as accusers, 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Enoch 15, 4-7; Matt. 22, 30; Gen. R. 8, 1 1 ; IJagigah 16a; Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann, f. 179b. A whole troop of them was burned up for opposing the creation of Adam, Sanhedrin 38b. Enoch 6 - 1 1 ; Jubilees 5, cf. 4, 15; Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Reuben 5; Syriac Baruch, 56, 10-13, - For other references see Charles, The Book of Enoch, 2 ed. p. 14; Flemming, Das Buch Henoch, p. 24. See also Midrash Abkir in Yalkut Gen. § 44; with Theodor's note on Gen. R. 26, 2 (p. 247). jnn * m See below, pp. 479 ff. Gen. R. 48, 11 (R. rjiyya); Lev. R. 28, 8. Hence the Ten Command­ ments are not for them, Shabbat 89a. Dan. 10, 13, 20 f. It was the angelic champions of Babylon, Media, Greece, and Rome that Jacob saw ascending and descending the ladder. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 151a (Meir). Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 28 f. Zech. 3, 1 ff. Job 1 f. 2

3

e t c

4 5

6

7

8

CHAP, iii]

MINISTERS OF G O D

407

charging the Israelites with the same sins and vices as the heathen; Satan accuses them every day of the year except on the Day of Atonement. The destroying angels, or angels of punishment, execute God's sentence; but it is a work to which they are nothing loth. Thus there are different dispositions, partialities and antipa­ thies, among angels as in human society; there is no monotony of universal benevolence on high, nor is even justice dispassion­ ate. And though there are no enmity, strife, hatred, or foes, in that place, still it is necessary for God to 'make peace in his high places' (Job 25, 2). The various ranks of angels constitute the familia on high, with whom God consults as a master with his household ser­ vants. It was to the angels, .according to a common opinion, that he said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' (Gen. 1, 26). They often take the liberty of familiar servants, and raise objections or remonstrate with their master, as they did when he proposed to create man. Similarly the angels op­ posed the giving of the law at Sinai. Frequently questions or objections which men might raise to something in God's conduct of affairs in the world are thus put into the mouth of the angels, to give God, so to speak occasion to explain or justify his ways — a transparent homiletical device which modern writers have not always recognized. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 176a. Ibid. He accuses them 364 days in the year ( h a - S a t a n , by Gematria = 364); Yoma 20a. See Note 138. Sifre Num. § 42 (ed. Friedmann f. 13a, 1. 12 ff.). The Latin word familia is usually employed; e.g. Berakot i 6 b - i 7 a (prayer of R. Safra): "May it be thy will, O God, to make peace in the household above and in the household below." Other occurrences, Sifre Num. § 42 (f. 13a); Sanhedrin 98b, 99b; IJagigah 13b, below, etc. See Note 139. God confers about everything with the household above. Sanhedrin 38b. Gen. R. 8, 3 ff.; 17, 4. They quote Psalm 8, 5,' What is man that Thou art mindful of him?' Shabbat 88b; Cant. R. on Cant. 8, 1 1 . See Blau, Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 585 A - B . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

4

o8

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

The angels are also represented as forming a kind of heavenlysenate or high court (bet din) over which God presides. God, it is said, judges no cause alone, but with his court (bet din) ; but he alone seals the decision with his seal, which is truth, i Kings 22, 19 is adduced: the host of heaven on God's right and left are inclining the scales in Ahab's favor or against him; the seal is found in Dan. 10, 1 and 21. Nor are they his assessors in judicial cases alone; he does nothing in his world without con­ sulting his council. Gen. 1, 26 has already been referred to; in Isa. 6, 8 God seems to associate the Seraphim with himself: 'Whom shall I send and who shall go for us.' The Jews had thus sufficient example in revelation for their notions about the relations between God and the members of the 'upper household' or the 'upper council.' The angels have greater knowledge than men — as indeed demons have also — especially knowledge of the future, which they impart to the prophets; but their knowledge is deriva­ tive, and is even described as a kind of eaves-dropping — "what they hear from behind the curtain" — and is limited; they do not know the year of God's vengeance and the deliver­ ance of Israel, for he has not revealed it to them; it is a secret in his own mind (Isa. 63, 4). There are millions upon millions of angels, an innumerable host. Among these celestial beings are some who abide continually in the proximity of God, and are not, like the ministering angels, employed in various services. The seraphim, fiery natures as 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Jer. Sanhedrin 18a; Gen. R. 12, 1; Cant. R. on Cant. 1, 9. In the last passage Isa. 6 is taken as a judgment scene. It was a common belief that man's life and fortune were determined from year to year by a judicial pro­ cedure in the supreme court above; see below, p. 533. Cf. also the places cited p. 407, notes 5 and 6. Cf. also Gen. 1 1 , 7 . In the later prophets and the apocalypses, angels are the usual medium of revelation. IJagigah 16a. Sanhedrin 99a; Matt. 24, 36. Dan. 7, 10; Job. 25, 3; cf. Sifre Num. § 42; rlagigah 13b. See also Rev. 5, 1 1 ; Deut. 33,2. 2

3

4

5

6

MINISTERS OF GOD

CHAP, I I I ]

their name imports, come from Isa. 6, where their form and office are described. The cherubim, of whom there is mention in several places in the Old Testament, were imagined chiefly as they are represented by Ezekiel in his description of the living car surmounted by a throne, on which God is conveyed away from the doomed sanctuary. From the corresponding description in Ezekiel I (where the name cherub does not occur) come the four 'beasts,' the hayyot (Ezek. I , 5-14), who con­ stitute a distinct class of celestials, the supporters of God's throne. The wheels of the car which were full of eyes, and in which was the spirit of the 'beasts' (Ezek. 1, 15-22), form an­ other class, the ofannim ('wheels'). In the Parables of Enoch where Enoch is translated in spirit to the heaven of heavens, he sees round about the house which was girt by streams of fire, "cherubim and seraphim and ofannim, never-sleeping beings, who keep watch over his glorious throne; and countless angels, a thousand thousands, a myriad myriads," etc. In the Revela­ tion of John the 'four beasts' take the place of the cherubim; they are described severally, with some variations from Ezekiel 1, and regularly appear with the throne of God. Through this book the four beasts attained a celebrity in the church which they had not in Judaism. They were early associated with the Four Evangelists, and were commonly represented in art as their attributes, whereas Judaism forbade any imaging of angels. Of the angels in the narrower sense the most important class 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Ezek. 10, 1-22; 1 1 , 22 f. Our versions, more respectfully,' living creatures'; cf. Rev. 4, 6 ff. rlagigah 12b. In the highest story of heaven ('araboi) are the ofannim and serafim and hayyot ha-fcodesh. The hayyot beneath the throne, see below, pp. 412 f. The watchers' ('wakeful') cf. Dan. 4, 10, 14, 20; frequent in Enoch. Enoch 7 1 , 7 f.; cf. 61, 10. Rev. 4, 6: kv jneaco rod Bpbvov Kal KVKXW rod dpbvov—a position difficult to visualize. See also 5, 6 ff.; 6, 1 ff.; 7, 11 ff.; 14, 3; 15, 7; 19, 4. The prevailing symbolism of the Latin Church ass gns the man to Matthew, the lion to Mark, the bull to Luke, the eagle to John. Mekilta on Exod. 20, 23, Bahodesh 10 init. (ed. Friedmann f. 72b; ed Weiss f. 79b); cf. Rosh ha-Shanah 24b. 2

3

4

1

5

6

7

8

:

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

1

are the 'ministering angels/ those whom God employs in various services, or who await his commands. Among these the angels whose names we have already met, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, maintain their precedence. Uriel is often mentioned in Enoch. Enoch 9, i, groups the four together, seemingly as the chief angels. Elsewhere in the book the four are Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Phanuel; while in 20, 1-8, seven are named, in­ cluding the last four. In Tobit, when Raphael unmasks, he describes himself as "one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the holy ones (angels), and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One." These principal angels are called ' angels of the presence/ D^an "oata, that is, those who, like the chief ministers of a king, have immediate access to his presence. These are the seven meant in the Revelation of John 8, 2; as princes among the angels they are called also arch­ angels. An angel who sooner or later visits every man is the Angel of Death, who, consequently, filled a larger place in men's thoughts than the rest, and is the subject of many stories. He comes only on an order from God, and executes his commission impartially on the righteous and the wicked; no plea or remonstrance avails. The religious importance of Jewish notions and imaginations about the angelic hierarchy, its occupations in heaven, and its commissions on earth, is in small proportion to their abundance. Doubtless the belief in the attendance of a guardian angel helped the pious to realize God's constant providential care, and the recording angel, keeping a memorandum of all a man's words 2

3

4

5

6

7

2

Michael, Uriel, Gabriel, Raphael, together, with their stations and the significance of their names, etc., Num. R. 2, 10; Pesikta Rabbati ed. Fried­ mann f. 188a; Pirke de R. Eiiezer c. 4. Enoch 40, 9; 7 1 , 8-13. Seven is the number also in Enoch 81, 5; 90, 21; Revelation of John 8, 2. So in the longer text, Tobit 12, 14 f. The name comes from Isa. 63,9. Enoch 40,2; Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Levi 3; Jubilees 1, 27, 29; 2, 2; 15, 27. 1 Thess. 4, 16; Jude 9 (Michael). See further Note 140. See Blau, Jewish Encyclopedia, IV, 480-482. 3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, iii]

MINISTERS OF GOD

411

and deeds to be reported to God, may sometimes have steadied a vacillating conscience; but for the rest, angels, whether in ser­ mons or folklore, hardly belonged to religion at a l l : they were not objects of veneration, much less of adoration; and in ortho­ dox Judaism they were not intermediaries between man and God. An unsophisticated biblical Protestantism takes them much in the same way, without the wealth of legend which surrounded them in the older churches. 1

2

As the first chapter of Genesis gave rise to an esoteric cosmological speculation, the Ma'aseh Bereshit, of which mention has been made above, so the description of the cherubic car and throne, with the four beasts' (hayyot) and the living 'wheels' (ofannim), in Ezekiel was the starting point for speculations on the mysteries of the godhead which led into theosophy. This esoteric tradition was even more carefully guarded than the mysteries of cosmology, and of its content very little is known. The fountain head of the tradition, as it appears in second cen­ tury accounts of the matter, was R. Johanan ben Zakkai, in the generation after the fall of Jerusalem; he imparted it to R. Joshua (ben Hananiah); Joshua to R. Akiba; Akiba to Hananiah ben Hakinai. Another disciple of Johanan who left a name for his attainments in this sphere was R. Eleazar ben Arak. A story in which he has a leading part illustrates the manner of this secret teaching, if not the matter. One day as Eleazar ben 'Arak was accompanying his master Johanan ben Zakkai on a journey, he said to him, Rabbi, expound to me one section of the doctrine of the chariot. The master replied, Have I not told you that the chariot is not expounded to a single hearer unless he be a 3

c

4

5

c

1

It has been observed that the Mishnah makes no mention of angels; but the character of the work gives no occasion to do so. They occur often enough in the second century Midrash. They communicate God's message to men; but they do not convey men's prayers to God. See Note 141. Pages 383 f. See Note 142. Tos. IJagigah, 2, 2. The last named was a fellow-student and associate of Simeon ben Yohai, whom the Cabala claims as its great authority. 2

3

4

5

T H E IDEA OF G O D

i2

4

[PART II

1

scholar of penetrating intelligence. Eleazar said, Give me per­ mission, and I will recite to you. Forthwith R. Johanan dis­ mounted from the ass he was riding, and they both wrapped up their heads and sat on a rock under an olive tree while Eleazar recited to him. When he had finished, Johanan stood up and kissed him on the head, saying "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel who has give,n to our father Abraham a son who knows how to expound and to have insight into the glory of our Father who is in heaven. One excels in teaching but not in preaching, and another in practicing but not in teaching; but Eleazar ben Arak is excellent in both. Blessed art thou, our father Abraham, that from thy loins is sprung Eleazar ben Arak, who knows how to expound and to have insight into the glory of our Father who is in heaven." A mediaeval Midrash enumerates a great variety of questions to which the study of the ' chariot' alone could find an answer, but whether they really represent its topics, especially in our centuries, may well be doubted. A theory of the nature of angels differing widely from the common notions described above is set forth by Joshua ben Hananiah, already named as a disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai, and is probably a specimen of the esoteric angelology of the mystical school. It is in the form of a dialogue between the rabbi and Hadrian, who frequently figures in the role of inter­ locutor in discussions of Jewish law or theology. Hadrian asked R. Joshua ben Hananiah: " Y o u say that no company of angels on high praises God more than once; but that God every day creates a company of new angels, who utter a song before him and are gone. The rabbi answered, Yes. — Whither do they go ? — To that whence they were created. — And whence were they created? — From the river of fire. — What does that river of c

c

2

3

4

1

See Note 143. Tos. Hagigah 2, 1. An embellished version in IJagigah 14b, top; and especially in Jer. rlagigah 77a, where other examples may be found. Midrash Mishle 10 (ed. Buber f. 34a). See Note 144. 3

3

4

TIJH "in:, Dan.

7,

10.

M I N I S T E R S OF GOD

CHAP, I I I ]

413

fire do? — It is like the Jordan here, which flows unremittinglyday and night. — Whence does it come? — From the sweat of the beasts (hayyot) which they sweat under the weight of the throne of God." The last words may mean in some occult sense, intelligible only to the initiated, or else the rabbi ends the colloquy, as is often done, in a kind of irony, with an answer that is as good as the questioner deserves. The angels who spring out of the stream of fire and sink back into the perennial stream again probably come from the esoteric tradition; though the notion that a new chorus of angels is created daily to sing but one song, is taken up by homilists who do not belong to the circle. The adepts of the chariot did not confine themselves to specu­ lations on these high mysteries, they sought immediate knowl­ edge of them. Their theosophy, like others, had a practical as well as a theoretical side, and had its methods of inducing the mystic rapture. Their visions of Paradise were soon — if not from the first — taken for real ascents to heaven. The most famous of these adventures was that of four of the most eminent schoolmen of the early second century, Simeon ben Azzai, Simeon ben Zoma, Elisha ben Abuya, and R. Akiba. To all but Akiba the consequences were disastrous: Ben Azzai looked and died; Ben Zoma looked and lost his mind; Elisha ('Aher') cut down the plants (of Paradise); Akiba made his exit in safety. The perils of theosophy to reason and faith were never more concisely exposed. It may perhaps be surmised that the isola­ tion and eclipse of Eleazar ben A r a k is to be accounted for by his preoccupation with theosophy as much as by the comforts of life at Emmaus. 1

2

3

4

5

c

6

7

1 2 3 4 5 6

Gen. R. 78, 1; Lam. R. 3, 8; cf. rlagigah 14a. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 172. Samuel ben Nahman, Gen. R. 78, 1, and others; cf. IJagigah 14a. rlagigah 15b, end. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 332 f.. Tos. Hagigah 2, 3 f.; IJagigah 14b; Jer. IJagigah 77b. See Bacher, 1. c pp. 71 f. See Note 145. 7

CHAPTER IV THE WORD OF GOD.

THE

SPIRIT

will is made known or effectuated in the world not only through personal agents (angels), but directly by his word or by his spirit. To the realism of the natural mind, the spoken word is not a mere articulate sound conveying a meaning; it is a thing, and it does things. A blessing or a curse, for example, is not the expression of a benevolent or malevolent, but impotent, wish; it is a blessing or a curse. Once uttered, it is beyond the speaker's power to revoke or reverse it. When blind old Isaac, deceived by Rebecca's ruse and Jacob's falsehoods, bestows on Jacob the blessing he thought he was giving Esau, he cannot undo what he has done; the best he can do is to invent a secondbest blessing for his firstborn and best loved son (Gen. 27). So when Micah's mother curses the unknown thief who had stolen her eleven hundred pieces of silver, and her son, alarmed by the curse he overheard, confesses and makes restitution, she cannot take off* the curse; she can only try to divert it by dedicating the silver to Jehovah to make an idol for her son to have in his house (Judges 17). Similarly the prophetic word is not a mere predic­ tion that something will come to pass; it brings to pass what it foretells. God touches Jeremiah's mouth with his hand, and says: 'Lo, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have com­ missioned thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and pull down and destroy and overthrow; to build and to plant' (Jer. 1, 9 f.). The oracles of doom or of restora­ tion he pronounces in God's name are real forces working de­ struction or reconstruction. The efficacy of charms and incan­ tations inhered in the formula itself, whether it worked of itself or constrained demons to do the magician's bidding. It is un­ necessary to multiply illustrations of the belief that the word is a concrete reality, a veritable cause.

GOD'S

414

CHAP, iv]

WORD OF GOD. SPIRIT

415

What was true of the words of men was true in an eminent degree of the words of God. The fiats of God in the first chapter of Genesis are creative forces: 'God said, Let there be light, and light came into being,' and so throughout. ' By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. . . . For he said, and it came into being; he commanded and there it stood' (Psalm 33, 6, 9). As has been noted in a former connection, the significance which the rabbis found in creation by a word was the bringing the end to pass instantly, without the toil and pains by which men make things. All other words of God are similarly effective. Like the rain and snow which come down from heaven and do not return thither till they have accomplished their mission by refreshing and fertilizing the earth, \So shall it be with my word which issues from my mouth: it will not return to me unaccomplished, but will do what I please and succeed in what I sent it for' (Isa. 55, 11). The word of God is sometimes vividly personified, as in Wisdom 18, 15 f.: "Thine all-powerful word,, from heaven, from out the royal thrones, a fierce warrior, leaped into the midst of the doomed land (Egypt), bearing as a sharp sword thine irre­ vocable command, and, standing, filled all things with death; its head touched the sky, it stood firm on the earth." But it is an error to see in such personification an approach to personali­ zation. Nowhere either in the Bible or in the extra-canonical literature of the Jews is the word of God a personal agent or on the way to become such. It is with the word precisely as it is with 'wisdom,' which is so vividly personified in Prov. 8 and elsewhere. The Jews iden­ tified the divine wisdom with the Torah, which also is sometimes 1

2

3

1

Cf. also Wisdom 9, 1 f.; Ecclus. 42, 15 (X 6 y o 1 s Kvplov); 4 Esdras 6, 38: O domine, loquens locutus es ab initio creaturae in primo die dicens, Fiat caelum et terra! et tuum verbum opus perfecit. See Note 146. Like an enormously tall angel, such as Sandalfon is in the chariot mys­ teries, IJagigah 13b. Cf. Gospel of Peter c. 10, the two angels at the re­ surrection of Jesus. 2

3

416

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

personified. Wisdom and Torah, like the word, were for them realities, not mere names or concepts; but they never gave them personal existence. Cherubim and seraphim, the four 'beasts,' and even the 'wheels' with their rims full of eyes in Ezekiel's vision, stand ever in God's presence in heaven; but neither 'wisdom' nor 'word' is there. Philo, indeed, finds his Logos in both the wisdom and the word of God, and interprets what the Scriptures say about them in this sense, thus conferring upon them whatever of personality belongs to that 'secondary deity'; but his notion of the Logos was not derived from them. The God of the Bible is in its own expressive phrase a 'live God,' a God that does things; Philo's God is pure Being, of which nothing can be predicated but that It is, abstract static Unity, eternally, unchangeably the same; pure immaterial in­ tellect. Between the transcendent deity and the material world of multiplicity and change, of becoming and dissolution, is a gulf that must somehow be spanned. The Neoplatonists in their time endeavored to overcome the dualism of the system by in­ terposing in descending order Nous, the universal active intelli­ gence; Psyche, the universe soul; and primordial matter; re­ maining thus, so far as terms went, in the Platonic tradition. Philo's intermediary is the Logos. Stoic influence is manifest in the name and the functions of the Logos, as it is in many other features of Philo's system; but in making it a 'secondary deity,' above which is a transcendent God, he has made of it something widely different from the immanent energetic Reason of the uni­ verse which is the only God of Stoicism. In his theology the Logos is the manifest and active deity; and in his interpretation of the Scriptures, where God appears to men, converses with them, reveals his will and purpose, it is, according to Philo, of the Logos that all this should be understood. The twofold meaning of the Greek word (reason, utterance) made it natural to appropriate for the Logos what was said of the divine wisdom (crocjyia) and of the word of God (\6yos, prjua); 1

1

See Note 147.

CHAP, iv]

WORD OF GOD. SPIRIT

417

and allegorical ingenuity enabled Philo to find the Logos in many other places and associations. That the idea of a divine intermediary, whether derived from Philo or the independent product of a similar Platonizing theory of the nature of Deity, had some currency in Hellenistic Jewish circles may be inferred from the adoption and adaptation of it in certain New Testament writings, and from Gnosticism as well as from Catholic Christianity. But that this philosophy deeply or widely influenced Jewish thought there is no evidence. In the Palestinian schools there is no trace of it. Their idea of God has been set forth in a previous chapter. He is the living God of the Old Testament, not the impersonal Being of Greek metaphysics. He employs upon occasion agents like the angels, and instrumentalities of various kinds such as his word or spirit, to reveal his will and purpose or to effect his ends; but a God who by definition did not himself do anything would have seemed to them to contradict the very idea of God, as much as a God who was personally active in the world contradicted Philo's definition of godhead in se. 1

2

3

The erroneous opinion widely entertained that Palestinian Juda­ ism made of the word of God a personal intermediary com­ parable to Philo's Logos and, as many think, in some way con­ nected with it, is based primarily on the use of memra in the Targums. Memra is properly what is said, 'saying, utterance,' 'word' in this sense. It is, however, not employed in the Tar­ gums in the rendering of such Hebrew phrases as 'the word {dabar) of the Lord,' the 'word of God,' ' M y word,' 'Thy word,' etc. They translate the Hebrew dabar in all senses and uses, not 4

by memra but regularly by pitgama

(rarely by mil/a).

Where

the 'word of God' in the Hebrew Scriptures is the medium or 1

See Note 148. Hebrews, Colossians, the Gospel of John. In John alone the inter­ mediary is named Logos. See above, Part II, chap, i; see also immediately below (memra, etc). Gfroerer, Das Jahrhundert des Heils (1838), and many since him. See Harvard Theological Review, XIV (1921), 222 ff. 2

3 4

T H E IDEA OF GOD

418

[PART II

instrumentality of revelation or of communication with men, it is not in the Targums his memra; nor is the creative word of God his memra. This is really the most important thing to be said about memra in the Targums—it is not the equivalent of the 'word of God' in the Old Testament corresponding to \6yos or prjjjLa in the Greek versions; and in so far as Philo's Logos is an intermediary in creation and revelation — two of its principal functions — it is in contrast instead of correspondence with the memra of the Targums.

1

Memra is frequently a word of command, as in translation of the idiomatic peh, ' command' (lit., 'mouth'), of men or of God. In the same sense it is used in such circumlocutions as, " Y e have contemned the command (memra) of the Lord whose presence abides among you," for ' Y e have contemned the Lord who is among you' (Num. n , 20). To hearken to God, or to his voice, is regularly 'to receive (implying 'obey') the command (memra) of the Lord.' The protection or support of God is extended to men through his word; the effective command suffices. The motive of reverence is evident when Onkelos paraphrases, 'The Lord your God, he it is that fights for you' (Deut. 3, 22), "his word fights for you" — he commands the victory. When Abraham believed in the memra of the Lord (Heb. ' believed in the Lord,' Gen. 15, 6), and it was reckoned to him for righteous­ ness, memra is the promise of the preceding verses. For 'God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him,' etc., the same Targum has, " A word (memar) from before the Lord came," etc. When God says that he will meet the Israel2

3

4

1

On memra in the Targums see Moore, 'Intermediaries in Jewish The­ ology/ Harvard Theological Review, XV (1922), 41-61, and Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, on John 1, 1 (Exkurs liber den Memra Jahves), II (1924), 302-333. An exhaus­ tive exhibition of the usage, with the result that the Memra is not an inter­ mediary, to say nothing of a hypostasis, but "ein inhaltsloser, rein formalhafter Ersatz fur das Tetragramm," and that the Logos of the Gospel of John is not derived from it or connected with it. E. g. Gen. 45, 21; Deut. 1, 26; Num. 14, 41. E. g. Lev. 26, 14; Deut. 28, 15. Cf. Exod. 14, 31. 2

3

4

CHAP, iv]

WORD OF GOD. SPIRIT

419

ites at the Tabernacle (Exod. 25, 22), the Targum paraphrases, " I will cause my word (memri) to meet thee, and I will speak with thee." In many other contexts memra is introduced as a buffer-word — sometimes in very awkward circumlocutions — where the literal interpretation seemed to bring God into too close contact with his creatures. But nowhere in the Targums is memra a 'being' of any kind or in any sense, much less a personal being. The appearance of personality which in some places attaches to the word is due solely to the fact that the memra of the Lord and similar phrases are reverent circumlocutions for 'God,' intro­ duced precisely where in the original God is personally active in the affairs of men; and the personal character of the activity necessarily adheres to the periphrasis. It is to be observed, finally, that memra is purely a phenomenon of translation, not a figment of speculation; it never gets outside the Targums. 1

2

Various other circumlocutions in the Targums have the same motive, namely, to avoid expressions that literally rendered in the vernacular did not beseem the dignity of God. Thus in Hos. 1, 2 ('The beginning of the word of the Lord by (in) Hosea'), "The word (pitgam) of prophecy from before the Lord which was with Hosea." When God is said to be, or abide, in a place, to come to a place, or to depart from a place, the Targums generally paraphrase, 'the Presence' (shekinta) abode there; God caused his presence to abide there; his pres­ ence ascended thence, and the like. Unlike memra which is found exclusively in the Targums, 'the Presence' (Hebrew, shekinah) is very common in the literature of the school and the 3

4

1

Cf. Exod. 29,42 f.; 1 9 , 1 7 . Various other devices are employed to the same intent, such as the sub­ stitution of a passive voice for the active, the interruption of the connection of a noun with a following genitive ('construct state'), the frequent intro­ duction of Dip, DlpD, etc. 2

3

jrcnn Dy m m

4

E. g. Exod. 25, 8; 34, 6; Deut. 12, 5, 1 1 , 21; 32, 20; Hos. 5, 6.

mrr mp

p

nam

DJn£>.

4

2o

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

1

synagogue. It also frequently has a semblance of personality simply because it is a more reverent way of saying ' G o d / not because it is a personal divine being that takes the place of God. The notion of such a double of God would have been regarded by the rabbis as a palpable case of the heresy of' two powers.' When the Scripture speaks of men's seeing God, or of God's manifesting himself to men, the Targum interprets, 'The glory of God.' In Exod. 24, 10, Moses and his companions, with the seventy elders of Israel, 'saw the God of Israel'; Onkelos ren­ ders, "saw the glory (yekara) of the God of Israel." So in Isa. 6, 1, the prophet saw "the glory of the Lord," sitting upon his lofty throne. The same circumlocution is used in other connec­ tions; thus e.g., Gen. 17, 22 ('God ascended from Abraham'), it was ' the glory of the Lord' that ascended; Exod. 20,17 ('God has come to prove you'), "The glory of the Lord was revealed to you." Yelzara is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew kabod, which it regularly translates; and in introducing it in such contexts as have just been quoted the Targums interpret in con­ formity with many passages of Scripture in which the presence of God is manifested by his 'glory,' the splendor of impenetrable light by which he is at once revealed and concealed. In such paraphrases the Targums interpret what the historian would call more primitive notions of God by the higher concep­ tions of deity to which religion had advanced in later parts of the Scriptures and which prevailed in Judaism. It was of especial importance to do this in the translation of the synagogue lessons, that the unlearned, naturally inclined to a naive imagination of God, might not seem to be confirmed by the Scripture itself in conceptions inconsistent with the im­ plicit or explicit teaching of Scripture elsewhere — as for example that God cannot be seen by mortal eyes. It is, however, an egregious error to think that the Targums attempt to dispose of all the anthropomorphisms of Scripture. They do not scruple 2

1

See below, pp. 434 ff. Exod. 29,43; 40,34; Kings 8, 11, etc. Compare the use of bb£a in L X X and the New Testament. 2

CHAP, iv]

WORD OF GOD. SPIRIT

421

to render literally the hands and feet, the eyes and ears of God, in which even the prosaic mind might recognize natural meta­ phors for his power or his knowledge; they reproduce faithfully the whole range of human emotions attributed to him. And any one who will read the Targums on such chapters as Gen. 2-4 or Gen. 18 will see how little they are concerned to tone down nar­ ratives in which God appears and behaves most like a man. If he will then compare Philo's treatment of such narratives with the Targums and the Midrash, he will discover how innocent the Palestinian masters were of an 'abstract' or 'transcendent' — or any other sort of a philosophical — idea of God. In the Old Testament superhuman strength, courage, skill, judg­ ment, wisdom, and the like, are attributed to ' the spirit of God,' or of 'the Lord,' which suddenly comes upon a man for the time being and possesses him, ox more permanently rests upon him and endows him. In old narratives it is more common of physical power and prowess and the gift of leadership; in the Prophets it is occasionally used of prophetic inspiration. The equivalent phrase 'the holy spirit' is very rare, and is never as­ sociated with prophecy. In Judaism, on the contrary, the holy spirit is specifically the spirit of prophecy. When the holy spirit was withdrawn from Israel, the age of revelation by prophetic agency was at an end. The scribes, interpreters of the word of God written and custodians of the unwritten law, succeed. But though God no longer spoke by the holy spirit through the mouth of prophets, he still upon occasion spoke by a mysterious voice. So the Tosefta: "When the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, died, the holy spirit ceased out of Israel; but nevertheless it was granted them to hear (communications from God) by means of a mysterious voice." 1

2

3

4

1

Num. I I , 16 f.; Judges 6, 34; 11, 29; 13, 25; 14, 6, 19; 15, 14; 1 Sam. 1 1 , 6 ; 16, 3, etc.; Exod. 31, 3; 3 6 , 1 ; 1 Sam. 10, 10; 2 Sam. 23, 2, etc. In the older narratives the spirit is often a physical force, and is in general a way of conceiving God acting at a distance. It is nowhere a personal agent. E. g. Ezek. 3, 24. Isa. 63, 10, 1 1 ; Psalm 51, 13. Tos. Sotah 13, 2; cf. Sotah 48b; Yoma 9b; Sanhedrin 11a. 2

4

3

422

T H E IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

The phrase I have thus translated (bat kol,) means properly, 'resonance, echo/ for example, of the human voice. In the use we are discussing it is an articulate and intelligible sound proceed­ ing from an invisible source, generally from the sky, or out of the adytum of the temple. An example of such an utterance is Dan. 4, 28 (English versions 4,31): ' A voice came down from heaven, To thee it is said, O king Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom is passed away from thee.' Similarly in The New Testament: 'And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying,' etc. (Matt. 3, 17). The preference for bat kol instead of the simple Izol, 'voice,' is doubtless to avoid saying that men heard the actual voice of God. Numerous instances are reported in which such a mys­ terious voice was heard by individuals or by numbers together in the later centuries. The most important occasion was when the learned were assembled at Jamnia in the endeavor to settle certain questions on which the schools of Hillel and Shammai were at strife. The voice is reported to have said, "The dicta of both are words of the living God, but the dictum of Hillel is the legal norm (halakah) . " Once, when the learned were gathered in the house of Gorion in Jericho, a mysterious voice said: "There is here a man who is worthy that the holy spirit should rest upon him, but that his generation is not worthy." All eyes turned to the elder Hillel. The same words were spoken at another time at a meeting in Jamnia, and everybody saw that Samuel the Little was meant. John Hyrcanus heard such a voice out of the inner sanctuary announcing that his sons, who were on a military expedition to Antioch (really, against Antiochus Cyzicenus), had gained the victory; note was made of the time, and it proved to be the very hour at which the battle was won. 1

2

3

4

5

1

In the meaning 'echo/ Exod. R. 29, 9, end: "If a man calls to his fellow, his voice has an echo {bat kol), but the voice which issued from the mouth of God (at Sinai) had no echo" (lest it should be thought that another than He uttered the words, 'I am the Lord thy God/ See Blau, 'Bat ILol/ Jewish Encyclopedia, II, 588-592. Jer. Berakot 3b, below. Tos. Sotah 13, 3 f.; Sotah 48b; Sanhedrin 11a. Instead of 'the holy spirit/ the Talmud has, 'the shekinah* Josephus, Antt. xiii. 10, 3 § 282; Tos. Sotah 13, 5; Sotah 33a. 2

3 4

5

CHAPTER V MAJESTY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

IN the preceding chapters Jewish conceptions of God and his re­ lations to the world of nature and men, as they were developed from the Scriptures in the teaching of the school and the syna­ gogue, have been discussed. We have seen that the idea of God was eminently personal. He was supramandane but not extramundane; exalted but not remote. He was the sole ruler of the world he had created, and he ordered all things in it in accordance with his character, in which justice and mercy were comple­ mentary, not conflicting, attributes. His will for men was right­ eousness and goodness; and that they might know what He re­ quired, He had defined his will in two-fold law. His far-reaching and all-embracing plan had for its end the universality of the true religion in an age of universal uprightness, peace, and pros­ perity — the goal to which all history tended — " the reign of God." The influence of these conceptions in practical religion will be further considered when we come to treat of Jewish piety. There are, however, phenomena from which it has been in­ ferred that the conception of God which dominated Jewish thought and feeling was radically at variance with that which appears in the explicit and consentient testimony we have adduced. In the endeavor to exalt God uniquely above the world, Judaism, it is said, had in fact exiled him from the world in lonely majesty, thus sacrificing the immediacy of the religious relation, the intimate communion of the soul with God. In ex­ aggerated forms of this theory, philosophical terminology is abused, and the God of Judaism is qualified as 'absolute' or 'transcendent. It is necessary, therefore, to examine more closely the grounds on which this opinion is based. 1

1

See ' Christian Writers on Judaism/ Harvard Theological Review, XIV (1921), 197-254, especially pp. 226 ff. 423

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

One of the arguments put in the foreground is the names and titles of God which prevail in the literature of the period, particu­ larly those which express his exaltation, majesty and supremacy, and the circumlocutions which displace the simple appellative. The proper name of the national God, mrp, now become universal God, had long since ceased to be commonly used. No date can be fixed for either the beginning or the consummation of this disuse. In the later books of the Old Testament it occurs with declining frequency. In one of the collections of Psalms incorporated in the Psalter, an editor substituted the appellative, God, for the proper name. The Greek version represents the name by 'the Lord' (6 nvpios), and subsequent translators did the same. Where the synagogue lessons were read in Hebrew, the reader substituted Adonai, the Lord,' for the proper name, both in the original and in the vernacular translation (Targum), and doubtless a similar evasion was customary in the schools. Neither Philo nor Josephus had any inkling that it had ever been otherwise. According to Philo the proper name might be uttered only in the temple. There, down to the destruction of Jerusalem, it was 1

2

1

3

4

5

1

In some of the latest, however, the Tetragrammaton is used freely. When once the principle was established that it was not to be pronounced, but a substitute such as 'the (ineffable) Name/ 'God/ 'the Lord/ read in its place, there was no reason for not writing it. In the Targums it is written even where the Hebrew has Elohim, 'God/ Psalms 42-83. Cases in which the editorial change is especially evident are 43, 4; 44, 5; 45, 8; 50, 7; 51, 16, etc. Compare also Psalm 53 with Psalm 14. See Note 153. See Dalman, Der Gottesname Adonaj (1889), especially pp. 43-62, 6279; cf. Worte Jesu, 146-155. In quotations of Scripture, DE>n, 'the Name'; Dalman Worte Jesu, 149 f. Philo, Vita Mosis ii. 11 § 1 1 4 (ed. Mangey II, 152): On the gold plate on the front of the high priest's mitre were incised the four letters of the Name, "which it is lawful only for those whose ear and tongue are purified by wisdom (the priests) to hear and utter in the sanctuary; for no other whom­ soever anywhere." Josephus, Antt. ii. 12, 4: Moses asked God to tell him His name, that when he offered sacrifice he might invoke Him by name to be present at the sacrificial rites. And God indicated to him his own name, which theretofore had not been communicated to men; about which it is not lawful for me to say anything. 2

3

4

6

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

425

spoken in the benediction pronounced by the priest over the people (Num. 6, 23-27). In the synagogue a substitute was used. The temple benediction was said at the daily public sacrifice, with the name 'as it is written.' In the special ritual of the Day of Atonement the high priest pronounced the name ten times. The priests who stood near him fell upon their faces, the more remote said, Blessed be His name whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever. And before either of them moved from the spot the name was hidden from them (passed from their knowledge). In former times they used to utter it with raised voice; after the unruly multiplied, they spoke it in a soft voice. Rabbi Tarfon, who as a young man had assisted at the ser­ vice, testified that he tried to hear it, but the high priest uttered it so that it was drowned in the singing of the other priests. In earlier times the pronunciation of the name was taught to any man; after the multiplication of the unruly, only to proper persons. After the destruction of the temple the tradition of the name was scrupulously guarded, arid in the end it seems to have been lost altogether; in later times we hear of it only in mystical theurgic circles. 1

2

34

5

There were divers motives for the disuse of the proper name, and they probably worked in the main without the clear con­ sciousness of those who were influenced by them. Something must be allowed for an instinctive feeling that the only God has no need to be thus distinguished. So long as monotheism was still contending for supremacy it was necessary to affirm with emphasis that Jehovah is the only God; but the very emblem of its triumph was that it sufficed to say 'God.' A motive that was 1

Sifre Num. § 43 (on 6, 27) and § 39 (on 6,22; ed. Friedmann f. 12a). M. Tamid 7, 2; M. Sotah 7, 6. See Note 154. Jer. Yoma 4od, near end. The 'unruly' (D'WD) are such as 'break through* the fence of the Law, disregarding all restraints and regulations. Compare ]
3

4

6

426

THE IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

more on the surface was to guard the sacred name not only from abuse and profanation but from the disrespect of trivial use. An even stronger motive, perhaps, was the concern about the mis­ use of the name in magic. It was a universal belief in the age that the names of gods in incantations and adjurations put the power of these gods at the command of the magician, and no name could be more potent than that of the God of the whole world. If this was the motive for secrecy, the means defeated the end; for the secret name of a god is a vastly more powerful spell than that which everybody knows. The Greek magical papyri show that the adepts were alive to this fact. They knew also that the barbarous names of foreign gods are more efficacious than familiar ones; and they took full advantage of the prestige of antiquity and the mystery that surrounded the Jewish Scrip­ tures. It is no surprise, therefore, that we find the authors of magic books acquainted with the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, which they concealed in an abracadabra of variations. The Jews similarly believed that all manner of miracles could be wrought by one who knew the secret of ' the Name.' It can hardly be doubted that the use of the name had an important place in the secrets of theosophy, and that it figured among the means by which the adepts accomplished their visits to paradise. In the Mishnah, Abba Saul contributes to the catalogue of Israelites who have no share in the Age to Come, " the man who mutters the name as it is spelled." A teacher of the third cen­ tury adds to these words the explanation, "as the Samaritans do when they take an oath." That the Samaritans, though 1

2

3

4

1

It may be conjectured that the names of God of 12 and 42, and of 72, letters (Kiddushin 7 1 a ; Lev. R. 23, 2), were mystifications of a similar nature and purpose. On these names see L. Blau, Das altjiidische Zauberwesen, pp. 137 ff".; also Bacher, Jewish Encyclopedia, XI, 264. Bacher, ibid. It was said that Moses killed the Egyptian (Exod. 2, 14), by pronouncing the Name over him (Exod. R. 1, 30). A Babylonian rabbi heard a Persian woman cursing her son by the Name, and instantly he died. Jer. Yoma 4od, below. M. Sanhedrin 1 0 , 1 ; Sanhedrin 90a; Tos. Sanhedrin 12,9. See Note 154. Jer. Sanhedrin 28b, top. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

427

they substituted 'the Name' in reading the Scriptures, did pro­ nounce it in certain circumstances is confirmed by the fact that Theodoret in the fifth century learned from them a pronun­ ciation which agrees with what modern scholars for grammat­ ical reasons believe to be the original sound of the name, namely Ia/Se. At the end of M. Berakot, along with other rabbinical decrees given in the face of prevalent heresies, it is said that it was or­ dained that a man should salute his fellow "with the Name," after Biblical examples (Ruth 2, 4; Judges 6, 12), " I H V H be with you," with the response, " I H V H bless thee." That this ordi­ nance was recognized as a suspension of the law justified by ex­ ceptional circumstances is clear from the following words: 'It is a time to act for the Lord; they have made void Thy law' (Psalm 119, 1 2 6 ) ; or as R. Nathan transposes it, "They have made void Thy law, it is a time to act for the Lord." What the date or occasion was is unknown. The ordinance must have been temporary, if, indeed, it actually affected the general cus­ tom. To homilists of the third century is attributed the saying that two generations used the shem ha-meforash, the men of the Great Assembly, and the generation that suffered the persecu­ tion of Hadrian; but there is every presumption that this is midrash, not tradition. It is frequently said by Christian scholars that the prohibition of the use of the proper name IHVH was based on an erroneous interpretation of Lev. 24, 16, which the Jews, it is said, took to forbid on pain of death the mere utterance of the name of God. There is, in fact, no evidence at all that the Jews either misun­ derstood or misapplied the verse in this sense; they interpreted it of cursing God by name (cf. vs. 1 1 ) , and use it as authority only for the rule, "The blasphemer is not liable (to the penalty 1

2

3

4

1

Quaest. xv in Exod. See above, p. 259. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 36, 11 (ed. Buber f. 126a). See Note 155. E.g. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums, 2 ed. p. 354, with a long list of predecessors. 2

3

4

428

THE IDEA OF GOD

[PART II 1

of death) until he distinctly pronounces the Name." The law in Lev. 24,16, exemplified by vs. 11 ff., is not cited as authority for the prohibition of the enunciation of the proper name, nor in illustration of it. The only Biblical support given to it is what seems to us a far-fetched fancy, but was in the method of Akiba's school a valid deduction. In Exod. 3, 15 ('This is my name for­ ever'), the word leolam ('forever') is written, not, as regularly, D$>wi> but xhh- That no such peculiarity in the letter of divine revelation is without significance was the first principle of their hermeneutics, and in this case, if xh)h be pronounced leallem, the significance would be, "this is my name to conceal" It should be needless to say that this exegetical subtlety was not cause but consequence of the suppression of the name. The important thing is that it never occurred to the rabbis to justify the custom by appeal to Lev. 24. Nor was the utterance of the name IHVH judged by the courts as prescribed in Lev. 24, 16; the penalty is exclusion by divine judgment from a part in the Age to Come. 2

3

Exodus 20, 7 (Deut. 5, 11). 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,' was rightly understood by the Jews of oaths. The words are also quoted, however, against the unnecessary use of the name of God even in prayers. The reason for such periphrastic benedictions as "Blessed be His name whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever" is "that the name of Heaven (God) be not mentioned idly." If a rabbi (who 4

5

6

1

M. Sanhedrin 7, 5; cf. Sifra on Lev. 24, 11 and 16 (ed. Weiss f. 104c, d); Mekilta on Exod. 2 1 , 1 7 (ed. Friedmann f. 82a; ed. Weiss f. 89a); Mekilta deR. Simeon ben Yohai, p. 127; Sanhedrin $$b-$6a.; Jer. Sanhedrin 25a. See Dalman, Der Gottesname Adonaj, pp. 43 ff. Cf. Philo, Vita Mosis ii. 25 § 203 f. Note 1 5 6 . Jer. Yoma 4od, below (see above, p. 425); 3£iddushin ^ . Pesahim 50a. See Note 1 5 7 . Above, p. 426. L X X : Ou \i)tHpyi TO OVOJJLOL Kupiou TOV deov
I a

3

4

5

6

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

429

has authority to do so) hears a man using the name of Heaven idly, he must excommunicate him, upon pain of a like sentence on himself. 1

The disuse of the proper name IHVH was, thus, not the con­ sequence of a changed idea of God or his relation to the world. It was, however, a principal cause of the introduction of many substitutionary words and phrases in which recent writers see evidence that in the Jewish thought of this period God occupied a remote supramundane sphere, too great to be immediately active in the world, and too exalted in majesty and holiness to be immediately accessible to humble piety, and that religion suf­ fered the consequences of having to do with an absentee God. The first of these substitutes was probably the appellative Elohim, God, as in the editing of Psalms 4 2 - 8 3 ; but precisely because it was the common appellative, used of heathen gods as well as of the God of Israel, it was an unsatisfactory equivalent for the proper name; and conspicuously infelicitous when, as often happens, the proper name and the appellative stood side by side in the text, as, for example, " JHVH, the God of Israel," where the result was "God, the God of Israel." We have seen that in the reading of the Scriptures Adonai 'Lord/ was regu­ larly substituted, and probably the drawling pronunciation which distinguished Adonai as vice-proper name from adonai, 'my master, my lord,' in address to a man, early established itself. But by the very fact that Adonai was the regular surrogate for the ineffable name it contracted something of the sacredness which belonged by nature to the latter and the same scruple attached to Elohim when it became a virtual proper name, 'God.' 2

The Bible itself is, however, much more richly provided with names, titles, appropriated epithets, of God. 'The Holy One of Israel' for example, is so common throughout the Book of Isaiah that it may be called a preferred synonym for ' the God of Israel.' 1

Nedarim 7b. 'The Name* in these passages is not the ineffable Name, but any of the names or titles of God. See Note 159. On this substitution see Kiddushin 71a and Note 160. 2

430

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

In Jewish use the limitation, 'of Israel/ is dropped, and 'the Holy One,' usually with the appended eulogy, ' blessed is He,' is one of the commonest substitutes for the name of God or the word'God/ Another name, more widely distributed in the Old Testament is Ely on, 'Most High,' sometimes as an attributive (El Elyon), more frequently as a proper noun, chiefly in poetical or elevated style. By the side of El Ely on may be put the phrase Elohe Marom, 'God of (the) Height' (High Heaven) (Mic. 6, 6). It is therefore not a new idea but a more prosaic expression when in later books he is called Elohe ha-shamaim, 'God of heaven'; and from this again it is but a step to the use of Heaven itself as a metonymy for God, as in Dan. 4, 23 ( K W Aramaic); 1 Mace. 4, 10, 40, etc. Names or epithets of God significant of his abode in the height of heaven are no novelty in later Jewish writings; they go back at least as far as the age of the kingdoms. Their increased fre­ quency is partly explained, as suggested above, by the disuse of the proper name, for which these old poetical words or phrases furnished welcome surrogates. Unquestionably, however, the preference for terms expressive of God's exaltation falls in with a marked tendency in the religions of the times, and notably in the religions of Syria. No one, so far as I know, has been tempted to explain the Phoenician parallels by the prevalence of' abstract' notions of deity, or to find in them a feeling of the remoteness of the gods. There is a more general observation to be made. Whatever reflection or intent there may have been in the selection or inven­ tion of a significant title for God, as soon as it is established in 1

c

1

1

2

3

4

1

Num. 2 4 , 16; Deut. 32, 8; Isa. 1 4 , 1 4 ; Gen. 1 4 ; and frequently in the Psalms. Aramaic, 'V KIT?**, Dan. 3, 26, 32; 5, 18, 2 1 ; HKpy alone, Dan. 4 , 1 4 , 21, 22, 29, 31; 7, 25. 'Most High' is not 'the highest god,' but the God on High. See Note 1 6 1 . Marom, 'height, high heaven/ as the abode of God, Isa. 57, 15; cf. 58, 4; 2 4 , 21. See above, p. 367. Note 162. Ibid. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

43*

use it becomes interchangeable with 'God/ and is read and heard or said without recalling its etymology or history. The Jews who called God 'the Most High/ or 'the Holy One/ or even 'the Place/ meant by them all just 'God'; precisely as we call him 'the Lord' without thinking of the meaning of the word 'lord' at all. The French Protestant, in whose Bible the name IHVH is represented by TEternel/ does not think of God's eternity when he hears or utters the word, more than of any of the other attributes. We call him 'the Almighty' without emphasizing in our minds his omnipotence above, say, his goodness. Stress is also laid on the frequency with which in Jewish use the title 'king' is applied to God. He is 'king of the universe' (or 'of the ages/ TOOP aicovcov); 'king of the world' (rod Kocfiov; 'king of heaven' (or 'the heavens'); 'king of all Thy creation'; 'the great king'; 'king of kings/ etc. An example of a heaping up of titles of royalty in a rhetorical prayer is 3 Mace. 2, 2: "Lord, Lord, king of the heavens and ruler (becnrbrris) of all the creation, holy among the holy, monarch, all-powerful ruler (iravroKparoop)," etc. From the New Testament we may quote 1 Timothy 1, 17, in the familiar version: "Now unto the king, eternal, immortal, invisi­ ble, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen," or from the same Epistle: "The blessed and only poten­ tate, king of kings and lord of lords, alone possessing immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen or can see; to whom be honor and eternal might." Corresponding expressions are common in the rabbinical literature. In the frequency of such phrases some modern writers find further evidence of the inferiority of the Jewish idea of God. "' King/ it is said, has for the Oriental an entirely different mean­ ing from what it has for us; the word suggests the arbitrariness of 1

2

1

Examples from the Apocrypha: Tobit 13, 6 , 1 0 ; 2 Mace. 7, 9; Tobit 13, 7, 1 1 ; Judith 9, 12; Tobit 13, 15; 2 Mace. 13, 4. For other references, see Bousset, Religion des Judenturns, 2 ed. p. 431 n. 2. In the New Testament, Matt. 5, 35; 1 Tim. 1, 17; 6 , 1 5 ; Rev. 15, 3. See Note 1 6 3 . It is needless to say that Christian liturgies abound in similar ascriptions. 2

432

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART JI

the tyrant and the unapproachableness of the despot. As an oriental prince is surrounded by a hierarchy of officials in sharply distinguished classes, so God also has his heavenly court. Access to him is not easy. If a man wishes to approach him with a peti­ tion, he has to engage the mediation of subordinate officials." It must, I fear, be confessed that the Jews had never thought of the advantages of a limited monarchy as a form of divine government, to say nothing of the democracy which some modern theologians are proclaiming as the next advance in religion. But it is only fair to say for them that they held to the revelation in their hands, in which the royalty of God was the confidence of the present and the assurance of the future. The prophets and psalmists would have been surprised to hear that when they called God 'king,' the word connoted the arbitrariness of a tyrant and the jealously guarded seclusion of a despot. And the Jews of later times who repeated or imitated the language of Scripture would have had no less reason to be astonished at the imputation. That God did rule the world with almighty power directed by perfect wisdom and perfect goodness; that its history was a whole divine plan, the end of which was the good world to be, when the Lord should be king over all the earth, his sovereignty acknowledged and his righteous and beneficent will obeyed by all creatures—this is the very essence of religious monotheism. It was this vision and this faith ekiri^oixkvwv vwoaraais irpay/JLarcop, ekeyxos ov /3Ae7rojuej>coj>, which alone sustained the Jews through catastrophe after catastrophe, as it has so often since sustained those who inherited it from Judaism when experience and reason threw all their weight into the scale of despair. 1

2

3

4

It is not strange that the faith that the King of Israel, who was king of the universe, would in the end make right prevail over wrong in his world, vindicate his people, overthrow the Bousset, 1. c , p. 431 f. The autocracy of God is in fact their rejection of the limited monarchy of the supreme god in organized polytheisms. See above, p. 375. Hebrews 1 1 , 1. 1 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

433

proud empire, bring in a new age, an age of uprightness and good­ ness, of peace and happiness, when true religion and pure morals were universal — that this faith, I say, should be kept ever be­ fore men's minds in an age that seemed to the pious Jew to be the antipodes of all this. In such a time, as we ourselves have experienced, men either give up the very idea of a divine govern­ ment of the world, or they cling with all their souls to the in­ scrutable sovereignty of God. There were many Jews to whom experience seemed to prove that there is ' no judgment and no judge' in the world, while others put their trust in the almighty ruler and his revealed purpose of good; and these too found con­ firmations in experience. For illustration of the latter attitude we may take a verse or two from the Psalms of Solomon. The author of the second of these hymns described the profanation of the temple by Pompey as a punishment of the sins of the Asmonaean rulers and the people of Jerusalem; he pictured the inglorious death of Pom­ pey, his unburied body tossing neglected on the waves of the Egyptian shore: — "He never reflected that he was a man, nor thought of his end. He said to himself, I will be lord of the land and the sea, and did not know that God is great, strong in his great might. He is king over the heavens, judging kings and rulers.. . . . Now see, ye potentates of the earth, the judgment of the Lord, that he is a great king and just, judging all under heaven." The seventeenth Psalm, the subject of which is the future kingdom of the Messiah, the son of David, begins: "O Lord, thou art our king for ever and ever. . . . We will hope in God our deliverer, for the might of our God is forever with mercy; and the reign of our God is forever over the nations"; and ends with the corresponding refrain, "The Lord himself is our king for ever and ever." The hope and assurance of the messianic kingdom is God, the almighty King. 1

2

1

Cf. Wisdom of Solomon i, 16-2, 20. Psalms of Solomon 2, 32-36. Note the sequel: "Bless the Lord, ye that fear the Lord with intelligence, for the mercy of the Lord is upon those that fear him, with judgment," etc. 2

THE IDEA OF GOD

434

[PART II

The core of the preaching and teaching of Jesus is the 'kingdom of God/ the coming time in which He shall be owned and obeyed by all men as king, and there is no equivocation in his use of the phrase. The prayer he taught his disciples, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven,' is illustrated by such a Jewish prayer as this: "We therefore trust in thee, O Lord our God, that we may soon behold the glory of thy power, to cause the idols to pass away from the earth, and the false gods shall be utterly cut off; to perfect the world in the reign (king­ dom) of the Almighty, and all the children of flesh shall call upon thy name; to turn unto thyself all the wicked of the earth. All the inhabitants of the globe shall perceive and know that unto thee every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Before thee, O Lord, our God, they shall bend the knee, and prostrate them­ selves; and give honor to thy glorious name. They shall take on them the yoke of thy sovereignty (kingdom), and do thou reign (be king) over them soon, for ever and ever. For thine is the kingdom, and forever thou wilt reign in glory, as it is written in thy Law, 'The Lord shall reign (be king) for ever and ever.' And it is said, 'And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall the Lord be one and his name one.'" It is the prevail­ ing opinion that this prayer was formulated in the first half of the third century, though in substance it may be much earlier. That it expresses the conception of the kingdom of God at the begin­ ning of our era there is no question. It will be observed that there is no mention in it of the restoration of the Jewish kingdom or of the coming of the Messiah. 1

2

Somewhat has been said above of the use of the term ' the pres­ ence' (shekinta) in the Targums as a circumlocution when the text speaks of God's dwelling in a place or removing from one, and the like. While the other buffer-words discussed in that 3

1

Which the Jew does when he recites the Shema*. Singer, Authorised Daily Prayer Book, p. 76 f. See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, p. 143; Kohler, 'Alenu,' Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 336 ft. Pages 419 f. 2

3

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

435

connection (yefcara, memra) are peculiar to the synagogue trans­ lations, 'the Presence' is frequent in the Talmud and Midrash. Often it is a mere metonymy for 'God,' as when R. Jose ben Halafta says: "Never did the Presence descend to earth, nor did Moses and Elijah ascend to heaven; for it is written, The heavens are the Lord's heavens, and the earth he has given to the children of men" (Psalm 115, 16). In the passages cited above on the omnipresence of God, the word in the texts is ' the Presence.' The Lord was revealed in the thornbush to teach that there is no place on earth void of the Presence; it is the Presence which, like the sea flooding the cave, filled the tabernacle with its radi­ ance, while the world outside was no less full of it. In a much later work ten descents of the Presence to the world are enumer­ ated, from the first in the Garden of Eden to the last, still future, in the days of Gog and Magog; the Scripture proofs alleged are all verses in which God (or the Lord) comes down to earth (Gen. 11, 5, etc.), or is upon the earth, as in Gen. 3, 8; Zech. 14, 4.* In a special sense God dwelt in the tabernacle, and later in the temple. When he took up his abode in them a cloud enveloped the tabernacle, or filled the temple, and thus veiled the glory of the Lord, too deadly bright for mortal eyes. This association of the Presence with the manifestation of his glory in depths of light, led, as has been remarked above, to the conception of the Presence (shekinah) itself, in such connections, as light. 1

2

4

5

It is, however, ordinarily perceived by faith, not by sight. All worship demands zpraesens numen, and however men may enter­ tain the idea of the omnipresence of God, they find it difficult to realize his specific presence in the particular place where they gather for religious service without some aid to faith or imagina­ tion. This is the origin and meaning of the teaching that wherever 1

Sukkah 5a, top; cf. Mekilta on Exod. 19, 20 (ed. Friedmann f. 65b; ed. Weiss f. 73a). where kabod is read in place of shekinah. See Note 164. Above, p. 370. Abot de-R. Nathan 34, 5. Exod. 40, 34 f.; 1 Kings 8, 10 f.; cf. Isa. 6, 1-4. More intense than that of the midsummer sun, ljullin 59b-6oa. 2

3

4

5

436

THE IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

ten men (the quorum of the synagogue) are met for prayer, there is the Presence. How many' Presences' are there then ? a caviller asked. R. Gamaliel (II) answered by asking an attendant, 'How does the sun get into that man's house? The sun shines, he re­ plied, on all the world. — If the sun, one of the millions of servants that are before the blessed God, shines on all the earth, how much more the Presence (of God)! R. Isaac, a pupil of Johanan and a favorite homilist of the third century, says: "Whenever Israelites prolong their stay in the synagogues and schools, God makes his Presence tarry with them." The following midrash also is handed down in the name of Isaac: "Whence do we learn that God is found in the synagogue (building) ? Because it is said,' God standeth in the congregation of God' (Psalm 82, 1). And whence that when ten are praying together the Presence is with them? Because it is said, 'God standeth in the congregation of God' (ibid.). And whence that when three are sitting as judges the Presence is with them? Be­ cause it is written, 'In the midst of the judges he will judge' (Psalm 8a, 1b). And whence that when two are sitting and studying the Law the Presence is with them? Because it is written, 'Then those who fear the Lord spoke to each other, and the Lord hearkened and heard,' etc. (Mai. 3, 16). And whence that even when one is sitting and studying the Law, the Presence is with him? Because it is written, 'In every place where I cause mention to be made of my name, I will come unto thee and bless thee' " (Exod. 20, 21 E. V. 24). 1

2

3

4

5

In all these cases the Presence is not something else than God, but a reverent equivalent for 'God,' as the beginning of the pas­ sage just quoted shows: The Holy One, Blessed is He, — a com1

Sanhedrin 39a. The anecdote has no earlier attestation, and the form is that of the Babylonian Talmud. Pesikta ed. Buber f. I93a-b. See Note 165. See Note 166. Elohim, 'judges,' as according to Jewish interpretation in Exod. 21, 6 and elsewhere. Berakot 6a. On Exod. 1. c. cf. Onkelos: "In every place where I make my Presence to rest, I will send my blessing unto thee and will bless thee." 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

437

mon metonymy—is found in the synagogue; the Presence is with the congregation gathered for prayer, etc. Similarly Christians speak of God's being in their churches, and of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their religious assemblies or with the individual in secret prayer, without meaning anything different. In Jewish literature also the 'holy spirit' frequently occurs in connections in which 'the Presence' {shekinah) is elsewhere employed, without any apparent difference of meaning; but the fact that within a certain range the terms are interchangeable is far from warranting the inference that shekinah arid ruh hakodesh were identified in conception. In the Jewish thought of the time the specific function of the holy spirit was the in­ spiration of prophecy or of Scripture, differing in this respect from the Old Testament as well as from Christian usage. Some older Protestant theologians, in their misdirected search for Christian dogmas in Jewish disguises found the Shekinah, as well as the Memra — always the question-begging proper name with a capital! — to their purpose, and recognized in them the same 'hypostasis.' So far as making the Presence something distinct from God goes, they had an eminent Jewish precursor in Maimonides. His Arab-Aristotelian metaphysics made of God simple Unity in so rigorous a sense as to exclude all attri­ butes, whether defined as essential, accessory, or relative, and he regarded the ascription of attributes to God as merely a subtler kind of anthropomorphism. He was constrained, therefore, like Philo, to interpret much of the Bible as metaphor or allegory. Assuming that Onkelos was actuated by similar ideas in his en­ deavor to render the anthropomorphic expressions in the Penta­ teuch innocuous by paraphrase, he held that the Glory, the Word, the Presence, in the Targum mean created (physical) things, distinct from God; the Glory and the Presence being of the nature of light. It does not follow that Maimonides con1

2

3

1

See Note 167. Expressions implying motion were peculiarly objectionable: a God who is not in space cannot change place. Moreh Nebukim i. 21; cf. also chapters 10, 25, 28, and 64. 2

3

THE

438

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

sidered these things as permanently existent, still less that he ascribed to them personality; and in expressly making them created beings he excludes the idea of any participation in divine nature or 'essence.' The philosophical horror of 'anthro­ pomorphisms' which Philo and Maimonides entertained was unknown to the Palestinian schools. They endeavored to think of God worthily and to speak of him reverently; but their criterion was the Scripture and the instinct of piety, not an alien meta­ physics. More recently, with no better reason, these ' intermedi­ aries' have had to do duty again for the remoteness of God. The agencies which God employs to manifest his presence or convey his revelation, or execute his will, whether personal or impersonal, may in this function be called intermediaries, as Moses is called an intermediary in the giving of the Law; but not 'mediators' in the sense which we commonly attach to the word. 1

2

3

That the angels intercede for men, and particularly for Israel, is a notion frequently found in apocalypses and popular writ­ ings. Especially in parts of Enoch and in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, they bring before God the cause of those who have been wronged, and invoke his intervention; and they pres­ ent to him the prayers of the righteous. Biblical precedent for the unsolicited intercession of angels may be found in Zech. I , 12, where the angel of the Lord pleads for God's compassion on Jerusalem that had so long lain in ruins; and especially in Job 33> 3 ; (when a man is pining away to his death) 'If there be for 4

2

1

See ' Christian Writers on Judaism/ Harvard Theological Review, XIV (1921), pp. 222 ff. Gal. 3, 19; Heb. 8, 6; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 45a; Jer. Megillah 74d, above, and elsewhere. In Philo, Moses takes the part of fjLeo-LTrjs Kal 5ia\\aKT7js after the sin of the golden calf. Vita Mosis ii. 19 § 166 (ed. Mangey II, 160). Assumption of Moses 1, 14 (arbiter testamenti illius); 3, 12. On the Logos in Philo see Note 168. Enoch 9; 15, 2; 40, 6; 99, 3; 104, 1; Testaments of the Twelve Patri­ archs, Levi, 3, 5, with Charles' note in loc; Revelation of John 8, 3 f.; Tobit 12, 12, 15. In the Talmud, Michael offers upon the heavenly altar, rlagigah 12b. See Note 169. 2

3

4

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

439

him an angel, an intercessor, one of a thousand, to vouch for man's uprightness, then is He gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit,' etc. But man is not dependent on angelic intercession. The atti­ tude of orthodox Judaism is represented by R. Judan in the following often quoted utterance: "If a man has a patron, when a time of trouble comes upon him, he does not at once enter into his patron's presence, but comes and stands at the door of his house and calls one of the servants or a member of his family, who brings word to him, 'So and so is standing at the entrance of your court.' Perhaps the patron will let him in, perhaps he will make him wait. Not so is God. If trouble comes upon a man, let him not cry to Michael or to Gabriel; but let him cry unto Me, and I will answer him forthwith, as the Scripture says, 'Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be deliv­ ered' (Joel 3, 5 = E. V. 2, 32). That imagination pictured the sovereign of the universe throned above the highest heaven, surrounded by a countless host of worshipping and ministering spirits, did not hinder the Jews from believing him near when they called upon him; nor did they think him so preoccupied with the great affairs of the world as to have no interest in their very small affairs. Rever­ ence might dictate a phraseology which seems to us artificial or turgid. Precautions might be taken where they seemed neces­ sary against the tendency of the common mind to image God as an unnaturally magnified man; but, on the other hand, the teachers are fond of dwelling on what we may call the humanity of God, and that not merely as an example to men, but as a reve­ lation of his own character. They do not even allow the dignity of God to check a kind of playfulness in their speech of him, which readers unfamiliar with the ways of the Midrash some­ times decry as fatuous. A lady once asked Jose ben Halafta: 1

2

3

4

5

1

3

5

2

Cf. also 5, 1. A favorite homilist of the fourth century. The outside door. Jer. Berakot 13a below. See Note 170. n:ilDD (matrona), a Gentile lady of rank. 4

440

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

What has your God been doing since he finished making the world? He has been matching couples in marriage, was the reply, the daughter of so and so for so and so, so and so's wife for so and so. The lady declared that she could do as much as that herself; nothing easier than to couple any number of slaves with as many slave girls. You may think it easy, he said, but for God it is as difficult as the dividing of the Red Sea. The lady accordingly tried the experiment with a thousand male and as many female slaves, setting them in rows and bidding this man take this woman, and so on. Next morning they came to her, one with a broken head, another with gouged out eyes, a third with a broken leg; one man saying, I don't want her, and a girl saying, I don't want him. So that the lady was constrained to admit that the mating of men and women was a task not un­ worthy of the attention or beneath the intelligence of God. 1

A topic not infrequently adverted to in rabbinic teaching is the humility of God. Idea and word come from Psalm 18, 36, 'Thy humility has made me great.' Modern translators have balked at the word. The Authorized English version turns humility into 'gentleness' (margin, 'meekness'), others say * condescension.' The Jews seem to have seen no impropriety in God's being humble, or lowly. The quality is illustrated by comparing God's demeanor towards men with that of a master to his disciple, or that of an earthly king, showing how regardless God is of the precedence due his rank, on which men so strenu­ ously insist for themselves. 2

3

R. Johanan said: "Wherever (in the Scripture) you find the almighty power of God, you will find in the context his lowly deeds. This is taught in the Pentateuch, and repeated in the Prophets, and again in the Hagiographa. In the Pentateuch: 1

Pesikta ed. Buber f. n b - i 2 a ; Gen. R. 68, 4, and elsewhere. See Note

I7i. 2

^l"in "[nW. A different interpretation would have been possible with­ out changing the text. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit 4; cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 18, 36 (ed. Buber f. 78a-7ob). 3

CHAP, v ]

ACCESSIBILITY OF GOD

441

'The Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords [the mighty and the awful/ etc.]; and in the sequel it is written, 'He doth execute justice for the fatherless and the widow [and loveth the stranger, giving him food and raiment'] (Deut. 10, 17 f.). In the Prophets, 'Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, [I dwell in the high and holy place']; and in the sequel, 'with him also that is of a con­ trite and humble spirit,' etc. (Isa. 57, 15). In the Hagiographa, 'Extol him that rideth upon the skies by Jah, his name,* and in the sequel, 'A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows [is God in his holy habitation'] (Psalm 68, 5 f.)." A later homilist, Eleazar ben Pedat, adds to the three verses cited by Johanan four others in which God puts himself on a level with the lowly, namely, Psalm 138, 6; Isa. 66, 1 f.; Psalm 10, 16-18; Psalm 146,6-10. In these also the point is the juxta­ position of the greatness of God with his personal concern for the humble, the needy, the distressed. God's interest in the com­ mon joys and sorrows of men is illustrated by R. Simlai in words that are often repeated: "We find that God pronounces a bene­ diction on bridegrooms, and adorns brides, and visits the sick, and buries the dead, and comforts mourners." These offices of humanity are evidences not merely of the general goodness of God, but of that highest kind of charity which involves personal sympathy and service. In such deeds of kindness God is a pat­ tern for man's imitation; this is what is meant when it is said, 'Walk after the Lord thy God,' that is, imitate these traits of God's character and conduct. As he clothed the naked, visited the sick, comforted the mourners, so do thou also. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

See Note 1 7 2 . Megillah 31a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera 3 (f. 42b). Buber reads, "with the hearts of the lowly." See his note in loc. Gen. R. 8, 13; Eccles. R. on Eccles. 7, 2; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera 1 (f. 42a), and ibid. 4 (f. 43b); Sotah 14a. For the Scriptures see Gen. 1, 28; 2,22; 3 21; 1 8 , 1 ; Deut. 34, 6; Gen. 35, 9. 2

3

4

5

6

DHDn nWDJL

Sotah 14a.

Vol.

II, pp.

171

ff.

442

THE

IDEA OF GOD

[PART II

It would be easy to multiply utterances of this kind, for which the Scriptures furnish abundant occasion. Those which have been quoted suffice to show that the exaltation of God was not his exile. He who dwells in the high and holy place, dwells no less with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. His al­ mighty power and his humility go together; he is lofty enough to think nothing beneath him, great enough to count nothing too small to be his concern. The conclusive proof of this is the whole character of Jewish piety in those centuries, and the intimacy of the religious relation which is expressed by the thought of God as Father, which will be discussed in later chapters. 1

1

See Vol. II. pp. 101 ff.

P A R T III MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

CHAPTER I THE NATURE OF MAN

T H E unity of mankind was too plainly written in the Scriptures to leave room for any question. All the races of men are de­ scended from a single pair, to whom with their posterity God gave the generic name Man (Heb. adam). That God made from one (ancestor) every race of men to settle all over the face of the earth in times and bounds of his appointment, was universal Jewish doctrine. The reason Paul gives is that men of all na­ tions might feel their way to the one true God who is not far from every one of us, and find him. In the Mishnah, in the solemn admonition to witnesses in a capital case, not by false testimony to be the cause of the death of a man and of his (potential) offspring, we read, "For this reason a single man only was created, to teach you that if one destroys a single per­ son, the Scripture imputes it to him as though he had destroyed the whole (population of the) world, and if he saves the life of a single person, the Scripture imputes it to him as though he had saved the whole world." This gives occasion to introduce vari­ ous other reasons why only one man was created. All men, not­ withstanding their different appearance, were stamped by God with one seal, the seal of Adam. "Therefore every man is bound to say, On account of me the world was created." That is, every man is to feel himself individually responsible, as though the whole human race depended on his conduct. Other reasons of a more obvious character are added in the Mishnah and the 1

2

3

4

1

Gen. i, 26 f.; 5, 2 f.; 9, 5-7. See Philo, De opificio mundi c. 24 § 76 (ed. Mangey, I, 17); De Abrahamo c. 12 § 56 (II, 9). Acts 17, 26. The words 'of Israel' found in some editions here and in the correspond­ ing place below are modern interpolations. M. Sanhedrin 4 , 5. See also Note 1 7 3 . 2

3

4

445

446

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

parallel Tosefta. It was to keep one man from saying to another, My forefather was greater than yours — to exclude pride of ancestry; or to prevent families from quarreling, and men from assaulting and robbing one another, by the reflection that they are all of one stock. Not only are all the races of men derived in the genealogies of Genesis from one common ancestor, whose name Adam (Man) is only the appropriation of the appellative by which all his kind are named, and again after the flood from one man Noah through his three sons, but the whole conception of history as a divine plan, from the point of view of the unity of God, assumes the unity of mankind. 1

2

3

Man was made in the image and likeness of God. R. Akiba, in a sentence already quoted in another connection, said: "Dear (to God) is man, in that he was created in the (divine) image; still more dear in that it is known to him that he was created in the image, as it is said, In the image of God he made the man" (Gen. 5, i). In the last words Akiba's younger contemporary, Simeon ben * Azzai, finds the most comprehensive principle of the law governing man's dealings with his fellow—the image of God must be reverenced in our common humanity. In the law itself this principle is applied to manslaughter: 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man' (Gen. 9, 6); even a beast that kills a man is under the same condemnation (Gen. 9, 5; cf. Exod. 21, 28 ff.) A wide extension is given to the principle in a Midrash: "See that thou do not say, Inasmuch as I have been 4

5

6

1

M. Sanhedrin 1. c.; Tos. Sanhedrin 8, 4 f.; Sanhedrin 38a. Gen. 1 0 . Gen. 1, 27, cf. vs. 26; 5, 1; 9, 6; Psalm 8, 5 ff. Abot 3, 14. In Abot de-R. Natan c. 39 attributed in abbreviated form to R. Meir, the disciple of Akiba. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 279. Sifra, Kedoshim Perek 4 , 12 (on Lev. 19, 18; ed. Weiss f. 89b); Jer. Nedarim 4 1 c ; Gen. R. 24, 7, with Theodor's note there. See Note 174, and below, Vol. II, p. 85. Mekilta, Bahodesh 8 (ed. Friedmann f. 70b; ed. Weiss f. 78a). 2 3

4

5

6

THE NATURE OF MAN

CHAP. I ]

447

despised, my fellow shall be despised with me; inasmuch as I have been cursed, my fellow shall be cursed with me. R. Tan­ huma said, If thou doest thus, reflect whom thou dost despise — 'In the image of God He made him. In Leviticus Rabbah (34, 3) it is narrated of Hillel that in one of his last conversations with his disciples he found in the words of Genesis the obligation to keep the body clean by bathing: Those who are in charge of the images of kings which are set up in their theatres and circuses scour them and wash them off, and are rewarded and honored for so doing; how much more I, who was created in the image and likeness (of God), as it is written, 'In the image of God He created man' (Gen. 5, i). The divine likeness was the common inheritance of mankind •— that was the point on which Jewish thought seized to draw from it a moral consequence, a universal principle of conduct. Wherein more specifically the resemblance lay, does not seem to have been a subject of speculation in the Palestinian schools. When the question was raised, with whom God was talking when he said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness/ the most natural answer was, With the angels, who are called in the Bible bene elohim, 'divine beings/ or simply elohim, 'divinities/ the 'household above/ with which God habitually consulted. The divine image could thus be conceived as a likeness to the angels, the more easily as in Bible story angels always appear in the form of men. The words of God in Gen. 3, 22, 'Behold the man is become as one of us in knowing good and evil/ were taken by R. Pappos, a contemporary of Akiba, to mean that he was become in this respect like one of the ministering angels; ,,,

1

2

f

3

4

1

Gen. R. 24, 7. See Theodor's note ad he. It is to be remarked that this is immediately followed by another say­ ing, the point of which is the attention to be paid to the soul, the transient guest in the body, which is here today, and tomorrow is gone. Gen. 1, 26 f. and 3, 22 were early brought into the field by Christian apologists; e.g. Justin, Trypho, c. 62. See above, pp. 392, 407 f. The angels protested against the creation of man, quoting Psalm 8, 5. 2

3

4

448

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

whilst Akiba interpreted, "God set before him two ways, one of death and the other of life, and he chose the way of death." In Psalm 8, 6-9, with obvious reminiscence of Gen. 1, 26-28, the poet says of man: 'Thou madest him scarcely inferior to divine beings, and didst crown him with glory and honor; thou gavest him dominion over the works of thy hand, everything thou didst put under his feet,' etc. The amplified paraphrase in Ecclus. 17, beginning, "After his own image He made them, and put the fear of him upon all flesh, and (gave him) to have dominion over beasts and birds" (17, 3 f.), dwells in the sequel on man's intellectual endowment, but does not bring it into any closer connection with the divine image. It was natural that Jews whose notions of human nature had been formed under the influence of Greek thought should put more definitely the question wherein the image of God in man consisted. And in accord with Greek ideas the author of the Wisdom of Solomon answers, In immortality: "For God created man for immortality, and made him the image of his own pe­ culiar nature; but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world," etc. (2, 23 f.). A blessed immortality is the essential nature of deity; participation in it, or the potentiality of it, is that wherein God made man like himself. Philo, from his Platonic premises, finds the image of God in the soul of man, more specifically in the intellectual soul. "Moses did not liken the form of the rational soul to any created thing, but spoke of it as a tested and approved coin (bearing the figure) of that divine and invisible spirit, marked and stamped by the seal of God, whose impression is the eternal Logos. For he says, 'God breathed into his face a breath of life,' so that necessarily he who receives (this breath) represents 1

2

3

4

1

Mekilta, Beshallah 6, on Exod. 1 4 , 28 (ed. Friedmann f. 33a; ed. Weiss f. 40a). See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 317 f. On the Two Ways see Note 175. DT6KD. The versions unanimously, "than angels," doubtless in the sense of the author. See Note 176. With the variant, aidLOTrjToSy 'eternity.' The same variant in Philo, De aeternitate mundi § 75 (ed. Cohn). 2

3

4

CHAP, i ]

THE NATURE OF MAN

449

Him who sends it forth; wherefore also it is said that the man was created after the image of God, not, of a truth, after the image of any created thing." 1

With the likeness of God was given to man dominion over the living creatures, the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air, domestic cattle and wild beasts, and all the smaller animals (Gen. i, 26), with the commission: 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and subject the fish of the sea/ etc. (vs. 28; cf. also Psalm 8, 7 f.). The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch expresses the Jewish under­ standing of man's place in the creation thus: "Long ago when the world with its inhabitants was not yet in being, thou didst conceive the thought, and command with a word, and at once the works of creation stood before thee. And thou saidst that thou wouldst make for thy world man an administrator of thy works, that it might be known that he was not made for the sake of the world, but the world for his sake." That the world and everything in it was made for man is in fact a natural con­ clusion from the place given him in the story of creation, as well as from his own valuation of himself as the summit of crea­ tion. Cicero argues it from the latter point of view, and it is frequently asserted by Christian Apologists. In Jewish sources it is commoner to find that the world was made for Israel, a view which need not be taken as a piece of national vanity. To Israel had been given the revelation of 2

3

4

5

6

1

De plantatione Noe c. 5 (ed. Mangey, I, 332); cf. Quis rerum divinarum heres c. 48 (I, 505); De opificio mundi c. 23 § 69 (1,15 f.); c. 51 (I, 35). For Philo it is a likeness at the third remove: God, Logos, Ideal Man, actual in­ dividual man. See Note 177. Emending p a n n n i o i ; cf. vs. 30. See also Wisdom 9, 2 f. Syriac Baruch 1 4 , 17 f.; cf. 21, 24. Cicero, Natura deorum ii. 53 § 133; Justin Martyr, Apology ii. 4 , 2; cf. i. 10, 2; Trypho 4 1 , 1; Apology of Aristides, c. 1; Ep. to Diognetus c. 10, etc.; Origen, Contra Celsum iv. 23. Cf. Hermas, Vis. i. 1, 6: "God, who dwells in heaven, and created the things that are out of what was not, and increased and multiplied them for the 2

3

4

5

6

450

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

the true religion (for which it is elsewhere said that the world was created), which is one day to be the universal religion. It is indeed frequently not Israel but the righteous in whose favor the inference is drawn. Thus in Sifre Deut. § 47 (on Deut. 1 1 , 21): "As the heavens and the earth which were created only for the honor of Israel live and abide for eternal ages, how much more the righteous for whose sake the world was created." In the same context, R. Joshua ben Karha, a disciple of Akiba, quotes Eccles. 1, 4, 'A generation goes and a generation comes, while the earth lasts for ever/ "It ought to be, The earth goes and the earth comes, and the generation (of men) lasts for ever. For which was created for the sake of which? Was the earth created for the sake of the generation, or the generation for the sake of the earth? Was it not the earth for the sake of the gen­ eration? But the generation, because it does not abide by the commands of God, passes away, while the earth, because it abides by the commands of God, does not pass away." The question why man should be created at all, which was raised by the ministering angels when they learned God's pur­ pose, is answered by Him, Who then shall fulfil my law and commandments? The angels themselves could not do it, for it supposed conditions which did not exist among them, for ex­ ample, in rites connected with death or birth, permitted and prohibited food, or sacrificial worship. That is, man was made that there might be creatures to fulfil the Law, or, in other words, to practise a human religion. On the other hand, in Ecclesiastes Rabbah on 1, 4, in the sequel of the passage quoted above, 1

2

3

sake of his holy church," etc. The world made for Israel, 4 Esdras 6, 55, 59; 7 , 1 1 ; Assumption of Moses 1 , 1 2 ; Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. I 3 5 a - b . Cf. Syriac Baruch 15, 7; cf. 21, 24. The world created only for him who fears God (the religious man), Berakot 6b, end. More fully in Eccles. R. on Eccles. 1 , 4, from which this translation is made; see Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 319. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Behukkotai § 6 (f. 56b). There seems to be no earlier trace of this anonymous midrash, which stands in a group of more or less ingenious twists of Psalm 89, 7. 1

2

3

CHAP, i ]

THE NATURE OF MAN

451

the Law was created for the sake of Israel, not Israel for the Law. 1

The dual nature of man is a frequent subject of remark. Rabbi Simai said: "All the creatures that were created from the heaven, their soul and their body was from heaven (of celestial substance); and all the creatures that were created from the earth, their soul and their body was of the earth, except man, whose soul is from heaven, his body from the earth. Therefore if a man keeps the law and does the will of his Father who is in heaven, he is like the creatures above, as it is written, * I said ye are divine beings, and sons of the Most High, all of you'; but if he does not keep the law and do the will of his Father who is in heaven, he is like the creatures below, as it is written, Surely like man ye shall die'" (Psalm 82, 6 and 7). God created man with four characteristics of the creatures above and four of those below; he eats and drinks like the cattle, like them he multiplies, voids excrement, and dies; he stands erect like the ministering angels, like them also he has speech, and reason, and sees like them (not like cattle whose eyes are in the side of their head). In a Baraita in Hagigah 16a only three characteristics on each side are enumerated (dying and seeing not being specified), and instead of merely possessing speech, men like the ministering angels talk the sacred language (He­ brew). Man is thus on one side of his nature akin to the angels, on the other to the brutes, and takes rank in the creation above 2

3

1

4

5

6

1

It cannot be said too often that such variations are not differences of opinion, still less conflicting teachings, but casual exegetical or homiletical conceits. See also Gen. R. 1 , 4 . Probably in the latter part of the second century. Bacher, Tannaiten, n, 543 ffCf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 15 (R. Simeon ben Lakish): He created man's body from (the earth) below and his soul from (heaven) above. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 4 1 2 f. Sifre Deut. § 306 (on Deut. 32, 2; f. 132a, near end). Gen. R. 8, 1 1 ; 1 4 , 3. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 22 f. See Note 1 7 8 . 2

3

4

5

6

452

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

the one or below the other according to his character. This is the sense of a midrash found in several places, attributed to R. Simeon ben Lakish: If a man is worthy (rot), they say to him, Thou didst precede the ministering angels (or, as another source has it, the whole creative work); if not, they say to him, Insects and worms preceded thee. The dual nature of man is the subject of a fine passage in Philo. Man, according to Moses, is composite of earthy matter and divine spirit; for the artist took clay and moulded out of it a human form, and thus the body was made; but the soul is not derived from any originated thing whatever, but from the father and ruler of the universe. For what He breathed in was nothing else than a divine breath (spirit) which from that blessed and happy nature is sent to sojourn hither for the good of our race, in order that, though in respect to its visible part it be mortal, in respect to its invisible part it is made immortal. So we may properly say that man is intermediate between mortal and immortal nature, sharing in each so far as needs be, and that he is at once mortal and immortal — mortal as to his body, im­ mortal as to his intellect. Greek philosophy, however, has here contributed everything but the text (Gen. 2, 7). The 'breath of life' (irvoi) farjs) which God breathed into Adam's nostrils, thus making him 'a living soul' (person), turns into a 7r^€u/ia-soul of obvious Stoic extraction, for which, as the im­ mortal in man, Philo in the end substitutes 'intellect' (foavoia), like a true Platonist. There are various fantasies in the Midrash about the creation of Adam on which it would be idle to dwell here. One, repeated in several places, attributes to him enormous dimensions: he was a huge mass that filled the whole world to all the points of 1

2

1

Gen. R. 8, 1; Lev. R. 14, i; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tazri'a § 2. The soul of Adam was created before the works of the sixth day (or on the first day); his body after the creeping things on the sixth day. (The angels were created on the second day or on the fifth; see above, p. 381.) See Note 179. Philo, De opificio mundi c. 46 § 135 (ed. Mangey, I, 32). 2

CHAP, i ]

THE NATURE OF MAN

453

1

the compass. The dust of which his body was formed was gathered from every part of the world, or from the site of the future altar. Of greater interest is the notion that man was created androgynous, because it is probably a bit of foreign lore adapted to the first pair in Genesis. R. Samuel bar Nahman (third century), said, When God created Adam, he created him facing both ways (D^suns m ) ; then he sawed him in two and made two backs, one for each figure. In the same paragraph of Genesis Rabbah a homilist of the fourth century says, When God created Adam he created him androgynous (DUWYTJK): this is what is written, 'Male and female he created them.' 2

3

4

5

In the Bible it is affirmed, or consistently assumed, that God has taught men what is right and what is wrong, set before them the consequences of the alternatives, and left them to choose between them. So God did with Adam in the Garden; so he did with Noah for himself and his posterity of all races (Gen. 9-), of which Judaism made the so-called Noachian precepts, a law binding on all mankind. At Sinai again, God offered the whole Law to all the seventy nations, and as a whole they re­ fused it. A fundamental passage for the Jewish apprehension of man's relation to God's revealed will is Deut. 11, 26-28: 'Be­ hold I have set before you this day a blessing and a curse; the blessing in case ye shall hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, and the curse if ye shall not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this 6

1

Lev. R. 18, 2 (Joshua ben Levi); Gen. R. 8, 1, and elsewhere. Sanhedrin 38 a, end. The earth for the body of the first man was taken from the place where in future atonement should be made (the altar of earth, Exod. 20, 2 1 ) ; Gen. R. 14, 8; Jer. Nazir 56b, below. See Note 180. Gen. R. 8, 1, f&IDViaH ,pain£> m. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 547 and n. 3, cites the parallels and various attributions. — Plato, Symposium 189D190A. See Note 181. Jeremiah ben Eleazar. See above, pp. 227, 278. 2

3

4

6

6

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

454

[PART III

1

day,' etc. Similarly Deut. 30, 15-20: 'See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, in that I com­ mand thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments and his statutes and his or­ dinances. . . . I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy posterity,' etc. The choice is left to man; but lest Israel should say, Inasmuch as God has set before us two ways, we may go in whichever we please, the Scripture adds, 'Choose life, that thou mayst live, and thy posterity.' In the sequel is a comparison of the two ways, one of which is at the outset a thicket of thorns but after a little distance emerges into an open plain, while the other is at first a plain, but presently runs out into thorns. So it is with the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. 2

3

That man is capable of choosing between right and wrong and of carrying the decision into action was not questioned, nor was any conflict discovered between this freedom of choice with its consequences and the belief that all things are ordained and brought to pass by God in accordance with his wisdom and his righteous and benevolent will. The theological problem of the freedom of the will in relation to the doctrine of divine provi­ dence and the omniscience of God did not emerge until the tenth century, when Jewish thinkers like Saadia (d. 942) heard around them on every hand the Moslem controversies over predestina­ tion. Long before there was any theologizing on this point, it had been necessary to assert emphatically the responsibility of man for what he does and is, against such as were inclined to put off on God the responsibility for their misdeeds, just as it was 4

1

On this passage see Sifre Deut. § 53-54. Sifre on Deut. 1 1 , 26 (§ 53). Ibid. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 302 f. The mediaeval Jewish philosophers almost without exception main­ tained the freedom of the will. 2

3

4

CHAP, i]

THE NATURE OF MAN

455

necessary to affirm the doctrine of retribution against those who thought that God let things in the world go their own gait, and that there was no such thing as a moral providence. Thus Sirach: "Say not, It was the Lord's fault that I fell away . . . say not, He led me astray. . . . He made man from the beginning, and left him to his own counsel. If thou willst, thou wilt keep the commandments, and to deal faithfully is a matter of choice. He has set before thee fire and water, thou canst stretch out thy hand to which ever thou willst. Before man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given him." The same freedom is asserted in the Psalms of Solomon (9, 4): "Our deeds are in the choice and power of our soul, to do righteousness and iniquity in the works of our hands." The author of Fourth Esdras, agonizing over the problem how the perdition of the mass of mankind, Gentile and Jew, can con­ sist with the character of God, does not impugn God's justice in comdemning them. "Ask no more about the multitude of those who perish," the angel answers, "for they themselves, having freedom given them, spurned the Most High, and de­ spised his law and abandoned his ways." 1

2

3

4

5

The rabbinical teaching is in complete accord with this, as appears in the passage from Sifre Deut. §§53-54 cited above. The sententious words of Akiba are familiar: "Everything is foreseen (by God), and freedom of choice is given (to man), and the world is judged with goodness, and all depends on the pre­ ponderance of (good or ill) doing." Simeon ben 'Azzai, Akiba's younger contemporary, quotes the phrase, 'freedom of choice 6

7

1

et

Kal a<j)7JKev avrbv ev x >pi dLa^ovXiov avrov. See Note 1 8 2 . Text and translation of this hemistich are very doubtful. See Note 183. Ecclus. 15, 1 1 - 1 7 . Note the sequel (vs. 9): He who does righteousness treasures up life for himself with the Lord, and he who does unrighteousness is himself responsible for his life in its destruction. 4 Esdras 8, 55 f.; note also the following verses, and see further 7 , 1 9 - 2 4 . Sifre Deut. § 54 adduces also the words of God to Cain, Gen. 4,7, to the same intent. Abot 3, 15. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 275. With the last clause, cf. above, 2

3

4

5

6

7

P- 379-

456

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

is given/ in a context which attaches decisive importance to man's primary choice to attend to the words of God or not. If a man of his own accord resolves to hearken (to the command of God), he will be helped to do so without his endeavor; if to forget (ignore) them, he will be made to do so when he does not wish to. 'Freedom of choice is given' — as in Proverbs 3,34, 'If it is with the scorners, He scorns them, but unto the humble He gives favor.' Others preferred for a proof-text Exod. 22, 2$. In the same sense, a later homilist, brings verses from the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa to prove that a man is led (by God) in the way in which he chooses to go (Num. 22, 13 and 20; Isa. 48, 17; Prov. 3, 34). R. Simeon ben Lakish, quoting Prov. 3, 34, comments: "If a man comes to defile him­ self, the opportunity is given him (by God); if to purify him­ self, he is helped to do it." Well known is also the saying of R. Hanina (bar Hama, early in the third century): "Everything is in the power of Heaven except the fear of Heaven; 'Now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to revere the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, to love him,'" etc. (Deut. 10, 12). God in his providence determines before­ hand what a man shall be and what shall befall him, but not whether he shall be godly or godless, righteous or wicked. As the proof-text says, religion is the one thing that God requires of man He does not constrain him to it. It is unnecessary to multiply examples further; there are no dissentient voices. From Josephus, on the other hand, we should get the impres­ sion that determinism was one of the subjects chiefly in dispute between the Pharisees and the other sects. In one place, indeed^ this is the only specific difference he names, referring the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Man's initial choice determines his subsequent particular choices. Mekilta on Exod. 1 5 , 26 (ed. Friedmann f. 46a-b; ed. Weiss f. 54b). Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 412; cf. Pal. Amoraer, II, 81. Makkot 10b. Shabbat 104a and parallels. Berakot 33b; Megillah 25a; Niddah 16b. Niddah 16b. Antt. xiii. 5, 9. 2

3

4

6

6

7

CHAP, i ]

THE NATURE OF MAN

457

reader for the rest to the fuller account in the second book of the Jewish War. As he describes it in the passage cited they were divided over destiny (elfxap/xepr]): the Essenes exempted nothing from its sway; the Sadducees denied that there was any such thing; while the Pharisees held the middle ground — some things, but not all, are the work of destiny; some are in man's own power to determine whether they shall come to pass or not. In the account in the War (ii. 8, 14) to which Josephus refers he says that the Pharisees ascribe everything to destiny and to God; to do right or not lies principally in man's power, but destiny also is auxiliary in every action. An explanation of this is intended in Antt. xviii. 1, 3: While the Pharisees hold that all things are brought about by destiny, they do not deprive the human will of its own impulse to do them, it having pleased God that there should be a concurrence (?), and that to the delibera­ tion of destiny that of men, in the case of one who wills, should assent, with (the concomitant of) virtue or wickedness. The Sadducees deny destiny altogether, and make God incapable of doing or looking (with complacency) upon anything evil. They say that good and evil lie open to men's choice, and that ac­ cording to each man's own inclination he takes to one or the other. It suited the author to describe the Jewish sects as so many philosophies. He remarks that the Essenes follow the Pytha­ gorean mode of life; and the Pharisees are very much like the Stoics. Different notions about the immortality of the soul divided Greek schools of philosophy also; the problem of de­ terminism was a subject of acute controversy among them in his time, and if the issue were to be defined in a word it would be eiixapiievr), 'destiny,' which in Josephus occur in all the descrip­ tions of the Jewish sects. It seems to be generally assumed that 1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

See Note 1 8 4 . Bell. Jud. ii. 8,2 § 1 1 9 ; cf. Antt. xviii. 1, 2; ibid. 6 § 23. Antt. xv. 10, 4 § 371. Vita, c. 2, end. On elfjLap/jLkvrj see Note 1 8 5 .

458

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

what Josephus means is that the sects were divided over the relation of divine providence to human freedom, and that he used eljJLapjjLevrj for what we might call the decrees of God. It is certain, however, that no contemporary reader could have understood him in any such sense, since not only was that not the current conception of elfiapixevrj, but he himself expressly makes 'destiny' a determining factor distinct from God, even though subordinate to him. Philo, as might be expected from his philosophical affinities, consistently maintains man's self-determination. Intelligence is the only imperishable thing in us. "For it alone, the Father who begat it deemed worthy of liberty, and having loosed the bonds of necessity let it range at large, having gifted it with a portion such as it was able to receive of His own most proper and distinctive possession, the faculty of volition." Other living things, in whose souls mind, the thing for which liberty is specially claimed, does not exist, are handed over, yoked and bridled, to the service of men, as menial slaves to masters; but man, endowed with a free and self-controlled judgment and volition and acting for the most part purposefully, naturally incurs blame for the wrong he does premeditatedly, and praise for what he voluntarily does right. Plants and animals are not praiseworthy when they bear abundantly nor blamable for their failure; the motion and change that lead to one or the other was imparted to them without any preference or volition on their part. The soul of man alone, having received from God the power of moving voluntarily, and therein being made most like Him, and being liberated as far as possible from that stern and harsh tyrant, Necessity, is rightly accused, when he does not give al. due regard to Him who made him free; wherefore it will most justly pay the inexorable penalty visited on emancipated slaves who prove ungrateful. . . . God made man unrestrained and free, acting voluntarily and of his own choice, to the end 1

2

3

1

1

2

Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 14; Antt. xviii. 1, 3. Aiavoia. ore conj. Cohn. 3

CHAP. I ]

THE NATURE OF MAN

459

that, being acquainted with bad things as well as good, and acquiring conceptions of honorable and shameful conduct, and thinking clearly about right and wrong and all that has to do with virtue and vice, he may habitually choose the better and avoid the contrary. For this reason the divine word is written in Deuteronomy, Behold, I have put before thy face life and death, good and evil; choose life!" To man alone this alternative, with its consequences, is presented. The creatures higher than he in the scale of being have no such dual nature; they are pure immaterial souls. The irrational creatures beneath him, precisely because they lack discourse of reason, cannot be guilty of the voluntary wrong­ doing which comes of calculation. "Man is practically the only one of all, who, knowing the difference between good and bad, often chooses the worse and avoids what he ought to endeavor after, so that he is condemned for sins committed purposely." Knowledge and freedom are the conditions of accountability. This was one of the motives God had in breathing into man the breath of life whereby he became a living soul, otherwise a man when punished for his sins might say that he was punished un­ justly, and that the one really to blame was He who had not breathed into him intelligence; or that he had not sinned at all, since some say that deeds done involuntarily or in ignorance are not to be classed as wrong-doing. 1

2

3

1

Quod deus sit immutabilis c. io § 46-50 (ed. Mangey, I, 279 f.). De confusione linguarum c. 35 § 177 f. (I, 432). Legum allegor. i. 13 § 35, on Gen. 2, 7 (I, 50). Reference may also be made to De victimis c. 7 § 214 (II, 243) and the similar language in De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini c. 40 (I, 190). 2

3

CHAPTER

II

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

WHERE it is believed that religion was given to men by revela­ tion, and that it is a divinely ordained regulative for man's whole life, practical religion resolves itself into living accordingly. Duty will be defined in effect as it is in a classic Protestant symbol: "The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will," and sin, as in the same symbol: "Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God." These succinct definitions of duty and of sin are what neces­ sarily follow from the conceptions of revealed religion and of Sacred Scripture entertained by the Puritan and Presbyterian divines who framed them; conceptions identical with those of the Jewish doctors of the Law. If the Scribes and Pharisees of New Testament times had possessed the skill in the art of defini­ tion which Christian theologians developed in centuries of scholastic exercise, they might have put the Jewish conception in precisely the same way. They also, as we shall see, distin­ guished between sins of commission and of omission, transgres­ sions of the 'Thou shalt notV of the Law, neglect of its 'Thou shalt's.' They too recognized that "Some sins in themselves, and by reasons of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others." In short, it would be impossible to find a better formulation for the Jewish conception of sin than these definitions of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches. These Christian theologians, indeed, taught that only what they called the moral law was of perpetual obligation; the ritual, ceremonial, and civil law were done away in the new dispensa1

2

1

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 39, 14, 83. They thought they were following Paul, but he makes no such distinc­ tion; and they included in the moral law the obligation of worship, the observance of the sabbath, etc. 2

460

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS

CONSEQUENCES

461

tion. Judaism, however, could not thus emancipate itself from obedience to any part of God's revealed will. The whole law was of the same origin and obligation, and every deviation from * the ways of God' was sin. Sin is in fact a religious, not primarily a moral, conception. It is an offense against God, and the gravest are offenses against his holiness, that is his godhead itself. Such an act is literally laesa maiestas, and the outraged deity vindicates itself in the swift and sure destruction of the violator, as in the outbreak of some elementary force. Things and persons which peculiarly pertain to God, acquire through this association the like inviola­ bility; they are 'holy,' and the invasion of this sphere is mortally dangerous. The religious connotation of the word most fre­ quently rendered 'sin' in our versions (n«on) is most clearly seen when this word is the technical name of a species of sacrifice ('sin-offering'), which is not, as the modern reader is accustomed to misunderstand it, an offering for sin in our sense at all, but is prescribed as an expiation for the ignorant or inadvertent transgression of certain religious interdictions, or after child­ birth, the restoration of a leper, the completion of a Nazirite's vow — without exception, things which have of themselves no moral quality. Religion in ancient Israel was not, however, a sphere apart, dividing life with the secular. National custom had not only social and jural, but religious obligation and sanction; God signally avenged flagrant violations. Offenses in this sphere were constructively offenses against God himself as the guardian and vindicator of all good custom, and thus acquired the char­ acter of sin. In Judaism, finally, where the two-fold law by which all the spheres and relations of life were regulated was 1

2

3

1

See below, pp. 463 f. * Holiness' in old Israel is not God's moral perfection, but his inviolable godhead. See e.g. 1 Sam. 6, 19 f. (cf. 5, 10 f.); 2 Sam. 6, 6 f.; Isa. 6, 3 and 5; Lev. 10; Num. 16; Num. 4, 15 and 20. Observe also the conception of holiness in Ezekiel throughout. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, cols. 4204 f., and Note 186. 2

3

462

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

the revealed will of God, the doing of anything expressly or by implication forbidden in the law, or the neglect of anything com­ manded in it, was necessarily regarded as an offense against the divine lawgiver. The Jewish teachers, as we shall see, recog­ nized the distinction between acts which the common conscience of mankind condemns as morally wrong and such as are wrong only because they are made so by statute; but the former are not the more properly sin because of their moral quality nor the latter less so because in themselves they are morally indifferent. The sin is in either case the same, violation of the revealed will of God. So completely does this conception dominate, that the sin of the heathen is represented as the transgression of the statutes delivered by God to Adam and renewed to Noah for all their posterity. In the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (15, 5 f.), to the seer's remonstrance against the doom of mankind who perish in ignorance of God's judgment, God replies: "It is true that man would not have known my judgment if he had not received the law, and if I had not given him intelligent instruction in it. But now inasmuch as, knowing, he has transgressed, knowing, he is also tormented." Similarly in 4 Esdras 7, 20-24 God says: 1

2

"Pereant enim multi praesentes, quam neglegatur quae ante posita est Dei lex! Mandans enim mandavit Deus venientibus quando venerunt, quid facientes viverent et quid observantes punirentur. Hi autem non sunt persuasi et contradixerunt ei, et constituerunt sibi cogitamenta vanitatis, et proposuerunt sibi circumventiones delictorum, et supradixerunt Altissimo non esse, et vias eius non cognoverunt, et legem eius spreverunt, et sponsiones eius abnegaverunt, et in legitimis eius fidem non habuerunt, et opera eius non perfecerunt." 1

See above, pp. 274 f. — For Paul it is the rejection of the light of nature and the law implanted by God in human intelligence and conscience; Rom. 1, 18-32; 2, 8-16. Philo wrote the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as men who, before there was any written law, lived in complete conformity to the unwritten law of nature, and in whom, indeed, were incorporated the living and rational laws — lives on which the legislation of the Pentateuch was only a commentary. De Abrahamo c. 1 § 3-6. Cf. 48, 47. 2

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

463

It is a consequence of the fundamentally religious (i.e. nonmoral) idea of sin that to constitute a sin it is not necessary that a man should know the rule of the law nor be aware that he is infringing it, still less that the intention to do an unlawful act should be present. Protestants in particular are so habituated to associate the word sin exclusively with the so-called moral law, and to regard knowledge and intention as of the essence of sin, that it requires some effort to put themselves at the point of view of the Old Testament, consistently maintained by Juda­ ism, of which none of these things is true. With the multitudinous and minute regulations of the laws, it was inevitable that they should often be infringed in ignorance, or mistake, or pure accident. For such cases the law itself creates a special category of sins committed 'unwittingly' (rtiJBa), or through inadvertence. For various sins of this class special forms of ritual expiation are prescribed. The op­ posite is sinning 'with a high hand' (nDn T n ) , wilfully and defiantly, or arrogantly, insolently (rnn). For such sins no expiation is provided: 'The person who does anything wil­ fully, whether he be native born or foreign, blasphemes the Lord, and that person shall be cut off out of the midst of his people; for he despised the word of the Lord, and nullified his command­ ment; that person shall be utterly cut off, his guilt is upon him.' These principles are the foundation of the rabbinic teaching on the subject. In the Mishnah Shebu'ot 1, 2-2, 5, is a long casuistical discussion among teachers of the middle of the second century, further elaborated in the Talmud, concerning the re­ spective specific and general piacula, and their efficacy in the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See Note 187. Lev. 4; 5; Num. 15, 22-31; Psalm 19, 1 3 . Num. 15, 30 f.; Psalm 19, 14. Deut. 17, 12. The same principle in the old Roman religion, see Note 188. Not by human justice but by the act of God. Num. 15, 30 f. The laws in Num. 15,1-21 to which this sanction is attached are purely ritual. See Sifre Num. § 111 ff. (ed. Friedmann f. 3 1 b 33b. 2

3

4

5

6

7

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

6

44

[PART III

various conceivable cases of ignorance or forgetfulness. The details of the casuistry are nothing to our purpose; the im­ portant thing is that the offenses contemplated all have to do with such things as eating food religiously unclean or conse­ crated food while the man is himself unclean, or being present within the precincts of the temple in a state of uncleanness. It is for such sins, according to Lev. 16, 16 f., that the high priest on the Day of Atonement with the blood of the goat of the sinoffering makes expiation for the holy place, ' from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel and from their transgressions — even all their sins,' and similarly for the tabernacle ' that dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.' The distinction between unwitting and wilful sins is also ob­ served by the rabbis. Thus in Sifra on Lev. 16, 6 (the high priest's confession over the bullock of his sin-offering, corre­ sponding to the confession of the sins of the people over the scapegoat), the words 'all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins' (Lev. 16, 21) are thus interpreted in the name of the learned (the consensus of authority): "'Iniquities' are the 'insolent' misdeeds; 'trans­ gressions' are 'rebellious' acts; 'sins' are the 'unwitting' of­ fenses." For the first two classes the law provides no sacrificial atonement; Judaism found their guilt borne away by the scape­ goat, on condition of repentance. Learning in the Law is naturally an aggravation. The saying of R. Judah ben Ila'i in Abot 4, 13, "Be attentive in learned 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Only those will regard this casuistry as futile who do not know the re­ ligion of the Old Testament. M. Shebu'ot 1, 4 and 1, 5, end; Tos. Shebu'ot 1, 3. See Note 189. See also Sifra, Ahare Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 81c). Compare the semi­ annual riddance of sin from the sanctuary in Ezek. 45, 18-20, on account of erring and sinful men. The words ' expiate/ * remove sin/ and ' make clean,' are interchangeable. Sifra, Ahare Perek 1 (ed. Weiss f. 8od); cf. ibid. Perek 4, f. 82a). Tos. Yom ha-Kippurim 2, 1; Yoma 36b (with the passages from which the equivalences are deduced). See below, pp. 498, 500. Luke 12, 47 f. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

465 1

study, for an unwitting fault in it is reckoned as presumptuous," is associated in Baba Mesi'a 33b, with an application of Isa. 58,1, by the same rabbi: 'Show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.' — ' Show my people their transgressions': these are scholars, whose unwitting faults are for them made equivalent to presumptuous sins; 'and the house of Jacob their sins : these are the common people (the unlearned masses), whose presumptuous sins are for them made equivalent to unwitting faults. The extremity of sin is the deliberate and wilful rejection of the authority of God, the denial in word or deed of his right to rule over the defiant offender. This is what is meant in the passage quoted above from Sifra by 'acts of rebellion* (DnnD). Another expression for this kind of a sinner is ' one who throws off the yoke' of God. The figure comes from Gen. 27, 40, where it is promised to Esau (Edom) that he shall one day free himself from his subjugation to Jacob (Israel); see also Isa. 10, 27. Applied to God, it means a revolt from subjection to him. The figure of the yoke is frequently employed of the Law. The say­ ing of R. Nehuniah ben ha-Kanah (end of the first century) is familiar: "Every one who takes upon himself the yoke of the Law (the obligations of religion) is liberated from the yoke of empire (the burden of the foreign government) and from the yoke of the way of the world (the cares of daily life); but who­ ever throws off the yoke of the Law is subjected to both of these." In reciting the first sentence of the Shema' (Deut. 6, 4 f.), a man takes upon him the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven (sovereignty of God), and proceeds in the following to take upon him the (specific) commandments. The throwing off of the y

2

3

4

5

1

Cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra § 1 1 , end. In Yoma 36b the sense is exemplified by the rebellion of Mesha, king of Moab (2 Kings 3, 5 and 7), where the words and T 1 D are used. See Note 1 9 0 . - p a w hyo if?v npnai. Abot 3, 5. For a parallel to the second clause see Tos. Sotah 1 4 , 4 . See Note 1 9 1 . M. Berakot 2, 2. 2

3

4

5

4

66

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART HI

yoke of God may be understood either of the law, with which the law-giver is implicitly renounced, or more immediately of the deliberate rejection of God's rule and dominion. What sins have this radical character of a complete breach with God and his will, is a point on which opinions differ. That the sin which is called by the inclusive name 'heathenism' (m? r m n y ) , the worship or acknowledgement, express or con­ structive, of any deity except the one true God, tokens of respect to images, and all the customs associated with heathen religions, public or domestic — heads the list is natural. It is the very essence of rebellion, violating not only the first commandment of the Decalogue, 'Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me,' but the fundamental principle of the divine unity, the profession of faith solemnly pronounced by the Jew every time he repeated the Shema'. The breach of the general prohibition of heathen­ ism involves a guilt as great as the breach of all the other com­ mandments together. "As he who transgresses all the command­ ments 'throws off the yoke,' 'nullifies the convenant,' and 'com­ ports himself brazenly toward the Law,' so he who transgresses one commandment (namely that against heathenism) throws off the yoke and nullifies the covenant and comports himself brazenly toward the Law." No less emphatic is the sequel in Sifre (ed. Friedmann f. 3±b-32a), where it is proved that he who professes a false religion denies the Ten Commandments and what was commanded Moses, and what was commanded the prophets, and what was commanded the patriarchs; and he who rejects all other religion, professes the whole Law. With hea­ thenism, are joined as cardinal sins, unchastity in all its forms 1

2

3

4

5

1

Literally, 'strange (not Israelite) worship.' It may often be rendered by 'idolatry/ but is of wider extension. 'Heathenism' is probably the nearest equivalent for the phrase in its various applications. Sifre Num. § 1 1 1 , on Num. 1 5 , 1 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 31b, below). On the terms see Note 192. f j n rrnDn. 2

3

6

Horaiyot 8a. See also Sifre Deut. § 148, five names by which the idolater is called in Scripture and five evils he causes. Note 193.

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS

467

CONSEQUENCES s

1

as denned in the law (niny ^ J ) , and homicide (om nrra^). In the time of persecution under Hadrian a conference of rabbis at Lydda laid down the rule that under duress, to save his life, a Jew might yield on any point of the law except these three. There was, however, a natural disposition, at least for hortatory purposes, to treat all deliberate and wilful transgression as a constructive rejection of God and his Law, and this was favored by the fact that the word is used liberally in the Scriptures for sins which do not in the very fact involve ' rebellion/ Enum­ erations of kinds of sinners who have no portion in the World to Come are made on different grounds; we shall return to them further on. Another phrase by which the sinner who rejects God is de­ scribed is ip^m " T M , which we might render, 'the radical in­ fidel,' literally, 'one who denies (or disbelieves in) the root' (the author of all things, God).' A 'philosopher' is said to have asked R. Reuben in Tiberias, Who is the most hateful man in the world? The rabbi replied, 'He who denies his Creator.' To the question how that was, he answered by reciting the command­ ments, Honor thy father and thy mother, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and so on to the end of the Decalogue, continuing, No man denies the obligation of one of these commandments until he denies the root (God, who gave them), and no man goes and commits a transgression unless he has first denied Him who laid the command upon him. 2

3

4

That no man is without sin is the teaching of Scripture as of all experience. In Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple we read: 'When they sin against Thee—for there is no man that does not sin,' — etc. (1 Kings 8, 46); similarly in 1

Sifra, Ahare Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 81c); Jer. Peah f. I5d. Jer. Sanhedrin 21 b above; Sanhedrin 74a. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, IV (1853), 185 and 524 f. See Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, c. 14 ('Sin as Rebellion'). Tos. Shebu'ot 3, 6. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 384. See Note 194. On the distinction between heinous and venial sins see Note 195. 2

5

3

4

4

68

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Eccles. 7, 20: 'For there is no righteous man on the earth whose deeds are good and who does not sin'; Prov. 20, 9: 'Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin.' Indeed, where the idea of sin had so wide an extension as in Juda­ ism, taking in not only grave moral offenses, but every infraction or neglect of the minutiae of ritual and observance, sinlessness was inconceivable. The fact is too plain to need frequent asser­ tion in Jewish literature any more than in the Old Testament. The sentence of Ecclesiastes, 'There is no righteous man on earth whose deeds are good and who does not sin/ were im­ pressed by R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus on his disciples. Expres­ sions of the consciousness of personal sin are attributed to some of the teachers who stood in the highest repute among their con­ temporaries for godliness and uprightness. Even the patriarchs and other worthies of the olden times such as Moses and David were not morally blameless. As long as a man lives, his conflict with the evil impulses of his nature continues, and he is never secure. In a late Midrash the words of Job 15, 15, 'He putteth no trust in his saints,' are applied to the righteous of the Old Testament, and it is deduced from the verse that God does not call a righteous man 'saint' till he is dead; even of the patriarchs this holds good. The strongest assertions of universal sinfulness are in the apocalypses of Esdras and Baruch, written in the deep depression — almost despair — that followed the destruction of Jerusalem. "What is man that Thou shouldst be wroth with him, or the mortal race that Thou shouldst be bitter against it? For of a truth there is no man that is born who has not done 1

2

3

4

5

1

See also Job 4, 17 ff.; 15, 14-16; 25, 5 f. Philo, Vita Mosis ii. 17 § 147 (ed. Mangey, II, 157). The consecration of priests (Lev. 8) required sin offerings, "intimating that to sin is innate in every one that is born, even if he be virtuous, by the very fact that he is born." Sanhedrin 101a. See e. g. the words of Johanan ben Zakkai, Berakot 28b. Enoch 5, 8 f. Only after the renewal of the world will sin disappear. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 16, 2 (ed. Buber f. 60b); Eccles. R. on Eccles. 4,3 (R. Joshua ben Levi). Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 162 f. There were some, however, who attributed sinlessness to the patriarchs: Mekilta, Wayyassa* 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 48a; ed. Weiss f. 56b). See below, p. 516. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS

469

CONSEQUENCES

wickedly, and none of those that exist (?) who has not sinned. (4 Esdras 8, 34 f.). Independent of its penal consequences, the effect of sin itself on the sinner is often remarked. It makes men afraid. R. Simeon ben Yohai said: "See how grave is the power of a trans­ gression. Before the Israelites put forth their hand to transgres­ sion (the making of the golden calf), it is said of them, 'The ap­ pearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire (on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel' — Exod. 24, 17). They were not afraid, neither did they tremble. After they put forth their hand to transgression, it is said, 'And Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses (when he came down from the mountain )and behold the skin of his face was a beam of light, and they were afraid to come near him'" (Exod. 34, 30)? Parallels in later Midrashim adduce other examples. R. Ish­ mael generalizes, " So long as a man does not sin he is feared, as soon as he sins he himself is in fear." Thus it was with Adam in the Garden (Gen. 3, 8), the Israelites at Sinai (Exod. 34, 30, as above), David (2 Sam. 17, 2), Solomon (Cant. 3,7 f.),Saul (1 Sam. 1

28, ) .

3

5

The worst consequence of sin is its growing power over the sinner. Seemingly trivial sins lead to great ones; the unre­ strained outbreak of rage in which a man rends his garments and smashes his furniture and throws his money about is to be looked on as heathen. "For this is the art of evil impulse (inn nr). To­ day it says to a man, Do this! and tomorrow, Do that! until at last it says, Worship other gods, and he goes and does it." Nay, yielding to evil impulse is ipso facto idolatry. 'There shall be in thee no strange god and thou shalt not worship a foreign god' (Psalm 81, 10). What is the 'foreign god' within a man's 4

1

See also 7, 46 and 68. Sifre Num. § 1, on Num. 5, 3. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 44b~45a. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 337. Shabbat 105b (attributed to Johanan ben Nuri; in Abot de-R. Nathan to his contemporary Akiba); Tos. Baba ]£amma 9, 31. 2

3

4

470

MAN,

SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

1

body? It is evil impulse. Schechter quotes from Sifra: "He who transgresses a light commandment will end in violating the weightier one. If he neglect (the injunction) 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self (Lev. 19, 18), he will soon transgress the commandment, 'Thou shalt xiot hate thy brother in thy heart' (ibid. vs. 17), and 'Thou shalt not avenge ,.nor bear a grudge against the children of thy people' (ibid. vs. 18), which resulting in transgressing 'And thy brother shall live with thee' (Lev. 25, 36), will lead to the shedding of blood." An ancient Midrash derives from Isaiah 5, 18 ('Woe to those who draw in­ iquity with cords of recklessness and sin as it were with a cart rope') the lesson: In its beginning sin is like a thread of a spider's web, but it ends by becoming stout as a cart rope. In Genesis Rabbah, where the saying is attributed to Akiba, it runs: "At the beginning it (sin) is like a thread of a spider's web, but in the end it becomes like this ship's cable. This is what the Scripture says (Isa. 5, 18)." In another figure, At the beginning it is weak as a woman: afterwards it grows strong as a man. There is a whole philosophy of conduct in the aphorism of Simeon ben 'x^zzai: "Spring to fulfil the smallest duty, and flee from sin; for a duty draws another in its train, and a sin draws after it another sin. The reward of a duty done is another duty, and the reward of a sin is another sin." The same thought is expressed by R. Judah the Patriarch: "A man who has fulfilled one duty for its own sake should not rejoice over that duty (by itself), for in the end it brings many duties in its train; nor should a man who has committed one transgression grieve over it (by itself), for in the end it draws in its train many transgres­ sions; for a duty draws a duty after it, and a transgression draws 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Shabbat 105b; cf. Jer. Nedarim 41b. Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, pp. 226 f. Sifre Num. § 112, on Num. 15, 30; cf. Sanhedrin 99b; Sukkah 52a. Gen. R. 22, 6. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 276 f. Gen. R. I.e. Abot 4, 2. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 409. I.e. because it is a duty set him by God, not in prospect of reward, or any other extraneous motive. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

a transgression." Schiller,

1

47i

Strack, in his edition of Abot, aptly quotes

Das eben ist der Fluch der bosen That, Dass sie fortzeugend Boses muss gebaren. (Piccolomini v. 1) No man can confine the effect of his sins to himself. The Bible abounds in examples of the calamitous consequences to the people of the sins of individuals. A striking instance is the in­ surrection of Korah and his company against the authority of Moses in Num. 16: 'The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, say­ ing, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and will thou be wroth with all the congregation?' Upon these verses R. Simeon ben Yohai employs a striking figure to illustrate the truth that no man can sin for himself alone. A number of men were sitting in a boat when one of them took an auger and began boring a hole beneath him. His companions said to him, What are you sitting there and doing! He replied, What business is it of yours? Am I not boring under myself? They answered, It is our business, because the water will come in and swamp the boat with us in it. So Job said, 'If in truth I have erred, my error remains my own' (Job 19, 4); but his companions answered him, He adds to his sin rebellion, in the midst of us he slaps his hands (and multiplies his words against God)" (Job 34,37).* Nor is the worst that in the social organism if one sins all the rest suffer, but that a sinner leads others into sin and so does them the greatest harm one man can do another. R. Simeon ben 2

3

1

Sifre Num. § 112, on Num. 15, 30. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 409 f.; II, 460 f. Cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tese § 1. Num. 16, 20-22. A gesture of disrespectful impatience. Lev. R. 4, 6. See also the preceding context (Israel compared to lost sheep, Jer. 50, 6). So are Israel; one sins and all of them suffer from it. 'One sinner destroys much good' (Eccles. 9, 18). 2

3

4

472

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Yohai taught: One who causes another to sin does a worse thing to him than one who kills him; for he who kills him only puts him out of this world, while he who causes him to sin puts him out of this world and the world to come both. The Egyptians who killed Israelites, and the Edomites who met them sword in hand, are excluded (from admission into the congregation of Israel) for only three generations; the Ammonites and Moabites, because they took counsel to cause Israel to sin (at Baal Peor, Num. 25), are excluded for all time. A somewhat similar thought is found in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Gad 6, 4: If one who has wronged you denies his fault, do not contend about it with him, lest he swear to it, and thus you sin doubly (by having pressed him into perjury). Sin thwarts God's purpose of grace. "Whenever I seek to do you good, you enfeeble the supernal power. You stood at the Red Sea and said, 'This is my God and I will glorify him' (Exod. 15, 2), and I sought to do you good; then you changed your mind, and said, 'Let us make us a leader and return to Egypt' (Num. 14, 4). You stood at Mt. Sinai and said, 'All that the Lord says, we will do and obey' (Exod. 24, 7), and I sought to do you good, but you changed your mind, and said to the calf, 'These are thy gods, O Israel' (Exod. 32, 4). Thus whenever I seek to do you good you enfeeble the supernal power." Sin separates men from God (Isa. 59, 2). That sin causes the withdrawal of God's presence is the motive of a homiletic conceit (on Gen. 3, 8) repeated in various places, and attributed, as such popular turns often are, to more than 1

2

3

4

1

Sifre Deut. § 252, on Deut. 23, 8; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Phineas § 4. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 82. Ibid. Cf. Sanhedrin 107b, mid.: One who sins and causes the multitude to sin, to him no opportunity of repentance is given (by God). See also Matt. 5, 19. Reverent periphrasis for 'the power of God/ Sifre Deut. § 319; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. i66a-b: Whenever the right­ eous do the will of God they add power to might (PHDJ, the Almighty; Lam. R. on Lam. 1, 6, 'to the Might above')- Schechter, Aspects of Rab­ binic Theology, p. 239, cf. p. 34. 2

3 4

CHAP, ii]

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

473

one author. Originally the Presence of God (shekinah) was here below. When Adam sinned it mounted aloft to the nearest firmament; when Cain sinned, to the second; and so on through the generations of Enosh, of the Flood, of the dispersion of na­ tions (Tower of Babel), and the men of Sodom, until the wicked­ ness of the Egyptians in the days of Abraham caused it to retreat to the seventh and most remote heaven. The righteous patri­ archs and their successors in the line of Moses, and ending with him, brought God's Presence down again through the same seven stages. 1

2

1

In the generation of Enosh, according to the Jewish interpretation of Gen. 4, 26 (mrp DC^n tir\\h hwn TK), idolatry began. Mekilta, Bahodesh 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 67b; ed. Weiss 74b); Sifre Deut. § 43, on Deut. 1 1 , 16 (ed. Friedmann f. 81b); Gen. R. 23,7. Gen. R. 19, 7; Pesikta ed. Buber f. ib; and elsewhere. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 489. 2

CHAPTER

III

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

SIN began with Adam. Only a single commandment — a pro­ hibition — was laid upon him, and he transgressed it. See how many deaths were the penalty for him and his descendants through all generations to the end of the world. "Thou didst lay upon him thy one commandment and he transgressed it and forthwith thou didst decree against him death and against his posterity. From him were born nations and tribes, peoples and kindreds, that cannot be numbered; and every nation walked according to its own will, and they did wickedly before thee and contemned thee, and thou didst not prevent them." R. Judah (ben Ila'i) interpreted Deut. 32, 32 of Israel: 'The grapes are grapes of gall/ "Ye are the sons of Adam the first man, who brought the sentence of death upon you and on all the generations of his descendants who come after him until the end of all the generations." The same Rabbi said: "Should a man ask you, If Adam had not sinned, and had eaten of that tree, would he have lived and endured forever? answer him, There was Elijah, who did not sin; he lives and endures forever." A late Midrash uses the consequence of Adam's sin to illustrate that God himself cannot correct the evil men have done. When God created Adam he showed him all his admirable works — all created for man's sake— and warned him: "Take good heed not to spoil and destroy my world, for once thou hast spoiled 1

2

3

4

1

Sifra, Wayyikra Perek 20 (ed. Weiss f. 27a). The quotation of this passage in Raymund Martini, Pugio Fidei p. 674 f. (ed. Carpzov p. 866 f.) has messianic additions, bringing in Isa. 53. See Note 196. 4 Esdras 3, 7. Mandasti diligentiam unam tuam. For diligentia in the sense of'commandment, ordinance* see 4 Esdras 3 , 1 9 ; 7, 37. Sifre Deut. § 323. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 76a; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Emor § 12. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 264. ('That tree' is the tree of life.) 2

3 4

474

CHAP, III]

THE

ORIGIN OF

SIN

475

it, who is there to correct it after thee? Not only so but thou wilt cause the death of that righteous man (Moses)." The pas­ sage continues with a parable. A woman who had transgressed the law was confined in prison. There she gave birth to a son and brought him up, and there she died. After a time, as the king was walking past the door of the prison, the son cried, O my lord the king, here I was born, here I grew up; for what sin I was put here I do not know. The king answered, For the sin of thy mother. So it was with Moses (Gen. 3, 22-24, combined with Deut. 31, 14). Adam was driven out of the garden, and access to the tree of life was shut off by the cherubim and the flaming sword; for his sin all his descendants are in bondage to death, even so righteous a man as Moses. That without sin there would be no death is a natural inference from the story of the fall in Genesis. Thus, in the Wisdom of Solomon: "God did not make death, and has no pleasure in the destruction of the living" (1, 13); "God created man for immortality, and made him the image of his own peculiar nature; but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, and they who are of his party make experience of it" (2, 23 f.). That Adam's sin involved all his posterity, the righteous as well as the wicked, in death, is the consistent teaching of the rabbis, e.g. Genesis Rabbah 16, 6 (end): "'Thou shalt surely die.' Death to Eve; death to him and to his posterity." The Scripture really makes Eve the first transgressor, and Jesus son of Sirach, in a chapter on bad women, carries this badness back to the mother of the race: "From a woman was the beginning of sin, and be­ cause of her we all die." Death is thus the damage that all men suffer from Adam's sin. To ancient conceptions of the solidarity of the family, clan, nation, race, and the liability of all for one, this raised no ques1

2

3

4

1

Eccles. R. on Eccles. 7 , 1 3 (' Consider the work of God, for who can make straight what he has made crooked*). See above, p. 448. On the envy of the devil, below, pp. 478 f. Cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 23. Ecclus. 25, 24. 2

3 4

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

476

[PART III

tion of divine justice; that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children was the doctrine of experience as well as of Scripture. But resentment against the forefather who had en­ tailed this liability on all his descendants was a natural sentiment. In an old homiletic Midrash we read: "God caused all the generations of men, the righteous and the wicked, down to the resurrection, to pass before Adam, and said to him, See where­ fore thou hast brought death upon the righteous. When Adam heard, he was troubled, and said, Lord of the world, have I done this in thy world? I am not concerned that the wicked die, but about the righteous, lest they murmur against me. I pray thee do not write of me that I brought death upon them. God answered, This is what I will do; when a man comes to depart out of the world, God will appear to him and say, Write down thy deeds that thou hast done, for thou diest because of thy deeds that thou hast done. When he has written them down, I will say, Set your seal to it! and he will do so, as it is written, 'By the hand of every man he will seal' (Job 37, 7). In the future, when God sits to judge his creatures, he will bring all the books of the children of men, and will exhibit to them their deeds. Where­ fore it is written, 'By the hand of every man he will seal.'" In another place in the same Midrash, the righteous descendants of Adam upon whom death was decreed reproach Adam, saying, Thou art the cause of our death. He replies, I was guilty of one sin, but there is not a single one among you who is not guilty of many iniquities. Death came in with Adam, but every man has deserved it for himself; his descendants die in consequence of his sin, but not for the guilt of it. It is substantially what Paul says: 1

2

8L' epos apdpcoirov afxaprias biffkdep

rj afxapria

6 daparos, e(j>' & TOLPres

eis TOP KOO-JJLOP eiaijXdep

Kal ovroos r\ixaprop

eis irapras (Rom.

5,

apdp&wovs 12).

Kal dua 0

rrjs

Baparos

3

The problem becomes oppressive when the doom of sin is not alone the miseries of this life and death at the end of them, but 1

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 29.

2

Ibid., Hukkat § 39.

3

For that all have sinned.

CHAP, III]

THE

ORIGIN OF

SIN

477

the pains of hell. It is thus, as the tragic fate of mankind, onlydeepened by the contrast to the salvation of a few among whom no man can with assurance count himself, that it presents itself to the authors of Fourth Esdras and of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. That sentence of death was pronounced on Adam and his descendants for the transgression of one commandment we have already seen in 4 Esdras. Similar is 7, 1 1 : "For their sake (Israel) I made the world, and when Adam transgressed my ordinances what was made was judged." "This is my first and last word: It were better that the earth had not produced Adam, or having produced him, constrained him not to sin. For what advantage is it to men to live the present life in sadness, and look forward to perdition when they are dead. O Adam! what hast thou done. For if thou didst sin, what resulted was not thy disaster alone, but ours who are come from thee. For what does it profit us that a deathless age is promised us, but we do works of death," etc. Again (4, 30-32): "A grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much ungodliness has it produced and will continue to produce until the threshing-floor comes!" If there were any inclination to infer from this language that not only the penalty of death but the infection of sin descended from Adam to his posterity, the author elsewhere excludes such an inference. In accord with the rabbinical teaching, he ascribes Adam's first sin to the fact that he 'was possessed by an evil heart.' "Cor enim malignum baiulans, primus Adam transgressus et victus est, sed et omnes qui de eo nati sunt. Et facta est permanens infirmitas et lex cum corde populi, cum malignitate radicis; et discessit quod bonum est, et mansit malignum" (3, 21 f.). Later generations, after the building of Jerusalem, "in omnibus facientes sicut fecit 1

2

3

4

1

Above, p. 474. See Note 197. 4 Esdras 7, 116 fT. See Note 198. On the 'grain of evil seed/ the ' evil heart* in Adam and his posterity, see below, p. 486. Men's life-long conflict is with the' cum eis plasmatum cogitarn en turn malum, ut non eos seducat a vita ad mortem* (7, 92). 2

3

4

478

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Adam et omnes generationes eius, utebantur enim et ipsi cor malignum (3, 26) } The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, contemporary with 4 Esdras, expresses the same ideas. "When Adam sinned and death was decreed upon those that are born, then enumeration was made of those who should be born, and for this number a place was prepared where the living should dwell and where the dead should be kept" (23, 4). In evident imitation of Fourth Esdras: "O what hast thou done, Adam, to all those that are begotten of thee. And what shall be said to the primal Eve who hearkened to the serpent? For this whole vast multitude goes to destruction, and those whom the fire devours are innumerable. And again I will speak before Thee. Thou, O Lord God, knowest how it is with thy creation. For Thou at the beginning didst command the dust to produce Adam, and Thou knowest the number of those who are begotten of him, and Thou knowest how greatly those have sinned against Thee who have lived (hitherto), and (that they) did not confess Thee as their Maker" (48,42-46). It is explicitly asserted, as if against some who would put all the blame on the first parents: "If Adam first sinned and brought death on all who in his time did not exist, yet those also who were born of him, every one of them individually prepared for himself future torment, or again every one of them individually chose for him­ self future glories" (54,15). And a few verses later: "Adam was therefore not the cause except to himelf alone; each man of us all became individually Adam to himself" (54, 19). The tempter in Genesis is the serpent. In the Wisdom of Solomon, as we have seen, it was the envy of the devil that in­ troduced death into the world. Whether the author imagined that the devil employed the serpent as an instrument, or him­ self assumed the form of a serpent cannot be decided — perhaps the author did not put the alternative to himself. In the Reve2

1

2

On the passages in 4 Esdras see Note 199. Cf. Pirke de-R. Eiiezer c. 13; Greek Apocalypse of Baruch c. 9.

CHAP, iii]

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

479

lation of John, however, the identification is explicitly made. The great dragon is 6 6(J>LS 6 apx^uos, 6 KaXovfievos Aia/3oXos Kal 6 2 arenas, 6 wXapaiv TT\V olKovfxevrjv oXrjv. The tempter appealed to desires and ambitions inherent in human nature (Gen. 3, 5 f.), and yielding to this impulse man transgressed the commandment of God. This is the uniform doctrine of Judaism, as it is, indeed, the meaning of the story in Genesis. Adam's eating the forbid­ den fruit was like the sin of every other man, a following of the promptings of human nature where they ran counter to divine law. Jewish imagination, increasingly in later times, invested Adam before the fall with many extraordinary physical qualities — lofty stature, radiant skin, and the like — but he was not conceived as being mentally and morally otherwise constituted than his posterity. That he possessed free will in another sense than they, or that in his nature as it came from the hand of God with its integerrimae vires there were no desires that could incline his uncorrupted good will to disobedience — to such speculations, which have been rife in the Christian theology of the West since Augustine, there is no parallel in Judaism. Cor­ respondingly, there is no notion that the original constitution of Adam underwent any change in consequence of the fall, so that he transmitted to his descendants a vitiated nature in which the appetites and passions necessarily prevail over reason and virtue, while the will to good is enfeebled or wholly impotent. 1

2

3

The impulses which prompt a man to do or say or think things contrary to the revealed will of God are comprehensively named yeser ha-ra (jnn n^). The phrase comes from Gen. 8, 21, 'The 4

1

The primal serpent, ^ I C T p n B>m. Gen. R. 12, 6; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 18. Six things that Adam lost are enumerated. There is nowhere a suggestion that the image of God was among them. It may not be superfluous to remark that the Augustinian doctrines on these points had no influence in the Eastern Church, and were variously mitigated in the West. It is the cor malignum of 4 Esdras in the passages quoted above (p. 477). See Note 200. 2

3

4

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART HI

imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,' and 6, 5, 'Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' In this familiar translation 'imagination' has the sense of 'device, scheme,' and includes not only the conception but a purpose to realize it; while 'heart,' as generally in Hebrew, is the organ of mind and will, rather than the seat of the affec­ tions. In modern terms we might paraphrase the former pas­ sage, 'Every thing that man devises in his mind is evil, from his youth on.' In Deut. 31, 21, the nounjy^r is used without the explicit adjective, but in a context of apostasy where its evil character needs no expression. In rabbinical literature the name is used in a variety of connections and applications into which no single rendering fits. 'Evil impulse' perhaps comes nearest to being a common equivalent; but it must be remarked that the impulses to which this title applies are not, as will be shown below, intrinsically evil, much less in themselves sin, but evil from their effect when man yields himself to be impelled by them to consciously unlawful acts. Man was created with this impulse, to use the word collec­ tively; or in the Jewish way of expressing it, God created the evil impulse in man. R. Abahu, about the beginning of the fourth century, is reported to have interpreted Gen. 6, 6 ('The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved a t his heart'). "He mourned only over the heart of man, as one does who has made something bad, and knows that he has not made a good thing, and says, What have I made? So God: It was I that put the bad leaven in the dough, for 'the devising of man's heart is evil from his youth.' So the words are to be understood: He grieved over the heart (disposition) of man." In the same way an earlier Rabbi, Phineas ben Jair, 1

2

3

4

5

1

Psalm 1 0 3 , 14 is not parallel, though it is sometimes taken so in the Midrash (Yalkut, Midrash Tehillim in loc., Targum). See below, pp. 482 f. f>N. A frequent metaphor; e.g. Gen. R. 3 4 , 10; Berakot 17a; Jer. Berakot 7d. See Note 200. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 4. 'His heart* in Gen. 6, 6 is man's heart, not God's (Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 1 4 1 ) . 2

4

6

3

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

CHAP. I l l ]

contemporary of the Patriarch Judah, enumerated three things that God regretted having created, one of which was the evil impulse. That the impulse is created by God is the constant assertion or assumption. Thus in Sifre God says: "My sons, I created for you the evil impulse; I created for you the Law as an antiseptic. The evil impulse must be very evil since its creator himself testifies against it. 'The devising of the heart of man is evil from his youth (Gen. 8, 21). The meaning of Jesus son of Sirach is the same in the passage quoted above: "He at the beginning made man, and left him to the power of his own coun­ sel/ ' where biafiovkiov is probably equivalent to w (Ecclus. 1

2

,,>

3

4

The evil impulse is present in the child from the earliest in­ fancy. Among the questions which the legendary 'Antoninus' puts to Rabbi Judah the Patriarch is, From what time does the evil impulse bear sway over a man, from the formation of the embryo in the womb or from the moment of birth? Rabbi at first answered, From the formation of the embryo; but owned himself convinced by Antoninus' argument that if so the child would kick in the womb and break a way out, and found a text of Scripture to confirm his revised opinion, 'Sin croucheth at the door' (the exit from the womb; Gen. 4, y)J The opportunity or the invitation to sin may come from with­ out, but it is the response of the evil impulse in man to it that converts it into a temptation. It pictures in imagination the 6

1

Jer. Ta'anit 66c, below; Sukkah 52b. Deduced from Mic. 4, 6, W i n , as if,' that which I have made evil/ Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 498 f. Sifre Deut. § 45, on Deut. 1 1 , 18; Kiddushin 30b; Baba Batra 16a. Occupation with the Law a preventive of the evil impulse. See below, pp. 489 ft., and Note 201. Sifre ibid. (f. 83a); iGddushin I.e. See Note 201a. Page 455See Note 202. On Antoninus' in the Talmud see L. Ginzberg, Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 656 f.; a convenient list of his questions, Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 458 f. Sanhedrin 91b; cf. Gen. R. 34, 10 (with Gen. 8, 21 for Scripture proof). See also Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 9, 2 (ed. Buber f. 41b); Jer. Berakot 6d, above (verbal association with Job 38, 13). 2

3

4

6

6

7

4

4

82

MAN,

SIN,

ATONEMENT

[PART III

pleasures of sin, conceives the plan, seduces the will, incites to the act. It is thus primarily as the subjective origin of tempta­ tion, or more correctly as the tempter within, that the yeser ha-rd is represented in Jewish literature. Since it compasses man's undoing by leading him into sin, it is thought of as malici­ ously seeking his ruin — a kind of malevolent second personality. Throughout his life, from infancy to old age, it pursues its deadly purpose, patiently biding its time. If it can bring about his fall in the first twenty years it does it, or in forty, or sixty, or eighty — to the very day of his death; as it was with John (Hyrcanus) the high priest, who filled the office for eighty years and at last became a Sadducee! It is man's implacable enemy. Only in the world to come will it be extirpated by God. There is no kind of sin to which it does not instigate men; it leads them not only to transgress the commandments of God but to cavil at them. Hence it is not strange that in parallel passages in the Midrash ' evil impulse' may be found in one and * sin' in another, with the same things said about them. It is hardly necessary to say that the interchangeableness of the terms does not imply that the impulse is identified with sin. It is, to use the language of the Schoolmen about the surviving concupiscentia in the baptized, fomes peccati, not peccatum as Luther would have it. Yet, as has been said above, the impulses natural to man are not in themselves evil. When God looked upon the finished creation and saw that it was all very good (Gen. 1,31), the whole nature of man is included in this judgment, as R. Samuel ben Nahman observes: "'And behold it was very good.' This is the evil impulse. Is then the evil impulse good! Yet were it not for the evil impulse no man would build a house, nor marry a wife, nor beget children, nor engage in trade. Solomon said 'All 1

2

3

4

1

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 8oa-b; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Beshallah § 3; cf. Gen. R. 54, 1. Tanhuma I.e.; ibid. Wayyigash § 1. Ezek. 36, 26. See below, p. 493. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 38b~39a; cf. Yoma 67b. In the latter it is Satan who raises the same objections. See below, p. 492. 2

3

4

CHAP, III]

THE

ORIGIN OF

SIN

483

labor and all excelling in work is a man's rivalry with his neigh­ bor' (Eccles. 4,4)." The appetites and passions are an essential element in the constitution of human nature, and necessary to the perpetuation of the race and to the existence of civilization. In this aspect they are therefore not to be eradicated or sup­ pressed, but directed and controlled. Considered from the other side, as the tempter within that draws men away from the com­ mandments and leads them into sin, the impulses are to be combated and subdued. 1

2

3

From the two yods in -ran in Gen. 2, 7 it is deduced, as we shall see, that God created in man two impulses, respectively good and bad; and from the fact that no similar expression oc­ curs in the creation of the domestic animals it is inferred that they have neither the good nor the evil impulse. A Babylonian rabbi forcibly objects that any one can see how they wound, and bite, and kick — plain signs of bad impulse. The reflection that, since the evil of evil impulse is not merely that it does harm but that it does wrong, running counter to the commandment of God, only moral agents are capable of it, does not seem to have suggested itself to Jewish teachers, who indeed manifest no in­ terest in the impulses of animals. Those who interpreted ' the sons of God' in Gen. 6, 2 of angels who sinned through lust must logically have endowed them with evil impulse, as is done ex­ plicitly in Midrash Abkir. This interpretation was, however, emphatically rejected by the Palestinian authorities at least in the second century. R. Simeon ben Yohai explained, 'sons of the judges,' and launched an imprecation at those who were audacious enough to understand the words of celestial beings. 4

5

6

7

1

Gen. R. 9, 7; Eccles. R. on Eccles. 3, 11. Sanhedrin 107b; Sotah 47a. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 158a (on Psalm 4, 5). Gen. R. 14, 4; Berakot 61 a. Enoch 6, 1 ff.; Jubilees 5, 1 ff.; Philo, De gigantibus c. 2 (ed. Mangey, I, 263); Josephus, Antt. i. 3, 1. Quoted in Yalkut on Gen. 6,2 (§ 44); cf. Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, IV, 127. It was only when they descended to dwell in this world that the evil impulse had dominion over them. Gen. R. 26, 5. See Note 203. 2 3

4

5

6

7

4

8

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

4

[PART III

That the evil impulse has not dominion over the angels is de­ duced by R. Aha (fourth century) from Gen. 18, 5. As in many such cases the exegetical inference is not the source of the opin­ ion, but only an ingenious support for it. Philo holds that neither the beings above man in the scale nor those below him are capable of sin; the former because they are pure immaterial souls, not bound fast in that seat of endless chance and change, a body; the latter, because, lacking intelli­ gence, they are not guilty of voluntary and deliberate wrong­ doing. Man alone, having clear knowledge of right and wrong often chooses the worst course and shuns what he ought to strive for, so that he particularly is condemned for sins com­ mitted with forethought. The Scripture unqualifiedly declared man's native impulse to be evil; and apart from this it is natural that, as the focus of temptation, the root of sin, the evil impulse should first engage Jewish thought. But man's experience is of a contrariety of impulses, such as is described by R. Alexander and R. Tanhum in the prayers quoted elsewhere; or as Paul expresses it in Chris­ tianized Hellenistic form in the seventh chapter of Romans. What gives poignancy to such plaints is that man is conscious of a better self which does not complacently acquiesce in the courses which his evil impulse impels him to, even though it fails to thwart them. He has good impulses as well as bad, and this also is of God's creation. Accordingly we find the doctrine of the two impulses early established. It attaches itself exegetically, as we have seen, to the anomalous spelling of the verb Dnan m wrb* m.T n*"'!, Gen. 2, 7, with two yods, which signify the two yesers, niD *w and jnn n^, or to the use of m!>, ' heart,' 1

2

3

4

5

1

Gen. R. 48, 1 1 . See above, p. 406. De confusione linguarum c. 35 §§ 176-177 (ed. Mangey, I, 432). Philo conceives ' sin' morally, the deliberate wrong-doing of a being endowed with reason and in the exercise of freedom, as in Greek and Roman jurisprudence. See also De opificio mundi c. 24 § 73 (I, 17). Gen. 6, 5; 8, 21. Above, pp. 479 fNote 200. Gen. R. 14, 4. See pp. 479 f. 2

3 4

5

CHAP, III]

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

485

whose two bets indicate doublemindedness, while & is singleminded. Thus in Sifre the command, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all they heart' (-pn^ fan) is interpreted, "with both thine impulses, the good impulse and the evil im­ pulse." These associations with the letter of Scripture, it need hardly be repeated, are not the origin of the distinction. R. Jose the Galilean in the early second century, applies it as if it were generally familiar to the judgment of the three classes, the righteous, the wicked, and the 'middling.' That in the conflict of impulses on even terms the evil is stronger than the good is taken to be too plain to need proof. Man should always rouse his good impulse against the evil (Psalm 4, 5a), and may thus succeed in overcoming it; but if not, more potent means are at his command, such as immersing himself in the study of the Law. 1

2

3

This duality of impulses does not correspond to the duality of man's natural constitution, so that the evil impulse resides in the body while the good impulse proceeds from the soul. That the physical organism, as material, is evil per se sense the origin of error, the appetites and passions the source of moral evil — these ideas, which through prevalent philosophies had gained wide currency in the Hellenistic world, have no counterpart in Palestinian Judaism. It is in the ideas and expressions of Greek philosophy that the author of Fourth Maccabees writes: "When God made man he implanted in him his affections and disposi­ tions; and then over all he enthroned the sacred ruling mind." From the same premises he develops his thesis that the rational faculty (XoyLCfjios) in proper exercise, while it cannot eradicate appetite and passion and evil disposition, is capable of dominat­ ing them with an authoritative sway. In more popular form y

4

5

1

Sifre Deut. § 32, on Deut. 6, 5 (ed. Friedmann f. 73a); M. Berakot 9, 5; Tos. Berakot 7, 7. Berakot 61 b. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 368. See also Note 204. R. Simeon ben Lakish, Berakot 5a, top; see below, pp. 490 f. 4 Mace. 2, 21 f. This is the thesis of the book (1, 1 ) . 2

3

4

5

4

86

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Paul represents the dualism of Hellenistic thought when he describes the tragedy of man as a losing struggle between the aspirations of the mind and the impulses of the body: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members" (Rom. 7, 23). A similar way of conceiving the conflict of impulses in man — without the pessimistic note — may have been common among Jews who lived in a Hellenistic atmosphere; it was not the psychology of the rabbis. For them, on the contrary, it is ' the heart,' that is the mind and will, with which the Scripture associates the evil impulse (Gen. 6, 5; 8, 21); it is the J? w m a n , ' the devising of man's heart,' or mnpnD w , ' the devis­ ing of the thoughts of his heart,' that is, of his mind. It is the mind which generates the thoughts and devices, the promptings and purposes, of evil. Thus the word 'heart' itself is often used in a sense entirely equivalent to yeser? especially when the text of Scripture suggests a bad connotation. Thus, for example, in Sifre on Num. 15, 39 ('Do not roam, following your own heart and your eyes which ye go a-whoring after'). The heart and the eyes lead men into sin; but the eyes merely follow the heart, for there are blind men who are guilty of all abominable deeds in the world. In 4 Esdras, as we have seen the cor malignum, or the granum seminis malt in the heart, is used in connections in which the rabbinical texts say yeser ha-ra . 1

3

But while it is thus the mind that devises evil and wills it, the body is not a mere involuntary instrument in its accomplish­ ment. Sin, however it may be analyzed, is the sin of the man, 1

See also Jer. 17, 9 f. Gen. R. 34,10: The wicked are in the power of their heart (Psalm 1 4 , 1 ; Gen. 27, 41; 1 Kings 12, 26; Esther 6, 6), but the righteous have their heart in their power (1 Sam. 1, 13; 27, 1; Dan. 1,8); cf. ibid. 67, 8. On the two hearts see above, p. 485. Sifre Num. § 115, on Num. 15,39; applied literally to the commandment against adultery in Jer. Berakot 3c. Cf. also Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 14, 1. On the heart in rabbinical literature see especially Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, pp. 255-261; and Note 205. 2

3

CHAP. I l l ]

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

487

not of either half of his nature. This is the point of the parable of the two keepers of the king's garden, who conspired to rob it and were punished together, which is found, with variations that do not affect the sense, in several places. 1

In time to come God will bring the soul and say to it, Why didst thou trangress the commandments? and it will say, The body transgressed the commandments; from the day that I departed from it, did I ever sin? Then God turns and says to the body, Why didst thou transgress the com­ mandments? It replies, The soul sinned; from the time when the soul departed from me, did I ever sin? And what does God do? He brings both of them and judges them together. It is like a king who had a park in which were grapes and figs and pomegranates, first ripe fruits. The king said, If I station there a man who can see and walk he will eat the first ripe fruit himself. So he stationed there two keepers, one lame and the other blind, and they sat there and guarded the park. They smelled the odor of first ripe fruit. The lame man said to the blind man, Fine first fruits I see in the park. Come let me ride on your shoulders and we will fetch and eat them. So the lame man rode on the back of the blind man and they got the fruits and ate them. After a while the king came seeking for the first ripe fruit and found none. He said to the blind man, You ate them. He replied, Have I then any eyes? He said to the lame man, You ate them. He replied,Have I then any legs? So the king made the lame man mount on the back of the blind man and judged them together." 2

Another version is found in the Talmud: Antoninus said to Rabbi: Body and soul can escape from the judgment. How? The body says, It was the soul that sinned, for since the day that I separated from it, here I lie like a stone, silent in the tomb. And the soul says, It was the body that sinned, for from the day that I separated from it I am soaring in the air like a bird. Rabbi replied, I will give you a parable for it. A human king had a 1

2

The parable is ultimately of Indian origin; see Note 206. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra § 12.

488

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

fine park in which were fine new fruits, and he stationed in it two keepers, one lame and the other blind. The lame man said to the blind man, Fine early fruits I see in the park; let me mount you and we will get them and eat them. So the lame man rode on the back of the blind man and they got the fruits and ate them. After a while the owner of the park came and said to them, Where are the fine early fruits? The lame man said, Have I then any legs to get to them? The blind man said to him, Have I then any eyes to see? What did he do? He made the lame man mount on the back of the blind man and judged them together. So God will bring the soul and inject it into the body and judge them together. 1

In this joint responsibility the guilt of the soul is the greater because it is, so to speak, better bred, as is also illustrated by a parable. Two men (jointly) committed the same offense against the king, one of them a simple villager, the other a man brought up in the palace. He let the villager go and pronounced sentence on the other. His courtiers said to him, Both of them committed the same offence; you have let the villager go and sentenced the courtier! He replied, I let the villager go be­ cause he did not know the laws of the government, but the courtier was continually with me and knew what the laws of the government are, and what judgment is pronounced against one who offends against me. So the body is a villager — 'God fashioned man out of dust from the ground'; but the soul is a courtier from above — 'He breathed into his nostrils a soul of life.' And they both sin; for the body cannot exist without soul, for if there is no soul there is no body, and if no body, no soul. And they both sin — 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die' (Ezek. 2

18, 20) . 1

3

Sanhedrin oja-b. In Mekilta, Beshallah Shirah 2 (end), where only the incipit of the parable is quoted, and in Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai ed. Hoffmann, p. 59, as in the Talmud, the parable is attributed to Rabbi in reply to Antoninus; in Lev. R. 4, 5, to R. Ishmael. Cf. Philo, De spec. legg. i. 7 § 214 (ed. Mangey, II, 243); cf. De sacrif. Abelis et Caini c. 40 § 136 fF. (I, 190.) Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra § 11. 2

3

CHAP. I l l ]

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

489

Notwithstanding the strength and the deceitfulness of the evil impulse, it is in man's power to defeat and subdue it. To achieve this victory he must combat it from its first motions, and persistently, in the use of the means that God has appointed. If he yields to it, it acquires the mastery of him by habit; the cob-web grows into a cable, the passing stranger becomes the master of the house. As Paul puts it: "Do you not know that to whichever you yield yourself to obey as slaves, his slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin ending in death or of obedi­ ence leading to righteousness?" This is the very difference between the wicked and the righteous: the wicked are in the power of their evil impulses, the righteous have power over them. 1

2

There are various ways in which a man may resist evil impulse. One of the chief themes of the Hebrew sages in the Proverbs of Solomon and in Sirach is the part of wisdom in controlling the appetites and passions by keeping the consequences in mind and dwelling on the folly of wrong-doing. In the Hellenistic litera­ ture this naturally takes the form of the supremacy of reason over the senses and their promptings. In the teaching of the rabbis the role of eudaemonistic prudence and of reason in itself is less marked; their ethic is more distinctly religious. That man should incite his good impulse to contend with the evil is selfevident but not always sufficient. Another method to which all the righteous of ancient times resorted, and which is com­ mended to their successors, was to adjure their impulse by an oath in the name of the Lord; so Abraham did (Gen. 14, 22), Boaz (Ruth 3, 13), David (1 Sam. 26, 10), Elisha (2 Kings 5, 16); whereas the wicked, like Gehazi (2 Kings 5, 20), adjure their impulse with an oath to do wrong. But the most potent antidote for evil impulse is to occupy one's self with the word of God. In a passage from which a quotation has already been 3

4

1

3

4

2

Above, p. 470. Rom. 6, 16. Note also the thesis of 4 Mace. R. Josiah, Sifre Deut. § 33, on Deut. 6, 6.

Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 360.

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

49°

[PART III

1

made in another connection, it is said that the words of the Law are compared to a medicine that preserves life. The parable with which the saying is illustrated shows that the medicine is thought of primarily as a prophylactic. 2

"A king had smitten his son a grievous blow. He bound a band­ age upon the wound and said, My son, so long as this bandage is upon your wound you may eat and drink whatever you like, and bathe in warm water or in cold, and you will take no harm. But if you remove the bandage from it a deep ulcer will result. So God said to the Israelites, my children, I have created for you the evil impulse, and I have created for you the Law as an antiseptic. So long as you occupy yourselves with it, the evil impulse will not have dominion over you, as it is said, 'If thou doest well is there not uplifting?' (Gen. 4, 7 ) ; but if you do not occupy yourselves with the Law, you will be delivered into its power, as it is said, 'And if thou doest not well, sin crouches at the door' (ibid.). Not only so, but his business will be with you, as it is said, 'And unto thee is his desire.' And if you will, you shall rule over it, as it is said, 'And thou shalt rule over it.' And it says, 'If thy enemy hunger feed him bread' (Prov. 25, 21), i.e. feed him the bread of the Law; 'and if he thirst give him water to drink, for burning coals thou dost heap upon his head'" 3

4

In the school of R. Ishmael it was taught: If that ugly one (evil impulse) encounters thee, drag him to the school; if he is stone he will be worn away (as by water), if he is iron he will be shattered to pieces (as by fire and a sledge hammer). R. Simeon ben Lakish gives a prescription for the treatment of evil impulse, as follows: "A man should always stir up his good impulse against the evil impulse, for it is said, 'Be stirred 5

6

1

2

Above, p. 481. D " n DD. Cf. Prov. 4, 20-22; Erubin 54a. See also Ecclus. 2 1 , 1 1 :

6 (frvkaaa&v

c

vojjiov KaraKparel

rod evvorj/xaTos

OLVTOV.

3

Rashi (on Kiddushin 30b) interprets: "You will be raised above your evil impulse." On Gen. 4, 7 he adopts the interpretation of the Targum for­ giveness. Sifre Deut. § 45; Kiddushin 30b. Bet ha-Midrash. Isa. 55, 1 combined with Job 14, 19; Jer. 23, 29. Kiddushin 30b; Sukkah 52b. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 336 f. 1

4

5

6

CHAP III]

THE

ORIGIN OF SIN

491

1

up, and sin not' (Psalm 4, 5). If he conquers it, well; if not, let him occupy his mind with the Law, for it is said, 'Think in your heart' (ibid.). If he conquer it, well; if not, let him re­ cite the Shema', for it is said, 'Upon your bed' (ibid.). If he conquer it, well; if not, let him be mindful of the day of his death, for it is written,'And be silent. Selah'" (ibid.). Tostimulate the better self to contend against the worse; occupy one's self in­ tensely with the word of God; confess one's faith in the one true God, and the duty of loving him with all one's being, renewing thus the assumption of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven; meditate on the hour of death (and the judgment of God) — these are the weapons with which victory may be won in this battle that man wages for the freedom of his soul. Application to the study of the Word of God (the Law) is thus effective, not solely because in it the will of God for man's life is set forth, with the blessings promised to conformity and the penalties of transgression, but because the mind thus preoccupied with religion excludes temptations from without and evil devisings within. This way of thinking is akin to ours when we speak of the Word of God in itself as a means of grace; devout attention to it makes men better. By such means finally the end may be achieved which is set before man, to love God with all his heart, the evil impulse now subdued to His service, as well as the native good impulse. In a late collection, which is here quite in the spirit of the older time, the figure is used of iron, out of which when it is made hot in the forge, man can make whatever implements he pleases. So it is with the evil impulse, with which nothing can be done except by means of the words of the Law, which is like a fire. The same verse from Proverbs (25, 21 f.) follows which is quoted above. If a man has yielded to the evil impulse, there 2

3

4

1

2

3

4

warm 1m. Berakot 5a. For many other sayings about the yeser ka-ra see Kiddushin 30; Sukkah Abot de-R. Nathan c. 16.

49

2

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

is still a remedy—repentance. "There is no malady in the world for which there is not a cure. What is the cure for evil impulse? Repentance." Even the generation of the Flood, it is said in the sequel, would have been spared, if they had used the respite God gave them, to repent of their evil ways. 1

The evil impulse is frequently personified. The something within that seduces man into doing what is repugnant to his better judgment and purpose, drugs his conscience, overmasters his will to good, or blinds him to the consequences of his acts, has always seemed to his introspective imagination to be a de­ monic power, other than his conscious self, that maliciously plots and compasses his undoing. Such an imagination is im­ plied when R. Jonathan (reported by R. Samuel bar Nahman) says: "The evil impulse seduces a man in this world and bears witness against him in the world to come; as it is written, If a man pampers his slave from childhood, it will end by the slave's becoming a witness" (Prov. 2 9 , 2 1 ) . Personified as the tempter, evil impulse may be identified with Satan; and since by their arts they cause the death of the sinner, they can by a further association become the angel of death. Thus R. Simeon ben Lakish could say: Satan and evil impulse and the angel of death are the same. For, as it is said by an anonymous Tannaite authority in the preceding context (with reference to Job): " Satan comes down and misleads a man, then goes up and stirs up God's wrath, and obtains permission and takes away his soul." It is nothing strange, therefore, that in parallel passages Satan and evil impulse interchange, as else­ where do evil impulse and sin. It is a similar personification 2

3

4

1

See below, pp. 520 f. Sukkah 52b. The OLTT. Xe7- JUD is by permutation of letters in a kind of cipher made equivalent to m n D . Cf. Gen. R. 22, 6; Whoever fosters his evil impulse in youth, it will end by being his master (?) in his old age (Prov. 29,21). See Note 206. Baba Batra 16a. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, pp. 244 f. E.g. Sifra, Ahare Perek 13 (ed. Weiss, f. 86a), J i T ^ M jnn com­ pared with Yoma 67b J i T ^ y&D JBB>n. 2

3

4

CHAP, III]

THE

ORIGIN OF SIN

'

493

when it is asserted that on the judgment day God will slaughter the evil impulse before the eyes of righteous and wicked. The usual expression, however, is impersonal: in the world to come God will eradicate it, or it will be eradicated. So for example in the Tanhuma, where Moses is remonstrating against God's de­ clared purpose to destroy Israel for the sin of the golden calf, R. Simeon ben Yohai said: "Moses never left off praying until God yielded to him. And God said, In this world, because the evil impulse exists in you, ye have sinned against me; but in the world to come I will eradicate it from you, as it is said, 'I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh'" (Ezek. 36, 26). This verse is the standing proof text, and is the origin of the comparison of the evil im­ pulse with stone; in a catalogue of the names and epithets ap­ plied to ' evil impulse' in the Scriptures,' stone' is for this reason included. 1

2

3

4

The conception of sin in Judaism has already been discussed. It is fundamentally any departure from the divinely revealed rule of life, whether in the sphere of morals or of religious ob­ servance, whether deliberate or unwitting. But, as we have seen, the element of intention, which brings into the moral realm even acts which in and of themselves have no moral quality, is clearly recognized; and although, in the Jewish use of the word, a man may 'sin' without meaning to and even without knowing it, the 'sinner' in our sense of the word is only the man who knowingly and wilfully transgresses or ignores the revealed will of God, and that persistently or habitually. Not only so, but Judaism had so fully absorbed the teaching of the prophets that for it, next to apostasy and practical irreligion, the intrinsically heinous 5

1

Sukkah 52a. See Note 207. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ki tissa § 13, end; ibid. Wayyikra § 12 end. In some manuscripts Jer. 3 1 , 33 is also quoted. Seven names of 'evil impulse* are enumerated in Sukkah 52a. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 243 f. Above, pp. 460 ff. See Note 208. 2

3

4

5

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

494

[PART III

offenses are violations of what we call the moral law, and par­ ticularly the wrongs a man does to his fellows. It is such sins that as the habit of life define the character of the 'wicked man' (yfcn). The Psalms give specifications in multitude both of the attitude of the wicked to God and his law and of their vices and crimes. The critical historian may see in the composite portraits of the wicked — often thrown into darker shade by the pendent pictures the godly, or righteous, paint of themselves — monu­ ments of the long and embittered conflict between puritans and worldlings in the later Persian and the Greek centuries, and he may make his subtractions accordingly on both sides; but for the Jews in the age which concerns us they were divinely re­ vealed descriptions of the two classes into which mankind divides itself, and are accepted in all the subsequent literature as definitions. The antithetic idea of righteousness is in like manner deter­ mined by the axioms of revealed religion. The righteous man is not one who follows the suggestions of his individual con­ science, nor one who conforms his conduct to the fluctuating and elastic standards of custom and public opinion, nor one who is guided by the principles of a rational ethics, but he alone who strives to regulate his whole life by the rules God has given in his twofold law. The sincerity and supremacy of this purpose and the strenuous endeavor to accomplish it are the marks of the righteous man. Such a man shares in the universality of sin; judged by the ideal, 'there is no righteous man . . . who does not sin' (Eccles. 7, 20); but he is not for that denied the char­ acter and name of a righteous man, much less must he be called a 'sinner.' Righteousness, in the conception of it which Judaism got from the Scriptures, had no suggestion of sinless perfection. Nor are the sins of the righteous all venial; the gravest moral lapses may 1

2

1

2

See Part V., Morals. For an example in Hellenistic literature, see Wisdom of Solomon 1-2.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

CHAP. I l l ]

495

befall them, as they did David. What distinguishes the righteous man who has fallen into sin is his repentance — a remedy which God, in knowledge of man's frailty and foresight of his sin, mercifully created before the world. Paul's definition of righteousness as perfect conformity to the law of God would never have been conceded by a Jewish opponent, to whom it would have been equivalent to admitting that God had mocked man by offering to him salvation on terms they both knew to be impossible — God, because he had made man a creature of the dust with all his human frailties (Psalm 103, 14) and implanted in him the 'evil impulse'; man, above all the conscientious man, through his daily experience. God was too good, too reasonable, to demand a perfection of which he had created man incapable. In the rabbinical literature, as in the Old Testament, the right­ eous and the wicked are in standing contrast; their whole character and their relations to God and men are contradictory. Every man is either in the one category or the other, though he can change sides. Common observation shows, however, that there are men whose character is not positive or consistent enough for either company, and so a 'middling class' was recog­ nized, especially where the context is of a divine judgment. R. Jose the Galilean distinguished the righteous, who are ruled by their good impulse; the wicked, ruled by their evil impulse; and the middle class, who are ruled now by the one, now by the other. So on New Years Day, according to R. Johanan (toward the close of the third century), three kinds of record books are opened: those for the completely righteous and for the completely wicked are at once written up and sealed, the one to life, the other to death; but the books of the middling class are kept open for ten days (till the Day of Atonement) that they may repent in them. The schools of Shammai and Hillel, before the fall of 1

2

3

4

1

On Paul's argument see Note 209. See especially Ezek. 18. Berakot 61 b. Rosh ha-Shanah 16b; cf. Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 57a; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 5 7 b - ! 58a. 2

3

4

49

6

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Jerusalem, differed about the fate of these religious and moral mediocrities at the last judgment; according to the former they went down to Gehenna and were there purified in purgatorial fires, and then came up; the school of Hillel had it that God graciously inclined the balance to the good side. 1

1

18.

Tos. Sanhedrin 13, 3; Rosh ha-Shanah i 6 b - i 7 a . Bacher, Tannaiten, I,

C H A P T E R RITUAL

IV

ATONEMENT

As has been remarked above, the specific purifications and expiations of the Law apply almost solely to cases which have intrinsically no moral quality, and, considered as of positive obligation created by the revealed will of God, to accidental or unwitting infringement of such rules. In many such cases a sacrifice is required, which is remedial since it removes the con­ tamination and restores the state of religious purity or holiness, and in relation to God is regarded as piacular. Such sacrifices were prescribed for the individual in various specified cases and circumstances, and similar piacula formed a regular or occasional part of the sacra public a. It was believed, moreover, that all kinds of sacrifice, public and private, propitiated God and worked the remission of sins. In the schools the attempt was made to classify them all, and to define the kinds of sin for which the species respectively atoned. What, for instance, was the pe­ culiar efficacy of the whole burnt offering, which in the Old Testament is given no specific application? Later we find the theory that the perpetual morning and evening holocausts in the temple atoned for the residents of Jerusalem; the evening sacrifice for transgressions committed during the day, the morn­ ing sacrifice for those of the night. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Above, p. 461. See e.g. Sifra on Lev. 4, 2 (ed. Weiss f. 15b): Sin offerings are brought for unwitting sins, not for presumptuous sins. Ezek. 45, 13-17. The prophet is speaking of the public cultus, but the same thing is said of the private burnt offering, Lev. 1, 4, etc. See Note 210. Tos. Menahot 10, 12. The most favored opinion was that it atones for thoughts of sin entertained in the mind; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Sau § 9; ibid. Lek leka § 13; Lev. R. 7, 3. So that no man lodged in Jerusalem with unexpiated sin (Isa. 1, 21). Tanhuma ed. Buber, Phineas § 12; Pesikta ed. Buber 55b, 61 b. 2

3 4

5

497

49

8

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

An authoritative deliverance on the whole subject is M. Shebu'ot i, 6. After reciting the specific expiations: "For the rest of the transgressions defined in the Law, venial or heinous, presumptuous or inadvertent, witting or unwitting, of omission or of commission, including those the penalty of which is, to be exterminated (by the act of God) or to be put to death by the sentence of a court, the scapegoat expiates/' This Mishnah is solely concerned with the particular application of the several piacula, not with the conditions of their effectiveness. In a corresponding passage in the Mishnah on the Day of Atone­ ment it is made clear that the effect of the piacula is not ex opere operato: Sin offering and prescribed trespass offering expiate; death and the Day of Atonement expiate when conjoined with repentance; repentance alone expiates for venial sins of omis­ sion and (some) sins of commission. For grave offenses, repent­ ance suspends the sentence till the Day of Atonement comes and expiates. Repentance is thus the conditio sine qua non of the remission of sins. Cases were constantly arising in which a man was in doubt whether he had broken the law or not, and some of the things about which such uncertainties might most easily arise were among those which exposed the transgressor to be exterminated by the hand of God. In such a case the traditional law, in con­ formity, as it was understood, with Lev. 5, 17 f., provided for a 'suspensive trespass offering' (^n DE>K), in distinction from the prescribed trespass offering (^ani DB>K), of which four varie­ ties were distinguished. Such a sacrifice was properly a volun­ tary offering (mn:)), and extra-scrupulous persons made fre1

2

3

4

5

1

Lev. 1 6 , 2 1 . In the particular cases in which they are prescribed. Repentance is pre­ sumed from the bringing of the sacrifice. M. Yoma 8, 8. See Note 210. The asham wadai ('sure, certain') is offered in cases where the offerer knows that he has committed one of the offenses for which the law prescribes an asham; the asham talui when he is in doubt whether he has done some­ thing that demands expiation. See Note 2 1 1 . Keritot 2 5 a . 2

3

4

5

CHAP, iv]

RITUAL ATONEMENT

499

1

quent sacrifices of this kind. R. Eiiezer taught that a man may volunteer an asham talui at any time that he pleases; this is called the trespass offering of the pious {asham hasidim)? It is related of Baba ben Buta that he did this every day in the year except alone the Day of Atonement, and asseverated that he would have done so on that day also if he had been allowed, but they told him to wait until a case of doubt arose. The con­ sensus is that a man should make such a sacrifice only for an offense which if deliberate would be liable to extermination and if inadvertent would require a sin offering. The story of Baba ben Buta, apparently narrated by R. Eiiezer, carries the asham hasidim back to Herodian times, from which it would be inferred that in its original extension only to cases of actual doubt it was older — how much older no one can say. Offerings of this kind, and indeed private piacula universally, were ordinarily practicable only for residents of Jerusalem and its vicinity. The vast majority of the Jews, dispersed as they were over the face of the earth, never had opportunity to make such sacrifices, even by proxy; while the inhabitants of the more distant parts of Palestine, who resorted in numbers to the Holy City at the festivals, could make but infrequent use of all the sacrificial purifications and expiations provided in the Law. For the great mass of Jewry, therefore, the public piacula, main­ tained, like the rest of the cultus, for the benefit of all by the halfshekel poll-tax, alone had expiatory significance; and of these again, the rites of the Day of Atonement, in which, through the universal fast and the special services of the synagogues, all religiously-minded Jews made themselves participants in spirit, overshadowed all the rest. The Mishnah quoted above from 3

4

5

1

Disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai, in the generation after the fall of Jer­ usalem. M. Keritot 6, 3. The pious did not wait till an actual doubt arose, but had themselves perpetually in suspicion. Contemporary of Herod the Great. M. Keritot 6, 3; Tos. Keritot 4 , 4 . In some cases cumulation was permissible. 2

3

4

5

500

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Shebu'ot shows how upon the scapegoat the real burden of expiation for what we should denominate sins rests. Nor is it insignificant that in the passage from M. Yoma quoted in the same connection it is the Day of Atonement itself that ex­ piates; for the Day of Atonement, of fasting and humiliation before God, of confession of sins, and contrition for them, and of fervent prayer for forgiveness, was, even before the destruction of the temple, the reality, of which the rites of the day in Jeru­ salem, whatever objective efficacy was attributed to them, were only a dramatic symbol. A theory of the way in which sacrifices and other rites expiate sin is in a revealed religion a superfluous speculation. God has attached to certain cases certain conditions on which he promises to remit sins. The essential condition is the use of the means he has appointed, whatever they are. To neglect them because a man does not see how they can be of any effect, is itself deliber­ ate and wilful sin, vastly graver than the original offense. Juda­ ism had, therefore, no motive for discussing the modus operandi of sacrificial atonement, and never even raised the question. The attitude of religion to the whole matter will come before us in another connection. The Mishnah quoted above makes repentance the indispen­ sable condition of the remission of every kind of sin, and this, with the other side of it, namely, that God freely and fully remits the sins of the penitent, is a cardinal doctrine of Judaism; it may properly be called the Jewish doctrine of salvation. This is the message of the prophets to the nation. Its sins draw down upon it, as they deserve, the dire judgments of God; it seeks in vain to move him to condone its faults by sacrifice and magnifi­ cent liturgies; equally vain are fasting and clamorous supplica­ tion without amendment. There is but one way of forgiveness 1

2

3

4

1

Page 498. The biblical text for this is Lev. 16, 30. See Note 2 1 2 . Note the accumulation of terms in Dan. 9, 3 if., most of which are technical in the liturgy. See Note 2 1 3 . 2 3

4

CHAP, iv]

RITUAL ATONEMENT

501

and restoration — turn from your evil ways, turn again to the Lord your God—but that is a sure way. If they heed the warning and return to undivided allegiance to their God and let justice and loving kindness prevail among men, the doom will be re­ voked; if they disregard all monitions, and the judgment falls, even then, when in ruin and exile they turn to him again, he will take them back into his favor and restore them to welfare in their own land. This is the burden of Hosea and his successors, to the end of prophecy. In the Law it fills some of the most impressive chapters in Deuteronomy; the national history from the exodus to the fall of Jerusalem was presented, especi­ ally in Judges and Kings, with the express purpose of exemplify­ ing this as the first law of history. These teachings sank deep into the hearts of religiously-minded Jews under foreign rule: na­ tional sin was the cause of their distress, national repentance the sole hope of better days — witness the penitential outpour­ ings in prayer such as Neh. 9, Dan. 9, Baruch 1, 15 ff., and in many of the Psalms. In Judaism the principle was applied to the individual as well as to the people collectively. Ezekiel had individualized the prophetic doctrine of retribution with unflinching logic, and with it the counterpart, the doctrine of repentance: 'If the wicked man turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his transgressions that he hath committed shall be remembered against him; for his right­ eousness that he hath done he shall live' (Exek. 18, 21 f.). Many of the penitent confessions and supplications in the Psalms are personal, and furnish pattern and phrase for the Jewish liturgy. Thus the whole great prophetic doctrine of collective repentance 1

2

3

1

That Hosea is the great exponent of the doctrine of reenptance was recognized by the rabbis. See Note 2 1 3 a . E.g. Deut. 4, 25-40; cc. 29-30; Lev. 26. So, e.g., Psalm 51. — The question of the plural 'I* in the Psalms (the worshipping community or the people) does not concern us here; the Jews interpreted them individually. 2

3

502

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

and reformation was translated into personal religion; it be­ came the condition of salvation for the individual as it had been originally for the nation. When the old notion of a common fate for all men in the universal gathering place of the dead in Sheol gave place to the belief in a separation of righteous and wicked at death, and a destiny beyond death accordant with their diverse character, and particularly when more concrete form was given to the imagination of the hereafter by the belief in a reunion of body and soul for the life of the World to Come, in which wicked­ ness had no place, and participation in the blessedness of that world became the summum bonum, repentance and the remission of sins, as the indispensable condition, gained a new significance in association with ideas which we are accustomed to comprehend in the word 'salvation/ The belief in the moral government of this world, and in retri­ bution as a principle of God's dealing with individuals in this life, was too firmly established to be displaced by the new doc­ trine, which came as an extension and welcome complement of the old, not as a substitute for it. Nor did the essential 'healthymindedness' of Judaism ever succumb to an extravagant 'otherworldliness' such as finds the meaning and end of this life only in another. For that, the Jews would not only have had to ignore the greater part of their Scriptures, but to be infected with the prevalent pessimistic dualism, which, in one form or another, was the fundamental philosophy of the other-worldly religions of the age. That such dualism had found entrance into certain circles is evident from the frequent mention of the heresy of 'Two Powers'; but the religious leaders never failed to con­ demn it as incompatible with the corner-stone of Judaism. The destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. made an end of the whole system of sacrificial expiation, public and private, and of the universal piaculum, the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement. 1

2

1

See Vol. II, pp. 94 f. This is at least one of the variety of heresies comprised under that name. See above, pp. 364 ff. 2

CHAP, iv]

RITUAL ATONEMENT

The loss was keenly felt. It is narrated that R. Johanan ben Zakkai was one day going out of Jerusalem accompanied by his disciple, R. Joshua (ben Hananiah). At the sight of the temple in ruins, Joshua exclaimed, "Woe to us, for the place where the iniquities of Israel were atoned for is destroyed!" Johanan re­ plied, "Do not grieve, my son, for we have an atonement which is just as good, namely, deeds of mercy, as the Scripture says, 'For I desire mercy and not sacrifice'" (Hos. 6, 6). The story comes to us in a late source, but it illustrates the dismay with which the cessation of sacrifice must have filled many hearts, and the better insight of men like Johanan to whom the condi­ tion of God's forgiveness and his favor is essentially moral, not ritual. This was no new doctrine. The prophets of the eighth century, and among their successors most emphatically Jeremiah, had combated the prevalent notion that God can be propitiated by gifts and offerings, and that sin can be expiated by multitudi­ nous and costly sacrifices. The ostentatious worship of unjust men, God resents as an imputation on his character; the only way to avert his wrath is sincere and thorough-going amend­ ment. Such a transformation not only of conduct but of char­ acter is the moral aspect of repentance, that 'return' to God in love and obedience which from Hosea on is the one way of salvation for the sinful nation. The prophetic teaching about sacrifice becomes in many of the Psalms an article of personal religion: God has no delight in sacrifice and oblation, he does not demand burnt-offering and sin-offering; what he wants is that men should do his will with 1

2

3

4

1

D"HDn m^DJ, the charity that has a personal character. See Vol. II, pp. 171 ff. Abot de R. Nathan 4, 5. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 39; cf. Pal. Amoraer, I, 225. — Hos. 6, 6 is quoted in Matt. 9 , 1 3 ; 12, 7, in deflected application. See also Sifre Deut. § 43, on Deut. 1 1 , 15 (ed. Friedmann f. 81 a), the tears of Gamaliel, Joshua, and Eleazar ben Azariah, and Akiba's cheerfulness. Note 2 1 4 . Amos 4,4 f.; 5,21 ff.; Hos. 4 , 8 , 1 3 ; 5,6; 8,11 ff.; 14,3 ff.; Isa. 1,11 ff.; 22, 12 f.; 28, 7 f.; Jer. 6, 20; 7, 21 ff., etc. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, col. 4222. 2

3

4

5

o

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

4

[PART III

delight and have his law in their hearts (Psalm 40, 6 ff.). God does not complain of Israel for any lack of sacrifices — as though he, to whom the world and all the creatures in it belong, needed their offerings, or fed on the flesh of bulls and goats and drank their blood! 'Let thanksgiving to God be thy sacrifice, and thy vows a peace-offering; invoke me (in prayer) in the day of dis­ tress, and I will rescue thee and thou wilt honor me' (Psalm 50, 8-15). He desires not sacrifice, nor is he pleased with holo­ causts: 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart God does not spurn' (Psalm 51, 18 f.). The great lesson of the psalm is that the remedy for sin, the condition of restoration to God's favor, is not expiation but contrite con­ fession, with prayer for an inward purification and a better mind. The Jewish sages teach the same truth: see Prov. 21, 3; 15, 8; 21, 27; 16, 6; Ecclus. 7, 8 ff.; and especially 31, 21-32, 26. It is frequently emphasized by Philo; see e. g. De plantatione Noe c. 25 §§ 107 f. The sacrificial institutions were an integral part of revealed religion, and had the obligation of statutory law. It was not for the interpreters of the law to narrow their scope or subtract from their authority. Nor was it of any practical concern to in­ quire why the divine law-giver had ordained thus and not other­ wise, or, indeed, ordained them at all. It was enough that he had enjoined upon Israel the observance of them. A false re­ liance on the efficacy of sacrifice of itself is condemned in the spirit of the Scriptures. The 'fool's sacrifice' in Eccles. 4, 17 is interpreted of such as sin and offer sacrifice, but do not repent, and consequently do not secure the remission of sins. The magnitude of the offering does not count with God; the burntoffering may be taken from large cattle or small; it may be only 1

2

3

1

Ed. Mangey, I, 345. Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, 4223. See Note 2 1 5 . On Israel alone. The rest of mankind (descendants of Noah) do not bring sin offerings even for the violation of the commandments of God that were given to them. Sifra, Wayyikra IJobah, init., on Lev. 4, 2 (ed. Weiss f. i b ) . Berakot 23a. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 75. 2

5

3

CHAP, iv]

RITUAL ATONEMENT

505

a bird, " to teach that whether a man bring a large offering or a small one does not matter, provided only he directs his mind intently to Heaven (God)." From certain differences in the phraseology of the ritual for the burnt-offering of the ram and the bullock respectively in Lev. 1, 9 and 13, the lesson is drawn: "Let no man say within himself, I will go and do ugly and im­ proper things; then I will bring a bullock, which has a great deal of meat, and offer it as a burnt-offering on the altar, and I shall obtain mercy with Him, and He will accept me in repent­ ance. God does not eat and drink (Psalm 50, 12 f.). Why then did he bid man sacrifice to him? To do his good pleasure. The important thing is that while the temple was still stand­ ing the principle had been established that the efficacy of every species of expiation was morally conditioned — without repent­ ance no rites availed. With the cessation of the cultus repent­ ance itself was left the sole condition of the remission of sins. It was of no small moment that the cessation of the sacrificial cultus was believed to be but a temporary suspension. In the two generations between the destruction of the temple by Titus and the erection of a temple of Jupiter on its site in Hadrian's new Aelia Capitolina which no Jew was allowed to set foot in, the Jews of Palestine had become wonted to a religion without a sacrificial cultus. For the cultus itself the learned found, as we shall see, a surrogate in the study of the ritual laws, the kinds of sacrifice, their respective modes, applications and signifi1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Sifra, Wayyikra Nedabah Perek 9, on Lev. 1, 17 (ed. Weiss f. 9b); cf. Sifre Num. § 143, on Num. 28, 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 54a, top); Menahot 110a, below. Lev. R. 2, end. But let him do good works and study the Law, and bring but a lean ram . . . and offer it on the altar, and He will be with him in mercy and receive him in repentance (Seder Eliahu Rabbah ed. Fried­ mann, p. 36, below. Sifre Num. § 143. See Note 2 1 6 . Including the fruits of repentance (Matt. 3, 8; Luke 3, 8 and 3, 10-14; Acts 26, 20), good works. So explicitly, Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 1, 3. See Note 2 1 7 . Sifre Deut. § 306, on Deut. 32, 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 131b, below). See Note 2 1 8 . 2

3

4

5

6

506

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

cance, the whole cultus being thus perpetuated in thought and feeling when the fulfilment in act was made impossible by God himself, who for the sins of his people had again given over his holy house to be desecrated by the heathen. For the sacrificial expiations of the Law, repentance, with its fruit, good works, was the equivalent.

C H A P T E R

V

REPENTANCE

WHERE SO much is attributed to repentance, our estimate of the religion will be largely determined by what it means by re­ pentance. The foundation of the doctrine in the Law and the Prophets, and the appropriation of it, national and individual, has been exhibited above. It remains to set forth the teaching of the school and synagogue concerning the nature and efficacy of true repentance, and inasmuch as in the current Christian representations of Judaism neither the character of this teaching nor the central significance of the doctrine of repentance in the Jewish conception of the religious life and of the way of salvation is adequately recognized, no apology need be made for treating the subject at what might otherwise seem disproportionate length. Notwithstanding the importance of the idea of repentance in the Old Testament, the language has no specific name for it. The fundamental conception in the prophets is turning back to the allegiance and obedience of God, corresponding to their conviction that moral as well as religious evils are in their es­ sence a falling away from God and his righteous will. They use for such a turning back from wrong-doing and return to God the every-day Hebrew word for 'turn about, go back' (lis?) leaving it to the context of their indictment to make the applica­ tion plain. By this association the transparent primary sense of repentance in Judaism is always a change in man's attitude toward God and in the conduct of life, a religious and moral reformation of the people or the individual. The Hebrew of the schools found need of a noun for 'repent­ ance,' and took mi&w% which in the Bible is used only for 're1

2

1

Pages 500

ff.

2

See Note 2 1 9 . 507

508

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

turn' in the literal sense, or for a return of speech in an argument, 'reply'; while for the verb 'repent' to distinguish it from 're­ turn' in its ordinary sense, they coined the phrase rnifcwn n^y, 'do repentance.' The Mishnah Yoma 8, 8 has been quoted above (page 498). Repentance is there the condition sine qua non of the efficacy of all the ritual expiations, including those of the Day of Atonement. But that none might imagine that thereby an indulgence to sin was established, the Mishnah proceeds (8, 9): "If any one says to himself, I will sin, and repent, (and again) I will sin and repent (and thus escape the consequences), no opportunity is given him to repent. If he says, I will sin, and the Day of Atonement will expiate it, the Day of Atonement does not expiate it." The man who so presumes on the remission of sins through the goodness of God does not know the meaning of repentance, and annuls in himself the very potentiality of it. 1

2

3

What then? What rests? Try what repentance can; what can it not? Yet what can it when one cannot repent? Against such presumption on the mercy of God, Jesus son of Sirach gives warning: "Say not, I sinned, and what happened to me? For the Lord is long-suffering. Do not become rashly confident about expiation, and go on adding sin to sins; and do not say, His compassion is great, he will forgive (e^A&o-ercu) the multitude of my sins; for mercy and wrath are with him, and upon sinners his anger will rest. Delay not to turn to the Lord (repent), and do not put it off from day to day" (Ecclus. 5,4-7). In a late Midrash, the question is raised, why power to repent is denied to such a sinner, and it is replied: "If a man repents 1

See Note 220. Literally, "They do not put it in his power to repent." The indefinite plural subject, as frequently, is a reverent way of saying, "God does not put it in his power." A psychological explanation is given in the Talmud: By repetition a sin comes to seem to the sinner licit. Yoma 87a (Rab). 2

3

CHAP, v ]

REPENTANCE

509

and goes back to his sins, that is no repentance. If one goes down to take a bath of purification, holding some unclean reptile in his hand, he gets no purification. He must cast away what he has in his hand; after that he can take his bath and be purified." Centuries before, Sirach used a similar figure: A man who bathes (to purify himself) from (contact with) a dead body, and touches it again, what profit was there in his bath? So a man who fasts for his sins and goes again and does the same things — who will listen to his prayer, and what profit was there in his afflicting himself? (Ecclus. 31, 30 f,). "Scripture says: 'Let the wicked man forsake his way and the bad man his plans, and let him return to the Lord (repent), and He will have mercy upon him' (Isa. 55, 7). For God desires repentance; he does not desire to put any creature to death, as it is said: ('As I live saith the Lord Jehovah) I do not desire the death of the wicked man, but that the wicked man turn from his evil way and live'" (Ezek. 33, n ) . The substance of repentance is the abandonment of evil deeds and evil intentions, a radical change of conduct and motive. The essentially moral character of repentance is exemplified by the 'nine norms' of repentance (corresponding to the nine days intervening between New Years and the Day of Atonement), which are found in the nine exhortations God utters in Isa. 1, 16 f.: 'Wash you, make you pure, remove the evil of your mis­ deeds from before my eyes, cease doing evil, learn to do well, seek after justice, relieve the oppressed, do justice to the orphan, take up the cause of the widow/ "What is written after this? 'Come now, let us argue the matter, saith the Lord: if your sins be like scarlet, they shall become white as snow.'" The moral reformation which the prophet demands of the people is individ­ ualized, and the promise appropriated to the individual sinner. 1

2

3

1

Pesikta Rabbati c. 44 (ed. Friedmann f. 1 8 2 b ) . The simile comes from Tos. Ta'anit 1, 8. Other occurrences, see Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 335, n. 1. See Note 2 2 1 . Pesikta Rabbati 1. c ; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber, Shubah, f. 157 a. Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 169 a. Cf. Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 59c. 2

3

510

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

The touchstone of genuine repentance is that, every oppor­ tunity being given to repeat the misdeed, the man escapes the snare; for example, in case of adultery, under identical condi­ tions. Repentance, as a turning from sin unto God, involves not only desisting from the sinful act, but the resolve not to commit it again, the abandonment of an evil way of life with the stedfast purpose no longer to walk in it. Maimonides formulates the consistent teaching of Judaism when he says: "What is repent­ ance? Repentance is that the sinner forsakes his sin and puts it away out of his thoughts and fully resolves in his mind that he will not do it again; as it is written, 'Let the wicked man forsake his way and the bad man his thoughts (plans),'" etc. (Isa. 55,7). There is in the Old Testament another word, D r u , commonly translated 'repent,' which properly means 'be sorry' for some­ thing, or for having done something. Thus God was sorry that he had made man (Gen. 6, 6 f . ) ; he was sorry that he had made Saul king (1 Sam. 15, 11, 35). Such regret frequently in­ volves a change of mind regarding the future as well as the past, and this, rather than the feeling by which it is prompted, is often the principal import of the word. So it is in various places where it is said that God will not repent (change his mind), or that if men change their conduct, turning from their evil ways, God will change his mind and not inflict on them the evils he had pur­ posed, or in the contrary case, will withold the good he had promised. The corresponding Greek is fieTavoeiv, or (less fre­ quently) /jLerafjieXeo-dai. But however the notion of a change of purpose may predominate in many uses of the verb, the primary sense, 'be sorry,' is always present. Thus in Jer. 8, 5 f.: 'Why does this people, Jerusalem, apostatize with an unending apos­ tasy? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return (repent). . . . 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

3

4

5

6

2

Yoma 86b. See Note 222. That is,' intentions, plans/ Hilkot Teshubah 2, 2; cf. ibid. 2, 1. Note the poignancy of the feeling in the second clause of verse 6. Num. 23, 19; 1 Sam. 15, 29; cf. Ezek. 24, 14. Jer. 18, 8; 3, 13. Jer. 18, 10; 26, 19; 42, 10. See Note 2 2 3 . 7

8

CHAP, v ]

REPENTANCE

511

Not a man is sorry for his wickedness, and says, What have I done!' In Jer. 31, 18 f. God says: 'I have heard Ephraim bemoan­ ing himself: Thou didst chastise me and I have been chastised. . . . Turn me that I may turn, for thou art the Lord my God. For after I turned, I was sorry, and after I was taught the les­ son, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, covered with disgrace, for I bore the opprobrium of my youth/ The words 'after I turned, I was sorry' (viDro ^ n x ) , were under­ stood, as we might render it, 'after my conversion, I sorrowed for my sin/ In this sense they are quoted by Maimonides as biblical authority for including sorrow for sin in the definition of repentance. Specific proof-texts were indeed unnecessary; sorrow for sin is a constant motive in the penitential prayers of which there are so many examples in the Scriptures. 1

2

3

4

The obligation to confess to God one's sins is explicit in the Law: 'When a man or a woman has committed any of all the sins of men . . . they shall confess their sins that they have committed' (Num. 5, 6 f.). The model introductory formulas for private confession were found in Psalm 106, 6; 1 Kings 8, 47; Dan. 9, 5; and in the prescription Lev. 16, 21. They were framed in the first instance for the confession of the high priest over the bullock which he offered as a sin offering for himself and his house (Lev. 16, 6, 1 1 ) ; but inasmuch as they were derived for that purpose from the confessions of laymen (David, Solo­ mon, Daniel), they were found appropriate for private individ­ uals also. 5

6

1

The tribes of Israel in exile. Vulgate: Converte me, et convertar . . . Postquam convertisti me, egi poenitentiam. Hilkot Teshubah 2 , 2. See above, p. 501. On the cultivation of the spirit of penitence, see be­ low, p. 516. See further Note 2 2 4 . Cf. also Lev. 5, 5. Sifra in loc. (ed. Weiss f. 2 4 b ) ; Sifre Num. §§ 2-3 on Num. 5, 7. Sifra, Ahare Perek 1 (ed. Weiss f. 8od); M. Yoma 4 , 2 ; Tos. Yom haKippurim 2 , 1 ; Yoma 36b. 2

3

4

5

6

512

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

Maimonides gives such a formula: "O God, I have sinned, I have done iniquity, I have transgressed before thee, and have done thus and so. I am sorry and ashamed for my deed, and I will never do it again." This is the essential part of confession; but if a man amplifies his confession and goes on longer in this vein, it is laudable. He adds that neither obligatory sin offerings and trespass offerings have any effect until the offerer repents and makes confession in words; nor do capital punishment or stripes expiate the offense, except on the same condition. Simi­ larly, if a man has injured his fellow and seized his property, even though he have made restitution, his fault is not atoned for until he has made confession and turned from ever doing any­ thing of the kind in the future. 1

2

The public confession of the high-priest on the Day of Atone­ ment was in similar form, but without specification: "O Lord, thy people Israel have sinned, done iniquity, transgressed be­ fore thee. O Lord, forgive ("IM) the sins, iniquities, and the transgressions which thy people Israel have sinned, done, and transgressed before thee, as it is written in the law of Moses, thy servant, On this day shall atonement be made," etc. (Lev. 16, 30). The people responded: "Blessed be His name whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever." That the confession of sins is a condition of the divine for­ giveness is declared or implied in numerous places in the Scrip­ tures: 'He who conceals his transgressions shall not succeed; but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy" (Prov. 28, 1 3 ) ; 'I acquaint Thee with my sin and do not con3

4

1

Hilkot Teshubah 1 , 1 . Cf. Sifre Zuta in Yalkut I § 701. See Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, 337-338 n. See Note 225. I.e. the name of the Lord, the universal and eternal king (Psalm 145, 12 f.). Sifra, Ahare Perek 4, on Lev. 1 6 , 2 1 (ed. Weiss f. 82 a). This bene­ diction accompanies each stage in the special ritual of the Day of Atonement (M. Yoma 4, 1, etc.). On Prov. 28, 13 see Pesikta ed. Buber f. 159a (one who confesses ob­ tains mercy on condition of' and forsakes'); Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyesheb § 11. —Cf. 1 John i, 8f. 2

3

4

REPENTANCE

CHAP. V ]

ceal my guilt. I say, I will confess on my part my transgressions to the Lord, and thou dost pardon the guilt of my sin' (Psalm 32, 5 ) . In the eyes of Job's friends it is the hopeless symptom of his case that he will not confess his sin even under chastise­ ment. In Jeremiah (2, 35) God says to Judah, after a grave indictment: 'Thou say est, I am innocent . . . I will enter into judgment with thee because thou sayest, I have not sinned.' God's ways are not like men's (Isa. 55, 7 f.): In the administra­ tion of human justice a criminal is tortured till he confesses, and then the penalty is inflicted; God punishes until the sinner con­ fesses and then lets him go. An important text for penitential prayer is Hos. 14, 2 - 4 : 'Take with you words and return to the Lord, say to him, Al­ together forgive guilt, and accept good, and let us pay (in place of) bullocks (the utterance) of our lips. We will never again call the work of our hands our gods.' The last clause quoted is cited for the principle that repentance involves the resolve not to repeat the offense. The preceding verse is thus enlarged on in a late Midrash: God says to Israel: "My sons, I will not re­ ceive from you burnt-offerings nor sin offerings nor trespass offerings nor oblations; but I would have you propitiate me by prayer and supplication and by fixing your thoughts. Lest one should imagine that empty words suffice, we are taught, 'For Thou art not a God that likes wickedness, evil cannot abide with thee' (Psalm 5, 5 ) ; but with confession and with pleas for mercy and with tears. This is what is meant when it says, Take with you words." That confession of sins belongs to repentance and is a condi­ tion of the divine forgiveness, and that when the Israelites thus 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

See also Psalm 38,19. Jer. Ta'anit 65c!, middle; cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 80, 1. See Note 226. See Pesikta ed. Buber f. 159a, and the editor's note. Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 2, 2. See its teaching developed in Yoma 86a-b. Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 198b. (See the editor's note.) Per­ haps the reference should extend to Psalm 5, 5-7. 2

3

4

5

6

514

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

confess their iniquities, God at once turns and has mercy on them, is authoritatively taught also on the ground of Lev. 26,4off. Numerous examples of collective penitential prayers have been referred to above. Confession of national sin, acknowledgment of the justice of God's judgments upon the sinful people, and appeal to his promises of forgiveness and restoration on con­ dition of repentance, are the regular preamble to the prayer for deliverance. In purely individual form, Psalm 51 is the typical prayer of the penitent sinner in the canon. The Prayer of Manasses, found in some manuscripts of the Greek Bible and in the Apostolic Constitutions, composed to fit the situation sup­ posed in 2 Chron. 33, 18 f. and supply the prayer there twice referred to, well represents the kind of prayer which that archsinner ought to have made according to Jewish notions. Some extracts from it have been already given, but the whole should be read. It is a well-ordered composition, following familiar models, and made peculiarly appropriate to the king only by the specific confession of the sin of setting up idols (vs. 10 end) and the reference to his imprisonment in vs. 10 (2 Chron. 33, 11) Repentance, in the rabbinical definition of it, includes both the contritio cordis and the confessio oris of the Christian analysis. Nor is the element of satisfactio operis lacking. We shall see that in the case of a wrong done to a fellow man by deed or word, in his person, property, or honor, reparation is the indispensable condition of the divine forgiveness; and that for offenses against God, good works, especially charity (np*rv), is one of the things that cause the revocation of a dire decree. 1

2

3

4

5

Men may be moved to repentance by the warnings of God in his word and providence, by experience of the consequences of 1

Sifra in loc, Behukkotai Perek 8 (ed. Weiss f. 112b). In form, the prayer of an individual in behalf of the people (Ezra 9; Dan. 9), or recited in the presence of the assembly (Neh.9; Baruch 1, 15 — 2

3

4

5

Const. App. ii. 22. Swete, The O. T. in Greek, ed. 2, II, 824-826. (TTTjaas ftbekhynara Kal ifKr\6bvas irpoaoxOio'fJLaTa (cf. 2 Chron. 33, 19). See Vol. II, p. 67 n; also Note 2 2 7 .

REPENTANCE

CHAP. V ]

sin and apprehension of worse consequences in this world and another — repentance induced by fear. But there is a repent­ ance that springs from a nobler motive — love to God; and this is more highly esteemed by God and brings a larger grace. The former causes wilful sins to be treated as unwitting (Hos. 1 4 , 2 ) ; the latter causes wilful sins to be treated as righteous deeds. (Ezek. 33, 1 4 f.). A similar distinction is made between serving God out of love and serving him out of fear. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, the most widely known and accepted of the doctrinal standards of the Reformed Churches, thus defines repentance: 1

2

"Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.'' With the omission of the words in Christ, this definition com­ pletely embodies the rabbinical teaching. And naturally so, for the Puritan theologians who framed the catechism drew their conception of the nature of repentance from the same source as the rabbis, the Jewish Scriptures, just as we have already seen in their definition of sin. The same doctrine of repentance which we find in the rabbini­ cal sources is attested elsewhere. An instructive passage from Sirach has been quoted above. The Psalms of Solomon (9, 1 1 15): "To whom shouldst thou show favor, O God, if not to those who call upon the Lord? Thou wilt purge from sins one who confesses and pleads for exculpation. For shame is upon us and on our countenances for all (our misdeeds); and to whom wilt thou remit sins if not to them who have sinned? Righteous men thou dost bless, and dost not correct (punish) them for the things 3

4

5

1

Yoma 86b (R. Simeon ben Lakish); cf. 36b. E.g. Sifre Deut. § 32, on Deut. 6, 5. See Vol. II, pp. 98 ff. See further Note 228. Above, p. 460. Pages 508, 509. Joel 3, 5 (2, 32). 2

3

4

5

516

MAN,

SIN,

ATONEMENT

[PART III

in which they have sinned; and thy goodness is (shown) in deal­ ing with sinners when they repent." Similarly, Ecclus. 1 7 13 ff.: God said to men, Abstain from everything wrong, and enjoined them how each should treat his neighbor. "Their ways are continually before him, nor can they be hidden from his eyes. . . . All their works are as the sun before him, and his eyes are perpetually on their ways. Their unrighteous acts are not hidden from him, and all their sins are before the Lord. . . . After this he will arise and requite them, and inflict the retribution they deserve on their heads. Yet to those that repent he gave opportunity to return, and encouraged those who de­ spaired to hold out." And Ecclus. 17, 29: "How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness (e^ikaaixbs) to those who return to him!" 18,20 f.: " Before judgment examine thyself, and in the hour of visitation thou wilt find forgiveness. Before thou fallest ill, humble thyself, and in a time of sins show repentance (eTTKJTpofyiiv)" For Sirach, as for Philo, Enoch is virbbeiyim fxeTavoLas rats yeveats The Prayer of Manasses, vs. 7: "Thou art the Lord Most High, compassionate, long-suffering, and abund­ ant in mercy, repenting (fieTavoZv) over the ills of men. Thou, O Lord, according to the abundance of thy goodness, hast promised repentance and remission to those who have sinned against thee, and by the abundance of thy compassion thou hast appointed repentance for sinners that they may be delivered. Thou, therefore, O Lord, the God of the righteous, didst not impose repentance on righteous men, on Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against thee; but thou didst im­ pose repentance on me, who am a sinner," etc. There follows a confession of his sins, and petition for forgiveness and deliver­ ance, concluding: "Do not condemn me to a fate in the nether­ most parts of the earth, for thou art God, God of those who are Y

1

2

3

4

1

See Note 229. Ecclus. 4 4 , 1 6 ; Philo, De Abrahamo c. 3 §§ 17-19 (ed. Mangey, II, 3). Cf. Luke 24, 47; Acts 5, 31. Cf. Luke 15, 7 (righteous men who have no need of repentance). On the question of the sinlessness of the patriarchs see p. 468. 2

3 4

CHAP, v ]

REPENTANCE

517

penitent. And thou wilt display in my case all thy goodness, in that thou savest me, unworthy as I am, according to thy great mercy. In Jubilees 5, 17 f. it is said: "Concerning the Israelites it is written and ordained, If they turn to Him in righteousness, he will forgive all their transgressions and pardon all their sins. It is written and ordained, He will be merciful towards all who once in the year turn from all their iniquity." In popular moralizing literature like the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs greater prominence is given to the mani­ festation of grief for sin by long continued fasting, especially by abstinence from flesh and wine. Thus Reuben, after seven months grave illness sent upon him for fornication with his father's concubine (Gen. 35, 22), of his own resolve repented before the Lord for seven years, during which he drank no wine or other intoxicating drink, and ate no flesh nor any food that tempts the appetite, but continued mourning over his great and unexampled sin (Test. Reuben 1, 9 f.). In the cases of Reuben and Judah the ascetic motive in the specific form of the selfimposed penance is obvious; Joseph practises similar abstinence for seven years as a prophylactic against the seductions of Potiphar's wife. It is noticeable, and not insignificant, that the Apocalypses have relatively little about repentance. The Hellenistic literature is here in full accord with the Pal­ estinian. Thus, in Wisdom 11, 23: "Thou hast mercy on all men, because all things are in thy power; and dost overlook the sins of men to the end that they may repent." So God dealt with the Canaanites: "Sending judgments upon them for a ,, 1

2

3

4

5

1

See Note 230. On the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16, 30). Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 15b, f. 174b, etc. See also Test, of Simeon, 3, 4; Judah 15, 4; 1 9 , 2 (in Judah 19, 2 some MSS. read iieravoia rrjs aapnos). Compare also the * great penance' of Adam and Eve (Life of Adam and Eve, init.); cf. Pirke de-R. Eiiezer c. 20. els ixeTCLVoiav, Rom. 2, 4; cf. Acts. 17, 30. 2

3

4

5

5

i8

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

short time, thou didst give them place for repentance, being not ignorant that their origin was evil and their badness inbred" (ibid. 12, 10). By such lessons God taught his own people that the righteous man must be humane, and made his children of good hope that He would grant repentance in case of sins (12, 19; see the sequel). Among the witnesses to the Jewish doctrine of repentance in the first century of our era the Gospels and the first part of the Book of Acts are of peculiar importance. Repentance is the burden of John's mission; with the same words Jesus took up his work — Repent, for the reign of God is at hand! It is a tieravoLa eis a<j>e
2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

fyCkavdpomos. On Philo's doctrine of repentance see Note 2 3 1 . Mark 1, 4. E.g. Luke 3, 10. On the last point see Vol. II, pp. 362 f.

CHAP, v ]

REPENTANCE

519

differ in no respect from those of their countrymen to whom they addressed their appeal; and naturally, since they were derived from the same source, the liturgy and the homilies of the syn­ agogue. The new thing is the motive of urgency in the appeal — the day of doom is at hand. With John the association of repentance for the remission of sins with baptism is distinctive; in the apostolic preaching the characteristic thing is the added demand of the belief that Jesus of Nazareth, rejected, crucified, risen and ascended to heaven, whence he was presently to come to judg­ ment, was the Messiah foretold by the prophets. From their point of view it would be more exact to describe this, not as an additional demand, but as a necessary part of the repentance required — repentance for the guilt which as members of the Jewish people their hearers shared in the rejection of God's ser­ vant whom he sent 'to bless you, in turning every one of you from your iniquities' (Acts 3, 26). When the gospel came to be preached to Gentiles, the premises of the Jewish doctrine of repentance were lacking; but the ground was prepared in more than one way for an understanding of the demand. On the one hand, there were the efforts of the Jews to convert the Gentiles from polytheism and idolatry to the wor­ ship of the one true God, and from vices which, following their Scriptures, they regarded as peculiarly heathen. For such con­ version they employed the same terms that were used of the repentance or conversion of Israelites. On the other hand, Cynics and Stoics had long preached conversion in the market places, exhorting their hearers to an immediate and complete change of conduct and character, and had given literary form to this demand in the diatribe. 1

2

3

1

Acts 2, 22 ff. (vs. 38 f.); 3, 12-26, etc. See Note 232. P. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romische Kultur, 2-3 ed. (1912), pp. 7 5 96. (Literature, p. 75.) 2

3

C H A P T E R THE EFFICACY OF

VI REPENTANCE

REPENTANCE is the sole, but inexorable, condition of God's for­ giveness and the restoration of his favor, and the divine forgive­ ness and favor are never refused to genuine repentance. This was the promise of God through his prophets to the sinful nation from Hosea on, and accordingly the rabbis also taught that the -deliverance of the people from the yoke of heathen rule was con­ ditioned on national repentance. "Great is repentance, said R . Jonathan, for it brings the deliverance, as it is said, 'A deliverer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob' (Isa. 59, 2 0 ) . How is this? — A deliverer will come to Zion because of those who turn from transgression in Jacob." A saying of Johanan recorded in the same context runs: "Great is repentance, for it supersedes a prohibition in the law; for it is said, 'If a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, may he return unto her again? Would not that land be grossly polluted? Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, Yet return to me, saith the Lord' " (Jer. 3, i ) . To this aspect of the doctrine we shall return in a later chapter. Here we are concerned with individual repentance. 1

2

3

4

The exhortations and assurances to the nation were translated into an individual application by Ezekiel as the counterpart of his individualized doctrine of retribution, and he proclaimed in the name of the Lord the efficacy of repentance in terms as categoric and unqualified as those in which he set forth the dire 1

Sanhedrin 97b~98a. R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus), against R. Joshua, who held that the deliverance would come in God's time without this condition. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 138, and below, Vol. II, p. 351. Yoma 86b. Note other eulogies of repentance there. Deut. 2 4 , 1-4. Johanan takes as an exhortation, as does the Vulgate, "tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, et ego accipiam te." 2

3

4

520

CHAP, via

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

521

1

consequences of a lapse from righteousness. No less positive are other utterances of the prophets, such as Isa. 55, 7. Upon the word of God himself in such scriptures the Jewish doctrine of the unlimited efficacy of repentance is based. R. Simeon ben Yohai formulates it thus: "If a man has been completely righteous all his days and rebels at the end, he de­ stroys it all, for it is said, 'The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him in the day when he transgresses' (Ezek. 33, 12). If a man has been completely wicked all his days and repents at the end, God receives him, for it is said, 'And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not stumble by it in the day when he turns from his wickedness'" (ibid.). In accordance with this, later authorities teach that even those sins which ipso facto exclude the sinner from a share in the World to Come, do so only in case he dies without repentance. If he turn from his wickedness and die in a state of repentance, he is one of the children of the World to Come, for there is nothing that can stand before repentance. Even if a man has been all his days one who denied God ( n p ^ n n a s ) , and at the last repents, he has a share in the World to Come, for it is said: 'Peace, peace, to him that is afar off and to him that is near, saith the Lord . . . and I will heal him' (Isa. 57, 19). All these wicked men, and the apostates and the like, if they turn in repentance, whether openly or in secret, are received, as it is said, 'Return, ye backsliding children.' Even though he be still (outwardly) a backslider, and repent only in secret and not openly, he is re­ ceived in repentance." 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See especially Ezek. 18; 33, 7-20. Tos. Kiddushin 1, 14 f.; cf. Kiddushin 40b; Jer. Peah 16b (with dif­ ferent proof-texts). On these sins see below, pp. 525 f. The extension to death-bed repentance results from the application of Ezekiel's doctrine to the belief in a future life. See above, p. 467. Jer. 3, 14; 3, 22. The sequel of the words quoted must be taken with them. Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 3, 14. 2

3

4

5 6

7

522

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

It is not improbable that the emphasis on the possibility of repentance for apostates, even though their return be in secret and not publicly announced, has a particular motive in the con­ ditions of the author's time; but the doctrine itself is ancient. Thus R. Judah bar Simon quotes Hosea 14, 2 ('Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God'): "Even though you have been guilty of denying God (np^jn m a s i ^ a a ) . " R. Eleazar said: "It is the way of the world, when a man has insulted his fellow in public and after a time seeks to be reconciled to him, that the other says: You insult me publicly and now you would be reconciled to me between us two alone! Go bring the men in whose presence you insulted me, and I will be recon­ ciled to you. But God is not so. A man may stand and rail and blaspheme in the market place, and the Holy One says, Repent between us two alone, and I will receive you." That repentance is possible even in the very article of death was argued by R. Meir to his former teacher, the apostate Elisha ben Abuya, in his last illness. To Meir's exhortation to repent, Elisha replied, Would I be received even now? Meir answered by quoting Psalm 90, 3, to which he gave the turn, 'Thou lettest man return (repent) even unto crushing — that is until life is crushed out of him — and sayest repent, ye children of men.' There is danger, however, in presuming on this possibility. In Sifre on Num. 6, 26 (§ 42) a series of unqualified expressions of God's readiness to hear prayer and forgive sin are paired with utterances of a directly opposite tenor. For example, Jer. 3, 14, 'Repent, ye backsliding children,' with the words of the same prophet in 8, 4, 'If a man repent, He will not repent'; sim­ ilarly, Isa. 55, 6, 'Seek the Lord while he may be found,' with 1

2

3

4

5

1

1

Here also the point is in the sequel of the quotation: 1 will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him/ Pesikta ed. Buber f. 163 b. Ibid.' Jer. Hagigah 77c, top; Eccles. R. on Eccles. 7, 8. See Note 233. In this sense the clause, 2)W tfbl 2 1 D K , detached from its context, is here taken. In all cases the sequel must be recalled (Jer. 3 , 1 4 - 1 8 ; 8, 4-6). 2

3

4

5

CHAP, VJ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

Ezek. 20, 3 1 , ' As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be sought by you.' The contradiction is reconciled in every case by the same formula: the invitation or promise holds until the sentence is sealed; the contrary after it is sealed. And the doom of the impenitent sinner may be sealed long before his death. The specific application to repentance is made in the Tanhuma. In the sacerdotal benediction Num. 6, 26, 'The Lord will show thee favor and give thee peace,' and another Scripture says, 'who will not show favor' (Deut. 10, 17). How so? If a man repents be­ fore the sentence is sealed, the Lord will show him favor; when once it is sealed, the words apply, 'who will not show favor.' 1

2

3

That God accepts the repentance of the worst of sinners is proved by king Manasseh. No figure in the whole history is painted so black. He had erected altars of the Baals through­ out the land, and installed foreign gods and an idol in the very temple of Jehovah; he offered his children to 'the King' (Mo­ loch) in the fires of the Tophet in the Valley of Hinnom; he practised nefarious augury, necromancy, and sorcery. In these ways he led his people astray till they outdid in evil the nations of Canaan that the Lord had exterminated when the Israelites came into the land. To the warning of the Lord, king and people gave no heed. The Chronicler adds that the Assyrians came and carried Manasseh off to Babylon in chains; there in his distress he humbled himself before the God of his fathers and prayed, and God yielded to his entreaty and heard his sup­ plication and restored him to Jerusalem and to his throne. 'Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah is (the true) God' (2 Chron. 33, 11-13). His prayer is said to be recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 4

5

H iw. Cf. Rosh ha-Shanah 170-18a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Naso § 18 (f. I7a-b); Num. R. 1 1 , 1 5 . See Note 234. 2 Chron. 33, 1-9; cf. 2 Kings 21, 1--15. In Sifre Deut. § 32, on Deut. 6,5 (ed. Friedmann f. 73b, below) Manasseh is adduced as an example of the effect of chastisement in leading to repent­ ance. — On the Prayer of Manasseh see above, p. 514. 1

2

3

4

5

524

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

The inference was plain: if one who, in spite of the law (Deut. 13, 6 ff.) and the warnings of the prophets, had sinned so fla­ grantly and wilfully, and caused the whole people to sin, could be forgiven and restored to God's favor upon his penitent prayer, there was no one whose repentance could not be accepted. The divine justice (pnn m o ) would have hindered the re­ ception of Manasseh's supplication; but God made a kind of loop-hole in the firmament in order to receive him in repentance. A more expansive version is found in the Palestinian sources. In his distress Manasseh called on every heathen deity by name to rescue him. When he got no help from them at all, he remem­ bered the words of Deut. 4, 30 f., ' In thy distress, when all these things are come upon thee in the latter days, thou shalt return to the Lord thy God, and hearken unto his voice; for the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not fail thee, nor destroy thee,' etc., and said, I call upon him; if he answer me, well, and if not, all ways are alike. The ministering angels stopped up the windows of the firmament to keep Manasseh's prayer from coming up to God, and said to God, Is there repent­ ance for a man who set up an idol in thy temple? God answered, If I do not receive him in repentance, I shall bolt the door in the face of all penitents. What did God do? He made a kind of loop-hole beneath the glorious throne and heard his supplication (2 Chron. 33, 13). The Scriptures furnished other examples of great sinners the acceptance of whose repentance was evident from the fact that dire sentence against them was revoked or remitted. In the chapter on repentance in the Pesikta from which the case of Manasseh has just been quoted, Israel is supposed to ask; "Lord of the worlds, if we repent, wilt thou receive us? God answers, 1

2

3

4

1

Sanhedrin 103 a. One religion is as unprofitable as another. Jer. Sanhedrin 28c; Pesikta ed. Buber f. i62a-b; Lev. R. 30, 3, etc. See Note 235. Even the Israelites who worshipped the golden calf at the foot of Sinai. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Balak § 21, end. See Note 236. 2

3

4

CHAP, v i ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

I accepted the repentance of Cain, and will I not accept your repentance?" Among the kings, besides Manasseh, Ahab and Jeconiah are adduced; and of nations the men of Nineveh, with a recital of their repentance and thevproof of its acceptance. Other biblical examples elsewhere cited are Enoch, Reuben, Judah. 1

2

3

The repentance of Manasseh led to his restoration to the throne, as the Scripture says; but when the sphere of retribution was extended beyond this world, the question could still be raised whether such as he would have a part in the World to Come. In the Mishnah Sanhedrin 10, 2, among the exceptions to the rule that all Israel has a share in the World to Come, it is said: "Three kings and four private persons have no share in the World to Come." The three kings are Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) contended on the ground of 2 Chron. 33, 13 that Manasseh would have a place in the World to Come, but the others replied (the text says), God re­ stored him to his kingdom, not to the life of the World to Come. Nevertheless, Johanan, the most influential of the Palestinian teachers of the third century and head of the school of Tiberias, not only held to the opinion of R. Judah, but declared: Whoever says that Manasseh has no share in the World to Come dis­ courages all penitents. There are also whole classes of sinners who are denied a share in the World to Come — heretics, 'epicureans/ various kinds of unbelievers, apostates, delators, etc. Besides these the rabbi­ nical authorities denounced the same doom on other sins of a 4

5

6

7

1

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 160a. Ibid'., ff. 160-163. On Enoch, see above, p. 516. Reuben, Judah, Test, of Twelve Patri­ archs, above, p. 517. In the Midrash, Sifre Deut. § 31 (ed. Friedmann f. 72b), and § 347; Judah and Reuben, Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyesheb § 17. Tos. Sanhedrin 12, 11 adds Ahaz, making four kings. M. Sanhedrin 10, 2; Sanhedrin io2b-io3a.. Ibid. 103a. iimtWT bV2 b& | . T T HB1D. On the classes or individuals thus excluded see Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 3, 6 ff., and below, Vol. II, pp. 388 f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

526

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

1

less radical nature; but this fate befalls those only who die impenitent. Several post-talmudic sources have a catalogue of twenty-four sins that render repentance difficult or altogether impossible. Four of them fall under the former category — God does not put it in the sinner's power to repent; the rest are obstacles to re­ pentance, but do not wholly prevent it. "If a man repent of them, he is a penitent, and has a share in the World to Come." The hindrances, as Maimonides explains, are in man himself— the effect of sin upon his conscience, or, in the case of sins against his fellows, circumstances which make it difficult to fulfil the conditions of reparation and reconciliation. 2

3

4

5

6

Repentance was included in the plan of God before the crea­ tion of the world, or, as it is expressed, was created before the world. The proof-text is Psalm 90, 2 f.: ' Before the mountains were brought forth. . . . Thou turnest men to contrition, and sayest, Return (repent), ye children of men.' The seven things thus created are the Law (the future revelation), repentance, para­ dise, hell, the glorious throne (of God), the (celestial) temple, and the name of the Messiah. The reflection which thus gives re­ pentance a premundane existence in the plan of God is obvious from the other members of the group — the Law, paradise, hell. God knew that the man he purposed to create, with his freedom and his native evil impulse, would sin against the revealed will of God in his law and incur not only its temporal penalties in 7

1

Abot 3, 11 (Eleazar of Modiim); Sanhedrin 99a. Even one who puts his fellow to shame publicly (cf. Baba Mesi'a 58b, below. Maimonides, 1. c. 3, 14. Ibid. 4, 1 if., with comment showing in what ways they hinder repent­ ance; the list is probably derived from a lost minor tractate. (Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 331 n. 2). Cf. ibid. 6,3. Ibid. 4, 6. Ibid. 4, 3; 6, 3. Isa. 6, 10 is quoted, as in Matt. 13, 14 f. and parallels; Acts 28, 26 f. Pesahim 54a and Nedarim 39b; Gen. R. 1, 4; Tanhuma ed.Buber,Naso § 19 init. See above, p. 266, and Notes 33 and 34. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, v i ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

527

this life but the pains of hell. He must therefore have provided beforehand the remedy for sin, repentance. God not only provided repentance as the sovereign remedy for sin, but continually sets forth its efficacy and urges men to avail themselves of it. By the repeated warnings of his provi­ dence and by the temporal punishments he inflicts, he endeavors to bring them to repent. God's dealing with transgressors is contrasted with the administration of human (Roman) justice. When a robber is brought up before the criminal court, the judge reads the charges, then pronounces sentence, and forthwith the man is led off to execution. God's way is different: first he reads the charges—'And now they sin still more and have made them a molten image' (Hos. 13, 2); then he smites them — 'Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up' (Hos. 9, 16); then he imposes upon them, as it were a burden—'The guilt of Ephraim is bound up in a bundle, its sin is laid in store' (Hos. 13, 12); and after that he passes sentence upon them — 'Samaria shall pay the penalty, because it has rebelled against its God' (Hos. 14, 1 ) ; and finally he brings them back in repentance—'Repent, O Israel' (Hos. 14, 2) God bade Jeremiah, Go, say to Israel, Repent! He went and delivered the message. They replied, Master, how can we re­ pent? With what face can we come into the presence of God? Have we not provoked him to wrath and outraged him? Those very mountains and hills on which we worshipped strange gods, are they not standing there? 'Upon the tops of the mountains they sacrifice' (Hos. 4, 13). 'Let us lie in our shame and let our disgrace cover us' (Jer. 3, 25). When the prophet returned to God and reported their words, God bade him say to them, If ye come to me, is it not to your Father in heaven that ye come? 'For I have been a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first­ born' (Jer. 31, 9). To similar intent another rabbi lets God answer the same de­ spairing response of the people to the prophet's summons: "Did 1

2

3

1

See below, pp. 258 f.

2

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 159b.

3

Ibid. f. 165 a.

528

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

I not write in my law, 'I will set my face against that soul and cut him off from the midst of his people' (Lev. 20, 6). Have I then done so? Nay, but ('Repent, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord), I will not frown upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, I will not bear a grudge forever' (Jer. 3, 12). It is unnecessary to multiply illustrations of a doctrine which lies so plainly on the face of the Scriptures and is everywhere assumed in the teaching of the school and the synagogue. Some expressions to the same effect have already been quoted from the extra-canonical literature, in which, however, the theme is not nearly so prominent as in the rabbinical sources. 1

2

God's efforts to lead men to repent and so to avert the doom impending over them for their sins are not confined to Israel. Numerous instances are adduced in Midrash Tanhuma. God hoped that the generation of the Flood would repent and he might receive them; for this reason he had Noah build the ark under their eyes and explain to them what it was for. Notwith­ standing their rebellion he stretched out his hand to the builders of the Tower of Babel and bade them repent, promising to re­ ceive them, repentance being the one thing he requires (Deut. 10, 12). The Scripture says: 'As I live, saith the Lord, I do not desire the death of the wicked' (Ezek. 33, I I ) . Why? Because he may perhaps repent. So also (from Gen. 18, 20 f.) it is in­ ferred that God opened to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah a door of repentance; and when God communicated to Abra3

4

5

6

7

1

Pesikta ed Buber, f. 165a. The following verses in Jer. 3 are to be re­ called by the quotation. ('Only acknowledge thine iniquity, 'etc.) Above, pp. 515 ff. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 37. On this phrase see Sifre Num. § 134 (ed. Friedmann f. 50b, middle); Mekilta, Shirah 5 (ed. Friedmann f. 38b; ed. Weiss f. 46a). God's hand is held out to all who come into the world. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 28, applying a verse specifically addressed to Israel. The heathen are 'the wicked* in an eminent sense. Gen. R. 49, 6 and elsewhere. So also to the Egyptians, before the catas­ trophe at the Red Sea, Mekilta, Shirah 5 (on Exod. 15, 5). See Note 237. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, v i ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

ham his purpose to destroy the cities of the plain. Abraham began at once to make a plea for them, thinking that perhaps they might repent. Most conclusive is the repentance of the Ninevites at Jonah's preaching, and God's annulment of the doom pronounced upon them, to the profound dissatisfaction of the prophet whose attempted flight had been prompted by a pre­ sentiment that the heathen were near repentance and that his soft-hearted God would forgive them. On the other hand the particularistic note is sometimes struck. Thus, on Num. 6, 26, 'The Lord will show favor to thee,' and the contrary in Deut. 10, 17, we find the usual reconciliation: If a man repent, God shows him favor, with the supplement: It might be inferred that this applies to all men (including the heathen), but this inference is not admissible, for the text says, ' to thee,' and not to another people (thus restricting the promise to Israel). The exhortations to repentance in the Scriptures and the promises of forgiveness and restoration are in the nature of the case addressed almost exclusively to Israel, and are correctly so interpreted. For the Gentile to participate in this promise, as in all others, the indispensable condition is the repentance, or conversion, in which he abandons his false religion for the true, the heathenish freedom of his way of life for obedience to the revealed will of God in his Law; in a word, becomes a proselyte to Judaism, a Jew by naturalization. This is the logical attitude of a revealed religion, and has always been maintained by the Christian church: repentance avails nothing — or, more exactly, repentance in the proper sense is impossible — outside the church. The 'gate of repentance' which is open to those out­ side is the gate of entrance into the true religion, to whose pro­ fessors alone God's promises of grace, and first of all the forgive­ ness of sins, belong. Moslem doctrine is the same. 1

2

3

4

5

1

2

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 9; cf. § 16. Jonah cc. 3-4. Mekilta, Bo, Introduction (ed. Friedmann f. i b - 2 a ; ed. Weiss f. i b - 2 a ) . Pesikta ed. Buber f. I56a-b. It is such a conversion that Philo oftenest has in mind when he writes of repentance. See above, pp. 327 f. 3

4

5

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

53°

[PART III

God is ever waiting to receive the confession and supplication of the penitent sinner. The figure of a gate, or door, of access to God frequently occurs. God makes or opens this door for individuals, as he did for Adam. The gates of prayer (petition) are sometimes closed; but the gates of repentance are always open. Repentance is like the sea, in which nothing hinders any man from purifying himself at any time; while prayer is com­ pared to a bath, access to which may for various reasons be pre­ vented. In the story of Manasseh's repentance quoted above there are open windows in the firmament through which the con­ fession and supplication of the penitent rise to the ears of God; and when the angels try to stop them, God himself makes a new opening beneath his very throne (whither the angels dare not venture). "If ye repent, I will receive you and judge you favor­ ably, for the gates of Heaven (God) are open, and I am listening to your prayer; for I am looking out of the windows, peering out through the crevices, until the sentence is sealed on the Day of Atonement. Therefore Isaiah says, 'Seek the Lord while he may be found.'" The purport of all this imagery is plain: the repenting sinner may be sure that at all times and under all circumstances God takes note at once of his repentance. An arrow carries the width of a field; but repentance carries to the very throne of God. In a later Midrash this is ascribed, in an amplified form, to the Pa­ triarch Judah: "Great is the power of repentance, for as soon as a man meditates in his heart to repent, instantly it (his repent­ ance) rises, not ten miles, nor twenty, nor a hundred, but a journey of five hundred years; and not to the first firmament but 1

2

3

4

5

1

Gen. R. 21, 6. According to this, Adam did not take the opportunity; hence Cain appears as the first penitent, ibid. 22, 12 f. Ibid. The comparison to the sea is suggested by Psalm 65, 6. Pesikta ed. Buber f. i57a-b. Ibid. f. 156b. The reference to the ten Penitential Days, see below, p. 532; Vol. II, pp. 62 f. Ibid. f. 163b; cf. Yoma 86a, end; from Hosea 14, 2, i y IVTW 'H (see above p. 387). Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 534. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v i ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

531

to the seventh; and not to the seventh firmament only — it stands before the glorious throne" (Hos. 14, 2). God encourages and assists every movement of man's heart towards him. The words of the lover in the Song of Songs (5, 2), 'Open to me, my sister,' are thus applied: God says, "Open to me an entrance no larger than the eye of a needle, and I will open to you an entrance through which tents and great timbers can pass." In view of several passages in the Old Testament, e.g. Jer. 31, 18 f., the question could be raised whether the initiative in repent­ ance, conceived as a reciprocal 'return,' is on God's side or man's. In the Midrash on Lam. 5, 21, 'Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned,' the Israelite church says to God: "Lord of the World, it is for Thee to do—'Turn us (and we shall be turned).' God replies, It is for you to do, as it is said, 'Turn unto me and I will turn unto you' (Mai. 3, 7). Israel answers, It is for Thee, as it is written, 'Turn us, O God of our salvation' (Psalm 85, 5). The Midrash on Psalms combines the two. The children of Korah said: How long will ye say, 'Turn, O back­ sliding children' (Jer. 3, 14), whilst Israel said, 'Return, O God, how long?' (Psalm 90, 13). . . . But neither Thou (God) wilt return by thyself, nor will we return by ourselves, but we will return both together, as it is said, 'Turn us, O God of our sal­ vation. . . . Wilt Thou not come back and revive us' (Psalm 85, 5-7). As Ezekiel said, 'Behold, O my people, I will open your grave. . . and will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live' (Ezek. 37, 12-14). The Scripture thus gives authority and example to prayers, that God may give repentance. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 185a. See Note 238. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 6 3 b ; cf. ibid. 46b and the editor's note there. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 3 2 7 . 2

4

Lam. R. on Lam. 5, 2 1 . The Midrash operates with the unusual USIS? (instead of the causative), see the commentaries. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 8 5 , 3 . The condensed translation is Schechter's. E.g. Shemoneh 'Esreh, 5. See above, pp. 293 f. 5

6

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

The sin of the repentant sinner is not only forgiven, the mem­ ory of it is expunged. Among the 'sweetest' words of God to mankind (Cant. 5, 16) R. Levi names Ezek. 18, 21 f.: If the wicked man turns from all his sins, etc., God says, 'None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; by his righteousness that he has done he shall live.' The same verse from Ezekiel is similarly used elsewhere: "See how excellent repentance is! God says, 'Return unto me and I will return unto you' (Mai. 3, 7). For no matter how many wicked deeds a man has to his charge, if he repent before God, God imputes it to him as if he had not sinned, as it is said, 'None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered * (Ezek. 18, 22) ? There is no forgetfulness with God, but, if one might venture to say so, for Israel's sake he is made forgetful; 'Who is a God like thee that forgets iniquity and passes over the transgres­ sions of the remnant of his inheritance' (Mic. 7, 18). So David says: 'Thou hast forgotten the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin' (Psalm 85, 3). God, says Philo, esteems repentance as highly as sinlessness. Repentance is a purification of the inner man: 'O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy wicked thoughts abide within thee?' (Jer. 4, 14). Nothing else can purify from sin. To the unrepentant God says, 'For if thou wash thee with lye and use exceeding much soap, yet thy guilt remains a spot before me' (Jer. 2, 22). To the exhortation of Hos. 14, 2, Israel responds with the question, Lord of the World, what wilt thou do with all our 1

3

4

5

6

1

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyese § 22. Ibid. Wayyera § 16. From the same passage in Ezekiel, Justin Martyr learns that God holds the penitent sinner &s dlnaiov Kal avajjiapTTjTov. KKO,'forgiving/ read as fiBO, 'forgetting.' Similarly in Psalm 85, 3. Jer. Sanhedrin 27c, and elsewhere; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 167a. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 112 f. De spec. legg. i. 3 § 187 (ed. Mangey, II, 240). See Note 239. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 156b; cf. also Sifre Num. § 42 (ed. Friedmann f. 12b, middle). 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, v i ]

THE EFFICACY OF REPENTANCE

533

iniquities? He answers, Repent, and they will be swallowed up out of the world, as it is said, 'He will turn and have mercy upon us, He will submerge our iniquities, and Thou wilt cast into the depths of the sea all our sins' (Mic. 7, 19). The complete annulment of the sinner's past is expressed in an even more forcible way by the figure of a new creation. God says, when you are gathered to judgment before me on New Years Day and go forth in peace (acquitted), I impute it to you as if you were created a new creation (or creature). Another version, ascribed to R. Isaac, is found in the Pesikta Rabbati: God says to Israel, Repent in these ten days between New Years and the Day of Atonement, and I will justify you on the Day of Atonement and create you a new creation. The same figure is used by Paul: 'If any man is in Christ (it is) a new creation; the old has passed away, all has become new.' The pre-eminence of repentance is expressed in the following passage: "Men asked Wisdom, What is the doom of the sinner? It answered, 'Evil pursues sinners' (Prov. 13, 21); they asked Prophecy the same question, and it answered, 'The soul (the individual) that sins shall die' (Ezek. 18, 4); they asked the Law, and it answered, 'Let him bring a trespass offering (asham) and it shall be forgiven him,' as it is said, 'And it shall be ac­ cepted for him to make atonement for him' (Lev. 1, 4). They asked the Holy One, blessed is He, and he answered, 'Let him repent, and it shall be forgiven him.' This is the'meaning of the text, 'Good and right is the Lord, therefore will he instruct sin­ ners in the way' (Psalm 25, 8)." That is, he shows them the way that they may repent. As Schechter observes, this is not meant to put the three parts of Scripture in contradiction to one 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 185b. Cf. Targum Micah 7, 19. Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 59c, below (R. Eleazar ben Jose); Pesikta ed. Buber f. 155b; Lev. R. 29, end. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 261. i"D?D, 'acquit, declare guiltless/ corresponding to Paul's use of Sifcaiow. Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 169a. 2 Cor. 5, 17; cf. Gal. 6, 15. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 158b; Jer. Makkot 3 i d , below. 2

3

4

5

6

534

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

another and to the words of the Lord himself, but to indicate the pre-eminence of repentance above all other expiations. In fact, Jewish doctrine finds a place for expiation by suffering the consequences of sin, and by death, as well as by sacrifice; but all are conditional upon repentance. 1

1

Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 294.

C H A P T E R

VII

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

FORGIVENESS is a prerogative of God which he shares with no other and deputes to none. The angels, as we have seen, are more jealous of God's honor, more insistent on strict justice, less inclined to let mercy have the final word, than their Master. The Israelites are warned that the angel whom God sends to lead them through the desert will not pardon their transgression (Exod. 23, 21). David says to God: "Lord of the World, to an angel wilt thou hand me over, who shows no favor? Who can stand before him ? * If thou, O Lord, shouldst keep note of iniqui­ ties, O Lord, who could stand ?' If Thou sayst that forgiveness is not in Thy power, it is in Thy power, as it is said, 'For with Thee is forgiveness, that Thou mayst be revered' (Psalm 130, 3 f . ) . " 1

2

God is moved to forgive sin by his own character. Mercy is the attribute which best expresses his nature, and it is shown to all his creatures. 'Gracious and merciful is the Lord, longsuffering and of great loving-kindness. Good is the Lord to all, and his mercies are over all his works' (Psalm 145, 8 f.). The words are often quoted and applied. God's goodness and mercy embrace man and beast, Jew and Gentile, righteous and wicked. The Jew had not only the general uncovenanted mercy of God to appeal to like the Gentiles. He had in the Scriptures the as­ surance of God's peculiar love to Israel, and here again what the prophets declared of his love for his people collectively was ap­ propriated individually by the members of the people. 3

4

1

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mishpatim § 11. It is neither in the angel's nature to pardon sin, nor is he commissioned to do so. Ibid. See above, pp. 389 f., 393 f. See Note 240. 2

3

4

535

536

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

God's love for Israel had its origin and ground in his love for its forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Moses declares: 'Behold, unto the Lord thy God belongeth the heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that therein is. Only the Lord ardently loved thy fathers, and chose their seed after them, even you, in preference to all the nations, as is now the case' (Deut. 10, 15; cf. 4, 37) .* On their part the character and con­ duct of the patriarchs were peculiarly well-pleasing to God. They fulfilled and exemplified the fundamental law, 'Thou shaJt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' R. Meir quotes his master Akiba: "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' like our father Abraham, as it is said, 'For I know him, that he will com­ mand his sons and his household after him' (Gen. 18, 19); and with all thy soul (life), like Isaac, who bound himself upon the altar; 'and with all thy gratitude,' that is, give thanks to him like Jacob, as it is said, ' I am not worthy of all the mercies and of all the faithfulness that thou hast shown unto thy servant,'" etc. (Gen. 32, I I ) . It was natural to believe that God would show especial favor or indulgence to their descendants for the sake of the affection and esteeem in which he held their fathers, and for this expec­ tation there was good warrant in the Scriptures. When the prophet in Isa. 41, 8 ff. would inspire his fellow exiles to faith in the signal deliverance their God was about to work for them, he addresses them: 'But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend, . . . fear not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God,' etc. The people that bears the name of Israel and of Jacob, the posterity of Abraham, God's 'friend,' has in that very fact the assurance that the God of their fathers will not desert them in their distress. 2

3

1

Also and especially 7, 6-10. Sifre Deut. § 32, on Deut. 6, 5. "pKD is taken as if from m i n , * confess, give thanks.' Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 49 f.; cf. p. 38, n. 3. On Isaac, see be­ low, pp. 539 ff. See also Lev. 26, 4 4 f.; an example 2 Kings 13, 23. 2

3

CHAP, vii]

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

537

The appeal to the memory of the patriarchs and God's sworn promises to them has its most striking and conclusive precedent in the intercession of Moses for the people after the sin of the golden calf (Exod. 32, 1 1 - 1 3 ; cf. Deut. 9, 27). All his pleas, it is observed, did not persuade God to relent in his purpose to destroy the faithless and insensate people which at the very foot of Sinai had broken the first commandment of the Decalogue, until Moses urged, 'Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. Then the Lord repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people.' R. Heze­ kiah ben Hiyya (3d cent.) expressly draws the inference: Moses' intercession was not accepted by God until he made mention of the good desert of the forefathers. God said to him, Moses, if it were not for the good desert of their forefathers, I would de­ stroy them; you cannot adduce any good desert in the people itself (as a reason for sparing them). "When Israel sinned in the desert, Moses stood before God and uttered ever so many pray­ ers and intercessions before him, and was not answered. But when he said, 'Remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel, thy servants,' he was answered at once." In fact the prominence given in the words of God himself to this peculiar relation to the patriarchs, to his covenant with them or oath to them, and the appeal to this relation by their posterity in pleading for God's help, or in expressions of confidence in his 1

2

3

4

5

1

On the intercession of Moses see Berakot 32a; Sotah 14a. Moses did not rely on his own merit, but the merit was ascribed to him, Berakot iob (Psalm 106, 23). See Note 2 4 1 . Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 9. Cf. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 55. See Note 2 4 2 . Shabbat 30a. — God advises Israel to appeal to the merit of the patri­ archs, in order to gain their cause before Him. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 153b; Lev. R. 29, 7. — See also the Musaf for New Years (Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 251 f.). See e.g. Lev. 26, 40-45; Deut. 9, 5. E.g. Deut. 9, 26-29; cf. Gen. 32, 9-12. 2

3

4

5

538

MAN,

SIN,

ATONEMENT

[PART III

1

deliverance, gave sufficient ground for the Jewish belief that because of the fathers God blessed their descendants. Among the patriarchs Abraham is pre-eminent. In Gen. 26, 3-5, God says to Isaac: 'I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham thy father, and will multiply thy posterity like the stars of heaven, and will give to thy posterity all these lands . . . because Abraham listened to my voice and kept the charge I gave him and my commandments, my statutes, and my law/ An ancient homiletical Midrash has a parable of a king who planned building a palace. He dug in several places seeking proper ground for a foundation; at last he struck rock beneath, and said, Here I will build, so he laid the foundations and built. Just so when God sought to create the world, he examined the generation of Enosh and the generation of the Flood, and said, How can I create the world when these wicked people will rise up and provoke me to anger? When he saw Abraham who was to arise, he said, Now I have found a rock (irerpa) on which to build and establish the world. For this reason he calls Abraham a rock (TIS, Isa. 51, i f . ) . Abraham obtained possession of both worlds; for his sake this world and the world to come were created. In another Midrash we even find the statement that "for all the idle and false things that Israelites do in this world, Abraham is sufficient to atone." But it is only necessary to read the context to see how far this is from a doctrinal valuation of the patriarch's merit. An ancient Midrash runs: "You will find that all the signal interventions (D^DJ, 'miracles') that were wrought for Israel were for Abraham's sake ( D r r a K I D D D ) . The exodus from Egypt was for his sake, for it is written, 'He remembered his holy word unto Abraham his servant, and brought out his 2

3

4

5

6

1 3 4 5

2, , 4

6

2

E.g. Micah 7, 18-20. See also Neh. 9, 7 f. On the sin of the generation of Enosh (Gen. 4, 26), see above, p. 473. Yelammedenu in Yalkut, I, § 766 (on Num. 23, 9); cf. Matthew 16, 18. Tanhuma ed. Buber, lijayye Sarah § 6 (by metathesis of DfcO^rD, Gen. Drman.

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 154a.

CHAP, vii]

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

539

people with j o y / etc. (Psalm 105, 42 f.); the cleaving of the Red Sea was for his sake, for it is written, 'To him who parted the Red Sea into parts' (Psalm 136,13); . . . the cleaving of the Jordan (Josh. 3,14 f.); . . . the giving of the Law was for his sake, for it is written, 'Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast taken gifts among men'" (Psalm 68, 19). Such homiletic ingenuities, as we have often occasion to observe, had no authority; in the same context in the Yalkut R. Johanan is quoted as saying: We find in the Law and the Prophets and the Scriptures that Israel crossed the Jordan only for the sake of Jacob (Gen. 32,11; Josh. 4,22 f.; Psalm 114,5-7). 1

2

In the passage quoted above (p. 536) from Sifre Deut. § 32 the characteristic virtue of Isaac is found in that "he bound himself upon the altar" as a willing sacrifice, a proof that he loved God with his whole soul (life), which he thus surrendered to fulfil God's command. In Genesis it is Abraham's faith and his obedi­ ence to God's will even to the offering of his only son, the child of promise, that constitutes the whole significance of the story; Isaac is a purely passive figure. In the rabbinical literature, however, the voluntariness of the sacrifice on Isaac's part is strongly emphasized. Instead of a child he is a man in the ful­ ness of his strength (according to the rabbinical chronology, thirty-seven years old), whom, plainly, the aged father could not have bound against his will. The text in Sifre is even stronger — "he bound himself." In a dispute with Ishmael, who claimed superior merit because he had been circumcised at thirteen, when he could have refused, while Isaac was but an infant and unable to object, Isaac declares: "You taunt me about one member of the body. If God were to say to me now, Sacrifice thyself! I would make the sacrifice forthwith." According to 3

4

1

See Note 243. Yelammedenu in Yalkut on Josh. 1 3 , 1 6 (II, § 15). Seder 'Olam R. c. 1 (ed. Ratner f. 3 f.), with Ratner's note. The oppo­ site view, Ibn Ezra on Gen. 22, 4. Sanhedrin 89b; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 4 2 ; Gen. R. 55, 4 . 2

3

4

5o

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

4

[PART III

the Midrash this immediately preceded the command to Abra­ ham to sacrifice his son, which thus appears as a test of Isaac's sincerity in the assertion. The willingness of Isaac to be offered in sacrifice is much earlier made a part of the story in Josephus, according to whom he was twenty-five years old. Rabbi Jonathan (ben Eleazar), in a homiletic exposition of Isaiah 63, 16 ('Abraham acknowledges us not and Israel does not recognize us') infers that Abraham and Jacob both refused to intercede for sinful Israel. When God said to them, Thy children have sinned, they replied, Let them be wiped out, that thy name may be hallowed; but Isaac pleaded for them: they are God's children, as much as his. He reduces the time of man's accountability by subtracting his minority, the half of his life spent in sleeping, the hours occupied by praying, eating, and other necessary doings, from seventy to twelve and a half. If God will bear the whole of man's sins, well and good; if not, let him bear half and Isaac will take half. "And if Thou sayest that I must bear the whole, lo, I sacrificed myself to Thee," thus making expiation for his people. Thereupon the Israelites exclaim, Thou art our father! But Isaac admonished them to praise God rather than him, and revealed God to their eyes. Then they lifted their eyes on high, saying: "Thou, O Lord, art our father, our Redeemer from eternity is Thy name!" On the ancient petition on public fasts, "He who answered Abraham our father on Mount Moriah shall answer you and hearken to the voice of your crying in that day," the Talmud lets Abraham remind God how, when he was bidden to offer his only son, he made no reply, as he might have done and was at first inclined to do, but suppressed his impulse and did God's will, and he asks, as in requital, that, when Isaac's sons are in tribu­ lation and have none to undertake their defense, God himself shall undertake their defense, and let the binding of Isaac their 1

2

1

Antt. i. 13, 2 § 227; cf. ibid. 13, 3 § 232. Philo makes him a young lad. De Abrahamo c. 32 § 176. See Note 244. Shabbat 89b. Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 72. 2

CHAP, vii]

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

541

father be remembered in their behalf, and mercy in full measure be shown them. The 'Binding of Isaac' found a place in the Liturgy of the synagogue. Thus, in the Additional Prayers (Musaf) for New Years: "Remember unto us, O Lord our God, the covenant and the loving-kindness, and the oath that thou swarest unto Abra­ ham our father on Mount Moriah; and may the binding with which Abraham our father bound Isaac his son on the altar be before thine eyes, how he suppressed his compassion in order to do thy will with a perfect heart. So may thy compassion sup­ press thine anger against us," etc. In the later liturgy, as well as in the Palestinian Targum and the younger Midrashim, the ' Akedah has a much larger place. 1

2

3

4

The appeal to God's mercy for the sake of the forefathers is frequent in writings of divers kinds. Thus, in the prayer of Azarias (Greek Daniel 3, 34ff.): "Do not withdraw thy mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham thy beloved, and of Isaac thy servant, and of Jacob thy saint, to whom thou didst promise to make their posterity as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the sea-shore." Similarly in 2 Mace. 8, 15, before a battle with a Syrian army, the Jews pray to God to deliver them from Nicanor, who purposed to sell them into slavery: "If not for their own sake, yet for the sake of the covenants with their fathers, and because God's reverend and glorious name had been named upon them." In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Levi, predicting the laying waste of the temple and the dispersion of his descendants in captivity among all nations, abominated, reviled, and hated, by the righteous judgment of God, concludes: "And but for the sake of Abraham and Isaac 6

1

Jer. Ta'anit 65c!, top; Pesikta ed. Buber f. I 5 4 a - b . See Note 245. Cf. M. Ta'anit 2, 4. Note that the merit here is solely Abraham's. — Elbogen gives good reason for thinking that the passage was not an original part of the prayer; see Der judische Gottesdienst, p. 143. See Note 246. Exod. 32, 1 1 - 1 3 . 2

3

4

5

542

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

and Jacob your fathers, not one of my posterity would be left on the earth" (c. 15). Asher makes a similar prediction con­ cerning the dispersion of his descendants, but ends: "But the Lord will gather you together again in (his) fidelity through his mercy, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (c. 7). In the letter to the nine tribes and a half, appended to the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, Baruch urges his readers to pray continually with their whole souls that the Almighty may be reconciled to them, and not reckon to their charge their many sins, but be mindful of the uprightness of their fathers (84, io). They are warned that when the Day of Judgement comes, there will be no intercession of the fathers. Paul's confidence that God will not finally leave the Jews in the alienation in which they now are through disobedience, but that in his plan of grace all Israel will eventually be saved, rests on the same premises: 'Considered from the point of view of the gospel, the Jews are hateful to God for your (Gentiles) sake; but considered from the point of view of the election, beloved of God for the sake of the patriarchs; for the favors of God and his call (to a mission and destiny) are unalterable' (Rom. 1 1 , 28 f.). The three patriarchs, who are called by eminence 'the fathers,' are, of course, not the only ones among the ancestors of Israel who deserved well of God and for whose sake he bestows benefits on the people. "Three excellent leaders and adminis­ trators ( D ^ D D S ) arose for Israel, Moses and Aaron and Miriam, and for their sake three excellent gifts were given to Israel, the well, the pillar of cloud, and the manna. The well was for Miriam's sake, and when she died the well was taken away, but returned for the sake of Moses and Aaron. When Aaron died the pillar of cloud was taken away, but both of them returned for Moses' sake. When Moses died all three of them were taken 1

2

3

1

85, 1 2 ; cf. 4 Esdras 7, 105. ajJLeTajjLekrjTa, things about which He does not change His mind. Berakot 1 6 b : The name 'fathers' is given to three and the name 'moth­ ers' to four (Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel). 2

3

CHAP, vii]

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

543

1

away, and did not return" (Zech. 1 1 , 8). Solomon, in diffi­ culty about the installation of the ark in the temple, was answered at once when he made mention of the good desert of his father David. It is unnecessary to multiply instances further. That God's favor is extended to the descendants of virtuous ancestry even to remote generations had the solemn warrant of the Decalogue: 'He visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate him, but shows mercy unto the thousandth generation of those that love him and keep his commandments,' that is, to countless generations of their descendants. It is to be noted that in several of the passages quoted above, the appeal is in reality to the covenant with the patriarchs or the oath to them, rather than to the piety and virtue that com­ mended them to God. It is further to be observed that, in accordance with the Scrip­ ture precedents, the good desert of the fathers is generally thought of as a ground of God's favor to their posterity collec­ tively, rather than individually. It is in the national aspect that the question is raised among the rabbis of the first half of the third century at what point in the history this desert ceased to influence God's dealings with the people. Various limits are set, ranging from the days of Elijah to those of Hezekiah. The texts adduced for the diverse opinions are not to the point; the signifi­ cant thing is the common assumption implied in the question and the attempt to answer it. Against a vain confidence that Abraham's lineage of itself will avail his unworthy descendants 2

3

4

1

Tos. Sotah 1 1 , 10; more fully, Ta'anit 9a; cf. Sifre Deut. § 305 (ed. Friedmann f. I29a-b). Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 420. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wa'era § 6. For the good desert of David, God promises to deliver Jerusalem from Sennacherib, Berakot 10b. Exod. 20, 6 f.; cf. Deut. 7, 9. Mekilta, Bahodesh 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 68b; ed. Weiss f. 75b). Shabbat 55a; cf. Jer. Sanhedrin 27d; Lev. R. 36, 6. In the two last R. Aha concludes that it endures forever, and is appealed to in prayer, deducing from Deut. 4, 31. Note 247. 2

3

4

544

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

in the approaching crisis, John the Baptist warns the crowds that resorted to his preaching: 'Offspring of vipers! who suggested to you to flee from the coming wrath? Bear fruit befitting re­ pentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham for father; for I tell you, God can, of these stones, raise up children for Abraham/ That the righteousness of a godly father will not save a de­ generate son is too plainly and emphatically asserted by Ezekiel not to have found a place in the teaching of the schools. On Deut. 32, 39, 'There is none that can save out of my hand/ the Sifre enlarges: Fathers do not save their sons; Abraham did not save Ishmael, nor did Isaac save Esau. Nor can brother save brother; Isaac did not save Ishmael nor Jacob, Esau; even if men should give all the wealth of the earth, they could not give a ransom for him, as it is written, 'A man can by no means redeem his brother, nor give to God his ransom; for too costly is the redemption of their life, that it should live for e v e r / The customary rendering of ronK ms? by 'merit of the fathers' has led some scholars erroneously to attribute to the rabbis a doctrine corresponding to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the treasury of merits. In the first place, there is no rabbinical doctrine on the subject, as the foregoing exposition should suffice to make evident. Second, the notion of the efficacy of the merit of the fathers has not the remotest affinity to Catholic doctrine. The thesaurus meritorum Jesu Christi et sanctorum is a fund, so to speak, deposited to the credit of the Church, on which the Pope, as the successor of Peter and the vicar of Christ, draws when he grants indulgences to the faithful. The 'merit of the fathers' is no treasury of supererogatory and superabundant 1

2

3

4

1

Matt. 3, 7-9; Luke 3, 7-8; cf. John 8, 33, 39. On the efforts to reconcile Exod. 20, 5 with Deut. 24, 16, Ezek. 18, 20, see Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, pp. 185-189. Sifre Deut. § 329 (ed. Friedmann f. 139b); cf. Sanhedrin 104a. See Note 248. See the Bull of Leo X , Cum postquam circumspecta tua (1518), de­ fining the doctrine of indulgences, and the Catholic Encyclopedia. 2

3

4

CHAP, vii]

MOTIVES OF FORGIVENESS

545

good works; and, above all, there was no Church, and no Pope to dispense it upon his own conditions. That God, having re­ gard to the character of the patriarchs, his relations to them and his promises to them, in his good pleasure shows special favor or undeserved lenience to their posterity, is a wholly different thing. Men may seek of God the forgiveness of sins 'for the sake of the fathers'; but they cannot claim to have their demerit offset by the merit of the fathers. 1

1

On the merit of the Fathers see Note 249.

CHAPTER EXPIATORY

VIII

SUFFERING

HOWEVER full and free the divine forgiveness of the penitent sinner be conceived to be, experience shows that it does not annul all that we call the consequences of sin, whether we think of them as natural or penal. In the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the penitent, in the absolution, is relieved of the eternal, but not of the temporal, penalty of sin; hence the necessity of the satisfactio pro peccatis which is an integral part of true re­ pentance. Judaism also recognizes sins for which expiation re­ mained to be made by the sinner after his repentance had been accepted. Rabbi Ishmael distinguishes four cases: For the neglect of a commandment requiring a man to do something, repentance itself at once secures forgiveness for the sin of omis­ sion (Jer. 3, 22); for the transgression of a prohibition (sin of commission), repentance suspends the sentence and the Day of Atonement atones (Lev. 16, 30); for transgressions the penalty of which is to be cut off (from the people by the act of God) or capital punishment by the sentence of a court, repentance and the Day of Atonement suspend the sentence, and sufferings atone (Psalm 89, 33); but if a man gives occasion for profaning the name of Heaven (God), though he repent, there is no power in repentance to suspend sentence, nor in the Day of Atonement to atone, but repentance and the Day of Atonement atone for a third, and bodily sufferings throughout the rest of the year for a third, and the day of death wipes out the rest (Isa. 22, 14). The Mekilta on Exod. 20, 7, in which we have the tradition of the school of Ishmael, exhibits the genesis of these distinctions, which have their origin, not in reflections on the varieties and 1

2

1

The inflictions are satisfactoriae poenae. Tos. Yom ha-Kippurim 5, 6-8; Yoma 86a. 258 and note. 2

546

See Bacher, Tannaiten, I,

CHAP, VIII]

EXPIATORY SUFFERING

547

relative heinousness of sins, but in the endeavor to harmonize apparently discrepant utterances of scriptures by applying them to different cases. It is, however, the general teaching that sins are expiated by sufferings: "Chastisements wipe out all a man's wickednesses." Sufferings propitiate God as much as sacrifices; nay, more than sacrifices, for sacrifices are offered of a man's property, while suffering is borne in his person. But they have this effect only when they are received in the spirit of penitence and submission. To this subject we shall revert in treating of Jewish piety. That a criminal expiates his offence by his death is a mode of expression familiar to us. So in Jewish law, when a criminal drew near the place of execution he was exhorted to confess in the formula, "May my death be an expiation for all my wicked­ nesses." Those who thus confess have a share in the World to Come. As we have seen, death finally wipes out the guilt even of those who have caused the name of God to be profaned — always supposing that they have repented of their sin. The general principle is formulated in Sifre Num. § 112: All who die are expiated by death (except the man who despises the word of the Lord). The sufferings and death of the righteous have a propitiatory or piacular value for others than themselves. The death of Miriam is narrated (Num. 20) in the immediate sequel of the ritual of the red heifer (Num. 19), to teach that as the red heifer expiates, so does the death of the righteous; the context of the death of Aaron (Num. 20, 27-29) teaches a similar lesson. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Mekilta, Bahodesh 7, on Exod. 20, 7 (ed. Friedmann f. 68b-6aa; ed. Weiss f. 76a); cf. Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on the same verse (ed. Hoffmann, pp. 106 f.). Berakot 5a, end; cf. Sifre Deut. § 32 (ed. Friedmann f. 73b, near top). See the whole context, and Vol. II, pp. 253 f. Sifre, I.e. M. Sanhedrin 6, 2; Tos. Sanhedrin 9, 5. Confession of the particular offense is not exacted. Sifre on Num. 15, 31. • Mo'ed ELaton 28a; Jer. Yoma 38b; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ahare § 10. See Note 250. 2

3

4

5

6

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

548

[PART III

Elsewhere we read: "In a time when there are righteous men in a generation, the righteous are seized for the generation; if there are no righteous men in the generation the school children are seized for the generation." That the suffering and death of in­ nocent children is for the transgression or neglect of the law of God on the part of their parents is often dwelt upon. According to an ingenious piece of Haggadah spun out of Psalm 8,3, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou founded strength' (i.e. the Law), the children of the Israelites at Sinai, including those still in their mother's womb, voluntarily became surety for their fathers' observance of the law of God, with full cognizance of the risk. In the Second Book of Maccabees, which, though written in Greek, is in general accord with Palestinian teaching, the martyr brothers declare to their tormentor that they suffer on their own account, having sinned against their God (7, 18). "We suffer on account of our own sins; but if, for the sake of punishment and chastisement, the Living One, our Lord, is for a brief time wroth with us, he will yet again be reconciled to his servants" (7, 32 f.). " I like my brothers, give up my body and my lot in life for the laws of our fathers, and I beseech God speedily to become gracious to his people . . . and that with me and my brothers the wrath of the Almighty may cease, which has justly fallen upon our whole race" (7, 37, 38). The martyrs suffer as members of a sinful people; and they pray that God, having so signally punished its sins, may let them be the last to suffer, and restore his favor to the nation. It is the old con­ ception of the solidarity of the nation. In Fourth Maccabees, on the other hand, the aged Eleazar, in the extremity of his torments prays: "Thou knowest, O God, that when I might be saved, I am dying in fiery tortures on ac­ count of thy law. Be gracious to thy people, being satisfied 1

2

3

1

Shabbat 33b. Cant. R. on Cant. 1, 4; Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 8, 3; Tanhuma Wayyigash, init. See Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 311, and Note 2 5 1 . 2

CHAP, VIII]

EXPIATORY SUFFERING

549

with our punishment in their behalf. Make my blood a sacrifice for their purification, and take my life as a substitute (avTv^vxov) for theirs (6, 27-29). The author, in the conclusion, puts it thus: "These, therefore, being sanctified for God's sake, were honored not only with this honor, but also in that for their sake the ene­ mies did not have power over our nation, and the tyrant was punished, and the fatherland purified, they having become, as it were, a substitute, dying for the sin of the nation; and through the blood of those godly men and their propitiatory death, divine Providence saved Israel, which was before in an ill plight" (17, 20-22). Here the sufferings and death of the righteous martyrs are a vicarious expiation for the sins of their people. 1

2

As we have seen in the case of Isaac, his willingness to lay down life at God's bidding is reckoned by God as though the sacrifice had been accomplished, and was pleaded by his de­ scendants as a ground for the remission of their sins. In Num. 25, 10-13 the priesthood is bestowed by a covenant in perpetuity on Phineas and his descendants because ' he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites,' thus averting God's wrath from the people and saving them from complete destruc­ tion for the apostasy at Baal Peor. In the sense of the biblical narrative he made this atonement, or expiation, by killing two conspicuous and defiant sinners in the very act (Num. 25, 6-8; cf. Psalm 106, 30). The Haggadah, however, represents Phineas as having exposed himself by this act not only to obloquy but to peril. Sifre on Num. 25, 13 (' Because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites,') applies to him Isa. 53, 12, 'Because he exposed his life to death.' "It is not said, * to make atonement for the Israelites,' but, ' and he made atone­ ment for the Israelites'; for even to the present time he has not ceased, but stands and makes atonement, and will do so till the time when the dead shall come to life." 3

4

5

1

2

3

Namely, of standing by the throne of God and enjoying a blessed eternity. Cf. 1, 1 1 . See Note 2 5 2 . Above, pp. 539 ff. See Note 2 5 3 . 4

5

55°

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

R. Simlai applied the same verse (Isa. 53, 12) more speci­ fically to Moses. 'I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty': "Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were mighty in the law and command­ ments. 'Because he exposed his life to death': Because he gave himself over to death, as it is written, 'And if not (if thou wilt not forgive their sin), blot me out, I pray, of the book which thou hast written' (Exod. 32, 32). 'And was numbered with the transgressors': He was numbered with those who died in the wilderness. 'And he took away the sin of many': Because he made atonement in the matter of the golden calf (Exod. 32). 'And made intercession for the transgressors': Because he sought mercy for the transgressors of Israel, that they might turn again in repentance." In the Mekilta on Exod. 1 2 , 1 this is enounced as a general principle. "You will find that the patriarchs and the prophets gave themselves for Israel. What does it say of Moses? 'And now if Thou wilt forgive their sin, well; but if not, blot me out, I pray, from the book Thou hast written' (Exod. 32, 32); and again, 'If Thou deal thus with me, kill me outright, I pray, if I have found favor in Thy sight; and let me not behold the evil that has befallen me' (Num. 1 1 , 15). And what does it say of David? 'Lo, it is I that have sinned and done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let Thy hand, I pray, be upon me and upon my father's house' (2 Sam. 2 4 , 17). Everywhere you will find that the fathers and the prophets gave their life for Israel." An example of the voluntary acceptance by a prophet of con­ tumely and maltreatment at the hands of the people, and of the exceptional honor God bestowed on him on this account, is found by the Midrash in Isa. 6, 8. God warns Isaiah of what he has to expect, reciting what befell Amos and Micah, and asks whether he will take upon him to be beaten and insulted. The prophet replies: 'For this I gave my back to the smiters and 1

1

2

Sotah 14a. See Note 254. Ed. Friedmann f. 2 a ; ed. Weiss f. 2a.

2

CHAP, VIII]

EXPIATORY SUFFERING

551

my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard' (Isa. 50, 6), and God praises him in the words of Psalm 45, 8, and gives him a rank among the prophets with the highest. Many Christian scholars have labored to prove that Isaiah 53 and cognate passages, expecially Psalm 22, were applied by ancient Jewish interpreters to the Messiah. Raimundus Mar­ tini in his Pugio Fidei adduced some testimonies to this effect, the most explicit of which, however, are not extant in our texts. In view of such utterances as have been quoted above about the fathers and the prophets, it would be neither strange nor especi­ ally significant, if among the many and diverse homiletical appli­ cations of scripture to the Messiah, something of a similar kind should have been said about him. Such application, would, however, be no evidence that the Jews had a doctrine of a suf­ fering Messiah. The acceptance by Isaiah of the hardships of his calling which has been quoted above, has in fact a counterpart in a mediaeval Midrash, in a compact between God and the Messiah at the creation, in which the Messiah agrees to endure the sufferings that are set before him on condition that no Israelite of all the generations to come shall perish. The work is late, and it is not certain that the messianic homilies were originally a part of it. To take its testimony for authentic rabbinic Judaism would be like taking that of a Carolingian author for primitive Chris­ tianity. Moreover, the passage in question is palpably an ap­ propriation of Christian doctrine for a Jewish Messiah. The same imitation appears also in the following homily (37), when it is said that in the days of the Messiah, when God pours out floods of blessing on Israel (Psalm 31, 20), the patriarchs will 1

2

3

4

1

Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1250-126a; Lev. R. 10, 2. See Note 2 5 5 . Compare especially the quotation from "Sifre," Pugio f. 674 f. (ed. Carpzov pp. 866 f.) with Sifra on Lev. 5, 17. Pesikta Rabbati 36, ed. Friedmann f. i 6 i b - i 6 2 a , quoted in extenso in Yalkut on Isaiah 60 (§ 499). The Messiah is addressed as 'Ephraim.' See Vol. II, pp. 370 f. 2

3

4

552

MAN, SIN, ATONEMENT

[PART III

stand and say to him, "Ephraim, Messiah our Righteousness, although we are thy forefathers, thou art greater than we, be­ cause thou hast borne the iniquities of our children, and there have passed over thee hardships such as have not passed upon men of earlier or later times, and thou wast an object of derision and contumely to the nations of the world for Israel's sake." 1

1

The phrase of Isa. 53, 11.

JUDAISM

JUDAISM In the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of Tannaim

VOLUMES n & m GEORGE FOOT MOORE

r ^ l HENDRICKSON

Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. RO. Box 3 4 7 3

Peabody, Massachusetts 1960 ISBN 1-56563-286-9 Printed in the United States of America First printing Hendrickson Publishers' edition, March 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the original publisher. Volume 2, JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, THE AGE OF THE TANNAIM, by George Foot Moore, © 1927 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Volume 3 , JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, THE AGE OF THE TANNAIM, by George Foot Moore, © 1930 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by arrangement with Harvard University Press.

IN

MEMORIAM

OBIIT MDCCCCXXIV

CONTENTS

PART

IV

OBSERVANCES CHAPTER

I. II.

PAGE

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. CIRCUMCISION.

CULTUS

3

SABBATH

16

III.

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

4°

IV.

PUBLIC FASTS

55

TAXATION.

7°

V.

INTERDICTIONS

PART

V

MORALS I. II.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

III.

DUTIES TO RULERS

IV.

T H E FAMILY

V.

79

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

89 112 119

UNLAWFUL GAIN.

WRONGS IN WORDS

14

1

VI.

RELATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASSES

156

VII.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

162

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

180

VIII.

PART

VI

PIETY I. II.

T H E FATHER IN HEAVEN

201

PRAYER.

212

FAITH

III.

STUDY

IV.

CHASTISEMENT

248

FASTING

257

V. VI.

CHASTITY.

*39

MODESTY.

HUMILITY

267

CONTENTS

Vlll

PART THE

VII

HEREAFTER 2

INTRODUCTORY I. II. III.

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

79

287

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

323

ESCHATOLOGY

377

INDEXES I. II.

SUBJECTS AND NAMES

397

PASSAGES CITED

457

III.

TALMUD AND MIDRASH

468

IV.

TANNAIM AND AMORAIM

481

PART

IV

OBSERVANCES

CHAPTER

I

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. CULTUS

IN THE practice of any religion on a stage of advancement com­ parable to Judaism we may, from our point of view, distinguish three elements. There are, in the first place, certain rites, public, domestic, or personal, by which the favor of the deity is culti­ vated, and to which for this reason the general designation 'cultus' is given. The gods are believed to approve conformity to ancestral custom in all spheres, and the sanction of religion thus attaches to a multitude of acts of daily life and to conven­ tional ways of doing things which to extraneous apprehension have no religious significance. On the negative side many acts are interdicted by religion as obnoxious to the gods, and the doing of them believed to expose the transgressor to the vindictive dis­ pleasure of the gods, for the prohibition of which — whatever explanation we may give of them — we discern no rational or moral ground. This whole sphere of practical religion, positive and negative, may be comprehended under the name 'observ­ ances.' Among the things which the religious law or the mos maiorum with religious sanction prescribes or forbids are many that fall within our conception of morality, and it will be convenient to treat them separately under the head of 'morals/ Finally, there is the subjective side of religion, the attitude of the community or the individual toward God in thought and feeling and will, which we may call 'piety/ As has already been intimated, this division of the subject is made from our point of view, not from that of the religions them­ selves, in which morals are not assigned a sphere of their own 1

2

1

Colere deos. It is to such interdictions that the word religio in the old Roman religion primitively applied, from a time when gods had not yet assumed the vindi­ cation of them. 2

3

4

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

separate from what we have called 'observances/ much less set over against them. Primitive morality consisted in habitual con­ formity to all the obligatory customs (mores) of the community, however we may classify them. What we call ceremonial ob­ servances are in this sense of moral obligation, and conversely the morals of the community in our sense are to its apprehension re­ ligious observances. Again, piety expresses itself in scrupulous conformity to the observances of religion as well as to what we call its moral injunctions and prohibitions. Nor is this interlacing of observance, morals, and piety by any means confined to an elementary stage of development; it persists through the entire history of religion. In this complex the element we have called observances has throughout been an essential part of practical religion. The or­ ganization and institutions of religion, its ministry, rites of wor­ ship, domestic ceremonies, forms of personal devotion, regulation of behavior in daily life, things to be done and ways of doing them, and things to be shunned, are the most salient and dis­ tinctive features of particular religions. The worship in which the community participates and the observances recognized by all its members as obligatory are the bond that holds it together and unites it with other local communities in a national religion or in an international church. Augustine justly says: "In no kind of religion, true or false, can men be held together, unless they are united in some sort of fellowship in visible symbols, or sacraments," and he defines sacrament in the most general sense as such a sacrum signum in whatever religion. Agreement in be­ liefs or doctrines, or the acceptance of a theory of religion, may be the constitutive factor of a sect or school, but the lasting co­ hesion of such a body is only possible when its ideas are embodied in certain forms. 1

1

This is true also of society as a whole and of social classes. Men are bound together not only by common interests or agreement in opinions, but even more strongly by common observances, and the penalty of disregard or defiance, which in primitive society is outlawry, is here its civilized counter­ part, social outlawry.

CHAP, i ]

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES

5

Religious observances are often called the externals of religion, and reformers, reacting against the inclination of the common mind to attend to the form more than the substance, or repelled by the character of the inherited forms, have sometimes endeav­ ored to abolish them altogether, thinking thus to make religion purely spiritual; but, as is most instructively illustrated in the Society of Friends, the rejection of all historical forms itself be­ came a formalism of a most rigid type, which as such furnished the cohesive factor to a body that was in its beginnings and its persistent theory an enthusiastic mysticism of a radically indi­ vidualistic type. Similarly in pietistic circles within various Protestant churches, the depreciation of all externals was accom­ panied by a formalizing of the modalities of religious experience and the inner life which gave them the bond that held them to­ gether, notwithstanding the centrifugal tendencies of pietistic individualism. In Judaism the whole range of religious observances, the moral­ ity prescribed or commended by it, and the specific type of its piety, are all integral and inseparable parts of a revealed religion, and correlated to the revelation of God's nature and character and his relation to his people collectively and individually, of the nature of man, his religious and moral obligations under divine law, of the consequences and remedies of default, the means of expiation, and the salutory efficacy of repentance — topics which have been discussed in the preceding parts of this work. The norms of belief and practice were given in the two-fold law, "the Torah in writing" and "the Torah orally transmitted," which together constitute the unitary revelation, in all parts and in every particular of divine origin and authority, and as such of equal and identical obligation. To impress this on men, God attached the same sanction — prosperity and long life — to what intrinsically might be called " the lightest of the light command­ ments," the prohibition of taking the mother bird from the nest with the nestlings or the eggs (Deut. 22,6f.), and the "weightiest

OBSERVANCES

6

[PART IV

of the weighty/' the injunction to honor one's parents (Deut. 5, 16; Exod. 20, 12). The direst of all dooms, to be cut off from his people (by God) is denounced not only upon abominable crimes such as incest, or upon neglect of a fundamental observ­ ance like circumcision, but on eating suet from the kinds of ani­ mals admissible as sacrificial victims (Lev. 7, 25), or flesh of any kind in which blood remains (Lev. 17, 14), or leavened bread at the Passover season (Exod. 12, 19). On the other hand man honors God with his substance (Prov. 3, 9), by setting aside the overlooked sheaf and the corner of the field, and the priest's portion (terumah), and the various tithes, and the bit of dough; by keeping Tabernacles with the palm branches and the horn-blowing, by wearing the prayer boxes (tefillin) and the fringes (sisit), by feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty, etc. It is obvious from these examples that the Scripture gives no warrant whatever for dividing the law into ceremonial and moral, and attributing to the latter perpetuity and superior obligation, while regarding the former as of less moment in the eyes of God, and negligence in the observance of it as a venial offence on the part of men. Jewish teachers were quite aware of the intrinsic difference between laws which the common intelligence and con­ science of mankind recognize apart from revelation, things which "if they were not written in the law would on grounds of reason have to be written" — idolatry, incest, homicide, robbery, blas­ phemy — and such laws as the prohibition of eating pork, or wearing garments of linsey-woolsey (Deut. 22, 11; Lev. 19, 19), loosing the shoe in the refusal of levirate marriage (Deut. 25, 7-10), the ritual of purification of the leper (Lev. 14), and the 1

2

3

4

1

Jer. Kiddushin 61b, below; cf. Kiddushin 39b. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tese §2 (f* 17b). A catalogue of the offenses which expose the perpetrator to this fate is drawn up at the beginning of M. Keritot. These interdictions are repeated in many places with great emphasis, and there are numerous others of a similar kind. Jer. ICiddushin 61b, below. 2

3

4

CHAP, i ]

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES

7

scapegoat (Lev. 16), which men might be tempted to call futile performances. For this reason the Scripture adds: 'I am the Lord/ I, the Lord, have ordained it, and you have no right to have notions of your own about it. They might even go further, as Johanan ben Zakkai did in regard to the purification by the ashes of the red heifer in water (Num.19) of a house in which a death had occurred and per­ sons who had been in actual or constructive contact with the dead: " Death does not make unclean, nor the water make clean/' It is a decree of the Sovereign King of kings. God says, I have prescribed a statute for you; I have issued a decree to you. You have no right to transgress my decree, for it is written (Num. 19, 2), 'This is the statute of the l a w / That is the logical attitude of a revealed religion. Its observ­ ances — the ceremonial law in the widest extension of the term — is statutory. It is not for man to cavil about its prescriptions or interdictions, or to exempt himself from any of them because he can discover no rational or moral ground for them. It should be observed also that what we call the moral law is delivered in statutory form, and that its obligation in such a religion rests not on the consensus of men, however unanimous, that certain acts are intrinsically right and others wrong, but on the fact that they are commanded or forbidden by divine law. Obedience to God's law in its entirety is the supreme moral obligation of man, irrespective of the subject matter of the particular article. The modern distinction of duties to God as religious obligations, and those to our fellow men or in our personal conduct as moral obligations, is, from the point of view of revealed religion, a false 1

2

3

4

1

Sifra, Ahare Perek 13 (ed. Weiss f. 86a); Yoma 67b. Tanhuma ed. Buber, IJukkat § 26, and parallels. Laws that we distinguish as ceremonial or moral are not only given the same form, but indiscriminately in the same contexts, as for example in Lev. 2

3

I 9

' 4

That the will of God, whether impressed on the common conscience of mankind {lex naturae) or more explicitly revealed in Scripture {lex divina) makes the difference between right and wrong is a doctrine that has been held by many Christian theologians.

OBSERVANCES

8

[PART IV

division of an indivisible unity. Even ignorant or inadvertent deviations from the law are offenses which demand expiation, while knowingly and purposely to violate it is to "throw off the yoke" of the sovereign whose will it is — to rebel against God.

1

A modern scholar who construes the history of the religion of Israel on the basis of an analytic criticism and chronological ordering of the sources, and interprets it in the light of the com­ parative study of other religions, sees in a large part of the ob­ servances of Judaism survivals of a remote past and of stages of development long since outgrown. Much which is elaborated in what from the critical point of view are the latest strata of the legislation is substantially of prehistoric antiquity, common to diverse races on similar levels of culture or specifically to Semitic peoples, the motive and meaning of which have been completely forgotten. Perpetuated in custom by the obstinate conservatism of religion, always stronger in matters of form than in ideas, it was eventually formulated, fixed in writing, and incorporated in the collection of divinely revealed laws supposed to have been delivered by Moses to the Israelites. Evolutionary criticism of this kind may distinguish between observances which embody and symbolically express the great principles of Judaism and antiquated survivals of lower stages of religion which have no relation to its ideas and principles, or are even at variance with them, and may draw the practical conse­ quence that the latter are obsolete and no longer obligatory. It is obvious, however, that this critical attitude, no less than a ration­ alistic discrimination between observances which commend themselves to the reason and conscience and those which have no such intrinisic validation, is an abandonment of the very con­ ception of revealed religion as entertained by the teachers of Judaism on the basis of revelation itself. The case was somewhat the same with those Hellenistic Jews who, having by allegory dis­ covered the religious and moral significance of the observances, 1

See Vol. I, p. 465.

CHAP, i ]

RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES

9

deemed their obligation fulfilled by accepting the truths and practising the moral principles which were the reason and mean­ ing of the injunction or prohibition, and held themselves exempt from literal compliance with the commandment, reasoning doubt­ less that, as they had extracted the kernel, why should they pre­ serve the empty and now worthless shell ? Philo, than whom none was more proficent in such use of allegory, rightly condemns this inference and the conduct which justified itself thereby. 1

There are some who, understanding the letter of the laws to be a symbol of intellectual things, are very particular about the latter but readily neglect the former. I, for my part, should blame such for unscrupulousness; for it is necessary to attend to both, the exact investigation of the things not manifest, and the uninterrupted preservation of the manifest. But now, as though living in a desert alone by themselves, or as having become bodi­ less souls, and knowing neither city nor village nor family, no association of men of any kind, looking contemptuously upon the opinions of the many, they explore the naked truth itself by itself. The sacred word teaches that such men have conceived an excellent idea; but at the same time not to relax aught of what is found in the customs which inspired men, better than those of our time, have ordained. 2

The attitude of Jesus and his immediate followers toward the so-called ceremonial law was, as has already been observed, en­ tirely orthodox. Not only does he declare in the most sweeping terms the perpetuity of the whole Law, but he enjoins obedience to it in ritual details such as the cleansing of a leper, and even approves of rabbinical extensions like the tithing of garden herbs. That justice and compassion and fidelity are "weightier matters," does not mean that neglect of mint, anise, and cumin is commendable. The disciples in Jerusalem had so little notion 3

4

5

6

1

De migratione Abrahami c. 16, especially §§ 891*. (ed. Mangey I , 450). Namely, that the letter of the law is a symbol of intellectual things. See Vol. I, pp. 269 f. Matt. 5, 1 8 . Matt. 8, 4 ; Luke 5, 1 4 ; cf. 1 7 , 1 4 . Matt. 23, 23. See M. Ma'aserot 4, 5 ; M. Demai 1, i; 2, 1, etc. The gen­ eral principle, Matt. 23, 2 f. 2

3

6

6

4

OBSERVANCES

IO

[PART I V

of exempting themselves from the ceremonial law that they were slow to admit that Gentile believers could be saved without as­ suming by circumcision the obligation to keep every article of it. For Paul the dispensation of law had come to an end — the moral law as statutory law no less completely than the cere­ monial. The fundamentals of the moral law are implanted in the intelligence and the conscience of all mankind (Rom. i, 19-32; 2, 14-16). Gentiles who ignored the law of nature and Jews who transgressed the revealed law were all under the same condem­ nation. Neither the one law nor the other has succeeded in mak­ ing men righteous. Morality cannot be achieved by outward regulation, but only by the spontaneity of a new divine life, the indwelling of Christ, or the spirit of Christ. The peculiarity of Paul's antinomianism is the substitution of enthusiasm, in the literal sense, for the law of nature reflected in the individual and the common conscience, as well as for the law in'Scripture and tradition; and it was precisely in the moral field that this theory had the most radical consequences. A large part of what is commonly called the ceremonial law has to do with the sacrificial cultus — the temple, its plan, fur­ niture; the ministry, their vestments and services; the varieties and modalities of offering {sacra public a, sacra privata), propitia­ tory and expiatory offerings, votive and thank offerings; the cele­ bration of festivals. All this was in the hands or under the au­ thority of the priesthood, who carried out the provsions of the written law in accordance with their own traditional practice. The legislation on these matters in the Pentateuch was also the subject of assiduous exegetical and comparative study in the schools of the Law, whose interpretations are preserved in the legal Midrash and concisely formulated in the codified rules to which the name Mishnah was given. Of especial interest to us are the parts of these collections which describe the cultus of the temple in the generation preceding its destruction. 1

1

E.g. Tamid, Kippurim (Yoma).

CULTUS

CHAP. I ]

II

An account in detail of the cultus and what goes with it lies outside the purpose and plan of the present work, and will properly be sought in treatises on the religious antiquities of the Jews, or, for particular features, in the relevant articles in ency­ clopaedias and the monographic literature there cited. In its general character and in many particulars the cultus is very similar to that of contemporary religions, especially, as we should expect, to those of the neighboring lands. Certain peculi­ arities, impressed upon it by the history and principles of the religion are to be briefly noted here. First and foremost, it is the worship of one God, the only being in the universe to whom in its proper sense that name can be given or divine homage paid. No subordinate power of nature, not the highest ranks of his angelic ministry, no prophet, and no saint, has a place beside Him or beneath Him in His temple and in the cultus of this uncompromising monotheism. As a corollary to the soleness of God it had long been established that the temple in Jerusalem was the only seat of this cultus; there alone sacrifices could be offered to Him and expiation made by a legitimate priesthood in conformity to a ritual of His own ordaining. Neither in the temple nor elsewhere was any image of God, public or private, tolerated — a feature of Judaism which observers and reporters found most singular. But though Jerusalem was its sole seat, the sacrificial worship of God was not a local cult; its sacra public a were maintained by the annual didrachm tax collected from Jews in all the countries to which they had spread, for the benefit of the whole nation. The wide dispersion of the Jews had long since made obsolete the ancient laws which required appearance of all males at the sanctu­ ary with an offering three times in the year. Even for dwellers in the remoter parts of Palestine this must have been impossible. But at these festivals multitudes from near and far streamed to 1

2

1

A summary description of the cultus (by the present author) may be found in the Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 4 2 0 1 - 4 2 2 6 . The temple of Onias in Egypt was founded at a time when the temple in Jerusalem was in the hands of the hellenizers or the heathen. 2

OBSERVANCES

12

[PART IV

Jerusalem. The figures given by Josephus for the attendance at the Passover in 66 A.D., though professedly computed upon an enumeration by the priests of paschal victims, are quite beyond the bounds of credibility, but the concourse, especially at the Passover, was unquestionably enormous. Many residents of remoter regions probably made the long journey but once in their lives, many others not at all; but in the pilgrims from all lands the whole Jewish nation was ideally gathered at the feast, while those who remained at home, through the festival services of the synagogue, participated in spirit in the celebration. For the vast majority of Jews, not alone in the dispersion but in Palestine itself, the synagogue had become, long before the de­ struction of the temple, the real seat of religious worship, though so long as the temple stood they may not have used of it the word 'worship' historically appropriated to the sacrificial cultus. Significant evidence of this is the existence within the temple precincts of a synagogue for the priests, and the interpolation, so to speak, of features akin to the synagogue service in the ritual of the daily morning sacrifice, where, after preparation had been made for the offering, the priests left the parts of the victim and the other materials of sacrifice lying on the ramp of the altar, and assembled in an adjacent hall to recite their Shema' and a series of Benedictions, after which the sacrificial ritual was resumed. R. Joshua ben Hananiah gives from his own experience an interesting account of the continuous alter­ nation of sacrificial rites and synagogue services through the entire day and night at the festival of Water-Drawing at the season of Tabernacles which left the priests no time for sleep. Another link between the temple worship and the synagogue was the so-called mdamad* To make sure of the presence at the 1

2

3

1

Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 9, 3 § 424; 255600 lambs, on which he estimates a total presence of 2700000. In ii. 14,3 § 280 he makes them a round 3 000000. M. Tamid 5, 1 . Tos. Sukkah 4, 5; Sukkah 53a. A somewhat different version in Jer. Sukkah 55b. M. Ta'anit 4 , 1 - 4 ; Tos. Ta'anit 4 (3), 1 - 4 . Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, pp. 237 ff. 2

3

4

CULTUS

CHAP. I ]

13

sacra publica (and private sacrifices in the absence of the offerer) of a representation of the laity as well as priests and levites, there was constituted for each of the twenty-four 'courses' of the priests and levites a corresponding 'attendance' composed of all three classes, whose duty it was to be present in the temple during the week in which a given course of priests was in service, roughly, therefore, once in six months. The priests and levites were presumably supplied by that part of the weekly 'course' which was not actually on duty on that day. How the lay depu­ tation was made up is not known. Many of them were prob­ ably residents of Jerusalem or the vicinity; but inhabitants of remoter parts of the land were among the "men of attendance." Those who went up to the temple not only stood by at the sacrifices, but four times a day held a service of their own, con­ sisting of prayers and the reading or memoriter recitation of Scripture. Those who were unable to go up to Jerusalem ab­ stained from work throughout the whole week, and assembled in the synagogues of their own towns, where they kept the same hours of prayer and read the same portions of Scripture. Both in Jerusalem and at their homes the members of the 'attendance' fasted from Monday to Thursday. The cessation of the sacrificial cultus, which in any other an­ cient religion would have been in a short while the end of it, was in Judaism not even a serious crisis, so completely had the wor­ ship of the synagogue come to satisfy its religious needs. The only noteworthy consequence of the destruction of the temple was that the synagogue was henceforth for all Jews, not only practically — as it had long been for most of them — but in thought and feeling the place where God was worshipped and 1

2

3

4

5

2

M. Bikkurim 3, 2. A leader (riJOD) conducted them, at least when the first fruits were brought up. M. Ta'anit 4 , 3. The Mishnah prescribes the reading seriatim from Gen. 1, 1-2, 3. Cf. Megillah 31b. Tos. Ta'anit 4 (3), 3. Cf. M. Ta'anit 4 , 2. So the common text (M. Ta'anit 4 , 3); but the clause is lacking in some important witnesses. 3

4

5

i

OBSERVANCES

4

[PART IV

religion cultivated. It was natural that such features of the temple liturgy as could be detached from the sacrificial cultus, the blowing of the ram's horn at New Years, the palm branches and willows at Tabernacles, and the like, were transferred, with the necessary adaptations, to the synagogue, as, indeed, some of them had already been; but in the character of its services there was no essential change. Much more important than all this is the fact that, as has been shown above, the religious leaders of Judaism had fully assimi­ lated the teaching of the prophets and other scriptures concern­ ing the cultus. Its efficacy as a means of propitiating God or expiating sin lay not in itself ex opere operato, but was dependent upon the moral character and religious spirit of those in whose behalf the sacrifices were offered. In making repentance and good works the conditio sine qua non of the divine forgiveness, they put it in a position to become the sole condition when the performance of the rite itself was rendered impossible. It is not to be imagined that teachings which thus reduced the cultus to a secondary place in religion found general acceptance or even understanding. The great mass of the people doubtless regarded the divinely instituted and prescribed rites as an effec­ tive means of securing the favor of God or expiating offences against his laws. So inseparable was the connection between sacrifices and the forgiveness of sins in the Law itself that in the context from which we have quoted above Rab Asi says: "Were it not for the mdamadot (attendance on the sacrifices), heaven and earth would not endure." The proof is taken from Abraham's question in Gen. 15, 8 ('How shall I know that I shall inherit it?') and God's answer bidding him offer a sacrifice. To Abraham's further question, But how will it be when the temple no longer exists? God replies, When they read before me the laws about sacrifices, I will impute it to them as if they offered 1

1

Ta'anit 27b. In Megillah 3 1 b attributed to his contemporary, R. Ammi (3d cent.). Jer. 3 3 , 25 is cited (cf. Nedarim 32a, where the same is said of circumcision and of the Torah).

CULTUS

CHAP. I ]

*5

the sacrifices before me, and will have mercy upon them for all their misdeeds. According to R. Abahu the prayers which are offered before God ('the bullocks of our lips/ Hos. 14, 3), are an equivalent for the sacrifices. Much older than these passages is Sifre Deut. § 41 (ed. Friedmann f. 80 a, top) where both study of the law and prayer are shown to be called in Scripture 'service* (specifically of sacrificial worship), and the words of Deut. 11,13 ('and serve him') interpreted accordingly. 1

2

3

1

Ta'anit and Megillah 11. cc. Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 60b. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 6 5 b , with Buber's notes (nos. 180, 1 8 1 ) there. See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, p. 2 5 1 , who contrasts with this the attitude of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai (Vol. I , p. 503). See below, Part vi, Piety. 2

3

CHAPTER CIRCUMCISION.

II SABBATH

T H E two fundamental observances of Judaism are circumcision and the sabbath. In Exod. 19, 5: 'If ye hearken diligently to my voice and observe my covenant, then ye shall be a people peculiarly my own from among all peoples/ etc. R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus) understood by the 'covenant' the covenant of the sabbath, R. Akiba the covenant of circumcision. The two are elsewhere coupled by R. Eiiezer as the fundamental com­ mandments. Finding in the "seven" and "eight" of Eccles. 11, 2 the sabbath and circumcision respectively, he puts into the mouth of Elijah in his prayer on Carmel the words: "Lord of the world, if there remained to Israel these two command­ ments only, the merits of keeping them should suffice that rain descend on them." That the precedence belongs to circumcision appears, as the rabbis observe, from the fact that the sabbath law is suspended in order that circumcision be performed at the normal time on the eighth day of the boy's life, although other reasons for postponement are admitted. Circumcision, using the term in a broad sense for an operation of one kind or another upon the prepuce, is customary among peoples of unrelated races in widely remote quarters of the globe, from Polynesia and Australia to the American continent; it is practised in all parts of Africa, but not by all races or tribes. In 1

2

3

1

Mekilta, Bahodesh 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 62b; Weiss f. 70b). The Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai inverts the attributions. There are some other un­ certainties in the text of the Mekilta, which do not here further concern us. See the editors' notes. The interpretation of this verse as a command to observe the sabbath and circumcision was known to Jerome (Commentary on Eccles. 1 1 , 2). Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten I, 156. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 192a; cf. Eccles. R. on Eccles. 1 1 , 2. The connection with Elijah's prayer is made through 1 Kings 18, 43 f. (seven times, and then once more, the servant of the prophet goes to look for signs of rain). 2

3

16

CHAP, i i ]

CIRCUMCISION

17

Asia it is confined to Semites, except for peoples that have em­ braced Mohammedanism; and in Europe to Jews and Moslems. The Indo-Germanic peoples and the Mongols (exception being made for the influence of Islam), so far as our evidence goes, have never had such a custom. According to Herodotus (ii. 104), it was practised by the Egyptians, the Ethiopians (Nubians), the Phoenicians, and the "Syrians of Palestine," and further by certain tribes in Asia Minor, and by the Colchians (whom he regards as of Egyptian race), all of whom he believes to have got the custom from Egypt. In the Bible 'uncircumcised' is an opprobrious epithet be­ stowed distinctively on the Philistines, from which it is to be in­ ferred that the inland Canaanites like those on the sea-board whom Herodotus calls Phoenicians were circumcised. Jeremiah (9, 24 f.) names as circumcised peoples whom the Lord will visit with judgment, Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites Moab, the bedouin Arabs. When he continues, 'For all the heathen are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are un­ circumcised in heart/ his meaning is that the circumcision in the flesh will not save them in the day of visitation — it is not the true circumcision. The circumcision of the Arabs is the pre­ sumption of the narrative of the circumcision of Ishmael in Genesis 17, 23-26, where there is probably also a further reflec­ tion of the fact that circumcision among the Arabs was custom­ arily performed at a later age than by the Jews, originally, there is reason to think, at the age of puberty as a preliminary to marriage, as is the case frequently among the peoples that prac­ tise it. In Mohammed's time it was so universal among the Arabs that he did not think it necessary to enjoin it in the Koran. Into the various theories of the origin of the wide-spread cus­ tom it is unnecessary to enter here. To the Jews it was a divine institution, given by God to Abraham for himself and his pos1

>

2

1

2

.nfnyn fro io. See Louis H. Gray, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, III, 662 f.

OBSERVANCES

i8

[PART IV

terity, and so inseparably connected with the covenant promises that it is not only the sign ot the covenant (Gen. 1 7 , 1 1 ) , but is itself called the covenant: 'My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant' (Gen. 17,13; cf. vss. 10 f.). Circum­ cision is therefore called' the covenant of Abraham.' The neglect of this ordinance has the direst consequence: 'The uncircum­ cised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has nullified my covenant' (Gen. 17, 14). In view of the eminent place thus given to circumcision it was a natural question why it was not commanded in the Decalogue. In one version of the story the question is addressed to R. Eiiezer by Aquila the proselyte; in another by King Agrippa. In both the answer is that it had already been given, and is presumed in Exod. 19, 5, or in the repeated mention of' the ger (circumcised proselyte) who is in thy towns/ It is the duty of the father to circumcise his son, or have him circumcised on the eighth day, and the master has the same obligation for a slave, whether born in his household or the child of a foreign slave woman acquired by purchase. If the father or master neglected this obligation, rabbinical law made it the duty of the court to have the circumcision performed. An adult gentile slave should be circumcised on the day on which he be­ came the property of a Jewish owner. If he did not consent, he might be kept, so to speak on probation, for twelve months, at the expiration of which period, if he still refused, he must be sold to a gentile. If, however, such a slave while in the possession of 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. n 6 b - H 7 a . Tanhuma, Lek leka, near the end; Agadat Bereshit c. 17 (ed. Buber, p. 36). See the editor's notes, and Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, I, 1 1 7 . The same question by a Gentile lady to R. Jose bar IJalafta, Pesikta Rabbati f. 1 1 7 a . For certain exceptions see below, p. 1 9 . The various cases that may arise under the latter head need not be de­ tailed here. See Maimonides, Hilkot Milah 1, 3-5. kiddushin 29a. Female slaves in similar case were baptized. Yebamot 48b. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CIRCUMCISION

CHAP. I I ]

J

9

his former gentile owner, made a condition that he should not be circumcised, it was permissible for the Jewish purchaser to keep him, provided he agreed to observe the seven command­ ments given to the descendants of Noah, his status being then comparable to that of the resident alien (ger toshab). The female slave might make a similar condition with regard to baptism. The circumcised foreign slave was admitted to eat the Passover (Exod. 12, 43-45), and the slave of a priest might eat consecrated food, which was prohibited to any lay Israelite (Lev. 22, 10 f.). In a system of domestic slavery such as that of the Israelites, the incorporation of slaves into the family as a religious group was natural — the sacra of the master are the sacra of his house­ hold — and from a practical point of view almost necessary. If a manumitted slave voluntarily adhered to the Jewish religion, he became a ger sede\ and, since circumcision could not be re­ peated, received a second baptism. The circumcision of converts has been considered in a previ­ ous chapter. As has been already noted, the rule that the circumcision of a child should be performed on the eighth day takes precedence of the law of the sabbath. Other circumstances may, however, cause the postponement of the operation to the ninth, tenth, eleventh, or even the twelfth day. If the newborn infant was ill, it was postponed until after his recovery. If a mother has lost two sons by the fever following circumcision, the operation on a third should be deferred till he is grown and strong. The principle is one frequently affirmed and illustrated by the rabbis: The laws were given that men should live by them, not that they should die by them. Among the measures which Antiochus Epiphanes adopted to annihilate the Jewish religion none struck so directly at its very 1

2

3

4

5

1

Ibid. On the Ger Toshab, see Vol. I, pp. 339 f. Vol. I, pp. 330 ff. See Shabbat 134a, end. Yebamot 64b (second century authorities). Such a man, though not circumcised, is regarded as an unexceptionable Israelite. Hullin 4 b and 5a. Lev. 18, 5. 'Abodah Zarah 27b and often. 2

4

5

3

OBSERVANCES

20

[PART IV 1

existence as the prohibition of circumcision. Hadrian's rescript making it a capital crime equally with castration, to which it was assimilated, was one of the provoking causes of the revolt of the year 132 A.D. and the desperation of the ensuing war. An­ toninus Pius exempted the Jews — and them alone — from this statute so far as to permit them to circumcise their sons; it is to be inferred that the circumcision of slaves or proselytes remained subject to the penalty of the law of Hadrian. The frequent repetition by later emperors, pagan and Christian, of laws ex­ pressly to this effect is evidence that legislation in large measure failed to accomplish its end. 2

3

4

To circumcise their sons is a commandment which the Israel­ ites received with joy and rejoice in keeping; while such as they received with reluctance, like the law of prohibited degrees, they keep with reluctance. It, like the prohibition of idolatry, is one of the commandments for which Israelites deliver themselves to death rather than obey a conflicting edict of the government, and is therefore tenaciously held by them, while such command­ ments as the wearing of phylacteries (tefillin) are held laxly. Every period of persecution proved the tenacity with which the Jews clung to the token of the Abrahamic covenant in their flesh (Gen. 17, 11, 13 f.) as an assurance that God on his part would fulfil the covenant promises. All the more bitter was the feeling toward the apostates who, in effacing the physical evidence of their Judaism, renounced the religion itself and openly united 5

6

themselves to the gentiles, aireaTrjcrav

'JZiroirjaav eavrois

OLTTO dia6r}K7]s AY las,

Mace. i,i5). 1

aKpoPvariav, Kal

KAL e^EVYLADRJAAV

rots Wvecriv (1

7

2

1 Mace. i 4 1 - 5 0 . Historia Augusta, Hadrian, 1 4 , 1. Septimius Severus (ibid. 1 7 , 4 ) , " Judaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit." On the history of the legislation see Juster, Les Juifs dans Fempire ro­ main, I, Shabbat 130a; Sifre Deut. § 76. 1 Mace. 1, 6of. (cf. 1 Mace. 6, 1 0 ; 4 Mace. 4, 25). Under the edict of Hadrian, Mekilta, Bahodesh 6 (ed. Friedmann f. 68b; ed. Weiss f. 7 5 b ) . See below, pp. 105 f. Vol. I, p. 49. 5

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP. I I ]

SABBATH

21

The animosity to Paul was not alone because he maintained that Gentile believers in Christ should be admitted to the church without circumcision, a point which concerned the church only, but — what was of vital interest to all Jews — because he was reported to foment apostasy from Moses by teaching all the Jews in the dispersion not to circumcise their children nor ob­ serve the customs of their religion (Acts 21, 21). The second of the fundamental observances of Judaism was the sabbath, the keeping of every seventh day as a 'holy' day by religious abstention from every kind of labor. It is called 'an eternal covenant/ 'an eternal sign' (cf. Ezek. 20, 12) be­ tween God and Israel (Exod. 3 1 , 1 6 , 17; cf. ibid. vs. 13) Like circumcision (Gen. 17, 14), the sanction is extirpation: "Every one who does work on it, that person shall be cut off out of the midst of his people' (Exod. 31, 14). Here, as in the case of cir­ cumcision and for the same reason, an exploration of the ante­ cedents of the Jewish sabbath and of analogous customs or in­ stitutions among other races is irrelevant. Days or seasons in which certain ordinarily licit acts and enterprises, or all ordinary occupations, are interdicted are common upon all planes of cul­ ture and acquire a fixed place in the calendar of many peoples. The origin and motives of such interdictions are obviously di­ verse. To huddle them all together under the title ancient "taboo-days" is to deceive one's self with the imagination that when one has put a label — preferably a jargon label — on a phenomenon he has explained it, or dispensed himself from the necessity of understanding it. The jargon of anthropologists (and anthropological theologians) is getting to be as portentous as that of the mediaeval alchemists, with this difference, that the alchemists' jargon was for the mystification of outsiders, 2

3

1

Compare the expressions about circumcision in Gen. 1 7 , 7, 1 3 . It is also punishable by the hands of men: Whoever profanes the holy day shall be put to death (ibid. vss. 1 4 and 1 5 ) . The old Roman religion is a peculiarly instructive example. See G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer, 2 ed., pp. 432ff.,4 4 3 . 2

3

OBSERVANCES

22

[PART I V

while the anthropologists mystify not only the unlearned but themselves unawares with their Totem, Mana, Taboo, and the rest. The sabbath as a "taboo-day" means nothing but that it was a day on which certain doings were interdicted under a su­ pernatural sanction, which is the very definition of the sabbath, as every body knew before. To the Jews the sabbath was an institution peculiar to their religion; it belongs to their God (Jehovah), and is sacred unto him; he calls them 'My sabbaths.' It is ' an eternal covenant' between Him and Israel, an 'eternal sign.' Greeks and Romans recognized it as an observance distinctive of Judaism, and as such, rulers who aimed to suppress the religion put the sabbath among the first of their prohibitions along with circumcision. The hebdomadal sabbath was in fact exclusively Jewish; nothing corresponding to it existed in the Greek and Roman world, nor, so far as is known, elsewhere in antiquity. 1

2

3

4

In old Israel the new moon — the day after the crescent was first sighted in the sky — was celebrated by sacrifice and feast­ ing (i Sam. 20, 18-34), and, as may be inferred from 2 Kings 4, 23, by the suspension of every-day occupations. The prophets couple it with the sabbath, regularly naming it in the first place ('new moon and sabbath'). Amos 8, 5 shows that trading was prohibited on both. In Hos. 1, 13 (E.V. 1, 11) and Isa. 1, 13 f. it stands at the head of the list, preceding the seasonal festivals, and was, like the sabbath and those festivals, the occasion of a 'convocation' (A.V. 'solemn assembly'), a proclamation calling the people to observe the day. The offerings appointed for the new moon (Num. 28, 1 1 - 1 5 ; cf. Ezek. 46, 4-7) exceed those 5

6

7

1

Exod. 1 6 , 25. Exod. 1 6 , 23. Ezek. 2 0 , 1 2 , 1 6 , 20, and repeatedly; Isa. 56, 4. Exod. 3 1 , 1 3 , i6f. Note also Colossians 2, 1 6 . Isa. i, 1 4 . It is not mentioned in Deut., nor elsewhere in the legislation, a fact about which various conjectures have been made. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP. I I ]

SABBATH

23

on the sabbath, and in post-exilic sources (Chron., Ezra, Neh.) it maintains its precedence in the order of enumeration. No express prohibition of labor on the new moon is found in the Law (Num. 28, 11-15 has to do solely with the offerings for the day) nor is a 'holy convocation' appointed for it, but this is true in the passage cited of the sabbath also. In later times at least labor was not suspended on the new moon. The new moon re­ tained its prime importance for the fixing of the calendar with the dates of all the annual festivals, but the religious observance of the day outside the ritual of the temple seems to have early declined. The sabbath is frequently joined with the annual festivals, and is, like the high days of those festivals, New Years, and the Day of Atonement, a day of' holy convocation.' The three great annual festivals, the Passover with the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the vernal full moon, the Harvest Feast, or Feast of Weeks, in midsummer, and the Feast of Ingathering, or of Booths, at the time of the vintage, marked in ancient Palestine the three great seasons of the agricultural year, and in the age in which they were celebrated at the local holy places or at some more famous pilgrim shrine must have somewhat overshadowed the weekly sabbath with its predominantly negative features. Even after the suppression of the 'high places' and translation of the high festivals to the capital of the little kingdom of Judah, this doubtless continued in a measure to be the case, but from the fact that the sabbath was the one local observance left, it would gain relatively in importance. Before a generation had passed, however, the reforms of Josiah went down in the catas­ trophe of the kingdom. For the Jews colonized in Babylonia or scattered in other lands, the sabbath alone of all the sacred calendar remained, and 1

2

3

1

Contrast Num. 28, 18, 25; 29, i, etc. IJagigah 18a (second century). After the adoption of an astronomically fixed calendar, about the middle of the fourth century, the coming New Moon was announced in the syna­ gogue on the preceding Sabbath after the reading of the lessons. 2

3

2

OBSERVANCES

4

[PART IV

its importance was thus greatly enhanced. It was the one ob­ servance historically associated with the cultus that could still be maintained wherever there were Jews, and the observance of it was the most conspicuous sign of allegiance to the national God and the institutions of their fathers. This conception of it ap­ pears with striking emphasis in the great historical indictment of Israel for rebellion against the laws of God, not only in the present but in every period of its past, drawn by Ezekiel. In the specifications, which gather force by the very monotony of iter­ ation, the profanation of the sabbaths regularly forms the climax — they walked not in my statutes and rejected my ordinances and profaned my sabbaths. Conversely in Isa. 56, 2, 4, 6; 58, 13, for the Jews and for the aliens who join themselves to them, the observance of the sab­ bath is the symbol of adhesion to the covenant religion and the condition of participation in the coming restoration with all its blessings. In Augustine's sense it may properly be called a sacrament, a sacred sign by which a religious community is bound together, and through the long centuries and in all the lands of their ever widening dispersion it was such to the Jews. It was in this respect even more significant than circumcision. The latter sign of the covenant was imposed on an infant by his parents without his understanding or will, solely by virtue of his descent; whereas the keeping of the sabbath in the face of persecution or the permanent and more insidious temptations of worldly interest was a standing evidence of the intelligent and self-determined fidelity of the man to the religion in which he was brought up from a child. Of particular features of sabbath observance the Bible gives but few and incidental glimpses. Agricultural labor is expressly 1

2

3

1

The abstention from labor on the appointed days was the only part of the festival laws that could be everywhere observed. Ezek. 20, 13, i 6 2 1 ; cf. 20, 12, 20. See also 44, 24. Probably 'sabbaths' here include not only the weekly sabbath but the other sabbatical days and the seventh year fallow as parts of one system. Proselytes. 2

3

3

SABBATH

CHAP. I l l

25

forbidden, even in plowing time and harvest (Exod. 34, 21; cf. Neh. 13, 15); and from the social and economic conditions of the times it may be inferred that the general interdiction pri­ marily contemplated every-day agricultural and domestic occu­ pations. From Amos we know that trading on that day was prohibited (8, 5); from Isa. 58, 13 (end), pursuing one's own business or talking about it. Jeremiah lays particular stress upon the bearing of burdens and bringing them in by the gates of Jerusalem, and carrying burdens out of houses (17, 19-27) ; and from the way Jeremiah speaks of them it would seem that corresponding prohibitions were familiar in an ancient law. The story of the man who was stoned to death for gathering sticks for firewood on the sabbath (Num. 15, 32-36) is familiar, and the kindling of fire in any habitation is expressly forbidden (Exod. 35, 3). These are plainly only casual instances of a much more com­ prehensive customary law, which was probably extended in course of time to meet changing conditions. The penalty of violating the law of the sabbath, whether death inflicted by the courts or extirpation by God, fell upon the guilty person. Ezekiel, in making the profanation of the sabbaths by the people as a whole from the beginning a national sin, which over and over again had provoked God to the point of meditating the destruction that after many postponements finally befel the nation, gave the observance a collective sanction, so to speak the extirpation (karet) of the guilty nation, with all the evils in which it involved the individual members of the people. In the same sense Isa. 58, 13 f. attaches to the observance of the sabbath in the true spirit of it the crowning promises of the age of restoration. In the conviction that God's great deliverance waited for the conformity of all the people to the revealed will of God, the sabbath is sometimes taken as the critical instance: x

2

3

1

Cf. Neh. 13, 15-22, where it appears that the Sabbath had been made a market day. Ezek. 20. For the individualizing interpretation of these promises, see below, pp. 291 f. 2

3

OBSERVANCES

26

[PART IV

"If Israel should keep two sabbaths strictly according to rule, they would be delivered forthwith." When Antiochus Epiphanes undertook by force of arms to compel the Jews to obey his edict of conformity, the recalci­ trants at first not only would not bear arms on the sabbath, but did not even move a hand in their own defense, and let them­ selves be massacred with their wives and children rather than profane the sabbath (i Mace. 2, 29-41). It may be conjec­ tured that it was not solely a case of personal fidelity at any cost, but that with this was joined the belief that such fidelity was the condition of the deliverance of their people by divine intervention. However this may be, it is certain that in that sifting time, when many sought to emancipate themselves from the restrictions of the law, partly because they found them un­ reasonable as well as onerous, partly because they wanted to break down partitions and fraternize with the gentiles, while others yielded to the stress of persecution, the strict observ­ ance of the sabbath became in Judaea the touchstone of allegi­ ance, distinguishing the true Jew from the cosmopolite or the apostate, as in the dispersion it distinguished Jew from heathen, or from the slough of Jewry which was presently engulfed in the surrounding mass of heathenism. The crisis passed, and the attempt to modernize Judaism from within after foreign patterns was not renewed, but the effects remained in a heightened consciousness of separateness, and greater tenacity in maintaining and emphasizing the distinctive observances of Judaism. Such glimpses of sabbatical prohibitions as we get from the 1

2

3

4

1

R. Simeon ben Yohai (Shabbat 1 1 8 b ) . The exegetical derivation is from Isa. 56, 7, combined with vs. 4. Cf. Levi in Jer. Ta'anit 64a: If they should keep one sabbath as prescribed, the Son of David would come forthwith. Parallels with variations in the homiletic Midrash. See also 2 Mace. 5, 25 f.; 6, 1 1 ; 8, 2 6 ; 1 2 , 3 8 ; esp. 1 5 , 1 ff. Cf. 1 Mace. 1, 1 1 . The conflicts of Pharisees and Sadducees were of an entirely different character. 2

3

4

SABBATH

CHAP. I I ]

27 1

period shortly preceding the Christian era exhibit numerous details of which our scanty previous sources make no mention. The spirit is one of strict observance, and the particulars for the most part correspond to those which we find in the authoritative Halakah — a fact of all the greater significance because the Damascene sect was pronouncedly schismatic, and Jubilees, be­ sides other idiosyncrasies, is contentious on points — especially the calendar — which contradict and condemn the teaching of the schools. Where the sabbath observance in these writings differs substantially from the Tannaite Halakah, it is generally in the direction of greater strictness; this tendency however was not peculiarly sectarian, it was the character of the older Halakah in general, resulting chiefly from greater literalness in interpret­ ing and applying the written law. It can hardly be doubted that the more methodical labors of the schools upon the Law and the discussion of actual or hypo­ thetical cases led to new definitions or more exact formulations of the rules, and to a multiplication of rabbinical regulations hedging the Torah with precautions. The codification of the rules of sabbath observance in the Mishnah represents the con­ clusion of a long process, to be immediately recommenced in an­ other form in the Talmud. It includes the agricultural and in­ dustrial occupations of the Mishnaic period. The enumeration of thirty-nine principal species of prohibited acts is an attempt to bring them under one head with a biblical warrant for the whole. This was found in Exodus 35, where in immediate sequence upon the prohibition of 'work' on the sab­ bath, the same word {maVakaK), is repeatedly used in the direc­ tions for the construction and furnishing of the tabernacle, the vestments of the priests, etc. By cataloguing the various occu2

3

1

Jubilees 1, 2 6 - 3 3 ; 5°> 6 - 1 3 ; Damascene Sect (Schechter's text) 1 0 , 1 4 - 1 1 , 21. See Vol. I, pp. 198 f., 2 0 1 . The differences in other fields are much wider than in the sabbath laws. Cf. Exod. 36, 1 - 7 ; and see also 3 1 , 1 - 1 1 , immediately followed by the sabbath law ( 3 1 , 1 2 - 1 7 ) . 2

3

OBSERVANCES

28

[PART IV

pations specified or implied in the making of the tabernacle, the acts forbidden under the indefinite name 'work' in the sabbath law could be defined. The number thirty-nine is, however, not the sum of an actual count, a method by which, from the nature of the operation, in­ dependent agreement in the result would have been impossible. The "forty less one" was taken from Deut. 25, 2 f., and the count in Exodus made to come out to that figure, just as the number 613 for the commandments and prohibitions in the L a w was the starting point, not the conclusion, of the enumera­ tion. Of these thirty-nine principal species (abot) there are many derivative varieties (toledot). R. Johanan and R. Simeon ben Lakish are said, as the outcome of three years and a half of study, to have discovered thirty-nine such in each of the species named in the Mishnah, making a total of 1521; a compliment is paid to their persistent diligence and the subtlety of their analysis. The striking disproportion between the multitudinous rules of sabbath observance and their biblical authority was early re­ marked: "The (provisions for) release from vows float in the air, there is nothing to support them; the regulations (halakot) about the sabbath, and offerings at the festivals (hagigot), and the misappropriation of sacred things (me'ilof) are like moun­ tains hanging by a hair, for they are very little Bible and a great many rules." This is contrasted with the state of the case in various other titles of the law which have abundant support in Scripture. The thirty-nine principal species of infraction of the sabbath catalogued in the Mishnah are defined to cover cognate opera­ tions. 'Plowing,' for example, includes spading the ground and 1

2

3

4

1

M. Shabbat 7, 2 ; Mekilta, Wayyakhel 1; Shabbat 4 9 b ; Baba Kamma 2a. These and other passages are translated in Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, on Matt. 1 2 , 2. See below, p. 83. Jer. Shabbat 9 b-c. M. Hagigah 1, 8, n n n D H D ^ m ttjno & n p D j m ? ; cf. Tos. Sagigah I , 9 ; Tos. 'Erubin 1 1 (8) 23 f. (ed. Zuckermandel p. 1 5 4 line 14 ff.). 2

4

3

CHAP. I I ]

SABBATH

29

digging a trench; 'sowing' covers planting trees, layering and pruning; reaping comprehends not only harvesting grain and legumes, but picking grapes, cutting clusters of dates, stripping off olives from the tree, and plucking figs. These operations are in each case brought under one head by the end common to them — preparing the soil, getting something to grow and bear fruit, gathering the increase. The derivative restrictions (toledot) are laid upon actions that, though not to the same end, are in some way analogous to one of the principal species; for example, if a man takes a bar of metal and rubs it in order to use the powder as goldsmiths do, the operation resembles 'grinding,' and constructively falls under that head as a secondary prohibition. When the disciples of Jesus, walking on a path through a grain field on a sabbath, plucked ears of wheat and ate them (Mark 2, 23 and parallels), which was lawful on week-days (Deut. 23, 26), they were trans­ gressing such a secondary prohibition of 'reaping.' Besides these classes of prohibitions there were others which rested solely on rabbinical authority. A list of such, which ap­ plied to the sabbatical days of the festivals as well as to the sabbath, is found in the Mishnah. Some of them are expressly noted as in themselves permissible, others are things prescribed by the law itself, but forbidden by the learned to be done on those days. Those that were prohibited 'for the sake of sabbati­ cal observance' were climbing a tree, riding on a beast, swimming, clapping hands, smiting on the thigh, dancing. There follow: holding court, betrothing a wife, performing the ceremony of loosing the shoe (Deut. 25, 8-10), or entering into levirate mar­ riage; in another category are consecrating anything, valuing (in commutation of vows, Lev. 27, 1 ff.), dedicating by a ban. 1

2

3

4

1

Shabbat 73b; Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat 7, 2 - 4 . Since they must have rubbed out the grains in their hands — though only Luke thinks it necessary to mention this — they were also constructively threshing. M. Besah 5, 2. These because they are assimilated to transactions involving the passage of money or the like. 2

3

4

30

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

The sabbath was thus hedged about by a multitude of re­ strictions. They are, however, only specifications of a general rule which might be formulated thus: All ordinary agricultural, industrial, and domestic work is forbidden, unless it is, by its nature or in the circumstances of the case, necessary, i.e. such that it could not have been done the day before or be put off to the following day without serious consequences. What is new in the rabbinical laws of the sabbath is not the interdiction of every kind of work — that is emphatically biblical — but the direct or round-about provision for the necessary exceptions, which in their turn demanded definition. For example, it is a general principle that when a human life is in danger the sabbath laws are set aside by the higher obligation. It may safely be assumed that this was ancient commonsense custom. The Maccabees acted on it, when, enlightened by the fate of the rigid Sabbatarians of their day, they decided to take up arms in de­ fence of their lives and those of their wives and children if at­ tacked by their enemies on the sabbath; and in the persecution under Hadrian a council of rabbis at Lydda decided that to save his life a Jew might yield on any point but three (idolatry, incest, murder), for which concession R. Ishmael found a warrant in Lev. 18, 5 — the laws were given 'that a man should live by them/ not die by them. The same principle is expressly applied by R. Ishmael to the sabbath, with an argument a fortiori from Exod. 22, i. We have already noted that the circumcision of an ailing child is postponed if the operation would be dangerous, and there are many other cases in which danger to life (even pos­ sible though uncertain danger) supersedes all the sabbath laws. Even in such a case as that of a child who has accidentally got 1

2

3

4

1

Sanhedrin 74a, and elsewhere. Mekilta Ki tissa 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 1 0 3 b ; ed. Weiss f. 109 a-b); Yoma 85a; cf. Tos. Shabbat 1 5 (16), 17, attributed to Akiba. See Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, I , 260 and note (correcting the reference to Yoma as above). A comprehensive enumeration in Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Shabbat 2 , 1 if. The technical term is n m , 'push out* (and take its place). 2

3

4

SABBATH

CHAP. I I ]

1

locked up in a room, the door may be broken down to let it out. The general principle is: The sabbath was committed to you, not you to the sabbath (Mekilta on Exod. 3 1 , 1 3 ; cf. Mark 2, 27).

An attentive survey of the most attenuated casuistry on the sabbath will show that the motive for most of it is to make the law practicable. One or two illustrations may be adduced here. Jeremiah 17, 22 forbids carrying a burden out of a house on the sabbath day. The Mishnah (M. Shabbat 1 , 1 ) , and upon it the Talmuds, show how two persons between them can pass some­ thing into the house or out of it without either of them trans­ gressing the law. There is no prohibition of carrying things from one room to another in the same house, even if it should be occupied by more than one family. If there were several sepa­ rate houses surrounding a court, this court could be converted into the central court of one tenement by what we should call a legal fiction. If the families living in private houses around this court prepare, before the beginning of the sabbath, a meal to which each contributes something and to which all have access, they constitute themselves for the occasion one family, and the court with the houses about it for the time being a single private domain in joint occupation. In the case of a larger complex, the street entrance may be converted into a constructive door­ way by erecting jambs on the sides and (or) a beam overhead for a lintel. In some cases an even wider extension may be given to the principle. 2

3

4

5

1

See Tos. Shabbat 15 (16), 11 f.; Yoma 84 a-b. See Rashi on Yoma 84b. The child might be badly frightened and die of fright, Maimonides 2, 17. The objection to Jesus' treatment of the sick on the Sabbath was that the sufferers were in no danger. A man with a withered arm (Mark 3, 1-6) or other malady of years standing could just as well have waited till Sunday. Carrying into a house is on a parity with carrying out. It seems not unlikely that this device was introduced in the first instance to facilitate social meals on the sabbath. It was not necessary that this doorway should be a solid structure; what might be described as scenery sufficed. The differences between the schools of Shammai and Hillel over the dedetails of these arrangements show that the permissibility of such combina­ tions had long been established beyond question. 2

3

4

5

32

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

At the first mention of the sabbath (Exod. 16, 29), in connec­ tion with the giving of the manna, the injunction is added, 'Re­ main every man where he is; let no man go out from his place on the seventh day.' This was taken as a prohibition of loco­ motion and extended from the particular occasion to the sabbath in general. From Josephus (B. J . ii. 8, 9 § 147) it seems that the Essenes took this with extreme literalness. The Samaritans are said to recognize nothing corresponding to the Jewish 'sabbath day's journey.' The latter is a distance of 2000 cubits reckoned from the outer boundary of the city or town from which a man starts out. This regulation is found, in complete accord with the authentic Halakah, in the laws of the Damascene schis­ matics, and must therefore have been established at least as early as the second century before the Christian era. Within the sabbath limits of his city or town a man might move about freely. For the purpose of fulfilling a religious act (miswah), such as to go to a house of mourning or a wedding party, or to meet his master (rabbi) or his colleague returning from a journey, the permissible distance might be doubled by a ' combination of limits.' A man who has such a reason for going to a more distant place (within 4000 cubits of the town bounds) on the sabbath may establish a constructive domicile at any point within the limit of sabbath locomotion by depositing there on Friday pro­ visions for at least two meals, from which point he may go on up to 2000 cubits more. 1

2

3

4

In the Decalogue in Exodus (20, 8-11) the institution of the sabbath is connected with the rest of God on the seventh day, after the completion of his six days creative work, 'wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.' In Deut1

On the distinction of the two terms IVinn (the four cubits), and IDIpD (the 2000 cubits, Num. 35, 5), see Mekilta, Beshallah 5 (ed. Friedmann, f. 5 1 a ; ed. Weiss f. 5 9 a ) ; 'Erubin 5 1 a . The way in which this figure was arrived at does not here concern us, nor the minute prescriptions concerning the delimitations. See L. Ginzberg, Eine unbekannte jiidische Sekte, p. 1 5 5 . M. 'Erubin 8, 1 f. The texts are collected in Strack-Billerbeck on Acts 2

3

4

1, 1 2 .

CHAP. J I ]

SABBATH

33

eronomy (5, 12-15) to the identical prohibition ('Thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy slave nor thy maid servant, nor thine ox nor thine ass nor any of thy cattle, nor the alien sojourner in thy gates, in order that thy slave and thy maid servant may rest like thyself), Israel is reminded that it was in servitude in Egypt and was delivered by its God with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, ' therefore the Lord, thy God, enjoins thee to keep the sabbath day' (5, 15). It is a day of respite from toil for man and beast, master and slave, Israelite and alien. The humane motive is here urged, as so often in Deuteronomy; the periodical abstention from labor is not only a divine ordinance, but a refreshing pause in the round of daily toil. There are many restrictions on sabbath occupations which have no resemblance to work, such as talking about business* looking over plantations to see what they need, hiring workmen, casting up accounts, and the like. The biblical authority is found in Isa. 58, 13: 'If thou turn away thy foot from the sab­ bath, from pursuing thy business on my holy day . . . and honor it by not doing thy wonted ways, nor pursuing thy business nor talking of i t / etc. Everyday occupations are to be demitted on the sabbath in honor of the day. That these are not late re­ finements is proved by their place in the law of sabbath observ­ ance contained in the text of the schismatic Damascene sect: "On the Sabbath day a man shall not engage in foolish and vain talk; he shall not claim anything back from his fellow; he shall not have an argument with him about money matters; he shall not talk about work and labor to be done next morning." 1

2

3

1

Minors for whom the father is responsible; uncircumcised and unbaptized slaves (D^lfcJ^nn), who are not under personal obligation to keep the Sabbath. Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 20, 10 (p. 108); Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 5, 14. Some understood this of proselytes; others of the ger toshab. See Vol. I, 2

P- 339Shabbat 150a; Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat, c. 24; Shulhan Aruk, Orah gayyim §§ 306 f. 3

4

34

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

There is another side of Jewish sabbath observance to which due attention is not always paid, namely its festal character. The spirit of such a celebration is well expressed in Neh. 8, 9-12. On New Years Day (the first day of the seventh month), which was a high sabbath on which all labor was forbidden (Lev. 23, 24^), the people broke out into weeping as Ezra read the Law to them. Nehemiah and Ezra stopped this ill-timed demonstra­ tion of penitence: 'This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep. . . . Go, eat of the richest viands and drink of the most delicious wine, and send portions to those who have nothing provided, for this day is holy unto our Lord; do not be mournful. . . . So all the people went their way to eat and drink, and to send portions, and to make a great festivity/ Parallel with the laws for the religious festivals in Leviticus and Numbers where the sabbatical character of the celebration, or of certain days of the feast, is noted and labor on them forbid­ den, are the laws in Deuteronomy in which the joyousness of the festivals, and of all the occasions that bring men to the sanctuary, is uniformly emphasized. To eat and drink and be joyful before the Lord is in fact the salient characteristic of the sabbatical seasons. Modern critics have laid much stress on the contrast between this temper and that of the laws regulating the cultus in other books of the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy and the Law-Book of the Priests represent, it is said, widely separated stages in the history of the religion. Deuteronomy preserves, notwithstanding the transplantation to Jerusalem, the natural festive character of the old Israelite religion in Canaan; while in the Law-Book of the Priests everything natural, spontaneous — in a word, human — has been supplanted by a meticulous formalism in every sphere, and the joyousness of the ancient cultus by sin offerings and tres­ pass offerings and multiplied piacula, culminating in the Day of Atonement, when it was a man's most sacred obligation to fast and afflict his soul for his sins. 1

2

1

Jin^.

2

See Deut. 1 2 , 6 f., 1 2 , 1 8 ; 14, 2 3 - 2 6 ; 1 6 , iof., 13 f.

CHAP, i i ]

SABBATH

35

Whatever may be thought otherwise about this method, one thing is sure — the Jews were wholly innocent of it. For them the laws were not conflicting but complementary; to be joyful at the feasts, with the natural concomitants of good cheer, was as truly a divine commandment as to abstain from laborious occu­ pations. The Book of Jubilees is in some notable particulars more stringent about abstention from such ordinary occupations than the Mishnah; but it names in one breath eating and drinking and resting from all labor and praising God for the gift of this holy day as the duty of the sabbath, and continues: "For great is the honor that God has shown Israel, that they should on this day eat and drink to satiety, and rest on it from all labor." This distinction belongs to Israel alone, "He hallowed no people or peoples to keep sabbath on this day, except Israel only; to it alone he granted to eat and drink and keep sabbath on it." From Isa. 58, 13 it was deduced that the sabbath observance approved and requited by God included not only showing peculiar honor to the day, but the indulgence in some unusual luxury on it, especially in the way of food and drink. It was laudable for a man to be as lavish with his table as his means permitted, and even the poorest should have some unusual dish, however small it might be, for even some little thing done in honor of the sab­ bath is 'a luxury.' In order to have a better appetite for the sabbath meal (on Friday evening), men ate sparingly on Friday, even if they were at a wedding feast. Consequently the sabbath was a favorite day for entertaining guests at dinner. Luke 14, 1-24 is a scene in the house of one of the leading Pharisees, whose guest at such a meal Jesus was. Provision was made for three meals, one on Friday evening, one on Saturday morning, and a light meal following the time of afternoon prayer (rninhah). 1

2

3

4

1

Jubilees 50, 9 f. Cf. Mekilta, Ki tissa 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 104b; ed. Weiss f. 1 0 9 b ) ; Besah 1 6 a . Jubilees 2, 3 1 . Shabbat 1 1 8 a-b; Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat 30, 7 ff. Tos. Berakot 5, 1 ; Jer. Pesahim 3 7 b ; Pesahim 9 9 b . 2

3

4

OBSERVANCES

36

[PART IV

All preparations were made on Friday, and, inasmuch as cold victuals were not a luxury then any more than now, devices were introduced to keep them hot (with due precautions against cooking going on) until the meals might be served. 1

It was an ancient custom, for which minute regulations are given in the Mishnah, on Friday afternoon before dark to light a lamp which was to be kept burning until after the close of the holy day. In the Talmud it is declared to be obligatory. The master of the house was responsible for seeing that all prepara­ tions were according to rule, but the lighting of the lamp fell to the housewife, and negligence on her part was a very serious dereliction. The advent of the Sabbath was marked by a 'sanctification' (Jiiddush) which set the day apart from the week-day that pre­ ceded. The head of the house, at the table surrounded by his family and guests, took a cup full of wine, pronounced over it the usual blessing (Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, who createst the fruit of the vine) and the Blessing of the Day. Then he, and after him those seated with him at the table, drank from the "cup of blessing." The blessing on the bread (Who bringeth forth bread from the earth), two loaves of which were before the head of the house, symbolizing the double portion of manna on the Sabbath, followed, and the meal proceeded. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

M. Shabbat 3 and 4, with the Talmud. M. Shabbat 2. Shabbat 25b (with Tosafot in loc.); cf. Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat 5, 1. The blessing in the liturgy speaks of it as a divine command ( j T ^ n p Ul^i TOW "13). Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 1 7 3 ; Singer, Prayer Book, p. 108. M. Shabbat, 2, 6. One of the causes of death in childbirth, Tos. Shabbat 2, 1 0 ; Jer. Shabbat 5 b . M. Berakot 6, 1. The core of it is thanks to God for the gift of the sabbath to the Jews as a heritage. na-on ma; cf. 1 Cor. 1 0 , 1 6 . On the two loaves and the ceremonial breaking of the bread see Shabbat 1 1 7 b , below; Berakot 3 9 b . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, i i ]

SABBATH

37 1

A counterpart of these ceremonies, the 'separation' {habdalah), in which spices were used as well as wine, signified that the Sabbath was over. The domestic character of the rites will be noted. In later times this feature was further developed, and it became custo­ mary for parents to give their blessing to their children, and for the husband to recite the beautiful eulogy of the model house­ wife from Proverbs 31, 10-31. Everything that might damp the joyous spirit of the day was shut out. The period of strict mourning was interrupted by the sabbath or other sabbatical day. Fasting, accompanied by demonstrations of grief or distress and prayer for relief or com­ passion, was forbidden, except in the case of certain imminent perils. The spirit and practice of days of mourning and fasting and those of the sabbath were mutually exclusive. So far is this carried that we read that certain second century authorities prescribed that if one visited the sick on the sabbath — which was a pious act — he should say: "It is the sabbath, one must not complain; you will soon be cured," the motive being to encourage the sick, so that they may not grieve on the day. There follow various forms of expression employed on such oc­ casions by exemplary teachers of the time. R. Hanina (third century) significantly adds: "Only with difficulty was per­ mission granted to console mourners or visit the sick on the sabbath." Here, as in many other points, the Jews may seem to have overdone the logic of a situation, but nothing could be more conclusive testimony to the dominant idea of the sabbath — a day of sheer gladness, uncontaminated even by natural sym­ pathy with suffering. As the Scribes learned from Isa. 58, 13 that God meant the sabbath to be set apart from other days not only by the things 2

3

4

1 2 3 4

I.e. of the holy day from the following week. See the article 'Habdalah/ Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 118-121. Specified in M. Ta'anit 3, 7. Shabbat 12 a-b.

OBSERVANCES

38

[PART IV

that were not done on it, but by what was done, that it was a day for men to enjoy themselves on, and in accordance with the notions of feast days in the Scriptures, gave a front place in this enjoyment to more sumptuous eating and drinking than on other days ('luxury'), so they found there also that it was His will that the sabbath should be honored, and defined what be­ longed to the honor of the day. A man should bathe his face and hands and feet in warm water on Friday, and wash his clothes clean; he should dress differently on the sabbath from week-days, and so on. The rise of the synagogue and its growing importance in the religious life of Judaism gave to the sabbath another character. The fact that the sabbath was a day of leisure made it the natural day for such assemblies, and in the course of time a larger and larger part of it was occupied by them. It is true that attendance on the synagogue formed no part of the obligatory sabbath observance prescribed in the Scriptures or interpreted and applied in the regulations of the Scribes, but it came by custom to belong to the proper way of spending the day. Thus from being only a day of recreation and good cheer, the sabbath became a day for religious instruction and edification. The exercises of the synagogue, consisting of prayer, the reading and interpretation of Scripture, and expository homilies thereupon, were a rational worship, which even while the temple stood was of far greater actual moment in the religious life of the Jews than the sacrificial cultus, and after the cessation of that cultus the only form of worship. The further development of the 'studyhouse,' to which many devoted the afternoon hours, completed the transformation by which the sabbath was filled by exercises directed to instruction in religion and the cultivation of a re­ ligious spirit. 1

If the legal observance of the sabbath was, in the sense pre­ viously defined, a sacramental bond holding together all ad1

Bet ha-Midrash.

CHAP. I I ]

SABBATH

39

herents of the Jewish religion, the use of the sabbath for the worship of God in the study of the revelation of his character and his will for men gave it a positive religious value in com­ parison with which its negative aspect becomes wholly subsid­ iary. In any representation of the Jewish sabbath as it was in the centuries with which we are here primarily concerned — and as it has been ever since — it is a stupendous error to concen­ trate attention on the micrologic casuistry of external restric­ tions or relaxations, ignoring the real significance of the day for religion itself. Enough has been said about this in a former chapter and it is unnecessary to summarize it here. 1

1

It is pertinent to add that many popular representations of the so-called Puritan sabbath err in exactly the same way.

CHAPTER I I I ANNUAL FESTIVALS

I T has been remarked above that after the destruction of Je­ rusalem if not earlier, various features of the temple service which could be detached from the sacrificial cultus were, with the necessary adaptation, transferred to the synagogue. In two of the great festivals, Passover and Tabernacles, there was an original connection with the home which was maintained by the side of the pilgrim celebration in Jerusalem. The laws which forbade the eating of leavened bread during the Passover season and even the presence of leaven in the house, applied to every Jewish family. The searching of the house for leaven or bread was probably early ceremonialized as such things naturally are; and it would also be natural that the domestic meal on the eve of the fifteenth of Nisan, at which the unleavened cakes (massof) were first eaten, should be given by this fact a note distinguishing it from the weekly sabbath or another festival day, and be as­ sociated with the deliverance from Egypt as was done in the synagogue lessons. So long, however, as the Passover was cele­ brated in Jerusalem, where the pilgrims made up temporary groups to provide for the Paschal meal and partake of it, in place of the natural family observance in the home, these features were doubtless subordinate. But when the temple wor­ ship ceased, the Passover most naturally fell into place in the home, to which, in the narrative of the institution and by its whole character, it belonged before Jerusalem became the sole legitimate seat of sacrificial worship. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Exod. 12, 15, i 13, 7. Evening of the 14th in our way of counting. Yom Tob. Only men were required to attend, though women and girls might be present. Deut. 16, 1-8. 9 ;

2

3

4

5

40

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

4

i

In the domestic celebration the sacrificial features necessarily disappeared when the lamb or kid could no longer be slaughtered in the temple and its blood conveyed to the altar by the priests. The Paschal meal itself, eaten as it was in private houses, with its unleavened cakes and bitter herbs, the successive cups of wine, the blessings, and the psalms, could be closely reproduced without profanation. In some places it was customary to eat a roast on the Passover night; in others not. The Mishnah authorizes the following of the local custom. We are told in this connection that a certain Theodorus introduced in Rome the custom of roasting a kid for this occasion, trussed in the peculiar manner prescribed for the Paschal sacrifice, which was highly disapproved because it made those who partook of it eat consecrated food outside of Jerusalem, or, more correctly, have the apppearance of it. If an animal is dressed and roasted in this general manner, it must be made in some way to differ from the Paschal victim, as for in­ stance if one limb be cut off. The rite, in all its essential features, as it is observed to this day, is described in the Mishnah (Pesahim io). The head of the family resumes his primitive function and conducts the service as the priest of his own household. The children are present, and the question of one of them, —"Why is this night different from all other nights?" gives occasion to explain the ritual and its significance as a memorial of the deliverance of Israel from the oppression in Egypt, followed by an exposition of Deut. 26, 5~9. "In every age a man is bound to regard him­ self as if he went forth out of Egypt, as it is written, 'And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying, It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt' " (Exod. 13,8). The 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

M. Pesahim 4, 4. DHin. Pesahim 53 a-b; Besah 2 3 a ; Jer. Pesahim 3 4 a ; Jer. Besah 6 1 c , below. See also Berakot 19a. Cf. Tos. Pesahim 1 0 . Exod. 13, 8; cf. 12, 26 f.; 1 3 , 14. ' A wandering Syrian was my father/ etc. Pressing the first person singular. Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 105a; Tan­ huma ed. Buber, Yitro § 7 (n?n Exod. 19, 1 ) . 3

4

6 7

5

42

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

catch-words of these obligatory topics at the Passover, according to Rabban Gamaliel, are "Passover," because God passed over the houses of our fathers in Egypt (sparing the first-born); "Un­ leavened Cake," because our fathers were delivered from Egypt; "Bitter Herbs," because the Egyptians made bitter the lives of our fathers in Egypt. For this deliverance their descendants are bound to give thanks, and to laud and praise and honor and exalt "Him who wrought for us and for our fathers all these miracles. He brought us out from slavery to freedom, from sad­ ness to joy, from mourning to festivity, from darkness to great light, from oppression to deliverance." With this introduction the recital of the Hallel began (Psalms 113-114), In exitu Israel' being peculiarly appropriate. The recitation concluded with the 'Ge'ullah,' a liturgical close magnifying God for saving his people from Egypt. The retrospect invites the prospect of the future deliverance. The Mishnah records a prayer of R. Akiba for the time when the celebration of the festivals may be renewed in Jerusalem, and sacrifices and Passovers may be eaten there, happy in the rebuilding of God's city and rejoicing in his wor­ ship. In later times a place was set for Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah. In the intimate circle in which it was repeated and the happy spirit of the festivity, the Passover Story (Haggadah sheU Pesah) was free from constraint, and developed in popular forms fitted to interest the young and the unlettered, and was accommo­ dating enough to pick up elements of quite unbiblical character, some of them of modern origin, like the Had Gadya, a rhyme whose nearest English analogue is "The House that Jack Built." A healthy religious sense found no incongruity between the serious and the playful in the celebration. The primitive sacri­ ficial meal thus became completely symbolical, enshrining the most precious memories and the most exalting hopes of the Jew1

2

1

3

1 2 3

With the unraised dough in their kneading troughs, Exod. 1 2 , 34. M. Pesahim 10, 5. M. Pesahim 10, 6.

CHAP, iii]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

43

ish people in a rite not only of sacramental significance, but of singular and moving beauty. In the centuries preceding the Christian era the Feast of Taber­ nacles had become the culminating festival of the year, as it doubtless had been in the agricultural calendar of Palestine from immemorial antiquity, the Harvest Home in the time of the vintage and the oil-pressing. The sacrifices during the seven days of the feast, with the closing rites on the eighth (shemini 'aserei), were more lavish than at any other, requiring, besides other species, seventy bullocks as holocausts, and all the courses of priests were on duty. A characteristic feature of the celebration in the temple was the carrying of the Lulab and the Etrog by the worshippers in conformity with Lev. 23, 40 as interpreted by the Jewish au­ thorities. Josephus describes the former as an eipeatcovr] of myrtle and willow with a spray of palm leaf; in another place he calls them compendiously Ovpcroi of palms and citrons, the latter being the Etrog. At certain points in the recitation of theHallel (Psalms 113-118) the branches were waved in concert. The Mishnah names particularly the beginning of Psalm 118 ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good') and vs. 25 ('We beseech thee, O Lord, save us now'), registering some minor diversities. After the supplemental sacrifices of the day (musaf) had been 1

2

3

4

c

5

1

Eventually a ninth day; cf. 2 Chron. 7, 8 - 1 0 with 1 Kings 8, 66. On the first day, 1 3 ; the second, 1 2 , and so on decreasing to 7 on the seventh day. These burnt offerings were made, according to an often repeated explanation, in behalf of the seventy heathen nations; the one on the eighth day for the unique people, Israel. When the heathen destroyed the temple, they destroyed the atonement that was made for them. Sukkah 5 5 b ; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 9 3 b - ! 94a. Samaritans, and later the Karaites, interpreted Lev. 23, 40 of materials for the construction of the booths. Cf. Neh. 8, 1 5 . Jos. Antt. iii. 10,4 § 245; xiii. 1 3 , 5 § 3 7 2 . In the former passage the Etrog is JJLTJXOV rrjs irepakas. The word is the Persian name of Citrus medica a cedra Hayne [Ascherson, in Low]. See also Jubilees 1 6 , 2 0 - 3 1 ; 2 Mace. 1 0 , 6 f. M. Sukkah 3, 9. Some commentators understand the words *|1D1 T\hfiT\ in the Mishnah to refer to the first and the last verses of Psalms 1 1 8 (vss. 1 and 29), others to the first and last parts of vs. 1. 2

3

4

5

OBSERVANCES

44

[PART I V

offered, the people marched in procession around the altar, carry­ ing their branches and citrons and intoning the Hosanna (Psalm 1 1 8 , 25); on the seventh day they made seven such circuits. A unique character was given to the festival by the libation of water made together with the usual wine at the morning service in the temple on each of the seven days, and the cere­ monies attending it, and by the illumination of the temple courts on the night of the first day. Both of these are enrich­ ments of the liturgy introduced possibly in the Hellenistic period. According to the Mishnah, a golden flask holding about three pints was filled with water from the fountain of Siloam, carried up to the Water Gate, where the procession was greeted by three calls on the ram's horn (shofar) by the priestly musi­ cians. The officiating priest ascended the ramp on the south side of the great altar, and turned to the left (west), where there were two silver basins of peculiar form, one for the ritual libation of wine, into the other the water was poured. Through orifices in the bottom of these basins the wine and the water emptied out simultaneously. At the moment when the priest was about to pour the water into the basin, the people shouted to him, Raise your hand! because once a certain priest spilled it on his feet. It is not improbably to this incident that Josephus refers when he says that once at the Feast of Tabernacles, when Alex­ ander Jannaeus, the high priest, stood on the altar about to offer, they pelted him with the citrons they carried in their hands. Why he — if it was he — chose to manifest contempt for the rite by spilling the water is not told; one might surmise 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

M. Sukkah 4, 5.

2

rpn^v.

3

On the south side of the temple area. M. Shekalim 6, 3 (cf. Neh. 8, 1 ) . So called from this ceremony, Tos. Sukkah 3,3. (The whole passage should be read.) Teki'ah, Teru'ah, Teki'ah. See 'Shofar/ Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 3 0 1 4

306. 6

M. Sukkah 4, 9. M. Sukkah, ibid. The Talmud calls this high priest a Sadducee. The rite was not biblical, and for the Sadducees tradition had no authority. Jos. Antt. xiii. 1 3 , 5 § 372. 6

7

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

45

that it was because the Pharisees, with whom he was on bad terms, showed an especial interest in it. The endeavor to find a biblical warrant for the rite led to various far-fetched solutions. The ingenuity of a Babylonian scholar of the late third century, Rab 'Ena, discovered at least a felicitous text: 'Therefore with joy shall ye draw from fountains of salvation' (Isa. 12, 3). Pouring out water is an ancient and common way of making rain, and, as the Feast of Tabernacles falls at the time when the first autumnal rains are due, it is a plausible conjecture that the rite is a survival of an old rain ceremony, which in the context of a higher religion became a symbol of rain. It is to be noted that in Zech. 14, 16-19, where it is predicted that, in the coming golden age, all that are left of the nations which once came up against Jerusalem shall come up from year to year to worship and keep the Feast of Tabernacles, the punishment of those who neglect this pilgrimage is that upon them no rain shall fall, or in Egypt the inundation shall fail. The rite is associated with rain, as if the connection was universally recognized. R. Akiba in giving reasons for various prescriptions of the festival ritual (the omer sheaf at Pentecost, etc.) thus explains it: "Why does the Law say, Make a libation of water at the Feast? The Holy One, blessed is He, says, Make a libation of water before me at the Feast in order that the rains of the year may be blessed to you." At this season judgment is passed by God concerning the rains of the coming year. A symbolical interpretation was given by Joshua ben Levi. "Why was it called bet sho'ebah (lit. 'place of drawing') ? Because from it they draw the holy spirit (prophetic inspiration), according to Isa. 12, 3, 'Ye shall 1

l

2

3

4

1

According to Nehunya of Bet IJoron it was a traditional rule "of Moses from Sinai," i.e., without support in the Scriptures. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) in the name of Akiba, Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 a . Cf. Tos. Sukkah 3, 18 (Akiba quotes Zech. 1 4 , 1 7 ) ; Tos. Rosh ha-Shanah 1 , 1 2 . M. Rosh ha-Shanah 1, 2 and the places cited in the preceding note. The prayer for rain began to be recited in the Tefillah at this time (nnU-l D'toEO, M. Berakot 5, 2 . ) ; M. Ta'anit 1, 1. Applied especially to the night ceremony. 2

3

4

4

6

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV 1

draw with joy from fountains of salvation/ " The origin of this interpretation is to be sought in the association of a sacred joy (joy in the fulfilment of a commandment) with inspiration: the Presence (Shekinah), or the holy spirit, does not rest on a sad heart but only on a glad one. 2

On the night of the first day of the feast there was a great illu­ mination in the temple. Tall pillars were set up in the court of the women, like gigantic candelabras, each bearing four basins holding fifteen gallons apiece as saucer-lamps; for wicks cast off breeches and girdles of the priests were used. Youths of the priesthood mounted ladders and poured their jars of oil into the basins. The light was so bright that it illumined every courtyard in Jerusalem. Two galleries were erected around three sides of the court for the spectators; in the upper one the women sat, in the lower the men. Men of conspicuous piety and good works danced before them, with flaming torches in their hands, uttering words of song and praise. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel is re­ ported to have been so expert that, with eight torches going, not one of them touched the ground when he prostrated himself, touched his fingers to the pavement, bent down, kissed it, and at once sprang up. The levitical orchestra with harps and lutes and cymbals and trumpets — innumerable instruments — stood on the fifteen steps that led down from the court of Israel to the court of the women, corresponding to the fifteen "Songs of the Steps" in the Psalter (Psalms 120-134), while in the gate behind them were two priests with trumpets. An interesting feature of the cere­ mony was the march through the court of the women, beginning at a signal on the trumpets of the two priests, and moving with 3

4

5

6

1

Jer. Sukkah 55a; Pesikta Rabbati 1 (ed. Friedmann f. ib) on Isa. 66, 23. Jer. Sukkah 55a; Shabbat 30b. Cf. Tosafot on Sukkah 50b, top. M. Sukkah 5, 2 ff. The separation of the sexes was a precaution against the kind of levity' to which the enthusiasm of the hour incited. Tos. Sukkah 4, 4. A somewhat different description, Sukkah 53 a. Tos. Sukkah 4, 7 - 9 . 2

3

4

5

6

4

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

47

continuous trumpeting to the gate opening to the east. There they turned about, facing west, and said: "Our fathers who were in this place ' stood with their backs to the temple and their faces eastward, and worshipped the sun toward the east' (Ezek. 8,16); but our eyes are unto the Lord," or as more fully reported, they repeated twice, "But we (worship, or confess) the Lord, and upon the Lord our eyes (wait)." The jubilation at this cere­ mony exceeded anything to be seen elsewhere or at another time: "A man who has never seen the rejoicing of the water-drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life." 1

2

The Feast of Tabernacles (more exactly of Booths) has its name from the booths in which all native Israelites were required to dwell at this season for seven days (Lev. 23, 42). It is a probable surmise that the booths were originally the temporary shelters in which men lodged in the vineyards at the vintage season, as is still the custom in other wine-growing countries. As the population became more largely urban the custom would naturally fall into desuetude. In the account in Neh. 8 of the celebration in conformity to the directions which they found written in the law of Moses as Ezra read it to them, it is said that the Israelities had not done so — i.e. erected booths on the roofs of houses, in the courts of the temple, and the open squares of the city — since the days of Joshua. The law in Leviticus (23, 42 f.) gives a memorial significance to the festival, 'That your generations may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.' Thus detached from other agricultural associations than the season at which it was held, and given, like the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, a historical origin and meaning, it was adapted to become a permanent institution. With the destruction of the temple most of this ritual came to an end. The custom of carrying the palm branches and citrons 3

4

5

1

3 5

M. Sukkah 5, 4; Sukkah 53b, end. Understood of men and boys only. Exod. 1 2 . 3 9 ; 1 3 , 3 - 7 .

2

4

M. Sukkah 5, 1. See Isa. 1, 8.

48

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

(Lulab and Etrog) was maintained, however, a procession around the reading desk in the synagogue taking the place of that around the altar, in which, especially on the seventh day (which got its name Hosh'ana Rabbah therefrom), the repetition of the refrain, Hosh'ana, 'Deliver now' (Psalm 118, 25), was a characteristic feature. The command to dwell in booths for seven days was inde­ pendent of the temple observance, and was incumbent on all (male) Israelites, wherever they were, whether in Palestine or outside of the land. In cities and towns the booth was often necessarily a very slight shelter representing a booth, rather than a habitable structure, and the rabbinical rules and discussions on the question what was enough of a 'booth' to satisfy the re­ quirements of the law are extended and refined. What is of importance for us is that the observance of the festival was thus perpetuated in every Jewish house as well as in the synagogue, and that the jubilant note runs through the whole celebration; it is eminently 'the season of our rejoicing.' The transformation of the agricultural festivals into historical commemorations was complete when the old Harvest festival {Jiasir, Exod. 23, 16) at the end of the wheat harvest, or Feast of (seven) Weeks (Exod. 34, 22) , was taken to be the time when the Law was given at Sinai. Starting from Exod. 19, 1, taking hodesh as the first day of the month, and counting the days enumerated in the following verses, it was found that the giving of the Law (more exactly the Ten Commandments) occurred on the sixth day of the month Sivan, or, as others counted, the seventh. How old this arithmetic may be is unknown. 1

2

3

4

1

But not (as had been the practice in the temple) on the sabbath, even when that was the first day. Tobit 2, 1, ay la eirra epdofiadoov. In the Mishnah m¥JJ. There is no intimation of this in Scripture, nor in Philo or Josephus. In Pesahim 68b it is assumed as generally accepted opinion. Mekilta, Yitro, 3 (on Exod. 19, 10; ed. Friedmann f. 63b; ed. Weiss f. 71b); Yoma 4 b ; Ta'anit 28b; Shabbat 86b; see also 88a, top; cf. Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 19, 10. The Palestinian Targum on the verse is acquainted with the computation. 2

3

4

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

49

This one-day festival cannot have drawn many pilgrims from a distance to the temple, and we possess no information about any special ceremonies on that occasion other than those pre­ scribed in the laws (especially Num. 28, 26-31). When in later times the 'Joy of the Law' (Simhat 'Torah) found a place in the calendar, it was not on this day, but on the eighth day which closed the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, and was asso­ ciated with the reading of the Law in Neh. 8, rather than with the giving of the Law, marking the completion of the reading of the Pentateuch in course in the annual cycle. The most conspicuous features of the ceremonies in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles were, as we have seen, supplementary to the ritual prescribed in the Pentateuch. In a similar way whole festivals were introduced of which the Law knows nothing. One of these, beginning on the 25 th of Kisleu, was instituted in the year 165 by Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers 'and the whole assembly of Israel' as an annual eight-day celebration of the reestablishment of worship in the temple after three years' inter­ ruption, to be observed with joy and gladness (1 Mace. 4, 59). The corresponding account in 2 Maccabees (10, 6-8) adds that the festival was patterned after the Feast of Tabernacles, the season of which only a little while before they had passed living among the mountains and in caves like wild beasts. They carried thyrsi and fair branches, as well as palm leaves, and sang praises to him who had helped them to purge his temple. The festival is called in the Gospel of John (10, 22) 'Ewcaiwa, corresponding to its Hebrew name Hanukkah, we might say 'Rededication.' Josephus tells us that in his time it was called 'Lights' (^cora), a name doubtless given to it from the illumination of houses which was a characteristic feature of the celebration. The rules for this illumination date from an early time; a differ­ ence between the schools of Shammai and Hillel about a par­ ticularly fine illumination with a redundant number of lamps is 1

2

1

Cf. 2 Mace, i, 1 8 - 3 6 .

Cf. 1 Mace. 4, 54, 56.

5

o

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

1

recorded. Every house should burn at least one such lamp on every one of the eight evenings; those who made afinershow of it lighted one for each inmate of the house. The lamps were placed in the doorway, so as to cast their light out into the court or street; if a house had doors on two sides, a lamp must be set at each; tenants of upper stories set theirs in a window opening on a public place. So much importance is attached to the observance that if a man has not money enough for both he should buy oil for the Ilanukkah lamp rather than the wine to 'sanctify' the advent of a holy day. Even a temporary guest in a house is bound to light a lamp for himself at the festival. The illumina­ tion was originally solely domestic; later, lamps were lighted in the synagogues also. As at the Feast of Tabernacles, the Hallel {Psalms 113-118) was recited complete on each of the eight days. During this period mourning and fasting are forbidden. Jose­ phus, who does not mention the illumination itself, surmises that the name 'Lights' was given to the festival because, contrary to expectation, the power to restore the temple worship had been manifested to the Jews. The Talmud gives a legendary expla­ nation of the rite: When the Asmonaeans got possession of the temple after the heathen occupation, all the oil was unclean, and they found only one small jar of oil bearing the seal of the high priest, containing enough for but one day. With this they lighted the lamps, and by miracle it lasted eight days. The next year they made these days a festival with praise and thanks­ giving (Hallel and Hoda'ah). It is this miracle that is com­ memorated by the Hanukkah lamps. 2

3

4

In the comparison of the celebration to the Feast of Taber­ nacles, one important difference must not be ignored: during the eight days of the Dedication festival there was no total or partial 1

Shabbat 2 1 b . The former would begin with eight lamps and light one less each day; the latter began with one and added one each day. Shabbat 23b (Raba). Tos. Sukkah 3, 2 ; Shabbat 2 1 b . Shabbat 2 1 b . A different story in Pesikta Rabbati 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 5a). Cf. 2 Mace. 1, 18 ff. 2

3

4

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

51

abstention from ordinary occupations, nor were the beginning and end marked by a 'holy convocation.' A popular festival that had a still greater place among Jewish observances was Purim, commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from the wholesale destruction Haman had planned for them. The appointment and inauguration of the celebration are set forth in Esther 9, 16 ff. It was kept on the fourteenth or the fifteenth day of the month Adar — on the former by the people of the villages and unwalled towns (9,19), on the fifteenth by the inhabitants of fortified cities (9, 18). 'The Jews ordained and took upon them, and upon their posterity, and upon all such as attached themselves to them (proselytes), so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days as prescribed at the appointed time every year,' etc. (9, 27 f.). 'The days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning to festivity,' were to be made 'days of feasting and gladness and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor' (Esther 9, 22 f.). In accordance with the pronouncedly secular character of the Book of Esther, there is no mention of any religious observance, nor even of gratitude to God for their deliverance; and the secular character remained the signature of the celebration through all its history, notwithstanding its adop­ tion into the religious calendar. 1

2

3

4

When the festival, which was probably of Oriental origin, was introduced in Palestine is not to be determined with any exact­ ness. A note at the end of Greek manuscripts tells that the 1

Esther 9, 26, cf. 24. Cf. Neh. 8, 1 0 - 1 2 . Jos. Antt. xi. 6, 13 § 292: All the Jews in the world keep a festival on those days, sending portions to one another. A sacrificial celebration in Persia was not imaginable. Samuel bar Judah had at least an inkling of the history. Purim was originally appointed for Susa, and later for all the world. Esther sent to the learned (in Palestine) saying, Appoint me (i.e., the celebration of what I did) for all time; they replied, You stir up resentment against us among the heathen, etc. Megillah 7a. 2

3

4

52

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

translation of the "Purim Epistle/' the work of Lysimachus son of Ptolemaeus of Jerusalem, was introduced (into Egypt) in the fourth year of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. Which of the various Ptolemies who had Cleopatras for partners of the throne is meant is a mere guess. Older scholars pitched on Philometor (i 81-145 - - ) 5 e recent ones favor Soter II (Lathyrus) and reckon the year to be 114 B.c. The worth of the somewhat strangely worded note is dubious. "Mordecai Day" appears as a calendar date in 2 Mace. 15, 36: The Jews of Palestine enacted that the anniversary of the defeat and death of Nicanor should be celebrated on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, Adar, the day before Mordecai Day. We have already seen that in Palestine objection was raised to the new festival. On the other hand the elaborated regula­ tion of the days on which the Roll of Esther should (or may) be read is attributed in the Talmud to the Men of the Great Assembly, i.e. is regarded as of immemorial antiquity. The distinctive observance of the season is the reading of the Book of Esther, which by rabbinical authority was made in­ cumbent on all, women as well as men (for women also shared in the wonderful deliverance), proselytes, and freedmen. Children were prepared for the reading as they approached the age at which it would become obligatory for them. The obligation might be fulfilled by reading the book privately or in the syna­ gogue, or by hearing it read by another. In the second century some commenced the reading, not at the beginning of the book but at a later point (2, 5; 3, 1; 6, 1). The eventual decision was that the whole should be read. As was the custom with the B

c

m o r

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See B. Jacobs, Das Buch Esther, u. s. w., Zeitschrift fur alttest. Wissenschaft, X (1890), 278. Many scholars think that Purim is meant by the nameless feast of the Jews in John 5, 1, falling between the winter (4, 3 5 , four months till harvest) and Passover (6, 4 ) , to which Jesus went up to Jerusalem, though Purim was not a temple festival. Vol. I, p. 245. Megillah 2a. 'Arakin 2b~3a; Megillah 4 a . Tos. Megillah 2, 7. M. Megillah 2, 3 (R. Meir); Jer. Megillah 7 3 b ; Megillah 1 9 a . 2

3

4

6

6

7

CHAP, I I I ]

ANNUAL FESTIVALS

53

lessons from the Pentateuch in the synagogue, certain benedic­ tions were naturally attached to the reading of Esther, but the attestation of particular formulas is comparatively late. The Hallel psalms were not recited. Numerous rules are found in the Mishnah which need not detain us here. It is worthy of note, however, that Esther was read from a separate roll, containing that book only. During the two days, fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar, mourn­ ing and fasting was prohibited to all Jews everywhere, whether they kept the one day or the other. Labor on the day kept in any place was not forbidden, though in some places it was sus­ pended by public opinion. The command to celebrate the day by rejoicing and feasting (Esther 9, 19, 22) was taken with somewhat exaggerated literalness. A Babylonian authority of the fourth century, Raba, took it that a man should drink till he cannot distinguish between Cursed be Haman! and Blessed be Mordecai! It is narrated in the context that in such confusion of persons a famous Baby­ lonian teacher of the time killed another with whom he was feast­ ing. Fortunately, he was able to bring him to life again next day; but the resuscitated rabbi declined an invitation to dine in such dangerous company the following year, quoting, 'Miracles do not happen every time!' (Cf. Pesahim 50b.) In accordance with Esther 9, 22 it was customary, and indeed obligatory, for families to send choice viands from their feast to one another and make presents to the poor either in food or money. 1

2

3

4

5

1

The Mishnah prescribes as the Purim lesson Exod. 1 7 , 8 - 1 6 (Amalek). M. Megillah 3, 6. The association is Haman the Agagite — Agag king of the Amalekites (1 Sam. 1 5 ) . In an intercalary year Purim was kept in the Second Adar, but if the intercalation was announced after Purim had been kept in Adar I, the read­ ing of Esther was repeated in Adar II. M. Megillah 1, 4. Megillah 5 b ; Babylonian instance. Megillah 7 b . The two phrases have numerically the same value, 502. Others add, till he cannot distinguish between Cursed be Jeresh! and Blessed be Esther! Cursed be all the wicked, and Blessed be all the Jews. Tosafot, Megillah 7 b , a h . Megillah 7 b . 2

3

4

5

54

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

The whole celebration resembles the modern observance of the Christmas season in Western Europe and America and the pagan festivals that have survived in it, and the resemblance extends to the large license allowed the merrymakers. 1

A popular festival in the days of the second temple was kept on the fifteenth of Ab, on which, as on the Day of Atonement, the girls of Jerusalem danced in the vineyards and challenged the young men to choose partners in marriage. On this day the general offering of wood for the temple also was brought, but the two features of the day are doubtless of independent origin. In the Megillat Ta'anit, an ancient calendar, many glorious deeds or joyous events in the external or internal history of the Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman periods are enumerated, but with such laconic brevity that the identification of the occasion is frequently a matter of uncertain conjecture, and the scholia compiled at the end of the Talmudic age have no historical au­ thority. These days were kept as semi-holidays; public fasts were not appointed on them, and on a considerable number of them mourn­ ing was prohibited. In the course of time most of them ceased to be observed, and the memory of the events they commemo­ rated faded out. Our interest in the "Fasting Roll"—lucus a non — is the evidence it gives that Purim and the Dedication (IJanukkah) were not the only examples of commemorative festi­ vals instituted from time to time by the religious authorities of their own motion. Of the mode of the celebration, which, it may safely be assumed, embraced features of distinctive appropriate­ ness, tradition was early lost with the desuetude of the observ­ ance. 2

1

See 'Purim,' Jewish Encyclopedia, X, 274-280; I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (Index s.v. Purim). See Vol. I, p. 160. 2

CHAPTER

IV

PUBLIC FASTS

WHILE festive joy is the note of the holy seasons hitherto de­ scribed, the Day of Atonement on the tenth of Tishri is a time for men to ' afflict their souls/ and as feasting goes with re­ joicing, fasting belongs so inseparably with affliction that * afflict­ ing oneself is synonymous with fasting. The Day of Atonement is signalized as one of the great festivals of the year by supplementary burnt offerings with corresponding oblations as a sweet savor to the Lord, and a he goat for the accompanying sin offering, exactly as prescribed for New Years. The distinctive rites of the day, however, are piacular. These are of two types. The first, in their nature and original intent, are a disinfection of the sanctuary from the pollution that may have been contracted during the preceding year from the presence of men who were defiled by any of the varieties of uncleanness de­ tailed in the laws. To this end the high priest, after incensing the adytum of the temple, which none but he might ever enter and he only this one day of the year, brought into it, first, the blood of a bullock offered as a sin offering for himself and all the priesthood, which he sprinkled within the curtain, and then re­ peated the rite with the blood of the goat, a sin offering for the people. With the blood of the bullock he aspersed the curtain from without, and did the same with the blood of the goat; he next applied the blood of both, mingled, to the four corners of the altar of incense which stood in the front room of the temple, and to the surface of the great altar in the court. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Lev. 16, 3 1 ; 23,27, 29, 3 2 ; Num. 29, 7. Cf. Isa. 58, 3 - 7 . r w = DIS. nm m • Lev. 1 6 , 1 6 , 1 9 ; Ezek. 4 5 , 1 8 - 2 0 . For the ritual see Lev. 16, 2 - 1 9 , with Sifra on the passage; M. Yoma 5. For a commentary taking due account of tradition,'see D. Hoffmann, Das Buch Leviticus, I, 432-464. 2

3

4

5

ss

56

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

Of a different kind is the second part of the ritual. After the ceremonies described above, 'When he has finished expiating the sanctuary and the meeting-tent and the altar' (Lev. 16, 20), the high priest took a second goat, which in the first stage of the ritual had been drawn by lot 'for Azazel,' and pressing both his hands on the animal's head, confessed over it 'all the iniqui­ ties of the Israelites and all their transgressions, even all their sins,' and lading them on the head of the goat sent it, 'bearing upon it all their iniquities,' under conduct of a man previously appointed, to an isolated region, where it was let go into the wilderness. Similar rites of riddance, commonly called 'scapegoat' cere­ monies from the present instance — though the carrier may be man or beast or an inanimate vehicle such as a boat, and what is thus got rid of may be a contagious disease such as smallpox — are found among many races. A peculiar feature of the ritual, plainly symbolic, is to be noted. The high priest on this one day, and for this part of its rites only, is vested, not in his gorgeous pontificals of crimson and gold, but in pure white linen from head to foot. These are in an eminent sense 'the holy vestments'; before putting them on he must bathe himself in water, and this is repeated when, after the dismissal of the goat, he lays them aside. For the subse­ quent sacrifices of the day he resumes his pontificals. The ancient directions of Lev. 16, which have been summar­ ized in the foregoing paragraphs, must be supplemented by the traditional interpretation and liturgical practice preserved in the Midrash Torat Kohanim (Sifra) on Leviticus, and in the Mishnah 1

2

3

4

1

Cf. Ezek. 4 5 , 1 8 , Thou shalt un-sin the sanctuary; ibid. 20, Ye shall ex­ piate the house. According to the Palestinian Targum the goat was hurled down a preci­ pice to its death by a gust of wind sent by God; in M. Yoma 6, 6 it is pushed backward over a cliff by the man who led it into the wilderness. Lev. 1 6 , 8, 10 in the English version, following the Septuagint and Vul­ gate {caper emissarius). As, e.g., in the Attic Thargelia. See, in general, J . G. Frazer, Golden Bough, Vol. IX, The Scapegoat. 2

3

4

CHAP. I V ]

PUBLIC FASTS

57

and Tosefta on the Day of Atonement, if the rites are to be represented as they were performed in the Herodian temple. A description of the ceremonies in detail does not belong to our present task; but certain significant changes in the apprehension of the meaning and effect of the piacula, some of which are im­ pressed on the ritual itself, are not to be overlooked. The first of these is the introduction of a general confession of sin, twice pronounced, into the ritual of the sin offering brought for himself and the priesthood: "O Lord (pronouncing the Name), I have done wickedly, transgressed, sinned, before thee, I and my house; O Lord (as before) forgive the wickednesses and transgressions and sins that I have committed and transgressed and sinned before Thee, I and my house, as it is written in the law of Moses thy servant, 'For on this day shall atonement be made,'" etc. (Lev. 16,30); with the response of the priests behind him: "Blessed be His glorious Name whose kingdom is forever and ever." The confession of the sins of the people said over the head of the goat that is to be sent away is of the same tenor: "O Lord (the Name), Thy people, the house of Israel, have done wickedly, transgressed, sinned before Thee. O Lord (as before) forgive now the wickednesses and transgressions and sins that Thy people the house of Israel have committed and transgressed and sinned before Thee, as it is written in the law of Moses thy servant, 'For on this day shall atonement be made to purify you; from all your sins before the Lord shall ye be purified'" (Lev. 16, 30). When he uttered the ineffable Name, the priests and the people who were standing in the court knelt and worshipped and fell on their faces, and made the same response as the priests in the former case. 1

2

These confessions show, whatever may have been the origin of the rites, that the atonement was not a disinfection of the sanctuary with blood or a physical riddance of guilt conveyed away by the scapegoat, but an act of divine forgiveness; in other 1

M. Yoma 3, 8; 4 , 2.

2

M. Yoma 6, 2.

58

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

words, the cardinal doctrine of Judaism that the forgiveness of God is bestowed upon the sinner who seeks it of him in penitence with confession has here given its own meaning to the rites, which thus, consciously or unconsciously, become symbolical of it. In Sifra on Lev. 16,16 an interpretation of the 'uncleannesses of the Israelites' is proposed which would take the words of the three cardinal sins, heathenism (^abodah zarah), incest and kin­ dred crimes (gilluy araiyot), and homicide (shefikat damim), to each of which the epithet 'unclean' is applied in the Scriptures (Lev. 20, 3; Lev. 18, 3; Num. 35, 34). On exegetical grounds the soundness of which cannot be denied, this theory is rejected, but the inclination to moralize the conception of defilement is not devoid of interest. The Day of Atonement was not, like the three great festivals, in idea a concourse of all Israel, and though from its proximity to Tabernacles some pilgrims from a distance may have timed their arrival in Jerusalem so as to witness what they could of its solemnities, it is probable that the attendance of the laity was chiefly from the city and its vicinity. Long before the destruc­ tion of the temple the domestic observances of the day and the services of the synagogue had become of far greater moment in the religious life of the Jews in all lands than the expiation made for them by the high priest in Jerusalem. The Day of Atonement was a sabbath of eminent sanctity. The prohibitions of every kind of labor on it are emphatically iterated (Lev. 23, 28, 30, 31; 16, 29); they apply to native and alien in the land alike. While the violation of an ordinary sab­ bath was punishable by death, God threatened himself to destroy whoever does any work on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23, 30). In other respects it was most unlike the weekly sabbath. On the latter feasting and rejoicing were not only permissible but belonged to the duty of the day; on the Day of Atonement, from 1

c

2

3

1

Ed. Weiss f. 81c; quoted in Shebu'ot 7b. These are the sins that cause the withdrawal of the divine Presence (She­ kinah). Shabbat shabbaton. Lev. 23. 32. 2

3

PUBLIC FASTS

CHAP. I V ]

59

evening to evening, strict fasting is enjoined under penalty of extirpation (Lev. 23, 29). The Mishnah defines: "On the Day of Atonement it is forbidden to e a t or drink, or bathe or anoint oneself or wear sandals, or to indulge in conjugal intercourse." Young children were not made to fast, but were accustomed to a measure of privation a year or two before the fast became obligatory for them. Mitigations were allowed in the case of pregnant women, people who were ill, and various others; par­ ticularly where there was thought to be danger to life. The services in the synagogue, which began in the evening, and were resumed in the morning and continued throughout the day, were of penitential character; confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness are the substance of them for the congregation and for the individual. The confessions of the high priest for himself and for the people which have been quoted above were carried over into the synagogue in the part of the liturgy which brings before the congregation the course of the temple ritual, the Seder 'Abodah. Independent of this is the confession which forms a part of the synagogue liturgy, being pronounced by the Leader in Prayer in the Tefillah at each of the hours of prayer (including the Ne'ilah, which is peculiar to the day), and recited by individuals after the public prayer on each occasion. The first words of several such confessions are given in the Talmud in the name of teachers of the third century, showing that the forms were not yet stereotyped. Some of these confessions have been perpetuated in the later prayer books, doubtless in greatly expanded forms according to the whole tendency of the liturgy. One of these, cited in the name of Rab, runs in the modern prayer book: "Thou knowest the secrets of eternity and the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

M. Yoma 8, 1 (cf. 2 ) . A quantity as large as a big date. As much as a mouthful altogether. The last was prohibited on the sabbath also by some of the older sects. Jubilees 50, 8. The rabbinical law is to the contrary. M. Yoma 8, 4 - 7 . PT^. Yoma 87b. Yoma 87b; cf. also Jer. Yoma 45c. Abba Areka, d. 247. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

OBSERVANCES

6o

[PART IV

most hidden mysteries of all living. Thou searchest the inner­ most recesses, and triest the reins and the heart. Naught is concealed from thee, or hidden from thine eyes. May it then be thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to forgive us for all our sins, to pardon us for all our iniquities, and to grant us remission for all our transgressions." The following long specification of sins ('AlHet) belongs to a later stage in the development of the liturgy, and has been much amplified since its first appearance. Another of the forms of confession in the same passage of the Talmud, in the name of Mar Samuel, stands now in an inconspicuous place in the preface to the alpha­ betical Ashamnu. In the name of Hamnuna (fourth century) is quoted entire a prayer which still stands in the prayer books at the end of the Tefillah of the day: "O my God, before I was formed I was nothing worth, and now that I have been formed I am but as though I had not been formed. Dust am I in my life; how much more so after my death. Behold I am before thee like a vessel filled with shame and confusion. O may it be thy will, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that I may sin no more, and as to the sins I have committed, purge them away in thine abound­ ing compassion, though not by means of affliction and sore diseases. The ritual of atonement in the temple was performed by the priest for the whole people, who had no other part in it than to utter their doxology in response at a certain point in the service. In the synagogue the day was one long act of penitence on the part of the congregation, and pre-eminently of its members indi­ vidually. The confession of sins, which in the temple was an incident of the rite, was here the substance of it, and all the cir­ cumstance was of a kind to deepen the sense of sin in the appre­ hension of judgment, to give poignancy of sorrow for sin, to for­ tify the resolve of amendment, and to add urgency to the prayer 1

z

1

2

Singer's translation, p. 259; cf. Abrahams, p. cci. Yoma 87b; Singer, Prayer Book, p. 263; Abrahams, p. cci.

CHAP. I V ]

61

PUBLIC FASTS

for forgiveness — in a word, to cultivate the spirit of genuine and sincere repentance. From ceremonies of expiation and rid­ dance, which at the most might be made symbolical of purifi­ cation of heart and annulment of guilt, the service became a spiritual exercise. It has already been noted that the Day of Atonement was not only a fast but a high festival. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel declared that the Israelites had no more joyous festivals than the fifteenth of Ab (the day of the Wood Offering), and the Day of Atone­ ment, for it was a day of pardon and propitiation. The women of Jerusalem used to go out dressed in newly washed white gar­ ments, all borrowed for the occasion in order that those that owned no festal attire might not be put to shame; the maidens danced in the vineyards, and playfully challenged the young men to make their choice, whether for beauty, or family, or merit. The vineyard dance is an old popular custom (Judges 21, 19 ff.); the religious motive given in the Mishnah, which takes allegorically Cant. 3, 11 ('Go forth ye daughters of Zion and gaze upon King Solomon, on the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding-day, and on the day of the gladness of his heart') — the wedding day being the giving of the Law (the resto­ ration of the Decalogue, Exod. 34, 27 ff.), the day of gladness, the building of the temple (M. Ta'anit I.e.), is a pious after­ thought. If it is deemed necessary to correlate the dances with the ritual of the day, it may be supposed that they took place after the completion of the piacula, when the High Priest resumed his gorgeous vestments and proceeded to the festival sacrifices. In the observance of the day in the synagogue there was no place for such secular performances, even with the reference to 1

2

3

4

1

2

M. Ta'anit 4, 8. Ta'anit 30b. M. Ta'anit 4, 8; Ta'anit 3 1 a . The handsome girls said, Set your eyes on beauty, for a woman is only for beauty; the well-born said, Set your eyes on the family, for a woman is only for children; the ill-favored said, Take your choice for piety's sake D1K6, i.e., not for any worldly reason), only crown us with gold coins (bridal ornaments). Cf. ibid. 2 6 b . It is not unlikely that the verse itself was used in the festivities. 3

4

OBSERVANCES

62

[PART IV

the speedy rebuilding of the temple with which the Mishnah concludes (4, 8). To the seriousness of the day it doubtless contributed not a little that it had become the culmination of a penitential period which began ten days before with New Years. It had come to be believed that New Years (the first of Tishri) was an annual day of judgment on mankind. "On New Years Day all who come into the world pass before Him like sheep, as it is said, 'He who fashions the hearts of all, who scrutinizes all their doings'" (Psalm 33, 15; see also 13-14). In the Tosefta additional texts are quoted (Psalm 81,4 and 5). The judgment is passed on New Years, and the decree is sealed on the Day of Atonement (R. Meir). These are the earliest mentions of the notion, and it will be observed that it is associated with three other judgment days in the course of the year — at Passover for the crops, at Pentecost for the fruits, at Tabernacles for the rains. According to R. Johanan, there are three tablets, on which are inscribed respectively the names of the entirely righteous, the entirely wicked, and the betwixt-and-between. The first two are sentenced on New Years Day to life or death; for the third class sentence is suspended, and they are given ten days for repentance between New Years and the Day of Atonement; if they repent they are inscribed in the list of the righteous, if not, in that of the wicked. Biblical support for the notion is sought in Psalm 69, 2 9 : 'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living 1

2

3

4

1

So the obscure words jnft (M. Rosh ha-Shanah 1, 2) are under­ stood by the commentators. See Rosh ha-Shanah 18a below (K^D^K "Oau, and other guesses there); R. Hananel ad loc. and Rashi. In Tos. Rosh haShanah 1, 1 1 , the Erfurt manuscript reads f H D ; the Vienna manuscript, PIOU, i.e. a troop of soldiers (numerus); probably rightly. A similar inter­ pretation is given by R. Judah (b. Ezekiel) in the name of Samuel, Rosh haShanah 18a. Tos. Rosh ha-Shanah 1, 1 1 See also R. Judah (ben Ila'i) in the name of Akiba, Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 a . Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 57a, below; Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 b ; cf. also Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 5 7 b - ! 58a, where eternal life or reproach and eternal abhorrence (Dan. 1 2 , 2) are the alternative issues. Cf. Gen. R. 24, 3 (Bar Kappara). It is perhaps not superfluous to repeat that this is homiletic, not dogmatic. 2

3

4

CHAP. I V ]

PUBLIC FASTS

63

1

and not be written with the righteous.' Pious Jews accordinglyfast most of the ten penitential days from New Years (beginning the day before) to the Day of Atonement, but not on the day immediately preceding it, on which, indeed, fasting is forbidden.

2

The beginning of the agricultural year in the fall, coinciding roughly with the autumnal equinox, was fixed in the calendar, as we know it, on the first of Tishri, independently of the cycle of festivals beginning in the spring with the Passover and closing with Tabernacles (Tishri 15-22, 23). The day was doubtless celebrated from ancient times in the same way as other New Moons, to which special observances were added marking it as the beginning of the year. In Lev. 23, 24 f. it is a high sabbath, on which no servile work is to be done, a sacred convocation, with sacrifices to the Lord. Besides these features, which it has in common with other holy days, it is peculiarly noted as 'a commemoration signalized by a blast of horns.' The same reasons which led to the introduction of the second day of all festivals except the Day of Atonement applied with peculiar force to New Years, and the observance of the second day of this festival is said to have been ordained by the ancient prophets. At what point in the ritual the horn-blowing was performed in the temple is not recorded; one would suppose at an early stage in the morning service. In the synagogue it seems originally to have had a corresponding position, from which, we are told, it was transposed to the afternoon (Musaf) prayers, because on one occasion their enemies took the blasts for a call to arms and acted accordingly. It was subsequently given a 3

4

5

6

1

Cf. Rev. 3, 5; 13, 8; 1 7 , 8, etc.; Phil. 4, 3. — Exod. 32, 32 f. Yoma 8 ib. The critical questions which beset the history of the Jewish calendar did not occur to the Jews in our age. nynn . See also Num. 29, 1 - 6 , where the sacrifices of the day are specified. It is there also a n y n n DV, vs. 1. On the Zikronot in the liturgy see below, p. 64. Jer. 'Erubin 21 c. Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 59c. 2

3

4

5

6

64

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

place at the close of the morning service, but repeated in the afternoon. The characteristic features of the New Years liturgy are the three proper benedictions introduced into the Tefillah, known re­ spectively by the names Malkuyot, Zikronot, Shofarot. Each is made up of verses, three from the Pentateuch, three from the Hagiographa, three from the Prophets, concluding with another from the Pentateuch. The theme of the first is God as king, con­ cluding with the future universality of his kingdom (Zech. 14 ,9) and the confession of the divine unity (Deut. 6, 4). The theme of the second is God as judge, who is mindful of all men's deeds and judges them as they deserve, mindful also of his covenant and his promises to his people. The third brings together verses in which the horn (shofar) is named, from the revelation at Sinai to the blast that shall be the signal for the gathering of the dis­ persion to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. The introductions which now precede each of these pieces, whatever their age, are appropriate to the theme, and the first of the series, the Alenu, is very fine. Each of the three is followed by a prayer ending in a benediction, of which the same may be said. In the Zikronot the thought of the judgment day is de­ veloped: "This day, on which was the beginning of thy work, is a memorial of the first day, for it is a statute for Israel, a decree of the God of Jacob. Thereon also sentence is pronounced upon countries — which of them is destined to the sword and which to peace, which to famine and which to plenty; and each sepa­ rate creature is visited thereon, and recorded for life or for death. Who is not visited on this day? For the remembrance of every creature cometh before Thee, each man's deeds and destiny, his works and ways, his thoughts and schemes, his imaginings and achievements. Happy is the man that forgetteth Thee not," etc. The dominance of the idea of judgment gave the day a peculiarly 1

2

3

1 2

3

This disposition is prescribed in the Mishnah, Rosh ha-Shanah 4, 6. The creation according to one opinion began on the first of Tishri. Singer's translation, Daily Prayer Book, p. 250.

CHAP, i v ]

PUBLIC FASTS

65

serious character, comparable to that of the Day of Atonement, even in the very protracted services, but it was not, like it, a fast day. There are interesting analogies to this development in the his­ tory of the Christian liturgy. In the so-called Advent season preceding the festival of the Nativity, the thought of the church was centred, not on the approaching commemoration of the birth of the Saviour, but on his coming as the judge to the last assize with all its terrors. It was a season of mourning: the Gloria in Excelsis was omitted in the Mass; the organ was silent; the pictures in the churches were covered; the altar cloths and the stoles of the priests were violet, the color of mourning. Fast­ ing was prescribed; marriages were not solemnized. Another sim­ ilarity may be noted: in the Latin Church Advent became the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. The parallel is the more noteworthy because the history of the Christian Advent makes it evident that the two are entirely independent. The case may well be a warning against the fallacy of that abuse of the "com­ parative method'' which jumps at derivation wherever it finds analogies. Of regular fast days, aside from those already described, the Jewish calendar had very few. During the seventy years of the exile four such days were kept annually in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months (Tammuz, Ab, Tishri, Tebet) respec­ tively, in memory of disastrous events in the final conflict with Babylonia from the investment of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnez­ zar (Ezek. 24, 1 f.) to the murder of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25, 25) . With the rebuilding of the temple the reason for these fasts ceased, and by an oracle to Zechariah they were discontinued. After the destruction of the second temple by Titus, the fast of the ninth of Ab commemorated both that event and the like catastrophe under Nebuchadnezzar, and with it the other three 1

2

3

1

2

3

Zech. 8, 1 9 ; cf. 7 , 5 f. Rosh ha-Shanah 18b. Sifre Deut. §31 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 2 b , top).

OBSERVANCES

66

CPART IV

old historical fasts were revived. After the war under Hadrian Bether also was added to the sorrows of the ninth of Ab. The accumulation of the direst calamities on this day gave it an importance that outdid its old companions and the numer­ ous fast days that were at one time or another inserted in the calendar. The fast was now prolonged, including the night as well as the day time. In view of the nature of the events com­ memorated it was natural that the observance of the day should take the character of mourning. "All the laws that are observed in mourning are observed also in keeping the Ninth of A b : it is forbidden to eat or drink, to bathe or anoint oneself or to put on sandals, or indulge in conjugal intercourse; forbidden also to read the Law, Prophets, or Hagiographa, or study any branch of the unwritten law." One might, however, study unfamiliar and difficult parts of the Law, written or unwritten — which was no recreation—or read Job, Lamentations, and the ominous prophecies in Jeremiah. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) would permit only the latter. School children had a holiday because the commandments of the Lord rejoice the heart (Psalm 19, 9) — a mood unsuitable to the sadness of the day. R. Judah carried the resemblance to mourning still farther; he would have the bed upset, but the majority did not agree with him. It is reported, however, that he himself passed the day exactly like one in mourning for one near of kin whose dead body lay before him. The teachers of the second century are very emphatic about the strict fast; eating and drinking on the Ninth of Ab is as bad as on the Day of Atonement. Work was not everywhere sus­ pended, and it was licit to follow local custom; but labor on the day was strongly disapproved. Akiba declared that a man who worked on the Ninth of Ab would never see a sign of blessing, 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

M. Ta'anit 4 , 6, where two more misfortunes are added; see the Talmud in loc. f. 29a. Ta'anit 30a. Ibid. Ibid. M. Ta'anit 4 , 7. Ta'anit 3oa-b. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, Ta'anit 30b. Ibid. 2

3

5

6

7

4

8

PUBLIC FASTS

CHAP. I V ]

67

and the majority of the learned said that no one who worked on that day and did not mourn over Jerusalem should behold her rejoicing (Isa. 66, 10). 1

Occasional public fasts appointed by authority were in Palestine most frequently observed when the autumn rains, which were expected soon after the Feast of Tabernacles, were so long de­ ferred as to arouse apprehension of a failure of the crops. The Book of Joel gives a vivid description, doubtless on some dire occasion, of the devastation wrought by prolonged drought and the plague of locusts which frequently concurred with it, and summons the people to a solemn mourning fast, bewailing their calamitous state, repenting of their sins, and pleading with God for compassion and relief. His gracious response followed (Joel 2, 18 ff.). The great fast of the repentant Ninevites (Jonah 3, 5-10) and the revoking of the doom pronounced upon them also gave a biblical picture of such an observance, and its lesson is the boundless mercy of God towards repentant sinners — even heathen. One of the primitive motives for fasting., private or public, is to excite the pity of a god by the spectacle of distress, and ob­ viously there is such an appeal to God's compassion in the biblical instances just adduced. Noteworthy disasters were generally at­ tributed to the wrath of the gods whom men had in some way offended, and lamentations for the offense, known or unknown, were ordinary on such occasions. Under the teaching of the prophets, Judaism had come to conceptions of sin and repentance far beyond these beginnings, but the old modes of expression were perpetuated. If by the seventeenth of Marheshvan the 2

1

Ta'anit 30b. According to Gittin 57a, Kefar Sekanya in Galilee, which has elsewhere Nazarene associations, notwithstanding the virtues of its in­ habitants, was destroyed because they did not mourn over Jerusalem. For Kefar Sekanya DntfD ^ (Egypt!) read DnSU f>B>, Nazarenes. See Eleazar (ben Pedat): Three things annul a dire decree (of God), namely, prayer, and charity, and repentance, and all of them are found in one verse (2 Chron. 7 , 1 4 ) . Jer. Ta'anit 65b, top. Cf. Bacher, Palast. Amoraer II, 13 (n. 2 - 4 ) . 2

68

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

autumn rains had not begun, the religious heads of the commu­ nity began to fast in a mitigated fashion. If this did not avail they appointed a general fast on three days (Monday, Thursday, Monday), then a severer fast on three days (Thursday, Monday, Thursday); finally seven public fast days, on which the shops were closed and the Shofar blown. The chest in which the rolls of the Law were kept was carried out into a public square and ashes were strewn upon it. The dignitaries and all the people put ashes on their heads; the eldest among them spoke affecting words: "Brethren, it is not said of the men of Nineveh, God saw their sackcloth and their fasting, but God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways (Jonah 3, 10); and in the Prophets He says, Rend your hearts and not your garments" (Joel 2, 13). The modifications of the daily prayer (Tefillah), the Psalms to be read, and the special prayer to be said, are minutely prescribed. The Mishnah affectingly depicts the scene and the service on such an occasion. Public fasts were appointed by the authorities in other perils or calamities, or when for any reason the Jews believed themselves to be under divine displeasure, after such biblical examples as Judges 20, 26; 1 Sam. 7, 6; 2 Chron. 12, 5-8; Neh. 9,1, etc; and this custom has continued to modern times. An appendix to the commentary on Megillat Ta'anit enumer­ ates various commemorative fasts, among which are several dedicated to the martyrs of the time of Hadrian on the days of their martyrdom, and the fast on the tenth of Tebet, the day on which the Law was written in Greek in the time of King Ptolemy, when there was darkness over the world for three days. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

M. Ta'anit 2, 1. For the reason for these ceremonies see Ta'anit 1 6 a ; Jer. Ta'anit 65a. M. Ta'anit 2, 1. Psalms 120, 1 2 1 , 130, 102. M. Ta'anit 2. M. Ta'anit 3 (Ta'anit 19a). Cf. 1 Mace. 3, 4 7 ; 2 Mace. 13, 12, etc. Cf. Soferim i, 7. The Greek translation put the Law into the hands of the Gentiles, and particularly of the Christians, who claimed it as their Scrip­ ture and interpreted it to support their doctrine. This experience made the Jews more careful to guard the traditional law by prohibiting putting it into writing. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ki tissa § 1 7 ; cf. ibid. Wayyera § 6. 2

5

6

3

4

CHAP, i v ]

PUBLIC FASTS

69

The higher teaching of Judaism about the fast that is accept­ able to God. in contrast to the external form, has its classical ex­ pression in Isa. 58, 3 ff., which is appointed (Isa. 57, 14-58, 1 4 ) for the prophetic lesson at the morning service on the Day of Atonement. The self-imposed fasting of individuals will be con­ sidered in a later connection. 1

2

3

1

See Tos. Ta'anit 1 , 8 ; Jer. Ta'anit 65b near the top (Eleazar ben Pedat). See, in general, Jer. Ta'anit on M. Ta'anit 2, 1. Megillah 3 1 a . See below, pp. 257 ff. 2

3

CHAPTER TAXATION.

V

INTERDICTIONS

ANOTHER class of observances which was of large importance in the economic and domestic life of the Jews had to do with the support of the ministers of religion. The maintenance of the public cultus in the temple was provided for by the annual halfshekel poll-tax collected not only in Palestine but throughout the whole diaspora. The priests officiating in private sacrifices, whether obligatory or voluntary, had a share for their services according to a legal tariff. But the very numerous clergy of different ranks were maintained by a system of religious taxation, which also embraced what we call poor-relief. The basis of this system, as defined in the fundamental law, were the annual tithes of agricultural produce to be paid to the levites, who in their turn tithed to the priests. This law con­ tains no provision for the collection of the tithe, everything being apparently left to the conscience of the tax-payer, which all ex­ perience proves to be a slender reliance. Even in the very narrow limits of Judaea under Persian rule the voluntary method evi­ dently did not work, and the compact in Neh. 10, 33 ff. provides for the collection of the tithes in the agricultural communities by levites accompanied by a priest (Neh. 7, 38 f.); even this plan was not successful, for in Neh. 13, 10, we read that the tithes were not paid, and the levites deserted the temple to get a living by tilling their own fields. In the first century of our era the tithes were collected by the priests for themselves; and in the evil days before the rebellion of the year 66, avaricious high priests 1

2

3

4

5

1

With the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. these revenues ceased. Num. 1 8 . ^erumat ma user. See in general the article "Tithes" in the Encyclo­ paedia Biblica, IV, cols. 5 1 0 2 - 5 1 0 5 . See also Mai. 3, 8 f. Josephus, Vita cc. 1 2 and 1 5 . 2

3

4

5

70

TAXATION

CHAP. V ]

7i

sent bands of bravos who seized the tithes on the threshing floors and beat the priests who tried to keep what they had a right to. So far as the collection of the tithes by the priests instead of the levites is concerned, the Talmud recognizes the departure from the law as of long standing, and legitimizes it: Ezra took away the tithes from the levites because so few of them were willing to return. Another of the priestly revenues prescribed in the laws were the first fruits of crops of grains and fruits, the amount of which is fixed in the Mishnah as a fortieth, fiftieth, or sixtieth of the crop by estimation of value, according to the liberality of the owner. Mention must also be made of the Hallah, a portion of every batch of dough to be given to a priest in a proportion also defined in the Mishnah. Into the details of these requirements as they were interpreted in our period it is needless to go further here. All of these applied in the letter of the law only to the land of Israel, however at any time its boundaries might be defined. From the discussion in M. Yadaim 4,3, participated in by leading authorities of the second century, it appears that it had so long been customary in Babylonia to set apart the tithes that it was regarded as an institution of the prophets; in Egypt it had been established by the elders, i.e. it was less ancient; and so also in Ammon and Moab. Elsewhere we learn that Syria was in this respect treated substantially like the land of Israel. The system is adapted to very primitive economic conditions; 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Jos. Antt. xx. 8, 8 § 1 8 1 ; 9, 2 §§ 2o6f. Hullin 1 3 1 b ; Ketubot 2 6 a ; Yebamot 86a-b. Terumah gedolah. Num. 1 8 , 1 1 - 1 3 . M. Terumot 4, 3 ; 1, 7. Num. 1 5 , 1 7 - 2 1 . M. Hallah 2, 7. The biblical law applied only to the Land of Israel; the extension to other countries is rabbinical. On the disposition of the Hallah (a bit of the dough cast into the fire) reference must be made to the codes. M. Yadaim 4, 3. According to R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus), on the con­ trary, it was a Mosaic tradition. Cf. Tos. Yadaim 2, 1 6 . M. Demai 6 , 1 1 ; Tos. Kelim i. 1, 5. " Syria" stands for regions conquered by David. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

OBSERVANCES

72

[PART IV

it supposes a population occupying a small territory within easy reach of the temple, and chiefly engaged in small agriculture, on which the whole burden of the religious taxation falls. Moreover, the system, with its numerous and various payments in kind, was complicated, while the method of collection, so far as there was such a thing, had the semblance — and doubtless often the substance — of extortion by the beneficiary. It is small wonder that the peasant earned the reputation of being very "untrustworthy" in acquitting himself of his religious obligations in this sphere. Even the most scrupulous of the class doubtless followed in this as in other matters the prescriptive usage of their fathers, heedless of the stricter interpretation of these laws in the schools and of the refinements of the oral law. Investigation showed, we are told, that the only law that was generally observed was the separation of the Terumah Gedolah, which could be eaten only by priests and their families in a state of ritual cleanness; some set apart the several tithes, others did not. This negligence gave great concern to the religious leaders, but evidently their efforts to secure conformity to their standard had small success. Nor was the laxity of the common man in such matters his private affair which he might have to settle for himself with God. Such robbery of God was a national crime which was visited on the whole people; the favor of God and his blessing could be recovered only by complete amendment (Mai. ,8-i2). It was also the individual concern of every truly pious man. What should such a one do who bought grain, fruit, vegetables, wine or oil, which were subject to tithing, from the country people who brought them to market, or bread from a baker or dealer? There was not only the uncertainty whether the tithe had been properly separated and disposed of, but further 1

2

3

1

The investigation and subsequent regulation are attributed to Johanan the High Priest (John Hyrcanus). See Sotah 4 8 a ; [M.] Sotah 9, 1 0 ; Tos. Sotah 13, 10. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 57, 3 (ed. Buber f. 148b, f.). The neglect of tithingjwas one of the causes of the exile. 2

TAXATION

CHAP. V ]

73

doubt whether the seller was telling the truth when he averred — as he would be sure to do — that it was all right. The question was a serious one, for it was taught that the failure to separate the tithe of the (levites') tithe which should go to the priest was a mortal sin equally with the Terumah Gedolah. Things to which this doubt attached were called Demai, "Dubious," and the various cases and what is to be done about them are dealt with under that title in a treatise in the Mishnah and Tosefta, and in the Palestinian Talmud. The general rule is that the buyer of "dubious" produce should separate from his purchase a hundredth part (tenth of a tenth), the terumat mdaser spoken of above. The religious leaders no doubt endeavored, through instruction and exhortation, to impress upon the people the magnitude of their offending in thus defrauding God in the person of his min­ istry, but they certainly did not succeed in bringing about a great reformation. Societies were also formed whose members pledged themselves to one another to be "trustworthy" in these matters, and scrupulous in keeping other laws about which there was much laxity, especially in matters of uncleanness and purification. These were not made up of the educated class solely; on the contrary they sought to draw in the common people, who were received on the same conditions, to instruct them in the exact requirements of the laws, and to get them to give their solemn word to be henceforth "trustworthy" in fulfill­ ing them. The members of these societies called themselves Haberim, 'associates'; it seems likely that to them the name Pharisees was originally applied, being subsequently extended to all who exhibited a similar scrupulousness. The Haberim are con­ trasted in this respect with the Amme ha-ares ( arasot) 'the people of the land,' who could not ordinarily be trusted in such matters. 1

2

3

c

y

y

4

1

There is no Babylonian Talmud upon these parts of the Mishnah. Mishneh Torah, Hilkot Ma'aser 9, 2. neeman (M. Demai 2, 2 ) . See Jackson and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, Part I, Vol. 1 , Appendix E (pp. 439-445). 2

3

4

OBSERVANCES

74

[PART IV

On other Jewish observances we can be more summary. A large class fall under the head of avoidance of things stigmatized in the laws as 'unclean.' It was, for example, a peculiarity often noted by pagan writers that the Jews regarded swine's flesh with abhorrence. Numerous other species were similarly prohibited in the Law, but, inasmuch as most of them were creatures that no civilized man would eat anyhow, these restric­ tions on diet belonged to learning rather than to life. Of fundamental importance, on the other hand, was the often repeated injunction not to eat any flesh with blood in it, a mons­ trous offence, the penalty of which is extirpation from the people by God. The prohibition in the Scripture is as indefinite as it is emphatic, and it was left to the oral law, based, no doubt, on immemorial practice but elaborated in detail by the labors of the schools, to prescribe a mode of slaughter by which the danger that there should be a remainder of blood might be eliminated. The laws also forbade eating the flesh of an animal that died from natural causes (nebelah) or was torn (by beasts or birds of prey— terefah)* In the regulations for the correct slaughtering of animals for food, precautions were accordingly taken that the beast should not die of anything but the effusion of blood, espe­ cially not of suffocation, which would make it nebelah? The pro­ hibition of terefah was extended to include injuries and organic diseases, for instance of the lungs, which would eventually cause death. The latter could only be determined by inspection of the 1

2

3

4

5

1

'Clean' and 'unclean' in religious definition. Both 'unclean' and 'holy' have their root in ancient interdictions. Theodore Reinach, Textes d'auteurs grecs et romains relatifs au Judaisme, passim. The abhorrence was intensified when the beast was a sac­ rificial victim. Isa. 65, 4 ; 66, 3, 1 7 ; 1 Mace. 1, 4 7 ; 2, 2 3 ; 2 Mace. 6, 1 8 - 3 1 . A comparison of the so-called 'dietary laws' of other religions, e.g. in India, is instructive. The karet. See above, p. 6. Gen. 9, 4 ; Lev. 3, 1 7 ; 7, 2 5 ^ ; 1 7 , iof.; 1 9 , 2 6 ; Deut. 1 2 , 1 6 , 2 3 ; 1 5 , 23. Lev. 17, 1 5 ; 22, 8. Acts 1 5 , 1 9 f., 28 f.; 2 1 , 2 5 . The inclusion of "things strangled" in these places is, however, secondary. See J.'H. Ropes, The Text of Acts (1926), pp. 265-269. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, v ]

INTERDICTIONS

75

inwards after the animal had been killed. The flesh of animals which had not been killed in the prescribed way or which were not found on inspection to be sound was forbidden food to every Jew. These regulations made it difficult for a Jew who strictly ob­ served the laws to eat meat at the table of a Gentile, who lay under the presumption of observing none of them, though he might invite a Gentile to his table. The first serious conflict in the new Christian community arose over this point, and the danger of a schism was narrowly averted. It should be added that there was another and even more cogent motive deterring the Jew from accepting the hospitality of Gentiles, namely the possibility that he might partake of the flesh of an animal that had been offered to a heathen God or of wine from which a liba­ tion had been made, and thus be constructively guilty of joining in a sacrificial meal, an act of 'heathenism.' Closely associated with the prohibition of blood is that of the abdominal fat (heleb) of neat cattle, sheep, and goats. The original motive of the prohibition seems to have been that this fat was exclusively reserved to be burnt on the altar, as the blood was an atonement upon the altar (Lev. 17, 11), but the cessation of sacrifice did not abrogate the law. Another observance which even more profoundly than these has affected the Jewish kitchen and diet is developed from the ancient law, 'Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk,' which grew into a segregation so complete that the bringing of any kind of flesh and any kind of milk or any dish prepared with milk into any kind of juxtaposition in the kitchen or on the table at the same meal is regarded as a violation of the law. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Legend tells of banquets which the Patriarch Judah gave to " Antoninus," both on the Sabbath and on week days. Gen. R. n , 2. p 'Abodah zarah. See 1 Cor. 8. Lev. 3, 1 7 (cf. vs. i 4 f . ) ; 7, 2 3 - 2 5 , etc. The more precise definition of what is heleb need not be gone into here. Exod. 23, 1 9 ; 34, 2 6 ; Deut. 14, 2 1 . Targum Onkelos in all three places, "You shall not eat flesh with milk." See Mekilta, Mishpatim c. 20 (ed. Friedmann f. i o 2 a - b ; ed. Weiss f. i o 8 a - b ) . For the refinements of these rules see Maimonides, Hilkot Ma'akalot Asurot 9, 1 ff.; Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah §§ 8 7 - 9 7 . 2

4

6

6

3

76

OBSERVANCES

[PART IV

There is a multitude of things that are in the religious defini­ tion 'unclean' and may communicate uncleanness by contact and sometimes through an intermediary, demanding therefore, 'purification' — a species of contagion requiring religious disin­ fection. Death is the most redoubtable of these, and next to it sexual functions, normal or pathological; a very high degree of uncleanness attaches to the various skin diseases comprehended under the general name 'leprosy.' The contamination is in many cases transmissible. There are also many animal kinds, espe­ cially vermin, which contaminate by contact. All these topics and others like them have an extensive and minute development which fills a large space in the Mishnah and cognate works. By very many of these laws the common man was little troubled. The rabbinical interpretation was that he need not be particular about them unless he was going to visit the temple, or where it was a question of consecrated food, the priest's portion, and the second tithe. Otherwise he might eat ordinary food (hullin) re­ gardless of questions of levitically clean or unclean. Those forms of uncleanness which demanded an ablution could be removed in that way. Outside the land of Israel most laws prescribing ritual purifications were not in force, and with the destruction of the temple they ceased in Palestine also. The supererogatory piety of the "associates" undertook in such matters to maintain a supersacerdotal standard, by eating their unconsecrated food in a state of purity and keeping themselves at all times from every kind of uncleanness. 1

2

Notions and customs of the same general character, and often strikingly similar in particulars, are found all over the earth and through all known ages, and in scrupulousness about them the so-called' primitive' peoples are unsurpassable. They come out of a prehistoric past and persist through all stages of culture. Many 1

Maimonides, Hilkot Tum'at Okelin 16, 8 - n . See Sifra, Shemini Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 49a); Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 b . Maimonides I.e. § 1 2 : From this these hasidim rishonim were called perushim (Pharisees), etc. M. Ilagigah 2, 7; cf. 'Abodah Zarah 20b; Jer. She­ kalim 47c, below (Phineas ben Jair). 2

CHAP, v ]

INTERDICTIONS

77

modern scholars have been much interested in the beginnings of these things — how 'primitive' men ever came to think and do thus and so — and often seem to assume that in the answer would be found an explanation of the phenomena as they survive in religions far removed from primitiveness. It is demonstrable, however, that customs often outlive the ideas that engendered them so long that those who practice them know as little about their origin or significance as we, and when curiosity raises the question, a myth is invented to answer it or a rationalistic expla­ nation is excogitated. When religious custom comes not only to be put under divine sanction, but is believed to have been ordained and made known to men by God, and when finally such ordinances become part of a body of divine legislation, the all-sufficient answer to the question why this or that is done or left undone is that God has so commanded — "it is a statute of the King of kings." Nothing can be learned about what the observances of religion meant in Judaism by an investigation of their primitive analogies or pre­ historic origins. Eating pork may be labelled an ancient ' foodtaboo'— though the outlandish word does not suggest the smallest idea why their ancestors excluded swine's flesh from their diet — but the Jews themselves could give no other reason for abstinence than that God had prohibited it. For some laws God had given a reason, for others not; but whether he had or not, and whether in the latter case men could divine a reason or not, they were bound to obey his command. To repeat what has been emphasized more than once before in this volume, this is the logic of a revealed religion. Upon its premises, any other attitude is ipso facto a rejection of the religion and of God who is its author. 1

There is no reason to imagine that the observances of which we have spoken were new in the so-called post-exilic period, and still less that they were introduced or revived by Ezra and other 1

An example of the former kind in the Bible is the 'sinew that shrank', Gen. 3 2 , 3 3 .

OBSERVANCES

78

[PART IV

reformers to keep the Jews a separate people by increasing the difficulty of mixing with their neighbors. If they came to be casuistically developed and more scrupulously attended to in the last centuries before the Christian era and in those that followed, at least in the circles of the pious and the associations of the Pharisees, it was a consequence of a clearer and more consistent notion of what is involved in the possession of a revealed religion, and a deeper conviction that the fulfilment of all the great promises of the Scriptures was dependent on the fulfilment of their conditions in the conformity of the people, collectively and individually, to the will of God made known to them in the two­ fold law. If this is what is meant by the "legalism" of the Scribes and Pharisees, the name cannot be denied them, though another de­ rivative of lex, 'loyalty,' would express their conscious attitude better. It is pertinent to add that from this point of view observ­ ances are not the 'externals' of religion, the outgrown vestments of ideas; conformity to the revealed will of God is the essence of religion. The effect of this conception of religion in theory and practice on Jewish piety will be discussed in a later chapter. Meanwhile it must suffice to repeat that this conception, being given in re­ velation itself, was the only one possible in Judaism with the Bible in its hands. 1

1

English 'lealty' (legality), fealty (fidelity) to the sovereign and his law. — On another use of' legalism' see below.

PART

V

MORALS

CHAPTER GENERAL

I

CONSIDERATIONS

IN A previous chapter it has been remarked that the splitting of the law into ceremonial and moral has no warrant in the relig­ ion itself, which claims for its sphere the whole of life, and not only of the outward life but of the inward life which we call piety. The Jews, as we have seen, did not fail to distinguish between commandments and prohibitions which were, we may say, of natural obligation, recognized by the reason and con­ science of all right thinking men and by the legislation of all nations, and statutory laws given to Israel alone, which are known only through divine revelation; but they made no attempt to carry this distinction through, and had no reason to do so. Right and wrong were for them not defined by the reason and conscience of men, naive or reflective, nor by national custom or the consensus gentium, but by the revealed will of God; and con­ stituted a distinctive Jewish morality which as a whole was dif­ ferent from that of other peoples, as the observances of Judaism, whatever their resemblance to the rites and ceremonies of other religions, constituted a distinctive Jewish cultus and observance. Morals had thus a legal character, whether in form they were mandatory like the categorical injunctions and prohibitions in the laws, or hortatory, as in large part they are not only in the Prophets but in the Law itself, or the examples of good and bad men in the narratives, or counsels of wisdom commended by experience in Proverbs, or the outcome of piety as in the Psalms — in substance all belonged to the God-given rule of life. It was as such that they were apprehended, interpreted, developed, and inculcated in the school and the synagogue. It was through 1

2

1

See above. Part iv. See M. Lazarus, Die Ethik des Judenthums, I, chap. v. (Versittlichung ist Gesetzlichkeit). 2

7g

MORALS

8o

[PART V

the influence of the Scribes (biblical scholars) and their succes­ sors, from the days of the Men of the Great Assembly down, that a normative Jewish ethic was established as well as a nor­ mative observance. In the present chapter we shall have to do chiefly with the moral teaching of these recognized authorities. Writings such as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are instructive as showing how substantially the same teachings — for the most part lying on the surface of the Bible — were popu­ larized in a characteristic literary form. In another way Sirach is of the greatest value for the evidence he gives of the unbroken continuity, in this as in other things, of the teaching from the days of the early Scribes to the Talmud. The main source here as in other parts of our undertaking is the consecutive exposition of the Pentateuch (Exodus to Deu­ teronomy) in the schools of the second century, and the quota­ tions of similar origin and character in the Talmud (Baraita). It is not exclusively from the interpretation and application of the moral precepts of the Law that the teachings of the rabbis are to be gathered. The more strictly juristic parts of the same works, and the systematic formulation of the law (Halakah) in the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah and kindred works, both in criminal and civil law and in procedure, as well as in connection with observances, exemplify the same principles in various ways. Many illustrations of this will appear in the course of our sub­ sequent inquiry. Of the extent to which the conduct of the Jews at large was shaped by these standards there is no means of judging. The teachers had in the synagogue a unique institution for the educa­ tion of all classes in religion and morals and made the most of it; but the experience of similar endeavors in more modern times shows that multitudes of men evade their opportunities of educa1

2

1

Mekilta, Sifra, Sifre. M. Lazarus notes especially laws relating to business transactions, Baba Mesi'a 44a-6ob. Ethik des Judenthums, I, 293 ff. 2

CHAP, i ]

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

81

tion, and that being well instructed in duty and consistently doing it are different things. The Jews unquestionably felt that in mo­ rality they were superior to the nations among whom they lived, and in some things they doubtless were so; but as flatteringly fallacious modern examples again show, the comparison may be between moral ideals on the one side and immoral reality on the other. Strictures or satires in Greek and Latin literature, on the other hand, generalize from the morals and manners of the pro­ letariat of great cities, with an unconcealed dislike and contempt for the whole race which should warn the historian against taking their prejudiced utterances as objective testimony. Fortunately these are questions into which we are not called to enter here; our concern is with the moral teaching of Judaism and the con­ duct of those who most faithfully translated principles and rules from doctrine into practice. Before we address ourselves to this task certain preliminary observations remain to be made. The first is that the Jews did not develop ethics as a branch of philosophy, a science of conduct and character, such as we have in mind when we speak of the ethics of the Greeks. Hellenistic Jews like the author of the socalled Fourth Book of Maccabees and especially Philo appro­ priated the definitions and terminology of Greek ethics, and endeavored to show that the morality taught and exemplified in the Scriptures was in complete accord with what the philosophers taught in more abstract form on the authority of right reason, which was itself another mode of divine revelation. In the Mid­ dle Ages a succession of Jewish thinkers, among whom Maimon­ ides is the most famous name, undertook the same demonstration from their own philosophical point of view. The motive of these enterprises was, however, not to construct a Jewish system of ethics but to prove to educated Jews and others the rational and moral excellence of Jewish ethics, and while of very great in­ terest, they must be regarded as a chapter of apologetics rather than as a constructive essay in ethical theory. With such partial exceptions, what are called Jewish ethics are in substance and

MORALS

82

[PART V

form more exactly described as preceptive morals; they are the morals of a religion, and their obligation lies not in the reason and conscience of men but in the authority of the sovereign Lawgiver. Furthermore, no attempt is made to systematize these pre­ cepts for paedagogic ends by classifying them under general topics of any kind, as was done in the Mishnah for civil and criminal laws, for the cultus, and for the whole range of observ­ ances, public and private. The fact is of itself most significant. Things that are susceptible of exact definition and quantitative determination, such as the taxes for the support of the ministry and of the poor, or the keeping of the sabbath and other holy days, or forbidden kinds of food and the whole field of clean and unclean, are treated in that way, and carried by juristic casuistry to the utmost refinements; while such virtues as filial piety, philanthropy, charity, have no measure or norm, but are left to the conscience and right feeling of the individual. These and many other things are in the rabbinical phrase masurla-leb, 'committed to the heart.' Generalizing from Lev. 19, 14 and 32; 25, 36 and 43, they say, Wherever something is thus left to conscience, the Scripture says of it, And thou shalt revere the Lord thy God.' Judaism never developed a systematic ethical casuistry such as we find in the Stoics or in the Christian church, not only in Roman Catholic treatises on Moral Theology but among Protestants, though particular problems are occa­ sionally treated in that way. A very interesting example from the end of the first century of our era is the discussion of the question what should be done if, of two wayfarers in the desert, one had a little water while the other had none. If one of them should drink all the water, he would be able to get out; if 1

2

3

4

5

1

For the phrase see M. Peah 1, i; cf. Tos. Peah 1 , 1 . Baba Mesi'a 5 8 b ; ICiddushin 3 2 b near the end. M. Lazarus, Ethik des Judenthums, I, 95, 400-402. Sifra on Lev. 25, 3 6 , ed. Weiss f. I09d. Perles, Boussets Religion des Judentums, p. 7 6 . See further below, p. 92. For example in Cicero, De officiis (after Panaetius). See R. M. Wenley, ' Casuistry/ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, III, 239 ff. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

83

they should divide it, both would die. Ben Paturi said they should both drink, and die, for it is written, 'And thy brother shall live with thee' (Lev. 25, 36); R. Akiba replied,'Thy brother shall live with thee — thy life takes precedence of his life. Though the Jewish teachers made no attempt to classify the virtues, they sought in the Scripture passages or verses in which the essence of morality was compendiously expressed. By an ingenious conceit to which reference has been made above, it was reckoned that Moses gave to the Israelites as many positive commandments as there are members and organs in the human body (248), and as many negative commandments (prohibitions) as there are days in the solar year (365), in all six hundred and thirteen. R. Simlai, in a homily, starting from these six hundred and thirteen commandments, continues: "David came and com­ prehended them in eleven (Psalm 15, quoted entire). Isaiah came and comprehended them in six: 'He that walketh right­ eously, and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain ac­ quired by oppression, that shaketh out his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil; he shall dwell on high,' etc. (Isa. 33, 15). Micah came and comprehended them in three: 'He has told thee, O man, what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee. Only to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God' (Micah 6, 8). Isaiah further compre1

1

2

3

4

1

You must be alive, if he is to live with you. Sifra on Lev. 25, 36 (ed. Weiss f. 109c); Baba Mesi'a 62a. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 60, cites the problem of the two shipwrecked men in Cicero, De officiis iii. 2 3 , 90. In Hellenistic writers we find the common quadripartite scheme. Thus, 2

4 Mace. 1, 2 - 4 (cj)p6vY)<ns, aoxfrpocrvvr],

duccuoavvr),

avdpeia),

cf.

1, 1 8 ; 5, 2 3 ;

Wisdom of Solomon 8, 7 ; Philo, Legum allegoriarum i. 19 § 63 (the four rivers flowing out of Eden,
3

4

8

MORALS

4

[PART V

hended them in two: 'Observe justice and do righteousness' (Isa. 56, 1). Amos came and comprehended them in one: 'Seek me and live' (Amos 5, 4)." Another finds the one comprehensive word in Habakkuk: 'The righteous man shall live by his faith­ fulness' (Hab. 2, 4; cf. Rom. 1, 17; Gal. 3, 1 1 : 'The just shall live by faith'). The commandments in the Pentateuch, however they may be counted, are largely concerned with ritual and observance; the 'law in a nutshell' in these summaries is solely moral. The selection also demands a word of note. One would seek far in the Scripture to find a finer ideal of the virtuous man than Psalm 15, and the essence of religion has never been so pregnantly expressed as in Micah 6, 8. R. Simlai's often quoted sermon is not solitary. Bar Kappara asks, What short passage is there upon which all the essentials of the Law depend? 'In all thy ways know (ac­ knowledge) Him, and He will make thy paths straight' (Prov. 3, 6). Of Leviticus 19 it is said that it was delivered in the as­ sembly of all Israel because most of the essentials of the Law depend upon it. The motto of Simeon the Righteous was: "The world is sus­ tained by three things, by the Law, by Worship, and by Charity." By the Law is meant not alone the objective revelation, without which the world could not endure, but the knowledge of the Law acquired and cultivated by learned and pious study. Worship was in his day the cultus in the temple, including not only the sacrificial ritual but the praises and prayers by which it was ac­ companied; after the cessation of the cultus the word was natur1

2

3

4

5

1

Makkot 24a. Without the illustrative examples, Tanhuma ed. Buber, Shofetim § 10. Numerous other parallels, D ^ J J on Makkot 1. c. Berakot 6 3 a . Sifra on Lev. 19, 1 f. (ed. Weiss f. 86c). The 'essentials of the Law' (min '•SM) may, according to the connection, be in the sphere of observance or of morals. For instance, see Abot 3 , 1 8 ; Tos. Shabbat 2, 10; M. Hagigah 1, 8 (Bacher, Terminologie, I, 11 f.); Ilullin 60b, etc. Abot 1, 2. Cf. Nedarim 3 2 a (R. Eiiezer): If it were not for the Torah, heaven and earth could not endure (Jer. 3 3 , 20). 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

85

ally transferred to the worship of the synagogue and of the home — prayer, in the customary form (Tefillah), is worship of God in the heart. Charity is personal service and helpfulness to fel­ low men, the active expression of the love enjoined in Lev. 19,18. The great exemplar is God himself. The Talmud finds one verse of Scripture which implicitly contains them all (Isa. 51, 1 6 ) . R. Simeon ben Gamaliel also names three things by which the world is sustained — fundamental conditions of social stability — Justice, Truth, and Peace; as in Zech. 8, 16. When R. Akiba declared 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. 19, 18) to be the most comprehensive rule in the Law, he was thinking of a rule of moral conduct, as Paul did when, two generations earlier, he said, 'The whole law is fully expressed in one sentence, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Ben Azzai found, as we have seen above, a broader principle still in Gen. 5, 1: 'These are the generations of man; (in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God created He him'). Reverence for the divine image in man is of wider scope than love to our fellow-man. The question of the lawyer (Matt. 22, 36), 'What is the greatest commandment in the law,' was therefore one which was mooted in the Jewish schools. In his answer Jesus quotes Deut. 6, 5, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy means,' and Lev. 19, 18, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy­ self — the essence of religion on its Godward and its manward sides respectively. The preeminence of the first was recognized in the place it occupies in the Shema', and was impressed on the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Sifre Deut. § 41 (ed. Friedmann f. 8oa, top), on Deut. n , 1 3 . On this virtue {gemllut hasadim), which is far higher than mere alms­ giving (sedafyah), see below, pp. 171 ff. Jer. Ta'anit 68a, near the end. Abot 1, 1 8 ; cf. Jer. Ta'anit, 1. c. Sifra ad loc, Kedoshim Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 8 9 b ) ; Jer. Nedarim 4 1 c , middle; Gen. R. 24, end (see Theodor's note). Gal. 5, 1 4 ; cf. Rom. 1 3 , 8 - 1 0 ; James 2, 8. See the references in note 5, above. Akiba on the prerogative of man, created in the image of God, and the love of God shown in creating him thus and revealing the fact to him, Abot 3, 1 4 . See Vol. I, pp. 397 f., 446 f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

86

MORALS

[PART V

Jew every time he recited his confession of Unity; in the second, as we have just seen, Akiba found the most comprehensive for­ mulation of man's duty to his fellow. 'On these two command­ ments the whole Law depends and the Prophets.' 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself assumes that selflove is not only natural but good. A sound morality must take account of our own interests equally with those of others. Hillel expresses himself in the spirit of the principle when he says: "If I am not for myself, who is for me ? And when I am for myself only, what am I? And if not now, when?" The two precepts are brought into juxtaposition in more than one place in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, thus: "Love the Lord and your neighbor, and have compassion on the poor and feeble" (Issachar 5, 2); "Love the Lord with all your life, and one another with sincere heart" (Dan 5, 3). Issachar says of himself, "I loved the Lord with all my strength; likewise I loved every man with all my heart" (7, 6). The association is in fact a natural one, and it is a gratuitous suspicion that the Testaments have in this particular been improved by a Christian hand. In substance, though not in form, the two are brought together in Sifre on Deuteronomy 32, 29: "What did it (the Law) say to them ? Take upon you the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, and excel one another in the fear of Heaven, and conduct yourselves one toward another in charity." Hillel's answer to a foreigner who asked to be taught the whole Law while he stood on one foot was: " Do not do to your fellow what you hate to have done 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

For the expression, see above, p. 84 (cf. p. 28). Abot 1, 14. An interpolator is not likely to have been so subtle as to disguise in every case his reminiscence of the Gospel. The fundamental obligations of religion, as a Jew does in reciting the Shema' (Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc.). Reverence for God — the nearest equivalent in the Scriptures for ' re­ ligion/ See below, p. 96. DHDn ni^DJ, the works of love; see below, pp. 171 if. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, i ]

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

87

1

to you. This is the whole Law, entire; the rest is explanation. Go, learn!" This often quoted summary of the Law was not original with Hillel upon the occasion; it seems rather to have been proverbial. Parallels from Jewish sources and in various other literatures have frequently been collected, and the cata­ logue need not be repeated here. We may see in it a negative formulation of Lev. 19, 18 for practical application, precisely as is done by Paul in Rom. 13, 8-10, where, after recalling the com­ mandments, Thou shalt not murder, steal, commit adultery, he finds them all summed up in Lev. 19, 18, and concludes, 'Love works no harm to the neighbor; the whole content of the law, therefore, is love." In the Gospels this so-called Golden Rule is phrased affirma­ tively, 'All that you would wish that men should do to you, so do ye also to them. This is the Law and the Prophets.' (Matt. 7, 12; cf. Luke 6, 31). It is often said that the substitution of the positive form of the rule for the negative makes a very differ­ ent thing of it. That is a point about which it is not worth while to argue. Jewish teaching about the treatment of others, country­ men or aliens, friends or enemies, was not deduced from an aphorism, but based upon the positive general rule in Lev. 19, 18 (cf. vss. 33-35) and the many specific injunctions and exhorta­ tions, both positive and negative, in which the Scriptures abound in all parts; and these virtues are exemplified by instances in the 2

3

4

5

2

Shabbat 3 1 a . Compare the story of Akiba and the donkey driver, Abot de-R. Nathan, ed. Schechter, p. 26 (second recension). A recent list of such collections, may be found in the Harvard Theologi­ cal Review, XIV ( 1 9 2 1 ) , 193 f. (W. H. P. Hatch). Cf. the Epistle of Aristeas: Our law commands to do harm to no man either in word or deed (ed. Wendland § 168). So also by Maimonides, Hilkot Ebel 14, i: "Thou shalt love thy neigh­ bor as thyself. All the things that you wish that others should do to you, do you to your brother.' On the other hand the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles ( 1 , 2) gives the negative form: "The Way of Life is this: First, thou shalt love the God who made thee, secondly, thy neighbor as thyself; and whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thyself, do not thou to another." In the negative form it is found in the so-called "Western" text of Acts 1 5 , 20 and 29, and in the Apostolic Constitutions vii. 2. [Tobit 4, 16.] 3

4

5

1

MORALS

88

[PART V

familiar narratives of the Bible and by the character and conduct of eminent rabbis. No one who knows this topic in the ethics of the school and the synagogue, or in the Halakah itself, would attribute to it a distinctively negative type, any more than he would discover a distinctively positive type in the New Testa­ ment or the legislation of the church. This leads to a more general observation. Such condensations of the essentials of the moral law into a dozen great precepts or into one comprehensive rule are of interest to us as exhibiting a sound estimate of religious and moral values, and for the in­ trinsic unity of fundamental principle. They were never meant to be taken for sufficient regulativesof conduct, for which, indeed, they are wholly inadequate, and the broader and more elevated they are, the less they are adapted to any such end. At the most they may serve the ethical philosopher as a criterion, like Kant's, "Act so that the maxims of thy will at all times may likewise be valid as the principle of a universal legislation." For the actual conduct of life, and above all for the practical morals of a com­ munity or a people in any age, explicit rules, defining cases and prescribing what is to be done in concrete instances, are indis­ pensable. Such rules may be conventional, the custom of a given society, or they may be embodied in legislation, civil, or religious, or both at once. The Jews possessed such a legislation in the form and with the authority of divine revelation, and on it the ethics of Judaism were founded, not on deductions from general principles, which were themselves at best only inductions from its particular regulations. 1

1

It is needless to enlarge on the fact that the Christian church from the beginning did the same thing.

C H A P T E R II MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

T H E motives of moral conduct have as wide a range as in the Scriptures from which they are derived. We shall find an ad­ vance, however, in the discriminative estimation of the relative ethical value of motives, and correspondingly of the acts which are prompted by them, and, secondly, in the emphasis laid on certain religious motives of the highest rank in this estimation which are developed from implications and suggestions of Scrip­ ture, but have there no corresponding prominence. What we should call the natural and social consequences of evil courses are fully recognized, but they occupy a minor place in comparison with books like Proverbs and Sirach which en­ deavor, by exhibiting these consequences, to make men see that vice is disastrous folly, and virtue practical wisdom. In Judaism, as we should expect, the religious view prevails. Conformity to the law of God is righteousness, disobedience is sin — both pri­ marily religious conceptions. God punishes sin and rewards obedience. This is the constant teaching of Scripture. From the simple notion that God was well-pleased with those who did his will and showed them favor in return, while he was angry with those who ignored or defied his commands and made them feel his displeasure, there had grown, under the influence of the pro­ phetic teaching, a doctrine of retribution in which God's justice was committed to requite men strictly according to their deeds. Reward and punishment are the motives to which the mass of mankind is most amenable, and the Jewish teachers, though well aware that they are not the highest, do not scruple on that 1

2

1

It is to be noted that the definition of sin in the New Testament is iden­

tical. Synonyms of apapria 5, 1 3 ; etc.

are ddcKta and dvofila.

1 John 3, 4 rf dpapria

karlv

2

17

So in Paul, Rom. 7 , 1 3 ;

dvopla.

God's reward as wages Gen. 1 5 , i; Prov. 1 1 , 18 (npjr); Psalm 19, 1 2 ; Prov. 22, 4 . See also Isa. 49, 4. 89

9

o

MORALS

[PART v

1

account to appeal to them. It was better to lead a man to obey the law of God from an inferior motive than that he should not obey it; and, as is frequently observed, if he is diligent in keeping the law from a lower motive he may come to do it from a higher. From the point of view of retribution, they believed that wrong-doing deserved the punishment God threatened, and no less that good deeds deserved the favor of God and the reward he promised. Subjectively, if a reproving conscience voices the consciousness of ill-desert, an approving conscience is the con­ sciousness of good desert. The reflection may be made that man's good deeds do not of themselves lay God under an obligation; God does not owe him a recompense for doing his duty. But God has put himself under obligation by his promise of reward, and in this sense man, in doing what God requires of him, deserves the recompense. Juda­ ism has no hesitation about recognizing the merit of good works, or in exhorting men to acquire it and to accumulate a store of merit laid up for the hereafter. The most familiar examples are the words of Jesus in the Gospels. To the rich young man who wanted to be set on doing some good thing to possess eternal life, and who thought an every-day keeping of the Ten Commandments too small a task for so great a reward, Jesus said: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. In the Sermon on the Mount he exhorts his hearers: 'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on the earth where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up treasures for your­ selves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and 2

3

4

1 2

They are as freely employed by Jesus in the Gospels. See Marmorstein, The Doctrine of Merits in Old Rabbinical Literature,

1920. 3

Matt. 19, 2 1 ; Mark 10, 2 1 ; Luke 18, 22. On God's reward in general cf. Matt. 6, 1, 6, 1 8 ; 10, 4 1 , 4 2 ; Luke 6, 35, etc I.e. with God. 4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

91

where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be." Of these treasures of good works there is repeated mention in the apocalypses from the end of the first century, Fourth Esdras and the Syriac Baruch. Thus Esdras is assured by the angel: "Thou hast a treasure of works laid up with the Most High, but it will not be shown to thee except in the last days." The voice from heaven tells Baruch: "Lo, the days are coming when the book will be opened in which are written the sins of all that have sinned, and likewise the treasuries in which the righteousness of those who have conducted themselves righteously in the creation is collected." Most instructive for the Jewish conception of the treasury of merit are the words put into the mouth of Monobazus, king of Abiabene in the middle of the first century of our era. The story goes that in years of famine he distributed all his treasures to the poor. His kinsmen remonstrated against such squandering of the family wealth: "Your fathers laid up treasures and added to the treasures of their fathers, and you have come and squan­ dered your own wealth and that of your fathers!" He replied: "My fathers laid up treasures for below (this earth), but I have laid up treasures for above (Psalm 85, 12); they laid up treasures in a place over which force may prevail; I in a place over which no force can prevail (Psalm 89,15). My fathers laid up treasures which bear no fruit (interest); I have laid up treasures that bear fruit (Isa. 3, 10). My fathers laid up treasures of mammon; I have laid up treasures of souls (Prov. 11, 30). My fathers laid up treasures for others; I, for myself (Deut. 24, 13). My fathers 1

2

3

4

1

Matt. 6, 19; cf. Luke 12, 33 f. See also 1 Tim. 6, 17-19. 4 Esdras 7, 77. Syr. Baruch 24, 1. See also 14, 1 2 5 4 Esdras, 7 , 7 7 ; 8,33,36. Cf. further Tobit 4, 8 f. (longer recension); Test, of Twelve Patriarchs, Levi, 13, 5; Psalms of Solomon, 9, 9, etc. See Dalman, Worte Jesu, 169 f.; Strack-Billerbeck on Matt. 6, 19 f. Monobazus like his brother Izates and his mother Helena had embraced Judaism; see Vol. I, p. 349. 2 3

4

92

MORALS

[PART v

laid up treasures in this world; I, for the World to Come (Isa.

58, 8)." i

_

The beginning of M. Peah enumerates works the fruits (inter­ est) of which man enjoys in this world, while the principal is secured for him in the World to Come, viz., honoring one's parents, and deeds of lovingkindness, and making peace be­ tween a man and his fellow, and the study of the Torah, which is equal to all the others. It will be noted that all the items of this 'capital in heaven' are things that cannot be defined or measured by law — things that by their nature are 'committed to the heart' of the individual. Elsewhere it is said that there is no least commandment which is not rewarded in this world, while its reward in the world to come is incalculable. God not only, in general terms, threatened punishment for wrong-doing and promised reward for doing his will, but he had attached particular penalties to particular offenses and particular blessings to obedience to certain commandments. It was natural to suppose that this was the case with all of them, and that the keeping of each prohibition or injunction had its own reward ap­ propriate in kind and measure. A certain R. Hananiah ben 'Akashya says: "The Holy One, blessed is He, was pleased to justify Israel, therefore he multiplied for them Law (to study) and commandments (to do), as it is written, 'The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his (Israel's) righteousness, to make the Law great and glorious' " (Isa. 42, 21). The multiplied com2

3

4

5

6

1

Tos. Peah 4, 1 8 ; Jer. Peah 1 5 b , below; Baba Batra 11 a. See also Kiddushin 3 9 b ; especially 40a, with proof texts and exposition of the ideas of the principal and the interest of merit (DDT); Shabbat 1 2 7 a , end, a list of six in the name of Johanan; taking in wayfarers, visiting the sick, devoutness in prayer, being early in the school house (Bet ha-Midrash), bringing up sons in the study of the Torah, and judging one's fellow on the good side. Menahot 44a, top. M. Makkot 3, 1 5 (R. Simeon, son of the Patriarch Judah). See also Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tese § 2 (f. 1 7 b ) . Probably pronouncing saddeko instead of sidko^ior the sake of justifying him.' Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 376. M. Makkot 3, 1 6 . 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

93

mandments are to give Israel ampler opportunity to acquire merit by obedience and by avoiding transgression. As there is no end to the words of the Law (Job 11, 9), so there is no end to the giving of its reward (Psalm 31, 20, 'How abundant is thy goodness, which Thou has laid up for them that fear Thee'). The kind and measure of the reward of most of the command­ ments are not annexed to them in the Scriptures, lest men should pick out those that promised most and neglect the others, but should keep them all in faithfulness, or of their own accord (disin­ terestedly). A man should be as careful about a light command­ ment as about a grave one, since he does not know how they are to be rewarded, nor which has in it for him the issues of life. Upon R. Hanina's word, "Everything is in the power of Heaven except the fear of Heaven" (God can do everything ex­ cept make a man religious) the question is raised, Is then the fear of Heaven a small thing! and Hanina quotes R. Simeon ben Yohai, "God has in his treasure house no treasure but the fear of Heaven, as it is written, 'The fear of the Lord is his treasure' " (Isa. 33, 6). It is perhaps not pressing the words too hard if we put on them the meaning, What God prizes in men's good works is not the acts themselves but the religious motive from which they spring. The prejudice of many writers on Judaism against the very idea of good works and their reward, and of merit acquired with God through them, is a Protestant inheritance from Luther's controversy with Catholic doctrine, and further back from Paul's contention that there is no salvation in Judaism, for 'by the 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

See Maimonides and Rashi in loc. Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 1 0 7 a ; cf. f. 7 3 b . Tanhuma ed. Buber, 'Ekeb § 3 ; Tese § 2, end. See Jer. Peah ifd, near the top. Judah the Patriarch, Abot 2, 1 ; cf. Menahot 44a, top, and the following story, ending with the same phrase. Berakot 3 3 b . Above, Vol. I, p. 4 5 6 . A slightly different version, Johanan in the name of R. Eleazar ben Simeon, Yalkut on Deut. 1 0 , 1 2 , § 855: God has nothing in his world save only the fear of Heaven (Deut. 10, 1 2 ; Job 28, 28). 2

3

4

5

6

MORALS

94

[PART V

works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight/ Paul's assertion is the corollary of his first proposition, that the one universal and indispensable condition of salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Luther is bent on proving that salvation is wholly and solely the work of God's free grace, which takes no account of man's works. Both involve the question in the doc­ trine of salvation. Judaism did not come at it from the theoretical side at all; it got its ideas from the Scriptures and developed them by the same methods it employed on the other teachings of Scripture. It was concerned not solely with the individual but with the nation, not with the hereafter alone but with the present life. All the good things God promised in this world or the world to come were conditioned upon conformity to his righteous will as revealed in the Law. He did not expect an impossible perfection of creatures in whom he himself implanted the 'evil impulse,' and therefore, in foresight of their failure, provided repentance as the remedy for their shortcomings. Not only does he freely forgive, but he gives them merit that they have not earned. When he showed Moses all the treasuries of merit prepared for the righteous, one for those who give alms, one for those who provide for orphans, and so on, Moses saw one large treasury and asked whose it was. God replied: To the man who has (merit), I give of his own; and on him who has none I bestow gratis, as it is written, 'And I will show favor to whom I will show favor' (Exod. 33, 19). It should be remarked, further, that "a lot in the World to Come," which is the nearest approximation in rabbinical Juda­ ism to the Pauline and Christian idea of salvation, or eternal life, 1

2

3

4

1

His implicit assumption is that God cannot forgive the penitent sinner without expiation. See Vol. I, pp. 480 f. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ki tissa § 16. Contrast Paul's use of this text in support of the arbitrariness of election (Rom. 9, 15, 18). On the imputation of merit see Vol. I, pp. 536 if. After the resurrection, in an endless life on a transformed earth. See pp. 378 f. 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

95

1

is ultimately assured to every Israelite on the ground of the original election of the people by the free grace of God, prompted not by its merits, collective or individual, but solely by God's love, a love that began with the Fathers. For this national election Paul and the church substituted an individual election to eternal life, without regard to race or station. These facts are ignored when Judaism is set in antithesis to Christianity, a "Lohnordnung" over against a "Gnadenordnung." "A lot in the World to Come" is not wages earned by works, but is bestowed by God in pure goodness upon the mem­ bers of his chosen people, as "eternal life" in Christianity is be­ stowed on the individuals whom he has chosen, or on the mem­ bers of the church. If the one is grace, so is the other. A word may be said in this connection about the corresponding conception of sin as debt, for example in the petition, 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6, 1 2 ) . The ex­ pression, which is very common in Jewish literature, was evi­ dently so strange to Greek readers that Luke substitutes 'sins' for Matthew's 'debts,' and in the immediate sequel in Matthew 7rapa7TTcojuaTa is introduced as if in explanation. Man owes God obedience, and every sin, whether of commission or of omis­ sion, is a defaulted obligation, a debt. A guilty man, who is liable to punishment, is said to be 'owing the penalty.' 2

3

4

5

6

However legitimate the motive of reward may be, there is a higher obedience than that which is rendered from this motive. The otherwise unknown Antigonus of Socho, the next in the succession of teachers after Simeon the Righteous, was made for­ ever memorable by one saying: "Be not like slaves who serve 1

M. Sanhedrin 10, 1; Sanhedrin ( n , i) 90a ff.; Jer. Sanhedrin 2 7 b ff. The specific exclusions emphasize the universality. For a widely different out­ look see 4 Esdras. Deut. 7, 6 - 1 1 . See Vol. I, pp. 536 ff. Deut. 10, 1 5 . English version, ' trespasses.' It may be remembered that Anselm's argument in his "Cur deus homo?" starts with the same postulate. Reatus poenae. 2

4

5

6

3

96

MORALS

[PART v 1

their master in the expectation of receiving a gratuity; but be like slaves who serve their master in no expectation of receiving a gratuity; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you." R. Eiiezer comments on Psalm 112, i ('Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, and in his commandments delights greatly'): "In His commandments, and not in the reward of His commandments," and cites as authority the Mishnah Abot just quoted. The concluding words are also to be noted, "And let the fear of Heaven be upon you," in our terms, reverence for God. In­ stead of expectation of recompense let your motive be purely religious. For religion is in the Hebrew of the schools, as in the Bible, ' the fear of the Lord,' and the usual way of saying ' a re­ ligious man' is 'one who fears the Lord.' 'Reverence' would often be a better word, for though reverence in fact as well as in etymology preserves the element of fear, it is a fear that is not inconsistent with love, though it may be contrasted with it, as it is sometimes by the Jewish teachers. It is worthy of note that this disparagement of an obedience into the motive of which the thought of recompense even as a gratuity enters comes from the man who stands at the head of what may not improperly be called the Pharisaic tradition, the connecting link between the Men of the Great Assembly and the Pairs. There is a certain irony in the fact that the first recorded word of a Pharisee should be a repudiation of the sup­ posed "Pharisaic" wage-theory of righteousness. That the law of God and every commandment in it should be kept 'for its own sake,' not for any advantage to be gained by it among men or with God, is frequently emphasized. Thus, if a man occupy himself with the Law for its own sake, his study of the Law is made for him a life-giving elixir (Prov. 3, 8, 18; 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Dns. a Abot I , 3. 'Abodah Zarah 19a. Cf. Baba Mesi'a 58b., etc. Above, p. 82. See below, pp. 99 f. See L. Ginzberg, in Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 629. On the varieties of Pharisees whose conduct and motives are condemned, see below, p. 193. HD^, i.e. because it i s the law. 3

5

6

7

4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

97

8, 35); but to him who occupies himself with it not for its own sake, it is made for him a deadly poison (Deut. 32, 2; 21,4). In the parallel in Sifre the contrast is between doing the words of the Law for their own sake and doing them not for their own sake; in the former case they are life, in the latter they kill (Prov. 4, 22; Deut. 21, 4; Prov. 7, 26). From Psalm 1 1 1 , 10 ('The first principle of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (religion); all those who do them have good understanding') Raba de­ duces: "It is not said, 'who learn them,' but 'who do them'; and who do them for their own sake, not those who do them not for their own sake. Whoever does a commandment not for its own sake (from other than a religious motive), it were better for him that he had never been created!" R. Eleazar ben Zadok says: Do the words of the Law for the doing's sake, and discuss them for their own sake. He goes on to declare the sin of the man who uses for his own ends the in­ strument with which this world and that to come were created greater than Belshazzar's use of the vessels of the temple for which (though they were already profaned, Ezek. 7, 22) , the king was rooted out of this world and the world to come. The same fate is doubly deserved by him who so profanes the Law. The maxim of his father Zadok was: " Do not make it (the Law) a crown to magnify thyself by, nor a hoe to dig with." So Hillel was wont to say, "He who uses the crown for his own ends, passes away. Lo, thou hast learned, Every one who makes a profit of the words of the Law does his life away from the world." There are many warnings in the same spirit against turning the Law to worldly advantage; it is needless to multiply instances. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

D " f l DD> JYID DD. Ta'anit 7 a . See Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 540 and n. 3. Sifre Deut. § 306, ed. Friedmann f. 1 3 1 b , end. See also Abot 6, 1. The injunctions of God, verse 7 . Berakot 1 7 a , below. Sifre Deut. § 48, end (on Deut. 1 1 , 2 2 ) ; cf. Nedarim 62a. On the differ­ ence of reading see Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 48 f. The Law, see Vol. I, pp. 397 f. See Bekorot 50a, below. (Abot 1, 1 3 ) . Abot 4, 5. Parallels, see Kobryn, Catena, p. 9 i a - b . 2

3 4

5

6

7

8

10

9

98

MORALS

[PART v

There is sound insight into human nature in the saying ascribed to Rab: Let a man always occupy himself diligently with the study of the Law and the doing of the commandments, even if not for their own sake; for out of doing it not for its own sake comes doing it for its own sake. Another common expression for the religious motive is * for the sake of Heaven' (God) Those who labor with the community should do so for God's sake (le-shem Shamaim), i.e., from an unmixed religious motive (Abot 2, 2). "Let thy neighbor's prop­ erty be as dear to thee as thine own; and address thyself to ac­ quire knowledge of the Law, for it does not come to thee by inheritance; and let all thy deeds be done for God's sake" (ibid. 2, 12). "Every assembling of yourselves together which is for God's sake will in the end stand; one that is not for God's sake, will not stand in the end" (ibid. 4, 11). The same thing is said of controversies for God's sake, like those of the schools of Sham­ mai and Hillel, in contrast to that of Korah and his company with Moses (ibid. 5, 17). The motive in the former was religious, aiming at an exact understanding and application of the Law; the other was prompted by personal ambition. In the Old Testament the religious attitude toward God which translates itself into a motive for doing his will is the fear of God or the love of God. In Deuteronomy, in particular, the two occur in exactly similar contexts, without any apparent cons­ ciousness of a difference between them, much less that they were conflicting. In a notable passage the sum of God's demands is put thus: 'And now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God re­ quire of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; to keep for thy good the com1

2

3

1

Pesahim 50b; Sanhedrin 105b; Nazir 23b, etc. Compare the prayer of R. Safra, Berakot i 6 b - i 7 a : May it be Thy good pleasure that all who labor in the Law for other motives may come to labor in it for its own sake. 2 D B ^ , e.g. Abot 2, 2; 4, n . Compare Deut. 5, 26; 6, 2, 13 (Fear the Lord and keep his command­ ments, serve him, etc), with 11, 1, 13, 22; 19, 9; 30, 6, 16, etc. 3

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

mandments of the Lord/ etc. (Deut. 10, 12). In the Psalms godly men are those who fear the Lord, or love Him, with no discoverable distinction of two kinds of religiousness. If the phrase be pulled to pieces, however, a distinction may be made between an obedience the motive of which is fear and one whose motive is love, and some of the rabbis, having done this, esti­ mated obedience out of love superior to obedience from fear — love is the higher motive. Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar said, "Greater is he who acts from love than he who acts from fear." In Sifre on Deut. 6, 5/ it is said: "The Scripture makes a differ­ ence between the man who acts from love and him who acts from fear, and the reward of the former is far greater than of the latter, according to his word, 'The Lord thy God thou shalt fear, and him thou shalt serve, (and to him thou shalt cleave/ Deut. 10, 20). It sometimes happens that a man is afraid of his fellow, and when the latter is troublesome to him, leaves him and makes off. But do thou act from love, for where love is there is no fear, and where fear is there is no love, except in relation to (moi) God only." It was a moot point whether Job served God from love or from fear. A certain R. Joshua ben Hyrcanus maintained that Job served God purely out of love, proving it by Job 13,15 and 27, 5, to the great indignation of R. Joshua (ben Hananiah), who broke out: "Who will clear away the dust from thine eyes, Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, who didst teach all thy days that Job served God only out of fear (Job 1,1), and here is Joshua (ben Hyrcanus), the pupil of thy pupil, teaching that he acted out of love!" R. Meir shows that the two expressions are not exclu1

2

4

1

On this point see the exposition of Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 10, 1 ff. Under service from fear he puts everything that has a selfish end in this life or another. It is the religious motive of the ignorant masses, of women and children, who have not yet got far enough to serve God from love. Sotah 3 1 a . See Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 425. Cf. Philo, Quod Deus sit immutabilis c. 1 4 § 69 (ed. Mangey I, 283). Sifre Deut. § 3 2 , ed. Friedmann f. 7 3 a ; cf. Midrash Tannaim, p. 2 5 . M. Sotah 5, 5. Cf. Tos. Sotah 6, 1, where this view of Job's motive is ascribed, with a different proof-text, to Ben Paturi. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 6 1 . 2

3

4

MORALS

IOO

[PART V

sive: 'God-fearing' is said of Abraham (Gen. 22, 12), as well as of Job (Job 1,1). As God-fearing in Abraham's case sprang from love, so also did Job's. For Abraham himself this is proved by Isa. 41, 8, 'The seed of Abraham who loved me.' As evidence that Job's piety was inspired by love R. Nathan quotes Job 13, 1

2

16. Love to God should be the sole motive. So Sifre on Deut. 11, 1 3 : " 'To love the Lord your God.' Should you say, I will learn Torah that I may become rich, or that I may be called Rabbi, or that I may acquire a reward, the Scripture says, 'To love the Lord your God' — whatever you do, do not do it except from love." The same more at large in a Baraita, quoting Deut. 30, 26: "That a man say not, I will study the Scriptures that men may call me a learned man ( D s n ) , I will study tradition that I may become an elder and sit in the session house; but learn out of love, and honor will come in the end" (Prov. 7 , 3 ; 3,17; 3,18). If it be asked, How shall men love God with all their heart? (Deut. 6, 5), the Scripture answers, 'And let these words which I command thee this day be upon thy heart' (Deut. 6, 6). "Put them upon thy heart (keep them ever in mind), for thence thou shalt recognize God and cleave to his ways." This is sufficient to exemplify Jewish teaching about the love of God as a motive of virtuous conduct. As an element of Jewish piety we shall recur to the subject in a later chapter. 3

4

5

6

7

Thus far we have had to do with motives that are explicit and emphatic in the Scriptures and could not fail to be recognized and applied by the teachers of the Law. The one we have next See further the discussion in Jer. Sotah 20c; Jer. Berakot 1 4 b . Note in the latter the place assigned to both motives in accordance with the two com­ mands to love God and to fear Him. Sotah 3 1 a . Tos. Sotah 6, 1; Jer. Sotah 20c. Sifre Deut. § 4 1 , ed. Friedmann f. 7 9 b - 8 o a . 1

2

3

4

n T f i ^ , academy.

5

Nedarim 62a. With the honor that comes unsought at the end compare Matt. 6, 3 3 . Sifre Deut. § 3 3 , ed. Friedmann f. 7 4 a , top. See Part vii. 6

7

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

IOI

1

to consider is indeed derived from Scripture, but is developed into what may fairly be regarded as the most characteristic feature of Jewish ethics both as principle and as motive, " the hallowing of the Name," with its opposite, "the profaning of the Name." The hallowing of the Name is familiar in the beginning of the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6, 9; Luke 11, 2), and in the same position in the Jewish prayer, Kaddish. In both it is followed by the establishment of God's kingdom. But besides prayer that God would cause his name — that is, Himself—to be universally revered as holy, and besides the proclamation of his holiness as in the Trisagion of the liturgy, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts' (Isa. 6, 3 ) / the Name of God is hallowed by the actions of men. For ancient apprehension, and for primitive apprehen­ sion everywhere, the name is not a flatus vocis, the accidental appellation by which we designate a person or thing; rather it is the distinctive essence of the thing, so that the name is often equivalent to the thing itself. So it is in biblical language. When God causes his name to dwell in a place (e.g. Deut. 12, n ) , it is a way of saying that he himself dwells there, as in 1 Kings 6, 13 (of the place meant in Deuteronomy), 'I will dwell there among the children of Israel.' When God does something 'for his name's sake' it is usually quite the same as for his own sake. Thus in Isa. 48, 9, 'For my name's sake will I defer my anger,' and in verse 1 1 , ' For my own sake, for my own sake will I do i t . ' At a certain stage in the religion of Israel, the Holy One was a favorite word for God, and his holiness an equivalent for his 2

3

4

6

7

1

See Lev. 22, 3 2 : Ye shall not profane My holy name, and I will be hal­ lowed in the midst of the Israelites; I am the Lord, who hallow you. Cf. Ezek. 22, 2 6 ; 3 6 , 2 0 - 2 3 ; Mai. 1, 11 f. DOT W P p . 2

4

3

DOT

W^n.

Authorised Daily Prayers (ed. Singer), pp. 3 7 , 7 5 , 7 7 , 86. I. Abrahams, Companion to the Authorized Daily Prayer Book. Revised edition ( 1 9 2 2 ) , pp. xxxix ff. See further, below, pp. 212 f. £edushah. Daily Prayers, I.e. p. 45 (cf. 3 9 ) . Men of a later age said, ' causes his Shekinah (Presence) to dwell there/ Observe the interchangeableness of the two modes of expression in the Psalms. 5

6

7

MORALS

102

[PART V

deity; and however strong the connotation of moral perfection came to be, this never became, as it is for us, the denotation of the words. God hallows his own name (himself) by demonstrating his supreme godhead and compelling the nations to acknowledge it. His restoration of exiled Israel is such a demonstration: 'I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye came. And I will hallow my great name . . . and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord JHVH, when I shall be hal­ lowed in you before their eyes.' He is hallowed in the destruc­ tion of Gog, 'that the nations may know me.' In the same way God's hallowing of his name was understood by the rabbis. On Deut. 32, 3 ('I will proclaim the name of the Lord, give ye greatness to our God') we read in the Sifre: Our fathers went down to Egypt only in order that the Holy One, blessed is He, might work miracles and do mighty works for the purpose of hallowing his holy name in the world. He inflicted the ten plagues on Pharaoh and on Egypt only because they did not hallow his great name in the world; for at the beginning of the passage he (Pharaoh) says, Who is the Lord (JHVH) that I should hearken to his voice? (Exod. 5, 2), and at the last he says, The Lord (JHVH) is the one who is in the right, and I and my people are the wicked (Exod. 9, 27). The text goes on to assert the same thing of the miracles and mighty deeds God wrought for the fathers at the Red Sea and the Jordan and the valleys of the Arnon — they were all for the purpose of hallowing his name, and accomplished this end by inspiring terror in the kings and people of Palestine (Josh. 5, 1; 2, 10 f.). So also Daniel was cast 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Historically, the epithet was not applied to God because he was con­ ceived to be morally perfect, but the meaning of moral perfection attached to the word because such perfection belonged to the character of the Holy One (i.e. of God). Literally, for my name of Holy One. Ezek. 3 6 , 2 2 - 3 3 . Cf. 20, 41 f.; 28, 2 5 ; 3 9 , 27. Ezek. 38, 1 6 . Sifre Deut. § 306 (ed. Friedmann f. 1 3 2 b . ) . Cf. Mekilta, Beshallah 3, near the end. 2

3

5

6

4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

103

into the lion's den to hallow God's name, and his safety there leads the king to issue a decree acknowledging Daniel's God (Dan. 6, 26-28). So it was, too, with the three youths in the fiery furnace, whose miraculous deliverance drew from Nebu­ chadnezzar the decree in Dan. 3, 31. God 'hallows his name' (makes it holy), therefore, by doing things that lead or constrain men to acknowledge him as God. And as it is God's supreme end that all mankind shall ultimately own and serve him as the true God, so it is the chief end of Israel, to whom he has in a unique manner revealed himself, to hallow his name by living so that men shall see and say that the God of Israel is the true God. This is the meaning of the Kiddush ha-Shem, the hallowing of the Name, as the supreme principle and motive of moral conduct in Judaism. God's holiness is his nature; how then can men 'hallow' Him (make him holy) ? This reflection and the solution are the sub­ ject of a notable passage in the Sifra on Lev. 19, 2 : " 'Ye shall be holy.' Be ye separate (perushim). ' 'Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.' As much as to say, If ye make your­ selves holy, I impute it to you as though ye hallowed me; and if ye do not make yourselves holy, I impute it to you as though ye did not hallow me. Can the meaning be, If ye make me holy, then I am made holy, and if not, I am not made holy? The Scripture shows, 'For I am holy' — I abide in my holiness, whether ye hallow me or not." In this sense are to be understood the words of R. Simeon ben Yohai: " 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God' (Isa. 43, 10). When ye are my witnesses, I am God, and when 1

2

3

4

5

1

Cf. Matt. 5, 1 4 - 1 6 : Ye are the light of the world. . . . Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. It is the duty of Israelites only, not of other nations. Jer. Shebi'it 35a, end ('in the midst of the Israelites'). A section delivered to the whole congregation, 'because on it depend most of the essentials of the Law.' Above, p. 84. See on the etymology of the name Pharisees, Vol. I, p. 6 1 . Sifra, Kedoshim, init. (ed. Weiss f. 86c). 2

3

4

5

io

MORALS

4

[PART V 1

ye are not my witnesses, I am not God." In the context are found other utterances of similar purport. "When Israel is of one counsel on earth, God's great name is praised in heaven, as it is said, 'And He was king in Jeshurun' (Deut. 33, 5). When? When ' the heads of the people are gathered, the tribes of Israel as one.' When they are made one band (rnutf), not when they are made several bands; and so it says: 'He who built in the heavens his upper stories, and has founded his band (rrrtftf) on earth' " (Amos 9, 6). R. Simeon ben Yohai illustrates this by the figure of a palace built on two boats lashed together, and the consequence if the boats are separated. Similarly, he con­ tinues: " 'This is my God, and I will make him lovely' (Exod. 15, 2). When I praise him, he is lovely, and when I do not praise him, he is, so to speak, lovely in himself. . . . Again, 'Unto Thee do I lift up my eyes, O Thou that sittest in the heavens' (Psalm 123, 1). Otherwise, I should not be sitting in the heavens." A less characteristic expression which is a substantially synony­ mous antithesis to profaning God's name, is to make his name great (magnify his name). Thus, on Exod. 15, 2 ('My father's God, and I will exalt him'), R. Simeon ben Eleazar says: "When the Israelites do the will of God, then his name is made great in the world, as it is said, 'When the kings of the Amorites heard, etc' (Josh. 5, 1); and so Rahab said to the messengers of Joshua, 'We have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you, . . . And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, neither did any more spirit remain in any man because of you; for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and 2

3

4

4

5

1

Sifre Deut. § 346; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 102b. A number of striking sayings to the same effect will be found in Midrash Tannaim ed. Hoffmann, p. 7 2 . English version 'troop.' Targum, 'congregation' (synagogue). Modern interpreters, from the context, 'vault.' See Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 140. See Mekilta, Shirah 3 (ed. Friedmann f. 3 7 a ; ed. Weiss f. 44a). More at length, Shabbat 1 3 3 b ; cf. Nazir 2 b . In the beginning of the Kaddish the two words are coupled, fcHpJVI fn^irp nop. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT 1

on earth beneath' (Josh. 2, 10 f)- And when they do not do his will, his name is, so to speak, profaned in the world, as it is said, 'And when they came unto the nations whither they came, they profaned my holy name' (in that men said of them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of the land." Ezek.

36, 20).

2

The name of God is hallowed by an extraordinary act of char­ ity. A Midrash tells how, when the heathen said that the infant Isaac was not the child of Sarah, but of Hagar, God dried up the breasts of their wives. The ladies came and kissed the dust at Sarah's feet, begging that she would do a good deed and nurse their children. Abraham said to her, Sarah, this is no time for modesty; hallow the name of the Holy One, blessed is He, and sit in the market place and nurse their sons. It is said that it was the practice of R. Ishmael, when a case came before him for adjudication one of the parties in which was an Israelite and the other a heathen, to give judgment according to whichever law (Jewish or foreign) was the more favorable to the Israelite. This chicanery was condemned by R. Akiba, "because of hallowing the name," i.e., because it reflects dishonor on the religion. A just judgment by R. Jonathan drew from a Roman the exclamation, Blessed is the God of the Jews! But while the Name is hallowed by everything in the conduct of his people that exhibits the superiority of their religion and makes others honor their God, it is supremely hallowed by the devotion which makes men ready to lay down their lives rather than abandon their religion or violate the law of God. R. Jo­ hanan (reported by R. Levi) found in Abraham the first example 3

4

5

6

1

The same passages cited in the Sifre, above, p. 104, on the hallowing of the name. Mekilta, Shirah 3, near the end (ed. Friedmann f. 3 7 b ; ed. Weiss f. 4 4 b ) ; Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 1 5 , 1. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 146b. Cf. Gen. R. 5 3 , 9 , where the beginning of the story is missing. Sifre Deut. § 16, citing Deut. 1, 1 6 b . R. Simeon ben Gamaliel declared this discrimination inadmissible. Baba Kamma 1 1 3 a , near the end. Jer. Baba Batra 13c. 2

3

4

5

6

MORALS

ic6

[PART V

of such devotion. When he was cast into the fiery furnace by Nimrod, he hallowed the name of the Holy One and proved steadfast in his trial. Abraham, according to the legend, was cast into the fire be­ cause of his attacks on idolatry and his refusal to worship other gods at the command of Nimrod. It was for the same refusal that the three Jewish youths were cast into Nebuchadnezzar's superheated furnace; for this that Daniel was thrown into the cage of lions. The resistance of the Maccabaean martyrs to eating swine's flesh was to what was understood on all hands to be an overt act of apostasy, as Christians refused to burn in­ cense to the gods or to the images of the emperor. After the rebellion under Hadrian, not only were the observances of the Jewish religion, and especially the teaching of the Law, prohibited in Palestine, but it appears that Jews were in some cases required to prove their loyalty by the performance of some rite of idola­ trous worship. The generation of the persecution gave their lives for the hallowing of the Name. The number of those who got into the clutches of the law by one violation of the edict or another became so great that a council at Lydda decided that, under duress, to save his life, a Jew might transgress any article of the law except idolatry, incest and other sexual sins, and homicide. R. Ishmael, on this point at variance with his colleagues, held that even an idolatrous act might, under such circumstances, be done, provided it was 1

2

3

4

1

For the story see Gen. R. 38, near the end (§ 13). See L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, I, 198 ff. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Lek leka § 2; (Abraham says) I will give my life for the hallowing of the Name. Num. R. 1, 1 2 . Pesikta ed. Buber f. 87a. As in the persecution by Antiochus IV, there seems to be no certain evidence that the edicts were enforced upon Jews in other countries, say in Rome or in Egypt. They were a retaliation for the revolt of Palestine. Sanhedrin 7 4 a , middle; Jer. Sanhedrin 2 1 b , above; Jer. Shebi'it 3 5 a , below. Some rabbis, however, notably Akiba and Hanina ben Teradion, held themselves bound by what we might call professional ethics to defy the prohibition of teaching and take the consequences. See Martyrdom, Re­ striction of,' Jewish Encyclopedia, VIII, 853 f. 2

3

4

4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

107

1

in private, on the principle, so often cited, that the Law was given that a man should live by it (Lev. 18, 5), not die by it. If, however, the act was done openly, all were agreed that a Jew should resign himself to death rather than yield to such a de­ mand: 'Ye shall not profane my holy name, and I will be hal­ lowed among the Israelites, I am the Lord that hallow you' (Lev. 22, 32) ? The Sifra adds: " 'And I will be hallowed.' If ye hallow my name, I will hallow my name through your instru­ mentality. As Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did, when all the heathen were prostrate before the idol, but they were standing straight as palm trees. . . . I said . . . This day I will be exalted in them in the eyes of the heathen who deny the Law; this day will I punish their enemies for their sake." In their case God hallowed his own name by a miracle; but when in Trajan's time, the brothers Lullianus and Pappus were tauntingly asked why, if they were of the people of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, their God did not come and deliver them as he delivered the three youths from Nebuchadnezzar, they replied that Hananiah and his comrades were perfectly righteous and worthy that a miracle should be wrought for them, while they themselves deserved of God death. It is the way of the martyrs of all faiths to justify God's justice in dealing thus with them; we shall find other Jewish examples further on. In Lev. 22, 32 ('Ye shall not profane my holy name; and I will be hallowed among the children of Israel; I am the Lord who hallow you'), the words, 'I will be hallowed,' etc., could be taken to mean, 'Give thyself up (to the persecutors )and hallow my name.' This interpretation is set aside,and a decision is cited: " If a man gives himself up in the expectation of a miracle's being wrought for him, no miracle is wrought for him; and if with no 3

4

5

1 2

3 4

5

Sifra, Ahare Perek 13 (ed. Weiss f. 86b). Sanhedrin, 7 4 a ; ' Abodah Zarah 2 7 b ; Sifra, 1. c. Cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 1 5 . Ta'anit 1 8 b . On these martyrs see S. Krauss in Jewish Encyclopedia, See Sifre Deut. § 307 (Ilanina ben Teradion and his wife).

io8

MORALS

[PART V

such expectation, a miracle is wrought for him/' as in the case of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Dan. 3, 24,30), 1

The opposite of the hallowing of the Name is the profanation of the Name (hillul ha-Shem)? It includes every act or word of a Jew which disgraces his religion and so reflects dishonor upon God. The world judges religions by the lives of those who pro­ fess them — the tree by its fruits. It was thus that the Jews judged other religions; the vices of the heathen prove the nullity of the religions which tolerated such behavior, and even encour­ aged it by the examples of their gods. A favorite topic of Jewish apologetic was the superiority of Jewish morals, not merely in precept but in practice, and they argued from it the superi­ ority of their religion, thus inviting a retaliation which the heathen world let them experience in full measure. Individuals, sects, religions, which profess to be better than others must always expect to have their conduct observed with peculiar scrutiny and censured with peculiar severity. The Jews had therefore especial reason for precaution against giving an only too welcome occasion for such strictures. This is the significance of the warnings against the profanation of the Name. The climax in an enumeration of the five kinds of sinners for whom there is no forgiveness is, "every one who has resting on him the guilt of profaning the Name." R. Ishmael taught that while all other classes of sins are atoned for, according to their heinousness, by repentance, the Day of Atonement, chas­ tisements cumulatively, not all together suffice to atone for the man through whom the Name is profalned; such guilt is only wiped out by the day of death. God forgives every thing else; 3

4

1

Sifra, Emor Perek 9 (ed. Weiss f. 99d, top). An example of the antithesis, Jer. Sanhedrin 23d, middle, where it is also said that in a conflict of obligation the positive commandment to hallow the Name takes precedence of the prohibition of profaning it. Abot de-R. Nathan c. 39 (beginning). Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 270 f., finds grounds for attributing the list to Akiba. Tos. Yom ha-Kippurim 5, 6-8; Yoma, 86a. See Vol. I, p. 546, and Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 250. 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT 1

the profaning of the Name He punishes at once. " If a man pro­ fanes the Name of Heaven in secret, he will be requited openly. In the profanation of the Name, there is no distinction of inad­ vertent and presumptuous." It is unnecessary to specify applications of the criterion of con­ duct given in the principle of profaning the Name, but an illus­ tration or two from different spheres may be in place. The name of God may be profaned through erroneous teaching. A master of the days of the last Asmonaeans warned his hearers: " Scholars, be cautious in your words, lest ye incur the penalty of exile, and ye be exiled to a place where the waters are bad, and your dis­ ciples who follow you drink of them and die, and it come to pass that the name of Heaven is profaned." R. Yannai somewhat hyperbolically sees a profanation of the Name when one scholar attains such repute that his colleagues are put to shame. To rob (defraud) a Gentile is worse than to rob an Israelite 'on ac­ count of the profanation of the Name' — the Israelite lays the wrong to the individual, the Gentile blames the religion. Simi­ larly in the case of lost property of a 'Canaanite' (heathen in­ habitant of Palestine), which under a strict construction of the law in Deut. 22, 3 (' thy brother's') an Israelite was not required to return to the owner, Phineas ben J air held that if this would give occasion to the profanation of the Name, the finder was forbidden to keep it. 2

3

4

5

6

The injunction, 'Ye shall be holy; for I, the Lord your God, am holy' (Lev. 19, 2) suggests a likeness between the holiness of God by nature and the holiness of character which men are to strive after. This holiness may be conceived as separateness, as 7

1

Sifre Deut. § 328. This is the meaning also of Kiddushin 40a, below: In the profanation of the Name, whether inadvertent or presumptuous, the account is not allowed to run up. Abot 4, 4. Johanan ben Berokah. Abtalion. Abot 1, 1 1 . Yoma 86a. To put a fellow to shame is a great sin; see below, pp. 147 f. Tos. Baba ]
3

4

5

7

6

MORALS

no

[PART V 1

in the Sifra on Lev. 19, 2 quoted above: " 'Ye shall be holy/ Be ye separate (perushim).'" On Lev. i i , 44 ('For I am the Lord your God; hallow yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy') the same Midrash has: "As I am holy, so are ye holy; as I am separate, so be ye separate (perushim)." Here the likeness of God is in purity. More frequently, however, in rab­ binical literature, it is God in his gracious character that is com­ mended to men's imitation. The vexed word i n u K in Exod. 15, 2, was interpreted by Abba Saul: "I will imitate Him. As He is merciful and gracious, be thou also merciful and gracious." To the same effect, on Lev. 19, 2, he said: "What is the duty of a king's train? To imitate the king (do as the king does)." The character of God proclaimed in Exod. 34, 6, the first words of which are quoted by Abba Saul in the former of these two say­ ings, is set before men for their imitation in several places. Thus on Deut. 10, 12, the sum of what God requires: " 'To walk in all His ways.' These are the ways of the Holy One, as it is said: 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping lovingkindness to thousands (of generations), forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and clearing' (Exod. 34, 6). And it says, 'Every one who is called by the name of the Lord shall be delivered' (Joel 3, 5). How is it possible for a man to be called by the name of the Holy One? Nay, as God is called merciful and gracious, so 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Page 103. Sifra, Shemini Perek 12 (ed. Weiss f. 57b). In the context, 'apart from uncleanness.' See also Lev. 20, 26, and Sifra, Kedoshim Perek 11 end (f. 93d). 2

3

inUKl

nt.

See above, p. 104.

4

Mekilta, Shirah 3 (ed. Friedmann f. 37a; ed. Weiss f. 44a); Mekilta de-R .Simeon ben Yohai ed. Hoffmann p. 60 "HCnri"; Jer. Peah 15b ( T O T K ) ; Shabbat 133b. Rashi on Shabbat I.e. supposes Abba Saul to have resolved the word into &OJTI "I and He," by the method called Notarikon on which see Bacher, Terminologie, 1,125 f. See Abrahams, op. cit. pp. 174-176. Sifra, Kedoshim, init. (ed. Weiss 86c, below). The quotation breaks off short, stopping before the ominous words 'he will not clear the guilty.' Our versions, with the Massoretic text, 'Whoever shall call on the name/ etc. The Midrash would pronounce the verb as a passive. y

5

6

7

CHAP, i i ]

MOTIVES OF MORAL CONDUCT

in

do thou also be merciful and gracious and give gifts freely to all; as the Holy One is called righteous — as it is said, 'Righteous is the Lord in all his ways and kindly (hasid) in all his works' (Psalm 145, 17) — so be thou also righteous; as the Holy One is called kindly in all his works, so be thou also kindly. Therefore it is said, ' Every one who is called by the name of the Lord shall be delivered/ And it says, Every one that is called by my name, for my glory I have created him, formed him, yea made him' (Isa. 43, 7). And it says, 'The Lord made every thing for his own sake' " (Prov. 16, 4). R. Hama ben Hanina said: "What does the Scripture mean which says, 'After the Lord your God ye shall walk.' Is it pos­ sible for a man to walk after the Presence (Shekinah) ? Is it not said, 'For the Lord thy God is a devouring fire'? Nay, but to walk after the attributes of the Holy One (imitate his character). As he clothes the naked (Gen. 3, 21), so do thou clothe the naked. He visits the sick (Gen. 18, 1); do thou also visit the sick. He comforts mourners (Gen. 25,11); do thou also comfort mourners. He buries the dead (Deut. 34, 6); do thou also bury the dead." c

1

2

1

2

Sifre Deut. § 4 9 . Sotah 14a. Cf. Vol. I, p. 4 4 1 .

CHAPTER

III

DUTIES TO RULERS

IN Plato and Aristotle ethics stand in the closest connection with politics. The individual with whom they are concerned is thought of as a citizen of a Greek city, actual or ideal. His rights and duties are related not only to individuals of his own status or another, or to a social aggregation of such individuals, but to the state as an organic whole. In Judaism the conditions of such an association did not exist. The Jews had for centuries been under foreign rule — Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and finally Roman. From the beginning of the sixth century, through deportation, colonization, and emigration, they were in ever increasing numbers widely dispersed in other countries, East and West. The home land, a shrunken Judaea whose limits in all directions were visible from the heights about Jerusalem, was a petty subdivision of an outlying province. The general policy of the empires which succeeded one another in dominion left to the Jews a large measure of autonomy in their own affairs, much as the Turkish empire since the fifteenth century did with the subject Christian populations in its terri­ tory. If the tribute assessed on Judaea was punctually paid into the treasury, the empire concerned itself little about how the Jews managed the rest. The high priest and the council of elders had, therefore, large authority, and were upheld in it by the central government, which, on the other hand, held them responsible for the collection and rendering of the tribute, and the maintenance of order. It is evident that under such conditions there was no place for the political virtues in fact or in theory; submission is the one virtue of the subject of an absolute power. 1

1

Our testimony comes from the Greek period, but it is probable that a similar policy was pursued by the Persians. The Roman system was different.

CHAP, I I I ]

DUTIES TO RULERS

113

The outcome of the conflict which Antiochus Epiphanes pro­ voked by the desecration of the temple and the interdiction of the Jewish religion was the creation of an autonomous Judaean state under the Asmonaean dynasty, whose priestly rulers eventually assumed the title King, and by conquest brought under their dominion for a time a territory as wide as the ancient Davidic kingdom. This period of independence lasted eighty years and was ended by Pompey in the year 63 B.C. The liberation of Judaea from the yoke of foreign rule it had borne so long, and the subsequent expansion over the old Land of Israel, was naturally accompanied by an exaltation of the national spirit; but, on the other hand, the political aims and worldly policies of the Asmo­ naean princes alienated from them the religious leaders and their following among the people. When Pompey gave a hearing at Damascus to the rival claims of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus II, representatives of the people appeared against them both, seeking the abolition of kingly rule, and the restoration of their ancient constitution under which they were governed by the priests. The feeling of the Pharisees toward the Asmonaean princes is well illustrated by the second of the Psalms of Solomon, which denounces them as usurpers and accuses them of every kind of evil. It was for their crimes that God permitted his sanctuary to be desecrated by the en­ trance of Pompey. Herod, king of Judaea by the grace of the Romans, was in the eyes of the Jews a foreign ruler. The heads of the Pharisees, Sameas and Pollio, used their influence to bring the people to submit to him, and were honored by him; but when he demanded of the Jews an oath of allegiance, they and most of their disciples refused, and the king was wise enough to let it pass. Fidelity to their religion and the authority of the interpreters of the Law had completely displaced political loyalty and the sense of civic duty. The principle which Paul lays down in Rom. 1

2

1

2

Josephus, Antt. xiv. 3, 2 § 4 1 . Josephus, Antt. xv. 10, 3 § 370; see also xvii. 2, 4 § 4 2 .

II

MORALS

4

[PART V

13, I ff. expresses the general attitude of the Jewish teachers: 'Let every one be in subjection to the authorities that are set over him; for no authority exists unless by God's will, and those that actually exist have been appointed by him, so that one who arrays himself against the authority puts himself in opposition to the ordinance of God, and those who oppose this will bring on themselves (God's) judgment.' But to this broad principle they made one exception: If rulers command their subjects to do what is forbidden by their religion or forbid them to do what it requires, they are not to be obeyed — God is to be obeyed rather than men — and may be resisted. The kings of this earth rule by the appointment of Heaven. In the time of persecution under Hadrian, R. Jose ben Kisma asserted this particularly of the Romans in a warning addressed to Hanina ben Teradion: "You know, my brother, that this people (the Romans) has been given the kingdom by Heaven, for it has ruined his house, and burnt his temple, and slain his pious ones and destroyed his good men, and still it stands." This was but the application to the present of the consistent teaching of the prophets, most conspicuously of Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar. It was probably while the rebellion that broke out in the year 66 was brewing that R. llanina, the prefect of the priesthood, uttered his warning, "Pray for the welfare of the government, for if it were not for the fear of it, men would swallow one another up alive" — words that are an ominous prevision of what act­ ually happened in the war and the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. A later rabbi quotes this saying in connection with Hab. 1, 14 ('And thou makest man like the fishes of the sea'): "As it is with the fishes in the sea, the one that is bigger than 1

2

3

4

5

1

See Berakot 58a. IJanina disregarded the warning and the edict against teaching, and be­ came one of the martyrs. Sifre Deut. § 307; 'Abodah Zarah I 7 b - i 8 a . 'Abodah Zarah 18 a. E.g. Jer. cc. 3 4 - 3 9 . Cf. Syriac Baruch 1, 1 - 4 ; cc 6 - 8 ; Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann f. 1 3 1 a . Sagan. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, I I I ]

DUTIES TO RULERS 1

another swallows the other up, so with human kind; were it not for fear of the government everyone that is greater than his fel­ low would swallow him up. This is what Hanina, the prefect of the priesthood said, Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear of the government, a man would swallow up his neighbor alive." Here again Jeremiah had shown the way: 'Seek the welfare of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in its welfare shall ye have welfare' (Jer. 29, 7). As a matter of fact, sacrifices for foreign rulers were an imme­ morial custom, and were doubtless accompanied by prayers for their welfare. The stopping of the offering for the emperor in 66 A.D. was, as Josephus observes, equivalent to a declaration of war. Even after the war under Hadrian, R. Simeon ben Lakish found in the repeated, 'And behold it was very good' in Gen. 1, an intimation of the mission of Rome. " 'And behold it was very good/ This is the kingdom of Heaven (the divine government of the world). 'And behold it was very good/ This is the earthly kingdom. Is then the earthly kingdom very good? Yes, for it exacts justice of mankind. As it is said, 'I made the earth, and created man upon it' " (Isa. 45, 12). These utterances are to be understood in the light of the cir­ cumstances which gave occasion for them. Both the heads of the priesthood in Jerusalem and the leading Pharisees were op­ posed to the rebellion of the year 66. IJanina, the prefect of the 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

4

Cf. Hab. i, 1 3 . 'Abodah Zarah 4 a . Cf. Baruch 1, nf.; 1 Tim. 2, 1 f. See I Mace. 7, 3 3 ; Philo, Legatio ad Gaium c. 23 § 152 f.; c. 45 §§ 355—

3575

Yoma 69a, below. Josephus Bell. Jud. ii. 10, 4 § 197. Bell. Jud. ii. 1 7 , 2 ; cf. Gittin 56a, top. See Schiirer, Geschichte des judischen Volkes, II, 302-304. Gen. R. 9, near the end. Instead of adam 'man/ the author pro­ nounced edom (Edom-Rome), 'I created Rome over i t / See Theodor's note. 6

7

y

MORALS

n6

[PART V

priesthood, doubtless expressed the well-grounded apprehensions of both classes. Johanan ben Zakkai is said to have predicted the calamitous outcome of the war, and during the siege of Jeru­ salem, like Jeremiah in a similar situation in the days of Nebu­ chadnezzar, counseled peace with the Romans as the only salva­ tion. When the strife of factions in the doomed city destroyed all hope, he made his escape to the camp of the besiegers, and got permission from Vespasian to establish himself at Jamnia, where even before the fall of the city he was laying the ground for the restoration of Judaism. The situation under Hadrian was different. Whether the re­ bellion was provoked by the prohibition of circumcision or by the emperor's purpose to erect a heathen temple on the site of the ruined temple of the Lord, it was in defence of their religion that the Jews rose, and some of the most prominent rabbis of the time were zealous for the war, Akiba even acclaiming Simeon bar Kozibah as the Star out of Jacob of Num. 24,17-19, who should triumph over Edom (Rome). The event proved to Jose ben Kisma that the empire had been given to the Romans by God, and that defiance of their edicts was inviting doom, and Simeon ben Lakish could find its administration of justice intimated in the Very good' of Gen. 1. The duty and the limitsof obedience aredefinedin theTanhuma on Gen. 8 , 1 6 , after Eccles. 8, 2 ('I [counsel thee], keep the king's commands, and that on account of the oath of God'): God said to Israel, I adjure you that if the government imposes on you harsh decrees, you do not rebel against it, whatever it decrees. But if it decrees that you shall nullify the Law and the command­ ments, do not listen to it, but say to it, I will keep the king's command in everything necessary to you, but' on account of the 1

2

1

There is a story that at this interview he foretold to Vespasian that he should become emperor. Abot de-R. Nathan 4, 5. Josephus attributes to himself a similar prediction. Bell. Jud. iii. 8, 9; cf. Suetonius, Vespasian 5. Hence the name Bar Cocheba in Christian writers. The point lies in vs. 18, Edom (Rome) shall be conquered, etc. 2

CHAP, I I I ]

DUTIES TO RULERS

117

oath of God,' . . . 'do not stand in an evil thing' (Eccles. 8, 3); for they are not stopping you from the commandments, but making you deny God; therefore, 'on account of the oath of God.' This is what Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did when Nebu­ chadnezzar set up the image, etc. (Dan. 3, 13-18). They said to him, whatever you impose upon us, levy of produce (annona), duties and tolls, or poll-tax, we will obey thee; but to deny the Lord, we will not obey thee, 'on account of the oath of God.' The most striking historical illustration of this attitude is the protest of the Jews against the statue of Caligula which the emperor had ordered Petronius, the governor of the province of Syria, to instal in the temple in Jerusalem, by force if necessary. The Jews appealed to their law, which forbade an image of God, much more of a man, not only in the temple but anywhere in the land. They offered sacrifices for the emperor twice every day; but if he insisted on setting up images, he would first have to sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; they were ready to offer them­ selves for the slaughter with their wives and children. The arbitrary and extortionate exactions of the collectors of octroi tolls (tywiD), who were not inaptly classed with high­ waymen, early gave rise to casuistical discussion of the permis­ sibility of deceiving them by representing the goods as the por­ tion set apart for the priests (Terumah) or as belonging to the government; and even of fortifying the declaration by an oath, a point on which the schools of Shammai and Hillel were divided in the first century of our era. In the Talmud this is held not to apply to officers appointed by the government to collect a fixed tariff on the goods, on the general principle later form­ ulated by Mar Samuel, "The law of the state is law." This 1

2

3

4

1

5

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 10; cf. § 1 5 . Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 10, 4 . M. Nedarim 3, 4 . Head of the school at Nehardea in Babylonia in the first half of the third century. Nedarim 28a; cf. Baba Kamma 1 1 3 a . See Maimonides, Hilkot Gezelah 5, 11 ff. 2

3

4

5

n8

MORALS

[PART v

laconic dictum, in its manifold application, has governed the re­ lation of the Jews to the laws of the countries in which they have lived. In the same sense Jesus answered the question whether it was lawful to pay taxes to the Romans: 'Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.' But Samuel's pronouncement was of wider scope, and carried authority. 1

1

Matt. 22, 2 i . See I. Abrahams, Pharisaism and the Gospels, I, 62.

C H A P T E R

IV

THE FAMILY

MARRIAGE was regarded not only as the normal state, but as a divine ordinance. It was a generally accepted opinion that the world was created for the multiplication of the species (Gen. I , 26), alleging Isa. 45, 18, 'He created it not a waste; to be in­ habited He formed i t . ' On Gen. 1,18 ('It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper corresponding to him') the Midrash collects sayings of various rabbis about the things that the unmarried man lacks. R. Jacob says: "One who has no wife remains without good, and without a helper, and without joy, and without a blessing, and without atonement/' and ad­ duces scripture for all these deficiencies. Others add without peace (welfare) and without life. Another says, He is not a whole man, for it is said, And He blessed them, and He called their name, 'man' (Gen. 5, 1). The two of them together were called 'man/ Others still say that the unmarried man diminishes the likeness (of God), 'In the image of God He made the man/ and thereafter, 'And do ye (plural) increase and multiply.' Celibacy was, in fact, not common, and was disapproved by the rabbis, who taught that a man should marry at eighteen, and that if he passed the age of twenty without taking a wife he transgressed a divine command and incurred God's displeasure. Postponement of marriage was permitted students of the Law that they might concentrate their attention on their studies, free 1

2

3

4

5

1

M. Eduyot 1 j 1 3 . R. Hiyya ben Gamda. Similarly R. Eleazar (ben Pedat): He is not a man, as it is said, Male and female created He them, and called their name 'man/ Yebamot 63a. Gen. R. 17, 2 ; cf. Yebamot 62b, below, and 63a, b. The last inference was drawn by several teachers of the second century. Tos. Yebamot 8, end; Yebamot 63b, end; Gen. R. 34, 8 f. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 408. R. Ishmael, Kiddushin 29b, end. 2 3

4

5

119

MORALS

120

[PART V

1

from the cares of supporting a wife. Cases like that of Simeon ben Azzai, who never married, were evidently infrequent. He had himself said that a man who did not marry was like one who shed blood, and diminished the likeness of God. One of his colleagues threw up to him that he was better at preaching than at practicing, to which he replied, What shall I do? My soul is enamored of the Law; the population of the world can be kept up by others. Whether the commandment to marry applied to women was disputed; the decision was in the negative. It is not to be imagined that pronouncements about the duty of marrying and the age at which people should marry actually regulated practice. A man must be able to support a wife before he takes one, and no fixed age could be set for the fulfilment of that condition. Early marriages were, however, favored for sound moral and social reasons. The institution of marriage had for its object children, and this was, as we have seen, the motive expressed in the Law. For girls there were no independent careers to compete with motherhood; and to remain unmarried or to have no offspring was a bitter misfortune. Stress is laid upon parity of rank in a society which set great store by family and station; but it is not wise to take a wife of superior rank — rather go down a step in the scale in choosing a wife. There is a good deal of similar worldly wisdom about the whole subject of marriage, as there is in Proverbs and Sirach, which has no bearing on our present theme. The cata­ logue of prohibited degrees of kinship, based on Lev. 18, 6-18 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

In general a man should pursue his studies and then marry; but if he cannot get along without a wife, he may marry, and study afterwards. Tos. Bekorot 6, 1 0 ; Yoma 7 2 b ; Menahot n o a ; Kiddushin 29b. In the last two passages a Babylonian ruling is recorded, that a man should marry first, and study afterwards. He took the life of his potential offspring. Yebamot 63b, end. Yebamot I.e.; Tos. Yebamot 8, end. M. Yebamot 6, 6; Yebamot 6 5 b . Another reason for marrying, corresponding to Paul's counsel, 1 Cor. 7, 2 (cf. 9 ) , Maimonides, Ishshut 15, 3. Kiddushin 49a. Yebamot 63a, below. 2

3

4

5

6

7

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

121

(cf. 20, 11-21), was extended by the rabbinical authorities by the inclusion of 'secondary relations/ on the principle "make a pre­ cautionary regulation in addition to my regulation" (Lev. 1 8,30),* and R. Hiyya introduced ' tertiaries.' Most of these are, how­ ever, so many steps up or down in the generations that they have no practical importance. It may be mentioned that marriage of cousins-germ an was not barred, and that the marriage of a man to his niece (especially his sister's daughter) is approved. There were other restrictions in the Law, and special rules for priests which need not be recounted here. Marriages were usually arranged by the parents of the parties. It was one of the duties of a father to give his son a wife, and to get a husband for his daughter as soon as she was old enough to be wedded. Betrothal was a formal act by which the woman became legally the man's wife; unfaithfulness on her part was adultery and punishable as such; if the relation was dissolved a bill of divorce was required. Some time elapsed after the bride­ groom claimed the fulfilment of the agreement before the bride was taken to her husband's house and the marriage consumated; preparations had to be made on both sides. The term 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Yebamot 2 1 a ; 22a. See Jewish Encyclopedia, Incest/ VI, 5 7 2 - 5 7 4 , with a table of pro­ hibited degrees. Yebamot 620-63a; Tos. Kiddushin 1, 4 . The Damascene sect regarded this connection as incestuous, as did the Samaritans and the Karaites. See L. Ginzberg, Eine unbekannte jiidische Sekte, pp. 3 1 f. — It may be added that marriage with a deceased wife's sister was unobjectionable. R. Tarfon contracted such a marriage on the funeral day. Jer. Yebamot 6 b . M. Kiddushin 2, 1. A proverb ran: When a daughter is adult, free your slave and give him to her (rather than let her remain longer unmarried). Pesahim 1 1 3 a . Cf. Ecclus. 7, 24 f. — On the forms and ceremonies of mar­ riage see Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v.; S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 24 ff. pon«. A girl might be betrothed by her father while still a minor (J$etannah) (under twelve years and a day), and if the contract was dissolved a bill of divorce was necessary. On the circumstances under which the betrothal (or marriage) could be annulled by the girl, see Jewish Encyclopedia s.v.' Mum', VIII, 623 f., and references there. p&OBO. According to M. Ketubot 5, 2, twelve months was the normal interval in the case of a maiden, thirty days in the case of a widow. 2

4

3

4

5

6

7

8

MORALS

122

[PART V

employed for betrothal, kiddushin, has religious associations; it is an act by which the woman is, so to speak, consecrated to her husband, set apart for him exclusively. Polygamy was legitimate under the Mosaic law, not only with women of the husband's status but with bondwomen, and the rabbinical law corresponds. In our epoch it was evidently not common among Palestinian Jews. Our information is largest about the learned class, and among them convincing instances of polygamous marriages are at least very rare. The Gospels and the whole Tannaite literature evidently suppose a practically monogamous society. The great mass of the people, indeed, lived in circumstances which precluded polygamy. The rabbinical in­ stitution of the marriage contract and settlement operated not only as a check upon the freedom of divorce but upon plural marriages. The law of divorce in Deut. 24, 1 contained a restriction of the natural right of the man to put out of his house a wife who did not please him: he must give her a written certificate that he had no further rights in her, and that consequently she was free to marry another. The formalities of the rabbinical law regarding the drafting, attesting, and service of this instrument involved a measure of delay which may sometimes have given time for the husband to get over a fit of temper and change his mind. Even after the bill of divorce (get) had been delivered, there was no hindrance to a reunion by consent, unless suspicion of unfaithfulness was the ground or the woman in the meantime had been married to another. A more effective restraint was the 1

2

3

4

5

6

1 2

prp.

The Damascene sect condemns the religious authorities in Judaea for permitting a man to take a second wife while the first was living, see Vol. I, p. 202. The case of R. Tarfon (Tos. Ketubot 5, 1) is not in point. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 343. Ketubah. The requirement of a bill of divorce is presumed by this law, not created by it. See Maimonides, Hilkot Gerushin 1, 1 ff. 3

4

5

6

CHAP, i v ]

THE FAMILY

123

fact that the sum he settled on his wife at marriage had to be paid to her if he divorced her. It was a lien on his whole estate, and collectible by legal process. From this obligation, or any part of it, a wife could not release her husband, but she could forfeit her right to the fulfilment of the contract by certain kinds of misconduct. Malachi 2,16 was taken by R. Johanan to mean, Hateful (to God) is the man who puts away his wife (cf. vs. 1 4 ) ; but the same words are interpreted by R. Judah, If you hate her, put her away. R. Hanina (ben Papa) deduced from the same passage ('the God of Israel,' vs. 16) that only in Israel has di­ vorce a religious sanction. R. Eleazar, from vss. 1 4 and 16, that the very altar drops tears on every one who divorces his first wife ('the wife of his youth,' vs. 1 4 ) . But however the rabbis might disapprove of divorce and seek to impose restraints upon it, the law in Deut. 2 4 , 1 recognized the man's right to dismiss his wife: 'If a man takes a wife and has intercourse with her, and she does not please him because he finds in her some unseemly thing, and he writes for her a bill of divorcement and delivers into her hand, and sends her out of his house,' etc. In the first century the schools of Shammai and of Hillel dif­ fered about what constituted under this law a legitimate ground of divorce. The former admitted only the discovery of unchas1

2

3

6

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

The liability for the payment of the Ketubah is said to have been intro­ duced by Simeon ben Shatah, in the first century before our era. Tos. Ketubot 12, i; Ketubot 82b. For an illustration of the way this worked in preventing divorce see the story of R. Jose the Galilean, Gen. R. 17, 3. He was unable to pay his insolent wife the sum for which he was obligated, until a colleague gave him the money. M. Ketubot 5, 1. M. Ketubot 7, 6; Ketubot 72a—b; cf. Gittin 90a—b. Bacher surmises that this was Judah son of Hiyya. Pal. Amoraer, I, 49> n. 3. See Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 524, n. 2, for other references and the variants. Strack-Billerbeck on Matt. 5, 31 (I, 3 1 2 ) . Gittin 90b. Eleazar ben Pedat. Cf. vs. 3, If her later husband hates her. On this whole subject see Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, on Matt. 5, 3 2 . M. Gittin 9, 1 0 ; Sifre Deut. § 269. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

I2

MORALS

4

[PART V

tity; the latter not that alone but less serious faults, even down to scorching her husband's food. The controversy turned on the interpretation of the phrase rendered above 'unseemly thing.' The school of Hillel interpreted 'unchastity or something (else)'; the school of Shammai as if the words were transposed, 'matter of unchastity.' Akiba, from the words, 'if she does not please him' (lit. 'find favor in his eyes') inferred that a man might divorce his wife if he found another fairer than she. Whatever may be thought of the exegetical argument of the school of Hillel in this particular, the conclusion is unquestion­ ably in accordance with the older interpretation of the verse, and eventually the Halakah of the school of Hillel, in this as in other controverted matters, became the rabbinical law. These deliverances of the schools of Shammai and Hillel are often compared with the answer of Jesus to the question of cer­ tain Pharisees whether it was a man's right to divorce his wife for whatever cause — Hillel's position. Jesus bases his reply, not on an interpretation of Deut. 24, 1, but on Gen. 1, 27 to­ gether with 2, 24, and brands as adultery the union of either the 1

2

3

4

5

1

Bad cooking is a more serious ground for divorce than some modern ones. It is possible, however, that the expression is proverbial in some other meaning. The arguments are set out in the Baraita, Gittin 90a (translated in Strack-Billerbeck, I, 3 1 3 f.); cf. Sifre Deut. § 2 1 9 - 2 6 9 . Cf. Jer. Sotah 1 6 b . The phrase 1 3 1 n n y occurs besides only in Deut. 2 3 , 1 5 , in a context in which unchastity' is out of the question: excrement lying about uncovered in the camp is 'an indecency of a thing' (appositional genitive), that is an indecent thing. Cf. Josephus Antt. iv. 8, 23 § 253; nad' aa5r)iroTovv alrlas, iroXkai 5' av rots avdp&TTOis roiavrai yivoLvro, k . t . X . Philo, De spec, legg., iii. 5 § 30, icad* rjv av rvxv irpb4>a
1

3

JLOV

4

6

CHAP, i v ]

THE FAMILY

125

husband who has divorced his wife or the divorced woman with a second partner. His own disciples were so impressed by the unhappy case a man might find himself in if marriage was to be an indissoluble bond that they felt it would be safer not to marry at all. In setting these utterances by the side of those of Hillel and Shammai, it should be remembered that they were juris­ consults called upon to pronounce authoritatively what the law was; while Jesus, having no such authority or responsibility, undertook to say what, on ideal principles, the law ought to be, Moses to the contrary notwithstanding. Divorce was not only a right, but in some cases a duty. After the death penalty for adultery had ceased to be enforced and the ordeal of jealousy was done away by Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, it was the duty of a husband to divorce a wife whom he suspected of unchastity, but in such a divorce she retained her right to the marriage settlement and dowry. In this case the husband could not remarry her. In a case of proved adultery the husband was required by the court to divorce her even if he was willing to condone the offense. Barrenness was a ground for di­ vorce, and if after ten years of married life a wife bore no child, it was the duty of the husband, in compliance with the command­ ment, Be fruitful and multiply, to take another wife. A woman divorced under these circumstances received the marriage settle­ ment and was free to marry again. In Jewish law a woman could not divorce her husband, but she could sue for divorce in the courts, which would for certain causes require him to give her a bill of divorce. Such causes were impotence, denial of conjugal rights, unreasonable restriction of her freedom of movement, such as keeping her from going to funerals or wedding parties, loath­ some ailments, or nasty occupations such as tanning. 1

2

3

How frequent divorces were there is no way of knowing — whether, for instance, the ratio of divorces to marriages was 1

In Matt. 5, 3 2 , the man who marries a divorced woman is guilty of the same offense. All this is quite foreign to Jewish law. M. Yebamot 6, 6; Yebamot 64a, etc. M. Nedarim 1 1 , 1 2 ; M. Ketubot 5, 5; 7, 2 - 5 ; 7, 9 f. 2

3

126

MORALS

[PART V

higher or lower than in the statistics of consecutive polygamy in some modern Christian countries. Several anecdotes have for their subject the vexations great scholars had to endure from their wives; but of divorce on this ground R. Jose is the one prom­ inent example, and in his case the motive of the story is his generous treatment of the divorced wife and her second husband in their fallen fortunes, installing them in a house he owned and providing for them as long as they lived. R. Hiyya also had a shrewish wife. Once when he was making her a present wrapped up in a cloth, his nephew and disciple, Rab, exclaimed, And this when she plagues you so! Hiyya replied, All we can expect of them is that they bring up our children and keep us from sin. But though he endured the affliction, he wished Rab better fortune: May God keep you from what is worse than death (Eccl. 7, 26, 'I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands/ etc.). The good wish was not effectual, for Rab himself had a contrary spouse — if he told her to cook him a mess of lentils she was sure to set before him peas, and vice versa, so that his son learned, when he took a message about dinner from his father to his mother, to ask for the opposite of what his father wanted. Yet though these women belonged to the class of 'bad wives' and gave abundant cause, there is no intimation that their hus­ bands divorced them. 1

2

3

4

The legal status of woman under Jewish law compares to its advantage with that of contemporary civilizations, and repre­ sents a development of the biblical legislation consistently favor­ able to woman. Her place was in the home of her father till she 5

1

Gen. R. 17, 3 ; Lev. R. 34, 14; more briefly, Jer. Ketubot 34b, below. Yebamot 63a, end. Ibid. Ibid. Minor or unmarried daughters had a right to maintenance from the estate of their deceased father, even though it left nothing for the sons to inherit and they had to beg from door to door. M. Ketubot 13, 3 (a decision rendered shortly after the death of Jesus). A clause to this effect is intro­ duced in the Ketubah. M. Ketubot 4, 10 f. Daughters who were minors at their father's death had also a claim on the estate for a dowry equal to that which their elder sisters received. M. Ketubot, 6, 6. 2

5

3

4

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

127

was married, then in that of her husband as wife, mother, and housekeeper. For emancipated women there was in the ancient world only one calling. The husband was bound by the marriage contract to work for his wife, support, and provide for her food, clothing, etc.; the wife's household duties were to grind meal, bake, wash clothes, cook, nurse her child, make the bed, and work in wool (carding, spinning, weaving). If she brought with her female slaves, she was relieved of these occupations in proportion to their number— if they were as many as four, "she may sit in her chair" like a lady. Complete idleness, however, was disapproved as perilous to her morals. Peasant women no doubt had to help in the field and garden, but this is not included in the normal occupa­ tions of the housewife. The father was expected to support his children during their early years, and had a right to their services or earnings during their minority. His obligations to a son are defined: he must circumcise him, redeem him, teach him Torah, teach him a trade, and get him a wife — some say also, teach him to swim. The duty of educating a son in the Law and commandments is inculcated in many places. Emphasis was laid on teaching him a handicraft by which he could make a living. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) said, A man who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him robbery. Secular pursuits were commended, however, not 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

For the formula of the marriage contract in which these obligations are assumed see Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v. 'Ketubah' (VII, 4 7 2 ) . This does not exempt her from certain personal attentions to her husband, such as washing his face and hands, etc. M. Ketubot 5, 5. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel held that if a husband re­ strained his wife from doing any work, he should divorce her and pay the Ketubah, for idleness is a cause of insanity. See also Yebamot 63a (woman a helper to man). I.e. to the age of twelve years and six months. M. Ketubot 4, 4. Redemption of a first born son, Exod. 1 3 , 1 5 ; cf. Num. 18, 1 6 . Tos Kiddushin 1, 1 1 ; Jer. Kiddushin 61 a (with proof texts); Kiddushin 2p;a-b, 30a; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Shelah § 26 with note 108, etc. On the educational ideal see Vol. I, pp. 3 1 6 ff. Tos. kiddushin 1. c. See there the benefits of knowing a handicraft. The trades of many rabbis are known from the Talmud; see the Jewish Encyclo2

3

4

5

6

7

8

128

MORALS

[PART V

alone because they gave an assured livelihood, but because un­ remitting application to studies was not favorable even to study itself. Rabban Gamaliel (III), son of the Patriarch Judah, said: "Study combined with a secular occupation is a fine thing, for the double labor makes sin to be forgotten. All study of the Law with which no work goes will in the end come to naught and bring sin in its train.'' Girls were brought up in domestic occupations and thus pre­ pared to assume the like duties and responsibilities in homes of their own. Some of them may have been taught by their fathers or their husbands at home to read in the Bible, but since this involved the learning of the ancient Hebrew language, it is prob­ able that such cases were rare. Yet it is said that in the house­ hold of Rabbi (the Patriarch Judah) the maid servants spoke biblical Hebrew, and were able to enlighten professional scholars on some rare words in the Scripture. Instruction of women in the unwritten law was naturally still more rare. The one famous instance is Beruriah, daughter of R. Ilanina ben Teradion and wife of R. Meir, who in an ancecdote about R. Simlai and R. 1

2

3

4

pedia, X, 294 f. On the choice of a respectable trade, M. kiddushin 4, 1 4 and the Talmuds thereon. Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 1 4 . Abot 2, 2. Cf. M. Kiddushin 1, 10. There was no commandment in the Bible to instruct daughters in the Law. Kiddushin 29b, 30a. Women are exempt from the commandment to study the Law. Kiddushin 34a. The fact that a woman might read a portion of the Sabbath lesson in the synagogue assumes, however, that there were women competent to do so. See below, p. 1 3 1 . Rosh ha-Shanah 2 6 b ; Megillah 1 8 a , below; Nazir 3a. The Patriarch himself had been taught Greek in his father's house, and gave the preference to that language over Aramaic in Palestine. Sotah 4 9 b . There were rabbis who strongly disapproved it. To a learned woman who asked him a question about the sin of the golden calf and its consequences R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus replied: A woman has no learning except about the spindle (Yoma 66b; Jer. Sotah 19a, top). Let the words of the Law burn up but let them not be transmitted to a woman. Jer. Sotah I.e. One who teaches his daughter Torah is as if he taught her frivolity (M. Sotah 3, 4 ) . Ben 'Azzai, on the contrary, taught that a man is bound to teach his daughter Torah. See also R. Joshua, ibid. In the following sentence, R. Joshua: "A pious fool, and a shrewd rascal, and a she Pharisee, and the plague of Pharisees, use up the world." See Sotah 2 1 b , 2 2 a ; Jer. Sotah 19a. See be­ low, p. 194. 1

2

3

4

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

129

Johanan is said to have studied three hundred talmudic topics in a day, and to have spent three years on the Book of Genealo­ gies. She even gave opinions on points of law, and on one such, a question of clean or unclean, Rabbi approved her decision, though it went counter to the prevailing opinion of the learned. Several anecdotes illustrate her familiarity with the Scriptures and skill in rabbinical methods of interpretation and application, and her ability to quote the rabbinical law with effect. Women were exempt from certain religious obligations incum­ bent on men, namely, the recitation of the Shema', and the wearing of phylacteries on the head and left arm (Tefillin), but were required to recite the prayers (Tefillah, the Eighteen Prayers) and the table blessings, and to maintain the Mezuzah on the doors of houses. A more general rule is that women are exempt from all positive commandments ('thou shalt') for the performance of which a fixed time is set. Such are the booth, the palm branches, and the ram's horn (at Tabernacles), the fringes, the phylacteries. All other positive commandments are binding on women as well as men, and all prohibitions except the few which by their nature apply only to men and the prescrip­ tions concerning the ritual of sacrificial worship. There are also laws which apply exclusively to women. Others in the domestic economy, naturally fall to women to carry out, such as the sepa­ ration of the Hallah (the portion of dough from every baking which is the priest's due) and the lighting of the sabbath lamp with the proper benediction. A peculiar responsibility rests on 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

1

Pesahim 62b. The three hundred is not to be taken numerically. Tos. Kelim ii. 1, 6. Examples of a similar kind have been not uncommon in Islam; some women are famous as traditionists. Berakot 1 0 a ; 'Erubin $^-$42.. As are also slaves and children. M. Berakot 3, 3 . M. Kiddushin 1, 7 ; Tos. Sotah 2, 8; Berakot 20b. Kiddushin 33b~34a. Like other general rules, these are not without exceptions. Kiddushin 34a. M. Kiddushin 1 , 7 - 8 . Especially observance of the rules about menstruation (Niddah). M. Shabbat 2, 6 (three things for the neglect of which women die in childbirth); cf. Gen. R. 17, 8, end. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

1 1

130

MORALS

[PART v

the wife for the scrupulous fulfilment of these laws, though the obligation was really on the householder, i.e., in most cases the husband. Women were not required to attend the three annual festivals (Exod. 3, 17). In conformity with Deut. 14, 22-27 the so-called 9econd tithe, in kind or in the proceeds of redemption, was to be consumed in a family feast in Jerusalem two years out of three, or rather since the seventh year was fallow, in four years of each sabbatical period. Firstlings and voluntary sacrifices were also to be brought to the temple. Nothing prevented combining this with a festival season, and presumably this was often done. In the temple, women had access to a fore-court, called for that reason the Woman's Court, within the sacred precincts, but sepa­ rated from the inner enclosure surrounding the Holy House and the great altar where the sacrificial worship was performed. In the Woman's Court such popular festivities as those at the Feast of Tabernacles took place, and seats were especially provided for women in a raised gallery. Sacrifices of purification (sin offerings) were required of women after childbirth (Lev. 12, 6-8), and in other cases. They could also bring offerings in fulfilment of vows, or as a free-will offering or a thank-offering, any of which might be either a burnt offering or a peace offering. The question was early raised whether the imposition of hands (Lev. 1, 4; 3, 2, etc.) was necessary in the case of a woman's sacrifice. The decision was that it was required of men but not of women. Some authorities held that though it was not obligatory, it was permissible if she chose, and a case is reported in which the victim was taken out into the woman's court for this purpose, "not because it was necessary, but to gratify the women." 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

In the third and sixth years the tithe was set apart for the poor of the owner's neighborhood. Above, p. 46. E.g. Lev. 1 4 , 1 - 3 2 ; 1 5 , 2 5 - 3 0 , etc. Subject to the right of the father or husband to nullify the vow of a woman not sui juris, Num. 30. She could not come into the inner court to perform this part of the rite. IJagigah 16b, below. Cf. Sifra, Wayyikra Perek 2 (ed. Weiss f. 4 b ) . 2

4

5

6

3

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

Women could not be counted to make up a quorum (minyari) for public worship in the synagogue, for which ten free adult males were required. A woman might, however, take part as one of the seven in the reading of the Sabbath lessons, though this was disapproved on grounds of propriety and no instance is re­ ported. Many women frequented the synagogue services, not only on Sabbaths and festivals but on week days. Of the pres ence of women in the synagogues of the dispersion the Acts and the letters of Paul give evidence. No apology is necessary for this digression into the social and religious position of woman in Judaism, which is itself a moral achievement, and fundamental in the morals of the Jewish family. 1

2

T

3

Among all the commandments the 'weightiest of the weighty' is filial piety: 'Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee' (Exod. 20, 12). In Exod. 20, 12 the father is named first; in Lev. 19, 3 the mother, showing that both parents are equally to be honored and revered. Dear to God is the honoring of father and mother, for the Scripture employs the same expressions about honoring, revering, cursing parents, as about honoring, revering, or cursing Himself, thus, according to a hermeneutic rule, equating the things themselves. The rewards attached to 4

5

6

7

1

Tos. Megillah 4 (3), 1 1 ; Megillah 23a, below. 'Abodah Zarah 38a-b. Bacher, in Hastings Bible Dictionary, IV, 640a. That it was no recent achievement in our period is shown by the eulogy of the good wife and mother in Prov. 3 1 , 1 0 - 3 1 . On this subject see Philo, De decalogo c. 2 2 - 2 4 (ed. Mangey, II, 198 ff.); De spec. legg. ii. (De parentibus colendis, ed. Cohn u. Wendland, V, 141 ff.). Deut. 6, 1 5 ; Lev. 1 9 , 3, etc. It may be remarked that an anonymous opinion in the Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 20, 12 and Ketubot 103a extend the commandment to a step-mother and a step-father during the lifetime of the son's own father 01 mother, and to the oldest brother. Mekilta, Bahodesh 8 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 0 a ; ed. Weiss f. 7 7 b ; Sifra Ke­ doshim, iniU (ed. Weiss f. 87a, top); Gen. R. 1, 1 5 , end. Mekilta on Exod. 20, 1 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 0 a ; ed. Weiss f. 7 7 b ) ; attributed to the Patriarch Judah; cf. Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, Exod. 20, 1 2 ; Sifra on Lev. 1 9 , 3 (Kedoshim, init. ed. Weiss f. 8 6 d ) ; Jer. Peah 15c, below; Kiddushin 30b. 2

3

4

6

7

132

MORALS

[PART v

them are equivalent. It is logical that father, mother, and God should be thus joined, for they are so to speak partners in bring­ ing the child into life. Simeon ben Yohai said: "Great is the honoring of father and mother, for God makes more of it than of honoring Himself. It is said, 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' and it is said, 'Honor the Lord with thy substance.' Honor Him, that is, with what He has graciously bestowed on you — setting apart the forgotten sheaf, and the corner of the field; setting apart the priest's dues, first and second tithes and the poor-tithes, and the portion of dough; making the booth, and the palm-branches, and the horn, and phylacteries and fringes, and feeding the poor and hungry — if you have substance, you are obligated to all these, and if you have not, you are not obligated to any of them. But when it comes to honoring father and mother, whether you have sub­ stance or not, 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' even if you have to beg your living from door to door." When a man honors his father and his mother, God says, I impute it to you as if I were dwelling among them and they honored me. When a man does despite to his father and his mother, God says, I have done well not to dwell among them, for if I dwelt among them they would do despite to me. If a case should arise, however, in which the parents bade their son transgress any one of the com­ mandments delivered in the Law, for instance, in the matter of sabbath observance, he should not listen to them; the duty to honor God, which rests on the parents as well as the son, takes precedence. 1

2

3

4

5

6

Reverence requires that a son should not sit in the place where his father usually sits, not talk in a place where he is accustomed 1

Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai I.e.; Kiddushin I.e., cf. Niddah 3 1 a . Cf. Philo, De decalogo c. 22 § 107 (ed. Mangey, I, 1 9 8 - 1 9 9 ) ; De spec. legg. ii. §§ 224 f. Jer. Peah i$d top. Kiddushin 30b, end. Ibid. 3 1 a . Or daughter. Sifra l.s.c.; Yebamot 5 b - 6 a . A particular application of this rule, M, Baba Mesi'a 2, 10, and the Gemara f. 32a. 2

3

y

4

6

5

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

*33

1

to talk, not contradict him. A variant of the tradition has, not to stand in his place, nor sit in his place, nor contradict his words, nor decide against his opinion. Honor includes providing the father with food and drink, clothing and covering and shoes, conducting him in and out. The honor a man owes to his father he owes him living or dead. A bastard {mamzer) is bound to honor and reverence his father. Nor is a son dispensed from the, obligation by the fact that his father is a bad man and a trans­ gressor of the law. If a son see his father breaking a command­ ment, respect should keep him from saying, Father, you have transgressed words of the Law; he should say, Father, thus it is written in the Law, or rather, In the Law the following verse is written. Similar deferential forms of speech are to be employed in discussing a difference of opinion. The Talmud has a collec­ tion of anecdotes illustrating the lengths — or the extrava­ gances — to which filial piety could go. Some of them are told of eminent scholars, such as the stories of R. Tarfon and his mother; but the model son who best showed how far a man could go in honoring father and mother was Dama ben Netina, a heathen of high rank in Ashkelon. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Trivial questions are raised about the precedence of obligations where a conflict exists; for example, if father and mother ask their son for a drink at the same moment, or if the father ask 10

1

Sifra, Kedoshim, init. (ed. Weiss f. 8 7 a ) ; cf. Jer. Peah 15c, end. Kiddushin 3 1 b , end. The case in mind is of a father and son both of whom are scholars; see Rashi on the passage. In general, Maimonides, Hilkot Mamrin 6, 1 ff. See the places cited in the two preceding notes. The case contemplated is that of a father who is dependent on the son for such services and personal attentions. Kiddushin 3 1 b , end. Maimonides, Hilkot Mamrin 6, 1 1 . Others make the father's repentance a condition. See the commentators on the passage. Kiddushin 3 2 a . Ibid. 3 1 b , below. Jer. Kiddushin 61 b; Jer Peah 15c. A Babylonian version of the story in kiddushin 3 1 b . References in the preceding note, and 'Abodah Zarah 2 3 b - 2 4 a . Kiddushin 3 1 a . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

134

MORALS

[PART v

for a drink at a time when the son has an opportunity to do an act of charity (which is a religious duty, miswah) to another. A man's master, who instructed him in the revelation God had made in his two-fold law and the religious doctrines and duties therein contained, stood to him in this capacity in loco parentis, and as his spiritual father — to use a modern phrase — was entitled to the honor and reverence due to the literal father. This is a topic on which the rabbinical literature is expansive; there is a code of etiquette for the relation of pupil and teacher, about which they were very punctilious. In the Babylonian schools the question was even raised whether, if a master of his own accord waived the honor due him, he could release others from the obligation, as a father could, and as God did. The Mosaic law prescribes the death penalty for a son who strikes his father or mother (Exod. 21, 15; Lev. 20, 9), or curses them (Exod. 21, 17). A stubborn and rebellious son may be accused by his parents before the elders of the town, and put to death by stoning (Deut. 21, 18 f.). The severity of these laws was mitigated in various ways by the rabbinical law. Thus, he was guilty of cursing his parents (living or dead) only if he uttered one of the special names of God; if he used an epithet or metonymy he is not held to be guilty. The process in case of the unruly son as defined in the Mishnah, like much else in this treatise, reads more like juristic theory than actual practice. But the mitigating tendency is evident. The offence cannot be committed by a minor child; both parents must unite in the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Ibid. 32a, below. One rabbi gave the unconditional preference to the latter; the rule, however, follows the opinion of Isi ben Judah, that if the miswah can be performed by another, the duty to the father takes precedence. Sifre on Deut. 6, 7 (§ 34, ed. Friedmann f. 74, below): Biblical proof that students are called sons, and the master {rab) called father. Kiddushin 32a-b. See also Prov. 20, 20; 30, 1 1 ; 30, 1 7 . I.e. one of the seven names that may not be erased, viz., El, Elohim, Jhvh, Adonai, Jah, Shaddai, Sebaot (Shebu'ot 35a, end). Such as Great, Mighty, Terrible, etc., or Gracious, Merciful, etc., Shebu'ot 35a. M. Sanhedrin 7, 8. M. Sanhedrin 8, 1 - 5 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, i v ]

THE FAMILY

135

action; for a first offence the son is formally warned and flogged by the local court of three; if he continues stubborn he is tried before the court of twenty-three; but he can only be executed when the first judges are present, etc. One who strikes his father or mother is guilty only if he has wounded them. The require­ ment of at least two eye-witnesses and of a warning, in this as in the former case, made conviction difficult. The penalty was probably obsolete long before these circumstantial procedures were defined in the second century; but the law remained to impress God's abhorrence of the abuse of parents. 1

2

Slavery under the Mosaic law was of two kinds according as the slave was an Israelite or of alien race. In the former case the master acquired the right to the services of the slave for a term of six years, or till the Year of Jubilee with its general release came around. The master is reminded that he is a brother and exhorted to treat him as such. He is, in fact, not to be treated like a slave at all, but like a hired servant, and must not be sold as slaves are sold. They are God's slaves, by virtue of the deliv­ erance from Egypt. Nor must the master assert his authority over them harshly. These commandments were interpreted and regulated in the rabbinical law, and invariably in a sense favor­ able to the servant. Slaves of other than Israelite race were in an entirely different case. They were really slaves in the ordinary meaning of the word in its ancient and modern use. The legal and social status of slaves was substantially the same as in contemporary pagan 3

4

5

1

Ibid. I I , I . See the Talmud on the Mishnahs cited. Other texts in StrackBillerbeck on Matt. 1 5 , 4 (I, 7 0 9 - 7 1 1 ) . See Maimonides, Hilkot 'Abadim; L. N. Dembitz, art. 'Slaves and Slavery,' Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 403-407; S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 83 ff. Exod. 2 1 , 2 - 1 1 ; Deut. 1 5 , 1 2 - 1 8 ; Lev. 25, 3 9 - 4 3 . On the ways in which such servitude might arise it is unnecessary to dwell here. See e.g., Sifra on Lev. 25, 3 9 - 4 3 (ed. Weiss f. 109 c-d); cf. Mekilta, Mishpatim 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 5 b ; ed. Weiss f. 82a). The term Canaanite slave in the Mishnah includes aliens of all sorts, in contrast to the Hebrew slave. 2

3

4

5

136

MORALS

[PART x

1

countries. Unlike the tendency of the rabbinical law concerning Hebrew slaves, its development was not to the advantage of the foreign slave, a fact probably due in part to the altered con­ ditions of the institution itself, in part to environment. One peculiar feature of Jewish slavery has been referred to in another connection. A Jew who bought a heathen slave was required by the Mosaic law to have him circumcised. If after a year's time the slave refused to submit to the operation, the rabbinical law prescribed that he must be sold to a heathen master, and the same rule applied to the baptism of a female slave. In the case of slaves these rites, though bringing them " under the wings of the Shekinah," did not carry with them the obligation to observe the whole law, as they did for proselytes; nor did they, as in the latter case, put them on an equality with the native born in point of legal rights. In respect of obligations they were on the same footing as Jewish women and minor sons. A slave could eat the Passover with his master's family; but he might not be counted to make up the quorum of ten for public prayer in the synagogue, and an anecdote is told of a rabbi, who, finding the congregation one short, manumitted on the spot the slave who accompanied him to complete the re­ quired number. The number of slaves owned by Jews in Palestine probably varied widely at different times within our period with the pros­ perity of the country and other circumstances. It is to be borne in mind that under the economic conditions slavery was chiefly domestic. There were no industries in which slave labor could be profitably employed in mass, nor was the nature of the land and its products adapted to agriculture on a great scale. The wars of the Asmonaeans must have brought in at times many 2

1

It may be remarked that the slave was not a "chattel," as in a famous American decision, but is assimilated to real, rather than personal, property. R. Eiiezer. Gittin 38b, above. A form of virtual emancipation was for the master to put Tefillin on his slave, or to bid him read three verses from a roll of the Law in the presence of the congregation. The owner was there­ upon required to give him the usual written instrument (get). Gittin 40a. 2

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

137

captives, and we may well suppose that the houses and estates of the aristocracy of Jerusalem were amply supplied with them. We may safely assume that this was true also under Herod, and after him down to the revolt of 66-72. The war and its conse­ quences greatly impoverished the land, and multitudes of Jews were themselves carried off into slavery. Even more disastrous was the war under Hadrian. When in the following generations we hear of hundreds or even thousands of slaves belonging to a single master we are justified in taking the numbers homiletically rather than arithmetically; but there is no reason to doubt that, in fertile and populous Galilee especially, there were many heathen slaves, and even considerable slave households. The reputation of slaves was no better among the Jews than in the rest of the world. An aphorism attributed to Hillel runs: "The more property the more anxiety; the more wives the more witchcraft; the more slave girls the more licentiousness; the more slaves the more robbery." Five things Canaan taught his descendants: "Love one another (stick together), and love rob­ bery, and love licentiousness, and hate your masters, and do not speak the truth." Sirach's advice about the way to deal with slaves (Ecclus. 30, 33 ff.) is: "Hay and a stick and burdens for the ass; bread and discipline and labor for the menial slave. Make the boy work and you will have no trouble with him; if you take your hand off him, he will be seeking freedom. A yoke and a strap bow the neck, and for a rascally slave there are the rack and torture. Plunge him into work that he may not be idle, for idleness teaches much badness. Set him to work as 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Since the rule was partus sequitur ventrem, and the child of a slave mother was a slave whether the father was slave or free, many were bred in slavery. The most estimable of woman kind is addicted to witchcraft. Jer. Kid­ dushin 66c (Simeon ben Yohai); Jer. Sanhedrin 25d, above; 'Erubin 6 4 b ; Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 86 f. Abot 2, 7. The foreign slave was a "Canaanite slave"; see above. Pesahim 1 1 3 b , below. For other utterances of similar purport see S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 92 f. Of a plow-beast. 2

3

4

5

6

138

MORALS

[PART v

befits him, and if he does not obey lade him with heavy fetters. But do not go beyond bounds with any man, and do nothing you have not a right to do." The significance of this is not diminished by the bit of prudence that follows: "If you have a menial slave, treat him like yourself, for he is as necessary to you as your life. If you maltreat him, and he up and runs away, in what quarter will you look for him?" There is no reason to think that the author of this drastic counsel was a peculiarly hard-hearted master, or that the lot of slaves was greatly ameliorated in later times. Flogging was a common punishment, and the rods, whips, and scourges with which it was administered in progressive degrees of severity are often named. Of good slaves and good masters we naturally hear less, but it may well be believed that relations such as ex­ isted between the Patriarch Gamaliel II and his slave Tabi were not uncommon. Hired servants were doubtless much more common in Pales­ tine than slaves, both in the household and in husbandry, re­ placing the native term-servitude, which had almost passed out of use. In agriculture the need of more hands at certain seasons of the year made it necessary to employ such laborers, who were recruited for the time either from the class of small peasant pro­ prietors, who supplemented the living they got off their own land by hiring themselves out to the holders of larger estates, or from the landless population of the towns. In the house, also, the well-to-do had to have many servants in consequence of the sub­ division of employment — men could not be set at women's work, not women at men's, and where any special skill was re­ quired, the servant did that one thing, and did not expect to be generally useful. Artisans of all kinds — masons, carpenters, smiths, and the like — were hired for the occasion, as for example 1

2

3

1

See Krauss, l.s.c. 95 ff. See Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v. Evidence of this is found in the parables of Jesus, the Laborers in the Vineyard, Matt. 20, 1 - 1 6 ; the Prodigal Son, Luke 1 5 , 11 ff.; cf. also Zebedee's fishermen, Mark 1, 20. 2

3

THE FAMILY

CHAP. I V ]

139

in the building or repair of a house. Another important class of laborers were the porters who carried burdens on their shoulders. The biblical law prescribed that the wages of a hired laborer (probably presumed to be in kind) should be given him at the end of each day. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor and thou shalt not rob. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with thee over night until morning' (Lev. 19, 13; cf. Deut. 24, 14 f.). The law applies also to the ger, that is in rabbinical inter­ pretation a proselyte or a resident alien. The gravity of the offence is duly emphasized in the rabbinical law. The Mishnah affirms the servant's right to such payment if he asks it, but does not make it obligatory unless he does — he may prefer to let his wages accumulate. It accommodates itself to a more complex society by allowing payment to be made by an order on a shop-keeper or on a money-changer. There are various regulations on agreements to work for wages, and on the duties and rights of both parties. Such engagements might be made for a day, or a week, a month, a year, or a longer period. The interests of the wage earner are protected; for example, the em­ ployer may not insist on a longer day's work than is customary in the place, even though he pays higher wages than usual. If a man was hired by the day to do one kind of work and finished it before night, he could not be put at another kind, unless it was lighter than that for which he was engaged. A craftsman employed as such could not be required to do other work. Where it was the local custom for the employer to furnish food, that would be understood to be covered by his contractIn general, in defining the law as well as in the judicial appli­ cation of it, the rabbis observe the principle laid down forjudges and witnesses in Lev. 19, 1 5 , 'Thou shalt not show partiality to c

1

2

3

4

5

1

See Sifra in loc. (ed. Weiss f. 88 c-d); Sifre Deut. §§ 208 f; Midrash Tan­ naim ed. Hoffmann, pp. 158 f. M. Baba Mesi'a 9, 1 2 . In these cases he could claim his wages only at the expiry of the term. M. Baba Mesi'a 9, 1 1 . On the whole subject see S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 101 ff. Cf. Exod. 23, 3. 2

3

4

5

140

MORALS

[PART v

a poor man, nor pay respect to the person of a great (rich) man; with righteousness shalt thou judge thy countrymen/ A peculiar character is given to the rabbinical laws, however, by the fact that the interpretation of the civil and criminal legislation in the Pentateuch, with its elaboration and amplification in the unwritten law, is not purely juristic, but is consciously guided and controlled by the moral and social principles which are equally a part of the divinely revealed Torah. In technical phrase, Jewish ethics are impressed upon the Halakah, as well as expressed in the Haggadah. What is to be learned from the former has hitherto received little attention in comparison with the popular moral teaching of the Haggadah. The investigation and exposition of this subject is a task to which Jewish scholars, learned in that field, might profitably address themselves.

CHAPTER UNLAWFUL GAIN.

V

WRONGS IN WORDS

The influence on Jewish jurisprudence of the broad principles to which reference has been made is manifest in the mitigation by the rabbinical law of much of the severity of the Mosaic legis­ lation. It was not, we may safely say, a sentimental humanitarianism, nor the mere advance of civilization, that animated the Pharisees, in contrast to the Sadducees, in the substitution of damages for the ancient talio, for example, or in the develop­ ment of rules of evidence and of procedure which made the proof of capital crimes such as adultery or blasphemy close to an im­ possibility. The important distinction is also drawn between legal and moral responsibility. Thus, in a question of liability for damages, the rabbis ruled: "He is not liable in a human court, but he is liable in God's court." Numerous cases of this kind are noted in the laws of bargain and sale. Thus, if the consideration has passed but the thing purchased has not been formally taken in possession by the purchaser, either party may legally retract; but "He who exacted retribution of the genera­ tion of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion (at the Tower of Babel) will exact it of the man who does not stand by his word." 1

2

While we are upon this topic it may not be amiss to cite one or two other examples from the same tractate of the Mishnah. As a man may wrong another in business transactions, so he may also wrong him by words. One should not say, How much will you sell me this for? when he has no intention of buying. To 3

1

Baba Mesi'a 82b, and elsewhere. M. Baba Mesi'a 4, 2; Baba Mesi'a 49a, top; 7 4 b ; Tos. Baba Mesi'a 3, 14, adding, A bargain made by words only is not binding, but the learned say, The learned are not content with a man who nullifies his words. Arousing false expectations, a kind of cheating. 2

3

141

142

MORALS

[PART v

a man who has repented, one should not say, Remember your former deeds; nor to a proselyte, Remember the deeds of your fathers (Exod. 22, 20) . There is an interesting paragraph on unfair competition. R. Judah (ben Ila'i) held that a shop-keeper should not give children sweetmeats (parched grain and nuts) to attract them to buy things at his shop when they were sent on errands; and that a shop-keeper should not cut prices to draw custom away from other dealers. The majority were not of his mind. Of the merchant who sells under the market price they say, he should be gratefully remembered, for the community gets the advantage of the reduction others also will have to make. In a similar way the subject of adulteration of food is dealt with. If, for example, water accidentally gets into a wine jar, the owner may not sell the wine at retail without apprising the buyer of the dilution, and he may not sell it to a merchant at all, even with such notice, it being assumed that he would buy it (at a reduced price) only with a fraudulent purpose. The tricking up of articles for sale to make them look better than they are is prohibited. Rabbi Jose, a disciple of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, said: "Let thy neighbor's property be as dear to thee as thine own; and set thyself diligently to learn Torah, for the knowledge of it is not inherited; and let all that thou doest be for God's sake." The first of these maxims may be illustrated by the treatment of the subject of usury in the rabbinical law. In the Pentateuch it is forbidden to lend anything to a fellow Israelite upon interest, x

2

3

4

5

M. Baba Mesi'a 4, 1 0 ; cf. the Talmud on this Mishnah (f. ^b-^ga). There will be occasion to recur to this subject later. M. Baba Mesi'a 4, 1 2 . A convenient introduction to this part of the law is H. E. Goldin, Mishnah, a Digest of the Basic Principles of Early Jewish Jurisprudence. Baba Meziah. New York. Putnam's. 1 9 1 3 . See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 7 2 . Abot 2, 1 2 ; cf. Abot de-R. Nathan c. 1 7 , 1 ff. It is worth observing that the code of the widest authority among modern Jews, the Shulhan 'Aruk (1555) of Joseph Caro, treats the whole subject, not in the juridical part of the work but in the Yoreh De'ah among moral and religious duties. 1

2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

UNLAWFUL GAINS

H3 1

that is on condition of receiving back more than was lent. The supposition of the early laws is that the borrower is in need, and that it would be oppressive for his more fortunate brother Israel­ ite to take advantage of his necessity for his own profit. In the more complex society of a later time the rabbis extended the principle of this legislation to transactions of various kinds in which one party would gain and the other suffer a corresponding loss, and even to some cases where the borrower suffered no detri­ ment and the lender received no advantage, to exclude a possible misconstruction by outsiders ignorant of the facts. The prohibition of the Mosaic law, in rabbinical interpretation, is simple: "If a man lends a sela (a silver coin of the value of four denars) on condition of receiving five denars at the expira­ tion of the term, or two seahs of wheat to receive three, this is usury (neskek)" 'Increase' (tarbit, marbit? Lev. 25, 36, 37) is illustrated by a more complicated example. A man (A) buys of another (B) a quantity of wheat at the market price of twentyfive denars a kor> and pays cash for it, but leaves the grain ware­ housed with the seller (B). The market price goes up to thirty, and A claims delivery of the wheat, proposing to sell it and with the proceeds buy wine. The original seller (B) offers to buy back the wheat at the current price of thirty denars, and to give 2

3

4

6

7

1

Exod. 22, 2 4 ; Lev. 25, 3 5 - 3 8 ; Deut. 23, 20 f. Cf. Ezek. 1 8 , 8, 1 3 , 1 7 ; Psalm 1 5 , 5 . To take interest from an alien is expressly allowed in Deut. 23, 2 1 . 2

R. Ishmael taught that when one was asked for such a loan it was not optional with him to grant or refuse it. Mekilta. Mishpatim 19 (ed. Fried­ mann f. 96a; ed. Weiss f. 102a). So Matt. 5, 42, 'do not turn away one who wants to borrow of you.' On the whole subject see Mekilta on Exod. 22, 24 (ed. Friedmann f. 96a-b; ed. Weiss f. i o 2 a - b ) ; Sifra on Lev. 25, 3 5 - 3 8 (ed. Weiss f. 1 0 9 D - C ) ; Sifre Deut. § 1 6 2 . These and other texts in translation, Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, u. s. w. on Matt. 1 5 , 4 (I, 346 ff.). Tos. Baba Mesi'a 4 - 6 . M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 1. Under this term (in later Hebrew ribbit) rabbinical usury, in distinction from biblical, is here defined. M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 1, with the Talmud (60b, ff.). See Goldin, op. cit. pp. 98 ff.; Jewish Encyclopedia, XII, 388 (L. N. Dembitz). This is legitimate. 3

4

5

6

7

MORALS

144

[PART V

to A wine of equivalent value at the then ruling market price, having at the time of the negotiation no wine in his possession. This is constructively usurious, because in the interval before delivery the price of wine may advance, and A may thus re­ ceive more than his due. The effect of this and similar regulations was to prohibit deal­ ings in futures which have so large a place in modern speculation. The evasion of the law by what we should call a premium or a bonus, that is a gift made by a prospective borrower in antici­ pation of a loan, or a gift to the lender when the loan is repaid, is defined as usury, advanced or postponed, as the case may be. Many other transactions are forbidden as usurious, as, for ex­ ample, if a man who has a piece of land for sale offers it to a buyer for iooo zuzim cash or 1200 after the harvest; for here the higher price is evidently charged by the owner for waiting for his money, which is plain usury. Another example of the rabbinical legislation to guard against an unfair advantage on the part of a capitalist is found in a subsequent paragraph. A man may not give a shop-keeper produce to sell with an agreement to share equally the profits made in disposing of it at retail, nor give him money to buy at wholesale and sell at retail on the same condi­ tions, unless he pays him wages, because, if the venture proves unprofitable, the shop-keeper will be out of his time and labor, besides the risk of loss by fire or larceny, or by depreciation. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

An agreement of this kind is not enforceable in law, but it was assumed that B would stand by it as morally binding. It is interesting to note that legislation of like intent, compelling mer­ chants by law to deliver everything they sell and to acquire possession of it before selling, have been frequently proposed in recent times, not so much, however, in the interest of individuals as to prevent manipulation of the market. A very common way of evading modern laws making illegal a rate of interest above a fixed per cent ('usury* in the modern definition). Rabban Gamaliel, Sifre Deut. § 263; M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 10. M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 2. M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 4. The supposition is that for one half the grain, fruits, or what not, the shopkeeper is a borrower and for the other half a bailee. See Goldin, op. cit. p. 107 f.; Jewish Encyclopedia, XII, 389. 2

3

4

5

6 7

CHAP, v ]

UNLAWFUL GAINS

145

All persons involved in any way in usurious transactions, whether in the biblical or the rabbinical definition, are guilty of violating the prohibition — the lender, the borrower, the surety, the witnesses, and the scrivener who draws up the contract. Interest actually paid may be recovered at law during the life­ time of the lender (but not from his estate). What may be called usurious profits cannot be recovered. The lender may sue for the principal alone, but not for interest. These illustrations taken from a single title of the Mishnah may suffice to show how the rabbis endeavored to apply broad moral principles to the regulation of every day matters of busi­ ness. Many of the rules they laid down must seem to the reader who considers them in the light of modern conditions, not merely unpractical but impracticable; and so, in fact, they often proved under their own conditions, as appears plainly in the Talmud, where the jurists find legal ways of getting around the law. It is, however, precisely in the impracticable provisions of their laws that the ideals of legislators are most evident, and in the present instance it is with the moral ideals that we are concerned, not with the adaptation of the laws to concrete conditions. The idealistic character of much in rabbinical jurisprudence is an inheritance from the Law and the Prophets. Particularly in Deuteronomy what nowdays is called idealism is palpably Uto­ pian. Striking examples are in the law of war (Deut. 20) and the septennial wiping out of all debts (Deut. 15, i - n ) , but the same spirit runs through the book and appears in many other places in the Pentateuch. Intelligent and religious men could not have spent their lives in the study of the Scriptures without 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

M. Baba Mesi'a 5, 1 1 ; Mekilta, Mishpatim 1 9 , on Exod. 22, 24 (ed. Friedmann f. 9 6 b ; ed. Weiss f. 102b). Some opinions were averse even to this. Baba Mesi'a 6 1 b , 62a. Ibid. 7 2 a . A usurer is represented by R. Simeon ben Yohai as saying: Our master Moses was wise and his Law is true; but if he had known what profit there was in the business, he would not have written this law. Baba Mesi'a 7 5 b . Cf. also the law of the monarchy, Deut. 1 7 , 1 4 . 2

3

4

5

6

146

MORALS

[PART v

recognizing and appropriating this spirit, and interpreting the law in it. The Law was not for the Jewish Doctors of the Law merely a Corpus Juris, a volume of statutes on all kinds of sub­ jects, ritual and ceremonial, criminal and civil; it was — to give it modern expression — a revelation of God's ideal for men's conduct and character. Their task was, therefore, not solely to give a juristic definition of the statutes, with application to the various cases that were expressly or by implication covered by them, but to widen the scope of the law in accordance with its spirit and principle, as in the examples above where the biblical law against taking interest on a loan is stretched into a rabbinical prohibition of a variety of business transactions which were as­ similated to usury by the possibility that one of the parties might profit at the expense of the other. Modern writers on the application of moral principles to busi­ ness have frequently laid down the doctrine that in an equitable exchange of whatever kind both parties should profit by the transaction, each getting what he wanted on fair terms. An an­ ticipation of this conception may be seen in the rabbinical legis­ lation we have had under consideration. Another example of the broad extension of a biblical precept and its many applications may appropriately be given here. The law of jubilees in the context of which (Lev. 25, 37-38) occurs the prohibition of lending on interest cited above, allows no sale of agricultural lands in fee simple; they are entailed to the heirs of those to whom they were originally allotted in the division of the land, and revert to them at the end of every half-century. All that could be sold was the leasehold of such lands till this term, and the price was to be based on the number of crops in 1

2

3

1

There are things which have a value in the estimation of one person which they have not for another, such as a copy of the Pentateuch or a pearl. Here the owner may set a price without doing a wrong to the buyer, no mat­ ter how much profit he makes. M. Baba Mesi'a 4, 9 (R. Judah); Baba Mesi'a 58b. M. Lazarus has used this to illustrate the rabbinical development of the Law. Die Ethik des Judenthums, I, 293 ff. Lev. 2 5 , 8 ff. 2

3

CHAP, v ]

WRONGS IN WORDS

H7

the intervening years (Lev. 25, 8-17). In this transaction neither party is to overreach the other (vs. 17) .* The significant repe­ tition of this injunction leads the Sifra to distinguish between a wrong affecting material interests, as in the case of certain kinds of property {honaat mammon) and an injury inflicted by words Qiondat debarim). Examples of the latter have been cited above; numerous others might be collected. If affliction or illness come upon a man, or he has buried his sons, do not say, as Job's friends said to him, ' Is not thy fear (of God — religion) thy confidence, and thy hope the integrity of thy ways? Remember, pray, who ever perished, being innocent, (or where were the upright cut off?' Job 4, 6 f.). R. Johanan quotes a saying of R. Simeon ben Yohai that injurious words are a greater wrong than a monetary injury, for to the former the solemn words are annexed, ' and thou shalt fear thy God' (Lev. 25, 17). The one affects him personally, the other only in his property. The one can be made good, the other not. Whoever makes his neighbor's face blanch (from shame) before others, is as if he shed blood; quite true, for the red disappears and the white comes. To put one's fellow to an open shame is counted one of the gravest sins. R. Eleazar of Modiim puts the man who is guilty of it alongside of him who nullifies the covenant of Abraham (the apostate who obliter­ ates his circumcision) in his list of those who, no matter how much learning and good works they possess, have no share in 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

TT6KD r i K T I l j T D y m S^a Uin In more general terms: 'If thou sell anything unto thy countryman, or buy from thy countryman, ye shall not wrong one another' (Lev. 2 5 , 14). 'Ye shall not wrong one another, but thou shalt fear thy God' (Lev. 2 5 , 1 7 ) . Sifra on Lev. 25, 17 (ed. Weiss f. i o 7 d ) ; cf. Baba Mesi'a 58b. For cases which do not fall under the legal definition of honayah (honaah, ona'ah), see M. Baba Mesi'a 4, 9 (with the discussion in the Talmud ibid, f. 56b); Sifra on Lev. 2 5 , 1 4 (ed. Weiss f. 1 0 7 c ) . Vol. I, p. 394; above, pp. 141 f. Baba Mesi'a 58b; with other examples. Ibid. Ibid. R. Eleazar (ben Pedat). Ibid. R. Samuel ben Nahman. Ibid. More to the same purport in the sequel. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

MORALS

i8 4

[PART V

1

the World to Come. R. Hanina puts him among the three kinds of sinners who go down to hell and never come up again, viz., the adulterer, the man who puts his fellow to open shame, and he who calls him by an opprobrious name. The rabbis are some­ what liberal in such denunciations of future punishment, par­ ticularly in cases which are not reached by human justice. It is precisely to things which for this reason are left to the conscience of the individual that the ominous words are appended, 'Thou shalt fear thy God.' It is in the same spirit that Jesus says: He who says, 'Thou fool! is liable to the penalty of hell fire' (Matt. 5,22) . The law,' Ye shall not wrong one another' extends to the resident alien (ger); in our period ger had become the name for a proselyte, and as in the case of a fellow Jew, the pro­ hibition was taken to include injurious words as well as material wrongs. 2

3

4

5

Beyond most other literature of the kind, the Jewish Scriptures abound in condemnation of speaking ill of others, whether it be a malicious slander or a hearsay retailed out of that love of scandal which seems to be an inveterate trait of human nature. The Jewish moralists are no less emphatic upon this topic. The law in Lev. 19,16, was understood as in the English version, Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people,' to 6

7

1

8

1

Abot 3, 1 1 . Even if he is used to it. Baba Mesi'a 58b, end. ibb T I D D ; see above, p. 82. ' Fool' in the Bible has a moral implication. — See Strack-Billerbeck on Matt. 5, 22 (I, 279 f.). Exod. 22, 20; Lev. 1 9 , 3 3 . Cf. Deut. 23, 1 7 , a runaway slave who has taken refuge in Jewish territory. False testimony in a civil or criminal case (Deut. 1 9 , 1 6 - 2 1 ; cf. Exod. 23, 1 f.) need not here be considered. On the ed zomem see M. Makkot 1 with the Talmud. The false witnesses, it should be noted, are often the ac­ cusers. Nor need we expand on the particular case of false accusation in Deut. 22, 1 3 - 1 9 . See Exod. 23, 1; Lev. 1 9 , 1 6 ; Jer. 6, 28; 9, 3 ; Ezek. 22, 9; Psalm 1 5 , 3 ; 1 0 1 , 5; 50, 19 f.; Prov. 10, 1 8 ; 1 1 , 1 3 ; 20, 1 9 ; 30, 1 0 ; and at length Ecclus. 28, 1 2 - 2 6 , etc. Many other verses of Scripture aie cited by the rabbis. Going from house to house like a peddler (rokel). Jer. Peah 1 6 a , above; one interpretation in Sifra (ed. Weiss f. 89a); cf. the Palestinian Targum. 2

3

4

5

6

1

7

8

CHAP, v ]

WRONGS IN WORDS

149

forbid the peddling of gossip, a mischievous business, even if the report was true and told without malice. The offense was much greater if it was circulated with malicious intent to injure a man's reputation or to expose him to contempt or derision; and gravest of all if it was invented for this purpose. The name for the last two cases was 'the evil tongue,' 'slander, calumny.' That a true statement may do as much harm as a falsehood is illustrated by the report Doeg the Edomite made to Saul of the aid and comfort Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, gave to David in his flight from Saul, with its consequences (i Sam. 22, 9-19). Except in the case mentioned above the biblical law provides no judicial remedy for slander; the Psalmist prays that God may cut off the offender. For this reason, probably, the 'evil tongue' was all the more vehemently inveighed against by the rabbis. It is punished by God in this world, but the complete retribution is reserved for the world to come, as in the case of the cardinal sins, idolatry, incest, and murder — "and calumny is equal to all of them." Four classes of men will not be received in the divine presence: scoffers, liars, hypocrites, and retailers of slander. The case of Miriam, who was smitten with leprosy be­ cause she spoke evil of Moses (Num. 12) leads to the reckoning of calumny as one of the seven sins on account of which leprosy comes upon men. A man does not utter a calumny until he has 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

c

Maimonides, De ot 7, 1 f. $ n n pfc?f>. One who puts out a false accusation is JTIH J I B ^ K^flD; one who circulates a report, however true, with malicious intent is jnn Note the denominative p ^ D , Psalm 1 0 1 , 5. Jer. Peah 16a. The worst of all evil-tongued men were the delators. Pages 148 n., 186. Psalm 1 2 , 4 ; cf. 1 0 1 , 5, cited in Jer. Peah i$d end; cf. 'Arakin 16a. The principle of the rabbinical law was that there was no injurious act. Verbal insults are discussed in Baba Kamma 9 1 a , and there also the authorities hold that there was no redress by fine or damages. Tos. Peah 1, 2 ; Jer. Peah i$d, below. Cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 12, 4 (ed. Buber f. 5 3 a ) . Sanhedrin 103a, below; Sotah 42a. 'Arakin 1 5 b ; 16a, cf. b. A severe and dangerous kind of sore throat is also a visitation on this sin. Shabbat 3 3 a - b . 2

3

4

5

y

6

7

8

150

MORALS

[PART v

1

denied God; for such men say,' We will give rein to our tongue; our lips are in our own control. Who is lord over u s ? ' In all other transgressions a man sins on earth, but these sin in heaven and on earth (Psalm 73, 9). Another says: "Of him who circu­ lates a calumny God says, I and he cannot both abide in the world. In Palestine the Aramaic name for the lashon ha-ra was lis an telita'e? 'third tongue.' In explanation of this singular phrase it was said that slander kills three, the man who told it, and the one who accepted it, and the one it was told about. There is a less serious form of this fault which is called 'dust of evil speech' (tongue), which we might perhaps call unchari­ table comment on our neighbors, a thing that even good men find it very hard to avoid. Even laudation is to be shunned, lest it call out detraction from some hearer who dislikes him who is praised (Prov. 27,14). Many more utterances of similar purport ranging through several centuries might be quoted. The moral principle is succinctly formulated by R. Eiiezer, "Let the honor of thy fellow be as dear to thee as thine own." "This teaches that as a man has regard for his own honor, so he should have regard for the honor of his fellow; and as he does not wish any slander to come upon his own honor, so he should wish not to bring any slander upon the honor of his fellow." The disciples 2

3

4

6

7

8

9

10

11

1

np*JD nB"D; see Vol.

I, p.

467.

2

Psalm 1 2 , 5. Jer. Peah 1 6 a ; cf. 'Arakin 1 5 b . Ibid. Cf. 'Arakin 1 5 b (Resh Lakish); from the same verse in the Psalm: He who circulates a calumny accumulates guilt even to heaven. Psalm 1 0 1 , 5, pronouncing itto instead of Wo, 'I cannot abide with him' instead of 'I cannot abide him/ So in the Palestinian Targum in Lev. 1 9 , 1 6 , for the Hebrew rakil and in Gen. 1, 16, in the story of how the moon was diminished in brightness for speaking evil of the sun (cf. Hullin 60b). Jer. Peah 1 6 a ; 'Arakin 1 5 b , below. Cf. Ecclus. 2 8 , 1 4 . The 'third tongue' is a go-between (Rashi). JTin \\vh p2K. Baba Batra 1 6 4 b - ! 6 5 a . Named with sinful (especially unchaste) thoughts and distraction in prayer. 'Arakin 1 6 a ; Baba Batra 164b, below. See especially Jer. Peah 1 6 a ; 'Arakin 1 5 b - ! 6 a . Abot 2, 10. Cf. Gen. R. 1, 5: R. Jose bar Hanina said, He who honors himself by the disgrace of his fellow has no share in the world to come. Abot de-R. Nathan 1 5 , 1. 3

4

y

5

y

6

7

8

9

1 0

1 1

CHAP, v ]

WRONGS IN WORDS

151

of R. Eiiezer, gathered about his sick bed, asked him: "Master, teach us the ways of life, that by them we may attain the life of the World to Come (eternal life). He answered," Be careful about the honor of your fellow, and restrain your sons from (mere) reading, and set them between the knees of scholars, and when you pray, know before whom you stand; and thus you will attain to the life of the World to Come." The two maxims, 'Let the property of another be as dear to you as your own,' and, 'Let the honor of another be as dear to you as your own/ are particular cases of the general law, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Both are developed to an ethical ideal that makes no concessions to what we call human nature and the way of the world. A world in which men do not speak evil of their fellows or enjoy hearing them evil spoken of is a remoter Utopia than one in which they do not take advantage of one another in business; but this is said to the credit of these moralists, for all ethics worth the name propose an unrealizable ideal, a perfect man in a perfect society. Unlike the philosophers, however, the Jewish moralists conceive this end as the divine ideal, revealed not alone as a law for human life but as a con­ stituent factor of religion. 1

2

There is a similar Utopian strain in the teaching of Jesus as it is reported in the Gospels. The principle of non-resistance, for example, in Matt. 5, 39-41, is carried to extravagance: If a man cuffs you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; if he wants to sue you at law and take your shirt, let him have your cloak too; if he impresses you to go a mile, go with him two. Much else in the Sermon on the Mount is so impracticable that many modern scholars think it necessary to save Jesus' reputa­ tion for common sense by taking such utterances, not as universal 3

1

Without the traditional explanation, explaining for themselves. Berakot 28b. The rabbinical law allows the injured party in such a case exemplary damages. M. Baba Kamma 8, 6. In Tos. Baba Kamma 9, 3 1 , it is expressly said that in a trifling assault the damages are not for the pain the blow gave, but for the insult of it. 2

3

152

MORALS

[PART v

rules of conduct, but as counsels of perfection for the little group of his disciples in anticipation of the imminent crisis that should usher in the reign of God — it was what is called an "interim ethic." This theory ignores a striking feature of the biblical legislation itself. By the side of laws which represent ancient custom and the amendments made necessary by experience or changing condi­ tions, there are laws that leave the ground of reality altogether and set forth in statutory form ideals which in the world of reality are manifestly impossible — take for a single example the law of war in Deuteronomy 20. It is more serious that those who entertain this theory take no account whatever of what I have called the Utopian element, not alone in the ethical maxims of the rabbis and in commendations of ideal standards of conduct such as we expect from moralists, but in the prosaic pages of the laws about bargain and sale, usury, and the like, of which ex­ amples have been given above. It would be easy to multiply indefinitely illustrations from other fields of this tendency to in­ terpret and apply the biblical law in the spirit of equity and charity. That this often carries them beyond the strict letter of the law they were well aware. "Here is the line of legal right," but on higher grounds men are urged, and sometimes constrained, not to confine themselves to it in dealings with their fellows, but to act "within the line of legal right." 1

2

A sensitive regard for the honor and for the feelings of others is impressed also upon the difficult duty of admonishing one who has done a wrong, or warning one who is on the verge of doing so. The law runs: 'Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart. Thou shalt not fail to reprove thy fellow and not bear sin be­ cause of him. Thou shalt not take revenge, nor nurse a grudge against the members of thy people; but shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' (Lev. 19, 17 f.). The fulfilment of this precept was felt to be extremely difficult, especially when it was the aggrieved party who had to undertake it. Several teachers of the beginning 3

1

M. Gittin 4, 4.

2

Mekilta on Exod. 18, 20.

3

Cf. Amos 5, 1 0 .

CHAP, v ]

WRONGS IN WORDS

153

of the second century give strong expression to this difficulty, one declaring that in that generation there was no one able thus to reprove his fellow, another that there was no one who was able to accept the reproof, and a third that there was no one who knew how to administer reproof. An example of the spirit of love under rebuke is given by Johanan ben Nuri in the same context: "I call heaven and earth to witness that more than four or five times Akiba was censured on my account before Rabban Gamaliel because I complained to him of him, and, for all that, I know that he loved me the more." A man is bound to persist in his admonitions until the offender violently repulses him and positively refuses to hear him; but it must be in all kindness, and above all not in a way to put him to shame. A similar injunction of Jesus to his disciples is recorded in Luke 17, 3 f.: ' If thy brother sin, reprove him, and if he repent forgive him. And if seven times in the day he sin against thee, and seven times turn to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him/ In the corresponding passage in Matthew (18, 15-17), a pro­ cedure is prescribed, beginning with a private interview, a repe­ tition, if necessary, in the presence of one or two others, and eventually a complaint to the assembly (church). 'If he refuse to listen to the assembly, let him be to thee like a heathen or a toll-man.' What in Jewish law is obligatory on all, is in Luke a precept addressed to the circle of disciples, and in Matthew is developed into a process of church discipline. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Contrast the generation to whom the words of Moses (Deut. i) were addressed, Sifre Deut. § i (ed. Friedmann f. 64a, below). Sifra on Lev. 1 9 , 17 (ed. Weiss f. 8 9 b ) ; 'Arakin 1 6 b (Yalkut I § 7 8 9 ) . See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 366 and note 3. Sifra I.e. In the parallel in 'Arakin 1 6 b , Prov. 9, 8 is quoted: 'Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; reprove a wise man and he will love thee/ See Bacher, I.e. He is bound to desist short of this point (see above, p. 1 4 7 ) , for the law says, 'And not take upon thyself sin on his account/ Cf. Matt. 1 8 , 11 f. With whom you have no dealings. It has been embodied as such in the ecclesiastical law of some Protestant churches. 2

3

4

5

6

7

154

MORALS

[PART v

On the other hand, it is the bounden duty of one who has wronged another by deed or word to make full reparation and seek the forgiveness of the injured party, and of the latter to accept the amends and forgive the suppliant. "Sins that are between a man and God the Day of Atonement expiates; sins that are between a man and his fellow the Day of Atonement does not expiate until he has conciliated his fellow." A procedure is laid down by Samuel: One who has sinned against his fellow ought to say to him, I have done very wrong to you. If he accepts it, well and good. If not, he should take men with him and set them in a row, and appease him in their presence, confessing his sin (' I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and was not requited.' Job 33, 27); if he does so, the Scripture says of him, 'He redeemeth his soul from going into the pit, and his life will see the light' (Job 33, 28). In the case of man as well as God the condition of forgiveness is repentance and confession. When the wrong-doer makes this amends, it is the duty of the injured party to forgive him: "When thou hast mercy upon thy fellow, thou hast One to have mercy on thee; but if thou hast not mercy upon thy fellow, thou hast none to have mercy on thee." 1

2

3

4

5

6

With this may be compared the development of the same ideas in Sirach: "Vindictiveness and anger—these also are abomi­ nable, and a sinful man will make them his own. He who avenges himself will experience vengeance from the Lord, and He will surely lay up his sins for him. Forgive the wrong done by thy neighbor, and then when thou dost ask it thy sins will be re­ mitted. Will a man cherish anger against a man and seek healing 1

M. Yoma 8, 9 ; cf. Sifra, Ahare Perek 8 (ed. Weiss f. 8 3 a ) ; Yoma 87a. See also the parable of Jose ha-Kohen, Rosh ha-Shanah 1 7 b . Died 254 A.D. With a peculiar twist of the words D^BttK bv "IB*. Jer. Yoma 4 5 c ; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber Wayyera § 30 (Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann, f. 1 6 5 a ) . In that of man, reparation also. Tanhuma, I.e. Matt. 6, 14 f., cf. vs. 1 2 . Luke 1 7 , 3 ; Matt. 1 8 , 21 f. See Vol. I, p. 5 1 2 . 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, v ]

WRONGS IN WORDS

155

from the Lord! On a man like himself he has no mercy, and he begs pardon for his own sins! Being flesh himself, he nurses a grudge. Who will make propitiation for his sins?" In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Gad warns his children at length and with much earnestness against hatred, envy, and cognate sins. Particularly notable is chapter 6: "Put away hatred from your heart, and love one another in deed and word and thought. . . . Love one another from the heart; and if a man sin against thee, speak peaceably to him, and do not hold guile in thy soul; and if he repent and confess, forgive him. But if he deny, do not wrangle with him, lest, if he swear, thou sin doubly. . . . If he deny it, and be shamed by the reproof, desist. . . . But if he is shameless and persists in his badness, even so, forgive him from the heart, and leave the retribution to God." The passage is of critical importance for the evidence it gives that when the Hebrew original of the Testaments was written, the Jewish law defining the way in which a man who has been wronged by another should treat the wrong-doer had been de­ veloped in all its particulars as has been set forth in our preceding pages, so that moralists embodied it in their teaching and exhor­ tations. Later teachers discuss the question whether a more excellent way is not to abstain from reproof altogether out of humility, that is, lest, in admonishing another, a man seem to be arrogating to himself superior rectitude. For humility is the greatest of all virtues. 1

2

3

4

5

1

Ecclus. 27, 3 0 - 2 8 , 5. Gad 6, 1, 3 - 4 , 6a. Probably in the latter half of the second century B.C. Even ' for its own sake/ i.e. as a religious duty. 'Arakin 1 6 b . The question is raised by R. Judah son of R. Simeon (Simeon ben Pazzi; see Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, III, 160 f.). On the pre-emi­ nence of humility, see 'Abodah Zarah 20b, and below, pp. 273 ff. 2

3

4

5

C H A P T E R

VI

RELATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASSES

T H E ideal of the religion of Israel was a society in which all the relations of men to their fellows were governed by the principle, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Social and economic conditions had changed in many ways, but there is no reason to think that reality came nearer to this sublime ideal in the days of the Asmonaeans or of Herod than in those of Uzziah and Jeroboam II, when the prophets thundered against the wrongs that the rich and powerful inflicted upon their less fortunate countrymen. In many of the Psalms which may be probably as­ signed to the Persian or Greek periods there is a strident note of class conflict. 'Rich' becomes a frequent synonym for 'wicked.' The rich oppress the poor and rob them by force or fraud; they pervert justice, so that there is no remedy. The distinctive thing in this outcry is that the social strife deepens into a religious cleavage. The poor and humble are in their own consciousness the pious; they denounce their adversaries as ungodly. The illtreatment they suffer is conceived as persecution for righteousness' sake. The Psalms of Solomon testify eloquently to the feeling of the pious toward the later Asmonaean princes and the aris­ tocracy, lay and clerical, that surrounded them. Still more ve­ hement is Enoch 94-104, a half century or more earlier, where the same charges and worse are made by the Pharisaean party apparently against John Hyrcanus or Alexander Jannaeus. What remained of the Asmonaean nobility was superseded under Herod by his own creatures, and under the procurators a c

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

4

5

Hasidim. Resha'im, 'wicked/ in the religious sense. See also Wisdom of Solomon, 2, 10 ff., and elsewhere. "OO~LOL (hasidim). After his breach with the Pharisees. 156

CHAP, v i ]

RELATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASSES

157

Judaean aristocracy played no part, though some of the great families may have been very wealthy. In the war of 66-72 many of the well-to-do perished; others were sold into slavery. The revenues which had flowed to Jerusalem from the diaspora through the poll-tax for the maintainance of the sacra publica or been expended there by the multitudes of pilgrims, ceased. The demand for sacrificial victims, the rearing of which must have been of considerable economic importance, was at an end. In Judaea all classes were impoverished; Galilee probably soon recovered a measure of prosperity, through its fertility and its trade with the Phoenician coast. Then came the wars under Trajan, which were disastrous for the Jews in Mesopotamia and a great part of Greek-speaking Jewry, and the war under Hadrian which again devastated Judaea. Of the old social cleav­ age between the rich and powerful and the poor and oppressed much less is heard. Poor and pious are no longer synonyms opposed to rich and wicked. The new division is between the class who are instructed in their religion and scrupulous in the performance of its obligations, and the ignorant and negligent masses. The Scribes and Pharisees are the older representatives of the former class; the learned and their students succeed them. They called the masses, "the people of the land," a name which in Ezra and Nehemiah is applied to the half-heathenish native population of Judaea, and carried over this derogatory connotation into the rabbinical use. This division appears in the utterances of teachers of the first century as something universally understood, but its conse­ quences were more fully developed in the schools of the second 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

For a somewhat similar case see Pliny, Letter to Trajan, x. 96, near the

end. 2

Some echoes of it are heard in Luke, e.g. 6, 20 ff. Ilakamim, Talmide hakamim. 'Amme ha-ares. See Strack und Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Tal­ mud und Midrasch, II (1924), 4 9 4 - 5 1 9 ; G. F. Moore, in Jackson and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, I (1920), Appendix E (pp. 4 3 9 - 4 4 5 ) . See Hillel's words, Abot 2, 5 : No boor (bor) fears to sin, and no 'am ha-ares is pious. 3

4

5

6

158

MORALS

[PART V

century in Galilee, where the scholars who migrated thither after the war under Hadrian probably found both in town and country a population which knew less about the traditional law than the corresponding class in Judaea, and was more negligent in the observance of the law they knew. Apart from the conviction that the neglect of His laws by the mass of the people perpetuated the disfavor of God under which the whole nation manifestly lay, those who undertook for them­ selves personally to conform strictly to the laws, written and un­ written, were constantly in danger of being defeated in their en­ deavor by the ignorance and negligence of others. If such a man was a guest at the table of a common man ('am ha-ares) or bought country produce of him in the market, what assurance had he that the priest's portion and the tithes had been set apart and delivered to their proper destination, or the laws about the fruits of the fallow year complied with? If they had not, he himself violated the law in eating such food, and his ignorance of the fact was no apology. Then there was the large category of uncleanness. The food set before him, or what he purchased, might have been rendered unclean, and therefore religiously prohibited, in any one of many ways. The clothing, seat, or couch of the common man might be unclean, and communicate their contagious defilement to any one who even accidentally or unwittingly touched them, with secondary consequences that might be most serious. In these circumstances self-protection dictated the general pre­ sumption that the common man was not exact in matters of agri­ cultural taxation, and that he and his belongings were unclean. In the former case the scrupulous buyer could for himself remedy 1

2

3

1

The Jews in Galilee seem previously to have run more to a militant patriotism than to punctiliousness in their religious obligations. In Baby­ lonia the am ha-ares question does not appear ever to have had anything like the same importance. These laws continued in force "in the Land," notwithstanding the de­ struction of the temple. These interdictions, it should be observed, are biblical; they are not rabbinical extensions. 1

2

3

CHAP, vi]

RELATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASSES

159

the seller's neglect by setting apart the proper proportion of the suspected purchase; but the presumption of uncleanness was a serious bar to social intercourse, and indeed to friendly relations of any kind. The religious leaders tried to instruct the peasantry in the somewhat complicated laws of tithing and the like, and to induce them to fulfil the requirements. From a man who was recognized as "a tither" the scrupulous could buy without being under the necessity of tithing over again for themselves, and it would be only natural that they should do their marketing with him. Later, one who has undertaken to observe the regulations about these matters was certified as "trustworthy" (ne'eman). The punctilious Jews, on their side, formed a voluntary asso­ ciation, the members of which pledged themselves in the presence of three associates to observe strictly the laws regarding un­ cleanness and the precautions by which they were surrounded, as well as those noted in the preceding paragraphs. The specific obligations assumed are thus enumerated: The Associate shall not give Terumah or tithes to (a priest or levite who is) an 'am ha-ares; perform his purifications in the presence of a man of this class; be the guest of one, or entertain one in his house unless he leave his outer garment outside; he shall not sell him of the products of the soil either "dry" (grain and the like) or "moist" (garden vegetables or fruits), or buy from him any but "dry" things (which are not liable to contract uncleanness by contact), etc. He should not travel in company with one of the class, visit him, study the Law in his presence, and much more to the like effect. The "people of the land" were not to be sum­ moned as witnesses, nor their testimony admitted; no secret was to be entrusted to them; one of them might not be appointed guardian of an orphan, or custodian of the poor rates, etc. Mar1

2

3

4

5

1

The oldest law on this subject (Demai) is attributed to the high priest Johanan (John Hyrcanus). Sotah 48a. See Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, u. s. w., II, 500. IfiPJJD. M. Demai 3, if.; cf. Tos. Demai 2, 2. Strack-Billerbeck, II, 501. Bekorot 30b. Pesahim 4 9 b . 2

3

4

5

i6o

MORALS

[PART V

riage between the two classes was condemned in terms of abhor­ rence. Admission to the association was open to men of the com­ mon people on the same conditions as to the educated class, with provision for the instruction of the former in the obligations he assumed in a probationary period. It was, in fact, one of the means by which conscientious Jews tried to secure a more general knowledge of the law and regard for it. It may be suspected that the animosity which many of the teachers of the second century express in most emphatic language toward the "people of the land" was provoked by the fact that few of them responded to this uplifting enterprise; the majority remained wilfully in their ignorance and negligence. The splitting of society on such lines involves graver evils than the reciprocal antipathy of classes, however ugly the feeling and the expression of it may be, and the worst effect of it is upon those of whom better things are justly expected. The educated had the common pride of learning in double measure because it was religious learning. It was impossible to obey the divine laws without knowledge of the Law, written and traditional. Hillel had put it in a word, "No ignorant man ( am ha-ares) is relig­ ious." They were no less proud of the pains they took to keep the laws in all their refinements, and particularly, as we have seen above, those about which common men were most careless. They were led in this way to lay especial stress on articles in the laws which from our point of view seem of the smallest religious significance — the taxation of agricultural produce for the sup­ port of a hereditary clergy that after the destruction of the temple no longer had any sacerdotal functions, and the various kinds of uncleanness which, detached from their relation to par­ ticipation in the cultus, were extended to social intercourse. The large development of these sides of the law long antedates the Christian era, and pre-occupation with such things is the only notion many have of Pharisaism. So far as that is concerned, the c

1

Abot 1, 5 T D n p a n *b\ NOn NT 1 U p « ; Tos. Berakot 7, 18, illus­ trated by a parable. Cf. John y, 49. 1

CHAP, vi]

RELATIONS OF SOCIAL CLASSES

161

Pharisee or the Schoolman would have replied: God gave these laws for reasons sufficient to himself; it is not for men to set them aside as antiquated or unimportant. In the application of them many cases arise which require a definite ruling and a prac­ tice in conformity to it. You may think them small command­ ments by the side of those whose obligation the reason and con­ science of all men recognize; but fidelity to the revealed will of God is not a small matter, and the crucial test of it is precisely solicitude about keeping the commandments whose obligation is solely positive — God has commanded thus and so. It is, as has been repeatedly remarked, the unimpeachable logic of re­ vealed religion. The effect of such a situation as we have been considering goes farther than this putting of all obligations in principle on the same plane. In all sects, and in every ecclesiola in ecclesia, it is the peculiarities in doctrine, observance, or piety, that are upper­ most in the minds of the members; what they have in common with the great body is no doubt taken for granted, but, so to speak, lies in the sectarian subconsciousness. Worse than this displacement of values by emphasis on the differential peculiarities is the self-complacency of the members of such a party or association and the self-righteousness that comes of believing that their peculiarities of doctrine or practice make them singularly well-pleasing to God. With this goes censoriousness towards outsiders, which often presumes to voice the disapprobation of God. The Pharisees and the Associates, who seem to have numbered among them in the second century most of the learned and their disciples, conspicuously illustrate these faults. It is not without detriment to himself that a man cher­ ishes the consciousness of being superior to his fellows, and the injury to his character is not least when he has the best reason for his opinion. To this point we shall have occasion to recur when we come to the subject of piety.

CHAPTER

VII

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

SOLICITUDE for the poor is broadly impressed on the biblical legislation. The laws for their benefit contemplate a population living in simple conditions, chiefly on the land. When a piece of grain is harvested the corners are to be left uncut; a sheaf that has been overlooked in the field is not to be reclaimed; nor is the field to be gone over to gather up the loose heads that have fallen. Similarly not all the grapes on the vines are to be gath­ ered; the olive trees are not to be gone over a second time. The gleaning of the grain fields and of the orchards and vineyards are for the poor. In the seventh year, when the fields lay fallow and the vineyards were not pruned, what grew of itself was free to the whole community as well as to the proprietor. The biblical laws on these subjects are frequently indefinite and sometimes apparently at variance with one another. A real conflict between divine commandments was, however, incon­ ceivable, and it was the task of the learned not only to harmonize them by interpretation but to combine them for practical observ­ ance. The mere repetition of laws between which there seems to be no difference made it necessary to find something in the one that was not explicit in the other. These agricultural laws apply to the land of Israel; but of the territory to which that name might have been given in the days of the kingdoms, or included within its ideal boundaries, the Jews in the period with which we are concerned formed a com1

2

3

4

1

Lev. 19, 9 f.; Deut. 24, 20 f. Exod. 23, 10 f.; Lev. 25, 2 - 7 . The modern critical explanation of these diversities, namely that they come from different sources and represent different periods in the history of the legislation, contradicts the very idea of revealed religion which was the foundation of Judaism. See Vol. I, pp. 1 1 2 , 235 f, 247 ff. This is an accepted hermeneutic principle. 162 2

3

4

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

163

pact population only in a much reduced Judaea, and a predomi­ nant element in Galilee. The question where these laws were to be treated as in force called urgently for decision. Again, the taxes and contributions for the support of the ministry after the cessation of the worship in the temple required regulation. The first of the six grand divisions of the Mishnah is devoted to these subjects, dealing with the details of observance and the rights of the poor as well as of priests and levites under the various laws. It is evident from our sources that the provisions for the poor contemplated by the laws, even with a liberal interpretation, was inadequate under the actual conditions, and that other measures were necessary. 1

In the laws about loans it is presumed that a man borrows only in case of need, and the lender is forbidden to profit by his neighbor's necessity by getting back more than he lent ('usury'). At the end of the seventh year all debts were to be cancelled. If an Israelite was so reduced that he had to sell his services to another, he served six years, being meanwhile supported by his master, and at the end of the term was released, the master being enjoined to furnish him out liberally from the flock, the threshing floor, and the wine press, so that he may be started on the way to self-support. The poor had a prescriptive right to share in the family or communal feasts at the holy places, and under the Deuteronomic law at Jerusalem. The same law provides that the tithes of every third year are to be laid up in the village or town where the tither lives, for the support of the local poor. Certain classes 2

3

4

1

See below, pp. 1 7 4 ff. Deut. 1 5 , 2. Exod. 2 1 , 2 - 4 ; Deut. 1 5 , 1 2 - 1 5 . The term-service contemplated in these laws is a benevolent provision for enabling a man who has fallen into debt to work off his obligation and start afresh. Deut. 1 4 , 28 f. Jewish law distinguished ( 1 ) the tithe of agricultural products paid for the support of the ministry; (2) the "second tithe," to be consumed by the proprietor with his family, dependents, and guests, in a feast in Jerusalem; (3) the "poor tithe" which took the place of (2) in the third and sixth years of each septennial period. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, cols. 5 1 0 2 - 5 1 0 5 . 2

3

4

164

MORALS

[PART v

are frequently specified in Deuteronomy as objects of charity: the levite, the alien living in an Israelite community (ger) the orphan, and the widow. The two first named own no land from which to get a living; the orphan and the widow have lost their natural providers. They are all under the peculiar patronage of God. Such provisions as are outlined above were not adapted to a large urban population, but in Jerusalem, so long as the temple stood, the festivals and the many family feasts, at which gene­ rosity was law and custom, doubtless in some measure supplied the deficiency, but much must have been left to public and private almsgiving. The injunction of liberality is finely put in Deut. 15, I I : 'The needy will never disappear from the land; therefore I command thee, Open thy hand to thy poor and needy brother in thy land.' How a good man fulfilled his duty to those who needed his help is ideally described in Job 29, 12-16: 'I de­ livered the poor that cried, the fatherless also that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed itself with me; my justice was a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.' Or again (31, 16-22, 29-32): 'If I have withheld aught that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof— Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother's womb. If I have seen any wanderer in want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate; y

1

2

3

1

2

Deut. 1 6 , 1 1 , 1 4 ; 24, 1 9 , 20, 2 1 ; 26, 1 2 , 1 3 . Deut. 1 0 , 1 8 ; 24, 1 7 ; 27, 1 9 ; Jer. 7, 6; 23, 3 ; Zech. 7, 1 0 ; Psalm 1 0 , 1 4 ,

18. 3

Cf. Lev. 25, 3 5 - 3 7 .

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

165

then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.' 'If Irejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or exulted when evil found him — Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse. If the men of my tent said not, Who can find one that hath not been satisfied with his meat? The stranger did not lodge in the street; my doors I opened to the roadside.' It is needless to multiply quotations here from the many places in all parts of the Scripture commanding or commending beneficence to the poor. The same theme runs through the uncanonical literature. It is frequent in Sirach. Tobit begins with a recital of his charities to the living and the dead. The exhor­ tations of Jesus in the Gospels are in the same vein, as are also the Apostolic writings. The jurists of our period interpreted the Mosaic legislation on the subject of charity in its spirit, sometimes, to our notions of exegesis, straining the letter in doing so, and in their application adapted it to the conditions of their own time. An instructive example is the oldest juristic commentary on Deut. 15, 7 - 1 1 . In the context the passage is a warning against refusing to lend to a necessitous countryman, especially in the immediate prospect of the septennial cancellation of debts. The Midrash extends it to gifts, and only incidentally touches on loans secured by a pledge (vs. 8). 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Familiar examples are, Isa. 58, 7, 1 0 ; Ezek. 1 8 , 1 7 f.; Psalm 3 7 , 2 1 ; 4 1 , 2 ; Prov. 1 4 , 20 f., 3 1 ; 1 9 , 1 7 ; 2 1 , 26; 28, 2 7 ; 3, 27 f., etc. Ecclus. 4, 1 - 6 ; 29, 1 - 1 3 , cf. 2 1 - 2 8 ; 1 8 , 1 5 - 1 8 , etc. See also 1 0 , 22 f. See also Tobit 4, 7 - 1 1 ; 1 2 , 8 f. Matt. 5, 4 2 ; Luke 6, 30-38. James 1, 27 (cf. 5, 1 - 6 ; 2, 6 ) ; Hebrews 1 3 , 1 6 ; 1 John 3, 1 7 . On these regulations see S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, III, 7 0 - 7 4 , and notes pp. 2 7 1 - 2 7 3 . Sifre Deut. §§ 1 1 6 - 1 1 8 (ed. Friedmann f. 98a-b). For a translation of the whole passage see Strack-Billerbeck on Matt. 5, 42 (Kommentar zum N. T. aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 346 f.). With Sifre, this part of which comes from the school of Akiba (Simeon ben Yohai), should be compared Midrash Tannaim ed. D. Hoffmann, pp. 8 1 - 8 5 . Deut. 1 5 , 1 0 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

MORALS

[PART V

The Scripture (vs. 7) forbids a man to harden his heart toward his needy brother or close his hand — there are men who are perplexed whether to give or not to give, and men who stretch out their hand and afterwards contract it. From vs. 9, 'Beware lest there be in thy heart a wicked thought, and thou be evileyed toward thy needy brother and thou give him naught/ the lesson is drawn: "Be careful not to refuse charity, for every one who refuses charity is put (by the text) in the same category with idolaters, and he breaks off from him the yoke of Heaven (God), as it is said, wicked, that is without yoke." The hard-hearted and close-fisted man who will not give to his poor brother will one day be reduced to receiving alms from him. A man's hand is to be open wide for the relief of need (vs. 8, cf. 11), and not once but a hundred times. The gift is to be suffi­ cient for the need — men are not required to enrich the recipient. If he needs a loaf of bread, that is to be given him, or dough, or money; if the food has to be put into his mouth, he is to be fed in that way. On the other hand, 'whatever he lacks' (vs. 8, end) is taken to mean not merely what is necessary for a living, but whatever he lacks that belongs to his social station and former habit of life, even a horse to ride and a slave to run before him, as is illustrated by an anecdote about Hillel, who once did ex­ actly this for an impoverished son of a good family, and by a story about a town in Upper Galilee where the people provided a man who in his better days had been accustomed to luxury with a pound daily of the flesh of birds. By a more subtle com1

2

3

4

5

1

So Yalkut, Rashi, and Midrash Tannaim (from Midrash ha-Gadol); cf. vs. 10. The printed text of Sifre has "who cause pain." Both these sins are found in the word conventionally translated ' wicked,' in Hebrew beliyaal (familiar in the phrase, 'sons of Belial'). The idolatry comes by way of Deut. 1 3 , 1 4 ; 'breaking off the yoke/ by taking beliyaal as a compound, equivalent to beli (without) 'ol (yoke). Cf. Sanhedrin n i b , end. It is the most radical of sins, the rejection of the authority of God. See Vol. 1, pp. 465 f. Deduced on Akiba's principles from the repetition, nfiSn nriS. To make him better off than he was before. Once when there was no slave at hand, Hillel himself ran before him three miles. Ketubot 67b; cf. Sifre on Deut. 1 5 , 8. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v i i ]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

167

bination it was made out that if a man was too poor to marry, the last words of vs. 8 required that he should be enabled to sup­ port a wife. Again, from the phrase, 'Thou shalt give to him' (vs. 10), it is deduced that a gift to the poor must be made privately, with no one else present; and as an illustration reference is made to a chamber in the temple in Jerusalem where peculiarly scrupulous persons deposited their charitable donations in secrecy, while with equal privacy the impoverished members of good families drew from this fund their sustenance. The intent of the legislator in vs. 8 is plain: A loan sufficient for the need of the borrower is to be made on the security of a pledge. The rabbis, who interpreted the whole passage of charit­ able gifts, explained the mention of security in harmony with this assumption in various ways. From the repetition, according to the hermeneutics of the school, it was inferred that more than one case was contemplated. If a man has property but is un­ willing to consume it on his living, they provide what he needs nominally as a gift, and collect from his estate after his death. If a man has nothing and is not willing to be supported by charity, they spare his feelings by letting him take it in the name of a loan, and afterward let him have it as a gift (they do not try to collect it). The innocent fiction in the latter case shows a noteworthy delicacy. An illustration may be added from an­ other source. On the words in Deut. 15, 8, 10, 'Thou shalt open thy hand' (nnsn nna), R. Ishmael said, "If it is a man of good 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

)b -iDrv and Gen. 2, 18, n u a £ .TO Literally, " the sin-fearing." Midrash Tannaim (p. 83, end) reads, " the righteous." On this chamber, D W n see M. Shekalim 5, 6; Tos. Shekalim 2, 16. According to the latter, there was a similar institution in every city. The name means "chamber of the silent." With the Essenes it has nothing to do beyond a fortuitous resemblance of sound to ''Eaaaloi. Cf. the same expression in vs. 6. 2

3

4

6

The different opinions are more fully reported in Ketubot 67b. Ketubot 6 7 b ; cf. Sifre Deut. § 1 1 6 . The authorities cited by name (R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Simeon) flourished in the middle of the second century. 7

i68

MORALS

[PART V

family and he is ashamed (to ask alms), 'open' to him with words, My son, perhaps you need a loan. Hence the authorities say, Alms is given like a loan." The promise of God's blessing on the benevolent (vs. 10) in­ cludes not only the man who gives for the relief of the poor but one who solicits others to give; and if, unable to give anything else, he expresses his sympathy in words, that too has its reward. On the other hand, warning is given that the poor man refused an alms may cry to the Lord against him who refused him, * and it will be sin in thee.' Sin it is in any case, but God will be quicker to punish when the unfortunate cries to him. It will no doubt have occurred to the reader that most of this fine doctrine about charity is interpreted into the text, not out of it. And that is precisely the thing to be observed about it. The fundamentals of Jewish teaching on the subject from a far earlier time are here ingeniously worked into a single passage only a few verses long. Parallels to them all can be adduced in multitude. When Jesus said: 'Give to him who begs of thee, and do not turn away him who wants to borrow from thee' (Matt. 5, 42), it is not, like the preceding injunctions of non-resistance, what the Jews called conduct that keeps "inside the line," but an exact summary of what they laid down as prescribed by divine law. To lend to a would-be borrower is not optional but obligatory, and no less obligatory to give to the poor according to the meas­ ure of his need and to the ability of the giver. One should not withhold the needed relief out of apprehension that if he dis­ tributes all his property to others he may himself be reduced to 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Midrash Tannaim ed. Hoffmann, p. 82. See also the story in Lev. R. 34? inrn "unn bbn. A comprehensive methodical exhibition of these teachings is to be found in Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkot Mattenot 'Aniyim. See above, p. 1 5 2 . Mekilta on Exod. 22, 24 (Mishpatim 1 9 , ed. Friedmann f. 9 6 a ; ed. Weiss f. 1 0 2 a ) ; Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 22, 24. See above, pp. 166 f. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

169

want and come to be a charge on the community; he should trust the promise of Deut. 15, 10b — if he does his part, God will do His. He has the best of security, for 'he who befriends the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed' (Prov. 19, 17). The donor, who owes God all he has, becomes a creditor of God — if it was not so written in Scripture, no one would venture to say such a thing! God says to Israel: "My sons, whenever you give food to the poor, I impute it to you as though you gave me food, as it is said, 'my offering, even my food for my fire sacrifice' (Num. 28, 2). Does God eat and drink! Nay, but whenever you give food to the poor I impute it to you as though you gave me food." On the other side, to one who has means but withholds relief from the needy, God says: Keep in mind that it is I that made him poor and thee rich; I can send reverses on thee and make thee poor. In the same connection another takes occasion from the expression Wan in Deut. 15, 10 to compare the ups and downs of men's fortunes to the turning of a wheel God says: I made him poor and thee rich. Do not cause me to turn the wheel over, and make thee poor. The general principle ap­ plied to the particular case is: "To every one who shows mercy 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 5 , 10 (ed. Hoffmann, pp. 83-84). See the discussion of Rabban Gamaliel (II) with a "philosopher" (cf. 'Abodah Zarah 5 4 b ) , ibid.y p. 84. 2

Exod. R. 3 1 , 1 5 . Baba Batra ioa, below; Lev. R. 3 4 , 2 (on Lev. 2 5 , 2 5 ) . Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 407. Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 5 , 9 (ed. Hoffmann, p. 83, below). Cf. Matt. 25, 4 0 : The King will say, In so far as you did it to one of these hum­ blest brothers of mine you did it to me. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mishpatim § 8. Instead of the more common IJW. Similarly R. Ishmael, Shabbat 1 5 1 b . For the figure of the wheel see Exod. R. 3 1 , 1 4 (on Exod. 14, 2 5 ) , 'God is judge; one he brings down and one he lifts up* (Psalm 7 5 , 8). The author has in mind a wheel such as is used in irrigation; the buckets at the bottom come up full; those at the top go down empty. Not every one who is rich today will be rich tomorrow, and not every one that is poor today will be poor tomorrow. The world is a wheel. Other references, XPTV na* on Shabbat 1 5 1 b . See also Lev. R. 3 4 , 3. 3

4

5

6

7

MORALS

170

[PART V

to other men, mercy is shown from Heaven; but to him who shows no mercy to other men, no mercy is shown from Heaven." In the great distress that followed the war under Hadrian, some of those who still had means seem to have been moved to part with all their possessions to relieve their perishing country­ men. Wiser heads recognized that, however commendable the spirit of such uncalculating generosity might be in itself, the vol­ untary impoverishment of this class would but increase the evils it was meant to alleviate. The rule was accordingly laid down that no one should in this way dissipate more than one fifth of his property. In the corresponding passage in the Jerusalem Talmud this is explained as one fifth (of the capital) to begin with and a fifth (of the income) each succeeding year. A man's first obligation is to support the dependent members of his own family, then to relieve the necessities of his kinsfolk and his townsmen. He is not bound to give to the beggar who goes around from door to door; of such cases it is the business of the organized charity of the community to take care. The Gentile and the foreigner have a place in Jewish charity, but the fellow Israelite has a prior claim. If one has nothing to give to a needy man, he should express his deep regret that he is unable to relieve his necessity, thus fulfilling Isa. 58, 10 ('If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry'). It is very significant that the usual word for alms in this 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Shabbat 1 5 1 b ; cf. Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 15, 1 1 . Matt. 5, 7, and Strack-Billerbeck ad loc. This ordinance was adopted at Usha, where the leaders assembled under the presidency of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, and is reported by a contemporary, R. Ila'i. Ketubot 50a; 'Arakin 28a; Jer. Peah 1 5 b . The obligation of a man to support his minor children was laid down at the same gathering. Jer. Ketubot 28d, middle. Jer. Ketubot 28d, near the end; Jer Peah 1 5 b . Cf. Ketubot 50a (Psalm 106, 3 ) . On the precedence among charitable claims see Mekilta, Mishpatim 19 (ed. Friedmann f. 96b; ed. Weiss f. i o 2 a - b ) ; Baba Mesi'a 7 1 a , top; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mishpatim § 8. Tos. Peah 4, 8. See below, pp. 176 f. Mekilta 1. c. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

171

1

period is sedafcah, which in the English version of the Bible is all but uniformly rendered ' righteousness/ whether used of God or of man. Like every such conventional equivalent, this one not infrequently misleads the reader, all the more because ' right­ eousness' is frequently coupled with 'justice' (mishpat), and because the Christian reader brings to the word Pauline associa­ tions. The ' righteousness' of God is frequently shown, however, in his vindication of his people by delivering them from their enemies or from other evils, so that the word becomes parallel to the words for deliverance, salvation, blessing, kindness, and, as a result, even to property, wealth. The Greek translators some­ times render it not by Succuoavvr] but by eke-q/jLoovvrj, as better expressing the implications of the context as they understood it. In Dan. 4, 24 (English version 4, 27) the corresponding Aramaic sidkah is 'alms-giving': 'Redeem thy sins by alms-giving and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.' Another word for charity is miswah, literally, 'a command­ ment,' meaning not a specific commandment, but any particular opportunity to fulfil the comprehensive duty of men to their fellows; and the development of this sense also throws light on the mental attitude of the Jews toward the whole subject. There is a higher form of this virtue which not merely relieves bodily needs by private almsgiving or through contributions to the organized charities of the community, but gives personal at­ tention, sympathy, and service. For this there is a special name, gemllut hasadim. "Almsgiving and deeds of lovingkindness are equal to all the commandments of the Law. Almsgiving is exer2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

This use is much older; it occurs in the Elephantine papyri (fifth century) as well as in the Hebrew Sirach. The verb p'Htfn is not only justificare but vindicare; cf. t3S&>, 'judge, deliver/ Frequently in Isa. 40 ff. Psalm 24, 5. non, Psalm 36, 1 1 ; 103, 1 7 . Prov. 8, 1 8 . Deut. 6, 2 5 ; 24, 1 3 ; Isa. 1, 2 7 ; 28, 1 7 ; 59, 1 6 ; Psalm 24, 5. > "? So correctly both Greek versions, Latin, Syriac. Protestant translators shy at the doctrine and woodenly render, ' righteousness.' See below, pp. 174 ff. Literally, doing deeds of lovingkindness. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

MORALS

172

[PART V

cised toward the living, deeds of lovingkindness toward the living and the dead; almsgiving to the poor, deeds of lovingkindness to the poor and to the rich; almsgiving is done with a man's money, deeds of lovingkindness either with his money or personally." In all these the superiority of deeds of lovingkindness is affirmed. Almsgiving itself is requited (by God) only in proportion to the love (hesed) that there is in it. Alms given in this spirit are more than all the sacrifices (Prov. 21,3), and deeds of lovingkindness more than almsgiving (Hos. 10, 12). In the words of Simeon the Righteous, the world is upheld in being by three things, the Law (knowledge of divine revelation), the cultus (in the temple), and lovingkindness to men. For the last in the Abot de-R. Nathan Hos. 6, 6 is adduced, and it is told how Johanan ben Zakkai con­ soled a disciple who was lamenting over the destruction of the temple, the place where atonement was made for the sins of Israel: "My son, do not be grieved; we have one atonement that is equal to it. What is that ? Deeds of lovingkindness, as it is said, 'I desire lovingkindness (hesed) and not sacrifice' " (Hos. 6, 6). Of this virtue God is the great exemplar. The world itself was created solely in lovingkindness. R. Simlai observes that the Pentateuch begins with an act of lovingkindness — God made garments of skins to clothe the man and his wife — and ends with another — He buried Moses in the valley. It is in such gracious deeds that man can and should imitate God, who clothes the naked, visits the sick, comforts mourners, buries the dead. No one, however dignified his station, should think himself too good for the humblest offices of human help and sympathy. In the words of Micah 6, 8, 'to walk humbly with thy God,' is 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

12132, Jer. Peah 1 5 0 - 0 ; Tos. Peah 4 , 1 9 ; Sukkah 4 9 b . Sukkah I.e. R. Eleazar (ben Shammu'a), ibid. Ibid. Cf. Matt. 9, 1 3 ; 1 2 , 7 (Hos. 6, 6). — Prov. 2 1 , 3 is a favorite text for this preference. Hos. 6, 6; Abot de-R. Nathan c. 4 . Abot 1, 2. After the destruction of the temple prayer takes the place of sacrificial worship. See below, pp. 2 1 7 f. Abot de-R. Nathan 4, Psalm 89, 3 Co/am, 'world'). Sotah 14a. Ibid. See above, pp. n o f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

173

found the duty of joining the funeral procession or the company conducting the bride to the wedding. For to rejoice with those who rejoice is no less an act of kindness than to mourn with mourners. The high estimate put on deeds of lovingkindness might be illustrated by many quotations. More significant than any such accumulation of eulogiums, however, is a passage in Sifre in which it sums up the whole of the manward side of religion. On the words, 'If they were wise, they would consider this' (Deut. 32,29), the comment runs': " If Israel would consider the words of the Law that was given to them, no nation or kingdom would have dominion over them (see vs. 30). And what does it (the Law) say to them ? Take upon you the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, and try to excel one another in the fear of Heaven; and conduct yourselves one to another with lovingkindness." The first two clauses comprehend that part of religion which has to do with man's relation to God. "The yoke of the kingdom of Heaven" is the acknowledgement of God's sole sovereignty and of the obligation to love him with mind and soul and substance, which man makes when he recites the Shema' (Deut. 6, 4) — the daily renewed profession of his religion. The second clause car­ ries this religion into practice as it is summarized in Deut. 10, 12 f.: 'And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to revere the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; to keep for thy good the command­ ments of the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day.' Try to excel one another in an obedience to God's re­ vealed will, inspired by reverence and love. 1

2

Finally the Midrash condenses into one clause what religion requires of men in their relations to one another. This part of 1

Sukkah 4 9 b . When such a procession passed his school, R. Judah used to dismiss his disciples, saying, Doing takes precedence of studying. Jer. IJagigah 76c. A majority vote in the contrary sense is reported, ibid. See S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 38 f., 66, and 458, n. 3 1 7 . See Kobryn, Catena, on Abot 1, 2 (f. 6 a ~ 7 b ) . 2

174

MORALS

[PART V

Sifre is from the school of R. Akiba, who found in Lev. 19, 18, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself/ the most comprehen­ sive principle of the Law. We have seen how this principle was applied to the protection of the property, the reputation, and the feelings of others. As in Paul, however, this application is pri­ marily negative, 'Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law* (Rom. 13, 10). The Sifre goes far beyond the safeguarding of others* rights when it makes gemilut hasadim in all the wealth of meaning that was put into that phrase the principle of all human intercourse. It requires an active charity, and makes the measure of the duty, not the rights but the needs of others. 1

2

3

In various connections it has already appeared that the relief of the poor was not left wholly to the benevolence of individuals; the community assumed its obligation to care for those perma­ nently or temporarily in need. The regulation of particulars in the Tosefta Peah c. 4 shows that the system was well-established and familiar at the end of the second century, and other evidence makes it probable that it was organized or reorganized under Simeon ben Gamaliel and the scholars who gathered around him in Galilee after the war under Hadrian. For the preceding period our sources give but scanty intimations. For the second century they are ample. In each municipality two collectors were appointed, men of unimpeachable probity whose character warranted leaving the whole business in their hands without any accounting. They made their rounds together every Friday to the market and the 4

5

6

1

Sifra, Kedoshim Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 89b). See above, p. 85. Above, pp. 142 ff., 147 ff. Compare the parable of the good Samaritan, Luke 10, 2 5 - 3 7 . Hanina ben Teradion, who taught at Siknin in Galilee and was one of the victims of the persecution of teachers under Hadrian, had a proverbial reputation as an administrator of the community alms-chest (Baba Batra 10b; 'Abodah Zarah 1 7 b ) . Akiba also figures as collector (charity tithe as­ signed to him, M. Ma'aser Sheni 5, 9; Kiddushin 2 7 a ) . HpT* '•KnJ. M. Peah 8, 7 ; Baba Batra 8b. Baba Batra 9a (2 Kings 1 2 , 16). Various regulations were made to pro­ tect them from suspicion. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

175

shops and to private houses, taking up the weekly collection for charity in money or in kind. If a man was not prepared to pay on the spot, they could require him to give a pledge; they must, however, not be oppressive either in the matter or the manner of their demands, lest they incur the sentence of Jer. 30, 20. Their duties were responsible and difficult. It is a harder thing to make others give than to give oneself, and the desert and re­ ward are correspondingly great. Still more difficult than the collection was the distribution, which was made also on Fridays by a commission of three members, since they had to investigate the various needs and sometimes competing claims of the recip­ ients. In case of necessity they might have to make up the deficiency themselves or borrow to meet it. The difficulty and responsibility of the apportionment were so great that R. Jose ben Halafta prayed that his lot might be among the collectors rather than the distributors. To the poor of the town there was given every Friday enough to provide for the coming week (fourteen meals); clothing also was furnished as it was needed. A temporary resident from another city who was out of money also received aid from this fund. Upon the community fell also the support of orphan children, and the seeing of them married and launched in life for them­ selves by renting and furnishing a house for a man, fitting out a girl with clothing, and giving her a dowry, for which a minimum sum is fixed. If the funds in the community chest were low, the orphan girl was universally given priority over the boy. For the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

Baba Batra 8b. Ibid. Baba Batra 8b, applying Dan. 1 2 , 3, "those who make the many give alms" (shall shine as the stars forever and ever). M. Peah 8, 7; Baba Batra 8b. Baba Batra 11 a, top. Shabbat 118b. Tos. Ketubot 6, 8. M. Ketubot 6, 5 (fifty zuz); Tos. Ketubot 6, 7. Tos. Ketubot 6 8. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

3

176

MORALS

[PART v

burial of the poor provision was made from the public funds, and also for the ransom of captives, an obligation to which every other was postponed. For these extraordinary expenses special collections were made. An interesting feature of this institution was that in providing for the impoverished regard was had, so far as funds were avail­ able, to the social position of the beneficiary and his former manner of life — the kind of food and dress to which he was accustomed, and so also in the garments furnished the orphan bride. Besides the collection for this community chest, there was a daily collection of victuals from house to house called tamhui* This was received and distributed by a committee of three to such as were in pressing need of food for the coming day. No one who had two meals in the house could claim relief from this source, as no one who had provision for a week could claim it from the kuppah? While the latter was for residents, the tamhui was for strangers also. For the vagrant a minimum ration of bread was prescribed; if he stayed over night, he was given lodg­ ing, oil, and pulse; over sabbath, food for three meals, oil, pulse, fish, and fresh vegetables; if he is known to them, they may give him clothing also. Public provision for the relief of such cases being made, begging from door to door was disfavored; chari­ table housewives often gave food to such mendicants, but the 1

2

3

4

6

8

9

1

Baba Batra 8a-b. Here also, the woman first, M. Horayot 3, 7. Even to a horse to ride and a slave to run before him — fortified by an anecdote of Hillel. Sifre on Deut. 1 5 , 8 (see above, p. 166); Tos Peah 4, 1 0 ; Ketubot 67b. M. Ketubot 6, 5. nsip (fruppah, literally 'basket'). Also D"0, 'purse' and *pnN, 'bag/ "nriDfi (tamhui), the name of a tray or shallow dish with compartments for diffei ent kinds of food. Cooked food, presumably remnants, was thus collected. Baba Batra 8b. M. Peah 8, 7. DIpD^ D1pEE "DIJJ ^ y , 'the poor man passing from place to place.' The more generous fare which belonged to sabbath observance, to make it a delight. Tos. Peah 4, 8. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY

latter then forfeited their right to assistance from the overseers of the poor. Public as well as private charity has always had its chapter of impostors, and the Jews were no exception. Their rule was that if a man pleaded hunger he should be fed without further ques­ tion, but if an unknown beggar asked for clothing the case should be investigated. There were mendicants who made themselves out to be blind, or gave themselves wounds on their legs, or simu­ lated a dropsical swelling of the belly; and they are warned that before they die they will suffer in reality from the infirmities they now pretend. Similarly, one who takes alms which he does not need will come to genuine poverty before he ends. Men should make every effort not to become a public charge. Rather make your sabbath a week day (by foregoing the sab­ batical luxury) than become a burden to your fellow men. A pointed application of this principle is made by Rab: "Skin the carcass of a dead beast in the market place for hire, and do not say, I am a great man, it is beneath my dignity." Earn your own living even by the most repugnant employment. Many of the most eminent scholars, as is well known, supported themselves and their families by manual labor, some of them by unskilled labor. Every father was enjoined to teach his son a trade, not only because it secured him a livelihood but because of the moral influence of labor. Shemaiah's motto was, "Love labor, shun office, and do not cultivate intimacy with the authorities. The dignity and the blessings of labor are a frequent theme in the literature of all periods. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

,, 8

1

Tos. Peah 4, 8; Jer. Peah 2 1 a . One dried fig fro forma discharged all their obligations to him. Tos. Peah 4, 1 4 ; Ketubot 68a. Ketubot 68a. Shabbat 1 1 8 a ; Pesahim 1 1 2 a , 1 1 3 a . Baba Batra 1 1 0 a ; Pesahim 1 1 3 a (I am a priest; I am a great man). Maimonides, Hilkot Mattenot 'Aniyim 1 0 , 1 8 . See above, pp. 127 f. Abot 1, 1 0 . Under Herod. On the last clause cf. 'Abodah Zarah 1 7 a , above (Prov. 5, 8b). 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

178

MORALS

[PART v

To the collections for public charities all were required to con­ tribute in the measure of their ability and of the current or occasional need. Men who moved into the town were liable to the daily collection of victuals (tamhui) after thirty days resi­ dence; after three months to the weekly collection for the poor of the place (kuppah); after six to the collection for clothing; after nine to the burial fund; and at the end of the year for the defences of the city. Minor orphans, even though they inherited property, were not assessed for charity, nor even for the ransom of captives; nor were, naturally, the women and children of a household. From women the collectors were allowed to receive only small voluntary contributions. The poor, even those them­ selves dependent on charity, were permitted to make a small contribution to the kuppah, but not urged to do so. Where there was a suspicion that the contributor was not really the owner, it was forbidden to accept what he offered. In the concluding chapter of the treatise on charity Maimoni­ des enumerates eight degrees in a descending scale. The highest of all is what we might call preventive charity, which lays hold of a man who is failing, and keeps him from falling and becoming a public charge by a gift or a loan or a partnership, or by finding him work. The principle is clearly enounced in Sifra on Lev. 25,35. Such a man is like a load resting on the top of a wall; so long as it is in place one man can take hold of it and keep it there; once it is fallen to the ground, five cannot raise it up again. Next to this comes remedial charity so managed that neither 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Baba Batra 8a, below. Cf. Tos. Peah 4, 9 (inferior text). Baba Batra 8a, end. Tos. Baba Kamma 1 1 , 6. Gittin 7 b , top. M. Baba Kamma 10, 9; Tos. Baba Kamma 1 1 , 9 ff.; Baba Kamma 1 1 9 a . On the almsgiving of heathen and contributions by influential Gentiles to Jewish charity funds, see Baba Batra 10b. Mattenot 'Aniyim c. 1 0 . Sifra, Behar Parashah 5 init. (ed. Weiss f. 109b). See Rashi on Lev. 25, 3 5 . With Maimonides' examples cf. Shabbat 63a, bottom (Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 358). 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, vii]

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CHARITY 1

179

donor nor the beneficiary knows who the other is. This was one of the things which was accomplished by contributions to the public chest, officially collected and distributed. At the bottom of the scale comes the man who gives with a sullen mien; for the spirit and manner in which the thing is done is of the essence of the deed. There are many other features in this system which it would be interesting to pursue farther did space permit, but for our present task, the place of charity in Jewish moral teach­ ing and practice, what has been said must suffice. 2

1

2

Baba Batra iob, top; see above, p. 167. Maimonides l.s.c. 1 0 , 14, cf. § 4.

CHAPTER

VIII

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

IN no sphere is the influence of the highest conceptions of Judaism more manifestly determinative than in that to which we give the general name of justice, including under it, first, fair dealing between man and man, the distributive justice which gives to each his due; second, public justice, the function of the community in defining and enforcing the duties and rights of individuals and classes; and, third, rectitude, or integrity of personal character. In all parts of the Bible justice in the broad sense is the fundamental virtue on which human society is based. It is no less fundamental in the idea of God, and in the definition of what God requires of men. We have already seen how distributive justice is summarized in the maxim that the property and the honor of another should be as dear to a man as his own, and what care is enjoined to avoid any act or word that might hurt his feelings. Some of the applications of this principle in business relations and in the censure of slander and gossip have been set forth in a former chapter. It is unnecessary to enlarge further upon this aspect of the subject here. Attention may, however, be called again to the fact that the ordinary, and one may say technical, name for almsgiving in Judaism is sedakah, a right, or just, act, and that it is taught not only that it is the duty of those who have means thus to relieve the need of others, but that the poor have a right to such relief— a right of which God declares himself the vindi­ cator — and that in the organized charities which have been 1

2

3

1

The English word 'righteousness' most frequently used in our versions for the Hebrew sedek fastens the attention too exclusively on the religious quality of rightness in relation to God or in his judgment. See above, chapter 5. Deut. 1 5 , 9. 2

3

180

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

181

described above the community itself enforces this right against those who neglect their individual duties. In what we may properly call the legislation of the Tannaite period the task of the jurists was to interpret the Mosaic laws in the light of the prophetic teaching and of the examples which biography and history supplied, to adapt them to existing condtions, and to formulate them in authoritative regulations; and here also the influence of the highest religious and moral concep­ tions is constantly evident. In this way many of the injunctions and admonitions in the Pentateuch are drawn out into rules of conduct by a development of implications which, with our dif­ ferent notions of the end and method of exegesis, we should never think of. A study of the Tannaite Midrash from this point of view would be most instructive. A single illustration is all that can be given here. Leviticus 19, 16 reads: 'Thou shalt not go about as a talebearer among thy people; thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy fellow.' The last clause is generally translated in this way (against), and understood in the sense of Exod. 23, 1-3, 7, as directed against bearing false witness on the strength of which a man might be condemned to death. The phrase can, however, by itself with equal propriety be inter­ preted, 'Thou shalt not stand (idly) by the blood of thy fellow,' that is, when his life is in danger. From this it is deduced in the Sifra, among other things, that if a man knows of any evidence in favor of the defendant he is not at liberty to keep silent about it, since he might thus become responsible for his death. Further, that if a man sees another in peril of his life by falling into a river, or attacked by robbers, or some evil come upon him, he is bound not to stand idly by but to come to his rescue. Again, if he sees a man pursuing another to kill him, or to ravish a man or boy or a betrothed girl, he is bound to prevent the commission 1

2

3

4

2

Owe ewL(TTr]o"[i (eTrLO-vo-TTjaxi) alfia TOV TXTJCTLOV GOV. Non stabis contra sanguinem proximi tui. So most modern commentators. So it is rendered in the version of the Jewish Publication Society ( 1 9 1 7 ) . Sifra, ]£edoshim Perek 4 (ed. Weiss f. 89a). Lev. 5 , 1 . M. Sanhedrin 4 , 5. 3

4

182

MORALS

[PART

V 1

of the capital crime even by taking the life of the offender. Similar examples might be accumulated without number. The administration of public justice must be without respect of persons. In a cause in which one of the parties is a poor man and the other rich, the judges must not favor the poor man be­ cause he is poor, nor show regard to the other because he is rich, but decide between them with impartial justice (Lev. 19, 15; cf. Exod. 23, 3). He must not say to himself: "This man is poor; and inasmuch as this rich man is under obligation (by the general duty of charity) to support him, I will give judgment in his favor, and he will be able to make an honest living." In the converse case, regard to the rich man, the judge must not reflect: "This man is rich, this one well-connected. Can I see him shamed? How much less put him to shame myself" (by making him lose his case). Not only in the decision but in the whole procedure the parties are to be treated without partiality. One is not to be allowed to state his case at length and the other bidden to cut it short; one must not be allowed to be seated in court and the other kept standing, and the like. 2

3

4

5

Judges who pervert justice to the disadvantage of the poor are familiar figures in the denunciations of the prophets and the prohibitions of the laws; but the ideal of even-handed justice is that which is as little swerved from the line of right by sympathy for the small man as by the fear or favor of the great. Nowhere is the endeavor to develop the highest principles of the Law in ordinances and regulations more conspicuous than in the sphere of judicial procedure. From the Scriptures them­ selves little is to be learned about the constitution of courts and their jurisdiction, and still less about their procedure; and of the 1

See also M. Sanhedrin 8, 7, and the Talmud in loc. See also Deut. 1, 1 7 ; 16, 19, etc. Sifra on Lev. 1 9 , 1 5 according to the reading in Yalkut; the editions of Sifra have, "Inasmuch as I and this rich man are under obligation to pro­ vide for him," etc. The reflection, either way, is somewhat subtle. So the Yalkut. Sifra, I.e., Kedoshim Perek 4 (ed. Weiss, f. 89a). Cf. Tos. Sanhedrin, 6, 2 ; Shebuot 30a, below. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

183

actual administration of justice under the Asmonaeans or under Herod our sources give us hardly any information. Under the procurators the Jews were left to administer their own laws in their own way in civil cases in which only Jews were involved, and in criminal cases at least so far as the death penalty was not invoked. But so long as the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem under the presidency of the high priest remained the constitutional su­ preme court, with original jurisdiction in certain cases and appel­ late jurisdiction in others, it is probable that it followed its own precedents both in substantive law and in procedure, without much attention to the theories of the law schools. With the fall of Jerusalem in 70 the old Sanhedrin went out of existence, and in the reorganization at Jamnia a high court was established whose members were all learned in the Law. This self-constituted body had only a moral authority, but for the religious-minded Jews in Palestine under the influence of the Pharisees the authority of a council of the Doctors of Law was supreme. They had free hand to define the law and determine the mode of administering it, in accordance with Scripture, as they interpreted it, and tradition, of which they were the depo­ sitaries. So long as the local judges settled the cases that came before them after a customary law and with a rude kind of equity, they had no need for much learning; but the growth of a scholastic law with its exact definitions and manifold refinements made it necessary that from the lowest courts to the highest the judges should be learned in the Law. That this was recognized by those who constituted the high court at Jamnia can hardly be doubted. The times favored the putting into practice what under other circumstances might have been a difficult innovation, for the war and the devastation of Judaea must have left many communities without even a rudimentary organization. A similar state of things existed after the war under Hadrian, and from this time 1

]

They had, however, a formidable weapon in excommunication, and the patriarch was soon invested by the Romans with extensive powers.

MORALS

[PART V

on even the courts of three judges are required to be made up of legally trained men, at least in all cases which involve penalties or damages. In what we might call the superior courts twentythree judges sat, and in the supreme court, seventy-one. The former had original jurisdiction in capital crimes. In the trial of such cases as described in the Mishnah every precaution is taken to exclude the possibility that by condemning an innocent man the witnesses and the judges should themselves incur the guilt of judicial murder. The biblical law which re­ quires at least two eye-witnesses to the commission of the crime prevented many cases from being brought to trial at all, since such crimes are seldom committed with so much publicity. Circumstantial evidence of the most conclusive kind was not admitted. Simeon ben Shatah gives an instance as of his own experience: "I saw a man chasing another into a ruin; I ran after him and saw a sword in his hand dripping with the other's blood and the murdered man in his death agony. I said to him, You villain! Who killed this man? Either I or you. But what can I do? Your life is not delivered into my hand, for the law says, At the mouth of two witnesses shall he that is to die be put to death. But He who knows the thought, will requite that man who killed his fellow." Certain classes and occupations are incompetent on the pre1

2

3

4

5

6

1

For actions on contract this was not necessary. Judges in such cases were a kind of arbitrators. See Dembitz, 'Jurisdiction/ Jewish Encyclopedia, VII, 394 f. On the cases that fell under the jurisdiction of these courts severally, see M. Sanhedrin i. With an academic reservation to the supreme court of certain cases which in this period could not occur. M. Sanhedrin i, 5. Deut. 1 9 , 1 5 ; cf. 1 7 , 6; Num. 3 5 , 30. This rule was extended to less serious crimes and to civil actions also. Sifre Deut. on 19, 1 5 (§ 188). It was inferred that a single witness might testify in favor of the accused. Sifre Num. on 3 5 , 30 (§ 1 6 1 ) ; cf. Tos. Sanhedrin 9, 4 . The ultimately prevailing opinion did not admit thtis. Jer. Sanhedrin 2 2 b ; Sanhedrin 33b~34a. Deut. 17, 6. Sanhedrin 3 7 b . Even Simeon ben Shatah himself was not a witness to the act; he only drew the kind of inference against which witnesses are warned. See Tos. Sanhedrin 8, 3. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE 1

sumption that they are habitually untruthful or dishonest, and individuals who fall in the wide category of "wicked" (yen, Exod. 23, 1). The testimony of near relatives by blood or mar­ riage is not admissible. Nor is that of women or slaves. At the opening of the court a solemn charge was given to the witnesses, cautioning them against testifying to anything that is their own inference, or that they know only at second hand, how­ ever trustworthy they believe the informant to be. They are bidden remember that where only property is at stake errors can be redressed, but that when a man's life is involved his blood and that of his (potential) posterity sticks to the author of his death to the last human generation; but are urged not to be deterred by this reflection from giving testimony. The witnesses are interrogated separately about the exact time and place of the crime, and their recognition of the parties. Any material discrepancy in their testimony leads to immediate acquital. Another question is whether they had warned the accused that he was about to commit a crime the penalty of which is death. That such a warning had been given, and that in spite of it the man had rejected it and gone right on to the perpetration of the criminal act, was proof that he had done it with full knowl­ edge of the crime and its consequences, and therefore with com­ plete moral responsibility. The cross-examination by members of the court took a wide range. The presumption of innocence was given to the accused, and the questioning was directed to bringing out grounds for acquittal. 2

3

4

5

1

Gamblers, usurers, pigeon-fliers, dealers in the produce of the fallow year. M. Sanhedrin 3, 3. M. Sanhedrin 3, 4. The degrees are there specified. Sifre Deut. on 1 9 , 17 (§ 190); M. Shebu'ot 4, i; M. Rosh ha-Shanah 1, 8. Josephus, Antt. iv. 8, 15 § 2 1 9 . M. Sanhedrin 5, i; Tos. Sanhedrin 1 1 , 1 - 5 ; Sanhedrin 40b, 4 1 a ; and especially Jer. Sanhedrin 22a-b. The biblical precedent for warning one who is seen to be committing (or about to commit) a crime is found in Num. 15, 3 2 . Sifre Num. § 1 1 3 ; Sifre Zuta, ibid.; Sanhedrin 4 1 a . Other verses from which the requirement is de­ duced are Lev. 20, 1 7 ; Exod. 2 1 , 1 4 ; Deut. 22, 24. 2

3

4

5

MORALS

[PART V

The possibility that two witnesses whose testimony agreed had conspired to fasten the guilt on the accused was provided for. Besides general prohibitions of false witness and impressive warning of the guilt thereby incurred, the law in Deut. 19,16-21, prescribes the penalty for giving false testimony. If the judges on investigation find that a witness, with malicious intent, has testified falsely, he shall be liable to the same penalty which the accused would suffer if convicted on his testimony — a species of talio, the injury which he planned in this way to do to another recoiling upon himself. In the interpretation of this law the Sadducees held that in case of a capital crime the false witnesses become liable to the death penalty only when the accused had actually been exe­ cuted; the Pharisees, that they were liable from the moment that the sentence had been pronounced, though the subsequent detection of their falsity might have prevented the execution and led to acquittal. But even in the case of such a conspiracy the utmost care was taken that there should be no mistake. In the deliberations of the judges considerations tending to acquittal were given precedence. The decision was by a majority; a majority of one acquitted, but for conviction there must be a majority of at least two. Even when the condemned man was on the way to the place of execution, if he or any one else had any­ thing to offer in defence, he was recalled and the new evidence taken. Once acquitted, however, he could not a second time be put in jeopardy, whatever new evidence against him might come to light. It is clear that with such a procedure conviction in capital cases was next to impossible, and that this was the intention of the framers of the rules is equally plain. The Mishnah itself 1

2

3

1

Exod. 20, 13 ( 1 6 ) ; Deut. 5, 1 7 . Exod. 23, 1 - 3 , 7 ; Lev. 1 9 , 1 6 . Sifre Deut. § 190; M. Makkot 1, 6. The difference of interpretation was old; see IJagigah 1 6 b (Judah ben Tabai and Simeon ben Shatah). On the way in which witnesses may be convicted of plotting against the accused, see M. Makkot 1 ; Maimonides, Hilkot 'Edut 1 8 - 1 9 ; Jewish Encyclopedia s. v. 'Alibi' (L. N. Dembitz). Sanhedrin 3 3 b . 2

3

CHAP, vni]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

187

brands a court which executes one man in seven years as ruin­ ous. R. Eleazar ben Azariah said "one in seventy years." R. Tarfon and R. Akiba said, "If we had been in the Sanhedrin, no man would ever have been put to death," on which R. Simeon ben Gamaliel makes the obvious reflection, "They would mul­ tiply murderers in Israel." It should be observed, however, that when the court was convinced of the guilt of the accused, though the evidence did not warrant his conviction and execu­ tion, they might imprison him on bread and water. These rules of procedure impress us as purely academic. They purport to be based on biblical laws or precedents, from which they are frequently derived by subtilities of scholastic exegesis which would have amazed the law-givers as much as Akiba's perplexed Moses when, sitting in the last row, he heard that great authority discover in his laws what he had never thought of. In the realities of a wicked world they have as little place as the laws of war in Deut. 20. It cannot be imagined that any government charged with the maintenance of public order and security ever devised and put into practice a code of procedure the effect and intent of which was to make the conviction of criminals impossible. Such rules can have been conceived even in the schools only at a time when the administration of justice in such cases was in foreign hands. The unreal character of the procedure should not, however, lead us to ignore the idea which inspired it. Exodus 23, 7, en­ joins on judges, 'Keep thee far from a false matter, and the 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

m^Oin, 'destructive/ M. Makkot 1, 10. Tarfon and Akiba probably mean that by acute cross-examination they would have made the witnesses contradict each other or themselves. They are evidently referring to the old Sanhedrin in Jerusa­ lem as an institution that had ceased to exist. M. Sanhedrin 9, 5. Menahot 29b. The inquiry whether the trial of Jesus was "legal," i.e. whether it con­ formed to the rules in the Mishnah, is futile because it assumes that those rules represent the judicial procedure of the old Sanhedrin. Not less palpably academic are the modes of execution. 2

3

4

5

6

MORALS

i88

[PART V

1

innocent and the righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify a wicked man.' God will not acquit those who, through accept­ ing false testimony, or through an unjust or even erroneous judgment, make themselves guilty of judicial murder. The whole procedure in capital cases is devised to make it impossible for the judges to expose themselves to this condemnation. That these precautions would enable the guilty to escape the penalty of the law and thus encourage crime was in the eyes of those who prescribed them the less of two evils. The obligation to speak the truth is naturally most emphasized in the warning against false witness and against starting or retail­ ing slander, that is in cases where a falsehood obviously injures another man in his material interests or his good name. But the Scriptures also commend truthfulness and condemn falsehood and deceit by themselves. The later moralists reiterate these utterances. The rabbinical literature of all periods abounds in similar say­ ings. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel's motto was, "The world stands fast on three things, on justice, on truth, and on peace." A few of the most familiar sayings about truth and falsehood are quoted here. "There are three that God hates: The man who says one thing with the mouth and another in the mind; the one who could give testimony in another's case and does not give it; and the one who sees some scandalous sin in another and testifies to 2

3

4

5

6

1

The man who is in the right of it. The juristic Midrash interprets dif­ ferently. See the words of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, above, p. 187. See e.g. Lev. 1 9 , 1 1 ; Mic. 6, 1 2 ; Jer. 9, 3 ; Isa. 59, 4 ; Zech. 8, 1 6 ; Psalm 12, 3 f.; 1 5 , 2 ; 89, 34 f.; 1 0 1 , 7 ; Prov. 12, 1 9 ; 13, 5; 1 7 , 7 ; etc. , See Ecclus. 7, 12 f.; 20, 2 4 - 2 6 ; 28, 1 3 ; Testaments of the Twelve Patri­ archs, Reuben 6, 1 2 ; Dan 1 , 3 ; 2, 1, 4 ; 5, 1; 6, 8; Asher 6, 1 f.; Issachar 7 , 4 f.; 3 Esdras 4, 38-40, etc. Abot 1, 1 8 . Cf. the triad of Simeon the Righteous, ibid. 1, 2 (above, p. 84). A large collection of such sayings is to be found in the Talmudic catena on Abot by R. Noah Kobryn, with commentaries (Warsaw, 1868), f. 2 5 b - 2 7 a . Cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 2 , 3, 1 W n^l n b . Iliad ix, 3 1 2 f. exOpbs yap JJLOL neivos OJULCOS 'Atdao 7rv\y(nv os X erepov p,ev Kevdrj kvl cj)peo~Lv, aWo 8e elirg. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

189

1

it singly." "Four classes are excluded from the presence of the Shekinah (God), scoffers (Hos. 7, 5), hypocrites (Job 13, 16), liars (Psalm 101, 7), and retailers of slander (Psalm 5, 5)." One who has given his word and changes it is as bad as an idolator. R. Jose ben Judah (ben Ila'i) bases on Lev. 19, 36 the precept, "Let your Yes be righteous and your No be righteous." "Teach thy tongue to say, I do not know, lest thou make up something and be taken." Do not promise a child something and not give it to him, for by so doing you will teach him falsehood (Jer. 9, 4). The school of Shammai condemned "the conventional lies of civilized society" when at a wedding procession the bride was eulogized as pretty and charming, though she might in fact be lame or blind — "Avoid a false word!" (Exod. 23, 7). The school of Hillel did not take so seriously compliments which de­ ceived no one, and the second century authorities thought that to make oneself agreeable under such circumstances was the proper thing. To deceive another is a kind of theft, and this "stealing a man's thought" is the first of seven kinds of theft, and is as bad as all the rest together. It is forbidden thus to cozen any one, Israelite or foreigner. Flattery or blandishment, one of the com­ mon ways of accomplishing such deceit, is correspondingly repro2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

Pesahim 1 1 3 b . — Inasmuch as the testimony of a single witness is legally none, the making public of the fault, lacking the motive of public justice, is an injury to the man's reputation which falls under the condemnation of the "tale-bearer" Sotah 42a; Sanhedrin 103a, below. Sanhedrin 92a. R. Eleazar (ben Pedat), who is very strong against liars and hypocrites, deduces this equality by analogy of expressions from Gen. 27, 12 and Jer. 10, 1 5 . The law requires honest measures. For hin sedek, an honest hin, R. Jose pronounces hen (affirmative particle, Yes)! sedek. Sifra in loc (ed. Weiss f. 9 1 b ) ; Baba Mesi'a 49a. Cf. Matt. 5,37, earo) 8e 6 \6yos vix&v val val, ou ov. Berakot 4 a . Sukkah 4 6 b . Ketubot 17a, top. Among themselves the crowd sometimes exchanged quite different comments. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 24, 1 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Tos. Baba Kamma 7, 8. W 3 n njn

9

Hullin 9 4 a ; Maimonides, Hilkot De'ot 2, 6.

cf. Kkkirreiv

vbov,

peva.

MORALS

[PART V

bated in Scripture, and there are on the other hand many warn­ ings against being taken in by such cajolements. In the eyes of the rabbis flattery is a form of hypocrisy, and in some contexts the word hanufah is properly so translated, but in most instances it stands for any kind of hypocrisy in word or act. A Baraita in the name of R. Nathan says: "The Israelites made themselves liable to extermination when they flattered Agrippa," by crying out to him, Thou art our brother! thus recognizing this descendant of the Idumaean Herod as an Israelite and a legitimate king, contrary to Deut. 17, 15, which excluded all proselytes and their posterity. That it is permissible to flatter the wicked in this world is argued by two rabbis of the third century from Isa. 32, 5, and Gen. 33, 10, respectively; but the behavior of Jacob to Esau is justified by R. Levi on the ground that Jacob thought himself in danger of his life, which suspends all such laws. Very strong language is used about hypocrisy and the fate of hypocrites. They are one of the classes that cannot come into the presence of God. R. Eleazar (ben Pedat) is emphatic: Every man in whom there is hypocrisy brings (God's) wrath upon the world (Job 36, 13); not only that, but his prayer is not heard (ibid.); he is cursed (by all mankind) even by unborn infants in their mother's womb (Prov. 24, 24); he goes down to hell (Isa. 5, 20, 24), etc. A community in which hypocrisy exists is as dis­ gusting as a menstruous rag (Job 15,34); such a community will finally go into exile (Job 15, 34, and Isa. 49, 21). The moral in1

2

3

4

5

1

See Psalm 1 2 , 3 f.; 5, 9; Prov. 2, 1 6 ; 6, 2 4 ; 7, 2 1 ; 26, 28; 28, 2 3 ; 29, 5. Cf. Isa. 30, 10. Tos. Sotah 7, 1 6 ; Sotah 4 1 b . Cf. Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 7 , 1 5 : From that hour sentence of exile was passed on our fathers, because they flattered him. See the story in M. Sotah 7, 8; Sifre Deut. § 1 5 7 ; Midrash Tannaim I.e. Sotah 4 1 b . Simeon ben Pazzi and R. Simeon ben Lakish. The 'wicked' of the latter, at least, are probably the Roman officials. Bacher, Pal. Amo­ raer, I, 3 7 1 ; cf. II, 442. To decide a point out of deference to the opinion of a great scholar is a kind of flattery which is censured. Ketubot 63b, end; 84b, below. Sotah 4 i b ~ 4 2 a . 2

3

4

5

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

191

dignation is here the significant thing; the ingenuity by which far-fetched proof-texts are discovered for it or twisted to serve it is secondary. Truth belongs to the integrity (sedek) of a godly man — truth not only in speech or in fidelity to a word given but in his whole character and deportment. Hypocrisy is a living lie. The ideal of integrity is the man of whom it can be said nna irnn, he is inwardly just what he is outwardly. The pithy phrase sounds like a popular proverb rather than a product of the schools, and the way it comes into the contexts in which it occurs seems to confirm this conjecture. Whatever its origin, it became proverbial. Rabban Gamaliel II caused it to be proclaimed at Jamnia, "Let no student who is not inwardly what he is out­ wardly enter the lecture hall." In another place such insin­ cerity is sharply condemned. The ark was to be plated with pure gold within and without (Exod. 25, 11). Raba said: A student who is not inwardly what he is outwardly is no student. Another adds, He is called 'abominable/ as it is said, 'Abom­ inable and impure, a man who drinks iniquity like water' (Job 15, 16). R. Jonathan applies Prov. 17, 16 ('Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy learning, when he has no in­ telligence?'), "Woe to the students who labor at the Law with no fear of Heaven in them " — an irreligious study of religion. It may be the pretense of a learning that a man does not pos­ sess. A late homilist applies Eccles. 4, 1, to these "hypocrites of learning" (Torah). Everybody supposes that such a man is a biblical scholar, and he is nothing of the kind; that he is versed in tradition (Mishnah), and he is not. He wraps his cloak about him and has his phylacteries on his head (like «a pious man), 'And behold the tears of the oppressed, and they have no com1

2

3

4

1

Literally, " his inside is as his outside." Berakot 28a. There may have been special reasons at the time for this exclusion. See Weiss, Dor. II, 80. Talmid hakam. Yoma 72b. See also in the sequel, by way of contrast, the kind of study of the Law that has a blessing in it. See above, pp. 96 ff., also pp. 244 f. 2

3

4

192

MORALS

[PART v

forter.' God says, It is for me to punish them, for it is written, ' Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully' (Jer. 48,

10).

1

This pretender to learning cultivated the confidence of the multitude by the aspect of piety, wrapped in his prayer shawl with his Tefillin on his head. The word hypocrite is more com­ monly associated with an ostentatious pretense of superior relig­ iousness or virtue. That the harmless Greek name for a stageplayer has acquired this sinister meaning is a consequence of the invectives against the "scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" in the Gospel of Matthew. And, conversely, 'pharisaism' has got its place in English dictionaries as a synonym for hypocrisy in the sense defined above. Not less vehement is the denunciation of hypocrites in the Psalms of Solomon 4 ; but the poet voices the judgments and sentiments of the Pharisaean party — his hypocrites are Sadducees. Men who make a show of more piety or virtue than they pos­ sess are not peculiar to any creed or age, and the higher the value set on religiousness the more they have flourished. The Phari­ sees had endeavored by teaching and example to establish a higher standard of religion in Judaism, and had gained the repu­ tation of being more religious than their Sadducean opponents or the ignorant and negligent mass of the people. That many men cared more for the reputation than for the reality, is only 2

3

4

5

6

1

R. Benjamin, Eccles. R. in loc. Benjamin applies Eccles. 5, 5, in a similar sense to the pretenders to learning, m i n ^ J n . Cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 52, 1. For an example of a use of the Tefillin as a pious act, see Jer. Berakot c , top. The Hebrew Ppn is translated VTroKpLrrjs in Job 34, 30; 36, 13; Vulg. hypocrita, simulator. See also Ecclus, 1, 29; 32 (35), 15; 33 (36), 2; 2 Mace. 5, 25; 6, 21; 6, 24, 25 ('dissimulate,' 'play a part.'). The actor assumes a role, or character, not his own. See especially the cumulative indictment in Matt. 23. e£ap
4

3

4

5

6

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

J

93

what human nature would lead us to expect; and that manysincere Pharisees thought better of themselves in comparison with other men than it is good for any man to think, and that their superior airs were often very disagreeable, may be taken for granted. But that the Pharisees as a whole were conscious and calculating hypocrites whose ostentatious piety was a cloak for deliberate secret villainy is unimaginable in view of the sub­ sequent history of Judaism. For it was men of the Pharisaean party who tided Judaism over the two great crises of the destruc­ tion of Jerusalem and the war under Hadrian, and in the three quarters of a century following consolidated the labors of their predecessors and added their own to create the type of Judaism which it is the aim of this volume to record and interpret. Juda­ ism is the monument of the Pharisees. That many who bore the name Pharisee were a disgrace we have on rabbinical testimony. Both Talmuds have a list of seven varieties of Pharisee, of which only one— or none at all — gets a word of approval. The first four are designated by what were perhaps old nicknames at the enigmatic significance of which those who recorded them in the Talmuds could only guess, and did not guess alike. In the Palestinian Talmud they are the "shoulder Pharisee," who packs his good works on his shoulder (to be seen of men); the "wait-a-bit" Pharisee, who (when some one has business with him) says, Wait a little; I must do a good work; the "reckoning" Pharisee, who when he commits a fault and does a good work crosses off one with the other; the "economizing" Pharisee, who asks, What economy can I practice to spare a little to do a good work? the "show me my fault" Pharisee, who says, show me what sin I have com­ mitted, and I will do an equivalent good work (implying that he had no fault); the Pharisee of fear, like Job; the Pharisee of love, like Abraham. The last is the only kind that is dear (to God). 1

2

1

Hypocrisy cannot be more severely condemned than it was by R. Eleazar. See above, p. 190. Jer. Berakot 1 4 b ; Jer. Sotah 20c, middle; Sotah 22b. 2

MORALS

194

[PART V

The motive of love and the motive of fear exemplified byAbraham and Job belong to the schools; the others show us the Pharisees as the people saw them. There is no malice in these characterizations nor in the enlargements in the Talmud; those who drew them evidently found the subjects ridiculous rather than obnoxious in the vanity of the "good works," done to be seen of men (Matt. 23, 5). Earlier and more earnest is R. Joshua (ben Hananiah) in his list of those who bring ruin on the world; " a fool saint, a subtle knave, a woman pharisee, and the plagues of Pharisees." The "plagues of Pharisees," according to the Babylonian Talmud, are the kinds enumerated above; the Pales­ tinian finds "the plague of Pharisees" in scholars (lawyers) who give counsel by which, apparently in strict form of law, the law may be circumvented. Nowhere is there any connivance at the pretenses of such sham Pharisees, who brought an historically honorable name into disrepute. Nor were the religious teachers blind to the evils of exaggerated self-esteem, or self-righteousness, to which the most sincere were exposed, as will be shown in another place. In conclusion one or two passages may be cited in which truth is made the very character of God. Truth (emei) is the seal of 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See above, pp. 99 f. The humor is broader in the Babylonian Talmud, where one of them in his mock humility trails his feet on the ground and stubs his toes, another goes with his eyes half shut for fear he should see a woman and bloodies his head by running into a wall, etc. Jer. Sotah, sing., "the plague." M. Sotah 3, 4. Here also the two Talmuds give different explanations or illustrations of the words. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 163. The examples are the same which in the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 2ib) are adduced to illustrate the "subtle knave." In Jer. Sotah 19a the "subtle knave" is one who interprets the law, when applied to himself, in a way to lighten its requirements, but in a more burdensome way for others — an iniquity frequently condemned. See Matt. 2 3 , 4 . Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar, u. s. w. I, 913 f. See below, pp. 245 f., 273 f. The truth of God (his constancy in goodness, his fidelity to his promises which is an aspect of his righteousness, etc.) is found in so many and so familiar passages of Scripture that it would be superfluous to adduce the tes­ timony here. 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, vin]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

195

1

God. Since a seal usually bore the name of its owner, invention was exercised to find a name of God in this inscription. One took the letters as shorthand, the initials of three words, Elohim Melek Tamid, and interpreted, "Living God and eternal king." R. Simeon ben Lakish had a more ingenious explanation: Alef is the first letter of the alphabet, Mem is the middle letter, and Tau the last, as much as to say, ' I the Lord am first/ for I did not take over the rule from another; * and beside me there is no god,' for I have no partner; 'and with the last I am He/ for I shall not hand it over to another — perhaps aimed at the Christians. At the close of the daily Common Prayer (Tefillah), every Jew recites the personal petition: "O my God! guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile," turning the divine injunction of Psalm 34, 13 (keep thy tongue) into a prayer that God may keep him from this sin. The third pillar of the social world in R. Simeon ben Gamaliel's motto is peace — justice, truth, peace. The Hebrew sha/dm has a wider meaning than the English ' peace.' For the individual it is welfare of every kind, sound health, prosperity, security, con­ tentment, and the like. In the relations of men to their fellows it is that harmony without which the welfare of the individual or the community is impossible; aggression, enmity, strife, are de­ structive of welfare, as external and internal peace, in our sense, is its fundamental condition. On the priests' benediction, 'The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace' (Num. 6, 26), the Sifre has col2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Shabbat 5 5 a (R. ELanina); Sanhedrin 64a; Yoma 69b. The origin of the notion that D D K was inscribed on the seal of God is Dan. 1 0 , 2 1 . Jer. 1 0 , 1 0 : The Lord God is Truth ( r i D N ) ; He is a living God and eternal King. See Isa. 44, 6; 4 1 , 4. Jer. Sanhedrin 18a, near the end; cf. Gen. R. 8 1 , 2; Deut. R. 1, 9 ; Cant. R. on 1, 9. (Abahu). Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 1 1 8 ; cf. p. 8. Berakot 1 7 a (private prayer of Mar son of Rabina); Singer, Authorised Daily Prayer Book, p. 5 4 ; Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 104. Above, p. 188. Etymologically, wholeness (cf. 'health'), soundness. Show thee favor. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

196

MORALS

[PART V

lected encomiums on peace by a long series of teachers each be­ ginning, Great is peace! and citing Scripture to prove how highly it is esteemed by God and how excellent a gift of His to men. The importance of the subject in the eyes of later generations is shown by the fact that the passage is substantially repeated in several of the Midrashim. It is peace in the relation of men to one another, however, that R. Simeon ben Gamaliel has in mind. To make peace by recon­ ciling those who are at strife is a duty that is strongly empha­ sized and illustrated by many examples. One of the four things the profit of which a man enjoys in this world while the capital is laid up for him in the other world is making peace between men. Hillel made Aaron the great exemplar of this virtue: "Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving man­ kind and drawing them to the Law (religion). Moses, it is said, was for uncompromising justice — let justice pierce the mountain! (fiatjustitia ruat caelum ), but Aaron loved peace and pursued it, and made peace between a man and his fellow, as it is written, 'He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity' (Mai. 2, 6). Among the rabbis of the second century, R. Meir is noted for his attention to this duty. The story is told that on one occasion, to make peace between a man and his wife, he allowed the woman to spit in his face in the presence of his disciples, and when they remon­ strated at his submission to such an indignity not alone to him1

2

3

4

,, 5

6

7

1

Sifre Num. § 42 (ed. Friedmann, f. I2b-I3a); cf. Sifre Zuta, ed. Horo­ vitz, p. 4 5 - 4 7 . See also the catena on Abot 1, 18 (f. 27 f.). Lev. R. 9, 9; Num. R. 1 1 , 7 ; Deut. R. 5, 1 5 . M. Peah 1, 1 : Honoring father and mother; deeds of lovingkindness (gemllut, kasadim); making peace between a man and his fellow; and the study of the Law, which is equal to them all. See also Kiddushin 40a. Cf. Matt. 2

3

5, 9, fjLCLKO.piOL ol 4

elprjvoiroLol.

These phrases are favorite names for Jewish synagogues, Ohabe Shalom, Rodefe Shalom. Cf. 1 Peter 3, 1 1 . Abot 1, 1 2 . Cf. Yebamot 92a. Sanhedrin 6b, top. Legends of Aaron as a peacemaker are narrated in Abot de-R. Nathan, c. 1 2 . 5

6

7

CHAP, VIII]

JUSTICE, TRUTH, PEACE

197

self personally but to the Law of which he was a teacher, replied, Is it not enough that Meir's honor should be as that of his Creator? If, to make peace between a man and his wife, the Holy Name, which is written in holiness may be washed off into water, should not this apply all the more to the honor of Meir? Another example was his reconciliation of two men against whom Satan was wrought up, who quarrelled violently every evening (or every Sabbath eve). R. Meir went to the house and spent three evenings with them until he had made peace between them. Then he heard one (Satan) saying, Ow! R. Meir has driven this person (me, Satan) out of his house! Such stories at least illustrate the notions of the duty and the merit of peace making, which Judaism cultivated. Other aspects of morals more intimately related to the inner life of the individual will be taken up in subsequent chapters on Piety. 1

2

3

1

In the ordeal of jealousy, Num. 5, 23. Jer. Sotah i6d, with parallels in the Midrashim. Cf. Sukkah 53b, above. For a very different use of the argument from Num. 5, 23 (destruction of heretical books, names of God and all — R. Ishmael) see Tos. Shabbat 13 (14) 5Gittin 5 2 a . 2

3

P A R T PIETY

VI

C H A P T E R

I

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN 1

IT HAS already been pointed out in more than one connection that in Judaism the religious man is one who loves the Lord and walks in all His ways as He has made them known through revelation. Love to God is not merely an affection or a pious sentiment, but the motive of obedience in all things that God requires. The pious, or godly, man must therefore be scrupu­ lous in the observances prescribed in the Law in the modes defined by those who are expert in interpretation and application of the Law and give their decisions with authority conferred on them in the Law. The same thing is true of the moral law — in which civil and criminal law is included — with all the extensions and refinements of the exegetes and jurists. But while godliness, or piety, in Judaism thus includes both observances and morals, there is an aspect of religion to which we often apply the name piety in a more limited sense, the atti­ tude of the individual to God in thought, feeling, and will, and the manifestations of this inwardness of religion in word and deed. It is in this narrower sense, for which the phrase personal religion is sometimes employed, that piety is used in the title of this part of our subject and in the following chapters. The premises and principles of Jewish piety are the beliefs and conceptions about God's nature and character, his relation to men and particularly to Israel; the complete and final revelation of religion — what man is to believe concerning God and what duty He requires of men — in Scripture and Tradition; the nature and consequences of sin; the remedy for sin, repentance; 2

3

1

See above, pp. 6 ff., 79. Deut. 8, 6; 10, 1 2 ; 1 1 , 2 2 ; 26, 1 7 ; 1 Kings 8, 58. Individualized, e.g., Ezek. 18, 9; Psalm 1 1 9 , 3 ; 128, 1. 2

3

Ton.

201

PIETY

202

[PART VI

the ends of God in history; his purpose for his people and the world; the judgment after death and the lot of the righteous and the wicked — topics which are treated at length in other parts of these volumes. 1

A characteristic of the piety of this age is the increasing fre­ quency with which God is addressed in prayer as father, or "father in heaven" used as a surrogate for "God." In the Scrip­ tures God is the father of the nation and Israel is his son, his firstborn; or he is the father of the Israelites, and they are the sons of God, collectively or severally. To cite but one salient verse: 'For Thou art our father; for Abraham ignores us and Israel does not acknowledge us. Thou, O Lord, art our father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is thy name' (Isa. 63, 16). Similarly in Jubilees 1, 24^ After the repentance of the Israel­ ites and the transformation God works in them, "Their soul will follow me . . . and will do according to my commandment, and I will be their father and they will be my sons, and they shall all be called sons of the Living God, and all angels and spirits shall know and recognize that they are my sons, and I their Father in fidelity and righteousness, and that I love them." Sirach prays: "O Lord, father and master (deaTOTrjs) of my life," (23, 1); and "O Lord, father and god of my life" (23, 4). The prayer of Eleazar in 3 Maccabees begins, "O sovereign King, Most High, Almighty God," etc. and introduces the next petition, "O father!" and a little below, "Thou didst show Jonah again, unharmed, to all his kinsfolk, O father!" In the Wisdom of 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

2

3

See especially Parts ii, iii, and vii. Exod. 4, 24; Deut. 3 2 , 6, 1 8 ; Hos. 1 1 , 1; Jer. 3 1 , 9. Deut. 1 4 , 1; Isa. 1, 2 ; Jer. 3, 1 9 ; Isa. 4 5 , 1 1 ; 63, 1 6 ; 64, 8; Mai. 1, 6;

2, 1 0 . 4

After Deut. 30, 6; Ezek. 36, 26 f.; 1 1 , 19, etc. See also 1, 28, "Father of all the sons of Jacob and King on Mt. Zion forever." — Other examples, Jub. 19, 2 9 ; Tobit 13, 4 ; Wisdom 2 , 1 6 ; 3 Mace. 5> 7; 7, See also 5 1 , 10 (Hebrew); cf. the Syriac, and the Aldine Greek. 3 Mace. 6, 2 - 4 . It is proper to remember that 3 Maccabees is written in florid Greek, and that ir6.rep can be Greek rhetoric as well as Jewish piety. Ibid. 6, 8. 5

6

6

7

8

CHAP, i]

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN

Solomon the unbelieving enemies of the upright man find it a grievance that "he praises the end of the righteous, and boasts that God is his father." In the rabbinical literature the paternal-filial relation between God and man is a common theme. R. Akiba's words have already been quoted: "Beloved (of God) are the Israelites, in that they are called sons of God; still more beloved in that it is made known to them that they are called sons of God" (Deut. 1 4 , i). R. Judah (ben Ila'i) thought that the name sons was given them only when they behaved themselves like sons; but R. Meir re­ futed him by quoting passages in which they were called foolish sons (Jer. 4 , 22), untrustworthy sons (Deut. 32, 20), breed of evil-doers, vicious sons (Isa. 1 , 4 ) — but sons notwithstanding. Instead of its being said to them, Ye are not my people, they shall be called sons of the Living God (Hos. 2, 1 , E. V. 1 , 1 0 ) . The relation is not annulled by sin. The fatherly care of God for Israel is a familiar idea in Scrip­ ture. R. Judah ben Ila'i says on Exod. 1 4 , 1 9 ('The angel of God who went before the camp of Israel removed and went be­ hind them'): "A rich verse the idea of which is found in many places." "It is like a man who was walking on the way and letting his son go on before him; came robbers in front to take the boy captive, the father put him behind him; came a wolf from behind, he put him in front; came robbers in front and wolves 1

2

3

4

5

1

Wisdom 2, 1 6 ; cf. 5, 5. Abot 3, 1 4 . Cf. the story of Tineius Rufus and Akiba, Baba Batra 10a, where Akiba quotes Deut. 1 4 , 1, and the Roman replies, When you do the will of God you are called sons, and when you do not you are called slaves. See also Pesikta Rabbati c. 27 (ed. Friedmann f. 132b), on Jer. 2, 4 : Hearken to thy Father who is in heaven, who begat thee (Prov. 23, 22), and deals with thee like an only son; otherwise he deals with thee like slaves (Deut. 32, 6 ) . If thou doest the will of thy father, thou art his son, and if not . . . thou art his slave (Jer. 2

3

2, 1 4 ) . 4

Kiddushin 36a. See Sifre Deut. on 14, 1, § 96; § 308 (ed. Friedmann f. 133 a-b); § 320 (f. 1 3 7 a ) . Cf. Midrash Tannaim ed. Hoffmann, p. 7 1 . Similarly, Philo, Frag. (ed. Mangey II, 635, 10 ff.). See Deut. 1, 3 1 ; Isa. 63, 8 f.; cf. 46, 3 f. — Wisdom 1 1 , 10. 5

PIETY

204

[PART VI

behind, he took him up in his arms; did he begin to be troubled by the heat of the sun, his father stretched his own garment over him; was he hungry, he gave him food, thirsty, he gave him to drink. Just so God did, as it is written," etc He led Israel, his son, and took it in his arms (Hos. I I , 1-3); spread over it a cloud to shelter it from the heat (Psalm 105, 39); fed it with bread from heaven (the manna, Exod. 16, 4); brought streams out of the rock for it to drink (Psalm 78, 16). 'God has com­ passion as a father on his sons (Psalm 103, 13), and comforts like a mother (Isa. 66, 1 3 . ) ' New in this period is the phrase "Father in heaven" for God. It is to be observed at the outset that it is never "the Father in heaven," which might express God's relation to the universe, but always with the note of personal relation, "Our Father who is in heaven" or "my (thy, his, your) Father who is in heaven." The metonymy is very frequent, and occurs in commonplace contexts as well as in connections where it has an especial appropriate­ ness. Its significance, however, is not lost, and it does not be­ come a mere proxy for the name of God or the word "God," like Heaven, or The Place, or the Holy One, blessed is He, or He who spoke and the world was. It is worth noting also that the phrase Father in heaven is peculiar to the rabbinical sources, which represent normative Judaism, in distinction from the sects or circles that produced the apocalyptic literature (in which, in­ deed, the thought of God as father has very little place), and to Hellenistic Judaism, so far at least as this may be legitimately inferred from Philo. In the New Testament it is found only in 1

2

3

4

5

1

Mekilta, Beshallah 4 (ed. Friedmann f. 30a; ed. Weiss f. 36a-b). Cf. also Tanhuma ed. Buber, Nissabim § 8: God keeps Israel as a father keeps his son — Lo! He that keeps Israel slumbers not nor sleeps (Psalm 1 2 1 , 4 ) . Pesikta ed. Buber f. 139a (R. Samuel ben Nahman); cf. Yalkut on the verses. As often in Philo, e.g., De Abrahamo c. 1 2 § 58 (ed. Mangey, I, 1 0 ) . Cf. Wisdom 14, 3 ; Sibyll. iii, 604 (dddvarov yeverriv irdvrcov dvdp&irwv). It is very common in the (mediaeval) Seder Eliahu Rabbah, where it sometimes occurs several times on a page. See Vol. I, pp. 429 ff. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN

205

the Gospel of Matthew, in which the Palestinian impress is much stronger on both thought and expression than in the others. The words "who is in heaven" have in them no suggestion of the remoteness of God, exalted above the world in his celes­ tial habitation; they remove the ambiguity of the bare word "father" by thus distinguishing between God and an earthly father. From its biblical associations the phrase is often used of doing the will of the Father in heaven. If a man keeps the law and does the will of his Father in heaven, he is like the celestial creatures (angels; Psalm 82, 6); if he does not keep the law and do the will of his Father in heaven, he is like the creatures here below (ibid. vs. 7). That it is the will of his Father in heaven is the all-sufficient reason and motive for abstaining from what He forbids. On Lev. 20, 26, R. Eleazar ben Azariah says: "A man should not say, I have no desire to wear a garment of mixed stuff, I have no desire to eat swine's flesh, I have no desire for forbidden sexual connections. He should say, I have the desire, but what shall I do, since my Father in heaven has laid a prohi­ bition on me. This we learn from the words, ' I have separated you from the nations to be Mine.'" Keeping aloof from trans­ gression and accepting the rule of Heaven go together. A certain R. Judah ben Tema said: "Be strong as a leopard and swift as an eagle and fleet as a gazelle and brave as a lion to do the will of thy Father who is in heaven." Biblical associations are recognizable also when deliverances are ascribed to the Father in heaven. In the battle with Amalek 1

2

3

4

5

1

Mark n , 25 (cf. Matt. 6, 14) is the one exception. Verse 26 is rightly athetized by modern critical editors; Luke 1 1 , 2 (in the Lord's Prayer) is con­ formed to Matthew; 1 1 , 13, read 6 waTrjp e£ ovpavov dcoaei irvevna ayiov. E.g., Prov. 23, 1 5 . Sifre Deut. § 4 8 (ed. Friedmann f. 84b, middle): Man's learning in the Law rejoices the heart not only of his father who is on earth but also of his Father who is in heaven. R. Simeon ben Yohai. With reference to the dual nature of man. See above, pp. 451 f. Sifre Deut. on 3 2 , 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 132a below). Cf. Matt. 7, 2 1 . Malkut Shamaim. Sifra, Kedoshim, end (ed. Weiss f. 9 3 d ) . Abot 5, 20; Pesahim 1 1 2 a . 2

3

4

5

2o6

PIETY

[PART VI

(Exod. 17, 8-13) it was not Moses' uplifted arms that miracu­ lously made Israel prevail. The Scripture teaches that when the Israelites looked upward and subjected their mind and will (pih) to their Father in heaven, they prevailed, and when they did not they fell down slain. It was not the brazen serpent that healed, by looking at it, those that were bitten by the serpents in the desert (Num. 21, 4-9); but when the Israelites looked up­ ward, and subjected their mind and will to their Father in heaven they were healed, and if not they perished. The deterioration that followed the destruction of the temple is painted in dark colors by R. Eiiezer the elder (ben Hyrcanus): From the day when the temple was destroyed the learned began to be like schoolmasters, the schoolmasters like sextons, the sex­ tons like the ignorant masses, and the masses go their way to ruin and no one inquires about it. And who is there for us to lean upon? Upon our Father who is in heaven. To the pious Phineas ben Jair, a century later, is attributed a similar lament: Since the destruction of the temple, the Associates and the men of the better classes are ashamed and cover their faces, the workers have become weak, the violent and the insolent have multiplied. There is none that investigates or inquires or asks. And whom have we to lean upon? On our Father who is in heaven. On Exod. 20, 6 R. Nathan said: "'And keep My command1

2

3

4

5

1

M. Rosh ha-Shanah 3, 8. In another, in some respects more original version, the faith of the Israelites in God who gave this command to Moses leads Him to work miracles for them. A third example is the blood on the houses of the Israelites in Egypt (Exod. 1 2 , 7, 1 3 ) . In this version the Holy One takes the place of the Father in heaven. See Mekilta, Amalek 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 5 4 a ; ed. Weiss f. 6 2 a ) ; cf. Mekilta de-Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 1 7 , 11 (ed. Hoffmann, p. 82 f.), where it is ascribed to R. Eiiezer. The desire to eliminate the magical semblance of the narratives is to be noted. [M.] Sotah 9, 1 5 . IJaberim; see above, p. 7 3 . Men of (good) works? or Workers of miracles? See Buchler, Types of Jewish Palestinian Piety, pp. 81 ff. M. Sotah 9, 1 5 . The close of M. Sotah (9, 1 1 ff.) is an appendix, describ­ ing the decadence of the times and leading over to the still worse things that portend the imminent coming of the Messiah. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i]

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN

9

merits. These are the Israelites who remain in the land of Israel and give their lives for the commandments. Why art thou going forth to be put to death? Because I circumcised my son. Why art thou going forth to be burned? Because I read in the Law. Why art thou going forth to be crucified? Because I ate un­ leavened bread. Why art thou beaten with a scourge? Because I carried the palm branches. 'The wounds I received in the house of those who made me to be beloved' (Zech. 13, 6). These wounds cause me to be beloved by my Father who is in heaven." When Jeremiah at God's command bade the Israelites repent, they replied, How can we repent? With what countenance can we come before Him? Have we not provoked Him, have we not insulted Him? These mountains and hills on which we wor­ shipped other gods, are they not still there? (cf. Hos. 4, 13). 'Let us lie down in our shame and let our confusion cover us' (Jer. 3, 25). When Jeremiah repeated their speech to God, he was bidden return and say to them: If ye come near to me, is it not to your Father in heaven that ye come near? as it is written, 'For I became a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born' (Jer. 31, 9). Of the general pardon on the Day of Atonement R. Akiba said: Blessed are ye, O Israelites! Before whom do ye purify yourselves, and who purifies you ? Your Father who is in heaven. As it is said, 'I will dash upon you pure water and ye shall be pure' (Ezek. 36, 25). And it says: 'Font of Israel (the Lord).' As a font purifies the unclean, so the Holy One purifies Israel. These examples are quoted in full to illustrate not only the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

In the persecution after the revolt under Hadrian. Observing the feasts was prohibited. At the time of Tabernacles. Mekilta, Bahodesh 6, end (ed. Friedmann f. 68b; ed. Weiss f. 7 5 b ) . In Zech. 13, 6, the Midrash takes ^inKlD causatively. Cf. Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 2 , 19, and Lev. R. 32, 1. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 165a. R. Isaac (third century). Jer. 17, 1 3 ; 1 4 , 8. Akiba plays on the ambiguity of the word mikweh 'hope' (e.g. Jer. 50, 7 ) , and 'cistern, tank' (Lev. 1 1 , 3 6 ) , in rabbinical use especially for the ablutions prescribed in the laws of purification. M. Yoma 8, end. 2

3

4

5

6

y

7

PIETY

2o8

[PART VI

1

lexical use of the phrase but the variety of what I may call the emotional context. In prayer, where the address to God leaves no room for mis­ understanding, the specification, "who art in heaven" is unneces­ sary. In the Kaddish of the liturgy the petition in behalf of Israel, and particularly for teachers and scholars everywhere and all who apply themselves to the study of the Law, is that they may have abundant peace, favor, lovingkindness, mercy, long life, ample sustenance, and salvation " from their Father who is in heaven," which corresponds to the indirect form of the prayer. Elsewhere in the common prayer we find the simple, "Our Father" (Abinu) as, e.g. in the fifth and sixth petitions, "Make us return, O our Father, to thy Law," etc.; "Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned," etc. The Palestinian recension has in the fourth petition, "Grant us, O our Father, knowledge from thee," etc. In the common prayer, even when it is said by a man by him­ self, he associates others with him in the petitions, and a Baby­ lonian teacher of the fourth century would have this the rule even for the private prayer of a solitary wayfarer for God's protection; he should not say, May it be Thy good pleasure, O Lord our God, to lead me in safety, but to lead us* In earlier sources we hear of no such rule or practice. We shall find in the private prayers of the rabbis many strictly individual petitions; and it is told of R. Gamaliel II, that once when he with some of his disciples was 2

3

4

5

7

1

Instances of this use can easily be multiplied; e.g., Berakot 3 a , 30a; 'Abodah Zarah 16b, end; Mekilta, Pisha 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 3 a ) ; Tos. Shabbat 13 (14), 52

Prayers beginning, Our Father who art in heaven, are found in Seder Eliahu R. c. 7 (ed. Friedmann, p. 3 3 , top); c. 1 9 (p. 1 1 0 ) ; c. 28 (p. 149). On the other hand, in the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, Luke ( n , 2) has in the oldest manuscripts simply irarep (Vulg. pater; Syr. Sin. &Ott). Kaddish de-Rabbanan, Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 86; Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 1 5 3 . See below, pp. 2 1 2 f. Singer, p. 4 6 ; Baer, p. 90. Dalman, Worte Jesu, p. 297. Abaye (died 339), Berakot 29b~3oa. See below, pp. 2 1 5 , 2 1 6 . 3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, i ]

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN

209

at sea in a storm and they asked him to pray for them, he prayed, O our God, have mercy on us! and then, at their instance, My God, have mercy on us. Naturally, however, even when the pe­ tition is personal, the form of address to God is 'our God,' 'our Father/ though there is no hesitation in speaking about my Father in heaven. 1

With the address to God, Our Father, is frequently joined, Our King. In the fifth petition of the Tefillah in the common ver­ sion these stand in adjacent clauses: "Cause us to return, O our Father, unto thy Law; draw us near, O our King, unto thy service," and the sixth, "Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed." More often they stand side by side, "Our Father, our King." Thus in the ancient prayer, Ahabah Rabbah (or Ahabat 'Olam), "With abounding (or, eternal) love, thou hast loved us, O Lord our God," etc.; we read, "Our Father, our King, for our fathers' sake who trusted in thee, and whom thou didst teach the statutes of life, be thou gracious to us likewise and teach us." It is related that in a great drouth, when the twenty-four prayers pronounced by R. Eiiezer were not answered, R. Akiba prayed: "Our Father, our King! [Thou art our Father, and] we have no king but Thee. Our Father, our King for thine own sake have compassion upon us!" whereupon the rain descended. 2

3

The names are coupled in the same way in a prayer in the ad­ ditional (Musaf) service for certain festivals: "Our Father, our King! Make manifest upon us the glory of thy kingdom." 4

1

Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 26, 3, ed. Hoffmann, p. 1 7 2 . The story is told in illustration of the opinion that it is permissible to appropriate the name of God to an individual, e.g., "his God" (as of Moses, Exod. 32, 1 1 ) . Berakot n b . Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 39 f. and p. 96. L Abra­ hams, Companion to the Daily Prayer Book, xlviii. ft.; Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 80, p. 164 f. Ta'anit 2 5 b . The words in brackets are supplied from the commentary of R. llananel and the 'En Jacob. The latter has also the confession, [We have sinned before thee], have compassion upon us. Singer, p. 234; Baer, p. 352, 396. 2

3

4

PIETY

2IO

[PART VI

In the long litany recited on the ten Penitential Days, every petition begins with the words, Our Father, our King, whence it has its name, Abinu Malkenu; clauses of Akiba's prayer in­ troduced and concluded the whole, which, like other litanies, has grown inordinately in the procession of the centuries and the rites. The invocation of God as King has good biblical warrant, for example, 'For the Lord is our judge (ruler), He is our lawgiver, He is our king; He will save us.' He is the King of the universe, but in a peculiar sense the King of Israel. In the additional service for New Years Day, in the so-called "Kingdom Verses" (Malkuyot), passages from all three parts of the Bible are brought together to magnify God as king, from "He was king in Jeshurun" (Deut. 33, 5), through his sovereignty in history and nature, to the climactic, "The Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall the Lord be One and his name One" (Zech. 14, 9). "And in thy Law it is written saying, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." The frequency of the collocation, Our Father, our King, is con­ clusive proof that the latter title did not connote to the Jews " the arbitrariness of the tyrant and the unapproachableness of the despot." What thoughts and feelings they did associate with it is to be learned from the content and spirit of the prayers ad­ dressed to God in this name, not from preconceived notions about what the word king means to Orientals. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

Singer, pp. 5 5 - 5 7 ; Baer, pp.^ 1 0 8 - 1 1 1 ; 392 f. Isa. 3 3 , 22; cf. 44, 6, the king of Israel and his redeemer. See above,

P3

He is our God; there is no other. Of a truth He is our King, there is none besides him. 'Alenu, Singer, p. 2 4 7 ; Baer, p. 398 (quoting Deut. 4, 3 9 ) . Singer, p. 248; Baer, p. 398 f. M. Rosh ha-Shanah 4, 5; Sifre Num. § 7 7 (on Num. 10, 1 0 ) ; Rosh ha-Shanah 3 2 a ; also 1 6 a , below, and 3 4 b . Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 2 ed. pp. 431 f. See Vol. I, pp. 431 ff. — It might have occurred to this author that a prayer for the Kingdom of God, whether in the Kaddish or in the Lord's Prayer, did not really express a desire for the establishment of a universal arbitrary despotism. A common, and perhaps the original, association is with prayers for de­ liverance (in a comprehensive sense), and it may pertinently be remarked 4

5

6

CHAP. I ]

THE FATHER IN HEAVEN

211 1

That God is so often called our Father who is in heaven, or invoked in prayer, O our Father! does not indicate that the age had a new conception of God, or put a new emphasis on one element of the conception. What these phrases express is not an idea of God, but a characteristic attitude of piety, and therein lies their significance. This is the type of piety in which Jesus and his immediate disciples were brought up, and the Gospel of Matthew is a most instructive illustration of it. Experience shows that the language of piety when it becomes usual tends to become conventional and to be repeated with little of the meaning or feeling that it originally expressed; and doubtless by many Jews, as by many Christians through the centuries, 'Our Father who is in heaven,' was repeated as a con­ secrated formula without further thought. For others it not only symbolized more adequately than any other phrase the relation of the soul to God, but expressed their deepest religious experi­ ence. Each put into it what he brought to it. 2

that the two titles are thus associated in the Scriptures, where God is the deliverer both as father and as king. Compare Isa. 6 3 , 1 6 , Thou art our father, our Deliverer from Everlasting is thy name, with 3 3 , 22, The Lord is . . . our king, He will deliver us; 44, 6; The king of Israel and his deliverer. See the close of the Ne'ilah prayer on the Day of Atonement. Singer, p. 268; Baer, p. 438. Or with other personal pronouns, my, his, your, their, father who is in heaven. See Detached Note. 1

2

C H A P T E R PRAYER.

II

FAITH

T H E true nature of a religion is most clearly revealed by what men seek from God in it. The public and private prayers of the Jews thus show not only what they esteemed the best and most satisfying goods, but their beliefs about the character of God and his relation to them, and their responsive feelings toward him. The order of Daily Prayer as it was fixed about the end of the first century of our era (Shemoneh 'Esreh, Tefillah), which was recited in the synagogue and by individuals privately, has been described in another place. After ascriptions to "our God and our fathers' God," the mighty God, the Holy God, the first pe­ titions are that he, the giver of knowledge, would graciously be­ stow on his suppliants knowledge, discernment, and understand­ ing; that he would bring them back to his Law and draw them near unto his worship, and turn them to him in perfect repent­ ance; that he would look upon their affliction, and redeem them speedily for his name's sake; restore the sick to health; bless the year with abundant crops, etc. The condensed prayer which may be said in place of the twelve petitions of the Eighteen in stress of circumstances, begins: Grant us, O Lord our God, to have knowledge of thy ways; circumcise our hearts to revere thee; and forgive us, that we may be redeemed, etc. Another ancient prayer is the faddish, the opening sentence of which is: " Magnified and hallowed be his great name in the world 1

2

3

4

5

1

Vol. I, pp. 291 ff. In prayer, " the worship of God in the heart." Habinenu. Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 55; Baer, Abodat Israel, p. 108. Deut. 10, 16 f.; cf. 30, 6. See M. Berakot 4, 3 f. The form in the Prayer Books is given in the Babylonian Talmud, Berakot 29a, on the authority of Samuel (early third century). See also the summary, Jer. Berakot 8a: " Grant us [intelligence], accept our repentance, forgive us, O our Redeemer, heal our diseases, bless our years." 2

3

c

4

5

212

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

213

which he created according to his will: and may he make his kingship sovereign in your life time and in your days." It will be observed that the prayer Jesus taught his disciples begins in the same way, "Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done," etc. The beautiful prayer, Ahabah Rabbah, "With abounding love thou hast loved us, O Lord, our God; with great and exceeding pity thou has pitied us," which precedes the recitation of the Shema' with its 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God/ goes on: "O our Father, the merciful Father who showest mercy, have mercy upon us, and put it in our hearts to discern and to under­ stand, to hear, to learn, to teach, to keep, to do, to fulfil all that is learned by the study of the Law, in love." The first petitions in the Eighteen Prayers, as we have seen, are individual in their nature — knowledge of God's law, repent­ ance, forgiveness, health — though all men need them and ask them for their fellows with themselves. The second half is na­ tional in character, containing prayers for independence, and the gathering again of the dispersion to their own land, for the resto­ ration of a national government as in the good old times, and that God alone should be king over them; that Jewish apostates may perish, and righteous converts be rewarded; that Jerusalem may soon be rebuilt to be God's lasting abode, and the throne of David be set up; and that the Scion of David may speedily appear. In other parts of the liturgy, ancient and modern, prayers for the great restoration, the fulfilment of so many prophecies, fill a large room. When the Jews asked why this restoration, so long 1

2

3

4

1

"tfl p ^ T D nniD^O T^D*). The prayer was originally said (in Aramaic) by the preacher at the end of his discourse, which explains the your. See above, p. 209. This prayer, with the alternative introductory phrase, With everlasting love (Ahabat 'Olam), is familiar to authorities of the second century. Berakot l i b . Cf. James 1, 5 f. A similar juxtaposition in contrast of proselytes and apostates in Philo, De monarchia, c. 7 §§ 53 f. (ed. Mangey II, 219 f.); De poenitentia, c. 2 §§ 181 f. (Mangey II, 406). 2

3

4

214

PIETY

[PART VI

and ardently prayed for, was still withheld, they read in the prophets that their sins stood between them and the fulfilment, and that only repentance could remove this barrier. The expan­ sion of the liturgy century by century was consequently greatest in the direction of the confession of sins, sometimes developed in lengthy litanies of enumeration, and in prayers for forgiveness, frequently in poetical form (Selihot). The Middle Ages were pro­ lific in compositions of this kind. The persecutions and outrages to which the Jews in Christian countries were subjected for cen­ turies account for the exorbitance of this side of religion and give pathos to the mere volume of production and to the monotony of its content. In the period with which we are concerned, in spite of all the calamities of the age, religion was more healthy-minded; never­ theless, in no ancient religion is normal piety so pervaded by the consciousness of sin, the need of repentance, and the conviction that man's sole hope is the forgiving grace of God. The appeal is to his promise, to his mercy, to his knowledge of man's frailty, as, for example, "Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us, and answer us, for we have no good works; bestow on us charity and lovingkindness, and save us." The general tenor of these supplications is well represented by the fine prayer for the service with which the Day of Atonement terminates, from which a few words may be quoted here: "What are we? What is our life? What is our piety? What is our righteousness? What help is there in us? What strength? What valor? What can we say before Thee, O Lord, our God and our fathers' God? 1

2

3

4

More intimate glimpses of Jewish piety are opened to us by the prayers of individual rabbis, of which a considerable number are preserved in the Talmud. Place was given, after the con1

E.g., the Ashamnu, and especially the 'Al IJet in the liturgy of the Day of Atonement; Singer, p. 258; 2 5 9 - 2 6 2 ; Baer, p. 4 1 5 ; 4 1 7 - 4 2 0 . npl¥. What God does for men is as it were an alms. Singer, p. 6 5 ; Baer, p. 1 1 8 . Ne'ilah. Singer, p. 267 f.; Baer, p. 436 f., 438. 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

PRAYER

215

elusion of the appointed daily prayers, for private petitions si­ lently offered. These doubtless often became habitual and the master's practice was noted by his disciples. They range over three or four centuries, and include Babylonian as well as Pales­ tinian teachers, but this is hardly perceptible in the prayers themselves, in which personality makes more difference than time or place. There are also prayers composed by the rabbis for private use of themselves and others; and many ejaculatory "benedictions" (exclamations of thanks to God). A short prayer by R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, to be said in a moment of danger is: "Do Thy good pleasure in heaven above, and give composure of spirit to those who revere Thee here be­ low, and what is good in Thy sight, do. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the hearer of prayer!" An anonymous prayer in the same group runs: "The needs of Thy people Israel are many, and their wit is scant. May it be Thy good pleasure, O Lord our God, to give to each one all his needs, to each several person the supply of his lack. Blessed is the Hearer of prayer." A prayer to be said on waking in the morning which has found a place in all the prayer books as a form of private devo­ tion is: "My God, the soul Thou didst put within me is pure; Thou didst form it in me; Thou didst breathe it into me; and Thou dost preserve it within me. And Thou wilt take it from me and wilt return it to me in the hereafter. So long as the soul is within me, I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God and my fathers' God, lord of all the ages, lord of all souls. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who dost return souls to dead bodies." 1

2

3

4

1

In the Tefillah itself the individual introduced his personal needs either into the sixteenth prayer, "Hearer of prayer," or into the appropriate peti­ tions; e.g., in case of illness in his family, into the common petition for the sick, "Heal us, O Lord"; if he lacked food, into the petition for God's blessing on the year, etc. 'Abodah Zarah 8a, top. Berakot 29b; Tos. Berakot 3, 7. Tosefta, 1. c. Maimonides (Hilkot Tefillah 4, 19) has in conclusion, "And what is good in Thy sight, do!" Berakot 60b. Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 5; Baer, 'Abodat Israel, 39 f. Cf. the corresponding prayer on going to bed at night, Berakot, ibid.; Singer, p. 293; Baer, p. 573. 2

3

4

2l6

PIETY

[PART VI

Raba, a famous Babylonian master of the fourth century, when he had finished the appointed prayers used to say: "My God, so long as I was not created, I had no claim (to be created); and now that I have been created I am as if I had not been created. Dust am I while alive, how much more when I am dead. I am before Thee as a vessel full of shame and ignominy. May it be Thy good pleasure, O Lord my God, that I sin no more, and the sins I have committed, wipe out by Thy great mercy, but not by means of chastisements and sore illnesses." R. Alexander's prayer was: "Lord of the worlds, Thou knowest perfectly that our will is to do Thy will. And what hinders? The leaven in the dough and the tyranny of the (heathen) empires. May it be Thy good pleasure to deliver us from their power, and that we return to fulfil the dictates of Thy will with a perfect heart." Quotations such as these could be multiplied page after page. I will add but one more. R. Eleazar (ben Shammua'), a disciple of Akiba, prayed: "May it be thy good pleasure, O Lord our God to cause to dwell in our allotted place love and brotherliness and peace and fellowship; and enlarge our bounds with disciples; and bring us to a good latter end and all we hope; and appoint our portion in Paradise. Stablish us by good associates and a good impulse in this Thy world, that when we arise we may daily find our heart waiting to revere Thy name, and let the satisfac­ tion of our soul's desire be graciously granted by Thee." 1

2

3

4

The sense of dependence on God for all man's needs and of gratitude for his constant goodness are renewed by giving thanks to him at the table for the food he provides. Formulas of this kind are given in the Mishnah, for example: For the products of the soil, Blessed is the Creator of the fruits of the soil; over 1

Berakot 1 7 a . The evil impulse which God himself implanted in man's nature. See Vol. I, p. 480. Berakot, ibid. Berakot 1 6 b ; cf. Jer. Berakot 7 d (attributed to R. Johanan). Manyother prayers are brought together in Berakot 1 6 - 1 7 ; J * Berakot iv. 1 (yd). 2

3

4

e r

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

217

bread, Blessed is He who brings forth bread from the earth (Psalm 104, 14); over fruits, Blessed is the Creator of the fruits of the trees; over wine, Blessed is the Creator of the fruit of the vine, etc. At the end of the meal a longer grace is said, of which the four essential constituent prayers and their order are prescribed in a Tannaite tradition, but which has been greatly expanded in the prayer books, and varied for different days, seasons, and circum­ stances. It includes thanksgiving for sustenance; for the goodly heritage of the land of Israel, and for the Law; a prayer for God's mercy in the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple; and a (later) more general prayer of praise and petition. Ten synonyms for prayer in the Scriptures are enumerated in Sifre on Deut. 3, 23, with examples. Of them all it is the sup­ plication for God's free grace (runn) that is the "nearest," as it is written, 'Let these my words wherewith I have made suppli­ cation before the Lord be near unto the Lord our God day and night' (1 Kings 8, 59). 1

2

3

4

5

6

The most characteristic thing that is said about prayer in this age is that it is the worship of God in the heart. On Deut. 1 1 , 1 3 (' to love the Lord your God, and to serve (worship) him with all your heart and with all your soul') we read in Sifre: 'To worship Thee.'—This is prayer. May it not mean literally sacri­ ficial worship? . . . Is there such a thing as worship in the heart? The text says, 'to worship him in all your hearts.' So David says: 'Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee, the 1

M. Berakot 6, 1. Berakot 48b. The variation for the Sabbath is also prescribed there. See the whole passage. Singer, pp. 278-285 (cf. I. Abrahams, Companion to the Daily Prayer Book, pp. ccvii-ccx); Baer, pp. 5 5 4 - 5 6 1 . A shorter form will be found in Singer, p. 286; Baer, p. 562. Said to have been framed after the slaughter at Bether. Sifre Deut. § 26 (ed. Friedmann f. 70b.). Midrash Tannaim, p. 1 4 . The name punn was given to the personal supplications which individuals silently addressed to God at the close of the appointed prayers, and eventually to the forms for such prayers which were provided in the prayer books. 2

3

4

8

6

PIETY

[PART VI

lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice' (Psalm 141, 2). So also Daniel's prayer in Babylonia, where there was no Jewish cultus, is called worship. "Just as the worship of the altar is called worship, so prayer is called worship." The point lies in the word for service or worship, ' abodah, which was used speci­ fically of the sacrificial cultus in the temple. Prayer is such wor­ ship in the inner man. That prayer takes the place of sacrifice was deduced from Hosea 14, 3: 'Say unto Him, Altogether forgive iniquity and accept what is good; so will we render (instead of) bullocks (the words) of our lips.' R. Abahu said: What shall replace the bul­ locks we formerly offered to thee? 'Our lips,' in the prayer we pray to Thee. So long as the temple stood we used to offer a sacrifice and thus atonement was made; but now we have nothing to bring but prayer. The offerings and pure oblations that are brought to God throughout all the world (Mai. 1, 11) are not literal sacrifices and incense (which can only be offered in the land of Israel), but prayer. Moses foresaw that a time would come when the temple would be destroyed and the bringing of first fruits (Deut. 26, 1 ff.) would cease, so he ordained that Israelites should pray thrice each day, " for prayer is dearer to God than all good works and than all sacrifices." That an hour 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Sifre Deut. § 4 1 , f. 80a. Study also is worship, as we shall see. This conception is expressed in various other places. Jer. Berakot 7 a , middle; Yalkut I § 863; Midrash Samuel 2, 1 0 ; Pirke de-R. Eiiezer c. 1 6 , where 'abodah in the words of Simeon the Righteous — the three foundations of the world (Abot 1, 2), Torah, Abodah, Gemilut Hasadim — is understood of prayer. With this identification of prayer with worship in the heart Mai­ monides begins his treatise on Prayer (Hilkot Tefillah 1 , 1 ) . Pesikta Shubah, end (ed Buber p. 165b). See also R. Abahu and R. Isaac, ibid. Tanhuma Korah § 12, near the end. Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 8 1 a (the generations that have no king, no prophet, no priest, no oracle — only prayer); Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 102, 18 ('He regarded the prayer of the destitute, and hath not despised their prayer'), ed. Buber, f. 2 i 5 b - 2 i 6 a . Mai. 1, 1 1 . Tanhuma Ahare § 1 4 , ed. Buber f. 34b~35a, (quoting again Psalm 1 4 1 , 2). Tanhuma Ki tabo, beginning; ed. Buber § 1, with a slightly different text (more than a hundred good works). Prayer greater than sacrifices, Bera­ kot 3 2 b (Isa. 1, 1 1 ) . R. Eleazar ben Pedat. 2

3

4

5

6

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

219

of prayer avails more with God than good works is argued by R. Eiiezer ben Jacob from the example of Moses. His life time of good works did not win for him permission to view the prom­ ised land which he might not enter, but when he prayed, the answer came, 'Go up unto the top of Pisgah' (Deut. 3,23-27) . The ranking of the relative importance of this and that is to be taken as it was meant — these are homiletical improvements for ends of edification; but they are not for that reason without significance. From the prayer of Moses in Deut. 33, supported by the ex­ amples of David (Psalm 149) and Solomon (1 Kings 8, 23 ff., 2 Chron. 6, 14 ff.), the principle is derived that prayer should begin with ascriptions of praise to God, go on to present petitions for men's needs, and close as it began, with praise; on this scheme the Eighteen Prayers are arranged. Opinion was divided whether one should put up petitions for his personal needs before or after the recitation of the common prayer, and biblical warrant was alleged on both sides. R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus took the former view; Joshua ben Hananiah the latter. One evidently gives the precedence to what is for the individual the more urgent; the other to what is in itself the worthier, the needs of the community. It has already been noted that the prayers for the common needs are phrased in the plural; when a man prays by himself he does not ask these things for himself alone but for his fellows as well. If it is in his power to beseech God's compassion on another individual, it is a sin not to do it, as Samuel says, ' Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.' x

2

3

4

5

Private prayer was offered by Daniel, according to his custom, three times a day (Dan. 6,10). David prayed, evening, morning, 1

Sifre Deut. § 29; cf. Berakot 3 2 b , top, Eleazar (ben Pedat). Sifre on Deut. 3 3 , 2 ( § 3 4 3 ) , and R. Simlai, 'Abodah Zarah 7 b , end, arguing from Deut. 3, 24 ff. Cf. Jer. Berakot 4d, below; Maimonides, Hilkot Tefillah 1, 2. Vol. I, pp. 291, 293 f. 'Abodah Zarah 7 b . See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 109 f. Above, p. 208. 1 Sam. 12, 23. Berakot 1 2 b ; cf. Jer. Berakot 7 a . 2

3

4

5

PIETY

220

[PART VI

and in the middle of the day (Psalm 55, 18). This ordinance was attributed to Moses. The usage went back, it is said, to the patriarchs. Abraham instituted the morning prayer, Isaac the afternoon prayer (minhah), and Jacob the evening prayer. By the side of this midrash stands the better grounded opinion of the learned that the hours of prayer in the morning and afternoon corresponded to the times of the regular daily sacrifices (tamidin)? For the customary evening prayer there was no such ob­ vious correspondence with the cultus in the temple. The obliga­ tion of this prayer was one of the points in the controversy be­ tween Rabban Gamaliel II and some of his colleagues, and his tyrannical treatment of R. Joshua ben Hananiah, who main­ tained that it was optional, so exasperated the rest that they de­ posed Gamaliel from the principalship of the academy and elected R. Eleazar ben Azariah to the office. The real issue was, however, a deeper one. R. Gamaliel had given to the daily common prayer a fixed content and order, and prescribed that in this form it should be used by every Israelite three times a day. This regulation of devotion was not univer­ sally approved. Some seem to have objected on principle to the trammels thus imposed on the freedom of the individual in his use of a traditional directory of worship. R. Joshua held that it was sufficient to repeat the substance of the Eighteen; R. Akiba, that if a man can say his prayers fluently, he should recite the Eighteen; if not, say the substance of them. R. Eiiezer goes farther: If a man makes his prayer a fixed task, his prayer is not, as it should be, a plea for God's grace. 1

2

4

5

6

7

1

See above, p. 2 1 8 . Berakot 2 6 b ; Jer. Berakot 7 a ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mikes § 1 1 . Jer. Berakot 7 b . Of the supplementary prayers, corresponding to the musaf sacrifice it is unnecessary to speak here. A somewhat far-fetched association was eventually discovered. Berakot 2 7 b - 2 8 a ; Jer. Berakot 7 c - d . See also Berakot 4 b . Against this inference, Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 108, n. 1. M. Berakot 4, 3 - 4 . The same sentiment is ascribed to another disciple of R. Johanan ben Zakkai, R. Simeon ben Nathaniel: Do not make your prayer a fixed task, but a plea to God for grace and mercy. Abot 2, 1 3 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

221

The word here rendered "fixed task" (ynp) is explained in the Talmud in various ways: one thinks that it is addressed to the man to whom his prayer is like a burden — an obligation he has to work off; others refer it to one who is confined to the words of the text and unable to frame his own supplications or to extem­ porize in prayer, and uses the same words day after day. R. Eiiezer is said to have followed his own advice by saying a new prayer every day, and R. Abahu a new benediction. Whatever temporary controversial point such utterances may have had, the outcome was that the Jewish common prayer is a noteworthy endeavor to achieve order without sacrificing freedom. If prayer is of such importance, should not a man pray con­ tinually, all day long? This is one of the questions said to have been addressed by "Antoninus" to the Patriarch Judah: What about praying at every hour? Forbidden! was the answer. Why? Lest a man get into the way of calling on the Almighty thought­ lessly. Antoninus did not see the force of the answer until Rabbi tried it on him by presenting himself once an hour, beginning in the early morning, and greeting him with nonchalant familiarity, Good morning, Sir; O Emperor; Your good health, O King. The emperor indignantly exclaimed, What do you mean by treating royalty with such disrespect! If you, a mere mortal king, resent being saluted thus every hour, the rabbi replied, how much more the sovereign King of Kings. When the disciples of R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus asked their dying master to teach them the ways of life by following which they might attain to the life of the World to Come, he gave them as his last word: "When you pray, realize before whom you stand." A wholesome reverence keeps the note of intimacy in 1

2

3

4

5

1

Berakot 29b, and Rashi there; cf. Jer. Berakot 8a, below. What in no case is to be done is to say it as if one was reading a document (word for word). Jer. Berakot, 1. c. See Tos. Berakot 3, 6; Jer. Berakot 8a-b; Berakot 2 1 a , below (R. Jo­ hanan). Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mikes § 1 1 . Berakot 28b. Cf. Tanhuma Wayyera § I : Be careful in your prayer, for there is no better quality than this, and it is greater than all sacrifices (Isa. 1, 1 1 ) . 2

3

4

6

PIETY

222

[PART VI

Jewish piety from degenerating into vulgar familiarity. Rever­ ence characterizes not only the phraseology of prayer, but all its circumstances. Honi ha-Me'aggel, famous for the miraculous efficacy of his prayers in making it rain while he stood in the ring he had drawn on the ground, so to speak challenging God, would have been excommunicated by Simeon ben Shatah for his irreverent importunacy, if he had not been so visibly a spoilt child of God. Prayer at the appointed times may be said in any clean and proper place; but preferably in the synagogue, and if elsewhere, 'the acceptable time' (Psalm 69, 14) is the hour when the con­ gregation is gathered in the synagogue. The worshippers turn toward the earthly abode of God. Abroad, they turn their faces toward the land of Israel; in the land, toward Jerusalem; in Je­ rusalem toward the temple; in the temple they direct their thoughts to the holy of holies. Thus all Israelites, wherever they are, pray toward one place and in spirit in one place. A blind man, or one who can not fix the points of the compass, shall direct his thought to his Father who is in heaven. Ablutions — washing the hands — are an obligatory prepa­ ration for prayer, as for other religious acts. The prayers were regularly said standing, in a reverent attitude. In the opinion of some, the eyes should look down; others would have them raised up; another says, eyes down, mind u p ! Genuflexions and prostrations occur at certain points in the recitation. Decorum was to be observed in dress, posture, and in the undertone in 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Ta'anit 23 a. God is found in the synagogue; when ten men are praying together, the Shekinah is in the midst of them. Berakot 6a. Berakot 8a, top. Dan. 6, 1 1 ; 3 (1) Esdras 4, 58. Sifre Deut. §29 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 i b ~ 7 2 a ) ; Tos. Berakot 3, 1 6 f.; Berakot 30a. Yebamot 105b, above. To the end of the second century there was evi­ dently no fixed rule. Berakot 3 4 b , above. Bowing and kneeling are also mentioned. See L. Ginzberg, 'Adoration,' Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 210 f.; S. Krauss, Synagogale Altertiimer, pp. 400 if. 2

3

4

5

6

7

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

223

which the prayers were pronounced. These things were the natu­ ral expression of reverence; attention to them also tended to impress on the worshipper the sacredness of the act in which he was engaged. The essential thing in prayer, to which these outward acts were auxiliary, is the direction of the thoughts and desires. For this there is a technical term, Kawwanah, which includes attention and intention; perhaps "concentration" comes as near as any word to expressing this conception of the spirit of devotion. It is, in fact, the element of intention that gives meaning to any action, and makes a reality of a religious form. The Scripture requires a worship of God with all your heart and with all your soul (thought and emotion), and R. Eiiezer ben Jacob takes this as a warning to the priests not to let their minds wander (or be distracted) in their sacrificial service. The principle has many applications, for example to the priest's benediction (which was taken over into the synagogue service). The priests are warned not to recite this blessing (Num. 6, 24-26) as though they were forced into service and in a hurry to get through with it, but to bless the people with an intent mind in order that the blessing may be effective. The principle is concisely formulated, " Com­ mandments demand intention." The mere doing of a thing that is commanded in the law is not the fulfilment of the commandment; to make it such it is neces­ sary that in the act a man should have in mind that it is a com­ mandment and mean to fulfil it for that reason. This is a gen­ eralization of the particular case contemplated in the Mishnah: When a man is reading in the Pentateuch and comes toDeut. 1

2

3

4

1

Sifre Deut. § 41 (on Deut. 1 1 , 1 3 ; ed. Friedmann f. 80a). The sacrifice (e.g., of the Passover victim) may be invalidated by such defect of intention. M. Pesahim 5, 2. The Greek word dyyapela is used. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Naso § 18, end. Whether every commandment required such conscious intention was a point on which opposite opinions are reported: Berakot 1 3 a ; 'Erubin 9 5 b 96a; Pesahim 1 1 4 b , top; Rosh ha-Shanah 28b, top (Raba). 2

3

4

PIETY

224

[PART VI

6, 4 (Hear O Israel) just at the time for saying the Shema', if he reads the passage intending to it be his Shema', he fulfils his obligation, otherwise not. The explicit rule is, one who recites the Shema' must fix his mind upon it. Whether this applied to the whole (R. Akiba), or to the first part only (R. Eiiezer), the confession of God's unity and the obligation to love him wholly, was decided in the former sense. The term means more, however, than the intention to perform in the prescribed way a religious duty. A good definition, with especial application to prayer is given by Maimonides: It means that a man should clear out his mind of all thoughts of his own, and regard himself as if he were standing before the Shekinah (in the manifest presence of God) , Without this a prayer is no prayer. "He who prays must direct his mind intently to Heaven." (Cf. Psalm 10, 17b.) Prayer should always be offered in a serious frame of mind. Men should not go straight to prayer from states or surroundings that make it impossible to collect themselves — from grief or indolent vacuity or laughter or light talk or frivolity or idle pastimes; they should bring to it the joy of the commandment. A drunken man's prayer is an abomina­ tion, and even a man who has imbibed more moderately is in no frame of mind to pray. The learned, on their part, should not go directly to their prayers from trying a case in court or from the discussion of legal norms (Halakah), which would run on in their mind while they were praying. Even the excitement of returning from a journey 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

M. Berakot 2, 1. So in the case of other religious acts. M. Rosh haShanah, 3, 7 ; Tos. Rosh ha-Shanah 3 (2), 5 f. (Everything depends on the intention; Psalm 10, 1 7 ) . Tos Berakot 2, 2. Berakot I3a-b. Maimonides, Hilkot Tefillah 4, 1 6 . Ibid., 4, 15. M. Berakot 5, 1; Berakot 3ob~3ia; Tos. Berakot 3, 2 1 ; Jer. Berakot 8d; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 9. 'Erubin 6 4 a ; Berakot 3 1 a . Halakah already decided and about which there can be no controversy is no such obstacle. Berakot 3 1 a . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, ii]

PRAYER

225

may so occupy a man that it will be two or three days before he can concentrate his mind on prayer, and it is better that he should not pray at all than go through the empty form. Another Babylonian authority of the fourth century lays it down as a general principle, Let no man say his prayers whose mind is not composed. It is difficult to command such detachment when the appointed time finds a man engaged in his necessary occupations. Hence the pious men of old times used to sit quiet for an hour before their prayer in order to fix their mind on their Father in heaven; and did not allow even a salutation from a king, or a snake coiled at their feet, to interrupt their meditation. There was no attempt, however, to make such saints of com­ mon people. Men said their prayers, when the time came, where they were, in the house, the field, or on the road, with necessary accommodations of customary form to unusual circumstances. Laborers who were picking olives or figs might even say them without coming down from the tree, it being assumed that they felt perfectly secure there and were not distracted by apprehen­ sion of falling. The Jewish ideal of prayer as it is disclosed to us in Tannaite sources comprises under the word Kawwanah (kawwanat haleb) attention, intention, concentration of mind, devoutness of spirit. The same conception runs through the Talmudic period as some of the examples cited above show. The most systematic writings of mediaeval authors from Saadia on lay great stress on the necessity of inwardness in religion. Bahya ibn Pakuda, in his "Duties of the Inner Man," makes the spiritual element, de­ votion in the largest sense (Kawwanah), the essence of religion, 1

2

3

4

5

1

2

4

'Erubin 65a, below. Ibid., middle. This does not refer to personal appeals to God's mercy.

M. Berakot 5, 1. According to the Talmud they waited an hour after prayer also. Jer. Berakot 8d; Berakot 3 2 b . Berakot 16a. The employer, however, must come down, because, being not accustomed to the situation, he cannot help being distracted by it. Cf. Rashi. 6

PIETY

226

[PART VI

apart from which all outward observances are worthless, because meaningless. Judah ha-Levi agrees that outward acts done without devotion have no value; but that equally valueless is the contemplation and emotion which ends in itself and is not trans­ lated into action. The attitude of Maimonides has already been indicated. The teaching of the Tannaim and their successors on this point is evidence of the degree to which the Psalms not only furnished types and phrases to the public and private prayers, but inspired their piety. By the side of this went discussions of the proper form, time, and circumstance of prayer in the interest of liturgical — and sometimes of doctrinal — correctness and of uniformity. It lies in the nature of the juristic sources that these things occupy a large space in them and are treated as matters for legal defini­ tion. But in this literature itself, as previous citations have shown, strong protests are made against the excess of regulation and obligation, and emphatic assertions of the essential necessity of the spirit of devotion. It can hardly be doubted that in pro­ viding a simple form of prayer which united praise and gratitude to God with petitions expressing common needs and desires, and in fixing certain times for concerted prayer in the synagogue or the private prayer of individuals, the leaders of Judaism made an inestimable contribution to the religion of their times. In these prayers the common man participated in the worship of God on a complete equality with the educated class, and without the mediation of priest or rabbi. They furnished him with simple and appropriate language to express what in his simplicity he would have found no words for. The reverent attitude was adapted reflexively to promote the spirit of reverence. That all 1

2

3

1

Similarly many Moslem mystics. See on the whole subject H. G. Enelow, "The Struggle for Inwardness in Judaism," in Studies in Jewish Literature.. . in honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler (Berlin, 1 9 1 3 ) , pp. 82-107. Contentious differences of usage might give rise to serious dissensions, as is abundantly exemplified in Christian history. 2

3

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

227

this must have done much for the spread and cultivation of an intelligent piety among the masses is evident. It corresponds to all experience, however, that the practice of devotions at particular times, places, and circumstances, and in regular forms tends to become a matter of routine, and to be performed by force of habit with but slight attention to the mean­ ing of the act. It is another common observation that those who are more punctilious than the rest in the performance of such observances are prone to feel themselves on that account pecu­ liarly religious and to pride themselves upon it. Against this tendency to formalism the teaching about the spirit of devotion which has been set forth above is directed. Such high doctrine, however explicit and emphatic, makes little impression on most men's minds. If they understand it at all, they dismiss it as a counsel of perfection for saints. All higher religions have had the same experience. 1

The Jewish order of prayer in the age with which we are here concerned was a directory rather than a formulary. It was not only licit but commendable for the individual to vary the phrase­ ology and to extemporize upon its themes. When such improvi­ sations or private petitions were inserted (in an undertone) in the common prayer of the congregation, they were properly brief, in order not to get out of step, so to speak, with the other worship­ pers. Even in private prayers, brevity is commended. So, for example, R. Meir: "Let a man's words before God always be few, as it is said, 'Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a word before God; for God is in heaven and thou on earth, therefore let thy words be few.' " An example 2

3

4

1

I. Abrahams (Pharisaism and the Gospels, 'Some Rabbinic Ideas on Prayer/ 2d. Series, p. 84) remarks: "The fixation of times and seasons and formulae for prayer does tend to reduce the prayer to a mere habit." But, he pertinently adds, "What can be done at any time and in any manner is apt to be done at no time and in no manner." See above, p. 221. Such, it is said, was the practice of R. Akiba — he abridged more than all of them. Tos. Berakot 3, 5. Eccles. 5, 1. Berakot 61 a, top. 2

3

4

PIETY

228

[PART VI

of a very brief prayer is that said by a student after he has lain down in bed: Into Thy hands I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God (Psalm 31, 6). There were, however, biblical examples of protracted prayer, and Meir elsewhere cites the case of Hannah (1 Sam. 1, 12), who prayed long before the Lord, and drew from it the lesson that whoever remains long in prayer is answered. There are times when prolonged prayer is inopportune. God interrupted Moses on the brink of the Red Sea: " Moses, my chil­ dren are in straits; the sea shuts off their way and the enemy pursues, and you stand there and make a long prayer! 'Why criest thou unto me?' There is a time to prolong prayer, and a time to make it short." As an example of a brief prayer, Moses' prayer for Miriam is cited, O God, pray heal her! (Num. 12, 13), and his forty days intercession for the people after the sin of the golden calf (Deut. 9, 18, 25) as an instance of long continued prayer. The same examples of the shortest and the longest prayers recorded in Scripture are used by R. Eiiezer with par­ ticular application to the abridgment or expansion of the bene­ dictions in the prayers. The private prayers which various rabbis were accustomed to say after the conclusion of the Tefillah, of which some specimens were quoted above, are none of them longer than would take a minute or two to repeat. But it is told of the same Akiba, who abridged more than all the rest in the common prayer, that when he prayed by himself, one might leave him praying on one side of the synagogue and on returning later find him on another side, so many were the genuflexions and prostrations he made. And doubtless many long prayers were made that were not "for a pretense." 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

Berakot 5 a , top. Jer. Berakot 7 c , top. R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus. Mekilta, Beshallah 3 (ed. Friedmann f. 29a; ed. Weiss f. 3 5 a ) . Cf. the exposition of the same verse (Exod. 1 4 , 1 5 ) by R. Joshua (ibid.) — Moses, the Israelites have only to march forward! Cf. Sotah 3 7 a . Mekilta on Exod. 1 5 , 25, Wayyassa' 1 (ed. Friedmann f. 4 5 b ; ed. Weiss f. 5 3 a ) ; cf. Berakot 3 4 a ; Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, in loc. As an answer to questions of his disciples, Sifre Num. § 105 (on Num. 1 2 , 1 3 ) . Pages 215 f. Tos. Berakot 3, 5. 3

4

5

6

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

229

Multiplication of eulogistic titles for God was censured by R. Hanina. In his presence a man once began: O God, the Great, the Mighty, the Awful, the Noble, the Powerful, the Terrible, the Strong and Puissant, the Indubitable, the Glorious! Hanina waited till he had finished, and said, "Have you finished all these praises of your Lord? What are all these for! We have three that we use (Strong, Mighty, Awful), and we should not venture to use these had not Moses uttered them in the Law (Deut. 10, 17) and the Men of the Great Synagogue appointed them in the Prayer. And you run on with all these!" Excess in recounting the praises of God is explicitly prohibited; the liturgy is suffici­ ent. R. Johanan finds in Job 37, 20 a proof text for the dictum, He who recites the praises of God inordinately will be extirpated from the world. No doubt, if the rabbis could have imagined such blasphemy, they would have pronounced the same doom on the fondling of God in certain types of modern non-liturgical prayer! In a classical manual of Christian devotion the counsel is given, "Let everything you see represent to your spirit the pres­ ence , the excellency, and the power of God." The same thought was in the mind of the rabbis when they gave forms of ejaculatory "benedictions" to be said on various occasions to which the whole of the ninth chapter of the Mishnah on Prayers (Berakot) and the corresponding Talmud is devoted. For example, at the occurrence of comets, earth-quakes, lightning, thunder, and winds, one should say, "Blessed is He whose almighty power fills the world." No less, for the everyday sights of nature, moun­ tains, hills, lakes, rivers, deserts, " Blessed is the Author of crea­ tion"; at the sight of the Mediterranean, "Blessed is He who made the Great Sea." On seeing crowds of men, "Blessed is He 1

2

3

4

5

1

Berakot 33b, below. Megillah 18a, middle, quoting Psalm 106, 2, 'Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, or proclaim all his praise?' Megillah ibid. Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, i. 3 ("The Practice of the Presence of God"). See also (at still greater length) Tos. Berakot 7 (6). 2

3

4

6

230

PIETY

[PART VI

who is wise in secrets," for not two of them are alike in features nor in thoughts. On seeing men of striking physical peculiari­ ties, " Blessed is He who makes his creatures various." For rains, and for good news, "Blessed is the Good and the Beneficent"; on the receipt of evil tidings, "Blessed is the faithful Judge." For it is man's duty to bless God for the untoward events of life just as he blesses him for the good; as it is written, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.' With all thy heart — with the good and evil impulse — and with all thy soul (life) — even though he take it from thee — and with all thy might — that is, means (material possessions). Whatever difference there may be about the length of prayers in general, there is no question about perseverance in prayer. Moses was not prevented from pleading for the mercy of God even when God himself said to him, 'Enough for thee! Speak no more to me of this matter' (Deut. 3, 26). How much less should other men desist when their prayer is not answered! Moses' intercession for Israel after the sin of the golden calf was granted only after forty days. Hezekiah, in his mortal illness, did not give up even when Isaiah announced to him in the name of the Lord that he should die and not live. We have a family tradition, he said in dismissing the prophet, that even if a sharp sword is resting on a man's throat he should not refrain from craving mercy. Thereupon he prayed, and was granted fifteen more years of life (Isa. 38,1-5). It is a commonplace that prayer, repentance, and almsgiving (sedakah), are the three things that cause a dire decree (of God) to be rescinded. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

Tos. Berakot 7, 2. See Vol. I, p. 4 9 1 . Sifre Deut. § 29. In the sequel the words of R. Eiiezer ben Jacob about the superiority of an hour of prayer to good works, above, p. 219. Above, p. 228. Berakot 10a. R. Johanan and R. Eleazar quote in this connection 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him/ (Job 13, 15). See the sequel, 10b. Prov. 14, 3 2 b . Jer. Ta'anit 6 5 b , top; Jer. Sanhedrin 28c, near top; Gen. R. 44, 1 2 ; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 9 1 a ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 13, etc. 3

4

5

6

CHAP. I I ]

PRAYER

231

That God hears and answers prayer is taught and exemplified in a thousand ways in the Scripture. In the Psalms this funda­ mental truth of religion becomes a fact of experience, the faith by which men live. The Jewish conception and belief cannot be more adequately summarized than in the words of the Psalmist: 'The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them.' Yet, notwithstanding so many promises and prophecies, the prayer for the great deliverance which had been on the lips of Israel for centuries had not been answered. For this two expla­ nations were found in the Scriptures. One was that the deliver­ ance and the golden age which it should inaugurate were, as the prophet insistently taught, conditional upon the repentance of the people as a whole. They would come only when all classes did their best to think and feel and act as God required in his Law. The other was that the history of the world was a great plan of God, in which things came to pass at epochs fixed by him from the beginning, and that the predestined time for the great crisis in the fortunes of Israel had not yet arrived (Hab. 2, 2 f.). Some presumptuous arithmeticians undertook, by com­ binations of assumed data in Scripture, to calculate the exact time — always in their immediate future — and gave out their results as revelations made to ancient seers, and saw signs of the approaching end in the conditions and events of their days; but the soberer sense of the rabbis regarded the time of the end as a secret which God kept to himself. 1

2

It was a matter of experience also that the concerted prayers of the community, for example for the seasonable rain on which their wellbeing depended and for fruitful years, were not always answered, and epidemics came from time to time notwithstand­ ing the prayers for health. Even the most urgent specific peti­ tions of individuals brought no response. Jewish piety met this 1

2

Psalm 145, 18 f. Cf. Deut. 4, 7. On these tv/o theories see more fully below, p. 3 5 1 .

232

PIETY

[PART VI

experience in the same spirit as other religions which share its faith in God's goodness and its assurance that he hears and answers prayer, and it made similar reflections. In what has been said above about perseverance in prayer it has been seen that prayers are not always answered immedi­ ately. In the Scriptures, to wait on, or for, the Lord connotes confidence, and the connotation often predominates, so that the word becomes a synonym for to trust in Him. The exhortation of Sirach, "Do not be discouraged (or despairing) in prayer," im­ plies "let not your faith fail." Long delay in answering prayer may then be a trial of man's abiding trust in God, by which such are distinguished from those lacking in faith. When a wicked man prays and is not answered, he says: As I prayed before an idol and got nothing at all, so I have prayed before God and got nothing at all. It may be, also, that God knows that the thing which a man most desires is not for his real good. In the same context from which the preceding extract is taken in the Midrash, the prayer of the righteous is submitted to the judgment of God: If it be suitable in Thy sight, grant it; if not, not. At the dedication of the temple Solomon prayed: "Lord of the World, when an Is­ raelite comes and prays and asks for sons or something else, if it be suitable give it to him, and if not do not give it to him, as it is written, 'And give unto every man according to all his ways 1

2

3

4

5

1

For a selection of passages and the lesson derived from them see Mid­ rash Tehillim on Psalm 40, 1 (ed. Buber f. 129a). Most readers of the familiar English version are hardly aware that 'wait' in these phrases (e.g., Psalm 40, 1) means wait (cf. Isa. 25, 9 ) . The Prayer Book version of Psalm 27, 1 6 , "O tarry thou the Lord's leisure," makes the meaning plainer. Cf. (with other words) Psalm 3 7 , 7. Ecclus. 7, 10. The Hebrew text has nf>srQ "l¥pfin which has been rendered "be not impatient," and comes to much the same thing, if impa­ tient be not made equivalent to petulant. rODN nDITO. On this phrase, and the synonymous 'N see StrackBillerbeck, Kommentar zum N. T., u.s.w. on Matt. 6, 30 (I, 438 f.). Tanhuma ed. Buber, Toledot § 14. The immediate application is to Esau. Cf. the story of Manasseh, Vol. I, p. 524. 1 Kings 8, 1 2 . 2

3

4

5

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

233 1

as Thou knowest his heart' (1 Kings 8, 3 9 ) ; but if a foreigner comes and prays in the temple, give him whatever he asks, as it is.written, 'And also to the foreigner, . . . when he shall come out of a far country for Thy name's sake . . . hear Thou in heaven, and do according to all that the foreigner calleth to Thee for"' (1 Kings 8, 4 1 - 4 3 ) . The stranger's whole faith in the God in whose temple he worships depends on his getting what he asks, and if he succeeds he will become a worshipper of the true God (1 Kings 8, 43); the Israelite's faith rests on a securer basis, and it is part of his faith that God will give or withhold the thing he asks as in his wisdom he knows to be for the best good of his worshipper, which is what every man really wishes, though in his ignorance of his own good he may ask something else. Again, the denial even of good things may be part of that chastening discipline to which God submits those whom he peculiarly loves. Other explanations are offered. How does it come, asks R. Meir, that two men may take to bed, one as ill as the other, or two may go to court to be tried for exactly the same offense, and one get up from his illness, the other not, one be acquitted and the other not ? One prays and is answered, the other prays and is not answered. Why is this discrimination ? His response is that the prayer of the former was perfect, that is in the true spirit of prayer; the other lacked this vital element. The latter was not answered because it was not really a prayer at all. Others re­ ferred the difference to the decree of God. When His unalterable decree had been issued, and the predestined hour of death had come, no prayer was effectual. Many prayers in lesser matters are futile because they ask 2

3

4

5

1

If God knows, e.g., that the sons will provoke God to anger, or that the possessions he asks will lead the petitioner to 'kick' (like Jeshurun when he waxed fat, Deut. 3 2 , 1 5 ) , let him not give them. Tanhuma, Terumah 9. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Toledot § 1 4 ; cf. ibid. Bemidbar § 3, and Terumah §8. See below, pp. 254 f. Kawwanah (see above, pp. 223 ff.). So Rashi on Rosh ha-Shanah 1 8 a . Rosh ha-Shanah 18a (see also the preceding discussion, 1 7 b ) . 2

3

4

5

PIETY

234

[PART VI

God to make undone what has already been done, for example, if a man whose wife is with child prays that she may bear a son. Marriages also are predestined — "every day a heavenly voice (bat kol) goes forth, saying, So and so's daughter is for so and so" — and no other can by prayer get ahead of the designated spouse. A Babylonian authority, Raba, once heard a man pray­ ing that a certain girl might be his mate. The rabbi disapproved the petition: If she is the right one for you, she will not be parted from you (prayer is superfluous); if not, your unanswered prayer may lead you to lose faith in God). The commonest introduction to a petition is, "May it be Thy good pleasure to grant (or to do) thus and so," in which the sup­ pliant expressly makes his request dependent upon the will of God, as is done in the prayer in imminent danger quoted above, What is good in thine eyes, do! It is in thus leaving the answer to the wisdom and good pleasure of God, and in accepting the giving or withholding of the thing asked in equal faith, that prayer essentially differs from an incantation or a magical form­ ula, which is imagined to be efficacious in and of itself to attain the desired end. The experience of all religions which have attained to the higher conception of prayer with which we have been dealing proves how difficult it is for the mass of men to expel from their minds the delusion that prayer is an efficacious means of moving God to do what the petitioner wants, rather than the submission of his desires to the wiser goodness of God; and Judaism would have got far beyond Christianity, ancient or modern, if it had 1

2

3

4

5

1

r6sn. M. Berakot 9, 3; Berakot 60a. According to an author in the Babylonian Talmud, such a prayer is proper down to the fortieth day after conception, at which time the sex of the embryo is determined. Sanhedrin 22a, bottom; Sotah 2a. The decision is made before the birth of every boy. See Vol. I, pp. 439 f. Mo'ed Katon 18b. (Rashi.) Page 2 1 5 . Magical means frequently fail; but the explanation then given and ac­ cepted is that there was some defect in the performance, or that they were thwarted by more potent charms opposed to them. 2

3

4

5

PRAYER

CHAP. I I ]

235

succeeded in overcoming human nature to this extent. There are, said Rab, three sins from which no man escapes for a single day: letting his imagination play with sin, and calculating on prayer, and injurious speech. The sin consists in man's presumption that God will grant his request as a compensation due for his praying. It is no wonder that the disappointment of such false confidence should make men "sore at heart." 1

2

3

4

Judaism also had its heroes of prayer, whose supplications were answered where others failed. One such case has already been mentioned, Akiba's prayer for rain. R. Eiiezer had recited twenty-four "benedictions" without result; Akiba said only, Our Father, our King . . . for Thine own sake have compassion upon us," and was at once answered. Among these virtuosi in prayer with whom legend made itself busy was Hanina ben Dosa, at whose intercession a son of R. Johanan ben Zakkai was re­ stored to health from a grave illness, and later a son of Gamaliel II. Another was Honi called ha-Me'aggel, who was famous for the efficacy of his prayers in bringing rain. On one occasion when he was sent for on this business, and the rain did not at once follow on his prayer, he drew a ring on the ground and taking his stand within it, after the example of the prophet Habakkuk (Hab. 2, 1), addressed God in the following familiar fashion: "Lord of the World, thy children are looking to me, and I am like a household servant of thine. I swear by thy great name that I will not budge from this place till thou hast compassion on thy children." First it did not rain hard enough, and he said, 5

6

7

8

1

nf>sn jvy. Baba Batra 164b, bottom. See Rashi in loc. (other explanations in Tosafot). See on this point, I. Abrahams, Pharisaism and the Gospels, Second Series, p. 78 f. Berakot 3 2 b ; 55a, top, quoting Prov. 13, 12, with a midrashic twist. Above, p. 209. Ta'anit 2 5 b . Cf. Jer. Ta anit 66c-d, the parable by which Akiba inter­ preted the incident to the honor of his teacher R. Eiiezer. See Vol. I, pp. 377 f.; Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 2 1 4 - 2 1 6 . A later Amora explains, Because he did not come in humility. Jer. Ta'anit 66d. 2 3

4

5

6

7

8

c

236

PIETY

[PART VI

That is not the kind of rain I asked for; then it poured, and he made the same complaint; finally it rained steadily but so long that the people of the city had to take refuge on the temple mount and begged him to pray that the rain should be gone. For such prayers and the answers to them there were abundant precedents in the Scripture, and for that reason the stories of such miraculous results have little bearing on the general rabbin­ ical teaching about prayer. It is further to be observed that Honi the rain-maker belongs to another age, the times of Queen Alexandra, and that Simeon ben Shatah is said to have declared that he deserved to be excommunicated for his irreverence — a report which we may take as a reflection of the impression the story made on the rabbis of the second century. 1

It is said that when Hanina ben Dosa prayed for persons seriously ill he had a premonition that one would live, another die, and when he was asked how he knew replied, If my prayer comes easily, I know that it is accepted; if not, I know that it is rejected. When the son of Rabban Gamaliel II fell ill, the father despatched two scholars to R. Hanina asking him to intercede for his son. He went up to a chamber on the roof and prayed for him. When he came down he said, Go back, the fever has left him. They said, Are you a prophet? He replied, Neither a pro­ phet nor the son of a prophet (Amos 7, 14); but I have it by tradition that if my prayer comes easily I know that it is ac­ cepted, if not I know that it is rejected. They seated themselves and wrote down and noted the time exactly. When they came to R. Gamaliel, he said, By the divine service! you put it neither sooner nor later; at that very hour the fever left him and he asked us for a drink of water. 2

3

4

5

1

Ta'anit 23a. Compare the story of the flood raised by an anonymous saint (hasid) in Tos. Ta'anit 3, 1. For many other examples see A. Buchler, Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety from 7 0 B.C.E. to 70 C. E., chap. iv. M. Berakot 5, 5. The parallel in Jer. Berakot notes that his residence was in another town. I.e. the sacrifice on the altar; a frequent form of oath. Berakot 3 4 b ; cf. Jer. Berakot 9d. Cf. John 4, 4 6 - 5 3 . 2

3

4

5

FAITH

CHAP. I I ]

237

Faith, in Judaism, is confidence in God. It was in this confi­ dence that the forefathers, in the decisive moment of the nation's history, at his command marched straight toward the sea which barred their way, and their faith was justified by the cleaving of its waters before them. When we read in the Epistle to the He­ brews (11, 29), 'By faith they crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground,' we may recall the words of the Midrash: (God said to Moses) "The faith they have shown (in obeying the command to march forward) is sufficient reason that I should divide the sea for them." "Great is the faith with which Israel confided in Him who spake and the world came into being, for in requital for Israel's confiding in the Lord, the holy spirit rested upon them and (inspired by it) they uttered the Song (Exod. 15), as it is said, They had faith in God and in Moses his servant" (Exod. 14, 31). The Israelites were delivered from Egypt only as a reward for faith, as it is written, And the people believed, etc. (Exod. 4, 31). These miracles in the past are a ground for faith in the future. Abraham is the great exemplar of faith; by virtue of faith he became heir of both this world and the world to come — He put faith in the Lord and it was accounted unto him for righteousness (Gen. 15,6). The whole passage from which the last two extracts are taken is a laudation of faith, supported by numerous quota­ tions of texts of Scripture in which the word amunah or amanah occurs. Both, like irians, fides, and the English 'faith' itself, cover fidelity as well as confidence, and as in the famous case of Hab. 2, 4, 'The righteous man shall live by his faith,' the in1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Note the place given to this miracle in the Psalms. Mekilta, Beshallah 3, on Exod. 1 4 , 1 5 (ed. Friedman f. 2 9 b ; ed. Weiss f. 3 5 b ) , attributed to Rabbi. An anonymous version, agreeing on the point of faith, in Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai in loc. Mekilta, Beshallah 6, on Exod. 14, 3 1 . (Friedman f. 3 3 b ; Weiss f. 40b, end.) Mekilta, 1. c. Sifre Deut. § 25 (on 1, 29). Mekilta, 1. c.; cf. Rom. 4, 3, 9, 2 0 - 2 1 ; Gal. 3, 6; James 2, 23 f. Gal. 3, 1 1 ; Romans 1, 1 7 ; Hebrews 1 0 , 38. According to one opinion the single verse in which the substance of revelation is summed up. Makkot 24a, below. See above, p. 84. 2

3

4

6

7

5

238

PIETY

[PART VI

terpreter may be at a loss whether to say 'faith' or 'faithfulness.' The compiler in the Midrash (and very likely the authors) did not feel what to us seems an ambiguity. Be that as it may, fidelity to God was in Jewish thought inseparable from confi­ dence in God. Confidence in God is manifested in the assurance that what he promises he will fulfil, as in the classic example of Abraham (Gen. 15, 1-6). In the period with which we are occupied these promises were extended beyond the golden age of the national hope to the life beyond the tomb and the World to Come. Fidelity was exercised in the endeavor to know and do the whole will of God. In relation to the dispensations of Providence in this life, confidence in God has its complete expression in the words of R. Akiba, A man should habitually say, All that the Merciful does is for the best. In conclusion it may not be superfluous to remark that the words for faith in the literature and the thought of this age are not used in the concrete sense of creed, beliefs entertained — or to be entertained — about God. 1

1

2

A common Jewish-Aramaic name for God, which was taken over byMohammed, el-Rahman. Berakot 60b, below, with a story about Akiba illustrating the way in which what seem to be most unfortunate accidents may prove the truth of the saying. 2

C H A P T E R

III

STUDY

IN A former chapter it has been shown that the school was one of the fundamental institutions of Judaism, and was so regarded. It must now be added that the study of the divine revelation in the Scriptures, and of the interpretation and application of reve­ lation was an integral part of Jewish piety. It is a religious duty the fulfilment of which is requited in this world, but whose full reward is reserved for man in the World to Come, like that of honoring father and mother, doing deeds of lovingkindness, and making peace between a man and his fel­ low, "and the study of divine revelation (Talmud Torah) is equal to them all." This is not a boastful claim of the superi­ ority of learning to the fulfilment of the highest human obliga­ tions in the Law itself; it is a way of saying that the study of the Law is a religious duty of the first rank. The revelation itself is God's most precious gift. The whole world is not equal in worth to one word of the Law; all the commandments of the Law are not equal to one word of the Law. It should receive attention adequate to its unique worth. To give all one's time and thought to it would be the ideal life. Such was God's charge to Joshua: 'Thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein' (Josh, i, 8); and on him whose delight is in the law of his God, 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Part i, Chapter 6. For a collection of passages expressing a similar estimate of study, see Friedmann, Introduction to Seder Eliahu Rabbah, p. 109. M. Peah 1, 1. On the priority of study or deed see below, pp. 246 f. The incomparable worth of wisdom (e.g., Prov. 8, 1 1 ) is applied to the Torah (see Vol. I, pp. 263 ff.); Jer. Peah i$d, etc. Ibid. There is no greater proof of God's love to Israel than the multi­ tude of commandments he has given it. Sifre Deut. § 3 6 , end; Menahot 4 3 b , etc.; cf. the evening prayer, Ahabat 'Olam, Singer, Daily Prayer Book, p. 96. 2

3

4

5

6

239

PIETY

240

[PART VI

and who meditates therein day and night His blessing rests (Psalm i, 2 f.). The study of revelation, as we have seen, did not end with the study of Scripture; it included all the branches of learning which dealt with the interpretation of the Scriptures and the applica­ tion of their teachings to life — exegesis, legal rules and religious and moral lessons. Study, as well as prayer, is worship, like it called by the name of the service of the altar ( abodah). Like every other religious act, study is made such by the "intention" (Kawwanah) with which it is performed, the directing of the mind intently to Heaven. R. Johanan went to visit R. Eleazar, who was lying ill, and finding him weeping Risked, "Why are you weeping? Is it because you have not mastered the Law? We have the au­ thority of tradition, It matters not whether much or little, if only a man directs his mind to Heaven." The rabbis of Jamnia, in their antidote to the self-conceit which is the besetting sin of scholars in all ages, comparing their work with that of peasants in the fields, conclude: "If a scholar should say, I do much and the peasant does little (my work is of great value and his of small), we have learned, Whether much or little, if only a man directs his mind to Heaven." 1

2

c

2.

4

5

6

1

See, e.g., Tanhuma ed. Buber, Re'eh § 1 init. That the command to Joshua is not to be understood to exclude secular occupations is observed by R. Ishmael, Sifre § 42 (on Deut. 1 1 , 1 4 ) ; cf. Berakot 3 5 b . According to Johanan, Josh. 1, 8, is not a commandment (mVD) nor an obligation ( r Q i n ) , but a blessing ( r D " 0 ) . Menahot 99b, bottom. Midrash, Halakot, Haggadot. Sifre Deut. § 48 (ed. Friedmann f. 84b). One who loves the Torah (here the study of Scripture) will not be satisfied with Torah, but go on to Mishnah, and finally, for the same reason, to Tal­ mud. Lev. R. 22, 1. Sifre Deut. on Deut. 1 1 , 13 (§ 4 1 ; ed. Friedmann f. 80a, top). On prayer as worship, see above, pp. 217 f. Berakot 5 b . The Tannaite authority is found in M. Menahot 1 3 , 1 1 , where it is deduced from the laws about burnt-offerings, which range from a bullock to a bird. See below, p. 245. Berakot 1 7 a . The saying is quoted in various other applications; see Yoma 42a, top; Shebu'ot 1 5 a ; Shabbat 96a. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP.

STUDY

Ill]

241

Instances are cited in which study was regarded as a superior obligation to the appointed prayers, and the interruption of the learned labors of the school when the hour of prayer came around disapproved. The rabbis to whom this opinion or practice is attributed are, however, not a sufficient support for an inference that a similar attitude was taken in the period with which we are concerned. That scholars recited their prayers, when the time came, in the lecture room (Bet ha-Midrash) instead of the synagogue may very well have been an older custom, though there seems to be no early evidence of it. Like every other religious duty, the study of revelation should be pursued "for its own sake," that is with no admixture of self-regarding motive. The one true motive is love of God. Sup­ pose you say, I am learning Torah that I may get rich, or that I may be called Rabbi, or that I may gain reward (from God), the teaching of Scripture is, 'To love the Lord thy God' (Deut. 1 1 , 13); whatever ye do, do it only out of love. To the same intent on Deut. 11, 22: Suppose you say, I will learn Torah in order to be called learned, in order to have a seat in the academy, in order to have endless life in the World to Come, the teaching is, 'To love the Lord thy God.' Honor and blessing follow the study that is not done for their sake. The good consequences of such study are frequently men­ tioned. But here, as in the field of morals, it is taught that doing 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See J . D. Eisenstein in Jewish Encyclopedia, X, 166; I. Abrahams, Phari­ saism and the Gospels, Second Series, p. 84 n. 1. The R. Judah who is said to have recited the prayers only once a month (Rosh ha-Shanah 35a) is not, as a reader of the articles cited above might imagine, Rabbi Judah (ben Ila'i), the disciple of Akiba, and one of the great authorities of the second century, but Rab Judah (ben Ezekiel), a Babylonian Amora (disciple of Rab), who died ca. 300 A.D. R. Zeira (Shabbat 10a) was a disciple of Judah who migrated to Tiberias; Raba, who commented un­ favorably on R. Hamnuna's long praying when he was studying (Shabbat 10a), died in 352. All these examples come from one line of Babylonian scholars. Berakot 8a. The special prayers they said on entering the place of study (M. Berakot 4, 2 ; Jer. Berakot yd; Berakot 28b) are another matter. See above, pp. 96 ff. Sifre Deut. § 4 1 . Sifre Deut. § 48; Nedarim 62a. E.g., Sanhedrin 99b, R. Alexander; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Berakah § 4. 2

3

4

6

7

5

242

PIETY

[PART VI

right from an imperfect motive should be encouraged in the hope that it may end in doing it from a higher one. A Babylonian rabbi of the latter half of the fourth century used to pray at the close of the appointed prayer: "May it be thy good pleasure, O Lord our God, to make peace in the household above and the household below, and among the students who occupy them­ selves with thy Law, whether they do so for its own sake or not; and may those who do not occupy themselves with it for its own sake come to do so." To Rab is attributed the exhortation: "Let a man always labor in the study of the Law and doing the commandments, even though it be not for its own sake, for from this he will come to doing it for its own sake." The benefit of the study is enjoyed only by those who study the Law for its own sake. To one who does so his learning is made for him (by God) a life-giving elixir (according to Prov. 3, 8, 18; 8, 35); to him who studies it not for its own sake it is made a deadly poison (quoting Deut. 32, 2). The Law is not to be regarded as an antiquated edict (5i&rayjia) to which nobody pays any attention, but as a new one wihch every one runs to read. Every day when a man busies himself with the study of the Law, he should say to himself, It is as if this day I received it from Sinai. The Law is called ' a fire of a law' ( m wx): Every one who comes to occupy himself with the Law should regard himself as if he were standing in fire. In 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Familia. The angel princes who are over the heathen nations (cf. Dan. 10, 1 3 , 20), for their strife brings the nations into conflict on earth. Berakot i 6 b - i 7 a . Pesahim 50b; Sanhedrin 1 0 5 b ; 'Arakin 1 6 b ; and several other places. A quite similar saying of Rab Huna, Pesikta ed. Buber f. 1 2 1 a . Ta'anit 7 a . The poison is got out of Deut. 3 2 , 2, by somewhat violent exegesis. Cf. Sifre on this verse (§ 306), and see Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 540 n. 3. The author, R. Bena'ah, was a Palestinian rabbi of the end of the second century. Sifre Deut. § 33 (on Deut. 6, 6), reading HJSfiD with Midrash Tannaim. Similarly, Pesikta ed. Buber f. 102a (R. Eleazar); 1 0 7 a ; cf. 105a (Ben 'Azzai). Tanhuma ed. Buber, Yitro § 7 (Ben Zoma). The midrash in Pesikta as well as Tanhuma plays on the words "this day" in Exod. 1 9 , 1, where "that day" would be expected. Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 200a (Johanan). 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP. I l l ]

STUDY

243

what seem to us fanciful forms, the rabbis sought to impress on themselves and others that the student is himself receiving the Law from the Lawgiver as really as if he stood at the foot of Sinai amid the awe-inspiring scenery depicted in Exod. 1 9 , and Deut. 4 , 1 0 ff. A solemn responsibility rests on the scholar whose calling it is to teach and interpret this revelation. It is narrated that Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, a contemporary of Johanan ben Zakkai, was accustomed, on entering the school, to pray that no occasion of sin or error might occur by his fault, and on leaving it briefly gave thanks that God had appointed his lot in life among those who frequent the synagogue and the school, not the theatre and the circus, nor those that loaf on the street corners. To carry the devotional spirit into the learned study of Scrip­ ture has been a Christian ideal also. We are told of men who studied the Bible on their knees; but it may be doubted whether they understood it any better for the posture of body or mind, whatever edification they may have derived from it. Jewish scholars knew that understanding is an intellectual function, which is not promoted but perturbed by the intrusion of any mystical or emotional element. They prayed for intelligence, and to be kept from error, but they looked for the answer in the working of their own minds, and did not expect any super­ natural illumination. In the school of R. Ishmael it was taught, from Josh. 1 , 8 ('This book of the Law shall not depart from thy mouth'), that the obligation to study the Law is not like a debt, which a man can discharge by paying a fixed amount and be done with it; it is an abiding duty from which no one has authority to release himself. Shammai's maxim was, "Make thy study a regular thing; say little and do much; and meet every man with a 1

2

1

M. Berakot 4, 2. The prayers themselves are reported in the Talmud in loc. (Jer. Berakot 7 d ; Berakot 28b). Cf. his prayer after the Tefillah, Jer. Berakot 7 d (Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 12 n. 6). Menahot 99b, end. In the preceding context different opinions are re­ corded on a minimum fulfilment of this duty. Cf. Mekilta on Exod. 1 6 , 4 (ed. Friedmann f. 4 7 b ; ed. Weiss f. 55b). 2

24

PIETY

4

[PART VI

1

friendly mien." A commentary on the first of these recom­ mendations is the saying come down from Judah ben Ila'i: For­ mer generations made their study the regular thing and their secular occupation incidental, and both prospered in their hands; recent generations make their secular occupation the regular thing and their study incidental, and neither prospers in their hands. A later homilist will have it that a man who makes his study of the Law a matter of convenient seasons breaks the covenant (Psalm n^, 126). Many scholars, however, had to earn their own living, and there are not lacking opinions that secular occupation within limits was a good thing for learning too. R. Meir advises: "Be not much engaged in business, and busy yourself with the Law, and be lowly in spirit before every man. If you give yourself a vacation from study, you will find many reasons for wasting your time; but if you study industri­ ously, He has a great reward to give you." The benefits of such study are the subject of an eloquent pas­ sage in the appendix to Abot (c. 6), called from this passage at the beginning of it Kinyan Torah or Pirke R. Meir: "Whosoever labors in the Torah for its own sake merits many things; and not only so, but the whole world is indebted to him: he is called friend, beloved, a lover of the All-Present, a lover of mankind: it clothes him in meekness and reverence; it fits him to become just, pious, upright and faithful; it keeps him far from sin, and brings him near to virtue; through him the world enjoys counsel and sound knowledge, understanding and strength, as it is said, 'Counsel is mine, and sound knowledge; I am understanding; I have strength' (Prov. 8, 14); and it gives him sovereignty and 2

3

4

5

6

1

Abot 1, 1 5 . Berakot 35b. Cf. the similar saying of the same rabbi in Abot de-R. Nathan 28, 10. R. Simon. Jer. Berakot 146., top. R. Gamaliel, son of the Patriarch Judah, Eccles. R. on Eccles. 7, 1 1 . Above, pp. 127 f. Willing to learn from those less proficient than yourself. Abot 4, 1 0 . 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, I I I ]

STUDY

245

dominion and discerning judgment; to him the secrets of the Torah are revealed; he is made like a never-failing fountain, and like a river that flows on with ever-sustained vigour; he becomes modest, long-suffering, and forgiving of insults; and it magnifies and exalts him above all things." (Singer's translation.) Study of the divine revelation is here eulogized as — in Chris­ tian phrase — a means of grace, and it must be admitted that it would not be easy to exhibit the fruits of such study more comprehensively. 1

The learned as well as the pious have always been tempted to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think in comparison with others. Paul has to warn his Christians against it, and to remind them that the measure of faith is a gift un­ equally distributed by God. Johanan ben Zakkai, who lived in memory as the unrivalled master of all branches of Jewish learn­ ing, gave a like warning: "If you have learned a great deal of Torah, do not claim credit for yourself, for that is what you were made for." Humility is the condition of true learning. "As wine does not keep in vessels of gold or silver, but in the meanest of vessels, earthenware, so the words of the Law (the results of study) keep only in one who humbles himself." It was a current saying of the rabbis of Jamnia: "I am a creature (a human being) and my fellow is a creature; my work is in town and his work is in the field; I rise early to my work, and he to his. As he does not esteem his occupation superior to mine, so I do not esteem mine 2

3

4

5

1

Not like a cistern, which only retains what is put into it. Cf. Sifre Deut. § 48 (ed. Friedmann 84a, above); Abot 2, 8, where R. Johanan ben Zakkai compares Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus to a cemented cistern from which not a drop escapes, and Eleazar ben 'Arak to a welling spring. Romans 12, 3. Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 27 f. On his reputation as a religious man as well as a scholar and teacher see Sukkah 28a. Abot 2, 8. Cf. Sanhedrin 99b, top (Eleazar ben Pedat). Sifre Deut. § 48 (on 1 1 , 2 2 ; ed. Friedmann f. 84a). The parallel in Mid­ rash Tannaim (p. 42), reads: "The words of the Law do not keep in one who is in his own esteem like a vessel of silver or of gold, but in one who is in his own esteem like the lowliest of vessels, an earthenware jar." 2

3

4

5

246

PIETY

[PART VI

superior to his. Perhaps you may say, I accomplish much and he little, but we are taught, It matters not whether much or little, if only a man directs his mind to Heaven." The scholar and the peasant respect each other's calling, and the scholar recognizes that in God's sight it is not the nature of a man's work nor its intrinsic importance that counts, but the wholeheartedness of the thought of God with which it is done. Advanced studies in the Law, with all the benefits that accrue from them, are not the privilege of any class — sons of elders or great men or prophets — the Scripture teaches that all men are on an equality in this field. Learning is a pure democracy, in which the private person is on an equality with a king. Among the great scholars and teachers all social classes were represented — the contemporary heads of two great schools, Ishmael and Akiba, may be taken as examples of the extremes. Another thing that the Scripture makes too plain to be ever forgotten is that though knowledge of divine revelation is prop­ erly an end in itself, it can — even for its own sake — never be divorced from the doing of God's revealed will. A single quota­ tion may suffice for the attitude of Judaism on this point. On Deut. I I , 22 ('If ye pay good attention to all this command­ ment,' etc.) the exegetical question is raised, Is it to be inferred that if a man pay attention (in study) to words of the Law, he may sit still and not do them? It is to exclude this inference that the words are added, 'which I command you to do — you shall turn (from study) to do them. Every scholar is familiar with the conflict of obligations which frequently arise between the jealous claims of his calling as a scholar and the opportunities — or importunities — of " practical usefulness," in rabbinical phrase, between learning and good 1

2

3

4

5

1

Berakot 17a. These utterances, it may be remarked, come from the earliest and most authoritative Pharisaic sources. Deut. 1 1 , 22; cf. 33, 4; 29, 9. Sifre Deut. §48 (ed. Friedmann f. 84b, top). Read UK^ (Midrash Tannaim, p. 43). Cf. ibid. § 41 (f. 79b, middle). Sifre Deut. § 161, on 17, 19 f. (105b, below). Sifre Deut. § 48 (f. 84b, below). 2

3

4

5

STUDY

CHAP. I l l ]

247

works. The question of the priority of obligation in such cases was propounded to a conference of rabbis at Lydda: Is studying the greater thing, or doing? R. Tarfon gave his voice for doing, but R. Akiba for study; and the decision was unanimous in his favor, on the ground that "study leads to doing," or as it is expressed elsewhere, " doing is dependent on learning, not learn­ ing on doing." It is obvious that in the complexity of life no such simple rule will always meet the case; but those who framed it at least under­ stood that, in the logic of it, right doing depends on knowing what to do and how to do it. It would be interesting, if space and the immediate purpose of these pages permitted, to quote the many sound maxims about the method of learning, for example, the fundamental paedagogic principle, repetitio est mater studiorum, the abandonment of which in the vagaries of "educational psychology" is one of the chief causes of the inferiority of our "new education." The Jewish ideal of religious learning may be read in the following extract from a Christian aid to piety: In hearing the word of God, "be sure you be of a ready heart and mind, free from worldly cares and thoughts, diligent to hear, careful to mark, studious to re­ member, and desirous to practice all that is commanded, and to live according to it." The Law of God perpetually in man's mind (Deut. 6, 6 f.) guides him on his way, guards him in his sleep and converses with him when he wakes — guides him through this world, guards him in the hour of death, will be with him when he awakes in the days of the Messiah, and converses with him in the World to Come. 1

2

3

4

1

kiddushin 40b. The decision is cited in several other places: Megillah 2 7 a ; Baba Kamma 1 7 a ; Jer. Pesahim 30b; Jer. IJagigah 7 6 c (Bacher, Tan­ naiten, I, 303). Sifre Deut. § 4 1 , on 1 1 , 13 (ed. Friedmann f. 79a, below). The heaviest penalty is denounced upon the neglect of study — ' they have spurned the law of the Lord of Hosts' (Isa. 5, 24); ' there is no knowledge of God in the land' (Hos. 4, 1 ) . Ibid. 79a-b. Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, iv. 4. Sifre Deut. § 3 4 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 4 b , top), after Prov. 6, 2 2 . 2

3

4

C H A P T E R

IV

CHASTISEMENT

A NOTABLE feature of the piety of this age is its attitude toward the afflictive dispensations of Providence in the development of the idea of chastisement. With the Scriptures in their hands the rabbis could not but recognize that many of the inflictions which befall the people or the individual are retributive, the penalty of transgression or neglect of the holy will of God. This was the moral of the history of the nation as it was drawn by the prophets, looking backward and forward over it. The comminations in Lev. 26, 14-39 d Deut. 28, 15-68, as appalling as were ever penned, denounce every conceivable kind of evil on the people that will not hearken unto God and will not do all his command­ ments. These threats, which like those of the prophets were originally collective, in the personalizing of the whole doctrine of retribution, were applied, so far as their nature permitted, to in­ dividuals also. In the study of such lessons in the Law and the Prophets an association was discovered between specific offenses and corre­ sponding penalties, and it was inferred that such correspondence was a principle of divine retribution. Accordingly we find certain diseases, for example, said to come for certain sins of the indi­ vidual, or as epidemics for prevalent sins in the community. Lep­ rosy, which had always been in a peculiar way the stroke of God,, was inflicted on account of peculiarly grave sins. Johanan enu­ merated seven: slander, homicide, false swearing, licentiousness,, haughtiness, robbery, and stinginess. Women die in childbirth for neglect of the three obligations which rest exclusively on a n

1

2

3

1

Lev. 26, 14 f., 2 7 ; Deut. 28, 14, 58. In this proceeding large use was made of Lev. 26. See a list of eight by Eleazar ben Judah of Bartota, Shabbat 32b~33a. Bacher, Tannaiten I, 2

4 4 3 - 4 4 4 , and notes. 3

'Arakin 16a. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mesora' § 10 and parallels raise the: count to eleven. 248

CHAP, i v ]

CHASTISEMENT

249

1

them. Children die for the sins of their parents, several of which are specified by rabbis of the second century. Some ingenuity is displayed in matching diseases with sins, as when R. Eleazar ben Jose makes out that a disease that cut off the breath and was accounted the worst of nine hundred and three kinds of death comes in consequence of slander, in support of which a later rabbi finds a text in Psalm 63,12, 'The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped/ An epidemic of this dreaded disease was attributed to neglect of the study of the Law, which was a cause of the death of children by other ailments. It is unnecessary to expand further on this topic; most of the opinions recorded are mere midrash, which is not to be taken more seriously than it was meant. So far as they have any other motive, it is not to serve as an inventory of crimes and penalties, but to be a warning against transgression or negligence, as in the Mishnah (Shabbat 2, 6) cited above. That men, like Job's com­ forters, inferred their neighbor's sin from his suffering, and great sin from great suffering, is a logical consequence of an unquali­ fiedly moral conception of Providence, and had abundant biblical warrant. To whatever uncharitable judgments this led when it was ap­ plied to others, it had its merits when a man was led by affliction 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

M. Shabbat 2, 6. The Talmud on this Mishnah (32a~33b) is the prin­ cipal locus for this whole subject. Shabbat 32b. ftnaDK. Probably diphtheria. Berakot 8a. The 903 deaths have the numerical value of the word nifittTin in Psalm 68, 21 ('the issues of death/). npB> m n "•£) r D B \ etymologizing Shabbat 33b. Cf. Eccles. R. on 9, 2; the spies who brought back an evil report of the land died thus. Shabbat 33b and 32b. A sufficient collection will be found by the curious in Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, 193-197 (on Luke 13, 2). Strack-Billerbeck, 1. c. p. 193: So gewann man ein formliches Strafverzeichnis fur die einzelnen Siinden. (See the sequel.) See also Tos. Shabbat 2, 10 (Jose ben JEJalafta). The principle of 'measure for measure* is often enounced, e.g., Sifre Deut. § 308 (on 32, 5; ed. Friedmann f. 133b), quoting 2 Sam. 22, 27; San­ hedrin 90a, end (all God's dealings with men are 'measure for measure'). Striking examples from law and history, M. Sotah 1, 7-9. 2 4

5

6

7

8

9

10

3

250

PIETY

[PART VI 1

to examine himself, with a view to repentance and amendment. A Midrash thus applies Isa. 26, 20 (' Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors behind thee/ etc.): "Search in the inner chambers of thy heart, and see whether it be not on account of thy sins that I have brought upon thee afflic­ tions — thy chambers are the chambers of the reins (Prov. 20, 27) — and if afflictions have come upon thee, do not complain of God's justice, but * close thy doors behind thee; hide thyself a little moment, till the indignation passes.' Afflictions do not come to last forever; they are passing, as the text says." If a man see that afflictions are coming upon him, let him examine his conduct, as it is said, 'Let us search and try our ways, and turn to the Lord' (repent). Examples of self-examination and of the help intimates may give in the inquiry are not infrequent. A story is told about R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, that he was once arrested on a charge of being a Christian. He was discharged; but returned home much chagrined that he should have fallen under this suspicion, and unable to explain why such a visitation should have befallen him, until Akiba suggested that it might be that he had listened too complacently to some heretical utterance, whereupon he re­ membered that he had once heard from one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, Jacob of Kefar Sekanya, a response of Jesus to a halakic question, which pleased him well, thus transgressing the injunction of Scripture, 'Remove thy way far from her, and come not near the door of her abode; for she has laid low many slain' (Prov. 5, 8, combined with 7, 26). 2

3

4

5

6

1

Suffering and the consciousness of sin, see Psalm 3 1 , 11 ff.; 38, 4 ff.; 3 9 ,

9 - 1 2 ; 40, 1 3 ; 4 1 , 4 f . , etc. 2

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyese § 5, end. Lam. 3, 40. Berakot 5a. — On the self-examination of the righteous see also Psalms of Solomon, 3, 5 - 1 0 . The sequel shows that the 'heresy* (minut) for which he was taken up by the Roman authorities was so understood by the narrator. The 'strange woman' of the Proverbs is heresy. Cf. the similar interpre­ tation of Eccles. 7, 26 in Eccles. R. Tos. Ifullin 2, 24; 'Abodah Zarah i 6 b - i 7 a (in uncensored texts). 3

4

5

6

CHAP, i v ]

CHASTISEMENT

251

A more trivial case is that of Rab Huna, who had four hundred large jars of wine go sour on his hands. His colleagues, hearing of his loss, bade him review his conduct. Do you suspect me? he asked. Is God to be suspected of injustice? they replied. — If any one has heard anything about me, let him say so. — Why does not the master give cuttings to the vine-dresser? — Is there any of it left for me when he is through? He steals them all! — People say, Steal from a thief, and you get the same flavor. — He thereupon pledged himself to give him the cuttings; and some say that the vinegar turned to wine again, and some that the price of vinegar went up so that it sold at the price of wine. In his self-examination a man was guided by the belief that in divine retribution there was a principle of talio, evil deeds were requited in kind. "Where the sin began, there the retribution sets in." It is so of a member of the human body, as in the effect of the ordeal of the bitter water on the adulteress — her belly will swell and her thigh fall away (Num. 5, 27). The principle is illustrated by numerous examples of other kinds. The notion is familiar. In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Reuben, for incest with Bilhah, his father's concubine, was smitten with a grievous ailment in his loins, and and was sick unto death for seven months. Gad hated Joseph for his tale-bearing and for his dreams, and as his liver was merciless toward Joseph, whom he would have liked to consume out of the land of the living as an ox licks up the grass of the field, God sent upon him a liver complaint of which he suffered mercilessly 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

To which the farmer on shares (metayer) had a right (Baba Mesi'a

103b). 2

3

It is theft. Berakot 5 b . This principle is enounced in Mekilta, Beshallah 6, on Exod. 14, 27 (ed. Friedman f. 3 2 b ; ed. Weiss f. 3 9 a ) , with an array of examples and prooftexts, beginning with the Egyptians who meant to drive the Israelites into the sea to drown. Cf. M. Sotah 1, 7. So it came that Samson's eyes were put out; that Absalom was hanged by the hair he was so proud of; he was pierced by ten darts because of the ten concubines of his father whom he lay with (ibid. 1, 8). Sifre Num. § 18 (on 5, 2 7 ) . Reuben 1, 6 ff. 4

5

6

7

PIETY

252

[PART VI

for as many months as he had cherished his hatred of his brother; "for whereby a man transgressed, thereby he is punished." Retribution, even thus conceived as in this sense retaliatory in kind and measure, was not vindictive, or was so only in the case of the irreclaimably bad who persisted in provoking their doom. God's end in punishment was not to make the sinner suffer what he deserved, but through suffering to bring him to penitence and amendment. So the prophets had taught both for the nation and the individual, and so Judaism understood. For afflictions sent to this intent and received in this spirit, chastisement is in our language an apter name than punishment, and Judaism makes the same distinction between afflictive dispensations conceived as of the nature of fatherly discipline, and the exaction of a penalty. 1

2

To Deut. 6, 5 ('Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . with all thy soul and with all thy means') the Midrash significantly at­ taches an anthology of sayings about the worth of chastisements from seven or eight of the leading Tannaim, chiefly of the third generation. If one remembers that several of these were men who had witnessed the catastrophe of their people in the war under Hadrian or lived in the misery of the generation following, he will feel a deeper pathos in their eulogies of suffering, and gratitude to God in it and for it. To appreciate the passage, it should be read as a whole; here only a summary can be given. Akiba, the teacher of four of those who contribute to this col­ lection, himself one of the victims of Hadrian's edict against teaching, once in company with three colleagues visited R. 3

4

1

At' &v yap 6 avdpwiros irapavbiiei hi 6Keivo)v KoKd^erai. Gad 5, 10. In almost the same words, DTO JHSJ U IKDnfc? HM, Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 3 3 , near the end. See also Wayyera § 28 (Abimelech, Judges 9, 5 3 ) ; Jubilees 4, 31 (Cain); 2 Mace. 5, 10; 9, 5 f; 13, 8; Wisdom 1 1 , 16, etc. The former areyissurin (chastisements); the latter,puranut (retribution, punishment). Since both are sufferings, both words can be used more loosely. Sifre Deut. § 32 (f. 73a-b); also Mekilta, Bahodesh 10 (ed. Friedmann f. 720-73a; ed. Weiss f. 7 9 b ) . Out of the same situation comes the saying of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel (II) in Shabbat 13b, "We also cherish afflictions, but they are so many that time would fail to record them." 2

3

4

CHASTISEMENT

CHAP. I V ]

253

Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus) who lay ill. The others paid the great scholar extravagant compliments — he was worth more to Israel than the sun, than rain, than parents — when it came Akiba's turn he said, "Precious are chastisements," and supported his estimate by the example of King Manasseh, for whom chastise­ ment did what all his father's instruction did not do, made him know that the Lord was God (2 Chron. 33, 10-13). To Akiba is also properly attributed the application of Deut. 6,6 (' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . with all thy means'): "In whichever measure He metes out to thee, whether the measure of good or the measure of punishment." For the former Psalm 116, 13, and Job 1, 21b, are quoted; for the latter, Job 2, 9 f. That men should give thanks to God for ill fortune as well as for good is a reiterated teaching. "A man is bound to give thanks for the evil just as he gives thanks for the good (Deut. 6, 6). . . . 'With all thy means.' With whatever measure He metes out to thee, be very thankful to Him." Akiba goes further than this: A man should rejoice in chas­ tisements more than in good fortune- for if a man lives in good fortune all his days his sin is not remitted. How is it remitted? Through chastisements. That sufferings, borne as chastisements, 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Dear, D U ^ n . So Yalkut I § 837, in an extract from Sifre Deut. § 32. Our texts of Sifre have R. Jacob. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 3 2 1 . In me'od (E. V. 'might'), he finds middah, 'measure.' By a similar pro­ cedure R. Meir found in Gen. 1, 3 1 , niE ('very good,') the lesson, DID, 'death is good.' Gen. R. 9, 5. The play on words cannot be imitated in translation. Bekol middah umiddah shehu moded leka hewi modeh lo bimeod me'od. M. Berakot 9, 5. The obligation to give thanks for evil as for good, Berakot 3 3 b ; 4 8 b ; 54a, etc. Cf. Romans 5, 3, We rejoice in tribulations. See Shabbat 88b: Those who being reviled revile not again (cf. 1 Pet. 2, 2 3 ; 1 Cor. 4, 12), hearing dis­ graceful things said of them make no answer, act habitually out of love, and rejoice in afflictions (chastisements), of such the Scripture says: And those who love Him are as the sun when it goeth forth in its heroic strength (Judges 5, 3 1 ) ; also Gittin 3 6 b , end; Yoma 23a. Sifre 1. c. (f. 7 3 b ) . An illustration of the belief that a man who has al­ ways fared well has "had his world" here, Sanhedrin 1 0 1 a . Akiba by the sick bed of R. Eiiezer: So long as everything went well with him, "I said, Is it possible — God forbid — that my master has received his world (here, and 2

8

4

5

6

254

PIETY

[PART VI 1

are an atonement for sins is the common belief. R. Nehemiah said: Precious are sufferings (yissurin), for as sacrifices atone so do sufferings atone (Lev. i, 4; Lev. 26, 43); they are a better atonement than sacrifice, for sacrifices are of a man's property, sufferings in his person, and ' all that a man hath will he give for his life' (Job 2, 4). On the other hand, chastisements are an evidence of God's love, and through them man becomes dearer to God. So R. Eiiezer ben Jacob: " 'Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he takes pleasure' (Prov. 3, 1 2 ) — What makes a son pleasing to his father? You must say, chas­ tisements." Meir: "'Thou shalt know i n thy heart that as a man chastises his son, so the Lord thy God chastises thee' (Deut. 8,5). — Thou and thy heart (conscience) know the deeds thou hast done and the chastisements I have inflicted upon thee, that I have not inflicted on thee anything like what thy deeds deserved." R. Jose ben Judah: Precious to God are chastise­ ments, for the Glory of God lights on those on whom chas­ tisements come, as it is said, 'The Lord thy God (in person) chastises thee.' Three great gifts which the peoples of the world vainly desire were given to Israel only through sufferings, viz., the Law, and the Land of Israel, and the World to Come. Proof of the last is Prov. 6, 23, 'For the commandment is a lamp, and the Torah is light, and the way of life is disciplinary correction.' What is the 2

3

4

5

6

7

has no prospect beyond). Now that I see my master in tribulation I rejoice." Cf. Luke 16, 25. Chastisements wipe out all a man's sins. Berakot 5a, below. For the teaching of R. Ishmael on this point (in some cases a partial expiation), see Mekilta, Bahodesh 7 (ed. Friedmann f. 68b; ed. Weiss f. 76a), and the numerous parallels cited in Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV, col. 4224. Cf. Psalms of Solomon, 13, 9 f. Mekilta, Bahodesh 10 (ed. Friedmann f. 73a; ed. Weiss f. 79b, end); Sifre Deut. § 32 (ed. Friedmann f. 73b, middle), etc. Hebrews 12, 5 f.; Revelation of John 3, 19. DJJ, 'with.' Cf. Syr. Apocalypse of Baruch 79, 2. For this and the preceding utterances see Sifre 1. c. (f. 73b). Proof-texts for the first two, Prov. 1, 2; Psalm 94, 12; Deut. 8, 5, 7. 1

2

3

5

6

7

4

CHAP, i v ]

CHASTISEMENT

255

way that brings a man to the World to Come? "You must say, chastisements." The biblical sources of these beliefs about chastisements and the spirit in which it should be received are in part apparent from the quotations. Others that might have been brought in are Lam. 3, 27-33 ^ J°k 5> 7 - The same teachings appear, as we should expect, in Sirach: "A man's compassion is for his neighbor; the compassion of the Lord on all flesh, correcting, and disciplining and instructing, and turning back, as a shepherd his flock. On those who accept his discipline he has compassion, and those who hasten to keep his laws." "He who hates correction walks in the track of the sinner, and he who fears the Lord will turn (repent) in his heart.'' The theme is frequent in the Psalms of Solomon: " Blessed is the man whom the Lord remem­ bers with correction and turns him from an evil way with the rod, that he may be purified from sin and not make it more." God "warns the upright like a dear son, and his discipline is like that of an only son " (13, 8 f.). It is the same in the literature of the Greek-speaking Jews. " Being chastised a little they will re­ ceive great good; for God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the crucible he proved them, and accepts them as a whole burnt offering." Parallels to the extracts given above from the Sifre and varia­ tions on the theme could be cited in numbers, but those ad­ duced exhibit in sufficient completeness the attitude of the great masters of the second century. 1

a n c

I

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Sifre Deut. § 32 (f. 7 3 b , middle). See above, p. 2 5 3 , n. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 152b, The way of life are chastisements (Prov. 6, 23). Acts 1 4 , 22, Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdom of God. 2

3

e\eyx°>v

iraidev&v

didaaKCtiv. 4

Ecclus. 1 8 , 13 f.; cf. 3 5 , 14 f. Ibid. 2 1 , 6; cf. 3 5 , 1 7 (32, 2 1 ) . Psalms of Solomon 10, 1 - 3 , 6, n - 1 5 ; see also 3, 4 f.; and incidentally in numerous other places. The whole passage, 13, 5 - 1 0 . See also the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 78, 3 ; 7 9 , 2 (in the Letter of Baruch). Wisdom of Solomon 3, 5 f. (note the context); see 1 2 , 2, 20 ff*.; etc. 2 Mace. 6, 1 3 - 1 6 ; 7, 32 f.; 1 0 , 4 . See e.g. Berakot 5a. 5

6

7

8

256

PIETY

[PART VI

There are afflictions for which self-examination discovers no ex­ planation either in the way of transgression or of negligence. For such a special category was made, "chastisements of love." "Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth' (Prov. 3, 12). Every one "in whom the Holy God takes pleasure, he crushes with sufferings, as it is said, 'The Lord took pleasure (in him); he crushed him, made him ill'" (Isa. 53, 10). Such evidences of God's peculiar love must be accepted in corresponding love: "If thoumakest his life a sacrifice of restitution (D^K).' — As a resti­ tution-sacrifice is made with consciousness (of the reason), so chastisements (are to be received) with consciousness (of the reason, sc. God's love). Then only do they have the consequences promised in the second half of the verse, "He shall see his posterity and prolong his days; and the purpose of the Lord shall succeed through his instrumentality' (Isa. 53, 10b). In the Babylonian schools the question was further discussed by what external signs such chastisements might be recognized. Some thought that only such afflictions as did not interrupt study or interfere with prayers were to be so regarded. Leprosy and the loss of children could not be chastisements of love. Upon these refinements it is unnecessary to dwell; in any case they belong to a later period. 1

2

3

4

1

For example, insufficient diligence in study, an extensive possibility. Raba (or R. Hisda), Berakot 5a. The translation is accommodated to the preceding midrash. Berakot 5a. Raba, through an intermediary, from Rab Huna, head of the academy at Sura, d. 296/7 A.D. Berakot 5b. This sentence is fittingly attributed to R. Johanan, who had lost ten sons. 2

3

4

C H A P T E R

V

FASTING

I N AN earlier chapter some account has been given of the cal­ endar fasts and of the occasional fasts appointed by public au­ thority when calamity threatened the community. We have here to do with fasting as a phase of personal piety. It is to be ob­ served, however, that as the act of penitence on the Day of Atonement and in the preceding days from New Years on was individual, though universal, so the obligatory strict fast on the Day of Atonement and the voluntary abstinences imposed on themselves by pious Jews on some of the intermediate days are individual in their character. The regulations for mourning do not prescribe fasting, of which it was an ancient concomitant, though in the interval between the death and the burial (unless on a Sabbath) the mourners must abstain from flesh and wine. The story of Judith, who through all her widowhood fasted every day except Friday and Saturday of each week and the festivals with the day before, is told as an exceptional instance of wifely devotion. Examples of self-imposed abstinence as a penance for mortal sin are given in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. For seven years Reuben drank no wine or other liquor, no flesh passed his lips, and he ate no appetizing food, but continued mourning over his sin, for it was great. In the fear of the Lord, Simeon afflicted his soul with fasting for two years for his hatred 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Above, pp. 55 ff. On this subject see I. Abrahams, Pharisaism and the Gospels. First Series, pp. 1 2 1 - 1 2 8 . Above, pp. 62 f. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkot Ebel 4, 6 - 9 ; 5, iff. — Biblical examples of fasting in mourning for an eminent man are 1 Sam. 3 1 , 1 3 ; 2 Sam. 2

3

4

1, 1 2 ; 3, 3 5 . 5

Mo'ed !Katon 23b.

6

Test. Reuben 1, 1 0 .

257

PIETY

258

[PART VI

1

of Joseph. Judah, in repentance for his sin with Tamar, to his old age took neither wine nor flesh, and saw no pleasure. By the side of these instances we may put an utterance of R. Meir about the penance of Adam; for a hundred and thirty years (Gen. 5, 3), he lived apart from Eve, and all that time wore a girdle of fig-leaves next his skin. In all these legendary cases it is probable that there lurks a vague notion of satisfaction which justifies us in using of them the word penance. The authors assumed that the transgression had been repented of, confessed, and pardon besought and be­ stowed. That fasting has an expiatory value is distinctly ex­ pressed in the Psalms of Solomon (3, 8 f.): The righteous man continually investigates his household to remove the guilt in­ curred by transgression. He makes atonement for inadvertent sins by fasting, and afflicts his soul. A Babylonian rabbi of the third century would have his fasting received in commutation of sacrifice. When he was fast­ ing he used to pray at the close of the Tefillah: "Lord of the Worlds, thou knowest that while the temple stood if a man sinned he brought a sacrifice, and they offered only the fat and the blood of it and atonement was made for him. And now I have sat fasting, and my fat and blood have been diminished; may it be thy good pleasure that this diminution of my fat and blood be as though I had offered a sacrifice upon thine altar, and be thou gracious to me." It is perhaps in this aspect especially that it is associated with almsgiving. 2

3

4

5

The prevailing notion, however, is that fasting is an act of humiliation before God. This conception, expressed by the 1

Test. Simeon 3, 4. Test. Judah 15, 4. It should not be forgotten, however, that beside these examples of penance, the Testaments have a very high conception of the effect of true repentance. See especially the fine passage in the Testament of Gad (5, 6-8) on its effect on the penitent himself. 'Erubin 18b. Cf. the Latin Vita Adae et Evae §§ 4 ff. R. Sheshet. Berakot 1 7 a . Tobit 12, 8. The merit in fasting is the almsgiving, Berakot, 6 b . What a man thus spared he gave to the needy, e.g. Testament of Joseph 3, 5. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, v ]

FASTING

259

phrase' afflict one's soul/ so predominates that it has almost com­ pletely superseded the old word for 'fast' (sum), which conveys only the physical fact of abstinence from food. The association of the phrase in the meaning 'fast' is with the law of the Day of Atonement, which connects it indissolubly with the act of peni­ tence. And, like every rite of propitiation, its virtue lies, not in the outward circumstance, but in the sincerity of the repentance which is the substance of it. The words of Psalm 25, 3, 'They shall be put to shame that behave deceptively without cause/ are once explained: "These are the men who (on occasion of a public fast) fast without repentance." Long before, Sirach wrote: "A man who performs his ablution to purify himself from contact with a dead body, and then touches it again — of what avail was his ablution ? So is a man who fasts to get rid of his sins and goes again and does the same thing — who will listen to his prayer, and what profit is there in his humbling himself." Of such vain fasting the Testament of Asher says: "Another commits adultery and fornication, and abstains from food; and (even) while fasting does evil to others." 1

2

3

In the case of an individual as in that of the community, fast­ ing in one aspect is connected with mourning customs, a gesture of sorrow for wrong-doing; in another it is an appeal to the mercy of God through the spectacle of his client's distress. Fasting is always a potent auxiliary of prayer, not only for forgiveness, but for the other needs and desires of the suppliant. "If a man prays and is not answered, he should fast — 'The Lord will answer thee in the day of distress'" (Psalm 20, i; cf. 51, 15). In the common text of Matt. 17, 21, Jesus explains to his disciples, who asked why they failed in an exorcism, that the species of demon 4

5

1

Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 25, 3 (ed. Buber, f. 106a). Ecclus. 31 (34), 30 f. See Vol. I, pp. 508 f. Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Asher 2, 8 f. See e.g. Psalm 3 5 , 13 f.; Ezra 8, 21 ff*.; Dan. 9, 3 . The classical example is David, 2 Sam. 1 2 , 1 5 - 2 3 . Jer. Berakot 8a, top; Jer. Ta'anit 65c, top. "Distress" (mx) taken for fasting. 2

3

4

5

260

PIETY

[PART VI

1

they were dealing with can be expelled only through prayer and fasting. The verse is omitted by recent editors as an amplified intrusion from Mark, but it very early found its way into the manuscript tradition both in the East and the West, and ex­ presses a belief entertained by Christians and Jews alike that fasting gives more force to prayer. Mention may also be made of fasting as a preparation for revelation, as in the example of Moses (Exod. 24,15 f.; Daniel 9, 3, 20-22; 10, 2fT.). 2

3

4

5

Besides the fasts which individuals observed for specific reasons, fasting was also practiced as a religious exercise by such as aspired to a superior piety. We read that the disciples of John the Baptist did not understand why the disciples of Jesus did not fast as they and the Pharisees did, apparently at set times. Among the Pharisees Monday and Thursday were the customary days thus observed. The teaching of the Twelve Apostles en­ joins: "Let not your fasts coincide with those of the hypocrites. For they fast on Mondays and Thursdays; but do you fast on Tuesdays and Fridays." The only reason given for the choice of the second and fifth days of the week is a piece of far-fetched midrash: after the sin of the golden calf Moses went up to the mountain on Thursday and came down again (at the end of forty days) on a Monday. Therefore the learned ordained that men should fast on those days. 6

7

8

9

1

See the fuller description in Mark 9, 1 7 - 2 7 . Mark 9, 29, by prayer. The Shema* and the recitation of certain Psalms, particularly Psalm 3 and 9 1 , were believed to be peculiarly efficacious. For an example in a case of general supplication, see 2 Mace. 1 3 , 1 0 - 1 2 . Yoma 4 b (R. Jonathan). Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 388 n. Cf. Exod. 34, 28. In the later apocalypses this becomes a regular procedure; see 4 Esdras 5> ° ; > 3 5 ; 9> - ' > S - Y - Baruch 5, 7 ; 9, 2 ; 20, 5 f. Mark 2, 1 8 ; Matt. 9, 1 4 ; Luke 5, 3 3 . The disciples of John had prayers of their own, as those of the rabbis had. Luke 1 1 , 1. In the Pharisee's prayer, Luke 1 8 , 1 2 , he says, "I fast twice a week and tithe everything that I get." Didache c. 8. They are (like the Jews) to say their prayers three times a day; but to use the Lord's Prayer instead of the Tefillah. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera § 1 6 . 2

3

4

6

2

6

6

7

8

9

2

6

f

I2

1

S

r

FASTING

CHAP. V ]

261

We have already seen that these days were appointed for the public rain fasts. Considerations of a practical character prob­ ably determined the choice; it interposed one day on each side of the Sabbath between that season of religious joy and a fast day, and it left the longest possible interval between the two fasting days. The same reasons applied to the voluntary fasts of indi­ viduals. A man might impose upon himself by a vow the obliga­ tion to fast every Monday and Thursday throughout the year; it was understood, however, that if one of these was a festal day on which fasting was not permissible, his private vow gave way to the general rule. The fast, like all Jewish fasts except the Day of Atonement and the Ninth of Ab, which were from evening to evening, lasted from dawn to the first appearance of the stars after sunset. There was no objection to hearty meals before and after these limits. The motives that might lead men to resolve to keep such fasts are various. When it became the custom of pious people, doubt­ less many adopted it because it was the custom of such people. Others may have vowed it in mourning for some public calamity or private affliction, or in penance for some sin. But it seems likely that a motive of less personal character had a large part in it. Like the scholars who devoted their lives to the knowledge of the Law, like the Pharisees with their scrupulousness in the utmost refinements of the religious and charitable taxes or the rules of ceremonial purity, or like the martyrs who were faithful to their religion tinto death, those who made semi-weekly fasting a rule of life for themselves felt that in so doing they represented their people before God as it was in the ideal. Theirs was in this 1

2

3

4

1

See above, pp. 67 f. Monday and Thursday were also the week days on which a service with the reading of lessons from the Scriptures was held in the synagogues, which was believed to be an ordinance of Ezra. Jer. Megillah 7 5 a ; Baba Kamma 82a. See Vol. I, p. 296. Ta'anit 1 2 a . In Ta'anit 1. c. the case is contemplated of the proclamation of a new day of this kind after the vow was made. In that case his private vow takes precedence of the general festal day. 2

3 4

262

PIETY

[PART VI

sense a vicarious piety which might incline God to overlook the deficiency of others and be gracious to the whole nation. In some vague way, at least, we may believe that this representative relation was in the the minds of seriously religious men among them. An analogy existed in the public fasts for rain, in which, if the rains did not begin at the seasonable time the religious heads of the community first fasted alone, and only if this did not suffice proclaimed a general fast. The destruction of Jerusalem with its temple by Titus in the year 70, the disastrous issue of the wide-spread rising under Trajan, and the final catastrophe in the war under Hadrian, re­ vived the temper in which the four memorial fasts in Zechariah had been kept. These fasts, which apparently were discontinued after the rebuilding of the temple in 516 B . C , were renewed. The Ninth of Ab now commemorated the destruction of the second temple as well as the first, and to these was added the fall of Bether. It could hardly be but that under these evidences of divine displeasure the penitential aspect of fasting should have become predominant; and that private fasting should have be­ come more frequent, and that some should have prescribed for themselves modes of continual penance. After the destruction of the temple some altogether gave up eating meat and drinking wine, because the daily sacrifice and libation had ceased; but the leading rabbis disapproved their abstinence. R. Joshua (ben Hananiah) pointed out to such that their logic would carry them much farther; they could not eat figs and grapes because the first fruits had not been brought, nor bread because there were no more " two loaves" and shew bread, nor drink water because there was no water libation at Taber­ nacles. After the war under Hadrian R. Ishmael ben Elisha said: From the day when the temple was destroyed we should by rights make a decree binding upon ourselves not to eat flesh nor drink 1

2

3

4

1

3

Above, pp. 67 f. M. Ta'anit 4, 6.

2

4

Zech. 7, 3 - 5 ; 8, 1 9 . Tos. Sotah 15, 11 f; cf. Baba Batra 60b.

CHAP.

263

FASTING

V ]

wine, but it is a principle not to impose on the community a decree that the majority of the community cannot live up to. And from the triumph of the heathen empire which imposes upon us dire and cruel edicts and stops the study of the Law and fulfil­ ment of the commandments, and does not let us circumcise our sons, we should by right make a decree for ourselves not to take a wife or beget sons, so that the race of Abraham might come to its end in this way. Such a decree, however, would not be observed; and the deliberate violation of it would be worse than marrying without seeing anything wrong in it. 1

2

3

In these manifestations of Jewish piety there is no ascetic strain, in the historical and usual sense of the term. The characteristic of asceticism is not the pains and privations to which a man subjects himself, but the end which he proposes thus to achieve. One wide-spread and primitive motive is the attainment of supernormal psychico-physical powers, whether exercised im­ mediately or through control over spirits. A higher end is the liberation of the rational soul from the trammels of sense and from bondage to the appetites and passions that have their seat in the flesh. To a crasser dualism matter was inherently and irremediably evil, and the human body with all its functions was part and parcel of a material world whose evil was not only phys­ ical but moral. The soul was essentially divine, and when once it realized its own nature there was war without truce between it and the body. The freedom of a man's soul could be won only by the subjugation of the flesh; and only when it had thus con­ quered its liberty could it attain salvation, or, in mystical form, achieve its destiny in union with God, or, more metaphysically, in identity with Absolute Reality. Jewish theology, as it has been 1

Horaiyot 3 b ; 'Abodah Zarah 3 6 a . Baba Batra 60b, below. The same utterance is reported in the name of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel, and the latter ascription is the more probable. Tos. Sotah 1 5 , 10. A principle repeated elsewhere; Shabbat 148b; Besah 30a. Bacher, Tan­ naiten, II, 330 n. 1. 2

3

PIETY

264

[PART VI

exhibited in a former chapter, is in contradiction with this phi­ losophy at every point. The premises of an asceticism such as was in vogue in certain pagan circles and early took root in the Christian church, were altogether lacking. This is confirmed by another observation, which is in itself of wider scope. The goal of the true ascetic, whether in India or in the West, is purely individualistic; the most logical type is the solitary hermit, whose sole all-absorbing concern is his own soul. Now it can hardly fail to impress every one familiar with the sources that such desperate concern of the individual about his own precious soul is conspicuously absent in Judaism; and that for reasons that lie deep in its religious thinking. It would be saying a great deal more than we know, and indeed much more than is probable, to affirm that the dualism so widely current in those centuries had had no influence upon Jews who came in contact with foreign thought. The problem of the Es­ senes and the Therapeutae at once suggests itself. Nor is it im­ possible that solitaries like that Bannus with whom Josephus consorted had picked up notions that did not circulate in the schools and the synagogues under Pharisaic teaching, though it is quite as likely that he took his models from the Old Testa­ ment. But what can be said with much confidence is that these ideas enjoyed no countenance from the leaders of religious opin­ ion and practice, and left no permanent mark on orthodox Juda­ ism. When we read, therefore, of extravagances of piety, of which there were no doubt many more than got into the record, we do not need to set them down as illustrations of an ascetic tendency in the proper sense of the word. 1

There is no such significance, for example, in the story of Joseph's fasting as a prophylactic against the allurements of Potiphar's wife; nor of the comely young shepherd who took the Nazarite's vow because his beauty, as he saw himself with his flowing locks reflected in water, awakened in him emotions like 2

1

Vita c. 2 § 1 1 .

2

Test, of Joseph 3, 4 f.; 10, 1 f.

265

FASTING

CHAP. V ] 1

those of Narcissus. It was natural that those who had witnessed the fatal consequences of drink in others, should take an oath never again to touch wine, or for a man who found habit growing strong upon him to vow total abstinence for a year. Many rabbis disapproved such self-imposed abstinences. A vow of abstinence is an iron collar (such as is worn by prisoners) about a man's neck; and one who imposes on himself a vow is like one who should find such a collar lying loose and stick his own head into it. Or, a man who takes a vow is like one who builds an illegitimate altar (bamah) and if he fulfils it, like one who sacrifices on such an altar. R. Isaac (reported by R. Dimi) said: "Are not the things prohibited you in the Law enough for you, that you want to prohibit yourself other things." An in­ genious interpretation of Num. 6 , 1 1 , discovers that the Nazarite had to make atonement by sacrifice for having sinned against his own soul by making himself miserable by leaving off wine. Such a man is called (in the text) a sinner, and a fortiori if one who has denied himself the enjoyment of nothing more than wine is called a sinner, how much more one who denies himself the enjoyment of everything. In this spirit is the often quoted saying of Rab: "A man will have to give account on the judgment day of every good thing which he might have enjoyed and did not." 2

y

3

4

5

6

Such sentiments, however frequent they may have been, must not be taken as the voice of an anti-ascetic "spirit of Judaism." 1

Jer. Nedarim 36d; Nedarim 9 b ; Nazir 4b. The tale purports to be told by Simeon the Righteous. The familiar Narcissus story, Ovid, Metamor­ phoses, iii, 402 ff. Num. R. 10, 4 ; with reference to the ordeal of jealousy. Jer. Nedarim 4 1 b . The former simile is ascribed to R. Simeon ben Lakish; the latter to R. Jonathan. Other expressions of similar tenor are to be found in the same context. Ibid. Maimonides quotes this as the most noteworthy principle he knows on the subject. Eight Chapters, c. 4 (ed. Gorfinkle, p. 2 7 ; transl. p. 66). Nazir 22a, R. Eleazar ha-^appar. The interpretation was so much liked that it is repeated in several other places. Also quoted by Maimonides, 1. c., p. 25 (63). Literally, "which his eyes saw and he did not eat." Jer. Kiddushin, 66d, end. 2

3

4

6

6

266

PIETY

[PART VI

They are expressions of personal temperament, circumstance and surrounding, and not to be broadly generalized. From an early time, also, antipathy to Christian monasticism was an influence not to be left out of account. The treatment of the subject by Maimonides has in view both Christian asceticism and similar tendencies in pietistic and mystical circles among Jews.

C H A P T E R CHASTITY.

MODESTY.

VI HUMILITY

T H E three deadly sins in Judaism were, 'abodah zarah, 'alien cultus/ which covered heathenism with all its ways and works; shefikat damim, 'sheddingof (human) blood/ murder; and gilluy 'araiyot, strictly 'incest/ which was extended to comprehend all illegitimate intercourse between men and women and the various abuses or perversions of sexual instincts. The biblical laws on these subjects go much beyond what is common in the legislation of other ancient peoples, and in some important particulars be­ yond the moral ideals of the most enlightened, to say nothing of common custom. The jurists carried still further the principles and precedents they found in the Scriptures, and where specific penalties were out of the question, pronounced the severest con­ demnation on acts or practices at which the world in general took no serious offense. We may dismiss this phase of the sub­ ject here, with the remark that in the most important points Christian moral teaching follows Jewish. It is more relevant to our present purpose to remark that the Jewish teachers recognized that the imagination of sin is not only a temptation, but if dallied with instead of resolutely expelled, is itself a sin. The eminent association of' evil impulse' with ' lust' — also a specialized association — lent force to this conception. When Jesus said: "You have heard that it was said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'; but I say unto you that whoever gazes at a woman with desire has already debauched her in his mind," he was not only uttering a Jewish commonplace, but with 1

2

1

It is no paradox that the greater stringency of the Hebrew law results in considerable measure from its more primitive character. Yeser ha-ra . (See Vol. I, pp. 479 ff.) Compare the common modern specialization of " immoral" and " virtuous." 2

267

268

PIETY

[PART VI

a familiar figure, "adultery of the eyes." Job says, 'I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look upon a virgin ?' On this topic there are many dicta. "Thou shalt not commit adultery. Neither with hand nor foot nor eye nor mind. . . . Whence do we learn that the eyes and the mind commit fornica­ tion? From the text, 'Do not go about after your mind and your eyes, after which ye commit fornication.'" For the adultery of the feet Prov. 19, 2 is cited; for the hand, Isa. 1, 10, with an application ad hoc} R. Simeon ben Lakish says: "You are not to say (merely) that he who commits the physical act is called an adulterer; one who commits adultery with his eyes is called adulterer, as it is said 'The eye of the adulterer'" (Job 24, 15; cf. Prov. 7, 9), etc. A closer verbal parallel to the words of Jesus is found in the extra-talmudic Tract, Kallah (c. 1): Whoever gazes on a woman intently is as though he lay with her. 2

3

That the coincidence of the Gospel with the rabbinical teaching is not fortuitous is demonstrated by the next following verses in Matthew: 'If thy right eye is an occasion of sin to thee, tear it out and cast it from thee. . . . If thy right hand is an occasion of sin, cut it off and cast it from thee.' The hand is not named here because of its value to man, but because it may be a minister to the same sin with the eye, as in the first extract quoted above. To this offense the Talmud applies the laconic words of the Mishnah Niddah 2 , 1 , "The h a n d . . . shall be cut off." R. Tarfon (about 100) would literally cut it off, and in situ? which, as was objected to him, would make a gash in the belly. Better, he re­ plied, that his belly be split than that he should go down to the

4

1

Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 20, 1 4 (ed. Hoffman, p. 1 1 1 ) . Lev. R. 23, 1 2 ; cf. Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann f. 124b. Other references: Sifre Num. § 1 1 5 (ed. Friedmann f. 3 5 a ) ; Jer. Berakot 3 c (the mind and the eyes two go-betweens of sin); cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Shelah § 3 1 ; Niddah 1 3 b . Yalkut I § 750, on Num. 1 5 , 3 9 , citing Sifra Zuta, counts up fourteen prohibitions which the adulterer transgresses. Niddah 1 3 b . Cf. Latin masturbari, according to the popular etymology, manu stuprare. The sin deserved death. PUVD n"n rh&h JHT Tti2W KnnDfl $3 (Gen. 38, 9 f.). Niddah 13a. Compare the application of Isa. 1, 10 above. Niddah 1 3 b . VTQD I T J>Xpn TXDtib T . 2

3

4

5

CHAP, vi]

PURITY OF MIND.

HUMILITY

269

1

pit of perdition. 'It is better for thee that one of thy members should perish and not thy whole body go off to hell.' Sirach's warnings about behavior with women (9, 1-9) em­ phasize the consequences of imprudence. The rabbis, in their en­ deavor to "keep man a long way off from sin," took manifold precautions against the excitement of lustful thoughts through the senses, and administer their warnings with liberal threats of damnation, as is a common way with moralists when they want to be impressive. Thus, under no circumstances should a man walk behind a woman, not even his own wife. One who walks behind a woman crossing a stream has no share in the World to Come. One who pays money out of his hand into a woman's so as to get a look at her, though he have as much learning and good works as our master Moses, will not get off from condem­ nation to hell, as it is said, 'Hand to hand! the wicked man will not get off' (Prov. 11, 21) — from condemnation to hell. With less extravagance of language the advice is derived from Deut. 23,10 ('Thou shalt keep thyself from every evil thing'), teaching that a man should not gaze on a handsome woman, even an un­ married one; not on a married woman even if she is ugly; and not on a woman's high-colored attire — the fine clothes she wears to enhance her charms. Whoever looks at a woman will in the end fall into transgression. 2

3

4

5

More dangerous still was protracted conversation with a woman. To R. Jose ben Johanan is attributed the counsel that a man should not talk long with any woman. Some one who thought that this needed elucidation added: "One who prolongs conversation with a woman does himself harm, and wastes the 6

1

Psalm 55, 24. Matt. 5, 30. Berakot 6 i a (cf. Erubin 18b). See also Berakot 24a. Many similar utter­ ances may be found in Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 299-301. * Abodah Zarah 20 a-b; Midrash Tannaim, ed. Hoffmann, p. 1 4 7 . On the effect of the colored garments, cf. M. Zabim 2, 2. See also Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, p. 1 1 1 , expanding on woman's allurements in Isa. 3, 16 ff. Nedarim 20a. Second century B.C. 2

3

4

5

6

270

PIETY

[PART VI

time he should be putting on the study of the Law, and in the end will occupy a place in hell." Such counsels are addressed especially to students, who, having the reputation of their calling to sustain, are urged to avoid not only the occasion of sin but everything that might give rise to the slightest suspicion. The surprise of the disciples of Jesus, as narrated in John 4, 27, at finding their master talking with a woman was quite in accord with rabbinical ideas of propriety; so also was the respect which restrained them from asking, What are you after? Why are you talking with her? It may be questioned, whether the exponents of Jewish piety, like Christian saints, did not think more about the snares of women and the lusts of the flesh than was good for them; but the fundamental difference between the two must not be over­ looked. For the Christian ascetic the instinct itself was evil, and the aim of those who aspired to higher religiousness was to extir­ pate it, root and branch. To the Jew its aberrations were deadly sin, but marriage and the begetting of children was not only good and lawful, but voluntary celibacy ran counter to the very oldest commandment of God, Increase and multiply! Continence was a moral ideal on which due weight was laid; abstinence was not a superior virtue, confounded with chastity, but was in conflict with the purpose of creation. 1

2

3

The Jewish teachers, as we have seen, counted "adultery of the mind" (thoughts) among the varieties of the sin of unchas­ tity. The stimulus may come from sights in the natural world from which man should turn his eyes away; sometimes from listening to obscene or licentious talk. Sometimes the "evil im­ pulse," which is in his own nature and yet somehow his bosom enemy, seems to set upon him without occasion, bent on his 4

1

Abot 1, 5. Many sayings in the same vein are collected in Kobryn,, Catena, on Abot 1, 5 (f. I2a-b) and 3, 13 (ff. 6 7 a - 6 8 a ) . See Vol. I, p. 1 1 9 f. See Maimonides, Hilkot De'ot 5, 4. 'Abodah Zarah 20b, top. 2

3

4

CHAP, vi]

PURITY OF MIND.

HUMILITY

271

undoing. If he lets this impulse occupy his mind and his imagi­ nation play with the gratification of it, he is guilty of this sin. To escape falling into it everything is to be avoided which in any way, physically or mentally, tends to excite this state. If it occurs, in spite of these precautions, the rabbis understood human nature well enough to know that the remedy is not to struggle against it, which only keeps it in the centre of attention, but to divert the mind from it altogether by an engrossing occu­ pation with something else. Their way was to concentrate all the faculties on the study of the Law in the school. The epithet 'holy' (Izadosh) is given to the man who keeps aloof from all unchastity. The juxtaposition of the section 'Araiyot (Lev. 18) with Kedoshim (Lev. 19) is to teach that wherever you find restraint upon sexual relations, there you will find holi­ ness, as is proved by many texts (Lev. 21, 7, 8; ib. 14, 15). It is quite likely that in fact the connection in Lev. 18-20 of the idea of holiness with avoidance of the whole catalogue of venereal transgressions led to the special application of the adjective 'holy' — we might say 'saintly' — to men distinguished by scru­ pulousness in the observance of these laws in the wide extension given them by the scribes. A similar appropriation is familiar to us in our popular use of' virtuous.' The Jewish idea of holiness was, however, not confined to the avoidance of the illicit; its ideal included the hallowing of the licit. The man who keeps aloof from unchastity is one who follows the maxim to hallow himself in what is lawful for him. Various instances of conjugal chastity 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

r r v n y n i m n . Berakot 1 2 b ; Niddah 1 3 b ; Baba Batra 164b, end. Yoma 29a, top: The imagination indulged is worse than the act. See Akiba's words, Abot 3, 1 3 : Sport and frivolity familiarize a man with lewdness ( f m y ) . See Vol. I, pp. 489 ff. Joshua ben Levi, Lev. R. 24, 6; Judah ben Pazzi, ibid.; also Jer. Yeba­ mot 3d. See e.g. Lev. 20, 10-26, with the conclusion, 'Ye shall be holy unto me,' etc. "Secondary prohibitions by the words of the Scribes," M. Yebamot 2, 4 . Yebamot 20a. Niddah 7 0 b ; Shebu'ot 18b. Cf. Sifre Deut. § 104 (f. 9 5 a , below) on Deut. 14, 2 1 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

1J1

PIETY

[PART VI

and modesty are reported of eminent rabbis of the second cen­ tury. 1

2

Modesty is not only closely associated with chastity, but is itself a virtue highly esteemed in men and women. Some extra­ ordinary, not to say extravagant, examples are recited, like that of the mother of seven sons who functioned as high priests, the rafters of whose house had never seen her hair uncovered nor the hem of her s h i f t c The patriarch Judah is said to have ac­ quired the epithet "the holy" by singular modesty maintained through his whole life. Phineas ben Jair, a contemporary of the Patriarch Judah, is the author of a kind of Saint's Progress which is preserved with slight variations in several places: "Heedfulness leads to cleanness; cleanness to purity; purity to holiness; holiness to humility; humility to the fear of sin; the fear of sin to saintliness; saintliness to the (possession of the) holy spirit; the holy spirit to the restoration of the dead; the restoration to life brings him to Elijah of blessed memory (the precursor of the new age. Mai. 3, 23)." Jellinek was so impressed by this ladder of piety that he pronounced it a precious remnant of an Essene Baraita, and of great importance also for the primitive history of Christianity, and the opinion has been confidently affirmed by others. There 3

4

5

6

7

8

1

A. Biichler, Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety, pp. 43 f. Semut. One of the etymologies proposed for the name of the Essenes is seniim, 'the (preeminently) modest,' which at least corresponds to a con­ spicuous characteristic of the sect. Jer. Yoma 38d, above; Jer. Horaiyot 4 7 d ; Yoma 47a, below; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 174a, etc. Jer. Megillah 7 4 a . In a late reproduction (Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, VI, 1 1 7 ) they are called ten steps or stages in the ascent of the righteous. Jer. Shekalim 47c, below; Jer. Shabbat 3c, above; Midrash Tannaim ed. Hoffmann p. 148 (on Deut. 2 3 , 1 5 ) ; Cant. R. on 1, 1. [M.] Sotah 9, 9 ; 'Abodah Zarah 20b. Proof texts are annexed in the Palestinian sources. Bet ha-Midrasch, VI (1877), xxix n. 1 (text, p. 1 1 7 ) . Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 4 9 7 . (Not improperly called an Essene Baraita, though the author is not on that account to be regarded as an Essene.) K. Kohler, 'Essenes,' Jewish Encyclopedia, V, 31 (Phineas ben Jair, the last Essene of note.) 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, v i ]

PURITY OF MIND.

HUMILITY

273

is nothing in other reported sayings of Phineas ben Jair or the stories told about him that suggests a sectarian affiliation; nor is there anything specifically Essene, so far as our information about the Essenes goes, either in the enumeration or procession of moral qualities in the passage quoted above. The sense in which these stages were understood is indicated by the texts of Scripture adduced for them in the Palestinian sources, eluci­ dated by the abundant particular parallels in the Tannaite liter­ ature, which show that the terms have no esoteric meaning. We may take it therefore as an expression of a rabbinical ideal. 1

Of one of the virtues in this sequence, humility, something has been said above in relation to the character and demeanor of scholars. The appreciation of this quality, however, has a wider scope. In the Babylonian Talmud, R. Phineas ben Jair is rep­ resented as closing his catalogue with the words, " and saintliness (hastdut) is the greatest of them all, as it is said, 'Then Thou spakest in vision to Thy saints'" (Psalm 89, 20). R. Joshua ben Levi disagreed: Humility is the greatest of them all, for it is said, 'The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, to bring good tidings to the humble' (Isa. 61, 1). It is not said 'to the saints,' but 'to the humble,' whence you learn that humility is the greatest of them all. That the lowly enjoy the especial regard of God and that he resents the arrogance of the proud is a frequent theme in the Psalms. 'A man's pride will bring him low, but a man of lowly spirit will attain to honor' (Prov. 29, 23). The biblical history from Adam down yielded abundant examples. Moses was marked in the Scripture itself as the great exemplar of humility 2

3

4

1

See Biichler, op. cit. p. 4 2 - 6 7 . It is to be observed that the perlshut, of which a good deal is made by those who discover Essene principles in the saying, is not found in any Palestinian source, and that sem'ut, supposed to be especially conspicuous in Essene notions and practice, is not mentioned at all. JYlTDn (daiOTrjs) is the distinguishing quality of the pious, the saints. 'Abodah Zarah 20b; quoted as a general maxim, 'Arakin 1 6 b . Cf. Prov. 1 5 , 33; 1 8 , 1 2 . 2

3

4

274

PIETY

[PART VI

(Num. 2, 3). Hillel was conspicuous for this virtue, and is pro­ posed for imitation. When he died the elegy over him was: Alas! the humble man, the pious man, the disciple of Ezra! A sentence of his own is: "My abasement is my exaltation, and my exaltation is my abasement." The general principle here individualized is: Every one who humbles himself, God exalts; and every one who exalts himself, God humbles; one who runs around for greatness, greatness flees from, and one who flees from greatness, him greatness runs after. With Prov. 29, 23, for a text and Saul for an elaborated example, we read: One who flees from office-holding, office pursues. The Gospel advice to take a low seat at a dinner in order to be honored by an invitation to a better place has a parallel in advice, with the same motive, to take a place in the lecture room two or three rows back of that to which the order of precedence would entitle a man. 1

2

3

4

5

6

Beyond these prudential motives there is a higher doctrine. It was Moses' humility (Num. 12, 3) that fitted him to be the medium of revelation. "The Scripture teaches that every one who is humble in the end causes the Presence of God (Shekinah) to dwell with mankind on the earth, as it is said, 'The High and Lofty One, inhabiting eternity — and Holy is his name — I dwell in the high and holy place; and with one who is contrite and humble of spirit' (Isa. 57, 15 f.); and again, 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good tidings to the humble' (Isa. 61, 1); and again, 'AH these things My hand made, . . . and on this man will I look, on him that is humble and of contrite spirit (Isa. 66, 2); and again, 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not spurn' (Psalm 1

Shabbat 30b. Many anecdotes illustrate this quality. Jer. Sotah 2 4 b ; Tos. Sotah 13, 3 ; Sotah 48b. Lev. R. i, 5. Psalm 1 1 3 , 5 b - 6 a , is cited in support. 'Erubin 1 3 b , below. Matt. 23, 1 2 . (The passives are idiomatic: God will bring him down.) Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra § 4. The other recension (§ 3) gives also the converse — office runs away from the office-hunter. Lev. R. 1, 5 (Prov. 25, 6 f ) ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra § 2 ; Abot de-R. Nathan c. 25 near end. 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, v i ]

PURITY OF MIND.

HUMILITY

275

51, 19). But a man proud of heart causes the land to be defiled and the Presence of God to withdraw from it, as it is said, 'One who is haughty of eye and proud of heart, I cannot abide with him' (Psalm 101, 5). Those who are lifted up with pride are called 'abomination/ as it is said, 'Every one that is proud of heart is an abomination to the Lord' (Prov. 16, 5); heathenism also is called 'abomination' (Deut. 7, 26). As heathenism defiles the land and causes the Presence of God to withdraw from it, so pride causes the same things." A Palestinian saying is: Who is a son of the World to Come? One who is humble and of lowly demeanor, bows low as he enters and leaves; who studies the Law continually and claims no credit for it. God cannot live in the same world with the proud and arrogant man. Let man always learn from the mind of his Creator, who let alone all the high mountains and peaks and caused his Pres­ ence to rest on Mt. Sinai, which is no great ascent. His character is not like men's; among men one of exalted station regards one of the same rank, not one far beneath him; but God is exalted, yet regards the lowly — 'God is high yet regards the lowly' (Psalm 138, 6). The passages in which, as it is said, God puts himself on a level with the hearts of the contrite have been noted in another connection. There is nothing novel in the condemnation of pride or the commendation of humility, it is emphatically taught in many places in the Scripture. But it is also made a constituent element of the Jewish conception of piety. Pride is hard to subdue, and none so hard as the joint pride of piety and learning, and when men have made a painful effort to eradicate their pride they may become inordinately proud of their humility. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Pronouncing itto as in 'Arakin 1 5 b ; see below, Sotah 5a. Mekilta (on Exod. 20, 2 1 ) , Yitro 9 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 2 a ; ed. Weiss f. 7 9 a ) . Sanhedrin 88b. See above, p. 245. Sotah 5a. Many bad things about arrogance (ITD JTIDJ, etc.) and its consequences are said on this page. Sotah I.e. See Vol. I, pp. 440 f. Tanhuma ed-Buber, Wayyera § 3. 2

3

4

5

6

PART THE

VII

HEREAFTER

INTRODUCTORY IN an exposition of Jewish notions about the hereafter of the individual, the nation, and the world, it is necessary to take account of a peculiar class of writings which profess to be revela­ tions of these things. From the Greek title of a Christian work of this kind, the Revelation of John, the name Apocalypse is extended to the others, and collectively they are spoken of as an apocalyptic literature. The revelation is generally made in a vision interpreted to the seer by an angel commissioned for this service; in others the seer makes a tour through the heavens or unknown regions of earth under conduct of an angelic guide who explains to him the sights and their significance. It usually purports to have been made to some man of note in the sacred history, from the antediluvians down, and the motive in the selection is frequently obvious. The visionary form has biblical antecedents, among which Ezekiel is of especial importance; but the fiction of the ancient seer makes its appearance in the literature known to us only in the second century B.c. Many of these revelations have to do with a great crisis in the history of Israel and the world, which the authors believed to be imminent. The imaginary seer in the remote past is shown in symbolic visions the successive epochs of history from his own day to the situation of the author on the eve of the crisis, to the crisis itself and what comes after it. We can follow the panorama stage by stage as long as the seer's pretended foreknowledge is really the author's knowledge of past and present. When this correspondence ceases, we know that the author had passed from 1

2

1

The title in the manuscripts is itself taken from the first words of the book: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants, what is to come to pass speedily; and he signified it by sending through his angel to his servant John, etc. This fiction was peculiarly apt to Enoch, who was translated to heaven (Gen. 5, 24). 2

279

28o

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

relating to predicting, and guessed wrong. When he is definite enough, and we know the events with sufficient particularity, it is possible to fix the date of the writing within narrow limits. Sometimes, however, the failure of fulfilment led to a recasting of the prediction to adapt it to a later situation; occasionally the original may be discerned under the repainting, so that two dates, or at least limits, can be made out. Much in the revelation, however, is transacted in another sphere and beyond the end of history. In such matter the in­ dications of age are much more obscure, and the best the his­ torian can do is to give dates relatively, loosely, and with inferior confidence. The difficulty is made greater by the fact that this material and the way of handling it soon became an apocalyptic tradition, with conventional figures, scenes, and stage properties. The apocalypses may for our purposes be divided into two groups, those before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and those after that event. The principal representatives of the former class come from the second and first centuries before the Chris­ tian era; the latter from the last generation of the first century of that era. In the first group are Daniel and the various writ­ ings collected under the name of Enoch; in the second Fourth Esdras, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Revelation of John in the New Testament. With the exception of the last, all these apocalypses were written in Hebrew or in Aramaic, though they have been trans­ mitted to us only in translations from an intermediate Greek version and in Christian hands. There is no recognizable sec­ tarian peculiarity in them, except again in the New Testament Apocalypse, where it is manifestly superimposed. The opinion entertained by some scholars that the apocalyptic literature originated with the Essenes lacks evidence. If it were true, it 1

2

1

This is true also of the Jewish sources of the Revelation of John. From Josephus (Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 7 § 142) we learn that a postulant for admission to the order swore to keep secret the books of the sect and the names of the angels, but that these esoteric books were of the apocalyptic variety is not suggested by anything in the passage. 2

INTRODUCTORY would contribute nothing to our understanding of the books themselves. These pseudonymous revelations, which in their time were very popular, are ignored by the rabbis; it is not unlikely that they are included in the "outside books" reading out of which, according to Akiba, costs a man his portion in the World to Come. At a much later time Enoch and what he saw in the heavens appear in Hebrew writings whose resemblance to fea­ tures of our Book of Enoch suggests subterranean channels of communication, if not literary acquaintance. The visions of Daniel in the book that bears his name found a place in the third part of the Jewish canon, the miscellaneous "Writings," and consequently in the Christian Bible, where it is put among the Prophets. The author describes in his way the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes (168 B . C ) , but not the recovery and re-dedication by Judas Maccabaeus in 165; and the angel's prediction of the sudden end of Antiochus in his camp between the Great Sea and the beauteous holy mountain (Jerusalem), in another Egyptian campaign, did not come true — he died on an expedition in the East at Gabai in Persis in 164/163. 1

2

The Book of Enoch is a collection of writings of different char­ acter, authorship, and age, and incorporates, besides revelations in the name of Enoch, pieces of a similar kind taken from a book (or books) of Noah. The obvious divisions of the book are: (I) chapters 1-36; (II) cc. 37-71; (III) cc. 72-82; (IV) cc. 8390; (V) cc. 91-105. Some of these parts are themselves mani­ festly composite and the analysis uncertain. Dislocations and interpolations complicate the problems of the critic. The authors themselves, in conformity to the conventions of apocalyptic, convey their allusions to historical persons and events in riddles which invite divination rather than submit to interpretation. 1

Several such are to be found scattered through the five volumes of Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch. E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, II, 220. 2

282

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

For our purpose it is unnecessary to entangle ourselves in these intricate and controversial questions. It is now generally agreed that the so-called Parables (cc. 37-71), for which at first many scholars assumed a Christian origin, are Jewish, and probably come from the earlier decades of the first century before our era. The other parts of the book with which we are concerned repre­ sent less advanced conceptions, and, so far as this constitutes a presumption of age, are older. The oldest which seems to offer a more definite indication of time is what is commonly called the apocalypse of the Seventy Shepherds (cc. 83-90); but opinions are divided between a date before the death of Judas Maccabaeus (161 B . C ) , making it but a few years later than the visions in Daniel (before the end of 165), and the reign of John Hyr­ canus (135-104 B.C.) — probably not in his last years. Of the other parts of the book it is sufficient to say that from their general affinities they may be assigned to the century which lies between the Maccabaean rising and the appearance of the Romans upon the scene. 1

The Book of Enoch as a whole is preserved only in Ethiopic. Of a Greek version intermediate between the Hebrew (or Ara­ maic) original and the Ethiopic there are extracts in Georgius Syncellus, and part of a manuscript covering chapters 1-32, about one fifth of the book, were found in a tomb at Akhmin in Egypt in 1886-87. English Translation: R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch . . . with Introduction, Notes, etc. Oxford, 1912; and in his Apocry­ pha and Pseudepigrapha. — German: G. Beer, Das Buch Henoch (in Kautzsch, Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des A. T., Vol. II); Joh. Flemming und L. Radermacher, Das Buch Henoch, 1901. For editions of the text and other literature reference may be made to Charles's Introduction, or to Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, u. s. w., Vol. III. Three apocalypses fall in the generation between the destruc­ tion of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the close of the century, Fourth 1

The difference turns on the identification of the 'big horn' in 90, 9 seq. with the one or the other of these heroes.

INTRODUCTORY

283

Esdras, the (Syriac) Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Christian Apocalypse of John. Fourth Esdras (in the English Bible, Second Esdras), contains revelations purporting to be made to Ezra in Babylon in the thirtieth year after the fall of Jerusalem and its devastation by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. The theme of the first half of the book (3, 1-9, 25) is the problem of theodicy — how the exist­ ence of sin in the world from Adam down, with all its dire con­ sequences here and more dreadful hereafter, can be reconciled with the character of God. Ezra urges the question; he finds the replies of the angel unconvincing, and returns to the argument a second and a third time (3, 1-5, 19; 5, 20-6, 34; 6, 35-9, 25). The problem has its national aspect — grant that Israel has de­ served its doom, is heathen Babylon better? — as well as its concern with the fate of individuals, Jews and Gentiles, at death and beyond. There is in Jewish literature no such searching analysis of the problem as it presented itself to the twofold eschatology of the author's age. The second part of the book is a series of three visions: The Mourning Mother (9, 26-10, 60); The Eagle and the Lion (11, 1-12, 51); The Son of Man (13, 1-58). Finally, Ezra's account of the restoration of the sacred books (14, 1-50). In the use that is made of 4 Esdras in the following pages the substantial unity of the book is presumed. The fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. is never long out of the author's thought and still less out of his feeling. For a closer date departure is generally taken from the vision of the eagle with twelve wings (besides eight winglets) and three heads, both wings and heads representing Roman emperors, the heads unmistakably the three Flavians (11, 1-12, 51). The date of the vision thus falls in the reign of Domitian (81-96), and this is the probable time of composition; the two winglets of ch. 12, 2 f., which carry us into the beginning of the reign of Trajan (98-117), are then an addition — whether by the 1

1

Some guess that by this "thirtieth year" the author meant cryptically to indicate that he wrote in the year 100 A.D.

284

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

same author or not — made when the expected crisis, the appear­ ance of the Messiah, did not arrive. The book need not have been issued all in one piece, but we shall not go far astray if we put at least the main part under Domitian. Fourth Esdras enjoyed great popularity among Christians. Written in Hebrew, it was early translated into Greek, and thence, directly or mediately, into various languages — Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Ethiopic. The Greek ver­ sion itself as well as the original has perished. A synoptic edition of these versions (except the Georgian) by Bruno Violet in 1 9 1 0 . German translation, with notes based on this apparatus, by the same author: Die Apokalypsen des Esra und des Baruch. 1 9 2 4 . An earlier German translation of 4 Esdras with commentary, by Hermann Gunkel, in Kautzsch, Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des A. T. — English Trans­ lation: G. H. Box, The Ezra-Apocalypse, . . . with critical In­ troductions, Notes, and Explanations, etc. 1 9 1 2 ; also in Charles's Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. — Box follows Kabisch in the attempt to decompose the book. For the literature see his Introduction. The Apocalypse of Baruch falls in the same generation with 4 Esdras, and in many ways has so great an affinity to it, not only in subject and treatment but in close parallels of idea and phrase, that a literary relation is commonly assumed. Some think that 4 Esdras preceded and influenced Baruch; others vice versa. Whichever way it was, there is no question that the author of Fourth Esdras was by far the more original man. The fiction of the book is that the revelations contained in it were given to Baruch, whom we know in the Old Testament as the amanuensis of Jeremiah. They begin before the fall of Jerusalem, which is announced to him by the word of the Lord as imminent; in c. 1 1 the ruin is already accomplished. The imaginary date is therefore thirty years before that of 4 Esdras, but no inference is to be drawn from this to the relative age of the two books. The same problems are raised as in 4 Esdras, but the individual aspect is less prominent than the national,

INTRODUCTORY

285

and there is a marked difference in the temperament of the authors. The visions of the messianic age and the eschatology exhibit the same scheme, and, in its separation of the national golden age from the age beyond the resurrection and last judg­ ment, it is the same which through the Tannaim became the standard conception of Judaism. Nor is this the only thing in which these apocalypses are closely related to what we call the rabbinical sources. The au­ thors had the learning of the schools. Baruch has a wealth of Haggadah which in almost every point is verifiable in the Mid­ rash. The questions with which both wrestle had been mooted in the schools in preceding generations, but became more haras­ sing with the fall of Jerusalem. The dogmatic pronouncement of the authorities of the next generation, "All Israelites have a portion in the World to Come," sounds like a deliverance to close a controversy in the schools in which it was held on the other part, as it is in 4 Esdras, that only a very few would be saved — an opinion which crops up again later in more than one place. The attempt has even been made to connect the authors with the teachings of particular schools, and if the evidence is in­ sufficient for this, it does establish their relation to the tendencies of the schools. The attempt to decompose 4 Esdras, reconstruct its sources, and define the part of the compiler ("Redactor"), was soon fol­ lowed by a similar decomposition of the Apocalypse of Baruch by the same critic. The chief recent exponent of the theory is R. H. Charles, whose analysis is carried into great complexity. 1

2

3

1

The parallels to the Antiquitates Biblicae which passes under the name of Philo, to which attention has recently been directed, are chiefly midrashic commonplaces. The schools of Shammai and Hillel are said to have argued for two years and a half over the question whether it would have been better for man never to have been created, which the former maintained, the latter disputed. The majority eventually decided that it would have been better for man if he had never been created; but inasmuch as he has been created, he must closely scrutinize his doings. 'Erubin 13b, below. F. Rosenthal, Vier apokryphische Biicher aus der Zeit und Schule R. Akibas. 1885. 2

3

286

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

Parts of the book, in his opinion, were written before the fall of Jerusalem, and others in the first generation of the second century. The fortunes of the book were strikingly dissimilar to those of 4 Esdras. The popularity of the latter is evinced by the number and wide distribution of the versions. Baruch is preserved in Syriac only, and (except for the letter to the nine-and-a-halftribes, at the end) in but a single known manuscript; though there are other apocalypses of Baruch, or remnants of such, in various languages. The Syriac text was published from a manuscript of the 6th century by Ceriani in 1871, and in the facsimile of the great Milan Peshitto. More accessible and convenient is the edition by M. Kmosko in Graffin's Patrologia Syriaca, Vol. II (1907), 1056 ff., with a parallel Latin translation and a concordantial Index Verborum. •—English Translation: R. H. Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896; also in his Apocrypha and Pseu­ depigrapha; German: V. Ryssel, in Kautzsch, Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, Vol. II; B. Violet, Die Apokalypsen des Esra und des Baruch, 1924. The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch is an entirely different work, with which we are not here concerned. The Christian Revelation of John not only adopts the conven­ tional forms of Jewish apocalyptic, but appropriates and adapts a large part of its substance from Jewish sources. It is only with these, and as such, that in these chapters we have to do. The book as we have it probably comes from the reign of Domitian, though it incorporates pieces from the time preceding the destruction of the temple, and even earlier. The language throughout is a strongly hebraized Greek. It must be assumed that the ultimate sources of the elements taken over from Jewish apocalyptic were in Hebrew like the rest of that literature. Of the versions the most important is the Latin. The Syriac church did not admit the book to its canon, con­ sequently there is no early Syriac translation of it.

CHAPTER I RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

IN old Israel the common notions about what becomes of a man at death were like those which are found among various peoples on comparable planes of civilization. Death is the departure from the body of the life, or, as we say, soul, concretely imagined as the vital breath (Gen. 2, 7) or as the blood, or in the blood (Lev. 17, 14)- The body was buried in a natural cave, a rockcut tomb, or a shaft grave; structural tombs are probably a later development. Such elaborate burial was naturally the privilege of the great; neither literature nor extant remains have anything to say about the graves of the multitude. To lie unburied, without the customary funerary rites, or to be cast out of the tomb, was an aggravation of death; to bury those who were thus neglected or cast out was a deed of charity and of piety. The tomb was the abode of the dead. There the body reposed, and it was doubtless believed that the ghost also in­ habited the tomb, an attenuated material double of the body, ordinarily invisible, but sometimes seen in dreams or as an ap­ parition in waking states; the conscious wraith of the man that had been. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Cf. Lev. 1 7 , 1 1 . Gen. 9, 4. It is on this ground that eating blood (or flesh with blood in it) is so strictly forbidden. Burning was not usual in any period. The case of Saul and his sons (1 Sam. 3 1 , 12 f.) is explained by the circumstances. Whether in the burn­ ings for kings (Jer. 34, 5; cf. 2 Chron. 1 6 , 1 4 ; 2 1 , 19) the body itself was con­ sumed, may here be left undecided. Cf. 'Abodah Zarah 11 a. A solitary mention in 2 Kings 23, 6 suggests a common grave, perhaps for the very poor; what in Greek is called irokvavbpiov (LXX, Jer. 2, 2 3 ; 1 9 , 2, 6; Ezek. 39, 1 1 , 12, 15, 1 6 ; 2 Mace. 9, 4, 14). Jer. 16, 4, 6 - 8 ; 22, 18 f. 25, 3 3 ; 8, 2. 2

3

4

;

5

Tobit 1, 1 7 ; 2, 3 - 1 0 . The ITOD riD; see Vol. I, p. 7 1 .

6

Immateriality, or in ancient phrase " incorporeality," is an abstraction remote from natural thought. 287

288

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

Among many peoples similar beliefs are associated with rites of tendance; the tomb is furnished with articles of use and orna­ ment; food and drink are left by the side of the body at the burial, and periodically brought to the tomb thereafter. In Egypt this tendance of the dead grew to vast proportions, and in China what is called ancestor worship has been from the earliest times a most prominent branch of religion. It is antecedently probable that, at least in rudimentary forms, the tendance of the dead was customary among the ancestors of the Israelites, as it certainly was among the Canaanites; but of the persistence of such customs in historical times there is scanty indication. In the formal profession which is required of the Israelite concerning the tithe set aside in the third and sixth years of every seven, he has to declare: 'I have not eaten any of it when I was in mourning, and I have not separated any part of it when I was unclean; nor have I given any of it to the dead/ The point of this part of the declaration is that no uncleanness adheres to the things thus dedicated to charity. The last clause is frequently thought to refer to a funereal offering, but it may equally well be a contribution to a funeral feast such as is sup­ posed in Jer. 16, y. That the prophets found no occasion to de­ nounce anything even remotely resembling a cult of the dead is evidence as strong as silence can be that such customs were not prevalent in their times. The tombs of men famous in history or legend have all over the world been venerated not merely as monuments, but because there men felt themselves in a peculiar way in the presence of the mighty dead. This presence was not, as for us, a sentiment, 1

2

3

1

Deut. 26, 1 2 - 1 5 . Vulgate: nee expendi ex his quidquam in re funebri,— which was prob­ ably the interpretation of Jerome's Jewish teachers. In Sifre Deut. § 303 R. Eiiezer explains: I have not purchased out of this fund a coffin and graveclothes for a dead man. M. Ma'aser Sheni 5, 1 2 adds, "and I have not given it to other mourners." Isa. 65, 3 - 5 is not to the contrary. It describes some strange cult or mystery; but does not specify offerings to the dead. Cf. Psalm 106, 28 (Baal Peor). Ecclus. 30, 18 is an allusion to a foreign practice. 2

3

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

289

but a reality, and at the tombs offerings were brought and peti­ tions made to the superhuman power lodged in them. The hero shrines of the Greeks are a familiar instance. Palestine and the neighboring lands today are dotted over with reputed tombs of holy men — saints, prophets, weli's — frequented by people of all the varieties of religion represented in the country. The tomb at Hebron, where the patriarchs are believed to repose in the Cave of Machpelah which Abraham bought as a burial place for Sarah (Gen. 23), is venerated by Jews, Moslems, and Chris­ tians alike. Besides the patriarchs, the burial place of many of the great men of Israel, especially in the story of the exodus and the con­ quest and in the days of the judges, is noted in the narrative, but of resort to their tombs to do them homage or to seek their aid there is no reminiscence in the historical books or the prophets. 1

2

Another notion of the whereabouts of the dead was that they went to a common abode of all the dead in the depths of the earth. The proper name of this nether world was Sheol. It was a dark cavern, a kind of universal tomb such as Hades is imagined in Homer. Its inmates are the dead, limp shades, the semblance of their former selves bereft of all strength, as in Homer. They are shut in by gates and bars; from Sheol there is no exit. Or it is imaged as a monster with gaping jaws that greedily swallows men down and is never sated. The associa­ tion with the tomb lends to Sheol the imagery that belongs to the dissolution of the body — worms and decay (Job 17, 13-16; 24, 19 f.). Sometimes, indeed, Sheol seems to be only a metaphori3

4

5

6

7

8

1

See Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopaedie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, VIII, 1 1 1 1 - 1 1 4 5 ; Rohde, Psyche, 2 ed. I, 146 ff., II, 348 ff. See e. g. Josh. 24, 2 9 - 3 3 . Samuel, 1 Sam. 25, i; Saul, 1 Sam. 3 1 , 1 3 , etc. Poetical synonyms are Abaddon ('perdition'), Mawet ('death'), Bor, Shahat ('pit'), Salmut ('darkness'), etc. Especially Odyssey xi. Cf. also Vergil, Aeneid vi. Refa'im, 'impotent.' Isa. 38, 1 0 ; Job 38, 1 7 ; Psalm 9, 1 4 ; 107, 1 8 . Compare the Babylonian Aralu, the Land Without Return. Isa. 5, 1 4 ; Hab. 2, 5; Prov. 27, 20; 30, 15 f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

2o

THE

9

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

cal equivalent for the grave. Between the presence of the dead in their several tombs and the assembly of the dead in Sheol no contradiction was felt, and no attempt was made to reconcile the two notions. Necromancers professed to summon ghosts to answer the ques­ tions of the living, or to have at their bidding familiar spirits which gave responses with twittering voices; but this, like other heathenish forms of divination, was forbidden on pain of death. More picturesque glimpses of Sheol are given in Isa. 14, 3-21, and Ezek. 32, 17-32 (cf. 31, 15-18), where the descent of the king of Babylon and of the Egyptian Pharaoh respectively are described, and the reception they meet from those who were be­ fore them there. In Ezekiel the several nations that had earlier ruled and fallen occupy quarters of their own in the vast nether­ world, and it was doubtless believed that the Israelite dead had a place by themselves, and were not indiscriminately mingled with the heathen. To this gloomy realm all must one day go, great and small, good and bad. Those who have had bitter experience of the misery of the life on earth may covet the release, where 'the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest'; to those who have rounded out their years it is the appointed end; but to be cut off out of the land of the living and sent down to Sheol in God's anger before one's time is the direst doom of the wicked. These ideas prevail in the later writings of the Bible as well as in the earlier. The Book of Job has already been cited. The 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Here again the Greeks are a corresponding example, in contrast to the Egyptians. 1 Sam. 28. Isa. 8, 1 9 ; cf. 29, 4. Lev. 20, 27. Similarly Menippus sees the population of the Acherusian plain living 3

2

4

5

Kara

Wvr} Kal Kara

4>v\a.

Lucian, Menippus c. 1 5 .

6

This is the probable meaning of such phrases as "Abraham . . . died . . . and was gathered to his people" ClDJ? ta, Gen. 25, 8, and elsewhere). 7

8

Job 3, 1 1 - 1 9 ; cf. 1 7 , 1 3 - 1 6 .

Psalm 7 3 , 18-20.

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

291 1

Psalms throughout represent Sheol in the same way. Sirach makes no advance beyond the biblical conceptions. Of a revivification of the dead there is no hope. On this point Job is peculiarly emphatic: A tree that is felled may spring up again from the root if there is moisture in the ground; but when a man dies he lies down never to rise; 'till the heavens be no more they will not awake nor be roused out of their sleep.' Nor is there in Sheol itself any compensation for the unmerited sufferings of the upright in this life. The difficult passage in Job 19, 25-27 expresses Job's conviction that when he is dead God will vindicate him and he will know it. The expectation of a resurrection of the flesh in the common English version, and more uncompromisingly in the Latin Bible, is read into the text, not in it. At first sight it may appear strange that the Jews, with their strong faith in the righteousness of God, should have been so tardy in extending the sphere of retribution over the existence beyond death, as other religions with which they were in contact — Egyptians, Persians, Greeks — had long since done. The religious development of Judaism was, however, radically dif­ ferent from that of those nations. The prophets of Israel had delivered their message to the nation, and their teaching about retribution, repentance, and restoration, because it was national, was of this world, not of another sphere of existence. In Judaism the old vague belief that God shows favor to those who please him by conformity to the established rule of right — civil, moral, 2

3

4

5

1

2

Psalm 6, 6; 30, 1 0 ; 88, 1 1 - 1 3 ; 1 1 5 , 1 7 , etc.

Ecclus. 1 4 , 1 6 ; 4 1 , 4; 1 7 , 27 (cf. Psalm 6, 6 ) . See also Baruch 2, 1 7 ; 3, 1 9 ; Test. XII Patriarchs, Reuben 4, 6; Psalms of Solomon 4, 1 5 (cf. Isa. 5, 14) — reminiscences of the O. T. Job 1 4 , 7 - 1 5 ; cf. 20, 7. This at most implies no more than that the shades in Sheol may be aware of things that go on in the world they have left, as was naturally imagined; see Isa. 1 4 . Scio enim, quod redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum, et rursum circumdabor pelle mea, et in carne mea videbo Deum meum, quern visurus sum ego ipse, et oculi mei conspecturi sunt, et non alius; reposita est haec spes mea in sinu meo. 3

4

5

22

THE

9

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

religious — and brings evil upon those who violate or neglect it, was made definite by the individualizing of the prophetic doc­ trine, by the statutory conception of divine law, and by the dominating idea of the justice of God. God's favor and dis­ pleasure thus became in the proper sense retributive — reward and punishment in the kind and measure of desert. On this principle, in a particular situation, Ezekiel laid down a rigorous doctrine of individual retribution (Ezek. 18). Gen­ eralized, as it is by Job's friends, this doctrine in application makes inevitable their conclusion that extraordinary inflictions argue extraordinary guilt, and their zeal to defend God's justice threatens to undermine Job's faith in it altogether. In the end he acquiesces in the inscrutable mystery of God's ways; but he will not belie his good conscience, nor admit that his calamities are explicable on premises of justice. The author has no theodicy of his own to substitute; it is enough for him to refute a com­ plaisant orthodoxy. Ecclesiastes puts man completely on a level with the beasts. The end of both is the same; what happens to the one happens to the other; as the one dies, so dies the other. All are of dust and to dust all return. The vital breath (spirit) in them is the same, so that man has no preeminence over the beast. 'Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?' (Eccles. 3, 18-22). The last sentence suggests that the author had heard some such dis­ crimination of human and animal souls as was current in Greek circles, and flings at it his skeptical, Who knows? 1

In the Hellenistic world current notions of what is after death, popularizing earlier Greek thinking, postulated the dual nature of man. His true self is an imperishable soul, which during 2

1

Cf. Eccles. 9, 4 - 6 ; Job 1 4 , 1 9 - 2 2 . The "impious" in the Wisdom of Solomon (i, 1 6 - 2 , 9) are outspoken in their disbelief of a hereafter, and in the consequences they draw for the present. The immateriality of the soul (Platonic doctrine) is not necessarily as­ sumed, and being unimaginable probably never got beyond those who had 2

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

293

what we call life is the inmate of a mortal body. At death it leaves this tenement, which presently dissolves into its material elements and perishes, while the soul flits away to the realm of spiritual or noumenal existence to which by its essential nature it belongs. Inasmuch as the soul is the thinking and willing subject which moves the body and uses it as an instrument, and is potentially the ruler of the natural appetites and passions, the responsibility for man's character and conduct rests upon the soul alone, and the destiny of the disembodied souls is made for themselves by the deeds done in the body. The good are happy and the bad are miserable. Poetical imagination had early busied itself with these blessed and wretched states; but everyone was free to picture them to please himself. Good and bad were such as were judged so by the social and civil standards of their fellows, or by the ethical principles of philosophers; there was in Greek religion no definition of righteous and wicked such as the Jews had in the Law, nor was the idea of retributive justice grounded in the character of God fundamental, as it was in Judaism. In Greek thought the separation of good and bad belonged to the natural fitness of things rather than was estab­ lished by divine ordinance. 1

The ideas of immortal souls and of the happy lot to which the souls of the good go at death seemed to some Jews to fit in so well with their own religious conceptions as to belong to them. The author of the Wisdom of Solomon appropriates them in an eloquent passage: 'The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them. In the eyes of the sense­ less they seemed to be dead, and their departure was regarded as an evil fate, and their going from us as destruction, but they are in peace. For though in the sight of men they be punished, yet 2

minds for metaphysics. The Stoic universe had no room for immaterial reality, and the popular notion of soul as spirit implied its material nature. E.g. Pindar, Olymp. 2, 55 ff.; Frag. nos. 1 2 9 - 1 3 0 , 1 3 1 , 1 3 3 . Plato, Phaedrus, 246 ff.; Republic, x. 6 1 4 ff. Cf. the parody in Lucian, True His­ tory, ii. Cf. 5, 5, "His lot is with the holy (angels)." 1

2

294

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII 1

are they filled with the hope of immortality. Having endured a little chastisement they will receive great blessings, for God put them to proof and found them worthy of himself; He tested them as gold is tested in the crucible, and accepted them as a whole burnt offering.' Before the wicked the prospect of manifold and great evils in this life, their just desert, is held up and there is no good for them beyond. 'If they turn out long-lived, they will be naught accounted of, and dishonor will be their reward in the end; and if they die early, they have no hope, and no consolation in the day of inquest.' 'They will see the death of the wise man, and will not understand what He planned for him nor why the Lord brought him into security. They will see, and make light of it; but the Lord will deride them. After that they will become a dis­ honored corpse and an object of scorn among the dead for ever. For he will hurl them down speechless, headlong, and will shake them from their bases. And to the end they will be desolate and will be in anguish, and the memory of them will perish.' It will be observed that in what the author has to say about the fate of the wicked he keeps closely to biblical representa­ tions, of which there are reminiscences in every line. In par­ ticular the "visitation of souls," "the day of inquest" (or dis­ crimination), and the judgment scene depicted in the sequel, with belated confession of the sinners ( 4 , 20-5, 1 4 ) ; the final fate of the righteous and discomfiture of the wicked (5, 15 ff.), are specifically Jewish not only in imagery but in conception. It is a consequence of these antecedents that the representation 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Cf. 5, 1 5 ( 1 6 ) , "The righteous will live forever (els TOP al&va fwcri), and their reward is in the Lord, and care for them with the Most High." Wisdom 3, 1 - 6 . The passage contemplates particularly such as had suffered for righteousness' sake; see the preceding. — See also chaps. 4 and 5. In contrast to the hope of immortality, 3, 4. 2

3

4

5

ev rjjiepa

diayv&aeooSy

cf.

h> eiriaicoirfj

\f/vxu>v,

vs.

13.

Cf. Isa.* 66, 23 f. Wisdom 4, 1 7 - 1 9 . This will be still plainer if the whole context is read. Note the participation of the righteous in this judgment, 4, 1 6 . See also 3, 7 f. 6

7

8

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

295

oscillates between the destiny of the individual after death and the triumph of the Lord in the day when he arms himself for war with his adversaries (5, 17-23). In Philo the immortality of the soul is entertained in philoso­ phical form, and in the hereafter this only is considered. These writings are frequently taken as representatives of a Hellenistic Judaism which is supposed to have been prevalent among Greekspeaking Jews. What currency such conceptions had outside the numbers of those whose education had gone as far as philoso­ phy, or who had picked up some looser acquaintance with them from their intellectual environment in a centre like Alexandria, is unknown. Whether Greek ideas of the immortality of the soul and retri­ bution after death — popular or philosophical — were widely entertained, or not, in a centre of Hellenic culture like Alexandria in the first century before the Christian era, it is certain that the development of conceptions of the hereafter in authentic Judaism went its own way unaffected by the alien influence. The premises were totally different; on the one side the dualism of soul and body, on the other the unity of man, soul and body. To the one the final liberation of the soul from the body, its prison-house or sepulchre, was the very meaning and worth of immortality; to the other the reunion of soul and body to live again in the completeness of man's nature. What to Philo would have seemed the greatest imaginable evil was to the Pharisees the highest conceivable good. The resurrection of the body, or, in their own phrase, the revivification of the dead, thus became a cardinal doctrine of Judaism. How this came about we have now to inquire. 1

2

In the canonical Scriptures a restoration of the dead to life is found in Isa. 26, 17-19: 'As a woman with child that draws near her delivery is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so have 1

2

The fate of the Egyptians at the Red Sea furnishes striking figures. Cf. also 4 Maccabees.

296

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

we been before thee, 0 Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain; it was as though we brought forth wind. Deliver­ ances we have not wrought in the earth, nor are inhabitants of the world brought forth. Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall stand up. Wake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust! For Thy dew is a dew of lights, and the earth shall yield up the shades.' The passage is difficult in itself, and the difficulty of interpre­ tation is increased by our ignorance of its age and occasion. In the surrounding chapters (24-27) the chief theme is a great crisis not only in history but in nature, one might say the dies irae of the world and its inhabitants, of the kings of the earth and the celestial powers that are allied with them. Upon this follows the vindication of God's people before the eyes of the nations (ch. 25-26). The travail is long, and seems fruitless; the deliverance so ardently yearned for is not achieved. But it will come. And not only those who survive the catastrophe, but the dead in their dusty abodes will awake and break into a jubilant song; the earth will yield up the shades. The author's interest is in the renascence of the people, mul­ tiplied by the revival of generations dead and gone, rather than in the return to life of individuals. It may be surmised that the suggestion came from Ezek. 37, 12-14; cf. Isa. 66, 7-9. But the concluding verse (26, 19) furnished a frequent proof-text from the Prophets for the Pharisaic doctrine of resurrection. The visions in the Book of Daniel, starting with the Babylonian or the Medo-Persian empire, recapitulate the course of history 1

2

3

4

5

1

Contrast Isa. 66, 7 - 9 . The last clause may be otherwise understood: nor do the inhabitants of the world (cf. 26, 13 f.) fall. Perhaps "a (reviving) dew on plants." — The dew is a sign of the re­ vivification of the dead. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Toledot § 1 9 , adducing Micah 5, 6, and applying Isa. 26, 1 9 to the martyrs of the Hadrianic persecution. In Hagigah 1 2 b (below) the dew by which God will revive the dead is stored up in the heaven 'arabot, where are also the souls of the righteous. For this aspect of the judgment see especially 24, 1 6 - 2 3 . See below, p. 382. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

297

through the conquest of Alexander and the division of his em­ pire, sometimes, as in chapter 11, in great detail, down to An­ tiochus Epiphanes; dwell upon his desecration of the temple and his attempt to suppress the Jewish religion, and foresee his doom. At the pitch of his power and his pride, he is suddenly cut off by no human hand; his kingdom falls with him — the last of the great kingdoms of this world—and in its place is estab­ lished the world-wide kingdom of the holy people of the Most High, which shall have no end, and to which all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be subject. The final catastrophe of the world-empires, the inauguration of the eternal dominion of the Most High and his people, is at hand. The calculation of the end proves that the "seventy weeks" are all but fulfilled — only half of the last week (three and a half years) remains. Then Michael, the angelic champion of the Jews, will arise in their defence. The conflict will be a time of such distress as history has never known, but in it the Jews will be delivered, 'every one that is found written in the book.' 'And many of those that sleep in the dusty ground will wake, these to eternal life, and those to ignominy and eternal abhorrence.' In the context it lies nearest to suppose that in the former class are such as had given their lives for religion's sake in the persecution or had fallen in battle in defence of it, brought to life again to share in the triumph and the glorious age to follow, while the latter are the Hellenizers and apostates. A resurrection of all Israe­ lites, righteous and wicked, is not to be pressed on the word "many," much less of the heathen, and there is no suggestion of a judgment scene like that in chapter 7. The fate of the second class reminds us of Isa. 66, 24, where all mankind, who in the future will come to worship the Lord at 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Dan. 7, 24 f.; 8, 1 1 - 1 4 , 2 5 ; 9, 26 f.; 1 1 , 3 6 - 3 9 . Dan. 7, 9 - 1 1 , 26; 8, 2 5 ; 1 1 , 45. Dan. 2, 4 4 ; 7, 13 f., 18, 22, 26 f. Weeks of years (490 years). Dan. 9, 2 4 - 2 7 . The register of the faithful. Dan. 1 2 , if. — "To eternal life" is here "to live forever," (cf. Wisdom of Solomon 5, 1 5 ) , and "forever" may be hyperbolic. As in the "Revelation of John 20, 4. 2

4

5

6

7

3

298

THE HEREAFTER

[PART VII

Jerusalem, go out from month to month and week to week and see the corpses of those who rebelled against Him, 'for their worm will not die and their fire will not go out, and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind/ Some find in Dan. 12, 2 a resurrection of the righteous only. Ibn Ezra quotes the Gaon (Sa'adia): "Those who wake will be unto eternal life, and those who do not wake will be unto igno­ miny and eternal abhorrence. The "many" are the minority, as in instances cited. The sense, as he takes it, is that the righteous who died in the exile will live when the redeemer comes, for concerning them it is written, 'As the days of a tree so are the days of my people' (Isa. 65, 22); and then they will enjoy Leviathan and Ziz and Behemoth. "They will die an­ other time, and will live in the revival of the dead (the general resurrection), when they are in the World to Come, where men do not eat and drink, but enjoy the effulgence of the Shekinah." In the mediaeval commentary on Daniel which is printed in the Rabbinical Bibles under the name of Sa'adia a similar interpre­ tation is given: "'Many who sleep in the dusty earth will wake.' This is the resurrection of the dead of Israel whose lot is unto eternal life; and those that do not wake are those who abandoned the Lord, who will go down to the lowest level of Gehenna and be an abhorrence to all mankind." (Isa. 66, 24). 1

,,

2

3

4

5

In the sequel in Daniel special mention is made of the students and teachers of the Law: 'Those who cultivate intelligence will shine as the splendor of the firmament, and those who make the many righteous, as the stars for ever and aye.' 6

1

The word thus rendered, J1KT7, is found only in these two places, which it thus links together. T>NU, the Messiah. Whose flesh is the piece de resistance of the messianic banquet. See be­ low, pp. 363 ff. Only the first part of this interpretation is strictly apposite to our ques­ tion, but the rest, which represents a systematized eschatology, has its own interest. Not by the Gaon. See the comments on this verse in Sifre Deut. § 10 and § 47; Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 1 , 2 1 . R. Simeon ben Menasya takes the words 'who 2

3

4

5

6

CHAP, j ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

299

Second Maccabees, and presumably Jason of Cyrene from whom it is abridged, is in accord with these Palestinian con­ ceptions rather than with exponents of what is called Hellenistic Judaism like the Wisdom of Solomon. This is the more note­ worthy because the author had evidently been through a Greek school of language and literature, and attained a proficiency in the art of rhetoric of which, to judge from his display, he was not a little vain. The martyr brethren, in the extremity of their torture, about to depart from life, declare their faith that God will raise them up to an endless life. The severed and mutilated members of which the tormentors have deprived them, they expect to receive back from God. For the tyrant, on the contrary, there will be no rising up to life. The situation assumed in these martyr stories is the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, and, as in Daniel, the crisis of deliverance is at hand. With that crisis the restoration to life of those who laid down their lives for their religion is immediately connected. It had, in its origin, nothing to do with a dramatic world-assize at the end of the age, as in the ultimate development of Jewish eschatology. The author's belief in a revivification of those who fell in the struggle is illustrated by the story of the expiation Judas caused to be made in Jerusalem for the slain who had invited their doom by wearing heathen amulets under their shirts when they went into battle. He did this reflecting upon their rising again, "For if he had not expected that the fallen would rise again, it would have been idle and silly to pray for dead men; and further having regard to the rich and gracious boon that is laid up for those that sleep in godliness" (2 Mace. 12, 42-45). 1

2

3

make the many righteous' as equivalent to 'who make them love God.' Those who love God are like the sun when it comes out in its power (Judges 5, 31); greater far are those who make others love him. The King of the world will raise us, who die for his laws, to an eternal 1

renewal of life (els alcoviov

avaploxrLV

fco?)s r}f.ias dvaaTrjaei)^

2 Mace. 7, 9 (cf.

11); 7, 14, 36; cf. 7, 29. Cf. the prayer of Razi, 2 Mace. 14, 46. 2

aol ixev yap

3

lepu>\xara

avaaraaLs

TCOV diro

els farjp OVK earai

'lajjivlas

eldookoov.

(7, 14;

see also vs.

36).

300

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

In Enoch 85-90 the panorama of history is unrolled before the seer in a dream, from Adam and Eve to the Asmonaean times, in the midst of which die author stands. The situation seems to be a stage further on than the visions of Daniel, and like Daniel the author sees on the near horizon the great crisis looming. The throne of judgment is set up in Palestine, the books are opened, the fallen angels of Gen. 6, 1-4, the seventy angelic shepherds who had abused their power over Israel, and the "blinded sheep" (the apostate Jews), are cast into abysses of fire. Thereupon God brings a New Jerusalem in place of the old which is removed. "And all that had perished and were scattered, and all the beasts of the field and all the birds of heaven (the converted Gentiles, vs. 30) came together in that house, and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced greatly, for they were all good, and had returned to his house." The Jews were to be cured of their heathenizing blindness. "And all the sheep were called to the temple, but it did not contain them. And the eyes of them all were opened, so that they saw clearly; there was none among them that could not see. Then comes the birth of the white bull with great horns (the Messiah), and the metamorphosis of all the sheep into white bulls, with the further transformation of the leader. From vs. 33 it is commonly inferred that when the author sees gathered to the temple "those that had perished," they must have been brought to life again in a resurrection comparable to that in Daniel. There is, however, nothing else in these chapters to suggest resurrection, and it may well be doubted whether a single word in a translation at the second remove from the origi­ nal is sufficient reason for attributing the belief to the author. 1

2

3

4

5

3

2

Enoch 90, 20. Cf. Dan. 7, 9 - 1 1 . Enoch 89, 7 4 . Enoch 90, 28 f. Cf. Rev. of John 2 1 , 2 ff. It is unnecessary here to go farther into the symbolism of this part of the vision. It is possible that the Hebrew had im> in the sense of 'be lost/ which would go better with the parallel. (Cf. the controversy about the return of the Ten Tribes turning on this word in Lev. 26, 38, below, p. 369.) In that case a reference to resurrection would not be implied. 3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

301

In the composite Book of Enoch different conceptions find place. In the opening chapters (1-5) the judgment of G o d is depicted in biblical imagery with no mention of a resurrection. The ungodly are destroyed, leaving their names to perpetual execration. On the righteous, the elect, is bestowed remission of sins, and they are endued with wisdom so that they never sin again either through inadvertence or presumption, nor incur punishment, but live the full, long measure of their days in gladness and peace. In another part of the book Enoch is conducted by angels through outlying quarters of the world beyond the bounds of human exploration (cc 21-27). He sees the seven stars of heaven which trangressed the command of God, bound and burning for ten thousand years, the time of their sins; the fiery abyss, the prison of the angels where they are confined for­ ever; the high mountain in the midst of a group, whose summit is like a throne, the seat of God, on which he sits when he comes down to visit the earth in goodness; and near it the Tree of Life, whose fruit after the great judgment will be made free for food to the righteous and holy, those who are chosen unto life. He is shown also the accursed ravine which is to be the place of eternal punishment for those who have blasphemed God (c. 27). The judgment does not, as in Daniel and in Enoch 85-90, lie in the proximate future, and unlike them is not expressly con­ nected with the deliverance of Israel from the dominion of the heathen; it is a forensic act, which will come at its appointed time (22, 4). This naturally leads to the question of the whereabouts of souls between death and the ultimate determination of their 1

2

3

4

5

1

Not in forensic form, but as a crisis in nature and history. Dan. 1 2 , 2. Cf. 1 8 , 1 2 - 1 6 . They did not at the beginning come forth at God's com­ mand. Contrast Isa. 40, 26. Cf. c. 1 9 . The angels whose miscegenation with women is narrated in Gen. 6, 1 - 4 . See Enoch 6 - 1 0 ; 1 2 - 1 6 (parallels). Note the absence of all militant features. It is to be observed also that in Enoch 1 - 3 6 there is no allusion to a messianic figure of any kind. 2

3

4

5

302

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART V I I

fate in the great judgment. At an early stage in his travels Enoch is shown a great mountain in the West in which are deep hollows with very smooth walls. One of them was light and had a fountain of water in it, while the other three were dark. The angel Raphael, who presides over the spirits of men (20, 3), tells him that these hollow places were created that in them should be collected all the souls of men until the time appointed for the great judgment. The one that is light and has the foun­ tain in it is for the spirits of the righteous; the others for differ­ ent classes of the wicked. One is for the sinners who die and are buried without judgment's having befallen them in their life time. "Here their spirits are separated for that great torment, until the great day of judgment, of the scourging and torments of the accursed, to the end that there may be a retribution of the spirits. There He will bind them forever" (22, 10 f.). Another was set apart for those who make complaint (to God), declaring how they were destroyed when they were slain in the days of the sinners (22, 12). A third was created for "the spirits of the men who shall not be righteous, but godless sinners, and associ­ ates of the lawless (heathen). Their spirits will not be visited in the day of judgment, nor will they be raised up from hence" 1

2

3

4

(22, 13).

5

The whole passage has in view Jews only; of the fate of the heathen there is no mention. The resurrection of the righteous Jews is assumed, not expressly asserted. That one class of sin­ ners is reserved for torments after the judgment and will be bound in this fate forever, and that another will not be visited 1

Probably to make it impossible to climb out. With these receptacles cf. 4 Esdras 7, 32 (promptuaria); Syr. Baruch 2 1 , 23. And, it is to be inferred, waterless. Compare the parable of the thirsty Dives in torment. Cf. 22, 5-7. Abel is the typical instance. Punished, TitiupydrjaovTat,. Cf. Psalms of Solomon 3, 1 4 . The distribution is obscure, and the attempts to improve it by emenda­ tion are not convincing. The important point is that a separation not only of righteous and sinners but of different classes from one another is intended ( M , 8)2

3

4

5

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

and will not be raised up, implies the restoration to life on earth of others. The angel Remiel is set over those that rise. Enoch's journeyings are continued to the far East, where grow all sorts of balsamiferous and spice-bearing trees (cc. 28-32, 1), and farther east, beyond the Erythraean sea, to the Garden of Righteousness (32, 3), the earthly paradise, among whose grand trees stands the Tree of Wisdom, of whose sacred fruit those who eat acquire great wisdom. To his inquiry Raphael replies: This is the tree of wisdom, of which thy ancestors (Adam and Eve) ate, and got wisdom, and knew that they were naked, and were driven out of the garden (32, 6). The future is imagined as a restoration of paradisiacal con­ ditions. The Tree of Life will, after the judgment, be trans­ planted to the Holy Place beside the temple of God, the King of the World. The righteous and holy, those chosen unto life, who eat its fruit, "will rejoice and be glad, and will enter into the Holy Place. Its fragrance will be in their bones, and they will live on earth the longer life which the forefathers lived. All their days no sorrow nor pain, no suffering nor affliction, shall touch them" (25, 6). It may be surmised that the ban on the tree of knowledge (32, 3, 6) will be removed, and it be made law­ ful for men to enjoy it. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

The second of what are commonly though inappropriately en­ titled the "Parables" of Enoch (cc. 45-57) enlarges on the theme of Daniel 7, 9-14, adapting it to a different situation and with 1

2

ov era^ev

6 Beds ewl roov dvLcrrafJLevoiv (20, 8).

The Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean (32, 2 ) . eiriaravTai (frpovqcriv /JLeyaKrjv — wisdom for the conduct of life. Here the Greek text breaks off. As it had previously been removed from the earthly paradise to the mountain of God, where no mortal is able to touch it until the great judg­ ment in which vengeance is taken on all the wicked and the final and endless consumation achieved (25, 4 f.). The centuries of the antediluvians in Genesis. Jubilees 23, 2 6 - 2 9 ; cf. verses 11 f., 1 5 . There is no mention in Jubilees of a resurrection. Isa. 6 5 , 1 9 f. Cf. Enoch 10, 1 7 - 1 1 , 2, where the righteous who are de­ livered in the judgment live till they have begotten myriads of children, and all the days of their youth and old age will be lived in peace (prosperity). 3

4

5

6

7

3

o

THE

4

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

a different conception of the 'one that looked like a man* (46, 1; Dan. 7, 1 3 ) who appears in the judgment act. After the great vindication in which the mighty of the earth who godlessly abuse their power are delivered into the hand of God's Chosen One, and are consumed as straw in fire, sink down like lead in water (Exod. 15, 7, 10; Obad. 18, etc.), leaving no trace behind (Enoch 48, 9 f.), and after space has been given for others, witnessing their fate, to repent before the final remediless de­ cision (50, 1-5), "the earth will restore what has been com­ mitted to it, and Sheol what it has received, and hell will give up what it owes. H e will pick out the righteous and holy among them, for the day when they shall be delivered is at hand. The Chosen One shall in those days sit upon My throne, and all the secrets of wisdom will stream from the counsels of his mouth, for the Lord of Spirits has given it to him, and glorified him. In those days will the mountains leap like rams, and the hills skip like lambs that have had plenty of milk; and all will become angels in heaven. And their countenance will shine with joy, because in those days the Chosen One has arisen; and the earth will rejoice, and the righteous will dwell upon it, and the chosen ones go to and fro in it" (51, 1-5). 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

The restoration is to a life on earth, and, notwithstanding the universal expressions of 51,. 1, a resurrection of Gentiles is not thought of. In subsequent chapters of this Parable, Enoch is shown, in 10

1

On this point see below, pp. 334 ff. Various incongruities naturally result from this coupling of new ideas with phraseological reminiscences. Cf. 90, 30 and 3 5 . God. Many manuscripts (chiefly later ones) read 'his throne.' Cf. 6 1 , 8; 4 5 , 3. Isa. 1 1 , 2. Psalm 1 1 4 , 4, 6. Cf. Matt, 22, 3 0 ; Luke 20, 36. Enoch 104, 6; Syr. Baruch 5 1 , 1 0 ; see also Enoch 69, 1 1 . Charles (ed. 2) transposes, emends, construes, and trans­ lates: "And the faces of [all] the angels in heaven shall be lighted up with j o y " — a somewhat insipid conclusion. 9 See also 62, 1 3 - 1 6 . Cf. 6 1 , 4 f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1 0

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

305

another part of the earth, a deep valley with burning fire, into which he sees the kings and the mighty cast, and the enormously heavy chains that are being forged for the hosts of Azazel when they are hurled down into the abyss in the day of the last judg­ ment (54, 1 - 6 ; 55, 3-4; 56, 1-4). Then there is revealed to him the last outbreak of the heathen powers, who are now the Parthians and the Medes, and their catastrophe (56, 5-8); and finally the return of the dispersion (c. 57). In the other Parables (38-44; 58-69) the representations of the fortunes of the righteous and the wicked in the present and the future, of the issues of judgment, and of the final triumph of righteousness and wisdom, are similar, and need not be detailed here. 1

2

3

One other section of the book (cc. 91-105) demands brief re­ mark. It includes (or incorporates) the apocalypse of the Ten Weeks, periods of the world's history from Enoch's own time to the great final judgment in which God exacts retribution from the angels. "And the first heaven will pass away and vanish, and a new heaven will appear, and all the powers of heaven will shine with sevenfold brightness for ever. And thereafter will be many weeks without number, forever, in goodness and right­ eousness, and thenceforth sin shall not be so much as named for­ ever." This is the culmination of a series of judgments. In the second week was the great Flood; in the eighth week a sword is given to righteousness that just judgment may be executed on those who do violence, and the sinners will be delivered into the hands of the righteous (91, 12). In the ninth the righteous 4

5

6

1

Isa. 24, 21 f. Rev. of John 20, 1 ff. Ezek. 38 f., Gog and Magog; cf. Rev. of John 20, 7 ff. Enoch 9 1 , 1 6 ; Isa. 65, 1 7 ; 66, 22. Isa. 30, 2 6 ; cf. 60, 1 9 f. The seventh week (93, 9 f.) is that of the hellenizing apostasy; at its close "the chosen righteous of the eternal plant of righteousness" appear, and sevenfold instruction concerning God's whole creation is given them — the religious revival. Here is the standpoint of the author of the apocalypse. 2

5

4

5

6

306

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

judgment will be manifested in the whole world, and all the works of the godless will disappear from the earth, and the world will be written down for destruction; and all men will look toward the way of righteousness'' (91, 14). Apart from this little apocalypse and the introduction to it, 91, 1-10, the section is chiefly occupied with woes pronounced on the wicked, and exhortations to the righteous to maintain their faith in the assurance of a coming great reversal of the fortunes of the two parties. Even though they die before the crisis comes, they shall rise from the sleep of death to walk in the way of righteousness. Their resurrection will justify their faith against the disbelief of the sinners who assert that there is no difference between the fate of righteous and wicked in death or after it (102, 6-11). The author assures the righteous that all good, joy, honor, are prepared and written down (in the heavenly tablets and the holy books he has seen) for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness. Great is their recom­ pense, and a better lot than that of the living. "The spirits of you who have died in righteousness will live, and will rejoice and be glad. Their spirits will not perish nor their memorial from before the Great One unto all the generations of the world" (103,1-4). Wholly diverse is the fate of the wicked. Their souls will be sent down to the nether-world, and they will fare ill and be in great tribulation. "Into darkness, fetters, and flaming fire, will your spirit come, and the judgment will last for all the gen­ erations of the world. Woe to you; ye shall find no peace (102, 1

2

3

4

7 f.; 103, 5 ff.)- _ _ The several writings brought together in the Book of Enoch are distributed over almost a century, and come not only from different authors but out of widely different historical situations. That the revivification of the righteous dead occurs in so many 1

This clause seems to intrude. The verse is probably to be understood of the conversion of the Gentiles who have witnessed the vindication. Enoch 92, 3-5; 9 1 , 10. Eccles. 2, 1 4 - 1 6 ; 3, 1 9 - 2 1 , etc. Cf. Wisdom of Solomon 2, 1-5. Isa. 48, 2 2 ; 57, 2 1 . 2

3

4

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

parts of the book, with one conception or another, is evidence of the currency of the idea in that age. Other writings, also, of the second or first centuries before our era attest the belief that at the expected turning-point in the history of the world the dead of former generations would be brought to life again on earth; and exhibit the ways in which, by diverse combinations of Scripture, the crisis itself and the golden age to follow were imagined. In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs the resurrection is extended to the dead of remote generations, back to the beginnings of the people. Judah says to his descendants: "And after these things, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will rise up to life, and I and my brothers will be chiefs of the tribes in Israel, Levi first, I second, Joseph third, Benjamin fourth, Simeon fifth, Issachar sixth, and so all the rest in order. . . . And there shall be one people of the Lord, and one language; and Beliar's spirit of deceit shall be no more, for he will be cast into the fire forever. And those who died in grief will rise up in joy, and those in poverty for the Lord's sake will be enriched, and those in want will be fed full, and those in weak­ ness will be made strong, and those who died for the Lord's sake will wake in life." In the Testament of Benjamin (c. 10) the original representa­ tion was similar: "Then ye will see Enoch, Noah and Shem, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rising up on the right hand in exultation. Then shall we also rise, each over his own tribe, wor­ shipping the King of heaven." There follows a resurrection of all, some unto glory and some unto dishonor, and a judgment, first of Israel for their unrighteousness, and then of all the Gen1

2

3

4

5

1

Generally the pious dead of Israel only. The restoration from the captivity and the rising of the star out of Jacob. See the word of Jesus to the Twelve: In the rebirth of the world, when the Son of Man shall sit on his glorious throne, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matt. 1 9 , 28. Cf. the twentyfour elders in the Revelation of John. Test. Judah c. 2 5 ; see also Simeon c. 6; Zebulon c. 1 0 . Dan. 1 2 , 2. 2

3

4

5

3

o8

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

1

tiles. In the Greek text this passage has been heavily inter­ polated by Christian hands; both Jews and Gentiles are con­ demned for not believing in Christ. The Armenian version is innocent of this palpable Christianization; but in what goes be­ yond the parallels cited from the other Testaments is itself not exempt from suspicion of amplification by a second hand. The resurrection, beginning with the patriarchs, is a restora­ tion to a life on this earth, with the old tribal organization, in idealized conditions. 2

3

4

The Psalms of Solomon represent the type of Judaism which we associate with the Pharisees. The references to the resurrec­ tion are in conformity with this origin. In Psalm 3, which con­ trasts the attitude of the righteous man and the sinner toward God and His dealings with them, and the outcome of their diverse character and behavior, we read: "If a sinner stumbles, he curses his life, the day of his birth and the pangs of his mother. He adds sins to sins as long as he lives; he falls — dire is his fall — and shall not rise up. The perdition of the sinner is for­ ever, and when He visits the righteous, no mention will be made of him. This is the lot of the sinners forever. But they that fear the Lord will rise to eternal life, and their life in the light of the Lord will never again fail" (3, 11-16). Similarly in 13, 9 - 1 1 : "The life of the righteous is eternal, but sinners will be carried off to perdition, and no memorial of them will be found." 5

1

Of the future of the righteous or the fate of the condemned nothing is said. The king of heaven "who appeared upon earth in the form of an humble man." The unrighteousness of the Jews was that "when God came to them in flesh as deliverer they did not believe" ( 1 0 , 7 - 9 ) . "Then shall we all be changed, some into glory and some into shame; for the Lord judges Israel first for the unrighteousness which they have com­ mitted, and then so (shall he judge) all the Gentiles. And He shall convict Israel through the chosen Gentiles," etc. (Charles's translation.) See especially Test. Levi c. 1 8 ; Dan 5, 9 - 1 3 . Cf. Jubilees 23, 2 6 - 3 1 , where, however, a bodily resurrection of the righteous of former generations is not contemplated: "Their bones will rest in the earth, and their spirit will have much joy, and they will know that it is God that holds judgment and shows favor to hundreds and thousands — to all who love him." Cf. 1 4 , 6 - 1 0 , etc. 2

3

4

6

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

309

It is to be noted that while the apocalypses bring the resur­ rection of the righteous into connection with the judgment act, in those psalms that extol the Messiah, son of David, and foretell his abolition of sinners, the destruction or subjugation of the heathen, and his righteous rule over the restored nation, the author says nothing of a resurrection. It would be a mistake, however, to urge this silence; this part of the psalm is a tissue of biblical reminiscences, in which resurrection has no place. 1

The Gospels begin with a warning of a great crisis at hand, the immediate inauguration of the "reign of God." It is assumed that this phrase and its meaning were familiar to all Jews; and whatever other ideas they may have connected with it, the sum­ mons to repentance, which is the burden of John the Baptist's prophesying presently taken up by Jesus, shows that it was thought of as a new order of things on earth suddenly instituted by God, in which only the righteous and the repentant sinners (whom Judaism classed with them) would survive. In the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, " May Thy reign come; may Thy will be done, as in heaven, also upon earth," the second clause gives the definition of the first in its religious and moral aspect. In a second stage, this new era is associated with the appear­ ance of the Messiah, son of David, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, after the messianic entry into Jerusalem and the repudiation of these claims by the heads of the nation, the crisis is announced in eschatological form, the sign of Daniel's "abomination of desolation" standing in the holy place, the great tribulation, the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, the gathering of the chosen from all quarters of the earth, the 2

3

1

4

See especially Psalms of Solomon, 1 7 . Malkut Shamaim. Kingdom of Heaven (Matt.), Kingdom of God (Luke). See p. 3 7 4 . Mark 8, 2 7 - 3 0 ; Matt. 1 6 , 1 3 - 2 0 ; Luke 9, 1 8 - 2 1 . — Matt. 1 2 , 2 2 - 3 0 ; Mark 10, 3 5 - 4 0 ; Matt. 20, 20-23. — Mark 10, 48 f. and parallels. Mark 1 2 , 35-37Mark 1 1 , 1 - 1 0 ; Matt. 2 1 , 1 - 9 ; Luke 1 9 , 28-38. Cf. Zech. 9, 9 ; Isa. 62, 11 f. 2

3

4

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

final judgment of "all the nations/' some going to eternal pun­ ishment, but the righteous to eternal life. The role of the Son of Man in this judgment act is similar to that in the Parables of Enoch. It is noteworthy, however, that in Matt. 24-25 there is no express mention of a resurrection of the dead corresponding to Enoch 51, nor even of the restoration to life of the martyrs for their faith (Matt. 24, 9-14). The final separation of good and bad in the last judgment is the theme of two of the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matt. 13. The tares (the sons of evil) which the enemy (the devil) has sown in the wheat field are left to grow with the good grain until the harvest. At the completion of the age (worldperiod) ' the Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather up out of his kingdom all causes of offense, and those who do iniquity, and cast them into the furnace of fire. . . . Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father' (Matt. 13, 40-43). Similarly, the kingdom is compared to a net that catches all manner of fish, which have to be sorted out when the draught is landed. * So it will be in the completion of the age; the angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and cast them into the furnace of fire' (Matt. 13, ) . The Gospels are also witnesses to the conflicting doctrines of the Pharisees and the Sadducees about the resurrection of the body and retribution after death, on which point Jesus and his disciples were of the Pharisaic persuasion. In an argument 1

2

3

4

5

4 9

6

7

1

Mark 1 3 . 4 - 3 7 ; Matt. 24, 4 - 2 5 , 46. The specifically Christian adapta­ tion of much of this is evident. Note particularly Matt. 25, 3 1 - 4 6 . See Enoch 4 5 - 5 7 , summarized above, pp. 303 if., cf. 333 ff., and Enoch c. 52. According to Matt. 27, 53, as an accompaniment of the resurrection of Jesus, many bodies of saints that had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of their tombs entered into Jerusalem and appeared to many; but these apparitions were understood by the author as signs, not as actual cases of resurrection. The Christian church has here become the kingdom of God. See also 1 6 , 27 f. Mark 1 2 , 1 8 - 2 7 ; Matt. 22, 2 3 - 3 3 ; cf. Acts. 4, 1 f. See also Acts 2 3 , 6 ff. 2

8

4

5

6

7

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

311

with the Sadducees, Jesus adduces a proof of the resurrection from the Pentateuch (Exod. 3, 6) which might very well have been used by a rabbi. The writings of which a cursory survey has been taken show how the belief in the better lot of the righteous after death arose among the Jews, and the various forms it took. Among the Greeks it started with anthropological notions of the constitu­ tion of man, an immortal soul in a mortal body. Their belief in immortality was promoted by a strong sense of the worth of personality, which demanded perpetuity as, so to speak, an inalienable right. There were mythical tales of the separation of good and bad in the life beyond, which seemed so fitting that it was an article of popular belief; and imagination found occu­ pation in inventing appalling tortures for the damned and making the penalty fit the offense. The souls of the good went to the abode and company of gods and heroes, which poetical mythology furnished with all delights of refined sense, while philosophers made the delight purely intellectual. From begin­ ning to end the conception was strictly individual; and the public religions of Greece had very little to do with the after life, which became the special field of the various mysteries and the Salvationist sects, or was left to the speculations of phil­ osophers. Nothing was more deeply impressed on Judaism than the idea of national and religious solidarity. The individualizing of the principles of the prophets concerning sin and its consequences, repentance and divine forgiveness, was accomplished beside, not in place of, this solidarity. But there was one point at which the appropriation to the individual of the words of the prophets to the nation was not directly possible. They foretold, as the out1

2

1

At first of the conspicuously good and the abominably bad. Lucretius sees in Epicurus the liberator of mankind from this fear of something after death, which kept men in bondage to fear and in subjection to superstitions cultivated by the priests for their own interest. See Book i, 2

62-126.

i2

THE

3

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

come of God's dealing with Israel and the nations, a final deliver­ ance and an unending future of peace and prosperity, of universal righteousness and godliness. The nation clung to this faith even in its direst catastrophes, and when the worst that could happen seemed to have befallen it, believed the great revolution to be the next act in the world drama. But this could not, like the rest, be directly translated into individual terms. Happy, in­ deed, were the righteous who should be living when the great day came! What the Jew craved for himself was to have a part in the future golden age of the nation as the prophets depicted it, the Days of the Messiah, or in the universal Reign of God, or in the Coming Age — always in the realization of God's purpose of good for his people. It was only so, not in some blissful lot for his individual self apart, that he could conceive of perfect happi­ ness. The idea of salvation for the individual was indissolubly linked with the salvation of the people. This continued to be true in the subsequent development of eschatology, and gives its peculiar character to Jewish ideas of the hereafter. The golden age to come, by whatever name it was called and however it was imagined, was a stage of human history on this earth. The deliverance of Israel from the yoke of the heathen with which it began, and the new era that followed, politically, socially, and economically, as well as in religion and morals, are what is called in the Scriptures in a preeminent sense "salva­ tion," "the salvation of Israel" (Psalm 14, 7), "the salvation of our God" (Isa. 52, 10), and, in this sense, only those who live in that age share in the great salvation. Most naturally it was felt that, of all men, the martyrs who had laid down their lives for their religion in the persecution, and the heroes who had fallen in the final conflict with heathenism, had earned a part in the salvation that was at hand; and it was easy to believe that 1

2

3

1

Cf. Revelation of John 20, 6. n j W ; with especial frequency in Isa. 40 ff. and the Psalms. In distinction from the deliverance of the individual from his particular earthly distresses. 2

3

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

313

God, who must also recognize their desert, would bring them to life to enjoy it. The promises of salvation in the prophets were made to Israel as a whole, and generations had lived in the hope of seeing it, and died, 'not having received the promises (the things promised), but having seen them and hailed them from afar.' To them also the promise should be fulfilled. They too would be restored to life in the consummation. We have seen in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, how the antediluvians, Shem, Enoch, Noah, as well as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will be seen rising up on the right hand, and the twelve patriarchs come, each at the head of his tribe. In general, in the sources we have hitherto examined, it is asserted or assumed that only the righteous dead are brought to life. That the wicked are left in the state of the dead is the sim­ plest form of retribution for them. But their lot is not mere deprivation. A hell of torment is created not solely for the fallen angels, or for the godless tyrants who rule the earth, but for the apostates, or for all the wicked of Israel. In the crisis which ends the old order of things and ushers in the new era, the living sinners in Israel, for whom there is no room in it, perish. With the conception of a final assize, to appear bodily in which good and bad will be raised from the dead, we shall have to deal in another connection. I have dwelt on the genesis of these ideas somewhat at length in order to make it clear that, on the premises of Scripture, the only logical way in which the Jews could conceive the fulfilment of God's promises to the righteous was that they should live 1

2

3

4

1

2

Hebrews n , 13. Above, p. 307. So in the Midrash. As in the three days of darkness in Egypt the wicked of Israel perished (Cant. R. on 2 , 1 3 ; Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f-74a), so immediately before the days of the Messiah a great pestilence will come in which the wicked perish (Pesikta ed. Buber f. 5 1 a ; Pesikta Rabbati f. 7 5 a ; Cant. R. on 2, 12.) It is the conviction that at the advent of the "reign of God" the impenitent sinners will perish which gives point and effect to the summons of John and of Jesus to repent without delay. See below, pp. 362 f. 3

4

314

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

again upon earth in the golden age to come and share in the salvation of Israel. The resurrection seems, indeed, so necessarily the consequence of the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the salvation of the righteous and their great reward that it is not strange that the Pharisees found it explicit or by intimation in all parts of their Bible. The necessity may be looked at in another aspect. The over­ throw of the last of the empires that had so long succeeded one another in oppressive dominion, the deliverance of Israel, and the establishment of the world-wide and eternal reign of God, was the vindication of God as true God, the ruler of the universe, as well as a vindication of Israel's faith in him and fidelity to him; and that the righteous dead were brought to life to share in the glories and the blessings of that time was their vindication be­ fore those who had scoffed at their fear of the Lord, averring that there is no divine providence in this life nor retribution beyond it. The emergence of this idea in the persecution of the religion by Antiochus Epiphanes and the insurrection of the faithful Jews in its defence, was at an opportune moment, and the situation, with the assurance that the hour of deliverance was at hand and the new era about to begin, gave both the motive and the limi­ tation of the first conception of resurrection. 1

2

Those who were restored to life to share in the great salvation led their second existence on earth under the same conditions as the living who survived the great crisis. It was believed that the new era would be one of independence, peace, good govern­ ment, justice, uprightness, prosperity, happiness — the consum­ mation of all that is good in the actual world and the abolition of all that is evil in every sphere. The imagination of some of the apocalypses goes to the length of letting men attain the age of Methuselah, or beget myriads of children, and from youth to 1

2

Below, pp. 382 f. See Enoch 102, 4 - 1 1 ; 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 .

Cf. Wisdom of Solomon 2, 1 - 5 ; 3, 2 - 4 .

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

315

1

old age knowing no pain nor sorrow nor affliction. But however superior to the present, it is a bodily and mundane existence. And this, as it was the original conception, doubtless continued to be the popular notion. That only Jews were brought to life again to enjoy this happy state of things was the universal belief, a self-evident consequence of its origin; and that the ungodly Jews would perish in the crisis and not be heard of again was at least a common expectation, as it was the logical one. In several connections the expectation appears that many living Gentiles, witnessing the vindication of God and his people, will be converted and join in the worship of the true God, thus escaping the final doom. Certain other features of this apocalyp­ tic literature and its congeners remain to be noted. One of the most striking is the elaboration of the myth of the fall of the angels, captivated by the charms of fair women, and the giant offspring of this miscegenation (Gen. 6, 1-4). These angels taught men to work in metals and make for themselves armor and weapons of war, and for women jewelry and cosmetics; in­ cantations and witches' brews, and the varieties of maleficent magic; astrology and divination by omens; and — not the least of their mischief— they taught men to write with pen and ink, "by which many sinned from age to age, unto this day," and the all-potent adjuration by the secret name. The fallen angels are thus the authors of the corruption of mankind; and consequently their imprisonment till the last 2

3

4

5

6

7

1

8

See above, p. 303. See Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 887-889. So in Enoch 90, 30; 9 1 , 1 4 ; 50, 1 - 5 . See Isa. 52, 1 3 - 5 3 , 1 2 . According to Jubilees 4, 1 5 , they came down to teach men to practise justice and righteousness, but (5, 1) succumbed to the seductive beauty of their female pupils. Enoch 6 - 8 ; 69, 1 - 1 3 (the latter from a Noah apocalypse). Cf. 65, 6 - 1 0 . The particular sin of pen and ink here specified is the introduction of contracts in writing. Ibid. 69, 1 3 - 2 1 . See also Jubilees 5, 1, 1 0 ; 10, 5 - 1 1 ; 1 1 , 4 f. (idolatry). Some of them, however, were left at large. Jubilees c. 1 0 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

3

i6

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

judgment and their final fate in the abyss of fire are standing elements in the apocalypses. Demons, by whatever name they are called, maliciously tempt men, and seduce them into sin. In the future they will have no such power. The new era will be free from sin, when once the sinners and the authors and solicitors of sin have been destroyed, and the survivors have been endued with wisdom. 1

2

3

4

In Sirach, written only a few years before the crisis under An­ tiochus Epiphanes which is reflected in Daniel and in parts of the Book of Enoch, there is no suggestion of retribution after death. The author makes no difference among men in their end; death is the common lot of all, and from it there is no return. In 41, 1-4, where the author contrasts the feelings toward death of the prosperous, who see in it a calamity, and the unfortunate, to whom it is a release, he continues: "Be not afraid of the death that is decreed for thee; remember that the generations, former and later, are in the same case with thee. This is the lot of all flesh by the Lord's appointment, and why shouldst thou set thyself against the will of the Most High? Whether it be a thousand years, or a hundred, or ten, in Sheol there is no com­ plaint about (the length of) life." In his advice to mourners not to indulge in excessive and protracted grief (38, 16 ff.) he says: "Do not forget that for him (the deceased) there is no hope. Thou dost not help him, and thou harmest thyself. Re­ member that his fate is thine also, — for me to-day and for thee to-morrow.' When a dead man is at rest, let the thought of him rest; and be comforted when once his spirit has departed." 5

6

7

1

8

1

Enoch 1 0 ; 1 2 - 1 6 ; 1 9 ; 2 i 7 - 1 0 ; 67, 4 - 7 ; 90, 2 1 , etc. Cf. Matt. 25, 4 1 ; Rev. John 20, 1 - 3 , 10. See also Testament of Judah 25, 3. Satan, the satans; Mastema; Beliar, and the spirits of Beliar, etc. Testament of Judah 2 5 . Enoch 5, 8 f.; 90, 3 2 - 3 6 ; 92, 5; 9 1 , 1 7 ; 100, 5. No attempt is made here to discriminate among the various stages at which this consummation is attained. The Hebrew text has "the Law." Or, perhaps, 'reproach.' So the Hebrew. Greek kiravabos, coming up from the tomb. See also 1 0 , 1 1 ; 40, 1, 1 1 . 3

2

3

4

5

7

8

6

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

317

The outlook on what is beyond death here and elsewhere in Sirach is that of the Book of Job and of the Psalms which touch upon the point. This is only what would be expected of a bibli­ cal scholar in his day. There is no especial emphasis in his utter­ ances, and certainly nothing controversial. If he was acquainted with the ideas current in the Hellenistic world about the im­ mortality of the soul and the fortunes which awaited the souls of the good and the bad at death, his antagonism to the Hellenizing movement in his own people would not incline him to look more favorably upon them. For this conservatism he is some­ times labelled Sadducee, but there is no evidence that in his day parties were aligned on this issue, nor even that the question of retribution after death had come into the forum of discussion. It is likely that the new ideas which emerged in the next gen­ eration made their way slowly among the Scribes, and not with­ out opposition. All that we know for certain is that they be­ came the distinguishing tenets of the Pharisees. That the resurrection of the dead was a party issue between the Pharisees and the Sadducees is familiar from the New Testa­ ment. In Josephus are two brief statements of the beliefs of the Pharisees on this point: "All souls are imperishable, but only the soul of the good passes into another body, while the souls of the bad are castigated with everlasting punishment." To the same effect in the second passage, but somewhat more fully: "Their belief is that souls have a deathless vigor, and that be­ neath the earth there are rewards and punishments according as they have been devoted in life to virtue or to vice. For the latter everlasting imprisonment is prescribed; for the former capability of coming to life again." By reason of these doctrines they have the greatest influence with the mass of the people, and in matters of religious observance, everything is done according to 1

2

3

1

It mav well be that this goes back to the very beginnings of the party. Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 1 4 § 163. Antt. xviii. i, 3 § 14. — The Sadducees deny the survival of the soul — it perishes with the body — and the rewards and punishments in Hades (11. cc). 2

3

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

their interpretation. This description of the sects is written for Greek and Roman readers, and the fact must be taken into account in interpreting the expressions; but the substantial accuracy of the report, so far as it goes, there is no occasion to doubt. It agrees with most of the sources we have discussed above in the return to bodily life of the souls of the good only, and the eternal punishment of the bad. 1

In the first century the Schools of Shammai and Hillel were agreed in defining the two classes in Dan. 12, 2 as the righteous, who are destined to eternal life, and the wicked, who are con­ signed to ignominy and eternal abhorrence. But they differed on a new question: What was to become of those who were neither totally righteous nor totally wicked, but betwixt and between? — the great majority, in short. The School of Sham­ mai held that those in whom good and evil were, so to speak, in equilibrium, will go down to hell, and dive and come up, and arise thence and be healed (Zech. 13, 9; 1 Sam. 2, 6). For them the fires of Gehenna are purgatorial; they are refined like silver and assayed like gold. The School of Hillel maintained that God in his abounding mercy (Exod. 34,6), would incline the balance to the side of mercy, and not send them down to Gehenna at all, arguing from Psalm 116. 2

3

4

That the belief in retribution after death appeared in Judaism at so late a stage in its history gave it a distinct superiority over religions in which the notions of man's hereafter originated in 1

There is reason to think that in both accounts Josephus is drawing directly or indirectly on a Greek source, presumably Nicolaus of Damascus. In that case the testimony is three quarters of a century older than Josephus. The D*Oin. So among the Greeks, ol 8e TOV fieaov fliov, iroWol 6VT€S OVTOU Lucian, On Mourning for the Dead, § 9. See Vol. I, pp. 495 f.; II, p. 62. D^tfa^D. The rendering is dubious; see the commentators. Tos. Sanhedrin 1 3 , 3 ; Rosh ha-Shanah i 6 b - i 7 a . In the Baraita in Rosh ha-Shanah this is expressly said to take place at the day of judgment, mean­ ing at the general resurrection in the last day. Daniel 1 2 , 2 ('these are to ignominy and eternal abhorrence') is cited as a proof-text for the fate of the completely wicked who are consigned to hell. 2

3

4

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION AFTER DEATH

319 1

ancient myths and were developed in mythical forms. In Juda­ ism all the great doctrines of the religion had long been fully established, and the extension of divine retribution beyond the tomb came as a necessary corollary to the idea of God's justice and the assurance of his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises to the righteous. Moreover, the conditions of God's favor, here or hereafter, had been completely moralized. Righteousness was conformity to his holy will as revealed in the twofold law he had given, which comprehended not only belief and observance but morals — man's conduct in all his relations to his fellows and in his personal character. Wickedness was deliberate defiance or habitual disregard of God's law, and the incorrigibly wicked are doomed to perdition. Sin was any transgression or neglect of its commandments or prohibitions. For sin thus defined there was but one remedy, the forgiving grace of God, and the conditio sine qua non of forgiveness was repentance, that is, contrition, confes­ sion, reparation of injuries to others, and a reformation of con­ duct undertaken and persisted in with sincere purpose and out of religious motives. The ultimate salvation of the individual is inseparably con­ nected with the salvation of the people, and inasmuch as, in ac­ cordance with the prophetic teaching, this was made dependent on the righteousness or the repentance of the nation collectively, the conduct and character of the individual concerned not him­ self alone but the whole Jewish people. Those who by teaching and example made the multitude righteous merited especial honor, while the prevalence of wickedness, it was taught, de­ ferred the fulfilment of God's promise of salvation to the nation. The efforts of the religious teachers, the Scribes, and their fol­ lowing, the Pharisees, were not only to indoctrinate all their countrymen in the obligations of their religion, but to promote 2

3

1

This is the element of truth in War bur ton's famous paradox. D^iy "n, fcoi? cuomos. The opposite is njJK> "PI 'the life of the (passing) hour,' e.g. Besah 15b; Jer. Mo'ed Katon 82b, below. See below, pp. 350 ff. 2

3

320

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

among them by precept and example the fulfilment of these ob­ ligations in all spheres. Besides all this there were the prophecies of the time to come when, after the destruction of the enemy nations, Judaism, the true religion, should be the religion of all mankind, the universal "reign of God" should be made visible. Other passages make Israel the instrument in the enlightenment of the Gentiles, and the enlargement of God's salvation to the ends of the earth. The expansion of Judaism by conversion in the centuries im­ mediately preceding and following the Christian era is evidence of the zeal with which the Jews prosecuted this mission. A consequence of all this was that in Judaism the fate of the individual after death, however it might be emphasized as a motive for the fidelity of the Jew to every article of his religion, did not occupy the same place which it had in many con­ temporary religions in the Hellenistic world. The mysteries — which, in distinction from the public cults, we should call the personal religions of the age — were solely concerned with the salvation of the individual after death, each in its own particular way, of which they offered to their initiates the earnest and as­ surance. Whatever theology they had was a myth, upon which also their rituals as well as such scriptures as they possessed, were based. They made no moral conditions of admission, but promised salvation indiscriminately to all their members. In general they constituted no organized communities, and how­ ever wide their distribution, they were not united in a general organization. Men joined them for a guarantee of future blessed­ ness; for the rest they continued to worship the gods of the public religions. Judaism was the public as well as the personal religion of the Jewish people. A Jew did not embrace it nor adhere to it to 1

2

3

4

5

1

Isa. 66, 18 ff.; 60, 6, 7 ; Zech. 14, 9, 1 6 - 2 1 ; Dan. 7, 13 f.

2

Isa. 4 2 , 1 - 7 ; 49, 6; 60, 3, etc. See Part I, chapter vii. E.g. the Orphica. The mysteries of Mithras are the conspicuous exception.

c

5

4

Cf. Enoch 50,

CHAP, i ]

RETRIBUTION

AFTER DEATH

321

escape the perils of the soul beyond the tomb, much less the retributive justice of God. Religion, in the higher conception of Judaism, was not a means to that or any other end; it was the divinely appointed end. Whole-hearted and whole-souled love to God was its essence; its duties to God and man were truly done only when done for God's sake, or for their own sake, not from any self-regarding motive. The question, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? draws from Jesus the natural Jewish answer, Thou knowest the commandments (the Decalogue); if the questioner insists on some supererogatory good work, let him sell all his property and give the proceeds to the poor, and he shall have treasure in heaven. When the disciples of R. Eiiezer ask him the same question, he counsels them to be careful about the honor of their fellows, to watch wisely over the education of their chil­ dren, and when they pray to consider in whose presence they stand. There is no indication that pious Jews were afflicted with an inordinate preoccupation about their individual hereafter. The anxiety of a few eminently godly men in the hour of death is recorded because exceptional; it was never cultivated as a mark of superior piety. To the author of 4 Esdras it is self-evident that only a few will be saved, and he agonizes with the question how it comports with the character of God that the great mass, not only of man­ kind in general but of His chosen people, should be thus aban­ doned to perdition — for their own sin, no doubt, but why did not God prevent it? He might never have made Adam, or have 1

2

3

4

5

1

Mark 10, 1 7 ; Matt. 19, 1 6 ; Luke 1 8 , 1 8 . The Nazarene Gospel expands on this point. Above, p. 1 5 1 . The same rabbi contrasts the attendance on the in­ struction of the learned with secular occupations, D^JJ . . . . nyfc? "Pi. E.g. Johanan ben Zakkai, Berakot 28b. See below, p. 3 9 1 . It is evi­ dence in their case of a peculiarly sensitive conscience. Uncertainty of salvation is logical orthodoxy in those religions or theol­ ogies which make it depend on the inscrutable election of individuals, of which no man can be assured unless by immediate revelation from God. 2

3

4

5

THE

322

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

kept him from transgression. The angel who is sent to enlighten Ezra confirms the fact, but his explanations do not solve the difficulties nor satisfy the inquirer. Fourth Esdras stands by itself in Jewish literature in the pessimism of its premises — explicable enough in the circumstances of the time — as well as in the perception that the crux of the vital problem of theodicy lies here, and in the intellectual and moral earnestness with which it addresses itself to it. Retribution after death established itself in Judaism as a com­ plement to the old belief in retribution in this life or in the article of death, not as a substitute for it. In a former connection it has been shown how the principle of retribution in kind, the infliction corresponding to the offence, was developed in detail. Especially a signal calamity or misfortune invited an inference to the extraordinary guilt of the sufferer, for which the Scriptures gave ample warrant. The questions addressed to Jesus in the Gospels about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices and the eighteen persons on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them (Luke 13, 1-5), or the man born blind (John 9, 1 f.), are illustrations of a natural inquiry, not in Jewry alone but in Christendom through all its centuries — wherever, in fact, it is believed that in all happenings the im­ mediate volition and action of God is to be recognized. Jesus' answer to the former question is a warning of approaching doom: Unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 1

2

3

4

5

1

4 Esdras 8, 1 : The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the future world for the sake of few. — 8 , 3 : Many have been created, but few will be saved. Cf. 7, 4 9 - 6 1 . See Luke 1 3 , 23 f.; Matt. 22, 1 4 , etc. The Syriac Baruch, a work of about the same age, has much in common with 4 Esdras, but is far less poignant. Serious account is not to be taken of the homiletic conceits about the creation of this world and the world to come by n or respectively, and the significance of the latter (the smallest letter in the alphabet), viz. that the righteous who are in the world to come are few (Menahot 29b, below; cf. Jer. Hagigah 7 7 c , below; v. Rashi on Gen. 2 , 4 ) . Part vi, Piety, pp. 248 ff. See also Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, 1 9 2 - 1 9 7 ; 5 2 7 - 5 2 9 . Evidently recent occurrences of which nothing else is known. See the preceding, Luke 1 2 , 3 5 - 5 7 . 2

11

3

4

5

CHAPTER MESSIANIC

II

EXPECTATIONS

IN the foregoing chapter we have seen how the belief in the ultimate retribution for the individual after death attached itself to the expectation of a great crisis in the history of the Jewish people or of the world, and in what diverse forms this crisis was imagined by the visionaries. It remains here to deal more par­ ticularly with these expectations. By way of preamble it may be said that their religious signifi­ cance lies not in attempts to make a picture out of the dissected puzzle of prophecy nor in the eschatological nightmares of the apocalypses, but consciously or unconsciously, in the idea that the history of the world is a plan of God, and in the faith that he will carry it out to the end. The value of the rest lay solely in that it helped men to give reality to their faith through an imaginative presentation. It must be observed further that, ex­ cept on the single article of the revivification of the dead, there was no dogma and no canon of orthodoxy in this whole field, and that it was left for the Tannaim of the second century defini­ tively to project the future in a perspective of receding planes. For orderliness we may distinguish between the national form of the expectation, a coming golden age for the Jewish people, and what for want of a better word may be called the eschatologi­ cal form, the final catastrophe of the world as it is and the coming in its place of a new world, which in so far as it lies beyond human experience of nature we may call supernatural. But it must be understood that in all the earlier part of our period the two are not sharply distinguished, but run into each other and blend like the overlapping edges of two clouds. In the older apocalypses the elements derived from the national expectation are drawn 323

324

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

into the eschatology and suffer a transfiguration in their super­ natural environment. The national, or as we might call it the political, expectation is an inheritance from prophecy. Its principal features are the recovery of independence and power, an era of peace and pros­ perity, of fidelity to God and his law, of justice and fair-dealing and brotherly love among men, and of personal rectitude and piety. The external condition of all this is liberation from the rule of foreign oppressors; the internal condition is the religious and moral reformation or regeneration of the Jewish people itself. 1

2

This golden age to come presents itself to the imagination as a renascence of the golden age in the past, the good old times of the early monarchy, and, in this, the revival of the kingdom under a prince of the Davidic line. Thus in Amos 9, after the denunciation of relentless doom (vss. 1-4, 7-9) culminating in the sentence, All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, that say, The evil shall not overtake nor confront us': 'In that day will I raise up the ruinous h u t of David, and wall up the breaches in it, and repair what of it has been demolished, and build it up as it was in bygone days.' For the prince in the restoration the figure of an offshoot is used in Jer. 23, 5: ' Days are coming, saith the Lord, that I will raise up to David a righteous scion, and he will reign, a king, and prosper, and do justice and maintain righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be delivered and Israel live in security; and this is the name by which he shall be called, c

3

4

5

1

The Parables of Enoch offer many illustrations of this. It need hardly be said that a scheme such as is here constructed for it does not occur in similar completeness and symmetry in prophecy itself. A * hut/ a poor shelter, no longer a house, not to say a palace. That this sudden turn from destruction to restoration has displaced the original close of the prophecy, as many modern critics think, never occurred to the Jews. With the dates and circumstances of predictions they were not at all concerned; all were divine oracles, to which belongs as such the timelessness of revelation. Among them there was no progress, and above all no contrariety. See Vol. I, pp. 239, 358. TOS. Cf. the same figure ( n o n , in Isa. 1 1 , 1. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS 1

IHVH-Sidkenu.' Similarly in the twin passage, Jer. 33, 14-16, with the addition that the succession of Davidic kings and of Levitical priests shall never be cut off (vs. 17), and more expan­ sively and emphatically in the following verses (Jer. 33, 19-22, cf. 23-33). In Zech. 3, 8, 'I am about to bring my servant, Scion/ it is used as a proper name or appropriated as a title, and in 6, 12 is applied as such to Zerubbabel: 'Here is a man whose name is Scion; he will shoot up from the spot where he is and build the temple of the Lord, and will assume (royal) state, and sit and rule upon his throne/ There was thus a moment when the Scion of David seemed in the way of becoming an established designation for the Davidic prince who should inaugurate the era of restoration, and even of passing into a name " Scion," much as the Lord's Anointed became in the use of later Jews and Christians "the Anointed" (Messiah). A reminiscence of this is preserved or revived in the current form of the Eighteen Prayers, " Cause the Scion of David Thy servant speedily to sprout, and let his horn be exalted by Thy salvation." In other places the name David itself stands for the king in the restoration. Thus in Hos. 3, 5, after the people for their sins have long been deprived of king or prince, without sacrifice and oracle, 'Afterward the Israelites will return (repent) and 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

There is no more propriety in translating this proper name than others, e.g. Jehosedek or Sidkiyahu, which have the like significance. Therefore without the article. Yismah, play on Semah, ' shoot.' Zech. 4, 7, 9. Cf. Haggai 2, 20-23. Lit. 'splendor.' See also Testament of Judah 24, 4-6 (/SAaoTos deov viplcrTov vs. 4, as in Jer. 33 (40), 15 ed. Complut., Theodoret; cf. the Armenian version). The genuineness of the verse is suspected by Charles and others for reasons which are unconvincing. In Isa. 4, 2 mm riDV (E. V. 'the branch of the Lord'), is rendered by the Targum, 'the Anointed of the Lord* (Messiah); and in all the places cited above for the Scion, the Targum has the Messiah. No. 15 (14). Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 97; Singer, Prayer Book, p. 49. See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, p. 54. An older form has, "Have compassion on Israel thy people . . . and on the reign of the house of David thy righteous Messiah." Dalman, Worte Jesu, p. 300; cf. 303. 2

3

4

6

7

8

5

326

THE HEREAFTER

[PART VII

seek the Lord their God and David their king.' So also in Jer. 30, 9, when the yoke of foreign oppression that rested on the neck of the Jews is finally broken, 'They will serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them/ David himself was God's Chosen, His Anointed, and it is not strange that such passages as are adduced above should by some have been taken literally — David should be the instaurator of the golden age in the future as he was of the golden age of the nation in the past. Of such an expectation we have evidence in Jer. Berakot 5a, where the Rabbanan say on Hos. 3, 5 ('The Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king'): "This is the king Messiah. If he comes from among the living, David is his name, and if from those that sleep, David is his name," that is it will be David himself. Of such a return in person of a great figure of former times, Elijah is the salient example (Mai. 3, 23 f . ) ; for another illustration of the belief see Mark 8, 27 f., where in answer to Jesus' question what men said about him, his disciples answer, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, others Elijah. Jesus himself recognizes Elijah in John the Baptist, and there is nothing to indicate that he said it in a metaphor. To the interpretation which took the prophetic passages above of David in person, R. Tanhuma opposes Psalm 18, 51: 'Making great the deliverances (wrought) for His king, and showing lov­ ing-kindness to His anointed' — it does not say, 'to David,' but ' to David and his posterity forever/ 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

See also Ezek. 34, 23 f.; 3 7 , 24 f.; cf. Isa. 5 5 , 3 f.; Psalm 7 8 , 7 0 - 7 2 . 1 Sam. 1 6 , 1 - 1 3 . Cf. Sanhedrin 98b, below, a different version attributed to Rab. See Ecclus. 48, 10 f. Matt. 1 6 , 1 4 adds, 'Others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets/ Cf. Luke 9, 18 f., 'others, that one of the ancient prophets is risen from the dead/ Matt. 1 1 , 10 (quoting Mai. 3, 1, and explicitly 1 1 , 1 4 . — On Elijah in Jewish expectation see Friedmann's Introduction to his edition of the Seder Eliahu Rabba (1902), esp. pp. 23 ff.; Ginzberg in Jewish Encyclopedia V, 2

3

4

5

6

122-127. 7

Ekah Rabbati on Lam. 1, 1 6 (c. 51 end, Wilna). The reign of the house of David; Simeon ben Menasya, Midrash Samuel, 1 3 , 4.

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

That the kingdom was secured in perpetuity to the house of David by the promise of God is said in express words in 2 Sam. 7, 16 (cf. 12-15) of which Psalm 89, 28-37 is an echo. So it is for Sirach: the covenant promise to David is parallel to that to Aaron and his descendants (Ecclus. 45, 25); God "exalted his horn forever and gave him the statute of the kingdom and established his throne over Israel" (47, n ) . There are large tracts of prophecy in which there is no mention of the revival of the monarchy in the great restoration, and no place made for the king of the golden age — Isa. 40 ff. is the most conspicuous instance. The modern interpreter, from the prem­ ises of a critical dissection of the book, would describe such prophecies as exhibiting a theocratic form of the national hope, in distinction from the political type — an age in which the Lord alone is king. The Jews to whom there was only one Book of Isaiah — no Deutero- and Trito- — and to whom all pro­ phecy was a unitary and consistent revelation of God, had no inkling of all this, and interpreted the latter part of the Book of Isaiah in accordance with the former. Thus Isa. 42, 1, 'Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delighteth/ etc., is rendered in the Targum, "Behold my servant the Anointed (Messiah), I will draw him near, my Chosen in whom my word delights; I will put my holy spirit upon him, and he shall reveal my judgment to the nations." There were times when the deliverance was of greater moment than the lineage of the deliverer. When the Asmonaeans con­ quered the independence of the Jews and extended their kingdom to the bounds of the ancient monarchy at its widest, it must have seemed to many that the prophecies of the restoration of the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

See also Psalms of Solomon 17, 4 - 6 . Or covenant. See also 47, 22 and 48, 1 5 . 1 Mace. 2, 57, in the parting charge of Mattathias to his sons. For this the unhappy phrase "messianic age without a Messiah" has been invented. Christian interpreters all did the same thing until recent times. Memri here, as frequently, is equivalent to, " I myself." Cf. the Targum in 43, 1 0 ; 52, 1 3 ; 5 3 , 10. 3

4

6

6

7

328

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

power and glory of the nation were being fulfilled in them. It is thought by many that Psalm n o is a glorification, perhaps, by a court poet, of one of these militant rulers who, like Melchizedek, united in themselves the office and function of priests and kings. In everything except breaking the heads of the heathen (Psalm n o , 5 f.), the Asmonaean kings at the height of their power were at a remote extreme from the ideal of the ruler in the golden age as he is figured in such prophecies as Isa. n , 1-5; 9, 6 f. It is very unlikely that the biblical scholars of the time as a class, and the party of the Pharisees, were inclined to bestow upon the priests who had mounted the throne the predictions of the res­ toration of the legitimate monarchy. If any indulged for a moment in this illusion it was completely dispelled by the con­ duct of Alexander Jannaeus and his sons, so that the represen­ tatives of the nation begged Pompey to abolish the royal form of government altogether. The author of the seventeenth of the Psalms of Solomon re­ cites God's choice of David to be king and God's oath concerning his descendants that his kingdom should never fail before Him (vs. 5). "Sinful men seized by force what they had no promise of; they devastated the throne of David with arrogant exulta­ tion" (vs. 8). He prays that God raise up for his people their king, the son of David, at the time acceptable to him, to reign over his servant Israel, and gird him with might that he may shatter tyrannical rulers (vs. 23). The second of these Psalms descants on the vices of the people of Jerusalem in the days of the last of the Asmonaean rulers, vices which richly deserved the righteous judgment God inflicted on the city by the hand of Pompey. 1

2

3

4

1

Psalm 45 is also sometimes referred to the marriage of one of these princes. These usurpers are the Asmonaeans, as is evident from the following context (Pompey). The earliest attested use of this phrase, so common in the Tannaite period, for the Messiah; cf. also vs. 36, "Their king will be the Lord's An­ ointed" (Messiah; emending, X P ^ t o s Kvplov). The Romans. 2

3

4

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

329

From the Gospels and the first part of Acts it appears that the expectation of the people attached itself to the Davidic promise, so that "the Son of David" is equivalent to "the Messiah/' which in the Gospels appears for the first time thus as a standing title. In Mark 12, 35 (cf. Matt. 22, 41 f.) Jesus is said to have posed the question, "How do the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?" to lead up to a difficulty for this opinion in Psalm n o , 1. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke in different ways trace the lineage of Jesus himself through Joseph to David. In the Tannaite literature and thereafter " the Son of David" is a very common name for what we call the Messiah. Whether Davidic descent was claimed in his own time for Bar Cocheba, whom Akiba recognized as the Messiah of whom the conquest of Edom (Rome) was predicted (Num. 24, 17 f.), is unknown. In fact his antecedents are wrapt in complete ob­ scurity, and the assertion frequently made that he was not even of the tribe of Judah seem to have no other foundation than the silence of the sources. The disillusion made the Jews glad to bury the whole episode. Even the name Bar Cocheba is pre­ served only in Christian writers; Jewish sources know only Bar Kozibah. The Sibylline Oracles give evidence that similar expectations were entertained among the Hellenistic Jews, though the fiction of the heathen prophetess and the oracular mystification forbid 1

2

3

4

5

1

Matt. 9, 2 7 ; 1 5 , 2 2 ; 20, 30, 3 1 , and parallels. The translators who thrust in the pronoun — ' 'Thou son of David,' take the whole point out of the evan­ gelist's intention. 6 XP O~T6S. In Enoch 48, 1 0 ; 52, 4, "His Anointed," as in the Old Testa­ ment, where it always has a defining genitive or pronoun. See e.g. Sanhedrin 97-98. Mediaeval statements (see Jewish Encyclopedia II, 507) that he was of the house of David, are probably inferred from the conviction that other­ wise Akiba would not have proclaimed him the Messiah. Johanan ben Torta, who did not acknowledge him, is reported to have told Akiba that he would be long in his grave and still the Son of David would not come; but it would not be wise to lay much weight on the verbal exact­ ness of the report. 2

L

3

4

5

330

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

an express identification of the coming ruler of the golden age. In Sibyll. iii, 46-50 we read: "When Rome shall rule also over Egypt, . . . . then the most mighty kingdom of the immortal King will appear to men. There will come a holy ruler, to wield the sceptre over the whole earth unto all the cycles of swiftrushing time. Then will be inexorable wrath on Latin men, . . . Woe to thee, wretched city! When will that day come, and the judgment of the immortal God, the great King?" This oracle refers to a Roman triumvirate (vs. 52); opinions are divided between the first (60-53 B.c.) and the second (43-28 B . C . ) . Probability inclines to the latter; but in either case the date is not far from that of the Psalms of Solomon. The great deliverance was thus connected with the appear­ ance of a descendant of David designated by God. The de­ liverance itself was always the work of God. There are pro­ phecies in which the action moves on the stage of history. God gives the king victory over his enemies on all sides, subdues them under his dominion, creates durable peace; the ruler, endowed by God with wisdom and virtue, establishes order and enforces justice in his realm; and God bestows boundless prosperity on a righteous and God-fearing nation. The great days of the monarchy under David and Solomon, seen through the luminous haze which imagination throws over the good old times, the brighter by contrast with the dark clouds of the present, fur­ nish the setting of the scene; prophetic teaching projects into the future its ideal of a golden age of righteousness and the fear of the Lord; poets depict it with the imagery of an earthly para­ dise; but, however magnified and glorified, it was not beyond the compass of imagination. 1

2

3

4

1

Cf. Psalms of Solomon 1 7 , 4 f.: "The kingdom of our God is forever over the heathen. Thou, O Lord, didst choose David as king over Israel/' etc. (above, p. 326). — See also Orac. Sibyll. iii, 286 f.; 6$2-6$6; v, 108. Cf. psalm 1 7 , 3 2 - 3 5 ; Enoch 48, 2 - 1 0 . This is the significance of the phrases "the Lord's anointed," "the anointed son of David," "the anointed king." This is the consistent representation in the prophets (especially in Isa. 40 ff.) and the Psalms. So also in the Jewish prayers. 2

3

4

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

331

More frequently, however, in prophecies in which the figure of the king of the golden age appears at all, he is not the instru­ ment of God in the conquest of independence and power; he ap­ pears on the scene only after the great deliverance has been wrought by God himself, as the ruler of a redeemed and regen­ erated Israel. This is naturally — one might say necessarily — the case when the act of deliverance is the liberation of the exiles and their restoration to their own land, as for example in Jer. 30-33. It was the expectation of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah when they hailed Zerubbabel as the Scion. In the following centuries, under the empires that succeeded one another in the dominion of their world, the Jews were made keenly aware of the impotence of little Judaea and its scattered sons over against the gigantic power of those vast empires. If for a short century in the decline and fall of the Seleucid king­ dom they were able by arms and intrigue to establish and main­ tain a precarious independence, when once Rome reached out for the East, they found themselves in the grip of a power different from all its predecessors, mightier and more terrible than they. Revolt they did, over and over again, on one occasion or another, but the outcome of each desperate attempt to throw off the yoke of bondage only riveted it upon them faster and heavier than before, and deepened the conviction that only by the immediate intervention of Almighty God could the might of the heathen kingdom be annihilated and the world made ready for the com­ ing undivided and undisputed reign of God or, in its national expression, the world-wide and eternal dominion of the holy people of the Most High. And this all the more because, with a glimpse of the unitary conception of history, the empires that had dominated the world were seen to be but successive 1

2

3

4

1

See Jer. 30, 8 f., 1 8 - 2 2 ; 3 3 , 1 0 - 2 2 , etc. Dan. 7. The fourth kingdom was now understood to be the Roman empire. Zech. 1 4 , 9. Dan. 7, 27. So in the only occurrence of a messianic figure in Enoch (90, 37 f.) outside the Parables. 2

3

4

332

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

embodiments of one great ungodly and unrighteous power, the heathen world in its implacable enmity to the true God and his will for mankind- The overthrow of the empire that for any time-being represented this power was not enough; as a whole it must be reduced to subjection or destroyed. A change came also in the representations of the divine judg­ ment. From historical crises which determined the fate of na­ tions, religiously interpreted as judgments in fact, it was trans­ formed in imagination into a great assize at the end of the present epoch of history, with God sitting on his judgment throne pro­ nouncing doom upon rulers and nations, as in Dan. 7, 9-14. In Daniel this is not so much a new conception of the nature of judgment as the way in which, through the mechanism of vision, the ancient seer is supposed to see the decree of destiny upon Antiochus Epiphanes and his kingdom, which in the days when his book came to light, the time of the end (12, 4), was about to be executed. Elsewhere in the book the fate of the king overtakes him in the midst of his career, in a mysterious way, indeed, but on the stage of history. In Enoch 90, 20-27, however, the judgment is consistently forensic; the stars, the fallen angels of Gen. 6, 1-4, and the seventy angelic shepherds, and the blinded sheep (apostate Jews), are brought before the throne of God set up in Palestine, tried, convicted, and cast into abysses of fire, before the beginning of the golden age, with its New Jerusalem and its transfigured head, in whom the traditional figure of the ruler of the golden age (Messiah) enjoys an otiose survival. The transition from vision­ ary prophecy to eschatology is complete. Reminiscences of the prophecies of a conquering king are not infrequent in the literature of these centuries. Particular note is to be taken of Psalms of Solomon 17, 21-51 which moves completely in this circle of ideas, and in this as in other things 1

2

3

1

2

3

Dan. 8, 2 5 ; cf. 2, 45. See above, p. 3 0 1 . So also in Enoch 1, 4-9; 22-27 ( See below, p. 3 7 7 .

s e e

22, 4; 27, 1-4).

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

333

proves its affinity to rabbinical conceptions. Other examples are to be found in the Sibyllines. Thus in iii, 652-659: Then will God send from the sun a king who will make the whole earth desist from dire warfare, slaying some and with some making firm treaties. Nor will he do all this by his own coun­ sels, but in obedience to the good ordinances of the Great God. The apocalypses after the fall of Jerusalem assign to the Mes­ siah the role of denouncing the Roman empire or its last ruler for all their crimes, condemning, and making an end of them, but all, so to say, in a supernatural sphere. He will deliver the rem­ nant of God's people and rule over them till the time of the last judgment or the end of the present age. With this idea of a universal judgment after the Messianic Age we have reached another stage in eschatology to which we shall return further on. In other parts of the apocalypses there is either nobody at all that corresponds to the Messiah, or he has nothing to do in the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies and oppressors, but, as in the prophecies to which reference has been made, comes on the scene only when God has already done everything, and even then is often little more than a lay figure. It is different in the Parables of Enoch (cc. 37-71). In them God's Chosen One — so he is usually called — has a very con­ spicuous place, and many things are ascribed to him which are 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

After a time of commotion and savage warfare, 632 ff. Cf. v, 108 Oebdev, 4 1 4 , ovpavloov VCOTOOV. Others understand 'from the sunrising/ east, from the author's point of view. Contrast the destruction by the hand of God of the nations in their last onset on Jerusalem, ibid. 663-697, and see the idyllic picture of the golden age following, 7 0 2 - 7 3 1 . The scheme, the Messiah, Gog and Magog, the New Era, is familiar in rabbinical sources also. See below, pp. 344 f. For the Messiah as deliverer and inaugurator of better times, see Orac. Sibyll. v, 108 f., 4I4-433Expressly so named. 4 Esdras 12 (the Eagle Vision); Syr. Baruch 3 6 - 4 0 (Vision of the Cedar and the Vine); see also 7 2 - 7 4 . The cedar forest is ultimately from Isa. 1 0 , 33 f., immediately preceding the messianic oracle ( 1 1 , 1 ff.); cf. the com­ bination of cedar and vine in Ezek. 1 7 . See below, pp. 338, 340 f. So in all parts of Enoch 1 - 3 6 and in 9 1 - 1 0 4 . So in Enoch 90, 37 f. See above, pp. 303 f. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

334

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

commonly associated with the so-called messianic prophecies. In two places the title "His (God's) Anointed" is appropriated to him; viz. 48, 10, where Psalm 2, 2 is in mind, and 52, 4, with a possible reminiscence of Psalm 72. What is of more note is that the Chosen One is identified with the figure "like a human being" which Daniel sees in his vision (Dan. 7, 13 f.). At his first introduction (46, 1 f.), Enoch sees one with "an aged head, white as wool" (Dan. 7, 9), and with him another, "whose countenance was like the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness like that of one of the holy angels." Thereafter he is called ' that (or this) son of man.' What has happened here is plain. In Daniel the figure "like a human being" that comes in the clouds of heaven is explained by the angel as the kingdom of the holy people of the Most High (7, 27, cf. 13 f.), in contrast to the heathen kingdoms repre­ sented by the four monstrous beasts that came up out of the sea. In Enoch the four bestial empires have vanished from the scene, and the one in the likeness of a man has thus become an individual, naturally, then, the ruler to whom is given by God 'dominion and glory and a kingdom,' etc. (Dan. 7, 14), God's Chosen and Anointed One. An individual, and then in the conventional sense "messianic," interpretation was in fact sure to be given as soon as Dan. 7, 9-14 was taken by itself, without concern about the beginning of the chapter, and is to be found both in the Midrash and in mediaeval Jewish commentators. R. Johsua ben Levi, one of the most highly esteemed masters of the Haggadah in the first half of the third century, harmonized Zech. 9, 9, 'Behold thy

1

2

3

1

Enoch 46, 2; 48, 2, etc. The demonstrative pronoun is the only means in Ethiopic of giving an equivalent for the Greek article in 6 vlos TOV avdp&irov, and this phrase itself is the rendering of Daniel's bar 'enash, a human being (bar nasha), or its Hebrew equivalent ben adam (indefinite). The more naturally since bar 'enash is a human being in contrast to God, as e.g. in the Targums on Num. 23, 1 9 , and to angels, as the comparison in 46, 1 shows. Ancient interpreters concerned themselves little about total contexts. 2

3

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

335 1

king cometh unto thee . . . lowly, and riding upon an ass/ with Dan. 7, 13, 'Behold, with the clouds of heaven came one like a human being/ thus: If they (Israel) are worthy, 'with the clouds of heaven'; if they are not worthy, 'lowly, and riding upon an ass.' The application of Dan. 7, 13 to the Messiah is presumed to be usual; Joshua ben Levi, of whom numerous such harmonistic solutions are reported, only seeks to remove the difficulty in the two apparently opposite representations of the Messiah's coming. That the messianic interpretation of the human figure who in Dan. 7, 13 comes with the clouds of heaven is much older is with great probability to be inferred from the Sibylline Oracles. In v, 414 we read: "There came from the wide heavenly spaces a blessed man, holding in his hands a sceptre which God put in his grasp, and he brought all into subjection," etc. 2

3

4

5

6

The use of the phrase "the son of man" in the Gospels is of extraordinary difficulty. In eschatological contexts, however, with which alone we are here concerned, the Son of Man is plainly the figure of Daniel's vision, taken individually, and identified with the Messiah coming to judgment. Thus in Mark 14, 61 f. (cf. Matt. 26, 63 f.; Luke 22, 67 f.), to the high priest's question, Art thou the Messiah? Jesus replies, T am; and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, 7

8

1

See also Berakot 56b: If in a dream a man sees an ass, let him look for salvation, for it is written,' Behold thy king cometh unto thee, righteous and saved is he, lowly, and riding on an ass/ The similarity of the words cannot be preserved in translation — 'im 2

l

anane—'ani 3

4

5

(^JJJ—

Sanhedrin 98a, below; Jer. Ta'anit 63d, below. See Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 151 f. rfkde yap

ovpaviuv

VCOTOJV dvrjp

fiaKapirrjs.

6

Orac. Sibyll. v, 4 1 4 ; cf. iii, 652, "And then from the sun God will send a king"; see also iii, 46-50. It occurs in the Gospels only in the mouth of Jesus, and outside of them only in Acts 7, 56 in the dying words of Stephen, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God/ Not even, it should be observed, in the Revelation of John. Metonymy for God; in Hebrew ha-Geburah. 7

C

8

336

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

1

and coming with the clouds of heaven.' The seat at the right hand of God is added to Daniel's picture from Psalm n o , i, which was currently interpreted of the Messiah son of David (Mark 12, 35 f.). It was through this identification that the faith of the disciples of Jesus not only survived the shock of his death but found con­ firmation in his death. In Acts 1, 9, when they had witnessed his assumption — he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight — an angel assures them that ' this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way that you have beheld him going into heaven,' i.e. in the clouds of heaven as in Daniel's vision. It is not likely that the discovery of the Messiah in Daniel's "son of man" was original with the followers of Jesus or with himself. Nor is it necessary to suppose, as is commonly done, that they got the idea from apocalyptic circles such as those from which we have the Parables of Enoch, any more than it is necessary to assume such a source for the interpretation to which Joshua ben Levi is a witness, or the midrash which finds in 'Anani (' cloud-man') a name of the King-Messiah,' and his genealogy from David through Zerubbabel in 1 Chron. 3, 5~24. Much earlier evidence that a messianic interpretation of the vision could occur to a teacher of the Law is to be found in 2

3

4

1

5

1

See also the passages where the Son of Man appears in a judgment scene: Matt. 1 6 , 27 f.; 24, 1 5 - 3 1 , 4 4 ; 25, 31 ff. (the king). Psalm n o (and 1 Sam. 2, 10) are brought into this combination also in the messianic interpretation of Dan. 7, 13 in the mediaeval commentary printed under the name Sa'adia. The "Western" text seems originally to have read: Kal ravra elirbvros avrov ve(j)e\r) virkfiaXev avrbv Kal eirrjpdt] aw' avr&v. J . H. Ropes, The Text of Acts, in loc. Cf. Apoc. Joan. 1 1 , 1 2 (the two witnesses), avefirjaav els rbv ohpavbv ev rfj ve<j)ekrj. In Sanhedrin 96b, end, the cloud-man is Bar-Naphli (ve<j>k\7]) the Mes­ siah. Quoted in Yalkut on Amos 9, n (§ 549). Tanhuma ed. Buber, Toledot § 20. "Who is 'Anani? This is the KingMessiah, as it is said (Dan. 7, 3 ) , 'I saw in night visions, and behold, with the clouds ('anane) of heaven/ etc. — This relatively late Midrash is not testimony that a similar interpretation was current in the first century; it is only an illustration of a kind that might have originated at any time. 2

3

4

y

5

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

337

Akiba's explanation of the 'thrones' (Dan. 7, 9), where the ques­ tion, Why the plural? drew out various conjectures. Akiba's was, "One for Him and one for David" (the Messiah). His col­ leagues, who had no great opinion of the haggadic adventures of the famous jurist, induced him to adopt the opinion of R. Jose the Galilean, only to get another rebuff from R. Eleazar ben Azariah, who had one of his own; but it remains that Akiba saw for himself no objection to assigning the second throne to the Messiah. Some one who rejoiced in a divinatory faculty might even be tempted to guess that not only was Dan. 7, 9-14 taken messianically in the first century, but that the contrast between the Mes­ siah coming with the clouds of heaven and the lowly Messiah coming riding on an ass had already attracted notice. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem in the latter character stands over against the ominous advent of the Son of Man to judgment, and Joshua ben Levi's formula might easily be inverted: If Israel is worthy, 'lowly and riding on an ass' (as a peaceful prince); if it is not worthy, 'with the clouds of heaven' (to judgment). In 4 Esdras 13, iff. the seer has a vision of something like a man brought up by the wind from the depths of the sea, flying with the clouds of heaven, whose glance struck terror into all he looked at or who heard his voice. An innumerable multitude gather from everywhere to make war upon him, but without weapons he burns them to ashes by the fiery breath of his mouth; thereupon he calls to him a peaceful multitude. In the inter­ pretation this man is the one whom the Most High has for a long time kept, through whom to deliver his creation; he will make disposition of those that are left (alive). 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

2

Hagigah 1 4 a ; Sanhedrin 38b. Mark 1 1 , 1 - 1 1 ; Matt. 2 1 , 1 - 1 3 . Mark 13, 2 4 - 3 7 ; Matt. 24, 2 7 - 5 1 . Thereafter, as in Enoch, ' that man,' ' the man who arose from the sea.' The last assault of the heathen, Ezek. 38, 1 if. (Gog and Magog). Isa. 1 1 , 4 of the 'shoot out of the stock of Jesse/ the Davidic Messiah. The nine and a half (ten) tribes, 1 3 , 40. About whom Esdras has inquired, vss. 1 3 - 2 0 , and the angel replied, vss. 2 2 - 2 5 . The meaning of "et ipse disponet qui derelicti sunt" is uncertain. 3

4

5

6

7

8

338

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

In the vision of the Eagle (4 Esdras 1 1 , 1-12, 39) which rep­ resents the Roman Empire with its successive rulers, the Lion who comes roaring out of the forest, inveighs against the eagle upbraiding it with all its crimes, and predicts its fall, which presently comes to pass, is " the Messiah, whom the Most High has kept until the end of days, who will spring from the race of David, and will come. . . . First he will set them (the rulers) alive before the bar of judgment, and when he has accused them, will annihilate them. But the remnant of my people he will mercifully deliver, those who were preserved in my land, and will make them joyful until the day of the final judgment of which I have spoken to thee before/' A counterpart to this is the vision of the Cedar and the Vine, of the end of the Roman empire, and of the Messiah who will condemn and slay its last ruler, and protect the remnant of God's people. "His dominion will last forever until the perish­ able world comes to an end and the predicted times are fulfilled." In the visions of Esdras and Baruch the actual situation is evident; the destruction of the sacred city with its temple is fresh in memory; the end of the fourth empire of Daniel (Rome) is at hand. The Messiah has a more active part than in Enoch; he makes way with the last heathen ruler and liberates the remnant of the people. But the whole drama moves on a fan­ tastic stage, like the last conflict with the hordes that gather to war upon him in 4 Esdras 13, and the Messiah is a symbol, not a hero. 1

2

3

An important feature of this revived apocalyptic is that the Messianic Age is not final; it endures only till the last judgment. Most explicit is 4 Esdras 7, 26-44: "When the now invisible city becomes visible, and the land now concealed appears. . . . my 4

1

The Davidic descent is found in all the Oriental versions, but not in the Latin. 4 Esdras 1 2 , 3 1 - 3 4 . Syr. Baruch 36, 1 - 1 1 ; 39, 1-40, 4. See also the apocalypse of the alter­ nate turbid and clear waters, especially 70, 1 - 7 1 , 3 ; 7 2 , 1 - 7 4 , 4. 4 Esdras 12, 3 4 ; Syr. Baruch 40, 4. 2

3

4

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

339

Messiah will manifest himself with those that are with him, and will bring joy to those who remain (alive) for four hundred years. After those years my servant the Messiah will die, together with all who have human breath, and the world will revert to prim­ aeval silence seven days as at the beginning, so that no one is left alive. And after seven days the world will be awakened, which is not yet awake, and the corruptible will die. The earth will give back those that sleep in it, and the dust those that rest in it, the treasuries (promptuaria) will give up the souls com­ mitted to them. The Most High will be revealed upon his judgment throne. Mercy will cease, compassion withdraw, and long-suffering vanish; justice alone will remain, truth abide, faithfulness flourish. Requital will follow, reward will be shown; righteousness will awake, and unrighteousness not sleep. The pit of torment will appear, and opposite it the place of repose; the furnace of hell will be disclosed, and opposite it the garden of delight. Then will the Most High say to the peoples who have been brought to life: See and recognize whom ye denied, whom ye did not serve, and whose commands ye spurned. See before you, here joy and rest, there fire and torment. So will he speak to them on the judgment day." This representation is noteworthy in more than one respect. In the Parables of Enoch the old expectation of a national golden age is translated into a confused eschatology; in 4 Esdras and the Apocalypse of Baruch the two are separated: the last judg­ ment and its issues lie beyond the Messianic Age, which thus becomes not final and endless, but a limited period, and re­ covers something of its original character. The Revelation of John is a Christian apocalypse closely con­ temporary with 4 Esdras and the Syriac Baruch. In it, as in them, the Roman empire is the last and worst of the kingdoms of which Daniel had visions. It has now reached the culmina­ tion of wickedness and God-defying power. The count of its rulers is all but complete; the hour of its total and final ruin is 1

2

1

Rev. 1 3 , 1 ff.; Dan. 7, 1 - 7 .

2

Rev. 1 7 , 10 f.; 4 Esdras 1 2 , 10 f.

THE

340

HEREAFTER

[PART VII 1

at hand. The agent of God in its destruction is the Messiah. The entire eschatological scheme is similar to that in the Jewish apocalypses of the time; it is in fact an adaptation of current Jewish constructions to Christian uses. A complete presentation of this scheme is found in Rev. 19, 11—21, 8, and to that we may for our present purpose confine ourselves. The seer has a vision of heaven opened, and of the coming conqueror mounted on a white horse at the head of the armies of heaven on white horses and clad in pure white linen; the leader's mantle alone is besplashed with blood. On his head are many crowns, inscribed with a name known only to himself. His eyes are a flash of fire; from his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the heathen. An angel, standing in the sun, summons all the vultures under heaven to the great feast of God on the field of slaughter, to de­ vour the flesh of kings and generals and mighty men, of horses and their riders, of freemen and slaves, of small and great. The 'beast' and the kings of the earth with their hosts assemble to make war with the mounted warrior and his army. The beast is seized together with his satellite the false prophet, and the pair are cast alive into the lake of sulphurous fire; their follow­ ers are slain by the sword that issues from the mouth of the leader of the armies of heaven, and the birds gorge on their carcasses. In the next scene an angel descends from heaven with the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. The devil is seized, fettered, and hurled into the abyss, which is locked and sealed after him that he may do no more mischief among men for a thousand years. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

Rev. 1 9 , 1 1 ff.; 4 Esdras 1 2 , 3 1 - 3 4 . Or, dyed in blood. See vs. 15 (Isa. 63, 1 - 6 ) . Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 148 a, the new name to be given in the future by God to the Messiah (Psalm 7 2 , 1 7 ) . Cf. vs. 2 1 . Isa. 1 1 , 4. He will rule them with a rod of iron, Psalm 2, 9. Ezek. 39, 1 7 - 2 0 . Rev. 1 3 , 1. Rev. 1 3 , 1 1 - 1 8 . Isa. 1 1 , 4 ; 4 9 , 2. 2

3

4

5

7

6

8

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS 1

341

2

Then thrones are set, and they take their seats upon them, and judicial authority is given to them. The souls of the Christian martyrs appear, and such as did not worship the beast nor his image, and did not bear his mark on their foreheads and hands. These live and reign with the Messiah for a thous­ and years. Peculiarly fortunate is the lot of those who have part in this first resurrection. The rest of the dead do not come to life till the thousand years are finished. When that time comes, Satan will be released from his prison, and will raise the heathen nations far and wide, an innumerable host, for the war of Gog and Magog. They invade Palestine and invest Jerusalem, but fire pours down from heaven and devours them. The final onslaught of the heathen powers thus ends in catastrophe. The devil who deceived them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tortured there forever and ever. Thereupon ensues the grand assize. The seer beholds God himself sitting on his judgment throne, and all the dead, great and small, standing before it. The sea gives up the dead that are in it, and death and hades the dead that are in them. The books in which men's deeds are recorded are open, and another book, the book of life, in which are inscribed the names of those who from the foundation of the world (17, 8; 13, 8) were destined to eternal life. The dead are judged each according to his record. Death and Hades, the old enemies of mankind, are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death; and to it also is con­ signed every one who is not found inscribed in the book of life. The judgment of this world thus ended, there appear a new heaven and a new earth — there is no more sea; the holy city, a new Jerusalem, descends out of heaven from God. Hence3

4

5

1

Dan. 7, 9. Observe the indefiniteness about the occupants of these thrones. Executed for bearing witness to Jesus and for the 'word of God' ( 1 , 9). And, it is to be understood, had suffered death for refusing to worship the emperor. In 2 1 , 1 0 - 2 2 , 6 a closer vision of this city is granted to the seer. 2

3

4

5

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

forth, it is proclaimed, the habitation of God will be among men on earth. There will be no more death, no sorrow nor wailing nor distress — all that has passed away forever; there is God's word for it, 'I make all things new.' The distinctively Christian traits in this delineation are scarce. The surest is that the 'first resurrection' brings to life at the beginning of the messianic millenium, to live and reign with the victor, none but the martyrs who were executed for the witness they bore to Jesus and for the word of God, and those who did not worship the beast nor his image, and did not receive the mark on their forehead and their hand. Christian is also the exhortation and warning appended to the vision in the name of God (21, 8). The name of the conquering hero, the 'Word of God' (19, 13), is evidently Christian, but it may be doubted whether it is original. Otherwise the whole conception is Jewish. Jerusalem is to be the seat of the theocracy in the future as in the past. It is, in­ deed, a new Jerusalem which comes down from heaven in place of the old; but it is Jerusalem on its old site that is henceforth to be the abode of God among men. The final stage in this eschatology is on earth, however transfigured — ' a new heaven and a new earth,' but earth still, and not somewhere above the sky. Life is human life, not what is called a spiritual existence; the very negations prove it — there is no more death, no sorrow nor wailing (of the bereaved) nor distress. Comparison with the other apocalypses abundantly confirms the internal evidence of the Jewish character of Rev. 19, 11-21, 8. 1

2

3

4

5

1

The biblical proofs they alleged. Rev. 20, 4. They refused to do religious homage to the emperor, and suffered death for it. — Jews were by special privilege exempted from this demonstration of loyalty. John 1 , 1 . It stands in an awkward place, and only a few words before the author wrote that he has a name inscribed (presumably on the multiple crown) which no one knew but himself (see below, pp. 348 f). Vs. 1 6 is not parallel, for there the ' name' is only a title. See Enoch 90, 28 f.; Syriac Baruch 4, 2 - 7 ; 4 Esdras 7, 2 6 ; 8, 5 2 ; 1 0 , 26 ff., 5 4 ; 1 3 , 3 6 . Cf. also Tobit 1 3 , 1 6 - 1 8 , with Rev. 2 1 , 10 ff. The biblical antecedents may be found in Ezek. 40 ff.; Isa. 5 2 , i; 54, 11 f.; 6 0 , 1 0 - 1 4 , c 2

3

4

5

e t

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

343

Imaginatively the vision of the conquering hero is superior to the corresponding visions in Esdras and Baruch with their grotesque allegorical Eagle and Lion or Cedar and Vine, but the fundamental ideas are the same. In other parts of the book the Christian element is more prominent, and the visions are frequently unvisualizable. The apocalypses from the last decades of the first century show how after the catastrophe of the year 70 faith took refuge in visions of an imminent intervention to destroy the Roman empire and the city of Rome itself, and usher in a new era in fulfilment of ancient prophecies. Occasionally there are veiled hints of real flesh-and-blood nations which might be the instru­ ments of this overthrow, as in the Revelation of John the Par­ thian hordes with the returning Nero, but in general the vision­ aries keep on safer ground than contemporary history, even masked. The premise of their fantasies is that historical events and per­ sonages are prefigured in a symbolic drama played on a celestial stage, as in Daniel the conflict with the Persian and Macedonian empires is symbolized by the single combat of the terrifying 'man' (angel) who appears to the prophet, supported by Michael the champion of the Jews, with the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece successively. It is scenes of this mystifying drama that are exhibited to the seers and explained to them by angelic interpreters, who sometimes keep up the mystery. The visionary form conditions the whole representation. The prophet predicted the Messiah in the nearer or more remote future; the visionary sees him on the celestial stage. The prophet may foretell the restoration of Jerusalem, greater and more glorious than ever; the visionary sees a new Jerusalem descend­ ing from heaven to take the place of the old. What else could 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

3

4

5

Symbols of Rome and Judah. For example the role of the lamb. As in Rev. 1 7 , 1 - 1 9 , 10. Rev. 9, 13 ff. (Joel 2, 3 ) ; cf. 6, 2 ; 16, 1 2 . Rev. 1 7 ; cf. Ascension of Isaiah 4, 2 ff.

6

Dan. 1 0 ; cf. 1 2 , 1.

T

344

H

E

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

1

he d o ? Did he, therefore, imagine that the Messiah was reallyexistent in heaven, waiting God's hour to be revealed, or his new Jerusalem as a real city built in heaven, one day to be let down to earth? Or rather, was this the original conception; for after this manner of representation became an apocalyptic convention, writers may have taken thus realistically the imagery of their predecessors, and the common man was sure to do so. It is the question of what with an ambiguous name is called "pre-existence," especially the "pre-existence of the Messiah," which has been given an exaggerated importance on account of its supposed relation to Christian beliefs. For Judaism it makes very little matter what the apocalyptic writers imagined about it. On that question it is pertinent to observe that Esdras and Baruch are contemporary with the great generation of Tannaim, the disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai and their successors; that the authors were evidently men of some respectable learning, which meant in those days a relation to the schools; and there is no sectarian eccentricity to be discovered in them. Under these circumstances there is a certain presumption that they were not consciously at variance with rabbinical teaching on this point. The Tannaim, as we shall see, counted "the name of the Mes­ siah" among the things that preceded the world, but not the person of the Messiah. The eschatological scheme is in its general features the same in all these apocalypses. It was evidently the accepted construc­ tion, and is in conformity with what we find in the rabbinical sources. The Messianic Age comes to an end with a last great outbreak and onslaught of the heathen nations. They invade 2

3

4

1

When tours through the heavens came to be told of highly esteemed rabbis, as of Joshua ben Levi, for example, they also see the Messiah waiting for his hour; but it would be rash to impute to these Haggadists a belief in a " pre-existent Messiah." That there was in heaven a counterpart of the earthly city, or particu­ larly of the temple, is an entirely different notion. Psalm 7 2 , 1 7 : 'His name is eternal, before the sun his name flourished/ Ezek. 38 f., Gog and Magog. Sometimes this act is put at the beginning of the messianic times, which was probably its original place. 2

3

4

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

345

the land of Israel only to be exterminated by God. The dead of all generations, righteous and wicked, rise from their graves to appear before God in the last judgment. The earth is trans­ formed to be the unending abode of the righteous; the wicked are cast, soul and body, into a hell of fire. This judgment with its issues is the definitive stage of individ­ ual retribution. The calamitous outcome of the rebellion of the Jews in the reign of Nero, ending in the taking of the ruins of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple in 70 A.D., seemed to those who stayed their faith on prophecy to be the final chapter of God's judg­ ments on the nation; the new leaf must be the beginning of the great deliverance which in the prophets follows so abruptly on the climax of catastrophe. And it was natural that the deliver­ ance should present itself in political form; the appearance of the Messiah, the overthrow of the Roman empire, the establish­ ment of the peaceful and prosperous national kingdom of the house of David. In the apocalypses from the last decades of the century we have seen that this expectation clothed itself in pre­ ternatural imagery. From the representative teachers of the last generation of the first century and the beginning of the second few well-attested utterances are reported. They had in the study and inculcation of the Law a task of greater moment than think­ ing about the when and how of deliverance — namely, to make their people capable of deliverance. Then Hadrian's announced intention to rebuild Jerusalem as a heathen city, with a temple of Jupiter where once had stood that of the true God, raised the Jews of Palestine in desperate revolt again under the lead of Bar Kozibah, whom Akiba ac­ claimed as the Messiah, the Star out of Jacob who was to subdue Edom-Rome. The hopelessly unequal conflict ended in bloody failure; the militant Messiah fell fighting with thousands of his followers. The disillusion was stunning. The attempt to desig1

1

Num. 24, 1 7 - 1 9 .

See above, p. 1 1 6 .

346

THE HEREAFTER

[PART VII

nate God's Messiah for him proved itself presumptuous; the deciphering of dates and unriddling of signs had been fatal mistakes. This attitude and temper seem to express themselves in all that has come down to us from the rabbis for the remainder of the century. There is a noteworthy reticence, an evident disposi­ tion not to be wise beyond what is written, a sobriety in striking contrast to the enthusiastic constructions of the apocalypses. The following centuries are less reserved; thehomilists especially use the freedom of their calling in messianic and eschatological interpretation, and bring out again much of this kind that had come down from earlier generations. In this place we shall confine ourselves as closely as possible to the authentic utterances of the Tannaim. It must be pre­ mised that these utterances themselves are occasional, touching on particular points as they arise; they are not topics of a doc­ trine of the Messiah or of the Last Things. In exhibiting them here it is necessary to give them a semblance of system which they have not in the sources themselves. Further, with small exceptions — the resurrection is the most conspicuous — how­ ever generally accepted, they have no dogmatic authority. Of fundamental importance in this whole sphere is the con­ viction that the end of God's ways in the history of the world, past, present, and to come, is the universal recognition of his own sovereignty, the time when the Lord shall be King (ruling) over all the earth; when the Lord shall be One and his name one (Zech. 14, 9). This is the Malkut Shamaim, the sovereign reign of Heaven, the universality of the true religion. To this end the vindication in the eyes of the nations of Israel as the people of the Lord, and of the Lord himself as the God of Israel, is a necessary step, as is especially emphasized in Ezekiel and in Isaiah 40 ff. The low estate of the Jews in subjection to 1

2

1

' One,' as Israel confesses and proclaims in the Shema', and when all other names of gods shall disappear, and all men worship the one God under his name IHVH.

2

See Vol. I , pp. 229 f.; 432 ff.

CHAP.II]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

347

the heathen empires seemed to the Gentiles conclusive proof of the impotence of the god whom they called the only God in the whole world. The coming deliverance was, therefore, not only the fulfilment of the hope of the nation, it was the beginning of a new era for religion itself. That this was all to come to pass the prophets had foretold with no uncertain voice; but to the question, How? many diverse answers could be found in them. To us this diversity reflects the changing historical situations, in^rnal and external, in which the oracles were emitted; but to the Jews with their conception of unitary revelation this way of interpreting them was no way. At the most they could only refer them to different epochs in the unfolding of history yet to be. What may be called the classic form of the expectation of a golden age for the nation pictured it as the reign of a wise and good king of the old royal line of Judah, who in this age was com­ monly called the Anointed King (Messiah). The Davidic lineage of the ruler was found plainly and frequently in the Scriptures, and on this point there seems to have been complete agreement. In place of the "Anointed One, son of David," "Son of David" by itself became a common designation of the Messiah. There were passages in the prophets where this figure is called simply "David," which opened the way to the surmise that the deliverer of the future and the king of the golden age would be no other than the deliverer from the oppression of the Philistines and founder of the kingdom himself. Others seem to have thought of Hezekiah in a similar role. 1

2

3

4

1

See above, p. 336. The opinion of a certain R. Hillel, not to be confounded with the great Hillel, "Israel has no Messiah (to come); they enjoyed (lit. consumed) him in the days of Hezekiah" (Sanhedrin 98b, 99a), is solitary, and was refuted by R. Joseph, head of the academy at Pumbeditha (d. 322 A.D.) by reference to the messianic predictions in Zechariah from a time long after Hezekiah. See above, pp. 324 f. What put them on this king in particular was presumably-the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's hosts beneath the walls of Jerusalem as narrated in 2 Kings 18, 1 3 - 1 9 , 36. 2

3

4

348

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

In the hour of his death R. Johanan ben Zakkai bade his dis­ ciples, "Set a seat for Hezekiah king of Judah, who is coming. One of the last of the Tannaim, Bar Kappara, in a homily at Sepphoris, took the closed mem in the middle of a word (nmD$>) in Isa. 9, 6 to signify the end of Hezekiah's messianic prospects: God proposed to make Hezekiah the Messiah and Sennacherib Gog and Magog, but the divine justice objected that that was unfair to David vho had made so many hymns in praise of God, while Hezekiah fW whom He had wrought so many miracles had not made even one. Further voices were raised on either side, and finally a heavenly voice (bat kol) was heard saying, It is my secret. The prophet exclaimed, Alas, alas! how long? and the same voice answered, 'The faithless deal faithlessly, with utter faithlessness do the faithless deal' (Isa. 24,16). A familiar appellation of the Messiah in later generations is Menahem (ben Hezekiah). Menahem (Comforter) is here symbolic, suggested by Lam. 1, 16, 'Far from me is a comforter (menahem)? one to restore my life,' and the phrase is in origin a symbol rather than a proper name. It was perhaps commended by another con­ sideration; Menahem is equivalent to §emah, Scion (of David), the oldest designation of the coming king of the golden age, the numerical value of each being 138. As we have seen, the "name of the Messiah" was in the mind of God before the creation of the world, but He had not revealed it. Guesses were free, but they are hardly meant even as serious guesses when the disciples of great teachers competed in puns on their masters' names — those of R. Shela (n^BO said that ,,

1

2

4

5

1

Berakot 28b. Sanhedrin 94a. See the interpretation which follows (4th century); "until there come robbers and robbers of the robbers" (one empire spoiling its predecessor). Lam. R. on 1, 1 6 , near the end (ed. Wilna f. 18c). Cf. Lam. 1, 9. Above, pp. 324 f. Jer. Berakot 5a, above. IJanina bar Abahu, fourth century; Lam. R. 1. s, c In both places there follows in the name of the same fourth century Amora (Aibo) the story of how the 'Comforter' was born in Bethlehem on the night when Jerusalem was destroyed, and carried off by a storm wind. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

349

it was Shiloh (Gen. 49, 10); those of R. Yannai that it was Yinnon (Psalm 72,17); those of R. IJanina that it was IJanina (Jer. l 6

'

I 3 )

'\

There is no trace in the Tannaite sources of any idea that the Messiah himself was an antemundane creation, or that he was regarded otherwise than as a man of human kind. Even if David was imagined to come again, that would be miraculous, but not more extraordinary than that Elijah should be taken up to heaven bodily, to be sent down to earth again before the great and terrible day of the Lord. In fact, as God had no mythical laws of nature to respect, there was no reason why he should always act according to men's observation of his ordinary ways. Nor did any mystery there might be about the person of the Messiah, or the mode and circumstance of his appearance, make a preternatural being of him. He might be, by God's singular favor, a wiser and better and greater king than was ever seen, but not a supernatural being. For demigods Jewish monotheism had no room. If the Messiah wrought miracles, that was no more than Moses had done, and Elijah, and many others. It was God who really did it, by what instruments he chose in ancient or modern times. In a sermon of Bar Kappara he allegorizes on the six measures of barley that Boaz gave to Ruth (Ruth 3, 15): Ruth was to have six descendants each of whom was to have six special "blessings" (gifts), beginning with David, whose six are recited in 1 Sam. 16, 18, and ending with the Messiah whose great qualities are enumerated in Isa. 1 1 , 2, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of counsel and heroism, the spirit of knowledge and godliness/ This seems to be the only reference to the passage in Tannaite sources. 2

3

4

1

Sanhedrin 98b. Schools of the third century; Shela in Babylonia, the other two in Palestine. See Vol. I, pp. 276 ff. Literally, ' the fear of the Lord.' — Sanhedrin 93a-b and parallels in the Midrashim. In the sequel, Isa. 1 1 , 3 is quoted by Raba in a story to show that Bar Kozibah did not come up to the test. 2

3

4

350

THE HEREAFTER

[PART VII

If it were asked under what conditions and in what circum­ stances the advent of the Son of David might be expected, two contradictory answers offered themselves, namely, When the people had made itself worthy of the great deliverance, or, When the decadence of religion and morals had reached its lowest point and made divine intervention necessary. The alternative is left in equipoise in the sentence, The Messiah son of David will come only in a generation that is wholly worthy or in one that is wholly guilty. The former is represented by the words of Levi elsewhere quoted: If Israel should keep only a single sabbath as it is pre­ scribed, at once the Messiah would come. A much older utter­ ance to the same intent comes from R. Simeon ben Yohai: Should Israel keep two sabbaths according to rule {halakah), forthwith they would be delivered. Of charity it is said, Great is charity, for it brings the deliverance nearer, as it is said, 'Thus saith the Lord, maintain ye justice and practise charity, for my salvation is near to come and my loving kindness to be revealed' (Isa. 56, i ) . Of more consequence than such sporadic dicta supported by subtleties of exegesis are the utterances which make the coming of the Messiah conditional on repentance, we might say, on a complete reformation. This is the burden of the prophets from first to last; it is written in some of the most pertinent and im­ pressive chapters of the Law. The cumulative disasters of the century, the failure of one hope after another of the expected deliverance, put urgency into the efforts of the responsible leaders of Judaism to promote a revival of religion that should bring the people as a whole into that conformity with his will which was the only way to recover and secure God's favor. Great is re1

2

3

4

5

1

Sanhedrin 98a; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber f. 5 1 b . R. Johanan, for the former quoting Isa. 60, 2 1 , for the latter Isa. 59, 16 and 48, 1 1 . Jer. Ta anit 64a, middle. Proof, Exod. 1 6 , 25 combined with Isa. 3 0 , 1 5 . Shabbat 1 1 8 b , middle. Isa. 56, 4 and 7. Cf. Sifre Deut. § 41 (f. 7 9 b ) : If ye keep the Law, expect Elijah (Mai. 3, 22 f.). Sedabah, almsgiving. Baba Batra 10a. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

351

pentance, for it brings deliverance nearer, as it is said, 'There comes to Zion a deliverer, and to those who turn from transgres­ sion in Jacob' (Isa. 59, 20). R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus maintained that if Israel did not repent they would never be delivered, quoting Isa. 30, 15, 'By repentance and quietness ye shall be saved.' R. Joshua ben Hananiah replied, Really, if Israel stays as it is and does not repent, will it never be delivered? R. Eiiezer replied, God will raise up over them a king as hard as Haman, and forthwith they will repent, and they will be delivered. 'It is a time of dis­ tress for Jacob, and out of it he shall be saved' (Jer. 30, 7). Joshua thereupon quoted Isa. 52, 3, 'Ye were sold for nought and without silver shall ye be delivered.' His position was, Whether they repent or do not repent, when the fixed time comes they will be delivered, as it is written, 'I, the Lord, in its time I will hasten it' (Isa. 60, 22). To similar effect a saying of R. Joshua ben Levi is cited: If ye are worthy I will hasten it; and if ye are not worthy, 'in its time.' In his plan of universal history God has set a definite time for the great deliverance, which not even the unrepented sin of Israel can postpone. For both opinions equally numerous and weighty proof-texts could be found. Later we find some hold­ ing the opinion that the time God intended has come and gone by, because the people was not fit. Thus Rab: All dates for the end have expired, and the matter now depends solely on repent­ ance and good works. It is sin that delays the inauguration of the golden age which by every reckoning should have begun long ago. On the six thousand year scheme — two thousand 'empti1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Yoma 86b, above; cf. Yalkut on Isa. 1. c. (§ 498). R. Jose the Galilean (it brings deliverance to the world). Taking shubah in the sense of teshubah. The context should be noted. Jer. Ta'anit 63d, below; cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Behukkotai § 5 end. A slightly different version in Sanhedrin 97b~98a: Eiiezer quotes Jer. 3, 2 2 ; Mai. 3, 7 ; Isa. 30, 1 5 ; Jer. 4, 1. R. Joshua finally cites Dan. 1 2 , 7. This last silenced R. Eiiezer. See Bacher, Tannaiten I, 144 f. Jer. Ta'anit 1. c. Sanhedrin 9 7 b . 2

3

4

5

6

352

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

ness' (inn), two thousand Law (min), two thousand Messianic Age, — "By reason of our multiplied iniquities there have passed as many of them (years properly belonging to the Messianic Age) as have passed." Daniel had applied apocalyptic arithmetic to the date of the great revolution. Esdras found that Daniel had misunderstood his revelation, and revised the calculation so as to bring the fall of the Fourth Empire — now die Roman — within his own horison; and this became a habit. It is probable that similar cor­ rected computations were made in the time of the Bar Cocheba war. After the calamitous issue of the revolt had discredited its Messiah, mistrust of all attempts to fix a date for God and censure of those who tried it prevailed. Rabbi Nathan, who occupied a high station in the academy of Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel and subsequently often appears in discussion with Rabbi, quotes Hab. 2, 3 as a verse which pierced to the profoundest depths: 'The vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries on to the end and does not deceive. If it delay, wait confidently for it, for it will surely come, and will not delay (in­ definitely).' The interpretations of earlier authorities ("our rabbis") are disapproved, who operated with the 'time, two times, and half a time' of Dan. 7, 25, and of R. Akiba, who relied on Hag. 2, 6, 'Yet one, a little it is, and I will convulse the heavens and the earth.' 1

2

3

R. Samuel bar Nahman in the name of his master Jonathan (ben Eleazar), a Palestinian teacher of the first half of the third century, pronounces an imprecation on the calculators: "Blast the bones of those who reckon out 'ends,' for when their com­ puted 'end' comes and he (the Messiah) does not come, they say, Well then, he is not coming." 4

1

'Abodah Zarah 9a; cf. Seder Eliahu Rabbah c. 2 (ed. Friedmann p. 6) and Friedmann's Introduction, p. 46. Sanhedrin 97b. The following context (vss. 7-9) must be considered as also in mind. — In what way Akiba extracted a prediction of time from the text is not plain. For different conjectures see Rashi in loc. and Meharsha. Sanhedrin 1. c . 2

3

4

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC

EXPECTATIONS

Jonathan ben Uzziel, the author of the Targum on the Pro­ phets, is said to have contemplated doing a similar work for the Hagiographa, but was deterred by a mysterious voice {bat kol) saying, No more! This prohibition, it is explained, was because in the Hagiographa (Daniel) the fixed term for the Messiah was given. An interpretative translation into the vernacular would put it into the power of laymen to speculate on the date of his coming as well as scholars, a thing of which they had a whole­ some apprehension. Renunciation of all attempts to compute the time is the mean­ ing of Jose ben IJalafta, the great chronologist: "Whoever knows how many years Israel worshipped other gods, he knows when the Son of David will come." For this there are three prooftexts, Hos. 2, 15; Zech. 7, 13; Jer. 5, 19. Another harmless term is set when it is said: The Son of David will not come until all the souls that are in the repository are exhausted; as it is written, (T will not forever contend, nor will I eternally be wroth,) for the spirit would faint before me and the souls I have created' (Isa. 57, 16). 1

2

3

4

5

Not all teachers were content to leave the question in com­ plete abeyance. R. Hanina, in the first generation of the third century, reckoning, apparently, on the six thousand year scheme, said: When four hundred years have passed since the destruc1

2

Megillah 3 a . Lam. R. Proemium no. 2 1 . Guf. The place in which souls not yet embodied are kept until it is time for them to be born. Cf. Lev. R. 1 5 , 1 (opinion of the majority — Rabbanan) or, Until all the souls which it entered into God's intention to create are exhausted (same proof-text). Creationist hypothesis; whereas in the former the assumption is that all souls were created at the beginning. 'Abodah Zarah 5 a ; Niddah 1 3 b ; Yebamot 62a, 6 3 b . In the last place, attributed by R. Huna to Rab Assi, in the other two it is ascribed to R. Jose. See Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 1 7 2 ; Klausner, Die messianischen Vorstel lungen des judischen Volkes, u. s. w., pp. 37 f. The verb PpLDJT is translated 'faint' in conformity to the context in Isaiah. It is possible that in the quotation the rabbis took it in the meaning 'be be­ lated' (cf. Gen.30,42). For an interpretation in this sense see Rashi on Niddah 1 3 b . Marriage with a little girl, who cannot conceive, 'retards the deliver­ ance,' which will not come until every soul that God created has been im­ planted in an embryo. 3

4

5

354

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

tion of the temple, if a man offers you a piece of land worth a thousand dinars for one dinar, do not take it. An otherwise un­ known Tannaite tradition quoted in the same place has the same conclusion to a reckoning from the era of creation — "4231 years after the creation of the world." IJanina's date for the deliverance is a century or so in his own future, and the calcula­ tion from the creation closely coincides with it. The Messianic Age is still a long way off. 1

2

Many prophecies dealt in signs of the impending crisis — signs among the nations, signs in nature, significant conditions among the Jews themselves. The critic looks in them for the marks of particular historical situations from the days of the Assyrians down, but to the Jewish interpreters they portended the great coming crisis, or at least were typical of it. The Sibyllines and the apocalypses naturally abound in signs of the last times, which in accordance with their feigned origin, they habitually envelop in mystery and not infrequently in Delphic ambiguity. The sole rivals to the Roman empire in the East were the Parthians. There were moments in the conflict of the two powers when the Roman armies suffered signal disasters at their hands; and it is not strange that Jewish hopes should sometimes have fastened upon them as the predestined instrument in God's plan for the destruction of Rome, as in a like situation Persia had destroyed the empire of Babylon and delivered the Jews. Jose ben Kisma, who in the time of Hadrian recognized the Roman rule as of God's ordaining, and warned Hanina ben Teradion of the consequences of defying the edict against teaching, bade his disciples bury his coffin deep, for there is not a single palm tree in Babylonia to which a Persian horse will not be tied, and not 3

1

'Abodah Zarah 9b. When the deliverance comes all alienated lands will revert to the heirs of those to whom they were originally allotted. Cf. also the story of the roll found by a Jewish mercenary in "Roman" (Byzantine) service, in a Roman treasure-house. Sanhedrin 97b. Some editions of the Talmud have "Persian" instead of "Roman." See above, p. 1 1 4 . 2

3

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

355

a single coffin in the land of Israel from which a Median horse will not be eating straw. In the next generation R. Simeon ben Yohai, a disciple of Akiba, is reported to have said, When you see a Persian horse tied in the land of Israel then look for the feet of the Messiah. These forecasts are as indefinite as another of Jose ben Kisma, that when the gate of the city (Caesarea Philippi or Tiberias?) had fallen and been rebuilt twice, and a third time fallen, before the rebuilding was again finished, the Son of David would come. Even such vague ventures are, however, unusual. Instead of conjectures when the Messiah is to come we find the formula: "The Son of David will not come until" this or that takes place; for example, until the good-for-nothing kingdom has altogether ceased out of Israel, as it is said, 'He will cut off the good-fornothing shoots with priming-hooks' (Isa. 18, 5), and further on, * In that time there shall be brought a present to the Lord of Hosts, a people/ etc. (vs. c;). Or, until the arrogant cease out of Israel, as it is written, I will remove from the midst of thee those who exult in their eminence . . . and I will leave in the midst of thee a folk lowly and poor, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord' (Zeph. 3, 1 1 , 1 2 ) . Or, until all judges and other officials cease out of Israel (Isa. 1, 25 f.). The author specifies things obnoxious to him as particular hindrances to the coming of the Messiah; the texts he cites in support are sometimes, as in the first saying quoted above, evidence of nothing but misplaced ingenuity. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

c

10

11

1

The stone coffins robbed from the tombs to use as feeding troughs. — Sanhedrin 98a-b. Persian and Median are the ancient historical names for the peoples of the Parthian empire. Lam. R. on 1, 13, with Mic. 5, 4 for biblical support. In Cant. R. on 8, 9, 'tied to tombs in the land of Israel/ See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 398 f. Probably in a siege of the city. Sanhedrin 98a, end. Zallah. Zahallim. The whole point lies in the play on the words. 'Pruning* is a frequent figure for the cutting off of nations; see e.g. Cant. R. on 2, 13 (Canaanites, Babylonians, etc.). Sanhedrin 98a. Ibid. Ibid. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

n

356

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

Others aver that the Son of David will not come until in­ formers multiply; or until the whole empire goes over to heresy, or until the Jews despair of ever being delivered — 'None is left, confined or at large' (Deut. 32, 36)/ as if, to speak reverently, Israel had no supporter or helper. The rabbis frequently dwell on the grave moral and religious declension which gives warning that the Messiah is at the door. Thus, R. Judah (ben Ila'i) said: "In the generation in which the Son of David comes, the meeting-house will become a brothel; Galilee will be devasted and the Gaulan laid waste; the Galileans will go around from city to city and find no com­ passion; the learning of scholars will be a stench in men's nostrils, and those that fear sin will be despised; the counte­ nance of the generation will be as impudent as a dog's, and truth not to be found" (Isa. 59, 15). R. Nehemiah, another of Akiba's disciples, said: "Before the days of the Messiah poverty will increase and high prices will prevail; the vine will give its fruit, but the wine will spoil. The whole empire will turn to heresy, and there will be no reprehen­ sion (of it)." To adduce but one more illustration, R. Nehorai, in the same generation with the two scholars whose words are quoted above, said: " In the generation in which the Son of David comes youths will insult their elders, and elders will stand in the presence of youths. Daughter will rise up against her mother, 1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

As was no doubt the case in the days of Hadrian's edict. Reflecting the impression of the rapid spread of Christianity in the second century and the third (R. Isaac). Cf. R. Nehemiah, below. I.e. no one at all is left. A proverbial expression; cf. 2 Kings 1 4 , 2 6 ; 1 Kings 1 4 , 1 0 . All these in Sanhedrin 97a. Bet wad. Place of learned assembly. The region east of the Sea of Galilee and the upper Jordan. So cod. Monac. The common text has h\HT\ '•BON, 'inhabitants of the borders.' Cf. Eccles. R. c. 1 § 6, R. Jacob Sanhedrin 9 7 a . In Cant. R. on 2, 1 3 , attributed to R. Simeon ben Yohai (with minor variations). Cf. also Pesikta ed. Buber f. 5 1 b (R. Abin). Sanhedrin 97a. The translation follows the text in Cant. R. on 2, 13 as the more consistent and intelligible. Cf. also Sotah 49b, top. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

357 1

and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The counte­ nance of the generation will be like a dog's for impudence; even a son will have no shame in the presence of his own father." A more particular description is given of the 'week' (seven years) in which the Son of David comes: The first year fulfils this verse, 'I will make it rain on one city, and on another I will not make it rain' (Amos 4,7). The second will be partial famine; the third a great famine in which men, women, and little children will die, pious men and men of good works, and the Law will be forgotten by its students. In the fourth there will be enough food but not enough; in the fifth great abundance, they will eat and drink and rejoice, and the Law will come back to its students. In the sixth there will be thunderous sounds. In the seventh, wars; at the end of the seventh the Son of David comes. It is small wonder that a later Babylonian teacher, Rab Joseph, exclaimed, Ever so many such septennial periods have gone by, and he has not come! Abaye's answer to this was, "In the sixth thunders, in the seventh wars," — have these come to pass? and further, have these things occurred in just the order indicated? 2

3

4

5

6

It was the universal belief that shortly before the appearance of the Messiah Elijah should return: 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a ban' (Mai. 3, 23). There is no more 1

Micah 7, 6. The Pesikta completes the quotation, ' a man's enemies are the men of his own household.' Matt, 1 0 , 35 f. Sanhedrin 9 7 a ; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber 5 1 b . Cf. Syr. Baruch. 27, 1-28, 2. Literally, 'arrows of famine' (Ezek. 5, 1 6 ) . Sanhedrin 9 7 a ; cf. Cant. R. on 2 , 1 3 (R. Johanan), with variants; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 5ia-b. The 'thunderous sounds' (kolot) are perhaps suggested by Exod. 1 9 , 1 6 - 1 9 , proclaiming that God is at hand. Compare the 'sound of a horn growing louder and louder' vs. 1 6 . Understood as the horn which announces the coming of the Son of David (Isa. 27, 13). Rashi on Sanhe­ drin 9 7 b . In Cant. R. it is Abaye who makes the plaint here attributed to R. Joseph. 2

3

4

5

6

358

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

dramatic figure in all biblical story than Elijah, from the mo­ ment when he appears abruptly upon the scene announcing to Ahab in short, stunning words the coming years of drought and famine to the last act when he is rapt away into the heavens in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. The prophet was the incar­ nation of zeal for the Lord. For the God of Israel, on Mount Carmel, against the intruder Baal, against all his priests and devotees, against his royal patrons, the king and queen. No god but Jehovah should be worshipped in Israel's land. For the Lord as the vindicator of the rights of the Israelite freeman, against Ahab and Jezebel in the crime of Naboth's vineyard. It was in the same zeal for the Lord that the was to come to earth again, precursor of the great and terrible day of the Lord, if by bringing the people to a better mind the impending ban might be averted. The impression his career and the mission assigned to him in Malachi made on later times may be read in Sirach in the paragraph allotted to him in the Praise of the Fathers. Elijah's historical mission was to bring Israel back to whole­ hearted allegiance to its own God and his righteous will, and the prophecy of his return spoke only of a work to be done in Israel. His part was the preparation of the people for the imminent crisis, which in the centuries we are dealing with was under­ stood to be the appearance of the Messiah. What, more precisely, he was to do is not made plain in Mal­ achi, and various opinions are reported. Sirach interprets his mission, "to set to rights the tribes of Jacob." Some thought that Elijah's business would be to settle questions of clean and unclean, about which the dissensions of the schools threatened to make the Law "two laws"; others that he would straighten out questions of ancestry — for which undoubtedly inspiration 1

2

3

1

In this he is like Phineas, the typical zealot (Num. 25, 7 - 1 2 ; Psalm 106, 30 f.; Ecclus. 45, 23 f.), and comes finally to be identified with him, and thus to be a priest. Ecclus. 48, 1 - 1 2 . Sirach does not connect the return of Elijah with the appearance of the Messiah, of whom, indeed, there is no mention in the book. pDH^. Greek KaTacTTrjcrai; cf. Isa. 49, 6, D^pil^, arrival. 2

3

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

359 1

was necessary — in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. Was such and such a family of pure Israelite stock, and entitled to be registered as genuine Jews, or was it contaminated with alien blood? Elijah would see that the former got their rights* and exclude the latter. Johanan ben Zakkai gave it out as a "Halakah of Moses from Sinai" (an immemorial tradition) that Elijah came to do neither, but to remove those who had been arbitrarily registered among the pure-blood Jews and restore such as had been arbitrarily struck out. Other Tannaim held that he would restore but not remove; or remove but not restore. Others that he would compose differences in the schools; or that Malachi's words meant to make peace in the world. None of the earlier sources makes it Elijah's especial mission to bring Israel to repentance. The Pirke de-R. Eiiezer, how­ ever, quotes R. Judah: Unless Israel repents they will not be delivered; and Israel never repents except out of tribulations and oppression and exile and want of a living. Israel will not make the great repentance until Elijah comes (Mai. 3, 23). The con­ ception must be much older than this testimony; John the Baptist is a witness to it. Nor does Elijah in any ancient source announce that the Mes­ siah is shortly coming or is come. It was, however, expected that Elijah would restore to Israel three things that had been concealed with the ark before the destruction of the temple; 2

3

4

5

6

1

Cf. ICiddushin 7 0 b below (IJama bar Hanina): When God lets his Pres­ ence (Shekinah) rest (i.e. when He himself resides among them), he lets it rest only on pedigreed families in Israel (Jer. 3 1 , 1 ) . The question was of peculiar moment after the recent wars in which cities were sacked, and the country overrun by a licentious soldiery, many women enslaved, etc. Illustrations are given in the case of certain families in the region east of the Jordan. Various concrete questions in dispute or doubt are reserved "until Elijah comes," e.g. M. Shekalim 2, 5 end; Pesahim 1 3 a , 20b. 'Eduyot 8, 7. On the whole subject see M. Friedmann, Seder Eliahu Rabba, Introduction, pp. 2 3 - 2 5 . Pirke de-R. Eiiezer c. 43, end; cf. c. 4 7 , where 'repentance* (teshubah) is got out of a play on the words in 1 Kings 1 7 , 1, Elijah was of the settlers (toshebe) of Gilead. 2

3

4

5

6

THE

6

3 °

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

viz., the jar of manna, and the flask of water of lustration, and the flask of anointing oil; some added Aaron's rod with its almonds and blooms. From Justin Martyr we learn that the Jews with whom he was acquainted believed that Elijah would anoint the Messiah and make him known to all. To the anoint­ ing there is no reference in the Talmud or Midrashim; but it was a current notion in the Middle Ages. The Tannaim have, thus, little to tell about what Elijah will do when he comes at the end. In contrast to this is the abun­ dance of tales of how he appeared in one guise or another to many of the rabbis of the time, and about his discourse with them. In a later period such legends increased and multiplied. There is no reason to dwell upon these stories, nor upon the description of his coming and doings in later writings. To the connection of Elijah with the resurrection we shall re­ turn further on. In many places in the prophetic books predictions of the golden age — however it may be conceived — follow abruptly upon denunciations of the direst calamities, and this juxta­ position gave ground for the belief that when evils of all kinds had reached their climax the deliverance would suddenly come. We have seen above in what dark colors the state of things in the generation in which the Son of David would come were de­ picted by some of the most influential teachers of the generation after the war under Hadrian. From an earlier date we have in the Gospel of Matthew (c. 24) a prophecy of the dreadful time that was to precede the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds 1

2

3

4

5

1

Mekilta, Wayyassa' 5, on Exod. 1 6 , 3 3 (ed. Friedmann f. 5 1 b ; ed. Weiss f. 5 9 b - 6 o a ) . See Horaiyot 12a, top (these and other things concealed by King Josiah), and Jer. Shekalim 49c. On the concealment and recovery of the sacred fire, 2 Mace. 1, 1 8 - 3 5 ; f« > & Dialogue with Trypho 8, 4 ; 49, 1. See, on the contrary, Sifra, Sau Perek 18 (ed. Weiss f. 40b), and Rabad in loc. Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, p. 348, n. 4. See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, IV, 202 ff. An exhaustive collec­ tion in M. Friedmann, Seder Eliahu Rabba, Introduction, pp. 2 7 - 4 4 . E. g. Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann, f. 161 a; his appearance three days before that of the Messiah, etc. c

2

3

4

5

2

1

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

361

of heaven, all which should come to pass within that generation. The first warnings of the approaching end would be wars among the nations, famines and earthquakes in various places. ' All these things are the beginning of pangs.' It was evidently expected that these "pangs" would be understood of the travail in which the new age was to be born. The corresponding phrase in the rab­ binical texts is "the travail of the Messiah," that is, not the suf­ ferings of the Messiah himself, as it has sometimes been errone­ ously explained, but the throes of mother Zion which is in labor to bring forth the Messiah — without metaphor, the Jewish people. In the oldest contexts in which the phrase occurs (R. Eiiezer, in the generation after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.), it is one of three great punishments from which individuals will be saved by proper observance of the sabbath, namely, the travail of the Messiah, the days of Gog and Magog, and the great Judg­ ment Day. Similarly in a saying of Bar I^appara (early third century), the travail of the Messiah, the judgment of hell, and the war of Gog and Magog. The biblical text alleged (by anal­ ogy of expressions) for the travail of the Messiah is Mai. 3, 23, 'Behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.' In the later and vaguer passages also it is deliverance from the travail of the Messiah that is in mind. It appears that the phrase was originally applied, not to a period of general distress such as is described above, but to a 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

dpxri &5iva)V.

Matt. 24, 8.

2

rTTO ^nn. Mekilta, Wayyassa' 5, on Exod. 1 6 , 29 (ed. Friedmann 5 1 a ; ed. Weiss, f. 59a). R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus); cf. ibid. 4 near the end. See also Shabbat 1 1 8 a ; Pesahim 1 1 8 a ; Sanhedrin 98b. " T O n ^ n , " fre­ quent in modern Christian books, is fictitious, like DTOBPn rvtao. In Ketubot m a , in an Aramaic context, the common editions have ITBW ^ s n , but correct reading is fPBW H ^nn. The origin of the notion is Micah 5, 1 ff. (Sanhedrin 1. c ) ; Yoma 10a. The figure of a woman in travail is very common, especially in Jeremiah; The origin of the idea of the labor of which the Messiah is born is Mic. 5, 1 - 3 . cf. the sequel 5, 4 - 1 4 , and 4, 9 ff. Cf. also Isa. 26, 1 7 - 1 9 . Mekilta 1. s. c. Shabbat 1 1 8 a . While in the Bible the plural is generally used as in Matt. 24, 8 (pangs, throes), in the rabbinical texts the word is invariably singular. t

3

4

6

5

n

e

362

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

particular crisis of oppression (Micah 5, 2) which determines the fate of men, and in which some are saved while others perish. That the sinners of Israel will be exterminated before the inau­ guration of the national golden age is expressly foretold in the prophets. The classical example is Amos 9, 10 f.: 'All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, that say, The evil will not overtake nor confront us. In that day will I raise up the fallen hut of David/ etc. A similar expectation is found in rabbinical sources. R. Hiyya bar Abba in an allegorical messianic exposition of Cant. 2, 13 ('The fig tree puts forth its green figs and the blossoming vines give their fragrance'), says: "Shortly before the days of the Messiah there will come a great pestilence, and the wicked will meet their end in it." The fragrant blossoming vines are those who are left (the 'remnant,' Isa. 4, 3). In the assimilation of the later (messianic) deliverance to the deliverance by Moses, the death of the wicked in this crisis is made to correspond with the death of all the wicked in the days of Egyptian darkness. Thus in Cant. R. on the same verse, the first clause is interpreted: These are the wicked of Israel who died in the three days of dark­ ness, as it is said, 'There was dense darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; no man saw his brother.' The fragrant blossoming vines are " the rest who repented and were delivered." That many of the Israelites died in Egypt on the eve of the exodus is a notion that is at least as old as the middle of the sec1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

Take in the whole context, vss. 8 - 1 5 . About 200 A.D. The bad figs, according to Jer. 24, 2 f. The reference extends to the whole passage 4, 2 - 6 . Exod. 10, 22 f. In Exod. R. 14, 3 it is explained that the darkness hid the death of the wicked Israelites from the Egyptians, and enabled the sur­ vivors to bury them unobserved. Cant. R. on 2, 13 (ed. Wilna f. 1 7 b ) ; Pesikta Rabbati c. 15 (ed. Fried­ mann f. 74a, 7 5 a ) . See also Pesikta Rabbati c. 35 (ed. Friedmann f. 161 a). Elijah, coming three days before the advent of the Messiah, proclaims sal­ vation to Zion and her sons, but warns the wicked, who have broken out in loud rejoicing, that it is not for them. — Here "the wicked" are the nations of the world. 3

4

5

6

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

363

ond century, and is ultimately derived from Ezekiel 20, 8. Among the explanations of the word hamushshim in Exod. 13, 18 (English version 'harnessed'), which seemed to be etymologically connected with the numeral hamesh, 'five,' some said that one in five of the Israelites in Egypt went out in the exodus; others said, one in fifty; still others, one in five hundred. R. Nehorai said, not even one in five hundred (Ezek. 16,7; Exod. 1,7) went up; the greatest part of the Israelites died in Egypt in the three days of darkness ('they could not see one another'); they buried their dead, and gave thanks and were glad to God that their enemies did not see them and rejoice in their calamity. The coming of the Messiah is therefore a judgment of the generation to which he comes, and the announcement of its proximity by his precursor, Elijah, a call not to universal rejoic­ ing but to heart-searching and repentance, as John the Baptist makes it in the Gospels, and Jesus after him. It may fairly be inferred from their words, 'Repent, for the reign of God is at hand,' that conceptions similar to those which we have found in the Midrash were current in their time. In this crisis the right­ eous or the repentant are to be saved, as they are to be saved from the days of Gog and Magog, and in the last judgment from the fate of the wicked in hell. It is a reasonable surmise that it is this crisis which is meant in the contexts where there is mention of the 'travail of the Messiah.' 1

2

The prophets abound in idealizing descriptions of the golden age to come, with its political, social, and economic blessings. The Jews drew on all this imagery in their pictures of the future, and embellished them with new traits discovered by ingenious midrash in other parts of the Scriptures. One of these is the in­ auguration banquet at which Behemoth and Leviathan furnish flesh and fish enough for everybody. The description of these fabulous terrestrial and marine monsters in Job 40-41 was spun out in the Haggadah not only into grotesque extravagances of 1

2

Tanhuma, Beshallah § i, not even one in five thousand (R. Nehorai). Mekilta, Beshallah, Proem (ed. Friedmann f. 2 4 a ; ed. Weiss f. 29a).

364

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII 1

monstrosity, but in an account of their creation on the fifth day, of how they are to be slaughtered in preparation for the feast, and much more. Leviathan and Behemoth appear in Enoch 60, 7-10 (cf. vs. 24), but the angel declines to tell any more than that they are sepa­ rated, one in the sea and the other on land. In 4 Esdras 6, 51 f., however, they are preserved from the fifth day of creation to be food for those whom God wills when he wills. References to these creatures in the Tannaite sources are rare, and there is in them no mention of the banquet. Johanan, a multifarious homilist of the third century, is the source of much that is told thenceforward about Leviathan and the feast upon his flesh, which he finds in Job 40, 30 ('The as­ sociates will feast upon him'). What is left of their portions they will put on sale in the markets of Jerusalem, etc. Rab also makes notable contributions to this mythology: God created a pair of Leviathans, but when he thought how much mischief might come of it, he castrated the male, and killed and pickled the female to preserve her flesh for the righteous in the time to come (Isa. 27, 1). He took care in a similar way that the pair of Behemoths should not multiply, but kept the female alive for the righteous in future time, instead of killing her. Behemoth and Leviathan represented land and sea; for the air an enormous bird called Ziz was discovered in Psalm 50, 1 1 , 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

The sea monsters (tanninim) of Gen. 1, 21 taken of Leviathan. For particulars see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, I, 2 7 - 2 9 , with the Notes in Vol. V, 4 1 - 4 6 . Similarly, Syr. Baruch 29, 1 - 4 . Baba Batra 7 4 b . R. Eiiezer and R. Joshua were once on a voyage; Joshua saw by night a great light, which Eiiezer thought might be the eyes of Leviathan (Job 4 1 , 1 0 ) . R. Meir saw an allusion to them in Job 1 2 , 7 f. Antoninus' inquiry of Rabbi whether he should eat of Leviathan in the world to come (Jer. Megillah 7 2 b ) is a later legend. IJaberim, i.e. scholars (talmide hakamim), or more generally, the righteous. Baba Batra 7 5 a . Died in 247. Baba Batra 7 4 b , middle. There is reflection in this difference: fish were commonly preserved in brine; the flesh of animals was not. 2

3

4

s

6

7

8

9

CHAP, ii]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

365

which also was as old as creation and should, like them, be served up to the righteous in the great banquet. A feast without something good to drink was unimaginable, and this is provided in the shape of wine preserved in the grapes since the six days of creation. (Isa. 64, 3). Of the messianic banquet without such fantastic accessories there is repeated mention in the Gospels, and it was evidently part of the popular expectation. The fertility of the land of Israel is a theme on which numerous passages in the Scriptures expatiate; and that in the golden age to come nature would outdo herself was indubitable, even if there had been no express promises of it. In the Syriac Baruch, in the immediate sequel of the Leviathan banquet, there follows a de­ scription of such marvellous productiveness. "The earth will yield her fruits ten thousand fold. On one vine will be a thous­ and clusters, each cluster of a thousand grapes, and each grape will yield a kor (about ninety gallons) of wine." Eulogies of the profuseness of nature in the land of Israel are found in rabbinical sources, especially in Sifre on Deut. 32, 13 f, In the future every grain of wheat will be as large as the two kidneys of a big bullock. As for wine, a man will not have to toil in gathering and treading the grapes; he will bring one grape in a cart and set it up in a corner, and will take as much as he wants and go, like one who drinks from a large jar. Another adds, there will not be a single grape that yields less than thirty jars of wine. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Ginzberg 11. cc. (p. 247, n. 2 ) . Sanhedrin 99a. R. Joshua ben Levi. See Matt. 8, 1 1 f.; Luke 1 3 , 2 9 ; 1 4 , 1 5 , and the following parable; 22, 1 6 - 1 8 ; Mark 1 4 , 2 5 ; Matt. 26, 29. Syr. Baruch 29, 5 ff. Irenaeus (Haer. v. 33) quotes from Papias as a saying of Christ about his messianic kingdom an exaggerated parallel to this (ten thousand throughout, and two more multiplications-10 ooo ), each grape yielding 25 metretes of wine — more than 200 gallons; and continues with wheat in similar lavishness of figures. Sifre Deut. § 3 1 7 ; cf. Midrash Tannaim, pp. 1 9 2 - 1 9 4 . See also Ketubot 11 ib, later variations on the same theme. 2

3

4

5

4

6

3

66

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

Another bountiful source of such homiletic fertility was Psalm 72, 16. Rabban Gamaliel (II) found in the first clause of this verse that in the future the land of Israel would produce rolls of bread and garments of fine wool. Others learn from it that the wheat will shoot up like a palm tree. The obvious difficulty of harvesting such tall grain is foreseen in the next clause ('its fruit will rustle like Lebanon'): God will let a wind out of his treasury come and blow on it and set free the flour; a man will go out into the field and bring in a handful of it and from it supply himself and his household. In the prophets the return of the people of Israel to its own country from exile and dispersion is a conspicuous feature of the restoration of God's favor. 'For, lo, days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will turn the captivity of my people Israel and Judah . . . and I will return them to the land which I gave to their forefathers, and they shall possess it' (Jer. 30, 3). A little further on the theme is taken up again to introduce a foreglimpse of the golden age that follows the restoration (vss. 18-22). Ezekiel has similar predictions. The return is the motive with which Isa. 40 begins, and it is resumed and developed in the sequel with a wealth of poetic imagery. The denunciations of calamity and captivity in the Law do not conclude without the assurance of restoration, if the misery of exile works in Israel a change of heart. The post-canonic writings bear witness to the vitality of this 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

In the Yalkut, R. Simeon ben Gamaliel. Shabbat 30b, end. Other wonders of the future in his sermons quoted there are that the trees will bear fruit every day (Ezek. 1 7 , 8), and that a woman will bear a child daily (Jer. 3 1 , 8). When an impertinent student quoted to him Eccles. 1 , 9 — ' there is no new thing under the sun* — Gama­ liel gave him an ocular demonstration that similar things happen in this pres­ ent world; a hen lays an egg a day, the caper bush is always in fruit. Ketubot 11 ib. See also Jer. 23, 1 - 8 ; 29, 1 0 - 1 4 ; 32, 3 6 - 4 4 ; and especially c. 3 1 . Ezek. 39, 2 5 - 2 9 ; 34, 1 1 - 1 6 , etc. Isa. 40, 1 - 1 1 ; 43, 5 - 8 ; 49, 8-23; 52, 7 - 1 2 ; 60, 1 - 2 2 . See also Isa. 1 1 , 1 0 - 1 2 , 15 f.; 27, 12 f.; Amos 9, 1 4 f.; Micah 4, 6 f. Deut. 30, 1 - 1 0 ; Lev. 26, 4 0 - 4 5 ; cf. also 1 Kings 8, 4 7 - 5 3 . 2

3

4

5

6

7

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

367

hope in the wider dispersion of those centuries. It must suffice here to give references to some of the most memorable. The older apocalypses have not much to say about the subject. Daniel is completely absorbed in the crisis in Judaea. In Enoch the return follows the destruction of the enemy in the last on­ slaught of the nations on Jerusalem (cc. 56-57); in the vision of the whole history of the world (cc. 85-90) the assembly of the dispersed (90, 33-36) immediately precedes the birth of the white bull with great horns (the Messiah). The liberation of Israel from the dominion of the nations and the gathering of the dispersion to their own land has a place in the oldest prayers of the synagogue: "Sound the great horn (as a signal) for our freedom; lift up the standard for the as­ sembling of cur exiles/' with the response, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who gatherest the dispersed of his people Israel." The following petition is: "Restore our judges as at the first and our counsellors as at the beginning; and reign over us, Thou alone. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who lovest judgment." In succinct phrase the petition is included in the condensed prayer, Habinenu. The exodus from Egypt had been the great miracle of history, a monument of God's almighty power and of his goodness to his people. But, as Jeremiah had foretold, it would be eclipsed by the greater miracle of their restoration from all the countries whither they had been dispersed. 'The days are coming, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, As the Lord liveth, who 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Baruch 2, 30-35 (in prayer), and the jubilant hymn, 4, 3 6 - 5 , 9 ; Ecclus 33, 1 3 - 2 2 ; Tobit 1 3 , 9 - 1 8 ; 2 Mace. 1, 2 7 ; 2, 1 8 . Psalms of Solomon 8, 33 f.; 1 1 ; 1 7 , 28-31 (following a messianic passage 2 1 - 2 6 ) ; and repeatedly in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The Parthians and Medes, in the role of Gog and Magog. On the return of the ten tribes in 4 Esdras and the Syriac Baruch, see below. Isa. 27, 1 3 ; cf. Zech. 9, 1 4 . Isa. 1 1 , 1 2 . The tenth of the Eighteen Prayers, in the Palestinian text (Dalman, Worte Jesu, p. 300). Slightly amplified in the Prayer Books. Cf. Megillah 2

3

4

5

6

I7b-i8a. 7

Isa. 1, 26.

368

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

led up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, x^s the Lord liveth, who led up and brought the posterity of the children of Israel from the northern land, and from all the lands whither I drove them away; and they shall dwell on their own soil/ From Egypt they departed hurriedly, for they were thrust out and could not delay (Exod. 12, 39; Deut. 16, 3); but in the new exodus the prophet foretold, 'Ye shall not depart hurriedly, nor shall ye go in flight; for the Lord goeth before you and the God of Israel will bring up your rear' (Isa. 52, 12). In Isaiah the return of the exiles resembles a solemn proces­ sion; the way is made smooth for them, every obstacle removed (Isa. 40, 3-5). The clouds of the (divine) glory are a pavilion over their heads for shade by day (Isa. 4, 6), 'and the Lord's ransomed people will return and come to Zion with jubilant song, and everlasting joy will be upon their heads' (Isa. 35, 10), The idealizing expectation of the prophets was that the Jews who, when this turn of fortune came, were living in other coun­ tries would universally return to Judaea, and the representation of the Tannaim corresponds. Whether the descendants of the ten tribes who had been earlier deported by the Assyrians would also return to their own country, so that the golden age to come would see a reunited Israel, was a controverted question. In 4 Esdras the peaceful multitude whom the Messiah calls to him (13, 12), after he has miraculously annihilated the host who gathered from every quarter to make war upon him, are the ten tribes who were carried away beyond the Euphrates by Shalmaneser king of Assyria (2 Kings 1 7 , 1 - 6 ) . Thence they migrated to a far distant and inaccessible land which had never 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

Jer. 23, 7 f. Berakot 1 2 b , end. Mekilta, Bo 7 (ed. Friedmann f. 7 b; ed. Weiss f. 9 b). Mekilta, Beshallah (Proem), ed. Friedmann f. 25a, top; ed. Weiss f.

29b-3oa. 4

5

13, 2 - 1 1 . Otherwise, 'nine and a half.' "In the days of king Josiah" is an early error for 'Hosea.' On the river 'Sambation' beyond which the ten tribes were settled see Jewish Encyclopedia, X, 681-683. 6

7

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

369

been inhabited by men, that there they might keep laws which they had not kept in their home land. From this remote region God will bring them back in the latter days. Among the Tannaim of the second century there were conflict­ ing opinions. Akiba interpreted Lev. 26, 38 ('And ye shall be lost [DnniKi] among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall devour you') of the ten tribes which were exiled to Media— they should perish there; others took the words 'be lost' in the light of the following verses to mean they they should be exiled thither. In the Mishnah R. Akiba maintains that the ten tribes will never return, arguing from Deut. 29, 27. ('The Lord . . .) cast them into another land, as this day'): "As this day goes and does not return, so they go and do not return." R. Eiiezer makes a contrary inference from the same words: "As the day is (first) dark and (then) light, so the ten tribes. As they were enveloped in darkness, so it will in future be light about them." A mediating solution is attributed to R. Simeon (ben Yohai), with another turn of the words 'as this day': "If their deeds are 'as (they are at) this day' (bad), they will not re­ turn; otherwise they will return." In the corresponding Tosefta it is the participation of the ten tribes in the World to Come that is denied. The later opinion is more favorable to the ten tribes on both questions. Rabbi allowed them a share in the World to Come, and R. Johanan blames Akiba for lapsing from his usual charity in his harsh judgment, quoting against him Jer. 3, 12. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

4 Esdras 1 3 , 3 8 - 4 7 . Cf. Syriac Baruch 7 7 , 1 7 , 22, and the Epistle to the nine and a half tribes, 7 8 , 1 ff*. — On the ten tribes remaining in the East, see also Josephus, Antt. xi. 5, 2 §§ 1 3 1 - 1 3 3 . Sifra, Behukkotai Perek 8, init. (ed. Weiss f. 1 1 2 b ) . Cf. the commentary of Rabad. M. Sanhedrin 1 0 , 3 ; Sanhedrin n o b . Sanhedrin n o b . On this subject and the variant attributions see Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 1 4 3 , and Klausner, Messianische Vorstellungen 2

3

4

u. s. w., pp. 7 7 - 7 9 5

Tos. Sanhedrin 1 3 , 1 2 : The ten tribes have no portion in the World to Come (Deut. 29, 27). Compare the preceding paragraphs of the Mishnah. Sanhedrin n o b . 6

370

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

In the apocalypses which lie between the fall of Jerusalem and the revolt under Hadrian, as has been shown above, the Messiah is to make an end of the Roman empire, sometimes himself put­ ting to death the last emperor. After the war in which Bar Cocheba essayed this role and failed disastrously, all sane minds must have realized that such was not God's plan. The deliver­ ance must be his work. When his time came, he would ac­ complish it in his way, and it was not for them to prescribe times for him or take his work into their own hands. This was, as we have seen, the attitude of the religious leaders in the cen­ tury following the war. A curious aberration, of which the first evidence comes from the latter part of this period, but which subsequently had a considerable development, was the discovery that besides the Judaean Messiah, Son of David, there was to come another, an Ephraimite Messiah ben Joseph. The earliest mention of this Messiah is a report of a difference between a certain R. Dosa and the prevailing opinion of scholars on the question what the mourning in Zech. 12, 10 (' they will gaze on him whom they have run through,' etc.) is about. One — it is not clear which — said that it was for the Messiah ben Joseph who was killed, the other that it was for the 'evil impulse' which was slain. The death of the Josephite Messiah is supposed also in a tradition intro­ duced as Tannaite a little farther on in the same passage, where his fate alarms the Messiah son of David till God reassures him. From the incidental way in which the Josephite Messiah and his death come in, it may be inferred that the notion was not un­ familiar; but it does not appear how commonly it was accepted among the authorities of the time. 1

2

3

1

Of the tribe of Joseph. According to the words of R. Judah, in the time to come God will bring the 'evil impulse' (temptation personified) and slay it in the presence of the righteous and the wicked, etc. Both will mourn, but with different reasons — The whole immediate context in Sukkah, it should be observed, is con­ cerned with the 'evil impulse/ Sukkah 52a. The corresponding passage in Jer. Sukkah 55b has simply, 'the mourning for the Messiah.' 2

3

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

371

How it arose has been much discussed. Its main support, if not its origin, is Obadiah vs. 18: 'The house of Jacob will be fire and the house of Joseph flame, and the house of Esau stub­ ble; and they will set them afire and consume them, and there will be nothing left of the house of Esau, for the Lord says so.' In this verse R. Samuel ben Nahman, a homilist of the earlier part of the third century, found that Esau (Rome) would be de­ livered only into the hand of a descendant of Joseph. From the second passage in Sukkah 52a it appears that the career of the Josephite Messiah and his death was imagined to precede the coming of the Messiah Son of David; but no other particu­ lars are forthcoming. 1

The expectation of a golden age of the Jewish nation attached itself to the prophecies of liberation from foreign dominion, and restoration of independence under the rule of a wise and good king of the old line of kings of Judah, an age crowned with all the blessings of God. About the fate of other nations in that time there were diverse predictions: they should be subjugated, or destroyed, or converted. Whatever became of them they would no longer be an affliction or a menace or a temptation to God's people. By the side of this political ideal of the promised golden age there was another conception of larger scope and more religious character, a time to come when all men would own and serve the one true God, or in the prophet's words,' the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be One and His name one.' For this supremacy of God the familiar Jewish phrase is Malkut Shamaim, " the kingdom of Heaven," by 2

3

4

1

Baba Batra 123b. For the passages of the same intent in the Midrashim see Friedmann on Pesikta Rabbati f. 50a, note 54; Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 525 n. 7. See Vol. I, pp. 226 ff. Zech. 14, 9 ; Obad. vs. 2 1 , cf. vss. 17 ff.; Isa. 24, 23. This is the form of the expectation in Dan. 7. See Dalman, Worte Jesu, pp. 7 5 ff.; Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 172 ff. 2

3

4

372

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

which is to be understood not the realm over which God rules, but his kingship, his character of king. God is de jure king over all the earth from creation on, but de facto, if one may say so, he is king only for those who in word and deed acknowledge his sovereignty. Israel alone of all the na­ tions did this at Sinai, and therefore he is in a peculiar sense the king of Israel, as he is the God of Israel. So in the individu­ alizing of religion, a Jew renews his personal acknowledgment of God as his king every time he recites the Shema', and he throws off his allegiance by ignoring God's law or acting in defiance of it. The heathen, as nations and as individuals, reject the true God and his religion, they will not have the rightful king to reign over them. Thus it has been in all the past. But it will not always be so. The time will come when all mankind will bow to his rule, and do homage to him alone, and obey his law. Then the reign of God will be universal; the end of all God's ways, the goal of human history, will be attained. Universal will be also the blessings of that age — all the good things men can think of. So it appears in the Sibylline Oracles iii, 767 ff.: "Then He will raise up a kingdom to all eternity over men, he who once gave a holy law to the godly, to whom he promised to open all the earth, and the world, and the gates of the blessed, and all joys, and an immortal soul, and eternal happiness." In this sense the consummation of the kingdom of Heaven may be best expressed for our understanding as the universality of the true religion, not alone professed by all men but realized in their lives in all their relations to God and to their fellow men. 1

2

3

4

5

1

6

Exod. 24, 3 and 7. One who separates himself from heathenism, takes on him in fact the "yoke of the kingdom of Heaven." Sifra, Kedoshim, end (ed. Weiss f. 93 d). Zeph. 3, 9 ; Isa. 2, 2 - 4 (Mic. 4, 1 - 5 ) ; 4 2 , 4 - 1 3 ; 49, 6 f.; 4 5 , 3 - 6 , 1 4 - 2 5 ; Zech. 8, 20-23, etc. To Israel. vovs, intellectual soul. The preceding (741 ff.) and following context should be taken with this. — Cf. also Assumption of Moses 1 0 , 1 : Et tunc parebit regnum illius in omni creatura illius; et tunc zabulus finem habebit, et tristitia cum eo abducetur, etc. 2

3

4

6

5

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

373

Such was the wider vision of some of the greatest of the pro­ phets, and it became a firm article of Jewish faith. Prayer for the speedy coming of the time when it shall be a visible reality is one of the most constant elements in the liturgy. It is a reflec­ tion of this frequency when R. Johanan says: A prayer (berakah) in which there is no (mention of) "kingship" (malkui) is no prayer. A special place is given to the "kingdom verses" (Malkuyot) in the additional service (Musaf) on New Years, intro­ duced by the 'Alenu prayer, in the first part of which the Lord of the universe is praised and magnified as the God and king of Israel. The second is prayer for the speedy coming of the time when the kingdom of God shall be established in all the world, when all mankind shall call upon his name, and he shall make all the wicked of the earth turn their faces to him, taking on them the yoke of his kingship, and he be king over them for­ ever, as it is written, The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. In later times this prayer was introduced into the Daily Prayers, where it forms a fitting conclusion of the whole, with the addition of Zech. 14, 9. The universality of the true religion was naturally conceived as the universality of Judaism; the national religion becomes international, with Jerusalem as the seat of its cultus, to which the converted nations resort to worship the true God, bringing their offerings. The Jews will be called 'priests of the Lord, ministers of our God'; but Isa. 66, 21, in the most natural in­ terpretation, says, 'And also some of them (the Gentiles of vs. 1

2

3

4

5

1

I.e. in which God is not called king. Berakot 1 2 a ; Jer. Berakot I 2 d (attributed to Rab). See for this abstract sense Psalm 103, 1 9 ; 145, n - 1 3 . Mic. 4, 7. This custom is unknown to the earlier writers on the liturgy, and to this day in the Sefardic rite only the first half is recited. It appears, however, in the Mahzor Vitry, p. 7 5 . In the common text some words have been omitted because obnoxious to Christians, who thought that they were meant for them. See Baer, 'Abodat Israel, p. 131 n.; Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, pp. 80 f.; K. Kohler, Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 336-33^. Isa. 56, 6 - 8 ; 60; 66, 1 8 - 2 1 ; Zech. 1 4 , 1 6 - 2 1 ; see also Isa. 2, 2 f. Isa. 6 1 , 5 f. (Exod. 19, 6 ) . 2

3

4

5

374

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

20) will I take as priests (and) levites, saith the Lord' — an un­ paralleled utterance, but not beyond this prophet. There is no incompatibility between this conception of the future reign of God and the expectation of a king of Israel in the golden age, the so-called messianic hope, and such a ruler might well be supposed to have a part in the inauguration of the world-wide reign of God; but in their origin the two conceive the future from the different points of view of nationality and uni­ versality. It was natural that they should frequently be combined, all the more since the great obstacle to both was the heathen em­ pire, as, e.g. in the Sibylline Oracles iii, 46-50: "When Rome shall reign over Egypt . . . then will the most great kingdom of the immortal King be revealed to men, and there will come a holy ruler to sway the sceptre over all the earth, to all the ages of swift-rushing time," with the sequel, the catastrophe of Rome. In the Synoptic Gospels the kingdom of God is thought of not so much in its ultimate world-wide comprehension as with reference to the crisis which the advent of the kingdom will be for the Jews themselves, and to what is required of those who aspire to a place in it. It is closely associated with messianic ideas — both the Son of David and the Son of Man. In attach­ ing the messianic expectation to the person of Jesus of Nazareth and seeing in him the inaugurator of the kingdom of Heaven, the Gospels impressed on the latter phrase their own distinctive con­ ceptions, and connected both with the World to Come. What Josephus calls the "fourth philosophy," whose founder was Judas the Galilean, on all other points in agreement with the Pharisees, had for its specific difference that its adherents held 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

2

Cf. Mai. i, 1 0 - 1 4 . See Part i, chapter 1. (JMLvelrai, cf. Luke 1 9 , 1 1 dva^aiveadat. The usual Jewish expression; e.g. Targ. Isa. 40, 9, JWfi^&n KJTD^D n K ^ N . See Dalman, Worte Jesu, p. 83. Quoted above, p. 330. Matt. 3, 2 ; 4, 1 7 ; 10, 7 ; 7, 2 1 ; 8, 11 f., etc. The Beatitudes; Parables of the Kingdom. Mark 10, 35 ff.; Matt. 1 6 , 27, etc. See below, p. 378. 3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, i i ]

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

375

God to be the only governor and ruler, and would give that title to no other. The issue was first raised when, after the banish­ ment of Archelaus (6 A.D.), Judaea, under a procurator, was at­ tached to the province of Syria and made subject to Roman taxa­ tion; and it grew into a wildfire of popular fanaticism in the last years before the revolt under Nero, fomented by the abuse of his power by the procurator Gessius Florus. The question put to Jesus by certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, Is it per­ missible to pay taxes to the emperor or not? Shall we pay or not pay? was a trap; but it shows that even in quiet times the radical party maintained its position in opinion, if not in practice. That the day should speedily come when God would be king over them, and He alone, was a common topic of prayer; the followers of Judas and their successors made His actual kingship a revolutionary principle. 1

2

3

4

In its original conception the national golden age inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah was of unmeasured duration. The newer eschatology with its general resurrection, last judgment, and final and endless Age to Come, did not supersede it; and, when the two were more clearly distinguished, could find place only beyond it. Consequently, as we have seen in 4 Esdras and the Revelation of John, the Messianic Age became an interim, which in Esdras is to last four hundred years, in John, a thou­ sand. In Sanhedrin 99a various utterances about the duration of the Days of the Messiah are collected, with biblical texts from which they were extracted in the way of midrash, beginning with R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus) and R. Eleazar ben Azariah about the 5

6

1

Josephus, Antt. xviii. i, 6. In xviii. i, i § 4, Judas is described as a Gaulonite, from the city of Gamala. Josephus, Antt. xviii, 1, 1; xx. 5, 2 § 102; Bell. Jud. ii. 8, 1; 1 7 , 8 § 4 3 3 ; cf. Acts 5, 3 7 . Mark 12, 1 4 and parallels. It may be conjectured that it had its principal strength among the Gali­ leans. So in the Latin version. With the attributions in the Talmud there cf. Tanhuma, 'Ekeb § 7, and Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedmann f. 4 a - b with the editor's notes. 2

3

4

5

6

THE

376

HEREAFTER

[PART V I I

beginning of the second century, the former of whom made them forty years, the latter, seventy. According to R. Dosa they would last four hundred years; Rabbi said three generations, or by another report three hundred and sixty-five years, corre­ sponding to the days of the solar year, and so on. The millenium is ascribed to R. Eiiezer, son of Jose the Galilean, citing Psalm 90, 4 and Isa. 63, 4. Others, especially later rabbis, would have the period much longer, Samuel, e.g., as much time as lay between the creation and his day (third century). There was no ortho­ doxy or consensus in such exegetical ingenuities. In one thing, however, all agreed: the Days of the Messiah are of limited duration. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Psalm 95, 1 0 ; or Deut. 8 , 2 f. and Psalm 90, 1 5 . In the Tanhuma attri­ buted to Akiba. Isa. 23, 1 5 . Gen. 1 5 , 13 and Psalm 90, 1 5 . In the Tanhuma, Rabbi. Psalm 7 2 , 5. Anonymous in Sifre Deut. § 3 1 0 and elsewhere. Cf. also Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai ed. Hoffmann, p. 84 f. Isa. 63, 4. Pesikta Rabbati ed. Friedman f. 4 a . Tanhuma, R. Eiiezer. Other fig­ ures: 2000, 7000, 365000 years. Pesikta Rabbati f. 4 b . 2

3

4

5

6

CHAPTER

III

ESCHATOLOGY

W E have seen how in Daniel the fulfilment of the national hope assumes an eschatological form with its forensic judgment and the resurrection of the righteous dead, and how in parts of the Book of Enoch the eschatological element has a larger de­ velopment in a judgment of superhuman powers of evil; and, again, how in the apocalypses from the end of the first century a clearer division is made between the messianic golden age of Israel and its eschatological sequel, the general resurrection, the last judgment, and the new era of the world that is thus ushered in. With the scheme of the later apocalypses rabbinical concep­ tions are in general accord. The beginning of the Messianic Age is a great crisis in the history of Israel and of the nations. As its close, the Last Things in the proper sense begin, the domain of eschatology, with the great assize in which living and dead appear before the judgment seat of God. Jewish eschatology is the ultimate step in the individualiz­ ing of religion, as the messianic age is the culmination of the national conception. Every man is finally judged individually, and saved or damned by his own deeds. Therein lies its religious significance. Besides this it offered a solution of a tormenting problem, how to reconcile the facts of human experience, in which both the good and the bad often fare far otherwise than, as every­ body sees, they deserve, with belief in divine providence; and above all how to harmonize these facts with the retributive jus­ tice of God which is so emphatically enunciated in the Scriptures. When once the sphere of retribution was extended beyond this brief life to an endless hereafter, theodicy need no longer harrass faith. 377

378

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

From the historical development of the ideas we have under consideration it results that the periodization of the hereafter is not always consistent either in conception or in designation. To begin with the names. When the distinction is clearly made be­ tween the fulfilment of the national expectation and the new and final order of things beginning with the general resurrection and the last judgment, the proper name for the latter is the Coming World, in contrast to the present order, This World. The Days of the Messiah then intervene: This World, the Days of the Messiah, the World to Come. Instead of the Coming World, we frequently find, in similar connections, the indefinite expres­ sion, 'the Future/ e.g. Tos. 'Arakin 2, y : This Time, the Days of the Messiah, the Future. In an earlier stage of the development, the national golden age, here called the Days of the Messiah, was the final period of his­ tory, and the names the World to Come or the Future were ap­ plied to it, and this usage continued in later times. Where the great feast on the flesh of Leviathan and Behemoth, or allotments of land for cultivation, or the enormous fertility of the land of Israel, and the like, are assigned to the World to Come or to the Future, it is clearly the national golden age (Days of the Mes­ siah) that is described, not that new order of things that is to endure after the general resurrection. There is in this sphere not merely an indefiniteness of termi­ nology but an indistinctness of conception. In the sequel of the various conceits of the rabbis about the duration of the Messianic 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

L

2

l

l

Olam ha-ba. Olam (alcov) is 'age, epoch.' Olam ha-zeh. So. e.g., in Sifre Deut. § 47 (ed. Friedmann f. 83a, above); Zebahim 1 1 8 b , below (Rabbi). Atid la-bo, 'What is to come.' Also in Pesikta Rabbati c. 21 (ed. Friedmann f. 99a) and the parallels cited in Friedmann's note there. — 'Arakin 1 3 b reads, The World to Come. The earliest known occurrence of the phrase, the World to Come, is in Enoch 7 1 , 1 5 , He proclaims unto thee peace in the name of the world to come. See e.g. Baba Batra 7 4 b , middle; ibid. 1 2 2 a ; Ketubot n i b (Sifre Deut. § 3 1 7 ) . Klausner, Messianische Vorstellungen u. s. w., pp. 17 f. Verymany instances might be adduced from the Midrashim. 3

4

5

6

7

l

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

379

Age, a saying of R. Johanan is reported: All the prophets pro­ phesied only about the Days of the Messiah; but of the World to Come, 'Eye hath not seen a God besides Thee who works for him who waits for Him' (Isa. 64, 4). But most men were not content to renounce all imagination of the final state and leave it to future experience, and they pictured it in traits drawn from the predictive descriptions of the national golden age by the prophets and poets in the Scriptures. An opinion the opposite of Johanan's is attributed to Samuel: There is no difference be­ tween This World (the present time) and the Days of the Mes­ siah except only our subjection to the dominion of the (heathen) empires. This, if taken as a principle of interpretation, would leave all the prophecies of a different order of things to the es­ chatological hereafter. The diverse opinions of these two dis­ tinguished teachers of the third century is further evidence that there was not only no orthodoxy, but no attempt to secure uni­ formity in such matters. The primary eschatological doctrine of Judaism is the resur­ rection, the revivification of the dead. The beginnings of this belief and the development of the conception from Daniel on have been exhibited in a former chapter. In the original appre­ hension this resurrection was to occur at the inauguration of the Messianic Age, and was for the righteous dead of Israel only, who were brought back to life to enjoy in their own land the blessings of that time. This belief was not displaced by the eschatological conception of a resurrection of righteous and wicked to judg­ ment, but persisted beside it. In the resurrection in the days of the Messiah the dead in Palestine would rise first; all the patriarchs desired, therefore, to be buried in it. It was the 'land of the living' (Psalm 116, 9). Only there, indeed, would the dead be brought to life again. Those who were buried outside the land would roll over and over 1

2

1

Note the preceding clause,' Whereof from of old men have not heard nor perceived by the ear/ Sanhedrin 99a, cf. Berakot 34b. Cf. 1 Cor. 2, 9. Sanhedrin 99a; Berakot 34b; Shabbat 63a, and elsewhere. 2

3

THE

8o

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

through underground tunnels made for them by God until they reached its borders; there alone would they receive souls (Ezek. 37, 14). The opinion was even advanced that those who died outside the land would not rise, and by another, contrariwise, that even a ' Canaanitish (alien) slave girl in the land of Israel may confidently expect to be a daughter of the World to Come (sharing in the resurrection) — a specimen of exegetical whimsi­ cality, rather than an eccentricity of opinion. When the phrase "the revivification of the dead" is employed without other indication in the context, it is usually the general resurrection for the grand assize that is meant. The controversy over the question whether there is any such thing as a resurrec­ tion of the body comprehends both. The dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees on this point began in the stage of what may be called the immediate eschatology, represented in Daniel and parts of Enoch and in the Synoptic Gospels, before the discrimination of periods which is found in the apocalypses from the end of the first century (Revelation of John, 4 Esdras), and in the rabbis of the second century. The question Paul puts into the mouth of a caviller, How are the dead raised? With what sort of a body do they come? (1 Cor. 15, 35), confronted the Jews also. That they might be recog­ nized, it seemed necessary to assume that they would rise with the defects and deformities they had in life, the lame, lame; the blind, blind. After they thus appeared just as they had been, God would heal them of all their infirmities (Deut. 32, 1

2

9

3

4

5

6

1

Jer. Kilaim 32c, above; Jer. Ketubot 35b, above. See Ketubot m a ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyehi § 6, and the parallels cited in the editor's notes. The authors named include some Tannaim and several teachers of the fourth century. The subject is treated by them with a certain air of mystery. See also Targ. Cant. 8, 5. Ketubot 1 1 1 a . R. Eleazar (ben Pedat). Ibid. R. Abahu. Isa. 4 2 , 5, combined with Gen. 22, 5. Question and answer at length in Syr. Baruch cc. 49 f. Eccles. R. on 1, 4 ('A generation goes and a generation comes'): As a generation goes, so it comes, rjanina ben IJama. Cf. Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyigash § 9. 2

3 4

5

6

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

381

1

39)J It was also believed that the dead would rise clothed as they had been in life, as the witch of Endor saw Samuel; or in the garments in which they were buried. "Queen Cleopatra" is said to have questioned R. Meir: I know that the dead bodies will live again, for it is said, 'They will blossom out of the city like the grass of the earth' (Psalm 72, 16); but when they stand there, will they stand naked or in their clothes? He replied, A fortiori from wheat: as a grain of wheat which is buried naked comes forth clad in many garments, how much more the righteous who are buried in their garments! These are curious questions which are answered by contortions of exegesis. The fact of the resurrection itself is a dogma carry­ ing an anathema: "The following are those who have no portion in the World to Come: Whosoever says that the revification of the dead is not (proved) from the Torah; or the Torah is not from Heaven (God)," etc. Against Gentile controversialists or scoffers other arguments might be employed, but with those who acknowledged the authority of the revelation in Scripture, like the Sadducees and other heretics (Minim) or the Samaritans, the proof of the doctrine must be adduced from the Scripture itself. A great number and variety of such proof-texts are in fact alleged by a long sucession of teachers from all parts of the Scripture, frequently, for complete demonstration, in threes, from the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, respectively. 2

3

4

5

6

1

Tanhuma 1. s. c ; Gen. R. 95, 1. Even the wild animals would be cured (Isa. 65, 25) in the World to Come. Ibid. R. Nathan. Jer. Kilaim 32b, top; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Emor § 4 (Job 2

3

38,14). 4

Sanhedrin 90b, below. The figure also in Ketubot n i b . — Mohammed let the dead rise for judgment naked as they were born, at which impropriety 'Ayesha protested. M. Sanhedrin 1 0 , 1. The Babylonian Talmud (f. 90a, below) on these words comments: He denied the resurrection of the dead, accordingly he shall have no part in the resurrection of the dead; for God always requites measure for measure. In editions of the Babylonian Talmud the names of these classes of op­ ponents are frequently interchanged in consequence of the activities of the censorship or in apprehension of them. 5

6

3

8a

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

An illustration may be given from a discussion between Rabban Gamaliel (II) and the Sadducees: The Sadducees asked Rab­ ban Gamaliel, Where is the evidence that the Holy One, blessed is He, brings the dead to life? He replied, In the Law and in the Prophets and in the Writings, but they did not accept his proof. In the Law, for it is written,' And the Lord said to Moses, Thou wilt sleep with thy fathers, and wilt rise' (Deut. 31, 16). They objected, But it may mean rather, 'and this people will rise up and go a-whoring (after the foreign gods of the land' etc.). — In the Prophets, for it is written, 'Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall rise; awake and sing, ye that sleep in the dust, for a dew of lights is Thy dew, and the earth shall bring forth the shades' (Isa. 26, 19). The Sadducees answer, This may refer rather to the dead whom Ezekiel brought to life (Ezek. 37). — From the Writings, For it is written: 'Thy palate is like the best wine, that slips right down my love's throat, gently moving the lips of them that sleep' (in the tomb; Cant. 7, 10). — They re­ joined, It may be only an ordinary movement of the lips (in sleep). (This agrees with R. Johanan in the name of R. Simeon ben Jehozedek: When a rule of Law (Halakah) is cited in this world in the name of a (dead) teacher, his lips move gently in the tomb [Cant. 7, 10]). — Finally, Gamaliel quoted to them Deut. 11, 9: (The land which) 'the Lord sware to your fathers to give to them' — it is not said to you, but to them; from this the resur­ rection of the dead is proved. Others say that he alleged Deut. 4, 4. Deuteronomy 1 1 , 9 figures also in a controversy with the Samaritans, who denied that the resurrection of the dead was to 1

2

3

4

5

1

This is the natural division of the clauses, as in the Massoretic text and the versions. The verse was nevertheless a favorite proof-text, cited by Joshua ben Hananiah (Sanhedrin 90b) and Simeon ben Yohai (ibid.). Probably the author wrote " thy." Yebamot 9 7 a ; Bekorot 3 1 b (in the name of Simeon ben Yohai). The quotation from R. Johanan is probably not part of the Sadducees' reply. The patriarchs were dead before the occupation of the land; God's oath could only be fulfilled by raising them from the dead.—Cf. Matt. 2 2 , 3 2 . Sanhedrin 90b. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

383

be found in the Law. R. Eiiezer ben Jose charges them with mutilating their Scriptures by leaving out 'to them? without gaining anything by it, for the resurrection is proved by Num. 15, 31, 'That person shall be utterly cut off; his guilt is in him/ 'Utterly cut off' in This World. 'His guilt is in him/ When? Is it not in the World to Come? An argument in which may be noted a certain resemblance to the answer of Jesus to the Sadducees in Matt. 22, 32 is used in Sanhedrin 90b: 'And thereof ye shall give the Lord's portion (Terumah) to Aaron the priest' (Num. 18, 28). Did Aaron live forever? Is it not true that he did not even enter the land of Israel, that they might give this portion? The words teach that he is to live in the future and the Israelites give him the portion, In Exod. 15, 1 (E. V., Then Moses sang, etc) the Hebrew has yashir, a future form; the particle az ('then') admits either. Some found in the future tense a proof of the resurrection: It is not said, Moses sang (shar), but, Moses will sing? These speci­ mens of proofs from the Scriptures may suffice to exemplify the method. Many other texts are alleged. R. Simai held that there was not a single weekly lesson (Parashah) which does not contain the resurrection of the dead, only that we lack the ability to bring it out. Simai follows this with an illustration of what can be done by sufficiently subtle exegesis. In Psalm 50, 4 ('He calls to the heavens above, and to the earth that he may judge his people') he finds the resurrection thus: 'He will call to the heaven above' to bring the soul, and to the earth' to bring the body, and thereafter, 'to judge with it? 1

2

3

c

5

1

The Samaritan-Hebrew and its Targum in our hands lack these words. In Sanhedrin 90b the editions read Minim or Saddukim. Sanhedrin 90b. Others found the whole doctrine in the words, 'shall be utterly cut ofF (hikkaret tikkaret), the repetition, on the hermeneutic prin­ ciple of Akiba, signifying "cut off in this world and in the world to come." Other examples in 900-92. Translations of many in Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 892-897. Sanhedrin 90b, above. Ascribed to Johanan. Mekilta, Shirah, init. (ed. Friedmann f. 3 4 a ; ed. Weiss f. 4 1 a ) . Pronouncing Hmmo ('with it'; i.e. the one with the other), instead of 'ammo ('his people'). Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 3 2 , 2 (p. 185, below; cf. 2

3

4

5

384

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

The contention of soul and body is the subject of a parable given by Rabbi to Antoninus. Antoninus maintained that body and soul can both exculpate themselves in the judgment. The body says, it was the soul that sinned, for from the day it was separated from me, here I lie in the tomb, mute as a stone. The soul says, it was the body that sinned, for from the day I was separated from it, here am I flying in the air like a bird. Rabbi replied, I will give you a parable. What is the thing like? Like a king who had a delightful park, in which were fine rareripe figs. He put in it two keepers, one of them lame and one blind. The lame man said to the blind man, I see fine rareripe figs in the park. Let me mount on your back and we will get them to eat. So the lame man mounted on the blind man's back and they got them and ate them up. After a while the owner of the park came and asked, Where are the fine rareripefigs? The lame man said, Have I any legs to get about? The blind man said, Have I any eyes to see with? What did the king do? He made the lame man get on the back of the blind man and punished the pair of them together. So the Holy One, blessed is He, will bring the soul and instal it in the body, and judge both together, as it is written, 'He will call to the heaven above and to the earth to judge with it.' He will call to the heaven above, that is the soul; and to the earth to judge with it, that is the body. The association of Elijah with the advent of the Messiah gave him a part at the resurrection of the dead. In R. Phineas ben Jair's ascending scale of virtues, the (indwelling of the) holy spirit conducts a man to the resurrection of the dead, "and the resurrection of the dead comes through the instrumentality of Elijah," or leads to Elijah. 1

2

3

4

5

183). The text is clearer than in Sifre Deut. § 306 (ed. Friedmann f. 132, end). See also Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai ed. Hoffmann, p. 59. Sanhedrin 9ia-b. Cf. Mekilta, Shirah 2 (ed. Friedmann f. 3 6 b ; ed. Weiss f. 4 3 b ) ; Lev. R. 4, 5; Tanhuma, Wayyikra § 6 (ed. Buber § 12). See above, pp. 357 f. Above, p. 272. [MJ Sotah 9, end. Cant. R. on Cant. 1, 1 (c. 1 § 9); cf. Jer. Shabbat 3c, above; Jer. Sheka­ lim 47c, below. See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, III, 234, and Notes (Vol. VI). 1

2

5

3

4

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

385

A curious notion was that in the reconstruction of the bodies of the dead the nucleus was one small bone which did not decay and could not be destroyed. "Hadrian" asks R. Joshua ben Hananiah, From what does God make a man blossom out in the Future Age? The rabbi replied, From the 'almond' of the spinal column. The inquirer demanded proof, and experiment showed that this bone could not be dissolved in water, nor pul­ verized in a mill, nor burned in fire; they laid it on an anvil and went at it with a sledge-hammer; the anvil split, the hammer broke, but nothing was done to the bone. In the grand assize righteous and wicked stand before this judgment seat of God, soul and body, as they lived. Conse­ quently where it is said that only the righteous Israelites are restored to life, it is the resurrection at the beginning of the mes­ sianic age that is meant, to participate in its blessings, not the general resurrection at its close, or the thought is not distinct. In some of the apocalypses the heathen as well as the Jews rise to appear in the last judgment. Especially dramatic is the scene in 4 Esdras 7, 37 f., where, with the abodes of happiness and repose and of fire and torment before their eyes, God bids them, "Behold and see whom you have denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have contemned." Rabbinical utterances on this point are less explicit. Two of the disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai, R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus and R. Joshua ben Hananiah, maintained contradictory opin­ ions about the ultimate fate of the Gentiles. The former, who thought very ill of them, held: "No Gentiles have a portion in the World to Come, as it is said, 'The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the Gentiles, who forget God' (Psalm 9, 18). The first 1

2

3

4

5

1

Luz, the tip of the coccyx; so called from its shape. The text is Eccles. 12, 5, 'the almond (shaked) will blossom/ Lev. R. 1 8 , near the beginning; Gen. R. 28, 3. On the notions of various classes of Jews about the resurrection and the future life see Maimonides Commentary on M. Sanhedrin 1 0 , 1. Cf. Revelation of John 20, 1 1 - 1 5 ; Syr. Baruch 50, 2 - 5 1 , 1 7 . Gittin 4 5 b ; Baba Batra 1 0 b , middle. 2

3

4

6

3

86

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

clause, 'Those who return to Sheol' are the wicked of Israel; in the second, 'who forget God' includes all Gentiles. — R. Joshua replies that he had formerly held the same view of the fate of all Gentiles; but now takes the words of' all the Gentiles who forget God,' implying that there are righteous men in the nations of the world who have a portion in the World to Come. The "righteous Gentile" is often recognized with commendation; characteristic examples have been quoted in another connection. The opinion of R. Joshua prevailed. Thus Maimonides: The pious of the nations of the world (Gentiles) have a portion in the World to Come. In the preceding passage in the Tosefta a difference between Rabban Gamaliel and R. Joshua ben Hananiah is reported on the question whether the little children of the heathen will have a portion in the World to Come. Gamaliel excluded them, quot­ ing Mai. 3, 19; while Joshua maintained, on the ground of Psalm 116, 6 and Dan, 4, 10. that they would come into the World to Come, and parried Gamaliel's rejoinder drawn from the last clause of Mai. 3,19. In the same connection an anonymous in­ terpretation of Mai. 3, 19 is quoted— (the fire in the coming day of wrath 'will leave them neither root nor branch'): 'Root' is the soul; 'branch' is the body, and the children of the wicked of the Gentiles will neither be brought to life (in the resurrection) nor be punished. The predominant religious and moral interest of the rabbis in the Last Judgment was, however, not in the fate of the heathen, but in the individual retribution which there awaits Israelites. 1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Tos. Sanhedrin 13, 2; cf. Sanhedrin 105a. — This phrase is unambigu­ ous. On the terminology see Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 140 f. Vol. I, pp. 278 f. Hilkot Teshubah 3, 5. Joseph Caro, Kesef Mishneh, ad loc. See also Maimonides Commentary on M. Sanhedrin 10, 2 (in the section immediately following the Thirteen Articles). Tos. Sanhedrin 13, i; cf. Sanhedrin n o b (Akiba in place of Joshua). Tos. Sanhedrin 13, 2; cf. Sanhedrin n o b . In their imaginations of the messianic age, on the contrary, this is a prominent point. 2

3

4 5

6

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

387

We have already seen how the schools of Shammai and Hillel raised the question what was to become of the middle class (the benonim), who were neither good enough for the World to Come nor bad enough for hell, and differed about it. As to the wicked, we read in the same source: The wicked of Israel in their bodies, and the wicked of the nations of the world in their bodies go down to hell and are punished in it for twelve months. After twelve months their souls become extinct, and their bodies are burned up, and hell casts them out, and they turn to ashes, and the wind scatters them and strews them beneath the soles of the feet of the righteous, ' for they shall be ashes under the soles of the feet of the righteous in the day which I make, saith the Lord of Hosts' (Mai. 3, 21). But the heretics and the apostates and the informers and the epicureans and those who deny the revelation (Torah), and those who separate themselves from the ways of the community, and those who deny the resurrection of the dead, and all who sin and make the multitude sin, like Jeroboam and Ahab, and those who put the terror of them into the land of the living, and those who stretch out their hands against the temple — on these hell will be locked, and they will be punished in it for all generations, as it is said, And they will go out and see the carcasses of the men who rebelled against Me, for their worm shall not die, nor their fire go out, and they will be an ab­ horrence to all men' (Isa. 66, 24). Hell will wear away but they will not wear away, as it is written 'And their form is to wear out (outlast) hell' (Psalm 49, 15). 1

2

3

4

4

The orthodox corollary to the dogma of the resurrection is that every Israelite will ultimately be saved: "All Israelites have a portion in the World to Come." Biblical proof is alleged: 'Thy 5

1

Tos. Sanhedrin 1 3 , 3 ; above, p. 3 1 8 . Tos. Sanhedrin 13, 4. So zebul is explained in the sequel (1 Kings 8, 1 3 ) . These sinners are all Israelites. Tos. Sanhedrin 13, 5; Rosh ha-Shanah 1 7 a . M. Sanhedrin 10, 1 (in the numeration of the Babylonian Talmud, n , 1, f. 90 ff.). This is Zoroastrian and Mohammedan orthodoxy also. 2

3

4

5

THE

388

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

people will all be righteous; forever shall they possess the land, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, to be proud o f (Isa. 60, 21). This is immediately qualified by specific excep­ tions which emphasize the wide scope of the preceding assertion. "The following are those who have no portion in the World to Come: He who says that the resurrection of the dead is not proved from the Law, or that the Law is not from Heaven, and the epicurean." R. Akiba adds the man who reads out of the outside books, and one who mutters (as an incantation) over illness, 'No disease that I inflicted on the Egyptians will I inflict on thee, for I am the Lord thy healer' (Exod. 15, 26). Abba Saul includes the man who pronounces the (ineffable) Name as it is spelled. Over these particular comminations we need not here delay. The Mishnah continues: Three kings (Jeroboam, Ahab, Manasseh ) and four private persons (Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophe^ and Gehazi) have no portion in the World to Come. The genera­ tion of the Flood have no portion in the World to Come, and will not stand in the judgment (Gen. 6, 3 ) ; the generation of the dispersion of nations have no portion in the World to Come (Gen. 11, 8); the men of Sodom (Psalm 1, 5); the spies (Num. 14, 37); the whole generation of the wilderness (ibid. vs. 35); Korah's rout (Num. 16, 33); the ten tribes (Num. 29, 27), etc. These somewhat numerous restrictions of the general proposition at the head of the Mishnah are of the nature of midrash. The significant part of the dogma is in the first sentence, with the 1

2

3

4

6

6

7

8

1

Perhaps one who denies divine providence and retribution in this life or another. Outside the accepted canon of the Scriptures. M. Sanhedrin 10, 1. The rabbis are very liberal with homiletical damnation. About Manasseh, R. Judah (ben Ila'i) dissented. Balaam was not an Israelite at all, and that he is thus singled out was in later times used as an argument that the Gentiles are not all in the same condemnation. Maimonides, Commentary on M. Sanhedrin 10, 2. Will not be brought to life. This is controverted. See above, p. 369. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

389

exceptions immediately noted, the deniers of the resurrection, of revelation, and of providence or retribution. It is to be noted that they have incurred their fate by denying fundamental articles of orthodoxy — by misbelief, not by misconduct. The amplifications of what is to be regarded as the original anathema are of an essentially different character. Any attempt to systematize the Jewish notions of the hereafter imposes upon them an order and consistency which does not exist in them. As has already been remarked, their religious significance lies in the definitive establishment of the doctrine of retribution after death, not in the variety of ways in which men imagined it. The variety of these imaginings is immensely in­ creased in Judaism by the fact that not only were there widely different representations of the future of Israel and the nations in the Scriptures, which as prophetic revelations must all be equally true, but that the rabbis operated upon these and all other scriptures by hermeneutic methods which treated single verses, clauses, and even words, as independent oracles, without regard to the general or particular context, and combined them with other similarly isolated enunciations according to rules which were supposed to embody the logic of revelation, and not infrequently derived unsuspected meanings from the text by forcing a clause to submit to an unnatural division or a word to an arbitrary mispronunciation. Larger liberties in interpretation were taken because, properly speaking, the whole subject be­ longed to Haggadah; but the fundamental Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10, 3, shows how similar freedom might invade a law book. In conformity with the purpose of the present work, we shall here confine ourselves to a summary of the more general and con­ stant elements of the doctrine of retribution. At death there is a separation of the souls of righteous Jews from those of the wicked. This takes place without the machin­ ery of a judgment, such as we find in the Zoroastrian eschatology. The former go to a blessed abode, which is commonly thought to be in the heavens.

THE

39°

HEREAFTER

[PART VII 1

These abodes are treasuries, or store-chambers, as we have seen in 4 Esdras and the Syriac Baruch. R. Eiiezer son of Jose the Galilean says: As long as a man is alive, his soul is kept safe in the hand of his Creator (Job. 12, 10); when he is dead, it is put into the treasury, as it is written, 'The soul of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life' (1 Sam. 25, 29). From the ap­ plication of this quotation, the "bundle of life" comes itself to be used for the safekeeping of the souls of the righteous dead. "He will keep thy soul in the hour of death, as he says, etc., 'bound up in the bundle of life.' It is only the souls of the righteous that are thus kept, for the verse goes on to say, 'but the soul of thine enemies He will sling away in the hollow of the sling.' A catalogue of the seven heavens and what is in them, puts in the seventh and highest, 'Arabot, the souls of the righteous (dead) and the spirits and souls that are yet to be created (em­ bodied), and the dew with which God is to vivify the dead. There are also the Ofannim and the Seraphim and the holy beasts and the ministering angels, and the throne of glory. Above them all, but in the same heaven, is the King, the everliving God, high and exalted. Another frequent name for the abode of blessed souls is the Garden of Eden, with reflection of the meaning of Eden, 'de2

3

,J

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

Latin (4 Esdras) promptuaria\ also habitacula, habitationes. E-g- 4, 35y 4 i ; 7, 9> > P- 339ausere, 30, 2. Sifre Num. § 139 (on 27, 1 6 ) ; ibid. § 40, on 6, 24, 'The Lord will bless thee and keep thee/ Cf. Shabbat 152b (the bodies of the righteous enter into peace, they rest in their bed. Isa. 57, 2 ) ; their souls are bound up in the bundle of life. Isa. 26, 19. See Vol. I, p. 368. Ezekiel's 'wheels' with eyes in the felloes (1, 15 ff.) become an order in the celestial hierarchy. Cf. Enoch 6 1 , 1 0 ; 7 1 , 7. Rosh ha-Shanah 24b. Ezek. 1, 5 ff.; Rev. John 4, 6 ff., etc. Hagigah 12b, with proof-texts for it all. See Vol. I, p. 408 f. The scheme of seven heavens is older and is found in a number of places. Gan 'Eden; Greek irapadeicros, Luke 23, 4 3 ; cf. 2 Cor. 1 2 , 4 ; Rev. John 2, 7 ('the paradise of God'). See also Enoch 3 2 , 3 ('paradise of righteous­ ness'). To the celestial paradise (pardes) the four rabbis made their famous, but for three of them disastrous, visit. Hagigah 1 4 b , seq. 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

121

S

e

e

a b o v e

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

391

light'; it is the celestial counterpart of the earthly paradise in which the first parents were put. R. Johanan ben Zakkai in conversation with his disciples on his deathbed said: Before me lie two ways, one leading to the Garden of Eden, and one to Gehenna, and I know not by which of them I am being con­ ducted. Of this intermediate state — to use a modern term — the phrase the World to Come is sometimes used. A certain 'phil­ osopher,' who was converted by the constancy of the martyrs, IJanina ben Teradion and his wife and daughter, and was sen­ tenced to the same fate, said, You have told me good news; to­ morrow my portion will be with them in the World to Come. The name Garden of Eden is often given also to the final state of the righteous, and in many cases it is not evident whether the abode of disembodied souls or of the re-embodied—Paradise Regained — is meant. The ambiguity exists in the use of the World to Come, which, as we have seen, is sometimes the mes­ sianic age, sometimes the new order of things after the resurrec­ tion, and, as in the instance just cited, occasionally the state of the soul between death and the resurrection. It is probable that these stages of the future were not so sharply distinguished in thought as we should like to have them. The miserable abode of the souls of the wicked between death and the resurrection is called Gehinnom; and the same name is given to the place of fiery torment to which at the last judg­ ment they are sent down, soul and body, so that here, too, there is an ambiguity in terms. When the time fixed in God's plan arrives, the bodies of the dead will be restored and rise from the tomb; the souls from the 1

2

3

1

Berakot 28b. It is unnecessary to multiply examples. A list of occur­ rences is given by Kohut, Aruch Completum, II, 3 1 4 . Sifre Deut. § 307 (ed. Friedmann f. 133a, below). The parallel to the penitent robber in Luke 23, 43 to whom Jesus says, 'Today thou wilt be with me in Paradise/ is plain. This is meant when it is said that the Garden of Eden and Gehinnom were among the things created before the creation. 2

3

392

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

treasuries will rejoin their own bodies, and the whole man as he lived will answer to God for his character and conduct in the former life. Those who are condemned will go down to hell (Gehinnnom), while the justified will live forever in blessedness. This is the second and final stage of retribution. Jewish imagination did not indulge itself in inventing retalia­ tory modes of torment in hell, such as flourished in the Orphic and other Greek sects and in India. There was biblical warrant for the pit of fire, and there the Jews generally left it. It was less easy, as all eschatologies illustrate, to imagine the conditions, circumstances, and occupations of the righteous in the World to Come, and when the imagery is derived from biblical pictures of a golden age there is room for doubt how literally the authors took it. The ambiguity of the term, again, often leaves it uncer­ tain what they are talking about. Rab, a Babylonian teacher of the third century, used to say: The World to Come is not like this world. In the World to Come there is no eating and drink­ ing, no begetting of children, no bargaining, no jealousy and hatred, and no strife; but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads enjoying the effulgence of the Presence (Shekinah), as it is said, 'They beheld God, and ate and drank' (Exod. 24, 11) — they were satisfied with the radiance of God's presence; it was food and drink to them. With this modern scholars often compare the answer of Jesus to the question of the Sadducees, whose wife a woman should be in the resurrection who had passed from brother to brother in levirate marriage through the whole family: 'When they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are married, but are like angels in heaven.' 1

2

To Rab's description of the World to Come no Tannaite paral­ lel is found, and it does not appear to have been popular. It is echoed in Abot de-R. Nathan 1, 8, where the title of Psalm 92, 'A Hymn for the Sabbath Day,' is taken, "A day that is all 1

Berakot 1 7 a (Rab). Mark 1 2 , 2 5 ; Matt. 22, 3 0 ; cf. Luke 20, 3 4 - 3 6 , 'the children of this world marry and are married, but those who are found worthy to attain to that world and the resurrection of the dead,' etc. 2

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

3

9

3

sabbath, in which there is no eating and drinking, and no trad­ ing, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, and are nourished by the effulgence of the Shekinah, as it is written, 'and they beheld God, and ate and drank* (Exod. 24, 10 f ) like the ministering angels." In the (post-Talmudic) Kallah Rabbati the saying of Rab is quoted anonymously as a Tannaite deliverance. In objection Psalm 72, 16 is quoted, 'There shall be a patch of grain in the land, on the top of the mountain,' with the application of this verse to the World to Come in Ketubot n i b , and Jer. 31, 8, 'A woman shall conceive and bear a child at once': "In the future a woman will bear a child every day." The two ap­ parently conflicting presentations are reconciled by referring the former to the state before the resurrection of the dead (the intermediate state), the latter to the days of the Messiah. It is certain that most men would find little satisfaction in con­ templating a passive eternity of sitting basking in the radiance of the Shekinah. The blessed hereafter was imagined by the Jews in much more concrete and picturesque fashion. Maimo­ nides in his commentary on M. Sanhedrin 10, 1 classifies under four heads the crudely material notions of his contemporaries, and makes a fifth category — the largest — for those who con­ fuse them all. The resurrection was a cardinal doctrine of reli­ gion, and as such is included in his Thirteen Articles of Faith. For his philosophy the "vivification of the dead" (tehlyat hametirri) means, not the restoration of the body, but the immor­ tality of the disembodied soul, and to Aristotelian psychology immortality is an achievement, not an endowment. The common Christian imagination of the existence and oc­ cupation of the saints after the resurrection draws its picture of 1

2

3

4

5

1

Perek 2, near the beginning. See above, p. 366. Shabbat 30b, below. Strack on Matt. 22, 30 (I, 890) regards this as the right understanding of Rab's utterance, and therefore as not a parallel to the words of Jesus. On this point Maimonides is not explicit. 2

3

4

5

394

THE

HEREAFTER

[PART VII

that state after the Revelation of John, especially chapters 2022, which itself is in the line of Jewish apocalyptic. The great mass of Christians have always taken these descriptions literally and their own hereafter physically, notwithstanding Paul's effort to dematerialize, or spiritualize, the resurrection. The fundamental Christian creed declares unequivocally for the resurrection of the flesh. The conflict with the Gnostics led to great emphasis on this article, as when Tertullian writes: Resurge t igitur caro, et quidem omnis, et quidem ipsa, et quidem integra. The Millenarians of all the centuries have looked for a bodily advent of Christ and a bodily reign of the saints with him on earth for a thousand years, and the whole programme of the Revelation of John, and have made innumerable calculations of the date of Christ's coming, just as Jews have done — both primarily based on Daniel. The eschatology of Judaism has an unmistakable affinity to that of the Zoroastrian religion in the separation of the souls of righteous and wicked at death, and their happy or miserable lot between death and the resurrection, and in the doctrine of a general resurrection and the last judgment with its issues. The resemblances are so striking that many scholars are convinced that this whole system of ideas was appropriated by the Jews from the Zoroastrians, as well as that Jewish angelology and demonology were developed under Babylonian and Persian influence. Borrowings in religion, however, at least in the field of ideas, are usually in the nature of the appropriation of things in the possession of another which the borrower recognizes in all good faith as belonging to him, ideas which, when once they become 1

2

3

4

5

1

1 Cor. 1 5 , 4 2 - 5 4 ; 2 Cor. 5, 1 ff. Apostles Creed, aapubs dvaaracris, carnis resurrectio. De resurrectione carnis c. 63. See c. 35, where he explains what he means by the body of man. The converse, that the Persians learned their eschatology from the Jews, though entertained by some scholars, is for various reasons improbable. The adoption of foreign rites and adaptation of myths are a different matter. 2

3

4

5

CHAP, I I I ]

ESCHATOLOGY

395

known to him, are seen to be the necessary implications or complements of his own. In the present case the primitive conception of a revivification of the dead, as it emerges in Daniel or in Isa. 26, appears to be indigenous; there is nothing like it in Zoroastrianism. This notion may have prepared the way for a wider extension of the idea of resurrection; but the Persian scheme must have been most strongly commended by the fact that it seemed to be the logical culmination of conceptions of retribution which were deeply rooted in Judaism itself.

INDEXES

INDEX I SUBJECTS AND NAMES In this index the title of a chapter is distinguished by full-faced limiting numerals (e.g. Chastisement, ii, 248-256), an asterisk affixed to the page number indicates a principal reference (e.g. Alenu, prayer, i, 434*). Definitions of Hebrew terms in the index fit it to serve also as a glossary. A

miraculous interventions in behalf of Israel for his sake, ibid.; love to God the motive of his obedience, i, 100, 194, 536; the great exemplar of faith, ii, 237; by it acquired both worlds, i, 538; ii, 237; ready to die for the hallowing of the Name, ii, 105 f.; his appeal for Sodom, i, 338 n.; a proselyte and maker of proselytes, i, 344 n.; versed in the written and the unwritten law, i, 275 f. Abrahamic covenant (circumcision), ii, 18, 20. Absolute, God, in Philo's religious phil­ osophy, i, 361, 416; idea unknown in Palestinian Judaism, i, 421, 423 ff. Abstinence, from flesh and wine, in mourning or as penance, ii, 257 f.; after the destruction of the temple, ii, 262 f.; self-imposed, disapproved, ii, 265. See also Fasting. Abtalion, one of the last Pair (with Abodah, Seder, on D a y of Atonement, ii, Shemaiah), i, 45, 77, 78; commonly 59identified with "Pollion" in Josephus, 'abodah, 'worship' (the service of the J i, 3 3 n. altar), prayer is worship in the inner Acts of the Apostles, history of the dis­ man, ii, 218; religious study is worship, ciples of Jesus in Jerusalem, i, 187. ii, 246. Accusation, false, ii, 148 n. 'abodah, ha-, as an oath, i, 377. 'abodah zarah, the first of the cardinal Actions on contract, ii, 184 n. Adam, 'man,' generic name, i, 445. sins (q. v.). See Heathenism. Adam, the first man, creation of, i, 452 f.; Abodat Israel, title of a prayer book, i, his huge size, ibid.; created androgyn­ 177. ous, ibid.; God showed him all His Abot, see Pirke Abot. works, and warned him not to spoil the Abot de-R. Nathan, i, 158. world, i,474 f.; freedom of choice, i, 453; Abraham, his good desert and favor with his sin and its consequences, i, 474 f.; God, i, 538; the rock (irerpa) God death entailed upon all his descendants, looked for to found the world on, ibid.;

Aaron, peaceable, peacemaker, i, 392; ii, 196; gifts to Israel for his sake, i, 542; his death an expiation, i, 547. A b , Fast of the Ninth of A b , ii, 65ff.,262; festival of wood-offering on the 15th, i, 30; ii, 54, 61. Abaddon, ii, 289 n. Abahu, polemic against the deification of Christ, i, 165. Abba Areka, see Rab. Ability of man to keep God's command­ ments, i, 454 f. Abinu, 'our Father,' in prayer, ii, 208; reason for plural form, ibid. See Father in Heaven. Abinu Malkenu, 'Our Father, our King,' litany on the ten penitential days, ii, 210. Ablutions, before prayer, ii, 222.

399

INDEX I

ADAM

but each has deserved it for himself, i, 476; consequences of Adam's sin in 4 Esdras and Apocalypse of Baruch, i, 476-478; the image of God in man not lost in the fall, i, 479; God opened to Adam the door of repentance without avail, i, 530; his penance, ii, 258; laws given to Adam for all mankind, i, 274, 462. Adherents of Judaism, i, 232 f.; God­ fearing persons, i, 325 n., 326, 340. Adiabene, conversion of the royal family, 1

n

i> 349; "> 9 Admonition and reproof, duty and diffi­ culty, ii, 152 f. Adonai, Lord, read in place of i h v h in lessons and synagogue translation (Tar­ gum), i, 424; the pronunciation Ado­ nai, i, 429. Adoration, forms of, in prayer, ii, 222 f. Adulteration of food, ii, 142. Adultery, ground of divorce, ii, 125; adultery of the eyes (feet, hand), i, 201; ii, 268. Adultery, prophetic figure for lapse into heathenism, i, 221. Advent, season in the Christian year, ii, 6

.5-

Aelia Capitolina, name of Jerusalem as a Roman colonia, i, 89, 91, 93. Affliction, God afflicted in the afflictions of men, i, 393. See also Chastisement. Agada, see Haggadah. Agricultural laws, i, 273; ii, 71 ff., 162 f. Agrippa (?I, r. 41-44), king, the Jews condemned for flattering him, by call­ ing him "brother," ii, 190. Agrippa II (r. 50-100), asks why circum­ cision was not commanded in the De­ calogue, ii, 18. Ahab, king, excluded from the world to come, ii, 388. Ahabah Rabbah, prayer, i, 396; ii, 209, 213. Ahabat 'Olam, prayer, i, 396; ii, 209, 213. Aher, see Elisha ben Abuyah. Ahimelech, priest of Nob (1 Sam. 22), ii, 149.

Ahitophel, excluded from the world to come, ii, 388. Akedah, the binding of Isaac, i, 539, 541. Akiba ben Joseph, systematization of the Halakah, i, 87; principles of interpre­ tation, ibid.; acclaimed Bar Kozibah as the messianic deliverer, i, 89; ii, 116, 345; put to death for defying Hadrian's edict, i, 93; ii, 106 n.; his disciples, i, 94 n.; the subtlety of his exegesis amazes Moses, ii, 187; found in the written law many rules for which there had before been only tradition, i, 256; abridgment and expansion in prayers, ii, 227 n., 228; censured by Gamaliel II on complaint of Johanan ben Nuri, ii, 153; charity collector, ii, 174 n.; place in the esoteric tradition, i, 4 1 1 ; visit to paradise, i, 413. 'Al Het, in the service for the D a y of Atonement, catalogue of sins for which remission is besought, ii, 60, 214 n. Alcimus, high priest, i, 57, 59 f. Alenu, prayer, i, 434*; in New Year's service, ii, 64, 210 n., 373; in daily prayers, 373 n. Alexander the Great, his meeting with a Jewish high priest, i, 34; cf. 35 n. Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103-77), con­ quests, i, 56; first to put the title king on his coins,ibid.; relation to the Phari­ sees, i, 58, 64; riot at Tabernacles, i, 63; ii, 44 f.; civil war, i, 63 f.; crucifixion of prisoners, ibid.; in the Book of Enoch, 94-104, ii, 156. Alexandra, queen (r. 77-67), gives free hand to the Pharisees, i, 64, 66, 72; her sons, 72 f. Alexandria, relation of the schools to Palestinian authorities, i, 107; decline of Hellenistic Jewish culture, ibid. Alibi, defense in criminal cases, ii, 186 n. Alien, resident (ger toshab), i, 338 f.; ob­ ligations of, 339; sabbath rest, 340. Allegory, use of by Hellenistic Jews, i, 249; in New Testament, i, 249 f. Aleppo, Nazarenes in region of, i, 91.

400

SUBJECTS AND NAMES Almighty, the, i, 374, 431, 472 n. (hageburah).

Alms (sedakah), ii, 170 f.; not to be re­ fused to a suppliant, ii, 166, 168 f. Almsgiving, biblical and extra-canonical, ii, 164 f.; rabbinical, ii, 165 ff.; to be done in secret, ii, 167, 178 f.; gift in the form of a loan, ii, 167; with cheer­ ful mien, 179; inferior to deeds of lov­ ingkindness (gemllut hasadltn, q. v . ) , 171 f.; requited by God in proportion to the love {hesed) there is in it, 172; causes a dire decree (of God) to be res­ cinded, ii, 67 n., 230; brings the great deliverance nearer, ii, 350. See also Charity. Alphabet, Samaritan (old Hebrew), i, 25, 29; Hebrew square character (' Syrian'), ibid. 'am ha-ares, one of the ignorant and negli­ gent vulgus, i, 60, 321; in contrast to the Pharisees, i, 60; untrustworthy in religious obligations, ii, 72 f., 158 f.; efforts to instruct and improve them, ii, 72 f., 159; regulation of intercourse with them, ii, 159 f.; " n o 'am ha-ares is pious," ii, 157 n., 160. Amalek, Moses' victory over, faith of Israel in the Father in heaven, ii, 205 f. Amidah (the prayer said standing), see Daily Prayer. Amoraim, expositors, lecturers, i, 4. Amram, R a b , Siddur of, prayer book, i, 157,176. amanah, amunah, 'faith,' confidence; fidelity, ii, 237. Ananel, high priest, created by Herod, deprived, restored, i, 75, 76. Anani ('cloud-man'), name of the kingmessiah, ii, 336. Ananus, high priest at the beginning of the war under Nero, i, 83. Angel, accusing (Satan), i, 406, 492. Angel of death, i, 410, 492. Angels, called 'divine beings' (bene elohim, elohim),

i, 447;

(kodashlm),

i, 402;

created on the second day or the fifth, i, 381, 405; not helpers of God in crea­

ANGER

tion, i, 381; spirits, of etherial or fiery substance, 405; do not eat and drink, ibid.; nor increase and multiply, 406; do not die, ibid.; not subject to evil impulse, ibid.; incapable of sin (Philo), i, 484; numbers and classes, i, 408 ff.; various functions in the realm of nature, i, 403 f.; God's messengers, envoys, agents, i, 402; appearances, errands, etc., i, 207,402; talk the sacred language (Hebrew), i, 451; names of individual angels, 402 f.; constitute the household (familia) above, i, 407; ii, 242 n.; God's council or court (bet din), with whom he consults, i, 392, 407, 408, 447; they worship God in the celestial tem­ ple, i, 404; angels of the presence, i, 410; ministering angels, i, 368, 410; champions of the nations, i, 227, 403, 404, 406 f.; guardians of individuals, 404; recording angels, ibid.; tormen­ tors of the damned, ibid.; different dispositions and partialities, 406 f.; jealous of God's honor, insistent on justice, i, 535; objected to the creation of man and to the giving of the Law, i, 407, 447 n.; tried to shut out Manas­ seh's penitent prayer, i, 524, 530; their knowledge limited, i, 408; cannot for­ give sin, i, 535 n.; intercede for men, i, 438 f.; the suppliant not dependent on their intercession, i, 439; not inter­ mediaries between man and God, i, 4 1 1 ; not venerated or adored, ibid.; of small religious importance, i. 410 f. Angels, the fall of, i, 406, 483; ii, 301 n., Angels, fallen, authors of corruption of mankind, ii, 315; their doom, ii, 300, 3 o > 3 5 - > 332. Angels and spirits, Sadducees said to deny their existence, i, 68. I

I

f

Angelology, foreign influence in, i, 404; ii, 394Anger, cherishing anger against a wrong­ doer a sin, duty of forgiveness, ii, 153 ff.; no retaliation, i, 446 f.; ii, 253 n.

INDEX I

ANIMALS

Animals, have neither good nor evil im­ pulse, i, 483; by nature incapable of sin (Philo), i, 484. Anointed, the Lord's, ii, 325; His (Enoch 48, 10; 52, 4), ii, 334; the Anointed (6 xpurros), ii, 329; significance of the term, ii, 330 n.; anointed king, anointed son of David, Messiah, ii, 347. Anonymous dicta (setam) in Mishnah, Tosefta, Sifra, Sifre, i, 94. Anselm, Cur Deus homo, ii, 95 n. Anthropomorphisms, treatment of in the Targums, i, 420 f.; Philo's antipathy to, i, 437; Maimonides, i, 437 f. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, i, 74. Antigonus of Socho, his maxim, i, 35; ii, 95 f.; his disciples Zadok and Boethus, i, 69 f. Antiochus III, the Great (r. 223-187), i, 48, 49, 50. Antiochus IV, Epiphanes (r. 175-164), i, 49 ff.; ii, 297, 298, 332. Antiochus V , Eupator (r. 164-162), i, 53 Antipater, father of Herod, i, 72, 73. Antiquitates Biblicae, attributed to Philo, ii, 285 n. Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161), mitigates the repressive edict of Hadrian, i, 83, 351; ii, 20. Antoninus, friend of the Patriarch Judah, i, 347 -> 48i 488 n.; ii, 75 n., 221, 364 n., 384.* Aphorisms, of the sages, i, 310 f.; of the rabbis, ibid. Aphraates, knowledge of Jewish teaching, i5 i°3Apocalypses, character, age, etc., i, 127130; ii, 279-281; appropriation by Christians, i, 127; attitude of Jewish authorities to, i, 127, 128, 132; char­ acter and age, ii, 279 ff.*; representa­ tion conditioned by the visionary form, ii, 343 f.; compared with prophecy, ibid.; peculiarities of the apocalypses after the destruction of Jerusalem, ii, 343n

5

402

Apocalypse of the Seventy Shepherds(Enoch 85-90), ii, 300; of the Ten Weeks (Enoch 91-105), ii, 305 f. Apocalypse of Baruch, Syriac, i, 127; i i , 284-286*, 322 n. Apocalypse of John, ii, 286, 339-343** Apocrypha, erroneous derivation of the name, i, 247. Apostates, i, 49; ii, 20; received in re­ pentance to the last moment, i, 521, 522; have no share in the world to come, i, 525; shut up in hell for ever, ii, 387; commination of, in the Daily Prayer, i, 292. Apostoli, of the Patriarch, i, 109. Apostolic tradition, formative and nor­ mative principle of the ancient catholic church, i, 257; reaffirmed by the Coun­ cil of Trent, i, 258. Appetites and passions, essential part of human nature, i, 483; implanted by God, subject to the ruling mind (4 M a c e ) , i, 485. See Evil Impulse. Aquila, proselyte, convert first to Christ­ ianity, then to Judaism, i, 352; his Greek version, i, 101 n.; relation to Akiba, i, 88; translated from the standard Hebrew text, i, 101; use of his version in synagogues, i, i l l ; question proposed to R. Eiiezer, ii, 18. Arabot, seventh and highest heaven, what is in it, i, 368, 409 n.; ii, 390. Aralu, Babylonian nether-world, ii, 289. Aramaic oral translation of the synagogue lessons, origin attributed to Ezra, i, 29, 101, 302 f.; character, i, 100. See Targums. Arbitration, in actions on contract, ii, 184 n. Archangels, i, 410. Archisynagogos, i, 289 n. Aristeas, Epistle of, i, 322 n. Aristobulus (I, 104 B.C), son of John Hyrcanus, forcibly judaized northern Galilee and the Ituraeans, i, 56, 336; assumed the title king i, 56. Aristobulus (II), younger son of Alexan­ der Jannaeus, i, 72.

SUBJECTS AND NAMES Aristobulus (III), brother of Mariamne, i,

75> 76. Aristotle, ethics and politics, ii, 112. Artaxerxes, in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, i, 5-7, 23. Ascriptions, in the Daily Prayer, i, 292, 295; ^ Asceticism, ii, 263 ff. Aseret, Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, ii, 48 n. asham taluy, trespass offering in doubtful cases, i, 498 f. asham wadai, indubitable trespass offer­ ing, ibid. asham hasidim, trespass offering of the pious, i, 499. Ashamnu, litany of confession on the D a y of Atonement, ii, 60, 214 n. Asidaeans, ally themselves to the Maccabaean leaders, i, 59; sought to make peace with Alcimus, ibid.; derivation of the Pharisees from them, i, 61. Asmonaeans, their achievements, ii, 113; loyalty of the Jews, i, 74; aggressive wars of expansion, i, 335 f.; feeling of the Pharisees toward them, ii, 1 1 3 ; toward the later rulers of the house, ii, 156, 328; prophecies of restoration seemed to be fulfilled in them, ii, 327. Assembly, the Great, see Great Synagogue. Associates (haberlm), their pledge, ii,i 59; dealings with the 'am ha-ares, ibid.; ate their unconsecrated food in a state of ceremonial purity, ii, 76. See also Pharisees. Atheism, dogmatic and practical, i, 360; as a crime in Roman law, definition, i, 3

5

0

n

* .

Atheist, in Jewish definition, i, 360 n. Athenian law forbidding marriage of citi­ zens with any but citizens, i, 20. atld la-bo, the future age, ii, 398, see also World to Come. Atonement, ritual, i, 497 ff.; sacrificial, ended with the ruin of the temple, i, 502; equivalent for it, i, 503; prophetic teaching, i, 503 f.; burnt offerings at Tabernacles an atonement for the x

BAGOHI

seventy heathen nations, ii, 43 n. See also Expiation. Atonement, D a y of, see D a y of Atone­ ment. Atonement, vicarious, by the sufferings and death of the righteous, i, 547 ff. Attendance, Men of {ma 'amad), ii, 12 f., 14. Attendant of the synagogue (hazzan), duties and functions, i, 289 f., 301, 303, 3 7Attention, in religious acts (kawwanah), ii, 223 f. Attributes, of God, i, 373 ff., 380; moral attributes, i, 386 ff.; in Philo, i, 389 f.; Maimonides' philosophy excludes all attributes as anthropomorphisms, i, 437^ Augustine, nature and need of sacraments, ii, 4, 24; the consequences of Adam's fall, i, 479. Autocracy of God, its significance, i, 432. See also Sovereignty. Azazel, leader among the fallen angels, his doom in the final judgment, ii, 305. Azazel, the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement sent to, ii, 56. J

B Baal worship, adopted from the Canaanites, i, 221; stigmatized by prophets as apostasy, adultery, ibid. Baal of Tyre (Melkart), worship intro­ duced by Ahab, i, 221. Baalam, has no portion in the world to come, ii, 388. Baba ben Buta, i, 499. Babylonia, schools of the Law in, i, 7 7 79, 104; Shela, Rab, Mar Samuel, i, 105; relation to the Palestinian schools, i, 104, 107; Targums in, i, 102. Bacchides, Syrian general, i, 59. Bacher, W., Die Agada der Tannaiten; Die Agada der palastinensischen Amo­ raer, i, 215. Backslider, repentance of, i, 521. Bagohi, see Bagoses.

403

BAGOSES

INDEX I

Bagoses, and Joannes (Johanan), i, 23. Bahya ibn Pakuda, ii, 225 f. Baptism, of proselytes, i, 332 ff.; of heathen slaves, ii, 18 n., 136. Baptism, early Christian formula, i, 188 f. Bar Cocheba, leader of the revolt under Hadrian, acclaimed by Akiba, i, 89; ii, 116 n., 329. bar enash, ii, 334 n.

Bar Jliyya, his "large Mishnah," i, 96. Bar Kappara, his "large Mishnah," i, 96. Bar Kozibah, leader of the revolt under Hadrian, the Star out of Jacob (Num. 24, 7), militant Messiah, acclaimed by Akiba, i, 89 (Bar Cocheba); ii, 116, 329, 349 n. Bar Mekilan, 'Mekilta scholar,' i, 135. Bar Naphli (ve^ehrj), ii, 336 n.

bar nasha, ii, 334 n.

Baraita, 'extraneous' tradition, i, 148; Mishnah Baraita, Midrash Baraita, i, 149; in the Talmuds, authentic Tan­ naite teaching, i, 149, 151; importance for the second century, i, 179. Bargain and sale, laws of, ii, 141 ff. Barrenness, of a woman, ground for di­ vorce, ii, 125. Baruch, Syriac Apocalypse of, i, 127; ii, 284-286, 322 n. Bastard (mamzer), bound to honor his father, ii, 133. bat kol (resonance, echo), mysterious voice by which God on occasion communi­ cates to men after the cessation of prophecy, i, 237 f., 421 f.; instances, i, 85, 422; ii, 234, 348, 353. Bathyra, Elders of, i, 78 f., 313 n. Be Rab (Sifra de-Be Rab), different ex­ planations of the name, i, 140. Beast, the, in Revelation of John, ii, 340. Beasts (hayyot, Ezek. 1, 5 ff.), order of celestials, i, 368, 383; in the highest heaven, ii, 390; supporters of God's throne, i, 413; in the Revelation of John, i, 409; associated with the Apos­ tles, ibid. bedikah, inspection of slaughtered animals, ii, 74 f.

Begging from door to door, discounten­ anced, ii, 170, 176 f. Behemoth, terrestial monster, furnishes the flesh for the messianic banquet, ii, 298, 363 f- 378Belial, etymologized 'without yoke,' ii, 166. Beliar, in Testaments of the X I I Patri­ archs, i, 191; spirits of Beliar, ibid. 5

Bemidbar Rabbah, Midrash on Numbers, i> I 7 Ben 'Azzai, see Simeon ben 'Azzai. Ben Sira, see Sirach. Ben Zoma, see Simeon ben Zoma. Bene Bathyra, i, 78 f., 313 n. 1

bene elim, i, 402 n.

bene elohim, 'divine beings' (angels), i,. 402, 447. Benediction, the priest's (Num. 6, 24), in the synagogue service, i, 294 f.; must be in Hebrew, i, 295. Benedictions (berakot), sentences of as­ cription preceding and following the Shema', i, 291; responses at the close of each ascription or petition in the Daily Prayer, ibid.; at table, see Bless­ ings. Beneficence to the poor, biblical commen­ dation of, ii, 164 f.; Sirach, i, 165; Tobit, ibid.; Jesus in the Gospels, ibid. See also Charity. benonim, see Middle class. Berakot, first tractate of the Mishnah, on Prayers, i, 152. Berakot, see Benedictions. Bereshit Rabbah, Midrash on Genesis,, i, 163 ff. Bereshit Rabbah, of R. Moshe haDarshan, mediaeval work quoted by Raimund Martini in the Pugio Fidei, i, 164 n. Beroea (Aleppo), Nazarenes in the region of, i, 91. Beruriah, wife of R. Meir, learned in the Law, ii, 128 f. Bet Din, High Court, i, 85, 86; authority of its decisions and decrees, i, 259, 262; at Jamnia, i, 85, 86, 261; did not as-

404

SUBJECTS AND NAMES sume the name Sanhedrin, i , 85 n.; the Patriarch's, i, 96, 104. Bet Din, the celestial, i, 408. Bet ha-Midrash, place of more advanced biblical study, i, 312 ff.; name as old as Sirach, i, 312; frequently in proxi­ mity to the synagogue, i, 314; fre­ quented on sabbath afternoons, i, 314; ii, 38; discourses in, i, 305 f., 314 f. Bet ha-Sefer (-Sofer), elementary school, i, 316 f. See Schools. bet shoebah, at the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in the temple, ii, 45

U 47-

bet wet ad, place of meetings of the learned, i, 311 f. Bether, last stronghold of the Jews in the war under Hadrian, i, 90; fall of, com­ memorated on the Ninth of A b , ii, 66, 262. Bethlehem, the Messiah born there on the night on which Jerusalem was de­ stroyed, rapt away by a storm wind, ii, 348 n. Betrothal and marriage, ii, 121 f. Bible, in historical and in religious appre­ hension, i, 318; see also Scripture, and Revelation. Bible, canon, see Canon. Bible, fixing of standard Hebrew text, i, 100; Greek translation of this text, i, 101; Aramaic, i, 102; Syriac, i, 103. Bible reading in the synagogue, i, 296302*; institution ascribed to Moses, supplemented by Ezra, i, 296; lessons from the Pentateuch, on festivals, holy days, and special sabbaths, i, 297 f.; ordinary sabbaths, i, 298 f.; the trien­ nial cycle, i, 299 f.; annual cycle, ibid.; lessons from the Prophets, i, 300 f.; number of readers, i, 301 f.; accom­ panied by a vernacular translation, i, 302-305*; in Hellenistic synagogues, 322. Bigamy, prohibited by the Damascus sect, i, 202; ii, 122 n. Birkat Kohanim, last prayer in the Daily Prayer, i, 294.

BUNDLE

Birkat ha-Minim, commination of here­ tics in the Daily Prayer, i, 292; varia­ tions in, i, 294. Bishops of Jerusalem after Hadrian, Gen­ tiles, i, 91. Blasphemy, what legally constitutes, i, 427 f. Blessing and curse, reality of, i, 414; God's, conditioned on obedience or disobedience, i, 453 f. Blessings, at meals, ii, 36, 216 f. Blind and lame, parable of soul and body, i, 486-488*; ii, 384*. Blood, is the life, ii, 287; prohibition of eating blood, ii, 6, 74 f.; blood in rites of purification, ii, 55. Body, physical organism of man not (as material) the source of evil, i, 485; contrary opinion of Greeks, ibid.; body not an irresponsible instrument of the mind in sin, i, 486 flf. See Soul and Body. Boethus, disciple of Antigonus of Socho, i, 69 f.; name of a high priest of Herod's creation, i, 69 n. Boethusians, akin to the Sadducees, i, 69 f. Bonus, for a loan, form of usury, ii, 144. Book of Life, ii, 62 f., 297, 341. Books, record of each man's deeds, pro­ duced in judgment, i, 476; ii, 300, 341. Booths, at Feast of Tabernacles, ii, 47 f. Borrower, not to be turned away, ii, 143 n., 168 f. Bousset, Wilhelm, on the Jewish thought of God as king, i, 431 f.; ii, 210 n.; on Lev. 24, 16, i, 427. Box, G. A., on the Ezra Apocalypse, i, 8n. Brazen serpent, faith of Israel in their Father in heaven, ii, 206. Breaking of bread, in the consecration of the Sabbath (kiddilsh), ii, 36 n. Brevity in prayer, ii, 227. Brother, honor due the eldest, ii, 131 n. Bullocks of the lips (Hos. 14, 3), ii, 15, 218. Bundle of life, the, ii, 390.

405

INDEX I

BURDENS

Burdens, not to be imposed on the com­ munity by rabbinical decrees which the majority cannot bear, i, 262 n.; ii, 263. Burial, old Israelite customs, ii, 287; of the poor, a community charge, ii, 175 f.; of the neglected dead, i, 7 1 . Burning, of the dead, ii, 287 n. Burnt offering, expiates sins entertained in the mind, i, 497. Burnt offering, the daily (Tamid), i, 251.

C Caesarea (Palestinae), Jewish schools at, i, 165; chief centre of Christianity in Palestine, ibid.; residence of Origen, ibid.; intercourse between Jews and Christians, i, 165, 268; controversies, i, 365 Cain, his repentance accepted, i, 525; the first penitent, i, 530 n. Calculations, of the "time of the end," or the time for the Messiah's coming, ii, 35 -354; disapproved, ii, 352. Calendar, importance of the new moon in fixing, ii, 23; Hananiah (nephew of R. Joshua ben Hananiah) attempts to give out a calendar in Babylonia, i, 104, 106; regulation and proclamation of, a prerogative of the Patriarch, i, 104, 109; adoption of an astronomically fixed calendar, ii, 23 n. Caligula (Gaius), emperor (37-41), i, 82; orders a statue of himself set up in the temple, ii, 117. Calumny, one of the greatest sins, ii, 149 f.; no legal redress, 149 (cf. 148 n.). Canaanite slave, in the Mishnah, an alien of any race, ii, 135 n., 137 n. Canaanites, religion of, i, 220 f. Canon, of Scripture, i, 238, 240-247*; the Great Synagogue, i, 32; contro­ versies over particular books, and de­ cisions: Canticles and Ecclesiastes, i, 86, 242, 244; Esther, i, 244-246; Pro­ verbs, i, 246; Ezekiel, i, 246 f.; Sirach and books after his time, i, 86, 243; inspiration ceased with the death of the ;

2

last prophets, i, 238, 243; the Gospel and books of sectaries (minim), i, 86, 243 fCanticles (Song of Songs), inspiration of, i, 238; controversy, and decision at Jamnia, i, 86, 242 f.; Akiba on, i, 243. Canuleian law, i, 19 f., 21. Capital crimes, original jurisdiction in cases of, ii, 184; procedure, ii, 183 ff. Capital punishment, infrequency of, ii, 186 f. Cardinal sins, three, ii, 58, 267; must not be committed even to save a man's life, decision at Lydda, i, 466 f.; ii, 30, 106; calumny equal to them all, ii, 149. Casuistry, ii, 31, 82 f., 133 f.; no syste­ matic moral casuistry, ii, 82. Casuistry, Christian, ii, 82. Cautionary rules, " t o keep a man far re­ moved from transgression," i, 33, 258 f., 282. Cave of Macphelah, ii, 289. Cavilling at God's commandments, prompted by evil impulse, or by Satan, i, 482. Cedar and vine, vision in Apocalypse of Baruch, ii, 343. Celibacy, infrequent and disapproved, ii, 119; violation of the oldest command­ ment, ii, 270. Ceremonial law, of identical authority and obligation with moral, ii, 6; Jesus' attitude toward, i, 9 f.; concerning worship in the temple, ii, 10 ff.; study in the schools of the Law, ibid. Cestius Gallus, i, 83. Chariot speculation (maaseh merkabah), i, 411. See also Esoteric doctrine. Charity, private and public, ii, 1 6 2 - 1 7 9 . See Alms, Almsgiving, Deeds of loving­ kindness. Charles, R. H., editor of apocalypses, etc., i> 130, 93> *99> 216; ii, 282, 286. Charms and incantations, potency of, i, 114. Chastisement, ii, 2 4 8 - 2 5 6 ; chastisement and punishment, ii, 252; infliction less than deserved, ii, 254; evidence of

406

J

SUBJECTS AND NAMES God's love, ibid.; rejoicing in chastiseemnt, ii, 253 f.; leads to repentance, ii, 253 n.; brings remission of sins, ii, 253; atones for sin even better than sacrifice, ii, 253 f.; wipes out all a man's wicked­ nesses, i, 547; brings a man to the world to come, ii, 254 f. See also Suffering. Chastisements of love, i, 397; ii, 256. Chastity, ii, 267-273.* See also Women, behavior with. Cherubim, i, 404, 409. Children, duty of parents to, ii, 127 f.; duty of children to parents, ii, 131-135; parental blessing on the Sabbath, ii, 37; children at synagogue service, i, 315; at the Passover celebration in the home, ii, 41 f.; suffer for the sins of their parents, i, 548; die because of them, ii, 249. Choice, power of, see Freedom; initial choice determines subsequent particu­ lar choices, i, 4 5 5 f.; man led by God in the way he chooses to go, i, 456. Chosen, the, ii, 303, 304, 309. Chosen One, God's (Messiah, q. ».), usual designation in the Parables of Enoch, ii, 333; seated on His throne, ii, 304. Christ, see Messiah. Christian era, no epoch in the history of Judaism, i, 131. Christian healing, see Jacob of Kefar Sekanya. Christian writings, not sacred scripture, i, 87. Christianity, rejection of the Law, ii, 10, 21, 93 f.; a new law, i, 236; Jewish controversies with Gentile Christians, i, 173; over the new law, i, 269 n.; the unity of the godhead, i, 364 f.; the deity of Christ, i, 165; before the com­ ing of the Messiah the whole empire will go over to heresy (Christianity) ii, 3 5

'

.

Chronicles, Book of, age, i, 27; author­ ship, i, 32. Chronological order, not observed in the Bible, hermeneutical principle, i, 245.

COMMANDMENTS

Chronology, of the age of restoration, Persian and Greek periods (Seder 'Olam), i, 5-7; of the Book of Jubilees, h 1

9

3

f

*

Church, Christian, identified with the kingdom of Heaven, ii, 310 n. Cicero, on man's place in the world, i, 449. Circumcision, practised by many peoples, ii, 16 f.; fundamental observance of Judaism, i, 198; ii, 16; why not in the Decalogue, ii, 18; sign of the covenant, ii, 18; neglect of, threatened with ex­ tirpation, ii, 6, 18; obliterated by sur­ gical operation, i, 49; father bound to have his son circumcised, ii, 127; grounds for postponement, ii, 19, 30; forbidden by Antiochus I V , ii, 19; made a capital crime by Hadrian, i, 351; ii, 20; permitted to Jews alone by Antoninus Pius, ii, 20. Circumcision, of heathen slaves, i, 136; ii, 18 f. Circumcision of converts (proselytes), i, 330 ff.; ii, 19; naturalization in Jewish people, i, 232; prohibited by Roman law, and by Christian emperors, i, 352; ii, 19 f.; effect on conversions, i, 108. Circumlocution, reverential, in the Tar­ gums, i, 419-421. See also Memra, Shekinta (Shekinah), Yekara. Circumstantial evidence, in criminal cases, not admitted, ii, 184. Civil and criminal law, tradition in, i,252. Clean and unclean, religious sense, ii, 74 n.; among other peoples, ii, 76 f.; i, 21 n.; laws in the Priests' Code, i, 21 f.; decisions of Jose ben Jo'ezer, i, 46.

Collectors of tolls, publicans (mokesin), ii, 1 1 7 ; of communal charities {gabba'in), ii, 174 ff.

Commandments, six given to Adam for all mankind, i, 274; renewed to Noah with an addition, ibid.; given to the patriarchs, i, 275; decalogue, i, 467; the 613 (248 -\- 365) commandments, ii, 28, 83; compendium of, ii, 83 f.; mul­ tiplied that Israel may acquire merit

407

COMMANDMENTS

INDEX I

by obedience, ii, 92 f.; lightest and weightiest have the same sanction, ii, 5 f.; the light to be as scrupulously observed as the weighty, ii, 93; the weightiest of all is filial piety, ii, 5 f., 31; commandments to be kept for their own sake, ii, 96 f.; keeping them from inferior motives leads to doing it for their own sake, ii, 98; some held tenaciously, others laxly, ii, 20; com­ mandments for which no rational or moral ground is apparent, i, 233 f. See also Law.

Commandments, the two great, ii, 85, 86; cf. 173 f. Commensality with Gentiles, restriction of, i, 22; ii, 75; of Associates (haberlm) and the common people, ii, 159. Commination of heretics in the Daily Prayer, i, 292; variations of form, i, 294. Compassion of God, with all in affliction, even by deserved inflictions, i, 393 f.; shown in corrective discipline, ii, 255; God has compassion like a father, com­ forts like a mother, i, 395; his almighty power linked with his compassion, i, 380. See also Mercy. Compendium of the Law, ii, 83 ff. Concentration of mind in prayer (kaw­ wanah), ii, 223 f.

Confession of sin, by the penitent, i, 5 1 1 514*; formulas for private confession, i, 5 1 1 , 512; public, on the D a y of Atonement, i, 512; confession indis­ pensable condition of divine forgive­ ness, i, 512 f., 513 f.; confession of a man under sentence of death, i, 547; confession on the D a y of Atonement, high priest and people, ii, 57 f.; in the synagogue, ii, 59 f.; forms in the prayer-books, ibid.; multiplication of confessions and prayers for forgiveness (sellhot) in the liturgies, ii, 214. Conflicting impulses, Paul, i, 485. Conscience, approving or reproving, ii, 90; things left to (masur la-leb), i, 148; ii, 92; have no norm or measure, ii, 82. 408

Conspiracy of witnesses, ii, 186. Continence, a moral ideal, ii, 270. Contracts, actions on, ii, 184 n.; con­ tracts of service, ii, 139. Contributions to communal charities, compulsory, ii, 178; of Gentiles, volun­ tary, ibid. n. Contrition for sin, an element in repent­ ance, i, 510, 514. Controversies between Jews and catholic Christians in the third century, i, 165. Conventional lies, ii, 189. Conversion of Gentiles, i, 3 2 3 - 3 5 3 ; hin­ drances to, i, 325 f.; forcible conver­ sion by the Asmonaeans (Idumaeans, people of northern Galilee, Ituraeans), i 3 3 6 ; conversion from worldly mo­ tives, i, 336 f.; of foreign slaves, ii, 1 9 ; conversion to Judaism prohibited by Roman emperors, pagan and Christian, i, 352; ii, 20; penalties, ibid; conver­ sion in the messianic age, i, 346; in the last crisis, ii, 300, 304, 306. Converts, see Proselytes, and God-fearing persons. Converts, Christian, from proselytes and adherents of the synagogue, i, 92, 108. Conviction, in courts, by a majority of the judges, ii, 186. Cor malignum, in 4 Esdras, i, 486 f. See also Evil Impulse. Cosmogony, esoteric (ma'aseh bereshit), i, 5

383 fCouncils, of rabbis, i, 81; at Lydda, i, 466 f.; ii, 30, 106; at Usha, i, 93, 94. Council of Trent, i, 257; Vatican Council, ibid. Courses of priests, ii, 13. Courts of the temple, ii, 130. Courts of justice, commandment to es­ tablish them given to Adam, i, 274; courts of three, twenty-three,seventyone judges, ii, 183 f.; procedure, ii, 183 ff. Cousins-german, marriage of, ii, 121. Covenant, of God with the fathers, i, 537; the fundamental observances, circum­ cision and sabbath, ii, 16, 18, 20, 21.

SUBJECTS AND Creation, i, 380-383*; by fiat, without toil and pains, i, 415; with no helper, 1, 381; on a preconceived plan, i, 382; everything perfect, ibid.; de nihilo? i, 381 f.; worlds before this, i, 382; esoteric lore {maaseh bereshit), i, 383 f.; limits of exposition and speculation, ibid. Creed, obligation in divine law, i, 236 (Maimonides). Criminal law, procedure in, ii, 183 ff. Critical principles in the choice and use of sources, i, 125-132. Cultus, peculiarities of Jewish, ii, 11 f. Cup of blessing, ii, 36. Curriculum of higher studies, i, 319. Curse, reality of, ii, 134. Cursing parents, biblical and rabbinical law, ii, 134. Custom, local {minhag), in Passover ob­ servance, ii, 41; labor on the ninth of A b , ii, 66 f. Cyprus, insurrection of the Jews under Trajan, i, 107 f. Cyrenaica, insurrection under Trajan, i, 107 f. D Dabar, in phrases, "word of the Lord," "word of God," and the like, i, 417; rendered in Targums by pitgama {milla) not memra, ibid. Daily Prayer (Shemoneh 'Esreh, Eigh­ teen Prayers, Tefillah), the Eighteen Prayers said to have been prescribed in their order by the Men of the Great Synagogue, i, 292; arranged under direction of Gamaliel I, ibid.; ii, 212; prayer for the extirpation of heretics added, i, 91, 292; content and order, i, 291-296*; ii, 219; antiquity of the standard prayers, i, 177 f. See Prayer. Dama ben Netina, exemplary filial piety,

NAMES

DEADLY SINS

Halakah, ii, 27; relation to the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the X I I Patriarchs, i, 203; polygamy con­ demned, ii, 122 n., 124 n.; and mar­ riage with a niece, ii, 201 f. (cf. ii, 121); did not prohibit divorce, ii, 124 n.; sabbath observance, ii, 33; sabbath days journey, ii, 32. Dances, of maidens in the vineyards, on the 15th of A b , ii, 54; on the D a y of Atonement, ii, 61; challenge the young men to marry, ibid. Danger to human life suspends the sab­ bath laws, ii, 30 f.; even the fast on the D a y of Atonement, ii, 59. Daniel, the visions of, ii, 281. Daughters, upbringing and education of, ii, 128; rights of minor or unmarried daughters in their fathers' estate, ii, 126 n. David, king in the golden age, ii, 325 ff.; Messiah, ii, 347. Day of Atonement, a sabbath of eminent sanctity, ii, 58 f.; strict fast, ibid.; the day itself expiates, i, 500; rites in the Herodian temple, ii, 56 f.; disin­ fection of the sanctuary by blood and incense, ii, 55; general riddance of sins by the scapegoat, ii, 56; the high priest's confession of sins, ii, 57 f.; higher conception of the ritual, ii, 57 f.; repentance indispensable condition, i, 498; expiation, various cases, i, 498 f., 546; sins against a fellow man expiated only on condition of reparation and forgiveness, ii, 154; the sentence of the judgment at New Year's sealed on the D a y of Atonement, i, 530, cf. 523; one of the great festivals of the year, ii, 55; joyous character, ii, 61; dances of maidens in the vineyards, ibid.; penitential character of the synagogue observance, i, 499; ii, 59.

ii, 133Damascus, seceding Jewish sect in the region of, i, 200; age of the migration thither, i, 204; strictness of their 409

Dead, abodes of the, ii, 287 ff.; tendance of the dead, ii, 288. See also Sheol and Souls. Dead, the unburied {met miswah), i, 7 1 . Deadly sins, see Cardinal sins.

DEATH

INDEX I

Death, primitive beliefs and customs, ii, 287 ff.; contagious uncleanness, ii, 76; Johanan ben Zakkai on the uncleanness of death and the prescribed purifica­ tions, ii, 7; death the common lot, ii, 316; is good, ii, 253 n.; nine hundred and three kinds of death, ii, 249; death brought into the world by the envy of the devil, i, 448, 478; Adam's sin brought death on all his descendants, i, 474 ff.; death an expiation, i, 546, 547; death personified, cast into the lake of fire, ii, 341; after the final judgment there will be no more death, ii, 342; the second death, ii, 341. Debarim Rabbah, Midrash on Deutero­ nomy, i, 171. Deceit, see Falsehood. Debt, sin as, ii, 95. Debts, septennial remission of, i, 80, 260; ii, 145. Decadence, after destruction of the temple, ii, 206. Decalogue, giving of, commemorated at the Feast of Weeks, ii, 48; restoration of the tables of the law (Exod. 34) on the D a y of Atonement, ii, 61; once had a place in synagogue service, i, 291 n. Deceit, the worst kind of theft, ii, 189. Decorum, in prayer, ii, 222 f. Decrees (gezerdt), widening the scope of prohibitive laws, i, 33, 46, 258 f.; au­ thority for such additional restrictions, i, 33; eighteen adopted at one time by a vote, i, 81; not to be imposed if the majority cannot live up to them, ii, 263. Dedication, Feast of, ii, 49. Deeds of lovingkindness (gemilut hasadim), ii, 92, 171 ff.; greater than alms­ giving, ii, 171 f.; more than all sacri­ fices, ii, 172; God the great exemplar, ibid. Delators, ii, 149 n.; have no share in the world to come, i, 525; punished in hell forever, ii, 387. Deliverance, the great, the work of God, ii, 330 ff., 370; why so long delayed? 4IO

ii, 231, 351; conditions, i, 520; ii, 231, 351; in the past and in the future, theme of Passover observance, ii, 42. Demai, ii, 72 f., 158 f. Demetrios Eukairos, called in by the rebels against Alexander Jannaeus, i,

63/. Demiurge, in Philo, i, 364. Demons, ii, 259 f.; tempt and seduce to sin, ii, 316. See also Beliar, spirits of. Destiny (Elfiapfievri), tenets of Jewish sects about, i, 457. Deuteronomy, legal and prophetic char­ acter, i, 15; ii, 8; spirit of the cultus contrasted with the Priests' law book, ii, 34 fAeurepaxreis (Mishnah), i, 186.

Development, idea of, at variance with the presumptions of revealed religion, i, 249, 358. Devil, his envy brought death into the world, i, 448, 478; relation to the ser­ pent in Genesis, i, 478 f.; chained and hurled into the abyss for a thousand years, ii, 340. See also Satan, M a s tema, Beliar. Devotion, spirit of, ii, 223, 226. Dew, the reviving dew of the resurrec­ tion, i, 368; ii, 296 n., 390. Diaspora, see Dispersion. Didache, Teaching of the Twelve Apos­ tles, i, 188 f. Didrachm (half-shekel) poll tax, ii, 70. Dietary laws, i, 21; ii, 74 f. Diphtheria, i, 149 n.; ii, 248. Direction of the mind (kawwanah), in prayer and other religious acts, ii, 223 f.; study, ii, 240; and secular oc­ cupations, ibid. Discourses, in the schoolhouse {bet hafnidrash), i, 305 f.

Dispersion of the Jews, i, 224 f.; future gathering and return of, ii, 300, 305, 366 ff. See also Ten Tribes. Divine beings (bene elohim), angels, i, 402. Divorce, biblical and rabbinical law, ii, 122 ff.*; conflicting interpretation of Deut. 24, 1-4, on grounds of divorce,

SUBJECTS AND NAMES

Education, of sons, obligation of the father, ii, 127; of daughters, ii, 128; in the unwritten law disapproved, ibid.; elementary education, i, 316 ff.; higher, branches of learning, i, 319, 320; nor­ mal stages and ages, i, 320; religious education of the whole people, corollary of idea of revealed religion, i, 281-283. Eighteen Prayers (Shemoneh 'Esreh), see Daily Prayer. Egypt, Jews in, colony at Elephantine, i, 5; temple of Onias, i, 43 n., 230 n.; ii, 11 n.; Philo and his times, see Philo; rising of the Jews under Nero sup­ pressed by Tiberius Alexander, i, 2 1 1 ; relation to the Palestinian authorities, i, 107, 214; decline of Hellenistic cul­ ture, i, 107 f. Ejaculatory prayers, ii, 229 f. Ekah Rabbati, Midrash on Lamenta­ tions, i, 167 f. Elders, the early, i, 30, Elders, the Twenty-four, in Revelation of John, ii, 307 n. Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, Maccabaean martyr, i, 548 f. Eleazar, R. (ben Shammua'), pupil of Akiba, ordained by R. Judah b. Baba, i, 106. Eleazar ben 'Arak, disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai, Johanan's estimate of him, ii, 245 n.; in the line of esoteric tradi­ tion, i, 411 f., 413Eleazar ben Azariah, made head of the academy at Jamnia on the deposition of Gamaliel II (i, 86), ii, 220; visit to Rome, i, 106; anecdote about, i, 314 f. Eleazar IJisma, visit to R. Joshua ben Hananiah, i, 315. Eleazar (ben Pedat, Amor a), anecdote of Johanan's visit to his sick bed, ii, 240. Elect, the (in Enoch), ii, 301. See Chosen. Election, of the Fathers, i, 536. Election, of Israel, i, 398 f., 536; ii, 95; irrevocable, i, 542; of individuals, ibid.; ii, 303, 341. Elementary schools, see Schools.

ibid.; barrenness a cause, ii, 125; wo­ man could sue in courts for a divorce for cause, ibid.; formalities, ii, 122 f.; frequency of divorce, ii, 125 f.; dis­ approval of, ii, 123; Damascus sect did not forbid, i, 202 n. Divorcement, bill of {get), ii, 122. Doeg, informer (I Sam. 22), ii, 149; has no portion in the world to come, ii, 388. Domitian, collection of the fiscus Judaicus, i, 350. Door of repentance, opened to Adam, i, 530; unlike the gates of prayer, is always open, i, 530. Dowry, for orphan girls, a community charge, ii, 175. Dual nature of man, akin to angels and to brutes, i, 451 f.; ii, 205; Greek con­ ceptions, ii, 292, 3 1 1 ; Philo, i, 452; good and evil impulses, in rabbinical teaching, are not attributed to soul and body respectively, i, 48 5 f. Dualism, i, 502; ii, 263 f.; heresy of 'two authorities,' or 'powers,' i, 364 ff.,* 502; refutation of arguments from the Bible, i, 366; Gentile Christianity, i, 364 f.; heretical expressions in pray­ ers, i, 365. See also Monotheism. Duty, conception of, in a revealed religion, i, 460; to be done "for its own sake," ii, 96-98; "for the sake of Heaven," ii, 98. E Eagle vision, 4 Esdras, ii, 343. Ebal and Gerizim, see Gerizim. Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), canonicity of, i, 86; inspiration, i, 238; controversy of the schools of Shammai and Hillel; decision at Jamnia, i, 242. Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach), see Sirach. 'ed zomem, a witness who gives false testi­ mony against a man with premedita­ tion (Deut. 19, 16-19), ii, 148 n., 186. Edom, sanguinary prophecies against, i, 399; applied to Rome, i, 400; EdomRome, ii, 115 n., 116 n. See also Esau. 4

ELECTION

II

ELEPHANTINE

INDEX I

Elephantine, Jewish military colony, doc­ uments from, i, 23. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus), disciple of Jo­ hanan ben Zakkai, Johanan's estimate of him, ii, 245 n.; arrested on charge of being a Christian, ii, 250. Eiiezer ben Jacob, anonymous element in M . Middot ascribed to, i, 153. Elijah, his zeal for the Lord, ii, 358; identifies him with Phineas, ibid, n.; lives forever, i, 474; legends of many appearances to rabbis, ii, 360; the precursor of the Messiah, ii, 272, 357; John the Baptist in the role of Elijah, i, 221; ii, 326; character and mission, ii, 357 ff.; place set for Elijah at the Passover table, ii, 42; questions re­ served for his decision, ii, 359 n.; will restore the three things that were con­ cealed with the ark at the destruction of the temple, ii, 359 f.; anointing of the Messiah? ii, 360; Elijah and the resurrection, ii, 384. Elisha, thrust away Gehazi, i, 348. Elisha bar Abuyah (Aher), one of the teachers of R. Meir, i, 95 n.; one of the four rabbis who visited paradise, i, 413; became an infidel; Meir's ex­ hortation to a death-bed repentance, i, 522; at his grave, i, 395. Elixir of life (sam hayyim), the Law, studied for its own sake, otherwise a deadly poison, ii, 242. Elohe ha-Marom, God of the hight (High heaven), i, 430; Elohe ha-Shamaim, God of the heaven, ibid. Elohim, God, substitute for the proper name, i, 429; in Psalms 42-83, ibid.; denotes God in his character of strict judge, i, 387, 389; the plural taken numerically by heretics, i, 366, 368 n. Elohim, divinities (angels), i, 447. 'Elyon, El 'Elyon, Most High, i, 429. Emancipation, forms of, ii, 136 n. Emet (Truth), the seal of God, ii, 195. *EvKalvLa Feast of Dedication, Hannukah, ii, 49. Enoch, type of repentance, i, 516, 525. y

Enoch in mediaeval Midrash, i, 128. Enoch, Book of, ii, 281 f.; chaps. 1-5, ii, 301; 21-27, ii, 301 ff.; 28-32, ii, 303; 45-57, "> 3°3 ff-; 85-90, ii, 300; 9 1 105, ii, 305 f.; relation to esoteric tra­ dition, i, 384. Enosh, beginning of idolatry in his gen­ eration, i, 473 n., 538. Ephebi, in Jerusalem, i, 49. Ephraim, Messiah, i, 551, 552. See Mes­ siah, Ephraimite. 'Epicureans,' have no portion in the world to come, i, 525; ii, 388; pun­ ished in hell forever, ii, 387. Epicurus, Lucretius on, ii, 311 n. Epispasmos, surgical operation to efface circumcision, i, 49. Equity, in law and justice for rich and poor, ii, 139 f., 182. 'erub, 'combination' (of sabbath bounds, courts, etc.), ii, 31 ff. Esau, rejection of, i, 399; legendary wars with Esau in Testaments of X I I Pa­ triarchs, etc., i, 190; Esau, name for Rome, ii, 371. See also Edom. Eschatology, ii, 323, 377-395J in the apocalypses and in rabbinical sources, ii, 344 f.; eschatology and theodicy, ii, 377; last step in the individualizing of religion, ibid.; Pharisees and Saddu­ cees, i, 68; summary of the more gen­ eral and constant features, ii, 3896°.; common Christian beliefs, ii, 393 f.; millenarians, ii, 394. Esdras, Fourth, i, 127; ii, 283 f.; on Adam's sin and its consequences, i, 477; restoration of the Scriptures, i, 8 f.; the seventy esoteric books, ibid. Esoteric teachings, in high estimation among leading rabbis, i, 384; the line of tradition, i, 4 1 1 ; cosmogony {maaseh bereshit), i, 383 f.; chariot speculation (ma'aseh merkabah), i, 4 1 1 ; mode of communication, i, 411 f.; the four rabbis who entered paradise, i, 413. Essenes, proposed etymology of the name, i, 272 n.; ii, 167 n.; necessitarians, i, 457; held that God is the cause of good

412

SUBJECTS AND NAMES only, i, 364 n.; Pythagorean manner of life, i, 457; strict observance of the sabbath, ii, 32; relation to apocalyptic literature, ii, 280 f.; "Essene Baraita," ii, 273. Essentials of the Law [gufe torah), ii,84, 103 n. Esther, Book of, reading at Purim, i, 239; ii, 52 f.; objections to, i, 245; inspira­ tion of the book, i, 238, 244 f.; decision in favor of its canonicity, i, 245; un­ certainty in Christian lists, i, 246; to abide, like the Law, in the days of the Messiah, i, 245. Eternal life, ii, 294 n., 297 f., 299 n., 308, 310, 319; "portion in the world to come," equivalent, ii, 95; what to do to attain it, ii, 321. Eternal punishment, ii, 310, 341, 387.* See also Hell. Ethical principles impressed on the Hala­ kah, ii, 145, 146,187 f. See Legislation, Tannaite. Ethics, character of Jewish, ii, 79 f., 81 f.; political virtues, ii, 112. Ethnarch, title of the Patriarch, 1, 234. Etrog, at Tabernacles, i, 63; ii, 43 f. Euangelion (gospel), book of the Naza­ renes, i, 244. Eucharist, liturgical prayers in the Di­ dache, i, 189; reminiscent of the Kiddush, ibid.; blessing of the cup precedes the bread, ibid. Eve, the first transgressor, i, 475, 478. Evidence, in criminal cases, ii, 184 ff.; new, ii, 186. See also Testimony and Witnesses. Evil Impulse (yeser ha-ra ), i, 479 ff.*; seven names, i, 493 n.; implanted by God, i, 481,* 490; ii, 94; the bad leaven in the dough, ii, 216; grain of evil seed sown in the heart of Adam, cor malignum in him and all his descend­ ants, i, 477, 483; God regretted creat­ ing it, i, 480 f.; present in the infant from birth, i, 481; its seat not the body but the heart (mind and will), i, 485, 486; a kind of malevolent second per­ f

413

EXORCISM

sonality, i, 482; a tempter within, i, 481 f.; progressive temptation, i, 469; specialized association with lust, ii, 267; evil impulse and sin, i, 482; a "strange g o d " within man, i, 469 f.; natural impulses not in themselves sin­ ful, i, 482 f.; evil impulse personified, Satan, angel of death, i, 482 n., 492; can be defeated and subdued, i, 489; the most potent means the study of the Law, which God created as an antidote, i, 489-491*; by it the evil impulse can be shaped to good ends like iron in the fire, ibid.; man can come to love God with his evil impulse as well as with the good impulse, ibid.; the good im­ pulse (q. v.) created by God to counter­ vail the evil, i, 483; conflict of im­ pulses, i, 484; the wicked are ruled by their evil impulse, the righteous by good impulse, i, 495, cf. 486 n.; if a man has yielded to evil impulse, the remedy is repentance, i, 490 f.; evil impulse will be extirpated (or slain) on the judg­ ment day, i, 482, 493; ii, 370; has no dominion over angels, i, 406, 484; animals have neither evil nor good im­ pulse such as men have, i, 483. Evil-speaking of others, ii, 148 ff.* ' E v i l tongue' {lashon ha-ra'), calumny, on a level with the cardinal sins, i, 149 f. Ewald, H . , on the composition and age of the Pentateuch, i, 9 f. Examination of witnesses, ii, 185. Exclusiveness, of the relation between Jehovah and Israel, i, 219. 220, 221, 222, 225 f., 228. Exclusiveness, Jewish, i, 19 ff. See also Intermarriage and Dietary laws. Excommunication, ii, 183 n. Execution of criminals, ii, 187 n. Exegesis, atomistic character, i, 248. See also Hermeneutics. Exiles, return of, ii, 367 f. See also Dis­ persion. Exodus, only a small part of the Israelites in Egypt went out in the, ii, 362 f. Exorcism, ii, 260.

EXPIATE

INDEX I

237; because of their faith God wrought Expiate, remove sin, make clean, inter­ changeable terms, i, 4 6 4 n. miracles for Israel, in the battle with Expiation of the sanctuary, i, 464; (dis­ Amalek, the brazen- serpent, the blood infection), ii, 55; ritual expiation for on the houses in Egypt, ii, 206 n.; by unwitting sins, i, 463 f.; for sin re­ virtue of his faith Abraham obtained pented of, i, 546 f.; not ex opere operato, both worlds, ii, 237; answers to prayer, i, 498; vicarious, i, 547 ff".* See also ii, 232. Atonement. Fall of Adam, see Adam; in Augustine, i, Expiatory suffering, i, 5 4 6 - 5 5 2 . 479Extirpation (karet), i, 463, 498; offences, Fall of Angels, i, 406, 483; ii, 301 n., 315. moral and ceremonial, on which it is Fallow year, ii, 162; untrustworthiness denounced, ii, 5 f., 21, 25, 74. of the common people about the Eyes, lead men into sin, i, 486; mind and produce of the (shebi'it), ii, 158, 185 n. eyes go-betweens of sin, ii, 268 n.; False testimony, in civil and criminal adultery of the eyes, ii, 267 f. cases, ii, 148 n., 186. Ezekiel, Book of, proposal to put away False witness, in court, i, 186; penalty, the book, i, 246 f.; Ezek. 1, not to be ibid. See also 'ed zomem. read in the synagogue, i, 300; some Falsehood, ii, 189 ff. See also Truthful­ would have the same rule for Ezek. 16, ness, Flattery, Hypocrisy. 1 ff., ibid.; individualizing of the pro­ Familia, God's household of angels, i, 407; phetic doctrine of repentance, i, 520 f. ii, 242 n.; the name, i, 407 n.; God Ezra, mission and work according to the consults with them, 407, 408, 447. Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, i, 4 ff.; Family, the ii, 1 1 9 - 1 4 0 . by Jewish chronology, contemporary of Fast, the fast acceptable to God; higher Zerubbabel and Joshua, i, 6 f., 8; ar­ teaching of Judaism, ii, 69. rived in Jerusalem in the year following Fasting, ii, 2 5 7 - 2 6 6 ; primitive motives, the completion of the new temple, i, 7; ii, 67; afflicting oneself, ii, 55; act of restorer of the Law of Moses without humiliation before God and rite of pro­ addition or subtraction, i, 29; intro­ pitiation, ii, 67, 258 f.; of penitence, duced in it the " A s s y r i a n " script, i. example of the Ninevites, ii, 67, 68; 25 n., 29; minor changes in the text as self-imposed penance, ii, 257 f.; (tifykune 'Ezra), i, 32; instituted the auxiliary of prayer, ii, 259; preparation custom of vernacular translation (Tar­ for revelation, ii, 260; public fast days gum), i, 29; author of the Books of in the exile, ii, 65, 262; occasional, for Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles (as rain, ii, 67 f.; in times of peril or calam­ far as his own genealogy), i, 32; pre­ ity, ii, 68; stated: D a y of Atonement, scribed synagogue service on Sabbath ii, 58 ff.; Ninth of A b , ii, 66 f.; the afternoons and market-days, i, 296; penitential days, ii, 62 f.; voluntary various ordinances (takfyanot) attributed private fast days, Monday and Thurs­ to him, i, 29. day, ii, 68, cf. i, 188; fasting as a Ezra and his law-book in modern critical phase of individual piety, ii, 257, 260; literature, i, 9 ff. association with almsgiving, ii, 258; Ezra, Fourth Book of, see Esdras. fasting forbidden, on the Sabbath, i, ; «j 37; Purim (14 and 15 Adar), ii, 53; on days commemorating joyous F events in Jewish history, ii, 54; the Faith, confidence in God, ii, 237; eulogy Fasting Roll (Megillat Ta'anit), ibid. of faith ("great is faith"), i, 136 f.; ii, See also Abstinence. 2 1

4I4

a t

SUBJECTS AND NAMES Fat, abdominal (heleb), prohibited food, "3

75-

Fate (Heimarmene), tenets of the Jew­ ish sects about, i, 457. See also Free­ dom. Father, obligations to his children, ii, 127 f.; fathers do not save their sons, etc., i, 544. Father in heaven, God, i, 527; ii, 2 0 1 - 2 1 1 , phrase new in our period, ii, 204; ex­ presses an attitude of piety, ii, 2 1 1 ; use in prayer, ii, 208; in New Testa­ ment, ii, 204 f. Fathers, the, name belongs by preemin­ ence to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, i, 542; used of others, i, 468; election of, i, 536; God's peculiar love for the patriarchs, covenants, oath, i, $36-538; their good desert with God accrues to the benefit of their posterity, ibid., see Merit of the Fathers; were they with­ out fault? i, 468, 513. Fear of God, reverence, ii, 96; one of the primary elements of religion, i, 86; fear and love as motives, ii, 98 if.* Feast of Weeks (shebuot), Pentecost, memorial significance, ii, 48. Feelings of others, regard for, ii, 147 f., 152 f., 167. Fence about the Law (seyag la-tor ah), cautionary rules, i, 259; biblical au­ thority for, ibid. Festivals, annual, ii, 23, 40-54*; me­ morial significance given to, ii, 47 f.; institution of, in Jubilees, i, 196, 275; concourse of pilgrims, ii, 12. Fiat, creation by, i, 382, 415. See also Word of God. Filial piety, ii, 92, 131-134*; honoring parents made equal with honoring God, ii, 131 f.; what it includes, ii, 132 f.; father and mother to be equally hon­ ored, ii, 1 3 1 ; anecdotes of exemplary piety, ii, 133; crimes against, in bibli­ cal and rabbinical law, ii, 134 f. Firmaments, number, thickness, dis­ tances, i, 368, 530 f.

415

FUNERAL

First fruits, of grain and fruits, the priest's due (terumah geddlah), ii, 7 1 . Fiscus Judaicus, i, 234, 350. Flattery, a form of deceit, ii, 189 f. Flavius Clemens, Flavia Domitilla, i, 349. Flesh with milk, prohibition of, ii, 75. Food, varieties of prohibited, i, 2 1 ; ii, 74

f.

Fool, moral implication, ii, 148 n. Foreign religions in Israel, i, 221 f.;

ii,

358-

Foreknowledge of God, i, 455. Forgiveness of sins (God's), i, 1 1 7 ; a prerogative which he does not share nor depute, i, 535; the only remedy for sin as a breach of divine law, i, 1 1 7 ; mo­ tives of divine forgiveness, i, 535-545; repentance the sole but inexorable con­ dition of sins against Himself, i, 500502*; in the case of injuries against a fellow man, reparation and reconcilia­ tion required, i, 512, 514; ii, 153 if.; forgiveness never refused to the genuine penitent, i, 520; ii, 58. Forgiveness of sins, man's, of injuries done him by a fellow man, ii, 153 if.; refusal a sin, ii, 154. Formalism, in prayer, ii, 227. Four cubits, the, ii, 32 n. Fourth (Second) Esdras, ii, 283 if., 321 f.; chap. 7, 26-44, ii, 338 fFrauds in sale of wine, food, etc., ii, 142. Freedom, man's, power of choice, ability, responsibility, i, 453 if.*; in Sirach, Psalms of Solomon, 4 Esdras, i, 455; Philo, i, 458 f.; mediaeval philosoph­ ers, i, 454 n.; rabbinical teaching, i, 455 f.; freedom and divine providence, i, 454, 4 5 Freedom and necessity, dissension of Jew­ ish sects in Josephus, i, 456-458. Friends, Society of, ii, 5. Fritzsche und Grimm, commentary on the Apocrypha, i, 216. Functional deities, i, 221 n. Funeral feast, ii, 288. Funeral procession, ii, 172. 6

INDEX I

GABBAI G

gabbai sedakah, charity collector, ii, 174 f. Gabriel, angel of revelation, i, 403. Galilee, Judaizing of, i, 287; forcible con­ version of Upper, i, 336; schools in Gali­ lee after the war under Hadrian, i, 93. Gamaliel II (of Jabneh), Patriarch, de­ posed for a time from the presidency of the academy, i, 86; ii, 220; with his colleagues and disciples the funda­ mental authorities of normative Juda­ ism, i, 87; revision and regulation of the Daily Prayer, i, 103, 292; ii, 220; commination of heretics in the Daily Prayer, i, 91. Games at Tyre, Jason sends an embassy to, i, 50. Gan Eden, paradise, ii, 390 f. ganaz, treasure up, put in safe-keeping, i, 247Garden of Delight, ii, 339. Garden of Righteousness, ii, 303. Gates of heaven, i, 530. Gates of prayer and of repentance, i, 530. gayyer, make a proselyte (ger), i, 330; nitgayyer, become a proselyte, ibid. Geburah, ha-, 'the Power,' (the A l ­ mighty, God), i, 374, 472; ii, 335 n. Gehinnom, Gehenna, ii, 391. See Hell. gemilut hasadim, deeds of lovingkindness, charity, ii, 85 n., 86 n., 92, 171 ff.; superior to almsgiving, ii, 85 n., 171 f.; God the great exemplar, i, 441; ii, i n , 172 f.; an atonement equal to the sacrificial atonement on the altar, i, 503. Generation of the Flood, respite given them that they might repent, i, 492, 528. Gentiles, laws given to Noah binding on all, i, 274 f., 453, 462; to be observed by the resident alien, i, 339; table com­ panionship with Gentiles made diffi­ cult by regulation for slaughter of animals, ii, 75; dissension among dis­ ciples of Jesus on this point, ibid. 416

Gentiles, conversion of, i, 3 2 3 - 3 5 3 ; ii, 320, see also Proselytes; in the last crisis, ii, 306 n., 315; opportunity for repent­ ance given to, ii, 304; Gentiles in the general resurrection, ii, 385; their ulti­ mate fate, ii, 385 f.; righteous Gen­ tiles have a share in the world to come, i, 279; ii, 386.* Genuflexions in prayer, ii, 222, 228. George, G. F . L., on the composition and age of the Pentateuch, i, 10. ger, meaning and use of the word (resident: alien, convert to Judaism), i, 328 ff.; ger ben berlt, i, 332 n., 339, 340 n.; ger

sedek, i, 338; ger emet, ibid. selyte.

See Pro­

ger toshab, i, 339, 340. gerim gerurim, i, 337 f., 346.

Gerizim, temple on M t . , i, 23-26; dedi­ cated by Antiochus I V to Zeus Xenios, i, 26, 52 n.; destroyed by John Hyrca­ nus, i, 26. get, certificate of divorce, ii, 122. Ge'ullah, at Passover, ii, 42. gezerdt, authoritative decrees widening the scope of prohibitive laws, i, 33, 46, 258 f.; biblical authority for such ex­ tension, i, 33; restrictions which the majority cannot live up to not to be imposed, ii, 263; eighteen adopted at a conference by a Shammaite majority, i, 81. gilhty 'araiyot, ' incest,' extended to all kinds of unchastity, i, 466 f.; ii, 267; a cardinal sin (q. v.), i, 466 f. Girls, upbringing and education, ii, 128. Gnostics, Jewish, i, 365. God, i, 3 5 7 - 4 4 2 ; ii, 2 0 1 - 2 1 1 ; Jewish con­ ceptions, summarized, i, 423; their undogmatic character, i, 357 ff.; God not transcendent, i, 361, 417, 421; supramundane but not extramundane, ex­ alted but not remote, i, 368 f., 423 ff.; the Absolute in Philo, i, 416; the unity of God, see Monotheism; unity in Philo, i, 361; creator of the world, i, 227 f., 380 ff.; sustains in being all that

SUBJECTS AND NAMES is, i, 384; everywhere present, allknowing, all-powerful, i, 370 if.; religi­ ous significance of these ideas, ibid.; justice and mercy the two primary ' norms ' of his dealing with men, i, 386 ff.; character of his justice, i, 379 f., 387 f., see also Retribution; mercy the quality that best expresses his nature, i, 535; embraces all his creatures, i, 393, 535, see also Compassion; holi­ ness of God, i, 386,461; ii, 101 f., 109 f.; goodness, i, 390 ff.; deeds of loving­ kindness, i, 441; ii, n o f . , 172 f.; an example for man's imitation, ibid.; truth, i, 395; ii, 194 f. love, i, 396 ff.; peculiar love for Israel, i, 398; for the Fathers, i, 536 ff.; the Father in hea­ ven, ii, 201 ff.; chastisement of his children, ii, 248 if.; sovereignty of God, i, 401, 431 if.; ii, 210, 372; history the unfolding of a plan of God, i, 384 f.; teleology,-i, 375; providence and mir­ acle, i, 384 f.; ii, 376 if.; names of God, i> 387» 3 9> 424 ff.; ii, 13411.; abode, the highest heaven, tabernacle, temple, i, 368 ff.; in the New Jerusalem, ii, 342; ministers and instrumentalities, i, 401 ff., 414 ff. ;

8

God-fearing persons ($o/3ol>ju€i>oi, ae(36}ievoi

y

TOV deov), i, 325 f.,

340.

Gog and Magog, ii, 305 n., 333 n., 337 n., 6

n

344 348, 3 7 saddiky a righteous Gentile, i, 279; ii, 386. Golden Age, national, ii, 323 ff., 330; why so long delayed? ii, 231; calculations of the end, ibid. See also Messiah, Messianic Age. Golden calf, Moses' intercession, i, 537. Golden Rule, negative and positive forms; parallels, ii, 87 f. Good Impulse (yeser tob), i, 483 ff.; the righteous man is ruled by his good im­ pulse, i, 495, cf. i, 486 n. Good name, see Reputation, Honor. Good works, of which man draws the in­ terest in this world, while the capital is laid up in heaven, ii, 92; treasure in 3

ot

HABINENU

heaven, i, 544 f.; ii, 90 ff.; deeds of lovingkindness, i, 514. Goodness of God, the thirteen norms (Exod. 34, 6), i, 390, 395; to the un­ thankful and the evil, i, 394 f.; extends to man and beast, Jew and Gentile, righteous and wicked, i, 535. Gospel (euangelion) not sacred scripture, i 86f. 24 f. Gospels, witnesses to the teaching of the synagogue, i, 132, 183, 185, 288 f.; apologetic writings, i, 185; Greek gospels and Aramaic tradition, i, 184 f. Gossip, peddling, ii, 148 f. Government, general principle, ii, 117 f.; duty and limits of obedience to, ii, 113 ff.; Roman, good, because it pro­ tects its subjects and enforces justice, ii, 115. Grace of God, i, 395; ii, 95, see also Good­ ness. Grace after meals, ii, 217. Graf, K . H . , on the composition and age of the Pentateuch, i, 10 f. Gratitude to God, for ill-fortune as well as for good, ii, 253. Great Assembly, see Great Synagogue. Great Synagogue, i, 31 ff.; institutions, i, 32 f.; motto, 1, 33, 3 1 1 ; decision on the Book of Esther, i, 245; regulations about reading of Esther, ii, 52. Greatest commandment, ii, 85. Greek culture in Syria, i, 48 f.; Greek language in Palestine, i, 48, 322; in the home of Rabbi, ii, 128 n. Greek translation of the Pentateuch ( L X X ) , see Versions, Greek. Grudge, not to be cherished, ii, 152, 154 f. guf, repository of unborn souls, ii, 353 n. guje torah, essentials of the Law, ii, 84, 103 n. Gymnasium in Jerusalem, i, 49. >

)

3

H Habdalah, at the close of Sabbath, ii, 37. IJaberim, Associates, ii, 73, 206 n. See also Pharisees. Habinenu, condensed prayer, ii, 212.

417

INDEX I

HAD GADYA I J a d G a d y a , i i , 42.

28; m o u n t a i n s h a n g i n g

H a d e s , H o m e r i c , i i , 289.

28.

Hades, personified, cast into t h e l a k e o f fire,

Hallah,

Hadrian, emperor, plans t o rebuild Jeru­

i, 89 f.;

revolt o f the J e w s ,

Hallel,

i i , 116; edicts aiming a t t h e

with

r a b b i s , i,

300

t h e P r o p h e t s , i,

(non-juristic teaching,

religi­

n o t a t P u r i m , ii,

s u p r e m e m o r a l m o t i v e , i i , 103;

H a m n u n a , R . , p e n i t e n t i a l p r a y e r , i i , 60.

Hananiah

c e n t u r i e s , i , 163, 1 7 1 , 172; i n 190;

in t h e Testaments

ben flakinai,

place

in t h e

e s o t e r i c t r a d i t i o n , i, 4 1 1 .

of

Hananiah

t h e X I I P a t r i a r c h s , i , 190 f.

ben Hezekiah

harmonized

H a g g a d a h b o o k s , i , 163.

Ezekiel

(ben Garon),

with

the Penta­

t e u c h , i , 246 f.

H a g g a d a h s h e l - P e s a h , i i , 42 f. Hagiographa

See also P r o ­

H a n a n i a h , M i s h a e l , a n d A z a r i a h , i i , 107 f.

a n d v a l u e , i , 161 f., 319; o f t h i r d a n d

Jubilees,

at

Feast o f

faning the N a m e .

ous, m o r a l , historical, etc.), character

(KetuHm),

canon

Hananiah, nephew of Joshua ben Hana­ of,

i,

241 ff.; r e s t r i c t i o n s o n r e a d i n g o n S a b ­

n i a h , i , 104, 106. Hananiah

b a t h , i , 314; f a m i l i a r i t y of T a n n a i m

ben Teradion,

H a d r i a n , i i , 106 n . ,

w i t h t h e , i , 87.

Kisma's

r j a k a m i m , t h e professionally learned, ii, m

w a r n i n g , ii,

martyr

174 n . ;

under

Jose ben

114; f a t h e r o f

B e r u r i a h , M e i r ' s l e a r n e d w i f e , i i , 128. H a n d i c r a f t , see T r a d e .

J E a k a m i m , s u p p o s e d c l a s s o f s a g e s , i, 310. Halakah

i i , 50;

i n m a r t y r d o m , i i , 105 ff.

H a g a r , P a u l ' s a l l e g o r y o f , i , 250.

157

a t P a s s o v e r , i i , 42;

i n t h e s y n a g o g u e s e r v i c e , i , 296.

100 ff.;

f.

fourth

each

distinctive principle o fJ e w i s h ethics, ii,

lesson from

Haggadah

from

H a l l o w i n g t h e N a m e {Jk,iddush ha-shem), a

412 f.; 1 1 , 3 8 5 . Haftarah,

Psalms,

dedication, 53;

in discussion

perquisite,

F e a s t o f T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 43;

206.

Hadrian,

priest's

b a k i n g , i i , 7 1 , 129.

s u p p r e s s i o n o f t h e r e l i g i o n , i , 93, 3 5 1 ; ii,

f

H a l f - s h e k e l , p o l l - t a x , i i , 70.

i i , 341.

s a l e m , i , 89; i i , 341;

b y a hair, ii,

#^- kA

(juristic exegesis,

Hands,

formulation,

e t c . ) , definitions, i , 161, 319; l o n g d e ­

the hands

Hanina ben Dosa, miracles in answer t o

v e l o p m e n t , i , 148; g r e a t e r s t r i c t n e s s o f t h e o l d e r , i , 78 f.; i i , 27; r i g o r i s t t e n d ­

holy scriptures make

u n c l e a n , i , 247 n .

h i s p r a y e r , i , 377 f.; i i , 235, 236. hanufahy h y p o c r i s y , i i , 290.

e n c y o f t h e s c h o o l o f S h a m m a i , i , 81; a c t i v i t y i n t h e schools after t h e crises o f 70 a n d 134, i, 148;

H a n n u k a h , F e a s t o f D e d i c a t i o n , i i , 49 f. H a r l o t r y , figure f o r h e r e s y , i i , 250.

systematization

i n t h e s c h o o l o f A k i b a , i , 87 f.; w r i t i n g

I J a s i d i m , ' t h e p i o u s , r e l i g i o u s , ' i, 59; i i ,

156-

d o w n o f H a l a k a h , i, 97 f., 202; i i , 68 n . ; m o r a l principles impressed on the H a l a ­ k a h , ii,

140, 145, 146, 187

H a s i d i m r i s h o n i m , i i , 76 n . , 225. hasldut, s a i n t l i n e s s , g r e a t e s t o f v i r t u e s , i i ,

f.

H a l a k a h , s e c t a r i a n , i, 71 n . ; i n J u b i l e e s , i, 198 f.; t h e D a m a s c e n e s e c t , i , 200 ff.;

H a t r e d , s i n o f , i i , 155.

i n P h i l o , i , 214

H a y y o t , ' l i v i n g c r e a t u r e s ' ( E z e k . 1,5 f f . ) ,

H a l a k a h l e - M o s h e h m i - S i n a i , i , 30, 256,

258. Halakot, rules o f the unwritten law;

i> 3^8, 383, 409, 413.

See also B e a s t s .

Ilazzan, synagogue attendant, duties and mul­

tiplied, with little biblical support, ii,

418

f u n c t i o n s , i , 289 f., 301, 303, 3 1 7 . H e a d o f t h e S y n a g o g u e , i , 289.

SUBJECTS AND NAMES H e a l i n g i n a n s w e r t o p r a y e r , see I J a n i n a

r a b b i n i c a l s o u r c e s , i , 526;

392.

b e n D o s a ; b y t h e n a m e o f J e s u s , see Jacob of Kefar Sekanya. Heart

(mind

i , 486;

yeser,

ibid.; in

ibid.

used

Heathen

as equivalent

H e n o t h e i s m , i , 222 n .

Impulse.

H e r a c l i t u s , i , 379.

s t r u c t i o n o r s u b j u g a t i o n , i , 399 f.; their conversion, ibid.; t o w a r d , i , 400;

among

feeling

Hereafter,

of

men

364

h e a v e n , i i , 340;

he comes

i,

from

two

authorities/

(minim),

writings

s a c r e d s c r i p t u r e , i , 243 f.;

the last outbreak of

ii,

no share in the w o r l d

of the, not commination

i, 364;

the

first

wide

Hermeneutics,

inclu­

248;

of the cardinal

first

p r i n c i p l e o f J e w i s h , i,

t h e s e v e n r u l e s o f H i l l e l , i,

313 n . ;

thirteen of Ishmael,

together,

A k i b a a n d I s h m a e l , i , 88 f. H e r o w o r s h i p , G r e e k , i i , 289.

fesses t h e w h o l e l a w , ibid.

H e r o d t h e G r e a t , i , 73 ff.; i i , 1 1 3 .

Heaven,

commandments

abode

o f G o d , i, 368 ff.;

s e v e n h e a v e n s , i, 368, 383, 530; the

souls

of

the righteous

h e a v e n , i , 368;

i i , 339, 390;

Hezekiah,

the

dead

living,

the

the language of

intelligent

be­

Hillel,

i,

fate,

dissensions

s e c t s o v e r , i , 456 IJelbo,

ff.

R., antipathy

346 f. heleb, s u e t , Helena,

Davidic from

lineage,

Babylonia

i , 234 n . ; to

study

p e r a m e n t a n d c h a r a c t e r , i , 79; of

274, 342;

Jewish

proselytes,

J u d a i s m , i, 349; Hell, premundane,

convert

kah),

h i s h e r m e n e u t i c r u l e s , i, 248,

ibid.;

( P r o s b u l ) , i,

to

adaptations

259

f.

of

See also

the

(hala­

the law

Schools o f

S h a m m a i a n d Hillel.

i i , 91 n . i , 526;

tem­

s p i r i t s h o u l d r e s t o n h i m , i , 422;

i,

p r o h i b i t e d f o r food, ii, 7 5 . of Adiabene,

came under

i i , 196,

dictum o f Hillel t h e legal n o r m

queen

50;

313 n . ; d e c l a r e d w o r t h y t h a t t h e h o l y

See F r e e d o m . to

i , 49,

h i s e a g e r n e s s f o r l e a r n i n g , i, 3 1 3 ;

99 f.;

s p o k e n b y t h e a n g e l s , i, 451. ElfxapfievT],

i i , 183.

S h e m a i a h a n d A b t a l i o n , i , 77 ff., 3 1 3 ;

of the Bible and scholars,

him

expecta­

u n d e r H e r o d , i , 74 f.

up

language

to make

messianic

High priests, t h e hellenizing,

i n g s , i , 403 n . Hebrew,

392;

H i g h c o u r t a t J a m n i a , i, 85;

H e a v e n , m e t o n y m y f o r G o d , i i , 98. bodies,

i,

t i o n s a t t a c h t o h i m , i i , 347 f.

in

no eating

a n d d r i n k i n g i n , i , 405.

Heavenly

G o d proposed

Messiah,

i i , 390;

248,

i , 248 f.;

ibid.; o n e w h o abjures heathenism p r o ­

other

have

t o c o m e , i , 525;

p u n i s h e d i n h e l l f o r e v e r , i i , 387.

('abodah zarah),

s i n s , i, 46(7; g u i l t a s g r e a t a s b r e a k i n g all

i,

356;

of, i n t h e D a i l y P r a y e r , i , 292;

ii> 3°5> 3 4 i .

sion,

'

C h r i s t i a n i t y , i , 365;

250 n .

Heretics

the heathen powers (Gog and Magog),

Heathenism

ff.;

i i , 323;

ibid.

Eiiezer benH y r c a n u s accused of heresy,

e x p i a t o r y sacrifice

when

(minut),

Heresy

i i , 385 f.;

f o r , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 43 n . ; d e s t r o y e d the Messiah

t w o forms, na

age, eschatology,

religious significance,

G o d seeks to bring t h e heathen t o r e ­

by

ii, 279-395;

tional golden

of the

righteous

t h e h e a t h e n , i , 279;

p e n t a n c e , i, 528 f.;

I V , i,

49 ff.; h i g h p r i e s t s , i , 49, 50.

nations, prophesies o f their d e ­

Jews

i i , 3 1 3 , 387,

Sheol.

Hellenizing, efforts o f A n t i o c h u s ,

to

4 E s d r a s (cor malignum),

See E v i l

See also

H e l l e n i z e r s , t h e i r f a t e , i i , 297.

a n d will), seat of evil i m ­

pulse,

HILLEL

in t h e apo­

Hillel

a n d S h a m m a i , differences o f their

c a l y p s e s , a b y s s o f fire, p r i s o n o f f a l l e n

s c h o o l s , i , 46, 7 7 - 8 1 ;

angels,

e n c y o f t h e s c h o o l o f H i l l e l , i, 81, 86.

place

of eternal

punishment:

E n o c h , i i , 301, 302, 305, 306;

4 Esdras,

i i , 339; R e v e l a t i o n o f J o h n , i i , 340,341;

1

ultimate

ascend­

hillul ha-shem, p r o f a n i n g t h e N a m e , ' i i , 108 f.; see also H a l l o w i n g t h e N a m e .

419

HIRED

INDEX I

SERVANTS

bona at mammon,—debarlm,

H i r e d s e r v a n t s , i i , 138 ff.

hirhur 'aberah^ i n d u l g i n g o f s i n , i i , 271.

the imagination

IJoni ha-Me'aggel,

377

i i , 323; u n i t a r y c o n ­

c e p t i o n of, i i , 331 f.

n.; ii,

f r i e n d o f t h e P a t r i a r c h J u d a h , i , 104;

tion

h o n o r , i, 394;

a t t r i b u t e d t o , i , 155 f.; a n d o f

IJodesh, h a - , o n e o f t h e four special sab­

a n d r e p r o o f , i i , 152;

injuries t o

i i , 141 f., 147.

H o n o r i n g p a r e n t s , see F i l i a l P i e t y .

H o s a n n a , i i , 42, 43. Hosea,

b a t h s , i , 298. David, Einleitung

Mekilta

Y o h a i , i , 138;

de-R. Simeon

i,

of the love

n a c l e s , i i , 48. Hosha'ya,

146.

contemporary

C a e s a r e a , i , 268;

f.; i n m a n , i ,

61;

ii,

of Origen

i,

i i , 101 f.,

at

relation to Bereshit

R a b b a h , i , 164; h i s " l a r g e

H o k m a h , ' w i s d o m , ' i, 264. H o l i n e s s , o f G o d , i , 386, 461;

o f G o d , i,

o f r e p e n t a n c e , i , 501.

Hosh'ana Rabbah, seventh d a yof Taber­

ben

Midrasch Tannaim,

prophet

396 f.;

in die h a -

l a c h i s c h e n M i d r a s c h i m , i, 1 3 5 , 1 4 0 , 1 4 1 ;

109

respected

H o r n - b l b w i n g a t N e w Y e a r ' s , i i , 63.

S i f r a , i, 1 4 1 .

editor,

f.

w i t h a m a n ' s o w n , i i , 150 f.; i n a d m o n i ­

h i s l a r g e M i s h n a h , i, 96; r e d a c t i o n o f

Hoffmann,

rain-making saint, i,

222, 235

Honor, of others to be equally

I J i y y a b a r A b b a , B a b y l o n i a n , disciple a n d

Tosefta

to

honayah, i i , 147 n .

H i s t o r y o f t h e w o r l d , G o d ' s g r e a t p l a n , i,

384^,432,446;

injuries

p r o p e r t y , t o r e p u t a t i o n , i i , 147.

Mishnah,"

96.

H o u r s o f p r a y e r , i i , 219 f.

271.

H o l y , p r i m i t i v e application t o things, ii,

Household above,

242. hullin, o r d i n a r y

God's familia,

i,

407;

ii,

74 n . ; p e r s o n s , i , 61; i i , 271. H o l y , T h e , n a m e o f G o d , i i , 101 f.;

with

food, the Associates a t e

t h e i r s i n a s t a t e o f p u r i t y , i i , 76.

t h e e u l o g y , " b l e s s e d is H e , " i , 430.

H u m i l i t y o f G o d ( P s a l m 18, 36), n o k i n d Holy City, the New Jerusalem, f r o m h e a v e n , i i , 341.

days,

of

See J e r u s a l e m .

(mifcra kodesh),

H o l y convocation Holy

descends

interdictions

ii,

23.

in m a n y

ii, 275;

p r o p h e c y , i, 237;

ceased o u t o f Israel

connected

with

Shekinah,

4 2 1 , cf.

244,

422;

i , 422

holy

spirit a n d

n . , 437;

Christian

of, i i ,

r i a g e c o n t r a c t , i i , 127.

H y p o c r i t e s , p r e t e n s e o f l e a r n i n g , i i , 191 f.;

from the pres­

ii,

190.

Hypostasis, misuse of t h e t e r m b y C h r i s ­

of the third a n d fourth

H o m i l y , i n t h e s y n a g o g u e , i , 305

counterfeit P h a r i ­

excluded

e n c e o f G o d , i i , 189; s e n t d o w n t o h e l l ,

legal procedure in cases

t i a n t h e o l o g i a n s , i, 415 f., 437.

cen­

H y r c a n u s , J o h n , see J o h n H y r c a n u s .

t u r i e s , i , 163, 1 7 1 , 172.

also

s e e s , i i , 193;

184 ff.

Homilists,

the

H y p o c r i s y , i i , 190 ff.

cardinal sin

H o m i l e t i c a l M i d r a s h , i, 1 6 1 - 1 7 1 .

of piety,

ibid.;

a n e c d o t e of, i i , 251.

o f p i e t y , i i , 192 f.;

(shefikat damim),

(q. v.), i , 467;

its consequences,

Husband, obligations assumed in t h e m a r ­

c l a i m , i , 243. Homicide

t h e g r e a t e s t v i r t u e , i i , 273 f.;

H u n a , h e a d o f t h e s c h o o l a t S u r a , i i , 256;

the water libation a t

i i , 45;

too lowly for

s p i r i t o f t r u e l e a r n i n g , i i , 245 f.

with death of Haggai, Zechariah, a n d i, 237,

helpfulness f.

belongs to Jewish conception

H o l y spirit, in rabbinical use t h e spirit o f

Tabernacles,

440

Humility,

reli­

g i o n s , ii, 21.

Malachi,

human

h i m , i,

ff.

See

H y r c a n u s , high

priest, son of Alexander

J a n n a e u s , i , 72 ff.

Haggadah.

420

SUBJECTS AND NAMES

I n c a n t a t i o n s , o v e r t h e sick, ii,

I

Incense, I b n E z r a , o n D a n . 12, 2, i i ,

298.

binical legislation;

151

in teaching of J e s u s ,

f. f.

n.

antipathy

I s r a e l t o , i, 223;

of

the

religion

of

concomitant of poly­

t h e i s m , m o s t h e i n o u s o f s i n s , i, 362 ff.;

f.;

r e j e c t i o n of,

i s a c k n o w l e d g m e n t o f t h e w h o l e l a w , i, b e g a n in t h e g e n e r a t i o n o f E n o s h ,

i, 473 n . ;

yielding

i d o l a t r y , i,

469

to evil impulse

See also

f.

I d o l s , s a r c a s m o n , i, Idumaea,

is

Heathenism.

227.

conquered

Judaized

by

336.

I l l u m i n a t i o n , in t e m p l e , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 46 f.;

of houses, at Feast of

t i o n , i i , 49

principle

mon,

Philo),

third

remove

of

i,

448

e v i l , i, 479 f.

i i , 267,

271;

See

funda­

morals,

f.;

(Philo),

(devising)

ff.;

(Wisdom

l o s t b y A d a m ' s s i n , i,

Imagination:

ibid.;

of

Solo­

a likeness i,

449

n.;

at not

479.

Evil

Impulse.

t h e i m a g i n i n g o f sin is s i n , if i n d u l g e d is w o r s e

I m i t a t i o n o f G o d , i, 441;

than

271. i i , 85,

109

ff.*,

essential

ii, 311;

m o n i d e s , ii, 393;

n.;

n.

prohibited

degrees,

of

ii,

the

120

f.;

Individualizing

of prophetic message

t h e p e o p l e , i, 113 f.; ii,

248 f.,

509, i,

292;

r e t r i b u t i o n , i,

repentance,

i,

520 f.; s a l v a t i o n , i, 120 f.

224

a

f. to 501;

501 Cf.

f., also

f.

Infidels,

deniers

of

revelation,

retribu­

tion, resurrection, etc., punished in hell f o r e v e r , i i , 387

f.

(kqfer ba-ikkar— t h e 521, 522; i i , 149 f. Informers

R o o t ) , i,

( d e l a t o r s ) , ii,

God

360, 467,

149 n . ,

525;

ii,

387i i , 141 f.;

394;

worse than to person or p r o p ­

e r t y , i i , 147 I n s i n c e r i t y , ii,

ff.* 191.

(bedlkah)

Inspection

e r e d f o r f o o d , ii, 74

of animals

slaught­

f.

237 f.;

ceased with the last prophets,.

i, 237,

243,

421;

of Solomon,

i,

238;

P h i l o ' s t h e o r y , i, 239; v e r b a l a n d l i t e r a l , i b i d . , i, 88;

associated w i t h sacred j o y ,

46.

Instrumental music, the levitical b a n d at

I n s u l t s , ii, 147 f.,

f.

149 n.

See

Injuries to

honor. nature of

o f G o d i n m a n , i, 448;

conceptions,

for

rabbinical enlargements

of

T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 46

I m m a t e r i a l i t y , a n a b s t r a c t i o n , i i , 287 P l a t o n i c , i i , 292

i,

Damascus sect makes marriage with

ii,

172.

image

cardinal sin,

includes all kinds of unchastity,

I n s p i r a t i o n , o f t h e a u t h o r s o f S c r i p t u r e , i,

o f m a n ' s h e a r t is

a c t u a l t r a n s g r e s s i o n , ii,

Immortality,

(disin­

I n j u r i e s t o r e p u t a t i o n o r t o h o n o r , i,

wherein it consists

Imagination

Dedica­

f.

I m a g e o f G o d i n m a n , i, 446 mental

388.

purification

Infidelity, f u n d a m e n t a l , disbelief in

and

J o h n H y r c a n u s , i,

of

n i e c e i n c e s t u o u s , i, 201

p o l e m i c a g a i n s t , i, 362

325;

466 f.;

list

I d o l a t e r , f i v e n a m e s b y w h i c h h e is c a l l e d i n S c r i p t u r e , i, 466

rites

(gffluy 'araiyot),

Incest

ibid.;

I d l e n e s s , l e a d s t o s i n , i i , 127

Idolatry,

in

fection), ii, 5 5 .

I d e a l (utopian) s t r a i n in biblical a n d r a b ­

ii,

INTERCESSION

P h i l o , 295;

hope of

deity,

Integrity

Greek

I n t e l l e c t , t h e likeness of G o d in m a n ,

Mai­

immortality

t h e r i g h t e o u s o n l y , i i , 293

I m p o s i t i o n of h a n d s , in sacrifice

f.

sacrifices o f w o m e n , ii,

the

in

130.

187.

191.

immortal element

(kawwanah),

p r a y e r , s t u d y , i i , 223

452.

in religious

acts,

ff.,

f.

240,

245

the intercession of Moses

t h e s i n o f t h e g o l d e n c a l f , i, 537, I n t e r c e s s i o n o f a n g e l s , i, 438

421

i,

breathed

Intercession for o t h e r s , in p r a y e r , a d u t y , i i , 219;

I m p r i s o n m e n t , as f o r m of p u n i s h m e n t , ii,

ii,

i n t o h i m b y G o d ( P h i l o ) , i, Intention

(semikah)

e a r l y s u b j e c t o f c o n t r o v e r s y , i, 46;

448;

(sedek),

f.

after 550.

INDEX I

INTERDICTIONS I n t e r d i c t i o n s , i i , 3; s u r v i v a l s , i i , 8; 21;

ii,

74 f.;

primary other

e x a m p l e s , ii, 5 f.;

as

in m a t t e r s of food,

i,

on

and

sabbath

ii,

28

restrictions,

Clean and

I s r a e l , t h e w o r l d c r e a t e d f o r , i, 383,449 f.;

activities,

secondary,

rabbinical

See also

I s r a e l , t h e p a t r i a r c h , see J a c o b .

ii,

election

of,

i,

God's

peculiar

l o v e f o r , f o r t h e s a k e o f t h e f a t h e r s , i,

33.

435 f.;

Unclean.

prophet of the true religion and

m a r t y r , i, 228

I n t e r e s t o n l o a n s (' u s u r y ' ) , ii, 142

398 f.;

ff.;

ff.

Israelites,

I n t e r i m e t h i c , ii, 151 f.

f.

sons

of

God,

ii,

203.

See

F a t h e r in h e a v e n .

I n t e r m a r r i a g e with aliens, prohibitions in

I t u r a e a n s , f o r c i b l e c o n v e r s i o n of, i,

336.

m i a h , ibid.; s i m i l a r l a w s in G r e e c e a n d

'iyyun tefillah, 235 n. ^

Rome,

Izates, king of Adiabene, convert to J u ­

t h e S c r i p t u r e s , i, 19;

i, 19

ff.;

i n J u b i l e e s , i,

marriage with

aliens

197.

Intermediaries,

calculating

d a i s m , i, 349;

between

(transcendent) God nature

Ezra and Nehe­

an

and

and of men,

i i , 91 n .

the world

i n P h i l o , i.

J

of 416;

J a b n e h , see J a m n i a . J a c o b , M e r i t s o f , i, 536,

tian

Jacob,

i,

417;

the

Memra,

Shekinah, etc., not such intermediaries,

417 ff., 437

i,

the

of

Jesus

f.

Kefar

the

538,

539.

Sekanya,

Nazarene,

disciple

healer

n a m e o f J e s u s , i, 378 n . ; i i ,

Intermediate state of souls between death and

r e s u r r e c t i o n , ii,

301 f.,

Jaddua,

339,

high

priest,

9

0

f

the

250.

contemporary

247

of

A l e x a n d e r t h e G r e a t , i, 34 n . pro­

'

Interpretation and

of

by

J a h v e h (Yahweh), probable ancient 3

ii,

inaccessible

the New Testament, Gnosticism, Chris­ theology,

on prayer,

of

methods f.;

Scripture,

in

r e s u l t s , i,

revealed

249

principles religion,

See also

f.

nunciation of the p r o p e r n a m e of G o d o f I s r a e l , i, 427.

i,

Her-

Jamnia

I n t e r p r e t e r , in

mari),

the

302

s c h o o l t e a c h e r , i,

kai, ibid.;

(meturge-

synagogue

h i s f u n c t i o n , i,

ff.; o f t e n t h e

in

remission

Jannai

539

i,

ff.; w i l l i n g n e s s

sacrifice, to

his

the binding

ibid.;

of

to

p e c t i n h i s m i s s i o n , i, 550 I s a i a h , B o o k of, ii, 327;

245

for J o n a t h a n ) ,

f. king,

i,

4 5 f.

of 549;

J a s o n o f C y r e n e , i, 206; Jehovah

540.

national disuse

f.

I s h m a e l b e n E l i s h a , i , 87,

245

Midrash l

his chief disciples, of

his

school,

i,

299.

Christian

pro­

of

the

I s r a e l , I H V H , i,

name,

motives,

i,

424; 424,

s u b s t i t u t e s in r e a d i n g the S c r i p ­ 429;

other substitutes,

i,

430 f.;

exclusive

relation to Israel,

i,

219

designates G o d in his m e r c i f u l

ff.;

Jeremiah,

the

G o d , i, 397;

i,

136,

ii,

a n d g r a c i o u s c h a r a c t e r , i, 387,

n.;

laws given that a m a n should live by

ff.;

god

of

t u r e s , i, 424,

f.

106 n . , p r i n c i ­

p l e s o f i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , i, 88 f.,

t h e m , ii, 19, 30;

427

53, 12 a p p l i e d

t o P h i n e a s , a n d t o M o s e s , i, 549

(conventional

n u n c i a t i o n ) , i, 219, p r o p e r n a m e o f t h e

50, 6 a p p l i e d t o

I s a i a h h i m s e l f , i, 550 f.;

X

(nickname

J a s o n ( J e s u s ) , H e l l e n i z i n g h i g h p r i e s t , i,

be

ground

descendants,

w i l l i n g t o b e a r t h e s i n s o f I s r a e l , i,

I43> 4 5 >

Zak­

see A l e x a n d e r J a n n a e u s . i, 536;

Isaiah, w a r n e d b y G o d w h a t he m u s t ex­

143;

J o h a n a n ben

w i t h t h a t o f p e a s a n t s , ii, 240,

225. See also

Kawwanah. I s a a c , m e r i t s of,

offered

ff.;

t h e B e t D i n , i, 84 f.

J a m n i a , t h e r a b b i s of, c o m p a r e t h e i r w o r k

318.

I n w a r d n e s s in r e l i g i o n , ii,

(akedah),

(Jabneh), reorganization of J u ­

d a i s m a t , i, 83

meneutics.

the

See J e h o v a h .

prophet,

on

the

389. love

of

s a b b a t h o b s e r v a n c e , i,

25.

J e r o b o a m (ben N e b a t ) , king, has no share in t h e w o r l d t o c o m e , ii,

6

4-

422

388.

SUBJECTS AND NAMES J e r o m e , account of the Nazarene sect,

i,

JONATHAN

J e s u s , s o n o f S i r a c h , see S i r a c h .

i86f.

J e w s , exceptional s t a t u s and privileges in

Jerusalem, restoration by Zerubbabel and Joshua,

E z r a , N e h e m i a h , i, 4 ff.;

pairs of

the

walls by

S i m e o n , i, 34 f.; i, 49, 51 f.;

the high

under Antiochus

i, 73;

350;

priest

extended

to

233

f.,

336,

proselytes,

i,

J e w s a n d S a m a r i t a n s , i, 23 ff.

f.;

by Herod,

not

233 f-, 35°-

IV,

J u d a s M a c c a b a e u s , i, 53

taken by Pompey,

t h e R o m a n e m p i r e , i, 225,

re­

J o b , m o t i v e s f o r s e r v i n g G o d , i i , 99

f.

i, J o h a n a n , high priest in the Persian period,

74;

b y T i t u s , i, 83;

rebuilt by Hadrian

a s A e l i a C a p i t o l i n a , i, 89 f., 91, J e r u s a l e m , sole

legitimate

ficial w o r s h i p , ii, 1 1 ;

seat

i,

93.

of

sacri­

341

the New

J e r u s a l e m , i i , 300,

90,

pious

187;

and

the

of

the

synagogue,

i,

288;

and

s e e s , i, 183; 90 f.;

185 f.; 309,

i i , 309; 329;

ii,

the

Phari­

84;

ii,

tablishes

85 f.;

ii, 168;

of

ii,

Man,"

f. 33Sy y

329; i,

the 127

stitutes

f.,

illustrations of

civic

and

153;

the

religious

and

John

f.;

i i , 267; response i i , 250;

to

Hyrcanus

reputed fountain-

(Johanan),

breach

with

became

a S a d d u c e e , i, 58,

v o i c e (bat

f.;

the

kol)

high

Pharisees,

i,

482;

f.

priest 56; 336;

57

ff.;

rebel­

the last years

heard a

announcing

o f h i s s o n s , i, 422;

question,

392;

charged with laxity

cures w r o u g h t b y his disciples

t h e u s e o f h i s n a m e , i, 378; t r i a l , i i , 187 n . ;

arene,"

86,

his w o r k c o n s e r v a t i v e , n o t r e ­

o f h i s r e i g n , i, 63;

mysterious the victory

charges against

him

(?) i n E n o c h 94-104, ii, 156. J o h n t h e B a p t i s t , h i s m e s s a g e , i i , 309; t h e r o l e o f E l i j a h , ii,

i n t h e o b s e r v a n c e o f t h e S a b b a t h , i i , 29,

his

81;

proof of the resurrection of the

d e a d , i i , 383,

31;

su­

and predomin­

l i o n a g a i n s t h i m , i, 62;

adultery of the eyes,

another halakic

t h e H i g h C o u r t , i, 83 ff.;

a n d r u l e r , h i s w a r s o f c o n q u e s t , i,

the

g r o u n d s o f d i v o r c e , i i , 124

con­

f o r c i b l e J u d a i z i n g o f I d u m a e a , i,

w h a t to do to inherit eternal

l i f e , i i , 90 f., 321;

es­

and

h e a d o f t h e e s o t e r i c t r a d i t i o n , i, 411

p o o r a n d acquiring t r e a s u r e in h e a v e n , i i , 90 f.;

Jamnia

f o r m a t o r y , i, 131 f.;

lend­

everything to

at

a n c e o f t h e s c h o o l o f H i l l e l , i, 85,

reproof and

giving

giving

school

p r e m a c y of Pharisaism

374- See also

n o n - r e s i s t a n c e , i i , 151

ii,

i,

pre­

the Son of David,

o p p r o b r i o u s w o r d s , i, 48;

ing,

l e a d e r o f t h e P h a r i s e e s , i , 85;

t h e d e s t r u c t i o n o f J e r u s a l e m , ii,

cf.

forgiveness,

n.

escapes from the city, ibid.;

334

d u t i e s , ii, 118;

i i , 329

116;

Nazarene,

ii,

106. Akiba

dicts

i,

teaching of Jesus: t w o great c o m m a n d ­ ments,

to

J o h a n a n ben Z a k k a i , disciple of Hillel,

Nazarenes. Jesus

warning

f.,

" Son f.,

Torta,

90

beliefs,

genealogies,

309

ben

a b o u t B a r C o c h e b a , i, 89;

de­

the merit of good works, messianic

apocalyptic

186;

Scribes

!53-

Johanan

atti­

nunciation

the

ii,

J o h a n a n h a - S a n d e l a r , a t N i s i b i s , i,

i,

Scripture

i i , 9 f.;

of

ff.,

observant Jews,

knowledge

through

Joshua

315.

J o h a n a n ben Nuri, anecdote a b o u t A k i b a ,

t u d e t o t h e l a w , i, 269 f.;

ii,

(ben H a n a n i a h ) , i,

332,

J e s u s t h e N a z a r e n e , d i s c i p l e s of, i, 90 183 ff.;

159.

J o h a n a n ben Beroka, visit to R .

343.

f.,

H y r c a n u s , q. t?.), r e g u l a ­

t i o n s a b o u t D e m a i , i i , 72 n . ,

in the f u t u r e to

b e t h e r e l i g i o u s c e n t r e o f t h e w o r l d , i, 230;

23.

Johanan (John

thrust

P e r a h i a h , i,

away

legality of

"Jesus by

by

the

Joshua

J o h n , R e v e l a t i o n of, see

Revelation.

J o n a t h a n , b r o t h e r of J u d a s M a c c a b a e u s ,

Naz­ ben

in

326.

i, 5 5 J o n a t h a n ( J a n n a i ) , high priest and

348.

see A l e x a n d e r J a n n a e u s .

423

king,

INDEX I

JONATHAN

a c t e r o f t h e s a b b a t h , i i , 35;

J o n a t h a n ben Uzziel, T a r g u m of Prophets

o f t h e H a l a k a h , i , 275;

a t t r i b u t e d t o h i m , i, 175; f o r b i d d e n t o translate the Hagiographa,

s a b b a t h l a w s , i i , 27.

i i , 353.

J u d a h , the Patriarch, son of Simeon ben

J o s e t h e G a l i l e a n , his d i v o r c e , i, 123,126. Jose ben IJalafta,

Gamaliel

authority on chrono­

his

l o g y , a u t h o r o f S e d e r ' O l a m , i, 6 n. Jose

b e n J o ' e z e r , o n e o f t h e first

l e g e n d o f h i s d e a t h , i , 45;

strictness

especially t h e

I I , h a d learned

father's

house,

Greek

i i , 128 n . ;

in

school

a t S e p p h o r i s , i , 104; d i s c i p l e s , i , 104 f.;

Pair;

h i s M i s h n a h , i , 94 ff., 151 ff.;

his m a x i m ,

1 , 4 6 , 3 1 1 ; gezerdt, i , 46.

became

t h e t e x t b o o k i n B a b y l o n i a n s c h o o l s , i,

105;

J o s e b e n J o h a n a n , o n e o f t h e first P a i r ,

(ha-fyadosh)

called ' the h o l y '

for

over

h i s e x t r e m e m o d e s t y , i i , 272; f r i e n d s h i p

J o s e p h , s o n o f M a t t a t h i a s , see J o s e p h u s ,

J u d a h ben B a t h y r a , head of a school a t

controversy

with

his colleague

t h e semlkahy i , 45 f.

w i t h A n t o n i n u s , see A n t o n i n u s .

Titus Flavius.

N i s i b i s , i , 104 ff. J u d a h b e n Ila'i, basis of Sifra ascribed t o ,

J o s e p h b e n G o r i o n , i , 83. Josephus, Titus Flavius, historian of the J e w i s h W a r , i , 208 f.; t h e J e w s , i , 209 f.; laus

his sources:

of Damascus,

318 n . ; — J e w i s h 209 f.;

A b , ii,

Nico­

i , 64 n . , 209; sources,

i,

J u d a i s m , h i s t o r i c a l , i , 3-109;

66 n . ,

character

s u m m a r i z e d , f u n d a m e n t a l i d e a s , i, 1 1 0 121*;

sent t o organize r e ­

to the Romans

his mourning o n t h e N i n t h o f

66.

J u d a h h a - L e v i , i i , 226.

ii,

his account o f his ancestry a n d

e d u c a t i o n , i , 210; sistance

i, 1 4 1 ;

Antiquities of

establishment

type,

i n G a l i l e e , i,

i , 3;

of

a

monotheism

s a l i t y , i , 22 f.;

normative

and univer­

a religion of a u t h o r i t y ,

83 n . ; p r e d i c t i o n t o V e s p a s i a n , i i , 116 n . ;

i, 324 f.;

o n t h e r e l i g i o n o f h i s t i m e s , i , 210; o n

323 f.; i n t h e e y e s o f G e n t i l e s a p h i l o s o ­

a m i s s i o n a r y r e l i g i o n , i , 229,

t h e P h a r i s e e s a n d S a d d u c e e s , i , 57 ff.,

phy,

66 ff., 456 f.;

m i n d e d n e s s , i , 502.

beliefs

about

the here­

a f t e r , i i , 317 f . ; o n t h e T e t r a g r a m m a t o n , i,

424 n . ;

number

of

people

324 f.;

essential

healthy-

Judas the Galilean (Gaulonite)

at the

and the

" f o u r t h p h i l o s o p h y , " i i , 374 f.

P a s s o v e r , i i , 12.

Judas

J o s h u a , h i g h p r i e s t o f t h e R e s t o r a t i o n , i,

for

6f. Joshua

i,

Maccabaeus,

i,

53 ff.;

expiation

the J e w s fallen in battle

wearing

h e a t h e n a m u l e t s , i i , 299. (ben Hananiah),

rudely

b y G a m a l i e l I I , i i , 220;

treated

J u d g m e n t , principles of God's, n o t arbi­

a l i n k in t h e

trary,

e s o t e r i c t r a d i t i o n , i , 4 1 1 , 412 f.

always

according

j u s t i c e , i , 379;

J o s h u a b e n P e r a h i a h , his m a x i m , i, 3 1 1 ;

ponderance

to truth and

according

o f deeds,

to the pre­

i , 455;

fate of

legend o f his t r e a t m e n t o f his disciple,

those in w h o m good a n d evil balance,

J e s u s t h e N a z a r e n e , i , 348.

ii,

J o s i a h , k i n g , h i s r e f o r m s , i , 221, 223. J u b i l a t i o n , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , unequalled, ii,

see

Judgment,

also

Judgment

at

(decision)

45, 62; a t N e w Y e a r ' s , t h r e e c l a s s e s , i ,

of the in­

408

s t i t u t i o n a f t e r t h e e x i l e , i , 340 n .

institu­

n.,

485, 495, 533;

Penitential

J u b i l e e s , B o o k o f , i , 193 ff.; H a g g a d a h i n , i , 197; H a l a k a h , i , 198 f., 203;

rain,

a n d t h e life o r d e a t h o f i n d i v i d u a l s , ii,

J u b i l e e , l a w of, r e v e r s i o n o f l a n d e d p r o p ­ desuetude

New

a t four seasons o f

the year, for grain crops, fruits,

47e r t y , i i , 146 f.;

318,

Year's.

Judgment,

ii,

62, 64. See

Days.

of the World Empire

in its

tion o f festivals a n d legal regulations in

e n m i t y t o G o d , i i , 331 f.;

p a t r i a r c h a l t i m e s , i , 275;

h i s t o r y , o r as a g r a n d assize a t t h e e n d

festal

char­

424

a s a crisis i n

SUBJECTS AND NAMES of

t h e a g e , i i , 332;

t h e kings

of the

e a r t h a n d t h e p o w e r s o n h i g h , i i , 296; fallen

angels,

shepherds,

the

i i , 300,

seventy 301;

(angelic)

fate

of t h e

apostates, ungodly, blasphemers, ibid.; the mighty of the earth destroyed b y God's chosen ones,

i i , 304;

a t the begin­

ning

a g e , ii,

of

t h e messianic

Resurrection, Hell;

K a r a i t e s , i , 1 1 0 , 258.

karet, see E x t i r p a t i o n . fcasir, o l d n a m e o f t h e h a r v e s t f e s t i v a l , F e a s t o f W e e k s (shebuot), P e n t e c o s t , ii,48.

kawwanah,

341;

L a s t J u d g m e n t , i i , 339, 341, 385,

also

K a h a n a , R a b , P e s i k t a , i , 168. K a n t , m o r a l c r i t e r i o n , i i , 88.

judgment

o f a l l n a t i o n s , i i , 309 f.;

and intention in religious acts, p r a y e r ,

223 ff., 233 n . ; kawwanat ha-leb, ii, 225. %eba\ a fixed t a s k , pensum, o f p r a y e r o r

m a n r u l e , i , 234. development

o f, b y t h e

S c r i b e s , i , 42 f.

s t u d y , see T a s k .

Jteddshim, a n g e l s , i , 402. kedushah ( T r i s a g i o n ) i n t h e

l i t u r g y , ii,

K e f a r Sekanya, village in Galilee,

Juster, J . ,Les Juifs dans l'empire romain,

101.

home

of J a c o b , disciple of Jesus t h e Nazarene ( i , 378 n . ; i i , 250); " o f t h e N a z a r e n e s , "

i n ­

destroyed because i t did n o t m o u r n o v e r

justice of God, man's assurance t h a t H e

J e r u s a l e m , i i , 67 n .

will n o t use his might w i t h o u t regard t o r i g h t , i , 387 f.; i,

379 f.,

human

principles of its exer­ 388;

contrasted

( R o m a n ) j u s t i c e , i, 527;

norms

and mercy,

(middot)

m e n , i , 387; mentary

the

cf. i i ,

of God's dealing

aspects

K e n e s e t I s r a e l , c a t h o l i c J u d a i s m , i, 1 1 1 . y

with

i,

m a r r i a g e c o n t r a c t , ii,

122, 123

n.

Ketubim, the third group of books in the Hebrew Bible (Hagiographa), the name,

comple­

of his character,

G e d o l a h , i , 31 n . ; s e e G r e a t

Synagogue.

ketubah

two primary

u n i t e d , i , 389 f.;

Keneset-ha

with

d r a m a t i c a l l y p e r s o n i f i e d , i , 392.

Justice,

392

intently attention

s t u d y , etc., ii,

Jurisdiction of Jewish courts under R o ­

183;

i i , 240);

see

J u d i t h , h e r f a s t i n g , i i , 257.

cise,

" directing t h e mind

t o H e a v e n " ( i , 505;

soul a n d b o d y

j u d g e d t o g e t h e r , i , 486 ff.; i i , 392.

Jurisprudence,

KINGDOM

i,

241

n.

Kharijites,

f.

4

seceders'

(Moslem),

the

n a m e P h a r i s e e s c o m p a r e d w i t h , i , 61 f.

Justice among men, even-handed

to rich

a n d p o o r , i i , 139 f.; d i s t r i b u t i v e , p u b l i c ,

a n d p e r s o n a l ( r e c t i t u d e ) , i i , i8off.

1

J u s t i n M a r t y r , i, 91. Justinian, Novel.

K i d b o i l e d i n i t s m o t h e r ' s m i l k , ii, 75.

\iddushy ' s a n c t i f i c a t i o n ' o f t h e S a b b a t h , e t c . , i i , 36. tyddush ha-shem, h a l l o w i n g t h e N a m e , ' i i , 101 ff. kiddushin, b e t r o t h a l , i i , 121 f.

146, i , 1 1 1 .

K i n g , t i t l e o f G o d , u s e a n d significance, i, K Kabbalah,

ff

228 f., 401, 431 -*; »>

' tradition,'

for t h e P r o p h e t s 87 n . , 239;

collective

name

and Hagiographa,

i,

K i n g , i i , 209 f.;

n o t used in this period for

g l o r y , o f G o d , i,

212 f.; the

the Lord's

same

210,

373-

420, 438.

K i n g , i n t h e g o l d e n a g e t o c o m e (" M e s ­

i i , 101, 104 n . ,

Prayer

verses on G o d as king

i n t h e N e w Y e a r ' s l i t u r g y , i i , 64,

K a d d i s h , p r a y e r (in A r a m a i c ) in t h e s y n ­ a g o g u e s e r v i c e , i , 306;

> 303; a d ­

dress t o G o d in p r a y e r , O u r F a t h e r , o u r

t h e e s o t e r i c t r a d i t i o n , i , 239 n .

kabod,

2 I O

begins

in

w a y , i i , 212 f.; K a d d i s h

de

s i a h " ) , i i , 324 ff., 330. Kingdom Verses

(malkuydi)

in t h e N e w

Y e a r ' s l i t u r g y , i i , 64, 210, 373. of Heaven

(malkut Shamaim)

reign (sovereignty)

of God, universal-

Kingdom

R a b b a n a n , i i , 208.

425

INDEX I

KINGDOM ity of the

t r u e r e l i g i o n , i, 228

432

320, 346

ff.;

ii,

Gospels, 434; in

the 309,

Israel

at

tioned

374 f.*;

reality, Sinai,

in

372;

268

i,

to

be

ii,

373,

heaven

263

com­

o f t h e P e n t a t e u c h , i , 9 f.,

11

and

inscribed

complete, ff.,

divine

i,

247;

wisdom,

perfect,

358;

on

p r e s e r v e d in

generations, the

known

them;

277

age

ff.;

(not

ff.

partial revelations

to

Abraham,

revealed

at

275

Sinai,

f.;

i,

accepted

by

276;

Israel only,

created for the sake of

Israel

for

the

Law),

in

b y them (not

Greek

n a m e of God.

i i , 77;

i,

450

f.;

die

b y t h e m ) , i i , 19,

30,

binding because imposed b y G o d , n a t u r a l (i, 462

n.) a n d s t a t u t o r y

l a w s , o f i d e n t i c a l a u t h o r i t y , i i , 6 f., 79; L

cf. i i ,

127

ii,

See also

Feast of Dedication,

i i , 49

the

f.

s e v e n t y , i,

lashon ka-ra\ see Law:

the

sake"

begin­ the

evil-speaking/

ii,

149

f.,

Calumny. i, 235-250;

Unwritten

L a w , 251-262; P e r p e t u i t y o f t h e L a w ,

divine origin in r e v e a l e d religions,

mundane

ii,

obli­ men's

summaries

of

the

a n d v a l u e , i i , 83

t h e L a w , ' i i , 84,

comprehensive

381,

existence,

cf.

i, i,

198; 266

f.,

ante-

ff.;

103

n.;

command­

398. the

L a w a religious

duty

an elixir

(from

motives);

a the

study

for

study

a

religious

of

own

any

other

preventive

evil

impulse,

also

Study.

i, 481,

end,

or 485,

ii,

96

antidote 489

f.

f.; for See

ff.;

in

the

Persian

religious

p e r i o d , i,

16

ff.;

legal

and

development,

i,

18 f.;

r e a d i n g of, i n t h e s y n a g o g u e ,

see

Pentateuch.

in J u d a i s m , a d o g m a w i t h an

anathema,

for

d e a d l y poison to one w h o pursues

4

L a w , a n i n a d e q u a t e r e n d e r i n g o f T o r a h , i,

i , 235 f.;

79;

L a w , r e s t o r a t i o n o f t h e L a w b y E z r a , i,

263-280. 263;

of

ideal

o f t h e f i r s t r a n k , i i , 239;

227.

Scripture,

i i , 6,

life to h i m w h o studies it " for its

C h r i s t i a n e r a , i , 302;

1

146;

L a w , study of of

f.

the

God's

ii,

most

m e n t , i,

Jubi­

146.

Languages spoken b y J e w s at the of

5;

'essentials

in i l l u m i n a t i o n a t

77,

division

unwritten law, a unitary

L a w , significance

Language of the learned, Hebrew

ning

ii,

conduct,

L a n d e d p r o p e r t y , r e v e r s i o n in t h e

s c h o o l s , i , 99

and

gation,

272.

L a m p , S a b b a t h , i i , 36;

moral —

revelation of equal and identical

139.

Hired servants. L a d d e r of v i r t u e s , ii,

and

w a r r a n t e d in S c r i p t u r e ,

written

177;

240 n . , 244.

t h e i r r i g h t s , ii,

lee y e a r , ii,

ceremonial

not

a n d b l e s s i n g s of,

f.,

i,

Israel

i, 397 f.; l a w s g i v e n t h a t m e n s h o u l d l i v e

substituted

107;

Laborers,

i,

unchange­

greatest proof of God's love for Israel,

chest for poor-relief,

translation of the Bible for the proper

Labor, dignity

i,

was

proclaimed to all nations and rejected by

Kuenen, A., on the composition

i i , 97;

974

with

completely

Root

Ecclesiastes.

(Lord),

ff.;

274 f.;

152. the

f.;

it

t o A d a m a n d N o a h f o r a l l m a n k i n d , i,

fifth

( G o d ) , p r a c t i c a l a t h e i s t , i, 360,467, 521.

KVPLOS

for

identified

see

a b l e , i, 269

one w h o denies

kuppab, c o m m u n i t y i i , 174 ff.

instrument with which

h e a v e n l y t a b l e t s , i, 198;

men­

Things,

d i v i s i o n o f t h e M i s h n a h , i,

K o h e l e t , see

f.;

c r e a t e d , i, 397

by

434.

Consecrated

kqfer ba-ikkar,

plan on which the world was made,

kingdom

p r a y e r for its

p l e t e r e a l i z a t i o n , i, Kodashim,

w o r l d created for the sake of the L a w ,

the

crisis,

the

prayer,

Kingdom Verses;

401,

in

acknowledged

ii,

every

ff.,

ff.;

eschatological 310,

present

371

f.,

L a w s which all m e n recognize a p a r t from

526;

426

legislation,

and laws for which

no r a -

SUBJECTS AND NAMES t i o n a l o r m o r a l r e a s o n a p p e a r s , i i , 6 f., 8, 77; i,

l a w s binding o n l y ' in t h e L a n d , '

273;

ii,

71,

158 n . ,

162 f.;

about

s a c r i f i c e s , r e a d i n g of, i m p u t e d a s i f t h e s a c r i f i c e w a s o f f e r e d , i i , 14 f.; suspended

259.

by

biblical,

r a b b i n i c a l a u t h o r i t y , i,

See also

Legislation.

L a w s o f n a t u r e , ii,

80

n.,

(shellh sibbur),

L e a d e r in p r a y e r

c l a s s , i i , 246; condition

of

humility the spirit

brings

the

309. See also

L e a s e h o l d , i i , 146

learn­

precedence,

obligation

i,

40;

(Evil

480. single-

m i n d e d n e s s , t h e t w o i m p u l s e s , i, 484 Lecture,

on

S a b b a t h s , in

M i d r a s h , i, 314 Legal

144

and

the

Bet

f. ha-

f.

moral responsibility,

ii,

141,

f o r g i v e n e s s , i, Legislation,

for sin as

transgression

periods,

117.

Utopian, in t h e

i i , 145; the

H e r o d , i, 77; 32 ff.;

the

Pentateuch,

of the Persian and Greek Asmonaeans,

i,

260

258 ff.;

f.;

the G r e a t Synagogue,

ordinances

and

decrees

t h e S c r i b e s a n d t h e i r s u c c e s s o r s , i, spirit of the Tannaite

i, of 33,

legisla­

t i o n a n d j u r i s p r u d e n c e , i i , 145 f.,

187

181,

f. of, i i , 76;

m e n t for evil-speaking 248;

and other sins, of

Lessons for reading in the synagogue,

see

l o v e , " ii,

not

punish­

a " chastisement

book

be

378.

f.

studied

in

f.

189.

L i b e r a l i t y i n a l m s g i v i n g , ii, L i f e (soul), in t h e b l o o d , ii,

164. 287.

Life, danger to, supersedes sabbath laws, ii> 3 ° ;

even

fasting

A t o n e m e n t , i i , 59;

on

the

Day

" the law was

of

given

t h a t a m a n s h o u l d l i v e b y i t , " ii, 30,107,

386.

Line of legal right, m e n urged not to press t h e i r r i g h t t o t h e l i m i t , i i , 152,

lis an telitae, e v i l - s p e a k i n g , lishkat hashalm, c h a m b e r i i , 167 11. 1

Literature

of

the

168.

150.

of the silent,'

Persian

and

Greek

f.

L i t t l e f a i t h , m e n of, i i ,

232.

(hayyot), see

Loans, without interest; septennial

ii,

year,

ii,

Beasts.

cancelled in t h e 163;

application

f o r a l o a n n o t t o b e r e f u s e d , i i , 143 fictitious,

167

n.;

form o f charitable gifts,

ii,

f.

Logos, Stoic origin of the idea and name, i, 416;

in P h i l o , a s e c o n d a r y d e i t y , in­

termediate God

and

men;

between

the

transcendent

the world of nature and

a manifest

and

active deity,

of i,

the w o r d of G o d has no similar

p l a c e i n P a l e s t i n i a n J u d a i s m , i,

Lohnordnung,

Judaism

erroneously

t r a s t e d w i t h C h r i s t i a n i t y as

417. con­

Gnadenord-

L o n g life of t h e righteous, free f r o m p a i n and sorrow, after the great judgment,

Bible reading.

of the X I I

to

the

f.,

nung, ii, 95.

248.

L e v i , t o u r t h r o u g h the h e a v e n s in T e s t a ­ ments

ii,

416 f.;

Leprosy, uncleanness

i i , 149,

first

' Living creatures '

o f d i v i n e l a w , t h e o n l y r e m e d y is G o d ' s

i, 260;

Leviticus,

p e r i o d s , i, 127

n.

L e g a l i s m , ii, 78;

for

363

L e v i t e s , o b j e c t s o f c h a r i t y , i i , 163

L i m b u s i n f a n t u m , ii, a t P a s s o v e r , ii,

double-mindedness,

y

kept

etc.

t h e " b a d l e a v e n in t h e d o u g h " I m p u l s e , q. v.),

leb

to

Study.

f.

Leaven, interdicted

lebab,

and

learning

a n a g g r a v a t i o n o f s i n , i, 464 f.;

246 f.;

317.

monster,

L i b a t i o n o f w a t e r a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i, 44 ff.

59.

ii,

t r u e , i i , 245 f.;

ing a n d doing, question of

t e a c h , i,

sea

m e s s i a n i c b a n q u e t , i i , 298,

n.

Learning, a p u r e d e m o c r a c y , no privileged

ii,

L e v i b e n S i s i , i, 290, Leviathan,

Liars, excluded from the presence of G o d ,

L a z a r u s , M . , E t h i k des J u d e n t h u m s , ii,

79

Levi and J u d a h , ibid.

s c h o o l s , i, 140

249.

LORD'S PRAYER

P a t r i a r c h s , ii,

191;

427

ii,

3°!> 3°3-

L o r d ' s P r a y e r , i, 189;

i i , 101, 208,

213.

INDEX I

LOT

L o t in t h e w o r l d to c o m e ( u l t i m a t e sal­

M

v a t i o n ) , a s s u r e d t o e v e r y I s r a e l i t e , ii, 94 f., 388

387 f.;

f.;

exceptions,

i,

525 f.;

o t h e r s i n n e r s , i i , 147

ii,

f.

i,

396 ff.,

f o r t h e r i g h t e o u s , i,

535 f.;

especially

400.

252,

i i , 98 ff.;

253;

6,

5),

ii,

religious a t t i t u d e ,

should be man's sole

o f o b e d i e n c e , i i , 100,

201,

M a ' a s e h Bereshit, esoteric cosmogony,

motive

241;

G o d to

M e r k a b a h , chariot

Maccabaean

53

r e v o l t , i,

f.

a s t h e g o o d , i i , 230;

M a c c a b e e s , F o u r t h , i,

f.;

l o v e a n d f e a r , ii,

99 f., 194. prehensive

m o r a l p r i n c i p l e , ii,

conjunction

of

love

to

God

com­ 85 ff.;

and

to

a m p l e f o r m a n ' s i m i t a t i o n , i , 441; f.,

172

use of names o f

388.

Magical papyri, Greek, name of the G o d o f t h e J e w s i n , i,

426.

M a g n i f y i n g t h e N a m e ( o f G o d ) , i i , 104

Maimonides,

337.

L o v i n g k i n d n e s s o f G o d , his deeds an ex­

110

ii,

M a h z o r V i t r y , i, 7 n . , 32,

fellow-man, ibid. L o v e - p r o s e l y t e s , i,

ii,

Order of

y e a r , i, 177; i, 236;

f.

Prayers

54-

43.

metaphysics, ibid.;

j a n ' s t i m e , ii,

Tra­

107.

thoughts,

ii,

s t i m u l i t o , i i , 270 f.;

265 f.,

267,

269;

h o w c o m b a t t e d , i,

489, 490. good

w o r k s , m e r i t , r e w a r d , i i , 93 f.

('dneg),

servance

accessibility

of

God,

i,

M a l a c h i , o n e of t h e l a s t p r o p h e t s , i,

31,

i, 31 n . maVakah,

' w o r k , ' in defining

the

kinds

p r o h i b i t e d o n t h e S a b b a t h , i, 27 f. M a l ' a k i m , a n g e l s , t h e n a m e , i, 402

n.

See

of

belongs to the proper ob­ Sabbath,

f.;

to be foregone rather than become

a

b u r d e n t o o t h e r s , ii, 0 almond'),

i i , 35 f.,

177.

Shamaim,

Malkuyot,

nu­

cleus for the r e s t o r a t i o n of t h e b o d y , ii,

Kingdom

of

specifica­

t i o n o f t h e t h r e e c a r d i n a l sins, i,

467;

(bastard), bound

f a t h e r , ii,

30, 106, 247.

428

the 64,

to honor

his

133.

a t e d ? i, 450;

why was man

cre­

w o u l d it h a v e been better

f o r h i m if h e n e v e r h a d b e e n c r e a t e d ? m a d e in the image a n d like­

n e s s o f G o d , i , 397 the likeness

54.

in

Y e a r ' s , ii,

M a n , t h e n a t u r e of, i, 445-459; u n i t y o f

i i , 285 n . ;

Lysias, regent for Antiochus I V , g u a r a n ­

verses,'

New

373-

t h e r a c e , i, 445 f.;

385. L y d d a , conference of rabbis at;

see

' kingdom

M u s a f service on

Mamzer

the indestructible

t e e s r e l i g i o u s l i b e r t y , i, 53,

Malkut

Heaven.

37

ii,

393. and

Angels.

L u t h e r , prejudice against ideas of

Luz

philo­

on the resurrec­

237,421; E z r a b y s o m e i d e n t i f i e d w i t h ,

Lullianus and P a p p u s , m a r t y r s in

Luxury

the

423-442.

L u l a b , g r e e n b r a n c h e s , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , ii,

Lustful

t i o n , ii, Majesty

n.

for

Thirteen Articles (creed),

s o p h i c a l e t h i c s , i i , 81; L o y a l i s t s , J e w i s h , u n d e r A n t i o c h u s I V , i,

f.

177.

antipathy to anthropomorph­

i s m s , i, 437;

L u c r e t i u s , i i , 311

ff.

208.

M a g i c , p o t e n c y of, i, 1 1 4 ; g o d s i n , i, 426;

L o v e to one's neighbor as the m o s t

ff.

See also

ff.

Martyrs. M a c c a b e e s , F i r s t , i , 205

M a c c a b e e s , S e c o n d , i, 206

r e p e n t a n c e , i, 514

speculation

( E x e k . i, 4 f f . ) , t h e o s o p h y , i, 411

be l o v e d w i t h the evil impulse as w e l l highest m o t i v e to

i,

333 (• Ma'aseh

Love to God, threefold (Deut. 85 f., 230,

deputation of laymen regularly

p r e s e n t a t t h e t e m p l e w o r s h i p , i i , 12 f.

L o v e of G o d , for Israel, collective and in­ dividual,

maamady

f., 446 f.;

c o n s i s t s , i, 447 ff.;

wherein man's

SUBJECTS AND NAMES f r e e d o m a n d a b i l i t y , i , 453 ff.; r e s p o n s i ­

M a s t u r b a t i o n , ii,

b i l i t y , i, 38,

masur la-leb,

445,

454 ff.;

the evil impulse

(q.

nature

i, 451 f.;

of

man,

v),

created with

i, 480

f.;

dual

in P h i l o ,

obliga­

i,

c a n b e f i x e d , i i , 82, 148

n.

M a t h i a ben IJeresh, head of a school

Manasseh,

king

of

Judah,

introduction

o f f o r e i g n r e l i g i o n s , i , 221 f.; a n c e , i, 523 f.,

530;

R o m e , i, 106

his r e p e n t ­

of Manasses;

has

n o s h a r e i n t h e w o r l d t o c o m e , i,

525;

i i , 388;

c o n t r a r y o p i n i o n , i,

M e a t with milk, prohibition of ing, ii,

Megillah

525.

Purim,

(Roll ii,

of

Esther),

52 f.;

abode

of G o d ,

186.

reading

objections

Megillat Ta'anit, Fasting

t o H e r o d , i, 75 f. heaven,

combin­

to

at

it,

ii,

i,

S c r o l l , i,

160;

54, 68.

Megillot, the F i v e Rolls, reading at

n.

M a r r i a g e , a d i v i n e o r d i n a n c e , ii, 119; hibited

degrees,

extensions,

ii,

niece, ibid.;

i i , 120 f.;

121;

of

in

heaven,

early

marriages

pro­

marriage with

arranged b y parents, ibid.; made

i,

439

t i v a l s , i, 241

mehussere amanah, 232 n .

a

ibid.;

favored,

ii, ii,

M i s h n a h , ibid.;

f.;

tions

marriage of students, ibid.; laws of the D a m a s c u s s e c t , i, 201 Marriage

to Elisha

d i a l e c t i c , i , 95;

ii,

122

Mekilta, Tannaite

f.,

127.

Mekilta de-R.

M a r t y r s , M a c c a b a e a n , their death a v i ­ c a r i o u s e x p i a t i o n , i , 548 f.;

expect

be b r o u g h t to life again, ibid.;

A k i b a , i , 93;

Midrash on

T e r a d i o n , i i , 106 n . , Martyrs,

174 n . ,

the

the

ignorant People

and

328.

( G o d , e t c . ) i n t h e B i b l e , i , 418;

f.

p o s t a s i s , " i , 437; negligent,

ii,

(amme

418 memrly' i,

myself,' ii,

i, 31 ff.;

40.

ff.;

or " hy­

Strack-Billerbeck on,

327

n. (Synagogue),

t h e i r m o t t o , i, 33, 3 1 1 ;

deci­

s i o n o n t h e B o o k o f E s t h e r , i , 245, " r e ­

n.

stored the c r o w n " (of the divine a t t r i ­

Teacher.

b u t e s ) , i , 380; M a s t e r a n d s e r v a n t , i i , 138 ff.;

does not

n.

M e n of the G r e a t Assembly

M a s t e m a , S a t a n ( i n J u b i l e e s ) , i i , 316

at

does

c o r r e s p o n d t o L o g o s i n P h i l o , i , 416

f.;

n o t a p e r s o n a l b e i n g , i , 419;

of the Land

games

50.

not render " the w o r d of the L o r d "

f.

M a s s o t , u n l e a v e n e d c a k e s , ii,

M a s t e r , see

T y r e , i,

from

ff.

M e m r a , i n t h e T a r g u m s , i , 417 ff.;

massekety massekta, i, 152. 206; see ha-ares).

M e l c h i z e d e k , ii,

first

M a r t y r d o m , h a l l o w s t h e N a m e , i i , 105 n o t t o b e c o u r t e d , i i , 107

ben Yohai,

M e l k a r t , g o d o f T y r e , i, 221;

ben

114.

Christian, appear in

r e s u r r e c t i o n , i i , 341

106;

Hananiah

Simeon

Exodus,

ff.

t h e s c h o o l o f A k i b a , i , 138

to

under

u n d e r H a d r i a n , i,

i i , 106 n . ;

rela­

b e n A b u y a h , i, 95 n . ,

s c h o o l o f I s h m a e l , i , 135

T r a j a n , i i , 107;

to his

395, 522.

f.

(ketiibah),

contract

said

h a v e b e e n a p r o s e l y t e , i , 95 n . , 347;

234;

119

m e n o f s c a n t f a i t h , ii,

M e i r , d i s c i p l e o f A k i b a , i, 94 f.;

marriages

f.;

fes­

n.

M e g i l l o t , M i d r a s h i m o n , i, 171.

rabbinical

cousins-german,

i,

245.

M a r i a m n e , A s m o n a e a n princess, m a r r i e d

high

f.,

75-

M a t t h e w , G o s p e l a c c o r d i n g t o , i,

M a n s l a u g h t e r , see H o m i c i d e .

Marom,

251

*53> 38i n .

chastisement did for h i m

w h a t i n s t r u c t i o n d i d n o t , i i , 253;

in

f.

M e a s u r e f o r m e a s u r e , i i , 249 n . ,

the angels t r y to

s h u t i t o u t , i b i d . ; h i s p r a y e r , see P r a y e r

Masses,

268.

l e f t t o conscience,*

tions and duties for which no q u a n t u m

452.

430

1

MENAHEM

s l a v e s , ii,

Menahem

135 ^

M e s s i a h , ii,

429

ii,

229.

(ben Hezekiah), 348.

name of

the

INDEX I

MENDICANTS

M e n d i c a n t s , begging from door to door, ii,

170, 176 f.

M e n e l a u s , hellenizing

high

p r i e s t , i , 50;

t h r o n e , i i , 336 f.;

4 Esdras, Apoc. of

B a r u c h , i i , 337 f.;

Revelation of J o h n ,

i i , 339 ff.; ' p r e e x i s t e n c e ' o f t h e M e s ­

his extraction, ibid., n.

s i a h , 343 f.

M e r c y , o f G o d , i , 386,389 ff.; t h e q u a l i t y

Messiah, rabbinical opinions: n o t an ante-

t h a t best expresses his n a t u r e , i, 5 3 5 ;

m u n d a n e c r e a t i o n , i i , 349; a m a n , n o t

e m b r a c e s a l l h i s c r e a t u r e s , i , 393, 535.

a p r e t e r n a t u r a l being, ibid.; t h e (secret)

M e r c y , a mannvho shows no m e r c y to his fellow, can expect

none

name o f t h e M e s s i a h

f r o m G o d , ii,

526;

154, 169 f.

ii,

upon

M e r i t , acquired b y obedience to t h e m u l ­

344,

348;

p r e m u n d a n e , i, to

325 ff.,

347;

Hezekiah,

t i p l i e d c o m m a n d m e n t s o f G o d , i i , 92 f.;

Menahem

o f g o o d w o r k s , i i , 90 ff.; t r e a s u r e s i n

S h i l o h , i i , 348 f.;

heaven,

D e l i v e r e r (go el), i i , 298;

his

ibid.;

treasuries

G o d gives

merit

from

to men who have not

(Isa.

e a r n e d i t , i i , 94.

God's

Aaron, ibid.;

favor,

Miriam,

his character

alternative

come unless Israel repents;

con­

will n o t

will

i , 542 f.;

of

David,

t i o n s o f t h e d a t e , i i , 352 flf.; s i g n s o f

rather

Paul,

i,

calcula­

t h e t i m e s , i i , 354; h e w i l l n o t c o m e t i l l

than

the w h o l e e m p i r e goes o v e r t o heresy,

in extra-canoni­

i, 541 f.;

t i m e , ii, 351;

come

at God's

w a r n i n g against v a i n confidence 543 f.;

1 1 , 2), i i , 349;

fixed

348;

Moses,

to for t h e people

writings,

ii,

Y i n n o n , i i , 349; t h e

of

i n d i v i d u a l l y , i , 543 f.; cal

i i , ^ 347 f.;

(ben Hezekiah),

i , 538 ff.;

M o s e s * i n t e r c e s s i o n , i , 537; a p ­

pealed

conferred

d i t i o n s o f h i s c o m i n g , i i , 350;

M e r i t o f t h e F a t h e r s (zekut abot), g r o u n d of

be

h i m b y G o d , i i , 340; D a v i d , i i ,

i i , 356;

542; i n , i,

till a l l t h e souls in t h e reposi­

tory

are embodied,

and

moral

i i , 353;

declension

religious

preceding

his

not comparable to the Catholic

t i m e , i i , 3 5 6 f.; E l i j a h t h e p r e c u r s o r , i i ,

d o c t r i n e o f t h e t r e a s u r y o f m e r i t s , i,

357 ff.; t h e " t r a v a i l o f t h e M e s s i a h , "

544-

i i , 361 f.; h i s c o m i n g a j u d g m e n t t o t h e

M e r k a b a h , t h e chariot (Ezek. i, 4 ff.), in theosophic

speculations,

M e s s i a h , i i , 323-376; s i g n i f i c a t i o n w o r d , i i , 330 (see A n o i n t e d ) ;

form

330 f.,

of the expectation,

347;

older

of the

n i g h t w h e n J e r u s a l e m w a s d e s t r o y e d , i, 348 n . ; t h e r e is n o M e s s i a h t o c o m e , i i ,

clas­

347 n . ; w i l l r e i g n 400 y e a r s , t h e n d i e ,

i i , 324,

i i , 339, see M e s s i a n i c A g e .

the

Messiah,

S c i o n o f D a v i d , i i , 324 f.; i n t h e D a i l y

551 f.;

Prayer,

for h i m , ibid.;

i i , 213, 325;

Z e r u b b a b e l ) , i i , 325;

designation,

Scion

(as title,

S o n o f D a v i d , ii,

quering

king,

i i , 329 f., 332 f.;

con­

from

Messianic

shifted

t h e S o n of M a n in t h e

Parables of Enoch, G o s p e l s , i i , 335 f.;

i i , 334 f.;

i,

mourning

t h e suffering

Messiah

i i , 370;

J e s u s , i,

B a r C o c h e b a , i , 89;

i i , 116 n . ;

329.

t h e historical to a supernatural

s t a g e , i i , 331 f.;

(ben Joseph),

his death,

90 f., 185 f.; i i , 309. Messiah,

char­

a c t e r o f h i s r e i g n , i i , 330, 3 3 1 ; r o l e o f the Messiah in the apocalypses,

Ephraimite i i , 370 f.;

( E p h r a i m ) , i, 551 f.;

328, 329, 347; D a v i d i c l i n e a g e a s t a n d ­ i n g f e a t u r e , i i , 324 ff., 328 ff"., 347;

born in Bethlehem

and r a p t a w a y in a w h i r l w i n d o n t h e

king in

the national golden age t o come; sic

g e n e r a t i o n , i i , 363;

i , 300, 411 ff.

in t h e

the

a g e (' D a y s o f t h e M e s s i a h ' ) ,

national

323, 375, 378;

golden

age to come,

ii,

" messianic age w i t h o u t

a M e s s i a h , " i i , 327 n . ; i n t h e a p o c a l y p ­ ses f r o m t h e t i m e o f D o m i t i a n is t e r m i ­

the Messiah coming

n a t e d b y t h e L a s t J u d g m e n t , i i , 338 ff.;

o n t h e c l o u d s o f h e a v e n , i , 128 n . ; i i ,

i t s d u r a t i o n , i i , 339, 340, 373 f.; w h y

334 f.,

is i t s c o m i n g s o l o n g d e l a y e d ? i i , 231,

337;

sitting

on

a

judgment

430

SUBJECTS AND NAMES 350

ff.;

ff.;

before it a g r e a t pestilence

will

away

the wicked

fate

of

the

heathen

nations,

Mind,

sweep

o f I s r a e l , i i , 362 ii,

Minim,

371;

opinions,

i, 346;

the

i n t h e m e s s i a n i c a g e , i, 271 f.;

a t h a n ) , i i , 364

f.;

Minister

ff.*;

Minor

unburied dead, to per­

interpreter

in

the

syna­

of

Kuen­

.

nor

ii,

;

129.

neither

completely

62, 318

M i d d o t , Dimensions,

f.,

com­

bad,

t r a c t in t h e

ple, ascribed to Eiiezer

i,

387. Mish­

nah on the p l a n of the H e r o d i a n ben

* norms,'

287;

attributes

hermeneutic

77, 79 n . ;

rules

tem­

J a c o b , i,

of

of

God,

juristic

legislation,

135.

exegesis i,

89,

of

97,

the 132,

of

i,

319.

Midrash

Tannaim,

on

miracles in response

ff.;

faith, ii,

235 f.;

b y the use of the secret N a m e ,

i, 426;

w r o u g h t for Israel for the s a k e

o f A b r a h a m , i, 538 f.;

in the d e l i v e r ­

a n c e o f m a r t y r s , i i , 107

f. i i , 206

n.

M i r i a m ' s well, ibid.

(cf.

d e a t h of,

ex­

leprosy, punishment for

of

angels

149. and

women,

i,

See A n g e l s , f a l l of. comprehensive

term

for

the

science of t r a d i t i o n , o v e r against M i k r a , s t u d y o f t h e B i b l e , i, 319; Midrash,

i,

150 f.,

Mishnah and

319;

t r a d i t i o n a l l a w , i, 132;

i,

94;

i, 94,

especially,

in t h e s c h o o l of 151;

133,

v a l u e of, i, 1 7 1 .

156.

M i s h n a h , T h e , o f t h e P a t r i a r c h J u d a h , i, 4, 94 f., 96;

431

M e i r , i,

the L a r g e M i s h n a h s of H i y y a , B a r

K a p p a r a , H o s h a ' y a , i, 96, i,

to

t o p r a y e r , i , 377 f.;

A k i b a ' s disciples,

f.

Midrash, homiletical (Haggadah),

i,

systematic compilations of rules of the

146. Deuteronomy,

the

376 f.;

Mishnah,

ff.;

mi­

than

t h e age o f m i r a c l e s n o t p a s t , i,

406.

Mosaic 135

ii,

providence,

c a l u m n i a t i n g M o s e s , ii,

M i d r a s h ha-Gadol, catena on the P e n t a ­ t e u c h , i, 138 f., 144 f.,

for

378 f.;

Miscegenation

Tannaite, or Hala­

Midrash, Halakah, Haggadah,

161

i i , 349;

wonderful

operations

p i a t o r y , i, 547;

i,

Midrash and Mishnah, branches

o f s t u d y , i, 150 f.;

146

more

M i r i a m , i, 542;

M i d r a s h , the higher exegesis of S c r i p t u r e , i, 319;

her

synagogue

M i r a c l e - w o r k e r s , i, 377 f.;

i,

Hillel,

o f R . I s h m a e l , i, 88,

by

C h r i s t i a n i t y , ii,

P a u l ' s a l l e g o r y , i, 250);

middot,

kic,

no

ii, 205 f., 237;

[benonlm),

good f.

betrothed

-

ordinary

297.

pletely

I31

racles

M i c h a e l , a n g e l i c c h a m p i o n o f t h e J e w s , i,

485, 495

be

n.

M i r a c l e , t h e i d e a of, i, 376;

M e z u z a h , a m u l e t o n d o o r - p o s t s , ii,

class

ff.

410.

mlnut, h e r e s y , s o m e t i m e s 250 n . , 356. minyan, q u o r u m o f t h e

e n ' s t h e o r y o f t h e P r i e s t s ' C o d e , i, 12 n .

Middle

303,

p r a y e r , t e n f r e e a d u l t m a l e s , i, 300;

174.

Eduard, development

ii,

girl, could

f a t h e r , i i , 121

f o r m t h e l a s t offices f o r w h o m i s a d u t y

403;

91;

among

M i n i s t e r s o f G o d ( a n g e l s , e t c . ) , i, 401

o f t h e T a n n a i m , ii, 346

g o g u e , i,

dualists

of

M i n i s t e r i n g a n g e l s , i,

o f t h e h i g h e s t o b l i g a t i o n , i, 7 1 .

Meyer,

sometimes

d u t i e s a n d f u n c t i o n s , i , 289 f., 301,

f.

messianic expectation and the reign of

Meturgeman,

heretics,

and Levi­

ff.

G o d , ii, 374. met miswah. T h e

con­

365, 366. See also mlnut. the synagogue (kazzan),

t h e m , i,

Law

Messianic expectations of hellenistic J e w s , ii, 329

sectaries,

t h e i r b o o k s , i, 243 f.;

marvel­

l o u s f e r t i l i t y o f P a l e s t i n e , i i , 365 Messianic banquet (Behemoth

hellenistic

p a r t i c u l a r l y t h e N a z a r e n e s , i, 85 f.,

see

T e n T r i b e s ; p r o s e l y t e s in t h a t age,

conflicting

rational faculty,

n.

394.

c e p t i o n , i, 48 5 f.

f.;

ff.,

207

h o p e , ' ' f o n t , ' ii,

M i l l e n a r i a n s , C h r i s t i a n , ii,

shortly

r e t u r n o f t h e d i s p e r s i o n , i i , 366

also

mikweh, '

calculations of the set t i m e , a n d

s i g n s o f i t s a p p r o a c h , i i , 352

MISHNAH

i t s a u t h o r i t y , i, 105,

151;

INDEX I

MISHNAH d i s p o s i t i o n , 152 f.; Mishnah, 154;

i , 97,

writing down of the

154;

editions,

transmission,

translations,

Mordecai,

i,

commen­

i>

taries, ibid. f.

Moses,

commandment';

specifically

c h a r i t a b l e o r f r i e n d l y a c t , i i , 32, M i t h r a s , M y s t e r i e s of, i , Modesty,

closely

t i t y , ii,

171.

associated

with

complete,

Mosheh

the

thrice

n.

i, 392;

n.

of

i,

227

f.;

Jewish

432 f.;

origin

propaganda

and

i,

monotheism,

226;

polemic,

i,

Mountains

of

h a i r , ii,

i,

362;

257;

general

n o t casuistical,

r i e s , i i , 83 f.;

d u c t , i i , 89 ff.;

I s a . 53, 12 a p p l i e d t o his d e a t h

caused

475. Maimonides.

halakot)

eminence

suspended

by

a

fasting n o t prescribed, ii,

o n t h e N i n t h o f A b , i i , 66;

for

83.

judicial murder,

p r e c a u t i o n s a g a i n s t , i i i , 187

ibid.;

f.

M y s t e r i e s , G r e e k a n d O r i e n t a l , ii, M y s t i c i s m , see E s o t e r i c

systematized, 82 f.;

320.

teachings.

N

summa­

N a m e , in p r i m i t i v e a p p r e h e n s i o n , ii, N a m e of

God

(Tetragrammaton,

101.

HliT),

principles,

d i s u s e o f t h e p r o p e r n a m e , i, 424,427 ff.;

M o t i v e s of m o r a l con­

s u b s t i t u t e i n r e a d i n g t h e S c r i p t u r e , i,

chief sources, T a n n a i t e actual morals of

mores,

424,

ii,

4;

conform­

essence

of

( S i m l a i ' s s u m m a r y ) , i i , 83 f.

429 f.;

utterance 425

M o r a l i t y , primitive conception the

n.;

and Aaron,

great exemplar of hu­

M u r d e r , see H o m i c i d e ;

t h e J e w s , i i , 80 f.

to

537;

438

considera­

fundamental

see also

M i d r a s h , e t c . , i i , 80;

ity

(of

not ethics as a b r a n c h of

p h i l o s o p h y , i i , 81 f.; n o t

i,

t h e f a l l o f J e r u s a l e m , i i , 67.

s t a t u t o r y form, ibid.; m o r a l and religi­

s u m m a r y of t h e m o r a l l a w , ii,

Philo,

28.

b a t h , i i , 37;

in

Dualism.

ous obligations, a false division,

h i s o w n ) , i,

M o u r n i n g , d a y s of, i n t e r r u p t e d o n a s a b ­

Jewish

M o r a l l a w , g r o u n d o f o b l i g a t i o n , i i , 7 f.;

79-197;

pray

intercession

M o t i v e s o f m o r a l c o n d u c t , ii, 8 9 - 1 1 1 .

univer­

in

360, 416. See also

t i o n s , 79 ff.;

should

his

h 542.

and

not the outcome

implications,

ii,

269;

to four (Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel),

f u n d a m e n t a l d o c t r i n e in

t h e e x c l u s i v e p r i n c i p l e , i , 223;

P h i l o , i,

239,

" Mothers," the name given b y

in G r e e k poets and philoso­

40 ff.,

ff.,

i i , 196;

M o s e s b e n M a i m o n , see

v a r i o u s origin a n d c h a r a c ­

character

84

(/uteo-irqs),

b y A d a m ' s s i n , i,

p h e r s , i, 362;

ii,

Israelites

h i m i n d e t a i l , i, 550;

o n treasures in h e a v e n ,

M o n o l a t r y , i , 222

i i , 82;

that

d a i l y , i i , 218;

m i l i t y , i i , 273 f.;

f.

360 ff., 401,

the reve­

i,

different temper of Moses

260.

362.

J u d a i s m , i , 349;

Morals,

mi-Sinai),

mediator

public rain fasts, ibid.;

M o n o b a z u s , king of A d i a b e n e , c o n v e r t to

Isaiah

propria

to,

(halakah lei, 30, 256, 258;

of the Fathers, not

syna­

v o l u n t a r y fasts of i n d i v i d u a l s , ii,

t e r , i, 361;

God

an i n t e r m e d i a r y in

after t h e sin of t h e golden c a l f ( m e r i t

Monobazus.

g o g u e s , i i , 261;

sal

247 f.;

unchangeable,

ordained

152.

M o n d a y and T h u r s d a y , service in

Monotheism,

245.

by

t h e g i v i n g o f t h e L a w , i, 438;

chas­

M o h a m m e d , o n t h e r e s u r r e c t i o n , i i , 381

91

Syna­

traditions ascribed to him

M i s h n a h , i,

M o m b a z , see

Great

f.

revelation i,

the

lation to him (written and oral) final,

233.

Mo'ed, Festivals, second division of

ii,

51

ii,

persona,

a

272.

M o n i s m , i,

245;

of

introduction of Purim,

M o r d e c a i D a y , i i , 52,

M i s s i o n o f I s r a e l , i, 228

miswah, '

member

g o g u e , i, 31 f.;

f.;

o t h e r s u b s t i t u t e s , i , 430 of

one

who

Name

forbidden,

pronounces

it

as

ff.; i, it

is s p e l l e d h a s n o s h a r e i n t h e w o r l d t o c o m e , i , 426; prohibition,

432

the

i i , 388; i, 425 f.,

m o t i v e s for the 427 f.;

used

in

SUBJECTS AND NAMES magical by

it,

formulas; i,

426;

u t t e r e d in

the

exceptional

miracles

in

temple

only,

ordinance,

i,

cluded

wrought

theosophy,

427;

92;

pro­

l a t e r o n l y t o t r u s t w o r t h y m e n , i, uttered

it

in

72, l e t t e r s , i, 426 n . ;

the seven

n a m e or title of G o d to be

God

in

his

names

f.;

of

526;

the

IHVH

N a r c i s s u s s t o r y , i i , 264 Nashim,

Women,

M i s h n a h , i,

from

the

correctly

74.

the

three

Freedom.

290.

governor

J u d a e a , i, 5;

f.

third division

of

531.

105. of

the

district

some identified

w i t h Z e r u b b a b e l , i, 31 n . ;

him

member

t h e G r e a t S y n a g o g u e , i, 3 1 , 32;

of

second

g o v e r n o r s h i p , i, 5, 14 f.

vice-president

N e h e m i a h , disciple of A k i b a , a n o n y m o u s

104.

e l e m e n t in t h e T o s e f t a ascribed to h i m ,

r e v e a l e d t o t h e m a n d r e j e c t e d , i,

i>

453;

155.

Neighbor, * thou shalt love t h y

b u l l s , b u r n t offerings,

at

as

Tabernacles an expiation for t h e m ,

ii,

r u l e o f m o r a l o b l i g a t i o n , i i , 85

n.

thyself,'

the

most

neighbor

comprehensive ff.,

174;

let thy neighbor's p r o p e r t y be as dear

N a t i o n s o f t h e w o r l d , see

Heathen

Na­

to

tions.

thee

151;

National

character

I s r a e l , i, 219 nationality 234;

of

restoration of the walls of

J e r u s a l e m , i , 5 f.;

the

N a t i o n s , t h e s e v e n t y , i, 227,278; t h e L a w

43

Jewish 106.

t r u s t w o r t h y , ' e s p e c i a l l y in m a t ­

Nehemiah,

ff.

152.

the seventy

and

N e h a r d e a , s c h o o l a t , i,

i,

( A b bet Din) under Simeon ben G a m a ­ l i e l I I , i,

ii,

ff.*

not

t e r s o f t i t h e s , first f r u i t s , e t c . , i i , 7 4 , 1 5 9 .

premundane,

Babylonian,

91,

440

N e e d l e , e y e of, i n a f i g u r e , i ,

N a s i , see P a t r i a r c h . Nathan

f.;

animals

N e c r o m a n c y , ii,

ne'eman, '

Messiah,

of

N e c e s s i t y , see F a t e and

and

in

( A l e p p o ) , i,

y o u t h s in t h e fiery f u r n a c e , ii,

389.

340, 344, 347

ii,

flesh

Nebuchadnezzar,

N a m e , T h e . , see N a m e o f G o d . Name

91;

Kefar Sekanya.

s l a u g h t e r e d , i, 339;

no

merciful

gracious c h a r a c t e r , in distinction E l o h i m , i, 387,

nebelah,

employed

l i g h t l y , e v e n i n p r a y e r , i , 428

See also

f.

N e a r n e s s o f G o d , i, 368

42,

t h a t m a y n o t b e e r a s e d , i i , 134 n . ;

designates

186

425;

n a m e s o f 12,

(Jeru­

s e a t s e a s t o f t h e J o r d a n , i , 91;

the region of Beroea

(judicial)

• o a t h s ( l a / S e ) , i, 427;

Capitolina

r e g a r d e d b y t h e c h u r c h as heretics, i,

f.;

nunciation formerly taught to any one,

Samaritans

Aelia

s a l e m ) w i t h t h e r e s t o f t h e J e w s , i,

ibid.;

i, 424

from

NEW

ff.; and

religion

of

o f J u d a i s m , i, 233

of

the

f.;

universality,

r e c o n c i l a t i o n , i,

i,

thine

own,

i,

19;

ii,

142,

19;

ii,

150, 151.

N e ' i l a h , final s e r v i c e o n t h e D a y o f A t o n e ­

219-

228.

m e n t , i i , 59;

p r a y e r a t , i i , 211 n . ,

214.*

N e r o , r e b e l l i o n o f t h e J e w s u n d e r , i,

N a t u r a l a n d s u p e r n a t u r a l , i,

376.

expectation

N a t u r e , G o d ' s a c t i v i t y i n , i, 375 f.;

laws

o f n a t u r e d i v i n e o r d i n a n c e s , i, 376 Nazarenes,

i,

as

t h y neighbor's honor as thine o w n ,

disciples of J e s u s the

N e r o , ii,

n.

of

the

of

343.

N e r v a , d e l a t i o n s p r o h i b i t e d b y , i,

Naza­

83;

reappearance

351.

Jesus);

their

neshek ' i i , 142

a c t i v i t y after the destruction of

Jeru­

N e w c r e a t i o n , figure f o r t h e a n n u l m e n t o f

y

r e n e , i, 90 ff., 183 ff. (see

s a l e m , i, 91, 243 f.;

animosity of some

New

t h e i r b o o k s , i, 243 f.; their

countrymen

u n d e r H a d r i a n , i, 91,

separated

by

the

war

172 f.,

244;

ex­

h e a v e n , i i , 305;

533. a n d n e w e a r t h , ii,

34*> 342.

c o m m i n a t i o n i n t h e D a i l y P r a y e r , i, 91, 292;

340;

f.

a s i n n e r ' s p a s t , i,

of the leading rabbis of the time, ibid.;

from

u s u r y , ' i n t e r e s t o n l o a n s , i,

New

J e r u s a l e m , i i , 300,

from

433

heaven,

e a r t h , 341 f.,

332;

habitation 343.

of

descends God

on

INDEX I

NEWN e w L a w , C h r i s t i a n i t y a s a , i , 236;

" no

Ofannim

269.

L a w , " i,

rites

h a - S h a n a h ) , first

and customs,

of

i i , 63 f.;

j u d g m e n t a t N e w Y e a r ' s , i , 408 n . , 485,

'olam ha-bdy 'olam ha-zeh> i i , 378. See World to Come. Omnipotence

495, 533; »\ 62, 64.

power

Nicolaus of D a m a s c u s , o n e o f t h e sources o f J o s e p h u s , i, 64 n . , 209;

i i , 318 n .

Niece, m a r r i a g e w i t h a, held

of

Heaven

except

t h e fear o f

Omnipresence o f G o d , like t h e soul in t h e

incestuous

l a w , i , 202;

religious

omnipotence and

H e a v e n ( r e l i g i o n ) , " i , 456.

b o d y , i, 370 f., 435;

s e c t , i , 201 f.; a p ­

in rabbinical

i , 375;

l e n i e n c y , i, 379 f.; " e v e r y t h i n g is i n t h e

f o u r t h d i v i s i o n o f t h e M i s h n a h , i, 52.

by the Damascus

o f G o d , i, 374 f.;

significance,

Nezikin, Injuries, civil a n d criminal l a w ,

c a v e , i , 370;

ii,

373 f.;

121 n . 106.

onaah,

o

r

s

e

a

flooding

religious significance,

a i,

in hellenistic J e w i s h literature,

i, 371 f.;

N i m r o d , cast A b r a h a m into a furnace, ii,

P h i l o , i, 372 f.

i n j u r y , i i , 147 n .

'oneg, see L u x u r y .

Nineveh, 525,

in

i i , 390.

O i n o m a i o s o f G a d a r a , i , 95.

s p e c i a l f e a t u r e s o f t h e l i t u r g y , i i , 64;

proved

i , 15 ff.), a n

O f f i c e - s e e k i n g , i i , 274.

Year's (Rosh

Tishri,

Ezek.

t h e h i g h e s t h e a v e n (arabot),

N e w M o o n , i i , 22 f. New

('wheels,'

o r d e r o f c e l e s t i a l s , i , 368, 404, 409;

Moses will ever come and bring another

repentance

529;

o f t h e m e n of, i,

fasting

of

its

Onias, father of Simeon (the Righteous),

repentant i>

p e o p l e , i i , 67, 68. Ninth of A b , commemorated the destruc­ tion of t h e second temple

as well as

O n i a s , t e m p l e of, i n E g y p t , i , 43 n . , 230 n . ; ii,

t h e first, a n d t h e f a l l o f B e t h e r , i i , 262; d a y o f fasting a n d public m o u r n i n g , ii,

34-

O n i a s , s o n o f S i m e o n t h e R i g h t e o u s , i, 43.

11 n .

Onkelos, Targum on the Pentateuch,

i,

102; M a i m o n i d e s a t t r i b u t e s t o h i m h i s

65 ff.

own

N i s i b i s , J e w s i n t h e r e g i o n of, l a n g u a g e ,

Noah, seven commandments

horror

o f a n t h r o p o m o r p h i s m s , i,

437-

s c h o o l s , e t c . , i, 102 ff., 314. for the de­

scendants

o f , ( a l l m a n k i n d ) , i, 274 f.,

453, 462;

to be observed b y resident

O r a c l e s o f t h e p r o p h e t s , r e a l f o r c e s , i, 1 1 4 . Oral

L a w , set

Ordeal

a l i e n s , i , 339.

and

Unwritten

of jealousy,

done

away

by Jo­

h a n a n b e n Z a k k a i , i , 260.

N6/ii/ia ( r e g u l a t i o n s ) o f t h e P h a r i s e e s , i ,

58, 62 f., 66.

Tradition

Law.

Ordinances

N o m i s t i c r e l i g i o n s , i , 235 f.

(takkanot),

positive

enact­

m e n t s , i, 33, 258 f.

N o n - r e s i s t a n c e , J e s u s ' p r e c e p t , ii, 151.

O r g a n i z e d c h a r i t y , ii, 174-179.

N o t a r i k o n , e x a m p l e of, i i , n o n .

Origen, a t Caesarea, relations with J e w s , i,

165, 268.

Orphans a n d widows, objects of charity, O O b s e r v a n c e s , J e w i s h , i i , 1-78;

ii, religious

as revealed religion,

equally

t o r y o b l i g a t i o n , i i , 7.

on the community

osar, t r e a s u r y o f t h e s o u l s o f t h e r i g h t ­ e o u s d e a d i n h e a v e n , i i , 390; cf. P r o m p -

w i t h m o r a l i t y a n d p i e t y , i i , 5; n o t t h e ' e x t e r n a l s ' o f r e l i g i o n , i i , 5;

dependent

f o r s u p p o r t , i i , 175 f.

p r i n c i p l e s , i i , 3 ff.; a n i n t e g r a l p a r t o f Judaism

163.

Orphans,

tuaria.

of statu­

O t h e r - w o r l d l i n e s s , i, 502.

434

SUBJECTS AND NAMES P a t r i a r c h s , see F a t h e r s .

p Paedagogic Pairs

P a t r i a r c h s , T e s t a m e n t s o f t h e T w e l v e , see

p r i n c i p l e s , ii,

(zugot),

247.

Testaments.

in t h e succession o f

tradi­

P a u l , the dispensation of l a w as a w h o l e

tion from Antigonus of Socho,

ending

a t a n e n d , -ii, 10;

w i t h S h a m m a i a n d H i l l e l , i, 45;

names

w o r k s o f t h e l a w , i, 282;

i i , 93 f.;

cannot

expiation,

a n d t i m e s , i,

255

f.;

bet Din)

H i g h C o u r t , i, 45 n . , 225 Palestine,

fabulous

and

mes­

customs

f.;

cultivated

examples

f., 488,

490;

of

384.

by

visit of

ii, 390

i,

of

man,

f.;

on 476,

478;

i,

484,

85;

h

one

of

a t t e m p t to

542. (shalom),

Peace

the

o n e a r t h , ii,

the

300;

subjection

on marriage,

Peasants,

195;

en­

in h e a v e n

and

meaning,

ii, 92,

a m p l e , i, 392;

Pentateuch i,

dematerialize on

ii,

242.

Peace-making,

298.

485

196;

A a r o n an ex­

M e i r , i i , 196

r e l i g i o u s t a x a t i o n , i i , 72;

302.

f.

u n t r u s t w o r t h y in

matters

peasant and the scholar — the

P a r t h i a n s , i, 74;

t a n t thing the religious spirit in

i i , 343;

their

invasion

i t is d o n e , ii, 240,

a sign of t h e c o m i n g of t h e M e s s i a h , ii, P a r t h i a n s a n d M e d e s , in the role

o f G o g a n d M a g o g , i i , 305, P a r t i c u l a r i s m , i, 219 P a s c h a l m e a l , see

367

n.

con­

i,

it j u s t like

330 f.;

Passover

J e r u s a l e m , i, 108 f.;

109; i, 234;

his

apostoli;

Davidic

also *A1

head of

r e g a l a u t h o r i t y , i,

taxes for his s u p p o r t ,

lineage,

through

G a m a l i e l ( I I . ) , i, 104;

cal 7,

after the fall

G a m a l i e l I I , i, 86;

ten,

ii, 257

f.

391. from

New

Hillel,

Simeon

l i t a n y o n , ii,

n.,

210.

prayers, biblical examples,

IJet

Pentateuch,

story

(Haggadah shel-Pesah), ii, 42 f. P a t r i a r c h (Nasi), t h e t i t l e , i, 234; of the Jewish nation

which

501, 5 1 1 ; J e w i s h , i i , 59, 60,214 n.

ff.;

native

i i , 62 f.;

Penitential

rites and

c u s t o m s , d o m e s t i c o b s e r v a n c e , i i , 40

Israelites,

533;

fourteenth

c o u r s e o f p i l g r i m s a t , ii, 12;

to keep

i, 517;

the

impor­

Y e a r ' s t o D a y o f A t o n e m e n t , i, 530

o f N i s a n a n d a S a b b a t h , i, 78 f.;

proselytes

days,

the

f.

thief, p a r a l l e l t o , ii,

Penitential

Passover.

Passover, concurrence of the

234;

Penance, self-imposed, Penitent

n.

245

of

w o r k of

P a r e n t s , h o n o r i n g of, see F i l i a l P i e t y .

350;

law

i i , 120 n . ; o n t h e m e r i t o f t h e F a t h e r s ,

n.

r e a d i n g in t h e s y n a g o g u e ,

s u b d i v i s i o n s of, i,

in

c o m i u m s o n , i i , 195 ff.;

f o u r s p e c i a l s a b b a t h s , i, Section,'

(moral)

t o a u t h o r i t i e s , ii, 113 f.;

Circumlocutions. Heifer),

the whole

t h e r e s u r r e c t i o n , ii, 394;

f.;

P a r a p h r a s e s , in T a r g u m s , for r e v e r e n c e ,

for

the

A d a m ' s s i n a n d i t s c o n s e q u e n c e s , i, cf. 477,

celes­

a n t e m u n d a n e c r e a t i o n , i, 526; t h e f o u r r a b b i s , i, 413;

impulses

para­

t i a l , a b o d e o f b l e s s e d s o u l s , i i , 390

Parashah,

the

t h e i r r e l i g i o n , i i , 21;

i n o n e s e n t e n c e , ii, 85,87; t h e c o n f l i c t o f

339;

(Red

ii,

their sons nor observe

of

C h r i s t , i i , 10; 447.

ii,

Parah

without

m o r a l l a w and the indwelling spirit ot

P a r a d i s e , t h e e a r t h l y , i i , 303,

see

forgive

the God

accused of teaching J e w s not to

circumcise the

f.

proverbs

s c h o l a r s , i, 309 b l e s , i , 487

94 n . ;

361.

P a p p o s , R . , i, 379, Parables

of the

n.

fertility in

s i a n i c a g e , i i , 365 P a n t h e i s m , i,

(Nasi)

president

a n d v i c e - p r e s i d e n t (Ab

no salvation by

ben

J u d a h , ibid.

29;

297 ff.;

lessons divided

completed

in

tinian cycle

9 ff.; in

and Jewish

the

into

age,

criti­

belief,

synagogue, sections

a definite

time;

to

i, i, be

Pales­

(sedarim), (parashiyot), i,

of three years

Babylonian, one 299;

Ashamnu.

composition

o p i n i o n s , i,

year

n o r m a l n u m b e r o f r e a d e r s , i,

301;

G r e e k t r a n s l a t i o n , l e t t e r o f A r i s t e a s , i, 322 n . ;

435

and

i,

See

m a d e f o r t h e u s e o f t h e J e w s , i,

INDEX I

PENTATEUCH 288;

f a s t o n T e b e t 10, t h e d a y w h e n i t

w a s w r i t t e n i n G r e e k , i i , 68; Pentateuch

Pharisees, t h e name, its origin a n d m e a n ­ i n g , i , 60 ff.; i i , 76, 103; r e l a t i o n t o t h e

Samaritan

I J a s i d i m , i , 59;

( H e b r e w ) , i , 25, 27.

P e o p l e o f t h e l a n d (' ignorant

t o t h e r l a b e r i m , i i , 73;

t o t h e S c r i b e s , i , 57, 66;

P e n t e c o s t , see F e a s t o f W e e k s .

amme ha-ares),

a n d negligent masses,

the

tions

(vop.Lp,a),

60,

with

John Hyrcanus,

i,

their regula­

58, 62 f., 66;

i,

conflict

i , 57, 66,

261;

321; u n t r u s t w o r t h y , e s p e c i a l l y i n m a t ­

u n d e r A l e x a n d e r J a n n a e u s , i , 63, 261;

t e r s o f r e l i g i o u s t a x a t i o n , i i , 72 f., 158 f.;

Q u e e n A l e x a n d r a , i , 64 ff., 70 f., 261 -

efforts t o instruct a n d i m p r o v e

feeling

ibid.;

y

them,

restrictions on intercourse

professed

152. See

ii, 115;

an exacter interpretation o f

t h e l a w s , i , 58, 66;

P e r d i t i o n o f s i n n e r s , i i , 308.

a n d a strict obser­

v a n c e , i , 58, 67; i i , 78; p a r t i s a n s o f t h e

Judg­

m e n t and H e l l . P e r i c l e s , l a w a g a i n s t m i x e d m a r r i a g e s , i,

20.

u n w r i t t e n l a w , i , 57 f., 66 f.;

influence

o v e r t h e p e o p l e , i , 58, 287;

i i , 317 f.;

attitude toward the masses (People

Periods

of history,

on

6000

the

instruct

s c h e m e , i i , 351 f.

159;

P e r p e t u i t y o f t h e L a w , i, 2 6 3 - 2 8 0 ; o n , i , 269 f.; age,

i , 271 f.;

Jesus

them,

i i , 72 f.,. their

controversies with the Sadducees:

over

t h e a u t h o r i t y o f t r a d i t i o n , i , 57 f., 67 f.;

i n t h e w o r l d t o c o m e , i,

o v e r t h e r e s u r r e c t i o n o f t h e d e a d , i , 68; lo

Persecution of the J e w s , because of their

after

and improve

m o t i v e f o r t h i s e f f o r t , i , 282;

in t h e messianic

i i , 9 f.;

ff.

religion:

under

Hadrian,

l

ii? 3 >

3 7>

destiny,

i , 456 ff.;

380;

over

freedom

and

on the interpreta­

tion of particular laws —

A n t i o c h u s E p i p h a n e s , i , 52 f.;

t h e rebellion

talio,

ii,

141;

p e n a l t y f o r f a l s e w i t n e s s , i i , 186 — g e n ­

i,

9 3 , 3 5 1 ; i i , 206 f.

eral

tendencies

l a w s , i , 280;

Persecution of t h e poor a n d pious b y t h e

in application

of the

unfavorable judgment of

the Pharisees in t h e sources of J o s e p h u s ,

u n g o d l y r i c h , i i , 156. P e r s e v e r a n c e i n p r a y e r , i i , 230.

i, 62 n . , 64 n . , 66 n . ; s w e e p i n g

P e r s i a n i n f l u e n c e o n J e w i s h a n g e l o l o g y , i,

ciation

404;

of

t h e L a n d , q. v.), i i , 157 ff.; e n d e a v o r t o

year

perlshut, ii, 273 n .

272

opposed to

t h e r e b e l l i o n u n d e r N e r o , i , 83;

(Perek), chapters in t h e M i s h ­

n a h , e t c . , i,

Asmonaeans,

i i , 1 1 3 ; H e r o d , i , 7 5 , 76 f.;

with

t h e m , i i , 159 f. Perakim

toward the later

in t h e Gospels,

denun­

i i , 192;

their

e a s i l y b e s e t t i n g s i n s , i i , 159 ff., 192 f.;

relation of Zoroastrian to Jewish

s h a m P h a r i s e e s i n t h e T a l m u d s , i i , 193,

e s c h a t o l o g y , i i , 389, 394 f. P e r s o n a l i t y o f G o d , i , 361, 362.

I

P e r u s h i m , i , 60;

ii, n o .

See P h a r i s e e s .

P e s i k t a d e - R a b K a h a n a , h o m i l i e s , i , 168 f. P e s i k t a R a b b a t i , i , 169;

messianic homi­

l i e s i n , i , 551.

man's, addressed

See

Prayer. 4

i, 211 ff.; of God,

education,

i,

i, 2 1 1 ;

doctrine

211, 223 f., 360, 361, 416; on the

1,

212,

416 f.;

e t h i c s , i , 212;

influence

i i , 81, 83 n . ;

of

Greek

theory of

i n s p i r a t i o n , i , 239 n . ; i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f

Rock,' G o d looked

for to found

t h e w o r l d o n , A b r a h a m , i , 538. Petronius,

*

i m i t a t i o n o f G o d , i i , 109 n . ; t h e L o g o s ,

immediately

t o G o d , n o t t h r o u g h a n g e l s , i , 439.

Herpes.,

4

t h e i n e f f a b l e N a m e , i , 424 n . ;

P e t a s o s ( G r e e k h a t ) , i n J e r u s a l e m , i , 49. Petitions,

9

P h i l o o f A l e x a n d r i a , his life a n d w r i t i n g s ,

governor

of the province

S c r i p t u r e , i , 249; k n o w l e d g e o f H e b r e w , i, 322;

of

S y r i a u n d e r C a l i g u l a , ii, 117.

creation

P h a n u e l , a n g e l , i , 410.

censures

who gave

o f t h e w o r l d , i , 267,

the freedom

436

allegorists

u p t h e o b s e r v a n c e o f l a w s , i i , 9; o n t h e 268 n . ;

and self-determination

of

SUBJECTS AND NAMES the rational soul,

i, 458 f.;

n a t u r e o f m a n , i, 452; sin,

i, 484 n . ;

468;

the

dual

conception

u n i v e r s a l i t y of

o n p r o s e l y t e s , i, 327 f.;

Polygamy,

i,

220 f.;

its

226 ff.;

Phineas,

covenant

549;

a perpetual

of

Israelites, ibid.; P h i n e a s , i i , 358

362

n.

the priesthood, atonement

for

Elijah identified

a

problem

proposed

idolatry

its

i,

concomitant,

i,

See also H e a t h e n i s m and

f.

b u l u s a n d H y r c a n u s , i, 72 f.;

with

Mono­

ii,

Judaean independence,

325 n . , 340. (tefillin),

t h e i r r e l i e f , i i , 162 ff.; pretation

P i a c u l a , p r i v a t e a n d p u b l i c , i , 499.

organization

Atonement, Expiation,

See

and

rabbinical inter­

extension,

ii,

of poor-relief,

i m p o s t o r s , i i , 177;

Scapegoat.

ii,

165

ff.;

174

ff.;

exhortation not

P i e t y , ii, 2 0 1 - 2 7 5 ;

in specific sense,

j e c t i v e s i d e o f r e l i g i o n , i i , 3; i s e s , i i , 201 f.;

sub­

P o o r , t h e h u m b l e a n d p i o u s , in c o n t r a s t t o t h e r i c h , ii,

its p r e m ­

characteristics of Jewish,

156.

P o o r - t i t h e , i i , 163 n.

i i , 214; s t u d y a n i n t e g r a l p a r t o f J e w i s h

P o s e i d o n i o s , o n t h e c i t i e s o f S y r i a , i,

p i e t y , ii,

Power, The

239.

P i r k e A b o t , i,

152 n . ,

156 f.;

taken

i n t o s y n a g o g u e s e r v i c e , i, 157; and aphorisms of eminent

maxims

(God), enfeebled

t e a c h e r s , i,

Praise

also

see M e m r a . metonymy

for

God,

i,

influ­

e n c e o n P h i l o ' s i d e a o f G o d , i, 223 o f i n s p i r a t i o n , i,

i,

f.;

239.

323;

sects

and

and

heresies:

" t w o a u t h o r i t i e s , " i, 364 ff.; t h e N a z a ­ r e n e s , i, 91, 243 f.;

against Christian­

165, 173, 269 conditions

n.,

of

364 the

foreign r u l e , ii, 112;

under

and

Sameas,

commonly

t a l i o n (q. v.),

ii,

212-236;

prayer,

ii,

biblical

217;

leading

identified

in See

'Esreh,

Daily Prayer;

synonyms

common

prayer

see also

Tefillah),

revision and regulation institution

of three daily hours of p r a y e r attributed t o M o s e s , o r t h e p a t r i a r c h s , ii, 219

f.;

antiquity of

i,

177 f.;

the

standard prayers,

n o r m a l order, first, ascriptions,

219;

m a y be said

295;

recitation incumbent on

129;

in

a n y l a n g u a g e , i,

p r a y e r is w o r s h i p

Pharisees

Ab­

i i , 218;

place of common

437

prayer

i n t h e r e l i g i o u s life o f J u d a i s m , ii, b r e v i t y in p r i v a t e p r a y e r

n.

in

dearer to

G o d than all good works and all sacri­ fices,

with

women,

(abodah)

t h e h e a r t , i i , 15, 84 f., 217 f.;

70.

ii, 113.

i, 313

inordinate recital of

Ascriptions.

(Shemoneh

ii,

f.

u n d e r H e r o d , i, 75; Pollion,

by

t h e n p e t i t i o n s , closing w i t h p r a i s e , ii,

f. Jews

political virtues,

P o l l - t a x , t h e h a l f - s h e k e l , ii, Pollion

God,

u n d e r G a m a l i e l I I , i, 103;

Polemic, Jewish, against polytheism idolatry,

of

Prayer, for

P l a t o , ethics a n d p o l i t i c s , ii, 112;

112

b y sin, increased

p r i v a t e p r a y e r c e n s u r e d , i i , 229.

373-

ii,

for

472. w o r d , ' in T a r g u m s , r e n d e r i n g o f

(makom),

i t y , i,

148.

metonymy

t h e r i g h t e o u s w h e n t h e y d o H i s w i l l , i,

" w o r d o f G o d " i n t h e S c r i p t u r e s , i,

Political

(ha-gebilrah),

G o d , i, 374,472; ii, 335 n . ; t h e s u p e r n a l

up

f.

a,' 417;

to

become a public charge, ibid.

P i e t i s m , i i , 5.

Place

of

ibid.

Poor, the biblical solicitude for, laws for

191.

ii,

3><3ra, F e a s t o f L i g h t s , I J a n n u k a h , i i , 49 f.

310

113;

takes Jerusalem and makes an end

n.

Phylacteries

•pitgam

for

solutions,

Pompey, hears the rival claims of Aristo­

$o(3cv(ievoL rbv Oeov, G o d - f e a r i n g ( r e l i g i o u s ) m e n , i,

the

theism.

i, the

by

i i , 122 n .

existence

monotheism,

165.

P h i l o , A n t i q u i t a t e s B i b l i c a e , ii, 285

prohibited

P o l y t h e i s m , i n o t h e r a n c i e n t r e l i g i o n s , i,

acquaint­

ance w i t h Philo's ideas in the M i d r a s h , i,

122;

D a m a s c u s s e c t , i, 202;

of

sin,

ii,

PRAYER

226;

commended,

INDEX I

PRAYER i i , 227 f.;

simplicity in address to G o d ,

P r i d e , i i , 273

ff.

i i , 229;

heretical expressions in p r a y e r ,

P r i e s t s , L e v i t e s , I s r a e l i t e s , i, 179 n .

i, 365;

p l a c e f o r p r o l o n g e d p r a y e r , ii,

P r i e s t ' s B e n e d i c t i o n ( N u m . 6, 23-27), i n

228;

e x t e m p o r i z i n g in p r a y e r , ii,

227; p e r s e v e r a n c e , i i , 230;

221,

ask for others the good things he asks f o r h i m s e l f , i i , 219; 222,

225;

i i , 222;

fixed

226 f.;

task,

ii,

disapproved,

not

220; ii,

to

224; wanah.

direction

of

mind,

why

granted, 233 f.; i , 207

ii,

petitions 232 f.;

tefillah),

are

not

futile

f.;

i i , 299;

fasting

as

p r a y e r , i i , 259 f.;

an

auxiliary

514;

J e w i s h , i i , 59,

60,

214 n . ;

per­ a

p r a y e r on w a k i n g in t h e m o r n i n g ,

ii,

215;

on

retiring at

night,

ibid.;

e n t e r i n g t h e p l a c e o f s t u d y , i i , 241 243;

a n d on l e a v i n g i t , ii,

P r a y e r o f A z a r i a s , i,

94. Prompluaria,

P r a y e r B o o k s , i, 103;

6

t o a m a n as his o w n , i, 116; ii, 142,180. See also H o n o r . Prophecy, decadence 240;

eschatological

i, 27;

i,

character of later,

prophecies against heathen

241 n . ; ff.

Fate

i, 241,

and

na­

f.

lessons f r o m , in the synagogue, 300

f.;

familiarity of the

n a i m w i t h t h e P r o p h e t s , i, 87; of

the

Prophets

and

Tan­

relation

Hagiographa

t h e P e n t a t e u c h , i , 239 f., 245 n . ;

of the Messiah,

w i l l a l l be a b r o g a t e d in t h e

344-

age

P r e s e n c e , o f G o d , see S h e k i n a h .

a n d c e s s a t i o n of,

P r o p h e t s , i n t h e H e b r e w c a n o n , l i s t of, i,

Freedom.

P r e s u m p t u o u s s i n s , i,

attraction of

324.

P r o p e r t y , of a n o t h e r , should be as d e a r

176 ff.

526;

f.,

8 2

t h e s y n a g o g u e s , i,

Preexistence, seven things created before t h e w o r l d , i, 266,

of

390.

3 -

t i o n s , i, 399

454. See also

the souls

t h e B i b l e , i, 239 f., e x a m p l e s , i, 440

45 > 539;

243.

P r e a c h i n g i n t h e s y n a g o g u e , i , 305

ii,

repositories of

ii,

Proof-texts, cited from all three parts of

n.,

516.

f.

537;

individual and

t h e r i g h t e o u s d e a d , i i , 339,

541.

P r a y e r o f M a n a s s e s , i, 514,

P r e d e s t i n a t i o n , i,

on

un­

national under the same condition,

501,

s o n a l p r a y e r s o f r a b b i s , ii, 2i4ff.;

108 f.;

to the nation, conditioned on conform­ i t y t o t h e L a w , i i , 78;

P r o p a g a n d a , J e w i s h , i, 323;

P r a y e r s , p e n i t e n t i a l , i n t h e B i b l e , i,

ii,

108.

P r o m i s e s o f G o d , t o t h e F a t h e r s , i,

for the u n i v e r s a l i t y of the t r u e religion 373.

Tabernacles,

P r o h i b i t e d d e g r e e s , i n m a r r i a g e , i i , 120

of t h e ( R o m a n ) g o v e r n m e n t , ii, i i 4 f . ; ( k i n g d o m of H e a v e n ) , ii,

at

p a r d o n a b l e sin, ii,

to

p r a y e r for the w e l f a r e

festival,

in c a p i t a l

f.

P r o f a n i n g t h e N a m e , i i , 105,

appeal to the merit

m i r a c u l o u s a n s w e r s t o p r a y e r , i,

ii,

43 f-> 47, 48.

ii,

537,

con­

f.

c a s e s , m o t i v e s , i i , 186

Mace),

(" f o r t h e s a k e " ) o f t h e F a t h e r s , i, 541;

ii,

always

prayers,

p r a y e r f o r d e a d m e n (2

377 f.;

92

sin of cal­

(iyyun

culating on prayer

and

supposed

P r o c e d u r e , j u d i c i a l , i i , 182 ff*.;

Procession,

g o o d n e s s o f G o d , i i , 234 f.;

its

" origin

P r i n c i p a l a n d i n t e r e s t , o f g o o d w o r k s , ii,

ff.;

petition submitted to the wisdom

religion,

34 f.

kaw­

see

on

trast to the spirit of D e u t e r o n o m y ,

in

frame of mind,

effect

o f J u d a i s m , " i, 13 ff.;

a

prayer

reverence

P r a y e r , G o d h e a r s a n d a n s w e r s , i i , 231

235;

disastrous

and

made

incessant

221;

p r a y e r , i i , 1 5 1 , 221 f.; ii,

be

synagogue,

P r i e s t s ' C o d e , K u e n e n o n t h e , i, 11 f.;

direction, toward Jerusalem,

ii,

in the

ibid.

p l a c e a n d t i m e , ii,

good a n d evil of set times

forms,

t h e t e m p l e , i, 425;

a m a n should

( e x c e p t E s t h e r ) , i,

to

they

messianic

245.

Prophets, transmitted the tradition to the

465.

Men

438

of

the

Great

Synagogue,

i,

31;

SUBJECTS AND NAMES a l l i n s p i r e d m e n w e r e p r o p h e t s , i , 237; forty-eight enumerated, prophetesses,

ibid.;

their utterances neither added

besides

Providence,

seven

did not all leave

39> 35 8;

transmitters

of

and

immediate its ordinary

o p e r a t i o n s n o less w o n d e r f u l t h a n m i r a ­ cles,

given

to M o s e s n o r took a n y t h i n g from i t , i, 2

particular

o r d e r i n g o f G o d , i , 383 f.;

i n w r i t i n g , i , 237 n . ;

to the revelation

RABBI

tradition

i , 378 f.;

providence

determines

man's

fortunes b u t n o t his character,

i, 456;

denial of providence a n d retri­

b u t i o n , i , 360.

from M o s e s down, ibid.

P s a l m s , D a v i d i c a u t h o r s h i p , i , 242;

P r o p h e t , t h e F a l s e ( R e v . o f J o h n ) , i i , 340.

M a c c a b a e a n a g e , i, 27;

P r o s b u l , i, 80, 259 f.

v i c e , i , 241; i n t h e s y n a g o g u e , Hallel

P r o s e l y t e s ( C o n v e r s i o n o f G e n t i l e s , i , 323353);

f a s t s , i i , 68; i n f l u e n c e o f t h e P s a l m s o n

i n g o f H e b r e w ger, i , 328 f.; a l i e n s w h o

4 4

turn J e w /

7

J e w i s h p i e t y , i i , 226.

t o t h e J e w s , i i , 24; o r

i , 329;

their

conversion

Psalms

of Solomon,

i , 180 ff.; i i , 1 1 3 ;

a s r e p e n t a n c e , i, 529; J e w s b y n a t u r a l i ­

messianic expectation,

z a t i o n , i , 231, 529; d e f i n e d b y P h i l o , i ,

r e c t i o n i n t h e m , i i , 308 f.

327 f.;

i, 296;

a t f e s t i v a l s , i i , 42, 43;

psalms appointed to be read a t public

in Greek Bible t h e usual render­

join themselves

psalms

from

in temple ser­

Publicans,

" enter into the covenant " b y

collectors

i i , 328;

o f octroi

resur­

tolls, ii,

327, 329, 330; s u b j e c t t o a l l t h e o b l i g a ­

117. Pugio Fidei, o f R a i m u n d M a r t i n i , 474 n . , 551. pur'anut, ' p u n i s h m e n t , ' i i , 252 n .

tions o f t h e L a w , ibid.; legal s t a t u s a t

Purification, religious, unites t h e ideas o f

circumcision, Passover

i, 332, 334,

like

native

340;

Jews,

keep

i , 330 f.;

e n j o y e q u a l r i g h t s w i t h b o r n J e w s , i,

the m o m e n t itiatory

expiation

o f r e c e p t i o n , i , 334 f.; i n ­

rites,

circumcision,

s a c r i f i c e , i , 331 f.,

334; f o r a

b a p t i s m a n d s a c r i f i c e , i , 332; tion for admission,

P u r i m , i, 244 f.;

titude o f t h e religious leaders

worldly or

toward

i, 341 ff.; p r o s e l y t e s

motives,

sincere,

i , 336 L;

proselytes,

from

P u r i m E p i s t l e , i i , 51 f. P u r i t y o f m i n d , i i , 267 ff.

righteous,

w h o embrace

Q Q u a k e r s , i i , 5.

340;

Q u i n s y ( ? ) , see D i p h t h e r i a .

" p r o s e l y t e o f t h e g a t e , " i , 338,

rlm), a

proselytes in mass

i, 337, 338, 346;

e

g > i , 346;

{gerl?n geru-

in t h e messianic

R

heathen kings a n d famous

s c h o l a r s , p r o s e l y t e s , i , 346 f.;

proselytes

Rab

i i , 142, 148;

(R. Abba

Areka),

I J i y y a , i, 104 f.;

a r e d e a r t o G o d , i , 343 f.; t r e a t m e n t of,

348

76;

repent­

i i , 51 ff.; i n a n i n t e r ­

J u d a i s m f o r t h e s a k e o f H e a v e n , i , 338,

340 f.;

55 f.; i,

c a l a r y y e a r , i i , 53 n .

t i e s o f p r o s e l y t e b a p t i s m , i, 333 f.; a t ­

proselytes,

164,

a n c e ( P h i l o ) , i , 532.

examina­ formali­

ii,

b y " uncleanness,"

purification o f t h e inner m a n ,

woman,

i , 333 f.;

a n d disinfection,

demanded

baptism,

i,

n u m b e r s o f p r o s e l y t e s , i,

f.

nephew

qualified

return

t o B a b y l o n i a , i , 105;

school

at Sura,

ibid.;

of R .

ordination,

his

head of vexatious

w i f e , i i , 126. Upcxrevxai, ' p l a c e s o f p r a y e r , ' s y n a g o g u e s , i>

3°7-

R a b b i , as title o f a n officially

authorized

t e a c h e r o f t h e L a w , 1, 43 f.

P r o s t r a t i o n s , i n p r a y e r , i i , 222, 228.

Rabbi,

P r o v e r b s , B o o k of, i n s p i r a t i o n of, i , 238; c a n o n i c i t y , i , 246.

b y preeminence,

triarch

(Nasi), q. v.;

Judah the P a ­ Rabbi

t o n i n u s , see A n t o n i n u s .

439

and A n ­

INDEX I

RABBINICAL Rabbinical law, mitigating ii,

tendency

Religion,

of,

340;

M e g i l l o t , i , 164.

Pugio Fidei,

Martini,

i,

164,

i i , 45 f.;

about

year,

rains

with

decision

fasts

t h a t r i s e ( f r o m t h e d e a d ) , i i , 303.

proclaimed

499;

repentance,

i,

bestowed

o n t h e r i g h t e o u s , t h e e l e c t , i i , 301.

512;

i i , 154;

condition

of divine

for­

g i v e n e s s , i , 514.

community

R e p e n t a n c e , i , 507-519; 520-534; n a ­

f u n d s , i i , 176. R a p h a e l , a n g e l , i n T o b i t , i , 403, 405;

t i o n a l , i n t h e S c r i p t u r e s , i , 500 f.; i n ­

in

dividualizing of t h e prophetic doctrine,

E n o c h , i , 410; i i , 302, 303.

i,

Rashi, on t h e age when the T a l m u d w a s

501 f.,

509,

520 f.;

in

uncanonical

J e w i s h w r i t i n g s , i , 515 ff.; r e p e n t a n c e

c o m m i t t e d t o w r i t i n g , i , 97 f. i,

created, like t h e L a w , before t h e w o r l d ,

without guidance of a teacher,

r e m e d y f o r m a n ' s s h o r t c o m i n g s , i i , 94;

in t h e synagogue,

number,

i,

301, 321 n . ; p r e c e d e n c e , i , 302. Reading,

on

R e p a r a t i o n , o f injuries d o n e t o a n o t h e r , i,

r a i n a n d r e s u r r e c t i o n , i , 378.

Readers,

t h e D a y of A t o n e m e n t , i,

conditioned

498, 500, 504, 505, 506, 520;

when

p r a y e r s for rain, ii,

of captives, o u t of

o f sins, p r o p i t i a t i o n b y sacri­

f i c e , i , 497;

at Taber­

a u t u m n rains were deferred; rites a n d c u s t o m s , i i , 67 f.; 235 f.;

outside t h e pale of J u d a i s m (not

Remission

the rains of the coming

i i , 62;

Ransom

ii,

Remiel, angel set o v e r t h e souls o f those of seasonal

the Feast of Tabernacles a n dthe water

nacles

religio,

p r o s e l y t e s ) , i , 326.

47411., 551. R a i n , connection

libation,

of

R e l i g i o u s ( G o d - f e a r i n g ) p e r s o n s , i , 325 n . ,

Rabbot, Midrashim on Pentateuch and

Raimund

R o m a n , meaning

3; i n t e r d i c t e d d a y s , a c t s , e t c . , i i , 21 f.

134 f- _

266,

526;

provided

b y G o d as a

m e a n i n g o f t h e w o r d (teshubah),

d i s a p p r o v e d , ii, 151.

religi­

R e a l e s t a t e , see L a n d e d p r o p e r t y .

ous a n d m o r a l reformation of t h e people

Rebellion of t h e J e w s , against Antiochus

or

IV,

H a d r i a n , i , 89 f.;

t h e i n d i v i d u a l , i , 507 ff.; a m o d e r n

definition,

i, 5 3 ; N e r o , i , 83; T r a j a n , i , 107 f.;

i, 515;

rabbinical

concep­

t i o n , i , 514; s o r r o w f o r s i n , i , 510, 514;

ii, 116; a t t i t u d e o f

the chief priests a n d t h e leading P h a r i ­

a n d r e s o l v e n o t t o s i n a g a i n , i , 510, 5 1 3 ;

s e e s , i i , 115 f.;

repentance

economic consequences

o f t h e w a r s , ii, 157,170,174;

again

disorgani­

with

is n o n e ,

intention

i , 508 f.,

of

sinning

510;

fasting

w i t h o u t r e p e n t a n c e v a i n , i i , 259;

z a t i o n o f j u s t i c e , 183 f.

con­

464,

f e s s i o n , i , 511 ff.; r e p e n t a n c e a n d c o n ­

Reconciliation, between o n ew h o h a s been

s o l e , b u t i n e x o r a b l e , c o n d i t i o n , i , 498,

Rebellion

465

f.,

against

G o d , s i n a s , i,

467.

f e s s i o n c o n d i t i o n s o f f o r g i v e n e s s , i i , 154;

500,

w r o n g e d a n d t h e o f f e n d e r , i i , 154. R e d h e i f e r , i , 85;

ashes d o n o t of t h e m ­

i,

s e l v e s p u r i f y , i i , 7.

God

gates

i , 530;

the confession

R e f o r m J u d a i s m , i , 258. of

509;

open,

R e f a i m , t h e d e a d i n S h e o l , i i , 289.

Reign

504, 505, 506, 520;

{malkut Shamaim), see

penitent

R e j o i c i n g , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 48.

525, 530;

R e j o i c i n g i n t r i b u l a t i o n , i i , 253 f.

from

revealed,

the

J u d a i s m , i , 12, 235; i t s e l f , i i , 321;

14, 319;

of repentance G o d waiting

always

to receive

a n d supplication of the

sinner, ibid.;

receives

in r e ­

p e n t a n c e t h e w o r s t o f s i n n e r s , i , 523 f.,

Kingdom of Heaven.

Religion,

ii,

n i n e n o r m s o f r e p e n t a n c e ( I s a . 1, 16 f . ) ,

foundation

of

religion a n e n d in

t h e fear of t h e L o r d , ii,

e v e n f o r sins w h i c h

the world

pentance

possible

s e a l e d , i , 523; annul

to come,

exclude

i, 521; r e ­

till t h e sentence

one of t h e things

is

that

a d i r e d e c r e e , i i , 67 n . ; t o t h e

l a s t m o m e n t o f l i f e , i , 521 n . , 522; n o t

96; r e v e r e n c e , i i , 86 n .

44O

SUBJECTS AND NAMES t o b e p r e s u m e d o n , i, 508;

i i , 522 f.;

RETRIBUTION

R e s u r r e c t i o n (tehiyat ka-ntetim, r e v i v i f i c a ­

sins t h a t m a k e i t difficult o r impossible,

t i o n o f t h e d e a d ) , i n I s a . 26, 1 7 - 1 9 , i i ,

i, 526; G o d t r i e s i n e v e r y w a y t o b r i n g

295 f.; D a n i e l , i i , 297 f.; 2 M a c c a b e e s ,

m e n t o r e p e n t a n c e , i , 393, 527;

i, 207 f.; ii, 299; E n o c h 85-90 ( ? ) , i i ,

punish­

m e n t m e a n t t o lead t o a m e n d m e n t , ii,

300;

252; e n c o u r a g e s t h e m w h e n t h e y t h i n k

Enoch

t h e i r s i n u n f o r g i v a b l e , i , 527 f.; i i , 207;

Testaments

sin

Psalms

forgiven,

the memory

of it ex­

E n o c h 92, 3 - 5 ; (Parables,

i i , 310 f.;

tent

tion

as if h e h a d n o t sinned,

expiation 514 f.;

remaining repentance,

ibid.;

to be made, not

1-5),

i i , 308;

304;

Gospels,

4 E s d r a s , i i , 338 f.;

o f J o h n , ii, 341;

Revela­

genesis o f t h e

i d e a , i i , 311 ff.*; p r i m a r y

i,

ii,

o f X I I P a t r i a r c h s , i i , 307;

of Solomon,

p u n g e d , i, 532 f.; i m p u t e d t o t h e p e n i ­

102, 6 - 1 1 , i i , 305;

51,

eschatological

d o c t r i n e o f J u d a i s m , i i , 295, 379; t e n e t

sinlessness,

m a r k t h e r i g h t e o u s m a n , i , 495; G o d

o f t h e P h a r i s e e s , i , 68, 86, 1 7 2 ; i i , 3 1 7 ;

seeks t h e r e p e n t a n c e o f t h e h e a t h e n , i,

Josephus on t h e Pharisaic doctrine, ii,

528 f.;

317;

the

b y turning from heathenism t o

true

religion,

i , 327 f.,

tives o f repentance, fear

side

381; and

is t h e i n i t i a t i v e o n G o d ' s

ance, ibid.; 492;

of repentance,

i,

i t s p r e e m i n e n c e , i , 533;

biblical proofs alleged b y rabbis, other

every

a cure f o r evil i m p u l s e , i,

eulogies

530 f.;

i , 68; i i , 381;

a d o g m a , w i t h a n a n a t h e m a , i, 172; i i ,

a n d l o v e , i,

m a n ' s ? i , 531; p r a y e r s f o r r e p e n t ­

514 f.; or

denied b y Sadducees, S a m a r i t a n s ,

a n d " h e r e t i c s " (minim),

529; m o ­

arguments,

i i , 382 f.;

J e s u s ' a r g u m e n t , i , 250;

520,

nature of the

resurrection — restoration of the body,

brings

( n a t i o n a l ) d e l i v e r a n c e n e a r e r , i i , 350 f.;

reunion

necessary precedent of deliverance, ii,

383 f., 391 f-;

351 f.; E l i j a h ' s m i s s i o n , i i , 359; r e p e n t ­

cleus o f t h e b o d y

a n c e i n t h e N e w T e s t a m e n t , i , 518 f.

d e w o f r e s u r r e c t i o n , i , 168;

Repetition,

in

death

of righteous

souls,

a n d resurrection,

t h e soul,

i , 486 ff.; i i ,

the indestructible (hlz),

i i , 385;

nu­ the

i i , 296 n . ;

deformities, and then are cured of them, ii, 380; r i s e c l o t h e d ( a n a l o g y o f w h e a t ) ,

between

i i , 302;

with

the dead rise w i t h a l l their defects a n d

the L a w , hermeneutic

p r i n c i p l e , i i , 162, 166 n . , 167, 383 n . Repository

in

P a r a s h a h o f t h e L a w , i i , 383;

i i , 381;

in

w h o a r e restored t o life?

297 f., 378;

h e a v e n , i i , 339, 390.

i i , 302 f., 306;

i,

return to a

l i f e o n t h i s e a r t h , i i , 299, 302, 303, 304,

R e p r e s e n t a t i v e p i e t y , i i , 261 t.

308, 314 f., 342;

R e p r o o f , d u t y a n d d i f f i c u l t y , i i , 152 f.

resurrection of Israel­

ites a t beginning o f t h e messianic a g e , Reputation, injury to, worse than

mone­

i i , 340, 379 f.;

t a r y i n j u r y , i i , 148 ff.

f i r s t , i i , 379 f.;

R e s h G a l u t a , i , 104, 109 n .

38, 342;

reshaim, w i c k e d , u n g o d l y , i i , 156 n .

339,

w i t h o u t , i i , 182; see E q u i t y .

God has given law,

i , 462;

t o G o d , i , 4C4

him knowledge

responsibility,

wrong

for

f.;

of the

380;

revivification

of the

tion,

m a n , condition

to dematerialize i i , 394;

Paul's a t ­

the resurrec­

Christian doctrine, the

r e s u r r e c t i o n o f t h e flesh, ibid. Retribution, national, prophetic doctrine,

o r r e p a r a t i o n , in case o f a

t o a fellow

T

34 5

h i s p h i l o s o p h y , i i , 393;

tempt

distinction

b e t w e e n legal a n d m o r a l , ii, 141. Restitution

general, to last judgment, a t

dead in Maimonides' Articles o f F a i t h ;

Responsibility, o f m a n for his misdeeds, be shifted

in Palestine

t h e e n d o f t h e m e s s i a n i c a g e , i i , 381,

Respect of persons (partiality), j u d g m e n t

cannot

the dead

t h e first r e s u r r e c t i o n , i i ,

of

G o d ' s f o r g i v e n e s s , i, 512.

i i , 248, 29T; 248 f., 292; for

44I

i n d i v i d u a l i z e d , i , 501; i i , i n k i n d , ii, 251;

measure

m e a s u r e , i i , 249 n . , 381 n . ; i n t h i s

INDEX I

RETRIBUTION l i f e , i i , 322;

i i , 89,

n o t v i n d i c t i v e , i i , 252;

ment;

Chastise­

r e t r i b u t i o n a f t e r d e a t h , i,

' religion,'

u s e d , i i , 89 f.; i i , 92 f.;

a n o t h e r d u t y , " i,

development

G r e e k n o t i o n s , i i , 292 f., 3 1 1 ; dom

in W i s ­

o f S o l o m o n , i i , 293 f.;

295;

without

influence

J u d a i s m , ibid.,

see also

Philo,

on

ribbit,

ii,

i , 68,

86; by

by

the

d e n i a l of, i, 360;

cf. i,

443,

* e p i c u r e a n s ' ( ? ) , i i , 388

' u n g o d l y ' in

n.;

the Wisdom

of

ceptions

distinctively

of

ultimate

311 f.;

representations

297 f.;

2 Maccabees,

i i , 300 ff.; Gospels,

392;

in

R i d d a n c e , r i t e s of, see

323, see also

Righteous 494 f.;

w o r l d , i, 279; Righteousness, G o d , i i , 89;

concep­

idea

in

i i , 201

f.;

controls the attitude toward all

com­

agency,

given

prophetic

ceased w i t h the death of the holy

s p i r i t o f p r o p h e c y , i, 237;

to

Noah,

239,

i,

276,

ibid.; 248; 358;

to final

Moses, and

358;

a s G o d h i m s e l f , i, 249, 358; m e n t or paedagogic,

" face

complete,

unity and

t h r o u g h o u t , i, 239,

consistency

no develop­ 249,

358.

See also L a w . R e v e l a t i o n o f J o h n , i i , 281,

498;

339

God,

i,

379 1

integrity,

f.,

387

f.;

deliverance,'

Justice.

497 ff.;

conditioned 14;

not

ex opere

repentance,

popular notions,

Expiation,

that

on

ii,

Miriam's

Repentance.

accompanied

well;

{irhrpa) G o d 538. rdkel, p e d l a r o f

i, 14.

Israel

in

the

w i l d e r n e s s , P a u l ' s a l l e g o r y , i, 250; Abraham

the

see rock

sought to build the world

o n , i,

s l a n d e r , ii,

148

n.

R o l l s , t h e F i v e , see M e g i l l o t . Roman

286,

of

(sedel})

'vindication,'

See also

ii,

See also Rock,

i,

unchangeable

i, 1 1 2 ,

operato,

pri­

to

Paul's defini­

c o n f o r m i t y , n o t J e w i s h , i,

R i t u a l e x p i a t i o n , i,

the

f.;

171.

of

sin­

R i t u a l , t r a d i t i o n i n , i, 25J.

spirit

m a e v a l r e v e l a t i o n , t o A d a m , i, 274

face,"

perfect

sometimes

through

l a s t p r o p h e t s , i, 441; (q. v.),

386.

has no suggestion of

Righteousness

ii, 247;

ii,

conformity to the law

495; r i g h t e o u s n e s s i i , 180 n .

77.

R e v e l a t i o n , m o d e s o f in t h e S c r i p t u r e s , i,

485,

Righteous, the, among the nations of the

tion,

247 f.;

i,

com­

p l e t e l y t h e o n e n o r t h e o t h e r , i,

257.

fundamental

m a n d m e n t s , i i , 7 f.,

237,

and wicked, the antithesis, the middle class, neither

l e s s p e r f e c t i o n , i, 494 f.;

J u d a i s m , i, 112, 235,

instruction

f.

495 f. {see M i d d l e c l a s s ) .

ff.*

religion,

God's

a n d m a n ' s c h o i c e , i , 453

a

339, 345,

ii,

outline of T a n n a i t e

t i o n s , i i , 389

308;

Scapegoat.

w i l l o f G o d , i i , 79;

ii,

with

f.,

R i g h t a n d w r o n g , defined b y the r e v e a l e d

Enoch,

connected

Poor.

182.

ii,

Daniel,

i i , 299;

R e u b e n , his p e n a n c e , ii, Revealed

con­

P s a l m s o f S o l o m o n , ii, i i , 309 f.;

g r e a t c ri s i s , ii, 377,

Jewish

n.

R i c h a n d p o o r , i n l a w a n d j u s t i c e , i i , 139

of

retribution,

143

the n o t e of class conflict,

see also

ibid.,

S o l o m o n , i , 360 n . ; p r e m i s e s a n d d e v e l ­ opment

470.

a species o f u s u r y , ii,

g o d l y , i i , 156;

issue b e t w e e n Pharisees a n d S a d d u c e e s ,

455;

" t h e r e w a r d o f a d u t y d o n e is

Rich, with connotation of proud and un­

authentic

Soul and B o d y ;

freely

specified, o r n o t r e v e a l e d ,

m e n t , i i , 291 f.;

f.;

in

tion.

502;

g a v e a s u p e r i o r i t y t o J u d a i s m , i i , 318

96;

Reward and punishment, motives

i i , 287-322; u n k n o w n i n t h e O l d T e s t a ­ its late

ii,

f.

R e v i v i f i c a t i o n o f t h e d e a d , see R e s u r r e c ­

inflictions

r e t r i b u t i v e o r c o r r e c t i v e , see

of

p r a y e r , i i , 221

90;

r e q u i t e s t h e g o o d d e e d s o f b a d m e n , i, 388;

equivalent

principles of divine retribu­

t i o n , G o d ' s j u s t i c e , i , 379;

ff.

empire, the

D a n i e l , i i , 331;

Reverence for God (fear of G o d ) , H e b r e w

442

G o d , ii, 114;

fourth kingdom

of

dominion given it

by

destruction predicted

in

SUBJECTS AND NAMES S i b y l l i n e s , i i , 330;

in t h e

SAGAN

h o n o r i n g t h e s a b b a t h , i i , 38;

apocalypses:

the true

4 Esdras, Apocalypse of Baruch, R e v e ­

s p i r i t o f t h e o b s e r v a n c e , i i , 26;

l a t i o n o f J o h n , i i , 338 ff"., 343;

of religious instruction a n d

the last

emperor slain, the city destroyed, ibid.;

i i , 38;

Esau,

306;

Edom

only

by

a

(Rome)

to be

descendant

of

overcome Joseph,

to

" the sabbath

committed to you, not you to the sab­ intermarriage of

patricians

b a t h , " ii, 31;

and

R o m e , J e w i s h p o p u l a t i o n , i, 106 f.;

l e s s o n s f o r , i, 298,

R o o t , d e n i a l of, d i s b e l i e f i n G o d , p r a c t i c a l

R o s h h a - k e n e s e t , h e a d o f t h e s y n a g o g u e , i,

129. 32.

S a c r a p u b l i c a e t p r i v a t a , i , 497;

mainten­

ance o f t h e p u b l i c c u l t u s , ii, 1 1 .

ha-Shanah, New

see also

Y e a r ' s , ii, 63

Judgment at New

duties

divine

to,

ii,

112-118;

appointment,

f.;

Sacramental observances, the bond of r e l i g i o u s c o m m u n i t y , i i , 4,

Year's. rule

by

l a r , i, 498

f.;

its effect, ibid.;

o f i t s o p e r a t i o n , i, 560;

hermeneutic,

I s h m a e l , i,

of

Hillel,

i,

S

504;

magnitude

not

of

the

offering

o u s s a c r i f i c e , i, 505;

Sabbath,

hebdomadal,

ii,

298.

fundamental

i i , 130;

ob­

f.;

inefficacious w i t h o u t r e p e n t a n c e , i,

c o u n t w i t h G o d , i, 504 f.;

i, 454;

no t h e o r y

prophetic teach­

i n g a b o u t a c c e p t a b l e s a c r i f i c e , i , 503

248;

249.

S a ' a d i a , G a o n ( d . 942),

a

24.

Sacrifice, prescribed, remedial a n d piacu-

114. See also

ii,

Government. Rules,

298;

300.

S a b b a t h l a m p , i i , 36,

n.

Rulers,

keep

Messiah

35.

S a b b a t h - d a y ' s j o u r n e y , ii,

521.

the

S a b b a t h s , t h e ( f o u r ) s p e c i a l , i, 297,

school of M a t h i a ben f l e r e s h , ibid.

467,

Israel should

w o u l d c o m e , " i i , 26,

mis­

sions and visits of Palestinian r a b b i s ;

a t h e i s m , i, 360,

"if

one s a b b a t h as it o u g h t ,

p l e b e i a n s p r o h i b i t e d , i, 19 f.

Rosh

G r e e k - s p e a k i n g J e w s , i,

all laws suspended b y danger

h u m a n l i f e , i i , 19, 30 f.;

ii,

371. Rome,

289

among

a day

edification,

does

presumptu­

w o m e n ' s sacrifices,

trespass offering in cases of u n ­

certainty

(asham tahiy),

i,

498

f.;

ex­

s e r v a n c e o f J u d a i s m , ii, 21-39*; s a c r e d

p i a t i o n f o r t h e d e a d (2 M a c e ) , i, 207

f.;

t o J e h o v a h , g i v e n t o I s r a e l a l o n e , i i , 22;

sacrifices

r u l e r s , i, 82;

ii,

Tabernacles,

ex­

its

most

distinctive

a n c e , i, 231; 21 f.;

external

observ­

115;

t h e q u e s t i o n o f o r i g i n , ii,

i i , 23 f.;

criterion of

biblical

sabbath-keeping,

occupations,

i,

253;

centuries preceding

i i , 24 f.;

in

of

ii,

Sadducees,

the

14

f.

origin

n a m e , i, 68 ff.;

the Christian era,

laws

s a c r i f i c e , a s u r r o g a t e f o r t h e a c t , i,

505 f.;

26;

interdicted

at

i i , 43 n . ; r e a d i n g o r s t u d y o f t h e

per­

s o n a l f i d e l i t y t o t h e r e l i g i o n , i i , 24,

holocausts

piation for the s e v e n t y heathen nations,

e n h a n c e d i m p o r t a n c e in exile a n d

dispersion,

for foreign

c l a s s e s , i, 70;

and

meaning

of

the

chiefly a m o n g the u p p e r

after the fall of J e r u s a l e m ,

g r e a t e r s t r i c t n e s s o f t h e o l d H a l a k a h , i,

i, 280;

198 f.;

i t y o f t r a d i t i o n ( t h e u n w r i t t e n l a w ) , i,

ii, 26 f.,

thirty-nine hibited

30;

principal

in t h e

Mishnah,

species

of

pro­

58, 67, 279 f.;

denied the author­

rejected the resurrection

mountains

a n d r e t r i b u t i o n a f t e r d e a t h , i, 68,

86;

of sabbath H a l a k o t hanging b y a hair,

t h e s o u l p e r i s h e s w i t h t h e b o d y , ii,

317;

i i , 28; t r y , ii,

a c t i v i t i e s , i i , 27 f.;

i i , 85 f., 1 1 0 ;

m o t i v e of the rabbinical casuis­

31;

sanctification

t h e d a y , i i , 36; ciles, ii, 31;

(Jziddush)

combination

of

disbelief

of

deny

domi­

o f b o u n d a r i e s , i i , 32;

f e s t a l c h a r a c t e r o f t h e s a b b a t h , i i , 34

freedom,

the ff.;

l a w , i,

in

angels

destiny,

i, 457;

67, 280;

and

affirm

spirits,

man's

rigorous in ii,

ibid.;

complete criminal

141, 186.

S a g a n , p r e f e c t o f t h e p r i e s t h o o d , i i , 114 n .

443

INDEX I

SAGES (hakamim),

Sages

as a class of teachers, i,

310. Saint

Sadducees

(kadosh),

G o d calls n o m a n

saint

t i l l h e i s d e a d , i , 468. Saintliness

(hasidut),

culmination of vir­

t u e s , i i , 273, 384.

(kadosh, '

Saintly

h o l y ' ) , epithet

to o n e w h o keeps

applied

aloof from a l l u n ­

i , 85, 260 f.;

Herod,

i , 82;

85;

i i , 94 f.;

to inherit

eternal

in the San­

powers,

under

t h e p r o c u r a t o r s , i , 82,

i i , 183; p o w e r t o e x e c u t e

to a n e n d with

sentence

i i , 183, 187;

came

t h e fall o f J e r u s a l e m ,

t h e H i g h C o u r t (Bet Din) i t s s u c c e s s o r , i, 85, 260 f.;

Salvation, t o have a portion in the world come,

a n d Pharisees

hedrin,

o f d e a t h , i , 82 n . ;

c h a s t i t y , i i , 27.

to

i i , 183; p r e s i d e n c y , i , 255 n . ; i i , 183;

i i , 183, 187 n . ; t h e P a t ­

r i a r c h a s p r e s i d e n t , i , 261 f. y

sar shel ares, esh, barad, gehinnom, yam,

life, i i , 321; t h e w a y , r e m i s s i o n o f sins

individual

p r o c u r e d t h r o u g h r e p e n t a n c e , i , 500 ff.;

e a r t h , f i r e , h a i l , h e l l , t h e s e a , i , 403 f.

angels

appointed

over the

o r i g i n o f t h e J e w i s h i d e a o f s a l v a t i o n , ii,

S a r a h , legend of, ii, 1 0 5 .

311 ff.*;

S a t a n , ' a d v e r s a r y / i n S c r i p t u r e , i , 406;

i t s p e c u l i a r c h a r a c t e r , ii, 312,

313 f., 319;

compared to the mysteries,

i i , 320f.; " a r e t h e r e f e w t h a t b e s a v e d ? "

321 f. sam hayyim, ii,

(Samaios),

Mastema, Azazel, Beliar.

52 n . ; 26;

i , 23 ff.;

I V t o Zeus

temple

dedicated

Satisfactio pro peccatis,

See also

f.

in Catholic

Xenios,

i , 26,

a b o r t i v e r i s i n g ( i n 67) s u p p r e s s e d P e n t a t e u c h , i,

a r c h a i c s c r i p t , i , 25, 29;

accepted

t h e P e n t a t e u c h a l o n e a s S c r i p t u r e , i , 27; a c c u s e d o f m u t i l a t i n g i t , i i , 383; s t r i c t o b s e r v a n c e o f t h e l a w s , i , 25; t h e s a b ­ b a t h , ii, 31; pronounced t h e n a m e o f G o d i n o a t h s , i , 426 f. (Ia/3e); d e n y t h e

S a u l o f T a r s u s , i , 187. Scapegoat,

See P a u l .

Samuel the Little, formulated the prayer f o r t h e e x t i r p a t i o n o f h e r e t i c s , i , 292;

r i t e s o f r i d d a n c e , i i , 56; o n

the D a y o f A t o n e m e n t , expiates for a l l sins, including

insolent

transgressions,

i , 464, 498;

a n d rebellious but only

o n c o n d i t i o n o f r e p e n t a n c e , i , 499 f. Schechter, S., Some Aspects of Rabbinic T h e o l o g y , i , 470; D o c u m e n t s

of Jewish

S e c t a r i e s , i , 200. Scholars and peasants respect each other's w o r k , i i , 240. Scholastic

r e s u r r e c t i o n , i i , 381 f.

a r s , ' i, Schools,

Hebrew,

' language

o f schol­

100. i , 308-322;

school

and syna­

308, 314; see also

declares

gogue, i,

him w o r t h y t h a t the holy spirit should

Midrash;

r e s t u p o n h i m , i , 422.

o f s c h o o l s o f t h e L a w , i , 46, 311 f.;

a

mysterious

voice

doc­

by

d e s t r o y e d b y J o h n H y r c a n u s , i,

b y V e s p a s i a n , i , 26 f.; 25;

340

o f J o h n , ii,

t r i n e , i , 546.

S a m a r i t a n s , t h e s c h i s m , i , 23 ff.;

Antiochus

with

Pharisee in

velation

leading

impulse " identified

S a t a n , i , 478, 492; h i s f a t e i n t h e R e ­

(? S h a m m a i ) , i, 313.

Gerizim,

" evil

sam mawet,

' elixir o f life ';

t h e t i m e o f H e r o d , " disciple o f P o l l i o , "

on

(364) e x c e p t t h e D a y o f A t o n e m e n t , i , 407;

d e a d l y p o i s o n , i i , 242. Sameas

accuses Israel e v e r y d a y in t h e y e a r

(bat 1}dl)

S a m u e l , M a r , head o f the school a t N e ­

mentary

antecedents

schools,

i,

Bet ha-

a n d beginnings

316 ff.;

ele­

higher

s c h o o l s , i , 319 ff.; s c h o o l s o f t h e L a w i n

h a r d e a , i , 105. S a n b a l l a t , g o v e r n o r o f S a m a r i a , i , 23.

B a b y l o n i a b e f o r e H i l l e l , i , 104, 313 f.,

S a n d a l f o n , t a l l a n g e l , i , 415 n .

321;

S a n h e d r i n (
i, 104 f.;

H a n a n i a h , i , 104; a t S u r a ( R a b ) , at Nehardea

(Mar Samuel),

o l d e r yepovorla, s e n a t e , i , 26 f.; i n J e r u ­

i, 105; i n S y r i a , a t N i s i b i s , i, 104,105 f.,

salem,

313;

o r g a n i z a t i o n , i , 45 n . , 82, 85;

444

at Rome,

i , 106 f.;

in Greek-

SUBJECTS AND NAMES speaking Law

l a n d s , i, 321;

in t h e messianic

schools of

a g e , i, 271

the

controversial

80 f., for

242;

issues,

i,

46,

77

would it h a v e been

ff.,

better

m a n if h e h a d n e v e r b e e n c r e a t e d ?

i i , 285

n.;

were the heavens

c r e a t e d f i r s t ? i, 381

n.;

on

or earth legitimate

g r o u n d s f o r d i v o r c e , i, 123 f.;

on

b i n a t i o n o f d o m i c i l e s , i i , 31 n . ; permissibility of deceiving ii,

117;

on

conventional

a

com­

on

the

toll-man,

lies, ii,

189;

m o r e t h a n three h u n d r e d school differ­ e n c e s r e c o r d e d i n t h e T a l m u d , i, 80

f.;

ultimate

of

ascendancy

H i l l e l , i, 81,

the

school

86.

elementary

school

(Bet

i, ha-

Sefer), i, 316 f. e d u c a t i o n , i, 317; s u p p o r t e d b y t h e c o m ­ m u n i t y , i, 317 f.; s y n a g o g u e as t e a c h e r s , ibid.;

age

See

Messiah.

(semah),

i,

to come,

(sofer),

Scribe

4 n.,

308

attendants

t e a c h e r s as i n t e r p r e ­

t e r s i n t h e s y n a g o g u e , i,

den

318.

king in t h e g o l ­

i i , 213,

324

f.,

biblical scholar, the f.;

education

also

Inspiration);

g o g u e , see

and

348.

name, attain­

2e(36fA€voL m e n , i,

325

j u r i s p r u d e n c e , i, 42 f.; t h e P h a r i s e e s , i, 43, teachers

in

the

connection

57, 286

synagogue,

f.;

with

ii, i,

157;

286

f.;

the name later restricted to older gen­ e r a t i o n s , i, 43

f.

their

enactments

421;

distinguished

l a w s , i, 33;

the

from

authority

t h e w o r d s o f t h e S c r i b e s , i, 33 f., Scriptures,

The,

i,

235-250;

of

citation,

ibid.;

Great Synagogue

32, see also makes

the

Canon; hands

the on

262.

the

S c r i p t u r e , H o l y S c r i p t u r e , i, 240; work

of

name

of

the i,

all sacred Scripture unclean,

i,

247

(religious)

ferences

on

the

question

f r e e d o m , i,

4<6

Sadducees,

Essenes.

ff.;

see also

S e c t a r i a n H a l a k a h , i, 198 f.,

Sedarim,

sections

of

t h e i r dif­

of

fate

and

Pharisees,

200

ff.

Damascus.

the

Pentateuch

in

t h e P a l e s t i n i a n ( t r i e n n i a l ) c y c l e , i, in s y n a g o g u e

D a y o f A t o n e m e n t , ii, Seder

'Olam,

299.

service

on

59.

chronological

work,

attri­

b u t e d t o J o s e b e n H a l a f t a , i, 6, 158

f.

Seder (Siddur) R a b A m r a m , prayer book, i, 176. sedakah,

170 f., 180; gemilut hasadlm (q. t / . ) , i i ,

a l m s , a l m s g i v i n g , ii,

inferior

to

85 n . , 171 f. sedek, r e c t i t u d e ,

180,

i n t e g r i t y , ii,

Seleucids, kings of S y r i a and of

191.

Babylonia,

Palestine,

i,

ibid.;

Antiochus

see

48;

zealous IV,

Epiphanes. Seleucus I V , a t t e m p t on the treasures of t h e t e m p l e i n J e r u s a l e m , i, 51. Self-determination

of

m a n , i, 453

ff.,

see

Freedom. under

affliction,

ii,

249 ff. S e l f - l o v e , n a t u r a l a n d g o o d , ii,

selikdt,

87.

p r a y e r s f o r f o r g i v e n e s s , ii,

214.

S e m i - p r o s e l y t e s , not proselytes in t h e J e w ­

modes

the collection,

195.

ii,

y

340.

n.,

Self-examination,

S c r i b e s , s u c c e e d e d t h e p r o p h e t s , i,

biblical

(emet)

S e c t s , t h e t h r e e J e w i s h , i, 57;

conquest

of

syna­

S e c o n d E s d r a s , see F o u r t h E s d r a s .

Hellenizers,

p a r t in d e v e l o p m e n t

the

TOV Oeov, G o d - f e a r i n g

309,

scholars

of (see

reading in the s y n a ­

S e a l , o f G o d , is t r u t h

and

class,

(in­

gogue.

310;

t e a c h e r s , i, 42;

prophets

every syllable

B i b l e r e a d i n g in

m e n t s d e s c r i b e d b y S i r a c h , i, 40 f., professional

by

d i v i n e v e r i t y a n d a u t h o r i t y , i, 239

Seder Abodah,

S c h o o l t e a c h e r s , r a n k in t h e h i e r a r c h y o f

Scion of D a v i d

written

S e c t a r i e s o f D a m a s c u s , see

(Bet ha-Midrash, q. v.),

School-house 312 ff".;

85,

of

books

s p i r e d m e n ) , i, 238;

f.

S c h o o l s (' H o u s e s ') o f S h a m m a i a n d H i l ­ lel,

the

SEPARATION

n.;

G o d t h e auctor primarius, i, 358; a l l

445

i s h s e n s e a t a l l , i, 326

semikah

y

of

the

f., 338,

340

f.

imposition of hands on the head sacrificial v i c t i m ,

dissension

over,

sacrifice ii,

130.

i,

long-standing

46;

in

women's,

S e p a r a t i o n , o f J e w s f r o m h e a t h e n , i, h o l i n e s s is s e p a r a t e n e s s , i,

61.

197;

INDEX I

SEPARATION Separation of sacred from profane a t close of S a b b a t h S e p p h o r i s , i,

(habdalah),

time

ii,

Shekalim,

37.

one

b a t h s , i,

of

the

four special

sab­

298.

S h e k i n a h , ' a b i d i n g / o f G o d , P r e s e n c e , i,

93.

S e p t e n n i a l c a n c e l l a t i o n o f d e b t s , ii,

434 ff.;

165.

reverent metonymy

i,435;

Septimius Severus, prohibition of circum­

i n ,

t h a n G o d h i m s e l f , i, 436;

c i s i o n , i i , 20 n .

for

274,175;

God,

not other

in the t a b e r ­

S e p t u a g i n t ( L X X ) , see V e r s i o n s , G r e e k .

nacle o r t h e t e m p l e , manifested in i m ­

S e r a p h i m , o r d e r o f c e l e s t i a l s , i, 368,

p e n e t r a b l e l i g h t , i, 435;

408 f.; i i , 390.

404,

l

( arabot),

in t h e highest h e a v e n

i, 369;

S e r m o n , i n t h e s y n a g o g u e , i, 305 ff.

also with

tempter

in

of

n

e

temple temple,

and

i,

371,

435;

schools,

i,

with

identified

judges, students, ibid.;

in m a n y places

a t o n c e , y e t is b u t one,

435 f.;

ten de­

s c e n t s o f t h e S h e k i n a h , i, 435;

f.

left

t h e d i c t a in T a n n a i t e sources f o r

w h i c h n o a u t h o r i t y is n a m e d , i,

heaven

ibid.;

94.

to

come

down

never

to

earth,

sin causes the w i t h d r a w a l of t h e

Shekinah,

S e v e n h e a v e n s , see

u n d e r t h e w i n g s o f t h e S h e k i n a h , i,

Heaven.

345;

Seven things of the premundane creation,

526.

S e v e n t y l a n g u a g e s , i, Seventy

(angelic)

1

shepherds,

their

in

fate,

(490

years),

w o r d , ii,

330,

interchange­

I n s p i r a t i o n ) , ii,

a

created

46;

thing

wider

meaning

Shekinta,

76.

dis­

the

for

God

Shamaim,

h a r d e a , i,

t r e a t m e n t of a would-be proselyte

o n c o n d i t i o n , i, 342,

cf. 341;

of the m i d d l e class

(benonlm) a t

the school

at

Ne­

substitute

Schools of

N a m e of

teract it,

48.

heresies;

Heaven'

S h e c h e m , t e m p l e , i, 23 ff., see S a m a r i t a n

le-shemah, ' 467; see also

two

generations

used

for the n a m e (sake) of

( G o d ) , i.e.

m o t i v e , i, 338;

homicide, one of the three i,

Name/

i, 427.

le-shem Shamaim,'

(q. v.),

ii,

e x c e p t i o n a l use in s a l u t a t i o n s , t o c o u n ­

death,

schism.

the

God.

S h e m ha-Meforash, ' the explicit

Shammai

F e a s t o f W e e k s , P e n t e c o s t , ii,

S a m a r i t a n use,

in r i t u a l f o r m u l a s in w h i c h

57. See also

on the fate

and Hillel.

sins

See

n a m e w a s a c t u a l l y p r o n o u n c e d , e.g.

tem­

perament and conservative principles,

cardinal

419 f.

105.

o f S c r i p t u r e , i, 424 n . ; i, 426;

n a t i v e J u d a e a n , i, 77;

shejlkat damim,

a

for t h e p r o p e r n a m e I H V H in q u o t a t i o n s

Modesty.

See also

i,

Shem, ha-Shem, ' the N a m e /

430.

See also

318.

Targums,

Shela, R a b , head of metonymy

S h a m e , t h e sin o f p u t t i n g a n o t h e r t o , ii,

Shammai,

in

make

437.

Shekinah.

of

195.

(le-shem Shamaim, malkut

f.

Christian theologians

" h y p o s t a s i s " o f i t , i,

Heaven,

e t c . ) , i, 367,

shebiCot,

Maimonides,

437 f.;

apocalyptic

297.

peace/

Shamaim,

ii,

come

does n o t rest on a sad h e a r t , b u t

o n a g l a d o n e (see

278.

S e x u a l f u n c t i o n s , r e n d e r u n c l e a n , ii,

i, 79;

proselytes

t i n c t f r o m G o d , n o t a p e r s o n a l a g e n t , i, weeks

p e r i o d , ii,

147

472;

Shekinah sometimes

i, 437,*

i i , 43 n.

300.

Seventy

shalom,

i,

able with the holy spirit, not identical,

S e v e n t y n a t i o n s , i, 227 f., 453;

ii,

the

436;

S e r v a n t s , h i r e d , i i , 138 ff".

i,

the

in

Solomon),

Genesis,

R e v e l a t i o n o f J o h n , i, 478

setam,

presence,

synagogues

the devil (wisdom

t

no place on e a r t h v o i d of

divine

See

Haggadah.

Serpent,

m

a n d on the ruined site of the

ii,

from a

religious

98.

for its o w n s a k e / w i t h o u t

a

s e l f - r e g a r d i n g m o t i v e , i i , 96 ff. Shema', Hear, O Israeli (Deut.

Homicide.

6,

r e c i t a t i o n of, p r e c e d e s p r a y e r s , i,

446

4 f.), 291;

SUBJECTS AND NAMES m a y b e said in a n y l a n g u a g e , i, i n ;

Sifra (de-Be R a b ) , Tannaite M i d r a s h o n L e v i t i c u s , i , 140 ff.

in reciting t h e first sentence m a n t a k e s upon him the yoke of the kingdom of

Sifre (de-Be R a b ) , Tannaite M i d r a s h on N u m b e r s a n d o n D e u t e r o n o m y , i, 143 ff.

Heaven (acknowledges the sovereignty o f G o d ) , i , 465;

women exempt

from

t h e o b l i g a t i o n , i i , 129.

penultimate

Pair,

S i f r e Z u t a , o n N u m b e r s , i , 144 f. S i m e o n , h i s p e n a n c e , i i , 257 f.

S h e m a i a h , c o l l e a g u e o f A b t a l i o n (q. v.), i n the

SIN

i , 45,

77,

Simeon

78;

the Righteous,

survivor of the

G r e a t S y n a g o g u e , i , 34;

according to

their reputation as scholars a n d exposi­

the T a l m u d went out to meet Alexander

t o r s , i, 313;

t h e G r e a t , i , 34;

Hillel a n auditor in their

s c h o o l , i, 3 1 3 ; tion

from

reports a halakic tradi­

t h e m , i, 78;

in

and

311;

ii, 43-

I I , ibid.;

i i , 212.

172;

the epithet, " t h e

comprehen­

s i v e p r i n c i p l e o f t h e L a w , i , 446, 455 f.; i i , 85 ; w h y h e n e v e r m a r r i e d , i i , 120;

arranged under direction

Gamaliel

i i , 84,

Simeon ben 'Azzai, the most

order b y the M e n of the Great S y n a ­ g o g u e , i, 292;

his m o t t o , t h e

R i g h t e o u s , " i, 43.

Shemoneh 'Esreh, T h e Eighteen Prayers,

of

w a l l s , i , 34, 48;

t h r e e f o u n d a t i o n s o f t h e w o r l d , i , 35,

eighth d a y of Tabernacles,

said to h a v e been prescribed in their

v i s i t t o p a r a d i s e , i , 413.

See

Simeon of Mizpah, the anonymous

Daily Prayer.

(50,

1-24), i, 34 f., 310; r e p a i r s o f t e m p l e

Josephus,

S a m e a s ( S a m a i o s ) , i, 313 n .

shemini 'aseret,

probably contempor­

a r y of S i r a c h , subject of his eulogy

ele­

m e n t in, M . Y o m a and M . T a m i d a t ­

S h e m o t R a b b a h , M i d r a s h o n E x o d u s , i,

t r i b u t e d t o h i m , i, 153. Sheol, the nether w o r l d , biblical represen­

Simeon

tation, common abode of all the dead, ii,

289 ff.;

separation

of

the

souls

between death and the great judgment t h e souls o f t h e right­

e o u s i n a r e p o s i t o r y ( i n h e a v e n ) , i i , 302, 303, 390; has

Sheol will give u p w h a t it

received,

ii,

304. See also

Hell

(Gehinnom). Shepherds,

the

(987

angels

who

Gaon of Pumbeditha,

response

A . D . ) to inquiries about

writing

S h i l o h , n a m e o f t h e M e s s i a h , i i , 349. ha-Shirim, the Song

of Songs, see

Canticles.

Signs, o f t h e impending messianic

ii, 63 f.;

463;

definition

religion,

i , 460,

disobedience

461 f.;

in

462,

revealed Judaism,

t o d i v i n e l a w , i , 461;

ii,

89; c o n s e q u e n c e : G o d ' s f o r g i v e n e s s t h e

t e a c h i n g , i i , 89;

the sin of t h e heathen,

462;

sin as debt, defaulted obligation,

i i , 95;

unwitting

463 f.;

s i n a s r e b e l l i o n a g a i n s t G o d , i,

a n d defiant sins,

464 f.;

crisis,

horn, sounded at New Year's,

a t T a b e r n a c l e s , ii, 44. verses

in

the

i,

extremity of sin, the deliberate

r e j e c t i o n o f t h e a u t h o r i t y o f G o d , i, P h i l o ' s i d e a o f s i n , i , 484 n . ;

o f s i n , i , 406, 483, 484;

universality of

s i n , i , 467 ff., 476, 477 f.;

biblical

i, 461,

of sin in a

beings a b o v e a n d below m a n i n c a p a b l e

f.

shofar, r a m ' s Shofarot,

a religious, n o t pri­

marily moral, conception,

465 ff.;

S h i r h a - S h i r i m , M i d r a s h o n , i, 1 7 1 .

ii, 354

o r i g i n , i, 474-496;

t r a n s g r e s s i o n o f l a w , i , 276 ff., 278 f.,

d o w n o f t h e M i s h n a h , e t c . , i , 97 f., 154.

Shir

t o p a r a d i s e , i,

o n l y r e m e d y , i, 117; N e w T e s t a m e n t seventy,

a b u s e d t h e i r p o w e r o v e r I s r a e l , i i , 300. Sherira,

visit

S i g n a t u r e a n d consequences,i,460-473;

(spirits) o f the righteous a n dt h e w i c k e d

( E n o c h ) , i i , 302;

ben Zoma,

413.

and its consequences,

A d a m ' s sin

i , 474 f., 476 ff.;

t h e r o o t o f s i n i n m a n , see E v i l I m ­ New

Y e a r ' s l i t u r g y , ii, 64.

pulse; not

447

sin, a fault of the whole m a n ,

of either soul

or body

alone,

i,

INDEX I

SIN 486 ff.; i i , 384 f.;

learning in the L a w

a n a g g r a v a t i o n o f s i n , i , 464 f.; o f s i n o n t h e s i n n e r , i , 469 ff.; p o w e r , i , 469 f.; i t , i , 470 f.; i, 489 f.;

effect

growing

d r a w s o t h e r sins after

acquires m a s t e r y b y habit,

t h e s i n n e r is i n t h e p o w e r o f

his impulse,

i , 495;

effect

of sin n o t

confined t o t h e s i n n e r , i, 471; t h e w o r s t is, i t leads others into sin, ibid.; thwarts

God's

purpose

sin

of grace a n d

causes t h e w i t h d r a w a l of his presence, i, 472 f.;

t h e sole r e m e d y for sin, r e ­

p e n t a n c e , i , 500 f., e t c . , see R e p e n t a n c e ;

t h e H e b r e w t e x t , i , 179 f.; i,

canonicity,

45, 86, 243.

Sisit,

'fringes'

( N u m . 1 5 , 38 f . ) , m a n

h o n o r s G o d b y w e a r i n g , i i , 6. Six hundred andthirteen commandments, i i , 28, 83;

s u m m a r y of, i i , 83 f.

S k i n d i s e a s e s , r e n d e r u n c l e a n , i i , 76. Sky-gods (Gods of heaven) in Syrian a n d P h o e n i c i a n r e l i g i o n s , i , 430. S l a n d e r , i i , 148 ff.; k i l l s t h r e e , i i , 150. Slaughter

of animals,

inspection,

74

ii,

f.,

prescribed

see also

mode,

Nebelah.

S l a v e r y , i i , 135-138*; o f I s r a e l i t e s , t e r m -

the sin of t h e penitent sinner forgiven

service,

and

i , 532 f.; c o n s e q u e n c e s

heathen

('Canaanite')

r e m a i n i n g t o b e e x p i a t e d , i , 498, 546 f.;

i i , 18 f.;

t h e i r r e l i g i o u s s t a t u s , i i , 136;

sin a n d chastisement,

self-examination,

t h e i r c h a r a c t e r a n d r e p u t a t i o n , i i , 137;

for unwitting, n o t

Social classes, relations b e t w e e n , ii, 1 5 6 -

ii,

forgotten,

249 ff.

Sin offering

i i , 135, 163;

circumcision

of

s l a v e s , i , 136;

d i s c i p l i n e f o r , i i , 137 f.

(hattat),

for presumptuous

s i n s , i , 497 n . ; n o t

for sins a t a l l , in o u r sense o f t h e w o r d ,

161. S o d o m , A b r a h a m ' s p l e a f o r , i , 388.

i, 461; n o t b r o u g h t b y t h e d e s c e n d a n t s

S o f e r , t h e n a m e , i , 4 n . , see S c r i b e s .

o f N o a h ( G e n t i l e s ) , i, 504 n .

Solomon,

Singer, S., ed., Authorised t)aily

inspiration

of,

in

producing

P r o v . , E c c l e s . , C a n t . , i , 238.

S i n a i , m e t o n y m y f o r G o d , i , 256. Prayer

S o n o f D a v i d , M e s s i a h , i i , 328, 329, 347, cf. i,

B o o k , i, 177.

28

n.

See also

Scion.

Son o f M a n , in D a n i e l , " o n e like a h u m a n

S i n e w t h a t s h r a n k , i i , 77 n . Sinlessness, of t h e patriarchs ( A b r a h a m ,

being," t h e universal a n d eternal d o ­

I s a a c , J a c o b ) , i , 468 n . , 513; o f E l i j a h ,

minion of " the holy people of the M o s t

^,474-

H i g h , " i , 334; i n d i v i d u a l i z i n g a n d m e s ­

Sinlessness,

in

t h e n e w e r a after

the

sianic i n t e r p r e t a t i o n in E n o c h , e t c . , ii, 303 f., 334 f.;

j u d g m e n t , i i , 301, 305, 316.

clouds

the Messiah coming with

S i n n e r s ' p r o g r e s s , i , 469 f.

the

Sirach, Jesus ben Sira, a Scribe, biblical

S i b y l l i n e O r a c l e s , i i , 335;

s c h o l a r a n d t e a c h e r o f t h e L a w ( i , 39),

pels,

i, 3 7 - 4 1 , 44 f.; i l l u s t r a t e s t h e c o n t i n u ­

cf

i t y of teaching

from the early

t o t h e T a l m u d , i , 44; dom

of choice

455;

warning

speculation,

i i , 80;

a n d responsibility, against

i,

Scribes on free­

383;

i,

presumptuous

perpetuates

the

biblical n o t i o n s a b o u t t h e h e r e a f t e r , i, 44;

i i , 316 f.*;

no retribution

after

of heaven,

i , 127 f., 186;

i i , 334 f.;

i i , 309 f., 335 ff.;

4 E s d r a s , i i , 337.

Sons of God

(bene elohim,

divine

S o n s o f G o d , t h e I s r a e l i t e s , i i , 202, 203 f. Song

of

Songs,

Song

of

Solomon,

S o n g s o f D e g r e e s ( S t e p s ) , P s a l m s 120-134, a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 46.

m o d e r n s c h o l a r s , i , 44; i i , 3 1 7 ; o n d i s ­

Soul,

Ecclesiasticus,

i , 37 ff., 44 f.,

old Israelite

notions

of survival

a f t e r d e a t h , i i , 287 ff.; G r e e k

of Jesus son of Sirach, 179 f.;

448

see

Canticles.

S o r r o w f o r s i n , see C o n t r i t i o n .

Sirach, Wisdom

beings),

a n g e l s , i, 226 f., 402, 447.

death, ibid.; labelled Sadducee b y some

c i p l i n e f o r s l a v e s , i i , 137 f.

in

in t h e G o s ­

concep­

tions of t h e n a t u r e a n d destiny of t h e s o u l , i i , 292 f.;

adopted b y some Hel-

SUBJECTS AND NAMES l e n i s t i c J e w s , i , 294 f.;

Sadducees

Stepfather

held

ii, 317; i n t h e o r t h o d o x J u d a i s m o f o u r a l l beliefs

about

souls

Strack,

are re­

lated t o t h e doctrine of resurrection, ii, 295;

t h e souls of all generations

(creationist)

353

Neuen

(arabot),

souls of

ibid.; i,

righteous

a

368; i i , 390;

means

sake,"

west

( E n o c h ) , i i , 302; t h e s o u l s o f t h e r i g h t ­ a r e in treasuries in t h e

i i , 245;

ii,

tention and intention

occupy

eous

of grace,

(abodah),

worship

wicked,

in t h e

zum

aus Talmud

und

i n t e g r a l p a r t o f J e w i s h p i e t y , i i , 239;

i i , 240;

places

Kommentar

Testament

between death and the great judgment, separate

in Talmud u n d

S t u d y o f t h e L a w (divine revelation), a n

in the

and

of

M i d r a s c h , i , 215 f.

n.; a different

hypothesis,

highest heaven the

ii,

H,, Einleitung

Strack-Billerbeck,

were

and kept till t h e time of their b i r t h in

(guf),

honor

M i d r a s c h , i , 125.

created a t t h e beginning of t h e world,

a repository

and stepmother,

p a r e n t s d u e t o , i i , 131 n .

t h a t t h e soul perishes w i t h t h e b o d y ,

period

SYNAGOGUE

to be pursued without

study

is

15; d e m a n d s a t ­ (kawwanah, q. v.), " for its o w n

self-regarding

motive,

i i , 96, 241 f.; o u t o f l o v e t o G o d , i b i d . ;

highest

an elixir o f life o r a d e a d l y poison, ii,

h e a v e n , i, 368; i i , 389 f.; i n t h e e a r t h l y

96 f., 242;

life t h e soul p e r v a d e s t h e w h o l e

body,

ii, 1 9 1 ; s i n a n d p e n a l t y o f n e g l e c t i n g

in the

s t u d y , i i , 247 n . ; o b l i g a t i o n n o t l i k e a

i, 370 f.;

is a t r a n s i e n t g u e s t

b o d y , i , 447. Soul

d e b t t o b e w o r k e d off, i i , 243; s t u d y o f

and Body,

292 f.;

irreligious s t u d y o f religion,

Greek

conceptions,

ii,

laws

t h e body, as material, evil, a n d

source of evil appetites

a n d fulfilling

priority

a n d passions,

study

them

o f obligation,

of ritual

laws

246;

a surrogate for

i, 485 f.; i n J u d a i s m , n o d i v i d e d r e ­

sacrifice,

s p o n s i b i l i t y , i , 486 ff.*; i i , 384*; t h e

q u e n c e o f s t u d y , ii, 240,318,319;

soul t h e more guilty, because i t k n o w s

a n d s e c u l a r o c c u p a t i o n s , i i , 127 f., 1 7 7 ,

b e t t e r , i, 488. S o v e r e i g n t y o f G o d , i i , 371 ff.; r e l i g i o u s i n t e r e s t i n i t , i , 401, 432 f.; of religion, tory,

ii,

ibid.;

in his­

Kingdom

ancient

conception

implied

s t u d y o n S a b b a t h afternoons, ii, i n t h e m e s s i a n i c a g e , 271 f.; i n

ii, 112-118.

especially

See also

S u f f e r i n g M e s s i a h , i , 551 f.;

i i , 370.

S u k k o t , see T a b e r n a c l e s .

Spirit o f G o d , of the Lord, in the Bible, its

tion,

244;

Chastisement.

m a t e r i a l i t y , i i , 293.

o p e r a t i o n s , i, 421;

study

38 f.;

Suffering, e x p i a t o r y , i, 546-552.

S p e c i a l s a b b a t h s , t h e f o u r , i , 297, 298. in

and se­

Subjection to authorities, d u t y and limits,

of

Heaven.

Spirit,

branches

t h e w o r l d t o c o m e , i , 273.

teleology

sovereignty

210. See also

i , 505 f.;

in practice,

i i , 96 f.,

medium

Supplication for God's free grace

p r o p h e t i c , i , 237;

in

(tehin-

nah, tahnunlm), ii, 217.

of revela­

Sura,

in

Babylonia,

establishment

of

s c h o o l b y R a b , i , 105.

H e l l e n i s t i c w r i t e r s , i , 371 f.

Surenhusius, edition

S p i r i t , h o l y , see H o l y s p i r i t .

of the Mishnah,

i,

S p i r i t u a l i t y o f G o d , i , 223 f. S t a r o u t o f J a c o b ( N u m . 24, 7 ) , a p p l i e d by

under ii,

S u r v i v a l s , in observances, critical point o f v i e w , i i , 8, cf. i , 14.

Akiba to the leader of the revolt Hadrian,

116, 329, 349

B a r Cocheba,

i,

89;

Swine's

Stars, t h e seven, bound a n d burning for

10,000 y e a r s Heavenly

(Enoch),

flesh,

Synagogue,

n.

i i , 301.

See

ginnings,

u n c l e a n , i i , 74, 7 7 . i, 281-307;

its obscure b e ­

i , 283, 285 f.;

M o s e s , i , 284;

attributed to

a public institution for

w o r s h i p a n d i n s t r u c t i o n i n religion, i,

bodies.

449

INDEX I

SYNAGOGUE 284,

306;

i i , 38 f.;

centre of

religious

individual

258

life for v a s t m a j o r i t y o f t h e J e w s , ii, I2FF.;

c e n t r e s o f p r o p a g a n d a , i,

unique

c h a r a c t e r , i , 284 f.;

t i o n , o f f i c e r s , i, 289 of

the

service,

i,

S c r i p t u r e , i, 296

see

reading

Bible

of

Talio,

t h e l e s s o n s ( T a r g u m ) , i , 302 i, 305

ff.;

291;

prayers,

Prayer;

ff.;

tions

i,

291

appointment

ff.,

see

i,

of, a t t r i b u t e d t o 284;

service enriched

the

with elements

t e m p l e w o r s h i p , i, 103;

(minyan) presence 436;

i i , 14;

f o r p r a y e r s , i, of

G o d in

300;

of

quorum

the synagogue,

i,

ii, 222 n . ; s e r v i c e i n s y n a g o g u e

of

G r e e k - s p e a k i n g J e w s , i, 306 apprehension 284 f., 324;

f.; t o G r e e k

a philosophical

P h i l o ' s d e s c r i p t i o n , i, 306

f.;

n a m e irpoaevx^h Synagogue

the

tarnhui,

collection

o f M i z p a h , i, Tanhuma,

furnishings,

G r e a t , see

Great

Tanhuma

93,94; see also

Midrash,

bar

Abba,

Tanna,

homilist

re­

f. of

the

169.

reciter of traditions, w h a t he

e x p e c t e d t o k n o w , i,

is

135.

T a n n a I J i z k i a h ( d e - B e I J i z k i a h ) , i,

139.

T a n n a i m (singular, T a n n a ) , Traditioners,

i,

tions from S h a m m a i and Hillel d o w n to contemporaries

Councils. see

of

the

Patriarch

J u d a h , i, 4.

143

f o r m o f u s u r y , i,

340 n . ;

ii,

f-

Tarfon, R., testimony about the utterance

characters), in­

425;

29.

example

m o t h e r , ii,

of

133;

piety

toward

legend of his

t u d i n o u s m a r r i a g e , i i , 122

a n d his omnipresence,

i,

369,

370.

29,

101 f.,

c u s t o m s , i i , 43-48.

acter,

and

Targums:

T a b i , s l a v e o f G a m a l i e l I I , ii, See

private

t i o n s i n p r a y e r s , i, 296 n . ; of

138.

i, 102,

Interdictions.

' supplications,'

i i , 217

a positive

302

f.;

in the s y n a g o g u e ,

Tabernacles, Feast of (Sukkot), rites and

ordinances

multi­

n.

agogue lessons instituted T a b e r n a c l e , G o d ' s e a r t h l y a b o d e , i,

T a b o o , i i , 2 1 f., 77.

i, his

T a r g u m , A r a m a i c t r a n s l a t i o n of t h e s y n ­

T

acter, enactment

two

of the n a m e of G o d in the t e m p l e ,

(square

t r o d u c e d b y E z r a , i, 25,

talikandt,

tract Simeon

153.

f o u r t h c e n t u r y , i,

Versions, Syriac.

tahnunin,

immediate

176.

c e n s i o n s , h a l a k i c e x o r d i a , i, 169

Syna­

S y r i a c version of the O l d T e s t a m e n t ,

435;

revela­

attributed to

homiletic

tart/it, marHty

Syrian alphabet

divine

t r a n s m i t t e r s of t r a d i t i o n in t h e g e n e r a ­

and

gogue. S y n o d a t U s h a , i,

of

of food for

in t h e M i s h n a h

the the

the

239.

T a m i d , d a i l y b u r n t o f f e r i n g , i, 251;

29. Synagogue,

compila­

m e t h o d o f c i t a t i o n , i,

n e e d s o f t h e p o o r , ii,

i, 307 •

buildings

as t i t l e of

Torah, study

t i o n , ii,

s c h o o l , i,

c h a r a c t e r o f t h e p h i l o s o p h y , i, 324;

and

173-

131;

ii,

Pharisees

of r e p o r t s of discussions in

Talmud

Daily

t h e m e n o f t h e G r e a t S y n a g o g u e , i,

47,

141.

s c h o o l s , i, 4, 173;

homily,

recitation of the Shema',

33,

f.

between

o f s t u d y , i, 4, 319;

afternoon,

translation of

29,

T a l m u d , ' learning,' as a b r a n c h o r m e t h o d

reading

M o n d a y and Thursday mornings, attri­ b u t e d t o E z r a , i, 29 n . ;

difference

i,

gezerdt.

S a d d u c e e s o n , ii,

attributed to Moses,

services on S a b b a t h

authorities,

See also

T a l e - b e a r i n g , i i , 148

constant parts

291 f.;

ff.,

in the synagogue; i , 296;

ff.;

233;

organiza­

f.

n. char­

of the Scribes, or of

450

the

and

i, 303 f.;

authority

of

174 f.,

304

f.;

Prophets,

i,

Ezra,

age, char­ written

Pentateuch,

Palestinian

102,

i,

practice

the

Onkelos on the

gums on the Pentateuch,

peti­

by

rules

Tar­

i, 175 f.;

174;

on

Jonathan

ben Uzziel forbidden

to translate

the

Hagiographa,

i i , 353;

language of

the

Targums,

100;

i,

the

proper

name

SUBJECTS AND NAMES I H V H w r i t t e n , b u t r e a d A d o n a i , i, 424

n.;

c i r c u m l o c u t i o n s f o r r e v e r e n c e , i, 417

ff.,

4iQff.,.f^ M e m r a and

Teshubah,

i,

193;

176. 1

pensum (keba ),

Taxes

and customs

117

ii,

be

ff.;

associates

f o r s u p p o r t o f s c h o o l s , i, 316

T a x a t i o n , R o m a n , l a w f u l n e s s of, i i , T a y l o r , J e r e m y , i i , 229, honor

134;

and

of

T h e i s m , i, 357

f.,

Theodoret,

375.

ii,

Theology

243. See also

ii,

360

Twelve

Apostles,

i, 189.

God's

'revivification

earthly

and

of

the

i,

369;

by

(M.

M i d d o t ) , i, destruction

antidote

against,

T e m p t e r , i n E d e n , i, 448,

478

i,

n.,

ii,

on

the

153;

440

357.

the

the

Name ascents

second

in,

i,

426;

the the

to heaven,

413; see also

parts

of

Scripture,

the

Chariot

456, 539;

f.,

ii,

ff.

proof-texts examples,

i,

382.

67

by

230.

n.,

T h r o n e of G o d , p r e m u n d a n e existence, i n t h e h i g h e s t h e a v e n , i, 368,

i i , 390;

337,

332;

(4

o n e a r t h ( E n o c h ) , i i , 301, E s d r a s ) , i i , 339;

o f J o h n ) , ii

369.

o f D e d i c a t i o n , ii,

the

T i b e r i a s , i,

394.

341.

Tither

45

1

at Feast

49.

94.

T i n e i u s R u f u s a n d A k i b a , i i , 203

terumah gedolah, ii, 7 1 , 72, 73. terumat ma'aser, ii, 70, 73.

304,

341.

T h r o n e s ( D a n . 7, 9), i i , 337,

f.

i,

413;

(Revelation

T h y r s o s , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , i i , 43; of

cen­

i, 366 n . ;

T h r e e things t h a t a n n u l a d i r e d e c r e e , ii,

481,

f.

resurrection

357,

Philo.

c i t e d f r o m e a c h , i, 239 f.;

of

have they

t h e w o r l d t o c o m e ? ii,

427.

264.

J e w i s h , in

of

223 f.,

f o r b i d d e n o n t h e s a b b a t h , i i , 27

526;

T e n d a n c e o f t h e d e a d , c u s t o m s , i i , 288

Tertullian,

See also

f.*

r a b b i s , i,

Three

f.

f. ( c o n f l i c t i n g o p i n i o n s ) ;

74

377.

pronun­

speculation.

191.

T e n T r i b e s , r e t u r n o f t h e , i i , 300

defined, ii,

Samaritan

T h i r t y - n i n e principal species of activities

f.

i i , 270 f., see E v i l I m p u l s e ;

d e c e i v i n g s p i r i t s o f B e l i a r , i,

flesh,

re­

Judas

descrip­

t h e p l a c e o f a t o n e m e n t , i, 502

terefah,

four

Pompey,

share in

416

f.,

secret

taken by

tion of Herod's

a

the

o f P h i l o , i, 211 f.,

Theosophy,

r e b u i l t b y H e r o d , i, 76;

b u r n t b y T i t u s , i , 83;

368

on

practical side, abode,

rededicated

M a c c a b a e u s , i, 53;

ff.;

253.

tury, not philosophical,

d e s e c r a t e d b y A n t i o c h u s I V , i, 52;

489

name,

ff.

T h e r a p e u t a e , ii,

d e a d , ' see R e s u r r e c t i o n .

Temptation,

f.

four-letter

T h e o l o g y o f t h e r a b b i s , i,

the

tehiyat-ha-metim

i, 73;

the

c i a t i o n o f t h e n a m e o f G o d , I a / ? € , i, due,

J e w i s h e l e m e n t s i n , i, 188,

covered

Wit­

T h e o d i c y , u l t i m a t e r e t r i b u t i o n , ii,

f.

T e f i l l a h , see D a i l y P r a y e r .

Temple,

women,

See also

as w e l l as f o r g o o d , ii,

School teachers.

ff.;

kinsmen,

T h a n k s , to be g i v e n t o G o d for ill f o r t u n e

247. reverence

responsibility,

Teaching 187

near

T h a r g e l i a , A t t i c , ii, 56 n .

T a x a t i o n f o r o r g a n i z e d c h a r i t i e s , i i , 174

Teacher,

resur­

f.

I H V H , see N a m e o f G o d .

pledged

(Haberim).

178;

m e n t o f a w r o n g - d o e r , i i , 155;

Tetragrammaton,

and

(neeman) i n s u c h 73, see also A s s o c i a t e s

ii,

190-

nesses.

of,

trustworthy

matters,

See

treat­

of

ii,

T e x t , H e b r e w s t a n d a r d , i, 100

for s u p p o r t of the cultus

m i n i s t r y , i i , 70 to

teachings,

slaves, not admissible.

duties, p a y m e n t

507 f.

80;

Testimony,

f.;

f.

f.

Taxation

moral

r e c t i o n i n , i i , 307

in s u c h m a t ­

t e r s a s p r a y e r ( d i s a p p r o v e d ) , i i , 220 s t u d y ( a p p r o v e d ) , i i , 243

i,

T e s t a m e n t s o f t h e X I I P a t r i a r c h s , i,

Shekinah; misuse

of the T a r g u m s b y Christian scholars,

T a s k , a fixed

' repentance,'

Repentance.

(ma'aser),

ii,

159.

n.

INDEX I

TITHES Tithes,

t h e t h r e e , i i , 163 n . ;

t i t h e , i i , 130;

l e c t i o n o f t i t h e s , i i , 70 f.; L a n d , ii,

71.

T o b i a d s , i,

49.

the second

p o o r - t i t h e , ibid, n.;

See also

outside

Rabbanites

the

Terumah.

in

division

of

the

etc.),

abode

of

the

dead,

of

Moses

from

Sinai,

i,

T r a j a n , insurrections of the J e w s i i , 287;

f.

30,

p r u s , M e s o p o t a m i a , i, 107

(religious)

' instruction,'

inadequately

' L a w , ' i, 263;

revela­

represented

w h a t it includes,

Transcendence 416;

by

T o r a h identified w i t h the i,

263 ff.*;

p e r s o n a l , i, 416;

divine

personified,

the two-fold

unknown

t h e t e r m , i, Translations

421,

in

361,

Palestinian

423 fF.;

abuse

of

423. of

Versions,

not

Cy­

f.

o f G o d , i n P h i l o , i,

idea

J u d a i s m , i, 417,

ibid.;

a l l S c r i p t u r e s a r e v e l a t i o n o f r e l i g i o n , i,

Wisdom,

(116-

117 A . D . ) i n t h e C y r e n a i c a , E g y p t ,

as

shrines, ibid.

248;

tra­

256*, 258; o f t h e E l d e r s , i, 251 n . , 262.

T o l l - m e n ( p u b l i c a n s ) , ii, 1 1 7 .

tion,

Orthodox

oral transmission,

Unwritten Law.

Tradition

152.

Torah

Karaites,

t h e o r y a n d p r a c t i c e , i, 98 f.;

See also

Mishnah

(clean and unclean, purification,

Tombs,

and

a n d R e f o r m , i, 258;

d i t i o n a n d j u r i s t i c d e d u c t i o n , i, 313

T o h a r o t , sixth

i,

sion between Pharisees and Sadducees,

col­

Scriptures,

Greek,

i,

Aramaic

302,

see

(Targum),

Syriac.

Torah,

in w r i t i n g (see S c r i p t u r e s ) , o r a l l y t r a n s ­

T r a v a i l o f t h e M e s s i a h , i i , 361

m i t t e d (see

T r e a s u r e s of m e r i t , g o o d w o r k s , in h e a v e n ,

U n w r i t t e n L a w ) , ii, 5;

T o r a h o f t h e p r i e s t s , i, 16 f.,

the

22.

Torat

Midrash

(Sifra)

pn

90

fF.

righteous

of H a l a k o t

l e l t o t h e M i s h n a h , i, 96 f.;

historical

importance,

sinned,

paral­

would

character

a n d r e l a t i o n t o t h e M i s h n a h , i, 155 ibid.;

Trespass

33 n.

cupations 177;

of

many

r a b b i s , ii,

l e a r n e d s t u d y , i i , 127 f., Tradition, accompanying

127

n.,

favorable

to

t o i t , i, 257;

logical

v e a l e d r e l i g i o n , i, 258;

organ

of

progress,

as i n ­

supplement

Mohamme­

d a n i s m a n d i n C h r i s t i a n i t y , i, 257, ibid.;

t i o n , i, 57 f.

Pharisees, }

66 f.;

ii,

party

a u t h o r i t y of,

forever?

" Two

i,

474;

offering, in

in

doubtful

unquestionable

303. cases,

cases,

499.

See

i,

ibid.;

asham.

in t h e J e w i s h l i t u r g y ,

f.;

His seal

237.

See

Faith.

His c h a r a c t e r , ii,

(emet),

ibid.

authorities"

(or

ff.*

powers),

see

Dualism. Two

great commandments,

p e l s , ii, 85 f.;

Testaments

P a t r i a r c h s , ii, 86, cf. ii, 173 T w o impulses

tradi­ divi­

not tree,

101.

194

continuity

of

that

T r u t h f u l n e s s , t h e v i r t u e of, ii, 188

258;

o f t r a d i t i o n f r o m t h e o r i g i n a l s o u r c e , i, 255 f.;

of

303.

T r u s t i n G o d , i i , 232,

corollary of re­ in

lived

T r i s a g i o n ( I s a . 6,3),

w r i t t e n l a w , in

p r i n c i p l e a n d i n f a c t , i, 251 fF.; terpreter of Scripture and

have

T r u t h , o f G o d , i, 395;

177.

the

if A d a m h a d eaten

p r a c t i c e o f t h e p i o u s , i,

to

trades and oc­

secular occupation

he

had

t h e j u d g m e n t , ii,

498;

(handicraft), d u t y of a father

and

T r e e o f W i s d o m ( K n o w l e d g e ) , ii,

f.

toshab, ger toshab, i, 338 ff*.; tdshablm, i i ,

t e a c h h i s s o n , i i , 127 f.;

heaven,

its fruit e n j o y e d b y t h e righteous a f t e r

f.;

quoted

i n t h e T a l m u d s a s B a r a i t a , i, 148

in

dead preserved in,

», 339, 39°-

Leviticus,

T r e e o f L i f e , i i , 301;

Tosefta, a codification

31,

ii,

(treasuries),

souls of the

Tan­

ibid.

Trade

544 f.;

Treasury

K o h a n i m , L e v i t i c u s , i, 140;

naite

i,

See

also L a w .

f.

in the

XII

f.

(yeser ha-rd, tob), i,

see E v i l I m p u l s e . T w o l o a v e s , i n t h e K i d d u s h , ii, 36.

452

Gos­

of the

484

f.,

SUBJECTS AND NAMES Two

Ways,

i, 454;

in t h e T e a c h i n g

of

VESTMENTS

Unleavened cakes

(massot), ii, 40.

t h e T w e l v e A p o s t l e s a n d B a r n a b a s , i,

U n p a r d o n a b l e s i n , t h e , i i , 108

188.

' Unruly,' the

T w o w o r l d s — this c o m e (q.

tf.),ii,

b o t h , i, 538;

world, the

378; ii,

world

to

Unwritten

A b r a h a m acquired

237.

T y r a n t s , p u n i s h e d i n h e l l f o r e v e r , ii,

U b i q u i t y of the Presence of G o d (cf. i, 372 n . ) .

Omni­

( A k i b a ) , ii, 388.

reads

s i n , i,

crimes

and

268

ii,

n.

vices,

76;

76;

ii, 17;

the

a semi-

339.

many

rules

the

46.

did

common

U n f a i r c o m p e t i t i o n , ii,

also

over

r e a s o n s for opposing it, ii,

245, 271. See also

i,

i>

lex naturae,

2 1

3 -

Upper household, U r i e l , a n g e l , i,

G o d ' s , see

Familia.

410. i i , 170 n . ;

the

d i s c i p l e s o f A k i b a i n i t , i, 94 n . i i , 142

ff.*

man,

ii,

160.

V

142. 416.

V a g r a n t s , c h a r i t a b l e p r o v i s i o n f o r , ii,

176.

V a t k e , W . , on the composition

age

and

o f t h e P e n t a t e u c h , i, 10.

See

V e r m i n , u n c l e a n , i i , 76.

the human

r a c e , i, 445 f.;

of

Israel, makes God's great name to

Versions of the Bible:

be

288;

104. true religion,

impli­

G r e e k ( L X X ) , i,

fast in m e m o r y of t h e d a y it w a s

made,

U n i v e r s a l i t y of the

ex­

t h e u n w r i t t e n l a w in t h e

age,

'am ha-ares

G o d , i n P h i l o , i, 360,

p r a i s e d , ii,

Scribes,

ordi­

Monotheism of

the

instruction of w o m e n in the u n ­

U s u r y , i, 339 f.;

not

f o r t h e A s s o c i a t e o r P h a r i s e e , ii,

Unity

of

controversy

U s h a , s y n o d a t , i, 93, 94;

the uncleanness of the

U n i t y of

words

i, 262;

U n w r i t t e n l a w , in P h i l o , the es­

ger (ger 'arel)> n o t

concern

the

Law, Tradition, Halakah.

cardinal

epithet,

h e a t h e n s o i l u n c l e a n , i,

narily

of

b o o k s , i, 7 1 ;

U n c l e a n , t h i n g s t h a t a r e a n d m a k e , i i , 74,

Uncleanness,

256,

messianic

and

f.

pecially of the Philistines,

p r o s e l y t e , i,

i,

a m p l e s of o b s e r v a n c e in e x t r a c a n o n i c a l

incest

opprobrious

uncircumcised

of,

w r i t t e n l a w d i s a p p r o v e d , i i , 128;

Canon.

(gilluy 'araiydi),

466 f.;

its

a c t u a l s o u r c e s a n d g r o w t h , i , 254,

68 n . ;

out

the world to come

See

U n c e r t a i n t y o f S a l v a t i o n , ii, 321

Uncircumcised,

253 f.;

i, 97 f., 202;

books, one w h o

sexual

re­

obligation

the committing of H a l a k a h to writing,

of, h a s n o s h a r e i n

all

revealed 254;

elders, etc.,

U n b u r i e d d e a d , i, 7 1 .

Unchastity

425.

n.,

251-262;

no conflict b e t w e e n t h e t w o , ibid.;

thority

(Sheki­

See

presence of God.

Uncanonical

i,

258 f.; e n a c t m e n t s b y a u t h o r i t y (ta\ilandt, gezerot), i, 31 f., 33, 258; a u ­

u n a h ) , i, 435

Law,

f.

291

i,

w i t h t h e w r i t t e n l a w t o M o s e s , i,

ligious

387.

(perisin),

i i , 68;

t i a n s , i,

88;

appropriated by

Chris­

C h r i s t i a n r e v i s i o n of,

i,

c a t i o n o f m o n o t h e i s m , i, 226,

228;

idea

101;

p e c u l i a r t o t h e J e w s , i, 22,

323;

con­

s p e a k i n g J e w s , i, 1 1 1 ; v e r s i o n o f A q u i l a ,

use in t h e synagogues

c e i v e d as n a t i o n a l religion i n t e r n a t i o n ­

i, 88,

alized,

Targum. — Syriac

i, 230;

i i , 373 ff.;

G o d i n h i s t o r y , ii, 346,

371 ff.*;

f o r i t s r e a l i z a t i o n , i, 434;

also

the end

of

prayer

i i , 373.

116

U n l a w f u l g a i n , i i , 141 ff.

m e m o r i a l significance,

ii,

version,

based

Josephus'

prediction

56.

453

on

f.

to,

ii,

n.

V e s t m e n t s , o f t h e h i g h p r i e s t s , i , 34;

47.

see

p a r t of Jewish

s c h o l a r s i n t h e t r a n s l a t i o n , i, 102 Vespasian,

U n l e a v e n e d B r e a d , F e a s t of, see P a s s o v e r ;

i n . — Aramaic version,

Hebrew standard text;

See

K i n g d o m of H e a v e n .

101,

of G r e e k -

ii,

INDEX I

VICARIOUS Vicarious

expiation,

the

suffering

d e a t h o f t h e r i g h t e o u s , i, 547;

and

or their

W h e e l o f f o r t u n e , ii,

169.

W i c k e d , c h a r a c t e r o f t h e w i c k e d m a n , i,

readiness to undergo it for the people's

493 f.; r u l e d b y h i s e v i l i m p u l s e , i,

s a k e , p a t r i a r c h s a n d p r o p h e t s , i,

550;

ultimate fate of the wicked,

Isaac,

549;

i,

540,

549;

M o s e s , i, 550; 550 f.; 548 f.;

the

Phineas,

D a v i d , ibid.; Maccabaean

martyrs,

t h e M e s s i a h , i, 551

V i c a r i o u s p i e t y , i i , 261

i,

I s a i a h , i, i,

f.

S a b b a t h e v e , i i , 37;

also

f.

V i n e y a r d s , d a n c e s i n , see

Dances. of,

scheme

in

sick,

Hellenistic

Voice,

the

forms

which

ii, i n ,

man

172;

the

S i r a c h , i, 312; mon,

the

the

by

which

m u n i c a t e s w i t h m e n , see

God

of,

bat IzoL

i, 415;

but

not

(hakamim),

the

f.;

identi­ ff.*;

in

a

personal

and W o r d

of

definition

264.

W i s d o m , t h e T r e e of, i i ,

303. class

of

W i t n e s s e s , c l a s s e s i n c o m p e t e n t , ii, 184

f.;

' S a g e s , ' i, .

330,

i, 37

263

Wisdom

o f (4 M a c e ) , i, 265.

i, 38,

G o d , P h i l o ' s L o g o s , i, 416 f.;

com­

Wise, W

proselyte

in t h e W i s d o m of S o l o ­

personified,

agent,

V o w s , o f a b s t i n e n c e , d i s a p p r o v e d , ii,

supposed

310.

c h a r g e b y t h e c o u r t before h e a r i n g , ii,

W a g e s , o f h i r e d s e r v a n t s a n d l a b o r e r s , ii, 1 3 9

Shekinah,

o r is b r o u g h t , b e n e a t h , i,

fied w i t h W i s d o m ,

of

37.

mysterious,

See

346.

imi­

on

the

127.

the L a w (revelation of religion)

of

in

t a t e s G o d , i, 441; S a b b a t h , ii,

of

comes,

the

294.

one

129;

protected b y

W i s d o m , Jewish conception

gemilut hasadlm

127,

Marriage, Divorce.

Wings

i i , 83;

w r i t e r s , ibid. n. V i s i t a t i o n o f s o u l s , ii, the

387.

d u t i e s , i i , 36,

m a r r i a g e c o n t r a c t , i i , 122 f.,

V i r t u e s , no classification

Visiting

household

eulogy of the good housewife recited on

f.

V i n d i c t i v e n e s s , s i n of, i i , 154

Platonic-Stoic

a n d h e a t h e n , i n h e l l , ii, Wife,

495;

Israelites

185;

L

examination

of,

ibid.;

two

eye­

witnesses necessary in c a p i t a l cases, ii, " W a i t o n t h e L o r d , " i i , 232

n.

184;

W a r o f 66-72, i, 83. W a r n i n g , m u s t be given to a m a n

about

to commit a crime to m a k e him liable, ii,

185. See also

Reproof . angels,

i,

409.

W a y y i k r a R a b b a h , homiletical

ff.

Midrash

190.

ff.;

obligatory ii,

130;

(semlkah),

and

the ibid.;

duties,

voluntary

imposition religious

gations from which they were

129 189.

W e e k s , F e a s t of, P e n t e c o s t , i i , i i , 297

W e l l , M i r i a m ' s , i, 542, cf. i,

48.

for

n.

of

Repent­

515.

454

these,

of

obli­

exempt,

of

the

i i , 36 n . ,

house­ childbed 248

s e r v i c e s , i,

m i g h t r e a d a p o r t i o n of

L a w , i i , 128 n . , 131; 46;

defini­

of

duties

w o m e n die in

at synagogue

181, 315; i,

f.

t i o n s o f D u t y , S i n , i, 460;

special

neglect

women

250.

Catechism,

ff.;

w i f e , i i , 129 f.;

Wellhausen, J . , on Ezra's L a w Book,

Shorter

n.

a n d t h o s e t o w h i c h t h e y w e r e h e l d , ii,

W a y y i s s a ' u , M i d r a s h , i,

a n c e , i,

126

sacrifices,

169.

W e d d i n g p r o c e s s i o n , i i , 173,

Westminster

(ed

t h e p e n a l t y , ii,

w i t n e s s e s i n d e f e n s e , i i , 184

hands

W e e k s o f y e a r s , i, 193;

186;

W o m e n , legal status, rights and

44.

o n L e v i t i c u s , i,

n.,

W o m a n , t h e b e g i n n i n g o f s i n , i, 4 7 5 .

ii,

W a t e r - d r a w i n g , a t T a b e r n a c l e s , ii, 42

12

186;

148

ii,

W o m a n ' s c o u r t , in t h e t e m p l e , ii, 46,130.

" W a t c h e r s " (the unsleeping),

W a t e r G a t e , ii,

conspiracy of false witnesses

zomem),

n.; 131, the

a t T a b e r n a c l e s , ii,

i n s t r u c t i o n in t h e L a w d i s a p p r o v e d

by some, women,

i i , 128 n . ; ii,

269 f.;

behavior their

toward

allurements,

SUBJECTS AND NAMES ibid.;

conversation

with

a

woman,

W o r s h i p , i n t h e t e m p l e , i i , 10 ff., 43

ibid.

55

Wood-offering, (Neh.

for the use

10, 34),

temple,

i, 30;

i, 30 n . ;

on

dance of maidens 54;

of

the

in the the

altar

of

in t h e s y n a g o g u e ,

Synagogue;

Herodian

15th

ff.;

Ab,

i i , 240;

in t h e v i n e y a r d s , ii,

a j o y o u s f e s t i v a l , i i , 61.

Writing

W o r d o f G o d , i, 4 1 4 - 4 2 1 ; e f f e c t s h i s w i l l ,

68

t h e fiat a c r e a t i v e force, ibid.;

agent,

but

ibid.;

nowhere

not

a

a

in

the

s t u d y is w o r s h i p , celestial

404.

one reason for forbidding,

Hagiographa.

W r o n g s i n w o r d s , i i , 147-150.

see

in the R e v e l a t i o n of J o h n

Y

(19,

13), 11,342.

Y a h w e h , probable ancient

pronunciation

W o r d s o f t h e S c r i b e s , a u t h o r i t y of, i,

262.

o f t h e n a m e o f t h e g o d o f I s r a e l , i,

W o r l d , created after

the p a t t e r n of

the

See J e h o v a h and

or for the s a k e of

the

L a w , i, 266

ff.;

L a w , i, 268 f., 363;

383,

450;

yaiyin nesek,

t h e r i g h t e o u s , i,

Yalkut

138.'

449 f.;

t h e w o r l d ' s , i,

of

i i , 378;

378 n . ;

a m b i g u i t y o f t h e p h r a s e , i, 271;

378,

originally

the

i n t h e G o s p e l s , i i , 374;

378;

eschatological

and

378 f., 392; no

after

judgment,

ii,

sorrow,

tears,

i,

272;

ii,

392 f.;

a perpetual sabbath,

study

of

the

Law,

i,

p o r t i o n in t h e w o r l d to come,

273;

s i a h , ii,

yissurln,

who 275;

w h a t t o d o t o a t t a i n t h a t life, ii,

151;

men

in

the

nations

of

349.

465;

to

come,

t i o n s , i, 525 f.; T e n T r i b e s , ii,

ii, 369.

ii, 387 147 f.,

ff; 388

excep­ f.;

n. assuming

ii,

86,

173,

372 n . ;

breaking

y o k e ( r e b e l l i o n a g a i n s t G o d ) , i, 465;

i, the ii,

166. Yoma,

Day

ascribed

of A t o n e m e n t , M i s h n a h to Simeon

o f M i z p a h , i,

of, 153.

Z Zadok, high priest appointed b y Solomon, i,

all Israelites h a v e a portion in

the world

252

the

the little children of the heathen,

i i , 386;

f.;

Evil

Impulse.

c h a s t i s e m e n t s , ii,

w o r l d h a v e a p o r t i o n in t h a t w o r l d , ii, 386;

479

See

the y o k e of the kingdom of H e a v e n ,

a

ii,

480.

o f t h e n a m e , i,

Y o k e , figurative for subjection;

Jewish

is a s o n o f t h e w o r l d t o c o m e ?

170,

Y i n n o n ( P s a l m 72, 17), n a m e o f t h e M e s ­

ii,

e q u i v a l e n t f o r s a l v a t i o n , i i , 94 f.;

righteous

f.

Impulse.

no eating, drinking, marrying,

e t c . , i i , 392;

i,

189.

d e v i s i n g , i,

yeser tob, see G o o d

375,

the conditions of t h a t age:

death,

341 f.;

last

catena,

m a n y s a y i n g s a b o u t , i, 491 n .

393;

scheme,

the end of the messianic age, the resur­ rection,

315. yeser, i m a g i n a t i o n , yeser ha-ra\ o r i g i n

abode whither

t h e r i g h t e o u s g o a t d e a t h , i i , 391, the

Midrashic

Y e l a m m e d e n u , h o m i l e t i c M i d r a s h , i,

national

( m e s s i a n i c ) g o l d e n a g e t o c o m e , ii,

in

Shim'oni,

Y e k a r a ( g l o r y , l i g h t ) , i, 437

e a r l i e s t o c c u r r e n c e , ii,

391;

wine from which a libation

Yea, yea; nay, nay,ii,

449.

W o r l d t o C o m e , t h e n e w e r a , t h e t e r m , i, 270 f.;

427.

N a m e of God.

t o a h e a t h e n g o d is m a d e , i i , 75.

for the sake of Is­

for man's sake, not m a n for

r a e l , i, 383,

ii,

n.

inter­

m e d i a r y l i k e P h i l o ' s L o g o s , 416 f., Memra;

is w o r s h i p

' W r i t i n g s , ' K e t u b i m , see

personal

personal

see

of H a l a k a h , c o n t r o v e r s y about,

i, 97 f.;

personified,

ff.,

worship of G o d in the

t e m p l e , i,

W o r d , a r e a l t h i n g t h a t d o e s t h i n g s , i, 414.

i, 415;

prayer

h e a r t , i i , 84 f., 217 f.;

ff.,

i, 285

69.

Z a d o k , d i s c i p l e o f A n t i g o n u s o f S o c h o , i,

69

the

f.

Z a d o k i t e s e c t , see

455

Damascus.

INDEX I

ZAKOR Zakor, one of the four special

298. zekut abot, see

sabbaths,

Zera'im,

Z e u s , ** L o r d o f h e a v e n / i, 367 Z i k r o n o t , in N e w

i,

M e r i t of the Fathers.

a g r i c u l t u r a l l a w s , first

o f t h e M i s h n a h , i, Z e r u b b a b e l , i, 6 f.;

division

enormous

fowl,

b a n q u e t , i i , 298,

364

Z o r o a s t r i a n i s m , i i , 389,

152.

t h e S c i o n , ii,

Ziz,

325.

Z u g o t , see P a i r s .

n.

Y e a r ' s s e r v i c e s , ii, in

the

f. 394

f.

64.

messianic

I N D E X

II

PASSAGES CITED This index includes the Scriptures, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, Philo, and Greek and Latin authors. Places where a passage is quoted or explained are marked by an asterisk. Genesis 1-3.

cc.

380 fF.* i,3 6 ",253 m ',366,407,408 i, 447 n . i i , 124 i , 382 i, 389,* 538 n. 1,483 i i , 119* ii,i2 i , 372, 472 f.* i,

6

1,1 i,3 1,26 I , 26 f. !, 7 1, 31 2, 4 2,7 2, 18 2,24 3, 8 3,2i ii, i n 3,22 i,447 -* 4,7 i, 481,49°* 4, 14 • i, 372 f., 473 n.,* 538 5,i, ii,85,*n * 6, 1-4 i, 406; ii, 300, 301 n . , 3 1 5 , 332 6,2 1,483* 6,5 i, 48c, 486 6,7 1,3^9 7,1 i, 400 2

4

f

9

J

I 2

7, 5 8, 21

i, 479

9, 4 12,5 2 , 43-45 5,6 15, 8 17, , 3 17, 3 , 1 4 17, 23-26 18,1 18, 8 18,15 19 25, 8 25, c 27 J

J

I I

x

1 1

I

f

f.,

4

n.

481, 486

i, 274; ii, 74* i,344n.* 9 ",237 ii, 14 ",20 18 11,17 J

ii, i n

27,40 32,n 32,33

',465 24,7 n,372 i, 536 24, i o f . i i , 393 i,275 2 4 , 1 1 ii, 392* 24,17 i,469 Exodus 25,u ii,^ 3,6 1,311 31, 13, 14, 16, 17 ii, a i i, 537* 3, 5 i, 428* 3 2 , 1 1 - 1 3 i,55° 4,31 " , 2 3 7 32,32 i i , 63 n . 12,19 ii, 6 32,32f. ,39 ",47 33,19 ....i,386,395;ii,94* i , 3 9 « , * 396 3,3-7 »,47 34, 6 f. 11,110* 13,8 11,41* 34,6 11,25 13,18 ii, 363 3 4 , 2 i ii, 8 14,19 203 f.* 34,22 i i , 61 H,3i " , 2 3 7 34,27ff. i,469 15, ^. —11,383* 34,30 "1 7 15, 2 ii, 104,* n o c . 3 5 35,3 ",25 16, 29 i i , 32. 36,1-7 11,2711. 17,6 i,37 ,372 Leviticus 17, 8-13 ii, 206 19,1 " , 242* i , 4 i, 5 3 3 ; i i , 5 4 19,5 " , , * 18 3>*7 >75 20, 1 1,366 5 , i 7 f i 498f.* 20, 6 f. ^543 7,23-25 n,.75 20, 6 i i , 206 f.* 7, 25 ii, 6 20, 7 1,428 f.* c. 14 ii, 6 20, 8-11 ii, 32. c. 16 i i , 6 f. 20,12 i i , 6, 131* 16, 8,10 ii, 56 n . 20, 20 i i , 142 16, 21 i, 464, 511 20,21 i,4 6* 16,30 i, 500, 546 c c . 21-23 i, 252 c c . 17-25 i, 329 21,15 " , I 3 4 * 17, «>75 21,17 i , 252* 17, 4 ",6 22,1 ii, 30 17, 5 i,340*; ii,74 22, 20 i i , 148 17,25 i>3 9 23, i - 3 181 18,5 i, 279*; ii, 19, 30, 23,1 ",185 106 f. 23,3 " ^ 3 9 n.,18211. ii, 120 f. 23,7 i i , 181,187 f., 189 18, 6-18 1,304 23,16 i i , 8 18,21 i, 259; ii, 1 2 1 * 23,21 i,335 18,30 1

x

I 2

of

J

4

1

2

f

J

2

l 6

u

5

3

1 1

J

J

2

405 1,388 -i,536 ii, 290 n . 14 i,n i,

: /

4

4

457

INDEX II 19 19,2

84 24, 1 7 - 1 9 ii, 116 25,16-13 i, 549 ii, 169* " , 1 3 1 * 28, 2 ii,32n. " i 3 9 * 35,5 ii, 1 3 9 ^ * 1 8 2 * Deuteronomy i i , 148,181* i i , 152. 3, 23-27 ii, 219 i, 47°*; ii, 5>* 3,26 ii,23o I 5 , * 74 4,2 i, 259 ii,

c.

ii,

19,3 19, 3 19,15 19, 16 19, 17 f. 19,18 J

109,

n o

5

8

1

J

ii,

J

19, 9 19,36 20, 6

6

4,6 1,263 ",189* 4,7 i, 368 i, 528 4 , 1 2 - 1 9 1,223 20,9 1 ! ' 3 4 * 4, 25-40 i, 50 20, 26 ii, 205* 4,3 *i, 524 22,8 11,74 4,37 i, 524n. 22, 10 f. i i , 19 i, 428 f.* 22,32 i, 107 5, 11 23,40 " , 4 3 - * 5, 2 - i 5 ii,3 23, 42 f. u, 47 5, 16 ii, 6 24, 15-22 i, 329 6,4 i, 291,* 370, 485* 24, 16 1,427*"-* 6, 5 . . ii, 85 f.,* 99,230,* 252 25, 8-17 », 147 7 , 6 - n i, 536 n . ; i i , 95 ",254 25, 14 ii, 147 8,5 i, 537 25, 17 ii,H7* 9,27 i, 456; 93 25,3 ,37 4 3 10, 12 98 f., n o , 173 25,37 *"" , 146 10, 14 1,368 c. 26 i, 501 10, 17 i, 380; 11,^229 ii, 99 26, 14-39 ",248 10, 20 9 ii, 382 f.* 26,38 11,369 26, 40 fF. i, 514 1 1 , 13 ",15,217,241 26,43 ii, 54 11,22 i, 245, 246, 256 i, 453 f.* 26, 44 fi, 563 11,26-28 Numbers 14, 1 ",203 5,6f. i, 5 14,21 i,339 -* 6, 22-28 i, 295 15, I " " " , I 4 5 6, 23-27 i, 424 f. 15, 1-3 i,26o 6, 26 i,5 9;ii, 195 - 15, 7 - i i " , 165 f-* 15,8 i i , 167 f.* ",15 - J , 55o ii, 180 c. 12 ii, 149 15, 9 15, 7 - 2 i 11,71 15, 10 . . . i i , 167 f.,* 169 n . * i i , 169 i5,3 i, 463* 15, 10b ii, 164 15, 3 ",383* 15, 11 17, 11 i, 259, 262 15, 32-36 ii,25 17, 17 " , 124 n . 15,32 i i , 18511. 19, 16-21 i i , 186 15,39 i, 486* 21, 1-9 i, 260 16, 20-22 i, 471* 2 i , 4 ii, 97 18, u - 1 3 i i , 3 3 21, i 8 f . ii, 134 c. 19 ii, 7* 22, 6 f. ii, 5 19,2 • ; • " , 7 22,11 ii, 6 ii, 269 21, 4-9 ii, 206* 23, 10 23, 15 ",124* 23,9 i,538 23, 21 i i , 143 n . 24,17 ii,3 9 1

of

n

6

J

2

24,1-4 24, 1 24, 13 24, 14 £ 25,7-io 26,5-9 26, 12-15 26,17 27,4 28,12 28, 15-68 cc. 29-30 29,27 30, 15-20 31, 16 32,2 32, 8 f. 32, 13 f32,29 32,32 32,36 32,39 33,5 34, 6

...1,520 122 f.* ii,9 " , 139 ",6. ii, 4 1 * ii, 288* 1,315 i, 25 f. i, 378 ii, 248 i, 50 " , 369* i,454 ",382* ",97,242 i, 226 f. ", 365* i, 365 fi, 474* ii,356 ii, 380 f. ",104 ii,

J

ii,

i n

J

Joshua 1,8 2, 10 5, 1

ii, 239, 243* i i , 104* i i , 104

f.

Judges

2

1 1

2

17 2 1 , 1 9 fF.

c.

f

o f

J

114 61

Ruth 3,i3 3,15

458

i, 395 ",349

I Samuel i,i3 2,6

i,

369

ii,3i8

12, 23 16, 18 22, 9-19 25,29

ii,

219 n . ii, 349 ii, 149 ",39°

II Samuel

8

2

ii,

n

J

f

i,

7,i6 7,i9 22, 27 24,17

: /

ii

ii,327 279 249 n . i,55°

-i, 3

SCRIPTURES I Kings 8, 12 M7 8, 39,41-43 8, 46 9,3 22, 19

37,5 37,7 37,2o 38,35 cc. 40-41

ii, 232 5, 369 f. ij 233 i, 467 i,369 i o8 5

6

Psalms

j 4

1, 2 f. II K i n g s

2

25,25

1,65 II Chronicles

7, *4 33, 1 - 9 , 1 1 - 1 3

ii, 67 ni, 523

Nehemiah 7,38 c c 8-10 c 8 8, 8 > 9-12 - 9 10, 29-40 i°,33ff13,10 3 , 15-22 13, 28 f.

j 3 4 |

c

J

Esther J

9, 9 , 2 2

ii, 53 Job

J I

x

J

J

J

J

2

1

1

1

6

",334 340 N. I, 491 I, 85 I, 548* i, 448 ii, 385 f.* ii, 224 n. i, 400* ",150 ii, 149 ii, 83 II,

4

I 2

y

y

8

2, 4 4, 6 f. >9 *3, 5 5, 6 5 , 34 9,4 19, 25-27 3 , *3 24, 15 25,2 29,12-16 3 ,1 3 , 16-22 3 , 29-32 33, 23 33,27,28 34,37 3 ,13

H, 240

2

> 2,9 4, 5 4,5^ 8,3 8, 6-9 9,i8 10, 17 >7 , 5 12, 14 Ps. 15 1 1

11,70 i, 4-8 \ 297 i 302 f. ii i, 501 i, 30 11,70 ii,7o ii, 25 1,23

ii, 254 ii, 147 ii, 93 ii, 203 n. ii, 191 ii, 190 i, 471 ii, 291* i> 379 ii, 268 i, o7 ii, 164 ii, 267 f. ii, 164 f.* ii, 165* i, 391,438* ",154* i, 4 7 ii, 190 4

1

82, 1 A-B 82, 6 f.

i, 379 I,47 ii,229 i, 3 7 i * ii, 363 f.

1

*>S* 20, 1 5, 3 5, 31,20 32,5 33, 33, 6,9 33,15 34,13 Pss. 42-83 Ps. 45 45,8 49,15 5°, 4 5°, " 5 , 5 5 , 9 55,18 55,24 63, 12 65, 6 68, 5 £ 68, 19 68, 21

II,326 ",259 ",259* I, 393,* 535 ii, 93* I,5 F. 1,279 1,415 ii, 62* II, 195 i, 424, 429 II, 328 n. 1,551 H,387* ii, 383 ii, 364 f. ",259 II, 274 F. ii,2i f. ii, 269 ii,2 9 i, 530 n. I, 144* I, 539 ii, 249 n.

2

2

8

I 2

1

1

J

1

l

9

4

69, 29 -72 72,i6 74,8 78, 16 78,25 79,3 81, 10

ii, 62 ii, 334 ii, 6* i, 285 f. ii,204 1,405 ",150 1,4691".*

P s

3 3

459

I,463* i, i 4 5

85,3 I,532 85,5-7 i, 531 85, 12 ii, 91 89,^ 11,91 89, 20 ii, 273 89,33 i, 546 90, 2 f. 1,266,* 526* 9°, 3 I, 266, 522* 9°, 13 i, 5 3 1 0 1 , 5 . -11,149 n., 150 n., 275 102 (title) i, 369 102, 26 i, 370 3 , 13 204,395 104,4 i, 405 5,39 ",204 5 , 42 f. 539 106, 2 ii, 229 n. Ps. n o II, 328 1

1 0

i o

1 0

1 I O

1

I L 2

1

> h, 335 i n , 10 ii, 97 > I,35;II,9 5,i6 i, 435 Ps. 116 II, 318 116, 6 II, 386 116, 9 II, 379 118,1 iC43 118, 20 i, 279 8,25 ii, 43, 44, 48 119, 126 . . i, 209,427; ii, 244 123, I II, 104 125,4 ^279 Ps-127 1,317 i3°,3fI,535 ^6,13 I, 379, 539 3 6 , 25 1,379 138,6 ii, 275 141,2 ii, 217 £. 145, 8 f. i, 535 *45,9 i, 393 145, 14 I,394 H5,i6 i, 378 145, 17 h, i n 145, fii, 231 6

I J

I J

J

1 8

Proverbs 3,6 3,8 3,9 3,12 3,18 3,19

II,8 * ii, 9 , 242 h,6 II, 254,* 256 11,96, 242 I,268 4

6

INDEX

II

21

3> h533 6,1 i, 398 f. 5 i , i 6 ii, 85* 3,34 i, 456* 7, o ii, 382 5 >3 H,35i 4, 20-22 i o 5 , 13-53, i i, 228 f. 4,22 n Isaiah ii,3i5n. 5, 8 ii, 250 ii,3 7*. , 4 ",203 5 , 1 3 6, 3 11,254 1, 10 ii, 268 53, !o » , 5 6 ,*327n. 7, ^ 11,97, 250 1,16 f. i, 509 5 3 * " - . , i, 552 8, 22 ff.... i, 264, 266,415 f. 3, 10 ii, 91 5 4 , 1 2 . .i, 229 n., 549,* 550* , 35 11,97,242 4 , 2 i, 490 ii, 325 11 5 5 , 9,i-3 i,265 4,6 1,522,530 ii, 368 55,6 9, H,i53 n. 5, i, 470* 55,7 - . i , 5°9>*5™>5 3> 5 ° ", i ii, 269 5, 20, 24 i, 415 ii, 190 5 5 , " i, 230 ,3° ii, 91 6, 3 ii, 101 - 56 *4,3 ii, 230 n. > ",8 ,*35o i, 408, 550 56,i ii, 24 *6,4 ii, H I 6,10 i, 526 n. 5 6 , 2 , 4 , 6 56, 6 ff. i 329* *6, 5 " , 7 5 7, H i, 88 7 , 16 11,191* ii, 390 n. 9> i i , 8 57, *9, ii, 268 i,44i* > », 349* 57,15 9, 7 ii,i6 * >4 11,337,340 n. 5 7 , i 6 ii, 353* °,9 i, 468 c 13 i, 521* i,400 5 7 , 1 9 ,3 ii, 172 4 , 1 i, 465* i, 328* 58,i 4, 4 ii, 190 14,3-21 ff»,55,69 ii, 290* 58,3 5, * i, 490* 9 , ~ 5 i, 23011. 58, 8 ii, 92 7> *4 " , 1 5 0 22, 14 i, 546 58,10 ii,i7o* 8 , 13 1,512 cc. 24-27 ii, 296 5 8 , 1 3 . . . . ii, 24, 25,33 *35, 9, 1,49211. 24,16 11,348 n.* 31 f. 9, 3 ii, 273,274 26,2 ^279 3 i , 16-31 ii, 37 26, 1 7 - 1 9 . .ii,295f.,*36i n. 59, 1, 5 ° ; " , 3 5 ! ii, 388 ,19 ",382,* 390 60,21 Ecclesiastes ",351 26,20 ii, 250* 60, 22 1,400; ii, 273* i, 379 6 1 , 1 *>4 i, 450* 7 , 4 i, 400; ii, 340 n. i i , 3 5 63, 1-6 , 9 ii, 366 n. 3 ° , 5 63,4 i,4o8 33,15 ii, 83* , 14-16 ii,3o6n. ^3,9i, 393 33, 22 i i , 2 i o n . , 2 i i n. 3, i,382 3, ii, 202 i, oo 3, 18-22 ii, 292, 306 n. - 3 4 64,4 ii, 379 ii,368 4, 1 ii, 191 f.* 3 5 , ii, 288 n. " , 3 2 7 6S,3S 4,4 i,482f.* cc. 40 fF. 65, 9 «, 303n. 40,1 fF. ii, 366 4,17 i, 504* ii 296 ",368 66, 7-9 5, ii, 227 40,3-5 i, 3 9 5 © 4 ii, 195 66,13 5, 5 ii, 192 m 4 , 4 ii,373**i, 536 66, i 7, ° i, 468 4 ^ f f . 66, 24 f. ii, 297,387 42, 1 ii, 327 7, 6 ii, 126 Jeremiah ii, 92 8,2f. i i , u 6 f . * 42, 21 43, 7 ii, 111 *9f. 1,114 9, 4-6 ii, 292 n. ii, 327 n. > i,53 II, ii, 16* 43, 44, 6. .ii, 195,210 n., 211 n. >35 1,513 >5 ii,385 44, 24 i, 381 3 , i i, 520* i,3i5* 45, ii, 119 3, i i, 528 46, 4 i, 370 3, 4 i, 522, 531 Canticles 46,7 i, 368 3, i, 546 , 13 ii, 362* 49, 2 »,340n. 3, 5 i, 5 7 ; " , 207 1,551* 3, 11 ii, 61* 5o,6 ",35! « 5> i, 53i* 5 > i £ i, 5 3 * 1> 9 i,53 J

}

2

4 9

2

2

;

j 9 7

2

r

2

2

2

2 6

8

1

1

I

1 8

2

2

c

I I

2

6

8

4

2

}

J

2

6

3 4

2

J I

J

2

J

n

9

2

2 I

J

2

2

2

2

J

l 8

2

2

2

2

2 1

2

2

2 0

2

2 6

2

J

x

J

2

1 1

6

1 6

c

4

1 0

J

f

1

} 2

J

2

8

2

2

I

1 0

2

2

2 2

2

2

I 2

1 8

2

J

2 2

2

2

1

2

1

8

460

J

2

n

2

SCRIPTURES 4,22 8,4 8,5 9,4 9, 9, 4f. 14, 8 16,7 17, 13 17, 9 ~ 7 23,5 23, 7 23, 23 f., 24 29,7 cc. 30-33 3o,3 2

J

2

f

11,203 1,52211.* i, 510 f.* », 9 i,3 fii, ? ii, 207 n. 11,288 ii, 207 n. "> 5 ",324 "»367 fi,37i ","5 11,331 ii>366 l 8

l 6

1

2

l

3o,7

*>3S

26

3°, 9 jj>3 30,18-22 ii, 366 30,20 ii, 175 31,8 ii, 3 3i,9 i> 5 7 ; ^ 2 0 7 3 , 8f. i,5"* 3 3 , 1 4 - 1 6 . . . . i , 325; ii, 324 33, 9 . ^325 33,25 ii, 1511. c c 34-39 11,11411. 48, 10 ii, 192 49, 7-23 1,400 c. 50 f. i, 400 50,6 i,47 6 6

n

2

I

I

J

f f

I n

Lamentations

1,16

ii, 348

C37 37,12-14 37,12 37,14 c-38f. 38,16 39, 17-20. .

8 2

">3 i, 531; ii, 296 i, 378 ",3 ° ii, 305 ii, 102 ii,,34on. 8

44,24 45,13-17 45, 45, ~ 2 0

8

2

l 8

2

:

1 1

2

Obadiah f f

i,i7 -,

2

i,5 9 ",68

1 0

Daniel

I O

1

1

"»37 *

6

l8

I, 8-16 4,20 4, 24 6,10 c-7 7, 9 - H 7,9 7, 7, 3 7 , 1 3 f7,14 7,25 7, 27 c.9 9,3ff10, 21 12, 1 f. 12,2 12,3 12,7

2 1

Jonah

*>497 ii, 5 c c . 3 - 4 i,464 3 ,

1 8

Micah

i, 71 ii, 386 .ii, 171 ii, 219 f. ii>37! n. 332,334 ii, 334,337,* 34i ^412 ii,3°4,335* > >334 ii>35 ii,33 ->334 i>5 ;j> 5 ii, 195 n. ii, 297 f. ii,30i n . , 3 i 8 n . ",298 ",35! J

4, 6 5,1 6, 8 7,6 7,18-20 7,i8 7,i9

2

In

0 1

i, 481 n.* " , 3 6 1 n. ii, 83,* 172 f.* ",357 i, 538 n. i, 53** »> 537*

Hahakkuk

1 8 6

iJ

ff.

1,14 2,3 2,4 2,14

ii, 114 »>35 * ",84* ",237* 2

0 o n

Haggai

2,6

ii, 3 5

2

Zechariah

n

1,438 3*5 ii, 325 2,1 ii,203 "> 5 3,5 ",325,326 11,85 6, 6 i, 503*; 11,172 11,65 10,12 ii, 172 i,22 I I , I-3 ",204 "> 334 f-* 14, 2-4 i,5i3* ii,37°* 14, 2 . . . i, 387*, 515, 522 n., 1,240 530 53i ii, 207 n.* 14,3 11,15,218* >3 i, 22, 229; ii, 210, Joel 331 n., 346,37! i, 22 2,13 ii, 68 14,16-21 3,5 ii, n o n .

1, 5 fF. . . . i, 368,369; ii, 390 7,22 ii, 97 8, 16 ii, 47* 17, », 366 18,14 i, 533 1 , 21 f. i, 532 20, 13, 16, 21 ii, 24 20,31 i,5 3 29,16 i,394 31, i 5 ~ "> 9° 32, 17-32 ii,290 " 33, i,5°9 33, I* i>52i 36,20 «, 105 36, 22-33 ii, 102 5,4 36,25 ii, 207* 5,10 36,26 i, 4 2 , 493 8

"> 5 ",3 4 ii, 104* ",362

», 24 n.

Hosea

Ezekiel

2

8,5 c.9 9,6 9, i o f .

1,12 3,8 6,12 7,5^ 8,i6 8,19 8,20-23 9,9 12,10 13,1-6 13,6 13,9 14, 9

6

U

1 8

Malachi Amos

.ii,8 * ii, 152 n, ;

8

461

4

i,2f. 1,10-14 1,11

i, 399 ii, 374 ni, 230 n.; ii, 218

INDEX II i , 14 2,14,16 3,7 3,8-12 3,i6 3,i9

i 23011. 11,123 53^532; " , 3 5 ii,72 i, 436* ",386* 3

I n

18,15-17 i8,2if. I9,3ff-

19, 16

«,I53* i i , 153 n . , 154 3,7-8 ii,i2 * 4, 16 ii, 321 4

I9,i7

n

i,395

Luke ff.

5, 14

-

i,

i, 544 300 f.* ..ii,9

6, 1 ii, 29 n . ff. i i , 157 n . 3,2i i i , 8 7 * 20, 20-23 ii, 3°9 - 6, 20 6, 30-38 ii, 165 3, 23 ii,357,359,3 i 2o,3°,3i 329 ii, 326 n . 21,1-13 - i i , 3 3 7 9, 18 f. 9,18-21 ii, 309 n . Matthew 22, 14 ii, 322 n . 174 n . ii, 118 10, 25-37- • 3,7-9 i, 544 22, 21 i i , 205 n . , 208 n . i, 406; ii, 304, 1 1 , 2 5,7 ii, 17011. 22, 30 392,393 « n , 4 i i , 95 5,9 . . . . i i , 196 n . ii, 383 n , i 3 i i , 205 n . 5, 1 4 - 1 6 . . . . i i , i o 3 22,32 . . . i i , 8 5 12,33 f5, 18 i, 269 f.*; i i , 9 n . 22,36 ii, 9 c. 23 i i , 192 n. 12,47*"i,464 5, 19 i,47 ff. i, 262 n. i 3 , i - 5 ",322 5, 22 i i , 148 n . 23, 1 i i , 9 n. 1 3 , 2 i i , 24911. 5,28 i i , 267 f. 23, f. i i , 19411. 13,23*"",322 n. 5, 29 f. ii,268* 23,4 " , I 9 4 * 5,30 ",269 23,5 13,29 ",365 5,3 ,32 ii, 123,124* 23, 12 i i , 365 ii, 274 14, 15 i, 51611. . . i i , 9 15,7 5,37 i i , 18911.* 23,23 ii, 124* ii, 360 f. 16, 18 5,39-4i i i , i 5 i c. 24 i i , 3 i ° 16,25 " , 254 n . 5,42. . i i , 143 n . , * 165, 168* 24,4-25, 46 ",i53* ii, 361 f. 17,3*"5,45 i,378 24, 8 i i , 154 " , 336 n . 1 7 , 3 6,10 i, 401 24, 15-31 ii,9 i i , 337 7 , 14 6,12 i i , 9 5 * 24, 27-51 ii,32I i,4o8 18,18 6,141". " , i 5 4 24,36 ii,392n. 336 20,34-36 6,19 i i , 9 * 24,44 20,36 ii, 3 ° 4 6,30 ii, 232 n. 25,31 i | , 336 n. 22, 16-18 ",365 6,33 .11,100 25, 40 i i , 169 n. 22,67f. ii, 335* " , 365 23,43 7, 21 ii, 205 n. 26,29 ii, 3 9 - * ii, 335* 24,47 ,4 i i , 9 ^y^L i, 51611. ii, 31011. 8, 11 f. ii,365 27,53 John 9,13 i, 5 ° 3 Mark 19, 28

> ;

.ii,3°7 n

3

6

n

>:

:<

n

1

2

2

J

; /

J

x

1

n

8

n

2

9,27

10,29**. IO

n

ii,3 9 -

f

,35 -

n,io,i4

12, 1-8 !2,7 12, 22—30 13, 14 13, 24-3°, 15,22 16, 13-20 16, 14 16,18 16, 27 f 17, 21 18, 10 18, 12 f.

ii,29* i , 3 5 2,23 i i , 31* " , 3 5 7 2,27 ii, 31 n. ",326 3 , 1 - 6 ii,326 i i , 29 8,27f. ii,3°9 / , 5 ° 3 - 8,27-30 ii, 309 n. 9, 29 i i , 206 n . i, 52611. 10, 2 ff. i i , 124* ",321 36-43,47-49-••• 10, 17 i i , 3 i o 10, 35-40, 48 f. . . . i i , 30911. i i , 32.9 n . 1 1 , I - I I ii, 337 i i , 309 n . 12,25 ii,39 i i , 326 n . 12,35-37 • • - - i i , 3 0 9 " . , 3 3 6 i, 538 n . 13,4-37 ",3io ii, 336 n . 13, 24-37 ",337 ii, 259 f* 14,25 i i , 365 ii, 335* i, 404 H , 6 i f. 8

n

n

;

2

4,27 5,i

ii,52n.

7,49 ^,33,39 9,

462

" , 160 n . i, 543 " . 322

1

Acts ",336 i, 379 i, 379 i, 516 n .

i,9

3,6 4,io

5,3i 5,37 7,56

12, 14 f. 14,22 i i , 3 i 6 n . I5>i9f-

i , 3 4 4 25,41

ii, 270*

4 , 4 6 - 5 3 - - i , 377 n - ; i i , 2 6 3 n .

"

ii,375

n

-

i,335

n

-

i, 404 i i , 25511. ii, 7 4

NEW 15, 20 i5,28f. I5 9 17,26 21, 21 21,25 28, 26 f.

TESTAMENT—APOCRYPHA

I Timothy ii, 87 tl. " , 7 4 2, I f. ii, 115 n. ii, 8711. 6>*7~*9 ",9* i 445 ii, 21 Hebrews ii,74* ",23711. i, 526 n. 10,38 11,29 ii, 237 12, 5 f. ii,254 Romans 13,16 ii, 165 1, 17 ii, 84,* 23711. 1, 18-32 . . . i, 462 n.; ii, 10 James 2, 8-16 i, 462 n. " , 3 n2, 14-16 ii, 10 1, 5 ii, 165 4 , 3 , 9 , 20 f. "> 23711. 1, 27 ii, 85 n. 5,3 " , 2 5 3 " . 2, 8 ",23711. 5,12 i , 4 7 * 2, 23 f. ", 5 6,16 i , 8 * 5, ! "

Apostolic C o n s t i t u t i o n s 711, 2

ii, 87 n.

2

5

f

2 I

6

6

4

c 7 7, 23 9, 5 , 1 1 , 28 f. 12,3 13, 8-10 x

I Peter

I John

I

», 74

1, 8f

I Corinthians

",379 11,25311. ii, 120 n. ii, 75 n.* i , 250 ii, 36 n. ",3 ° ",394 ; ;

8

II Corinthians 1

5, 5, l 12,2-4

ff-

l

",394 i>533 1,36811.

Galatians

3,6 3,11 5,2 5,14

",238 ", 4* i,33i ", 5* 8

8

Ephesians

2, 12

Hermas

i. 1, 6

Vis.

Tobit

3,5

r

4, 8 f. 12, 8

",254

4, 6ff. 8, 2

ii,390 i, 410

f f

i,7i

W i s d o m of S o l o m o n

i , 3 7 i f. 475 ii, 292 n. " , 3 ° 6 n. ii,2C3

2,23f. 3, ~6 3,5f4,i7- 9 5,5 5, 5 8,7 n,i5 l l , 16 ",23 12, 10 12,16-18 12,19 12,24 e e 13-15 15, 8 f . 18, 15 f. J

I

J

9, ! 3 2,9 13, 13,8 13, 8 c 17 17,8 19,11-21,8 19, 3 20, iff. 20,1-3 20,2 20, 4 2o,7ff. 20,7 20,11-15 21,10-22, 6

i, 326 n.

Judith

2, 16

ii, 63 n.

1

h 7 i

ii, 91 n. ",258

i,7ff1,13 i , 5 i 2 1, 16-2, 9 2, 1-5

3>*9

1

1

W

2,1-9

8,6

R e v e l a t i o n of J o h n

J

i, 449 n.*

1,1^9

",25311. ii, 19611.

1 1

2,9 4,12 7, 2 c. 8 10,4 10, 16 15,35 15,42-54

i, 415 -

9

4

1 0

n

10

l 6

i,484 U86* ", 94 2,23 i, 542* 3 , ii,2 5 ii, 85 n.

1 8

13,

G o s p e l of P e t e r

?>

i, 448, 475 " , 2 9 3 f.* ", 55 "> 9 4 * ii, 20311. ",294 ii, 83 n. j , 363 fi­ ii, 252 n. ^380,517* i, 517 f. i, 380 1, 5 1,363 fl­ 1,363 n. 1,363". i, 415 2

2

",343"i,479 ",34on. 63 n.,341 " , 340 n. ",343 ii, 63 n. 34i ii, 339 f. " , 3 4 2 , 343 ii, 305 n. ii,3i6n. ii, 375 ii, 297 Ecclesiasticus ",3°5 ",375 3 , ff. ",3*6* H, 385 "• 3 , 2 i f. i, 383 ii, 341 n. 5,4-7 i, 5o8* 6, 32 ff. i, 287 n. Didache 7, 8ff. i, 5 ii, 87 n. 7, " , 232 n. ii, 260 n. 7,24*". 1,383 5

n

J

l 8

n

1 6

Q I

Philippians

4,3

1,2 " , 63 n. c. 8

I O

463

INDEX II c. 6 I Maccabees 1,15 ii, 20* 6,4 2, 29-41 ii, 26 Asher i> 455* 2,57 3 3 7 " . 2,8f. 1, 48l* c-7 II Maccabees 1,448

9 , 1 4 fF. 10,11 14, 20 fF.

i i , 155*

i, 287 n . n , 316 n . i, 287 n .

15. " - 1 7 15^4 i7,3 17,13 « i7, 9 18, 13 f. 18, 20 f. 21, I 21,6 21, 10 fF. f f

i,5^*

2

:

21,11

23,1,4

ii,*59 i,542

ii, 36011. Joseph i i , 360 n . 3,5 ii, 25211. i, 36711. Benjamin

1,18-35 2 , 1 fF. 5, 6,2 7,9, 4 7, 18, 32 f. 7,36 i,49° 7,37,38 »,202 l 6

!,5 ii, 255* i, 516 i, 26411. .",255 i, 26411.

i,472

I O

»,299 c 10 i, 548* 11,299 i, 548* 1, 24 f.

J

8,15

i,54i

2

", 58 i,3°7*.*

Jubilees ii, 202

2, 26-33

ii,27n.

2 6

24,9 24, 23-29

i, 9 9,5*i , 2 6 10, 6 f.

ii, 25211. i i , 43 n. », 299 ii, 25211. i i , 29911.

4

24,23

i, 38,269 12, 42-45 25,24 i , 4 7 5 13,8 27,30-28,5 11,154*-* H , 4 6 28,14 ii, 150 HI Maccabees 3o,33*. ii,i37*.* 31 (34),3o*« n , 5 9 6, 2-46, 8 ii, 202 3 1 , 2 1 - 3 2 , 26 i , 501 3i,3°*. i, 5°9 IV Maccabees 38,2 ff« i, 28711. 1 , 1 6 f. i, 264 f. 38,24-39,11 . . i,4of.,309 2, 21 f i, 485* 39,4ff i , 309* 6, 27-29 i, 548 f.* 40, 1 , 1 1 ii, 316 n. i, 549* 41,1-4 ii, 31611.* 17,20-22 42, 18-20 i, 374 45,25 ",327 Testaments XII 47, ,327 Patriarchs

2,31 4,15 4,3 5, 1 ^ 5, ,

ii,35 >3 5 i i , 25211. i, 483 3*5 -

H

J

J

1 0

: /

1 1

i,5*7* ii, 315 n . ii,3*5 -

10, 5-11

n

ii,327 Reuben ii,358 n. 1, 6 fF. 48,15-327 n . 1,10 50, - 2 4 ;-i,34 Translator's Preface, i,3io* 1,19*.

3,21 f.

3,4

4,24ff-

3, 3 2 - 4 , 1 4,1.

1, 5

5°,

1 2

i,37o

15,4 19,2

i,

2 6

10,1. 1 4 - p . 11,1. 21,

1

6

J

J

8

ii,3° * ii, 92 i,455 ii,9i n. J

9,"- 5 i , 5 7 ; i i , 258 1 0 , 1 - 3 , 6 , 1 1 - 1 5 i,5 7 i i , 325 n . i,3i6

i,433*

ii, 250

n

J

9 c.25

13, 5 ~

13, 8 f 13, 9 "

1 0

1 1

f

i,5!5 .* ii, 255 2

ii, 55

ii, 255* 254 n . , 308

14, 6 - 1 0 . .' i i , 308 n. i, 433 i i , 2 8 P s . 17 » , 2 5 2 1 7 , 4 - 6 . . . . i i , 327 n . , 33011.

Gad 5,6-8

i, 516* 5 ,

1 n

D a m a s c u s sect. p.

3, H " 4,7 ii,9i n. 9,4 i , 5 4 i f9,9

i, 264 n . 2 4 , 4 - 6

P r a y e r of M a n a s s e s v s s . 7 fF.

Judah

0 1

n

59 ii,35 i, 7 -

f

2, 32-36 I

c 15 i i , 115 n .

ii,27n.

8

5°, 5°,9 -

i , 5 7 - ; i i , 2 5 8 3, 5 - J O

13,5

f f

ii,3o8 n .

5°, 6-13

ii,257 P s a l m s of Solomon 1,5*7 P s . 2 ii, 328

i,383 Levi

Baruch i,i5 .

23, 26-31

i, 71 n . ; i i , 27 n .

Simeon

1 , 1 1 f.

i, 40311. ii, 43 n-

",251

J

Sirach (Hebrew)

n

n,4*.

1 5 , 3 ! f16, 20-31

n

47,22 48,1-12

n

n

J

5, 7 * .

2

4

J

5

1 0

464

17,8

ii, 3^8

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA cc. 91-105 ii, 305 f. 14,12 i , i n. 9i, i ° ",306 ! 5 , 5 ^ V462 91, 14 3 ° n. *5,7 i,45° 1,45011. 9i,i7 " , 3 i 6 21,24 92,3-5 ii, 306 3 , 4 -i, 478* Enoch 92,5 » , 3 i 6 24,1 ",9** ii,3i6 2 7 , 1 - 2 8 , 2 H, 357 n. c c 1-5 ii,3oi !oo,5 ii,3o6 29, 5 ii,3^5 1,4-9 » , 3 3 2 n . 102, 6-11 ff3o6 3°, ii, 39° fl­ 5,8f. i, 468; ii, 316 103,1 ee. 36-40 ii, 333 cc. 6-8 ii, 315 IV Esdras 36,1-11 ii, 338 6, i f f . i, 8 cc. 6-10 ii, 310 n. 3,7 ii, 3 3 i, 474* 3 9 , 1 - 4 0 , 4 c. 10 ii, 316 3 , 2 i f., 26 i, 8* i, 477* 48,42-46 10, 1 7 - 1 1 , 2 . . . .ii, 303 n. 4, 3°-32 ff. ii, 380 n. i, 477* cc. 49 cc. 12-16 ii, 301 n., 316 4 , 3 5 , 4 1 ii, 385 A«, 39° - 50,2-51, 17 cc. 17-36 i,38o 6,38 i, 478* i , 4 i 5 - 54,15, 9 ",338 n. c 19 ii,3ion.,3i6 ,55>59 i,45° 7o, i - 7 ! , 3 cc. 21-27 ii, 301 7 , 9 - 72-74 ii, 333 39° ",338 n. 21,7-1° .ii,316 7 , I I i,477* 72, i - 7 4 , 4 ii,369ncc. 22-27 ii, 332 n. 7, 20-24 i, 455,462* 1 7 , 1 7 , 2 2 ff. ii, 369 n. i , 3 4 2 n . 78, 1 22,4 ii, 301 7,26 ",25511. 338 f.,*375 78,3 c c 28-32 ii, 303 7, 26-44 ii, 254 n.,255 n. c c 37-71 ii, 333 f. 7,37*",385* 79,2 i, 468 f. 84,10 i,542 cc. 38-44 ii, 305 7,46, ii, 32211. c c 45-57 i,3Q3ff. 7,49-6i i, 68f. A s s u m p t i o n of M o s e s 46, i f . ii, 335 7,68 48, 10 ii, 334 7,77 " , 9 i * 1,12 ^450 i, 542 n. 10,1 ii, 372* 5i,i-5 ",304* 7 , i o 5 52,4 ii, 334 7, n 6 fii, 390 n. A s c e n s i o n of I s a i a h 54, 1-6 ii, 305 7, 121 i,390 4,2fF. 55,3-4 ii, 305 7, 132-139 ",343 ",322 c c 56-57 ",367 8, 1, 3 8, 15 ff i , 3 9 i 5 » i-4 ",305 Vita A d a e et Evae i,9 c c 58-69 .11,305 8,33 4ffii, 258 n. i, 468 f. 61, 10 ii, 390 n. 8 , 3 4 f i, 9 "• 65, 6-10 ii, 315 n. 8,36 E p i s t l e of A r i s t e a s ii, 342 11. 67,4-7 " , 3 i 6 8,52 §132 * i,37 -i,455* 6 9 , 1 - 1 3 , 1 3 - 2 1 . . . . . . " , 3 1 5 8,55*. ii, 342 n. §134 ffi,3 3 ". 69, 16-24 ii, 380 n. 10, 26 fF. i, 338 §138 i,363 " . 7i,7 " , 3 9 ° " - 1 1 , 1 - 1 2 , 39 ii, 333 §168 ii, 8711. 7i,i5 », 378 n. c 12 ii, 339 cc. 72-82 i, 380 12, i o f . Sibylline Oracles cc. 85-90 ii,3oo 12,31-34 ii, 337* ii, 338 , iii, 11 f. 89,74 .ii,3oo 12,34 i, 36 2* ii, 342 n. " i , 29-31 90, 9 fF. ii, 282 n. 13,36 i , 3 3 "• " , 368 f. iii, 46-50 90,20-27 11,332 13,38-47 ii, 330, 374* i,8f. iii, 286 f. 90, 20 ii, 300 i , 1 8 - 4 8 ii, 330 9°, 21 ii,3i6 111,586-590 i, 363 n. A p o c a l y p s e of B a r u c h 9°, 28 f. ii, 300,342 n. iii, 629 i,362* 90,32-36 ii, 3 1, 1-4 ii, 114 n. i", 652 ii, 335 n. " , 3 4 2 n . iii, 652-656 9°, 33 ii,3oon.* 4,2-7 ii, 330,* 333 ii, 11411. iii, 663-697,702-731 9°, 33'3^ ii, 367 cc. 6-8 9°>37 "»,33i !4,7*« i,449* ii, 333 "• *7, 21-51 17,23 7 , 32-35 17, 3 J

6

ii, 332 ii,328 », 33° n. " , 328 n.

9

6

2

f f

2

4

3

8

4 7

n

J

n

6

c c

n

4

n

6

J

n

1

2

:

6

6

4

l 6

f

465

INDEX II iii, 767 fF. v, 75 v, 108

ii, 372* iii. 8, 9 i> 363n- i - 9 , 11 ii, 333 n.* vi. 9 , 3 § 4 4

s

v

y

2

, 4i4

333 n-,335

v , 492-502 F r a g . , 1, 7 fF.; 3,

n

-

i,35i

n

i. 28, i n i t Josephus

1

4 3

1

2

17 18 ii. 22 §192 ii. 38 §277 f. ii.

Antiquitates Judaicae i-3, 1,483 i. 13, 2 §227 . . . i , 540 ii. 1 2 , 4 i, 424 n . * iji- 5 , 5 ..^428 iii. 8, 10 §223 i, 269 n. iii. 10, 4 §245 ii, i v . 8, 15 §219 i i , 185 i v . 8, 23 §253 i i , 124 n . * xi. 7, i, 23 xi-7, i, 4 xi,8,2-7 1,24 xii. 5 , 5 i,4 8 xiii- 5,9 |,45

t

vii- 6,6

i, 230 n . Contra Apionem 21-31 i. 12 §60 i, 3 3 - i. 8 §41 i. 8, §42 6

ii, 116 n . c-35i,459 i,349 De migratione Abrahami ii, 113 c. 16 §89 f. i i , 9*

ii.

Vita 2 §11 12 15

Quis rerum divinarum heres sit c 48 i,449 *•

321 n . i , 238 i, 269 n . De somniis i , 363 n . i- 11 i, 285 De Abrahamo i , 321 n . c 12 §56 i , 382 i, 269 n . c 3 § 7 i,

2

J

i, 285 i, 373 ni, 5 i, 54° 4 4

6

De vita Mosis 264 ii. 3 §14-16 ii, 70 ii. 11 §114 ii- 17 §147 «, 7 ° ii. 25 §203 f. i i . 27 §211

ii,

Philo

i, 269 424 n . * -1,468* i, 428 n . 284, 285 n . i,

i,

De opificio mundi De decalogo c. 4 §16 f. i, 267, 268 c 2 §6-9 i,3 3 c 23 §69 1,449*- c. 16 §76-80 i, 36321. c 24 §76 i,445 c 19 §92 .i,428 c 46 §135 i, 4 5 * cc. 22-24 ii, 131 i , 280 c 51 ii, 132 i,449*- c. 22 §107 " , 43,44 c. 61 § 170 i, 360 n . * De specialibus legibus i i , 113 c. 61 §171 i , 361 n . \ . §187 ( D e v i c t i m i s c. 3) ii, 113 Legum Allegoriae i,53 i, 4 5 7 i>459 i. §214 ( D e v i c t i m i s c. 7) i i , 113 i. 3 § 3 5 i, 488 n. i, 3 3 - i. 19 § 3 83 n. 2

6

n

2

6

x i i i . 10, 6 2

xiii- 13, 5 § 3 7 x i v . 3, 2 §41 x v . 10,3 §370 x v . 10,4 §371

2

n

2

J

x v i i . 2, 4 §42 x v i i . 6,2-4 x v i i i . 1, 1 §4 x v i i i , 1, 2 x v i i i . 1,3 x v i i i . 1, 3 §14 x v i i i . 1,6

6

6

n

n

ii,375 i, 285 i 457* \]^ 7 ?

1

ii, 375 6

n

x v i i i . 3, 1

i,3 3

x v i i i . 3, 5 §82

i, 327 n .

2-4 5, 2 x x . 8, 8 §181 x x . 9, 2 §206 f.

-

349 375 i i , 71 ii, 71

xx.

i,

xx.

ii,

2

ii. 1 §1 * i,37 iii. §4 i,372 De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini c. 40 §136 fF. i, 488 n . ^uod deterius potiori insidiari soleat c. 41 §150 f. i, 372 f. De gigantibus c 2 i> 483 Quod deus sit immutabilis c. 10 §46-50 i, 458*.* c 12 §57 i,37 * c 16 i,3 9 c 14 §69 ii, 99 De plantatione Noe c 5 i,449*c 25 §107 i, 504 De confusione Unguarum c 27 i,372

Bellum Judaicum ii. 8,2-14 i, 457 *. i i . 8, 7 §142 ii, 280 n . ii. 8, 9 §147 ", 3 ii. 8, 14 §163 ii,3*7 ii. 8, 14 i, 457 ii. 10, 4 §197 i i , 115 ii. 1 4 , 3 §280 ii, 113 ii. 17, ii, 5 ii- 19, i, 349 c* 33 §17° 2

2

n

i. §61 f. ( D e s e p t e n a r i o c.

2

2

8

i> 3

2

466

f

6 j n

-

6)

i,

285

ii. §62 f. ( D e s e p t e n a r i o

c. 6),

i,3°6f.

ii. §196 ( D e s e p t e n a r i o ii.

c 23) §224 fF.

i,3°6*. (De parentibus

c o l e n d i s c. 1 fF.), ii, i i i . c.

131

5 § 30

De monarchia c. 2 §21 c.4§3

2

c

J

- 7§5 -53

n., ii,

132 n . 124 n

6

n

i,3 3 6

i>3 i n.* 2

i>3 7 2

n

c.7§53*«

ii, i3 -

De sacrificantibus c. 10 §308'f.

i,3 7 -

De humanitate c. 12 § 162 fF.

i, 327

2

n

n.

GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS Greek and Latin Authors Justin Martyr, T r y p h o 8,4 ii, 3 ° Cicero, D e officiis 49> ",36o c. 2 § i 8 i f f . ii, 213 n . i i , 82, 83 62,1 ff. i i , 366 n . Dio Cassius De iustitia Novell. I'heodos. i, 349 c.6§i76ff. i , 3 7 - l x v i i . 14 353 l x v i i i . 1,2 i, 351 i i i . §4 Papias {in Irenaeus) De vita contemplativa Epiphanius, D e m e n s u r i s v.33 ii,365 c. §3°ff. i> 5 et ponderibus Suetonius De paenitentia

6

ff

c. i §175

-

2

n

i>3 7 -

1

2

n

n

a 8

3

c.6

1,285

Legatio ad Gaium c. 16 §115 c. 16 § 1 1 7 c. 23 §152 f

i,32i i,323 i i , 115 n .

31 §210 f 1,321 c 45 §355-357- - - - " 5 -

c.

n

c c . 14 f.

17

Septimius

M a n g e y I I , 635. . . i i , 203 n .

v.33

Severus ii,2on.

Haereses 6

6

c

12

116

n.

i,35°

i,327

1*zrtullian, D e r e s u r r e c t i o n e carnis c.63

ii,394


ii,3 5 -

Juvenal, Antiquitates Bibii, 285 n . i 4 , 9 f f -

ii,

Domitian

v-5 i,35i;ii,20

Irenaeus,

5

7*acitus, H i s t o r i a e

Hadrian 14,2

M a n g e y I I , 630 f. . . . i , 3 o 6 *

licae

ii,

Historia Augusta

17,4

Vespasian c.

Herodotus ii. 104

Fragmenta

"Philo,"

i,352

Exod

Plato,

Satire

^325

Quaest. x v in i,427

Symposium

189D-190A

i , 453

I N D E X

III

PASSAGES CITED Talmud and Midrash.

T h e tractates of the Mishnah and Talmuds a r e arranged in

alphabetical o r d e r ; t h e T a n n a i t e M i d r a s h i m a n d t h e R a b b o t in t h e o r d e r o f t h e Biblical B o o k s ; t h e H o m i l e t i c M i d r a s h i m follow these.

A n asterisk a f t e r t h e n u m b e r

of t h e page signifies t h a t t h e passage is t h e r e t r a n s l a t e d o r discussed. Tos. Abodah Zarah 2

8,4

i, 74 Bab. Abodah Zarah

3a 3

i, 279*

b

.i,346

4a 5 7b 8a 8b~9a 9 9 11a 16b i6b-i7a 17a

ii, I i 4 f . * 353* ii, 219 " , 2 1 5 n. 1, 6 ">35 i j 353 f-* i i , 287 n . i i , 208 n . ii, 250 177*1"> 7 4 n .

a

a

2

b

I7

?

J

b

I7B-i8a

18a 19a 2oa-b 20b

114* 96 ii, 269 i i , 7 6 , 1 5 5 n . , 270, 272, 273 ii,

ii,

23b-2 a 4

27b 36a 38a-b 64b

65a

i i , 114 n .

1, 14 *5 1, 18

i i , 86* ",244 * 3 i i , 84,* 188 1 5 b .

2, 2

",98,128 ",i57 -,

2,7 2,8 2, 10 2, 12 2, 13 3,5

l 6

4

o

..ii,

i,465

3,"

ii,

3,^ 4,2

4,4 4,5 4,10 4, 11 5,20 .^ ;

;

c. 6, i n i t

96 34,5 " > 7 ° c 39 11,177* 39, i n i t i i , 109*

1, 13

i,435*

ii>

2

1, 12

i , 3 2 ; i i , 196

"> 97 2 , 7

468

n

-

109 178 ",178 ii,

Kamma i i , 28 247 n . . i , 279* i i , 149 n . i i , 105, H 7 n . " , !09 i i , 178

M . Baba Mesia

W 4 6 4, 10 4,12.... 5, 5,2 " , 3 7 8 5,4 1

Tos. Arakin

1

1,46911.

ii,

4,9

i i , 108

4

•

i i , 189 ", I5

Bab. Baba

6, 1

B

i,5 1,10 1,11

Baba K a m m a

ii,

",244 1 1 , 6 ii, 98 1 1 , 9 fF. i i , 205* i i , 244 f.

151 n . 178

ii,

J

i o

i,3

ii,

",109 9,3 »i 97 10,15

1

1,1 1,2

",150 ii, 149 n . , 150,248 149 n . , 153 n . , 155, 242* i i , 170 n . i, 340 "•

M . Baba K a m m a

526; " , 148 8, 6 11,27111. 10,9 i, 267,* 397 f.,* 446*; 11, 203 Tos. i, 455* 7, 8 11,8411. 9,3 i,47°

3,i5

n.

4

i,

3,13 3, 14

378

. i , 4 0 n . ; i i , i 9 , i 5 o n.

I5b-i6a

16a " , ! 3 7 * 16b 11,245 " , 1 5 0 28a i i , 142 29a ii, 220 n

2, 5

" , 97 "• 2a 17a i, 379; *9> 7 38a Abot de-R. Nathan i i , 263 i i , 392 f. 91a i i , 131 1,8 4, 5. i, 503; 11,87,116 n., 172 113a --i,339 12 i i , 196 n. H 3 339 I5* . . i i , i 5 0 119a Abot 17, 1 fF. i i , 142 n. i i , 274 i, 33, 259 25, n e a r e n d " , 8 4 , 1 7 2 28, 10 i i , 244 n. 2,10 ii,i33

Bab. Arakin

b

ii,

132

", 14611., 147 n. ",142 ",142* ",H3 ",144 ",144

TALMUD AND

MIDRASH 4b

ii, 262 n . , 263* i , 3 4 o n . 60b > 4 4 7 4 b . . . . ii, 364,364 n., 37811. 75a 364 5> « , I 4 5 ii, 177* 9> , 3 9 110a ii, 378 n . 9> » 3 9 122a 123b 11,371 Tos. Baba M e s i a 164b 11,150,235,271 ",150 3, 4 ii, 141 n . i64b-i65a 4-6 ii, 143 Tos. Bekorot 5> i , 3 4 o n . 6, 10 ii, 120 n . 5> 5>

6

1

0

1

1

1 1

ii

1

i i

I

1 2

I

J

J

iob....i,

11b 12b 13a

2 1

Bab. Baba Mesia 32a ii, 132 33^ 1,4^5 49a ii, 141,* 189 58b.. ..i, 342 f., 345 n . , 526; ii, 82, 96 n . , 146 n . , 147, 148 58b~59a ii, 142 59b.i,342 f., 345 n . ; 11,14711. 60b fT. ii, 143 61b ii, 145 62a ii, 83,145 71a ii, 170 n. 7 i,34°n-; ", HS 74b «,i4i* 75 ii, 145 n. 82b 11,141* 2 a

b

Jer. Baba Mesia

i, 340

IOC

n.

M . Baba Batra 2,3

1,318 Tos. Baba Batra J

i,4

i,3 8 Bab. Baba Batra

1,331 ",382 i,335 ii,97

o a

M . Berakot

ii, 224 4

I 2

1

5, 5,2 5,3 5,5 6, 1 c. 9 9,3 9,5 9, 5 ,

J

;

a

a

ii, 224,225 i,378;ii,45

365

11,236 ii, 36,217 ii, 229 ",234 i, 85;ii,253 i, 259 Tos. Berakot 2, 2 ii, 224 3,4 i,377 3,5 ii, 22711., 228 3,6 11,221 3,7 ",215* 3,io 1,296 3, 16 f. ii, 222 3,2i ii,22 5, -ii,35 c. 7 (6) ii, 229 n . 7,2 i, 374; ii, 230 7,7 1,485

8a ii, 178 8a-b ",176 8b ii, 1 7 4 , 1 7 5 , 1 7 6 9 . », 7 4 1oa ii, 169, 203 n . , 3 50 i o b . . i i , 174 n., 178,179,385 "a ii, 92,* 175 I4B-i5a i, 238, 242 i5 i,32 7, 18 m 16a i, 481, 492 3a 21a i, 318 4a 25 i,37i a

i, 65 ii, 9 ii, 243 - j , 291 n . , 292 ii, 212 n . , 220

f.

1

4

e n d

220

n.

537, 543; i i , 230

n

n.

i, 396; ii, 209,21311. ",219,368,271 ii, 223 n .

I3A-b

Bab. Bekorot 30b 31b 47a 5 2,1 2,2 3,3 4,2 4, 3 4, 3

ii,

5a. .1,485,49^547; »> 228,* 250, 254, 256 5b ii, 240,251 6a i, 436; i i , 222 n . 6b i, 450; ii, 258 8a ii, 222, 241, 249 10a i, 370; i i , 129, 230*

ii,

224

16-17 ii, 216 n . 16a ii, 225 16b i, 542; i i , 216* i6b-i7a ii 98,* 242 1 7 a . . i, 272,* 480 n . ; i i , 97,* 195, 216,* 240, 246,* 258 19a ii, 41 n. 20a .1,377 20b ii, 29 21a ii, 221 23a .1,504 24a ii, 269 n . 25b ii, 240 n . 26b ii, 220 27b-28a ii, 220 28a ii, 191 28b i, 292; i i , 151, 221, 243,348, 3 9 29a i i , 212 n . 29b i i , 215,* 221 29b~3oa ii, 208 30a ii, 208 n . , 222 30b ii, 159 3ob-3ia ii,22 3 a i, 296; ii, 224 32a. i, 537 1

; /

1

4

J

32b.ii, 218 n., 219 n., 225 n. 33a i, 292, 398, 428

3 3 b . . . i, 365,* 456*; ii, 93, 229,* 253 n . 34a ii, 228 n . 34b.i, 377; ii, 222, 236,* 379 35b ii, 235, 244* 39b ii, 36 n . 48b i i , 2 i 7 , 253 n. 54a ii, 253 n . ii, 160 55a ii,235 Bab. Berakot 56b H, 335 nii, 208 n. 58a i i , 114 n . ii, 189 60a i i , 234 :

4

469

I N D E X III 6ob 61 a b 63a 6 1

ii, 215,* 238 i, 483; ii, 227, 269 2,2 i, 485, 495 ii, 84 1, 13 5,3

Jer. Berakot

Tos. Demai

8

a

I a

a

b

8

d

2

i,45

2

ii, 7^ Tos. Hagigah

M . Eduyot US

1,9 1,24211, 2, 1 2,2 Bab. Eduyot 2,3*"ii,35S

2c '1,368 3 1,422 3c i, 486 n.; ii, 268 n. > 7 4c ii, 192 n. 4d i, 292; ii, 219 n. M. 5 ii, 326,348 8, 1 f. 6d 1,481 7a ii, 218 n., 219 n., 220 Tos. 7b ii, 220 7c ii, 228 11 (8), 23 f. 7c-d ii, 220 Bab. 7 d . . .1,480 n.;ii, 216 n., 243 8a ii, 212 n., 221,259 13b 8a-b ii, 221 18b 8d ii, 224, 225 5 9 i, 3 7 53 -54a 9 i, 377; "J 3 6 n. 54a 10a i, 428 64a lie i, 380 64b 13a i, 368,* 369 n.* 65a 3c i,374 g^b-gSa 14b ii, 100 n., 193* Jer. 14c! ii, 244 21c b

2

> 2,7

ii, 15911

ii, 28 i, 3 3> 412 i, 411 1,413 8

Bab. Hagigah Erubin

3a-b i,3i5* i, 381 n. 11,3a 12a I2b.i 368, 368 n., 404, 409; Erubin ii, 296 n., 390 b-i3a i, 383 ii, 28 *3 i, 368,383 13b i, 407, 408, 415 n. Erubin i, 413; ii, 337 ii, 274,* 28511.* 4 a i, 412, 413 ii, 258, 269 n. 4 b I4b-i 5a ii, 390 n. 32 5 b i, 413 ii, 129 i, 406,408, 451* .1,49° 16a ii, 130,186 n. ii, 224 16b ii, 23 * 18a I 2

a

J

x

x

n

ii, 225 ii, 223 n.

x

J e r . Hagigah

; ;

Erubin

M . Besah

5

2

Bab. Besah b

i5 16a 23

a

3°a

M . Gittin

29

3

4,3 4,4 5, 8 u,3 9 ' ii, 35 9, l

1 0

7 3 Jer. Besah 38b 11,41 40a 1,341 45b 52a M . Bikkurim 56a 11,13 57b 90a-b M . Demai 90b 6 b

3,2

1, 1 2, 1 3, 2f. 6, 11

M . Hallah

ii, 7 i M . Horaiyot

B a b . Gittin

",263 b

34a 60a

c

i, 260* I ",152 i,302 2,7 ",123

n

ii,4i

75<* i, 315* 76c i,3!6f.*; ii, 173 i,4i2 "> 63 77a 77b i,4i3 77 -i>383,395,522; ii, 32211.

3,7 " , 1 7 8 3, 8 ii, 25311. .ii, 136 ii, 136 n. 3b i, 34i; ",385 8a ii, 197 12a ii, 115 i, 3 4 7 ; " , . 7 ii, 123 ii, 123 4 7 6

ii, 17611. i, 335 Bab. Horaiyot

ii, 263* 1,466 ii, 360 n.

n

J e r . Horaiyot

a

ii, 272

n

|i,9 ii, 9 n. 1, 8 ii, 159 2, 1 11,71

M . Hullin

M . Hagigah

ii, 28, 84 n. 2,4 i, 383 7 , 6

470

i, 339 i,275

TALMUD AND MIDRASH 6 7 b . . . . i i , 166n., 1 6 7 , 1 7 6 n . ii, 177 3 7 68a ii, 250* 7 2 a - b ii, 123 82b ii, 123 n. 84b i i , 190 n. Bab. Hullin ii, 131 n. ii, 19 n. 103a i , 3 5 ; "> 9 - m a . . i i , 3 6 m . , * 365 n . , 380 ii, 366, 378 n . , 381 385 i n Tos. Hullin

2,22 f. 2, 24

4b a

v

5 7 59 ~6oa 60b b

2

x

n

l b

i i

1

b

",7!

11, 1, 6

ii, 129

M . Keritot ii, 6 n.

6,3

4,4

i, 499

i i , 121

n

9 -

5,9 5,12

ii, i 7 n . i i , 288 n . 4

ii, 128 n .

M. Makkot

Tos. Kiddushin 1, 4 1, 11

ii, 121 ii, 127* i, 521 i>335

1

i,33 i,49

ii,

M . Maaser Sheni

11,129 i i , 128

8 1

M . Maaserot 4,5

1, 14 f5,

Bab. Keritot a

i,7-8 1, 10 2,1 4, 14

i, 499

Tos. Keritot

11,3

ii, 380

i i , 380

M . Kiddushin

i,^5

i, i n i t

2 b

3 ii, 170 n. 32c i i , 126 n .

Tos. K e l i m

2

8

:

Jer. Kilaim Jer. Ketubot

-j,4°4 28d ii, 189 34b >7 35

l b

a

348 --i,33 i i , 137 n . i i , 265

b

65 ~c 66c 66d

i

:/ >435 ii, 84 n.

9 94a

9 5

61b i i , 133 6id i,39i 6 5 b . . . . i, 336,* 337, 344 n . ,

b

b

I3

8

i ,

1 1, 1, 3, 3,

i i , 148 n . , 186 n.

6 10 15 16

ii, 186 i i , 187 ii, 92 i i , 92

x

Bab. Kiddushin

8

Bab. Makkot

27a ",174 M . Ketubot 29a i i , 18 29 a - b ii, 127 4,4 « , I 2 7 29b . . . i i , 1 1 9 , 1 2 0 n . , 128 n . 4, 10 f. i i , 126 n. 30a i i , 128 n. 5, 2 ii, 121 n. 3 i, 4 8 1 , 4 9 ° ; », 5>5 i i , 125,127 132* 5,6 ",175 3 i i , 132,* 133 6,5 n, *7 3 ii,i33 6,6 ii, 126 n. i i , 133 7, -5 i i > 5 32a i i , 134 7,6 i i , i 2 3 32a~ ii, 82 7>9f. . i i , 125 32b 13, 3 ii, 126 n. 3 3 b - 3 a . . . . . i i , 129 34a ii, 128 n . , 129 n. Tos. Ketubot 36a i i , 203

10b 23b-24a 24a

i, 456 ii, 83 n . ii, 83-84

Jer. Makkot

o b

3

l d

i,393,533

I a

6

M . Megillah

l b

2

1 2

b

4

1

5, 6,7 6,8 12, 1

i,4 2,3

3,

1

3,4-6

53 ii,5 2

i,

i, 297*

3,6

4,i-4

3H ii, 53

i , 3 ° ! f.

b

",6,92 ii, 22 3 9 - - - - . i i , i 7 5 40a. . . . ii, 92, 109 n . , 196 n. i, 521 n . ; i i , 247 ii, 175 4 ° 49a i, 318; ii, 120 ii, 123 n. 7° - i , 346; ii, 359 71a i, 425 n . , 426,428 Bab. Ketubot I

:

b

b

n

4, 1

i,3Q2

4,3

i>3°o

4,4

i , 2 8 f.*

4, SI"-

9

i,32o

:

17a 26a 50a 63b

4,9

i i , 189 i i , 71

Jer. Kiddushin

61a i i , 190 n. 61b

2,7 4,5 i i , 6* 4 , i o

i i , 127

i i , 170 n.

471

i, 3°°, 3°4,3 5 Tos. Megillah 6

2

ii,5 1,297 m i, 299*

INDEX III Tos. P e a h Bab. Moed Katon ",I3I i,3°°n. 5a i,25n.* 1,1 i i , 82 i , 3 o o n . 23b i i , ^57 1,2 i i , 149* i, 547 c 4 i, 304* 28a ii, 174 4, 8 . . . i i , 170 n . , 176 n . , 177 Jer. Moed Katon Bab. Megillah 4,9 11,178 n . ii, 319 n . 4, 10 i i , 176 n . ii, 52 82b

4, I I 4,3i 4,34

ff

4,4i

2a 3a 4a 7a

i, 3 0 3 ; " , 353 ii,

b

7 I7

b

I7b-i8a 18a 19a

yod 73b 74C 74d 75a 75b

Bab. Nazir

2

i, 238* 2b 3a 53 i, 292,338 n. 4b ii, 367 n. 22a

i i , 104 n .

23b

8

i i , 128, 229 ii, 131 i, 4 5 * i , 3 H ; i i , 24711. i,3oi i, 36911., 441 1,301 i, 299,* 300 n . ; ii, 1 3 , 1 4 , 1 5 i.297* i i , 272 6

4, 14 4, 18

i i , 177 ii, 91 f.*

4, 19

ii>!72

i i , 128

",265 i i , 265* ii, 9

Jer. Peah 15b 15D-C

ii, 52

23a 25a 27a 29b 3ia 3ia-b 3ib 32a 74a

5

15c

J e r . Nazir 5

6 b

i, 453 11-

M . Nedarim 3,4 11, 2

i i , 117 i i , 125

i5

d

16a 16b 17a 21a

i i , 92,* n o , 170 n .

",172 ii, 131,132,133 i, 467;

93, 132,* 149, 149 n . , 239 n . ii, 148 n . , 149,150 i, 521 n . 1,320 i i , 177

Bab. Nedarim b

7 9b 20a 28a Jer. Megillah 32a i, 24511. 39b 11,52 62a i,38o i, 304* i,296 3^d i,299 41b

i,429 ",265 4,4 ii, 269 10, 5 i i . 117 10, 6 i i , 14 n . , 84 •• i, 526 i i , 97 n . , 100,* 241 10

M . Pesahim »,4l ij,42 i i , 42 Tos. Pesahim i i , 14

Jer. Nedarim

",265 Bab. Pesahim i , 4 7 ° ; ii, 265* 49b i i , 160 75 i>365 41c i, 446; ii, 85 50a i, 428 5ob i i , 53,98,242* M. Menahot Tos. Negaim 53a-b ii,4i i, 31311I3,n " , 2 4 0 n . 1, 16 54a i, 526 62b i i , 129 M . Niddah Tos. Menahot 68b ii, 48 n . 2,1 i i , 268 J 10,12 i,4 7 7°b i, 3 3 99b " , 35 Bab. Niddah Bab. Menahot 112a i i , 177*, 205 13a ii, 268 n . i i , 121 n . , 177* 2 9 b . . . i, 256; ii, 187,* 322 n . 1 3 b . . . i , 346; i i , 268, 268 n . , 113a 113b i i , 137, i *"•* 43b ",239 2 7 1 , 3 5 3 * 114b i i , 223 n . 44a " , 9 2 , 9 3 - 16b i, 456* u 8 a . i , 379,404 n . ; i i , 361 n . 90b i i , 240 n . 56b i, 338 99b. - . - i i , 243 70b ",271 Jer. Pesahim 110a. . i , 273,* 505; i i , 120 n. c

9

g

8

n

b

M . Peah M. Moed Katon 3,9

1,1 1.272

8,7

33a " , 8 2 , 92,196,239 34a 37b 174,175, 7 J

472

6

1,79 i i , 41 ii, 35

TALMUD AND M . Rosh ha-Shanah i, 2 1, 8 3,7 3, 4, 5 4, 6

Tos.Sanhedrin

ii, 45,62 n . * *> ii, 185 6, 2 ii, 22411 , 3 ",206 , 4 ",210 >7 i'1,64 9,4 2

6

i,39 ii, 182 n . 184 n . i, 446* 1,381 ii, 184 n. i, 547

8

8

9,5 Tos. Rosh ha-Shanah

1 1 , 1-5 11,185 ii, 62 n. 12, 9 i, 426 " , 4 5 - 12,11 i, 525 ii, 224 n. i 3 , i ii, 386 13,2 ii, 386 13, 3 . . . . i, 496; ii, 318,387* Bab. Rosh ha-Shanah 13,4 11,387* 16a ii,45, 62 n., 210 n . 13,5 ",387* j , 495',}}, 62, 76 13, 12 ii, 369 i6b-i7a i, 496; ii, 318 n . Bab. Sanhedrin 7 i, 39 ;ii> 5 4 n .

1, n , 3 (2), 5f. I

l

l

1 2

6

n

n

b

h

6

I7b-i8a 18a 18b 4 26b 28b 32a 34 2

b

b

x

i, 523 n. ii, 62 n . , * 233* ii, 65 i.409; ii, 39° ii, 128 ii, 22311. ii, 210 ii, 210 n .

Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah

6

9 b

2

i,347;ii,33 n. g

97~9 a

2

8

8

MIDRASH i, 520

97a 97b 97b-98a 9a 9 b

",356,357 ii,35 ,354 ii, 351 n . «, 335,35° i,407;ii,326 n . , 347n., 349,* 36i 9 9 a . . . i, 408, 526; ii, 347*1-, 365, 375 ->* 379 99b i, 407,470; ii, 241 101a i, 468; ii, 253 n. i02b-io3a i, 525 103a.. i, 524,525; ii, 149,189 4a i, 544 105a ii, 386 n . 105b ii, 98,242* 107a i, 483 107b i, 348,472* nob ii, 369,386 n. nib ii, 166 n. J

g

g

f

I Q

6b i,39 ;ii, 196 na 1,421,422 17b .1,317 Jer. Sanhedrin 22a ii, 234 i, 408; ii, 195 32b i , 3 i 18a i,3 2 33b ii, 186 18b ^467; ii, 106* 33 -34a ii, 184 n. 21 b ii, 185 37b i i , i 8 22a-b ii, 184 n . 38a.. i, 366 n., 381,446,453; 22b ii, 108 ii, 337 23d i, 428 3 b 1,407; ii,337 25a i i , 137 * 39a i, 436 5 d ii, 95 40b " , 1 8 5 27b fF. i, 532 41a », 185 27c 55b~56a i, 428 27d i, 543n. 56a i, 274 28b i, 426 5 b i, 274* 28c i,52 *;ii,23o 59a i, 279* 29b i,348 64a ii, 195 74a. . i, 467; ii, 30,106,* 107 M . Shabbat 5b i,33 4

9

b

4

8

$6d 57a 59C 95c

i, 402 n. i,495;ii,62 i, 533;», 63 i, 509 M . Sanhedrin

2

n

6

4

1 1, 5 3,3 3,4 4,5 5, 1 > 7,5 7, 8 > i-5 8,7 9>5 10, 1 6

2

8

ii, 18411. 184 n. 185 n. ",185 i, 445,* 446;", 181 11,185 i, 547 i,428 ii, 134 n. ii,i34f.* ii, 182 n. ii, 187 i, 236 n . , * 426; 95,3 i, 3 7 , 3 i, 525 ",369* ii,i35 8

I O

>2 o,3 ">

J

I

8

8 8

8

8

88b ii, 275 9 i, 539 90 ff. ii, 3B7 90a. . i, 426; ii, 24911., 381 n. 90a fF. ii, 95 9°b i, 250 n.; 11,381, 382,3 3 90D-92 ii, 382 n. 9ia-b i, 487 f.; ii, 384* 91b i, 8i 92a ii, 189 93a~b ii,349 94a i,392;ii,3 8 8

b

1, 1 2 2,6 3-4 7,2 16,1

ii, 3

1

ii, 36 ii, 36, 129 n., 249 », 36 ii, 28 1,314

8

4

n

4

473

Tos. Shabbat 2, 1 0 . . ii, 36 n., 84 n., 249 n. 13 (14), 5 " - i , 243; 197 n. 208 n . 15 (16), 11 f. ii, 3 1 5 ( 1 6 ) , 17 30 1

INDEX III Bab. Shabbat 13b 25b 3oa 3ob 3 32a 32a-33b 32b 3^b-33a 33*-b J a

M . Shebuot

i, 247; 11,252 n . ii, 36 i, 537* 11,46,274,366 i,34 ;ii, 87 i, 379, 391 n . ii, 24911. ii, 249 ii, 24811. ii, 149 n .

14,4 1, 463 f. 15, 10 15, 11 f. i,49 ii, 185

T

,2-2, 5 ,6 4, 1 J

Tos. Shebuot

2

i,3 3,6

2a 1,464 5a i , 6 7 14a 4

ii,

.1,465 263 n . ii, 262

Bab. Sotah

ii, 234 ii, 275 i, 441,538,550*; ii, n o , 172 i i , 128 n . , 194 n . ii, 128 n . ii, 193* ii, 99,100 i,422 i,278 .1,289 ii, 190 ii, 190 ii, 149, 189 i, 348,483 ii, 72 i,42i;ii, 274 ii, 128 n . , 356 n .

21b 271 22a 33b i, 548;ii, 249 n. i i , 182 22b 35b i,28 31a 35 ii, I34H. 33 49b ii, 28 35b 55 i> 543;ii, 95 M . Shekalim 38a 3 ii,379 ii, 16711.* 41b 73b 11,29 5,6 ii,44 4ib~42a 77b i, 382 6,3 86b 11,48 42a Tos. Shekalim 8 8 b . . . i, 278,407; ii, 25311.* 47 i i , 167 n . * 89a i, 406 2, 16 48a 9b J , 540* 48b Jer. Shekalim 104a i, 456* 49b 105b 1,469,470 4 7 C ii, 76, 272,384 n. Jer. Sotah N 6 B 1,314 49 ii, 36011. 117b ii, 36 n. 16b ii, 124 n. 118a 11,177,361 n. M . Sotah i6d i i , 197 "8a-b ii,35 19a ii, 128 n . , 194 n . i , 7 ~ 9 ii, 24911. 118b ii, 26,* 175 i i , 100, 100 n . , 193* ii, 251 n. 20 c 9 ::'^3 7 i , 7 24b ii, 274 ii, 128,194* 127a ii, 92 n . 3 , 4 ",99* 130a i i , 20* 5,5 M. Sukkah i,425 133b i i , 104, n o 7 , 6 3,9 ii,43 34 ii, 19 7 , 7 .i,28 ii,45 ii, 190 n . 4, 5 148b ii, 263 7, 8 ii,45 i, 26011.*; ii, 272 4 , 9 5oa ii, 33 9, 9 ii,47 i i , 7 5,1 151b ii, 169 n . , 170 9, 10 ii,47 152b ii, 390 n . 9, 5 i,378; ii,2o6* 5,4 9

Bab. Shebuot

18b 30a

ii,

a

a

a

6

I

a

a

8

c

J I

b

J

I

a

f

;

; /

4

J

2

J

ii, 384

9, end Jer. Shabbat 3c 5 9b-c *5

Tos. Sotah

ii, 272,384 n. 8 i i , 3 - 4, 11 f. ii, 28 6, 1 i,3 4,3 9 7,9 7, 16 M . Shebiit 8,6 10, 3 f. i, 26011.* 1 1 , 1 0 13,2 13,3 J e r . Shebiit 13, 3 f. 35 103,106 13, 5 36d i, 290 13, b

C

129 ^284,289 i i , 99 n . , 100 i,3i5* ii, 190 i, 278 i, 543 1,421* ",274 i,42i i,422 ii,7 ii,

6 n

I

I

f f

a

I O

2

474

Tos. S u k k a h 3,3 3, 18 4,4 4,5 4,7-9 4, 11

ii,44

ii, 45 n. ",46 », 12 ",46 i, 284 Bab. Sukkah

a

5 -i,435 46b ii, 189 49b ii, 172,173 52a. . i, 470,493; ii, 370,371 52b i, 481,49°, 492

TALMUD AND MIDRASH 53 53 55

55 55

a

b

b

a b

11,12,46 65c ii, 4 7 ^ 9 7 - 65^ ",43 66c 66c-d Jer. Sukkah 68a >46 12,370 5,

i i , 259 92a

n

J

i , 5 3 , 54i 9 7 i, 481 9 7 " 9 b

2 2, 1 2,4

ii, 68 i, 54i n . ii,68 ii,

3

4, i - 4 4,3 4, 6 4,7 4, 8

109b

a

a

9 12a 16a 16b 18b 19a 20b 23a 24b

25b 26b 27b 28b 29a 30a 3oa-b 30b 31a

63d 64a 65a 65b

M . Terumot

1,256* 3,8 4,i.

2

r

ii.7

1

2

2

i, 4 , 4 3 -.ii,7i i, 280

ii, 23611. r

J

2

3

11,57 i,5 1 2

i^

1 1

; " , 57

6, 6

ii, 56

1

2 8

7, 8,1 8,4-7

8, 8 8,9 8, e n d

Tos. Yadaim

2,13 2, 14 2, 16

2

4, ii,7

M . Yadaim

4,3

ii>

M. Yoma

i,428

16a

3,5

Bab. Taanit 7

a

i, 509 n.; ii, 69 4, 6

1

11,271 i, 290

a

Bab. Temurah 3

13 i , 7 ii, 66,262 4,3 ii, 66 ii, 61

1, 8 3, 4 ( 3 ) , 1-4 4 (3), 3

4

Jer. Yebamot

1 2

ii, i,425 3d

*3

1 2

Tos. Taanit

335 ii, 222 i,3 6

M . Tamid

1

ii,45 i i , 68

i,335

8 b

7,2

1,1

8 2

ii,3 8 a

ii, 235 n . 9 ii, 85 105b

u

M . Taanit

i i , 196 n .

a

i, 4 ii,59 ii,59

i, 498* i, 508*; 11,154 ii, 207

Tos. Yom ha-Kippurim

1,87,243* 2, 1 i, 242 n . 5, 6-8 11,71

i, 4 6 4 , 5 " i, 546*; ii, 108

8

i,37 ;ii,97,242*

;|, 543 M . Yebamot i i , 261 6, 6 ii, 120,125 i i , 68 n. i, 289 Tos. Yebamot i i , 107 8, e n d ii, 120 ii, 68 379 Bab. Yebamot ii, 222, 236 5b-6a ii, 132 i,37 i i , 271 ii, 209,235 20a i i , 121 ii, 61 21a i, 335; ii, 121 " , 1 4 , 1 5 22a 11,48 2 4 i,336,337,346 i, 333 i i , 66 n. 46b i i , 66 4 7 ~ i, 333 f.* ii, 66 4 7 i,346 ii, 61,66,67 4 8 b . . . i, 335,340,34i; ii, 18 i, 335, ii, 353 ii, 61 62a 62b i, 335; i i , 119 n . 62b-63a ii, 121 J e r . Taanit 335,35! 63a. .ii, 119,120,126,127 n . ii, 2611., 350 6 3 119, 120,353 ii, 125 i i , 68 n . 64a i i , 19 i, 387 - ; i i , 67,69, 64b ii, 71 69 n . , 230 86a-b 8

b

a

b

b

b

n

475

Bab. Yoma

4b 9 20a 23 28b b

a

ii, 48,260 J,42i i, 407 ", 53 i, 276 2

2

29a 35

3

b

6 b

47a 66b 67a b

67 69b

72b 75 75

ii, 7i J

i,3 3 i, 464, 465 n . , ii, 272 i i , 128 n . i, 482 2

i,49 ; ii,7* i,38o*; ii, 195 i i , 120 n . , 191

a

395*

b

i,405* ii, 63 ii,3i i i , 30

81b 84a-b

85a 86a.. i, 530 n., 546*; ii, 108, 109 86a

i , 5 3 o n . , 546*; ii, 108, 109

INDEX III Hobah

86a-b i, 513 Yitro 86b..i, 510, 515, 520; ii, 351 1 87a i, 508; i i , i 5 4 3 87b ii, 59,60 6, e n d Bahodesh Jer. Yoma

38b 38d 4°d 45

I l f

i, 5 ii,

-

360 n .

i,277;ii,i6

Shemini i,435 12

4 5

i,3*6*

6-1,473 n., 543; " , 20 n., 207 7

i , 497, 504

",48 I7[5,5] i, 351 Sau 18

2

i, 547 ",272 i, 425,428 ii, 5911., 154

c

i,348 I n i t . [4,2]

i,340, 5 4 7 ; " , 2 5 4 n .

8

ii, n o

Tazri'a T

9

i,3 3"-

1,446511,131 Ahare

i, 464, 511 i i , 275 1 ii, 252 n., 254* 4 1,464,467, 5 2 ; i i , 5 i, 334,* 340* 10, i n i t i, 409 12 3 - - i , 279,* 3 3 , 492; 107 Mishpatim Seder Olam End i , 259 11. 1 ", 35 i, 539 "- 5 i, 428 K.edoshim i , 237 n. 18 i, 341, 343 f-* I n i t . [19, 1 f.] . . i i , 84,103,* i,6f. 19 », 4 3 , H3>* H 5 , n o , 131, 132 168, 170 n . 3 1*9* 3] ", 39 Soferim 20 i,340,34i; ii,75 4 [19, 16] i i , 148 n . ii, 68 Ki tissa 4 U9, ] i,446; i i , 85 1 ii, 3°>3*>35 •1, 331, 345 , 1 1 , " 11, [20, 26] ii, n o Wayyakhel ii, 205,372 1 ii, 28 E n d Mekilta Zebahim

118b

ii,

378

9 10

1

J

8

8

I

1 20 f. 3°

J

l

1, 7

I

Bo Introd

i, 529 I

1 7

i, 37 >*55°; " , 208 n. ">368 1 2 , 4 8 , 4 9

15

15,

Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exodus

e

n

i,334n.

14,15

331*

15, 2

d

i>

Beshallah Introd

3 4 5 6

i i , 363, 368

ii, 102 n., 105, 228,237 " , 203 f.* »>32 i, 3 7 , * 379,* 448; ii, 237, 251 n . Shirah 1, i n i t 2

3 5

1

15, 25 17,6

17, 11 19, 10 20,7 20, 10

20, 12 2c, 14 i i , 383* 21, 17

2 4 5

18 f. [ 2 4 , 1 1 , 16]

I

ii, 268,269 i, 428 n

" , 4 , n o 22, 24 i, 52811. 23,9 I Q

Sifre on Numbers

i,345 ii, 168

2-3 [5, 7]

i,5

i,34i n.

18 [5, 27]

11,251

1 [5,3]

39 i , 4 5 6 ; i i , 228 i, 468 n .

361 n . ii, 360,361 ii,

ii,

206

ii, 108 i,428

;

Sifra

Wayyikra 2 9 M 7 I —

1

r

476

1,469* J I

1,289,425

40 [6, 24] ii, 390 42 i, 407, 408, 522 f.,* i i , 130 n. 532 n . ; i i , 196 i, 505 43 1,425

Sifra is cited b y t h e P e r a k i m ; 7 numbers in brackets refer t o 77 [10, 10] n . c h a p t e r and v e r s e of L e v i t i c u s . 105 [12,13]. 1

Amalek 1

Emor 9

J

4

IVayy ass a' 1

g

i,33 Behar ii,237n. n 3 [25, H i i i , 147 i, 488 n . ; ii, 105, J ii, 4 7 110,* 384 n. 4 [25, 17] 6(25,35] 11,178 ii, 228 n . 6 f. [25,35-38] ii, 143 i,37 11,82, 83 ii, 206 7 [25, 36] ii, 135 ii, 48 n. 7 [25,39-43] i, 547 Behukkotai . . . . . i i , 33 n . 3, e n d i,36on. i i , 131 n . , 132 8 i , 5 H ; ii, 369*

i , 8 8 n . ; i i 3 8 * 22,20 4

J

I,33i i i , 210

. . . . . .ii, 228 n.

TALMUD AND MIDRASH 108 • .1,331 in ff. i, 463 n . i n [15, 22] 1,466 112 1,470,* 471,* 547 H 3 Ii5> 32] ii, 18511. 115 i, 486*; ii, 268 n . 1

I 3 [25, 13] 139 [27,16] 143 6 i [35, 3°]

i> 549 ii, 39° i>5°5 ii, 18411.

J

S i f r e Z u t a on N u m b e r s 6, 26 ii, 196 n . 15,32 18511. 15,39 ii, 268 n . Sifre on Deuteronomy n

1 ii, 153 9 I ,9] }> 374 n. 10 ii, 298 n . 16 ii, 105 25 [1,29] ",237 26 ii, 217 29 ii, 219,* 222, 230* 31 i, 5 5 n . ; i i , 6 5 3 2 . . i, 485, 5 5> 523 ^ , 5 3 6 , * 539, 547; 99,* 252 f., 254, 25533 i, 489; u , 100,* 242 34 ",134,247 36 ii, 23911. 37 i, 265 n., 266* 1

:

2

J

:

41

8

I " , 13] ii, 5> 5> 100,* 218,* 223,240, 241,* 246 n . , 247,350 ru 42 [ n , 14] ii, 240 n . 43 I " * 5 l i> 5 ° 3 - ; [11,16] i, 473 45 f , J i> 4 8 i , 4 9 n

1

n

1 1

l 8

47 [11,21] 48

0

1,383* 45°,*

ii, 298 n . , 378 ii, 97, 203 n . ,

22] 240, 241,* 245,* 246, 246* 49 [11, 1 2 ] . . . . i , 256 f., 319, 390; ii, i n * 53-54 26-28] i, 454 54 i, 325,455 59 1,273 76 ii, 20 96 ii, 203 n . 104 [14,21] i i , 271 no i,34Q 116-118 ii, 165 ff.* [n,

n

n

166 n., 167 n., 24,14 (p. 158 f . ) . . . . .ii, 139 176 n. 26,3 (p. 172) ii, 209 n. 127 -1,297 32, 2 (p. 185, below) . ii, 383 148 i, 466 n . 32,13 (PP- 192-194) 154 i, 25911. i i , 365 S7 ^ 9° 161 [17,19] ii, 246 Genesis Rabbah 162 ii, 143 188 [19, 15] ii, 184 n. 1,1 1,267 190 [19, 17] ii, 185, 186 i , 3 i,38i 208 f. ii, 139 i , 4 i,526 252 [23, 8] i, 472* i , 5 i i , ^ 263 ii, 144 h9 1,382 269 ii, 123,124 1, 10 1,383 303 i i , 288 f. 1, 13 1,382 305 i, 543 1, 15 i,38m. 306 [32, 2] i, 451, 505; 3,2 i,382 ii,97,io2,*2o5,2 2n. 38 3,7 1,382 307 i , 3 2 ; i i , 10711., 6,6 1,368 114 n., 391 8, 1 i, 452,* 453 308 [32, 5]..ii, 203 n., 249 n. 8,2 1,383 3*7 [32,13 f - ] - - i i , 3 5 > 3 7 n. 8,3ffi,4Q7 318 i, 271 8,4 i,39 3 * 9 4 7 2 * 8,4f. 1,389 320 i i , 203 n. 8,8 i,366n. 323 [32, 29] ii, 173* 8,9 1,366* 323 [32, 32] i, 474* 8 , n i, 406,451 328 H, 109 8,12 1,383 329(32, 39] 3 5 -> 544 8,13 i,44i* 343 --i, 278, 292,399; ii, 219 9,2 i,382 346 ii, 104* 9,3 1,374 347 i, 5 5 9,5 H,253* 354 i,336n.* 9,7 ..i,486 9,13 ii, 115* Midrash Tannaim 10, 1 1,270 Deuteronomy 10, 9 1,382 3, 23 (p. 14) H, 217 " , 2 ii,75 1,382,383 n.,408 6, 5 ( P - 5 ) 3 99 - 12, 1 11, 21 ( p . 40) ii, 298 n. ! 2 , 2 i,383 i,479 11,22 ( p . 42) ii, 245 n . * 12,6 1,381 n. ( p . 43) i i , 246 n. 12, 12 14, 1 ( p . 71) i i , 203 n. 2 , 15 1,387,389 i,378 (p. 72) ii, 104 n. 13,6 4,3 i,45 *5, 7 " (PP- 81-85) 1,483,484 ii, 165 n. 4 , 4 i,453 15, 7 ( p . 81) 166 n. H,8 1,392 15, 8 (p. 82) ii, 168 *5,7 i, 274,* 475 5 , 9 ( P - 83) " , 1 6 9 * 16,6 ii, 119 15, 10 ( p p . 83-84). . i i , 169* 1 7 , 2 1 5 , 1 1 ( p . 85) i i , 170 n. 17,3 i i , 123a, 126* 1 7 , 1 1 ( p . 103) i,259 n. *7,4 • -1,407 i i , 129 n. 17, 15 (p. 104) ii, 190 n. 17, 8 23,10 (p. 147) ii, 269 *9^7 i, 473n. 116 [15, 8].

ii,

n

1

J

n

0

4

5

4

g

6

8

2

6

f

2

n

n

2

n

J

J

1 1

x

J

n

J

:

477

INDEX III 20,9 21,6 22,6

1,379 i,53o 1,470,492 n .

22,12

f.

i, 5 3

24,7 24, e n d 26,5 26, 6 28,3 32,2 33,i 34, 8 f. 34, 10

o n

-

n

23,7 24,3

i,473 ii,62n. i,446,* 447 ii, 85 -.1,483 i, 630 n. ii, 385 n . i,4QO i>388 ",119 i, 480 n., 481 n . , 486 n . *

38, 13 39,6 39, n e a r e n d 44,12

1 0 6

ii» i,388 i,344n. ii,23o

10,1 10,2

1,388; 389* "1,551

n,3 i> 265* 14,1 1,452* 15, . . . . i i , 353 n . 18, n e a r b e g i n n i n g . ii, 385 n . 1

18,2

i,

453

22, 1

ii, 240 n.

23, 2

i,426

23, 12 24,6 28, 8 29,7

ii, 268 H,27i i,4o6 i, 537ii-

Ecclesiastes Rabbah I

1,4 3, n 4,3 5,8 7,2 7,8 7, 7, 3 7, 26 7,28 9,2 11, 2 1

i , 4 5 ° , * 4 5 ; ",380 1,483* 1,468 1,382 i,44i i,522 ",244 1,475* ",250 i,32o* " , 249 n . ii, 16

1

J

533

29, e n d 30,3 1, 524* 32, 1 i, 3 5 2 0 7 n . 34, 1 ii, 168 n . 34,2(25, 25] ii,i6 34,3 i,447*;ii> 9 34, 14 H, 26 36,6 i, 543

Pesikta, ed. Buber

ib i, 473 n2b i,37°* nb-I2A i,440 38b-39a 1,482 46, i n i t i,344 41b i,272* 48,11 i, 406,484 4 b-45a i,469* 49,2 i,278 Numbers Rabbah 46b i, 531 n . 49,6 i,528 ii,357 1, 12 ii, 106 5 a ~ b 49,20 1,388 5*b ii, 35° - , 3 5 n . i, 410 53,9 i i , 105 n . 2, 10 55 i, 497 i,345 54,1 i, 82 8 1,390,405 10,4 -",265 57a 55,4 1, 539 i, 273,318; i i , 15 n . 11, 7 i i , 196 n . 60b 64,4 1,276 i, i> 523 61b 67,8 i, 86n. 11,15 11,93*1 , 3 7 ° 73b 68,4 i,440 12,4 75 ~7 a i,394 78, 1 1,413 76a i,474 Deuteronomy Rabbah 78,3 - j , 403n. 8oa-b i,482 81, 2 ii, 195 n . 1,9 ii, I 9 5 N . 87a ii, 106 84,2 1,344*. 5**5 ii, i 9 6 n . 102a ii, 242 95, " , 3 8 i 8,6 i, 269* 102b ii, 104 n . 105a ii, 41 n., 242 n . Exodus Rabbah Canticles R a b b a h 107a i i , 9 3 , 242 ii, 242 1,238 121 a 2, 5 3] 1,37! 1,1 9

l 6

n

I

4

J

n

6

b

n

4

:

497

4

b

6

1

b,

H,3 29,9 31, 14 [14, 25] 1

3 , 15

11, 362 n . 1, 1 ( c i§9) ",384 i , 2 2 n . * 1,4 1,548 i i , 169 n . 1, 9 i, 408; ii, 195 n . ii, 9 2, 1 3 . . . i i , 356 n . , 3 5 7 , 362* 4

l 6

3, ! o 8, 11

Leviticus R a b b a h i,5 2, e n d 4, 5 4,6 4,8 7,3 9,9

i,37°* i,407

I25B-I26A a

I39 142b 146b 148a 151a 152b *53b 154a I54a-b

i,

551

1,389,395; H,204 i,394 ii, 105* ii, 340 n. i,4o6 ii,255 1, 537 i> i,54i n

V74* Lamentations Rabbah i, 506 1,353 i , 4 8 8 ; i i , 3 8 P r o e m , n o . 21 1,6 i,47 i,47 !55b i,533 ii, 326,348 i 5 6 a - b i, 529 i, 370* 1, 16 i , 4 i 3 156b. . . . i , 530, 532; ii, 218* i , 3 i 8 , 4 9 7 3,8 i, 531 n . * ii, * 9 n . 5 , 2 n 57a i,509 4

2

J

6

J

478

538

TALMUD AND MIDRASH i57*-b

i>53°

I57b-I58A. . i58a(onPs. 158b 159^ 159b 160a 160-163 i62a-b 63b 164a 165a 165b i66a-b 167a 174a 176a 181a 191a 192a I93 "b I93b-I94A 200a

4

J

a

.i,495;ii,62 n. ,5) i, 483 i,393, 533 M ^ ^ i, 5 7 * i, 525* 1,525 i, 524 i, 522, 53°, 5 3 1,387 i, 527; ii, 207* ii, 15 i, 472 n.* .1,532 ii, 272 i, 407 ii, 218* ",230 ii, 16 i, 436 43 i, 278*; ii, 242 1

2

2

1

J

8 22 23 29 33 37 Noah 4 7 10 13 15 28

i,479 i,393 i, 475 i,476* ii, 250* 1,528 i,48o* 1,393 i, 388; ii, 116 f.* ",230 ii, 107 n . , 117 n . i, 528

Lek leka 1 2 3 23

Wayyigash Init 1 9

i, 548 1,482 ii,38on.,38i

Wayyehi 6

8

ii,3 o

Shemot 10 14

i, i,

Wa'era 6 11

1,543 1,39!

Beshallah 276 1 106 3 i»497 1,278 Yitro 7

",363 1,482 1,393

i, . . .ii, :

1 1

l

Wayyera 1 i, 441; ii, 221 n . 3 i,44i 4 i,44i Pesikta Rabbati 6 ii, 68 n. lb ii, 46 9. . . .1,396, 529, 537; ii, 224 74a, 75a 362 16 i , 5 9 - , 532, 537*; n6b-H7A ii, 18 ii, 260 117a ii, 18 1,379 124b ii, 268 n. 21 24 1,384 131a ii, 114 n. 28 ii, 252 n . 132b ii, 203 n. 30 ii, 15411. i35 ~b i,45° 38 i,346* 152a i , 3 7 9 - 42 i,539 161 a ii, 360 n . , 362 n. Hayye Sarah i6ib-i62a i, 551 6 i,538 165a ii, 154 169a i, 50?, 533 Toledot 179b i, 406 14 11,232, 233 182b i, 509 19 ii, 296 n. 185a 1,531 20 ii, 336 185b i,533 188a 1,410 Wayyese 198b 1,513 5 ii, 250* 1,394 Tanhuma, ed. Buber 22 i,532 Bereshit 3 i,383 Wayyesheb 4 1,440 i,5 2 10 i,363 12 i, 381 Mikfcs ii, 220, 221 15 i,45 - n

6

3 9 379

ii, i,2 2* 4

4

n

; /

2

n

a

n

Mishpatim 4 8 1 1

terumah 8 9 Ki 13 16 17

ii,

1,493 ii, 94 68 n .

4

Sau 9

4

1,497

Shemini

1 1

Tazri'a 2 11

479

1,3^8,369; ii, 233 ii, 233 n.

Wayyikra 2 11,274 4 ii, 274 6 ii,384 11 1,465,488* 12 i, 86f.*,493;ii,38

1

I n

i,379 ii, 169,170 n. 1,535

tissa

I O

J

;

Mesora' 2 10

1,393 i,452 1,392

i, 404 ii,

n.

248

I N D E X III Ahare 8.' 10

i,393 i, 547 ii, 218* i,273 i,393

14

16 18

5 6 Bemidbar 3 10 14 32 6 18 18. end 19 Shelah 26 31 Korah 12, near end 19 Hukkat 1 26 28 39 Balak 21

Ps. 36,11 i, 374n. Ps. 40, 1 1,472 Ps. 52,1 i,497 s . 5 7 , 3 Ps. 80, 1 Ps- 85,3 i, 395* Ps. 102, 18 Ps- 104,411,93 Ps. 106, init ii,375 - Ps. 114, 1 p

Wa ethanan 3 •••' 'Ekeb "3381 3 i,474 7

Emor 4 12 Behukkotai

Pinehas 1 4 12

n

Re eh 3 5 - 1, init i,45°* Shqfetim 10 i> 33 i, 393 'Tese 1,369 1 i,388 2 Ki tabo i,37 1 .1,523 Nissabim ii, 223 5 h 3 9 , 37°, 5 * 8 1

n

!0 ii, 84 n.

P i r k e de-R. Eiiezer

6

2

i,4lO

1 , 4 7 ! 16

ii,6,Q2,93

ii, 218 n.* H,359 ii, 359 -

43 47

n

ii, 218 ;•-1,393

S e d e r Eliahu R., ed. F r i e d m a n n

ii, 204 n. Introd., pp. 23-25.ii, 359n. pp. 27-44.ii, 360 n. ii,2o8 n. 1,278 7 (P. 33) i,505* ",241 7 ( P - 3 ) 19 (p. n o ) ii, 208 n. 28 (p. 149) ii, 208 n. M i d r a s h Tehillim

Berakah ",127 3 ii, 268 n. 4 ii, 218 i,388 Ps. Ps. Ps. i,382 Ps. ii, 7* Ps. i, 272 Ps. i, 4 7 * Ps. Ps. i , 5 4 Ps.

i,4i2

4

J

6

4

Midrash Mishle

ii, 240

2

6

i, 27 ii, 232 n. ii, 192 H,72 i, 513 n. i, 531 ii, 218 n. 1,405 i, 379 i, 368 n.

6

8, 3 9,2 12, 3 12, 4 12, 19 14, 1 16, 2 18,36 24, 1

i,5 8 Kallah Rabbati i, 8i ii, 188 n. Perek 2, near beginning ii, 393 ii, 149 n. ii, 207 n. A g a d a t B e r e s h i t , ed. i, 486 n. Buber 1,468 i, 440 2 1,374 ii, 189 n. c. 17 ii, 18 4

4

480

I N D E X

IV

TANNAIM AND AMORAIM T H E age of the Tannaim, from the death of Hillel and Shammai, the last Pair, to that of the Patriarch Judah, corresponds ap­ proximately to the first two centuries of the Christian era. Epochs in this period are the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 and the revolt under Hadrian (132-134). From the three quarters of a century before the fall of Jerusalem little is recorded except the differences between the schools of Shammai and Hillel as such, with no mention of individual authorities. Prominent names in this period are Rabban Gamaliel the elder, whom Paul claimed as his teacher, and his son Simeon ben Gamaliel, who was a man of importance in political affairs in Jerusalem in the early years of the war. It is customary to catalogue the Tannaim who are quoted in these volumes in a series of five or six "generations." These gen­ erations naturally overlap, bringing together older and younger contemporaries, and for more exact purposes the distribution must be supplemented by knowledge of the relation of the members of the group to one another. The First Generation includes, besides a few earlier names, Johanan ben Zakkai, who took the lead in the reorganization at Jamnia. With him were associated several contemporaries who were already men of some mark before the catastrophe, but, by 1

2

3

4

1

2

See Vol. I, p. 4. Acts 22, 3 ; cf. also Acts 5, 34. See W. Bacher, Jewish Encyclopedia, V,

558-560.

Josephus, Vita, cc. 38 f., 44, 60. For completer lists of the successive generations reference may be made to Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, 1859 (new edition, Warsaw, 1923); H. Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed. 1 9 2 1 . In W. Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten (see above, Vol. I, p. 2 1 5 ) , a chronological order is ob­ served, without the formal scheme of generations. The division and enumera­ tion in the following paragraphs is based on Frankel. 3

4

481

INDEX IV reason of their continued activity under his sucessor, are usually counted with the second generation: R. Zadok and his son Elea­ zar ben Zadok; Hanina (Hananiah), the prefect of the priest­ hood; Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, teacher of R. Ishmael; Nahum of Gimzo, teacher of R. Akiba; ben Paturi; Eiiezer ben Jacob (the elder). At the head of the Second Generation in the conventional scheme stands Gamaliel II, who after the retirement of Johanan ben Zakkai succeeded him in Jamnia. With him were associated the scholars named in the preceding paragraph, as well as the disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai, of whom five are particularly named, Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, Joshua ben Hananiah, Jose haKohen, Simeon ben Nathaniel, and Eleazar ben 'Arak. To this generation belonged also Eleazar ben Azariah, who was chosen head of the Academy when Gamaliel was temporarily deprived of that place, and Eleazar of Modiim, noted as a Haggadist, who perished in the siege of Bether. The Third Genei'ation comprises the younger colleagues and successors of these scholars, men who were in their prime when the revolt under Hadrian broke out, and some of whom fell victims to the emperor's edict. Among the eminent names are R. Tarfon; R. Ishmael and R. Akiba, the heads of two great schools of the Law; R. Johanan ben Nuri, R. Jose the Galilean, R. Johanan ben Beroka. With them are counted also the older disciples of Akiba, R. Eleazar Hisma, R. Hananiah ben Hakinai, Simeon ben 'Azzai and Simeon ben Zoma. On the Fourth Generation fell the task of restoration after the war, which was accomplished between the years, say, 140 and 175, in a way which, so far as the Halakah is concerned, was al1

2

3

4

1

Sec Vol. I, p. 86. The last named did not, however, join Gamaliel at Jamnia. Sometimes listed as a younger group in the second generation. So Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, ed. 5, pp. 124 ff. More exact dates cannot be given. The accession of Antoninus Pius (138) is a limit on its side. In what year Judah, whose birth is traditionally put in 135, succeeded his father, Simeon ben Gamaliel, there is no evidence. 2

3

4

482

TANNAIM AND AMORAIM most final. At the head in this period, stood Simeon ben Gama­ liel II. The school of Ishmael was represented by his disciples, R. Josiah and R. Jonathan, who taught, like their master, in the South; that of Akiba, by R. Meir, R. Simeon ben Yohai, R. Judah ben Ila'i (El'ai), R. Jose ben Halafta, R. Nehemiah, Eleazar ben Shammua'. To this generation belong also the younger disciples of Akiba, Abba Saul, R. Joshua ben Karha, R. Eleazar ben Zadok (the younger). R. Nathan (ha-Babli) was vice-president in the Academy of Simeon ben Gamaliel, and con­ tinued to be an important figure in succeeding time. The Fifth Generation is that of the Patriarch Judah, with his contemporaries and older disciples. i\mong the former there is none of equal note in the history of the Halakah with the great names of the preceding generations. Eleazar ben Simeon (? ben Yohai), and R. Nathan, of whom mention has been made above, are the most conspicuous. With the promulgation and acceptance of the Mishnah, in which tradition was authoritatively codified, the age of the Tannaim, the living volumes of tradition, properly ceased. The surviving disciples of Rabbi, epigoni of the Tannaim, sometimes reckoned as a generation by themselves, occupy a position mid­ way between the Tannaim and Amoraim. Those most frequently quoted are Hiyya bar Abba and Bar Kappara. The Amoraim are listed in the same way by generations, in two successions, Palestinian and Babylonian respectively. In the first generation (first half of the third century) the most prominent names in Palestine are: R. Hanina ben Hama, a dis­ ciple of Rabbi; R. Hosha'ya (the elder), pupil of Bar Kappara and R. Hiyya; Joshua ben Levi, whose school was at Lydda. In Babylonia Abba Areka (Rab, d. 247) and Mar Samuel (d. ca. 257). To the second generation in Palestine belong R. Johanan (bar Nappaha, d. 279), R. Simeon ben Lakish (d. 275); R. Simlai — all of them eminent in the Haggadah. 483

INDEX IV To the third, R. Samuel bar Nahman, R. Eleazar ben Pedat, R. Isaac, R. Levi, R. Abahu. In Babylonia, R. Huna, Rabbah, R. Hisda (d. 309), and many others. In the following alphabetical index the generation to which an author is conventionally assigned is indicated in parenthesis fol­ lowing the name, e.g.: Akiba ( T 3 ) , i.e. Tanna, third generation; Abahu (PA 3), i.e. Palestinian Amora, third generation; Raba (BA 4), i.e. Babylonian Amora, fourth generation. It should be remarked that the ascription to an individual author is occasionally uncertain, in consequence of different attributions in parallel passages, or of variants in the text — the names Eleazar and Eiiezer, for example, and Hananiah and Han­ ina, are frequently confounded. Another ambiguity arises from homonyms: R. Eleazar (without the patronymic) in Tannaite sources is Eleazar (ben Shammua'), a disciple of Akiba; else­ where it is generally R. Eleazar (ben Pedat), a fertile homilist of the second half of the third century. In most cases other names in the context decide; but there is often room for doubt and possibility of error. Where there is a difference between the attribution in the text of these volumes and in the following index, the latter is to be regarded as a reconsideration and tacit correction of the text. 1

1

See also Corrigenda, below, p. 487.

484

TANNAIM AND AMORAIM AUTHORITIES Abahu

( P A 3),

i , 165, 382,

480;

E l i s h a b e n A b u y a h , i, 95 n . , 395,413, 522.

ii, 15,

195 n . , 218, 221,380.

G a m a l i e l I I ( T 2), i, 86, 87, 91, 103,

A b b a A r e k a ( B A 1), see R a b . A b b a S a u l ( T 4), i, 426;

ii, n o ,

388.

G a m a l i e l I I I ( T 5), i i , 128, 244 n .

A b t a l i o n , i i , 109. Aha (PA

4),

i,

H a m a b a r I J a n i n a ( P A 2), i i , 1 1 1 .

484, 543.

H a m n u n a ( B A 3), i i , 60.

A i b o ( P A 4), i i , 348 n . Akiba

( T 3),

i, 89,

H a n a n i a h b e n A k a s h y a ( T 4), i i , 92.

266 f.,

379,

388

n.,

Hananiah

397 f-, 405? 446, 448, 455> 469 n., 536; i i , 16, 30 n . , 42, 45, 66 f., 83, 85, 86, 105, 116, 124, 187, 203, 207, 209, 220, 224, 235, 238, 247, 252 f., 253 f., 271 n . , 336 f-, 345, 3 5 , 369, 388. ( P A 2), i, 484;

Bar

3),

ii,

IJanina

195

i i , 62 n . ,

i i , 37,

93,

ii, 1 1 4 ,

IJanina

84,

115

236.

ben

Teradion

ECelbo ( P A 4), i, 346

242

n.,

( T 3),

i i , 106 n . ,

n. f.

H i l l e l , i, 78 f., 84; ii, 86 f., 9 7 , 1 3 7 , 1 5 7 n . ,

n.

160, 196, 274.

B e n P a t u r i ( T 2), i i , 83, 99 n .

i j i y y a b a r A b b a ( P A 5), i i , 362.

B e n Z o m a ( T 3), i, 413;

I J i y y a b e n G a m d a ( P A 1), ii, 119.

i i , 242.

H o n i h a - M e ' a g g e l , i i , 222, 235 f.

D o s a ( T 5), i i , 370.

H o s h a ' y a , O s h a y ' a ( P A 1 ) , i, 164,

E l d e r s o f B a t h y r a , i , 78 f. ben 'Arak

( T 2), i, 4 1 1 , 413;

ii,

H u n a , R a b ( B A 2, d . 297),

ii,

I l a ' i ( E l ' a i , T 3), i i , 170 n .

ben Azariah

( T 2), i, 314 f.;

187, 205, 220, 337, 375

I s a a c ( P A 3), i, 436, 466;

f.

E l e a z a r h a - K a p p a r ( T 5), i i , 265 n . of Modiim

Eleazar

ben Pedat

( T 2), i, 520; ( P A 3),

i i , 147.

i, 369,

378,

( T 4), i,

Jacob (T5),

J o h a n a n h a - S a n d e l a r ( T 4), i, 106.

( T 2), i, 341,

468,

499, 520 n . ; i i , 16, 18, 71 n . , 84 n . , 96, 128 n . , 136, 150 f., 206, 215, 220, 221, 224, 228, 245 n . , 250, 321, 351, 361, 369, 375 385 f223, 230

n.,

( T 1 ) , i, 153;

i i , 219,

254.

J o h a n a n b e n T o r t a ( T 3), i, 89 n . ; i i , 329 n . Johanan

ben Zakkai

ii, 7, 99,

I I 6

,

I 2

x

( T 1 ) , i, 4 1 1 , 2

J o n a t h a n b e n E l e a z a r ( P A 1 ) , i, 492,

540; ii, 191, 265 Jose

503;

2

5 , 7 , 4 5 , 348, 391. n.,

520,

352.

t h e G a l i l e a n ( T 3), i, 123, 125,

485,

495; ii, 337, 3 5 I

E i i e z e r b e n J o s e ( h a - G e l i l i , T 4), i, 391 n . ;

383-

f.,

520 n . , 525, 539; i i , 28, 62, 92 n . , 93 n . , 105 f., 123, 229, 230 n . , 240, 240 n . , 242 n . , 248, 256, 350 n . , 364, 373, 379. J o h a n a n b e n N u r i ( T 3), i, 469 n . ; i i , 153.

E l e a z a r b e n Z a d o k ( T 2), i i , 97.

Eiiezer ben J a c o b

ii, 119.

J o h a n a n b e n B e r o k a ( T 3), i i , 109 n .

106.

E l e a z a r b e n S i m e o n ( T 5), i i , 93 n . Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus

405,

J o h a n a n ( P A 2), i , 94, 348, 440 f., 495

441; ii, 67 n., 119 n., 123,147 n., 172 n., 189 n . , 190, 216, 218 n . , 219 n . , 230 n . , 240, 242 n . , 380 n . Eleazar ben Shammua'

265.

469, 546; i i , 30, 105, 106, 108, 119, 143 n . , 167 f., 240 n .

E l e a z a r b e n J o s e ( T 5), i i , 249. Eleazar

i i , 207,

I s h m a e l ( T 3), i, 88 f., 245 n . , 262 f.,

E l e a z a r o f B a r t o t a ( T 3), i i , 248 n .

ii,

165.

i i , 242 n . , 251,

256.

n

245 Eleazar

( T 1),

f.

H e z e k i a h b e n E t i y y a ( P A 1), i, 139,140,537.

470;

B e n j a m i n b e n L e v i ( P A 4), i i , 192.

Eleazar

148,

229, 349.

114, 128, 174

( T 3), i, 413, 446, 455 f.,

85, 120, 128

( P A 1 ) , i , 456;

n.,

fjanina, prefect of the priesthood

:>

B e n a ' a h ( T 5), ii 242 n . , ii,

See

H a n i n a b e n P a p a ( P A 3), i i , 123.

K a p p a r a ( T 5), i, 96;

Ben 'Azzai

(T3).

H a n i n a b e n D o s a ( T 1 ) , i i , 235,

14.

348, 349, 3 6 i

Teradion

EEanina b e n A b a h u ( P A 4), i i , 348 n .

i i , 216, 241 n .

A m m i ( P A 3), i i , 14. Asi ( P A

ben

Hanina.

2

Alexander

292,

381 f., 436; i i , 42, 138, 144 n . , 169 m , 191, 208 f., 220, 253 n . , 366, 382, 386.

A b a y e ( B A 4, d . 339), i i , 208 n .

J o s e b e n I J a l a f t a ( T 4), i, 346, 395, 440; ii, 175, 249 n . , 353.

485

435,

INDEX IV Resh

J o s e b e n r j a n i n a ( P A a ) , i i , 150 n . J o s e b e n J u d a h ( T 5), i i , 189,

Lakish

( P A 2),

see

Simeon

ben

Lakish.

254.

R e u b e n ( P A 2), i,

J o s e b e n K i s m a ( T 3), i i , 1 1 4 , 1 1 6 , 354 f.,

467.

S a f r a ( B A ? ) , ii, 98 n .

355-

S a m u e l , M a r ( B A 1, d . ca. 257),

J o s e h a - K o h e n ( T 2), ii, 142,154 n . J o s h u a b e n H a n a n i a h ( T 2), i, 4 1 1 , 4 1 2 f.,

ii, 117 f.,

154, 379-

503, 520 n . ; i i , 12, 99, 128 n . , 194, 219, 220, 228 n., 262,351,382 n., 385 f., 386.

Samuel

bar Nafrman

374, 413

( P A 3),

i, 369 n . ,

n

453; », *47 - , 204, 352,

n.,

J o s h u a b e n H y r c a n u s ( T 2), i i , 99. S h a m m a i , i, 77 fF.; ii, 243 f.

J o s h u a b e n K a r h a ( T 4), i, 450.

S h e m a i a h , ii,

J o s h u a b e n L e v i ( P A 1 ) , i, 128,163,378 f.,

380, 453 n . , 468 334f.,35 >365-

45 f-, 271

n.; ii,

177.

S h e s h e t ( B A 3 ) , ii, 258. S i m a i ( T 5), 1,451; i i , 383.

273,

n.,

I

J o s i a h ( T ) , ^4.89.

S i m e o n b e n ' A z z a i ( T 3), s e e B e n A z z a i .

J u d a h b e n I l a ' i ( T 4), i, 1 4 1 , 299, 4641".,

S i m e o n b e n E l e a z a r ( T 5), i i , 99,

4

474, 525; i i , 6 6 , 1 2 7 , 1 4 2 , 1 4 5 n . , 146 n . , 203 f., 244, 356, 370 n . J u d a h t h e P a t r i a r c h ( T 5), i , 470, 530 ii,

93, 128

n.,

131

n.,

J u d a h b e n P a z z i ( P A 4), i , 522;

271

ii,

241

ben Gamaliel II

61, 85, 105

n.,

127

n.,

( T 4),

104; n.

451 f., 456, 485 n . , 490 f., 492, 515; ii, 28, 150, 190 n . , 265 n . , 268.

i i , 155 n . , 299),

S i m e o n b e n M e n a s y a ( T 5), i i , 298 n . S i m e o n o f M i z p a h ( T 1 ) , i, 153.

n.

S i m e o n b e n N a t h a n i e l ( T 2), i i , 220 n .

J u d a h b e n T a b a i ( P 3), i i , 186 n . J u d a h b e n T e m a ( T 5?), i i , 205.

S i m e o n h a - P a k u l i ( T 2), i, 292.

J u d a n ( P A 4), i, 439.

Simeon, son of

L e v i ( P A 3), i , 368,

370,

532;

92

i i , 26 n . ,

the Patriarch

J u d a h , ii,

n.

S i m e o n b e n P a z z i ( P A 3), i i , 190 n .

35°M e i r ( T 4), i, 299, 370 n., 387,406 n . , 522;

62, 99 f., 128 f., 196 244, 253 n., 258,381.

ii,

Nathan

i,

174, 187, 263

S i m e o n b e n L a k i s h ( P A 2), i, 1 1 5 , 1 1 6 ,

n.

J u d a h , R a b ( b a r E z e k i e l , B A 2, d . ii,

Simeon

f.;

221, 272, 376.

104.

S i m e o n b e n G a m a l i e l I ( T 1 ) , i i , 46.

f.,

ii,

N e h o r a i ( T 4), ii, 3 5

6

123

100,

356.

ben

-> 3^3-

h a - K a n a h ( T 1 ) , i,

ii,

58 n . ;

ii,

222.

S i m l a i ( P A 2), i, 441, 550; Tanhuma

P h i n e a s b a r H a m a ( P A 5), i, 391.

272, 273, 384. ( B A 1), ii, 59 f., 98, 177, 235, 242, 265, 326 n . , 351, 364, 392.

bar Abba

n.,

i i , 83 f.

( P A 5), i , 447;

326.

206,

Tarfon (T3),

Rab

R a b a ( B A 4), ii, 97, 1 9 1 , 216, 234,

n.,

S i m e o n b e n Z o m a ( T 3), s e e B e n Z o m a .

465;

ii, 243. P h i n e a s b e n J a i r ( T 5), i, 480 f.;

184, 186

ii, 25 n . , 93, 104, 132, 137 n . , 145 ^ 147, 205 n . , 335, 350, 269, 382 n .

f

N e b u n y a o f B e t H o r o n ( P A 1 ) , ii, 4.5 n. Nehunya

n.,

S i m e o n b e n Y o h a i ( T 4), i , 138-140, 1 4 1 , 143, 4 1 1 , 469, 471, 472, 483, 493, 521;

190, 206 f., 352,381. i i , 254,

i i , 84,

172. S i m e o n b e n S h a t a h , i, 45, 47,

( h a - B a b l i , T 5), i, 427;

N e h e m i a h ( T 4), i, 337;

S i m e o n t h e R i g h t e o u s , i, 35, 3 1 1 ;

203, 227, 233,

256.

486

i i , 187, 247,

Y a n n a i ( P A 1 ) , i i , 109 Z a d o k ( T 1 ) , i i , 97.

268 f.

ii,

ADDENDA I, 144. An English translation of selections from the Sifre on Numbers, with notes, has been published by Paul P. Levertoff, under the title Midrash Sifre on Numbers, London 1926. I, 146. G. Kittel's translation of Sifre on Deuteronomy seems not to have got beyond the beginning. 1,166. Theodor's edition of Bereshit Rabbah is being continued, since the editor's death in 1923, by Ch. Albeck. Parts ix (second half), x, and xi (1926) bring it to chapter 75 (Gen. 32, 4) and page 880. I, 215. A Hebrew translation of Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, by A. Z. Rabbinowitz, bearing the imprint Jerusalem-Berlin, has been published in four parts (1922-1923); and two parts of the Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer (1925-1926). The translation is condensed; in this framework the pas­ sages cited by Bacher in the text and notes are given in the original. II, 284. The Georgian version of 4 Esdras has been published, with Introduction and a Latin translation, by Robert P. Blake, in the Harvard Theological Review, X I X (1926), 2

99-375-

CORRIGENDA l

c

I, 321,1. 8, for ame ha-arasot read amme ha-arasot. I, 413, 1. 5, for the words may mean read the words may be meant. I, 325, n. 3,for Sat. 4, 96 ff. read Sat. 14, 96 ff. II, 119,1. 5,ybr Gen. 1, 18 read Gen. 2, 18. II, 196, n. i for p. 45-47 read pp. 248-250. y

II, 172, n. 3: R. Eleazar ben Shammua' should be ben Pedat. The same correction is to be made on p. 216,1. 17 f.

JUDAISM OF T H E

IN T H E

T H E

FIRST

CENTURIES

CHRISTIAN

A G E OF

T H E

ERA

T A N N A I M

VOLUME I I I . NOTES

P R E F A C E

B Y "Judaism in the first centuries of the Christian Era, The Age of the Tannaim'' I mean the religion which has acquired an historical right to the name "Judaism" in its own definition of it. In the Preface (Vol. I, p. vii) I defined the scope of the volumes as I proposed it to myself: "The aim of these volumes is to represent Judaism in the centuries in which it assumed definitive form as it presents itself in the tradition which it has always regarded as authentic." "The aim of the present work is to exhibit the religious conceptions and moral principles of Judaism, its modes of worship and observance, and its dis­ tinctive piety, in the form in which, by the end of the second century, they attained general acceptance and authority" (Vol. I, p. 125). "These primary sources come to us as they were compiled and set in order in the second century of the Christian Era, embodying the interpretation of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch and the definition and formulation of the Law, written and unwritten, in the schools, in the century and a half between the reorganization at Jamnia under Johanan ben Zakkai and his associates, after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, and the promulgation of the Mishnah of the Patriarch Judah" (Pre­ face, Vol. I, p. vii). The succession of the authoritative teachers who are called "Tannaim" may, for our purposes, be regarded as beginning with Shammai and Hillel and their schools in the time of Herod. In the historical Introduction I have endeavored to show how this type of Judaism gained the ascendency, while its exclusive supremacy was attained only after the fall of Jerusalem. "The older and younger contemporaries of Gama­ liel II and their disciples, with their successors in the next gen­ eration, are the fundamental authorities of normative Judaism as we know it in the literature which it has always esteemed authentic" (Vol. I, p. 87, cf. 86). The learned study of the Law is, however, much older, as is shown in the chapter on the Scribes (Vol. I, pp. 37-47), where the importance of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus, ca. 200 B.C.) as a land-

VI

PREFACE

mark is recognized. The continuity of this development of Judaism with the Scriptures and its progress beyond them in some directions are evident. In numerous places I have en­ deavored to illustrate this in particulars by references to uncanonical writings from the two centuries preceding the Chris­ tian Era, emphasizing the appropriation and assimilation of the prophetic teaching (Vol. I, p. 113, cf. pp. 15 f.). Until the supremacy of the type of Judaism represented by the Tannaim was achieved •— before the fall of Jerusalem and the reorganization at Jamnia, Lydda, and in Galilee, —> as I have recognized in various connections, Judaism was much less homgeneous than it appears in the Tannaite sources; parties, sects, schools, or looser groups differed and contended over points of major and minor importance. I have frequently directed attention to these diversities, but except for the con­ troversies between the Sadducees and the Pharisees little or nothing is known about the parties by which these differences were cultivated. The recent discovery in the Cairo Genizah of parts of a Hebrew book proceeding from an organized schisma­ tic sect in the region of Damascus leads to the surmise that the groups that sloughed off or were extruded may have been more numerous and more significant than we should have suspected. Fortunately, for the task I have set myself the continuity and the progress of the main current of what is called rabbini­ cal Judaism — I should prefer the name "normative Judaism" — with the Scriptures at one end and the Tannaite sources of the second century at the other is of greater importance than the diversity and dissent; and it is as evidence of continuity and progress that I have chiefly employed the writings of the preceding centuries from Sirach on. I should perhaps have evaded some misunderstandings if I had said explicitly at the outset what I did not propose to do. First, then, I did not propose to write on the history of the Jews in their wide dispersion and the multiplication of "Jews" by conversion, nor of the effects of contact with alien civiliza­ tions, religions, philosophical theologies, and superstitions, and the resulting varieties. What I have attempted to describe is the Judaism of Palestine in a limited period, which in its main features furnished the norms of worship, morals, charity, piety, and observance, for all subsequent times.

PREFACE

vii

Second, I have not attempted a descriptive account of Juda­ ism in New Testament times. Neither the Christian era nor the completion of the New Testament marks an epoch in the history of Judaism. The religion in which Jesus was brought up in Galilee, or Paul grew up at Tarsus and in which he pur­ sued his studies "at the feet of Gamaliel" in Jerusalem, is the proper subject of investigations which would demand a dif­ ferent selection and critical evaluation of sources and an alto­ gether different method. The investigation of the religious environment of Jesus has acquired factitious importance in the modern turn of Christian theology and consequent direction of its apologetic. For this theology, revelation is not primarily the content of a body of inspired Scriptures comprised in the Old and the New Testa­ ments, but the person of Jesus Christ, who was himself the supreme, if not the sole, revelation of the character of God, the Father in heaven, who is love. The "Kingdom of God" is the "regulative principle" of Christian theology; in it, as Jesus denned it, was revealed God's own purpose in the world, the final cause of creation, history, revelation, and redemption; and it is as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven that man is saved. The "essence" of Christianity is therefore to be sought in the religious and moral teaching of Jesus as the expression of his own religious life, or as might be said nowadays, his "religious experience." The older apologetic found the essential peculiarity of Christianity in its doctrines of the divine nature of Christ and of redemption through his atoning death, appropriated by faith and communicated in the sacraments, which distinguished Christianity from Judaism and from all other religions that presented themselves as ways of salvation; the new apologetic seeks such a difference in the teaching of Jesus by word and example contrasted with the religion of the contemporary Scribes and Pharisees. As a system of professedly orthodox Pro­ testant theology this may be called modern, but in so far as the "essence" is sought only in the teaching and example of Jesus it has precursors from the age of the Reformation down. It must suffice here to repeat that into this inquiry I have not transgressed. Third, I have not meant to become involved in "Religionsgeschichtliche Probleme," the question when, where, and how

viii

PREFACE

the Jews got some of the notions which others seem to have entertained before them. In the period with which I have es­ sayed to deal the most important of these notions had already been amalgamated, if not fully assimilated; the rabbis found them in their Scriptures and accepted them on the authority of revelation without any suspicion that they had any other origin. Some of these problems are very interesting and I have for years been much engaged with them; but the comparisons belong to the general history of religions, not specifically to Judaism. A general observation on the subject of borrowings in the sphere of ideas is expressed in Vol. II, pp. 3 9 4 f. I have no intention of using the present supplementary vol­ ume for discussion of subjects which lie outside the scope of my work as defined above. Nor shall I fulfil in these Notes the desire or expectation that I give an "authority" for every statement. On the contrary, I have resisted the temptation to multiply references to the sources beyond the selection given in the foot-notes. For vast collections made for a wholly differ­ ent purpose the reader may resort to Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch ( 4 volumes, 1 9 2 2 - 1 9 2 8 ) ; but he should be warned that the critical sifting of this miscellany devolves upon him who uses it for any particular purpose. In the text of the volumes on Judaism I frequently had to pronounce a positive opinion on points on which I am well aware that the evidence is not of a nature to warrant confident assertion, or is susceptible of other interpretations. I think I have never delivered such an opinion without having weighed all the evidence or without acquaintance with the modern dis­ cussions; but as I have neither the right nor an inclination to conclude the argument with an ipse dixit I have taken occasion to present in the Notes at some length the views of scholars who entertain other opinions, for instance, on the Great Synagogue, or the membership and presidency of the Sanhedrin, or on the continuity of development in Judaism before and after the fall of Jerusalem, with the reasons adduced for them. On the other hand, I have made no attempt to give a bibliography of these controversies nor to enter into them, and it is not unlikely that some important contributions have been omitted.

PREFACE

IX

For the rest, the Notes are supplementary to the text. Two classes of possible readers have been in mind, and I must crave the indulgence both of those to whom some of the notes seem superfluous and of those who find desired explanations lacking. Many notes not foreseen in Vol. I have been introduced, and some of those then contemplated will not be found in the pre­ sent volume, generally because it seemed preferable consolidate the treatment of larger topics rather than to disperse it among many references. Finally, I have availed myself of the opportunity to make numerous corrections. A second printing of the two volumes was necessary so soon after the first that there was time only to eliminate obvious typographical errors, and some even of such escaped notice. In the emendations in the Notes I have pro­ fited most by a detailed review by Professor Chaim Tschernowitz in two numbers of the periodical -punn (1928), and by the extensive annotations of Professor Louis Ginzberg, kindly communicated to me in writing, some of which I have taken the liberty of inserting with his initials appended. To many other reviewers and correspondents I must content my­ self here in behalf of myself and my readers with a general ac­ knowledgment of obligations. Professor Louis Finkelstein of the Jewish Theological Semi­ nary in New York has been so good as to verify in the library of the Seminary references to books and periodicals not acces­ sible to me here; and, as in the previous volumes, my colleague, Professor H. A. Wolfson, has gone over the references to the Talmuds and Midrashim and called my attention to places where the statement in the text or the Note seemed to be in­ exact or not to be clear, for all of which I am most grateful. The captions of the Notes are designed to make it possible to use for them the general indexes in Vol. II; to facilitate finding some of the longer detached notes I have subjoined here an indication of the pages of this volume on which they may be looked for.

C O N T E N T S

LONGER

NOTES

AND

DISCUSSIONS

G R E A T SYNAGOGUE

7-11

CHRONOLOGY OF THE POST-EXILIC PERIOD RABBI

(title),

1 2 f., T

R A B , RABBAN, ABBA

45

5

_ I

7

C O N T I N U I T Y OF N O R M A T I V E JUDAISM

17-22

SANHEDRIN,

32-34

MEMBERSHIP

AND PRESIDENCY

Y E L A M M E D E N U AND T A N H U M A

48-50

EUANGELION

67

MINIM

68 f.

APOCRYPHA (genuzim?)

70-72

PROSBUL SYNAGOGUE

80

(names, edifices)

88-92,

NAZARETH

93

T E T R A G R A M M A T O N AND SUBSTITUTES

127-132

PAUL G R O U N D OF OBLIGATION IN R E V E A L E D R E L I G I O N

168

i5of. . . . .

167

N O T E S

N O T E S 1.4

1.23fNot in Judaea and Jerusalem alone. The broad commission is in accordance with ancient principles of jurisdiction (Vol. I, p. 1 8 ) . E. Meyer, Entstehung des Judenthums, p. 6 6 ; Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, II, 1 2 6 . Josephus, Antt. xii. 3 , 3 § 1 4 2 .

1. 1 2 - 1 4 On these documents see Note on Vol. I, 23 1.14 iff. (below, p. 5 ) .

1.5

1.6 N i In the Yalkut (II, § 1068) the extract from Seder 'Olam exhibits a somewhat different text and enumeration, giving three Persian kings and one Median. Artahshasta (our "Artaxerxes") was taken to be a royal title borne by all these kings whatever their personal names, and thus confusion was worse confounded. 1,8 n.3 For G. A. Box read G. H. Box and make the same correction in the Index. 1,8 N 2 See also the Epistle of Sherira (Spanish recension; ed. Lewin, p. 7 3 ) : i m m D w i nw vm | cnpnn irn rai cray n^iam ^?anD ^ m n n tniy rbyv JVDI .'131 maim \rm im\ "DIP BPK OUTIMW pnxn p y w p » 1.8 n . It is doubtful whether 4 Esdras 1 4 can be dated late enough to take in the whole Tannaite literature in such exact enumeration. 4

1 . 9 1- i f . The revelation to Moses of all that the prophets after him would say, and of the contents of the Ketubim (including Esther), as well as the whole Unwritten Law (Vol. I, p. 2 3 9 , 2 4 5 , 2 5 4 f.; also Jer. Megillah 7 4 d ) , is not an exact parallel, and it is hardly to be supposed that this was in the author's mind.

JUDAISM.

4

NOTES

I, 9 n. i Besides the extracts from the Fathers, Fabricius gives (p. 1157 n.) references to the literature, especially to Huet, Demonstratio Evangelica, Propositio iv, p. 536 seq. The earliest patristic testimony is probably that of Irenaeus, iii. 2 1 , 2 (the Greek is preserved by Euse­ bius, Hist. Eccles. v. 8, 15). I, 16 N On the Tannaite, or Halakic, Midrash, see Vol. I, pp. 125 ff.; 13234; 35" 493

J

I

I

I, 18 1. 10-13 In Rome, for example, there were distinct jurisdictions for cases between citizens, and between foreigners, or citizens and foreigners — praetor urbanus and praetor qui inter peregrinos ius dicit (praetor peregrinus). I, 19 1. 2-4 Cf. Vol. II, pp. 142, 150. — Abot 2, 12, Abot de-R. Nathan 17, 1-2 (ed. Schechter, f. 33a); Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 67 n. 6, R. Jose (haKohen); Abot 2, 10, Abot de-R. Nathan 15 (ed. Schechter, f. 30a): Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 96, R. Eiiezer (b. Hyrcanus). L 7 fF. See also Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. 'Marriage' (Greek), especially VIII,445 A ; Pauly-Wissowa, X I V , 2259 ff.

1.20

1. 13 fT. The separateness of the Jews from people of other races and relig­ ions was probably made more distinctly a religious principle in the hellenistic crisis and by the Pharisees when they came into power, and, secondly, by the larger dispersion in heathen environment, where they could not exclude the rest of the population, but only keep them­ selves apart from them. According to the Books of Ezra and Nehe­ miah its remoter antecedents were in the attitude of the returning Babylonian Jews (rbn) to the "people of the land," as subsequently the Jews of strict observance held aloof from the ignorant and negli­ gent to whom they extended the same name, "people of the land" 1.21

(pan

'Dy).

JUDAISM.

NOTES

5

1,23 l . i f f . Zeitschrift fur agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, X L V I ( 1 9 1 0 ) , 1 - 6 1 . Sachau, E., Aramaische Papyrus und Ostraka aus einer jiidischen Militar-Kolonie zu Elephantine, Leipzig, 1 9 1 1 . Cowley, A. E., Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B . C , Oxford, 1 9 2 3 [in­ cluding those in Sayce and Cowley, Aramaic Papyri discovered at Assuan, London, 1 9 0 6 ] . 4

1. 2 7 ff. Montgomery, J. A., The Samaritans, the Earliest Jewish Sect, Philadelphia, 1 9 0 7 (with full bibliography). Gaster, M., The Samari­ tans, Their History, Doctrines and Literature, London, 1 9 2 5 .

1,23

I,

24

n. 5 The Jews called the adherents of the sanctuary on Gerizim "Cuthaeans," insinuating that as descendants of the colony brought by Shalmaneser from Cuthah and established in the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 1 7 , 24) they were at least half-heathen ( 2 Kings 1 7 , 3 3 ff.). Josephus, Antt. ix. 1 4 , 3 § 2 9 0 : ol Kara p.ev TTJV *E@paia)v y\a>Trav XOVOCUOL, Kara de TTJV ^JZWyvoov 2a/xapeTrat. Cf. xiii. 3 , 4 § 7 4 Sajuapeis, ol

TO kv TapL^elv

1,26

TrpoaeKvvovv

lepov.

I.13

E.g. under Ptolemy Philometor, Josephus, Antt. xiii. 3 , 4 § 7 4 if. Each side claimed to have the true and only legitimate temple, and the advocates they put forward staked their lives on proving it from the Law. The king, after hearing the arguments, decided in favor of the temple in Jerusalem, and put to death the representatives of the Samaritans who had lost their wager. 26 1. 1 5 f. "Seir" is the reading of the Latin version (qui sedent in monte Seir), supported by the Syriac (BNI, Peshitto 2 Chron. 2 5 , 1 1 , 1 4 for YYW "in; cf. Psalm 83, 8 Heb.). The Greek version, without variants,

I,

ev opec ^afxapelas.

TefiaXrjvr) as a name for Idumaea or a region in it

is frequent in the Onomastikon of Eusebius, e.g. 'ISoujucua . . . ean de ij ap.l TTJV lierpav YepaXrjvii KaKovfxevr]. (See Lagarde's Index.) Nar­ rating the expedition of Amaziah king of Judah against Edom (2 Chron. 2 5 , 5 ff.) Josephus writes, Antt. ix. 9 , 1 § 1 8 8 : bityvooKei yap rots

'Afxa\7]KiT&v

Antt. ii.

I, 2 § 5

eOveai Kal 'Idovfiaicov

f.:

OVTOL KaT^Krjaav

Kal Ta^aKiTcbv

EWL<jrpareveadac;

rrjs 'ISoujucuas rrjv To^oKlriv

cf.

\eyofievrjv

6

JUDAISM.

NOTES

TTJV airb 'AfxdkrjKov K\r\Beio-av 'kna\r}K2riv. See Reland, Palaestina, i, c. 12 (De regione Edom), i, c. 15 (De Gebalene). — Modern Jebal ('mountainous tract/ south of Kerak); Robinson, Biblical Researches (1841), II, 551 ff. The Hebrew Sirach has Tin bn: *m natoDl T y » W •DttO. In Sirach's time Seir (the Idumaeans) is more probable as the name of a hated 'people' than Samaria. The intrusion of the Edomites into old Judaean territory moved more than one of the later prophets to bitter words. See C. C. Torrey, " T h e Edomites in Southern Judah," Journal of Biblical Literature, X V I I (1898), 16-20. — In Asmonaean times Hebron was an Idumaean town (Jo. sephus, Bell. Jud. iv. 9, 7 § 529, captured by Simon, cf. § 534—537); on the forcible Judaizing of the Idumaeans by John Hyrcanus, see Vol. I, pp. 336 f. Kal

I, 26

n. 2

Iv St/ajttots. Cf. Test. X I I Patriarchs, Levi 7, 2: ear at yap airb arjixepov 17 XUrjixa \eyofievrj irokis aavvercjv (LXX Deut. 32, 21). — " T h e third is no people"; see Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 32, 21 (ed. Hoffmann, p. 196); "these are the Cuthaeans," — proof text Ezra 4, i ; cf. ibid, on 32, 41 (p. 203). Cf. Sifre Deut. §3316 Xaos 6 /xcopos 6 Karoi.K&v

I, 29 1. 13-16 With the change in the alphabet attributed to Ezra may be com­ pared the official adoption of the Ionic alphabet in Athens in the archonship of Eukleides (404/403 B . C ) , superseding the local alphabet previously used in Attica. — The list of letters liable to be erroneously interchanged on account of their similarity in Sifre Deut. § 36 (on Deut. 6, 9, ed. Friedmann f. 75a; Midrash Tannaim, p. 28) applies to the so-called "square alphabet"; it shows also, as would be ex­ pected, that the form of some of the letters was not exactly that with which we are best acquainted, especially in print, where the type­ founders, partly from necessity, partly for what they probably regard as aesthetic considerations, have produced new varieties of the Hebrew alphabet, as they have in other cases, notably in Greek. Of interest in this passage are also the names of some of the letters, formed by re­ duplication. 1,29 N 3 The Takkanot of Ezra (nine) are found in Jer. Megillah 4, 1 (f. 75a), accompanied by the motives for some of them, and in a list of ten in Baba Kamma 82a, where the motives and some discussions

JUDAISM.

NOTES

7

follow in the Talmud. The two lists agree in the main. They are given here from the Palestinian Talmud. Moses had ordained that the Israelites should read from the Torah (Pentateuch) on the Sab­ baths and Holy Days (npmtt D'O') and New Moons, and the secular days of the festival (nyiD ^ i n ) , as it is written, ' A n d Moses pro­ claimed to the Israelites the appointed seasons of the Lord* (nyiD miT, Lev. 2 3 , 4 4 ) ; Ezra ordained that they should read lessons (also) on Mondays and Thursdays, and on the Sabbath at the after­ noon service (nraD). He prescribed for those who had had an emis­ sion CpHp ^ y n ) , an ablution before reading in the Law. The courts should be in session in the towns on Mondays and Thursdays. Peddlers (of cosmetics, perfumes, and the like) should make their rounds in the towns "on account of the honor of the daughters of Israel" (that the woman may make themselves fine). Clothes should be washed on Thursday on account of the honor of the Sabbath (on which everybody ought to be dressed in clean clothes). Bread should be baked (early) on Friday, that the piece to be given to the poor may be ready. People should eat garlic on Friday night (as an aphrodisiac). Women in the latrines should talk with one another (to avoid suspicion). A woman should wear a girdle (TFD), front and back. A woman should rub and comb her hair three days before her purification (the reason is explained in the Talmud; cf. Niddah 6 b). 1

7

N • On the Great Synagogue (or Assembly), see W. Bacher in Jewish Encyclopedia X I ( 1 9 0 5 ) , 6 4 0 - 6 4 3 ; E. Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, u. s. w., II, 3 5 4 f. (literature ibid.). On the nature of this assembly opinions are sharply divided. The question is involved with the identification and date of Simeon the Righteous, who according to Abot 1, 2 was one of the (last) remaining members of the Great Assembly, and with the whole chronology of the Persian period. A survey of the views of mediaeval rabbis is given by Azariah dei Rossi, Me'or 'Enayim, Imre Binah c. 2 2 (cf. ibid. c. 3 7 ) . For a modern statement of the problems and the opinions about them, see S. Krauss, " T h e Great Synod," Jewish Quarterly Review, I,3i

4

X (1898), 3 4 7 - 3 7 7 . I.

In

the

B a b y l o n i a n T a l m u d i t is u n d e r s t o o d t h a t

e a t i n g T e r u m a h o r s a c r e d f o o d (i. e. o n l y t o p r i e s t s ) ; of the L a w "

(and thus to l a y m e n ) .

Lev.

15,

16

applies only

Ezra extended it to " the

S e e M a i m o n i d e s , K e r i ' a t S h e m a * 4, 8,

to

words

according

to w h i c h it h a d n e v e r b e e n g e n e r a l l y o b s e r v e d , w a s i m p r a c t i c a b l e , a n d in his d a y dis­ regarded.

JUDAISM.

8

NOTES

So long as Jewish scholars operated with the chronology of the Seder 'Olam and the Talmudic references to the Great Synagogue, it seems to have been the accepted opinion that it belonged to one generation; the Bet Din of Ezra is what is called Keneset ha^Gedolah, to which many Takkanot are ascribed. Serious difficulty arose, how­ ever, when Josephus with his Simeon the Righteous and his succes­ sion of high priests came to their knowledge, and attempts were made to reconcile Josephus, and eventually other chronological data derived from Greek sources, with the Talmud. These difficulties were per­ ceived by Azariah dei Rossi, who cited not only Josephus but a Breviarium de Temporibus, which he took for what it professed to be, a work of Philo of Alexandria (in reality a forgery published, with other supposititious writings, by Annius of Viterbo). He observes that some therefore put Simeon the Righteous in the eighth genera­ tion from Joshua, the high-priest of the restoration (namely, the five successors of Joshua named in Neh. 1 2 , io, followed by Onias son of Jaddua, and Simeon son of Onias, as in Josephus, Antt. xii. 2 , 5 ) ; see Me'or 'Enayim, Imre Binah, cc. 2 2 and 3 7 . There is a voluminous modern literature on this subject, revolving principally about the two Simons and the high priest who met Alex­ ander the Great. References to the authors who participated in the discussion from Jost ( 1 8 3 9 ) Graetz ( 1 8 5 7 ) may be found in Leopold Low, Gesammelte Schriften, I, 3 9 9 n., and the further history of opinion is to be followed in Kuenen's monograph ( 1 8 7 6 ) cited below. In the periodical Ben Chananja, I ( 1 8 5 8 ) , Low published a series of articles under the title, " D i e grosse Synode, ihr Ursprung und ihre Wirkungen," which are reprinted in his Gesammelte Schriften, 1 8 8 9 , I, 3 9 9 - 4 4 9 , by the pages of which citations are made here. His thesis is that the Simeon the Righteous of Abot 1, 2 was neither the Simon (I) of Josephus nor the Simon (II) of Ben Sira, but Simon the Asmonaean, and the Great Assembly that described in 1 Mace. 1 4 , 25—49 (see vs. 2 8 : eirl (TvvaycoyTJs fxeyaXrfs T&V lepeccv Kal XaoD Kal apxbvT&v Wvovs Kal rcov -Kpeafivrepuv TTJS x&Pas), on the 1 8 t h of the month Elul, in the year 1 7 2 of the Seleucid era ( 1 4 0 B.C.) As Low notes, the possibility that the honorific "ha-Saddik" belonged to this Simeon had occurred to Azariah dei Rossi (Me'or 'Enayim, Imre Binah, c. 22, end). With him Low (p. 4 1 3 ff.) identifies the Talmudic Simeon the Righteous. The assembly of 1 Mace. 1 4 came to be called 1

t o

1. A u t h o r s I,

401.

who

held

this v i e w

are enumerated b y

Low, Gesammelte

Schriften.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

9

the Great Assembly, " da in der Folge die Volksversammlungen ausser Brauch kamen." The numerous prophets who according to the Tal­ muds belonged to the Great Synagogue make a difficulty which Low recognizes, since they cannot be imagined to be of the generation of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, with whom according to tradition prophecy ceased, all the more in view of i Mace. 1 4 , 4 1 (the Jews and the priests voted that Simon should be ruler and high priest €ts TOV ai&va, ecos TOV avao-Trjvcu irpo^rjTrjv iricFTOv). On this point he cites (p. 4 1 9 ) Krochmal, Moreh, 1 8 5 1 , p. 1 1 1 f. This date would evidently remove the difficulty of having to stretch the succession (Antigonus of Socho and the Pairs who transmitted the tradition down to Hillel and Shammai) over two or even three centuries; and it had already been noted by Zunz (Gottesdienstliche Vortrage, p. 3 7 , ed. 2 , p. 4 0 , n.) that the appointment of "pairs" (mnt) is attributed to John Hyrcanus, the son and successor of Simon the Asmonaean (Jer. Ma'aser Sheni, f. 5 6 d , below, and the parallel, Jer. Sotah, f. 2 4 a , below). Jose ben Jo'ezer was probably one of these appointees (Low, op. cit., p. 4 2 1 - 4 2 3 ) . — John Hyrcanus' "pairs" were, however, apparently inspectors of tithing whose scru­ tiny made it unnecessary for even the most scrupulous to raise any question about Demai. Except that they made their tours of inspec­ tion in couples, they seem to have nothing in common with the suc­ cessive " P a i r s " of whom the Mishnah (Hagigah 2 , 2 ) makes the president and vice-president of the Sanhedrin respectively (Vol. I, p. 4 5 , n.). And plainly the assembly of 1 Mace. 1 4 , even if we imagine that its existence was continued as a kind of council under Simon, would be something very different from what Jewish tradition sup­ poses its Great Synagogue to have been and done. It has indeed been supposed by Zunz and others that the Great Sanhedrin was organized in this period, with the " P a i r s " at its head (see Low, p. 4 3 1 ff.), to which Megillat Ta'anit, c. 5 , on the 2 4 t h of Ab (probably 1 7 0 A. S.), ixnnb tonn, is referred by Low, and it might accordingly be imagined that from the time of Hyrcanus on the Sanhedrin suc­ ceeded to the functions of the Great Assembly. But aside from the uncertainty of the combinations by which this date is arrived at, it is pertinent to repeat an observation which has frequently been made, namely, that while many and various things are attributed in our sources to the Men of the Great Synagogue, enactments of the Great Synagogue itself are not recorded, as would be natural if it were thought of as an assembly, a council, or a high court like the Sanhedrin.

IO

JUDAISM.

NOTES

In an article, rfrnan J I M D I pnsn fiyDP in the periodical *myD na, pp. 1 3 7 - 1 4 2 , S. Zeitlin offers a different explanation: The Great Synagogue was not limited to the first generation or two after the return of the Golah, nor was it a permanent body with regular sessions perpetuating itself through two or three centuries by cooptation or appointment, but an assembly called together as need was on occasions of national importance from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah on, or to pass important ordinances. [A somewhat similar hypothesis is considered by Krochmal, Moreh, 1 8 5 1 , p. 1 0 2 b , cf. p. 52, who mentions Jabneh and Usha.] Such an occasion arose when it was necessary to decide whether Judaea should side with the Seleucid Antiochus I I I , or should remain loyal in its Ptolemaic allegiance; in this crisis, about 200 B.C., Simeon the Righteous (Simeon I I , the high priest of Sirach's time) took a leading part. Another was that recorded in 1 Mace. 1 4 , in 1 4 1 B . C , when Simon the Asmonaean was recognized as hereditary high priest and political ruler (see Low's theory above). A third was in the year 65 A.D., on the eve of the war with Rome (Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 2 0 , 3 , cf. Vita c. 3 8 § 1 9 0 - 1 9 4 ) , when the high priest Annas (Ananos) and Simon son of Gamaliel were leading figures. The objection that might be made on the ground of Abot 1 , 2, where Simeon the Righteous is called "one of the (last) survivors of the Great Assembly/' Zeitlin sets aside by a conjectural emendation of the text: for rhnn he would read a"rD W I D , "one of the heads (presidents) of the Great Assembly." [It may be observed that Sherira, ed. Lewin, p. 7 3 , speaks of Simeon the Righteous and Antigonus of Socho as "heads of the Sanhedrin," like the following "Pairs."] The emendation is graphically easy, and in Zeitlin's opinion rendered historically necessary by the chronological impossibilities of the actual text. Skepticism about the existence of such a body as the " Great Syna­ gogue" of rabbinical tradition developed among Christian writers over the part attributed to this body in the definition of the canon of Scripture (Morin, Richard Simon), and especially after the antiquity of the vowel-points and accents and the whole tradition of the text (Massorah) became a controversial issue among Protestants. The most considerable monograph of this period is J. E. Rau, Diatribe de Synagoga Magna, Utrecht, 1 7 2 7 . Rau makes the most of the fact that Ezra and Nehemiah have no mention of such a body, nor does any other writer in or near the time in which it is supposed to have been active. On the traditional side it is sufficient to refer to Buxtorf, Tiberias ( 1 6 2 0 ) , especially cc. 1 0 and 1 1 . 1924,

JUDAISM.

NOTES

II

Among modern critical investigations of the whole question the first place is held by A. Kuenen, Over de mannen der groote Synagoge (Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van We tenschappen, enz., Amsterdam, 1 8 7 6 ) ; German translation, Ueber die Manner der grossen Synagoge (by Karl Budde) in Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur biblischen Wissenschaft von Dr. Abraham Kuenen, 1 8 9 4 , pp. 1 2 5 - 1 6 0 . Kuenen finds the source of the whole legend in the narrative of the assembly in Neh. 8 - 1 0 , a conclusion which has been adopted by many scholars. That the assembly described in those chapters had come to be called the Great Assembly, as the first, and an example and pattern for subsequent generations, had oc­ curred to Krochmal (Moreh, ed. 1 8 5 1 , p. 1 0 2 , cf. 5 2 ) , as Kuenen notes (German translation, p. 1 4 4 , n.), but the conception of this As­ sembly as a model for future generations make this suggestion essen­ tially different from Kuenen's result. D. Hoffmann, "Ueber die Manner der grossen Versammlung," in Berliner u. Hoffmanns Magazin fur die Wissenschaft des Judenthums, X ( 1 8 8 3 ) , 4 5 - 6 3 , discusses the accounts of the actions of the Great Synagogue in matters of the canon and the Eighteen Prayers. That the Assembly of Neh. 8 - 1 0 was the Great Assembly, and is so desig­ nated in rabbinical sources, he accepts (p. 4 9 ) ; but dissents from Kuenen's conclusion that "unter rfrnan nD3D n u r die in Neh. 8 - 1 0 geschilderte grosse Volksversammlung verstanden sei" (p. 5 1 , 54 f.). He thinks of the Sanhedrin as the successor to the Great Synagogue — there is no room for two such bodies at the same time — and calls attention to the use of «ni2P33 for the Sanhedrin in Megillat Ta'anit c. 10. — In regard to Simeon the Righteous, "one of the last sur­ vivors of the Great Synagogue," he asks the pertinent question whether this is historical, or the utterance of a later Tanna " a u f Grund der spateren Chronologic" — See also H. Englander, " T h e Men of the Great Synagogue" in the Hebrew Union College Jubilee Volume ( 1 9 2 5 ) , pp. 1 4 5 - 1 6 9 . 1,31

1.

2of.

That the prophets prophesied by the holy spirit until the time of Alexander of Macedon, from which time the learned (n^DDn) took their place, is said in Seder 'Olam c. 3 0 (ed. Ratner, f. 7 0 b ) . In a Baraita in Sanhedrin 1 1 a the departure of the holy spirit from Israel was with the death of the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Mal­ achi; cf. Vol. I, p. 240. For other references, see Ratner's note 4 1 . — That in Abot de-R. Nathan (ed. Schechter, f. l b , both recensions)

JUDAISM.

12

NOTES

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi transmit the tradition from the pro­ phets to the men of the Great Synagogue is perhaps connected with the view that prophecy ceased with the destruction of the First Temple and that thenceforth the learned succeeded the prophets (Baba Batra 1 2 a ) . 1 . 3 2 1.6ff. In one of the letters prefixed to 2 Mace. ( 2 , 13) Nehemiah is said to have founded a library and collected in it ra wepl r&v fiao-Ckkuv Kal irpo<j>r]rcbv fiifi\ia, Kal ra TOV Aaveidj

Kal eTnaroXas

fiavikkuv

irepl

avade-

fiar&v.

I,

3 2 n. 2 Jer. Megillah jod: eighty-five elders (cf. Neh. 1 0 , 2 - 2 9 ) , among them about thirty prophets. Bacher (Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 6 4 1 ) cites Krochmal's conjectural harmonization of this with the hundred and twenty elders of Megillah 1 7 b (Moreh, 1 8 5 1 , p. 1 1 1 n.) See also Biichler, Der galilaische 'Am-ha 'Ares des zweiten Jahrhunderts, p. 7 n., who surmises that the 85 may come from the number of elders who sat under Rabban Gamaliel at Jamnia on one occasion (Tos. Kelim iii. 2 , 4 ) .

I,

3 2 n. 6 On the corrections of the Scribes see Lauterbach, Jewish Quarterly Review, V, 34f. 1.33

I.1-6.

The Christian parallel was early pointed out. It was remarked: Patres olim, quicquid auctoritatem habere voluerunt, atque usu diuturno observatum viderunt, cujus tamen primum auctorem ignorarunt, sub nomine Apostolicae traditionis commendasse; sic quoque, quae inter Judaeos vigebant incerti auctoris instituta, Viris Synagogae Magnae fuisse tributa. J. Alting, Opera, V , 3 8 2 (Epist. 6 9 ) . 1-33 1-8 On the first precept cf. Sifre Deut. § 1 6 , where, in the example given, 'patient* would perhaps be a better equivalent than 'deliber­ ate.' Cf. Sanhedrin 7 b , below. N . 4 bis See Vol. I, pp. 6, 158 f. The chronology of the post-exilic period operates with the 490 years of Daniel, taken as the interval between I.

34

JUDAISM.

NOTES

13

the first destruction of the Temple (Nebuchadnezzar) and the second (Titus). Seventy years being subtracted for the "exile," there re­ mained 4 2 0 years for the second Temple. From the time when the Jews had the Seleucid era ( 3 1 2 B . C ) to reckon by, their chronology was not far out of the way. The Seder 'Olam gives to the Herods down to 7 0 A.D., 103 years (apparently including both Agrippas in a continuous succession of Herodian kings, disregarding the Roman procurators as an interim administration), and to the Asmonaeans 103 years. Counting back in our way from the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.), we should get for the accession of Herod the Great 33 B . C (instead of 3 7 ) , for the Asmonaean era (1 Mace. 1 3 , 4 1 f.), 136 B.C. (instead of 1 4 2 ) ; and with 180 years for the rule of the Greeks should find Alexander the Great in Palestine in the year 3 1 6 B.C. (instead of 3 3 2 ) . Before this, however, the schematic 4 2 0 years for the existence of the second Temple leaves but 3 4 years from the com­ pletion of the Temple (according to our Ptolemaic chronology 5 1 6 B.C) and Alexander the Great (332 B . C ) , instead of 184. In other words, the only large error is in the Persian period. The author may have known that the Persian king conquered by Alexander was Da­ rius (in the Canon of Ptolemy the third of the name, 3 3 6 - 3 3 2 B . C ) , and he finds in his biblical sources but two Persian kings (Cyrus and Darius — and even these two are identified), Artahshasta (Artax­ erxes) in Nehemiah being taken as a title of both, like Pharaoh' in Egypt (cf. Rosh ha-Shanah 3 b , below), and Ahasuerus in Esther being counted as a Median king. 1

N.s See G. F. Moore, "Simeon the Righteous," in the Israel Abrahams Memorial Volume ( 1 9 2 7 ) , pp. 3 4 8 - 3 6 4 ; cf. also above (p. 1 0 ) Note 4.

1.34

1. ifFor an account of these wars utilizing the scanty sources see E . Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christen turns, II, 1 2 1 - 1 2 8 : Antiochus overran all Coelesyria (including Palestine) in 2 0 1 B . C ; Gaza alone offered him obstinate resistance. In the winter of 2 0 1 200, Antiochus having withdrawn his army, a strong Egyptian force commanded by the Aetolian Skopas brought the Jews again into sub­ jection to their former Egyptian master (Josephus, Antt. xii. 3 , 3 § 1 3 5 , from Polybius xvi.). After the defeat of Skopas at Panion (200 B . C , Niese), and his surrender at Sidon, Antiochus, in the years 199 and 1 9 8 , annexed all Palestine (Josephus, xii. 3 , 3 § 1 3 6 , on the 1.35

JUDAISM.

14

NOTES

same authority), and the Jews living around the Temple in Jerusalem came over to him (ibid.). See the rescript addressed by Antiochus III to Ptolemaeus (probably the governor of the new province), Josephus, xii. 3 , 3 § 1 3 8 - 1 4 4 , from which it appears that the senate (yepovala) of Jerusalem had received him with demonstrations of friendship. The battle of Panion is commonly dated in the year 198 (see Vol I, p 4 8 , where this date is accepted), but Meyer's combina­ tion now seems to me preferable. From this time on Palestine was part of the Seleucid empire; for the proposal to give Coelesyria as a dowry to Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus III, on her marriage with Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, which would have brought it back under Egyptian sovereignty, was never carried out. The marriage took place in the winter 1 9 4 / 1 9 3 (Meyer, p 1 2 4 f.), but Antiochus and his successors kept their hold on the conquered provinces. 1,35 1. i8f. The name Antigonos occurs repeatedly in the Asmonaean line, the first of whom we have record being a son of John Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus. It probably first became known to the Jews through the campaign of Antigonos (Monophthalmos) in which he made him­ self master of the seaboard of Phoenicia and Palestine ( 3 1 5 B . C ) , eject­ ing Ptolemy, who had conquered this region in 320. 1,35

1-18-25

DID bipb nan by m n n « wwnwnwn onnyD v n n bx. The word DID is often understood and translated "reward," as though equivalent to "DP, 'wages.' So, recently, Marti in his translation of Abot, and notes (p. 1 0 ) , who finds it "betriibend" that Herford under­ stands the word as "present," "unconditional gift." A good example of the difference may be found in the "comparisons" of Samuel the Little, Ta'anit 2 5 b , below. Maimonides distinguishes correctly in his commentary on Abot: DID is something that the master is under no obligation to pay, but may voluntarily offer to give, as, e.g., he may say to a slave, a minor son, or his wife, ' D o so and so for me, and I will give you a dinar (as a present). The word is not a com­ mon one, and if the author had meant it would have been natural to employ this usual word for 'wages.' In Abot de-R. Nathan, c. 5 (ed. Schechter, f. 1 3 b ) , in the discussion of this saying in the schools of Zadok and Boethus, "DP is used, but it should be observed that the slave (who has no claim to 'wages' for personal services to his master) has here become a day-laborer (VyiD) who works all day ex-

JUDAISM.

NOTES

15

pecting to receive his wages at evening. In the second recension (ed. Schechter, ibid.) the reward ("DE>) of the righteous, partly in this world, partly in the world to come, is discussed. I.

38

1. 20

The common Stoic definition. See C. L. W. Grimm, on 4 Mace, i, 1 6 ; von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, II, 1 5 . I.

39

1. 3 0

Another way of acquiring this knowledge would be by attendance on the courts and learning from the procedure and the decisions. I.42

1. i5ff.

Ezra, according to a recent Jewish historian, published what had been revealed to Moses at Sinai, and had been from that time on handed down in the keeping of the priests, so that it was made ac­ cessible to laymen. Jawitz, nn^nn "1SD, III, 1 3 2 . I, 4 3 , 1 . 3 o f . -

4 4

, 1 . 1 f.

In earlier times Rabbi ('my master') was a respectful form of ad­ dress or way of speaking of a man, as we find it in the Gospels; in the second century it was a title conferred on an officially recognized or ordained teacher. It is not used in speaking of Hillel and Shammai, for example, or in quoting them, nor of the preceding "Pairs," nor of Simeon the Righteous or Antigonos of Socho, e.g. "Hillel said" (Abot 1, 1 2 ) , but "Rabbi Eiiezer said," "Rabbi Joshua" (and the other disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai) "said" (Abot 2 , 9 ) , and so in the following generations. The five whom Judah ben Baba ordained in despite of Hadrian's edict ('Abodah Zarah 8 b , below) are all called Rabbi — R . Meir, R. Judah (ben Ila'i), R. Jose, R. Simeon (ben Yohai), R. Eleazar ben Shammu'a, while Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, although among the leading scholars of their generation, never receive that title. The connection of the title Rabbi with ordination is made in the "Second Letter" of Sherira Gaon (ed. Lewin, p. 1 2 5 ) , where Sanhedrin 1 3 b is quoted: " T h e y ordain him by (pronouncing his) name, and address him as 'Rabbi', and confer on him authority to give judgment in cases in which a (monetary) penalty is imposed" (fine or amends). The niD3p *3H are distinguished from maiDD » n , actions about rights of property, but the system is so different from ours that no single word can be found to translate it; * n are capital cases, and fall within the cognizance of the regularly con-

I6

JUDAISM.

NOTES

stituted courts, not of individual rabbi. — The varieties of specific authorizations in ordination are numerous; see Maimonides, Hilkot Sanhedrin 4 , 8. Cf. also the case of Rab, Vol. I, p. 105 and Note on that place. The response of Sherira is printed in the Aruk, s.v. (see Aruch Completum, with Kohut's supplements and notes), and in Juhasin, ed. Filipowski, p. 83 f. See Lewin's Introduction, p. 1 2 3 , and "Ordination" in the Jewish Encyclopedia, I X , 428 f. An older name which never went completely out of use was ]pT, 'elder,' which is perpetuated in the Christian communities (irpeafivrepos), with a rite of ordination (Acts 1 4 , 2 3 ) , but with functions different from the Jewish Elders. Rab is Babylonian in distinction from the Palestinian, Rabbi. A higher dignity than Rabbi is intended by the title Rabban ('our master'), perhaps better, 'great master.' According to the so-called Second Letter of Sherira Gaon (ed. Lewin, p. 1 2 5 ) it was given only to the Nasi, beginning with Gamaliel the Elder and his son Simeon ben Gamaliel "who lost his life at the destruction of the second temple," and Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, "all of them were pa­ triarchs" (D'KTO). " R a b b i " began to be used as a title from the ordinations of that time, e.g., R. Zadok and R. Eiiezer bar Jacob, and from the disciples of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai onward. "Rabbi is greater than Rab; Rabban is greater than Rabbi; and greater than Rabban is the man's bare name" (without any title, as in the case of Hillel, above). There seems to be no reason why the honorific Rabban should be confined to those who held the office of Nasi. Rabban is used of Jo­ hanan ben Zakkai, to whom the title Nasi is not ascribed, and on the other hand the Patriarch Judah ha-Nasi is Rabbenu ha-Kadosh, or simply Rabbi by way of eminence, but never Rabban. His son, how­ ever, is "Rabban Gamaliel, son of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi" (Abot 2 , 2 ) . One might conjecture that Nasi was the native title (ultimately from Ezekiel?) of the Ethnarch, or Patriarch, whom the Romans recognized as the head of the Jewish nation (eOvos), and that in this sense it is not likely to have been borne by any one before Simeon ben Gamaliel II (under Antoninus Pius), whether or not it was earlier used of the president of a rabbinical assembly or academy. Rabban Gamaliel (II) is said, however, to have gone to Syria to the Hegemon (Legate?) "to get authority" ( m e n bwb), which is interpreted by Derenbourg and others of investiture with patriarchal authority (M. Eduyot 7 , 7 ) ; see Juster, I, p. 3 9 3 , n. 3 (against Derenbourg, cf. p. 3 9 4 , n. 6 ) .

JUDAISM.

NOTES

17

The use of Mar ('my Lord') as a title is Babylonian. It is given to the Exilarch (wn^a wn) "the presidents who are designated to the presidency of the house of David," e.g. Mar Ukba, though they were not necessarily scholars; it was also borne as a proper name and is sometimes appended to a name (e.g., Huna Mar). His disciples gave it to Mar Samuel, the head of the school at Nehardea. Abba. In Matt. 2 3 , 9 Jesus forbids his disciples to let themselves be called Rabbi, as the Pharisees want to be saluted (vs. 7 ) ; or to call any man "father," i.e., to address any one with the word Abba (Aram, 'my father/ as a title). As a mode of address to scholars Abba is said to be unusal (Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, 9 1 9 , 3 ) ; but it is regularly prefixed to the personal name of many Tannaim and Amoraim, e.g., Abba Saul ben Batnit (before the destruction of Jerusalem, busi­ ness partner of R. Eleazar ben Zadok), and the better known Tanna, Abba Saul, in the middle of the second century; also Abba Hanin, who in Mekilta and Sifre transmits many traditions of R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus). The title Rabbi is not prefixed to the names which begin with Abba (e.g., not R. Abba Saul, or the like), though the same man is occa­ sionally called in one source Abba, in another Rabbi. In such cases copyists may be responsible for the substitution. On the possible local (Galilean) usage of Abba as a (courtesy) title, and other ques­ tions connected with it, see A. Biichler, Die Priester und der Cultus im letzten Jahrzehnt des jerusalemischen Tempels, 1 8 9 5 , P P - 3 3 5 ; Der galilaische 'Am-ha Ares des zweiten Jahrhunderts, 1906, pp. 3 3 2 ff. I -

I. 44 1. 1 7 - 2 1 Here and elsewhere I have emphasized the continuity in the moral and religious teachings of normative Judaism and illustrated it from the extraneous literature including the Synoptic Gospels. This con­ tinuity of development is, however, not undisputed; it is maintained that Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem was essentially different from what it had been before. Some believe that the rise of Christianity made the difference; others think that the supremacy which "Phar­ isaic Judaism" attained after the War, with the resulting unification and, so to speak, standardization of Judaism, made an epoch which sharply divides what came after from what went before. These opinions are reflected in the selection and evaluation of the sources, and it will make the matter plainer if I summarize and dis­ cuss here some recent presentations of these views which may be con-

i8

JUDAISM.

NOTES

sidered typical, premising that, as I have said in the Preface to this volume (p. vii), an inquiry — even incidental — into the religion in which Jesus and his immediate disciples were brought up, or of the origin of Christianity, lies wholly outside my plan and purpose. R. H. Charles (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 1 9 1 3 , Vol. II, Introduction, pp. vi-xi) insists on a sharp distinction between "Apocalyptic Judaism" and "legalistic Juda­ ism." He recognizes that "in pre-Christian times they were not fun­ damentally antagonistic"; both unreservedly acknowledged the primacy of the Law, so that they may be called "apocalyptic and legalistic Pharisaism" respectively. " T o all Jewish apocalyptic Law was of eternal validity, but they also clung fast to the validity of the prophetic teaching as a source of new truth and the right of apoca­ lyptic as its successor in this respect." The difference was that legal­ istic Pharisaism in time "drove out almost wholly the apocalyptic element as an active factor . . . whereas apocalyptic Judaism developed more and more the apocalyptic, i. e., prophetic, element." When the latter "passed over into Christianity, and therein naturally aban­ doned this view of the Law [sc. of its perpetual validity], it [sc. Apoca­ lyptic Judaism] became in a measure anti-legalistic." "From this it follows that the Judaism that survived the destruction of the Temple, being almost bereft of the apocalyptic wing which had passed over into Christianity, was not the same as the Judaism of an earlier date* Before A.D. 7 0 Judaism was a Church with many parties: after A.D. 7 0 the legalistic party succeeded in suppressing its rivals, and so Judaism became in its essentials a Sect." The author confuses a literary form or a conventional fiction with a kind of religion, which he calls " prophetico-ethical," in contrast to "legalistic Judaism" and eventually in conscious opposition to it. The characteristic form of revelation in the apocalypse is vision, fre­ quently demanding and receiving a supernatural interpretation; the content may be anything to which the writer chooses to give this form and the authentication which attaches to it. Primarily and most naturally this form is chosen for things which are beyond the scope of sense and intelligence, the heavens and what is in them or goes on in them, or the future beyond human ken or conjecture in the course of universal history and after its end. That there is a sense in which apocalyptic is the successor of prophecy had never been questioned; but that it was the sole, or even the principal, heir of the religious and moral teaching of the great prophets of Israel and as such the opposite of "legalistic Judaism" is far from the truth.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

19

Ezekiel 4 0 - 4 8 is a typical apocalypse which is wholly devoted to the reconstruction of the Temple, and the plan of the city of Jerusalem, and its environs as it is to be in the restoration, and to particulars of the reformed cultus. The Book of Jubilees, which is described by Charles himself as the "most triumphant manifesto of legalism," and "the narrowest book that ever emanated from legalistic Judaism," is in form an apocalypse of Moses. The Testaments of the X I I Patriarchs contain incidentally some apocalyptic elements (e. g. Levi 5 and 8), but in the main they are moral precepts and exhorta­ tions enforced by examples. The great religious and moral book in what Protestants call the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus, has nothing of apocalypse about it; its author was a professional student and teacher of the Law (Scribe). The two great apocalypses after the fall of Jerusalem, 4 Esdras and the Syriac Baruch, were written by men who had the learning of the schools, and of an "antilegalistic" tendency there is in them no trace. Their affinity to the teaching of the Tan­ naim of the second century, on the contrary, is extensive and obvious. That apocalyptic is "essentially ethical" is as far from the truth as it would be to ignore the large "ethical" element in "legalistic Judaism," as exhibited in the Tannaite Midrash, often side by side with the de­ velopment of laws of very different character, as, e.g., in Sifra on Lev. 1 9 . The reader will find in this juristic midrash much casuistry, but a casuistry which, unlike that satirized by Pascal in the "Lettres Provinciales," is directed not to minimizing the demands of the law by "probable opinions," but to giving them the widest application and the deepest significance. In his Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter ed. 1 9 0 6 ) Bousset drew his material chiefly from the apocry­ phal and the pseudepigraphic writings, including the apocalypses (4 Esdras, Syriac Baruch) from the end of the first century of the Christian era, with only incidental — it would not be unfair to say accidental — reference, through translations, to the rabbinical sources. He recognizes in the latter "eine unerschopfliche Fundgrube alteren Materials, das leider noch nicht systematisch bearbeitet ist, wohl auch in absehbarer Zeit nicht bearbeitet werden wird" ( 2 ed. p. 4 5 ) . "Eine systematische Behandlung dieser spateren Literatur wiirde ungemein viel wertvolles Material auch fur die Erkenntnis des friiheren Judentums zu Tage fordern" (2 ed. p. 4 8 ) . Hugo Gressmann, who edited the third edition ( 1 9 2 6 ) under the new title, Die Religion des Judentums im spathellenistischen Zeital(1903,2

20

JUDAISM.

NOTES

ter," without change in the scope and plan of the book, justifies the exclusion of the rabbinical sources on the ground that the political collapse of the Jewish state (about the year 1 0 0 A.D.) and the separa­ tion from Christianity made a fundamental change in the Jewish re­ ligion— at least, in view of the extraordinary mutability of the Israelitish-Jewish religion, this must be assumed until the contrary is proved (3 ed. pp. 4 0 f.) What Gressmann had in mind (ed. 3 , p. 4 1 ) I surmise to be similar to what Bousset had said about the consequences of this catastrophe: "Wenn es vorher oft den Anschein hatte, als konnte das Judentum sich zu einer volkerumspannenden Universalreligion entwickeln, zieht es sich nun ganz auf sich selbst zuriick und erstarrt vollig in seiner Eigenart, wahrend das junge Christentum sein Erbe in der Welt antritt" (cf. ed. 3 , pp. 2 fF.). That is, as I understand it, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 7 0 A.D. and the cessation (in Jewish apprehension at the time, suspension) of the national worship in the Temple, and after the disastrous outcome of the rising of the Jews in the Mediterranean region and Mesopotamia under Trajan and of the rebellion in Palestine under Hadrian, the national (racial) exclusive­ ness of Judaism gained the complete supremacy; it lost faith in its destiny, as the one true religion, to become the universal religion, and in the mission of Israel to promulgate it and win the world over to it, in both which tasks Christianity succeeded it. That the expansion of Judaism in the Diaspora, by conversion suf­ fered a severe check, not solely by edicts like Hadrian's, but through the dislike of the Jews, who were regarded by the Gentile population as the aggressors in all these disturbances, is only what would be ex­ pected (see Vol. I, p. 1 0 8 ) , but whether this had on Judaism itself the effect which is attributed to it, may, I think, reasonably be doubted in the light of later evidence, both Jewish and Christian (see Vol. II, pp. 3 4 6 ff.) An opinion which might be described as the antipodes of that of Charles and of Gressmann is expressed by Burkitt (The Gospel His­ tory and its Transmission, pp. 1 6 9 - 1 7 4 ) . Raising the pertinent ques­ tion, "how far the Rabbinical religion is the immediate descendant of the main current of the Judaism of the first century A . D . , " he argues that the catastrophe of Jewish nationalism in the wars of 6 6 - 7 2 and of 1 3 2 - 1 3 5 taught the Remnant of the Jews "that the Kingdom of God was not of this world; there was now no inducement to serve the God of Israel left for those who did not still love Him and trust His

JUDAISM.

NOTES

21

promises. Can we wonder that Judaism tended to become a more spiritual religion, narrow indeed in its outward aspect, but animated within by humility and grace, even by mysticism? But in so far as the Rabbinical religion is all this, it has been metamorphosed from the prevailing Judaism of the ist century. I do not think we need deny the real spirituality of the Rabbinical religion because we believe what the Gospels say about the Scribes, or that we need disbelieve what the Gospels say about the Scribes in the ist century because we recognize the real spirituality of the Rabbinical religion. We have a right to believe that the spiritual descendants of the Scribes whom Jesus denounced perished in the two Revolts during the century after the Crucifixion, while the spiritual ancestor both of the Jews who be­ came Christians and the Jews who developed and maintained the Rabbinical religion is represented by the Scribe who was 'not far from the Kingdom of God.'" (pp. 171-173). — See Montefiore, The Synop­ tic Gospels (2 ed., 1927), I., pp. 197-200 (cf. I., pp. 147-152, and II, pp. 224-227); Strack-Billerbeck, I, pp. 711 ff. (on the Corban). It is hardly worth while to revert to a notion of Franz Delitzsch which G. Kittel has exhumed, nor to stretch it beyond the author's intention. The resemblance of the story about the birth of the Mes­ siah in Bethlehem on the night in which the Temple was destroyed in Jer. Berakot f. 5a and parallels (Vol. II, 348 n.) to the Gospels led Delitzsch to ask how such features in the Haggadah can be accounted for. He dwells upon the large numbers of Nazarenes (Jewish believers in Jesus), and continues: Als diese grosse judenchristliche Partei, welche der Kirche nicht minder als der Synagoge haretisch erscheinen musste, dem im Hebraerbriefe gedrohten Gottesgerichte verfiel und sich in die christusfeindliche Synagoge zuriickverlor, da wurde die synagogale Haggada mit mancherlei Bestandteilen versetzt, welche, wie die obige Erzahlung, immer noch das evangelische Urbild verraten, dessen Verzerrungen sie sind. Die Talmude und Midraschim enthalten in vielen unverkennbaren Resten den letzten Niederschlag der untergegangenen judenchristlichen Evangelien. — That this "Niederschlag" included reports of the religious and moral teaching of Jesus as well as stories like the one he quotes, Delitzsch does not say, and it should not be inferred. The war of 66-72, as Josephus describes it, eliminated classes or parties among the Jews which had previously been important factors. The sacerdotal and lay aristocracy, and the rich, to which classes the Sadducees chiefly belonged, had been the especial object of the fury of the Zealots and their allies. Many of them perished during the

22

JUDAISM.

NOTES

siege of Jerusalem; their political power was completely broken, and with it their resistance to the Unwritten Law. The Zealots — fanati­ cal nationalists — had destroyed one another, and the remnants had been exterminated by the Romans. Individual Essenes appear here and there in the pages of Josephus as combatants, prophets, or mar­ tyrs, but of the Essene Order, from that time on, nothing is heard. The recovery of Judaism from the catastrophe of the Jews was the work of men whom we are accustomed to call Pharisees — whether they commonly called themselves so or not — with whom were as­ sociated many priests as well as biblical scholars and men learned in tradition. Judaism, which had previously been diversified, and on important points contentious, attained in the following generation or two a homogeneity and an authoritativeness which have been its character to modern times. It was natural that one consequence of the wars with Rome should have been wide-spread demoralization among the people, showing itself in negligent observance of the distinctive institutions of Judaism or even in gross infractions of its moral obligations; and the first task of the religious leaders was to bring the people back to an orderly way of life in conformity with the law of God as contained in the Scriptures and in the ordinances and restrictions of the Unwritten Law. That they found it necessary in many cases to define the rules more precisely and in some particulars more strictly and that there was a great development of the Halakah in the schools of the second century is plain. But there is, I think, no indication that the develop­ ment was on new lines or on different principles from that which preceded it. Nor is there any evidence that in the fundamentals of religion or of morals there was any corresponding development after the fall of Jerusalem. On the contrary, these principles and doctrines were long established; they lay on the surface of the Scriptures, and no new promulgations were needed to define them. Men might ignore them; it might be necessary to emphasize them in the demoralization of the times, and press them home on the conscience, but they did not have to be discovered. As to the facts, in the foot notes to the two volumes of "Judaism," I have given many references to places in the extra-canonical Jewish literature which anticipate in time the teaching of the Tannaim and of the homilists of the third and fourth centuries of our era, and to the passages in the Scriptures from which both are drawn, thus illustrat­ ing at once the continuity and the progress.

JUDAISM. 1.45

NOTES

23

n.3

See Notes on Vol. I, p. 85 (below, p. 3 2 f.) and on pp. 2 5 5 , 260 f. (below, pp. 7 5 , 80.) n. 4 . See S. Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter, s.vv. '^DDK (axoMi) and nvbnrWK, I I , 8 7 , 1 3 5 . — Sotah 4 7 b, bottom: »KD U hjnw BPK . . . mVlDPK (popular etymology, in the name of Mar Samuel); cf. Jer. Sotah 2 4 a : No h*DWK— no such universally learned man — arose before R. Akiba, rrfrlDBK vn vh nuirn ^m. See the sequel. I.45

I.

46

1. 5f. and n. 3 Shabbat 1 4 b , also (verbatim) 1 5 a . In 1 5 a another date is given for a decree (mil) that foreign lands are unclean, viz. eighty years before the destruction of the temple. Repetition of such a decree on more than one occasion is not improbable; Zeitlin, Jewish Quarterly Review, N . S. X V I ( 1 9 2 6 ) , 3 8 6 f.

I.

48

1. f . The battle at Panion (the modern Banias) is commonly dated in 198; but see Note on Vol. I, p. 3 5 ff. (above, p. 13 f.), for a different construction (Ed. Meyer). I. 4 9

4

1. 1 9 - 2 1

In 1 Mace. 1 , 1 1 most manuscripts and versions (Latin, Syriac) have the plural, c^fjKBov e£ 'lapa-qk viol irapavop.oi„ but Cod. Alex, and a Venetian manuscript collated for Swete (V = 23 of Holmes and Parsons) have k^rjkdev . . . vids irapavonos, presumably having in mind Jason (whom 1 Mace, does not name). So E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, I I , 1 4 4 . — The following verbs, however, in the same codices are plural (/cat Lvk-Keiaav TOXKOVS \eyovres . . .), and a different explanation is possible. I.

50 n. 3 The variation (or confusion) of Benjamin and Minyamin (as per­ sonal names) occurs in rabbinical texts; thus in Tos. IKiddushin 5, 4 (ed. Zuckermandel, p. 3 4 2 , lines 6 and 9) the Vienna codex, like the current printed editions has I'O'N, while the Erfurt codex and the parallel in Yebamot 7 8 a have ymn [L. G.]. Eleazar ben Zadok, who according to some modern scholars was a priest, describes himself as ]*D':O P atOD *»D ('Erubin 4 1 a , cf. Tosafot in l o c ;

cf. Ta'anit 1 2 a ) .

2

JUDAISM.

4

NOTES

In M . Ta'anit 4, 5 the ywn p n«3D »ri bring their wood offering to the Temple on the tenth of the month Ab. R. Eleazar ben Zadok relates what they did on one occasion when the 9th of Ab happened to fall on a Sabbath. The priests and levites bring their wood offer­ ing with a Judaean clan on the 15th of Ab (ibid.). 1. i i.i f. In 143 Seleucid = 170/169 B.C.; The campaign fell in the summer of 169 B . C (E. Meyer, op. cit. II. 151 n.). 5

3

I. 51 1. 25-27. Polybius xxix. 27; Diodorus Siculus xxxi. 2; Appian, Syriaca, 66; Livy xiv. 11 f. The ultimatum rudely delivered by Popilius Laenas is a familiar story (evravda jSouXeuou, Appian). I. 52 n. 3 A contrary inference is drawn by E. Meyer (Ursprung und Anfange des Christen turns, II, 163, top) from Diodorus xxxiv. 1 (Poseidonios), where the measures taken against the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes are recounted to Antiochus Sidetes as an example: 7W re Kpeoov (swine's flesh) avayKaaai irpoaeveyKao~6ai rbv d p x t e p e a Kal TOVS aXXous

lovdaiovs.

I- 53 n. 1 This reconsecration is commemorated by the festival called Hanukkah (Vol. II, p. 49 f.). The date of the desecration is put on the same day and month, just three years earlier, though 1 Mace. 1, 54, at variance with 4, 52-54, names the fifteenth of Kisleu. Daniel's scheme calls for three and a half years or more (1290 days) between the cessation of the daily burnt offering and its restoration. m

I.55

1. i 4 f .

K a l ijp^aTO 6 Xads 'Iapar}\

ypacfreiv hv raTs (rvyypa^als

atv "Erous Tcp&Tov kirl HLJJLCOVOS &pxi€pecos }xeya\ov

Kal

Kal <7UJ>aXXa7/zaarparrjyov

Kal

ijyov-

likvov 'lovbaiuv. — For some outside judgments on Jews especially in this period (Tacitus, Strabo) the ultimate source of which is probably Poseidonios, see E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, 1 1 , 2 7 7 fI,

57 ff-

The literature on the Pharisees and Sadducees is enormous; I shall content myself here with giving the titles of some of the more recent

JUDAISM.

NOTES

^5

contributions to its swelling volume, beginning with J. T . Lauterbach, " T h e Sadducees and Pharisees. A Study of their Respective Attitudes towards the Law," in Studies in Jewish Literature in Honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler ( 1 9 1 3 ) , pp. 1 7 6 - 1 9 8 ; Eerdmans, "Farizeen en Sadduceen," Theologisch Tijdschrift, X L V I I I ( 1 9 1 4 ) , pp. 1 - 2 6 ; I. Elbogen, "Einige neuere Theorien iiber den Ursprung der Pharisaer und Sadduzaer," in Jewish Studies in Memory of Israel Abrahams ( 1 9 2 7 ) , pp. 1 3 5 - 1 4 8 [E. Meyer, Herford, 1 9 2 4 , Simon Dubnow]; Leo Baeck, "Die Pharisaer," in Jahresbericht der Hochschule, Berlin 1 9 2 7 ; Strack-Billerbeck, " D i e Pharisaer u. Sadduzaer in der altjiidischen Literatur" (Excursus 1 4 , Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, IV ( 1 9 2 8 ) , 3 3 4 352 (the differences and controversies enumerated, p. 3 4 4 ff.); L . Finkelstein, " T h e Pharisees: Their Origin and their Philosophy," Harvard Theological Review, X X I I ( 1 9 2 9 ) , 1 8 5 - 2 6 1 . See also V . Aptowitzer, Parteipolitik der Hasmonaerzeit, 1 9 2 7 . I.

60 1. 7 ff. and n. 3 This interpretation would correspond to the account of the observ­ ance of the first Passover after the rebuilding of the temple: "^Dtn m r r ? ARR6 nrhx p a r r "u HKDBD ^ n a a n rbmn wnwn burner *n bvcw 'n ?** (Ezra 6, 2 1 ) . The name "Pharisees" has often been connected with these nibdalim, who " separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek the Lord, the God of Israel." In Ezra 9 , i f . ; 10, 1 1 ; Neh. 10, 29 ff., however, where the same verb is used, the separation is expressly from intermarriage with "the peoples of the land," or with "foreign women" (Ezra 1 0 , 1 1 ) . Cf. particularly Ezra 6, 21 with 1 0 , 1 1 . 1

1

I. 60, 1. 25f. and n. 7 ( 2 d impression) On BH£> in the Targums see Buxtorf, Lexicon Chaldaicum Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, 1 6 3 9 , cols. 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 5 1 (for Hebr. ^H3n, H^3, and other verbs meaning' separate, be separated,' etc.). — Buxtorf assumes the priority of the Targums to the Talmudic literature. — The name is common in Josephus (and his sources, including Nicolaus of Damascus, in the time of Herod) and in the Gospels, Acts 5, 3 4 ; 1 5 , 5 ; 2 3 , 6 - 9 ; 2 6 , 5 ; Phil. 3 , 6, frequently in contrast with the Sad­ ducees. Similarly in M . Yadaim 4 , 6 f., in an interchange of carping between Sadducees and Pharisees, beginning with a Sadducean jibe at the absurdity of the Pharisaean rule that sacred books make the

26

JUDAISM.

NOTES

hands unclean while the books of DTDn (Homer, example of profane literature — so commonly; Bertinoro takes it as ETron HDD, with an etymological explanation) do not. Reply on this point is there made by Johanan ben Zakkai. The D'ems who multiplied after the destruction of the Temple (Tos. Sotah 15, 11), not eating flesh or drinking wine, and are re­ proved by R. Joshua (ben Hananiah; see Vol. II, p. 262) are probably not the sect or party so named, but individuals — perhaps particu­ larly priests — who in this respect separated themselves from the commonalty (Biichler, Priester und Cultus, p. 22 n.). See also M . Hagigah 2, 7. When Jews scrupulously observant are contrasted with the ignorant and negligent vulgus (yitin 'Oy), the former are generally designated by the name a n n n , "associates" (Vol. II, p. 159 f.); the same scrupulous observance and avoidance is naturally expected of scholars (o'DDn 'TD^n), and in the second century sources these names are usual. Cf., however, M . Hagigah 2, 7: D't^ns ? DT1D p a n oy H n , i.e., is a primary cause of contagious uncleanness in the highest degree. In the sequel there is perhaps a lacuna in the text: but the conjunc­ tion of am ha- 'ares and perushhi is the point with which we are here concerned (cf. Niddah 33b), whether the perushim are what we should call Pharisees or not. The common outright identification of the Pharisees with the "associates" is without warrant in our sources. See A. Biichler, Der galilaische Am-ha Ares des zweiten Jahrhunderts (1906); Israel Abrahams, " 'Am ha-Arec," Excursus in Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels, 2 ed. II, 647-669 (especially p. 665 ff.). That the name D ' P n s continued in use among the people for such as seemed to them extravagantly pious is shown by the survival of the nicknames for the varieties of extravagance preserved in both Talmuds (see Vol. II, p. 193 f.). 1

l

I. 61-62 1. 1-2 and n. 1 For another surmise about the origin of the name, viz. that it was used in a derogatory sense of the lay teachers (^fcnP 'DDn, in con­ trast to the D^rD 'DDJi) who drew apart and were not loyal support­ ers of John Hyrcanus, or who were put out of the Sanhedrin by him (Kiddushin 66a), see Lauterbach, "Sadducees and Pharisees," in Studies . . . in honor of K. Kohler, pp. 195 f., note. 1

I. 62 1. 3-12 and n. 3 This explanation of the name suggested itself to the author of the (mediaeval) Josippon ("Joseph ben Gorion"), who, upon his first

JUDAISM.

NOTES

27 1

mention of the Pharisees (under John Hyrcanus), writes: bwiP 'DDn minn n« D^TBDH D w i s n nom (Bk. iv, § 2 9 , ed. Venet. 1 5 4 4 . f. 4 8 a ; cf. f. 4 8 b ; ed. Breithaupt, p. 2 7 2 , cf. 2 7 4 ) . This explanation may have been suggested to the author by places in Josephus (e.g. Bell. Jud. i. 5, 2 3 ) where the Pharisees are said to interpret the laws more precisely than others. I.64

I.18

Queen Alexandra, wife of King Aristobulus and after his death ( 1 0 4 B . C ) of Alexander Jannaeus. Her Jewish name was SAXWJIWJ (Josephus, Antt. xiii. 1 2 , 1 § 3 2 0 — Niese, 2aXh>A). Salome is itself probably an abridgment of the name borne by one of Herod's daugh­ ters, SAXAJU^TD) (Josephus, Antt. xviii. 5 , 4 § 1 3 0 ) , ]Vxnhv. (See Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, u. s. w., I, 4 0 7 ) . — In Lev. R. 3 5 , 8 the name of this queen is written m s o ^ P , perhaps a caritative form. I.

n. 3 From the Megillat Ta'anit it is commonly gathered that the Sad­ ducees had a written criminal code. The text notes: "On the four­ teenth of Tammuz passed away the book of decrees (iDD fcny WITH); mourning prohibited." The Hebrew glossator explains that the Sadducees had a law-book in which were prescribed the specific penalties of various crimes — stoning, burning, decapitation, strangu­ lation. The Boethusians applied the law of talio literally, " an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," etc. The subject is one on which the con­ flicting principles of the Sadducees and the Pharisees are well at­ tested; but it is intrinsically more probable that the decrees are those of some foreign government, and the glossator has a penchant for commemorating successes of the Pharisees over their rivals. Zeitlin, Megillat Ta'anit, p. 8 3 , following Cassel, thinks of the annulment of the decrees of the Greeks by Alexander Balas and Demetrius (1 Mace. 1 0 ) ; but this is only one possibility. And, after all, is it likely that the edicts of the Seleucid Kings aimed at the religion of the Jews would be called NTITT3 "1SD? 67

I. 68

1. 2 3 - 2 5

That there were " b a d " Jews (WlW *J701B) who denied that the Prophets and the Ketubim are "Torah," see Tanhuma, ed. Buber, Re'eh § 1 (f. 1 0 a ; quoted below on Vol. I, p. 2 6 3 , N . 2 8 ) .

28

JUDAISM.

NOTES

1. v]L These words should not be understood as implying that the Phari­ sees admitted legal deductions from these books, independently of the Pentateuch. — On this point one may compare the arguments of Rabina and R. Ashi about an inference from Ezekiel, Ta'anit 1 7 b . 1.68

I.

6 9 1. 23 ff. On the origin of these sects there is a dissertation by E. Baneth, Ursprung der Saddokaer und Boethusaer, 1 8 8 2 , which contributes nothing substantial to the solution of the problem. The story in Abot de R. Nathan is the only one we have; the author seems to think that it must for that reason be taken as having at least an historical kernel. See also Jewish Encyclopedia s.v. Boethusians (III, 284 f.), and the literature on the Sadducees. The passage in Abot de-R. Nathan is found in both recensions (ed. Schechter, f. 1 3 b ) , with dif­ ferences and variants in the manuscripts of both, and other sources recorded and discussed by Schechter in his notes. The heresy is ap­ parently not ascribed to Zadok and Boethos themselves; it arose among their disciples in a succeeding generation. They are said to have drawn the consequences for this life also: " T h e y used vessels of silver and gold every day, not [the negative lacking in some copies] from pride; but the Sadducees said, The Pharisees have a tradition that they make themselves miserable in this world (in anticipation of a reward hereafter), and in the world to come they get nothing at all." We should perhaps read with this the words appended in some manu­ scripts and editions of the Abot de-R. Nathan to the saying of Anti­ gonos in Abot ("Be like slaves who serve their master without ex­ pectation of a gratuity; and let the fear of Heaven be upon y o u " ) , "that your reward (DD"DB>) may be double in the future" (fcO ? T n y ^ ) . 1

n. The refinements of the so-called "dietary laws" belong to a later stage in the development of the Halakah, but it is not improbable that the obvious difference between such natural products and the concoctions of culinary art in the royal kitchens was early observed. — Cf. Josephus, Vita c. 3 § 1 4 . The priests in whose behalf he went to Rome, although in evil plight, were not forgetful of their religion, but lived on figs and nuts. 1.71

I.

4

n. 5 The belief that the unburied dead suffer from the lack of burial is widespread; it is sufficient to recall the appeal of Palinurus to Aeneas 71

JUDAISM.

NOTES

29

(Virgil, vi. 3 3 7 fF.) or the motive of the Antigone of Sophocles (es­ pecially Antigone's defence, verses 4 5 0 ff.). — On the scrupulousness of the Jews in this matter see Josephus, Bell. Jud. iv. 5, 2 § 3 1 7 . In his account of the siege of Jerusalem Josephus repeatedly notes as a peculiar atrocity the refusal of burial to those who were murdered by the factions in the city or the failure of kinsmen to bury their murdered relatives through fear of the Zealots and their allies, though a few handfuls of dust surreptitiously thrown on the body sufficed as a (symbolical) interment. Cf., beside the passage cited above, Bell. Jud. iv. 5, 3 § 3 2 6 ff.; iv. 6, 3 § 3 8 0 ff. n. 6 Priests, Sifra Emor, at the beginning (on Lev. 2 1 , 1, ed. Weiss, f. 9 3 c ) ; nazirites, Sifre Num. § 2 6 ; high priest, nazirite, M . Nazir 7 , 1 (Nazir 4 8 a ; Jer. Nazir <5d). — Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 29 § 2 1 1 , recites among the good deeds which the law enjoins Israelites to do to aliens in need of them, hrafyov px\ irepiopav. 1,71

I- 73 1. i - 3 The illegitimacy of a dynasty of other than Davidic lineage is ex­ pressly affirmed in the Psalms of Solomon ( 1 7 , 5 ff.; Vol. II, p. 3 2 8 ) . See also L. Ginzberg, Unbekannte judische Sekte, p. 3 5 5 - 3 5 7 ; cf. Jer. Horaiyot 4 7 c below, cnro D'D^D ynmn (with the sequel). [L. G.] See also Aptowitzer, Parteipolitik, pp. 4 9 ff. n. 4 There was a Babylon in Egypt near Memphis (Old Cairo), Strabo xvii. 3 0 , p. 807; cf. c. 4 0 , p. 8 1 2 ) . According to Diodorus Siculus i. 56 (cf. Strabo, p. 807) it got its name from some Babylonians, prison­ ers of war in Egypt in remote antiquity whom the king ZEOWTS, after the suppression of a revolt, allowed to occupy the place. According to Josephus (Antt. ii. 1 5 , 1 § 3 1 5 ) it was founded by Cambyses, which has a less mythical sound. It has been guessed that the "Babylo­ nians" ( d ^ m , according to R. Judah ben Ila'i they were really "Alexandrians") who plucked out the hair of the scapegoat (M. Yoma 6, 4 , with Yoma 6 6 b ) were Jews from this Egyptian Babylon. I.75

L

7

7

n

:

3

,

On Hillel's studies in his native country and his brother Shebna who was engaged in gainful pursuits, and on the mysterious voice (bat IzoT) which quoted Cant. 8, 7 b , see Sotah 2 1 a . [L. G.]

JUDAISM.

3°

NOTES

I,

78 n. 2 The note refers solely to the conventional transliteration of KTnn, "Bathyra," which comes eventually from the Latin version of Jose­ phus, xvii. 2 , 2 § 2 6 . Herod's military colony in Batanaea is, of course, later than the meeting of Hillel with the Bene Bathyra, and an historical connection is not assumed. The spelling of the name is not constant either in Hebrew or in the manuscripts of Josephus. (On the former see Krauss in Jewish Encyclopedia, II, 5 9 9 ) .

1,79

n.

2

Mention should perhaps be made here of the statement of Isaac Halevy (Dorot ha-Rishonim, II, 9 5 b ) that after the death of She­ maiah and Abtalion, under the rule of Hyrcanus (II) and Antipater the father of Herod, when Gabinius dissolved the general Sanhedrin [ 5 7 B . C ] , the people of Jerusalem had such confidence in this family that they entrusted the leadership for the time being to the Elders of the Bene Bathyra. As soon as Hillel came up from Babylon and they recognized his greatness, these Elders of their own accord made over to him the presidency. They were thus chiefly instrumental in establishing Hillel and his descendants in that office, and from that time on loyally adhered to the presidents and were their right-hand men. — For this ingenious combination no testimony is adduced; apparently there is none. The Bene Bathyra turn up again in the time of Johanan ben Zakkai, and are treated by him as high authorities in the law (Rosh ha-Shanah 2 9 b , below). Several rabbis bear the patronymic "ben Bathyra," the best known being Judah ben Bathyra (two of the name, see Vol. I, p. 105 f.); others are Joshua ben Bathyra and Simeon ben Bathyra. R. Judah Bathyra (without ben) in the Jeru­ salem Talmud (Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, 2 ed. p. 9 9 ) seems to be an abridgement. I.

80

1. 8

On the Prosbul see Note 2 5 on Vol. I, p. 260 f. (below, p. 8 0 ) . I.

80

1. 2 4 ff.

Of differences between the two masters Hillel and Shammai but few are recorded as such; M . 'Eduyot 1, 1 and Shabbat 1 5 a report three (in none of which, it should be observed, did the ultimate de­ cision of the doctors (•DDl"l) agree with either of them); Jer. Hagigah 7 7 d counts four, including the old controversy of the Pairs about the ,

JUDAISM.

NOTES

31

The differences between the Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel amount, according to Weiss' enumeration (Dor, I, 168 f.), to 3 1 6 , classified as follows: Halakot 2 2 1 ; Midrash 2 9 ; Seyagim 6 6 . Dis­ crepancies between Hillel and his school, and between Shammai and his school, are also reported (Dor, I, 1 8 5 ) . The causes and conse­ quences of this multiplication of differences are set forth in Jer. Hagigah 7 7 d (see Vol. I, p. 4 6 ) ; the same statement, less fully, in Sanhedrin 88b and elsewhere. It is commonly thought that some of the differences attributed to the schools originated with Hillel and Shammai themselves and were perpetuated in the school tradition. Other scholars are of the opinion that Shammai and Hillel, far from being the founders of the rival schools that bear their names, were really the last representatives of two tendencies, respectively rigorist and liberal, or, as we might say, conservative and progressive, which had existed in Pharisaism from the beginning. (See L. Ginzberg, in Hebrew Union College Annual, 1 9 2 4 , pp. 307 ff.) — The two tenden­ cies are no doubt older than these two great teachers; and they were certainly not the last representatives of them, as the controversies between R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus and other disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai prove.

rD'OD.

I.

82 1. 1 ff., n. 4 . See Juster, Les juifs dans l'empire Romain, I, 400 f. On the com­ position of the Sanhedrin, and the presidency in it, see Note on Vol. I, p. 85 (below, pp. 3 2 f f ) .

I.

82 1. i f. See Note on Vol. II, p. 1 1 5 n. 4 (below, p. 1 8 2 ) . 4

I. 83 fF. A t Lydda R. Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus, regularly named first among the disciples of R. Johanan ben Zakkai, lived; R. Tarfon, who was of priestly lineage and had boyhood memories of the service in the Temple, taught there. R. Ishmael (ben Elisha) had his home at Kefar 'Aziz on the Idumaean border. After the war under Hadrian and the removal of Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel II and his Bet Din to Usha in Galilee, the schools of the South (Darom) continued to be held in high esteem, though sometimes a feeling of rivalry may be discerned. Biichler (Priester und Cultus, pp. 23 ff.) endeavors to show that the traditions about the temple and the priesthood in Jerusalem come ultimately from the schools at Lydda, where priests who had served in the Temple before its destruction settled, while Johanan ben

JUDAISM.

3^

NOTES

Zakkai was little interested in matters which to scrupulous priests seemed of the greatest concern, so that on these points there was a different attitude, if not a fundamental discord, between the two schools. His argument does not admit of condensation, and the reader must be referred to the volume cited. What is certain is that Lydda and the region about it had its part, besides Jamnia, in the preserva­ tion and perpetuation of tradition. — Lydda is on the way from Jerusalem to Joppa (distant about a dozen miles) and about a dozen miles by road northeast of Jabneh. I.85

1. 5 ff.

On the composition and organization of the Great Sanhedrin before the destruction of Jerusalem and especially on the presidency of that body, there is an extensive literature for which the reader may be referred to Schiirer, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, u.s.w., II, 1 8 8 - 2 1 4 (bibliography 188 f.), to be supplemented by Kuenen, Over de samenstelling van het Sanhedrin ( 1 8 6 6 ) ; in Budde's translation, Ueber die Zusammensetzung des Sanhedrin, pp. 4 9 - 8 1 (see above, p. 1 1 ) . The latest monograph which I have seen is entitled nVnan ]mn3D3 K'tWH, by Sebi (Hirsch) Taubes, Vienna, 1925 (Bettelheim Memorial Foun­ dation). The author gives a summary and criticism of his prede­ cessors, Jelski (and incidentally D . Hoffmann), Biichler, Chwolson, and others, discusses at length the rabbinical sources for different periods, and develops an opinion of his own. The problem lies in the sources. From the New Testament and from Josephus we should gather that in the first century of our era the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was a senate and at the same time a supreme court, constituted of the chief priests, elders, and scholars (scribes), and presided over by the high priest, as I have described it in the text. In the rabbinical sources, on the other hand, which pur­ port to give us an insight into the matter beginning a century or two further back, it appears as a body of men learned in the law, at the head of which were the Nasi (which, to avoid discussion, I have rendered "President"), and the Ab Bet Din (commonly understood as Vice-President, see Vol. I, p. 4 5 , n.). In these sources the member­ ship of this body in the later years of John Hyrcanus and under Alex­ ander Jannaeus is represented as prevailingly Sadducean; in the reign of Queen Alexandra it became chiefly, if not exclusively, Pharisaean. Especial attention should be called to Adolf Biichler, Das Synedrion in Jerusalem und das grosse Beth-Din in der Quaderkammer des

JUDAISM.

NOTES

33

jerusalemischen Tempels, 1902. Biichler, as the title indicates, would distinguish in the rabbinical sources themselves two bodies, one of which was made up chiefly of the members of the great priestly fami­ lies, presided over by the high priest, while the other, called from its place of meeting the Bet Din which sat in the Marble Hall (mvh man), was composed of experts in the law (jurisperiti), and as such, mainly Pharisees, with a president and vice-president of its own. The article "Sanhedrin" in the Jewish Encyclopedia, by Lauterbach, substantially represents Biichler's theory, distinguishing the "Politi­ cal" from the "Religious" Sanhedrin. The latter has therefore fre­ quently been thought of as the continuation or successor of the Great Synagogue. The president of the religious Sanhedrin, or Bet Din, was always a great authority in the Law, from the days of Jose ben Joezer (M. Hagigah 2 , 2 ) down to Hillel and his descendants in hereditary succession: "Hillel and Simeon, Gamaliel and Simeon, filled the presidency for a century while the Temple was standing" (Shabbat 1 5 a ) . After the destruction of Jerusalem came successively Gamaliel (of Jabneh), Simeon ben Gamaliel, and his son Judah the Patriarch (ha-Nasi). Others have supposed that the Nasi of the rabbinical sources, for instance Gamaliel I or Simeon ben Gamaliel, was the chairman of what we might call a judicial committee or commission of the San­ hedrin to which questions of law may have been referred. D . Chwolson, Das letzte Passamahl Christi, u. s. w. ( 1 8 9 2 ) , p. 3 0 ; see also Joseph Klausner, rvbtimP nmtDD'n, Part 3 ( 1 9 2 5 ) , p. 1 0 4 , of Hillel. Ordinances of Hillel and his successors (e.g. M . Arakin 9 , 4 ; M . Gittin 4 , 2 - 3 ; M . Keritot 1, 7 ) indicate that "long before the estab­ lishment of the Academy at Jabneh, the Pharisees must have stood at the head of some authoritative body which had the power to regu­ late civil and domestic laws. The rabbinic tradition about the old Sanhedrin seems to contain a good historical kernel. . . . The mat­ ter is not as simple as Kuenen and Wellhausen thought it." [L. G.] The matter is certainly not simple; but the passages cited from the Mishnah are deliverances of Hillel, Gamaliel the elder, and Simeon ben Gamaliel, which do not purport to be decisions of an organized body (Sanhedrin) having authority to lay down the law. On the whole subject see the article "Sanhedrin" (by Bacher) in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, IV ( 1 9 0 2 ) , 3 9 7 - 4 0 2 (literature p. 4 0 2 ) . For the subject and period of these volumes, the question is of minor importance.

JUDAISM.

34

NOTES

The word 'Sanhedrin' is found, of course, in later sources, but not in reference to a contemporary institution. For example in Sifre Deut. § 4 1 , ed. Friedmann, f. 7 9 b , 1. 20 ff. ( = Midrash Tannaim, p. 3 4 ) : " If a man hears a word from the mouth of a little one (]Dp) in Israel he should be in his eyes as if he heard if from the mouth of a great one, . . . and not only so, but as if he heard it from the mouth of a learned man ( c D n , Eccles. 1 2 , 1 1 ) , . . . and not only so, but as if he heard it from the mouth of a sanhedrin (deduced from Eccles. 1. c. jtibidk 7 y n , taken with Num. 1 1 , 1 6 , npTD o'jnp ? HSDK ^ f c C M ' ) , • • • d not only so, but as if he heard it from the mouth of Moses (ibid., the shepherd), . . . and not only so, but as if he heard it from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed is He, as it is said (Eccles, ibid), i r m n y i T D (~rrm, One, v. Eccles. R., in loc.) When in Seder 'Olam Zuta (ed. Neubauer, Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles, II ( 1 8 9 5 ) , 7 6 below; cf. Yuhasin, ed. Filipowski, p. 9 3 ) Mar Zutra is called ] m r B D ! ? BfeH the term seems to be purely antiquarian (cf. shortly before ] ' p T S Pn ? — i.e., probably, dxpi^epe/cmys, on which Juster I, 3 9 9 and ibid. n. 7. — Mar Zutra (bar Mar Zutra) was of the family of the exilarchs in Babylonia, and would have succeeded to that dignity. After the execution of his father, he migrated to Pales­ tine, and was apparently raised to the highest position which the Palestinian Jews had to bestow after the extinction of the hereditary Patriarchate of the house of Hillel. , l

, l

a n

1

1.86

1. i o f .

See Note on Vol. I I , p. 388 (below, p. 2 0 6 ) . 1. 2 5 ff. See Note on Vol. I, p. 2 4 2 f. (below, p. 6 5 ^ ) .

1.86

I. 86 (last line), 87, top. See G. F. Moore, " T h e Definition of the Jewish Canon and the Repudiation of Christian Scriptures," in Essays in Modern Theology and Related Subjects, a Testimonial to Charles Augustus Briggs, New York, 1 9 1 1 , pp. 9 9 - 1 2 5 . For a learned and searching criticism of this contribution see Louis Ginzberg, "Some Observations on the Attitude of the Synagogue towards the Apocalyptic-Eschatological Writings," Journal of Bib­ lical Literature, X L I ( 1 9 2 2 ) , pp. 1 1 5 - 1 3 6 (Presidential Address at the meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis). See also below, Note on Vol. I, p. 2 4 3 .

JUDAISM.

NOTES

35

Various points in my contribution to the Briggs volume I should no longer maintain, especially the adventures in the critical emendation and interpretation of Jer. Sanhedrin 2 8 a , and the identification of c m r n n DHBD (Extraneous Books) with heretical books (criPOT H S D ) , though the Babylonian academies so understood the phrase (Ginz­ berg, I.e., p. 1 2 9 ) . For the present purpose it is unnecessary to make these retractations more specific. 1.87

1.4

See also Vol. I, p. 243 f. I. 93

1. 1 0 - 1 2 .

According to tradition the offence of R. Akiba was gathering a con­ gregation and teaching the law publicly, despite the edict of the government (Berakot 6 1 b ) . Similarly, in almost the same words, R. Hanina ben Teradion (Abodah Zarah 1 8 a ) . " I t is very unlikely that private study was forbidden" [L. G.]. For the statement in the text that the possession of a copy of the Law was made a capital crime, there seems to be no evidence; it was probably an erroneous remin­ iscence of 1 Mace. 1, 57 (see Vol. I, p. 5 3 ) . I. 9 4 1. 6 - 9 . 'Ulla quotes an utterance of R. Johanan ben Zakkai, provoked by the neglect of the Galileans to profit by his presence and teaching in A r a b : " O Galilee, Galilee, thou hatest the Law; thine end will be to have to deal with robbers " (Jer. Shabbat I5d, end). See, how­ ever, Biichler, Der galilaische A m ha-'Ares, p. 2 7 4 ff. and elsewhere, who maintains that there were flourishing schools in Galilee before 136 C. E., and many rabbis of Galilean extraction and education. I.

95 n. 4 Legend (Gittin 5 6 a ) , which tells of the conversion of Nero to Juda­ ism, makes R. Meir a descendant of his. As has been observed, the association is probably by way of popular etymology which saw in Nero's name the Hebrew ner, 'lamp.' — The significance of the name Meir ("Illuminator") has given rise to the question what his real name was. On Nehorai (Aramaic equivalent in meaning ' Erubin 1 3 b ) , see Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 6 ; the better attested reading there is KP"D or KttWD. The name Mrjipos occurs in Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi 5 , 1 § 280 (son of Belga, who, with another distinguished man, plunged to his death into the fire of the burning Temple). It has been noted

JUDAISM.

36

NOTES

that, unlike the other great disciples of Akiba, Meir's father's name is nowhere mentioned. I-97f-

A collection of the opinions of mediaeval Jewish authors on this question (texts and translations), and of modern scholars down to Graetz, will be found in A. Sammter's edition of Baba Mesi'a ( 1 8 7 6 ) , pp. 1 2 1 - 1 2 4 . Other literature, including the more recent, is cited in Strack, Einleitung in Talmud and Midrasch, § 2 , "Verbot des Schreibens" (pp. 9 f T . ) . I.

98

1. 7 f .

For some of Rashi's exegetical grounds see L. Low, Graphische Requisiten bei den Juden, II ( 1 8 7 1 ) , 1 1 3 , with n. 5 2 4 . I.

98 n. 2 See Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, II, 1 9 4 ff. (Die schriftliche Aufzeichnung des Hadit; see also Zahiriten p. 9 5 ) . It appears that the antipathy to committing the traditions to writing increased in later generations, and was perpetuated into a period when large and critical collections of tradition were in circulation. The enemies of writing fortified themselves by a fictitious utterance of the Prophet: " Do not write down anything as from me except the Koran, and if anyone has written down anything, let him obliterate it." (See Goldziher, op. cit. II, 398 ff.

I.

1 0 1 1. iof. To secure uniformity of pronunciation, and thus, in a measure, of interpretation, by an apparatus external to the text, the vowel-points were introduced, and the cantillation was similarly regulated by the so-called accents. The cadences of the recitative served to separate clauses and sentences as by a kind of audible punctuation, and the corresponding signs served as a visible one. This innovation did not make its way, however, into the Rolls of the Law; the lessons from the Pentateuch are still read from manuscripts written in the ancient mode, with only the bare text. When this is called "the consonant text" this must not be understood— as it sometimes is — to mean that only consonants in the definition of our English grammars were written. The entire apparatus of vowel-points and accents is post-Talmudic, though there is no doubt that it embodies a traditional pronunciation and interpretation. It is known that two or three different systems of

JUDAISM.

NOTES

37

indicating the vowels were tried; the one with which we are familiar probably owes its general use to the fact that it was employed by the Massoretic school of Tiberias, who became the great authorities on the text of the Scriptures, and was probably preferred by them be­ cause it was capable of distinguishing more minutely between vowel sounds. It is fundamentally a phonetic notation; not concerned with etymology and only accidentally with quantity. Before the adoption of some such system a man could pronounce only what he had learned to pronounce and understand from the lips of a living teacher. I.

101

1. 2 1 - 2 3

On the version of Symmachus see Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, Prolegomena, c. iii; Swete, Introduction to the Old Testa­ ment in Greek ( 1 9 0 0 ) , pp. 4 9 - 5 3 . Theodotion, Field, Prolegomena, c. iv; Swete, op. cit., pp. 4 2 - 4 9 . Theodotion is said by Irenaeus to have been an Ephesian, and, like Aquila, a proselyte to Judaism; Symmachus was, according to Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. vi. 1 7 ) , an Ebionite, and there is a presumption that he was by birth a Jew. Aquila the proselyte is frequently mentioned in the rabbinical sources; Theodotion would probably be in Hebrew " Jonathan," if there were any reference to him; the name Symmachus (DIDDID) is borne by a disciple of R. Meir, but Geiger's proposed identification of this scholar with the translator has not been accepted. I.

101

1. 23f.

Into the history of these recensions it is unnecessary to digress here. The best known, and even in its fragmentary and indirect transmission the most tangible of the survivals is the Hexapla of Origen. I.

1 0 1 n. 1 Aquila (Onkelos the proselyte) is brought into association with Gamaliel himself, Tos. Shabbat 7 , 1 8 , where Gamaliel iprn is named; Tos. Hagigah 3 , 2 f.; Tos. Kelim iii. 2 , 4 ; Tos. Mikwa'ot 6, 3. [L. G.] How Aquila became a proselyte, and on his study of the Law, see also Tanhuma ed. Buber, Mishpatim 3 , where he is said to have been a nephew of Hadrian (sister's son), and conversations with Hadrian before and after his conversion are related. The story, like the con­ nection of R. Meir with Nero (above, p. 3 5 ) , illustrates the inclina­ tion to give a distinguished ancestry to converts. See also Vol. I, P- 347-

JUDAISM.

38 L 102

NOTES

1. 2 2 - 2 4

The version of Aquila was made primarily for Greek-speaking Jews in the dispersion, as a more exact rendering of the Hebrew original than the translations in use which we designate collectively by the inappropriate name "Septuagint." The latter, moreover, had already been taken over by Gentile Christians and employed by them, not only as an instrument of propaganda but in their controversies with Jews. The need of a standard Aramaic translation as a measure of restraint on the liberty of midrashic paraphrase in the oral rendering of the lessons in the synagogue (Vol. I, pp. 302 f.) was different, but perhaps not less real. The Targums (Vol. I, pp. 1 7 4 - 1 7 6 ) presuppose a traditional interpretation and to some extent, at least, a conven­ tional expression. The statement in the text (Vol. I, 1 0 2 , lines 2 2 - 2 4 ) * impres­ sion made by continuous reading of the Targum of Onkelos and the Targum of the Prophets; whatever the authors inherited from tra­ dition, they wrought out of it a literary unity which I can only as­ cribe to redaction, and I doubt whether, on internal grounds, any critic would come to a different judgment. In support of the opinion entertained by many scholars that written translations of the Scrip­ tures in Aramaic were condemned and on occasion suppressed by those in authority is specifically alleged the example of Rabban Gamaliel and the translation of Job which he was shown on the temple mount, Shabbat 1 1 5 a . With Shabbat 1 1 5 a cf. Tos. Shabbat 13 ( 1 4 ) , 2 ; Jer. Shabbat 1 5 c , above. s t n e

I.

1 0 4 1. 1 6 ff. Nathan seems to have been a young man when he migrated to Palestine; he was nearer the age of Simeon ben Gamaliel's son Judah (afterwards, Judah ha-Nasi), whose opponent in controversy on legal points he frequently was. See, e.g., Baba Batra 1 3 1 a .

I.

105

1. 2f.

Ordination by the Patriarch conferred authority to decide ques­ tions of religious law (licit or illicit) submitted to him; to give judge­ ment in certain classes of cases; and to inspect firstlings and pronounce them free from blemishes that would make them unfit for sacrifice; see Note on I, p. 43 (above, p. i$f.). Rabbi conferred on Abba Arika (Rab) the first two, but withheld the third, and thus left the authorisa­ tion conspicuously incomplete. The motive for this slight is discussed by Weiss, Dor, cited in n. 1.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

I.

1 0 6 1. i ff., and n. i On Sifre Deut. § 80, see Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 3 7 4 ; II, 2 7 5 .

I.

106

39

1. 1 0

On the Jews in Rome, see Philo, Leg. ad Gaium c. 2 3 , § 155 ff., and on the emancipation of Jewish slaves who would not abandon their own laws and customs, ibid. (ed. Mangey, II, 568). Inscriptions in Jewish cemeteries have disclosed the existence of numerous synagogogues; see G. La Piana, Harvard Theological Review, X X ( 1 9 2 7 ) ; Hugo Gressmann, "Jewish Life in Ancient Rome," in the Abrahams Memorial Volume, 1 9 2 7 , pp. 1 7 0 - 1 9 1 . I. 1 0 7

1. 2 2 - 2 5

The "Alexandrian scholars" here referred to are those of the time of Philo, and so far as their attitude can be inferred from the writings of Philo. The case investigated by Hillel (Baba Me§i'a 104a) arose out of customs and doings of "men of Alexandria," but the scholars who were disposed to declare the sons of this marriage anTDD may have been Palestinian authorities. That students of the Law went from Egypt to study under Pales­ tinian masters is well-known, but the attested instances are appar­ ently all later than the destruction of Jerusalem. So also the visits of Palestinian rabbis to Alexandria. Tos. Nega'im 9, 9, end; Alexandrians propound a question to R. Joshua, but not necessarily in Egypt. I. 1 0 8 - 1 0 9

See Juster, Les Juifs dans Tempire Romain, I, 3 9 1 - 3 9 9 . With the extinction of the family of Hillel, in which line the patriarchate had been hereditary, the latter also came to an end. The " archipherecites " (cppns Wtfi) of the following period did not succeed to the preroga­ tives and privileges of the Patriarch in Roman law. See also L. Ginzberg, Geonica I, 2 . I.

1 0 9 n. 1 "The Talmud (Sanhedrin 5 a ) confuses the later conditions with the earlier; from the data given there I am convinced that down to Sassanid times the Patriarch had the authority in civil matters also, as it was he who ordained the judges." [L. G.]

I.

1 0 9 n. 2 On the relation of the Christian "apostles" to the Jewish, see La Piana, "Foreign Groups in Rome," Harvard Theological Review, X X ( 1 9 2 7 ) , p. 3 7 3 n. (with references to the literature).

4

JUDAISM.

o

I.

120

1.

NOTES

26

The words minn p are not found in the best texts of M. Sanhedrin 10 ( I I ) , 1. [L.G.] —See Note on Vol. II, p. 381 (below, p. 2 0 5 ) . I.

1 2 5 1. 1 0 ff. Critical study of the vast and varied literature which, for want of a better name, we are accustomed to call "rabbinical" is an enter­ prise to which Jewish scholars first seriously addressed themselves in the 1 9 t h century. For an important part of it, especially for the Mid­ rashim, Leopold Zunz (b. 1 7 9 4 , d. 1886) was a pioneer. (Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden historisch entwickelt, 1 8 3 2 ; 2 ed., 1 8 9 2 . ) Other critics who took part in different ways in the work were Krochmal (b. 1 7 8 5 , d. 1 8 4 0 : Moreh Nebukim ha-Zeman, 1 8 5 1 , in Hebrew, edited by Zunz), Eappoport (b. 1 7 9 0 , d. 1 8 6 7 ) , and A . Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel in ihrer Abhangigkeit von der innern Entwickelung des Judenthums, 1 8 5 7 . The his­ torians (Jost, Herzfeld, Graetz, and others) made incidental but not insignificant contributions. Comprehensive works on the history of tradition are Isaac H. Weiss, Dor Dor we-Doreshau, 5 vols, (in Hebrew), 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 9 1 , and in later editions; and Isaac Halevy, Dorot ha-Rishonim. Die Geschichte und Literatur Israels, 4 vols, (in Hebrew, 1 8 9 8 - 1 9 1 8 ) . Intended to be an antidote to Krochmal, Frankel, Weiss, and the critical school generally. Sharply polemic and sometimes extremely ingenious, but very learned. 1

I. 1 2 7

1. 1 3 - 1 6 .

See Vol. I I , Part vii. A few passages in the Talmuds are sometimes noted as of apocalyptic character, but "apocalyptic" is such a vague word and so loosely used that the designation has little significance. I. I.

1 2 8 n. 1 See Vol. II, pp. 130

334

f., 3 3 7 .

1. 1 - 1 0

A. Hilgenfeld, Die jiidische Apokalyptik in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte des Christenthums, 1 8 5 7 . Messias Judaeorum libris eorum paulo ante et paulo post Christum natum conscriptis illustratus, edidit A. Hilgenfeld, 1 8 6 9 . — The literature of the controversy of that decade (Bruno Bauer, and especially Volkmar — the Jewish apocalyptic secondary and postChristian) is registered in Hilgenfeld's Prolegomena. 1

I n t h e p r e s e n t v o l u m e s W e i s s is q u o t e d b y t h e p a g e s o f t h e 4 e d . ( W i l n a , 1904).

JUDAISM.

NOTES

4i

For the literature on the several books, reference may be made to Schiirer, Vol. I l l , to Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and to Bousset's Religion des Judentums (3 ed., edited by Gressmann, 1926). J

n

1

I- 35 The name Sifre was applied to what is usually called Mekilta as late as the 1 2 t h century, the word covering all the Tannaitic Mid­ rashim except Sifra; see Ginzberg, Geonica, II, 3 0 7 , n. 2 . [L. G.] I.

136 l. f. There is a Tannaite Midrash on the plans of the tabernacle, the so-called ptPDH rDb&D (edited by Friedmann); which may possibly be one of the missing parts of the Mekilta. [L. G.] 9

I.

1 3 8 n. 3 Ginzberg discusses the grounds on which Israel Lewy, the only scholar who had dealt specifically with the attribution ( 1 8 8 9 ) , came to the conclusion that this Midrash has nothing to do with R. Simeon ben Yohai or his school; and sets forth (pp. 4 1 4 ff.) reasons for hold­ ing that the (mediaeval) ascription to R. Simeon ben Yohai is correct. That it represents the school of Akiba, Lewy had no doubt. Against the attribution, see S. Horovitz, Beitrage zur Erklarung und Textkritik der Mekilta des R. Simon (Jahresbericht des jiidischtheologischen Seminars, Breslau 1 9 1 9 .

I.

142

1. 1 4 - 1 9

The best edition of the Sifra is that of Warsaw, 1 8 6 6 , with the commentary of R. Samson of Sens and very valuable notes by R. Jacob David of Vishgrad. [L. G.] This edition of the Sifra, which at the time the text was written I had not seen, should be mentioned here. It was published at War­ saw in 1 8 6 6 with the commentary of R. Samson of Sens (d. ca. 1 2 3 0 ) , one of the most eminent Tosafists, and very useful notes by the editor, R. Jacob David of Vishegrad. In the commentary as printed, ap­ parently from a unique manuscript, there are considerable gaps which need not here be further defined and discussed. It may be added that for the scope and method of juristic exegesis (including the ritual and ceremonial laws) in the schools of the second century, and the application of what we should call moral principles to matters of civil and criminal law, the Sifra is an especially instruc-

4

JUDAISM.

2

NOTES

tive introduction. For an illustration of such an extension of the law see Sifra on Lev. 1 9 , 1 1 , Y e shall not steal' (take by stealth any thing that belongs to another) "for the purpose of causing vexation (we might say, as a practical j o k e ) " ; " y e shall not steal, with the expectation of making double restitution or of restoring four or five fold (see the law in Exod. 2 1 , 3 6 ff. — E.V. 2 2 , 1 ff.). "Ben Bag Bag (an early Tanna) says, Thou shalt not steal after the thief what be­ longs to thyself (that is reclaim your own stolen property by stealth from another's house or court-yard)., lest thou seem to be a thief." See also Tos. Baba Kamma 1 0 , 3 8 , where ben Bag Bag, in a second saying, allows recovery by force. Baba Kamma 2 7 b , end: " D o not enter the court-yard of thy fellow to take what belongs to thee with­ out permission, lest thou appear to him as a thief." This is perpetu­ ated in the codes, e.g., Maimonides, Hilkot Genibah 1, 2 : it is for­ bidden to steal in fun, or with expectation of making restitution; Shulhan A r u k , Hoshen Mishpat, Genibah, beginning. Children who steal are whipped •— with due regard to what they can endure — "that they may not form the habit." The immediate sequel in Leviticus is, 'and do not (falsely) deny, and do not lie to one another, and do not swear by my name to a falsehood.' The Sifra (Kedoshim Parashah 2 , 5) connects closely: " I f thou hast stolen, thou wilt end by denying, lying, swearing by my name to a falsehood." •—' By my name,' means not only the proper name mn% but covers all the names, titles, and appropriated epithets of God (D"U*D). 'And profane the name of thy God. I am Je­ hovah,' teaching that a vain (false) oath is the profanation of the Name (Vol. II, p. 108 f., an unpardonable sin). — Another far­ fetched etymological) interpretation is added. 4

I.

144

1. 1 9

An English translation of selections from the Sifre on Numbers has been published by Paul P. Levertoff, under the title Midrash Sifre on Numbers, London, 1 9 2 6 . I.

146

1. 1 4

Kahan, who was associated with G. Kittel in the translation of Sifre, died in 1 9 2 4 . I.

1 4 7 n. 1 An additional fragment was published by Schechter in the LewyFestschrift (Breslau, 1 9 1 1 ) , Hebrew Part, pp. 1 8 9 - 1 9 2 . — Two

JUDAISM.

NOTES

43

much defaced leaves (not continuous) from a quire containing re­ mains of a Midrash on the first verses of Deut. 1 2 . L 147

1. 2 4 - 2 9

For a significant exception See Midrash Tannaim, p. 6 2 n. 9. I.

1 5 2 1. 2 4 f. In the older authorities and in manuscripts of the Babylonian Tal­ mud, also, the paragraph is indicated by the word "Halakah," not by "Mishnah," as in our editions. In the current separate editions of the Mishnah the paragraphs are merely numbered. I. 1 5 4

I.22-28

Mention should also be made of the edition, with punctuation, Ger­ man translation, and notes, published by H. Itzkowski, Berlin, (from 1887 on; unfinished). The several Parts (Orders) of the Mish­ nah, by different scholars, are of different value. Of conspicuous worth are Nezikin (by David Hoffmann) andToharoth (by the same, unfinished). — The paper, at least in my copy, is so bad that the earlier Lieferungen went to pieces of their own brittleness before the first volume was completed, and could not be bound. I.

156

I.15

It should be added that in some cases the Tosefta preserves an older stage in the development of the Halakah than that which is repre­ sented in our Mishnah. I.

1 5 6 1. 1 9 f. ZuckermandeFs Erfurt manuscript, the older and better of the two, extends only over the first four orders of the Tosefta and three chap­ ters of Zebahim; the Vienna codex covers all six orders, but lacks six­ teen leaves in different places; see the Preface to his edition ( 1 8 8 1 ) , p. 4 , referring to fuller descriptions published by him elsewhere.

I.

1 5 6 1. 3 1 f. Between Antigonus of Socho and the two Jose's a link seems to have fallen out (DHD V^3p); 1JDD, "from him," sc. Antigonus, is a facilitating emendation of the copyists. For a conjecture that at this point the names of Zadok and Boethus, in whose schools the Sad­ ducean heresy (denial of retribution) originated (Vol. I, pp. 6 9 f.), have been cut out, see G. F. Moore, "Simeon the Righteous," in the Israel Abrahams Memorial Volume ( 1 9 2 7 ) , p. 3 5 6 .

JUDAISM.

44 1.157

NOTES

I.2-4

It is pertinent to compare the apophthegms of the Fathers in the first chapter of Abot with the traditional maxims of the Seven Sages of Greece, and the succession of teachers with the 5td5o%at of Greek philosophers, but the analogy is not to be pressed. See Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, i. 14 f. (pp. 350 ff. Potter), and especially Diogenes Laertius, i. 13 ff. I. 1 5 7

1. 2 5 - 2 7 .

More recent editions: R. T . Herford, ITDK 'pis (Text, Introduc­ tion, Translation, Commentary), New York, 1 9 2 5 ; translation and notes by the same author also in Charles' Apocrypha and Pseudepi­ grapha, I I , 6 8 6 - 7 1 4 ; Marti und Beer,'Abot (Vater); Text, Ubersetzung, Erklarung, nebst einem textkritischen Anhang, 1927. I.

158 n. 2 On Tannaite elements in the Derek 'Ere? see L. Ginzberg, in Jewish Encyclopedia, IV, 5 2 6 - 5 2 9 .

I.

158

1. 1 7 - 2 0

Schechter revised the current text of the Abot de-R. Nathan as printed in the editions of the Talmud by the aid of two manuscripts, one an Oxford codex, and a second which he designates as Codex Epstein, and of quotations. The "second recension" is found in its entirety, so far as was known to him, only in a Vatican manuscript, (Assemani's catalogue, No. 303). See Schechter's introduction, cc. 8 and 9; and on the relative age and value of the two recensions and their relation to each other, c. 5. He shows that the attempt to iden­ tify one of these recensions with a copy brought from Palestine (fol­ lowing a hint in the commentary ascribed to Rashi on Abot 1, 5) leads to no certain result, and that the conjecture of R. Zebi Hirsch Chaies ( n v n ) in his Imre Binah that recension B is that which is referred to by " R a s h i " as current in France ( n s ~ i s ) , is not sustained. Recen­ sion A is that generally quoted not only by the scholars of France and Provence but by Spanish scholars. The references to the Abot de-R. Nathan in my "Judaism" are accordingly made in the customary form to this recension, which is conveniently found in the printed editions of the Talmud. Where readings of Schechter's second re­ cension are referred to, it is cited as such, and by the pages of his edition, which is the only way to find anything in it.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

45

1-5 fAccording to the rabbinical chronology, the second temple stood for 420 years (Yoma 9 a , Johanan). This is the sum of the numbers in Seder 'Olam, c. 3 0 ( 3 4 years from the completion of the Temple to Alexander; 180 for the Greek kings; 103 for the Asmonaean king­ dom; 103 for Herod and his house). — On the schematic chronology of Seder '01am see I. Loeb in Revue des fitudes Juives, X I X , 2 0 2 205. — Compare the chronological data in Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 10, 1 (cf. vi. 4 , 8 § 269 f.). In the place last cited Josephus gives the second temple, from the rebuilding by Haggai (in the second year of the reign of Cyrus) to its destruction by Titus, a duration of 6 3 9 years and 4 5 days. On the chronology of Josephus the monograph by Peter Brinch ( 1 6 9 9 ) , reprinted in Havercamp's edition, may be consulted for a collection of the scattered data, especially in the Antiquities, and a criticism of Voss. 1.159

1

I, 1 6 0

1. 2 8 - 3 0

Of editions of the Megillat Ta'anit it may be sufficient here to name Johann Meyer, n^yn rbm. Volumen de Jejunio, Amsterdam, 1 7 2 4 , with Latin translation, notes, and indices. — Meyer mentions in his preface two preceding editions of the work; his own text is taken from the Amsterdam edition of 1 6 5 9 with extensive commentary by R. Abraham Levita. — Adolf Neubauer, in Mediaeval Jewish Chron­ icles, II (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1 8 9 5 ) , PP- 3~ 5- For the sources from which the text is edited see the editor's preface, pp. vii-viii. — The Aramaic text (without the Hebrew glosses), based chiefly on Neubauer, is printed in G. Dalman, Aramaische Dialektproben, 1 8 9 6 . Brief notes are appended (pp. 3 2 - 3 4 ) . — Other editions, and literature, Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed., p. 1 2 . — Moise Schwab: La Meghillath Taanith ou Anniversaires Historiques. Actes du Onzieme Congres International des Orientalistes, Paris, 1 8 9 7 ( 1 8 9 8 ) , pp. 1 9 9 - 2 5 9 . Editions, p. 2 0 1 note. — Tammuz 14 (p. 2 3 4 ) , suppression of the Sadducean penal code. Schwab refers this to the supremacy which the Pharisees had acquired through the sympathy of Queen Salome Alexandra, which made it possible for them to abrogate the Sadducean code and substitute their own rules. He suggests that the Pharisees after their victory rejected the Sad­ ducean code for the simple reason that "traditional laws must not be written down," but notes also the possibility that the objection of 2

1

S o f a r t h e p r o p h e t s p r o p h e s i e d b y t h e h o l y s p i r i t (ed. R a t n e r , p . y o b ) ;

time on,

D^n

mi

"PTK tOii

from

that

4

JUDAISM.

6

NOTES

the Pharisees was not to the mere writing down of the laws, but to the great severity of the Sadducees in the administration of justice. For the translation of NDTtt "15D by "le livre de Vordre" he quotes P. Cassel, who understands this of the edict of Antiochus IV, re­ pealed by "his son Alexander (Balas) at a time when he and Deme­ trius were rival bidders for the support of the Jews (i Mace. 1 0 ) , an interpretation which is adopted by Zeitlin (p. 8 3 ) . On the age of the Hebrew commentary or glosses on Megillat Ta'anit the opinions of Jewish scholars differ widely, Graetz making it contemporary with the redaction of the Talmud or shortly after, while Rappoport (Erech Millin, pp. 1 8 9 , 278) makes it as late as the ninth century (see Schwab, p. 255 f.), on the ground that the writer has confounded (23 Iyyar) the inhabitants of the Acra in Jerusalem with the Karaites — an interpretation which is more than doubtful, though the error may be an old one. Even if the earlier date is ac­ cepted, the question what the author of the commentary knew about the circumstances, or from what sources he derived what he professes to know, remains to be answered. The uncritical confidence with which scholars have erected imposing historical constructions on this foundation of sand, for want of anything better, has had consequences which the author of this commentary on the Megillat Ta'anit could not foresee and should not be held responsible for. ,;

I.

1 6 1 n. 4 See Lauterbach, Jewish Quarterly Review, I, 29 ff., 503 ff.; Neumark, Maybaum Festschrift ( 1 9 1 4 ) , pp. 1 7 9 ff [L. G.]

I.

163

1.

8-10

The Tanhuma (i.e. the Tanhuma of the current editions) in its present form is a Babylonian compilation. [L. G.] See below, Note on I, 1 7 0 . I,

1 6 4 n. 3 Raimund Martini writes simply, "in Bereschit Rabba, id est in Expositione Geneseos" (f. 2 2 2 , Voisin); on which the editor, Voisin, (f. 243) remarks: Non in eo libro, qui vulgo Bereschit Rabbah inscribitur, editus cum aliis Pentateuchi Midraschot; sed in alio ejusdem nominis, cujus Auctor est R. Moses Hadarsan. On f. 2 3 5 Raimund writes: "in Bereschit Rabba" (quoting from it in Hebrew), on which Voisin (f. 2 4 9 ) : Majoricanum Manuscriptum addit in Bereschit Rabba Ketana, sive minori: Commentarius est in Genesin,

JUDAISM.

NOTES

47

qui vulgo edi solet cum aliis Pentateuchi Medraschot. Sic vocatur ad distinctionem alterius commentarii, R. Moses Hadarsan, qui a Raymundo saepe nominatur vel Bereschit Rabba simpliciter, vel Bere­ schit Rabba major, vel Bereschit Rabba R. Moses Hadarsan. The name "Bereshit Rabba Rabbati" is perhaps only Raimund's major done back into supposed Hebrew, in reminiscence of Ekah Rabbati, Pesikta Rabbati. So far as I see Raimund never uses Rabbathi (or Rabba Rabbathi), and his "major, minor," are not employed as titles, but descriptively, the 'larger' being R. Moses ha-Darshan; his Ketana being what we know as Bereshit Rabbah. See Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden, 2 ed. ( 1 8 9 2 ) , pp. 3 0 0 - 3 0 6 ; and especially A. Epstein, in several writings to which references will be found in Winter and Wunsche, Jiidische Literatur, II, 335 (Bacher). I.

1 6 4 n. 5 Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage, 2 ed., p. 1 8 9 , n. e: TOI twice in Lam. 1 , 1 ; Dy T i m ,D1» 'Dm. The contradictory opinion is expressed by Buber in the Introduction to his edition (f. 2 a , n. 1) — T i m meant to distinguish it from a smaller Midrash, $m rm<). In the first editions of the Midrash on the Five Megillot (Pesaro, 1 5 1 9 ) the Midrash on Canticles is headed T i m n n ^ n T P , and before the proems to the Midrash on Lamentations, T i m r D ' K E n i D (similarly the colophon). Otherwise neither n m nor T i m occurs in the titles or colophons of this edition. Older writers (e.g., the author of the 'Aruk) find it sufficient to cite the Midrash as r D ' K ma», ro'K n ^ D , r w p P T T D (see Buber, f. 2 a , n.). I. 1 6 5

1. 2 5 - 2 7

So Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vortrage, 2 ed., p. 2 6 7 . In view of the existence of manuscripts of the last Parashahs and extracts in the Midrash ha-Gadol exhibiting a different type of text from that of the printed editions and one consonant with the preceding parts of Genesis R., it is a more probable supposition that a remote ancestor of the current text had suffered considerable mutilation toward the end and that the missing sections were replaced from other sources, chiefly of the Tanhuma species. A Midrash on the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. 4 9 ) differing from that in the editions was printed as rrann nan? at Venice in 1602 and a second time at Hamburg, 1 7 8 2 . About half of it (beginning and end) is derived from Tanhuma homilies on the Sedarim Gen. 4 9 , 1 and 4 9 , 2 7 (see Theodor cited below, pp. 153 f.).

JUDAISM.

48

NOTES

In 1 9 1 5 Theodor printed in "Festschrift zum siebzigsten Geburtstage Jakob Guttmanns" (pp. 1 5 6 - 1 7 1 ; Drei unbekannte Paraschas aus Bereschit Rabba — critical introduction, pp. 1 4 8 - 1 5 5 ) , from a manu­ script of Bereshit Rabbah in Rome (Cod. Vat. Ebr. 3 0 ) three Parashahs ( 9 5 - 9 7 ) previously unknown in manuscripts or through quo­ tations in the Yalkut and 'Aruk, but from which many extracts are found in the Midrash ha-Gadol. They have the characteristics of Bereshit Rabbah, and, as Theodor showed, strong presumption of genuineness in contrast to the texts of the current editions. In the edition of Theodor-Albeck, now completed ( 1 9 2 9 ) , both the H B n n n a n ? (pp. 1 1 9 9 - 1 2 3 0 ) and the new sections (pp. 1 2 3 1 - 1 2 4 4 ) published in the Guttmann Festschrift are edited, the latter with the use of a second manuscript (Yemenite) in the Elkan Adler collection now in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. See the editor's notes on pp. 1 1 8 5 , 1 1 9 9 , 1 2 3 1 , 1 2 4 5 . 1 6 7 1. 5 fF. The Babylonian Talmud is used in the first part of Shemot Rabbah [in the form in which we have it], which is consequently younger than the second part. [L. G.]

I.

I.

1 6 7 1. 1 9 The numeration of the proems found in current editions is the work of editors, who set off in this way 3 4 . Buber has shown that there should be 3 6 (the numerical value of rD'tt), and has divided them ac­ cordingly. The number 3 3 (my note 3 ) was taken from Zunz, the source for whose error is shown by Buber (f. 2 b , n. 1 ) .

I.

1 6 8 1. 1 1 Here should have been mentioned the edition, "Midrasch Echa Rabbati," by S. Buber, with an extended introduction, and com­ mentary on the text (Wilna, 1 8 9 9 ) . The text of the two manuscripts on which this edition is based is said to be of a type on the whole inferior to that of the editio princeps and its successors, but the edi­ tor's introduction and notes are of great value. I.

169-171.

For the literature on the vexed and perplexed problems of Yelam­ medenu and Tanhuma, in addition to the bibliography appended to Lauterbach's article Tanhuma in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. X I I , pp. 4 5 f. ( 1 9 0 6 ) , see L. Ginzberg, Genizah Studies in Memory of Doctor Solomon Schechter, I, 1 9 2 8 , p. 3 2 . Among the authors there

JUDAISM.

NOTES

49

named A. Epstein perhaps contributed most to the definition and elucidation of the problems of the Tanhuma. (For an outline of Epstein's opinions on the evolution of the Midrash, see Bacher, Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer, III, 5 1 2 - 5 1 4 . ) New light has been thrown upon the question by fragments found by Schechter in the Cairo Genizah in 1 8 9 6 - 1 8 9 7 and now deposited in the library of the University at Cambridge, England. One of these fragments, from a "lost Midrash" which "may possibly be the Yelamdenu," was printed by Schechter in "Studies in Jewish Literature, issued in Honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler" ( 1 9 1 3 ) pp. 2 6 0 - 2 6 5 , and others of greater extent and more distinctive character are for the first time published by Ginzberg in the Genizah Studies cited above, pp. 3 7 ff., with an Introduction (pp. 2 3 - 3 7 ) l Essay discussing the whole problem in its various aspects (pp. 4 4 9 - 5 1 3 ) including the relation of the Yelammedenu to the Tanhuma in the common editions with the supplementary matter introduced in the Mantua edition of 1 5 6 3 ; to the recension edited by Buber in 1 8 8 5 ; to the quotations in the name of the Yelammedenu in the 'Aruk and in the Yalkut; to the Yelammedenu homilies in Deuteronomy (Rabbah and Zuta), and to those in the Pesikta of R. Kahana and the Pesikta Rabbati. An enumeration and detailed examination of all these Yelammedenu exordiums is given in the Essay cited, pp. 4 5 4 ff. Ginzberg's general conclusion is that the question of the priority of the (original) Tanhuma and the original Yelammedenu cannot be decided on the evidence of the fragments now in hand, but that in any case the Yelammedenu was a distinct work, independent of the ori­ ginal Tanhuma, not a compilation of excerpts from that work, although in the 'Aruk and in the Yalkut the name Yelammedenu was prob­ ably used for a particular form or recension of the Tanhuma known to those compilers (p. 3 5 ) . — " T h e Yelammedenu is distinguished from the Tanhuma by its diction and even more by its special form of composition. Each chapter of the Yelammedenu consisted ap­ parently of three parts: the exordium, which was of an halakic na­ ture; the exposition of the question raised in the exordium; and the conclusion, in which the halakic discussion was connected with the verse to which the particular paragraph was attached." [L. G.] 1

a n (

a n

I.

1 7 0 1. 1 7 - 1 9 By an error, which was corrected in the second printing of this volume, it was said that the current editions of the Tanhuma repro1

C o m p a r e n o w p . 263,

1. 3 fF. w i t h G i n z b e r g , o p . c i t . , p . 37,

1. 4 ff.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

duce the text of the Constantinople edition (1520-1522), whereas in fact they follow that of the Mantua edition of 1563, in which the editor (Ezra of Fano) introduced many additions. Of the recension which Buber edited from manuscripts he says (Introduction, f. 15a) that all the answers to halakic questions in it are in conformity with the explanations in the Mishnah or the Tosefta, while in the recension previously in print (frequently cited as "the old Tanhuma") many correspond to the Babylonian Talmud, and that it introduces manythings from that Talmud. Buber gives (f. 150-190) a list of sixtyone such questions and answers in his edition, with notes on the sources and parallels. Compare Ginzberg, Genizah Studies, I, pp. 482-487. I. 170 n. 2 and n. 4 The compiler of the Midrash ha-Gadol had three recensions, as the author of the Yalkut also apparently had. [L. G.] I. 171 n. 1 The exchange of Halakah for Yelammedenu in the exordium may be due to the predilection of copyists. In the Paris manuscript of Bemidbar Rabbah the formula is iran i n D ? ' , not ro^n. See A. Ep­ stein KDirann niD"Tp, 1 1 . In the fragments of the Yelammedenu in Ginzberg's Genizah Studies, I, 23 if., nJ^n is used throughout (ibid, p. 36). 1

I. 171 1. 10-12 The first part of Naso (c. 6) differs in character from the Midrash, being a running commentary of a literal kind. I. 171 1. 15 A word should have been said about the Midrash Tehillim (on the Psalms, also cited as Shoher Tob), which is occasionally quoted in "Judaism," generally in parallel to other sources. It is a relatively late and apparently gradual compilation, but often preserves ex­ cerpts from older sources. For particulars see Buber's Introduction, f. 2b-3a; Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed., p. 217. The first edition (Constantinople, 1512) has the printer's colophon at the close of Psalm 118, and at this point the manuscripts examined by Buber also end. The Midrash on the rest of the Psalms (from Ps. 119-150) — first printed by itself in 1515, at Saloniki as is recognized from the typography — is supplied from other sources, among which the Yalkut, for a considerable stretch (Psalms 122 to 137 inclusive,

JUDAISM.

NOTES

except Pss. 123 and 1 3 1 ) reproduced verbatim, is the largest contri­ butor. The compilation is not the work of one editorial hand. Aside from the appendix, Pss. 1 1 9 fF., it contains both old Haggadah and matter lacking early attestation. The parallels are chiefly Palestinian. An edition of the whole, based on a Parma manuscript compared with several others, was published by Solomon Buber (Wilna, 1 8 9 1 ) , with a comprehensive introduction and a commentary. I.

173

11.

8-11

See above, p. 2 2 , also (on Sirach)Vol. I, p. 4 4 . I.

173

11. 1 7 - 2 0

The folios and columns (though not the lines) in the Krotoschin edition correspond to those of the Venice edition ( 1 5 2 3 - 1 5 2 4 ) , of which there is a recent anastatic reproduction. — More recent edi­ tions (Zitomir, Piotrokow) with commentaries have a different pagina­ tion, and — what is more confusing — frequently a different division of the chapters (Perakim) and numeration of the Halakot. — Since Bomberg's first edition (Venice, 1 5 2 0 - 1 5 2 3 ) in twelve folio volumes, complete editions of the Babylonian Talmud have usually been printed with identical folios, whatever the number of volumes in which it is bound up, and notwithstanding the addition of many commentaries. I-177.1-5

Writing down prayers was disallowed in Talmudic times; see Shab­ bat 1 1 5 b , above; rmn 'BUBO mmn 'arvo rim I*OD (for the point of see the preceding context), enforced by an anecdote of Rabbi Ishmael's investigation of the case of a man in ]TX (Sidon?) who was reported to him as writing prayers. He found him with a volume (DIDIB) of prayers; which the owner plunged in a basin of water, whereupon R. Ishmael said: " T h e last offence is greater than the first." See further L. Ginzberg, Geonica, I, 1 1 9 f. I.

177

1. 2 7

A commentary on the Prayers composed by R. David ben R. Joseph Abudarham (or Abudrahim) in Seville about 1340 was found very useful, and has been repeatedly printed. He drew, as he tells us, upon the Talmuds, the words of the Geonim, and earlier and later commen­ tators, being led to undertake the task by the prevailing ignorance of the prayers and the proper modes of reciting them, and by the vari-

JUDAISM.

5*

NOTES

ations of custom (trmD) and disputes about them. He is concerned, however, not only with matters of form and order but even more that the worshippers should apprehend the meaning of the petitions and benedictions and of their place in the liturgy, and he brings to the task not only ample learning — he is said to have been a disciple of Jacob ben Asher, Baal ha-Turim — but a genuinely religious spirit. See Kohler in Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 1 3 9 . I.

177

I.31

For the study of the early liturgy the considerable fragments of the Palestinian prayers published by Schechter, Elbogen, and Mann are important. On the customs (minhagim) of the several countries in this field, their history and their diversity, see Zunz, Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes ( 1 8 5 9 ) ; Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst § 4 3 , and notes; L Ginzberg, Geonica, I, 1 1 9 ff. I

177

n.3

The North-French forms of the liturgy stand between the Sephardic and the Askenazic rites; but are not identical with the latter. I.

1 8 0 1. 2 1 In Box and Oesterley the attempt to reconstruct the original by an eclectic procedure in translation is carried out with great pains to a result that may well be a warning to critics of a divinatory turn.

I.

I.

1 8 2 n. 3 For Ryssel read R. Kittel.

1 8 3 1. 1 1 In the second edition of Swete ( 1 8 9 9 ) , III, 7 6 5 - 7 8 7 , the apparatus has been revised in some particulars by fresh recourse to collations (cf. p. xvi. f.). On these Psalms it is still profitable to read Hilgenfeld, Prolegomena to Messias Judaeorum libris eorum paulo ante et paulo post Christum natum conscriptis illustratus ( 1 8 6 9 ) , pp. xi-xviii (pre­ viously in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1 8 6 8 , pp. 140 ff.), especially for the older controversies about their age and their original language. The Psalms are printed ibid. (pp. 3 - 2 5 ) , with critical notes to the text and appended "adnotationes" (pp. 2 5 - 3 3 ) . They are edited also in O. F. Fritzsche, Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testamenti Graeci ( 1 8 7 1 ) , pp. 5 6 9 - 5 8 9 (cf. Praefatio, xxv)

JUDAISM.

NOTES

53

In Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Giessen, 1 8 9 6 , W. Frankenberg has written on Die Datierung der Psalmen Salomos, ein Beitrag zur jiidischen Geschichte, in which, against the prevailing opinion of the day (Wellhausen, Die Pharisaer und die Sadducaer, 1 8 7 4 ) , he reverts to the earlier view (Ewald, al.) that the situation represented in the Psalms of Solomon is that of the Syrian conflict, and offers a retroversion into biblical Hebrew (pp. 66 ff.). I.

183

1. 1 2

Another English translation, by G. Buchanan Gray, in Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament ( 1 9 1 3 ) , II, 6 2 5 - 6 5 2 , with an Introduction to which the reader may be referred for an account of the recently recovered Syriac version (from Greek), edited by Rendel Harris, The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, 1909 (2 ed. 1 9 1 1 ) . A German translation by R. Kittel in Kautzsch, Apokry­ phen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, II, 1 2 7 - 1 4 8 . I. 1 8 4

I.9-18

This summary description of the " T w o Document Hypothesis" on which a majority of the critics have in recent years been working is a simplification, which may, however, be regarded as sufficient for the present purpose. For readers who wish to acquaint themselves more fully with the present state of what is known as the "Synoptic Prob­ lem," the titles of two or three recent books in which the question is treated in different ways may be mentioned here: B . H. Streeter, The Four Gospels; a Study of Origins, etc. ( 1 9 2 5 ) , especially, to begin with, chapters vii and viii; B . W. Bacon, The Story of Jesus, 1 9 2 7 ; Henry J. Cadbury, The Making of Luke-Acts, 1 9 2 7 . I.

1 8 4 1. 1 9 and n. 2 See G. Kittel, Die Probleme des palastinischen Spatjudentums und das Urchristentum ( 1 9 2 6 ) . Das sprachliche Problem, pp. 3 4 ff. (literature, p. 3 4 n.). That in cities like Tiberias, or, if you will, in places like Capernaum, many people spoke more or less Greek is not improbable; that the Galileans in general were bilingual is an asser­ tion for which no evidence exists, and which, in the nature of the case, there is no evidence to disprove. What I would insist upon is that whether they knew more Greek or less, when Jesus and his Galilean disciples talked on religious subjects they spoke their mother tongue. The words and phrases in which they could express themselves on

54

JUDAISM.

NOTES

such subjects were learned in the home and in the synagogue, es­ pecially from the homilies. To have a corresponding vocabulary in Greek they would have had to be familiar with the language of the Greek Bible, in which the translators had found or invented equiva­ lents or at least conventional counterparts for the words and ideas of the Jewish religion. That the upper classes in Jerusalem spoke Greek from Ptolemaic times on (Vol. I, p. 48 f.), as the upper classes in Rome did in the centuries before our era, is not in question. That many Greek-speaking Jews settled there and many more came with the pilgrimage is also well known. I. 1 8 4

1. 2 6 - 2 8 (cf. Vol. I, p. 1 8 6 ) .

Jerome says (De viris illustrious, c. 3) that of the Hebrew Gospel (of which he makes Matthew the author — Hebraicis literis verbisque composuit), there was to his day a copy in the library which Pamphilus had collected in Caesarea. Years before, he had himself had the opportunity of transcribing this Gospel, which was in use among the Nazarenes in Beroea (Aleppo); and remarks especially that whereever the Evangelist, either in his own discourse or in the words of Jesus, quoted the Old Testament, he did not follow the authority of the Septuagint, but of the Hebrew, of which Jerome cites two in­ stances. — How much Hebrew Jerome knew when he was in the region of Beroea may be uncertain; he probably communicated with members of the Nazarene community there in Greek, for they had a Greek version of the Old Testament which may have been that of Symmachus. It may be admitted that he or his informants were mis­ taken in the opinion that their Gospel was the original of Matthew, subsequently translated into Greek by some unknown hand. But that what they showed him in Beroea, or what he afterwards saw in Caesarea, was an "Aramaic" Gospel, based on the Greek Matthew, as is confidently asserted by some modern critics, and that Jerome did not know the difference or misrepresented the facts, is improbable. I.

1 8 5 1. 2 ff., and n. 1 In his "Jesus-Jeschua" ( 1 9 2 2 ) Dalman has rendered the words of Jesus in an Aramaic such as he probably spoke and in a transcription which brings out the Galilean pronunciation, discussing alternative suggestions or possibilities. For this task Dalman possessed excep­ tional qualifications through his grammatical and lexical studies of Palestinian Aramaic and of the Gospels. The principles of this retro­ version, both in the controverted question of dialect and in the method

JUDAISM.

NOTES

55

of retroversion from the Greek text, seem to me to be sound. How many uncertainties remain Dalman shows at length in the discussion which leads up to his restoration or comments upon it. They are perhaps greatest in matters of expression which do not profoundly affect the sense. Students of the Gospels will find this volume — the contents and significance of which are concealed rather than revealed by its title — suggestive and helpful in many ways. I. 186

I.21

Mishnah (rw, repeat, learn by repetition). — In the Novel ( 1 4 6 ) of Justinian it is likely that the whole oral tradition, in­ cluding Haggadah, was meant; the object being to clip the wings of the homilists. An unforeseen result was a great development of the synagogue poetry (the didactic Piyut). See Israel Davidson, Mahzor Yannai ( 1 9 1 9 ) , Introduction, pp. xiv ff. AevTepooo~eis.

I.

1 8 6 1. 28 ff. Cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iii, 2 7 , on two classes of "Ebionites," so called, according to Eusebius, because of their poor and mean opinions about Christ or "the poverty of their intelligence." The two species of Ebionites in Eusebius agreed in insisting on the observ­ ance of the Jewish law; but differed in their opinions about Christ, one kind holding him to be a mere man, conceived and born in the natural way, while the other kind believed that he was born of a virgin and a holy spirit, but denied his previous divine existence as Logos and Wisdom. One of these subdenominations rejected the Epistles of Paul, calling him in disparagement an apostate from the Law. — On the attitude of the Nazarenes in Beroea, see Vol. I, p. 186 f. Indubitable Jews like Maimonides have recognized in the spread of Christianity and of Islam a preparation of the world for the Messianic times through the knowledge and worship of the one true God. (See Kohler, Jewish Encyclopedia, IV, 56 f.) The etymological witticism about the poverty of the Ebionites* intelligence is at least as old as Origen (De Principiis, iv. 1 , 2 2 ) ; it is more likely, however, that the name originated in the time when collections were being made in the Pauline churches for "the poor of the saints in Jerusalem (Romans, 1 5 , 2 6 ; cf. Gal. 2 , 1 0 , " the poor"). 'Poor in intelligence' can be expressed in Hebrew in various ways, but of the seven or eight words for "poor" enumerated and explained in Lev. R. 3 4 , 6 and parallels ypnK is the least likely to be employed in such a phrase, if indeed it could be so used at all. — It may be noted

JUDAISM.

56

NOTES

by the curious that in Baba Kamma 1 1 7 a R. Huna bar R. Judah ar­ rived at ' J V S K '3 (which might be understood as a settlement of Ebi­ onites), where he met Raba (d. 3 5 2 ) and consulted with him about a point of law. See also Kohut, Aruch Completum, I I , 4 6 f. (s.v. *n ]T:IN), who discusses the surmise that ]T3K in the Talmud is every­ where a cryptic reading for ]Y2H and *£n:a for nsia (Nazarene). — In no other place in the Talmuds or Midrashim is there any mention of "Ebionites," and a settlement of "Ebionites" in Ba­ bylonia in the fourth century (or a place preserving in its name the memory of an earlier settlement) is improbable. I.

186

n.3

The etymological interpretation of the names may be Jerome's own wisdom; it is less likely that his Nazarenes would have derived the name bbn (Hillel) from the root ^ n , a confusion which suggests an ear unaccustomed to the sounds of a Semitic language. I. 1 8 7

1. 2 3 - 2 6

James, the brother of Jesus, became the head of the community in Jerusalem. Eusebius, from the point of view of the church organiza­ tion and theory of a later time, says that the episcopal throne had been committed to him by the Apostles (Hist. Eccles. ii. 2 3 , 1 ) . How it actually came about we do not know; but inasmuch as the suc­ cessor of James was Simeon son of Clopas, according to Hegesippus a cousin of Jesus (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iii. 1 1 , cf. the list of bishops " o f the circumcision" down to Hadrian's time in Hist. Eccles. iv. 5 ) , it seems probable that, although James had not been a believer in Jesus' life-time, not to say one of the apostles, it was felt that, until the expected coming of Christ, the headship of the community should be in the family of Jesus. Cf. also Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iii. 2 0 ; iii. 3 2 . James was according to Hegesippus (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. ii. 2 3 , 4 if.) distinguished for what we should call strict Jewish piety and observance, by which he secured the title, the Righteous. In the Clementina he appears as the head of the church in Jerusalem, to whom Peter reports on his missionary activities (Horn, i, 20). That a considerable number of priests early "became obedient to the faith" (i.e. that Jesus was the Messiah) is reported in Acts 6, 7 , and is in no wise improbable. The commonalty of the priesthood, in distinction from part of the priestly aristocracy, was pious and ob­ servant, especially in the rules of sacerdotal purity which particu-

JUDAISM.

NOTES

57

larly concerned them. In Acts 1 5 , 5 the adhesion of some of the sect of the Pharisees, also, to the new faith is recorded, and we are told that at the beginning of the controversy in Jerusalem over the recep­ tion of Gentile converts these took the consistent Jewish ground that such converts must be circumcised and bound to observe the law of Moses — in other words, they must become proselytes to Judaism to have any claim to the promises. The attitude of James subse­ quently, in the matter of commensality with Gentile believers (Gal. 2, 1 2 ff.), is that of the Ebionites of Eusebius (supra, p. 5 5 ) , and of the Nazarenes at Beroea according to Jerome. It is the attitude as­ cribed to Jesus himself as reported in Matt. 5, 1 7 - 2 0 ; where v. 1 9 (os eav

ovv

\v
fxlav T&V evrok&v

TOVTUV

T&V ekaxLvTWV

ical 5i5a£fl

OVTW

might be imagined to be in this form a Nazarene protest, given its particular point by the career of Paul.

TOVS

I.

avdpicirovSy

eKaxLCTTOs

/cX^^cerat ev rfj /SacnXeia T&V ovpav&v)

188.

Taylor, Charles, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, with illu­ strations from the Talmud, 1886. On the Theology of the Didache, 1889. Klein, G., Der alteste Christliche Katechismus und die jiidische Propaganda-Literatur, 1909. In Klein's opinion, the tract belonged to the Derek-Eres literature, and whatever may be thought of this thesis his parallels and illustrations are very instructive. I.

189 n. 1 Cf. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iii. 5, 2 , who quotes Matt. 28, 1 9 : iropevBkvTes ixa6t]T€V(raT€ iravTa rd Wvrj iv rco oyojuart p.ov without any reference to baptism.

I.

190 n. 2 On these wars of Jacob and his sons in Midrash see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol. V, p. 3 1 5 f. (note 292; cf. also notes 297 and 3 1 7 ) .

I.

192

n.

2

Test. Levi 1 6 , 1 — not in all manuscripts; see Charles's apparatus. I.

1. 1 9 Charles's translation, with introduction and commentary, is also to be found in his Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa­ ment, etc., II ( 1 9 1 3 ) , 2 8 2 - 3 6 7 . 193

58

JUDAISM.

NOTES

I. 193 1. 3 0 ff. — 1 9 5 , line 8. The questions presented by the calendar of Jubilees are perplexing, but fortunately do not involve what we may call the author's re­ formed calendar as described in Vol. I, p. 1 9 4 , top. It may not be superfluous to add that the calendar now in general use among the Jews was not definitively fixed until the age of the Gaonim. See Poznanski, in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, III, 1 1 7 - 1 2 4 . For investigations of the older calendars, cf. J. Morgenstern, The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel, Hebrew Union College Annual, 1 9 2 4 ; W. A. Heidel, The Calendar of Ancient Israel, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, L X I , No. 2 , December 1 9 2 5 . No historical trace has been found of a year such as the author of Jubilees measures and lays out. Changes in the calendar, even demonstrable improvements, are seldom favorably received. They make so much trouble for the generation that has first to use them that this quite outweighs in their mind the saving of trouble to future generations. The chorus in Aristophanes' Clouds, which voices the grievances of the Moon and the complaints of the gods about the dislocation of their festivals, has been thought to allude to the im­ provement in the calendar introduced by the astronomer Meton about 4 3 2 B.C., with his nineteen year cycle of intercalation in place of the old octaeteris: "She (the Moon) says that she does well by you, but that you (Athenians) do not rightly keep the days, but turn everything topsy-turvy. (Nubes 6 1 5 f., — see the sequel, which may well be compared with Jubilees.) As a matter of fact the Metonic cycle and its further refinement by Kallippos does not seem to have been generally adopted outside of Attica. I.

1 9 8 n. 3 See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 268, and his criticism of Charles's note on Jubilees 1 5 , 1 4 , in connection with M . Shabbat 1 9 , 5.

I.

204 n. 1 Widely at variance with the opinions summarized in the text, others hold that the fragments published by Schechter are the product of a schismatic movement dating from about the tenth century of our era. See Biichler, Jewish Quarterly Review, III, Levi, Revue des Etudes Juives, L X I , L X V . [L. G.] To the literature may be added G. F. Moore, " T h e Covenanters of Damascus," Harvard Theological Review, IV ( 1 9 1 1 ) , 3 3 0 - 3 7 7 ; Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, II

JUDAISM.

NOTES

59

( 1 9 1 3 ) , 7 8 5 - 8 3 4 . There is an edition, with a commentary in Hebrew, by M . H. Segal, in Ha-Shiloah, X X V I , 3 9 0 - 4 0 6 ; 4 8 3 - 5 0 6 .

I.

206 1. I3f On the division between these two letters, their original language, and their historical significance, see C. C. Torrey, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, X X ( 1 9 0 0 ) , 2 2 5 - 2 4 2 ; Encyclopaedia Biblica, III, cols. 2 8 7 5 - 2 8 7 8 ; Herkenne, " D i e Briefe zu Beginn des Zweiten Makkabaerbuches" in (Bardenhewer's) Biblische Studien, 1904. Others make out three letters (Laqueur, p. 52 f.). See, for the whole question, Moffatt in Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, I. 1 2 9 f.

I.

206

n.

1

See note on Vol. I, p. 4 9 , 1 . I. 208

1 9 - 2 1 (vlbs

7rapo/xos).

1. 2 4 - 2 6 .

Laqueur, Richard, Der jiidische Historiker Flavius Josephus. Ein biographischer Versuch auf neuer quellenkritischer Grundlage, 1 9 2 0 ; Thackeray, H. St. John, Josephus. The Man and the Historian, 1 9 2 9 . I. 2 1 0

1. 2 3 - 2 7 , and

n. 3

Synagogues (meeting-houses) are mentioned also, as Professor J. E . Frame reminds me, in Bell. Jud. ii. 1 4 , 5 § 2 8 9 (Caesarea) and Antt. xix. 6, 3 § 300, 305 (Dora). I.

211-214.

See Bousset-Gressmann, Die Religion des Judentums im spathellenistischen Zeitalter ( 1 9 2 6 ) , pp. 4 3 8 ff. T o the literature there noted (p. 438) may be added, Windisch, Hans, Die Frommigkeit Philons, 1909.

I.

1. 1 0 - 1 3 Bousset, Jiidisch-Christlicher Schulbetrieb in Alexandria und Rom, 1 9 1 5 , seems to me to go much beyond the evidence.

I.

212

212 1. 1 8 - 2 2 The contrary opinion, viz. that the " theosophy" of Philo was much older than Philo and had long been current among Alexandrian Jews, and that, transplanted to Palestine by such sects as the Therapeutae and the Essenes, it took root and flourished there, being the theology of philosophically-minded thinkers among the rabbis,

6o

JUDAISM.

NOTES

though not of the juristically inclined nor of the common man, is the theory of August Friedrich Gfroerer, in his Geschichte des Urchristenthums ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 3 8 ) , on which see "Christian Writers on Judaism," in Harvard Theological Review, X I V ( 1 9 2 1 ) , 2 2 2 - 2 2 8 . I.

2 1 6 1. 3 0 f. It should be observed that Codex B never contained the Books of the Maccabees, and that in places where it is defective another manu­ script has to take its place in Swete's "Old Testament in Greek" (in Gen. 1, 1 - 4 6 , 2 8 , cod. A : in Psalms 1 0 5 ( 1 0 6 ) , 2 7 - 1 3 7 ( 1 3 8 ) , 6 , cod. K. Cod. A furnishes him the text for 1 - 4 Maccabees.

I.

2 1 7 ff. Christianity inherited from Judaism the idea of revealed religion and appropriated its Scriptures. In that age, indeed, men, grown weary of the contentions of philosophic schools, and having lost con­ fidence in the ability of reason to attain certainty in the spheres in which certainty is of the utmost importance, were seeking assurance in the authority of revelation, and confirmation of it in mystical ex­ perience. The claim to the possession of such an authoritative revela­ tion in its Scriptures may have attracted converts to Judaism, as it did afterwards to Christianity. Christianity added to the Jewish Scriptures, which it called the Old Testament, its Gospels and Epistles, Scriptures of the New Testament. In them it had a distinctive doctrine of the divine nature of Christ and his relation to the Father (Paul, Hebrews, John), and began the corresponding development of a sacramental liturgy. These doctrines and practices it held to be a new revelation, which it interpreted in terms of Greek philosophy and theosophic mysticism, and, after much controversy, defined in dogmas upon the acceptance of which mem­ bership in the Catholic Church and the salvation of the individual depended. The subtleties of the Rabbis were mainly in the sphere of observance, those of the theologians of the Church in that of correct beliefs, or to express it more accurately of intellectual apprehension. The one is called "legalism," we might name the other "creedalism"; both Rabbis and Church Fathers were convinced that they were showing men exactly how to conform to the revelation of God. It is unnecessary to pursue the parallel farther. Both results, in their different ways, were the logical consequence of the idea of re­ vealed religion embodied in divinely inspired Scriptures. The con­ ception of historical development is equally foreign to both, and as

JUDAISM.

NOTES

61

irreconcilable with the finality of the Mosaic Law as with the finality of the "faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude vs. 3 ) . The idea of development is the germ of dissolution for legalism and creedalism alike. The Protestant Reformation was in its own conception and intention a return to the revelation in the New Testament — that in this it deceived itself, as every attempt to turn time backward deceives itself, is here irrelevant. Rationalism — the word taken in a wide sense — did not effect the emancipation even of the minds that embraced it; it substituted a universal revelation in human reason, and turned to it for authority. The evolutionary conception of religion was as unknown to the English Deists as to their opponents. The conflict between "Fundamentalism" and "Modernism" which is waging in Christianity and Judaism is not the conflict of religion with science, but the irreconcilable conflict between the finality of revelation and the process of history. I.

219 N 1 The discovery (or invention) of "Jehovah" has been commonly attributed to Petrus Galatinus, in his De arcanis catholicae veritatis> 1 5 1 8 , and this pronunciation of the consonants of the Tetragrammaton with the vowels of the Jewish substitute, TFK, has sometimes been held up as evidence of peculiar ignorance on his part. I have shown elsewhere that this ascribes to him more originality than he is really guilty of. The pronunciation was evidently current in his time, and he defends it against those who would say and write Jova. On this point, and on the controversies of the 1 6 t h and 1 7 t h centuries see "Notes on the Name mrv," in Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William Rainey Harper, 1908, Vol. I, pp. 1 4 5 1 6 3 (also in American Journal of Theology, X I I ( 1 9 0 8 ) , 3 4 - 5 2 ) ; and on other questions connected with the history of the name, American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, X X V ( 1 9 0 9 ) , 3 1 2 3 1 8 , X X V I I I ( 1 9 1 1 ) , 5 6 - 6 2 . On the ancient pronunciation see Juda­ ism, Vol. I, p. 4 2 7 .

I.

226 1. i8f. It gratified the national vanity of the Jewish author who writes under the pseudonym "Artapanus" to make Moses, whom he identi­ fies with Movo-cuos, the author of the whole Egyptian civilization, including the religion of the thirty-six districts, with their several gods (e/caoraj TCOV voyL&v GLTTOTCL^CLL TOV Bebv ae^BTjaeaBai), but this is hardly a reminiscence of the Deuteronomic notion.

62 I.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

N 2 The "seventy nations" are a standing feature of Jewish ethnology, in distinction from the unique nation, Israel. Thus the seventy bul­ locks offered in the week of the Feast of Tabernacles correspond to the seventy heathen nations; the one bullock on the eighth day (Num. 2 9 , 3 6 ) to the unique nation, Sukkah 5 5 b (R. Eleazar). Cf. Pesikta, ed. Buber f. 1 9 3 b - ! 9 4 a , with the parallels adduced in the editor's notes there. See S. Krauss, " D i e Zahl der biblischen Volkerschaften," Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, X I X ( 1 8 9 9 ) , 4> X X ( 1 9 0 0 ) , 3 8 - 4 3 ; S. Poznanski, "Zur Zahl der biblischen Volker," ibid. X X I V ( 1 9 0 4 ) , 3 0 1 - 3 0 8 ; Jewish Encyclopedia, I X , 1 8 8 - 1 9 0 . In Sifre on Deut. 3 2 , 8 (§ 3 1 1 ) R. Eiiezer son of Jose the Galilean figures from Cant. 6, 8 that the nations received among them one hundred and forty portions of territory, twice the number of the fathers who went down to Egypt (i.e., each received two portions). In the Midrash ha-Gadol on the same verse: He fixed the boundary of the nations that they should not come into the land of Israel (so far also in Sifre). How many nations are there? Seventy. And how many Israelites went down to Egypt? Seventy, as it is said, 'With seventy persons thy fathers went down to E g y p t ' (Deut. 1 0 , 2 2 ) . Therefore it is said, According to the number of the children of Israel. See D. Hoffmann, Midrash Tannaim, p. 1 9 0 . The Palestinian Targum on Deut. 3 2 , 8 (cf. on Deut. 1 1 , 8) reads as follows: " When the Most High gave the world in possession to the nations which sprang from the sons of Noah, when he gave mankind different ways of writing and different languages in the generation of the dispersion (after the Tower of Babel), at that time He cast lots with the seventy angels, princes of the nations, with whom he appeared to see the city (Gen. 1 1 , 5 ) , and at that time He established the boundaries of the peoples corresponding to the number of the persons of Israel who went down into Egypt. And when the holy people fell to the lot of the Lord of the world, Michael lifted up his voice and said, A good portion, for the name of the word of the Lord is with him! (i.e., the name of God, ^*r")BP), and Gabriel said, For the house of Jacob is the lot of His possession. Cf. Pirke de-R. Eiiezer, c. 2 4 . God assigned an angel to each several people, but Israel fell to his own portion and possession; therefore it is written (vs. 9 ) , 'For the portion of the Lord is His people.' L. Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel, p. 294, sees in the Targum evidence of the antiquity of the variant in the Greek ver­ sion, but does not affirm its priority. 227

I - I

JUDAISM.

NOTES

63

I.

229 N. 3 The Jewish interpretation which takes Isa. 53 as a whole of the mission and martyrdom of the Jewish people is first attested in Origen, Contra Celsum, i. 3 5 , and seems to have been evolved in contradiction to the early Christian apologetic which found in the chapter minute predictions of the rejection, suffering, death, and exaltation of Christ. For the whole history of the Jewish exegesis of the chapter see A. Neubauer and S. R. Driver, The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah accord­ ing to the Jewish Interpreters, 1 8 7 6 - 1 8 7 7 , 2 volumes (texts and trans­ lations) .

I.

233

N. 4 Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 1 6 , 5 - 1 7 , 4 . (The whole country along the Mediterranean from Phoenicia to Egypt was anciently called Pales­ tine.) "They have another name later acquired; for the country is called Judaea and the people Jews. I do not know how this designa­ tion originated; but it is applied also to all other men who, though of different race, take up with their customs (vofiLfxa). This class of men is found even among the Romans, and though often repressed has increased enormously, to such a point that they have won the right to practice their customs openly." I.

234

n. 4 See Israel Levi, " D e Torigine davidique de Hillel," Revue des Etudes Juives, X X X I ( 1 8 9 5 ) , 2 0 2 - 2 1 1 ; X X X I I I ( 1 8 9 6 ) , 1 4 3 f. It is doubtful (notwithstanding Shabbat 1 5 a , below) whether the title Nasi was borne by anyone before Gamaliel II (Gamaliel of Jabneh), toward the close of the first century, to whom it may have been given in reminiscence of Ezekiel as an appropriate designation for the head of the nation. The office became hereditary in his family, down to Gamaliel V I , with whose death in the fifth century (ca. 4 2 5 ) the patriarchate became extinct. See W. Bacher, Jewish Ency­ clopedia V , 560, 5 6 3 ; Juster, Les Juifs dans Fempire Romain, I, 3 9 0 , n

J

- > 395> 397-

I.

234 N. 6 It has been inferred from M . 'Eduyot 7 , 7 that the patriarch had to be confirmed in his office by the Roman authorities. It is said there that Rabban Gamaliel (II) went to get authority from the legate in Syria, sc. to perform the functions of his office. See above, Note on Vol. I, pp. 43f. The language is not altogether explicit, but apart from any direct testimony the necessity of such recognition would be as-

6

JUDAISM.

4

NOTES

sumed as in conformity with Roman practice. See Juster, Les Juifs dans l'empire Romain, I, 3 9 4 f. I.237

1.22

Ezra is sometimes identified with Malachi (Vol. I, p. 3 1 , n. 2 ) . On Daniel see Megillah 3 a , where it is said that he was not a prophet. He is, however, included in the catalogue, Seder 'Olam c. 2 0 (ed. Ratner f. 4 4 a ; see Ratner's note 5 1 ) . See A. Marx, Revue des Etudes Juives, L X X V ( 1 9 2 2 ) , 9 3 f. Clement of Alexandria (Stromata i. 2 1 ; ed. Potter, p. 400) counts thirty-five prophets, beginning with Adam, and including Daniel, besides five prophetesses. I.

n. 1 Christian Fathers entertained the same conception of inspiration, comparing the prophet to a musical instrument (lyre or flute) played upon by the spirit, while his own faculties were in complete abeyance; his words are not his own, but those of the divine Logos speaking through him. See e.g. Justin Martyr, Apol. c. 3 6 ; cf. Cohort, ad Graecos c. 8. 239

I.

2 3 9 n. 5 An example of Kabbalah in the sense of 'tradition* is found in Abot de-R. Nathan (ed. Schechter, 2 d recension § 4 2 , f. 5 9 a ) , rpn vby nVnpa "IDIK TKD '"1 in a sentence which makes the impression of being genuinely Tannaitic. [L. G.] — R. Meir quotes Lev. 26, 6 b ; see also Schechter's note 1 9 .

I.

240

N. 7

D'znnDH ; t t n p n u n a , Bacher, Terminologie, 1 , 9 0 - 9 3 . On these and other names of the Bible and the several groups of books in it see Blau, Zur Einleitung in die heilige Schrift, pp. 1 - 3 1 . In ^DD ttnpn the genitive is not to be taken as a metonymy for God (Blau), but as attributive, 'holy Scriptures' (Bacher, I.e. p. 169 f.). Note the contrast DVHn '2rD ,&npn 'nm 'the holy Scriptures' . . . 'private (secular) writings, Tos. Yom Tob 4 , 4 . With the article, Ketubim designates the Scriptures as a whole, and is equivalent to m n j n (Bacher, /. s. c. p. 9 2 ; without the article ( t r a i n : ) ) , it became the usual name for the third group of books in the collection — Torah, Nebi'im, Ketubim. It is probable that they were once called, 'the rest of the books' (•''mron Blau, I.e. p. 2 9 ; cf. the translator's preface to Sirach: 6 vdfxos Kal al irpo^reiai Kal rd \017rd T&V f3i(3\La)v. A parallel to this abbreviation would be found in the use of Sifre for mnjn,

JUDAISM.

NOTES

65

(m 'n) n S D ( i w ) , of the Tannaite Midrash on Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (our Mekilta and Sifre), in distinction from Sifra, i.e., the Midrash on Leviticus ( c n r D m m ) . I.

2 4 0 , lines 2 4 - 2 6 . Jer. Sotah 2 4 b : i m DJID n p o s vvbm m a r 'an D ' a n n a n D W S J WOPD *?ip n n a vn yworwo p t m p n . See Vol. I, p. 4 2 1 with n. 4 , and p. 4 2 2 . In Seder 'Olam c. 3 0 (ed. Ratner f. 7 0 b ) the prophets prophesied by the holy spirit until the time of Alexander. This limit is in accord with the chronology of the book; see Vol. I, p. 6 .

N.8

I.241

originally a name for the Scriptures as a whole (e.g. Sifre Deut. § 9 9 ) , is used specifically of the books not comprised in the Law and the Prophets, e.g. by Akiba in M . Yadaim 3 , 5: c r a v o n bow O'BHp ump o n w n "TO1 e r n p . So in a Baraita on the order and author­ ship of the Biblical books, Baba Batra 1 4 a : n s o i nn c r a m s bw yno Tai D rnn, " T h e order of the Ketubim is Ruth, Psalms," etc. The appropriation of the general title EHpn ' a r c to the Ketubim is later, appearing first in the Amoraim, unless Tos. Shabbat 1 3 , 1 is to be understood in this sense. See the authors cited in the N 7. The translator's preface to Ecclesiasticus shows that in his time there was no recognized title for these books; he can only say "the rest of the books," or TOOV aXXcoz> iraTpiuv fiifiXiccv. The name rd d7ioypacfra sc. 0i/3Xia in Epiphanius; Hagiographa in Jerome, e.g. Prol. Galeatus: Tertius ordo Hagiographa possidet. Miro,

,l

I.

2 4 1 1. 2 0 ff. The use of select Psalms in the ordinary service of the synagogue, and especially in the festivals, which has so large a place in the liturgy as we know it, is probably very old. The statement in the text that the Psalms furnished no lessons for the synagogue is not meant to call in question this liturgical use. See Vol. I, p. 296.

I.

242 N. 9 The passages in rabbinical sources which bear on the Jewish canon are collected and discussed in books and articles on the Canon of the Old Testament.

I.243

N.9

M. Yadaim 3 , 5: " A l l holy Scriptures make the hands unclean. The Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes make the hands unclean. R.

66

JUDAISM.

NOTES

Judah (ben Ila'i) says: The Song of Songs makes the hands unclean, and about Ecclesiastes opinions are divided. R. Jose says: Eccle­ siastes does not make the hands unclean and about the Song of Songs opinions are divided. R. Simeon says: Ecclesiastes is one of the things on which the school of Shammai took the laxer view and the school of Hillel the stricter (i.e. the former recognized the book as sacred, while the latter denied it that character). Simeon ben Azzai says: I received it by tradition on the authority of the seventy-two elders on the day on which they installed Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah in the presidency, that the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes (both) make the hands unclean. R. Akiba says: Absit omen\ No man in Israel was ever of a different opinion about the Song of Songs, holding that it does not make the hands unclean For the whole age altogether is not equal to the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the hagiographa (Ketubim) are holy, but the Song of Songs is the most holy of all (holy of holies). If there was a division of opinion, it was only about Ecclesiastes. R. Johanan ben Joshua, son of Akiba's father-in-law, says: It is as ben Azzai says; so they were divided, and so they decided. Cf. Tos. Yadaim 2 , 1 4 . Sacred Scriptures are distinguished from all other books by the fact that contact with them makes the hands unclean, so that to say of a book that it makes the hands unclean is equivalent to declaring it sacred, or in our phrase 'canonical.' The origin and significance of the rule itself are obscure (see Shabbat 1 4 a ; Maimonides, Abot haTuma'ot 9, 5); it was probably meant to prevent careless and irre­ verent handling of sacred books particularly by priests, who by such uncleanness would be prevented from eating their Terumah. The Sadducees scoffed at the absurdity of teaching that sacred Scriptures defile the hands and that profane — perhaps heathen — books do not (M. Yadaim 4 , 6), and the answer of Johanan ben Zakkai, that the reason is the greater affection in which sacred books are held, does not sound very convincing. Somewhat more definite, but hardly more plausible, are his words in Tos. Yadaim 2 , 1 9 . In fact, all that Johanan does in either place is to give the Sadducees an ad hominem good enough for them. I.

2 4 3 N . 10 Finis sermonis verbi universi auditu perfacilis est: Deum time, et mandata ejus custodi. Hoc est enim omnis homo, quia omne factum Deus adducet in judicium de omni abscondito, sive bonum, sive malum sit. Ajunt Hebraei quum inter caetera scripta Salomonis quae

JUDAISM.

NOTES

67

antiquata sunt, nec in memoria duraverunt, et hie liber obliterandus videretur, eo quod vanas Dei assereret creaturas, et totum putaret esse pro nihilo, et cibum, et potum, et delicias transeuntes praeferret omnibus, ex hoc uno capitulo meruisse auctoritatem, ut in divinorum voluminum numero poneretur, quod totam disputationem suam, et omnem catalogum hac quasi dva/ce^aXatojcret coarctaverit, et dixerit finem sermonum suorum auditu esse promptissimum, nec aliquid in se habere difficile, ut scilicet Deum timeamus, et ejus praecepta faciamus. Ad hoc enim natum esse hominem, ut creatorem suum intelligens, veneretur eum metu, et honore, et opere mandatorum. I.243

1. 1 5 fF.

See Note on Vol. I, p. 8 6 - 8 7 (above, p. 3 4 ) . Professor Ginzberg is still of the opinion, expressed in his Presidential Address cited there, " that the question of the canonicity of the Gospels could never have suggested itself to people who, like R. Tarfon, would rather enter a pagan temple than a Christian house of worship." I.

243

N. 11 .D*rn m ymfon p «

I.

]*OD

2 4 4 n. 1 ]vb^ p« ,]V^a py, Shabbat 1 1 6 a . Other instances, see S. Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter im Talmud, u. s. w., II, 2 1 . ]vb^ itself is a blank leaf or margin, before, after, or on the sides of a volume (roll); as in M . Yadaim 3 , 4 . The Gospels are sometimes called simply D*3v!?a, as in Tos. Yadaim 2 , 1 3 , where the juxtaposition with DM'Dn n S D and the rule that (unlike the blank margins or out­ side leaves of biblical books, M . Yadaim 3 , 4) they do not defile the hands shows that the Gospels are meant. The book of the Nazarenes (the disciples of Jesus the Nazarene) seems to have been called by them from the beginning evayyekiov (Tidings, News); the foreign word being a kind of proper name, as "Gosper' is in English, of the Anglosaxon etymology and meaning of which we are not conscious. The Jews know no other appellation for it, though they are acquainted with "other writings of the sectaries" (DTDn n s o ) ; of a Hebrew (or Aramaic) title for it there is no trace. In the title of our Greek Gospels it is therefore not the translation of a Semitic word but the perpetuation of the original name. In modern Hebrew translations of the New Testament it is rendered by rmfca. (Biblical Hebrew for 'tidings).

68 I.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

244 N. 11 Eiiezer ben Hyrcanus is said to have been brought before a Roman magistrate on such an accusation; the magistrate dismissed the charge, but Eiiezer was very much troubled that he should have been suspected of such a thing. He remembered, however, that he had heard from one Jacob of Kefar Sekanya an utterance of Jesus (on an halakic question) which he thought very good, and admitted that he had deserved the disgrace that had befallen him. (Abodah Zarah, i 6 b - i 7 a . ) The same disciple of Jesus the Nazarene is said to have proposed to cure R. Eleazar ben Dama, a nephew of R. Ishmael, of a snake bite by using the name of Jesus (Abodah Zarah 2 7 b ) . R. Eleazar ben Dama would apparently have allowed the procedure in spite of the protests of R. Ishmael, but died in time to save him from thus "breaking through the ordinance of the sages." Hananiah, nephew of R. Joshua ben Hananiah, is said to have been bewitched by some sectaries in Capernaum so that he rode on an ass on a Sab­ bath. His uncle appeared on the scene, and said to him, Since that bad man's ass has brayed at you, you cannot remain in the land of Israel. So he went thence to Babylon, and died there in peace (Eccles. R. on Eccles. 1, 8, cf. on 7, 2 6 ) . Bacher (Tannaiten, 1 , 3 8 5 n.) is doubtless right in seeing in this story an intention to discredit Hananiah, who made himself troublesome by his attempt to fix the calendar in Babylonia (Vol. I, p. 1 0 4 ) . The interesting thing is that his fall is attributed to sectaries in Capernaum. In the same context in Eccles. Rabbah (on Eccles. 7 , 26) a certain Judah ben Nakosa is com­ mended for his behavior in some experience with the Minim, but of the circumstances nothing is told. That by the Minim who are so often named in the Talmuds and Midrashim, Nazarenes or Christians are always intended is going much beyond the evidence and sometimes contrary to it. The word means ' species,' ' kinds/ especially applied to peculiar kinds of people (a neutral word for party or sect is n a , while DTD implies disap­ proval) who differed from the majority in opinion or practice. The difficulty of dating the utterances is very great, and the substitutions of the censors, or of editors anticipating censorship — Sadducees, Philosophers, Epicureans, the wicked, and the like — have made the question all the more perplexing. Those who held that there were "two authorities" (Vol. I, p. 3 6 4 ff.), whatever variety of dualism they were addicted to, are called Minim, and have therefore some­ times been labelled "Jewish Gnostics." Of other proposed etymologies it is sufficient here to note that which finds in minim a contraction of

JUDAISM.

69

NOTES

' believers' (sc. in Jesus, r<3 Kvpica Acts 5 , 1 4 ) . — When the rabbinical controversy is with (catholic) Christians in the third and fourth centuries, the turn of the argument often makes this plain. On the whole, an analysis of the very numerous testimonies yields little more than the fact that the disciples of Jesus are some­ times included under this comprehensive term. The only distinctive name which occurs in our sources is "disciples of Jesus the Nazarene," or, more briefly, Nazarenes ( a n n a ) . The former is the name by which they called themselves, "the Disciples (sc. of Jesus) first got the name Christians in Antioch" (Acts 1 1 , 2 6 ) , probably given them by outsiders who took Chris tos for a proper name. The Jews had no corresponding expression; TTOD, which is found in modern Hebrew dictionaries for 'Christian', is unknown to talmudic and midrashic literature (it is apparently imitated from other Semitic languages, especially from Syriac, in which it was invented to render xptcrrtaws (the Peshitto takes over the Greek word); and if it had occurred to anyone to coin the word he would perhaps have been stopped by the obvious reflection that "Messiah" is not a proper name, and that "Messianist" could not be appropriated to a sect which had a Messiah of its own not acknowledged by the Jews, while the great body of Jews were themselves "messianists" in faith and expectation. Even now the proper way to say ' Christianity' in Hebrew in one word is ^ V ? , "Nazareneness." •rDKB,

I.

244

TnarevovTes

y

N . 12

The words of Samuel imply the existence of manuscripts of Esther, but the book is not sacred scripture ("does not defile the hands"). The Talmud harmonizes the saying with the prevailing opinion about the inspiration of the book and saves Samuel's orthodoxy by dis­ tinguishing. In Sanhedrin 1 0 0 a we read that Levi bar Samuel and Rab Huna bar Hiyya were once arranging the wrappers of the books in Rab's school; when they came to the roll of Esther they said, "This does not require a wrapper" (implying, it is not sacred scripture). It is possible, therefore, that Melito's informants (Vol. I, p. 246) may have entertained a similar opinion, which can hardly have been con­ fined to the Babylonian schools. I.

245

1. iof.

See Note on I, 3 2 , n. 2 , above, p. 1 2 .

JUDAISM.

7°

NOTES

I. 245 N . 13 On the victory over Nicanor and the appointment of an annual festival on the 13 of Adar, see 1 Mace. 7 , 4 3 , 49; 2 Mace. 15, 28, 36; Josephus, Antt. xii. 10, 5 § 409, § 412. It was given peculiar signifi­ cance by the threats of Nicanor to destroy the Temple (1 Mace. 7, 33-35), which God thus signally delivered. Cf. Megillat Ta'anit, Adar 13; Jer. Megillah 70c; Jer. Ta'anit 66a, above (a passage utilized by the glossator in Meg. Ta'anit). I.247

I.4

On the reading of Ezek. 1 in the synagogue, and on Ezek. 16, see note on Vol. I, p. 300 (below, p. 100). That, even after the labors of Hananiah ben Hezekiah in harmonizing it with the Pentateuch, Ezekiel was not regarded as a safe book for immature minds to meddle with is evident from the words of Jerome, who says that the third of the great prophets [Ezekiel], principia et finem tantis habet obscuritatibus involuta, ut apud Hebraeos istae partes cum exordio Geneseos ante annos triginta non legantur. — Epist. 53, ad Paulinum, Vallarsi I, 277. I. 247 n. 1 By an inexact translation of Bacher's words "Ein Haupt der Schule Schammais it was said in this note that Hananiah ben Hezekiah ben Garon "was the head of the school of Shammai in the generation before the fall of Jerusalem." More correctly (as in the second im­ pression), he "was of the school of Shammai, and prominent in the generation before the fall of Jerusalem." ,,

I. 247 N . 13 bis A good example of the use of the verb for laying up treasures is the story of king Monobazos of Adiabene (Tos. Peah 4, 18, translated Vol. II, p. 91 f.)« A particularly instructive illustration of laying aside things sacred to make them secure from profanation is M . San­ hedrin 10, 6 (Sifre Deut. § 95) in the procedure for the execution of the ban on a city that has apostatized from the true religion (Deut. 13 13 ff.). The law prescribes that all the spoil of the city shall be col­ lected in the public square and burned up; but "its spoil" does not include "the spoil of Heaven," i.e., things to which in any manner or degree sacredness attaches; hence the nwipn that are in the city are to be redeemed, m D H n to be let decay, second tithe and sacred scriptures (KHpn ^HD) to be laid away (inr; cf. Sanhedrin 1 1 2 b , end).

JUDAISM.

NOTES

71

The fact that the whole discussion is purely "academic" (Tos. San­ hedrin 1 4 , 1 ; Sanhedrin 7 1 a , nvffb Nn-ny nrvn n m a n T y ) does not make the example the less relevant. The book of cures which Hezekiah "laid away" (M. Pesahim 4 , 9 et alibi) contained, we may suppose, not medicinal prescriptions, but formulas of incantation over the sick (perhaps to be employed with remedies), probably contain­ ing divine names, like that which Akiba denounces (Vol. II, p. 3 8 8 ) . Reverence for the names of God is a probable reason for Rabban Gamaliel's ordering the masons who were making repairs on the temple-mount to wall up a Targum of Job which was shown him, and for his grandson's ordering such a Targum to be laid away ( m x Kin "iraai V ^ y ) , Shabbat 1 1 5 a . The identification of these two Gamaliels is a point of some uncertainty; the former incident falls at a time when the Temple was still standing; the younger Gamaliel is sup­ posed to be living in Tiberias. For the present purpose the matter is not essential. In Tos. Shabbat 1 3 ( 1 4 ) , 5 , where the question is about rescuing copies of sectarian books ( d t d h n s o i D'av^an) from a burning house, R. Jose the Galilean held that on a week day a man should tear out the mentions of God (nHDTKn) and lay them by (taiai), and burn the rest; while R. Tarfon would let them burn up, names of God and all, on week-day or Sabbath. Modern writers of Hebrew "up to date" use D'naa ( a n s D ) to ex­ press "Apocrypha" (in Protestant definition) and tfaiarn for those books (e.g. Enoch) which have recently been labelled "Pseudepi­ grapha," ignoring the fact that the Rabbis were neither modern Protestants nor modern Jews, and had no corresponding categories. The solitary instance that is adduced in support of the opinion that D'naa was used of books excluded from the canon of Scripture is Abot de-R. Nathan, c. 1 (in both recensions printed by Schechter). The books named are Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, from each of which quotations are made that sound questionable enough morally (Prov. 7 , 7 ff., Cant. 7 , n - 1 3 , Eccles. 1 1 , 9 ) . Ac­ cording to the common text (Schechter's first recension) it is said that at the first these books were withdrawn as being (merely) proverbs and not belonging to the Scriptures, until the Men of the Great Synagogue came and explained them; while in the second recension this rehabili­ tation is attributed to Hezekiah's men (Prov. 2 5 , 1 ) : 'These also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, tran­ scribed.' Inasmuch as the midrash turns on the word here translated 'transcribed' (lp'nyn), it is probable that this ascription (in sup-

JUDAISM.

72

NOTES

port of which Midrash Mishle on the verse may be cited) is original, and that the author took p ' n y n in the sense of 'consider deliber­ ately, take time to it' (cf. Sifre Num. § 7 8 , ed. Friedmann, f. 2 0 b ) , 1D1pD2 vn\DD intfl nn« bD (1 Chron. 4 , 2 3 ) O'p'ny D T O ; Sifre Zuta on Num. 1 0 , 2 9 , iD^y »ara. According, to Abba Saul, vbt* vb WV2W> "they interpreted" — the whole passage is a play of midrashic ingenuity on the precept of the Men of the Great Synagogue pna D'OTiD vn. Since the passage is apparently more frequently cited than read, it may not be amiss to quote the relevant part here: P'Ki rrfawD onoiK vn vnw vn cvrm n^npi t n w arm

WVSA

rbmn

Ten bm

D n o i K vn naiiwnn

noaa ton 1*00 ny oniK toi "rayi cpainan p

o'ainaa yrw ny vn d t u j n*?npi t n w

t b h m^roa i d i n w

[Rec. B : 1

nD«a no ?].

Cf. Shabbat 3 0 b . It is evident that we are not dealing here with tradition, but with exegetical invention. The difficulties which the rabbis found in these books must, they thought, have been felt from the beginning, and therefore the men of old times " arose and withdrew them, until they should be explained." — An example of such an explanatory gloss which has made its way into the text are the last verses of Ec­ clesiastes ( 1 2 , 1 3 f.). In many cases this storing away involved withdrawing from cir­ culation or use, for example, Bible manuscripts which had become imperfect, or were not copied according to rule, and other writings or inscriptions in which names of God ( n n a ? « ) occurred. See Bacher as cited in Vol. I, p. 2 4 7 , n. 3 . The Protestant use of "Apocrypha" is ultimately derived from Jerome, who after enumerating the twenty- two books of the Hebrew Bible, writes: Hie prologus . . . omnibus libris quos de Hebraeo vertimus in Latinum convenire potest, ut scire valeamus, quidquid extra hos est, inter apocrypha esse ponendum (Prologus Galeatus, pre­ fixed to his translation of Samuel and Kings), and owes its currency to Luther's segregation of these books. No corresponding category existed among the Jews, and the use of the word in the Greek Fathers is different. I.

1. 20 ff. A description and a very unfavorable estimate of Jewish exegesis, both rabbinical and Alexandrian (Philo) is given in Bousset-Gressmann, pp. 160 f., with the recognition, however, that such methods are the inevitable consequence of the doctrine of inspired Scriptures, and that the Christian church has done the same kind of thing from 248

JUDAISM.

NOTES

73

the beginning. Modern philological exegesis and historical criticism are very new things. I.

248,

top.

Ginzberg, Eine unbekannte jiidische Sekte, p. 2 4 6 , n. 2 . I.

249 N. 14 The seven rules of Hillel are enumerated in Tos. Sanhedrin 7 , 1 1 , and in the Introduction to Sifra (ed. Weiss f. 3 a ) ; the thirteen of R. Ishmael, Sifra, I.e. (f. ia ff.); cf. Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on Exod. 2 1 , 1 (ed. Hoffmann, p. 1 1 7 ) — "delivered to Moses at Sinai." The Thirteen Rules were taken up into the morning prayer, where they have a place already in the Siddur of Rab Amram (Baer, p. 5 3 f.; Singer, p. 13 f.; Abudarham gives examples of their employment). The thirty- two rules ascribed to R. Eiiezer son of R. Jose the Galilean are not mentioned in the Talmud, though some of them are un­ doubtedly old. In the current editions of the Babylonian Talmud these rules are enumerated and illustrated in the supplementary mat­ ter at the end of Berakot, from the Sefer Keritut of Samson of Chinon ( 1 3 / 1 4 century). On all these rules and their application see Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, 5 ed. pp. 9 5 - 1 0 9 , with the literature there cited; Mielziner, Introduction to the Talmud, 2 ed. ( 1 9 0 3 ) , pp. 1 1 5 ff ("Legal Hermeneutics of the Talmud"). That a good book on Talmudic hermeneutics and methodology should not be for­ gotten, let me add A. G. Waehner, Antiquitates Ebraeorum (Gottingen, 1 7 4 3 ) , I. 3 9 6 ff. (the Thirty-two Rules, chiefly following the Halikot 'Olam of Jeshua b. Joseph H a l e v i — 1 5 t h century); pp. 4 2 2 ff. (the Thirteen Rules). On the technical terms in the latter, Bacher's Terminologie I. may profitably be consulted. I. 2 4 9 N 1 5 On Philo's premises and method it is sufficient to refer the reader to James Drummond, Philo Judaeus ( 1 8 8 8 ) , Vol. I, pp. 1 6 - 2 3 , with examples passim.

I.

N. 16 For the phrase H3 byyz) m i n ("the Torah transmitted by word of mouth") and its first occurrence in our sources (Shabbat 3 1 a — Shammai and Hillel) see Bacher, Tannaiten I , 7 6 , n. 5 (against Weiss, Dor. I, 1 n.); Bacher, in Jewish Quarterly Review, X X , 5 9 5 ; Tradi­ tion und Tradenten, p. 2 2 . Cf. Sifre Deut. § 3 5 1 — Rabban Gamaliel 251

2

JUDAISM.

74

NOTES

— two n m n given t o Israel, ns byn nntfi n r o n nm. O n the question w h y M i s h n a , T a l m u d , a n d H a g g a d a h were transmitted only orally see on V o l . I , p . 2 5 4 , N o t e 1 7 , below. I. 2 5 2 n. 1 Inasmuch as the high priest might be unacquainted with the c o m ­ plicated ritual, he was instructed in preparation for it, a n d p u t under the direction o f an expert M a s t e r o f Ceremonies. I. 2 5 4 N . 1 7 Inasmuch as the revelation to M o s e s w a s complete, the question arose w h y only p a r t o f it was written down a n d the rest — the larger p a r t — transmitted orally. Substantially the same answer is given in several places. T h e fundamental text for the two T o r o t is E x o d . 3 4 , 2 7 : ' A n d the L o r d said u n t o M o s e s , W r i t e thou these words, for after the tenor of ('3 by) these words I have made a covenant with thee a n d with I s r a e l / a n d with them the words o f Hosea ( 8 , 1 2 ) are usually q u o t e d : ' S h o u l d I write for h i m most of m y law, they (the precepts) would be esteemed as a foreigners'. " W h e n G o d (the H o l y O n e , blessed is H e ) came to give the L a w , he recited it to Moses suc­ c e s s i v e l y — the Bible (fcnpD), a n d the M i s h n a h , a n d the A g a d a , a n d the T a l m u d , as it is said, ' A n d G o d spoke all these w o r d s ' ( E x o d . 2 0 1) — even w h a t an attentive pupil will ask his teacher. . . . W h e n Moses h a d learned it, G o d said to him, G o a n d teach it to m y sons [Israel]. Moses said to H i m , L o r d of the W o r l d , write it for T h y sons! H e answered, I should like to give it to them in writing, b u t t h a t I foresee t h a t the Gentiles are going to rule over them, a n d take it from them, a n d (then) m y sons would be like the Gentiles. B u t give them the Bible in writing, a n d the M i s h n a h and the A g a d a a n d the T a l m u d b y word o f mouth . . . for these will m a k e a difference between Israel a n d the G e n t i l e s " ( T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , K i tissa § 1 7 ) . I t is a breach of the c o v e n a n t either to read (recite) the Scripture from m e m o r y or to commit the traditional l a w to writing (ibid. § 1 8 , T e m u r a h 1 4 b ) . C o m p a r e also T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , W a y y e r a § 6 (with reference to T a r g u m ) . T h e passage in K i tissa is reproduced with small variations in E x o d . R . c. 4 7 (at the beginning). 1

In Pesikta R a b b a t i G o d declined to give the M i s h n a h in writing as M o s e s desired, because he foresaw t h a t the Gentiles would trans­ late the T o r a h a n d be in the habit of reading it (publicly) in G r e e k , and say, T h e y (the Jews) are not Israel. G o d said t o him, O M o s e s , 1

Translation

of the Jewish Publication Society.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

75

1

T h e Gentiles will be saying, We are Israel, we are the children of G o d , and it will be an even thing. T h e n G o d will s a y to the Gentiles, H o w can y o u s a y t h a t y o u are m y sons ? I do not recognize a n y except him in whose possession m y secret is (^vo-r-qpiov equivalent to TlD, cf. VNT^ TlD, Psalm 2 5 , 1 4 ) ; he is m y son. T h e y (the Gentiles) say to H i m , W h a t is this secret of T h i n e ? H e replies, I t is the M i s h n a h . See also Jer. P e a h ii. ( 6 , f . i 7 a ) . " W h a t would be the difference be­ tween us and the Gentiles? O n e p a r t y would bring in their books, and the other their b o o k s ; one p a r t y would bring in their parchments and the other their p a r c h m e n t s . " P e s i k t a R a b b a t i , Perek 5 , ed. Friedmann, p . 1 4 b . In this midrash — most explicitly in its later forms — there is plain reference to the Christian empire, and echoes of controversy with Christians w h o m a d e the O l d T e s t a m e n t their o w n and claimed to be the true Israel, the children o f G o d . I t should be needless to s a y t h a t the reasons w h y tradition w a s an unwritten l a w lie in the nature of tradition itself, not in such considerations as are presented in the midrash; b u t it is true that when Gentile Christians appropriated the Scriptures, interpreted them as Christian Scriptures from the be­ ginning, read them in Greek in their churches, based on them their pretensions, and sometimes (as in the Epistle of Barnabas) denied that the Jews h a d ever h a d any rights in them, M i s h n a h and T a l m u d remained the exclusive possession of the Jews, and this unwritten tradition w a s the specific difference o f Judaism. I. 2 5 4 1. 8 - 1 0 See below, N o t e 2 0 (on V o l . I , p . 2 5 6 ) . I. 2 5 5 N . 1 8 See on V o l . I , p . 3 1 f. (above, p . 1 1 f ) . I n the letter of Sherira G a o n (ed. L e w i n , p . 7 3 ) we read: W h e n E z r a w e n t u p (and Zerubbabel) from B a b y l o n i a , and the G o l a h with them, and they built the temple, and there were there the heads o f the Sanhedrin such as Simeon the Righteous and A n t i g o n u s o f Socho and the rest of those Pairs (nuir), etc. — French recension " t h o s e g e n e r a t i o n s " (nvrn). A s an example o f the use of this chain of tradition reference m a y be made to Jer. P e a h 1 7 a (in the M i s h n a h , 2 , 6 ) . I n a question in which R . Simeon o f M i z p a h and R a b b a n Gamaliel were concerned, " N u ­ llum the scrivener (ib^bn) averred, I received it from R a b b i M e a s h a (my teacher), w h o received it from his father, w h o received it from 1

T a n h u m a ed. B u b e r , W a y y e r a § 6, " W e also a r e I s r a e l . "

JUDAISM.

76

NOTES

the Pairs, who received it from the Prophets, an Halakah (given) to Moses from Sinai (God)." The case is of especial interest because this testimony is from a time when the temple was still standing. See further on Vol. I, p. 256, Note 19. I. 256 N . 19 See W. Bacher, "Satzung von Sinai," in Studies in Jewish Litera­ ture issued in honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler (1913), pp. 5670, where all the known occurrences of this phrase are collected and discussed. I. 256 N . 2 0 The legend about Moses and Akiba is attributed to Rab (early third century, a frequent reporter of Palestinian tradition): In the hour when Moses ascended to high heaven he found the Holy One — blessed is He — sitting and weaving crowns for the letters (putting on them the ornamental Tagin). He said, Lord of the World, who hinders Thee (from giving the Law without these)? He (God) re­ plied, There is a man who will live ever so many generations hence, named Akiba ben Joseph, who will derive from every single stroke (literally * thorn') heaps and heaps [playing on the words of Canticles, 5, 11, cf. 'Erubin 21b end] of legal norms (Halakahs). Moses said, Lord of the World, let me see him! God said, Turn and go back He went and took a seat eight rows back (where Akiba and his future disciples were sitting), but he did not understand what they were saying, and he became faint. When he (Akiba) came to one point, his disciples said to him, Rabbi, where did you get that? He answered, (It is) an Halakah to Moses from Sinai, whereat Moses was reassured. He turned and went to the Holy One, blessed is He, and said, Lord of the World, Thou hast a man like that, and Thou givest the Law by me"! Then he asked to be shown Akiba's reward. He was told to look behind him, and saw how the executioners were carding Akiba's flesh with (iron) claws. (Cf. the account of Akiba's martyrdom in Berakot 61b, below.) Whereupon he exclaimed, "Such learning and such a reward!" A variant of this story in the Alphabet of R. Akiba (Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, 111,44), l l s how the angel who presides over all learning and insight showed Moses myriads of scholars, sanhedrins, and scribes sitting and interpreting the meaning of Torah, Bible, Mishnah, Mid­ rash, Halakahs and Agadas, etc., and saying, " An Halakah to Moses from Sinai." te

JUDAISM. I.

NOTES

77

257 N. 21 The branches of a complete education were: the Bible (Mikra, "Reading," where we say Scripture, "Writing"); Midrash, exege­ sis; Halakot, concisely formulated rules for every sphere of life; Haggadot, edifying applications of Scripture illustrated from bio­ graphy or legend (exempla) and by parables (invented comparisons). See Vol. I, p. 3 1 9 ff., and for a fuller exposition, Bacher, Termino­ logie I, under the several terms (pp. 1 0 3 - 1 0 5 ; 4 3 f.; 3 3 - 3 7 ; cf. Tan­ naiten I , 4 7 5 - 4 8 5 ) . The first included the learning of Biblical He­ brew, a language widely different in vocabulary and syntax from the Aramaic mother-tongue, and even from the contemporary Hebrew "language of the learned." This ancient language could be learned only from a living teacher: dictionaries, grammars, commentaries — the whole apparatus which with us supplements the instruction of the teacher or is substituted for it — did not exist. As the Bible was written then, no one could even pronounce intelligently a passage which he did not rightly understand, and the traditional pronuncia­ tion was itself an interpretation. The learned man might read and interpret differently, sometimes taking liberties even with the letter of the text C"lpn and the like), but the learner had first to learn the tradition to know enough even to depart from it. — Midrash is what we call exegesis, especially the exegesis which tries to penetrate beneath the literal sense (BB©) to discover a profounder meaning or lesson, comparing scripture with scripture according to its own hermeneutic rules. This exegesis may be either juristic, applied to the laws in the Pentateuch for the purpose of deriving from them the definite rule to go by (Halakic Midrash), or educational and homiletic, drawing from the Scripture religious and moral lessons and enforc­ ing them by religious motives (Haggadic Midrash). — The succinct rules (Halakot) were memorized, and it was expected that they should be reproduced with verbal accuracy. — The Haggadot were chiefly sermonic material out of which the synagogue homilists brought forth in their discourses things old and new, including their own contribu­ tions. It is perhaps worth while to correct here a common misapprehension of the word ' midrash' and of the nature of the thing. Some Christian writers use the word midrash as equivalent to legend, and even define it thus, having especially in mind the fictional element in legend. The origin of this error is probably the use of the word E m D in 2 Chron. 2 4 , 2 7 (cf. 1 3 , 2 2 ) , the legendary character of the source (or sources) cited under this title in the judgment of critics, and the as2

78

JUDAISM.

NOTES

sumption that the rabbinical use of the term was similar. See Budde, "Vermutungen zum Midrasch des Buches der Konige," Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, X I I ( 1 8 9 2 ) , 3 7 - 5 1 ; cf. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 1 8 9 1 , p. 3 9 7 . Driver, op. cit. 529, says, "Hagadah is a synonym of Midrash." When these scholars call Tobit and Susanna "Midrashim" they mean only that they are fictions, which would be as intelligible to most of their readers in English or in German as in imaginary Hebrew. As a matter of fact, the oldest rabbinical use of the name Midrash is for the juristic exegesis of the legislative parts of the Pentateuch, which belongs with the Halakah in distinction from Haggadah. Bacher, Terminologie I, p. 4 3 . — On the midrash sefer hammelakim in 2 Chron. 2 4 , 2 7 reference should be made also to Kuenen, Onderzoek ( 1 8 8 7 ) , 2

1,493In the passage from which I set out (Sifre § 4 8 , ed. Friedmann f. 8 4 b ) , no one familiar with this literature will be likely to doubt that halakic Midrash, such as is found in Sifra and Sifre, is meant. See D. Hoffmann, Zur Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, 1 8 8 7 . In the Tannaite (Halakic) Midrash, the word midrashot is a common equivalent for the biblical hukkim; for instances see Bacher op. cit. p. 1 0 3 f. A good example is Sifra on Lev. 2 6 , 4 6 (ed. Weiss f. 1 1 2 c ) . The Haggadot are also derived from the Bible, or connected with it by exegetical processes, and thus there is a Midrash Haggadah as well as a Midrash Halakah (Jewish Encyclopedia, VIII, 5 5 0 - 5 6 9 , 5 6 9 5 7 2 ) . All these belonged to the Jewish science of tradition (Mishnah) in distinction from Biblical learning (Mikra), but the traditional exe­ gesis (Midrash) connects the two fields. In Sifre Deut. § 48 and (with a text in some respects preferable) in Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 1 , 22 (ed. Hoffmann, p. 4 1 f.) may be found interesting remarks on the subject of study (primarily biblical study), and sound paedagogic observations on the acquisition, cul­ tivation, and retention of learning. Learning is as hard to get as gold and as easy to lose as a glass vessel (by breaking). That the loss is no trifling matter is illustrated by a parable: A king had snared a bird and gave it to his slave to keep for the young prince, warning him, If you let it get away, do not think you have lost a bird worth a few cents, but it is as if you had lost your life, as it is said, 'For it (the law) is no vain thing for you, for it is your life' (Deut. 3 2 , 4 7 ) . Learning, like wealth, is accumulated little by little — a verse or two a day, a paragraph or two a week, a chapter or two a month, so in time a man becomes rich (in learning). It requires constant and la-

JUDAISM.

NOTES

79

borious cultivation; the proverbs about the indolent and negligent husbandman (e.g. Prov. 24, 3 0 f.) are applied to the slothful scholar who by neglect of study lets his field and vineyard get overgrown with thistles. The utmost accuracy is required; a man may forget two or three words and get all astray in consequence, while if he forgets day by day as regularly as he learns he will have nothing at all. Learning is like a field or a vineyard. The acquisition of it is only a beginning; that it may yield anything and even that it may not go back to the wild, it must be assiduously cultivated. — There is much else in this passage, e.g., that the learning of the modest scholar (Vol. II, p. 245 f.) like wine grows better with maturity, which, being the result of experience, might with advantage be pondered in these days of educational theory, for instance, the native difference in capacity •— the pupil of good ability is like a sponge which takes up all that is offered; another is like a bunch of tow whose absorbent capacity is limited. Nor was retentive and exact memory the only faculty culti­ vated; minute investigation and acute discrimination were necessary, especially in matters of licit and illicit, clean and unclean; otherwise a man might break through the bounds set by the authority of the learned, with disastrous consequences. Under these conditions inde­ pendence of judgement is commended. In these pursuits the sons of great men or of scholarly elders have no precedence, much less pre­ rogative; in the Law all men are on an equality, learning is a pure democracy. I.

259

N.

22

On the authority of these enactments see Vol. I, p. 2 6 2 , and Note 2 7 there. I.

259

N.

23

On the powers of a rabbinical court and its limitations see the Jew­ ish Encyclopedia, s.v. " Authority/' In M . 'Eduyot, 1, 5 , it is laid down that one such court cannot abrogate the enactment of a former court unless it is superior to the latter in learning and in numbers, and this principle is alleged in several other places (e.g. Gittin 3 6 b ) . The whole history of Judaism seems to show that, whatever may have been the theory, the authorities of every generation felt warranted in adapting the working of the law to the changing conditions of life. See Weiss, Dor (4 ed., 1 9 0 4 ) , II, 5 7 ; Solomon Zucrow, Adjustment of Law to Life in Rabbinic Literature (Boston, 1 9 2 8 ) , chapter iv.

8o

JUDAISM.

NOTES

I.

259 N. 24 For particular occasions in connection with which Psalm 1 1 9 , 1 2 6 is thus quoted in the Mishnah see Vol. I, p. 4 2 7 . On the transposition of the clauses, Jer. Berakot, i 4 C - d : 'fcClp D1DD p3 'iTI. A very dras­ tic example of doing something for the Lord, with quotation of this verse, is found in Yoma 6 9 a , end. Other occurrences, Tamid 2 7 b , Gittin 6 0 a , Temurah 1 4 b , et alibi.

I.

260 N 25 The prevailing spelling seems to be Morris, though ^"QDns is not infrequent. The word is obviously foreign, and etymological conjec­ tures have been rife from the days of the Babylonian Amoraim (Gittin 3 6 b ~ 3 7 a ) down; for a survey of those proposed in ancient and modern times see L. Blau in the monograph cited below. Formally it corre­ sponds to 7rpoa(3o\r), but the difficulty has been to find any meaning of this not uncommon Greek word which would be applicable to a legal instrument such as the Jewish Prosbul (or Prosbol). Greek papyri from Egypt have, however, recently afforded several instances of the use of the word in a technical juridical sense. Preisigke (Worterbuch der griechischen Papyrusurkunden, s.v.), on the basis of studies by Mitteis of the legal documents in which the word occurs, defines it: " Eigentumszuschlag des Pfandes im Vol]streckungsverfahren. In the light of this new material Ludwig Blau has re-examined the whole subject of the nature and legal effect of the instrument introduced by Hillel, and of other rabbinical remedies — such as the delivery of a pledge, which might be of minimal value; or the deposit of the obli­ gation (note) with the court, which could collect the debt at any time — for the evil to meet which the Prosbol was devised: "Prosbol im Lichte der griechischen Papyri und der Rechtsgeschichte" (re­ printed from Festschrift zum 5 0 Jahrigen Bestehen des Franz-Josef Landesrabiner-Schule. Budapest, 1 9 2 7 . Blau thinks it possible that in HilleFs time (under Herod) the instrument may not only have had a Greek name derived from Hellenistic-Egyptian law, but have been written in Greek, for purposes of record. Earlier literature on the Prosbol is listed at the end of his study. ,,

I.

261

n.

1

See Vol. I, p. 262, n. 1 and Note on Vol. I, p. 85 (above, pp. 3 2 ff). I.

N 26 A striking instance of this kind is narrated of Johanan ben Zakkai and a Sadducean high priest about the burning of the red cow, Tos. Parah 3 , 7 f . (cf. the corresponding Mishnah). 261

JUDAISM.

NOTES

81

I.

262 N 27 Jer. Berakot 3 b , below; Jer. Sanhedrin 3 0 a (Bacher, Pal. Amoraer III, 6 3 8 , n. 1 ) . The man who 'despises the word of the Lord' (Num. 1 5 , 3 1 ) and makes void his commandments, etc., is interpreted by R. Nathan of one who pays no attention to the Mishnah (tradition). Sanhedrin 9 9 a , below. In the case of the "contumacious elder" («1DD ipr) the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 1 1 , 3 ) says: o n s i D m m "iDin m m H n i D , " T h e matter is more serious concerning words of the Scribes than words of the Law." The illustrative example is: If he says, " N o Tefillin!" he is let go; but if he says, Five compartments," he is guilty. The former is contrary to the words of the law (Deut. 6 , 8, etc.); the latter contrary to the words of the Scribes, who, from the four occurrences of the word m s t t l t D learned that there should be four; the offender thus violated the law ^ D i n vb (Deut. 1 3 , 1 ) . The biblical authority for implicit obedience to the enactments of a rabbi­ nical court is Deut. 1 7 , 1 1 . On the subject in general see Krochmal, "Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman" (ed. Zunz, 1 8 5 1 ) , p. 1 6 7 f. It should be understood that in such cases as are here contemplated the interpretation of the Scribes is implicitly contained in the words of the law from which they derive it, and therefore carries the obliga­ tion of the Law itself. There are many commandments in the Pen­ tateuch for which neither mode nor measure is laid down; these were left for the Scribes and the learned to discover and define so that whatever was done should be done right, that is, according to the intention of the lawgiver. Large, even extravagant, assertions of rabbinical authority are natural, but the supremacy of the Biblical law is not challenged. [See the discussion, Yebamot 8 9 0 - 9 0 ^ L. G.] 11

I.263

N28

" T o r a h " is a generic term for instruction in religion (including morals) rather than commandment (iTOD) or statute (pn); both of which are indeed included in it, but as particular species or forms may be distinguished within it (not from it). In Tanhuma ed. Buber, Re'eh 1 (on Deut. 1 1 , 26) exception is taken to Asaph's appropriation of the name Torah for his own instruction (Psalm 7 8 , 1, irr«n ' m m ) , and Solomon's (Prov. 4 , 2 , 'mm 02b *nra ma npb »D intyn. Israel is supposed to say to Asaph: "Is there then another Torah, that thou sayest 'Listen, my people, to my Torah'? We re­ ceived it long ago from Sinai." Asaph replies: " T h e wicked of Israel ( ^ " I P ' y e n s ) say that the Prophets and the Ketubim are not Torah; but we do not believe them" (quoting Dan. 9 , 1 0 , to prove 1

82

JUDAISM.

NOTES

that the Prophets and the Ketubim, among which the Book of Daniel stands, are Torah). I.

264

1. 5

Compare Ezra I.

264

N

7, 1 4 (-]TS H i n ^ K r m )

with verse

25

(yf?»

nDDra

29

See C. L. W. Grimm, Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch zu den Apokryphen ( 1 8 5 7 ) , IV, 3 0 4 f.; Philo, De Congressu, c. 1 4 § 7 9 (Man­ gey I> 5 3 0 ) ; Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 2 , 5 ; cf. Seneca, Ep. 89, 5. The expansion of this definition by the addition of the clause, "and of their causes," which Seneca thinks superfluous, perhaps comes from Poseidonios (see Karl Reinhardt, Poseidonios, 1 9 2 1 , p. 5 8 ) . I.265

N30

See Ecclus. I.265

24, 28-34,

a n

d

t n

e translator's preface.

N31

See also Sifre Deut. § 3 0 9 (ed. Friedmann f. 1 3 4 a ) , § 3 1 7 (f. 1 3 5 b ) , all quoting Prov. 8, 22. On the Law and Wisdom see Syriac Baruch 5 1 , 3 f. (cf. Zech. 7 , 1 2 ) ; 7 7 , 1 6 . 1.265

N32

Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah § 2 ; ibid. Bereshit § 5 = Bereshit Rab­ bah 1, i ; 8, 2 ; Pesikta ed. Buber f. 4 4 b . ; Shabbat 6 3 a , 89a. Refer­ ences to Prov. 8, 2 2 could be multiplied almost indefinitely. N33 See Vol. I, p. 5 2 6 , and below, p. 1 6 1 .

1.266

I.266

N34

Thus the words nsn IV (Psalm 90, 3 ) are interpreted by R. Meir, Jer. Hagigah 7 7 c , top; Eccles. R. on Eccles. 7 , 8; cf. Pesahim 5 4 a ; Nedarim 3 9 b . T o this interpretation Jerome also is a witness in his Psalterium juxta Hebraeos, "Convertis hominem usque ad contritionem." I.

267

1. 7

Instead of Omen read Umman. I.

268 N 36 The world created for the sake of the Torah. See Vol. I, p. 3 8 3 ; L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 6 7 f.

JUDAISM. I.268

NOTES

83

N37

In Jer. Ta'anit f. 68a with the addition: "and all three of them are contained in one verse (Isa. 5 1 , 1 5 ) , 'And I have put my words in thy mouth' — this is the Law — 'and in the shadow of my hand I have sheltered thee' — this is personal kindness — 'to plant the hea­ vens and to found the earth' — this is the sacrifices/' etc. I.

N 38 The way in which Moses begins the Law with the creation of the world is most remarkable, cos Kal rod KOCT/JLOV TOO voptco Kal rod VOJJLOV TQ KOfffAQj avvabovros Kal rod vofjtlfxov av8pds eWvs ovros KOO~PLOTTO\LTOV irpos rd /3ou268

\rjfxa TTJs 4>vo~€0)s ras Trpa^ets airevBbvovros, Kad' rjv Kal 6 avfjaras Koo~p.os 8LOL-

Keirat. Life in conformity with the law was therefore, in Stoic phrase, "life according to nature." I.

2 6 9 1. 28 The ' j o t ' (i&ra) of the familiar English version is theyod, the smal­ lest letter in the alphabet used by the Jews in Jesus' time. The ' tittle' (Kepaia) was one of the pen-strokes (keren, 'horn,' or siyun, 'dagger'), forming the 'crowns' (tagin) with which some letters of the alphabet were ornamented in Scrolls of the Law. In Menahot 29b (in the story of Akiba, above, p. 7 6 ; see also 'Erubin 2 1 b , end) the word kos ('thorn') is used. It seems probable that these names for the orna­ mental pen-strokes that made up the 'crowns' were used indiscrimi­ nately; but kos came to be associated especially with the pen-stroke on the letter yod, a single small stroke, or spur, pendent from the head of the letter (see Mahzor Vitry, plate facing p. 800, from the Sefer ha-Tagin, see ibid. p. 6 7 4 ; or the edition of that book, Paris, i 8 6 0 ) . In Jer. Sanhedrin 2 0 c (cf. Lev. R. 1 9 , 2) Solomon, who multiplied wives, horses, silver and gold, contrary to Deut. 1 7 , 1 7 , eradicated the letter yod in m T tih; the yod became his accuser, and the Book of Deuteronomy prosecuted the case before God. In the same con­ nection in Lev. R., R. Zeira (playing on Cant. 5 , 1 1 ) says: Even things which you regard as kdsin (insignificant strokes) in the Law are great hills on hills (teltele teltallm), capable of destroying the whole world (and making it a perpetual ruin (o^iy ^n)." Compare also the parallel Exod. R. 6 , 1 : God says: Solomon and a thousand like him may be busy abrogating, but not one kos of thee (sc. the yod) shall be abro­ gated." (For some variety of readings in these passages, see Kohut, Aruch Completum, s.v., V I I , 1 7 1 f.).

JUDAISM.

84 I.

NOTES

1. if. Compare Tanhuma ed. Buber, on Deut. 1 1 , 2 6 (Re'eh § 1 ) : n"3pm isiD l^fco rmn nni *7tnDn. Matt. 5 , 1 9 ('Whoever therefore shall abrogate one of these very least commandments,' etc.) represents the attitude of the strictly observant party among the disciples of Jesus, perhaps reinforced by some believing Pharisees. In direct contradiction to this attitude is Mark 7 , 1 9 , where Jesus is under­ stood to do away with all the so-called dietary laws, 'making all foods clean.' This interpretation, however, is a palpable gloss which, whether we read naOapLfav or KaQapi^ov, refuses to be construed with the sentence to which it is appended, and is, moreover, foreign to the matter in controversy. Into the further question whether the issue itself (D'T rb^i) can have been raised in the lifetime of Jesus for him and his disciples we have no occasion to enter here. Reference may be made to Biichler in the Expository Times, X X I ( 1 9 0 9 - 1 9 1 0 ) , 3 4 - 4 0 , and to the extended discussion of the whole passage in Montefiore, "The Synoptic Gospels" (2 ed. 1 9 2 7 ) , I, 1 2 9 - 1 6 6 , where other recent writers are quoted. 270

1.271

I.3

KnV Tny is often merely the immediate future as opposed to the immediate past (Taytf), e.g. Tos. Nazirut 3 , n . Cf. Mekilta, Yitro 5 (ed. Friedmann p. 6 6 b ; ed. Weiss p. 7 4 a ) . I. I.

2 7 2 N 41 In the Hebrew edition (Jerusalem,

1927),

p. 3 3 3 f.

2 7 2 n. 4 Compare the Revelation of John 2 1 , 2 ff.

N 42 Laws prescribing personal duties (^un niED), including what we call morals, are binding everywhere. Laws dependent on residence in the Land (jHfcO o ib>n), are for the most part expressly connected with the Land, and are chiefly concerned with the religious taxation (see Vol. II, pp. 7 1 ff.); the rules about the 'Orlah (Lev. 1 9 , 2 3 - 2 5 ) and Kilaim (Lev. 1 9 , 1 9 ; Deut. 2 2 , 9 - 1 1 ) are to be observed every­ where, and R. Eiiezer adds the prohibition of eating of the new crop of grain before the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 2 3 , 1 4 ) . Sifre Deut. § 4 4 ; Sifra, 'Emor Perek 1 1 ; M . Kiddushin 1 , 9 ) . I.

273

,v

I.

2 7 3 n. 2 See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 228 (n. 1 1 1 ) .

JUDAISM. I.273

NOTES

85

N43^

God says: "In this world I have given to you the Law, and individ­ uals work laboriously in it, but in the future (Tanhuma, "in the world to come") I am going to teach it to all Israel, and they will learn it and will not forget it ( J e r . 3 1 , 3 3 ) . " Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 1 0 7 a ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Yitro § 13 (f. 3 8 b ) . And again God says to Abraham who observed even the minute deductions: "Thou hast taught thy sons Law (Torah) in this world, and in the world to come I, in my glory, will teach them the Law (Isa. 54, 1 3 ) . " Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyiggash § 1 2 , end. Another notion is that God gives lessons to the (souls of the) righteous in heaven, to which even the ministering angels, who occupy an adjacent suite in heaven, are not admitted. Jer. Shabbat 8 d . God is not like an earthly ruler who issues edicts and commands others to obey them, but does not observe them himself unless he chooses. "God does a thing, and commands Israel to do and observe the same. Exod. R. 30, 6 ; cf. Lev. R. 3 5 , 3 . These are homiletic conceits rather than serious conceptions; in Lev. R., I.e., God (in Gen. 18) sets the example of showing the honor to the aged which he enjoins in Lev. 1 9 , 3 2 . The picture of God teaching the Law, like the head of a rabbinical academy, as it is said (see Baba Mesi'a 8 5 b , 8 6 a ) , has been the occasion of some rather witless pleasantries from Eisenmenger down. But instruction in religion is not the most unbecom­ ing occupation that can be imagined for God in heaven or in the World to Come. ,,

I.

274

1. i4f. Commandments to Adam are mentioned (but not specified) in Sifre Num. § 1 1 1 . I,

274

N 44 Some of the chief difficulties of this kind, things to which the "evil impulse" and the Gentiles raised objections, were the prohibited "mixtures" (e.g. in stuffs, shainez, linsey-woolsey, or in animal kinds such as breeding mules), the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement, and the red cow (parah) and the purification by its ashes in water (see Vol. II, p. 7 ) . It is observed that it is precisely in these cases that the word "statute" is used. To Moses God says: I will reveal to thee the meanings of the law, but for others it is a statute. Then from Zech. 1 4 , 6 , it is deduced that things that are covered up from men in this world will in the future be made as transparent as a globe (of crystal). (Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 3 8 b ~ 4 0 a ) .

86

JUDAISM.

NOTES

N45 For the numerous parallels and the variations in them see Theodor's notes in his edition of Bereshit Rabbah 1 6 , 6 (on Gen. 2 , 1 6 ) . An older tradition adduces these commandments (except "courts" or "judges" as examples of ordinances of God (Lev. 1 8 , 4 ) the obligation of which is so evident that, if they were not written in the law, they would have to be written in it on rational grounds. Sifra, Ahare Perek 1 3 , ed. Weiss f. 86a. On the commandments given by Noah to his sons see also Jubilees 7, 20 ff.; on the prohibition of blood (Gen. 9, 4) ibid. 6 , 7 - 1 0 ; 7 , 2 9 - 3 3 . See Jewish Encyclopedia, "Laws, Noachian" (VII, 648 ff.).

1.274

n. 1 The meaning of the Mishnah is that the Law was made binding on the Israelites by the revelation at Sinai, but when Moses put the Torah in order, he wrote this prohibition only in connection with the occasion that gave rise to it (Bertinoro). Whatever commandments had been previously known and observed by the patriarchs were renewed at Sinai (Vol. I, p. 2 7 6 ) . 1.275

N46 The *erub tabshllln ("combination of cooked food") is as minute a point of the traditional law as could well be imagined. In case a holy day (nitt DV) is immediately followed by the weekly Sabbath, the cooking of a dish intended for the Sabbath is "combined," on the eve of the holy day, with the cooking for the meals of that day; the pre­ paration for the Sabbath having thus been begun, it may be completed on the holy day (on which the prohibition of work is not so sweeping as on the Sabbath). (M. Besah 2.) On the 'erub haserot ("combina­ tion of domiciles") see Vol. II, p. 3 1 , and note thereon, below, p. 1 7 2 . On the sacrifices offered with correct ritual, and in general the obser­ vance of the law, by the righteous of ancient times (Adam, Psalm 6 9 , 3 2 ; Noah, the Patriarchs), see Lev. R. 2 , 10. That Abraham kept all the law before it was given (at Sinai) the rabbis found expressly affirmed in Gen. 26, 5 , which indeed is comprehensive enough; (see Kiddushin 8 2 a ; cf. Yoma 2 8 b ; Lev. R. 2 , 1 0 ) . It was held that, in connection with the covenant sacrifice (Gen. 1 5 , 9 f.), God showed Abraham all the piacula detailed in Lev. 4 f., except the sin-offering of the pauper (Lev. 5 , 1 1 ) ; Simeon ben Yohai did not admit even this exception (Lev. R. 3 , 3 ) .

1.276

JUDAISM. I,

NOTES

87

N 48 'The Lord came from Sinai' (Deut. 3 3 , 2 ) . When God (DlpDn) was revealed to give the Law to Israel, he was not revealed to Israel alone, but to all the peoples. Sifre Deut. § 3 4 3 ; cf. Mekilta, Bahodesh 5 (ed. Friedmann f. 6 7 a ; ed. Weiss f. 7 4 a — the beginning of the story, in which Balaam figures, ibid. 1, Friedmann f. 5 7 a ; Weiss f. 6 5 b ) . The (heathen) peoples were called that they might have no occasion of complaint against God ( n r D P n ) , saying, If we had been called, we would have taken it (the law) upon us. They were called, and did not take it upon them. . . . He was revealed to the children of Esau, the wicked, and said to them, Do you receive the law? They answered: What is written in it? He said to them: 'Thou shalt not kill.' They replied: This is our inheritance which our father left us, as it is said, ' B y thy sword thou shalt live' (Gen. 2 7 , 4 0 ) . He was revealed to the children of Ammon and Moab, and said to them: Do you receive the law? They replied: What is written in it? He said to them: Thou shalt not commit adultery. They said to him: But we are all sprung from adultery, as it is written (Gen. 1 9 , 3 6 ) ; and how can we accept it? He was revealed to the sons of Ishmael, and said to them: Do you receive the law? They said to him: What is written in it? He said to them: Thou shalt not steal. They replied: With this blessing our father was blessed, as it is written, 'He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man' (Gen. 1 6 , 1 2 ) , and it is written (Gen. 40, 1 5 , where Joseph says, ' I was stolen,' viz. by the Ishmaelites.) And when he came to Israel, 'from his right hand pro­ ceeded a fiery law unto them' (Deut. 3 3 , 2 ) , they all opened their mouth and said: ' A l l that the Lord has said we will do and heed.' — See also Midrash Tannaim, ed. Hoffmann, p. 209 f. 278

I,

279 N 51 This passage in Sifra (see Vol. I, p. 142) is presumably from the school of R. Ishmael. Bacher (Tannaiten II, 3 1 , n. 2) thinks that the name "Jeremiah" is a mistake for "Meir." A Tanna Jeremiah is quoted in Mekilta Bo 2 , and Beshallah 1, as well as in the places cited by Bacher. On the attitude toward proselytes see Vol. I, pp. 3 4 1 ff.

I,

1. 1 2 ff. It should be remembered that we posess no sources in which the Sadducees speak for themselves; all the testimonies about them come from unfriendly witnesses. In the current editions of the Talmud the matter is still further confused by the substitutions of the censorship 280

88

JUDAISM.

NOTES

or to forestall the censorship, which frequently put "Sadducee" in the place of names like Min that might be suspicious or obnoxious to Christians. An enumeration of the reported differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees in the interpretation and application of the laws, with references, is given, e.g., by Weiss (Dor, 4 ed. I, 1 1 1 1 1 3 ) and by Klausner, n r u n W (ed. 1 , 1 9 2 2 ) pp. 2 2 4 - 2 2 7 (in Danby's translation, pp. 2 1 9 f.). For a presentation of the historical and logical attitude of the Sad­ ducees towards the law reference may be made to J. Z. Lauterbach, "The Sadduccees and Pharisees," in Studies in Jewish Literature issued in honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler ( 1 9 1 3 ) , especially pp. 180-190.

It is also to be said that, if the Sadducees as a party among the Jews ceases to be significant after the fall of Jerusalem, their way of thinking did not become extinct; it was perpetuated, and had, if not a survival, at least a notable revival in the Karaites from the eighth century on. I, 281 (Chapter v) On the Synagogue see in general S. Krauss, Synagogale Alter turner, 1 9 2 2 . — The extensive literature is cited at the beginning of the main divisions of the volume and in the footnotes to the text. — For the worship of the Synagogue from the dawn of our knowledge to modern times, I. Elbogen, Der judische Gottesdienst in seiner geschichtlichen Entwickelung, 1 9 1 3 . 1,283

N52

For opinions and discussions about the antiquity and origin of the Synagogue, see S. Krauss, op. cit., pp. 5 2 - 1 0 2 . Note may be made here of the names given to it in Hebrew and Greek sources. The usual name in the former is n o l o , a word in itself applicable to any 'gathering/ or 'assembly,' of which the Greek equi­ valent is avvayuyri, from which the name "synagogue" in English and other modern languages is derived (through the Latin). The locality, or building where such a gathering was customarily held was n ' D n K D ("meeting house"), but it was not always necessary to be so specific, and W2D sufficed, or there are variations in the texts. In Greek the distinction could be expressed by the word (rvvaykyiov (Philo, De somniis, ii, c. 18 § 1 2 7 ; Leg. ad Gaium c. 4 0 § 3 1 1 ) ; but this does not seem ever to have become usual. Among Greek-speaking Jews the name irpoaevxn (place of) "prayer" seems to have been more

JUDAISM.

NOTES

89

common at Rome, "in qua te quaero proseucha?" (Juvenal, Sat. 3 , 2 9 6 ) ; awaycoyrjy which is very common in the New Testament, occurs but once in Philo (in a description of the Essenes): els lepovs a&KvovfjLeVOL TOTOVS ot KaKovvrai avvaycoyal (Quod omnis probus liber sit, c. 1 2 § 8 1 , ed. Mangey II, 4 5 8 ) , and in Josephus only in three places (al­ ways of a building). Note should also be made of the name n*n nnnnpn in the use of the Damascene schismatics, "house of prostra­ tion, " like mesjed mosque. The Proseuche (Prayer-house) in Tiberias is described by Josephus (Vita c. 54 § 2 7 7 ) as a very large building, capable of holding a great crowd. What was going on there on the occasion which led Josephus to speak of it was a political meeting on a Sabbath morning convened at the instance of the commissioners who had been sent from Jeru­ salem to supersede Josephus. According to his account the meeting would have broken up in a riot, had not the noon hour come when everybody went home for sabbath dinner. Early on the following (Sunday) morning they were convened again, the most not knowing what it was all about. They were beginning the prayers when Jesus got up and began to accuse Josephus. The sequel need not be recited here. What is to our purpose is that the synagogue building — to use the more familiar name — was not used exclusively for what we should call religious purposes, but for popular assemblies and for meetings of the city council ( § 3 0 0 ) . In fact, such buildings served various other communal interests, and were sometimes called by the common people ny ^"people's house" (public hall), a disrespectful name which is censured by a Tanna (Ishmael ben Eleazar, Shabbat 3 2 a , below). Another word of similar meaning to o~vvayuyi) is eKKkrjala, in the sense of 'assembly.' Inasmuch as the name o-wayooyrj was in general use for the "assembly" of the Jews, the "assembly" of Christians was called for distinction k/cXrjo-ia. It is unnecessary to go back to the Greek translations of the Bible, in which both occur, or behind the versions to the Hebrew ( m y , hr\p) which they render, for subtle dis­ tinctions of usage or of etymology. The Targum of Onkelos renders both Hebrew words by KPMD. In the Epistle of James ( 2 , 2 ) awayoyyv is used of a Christian as­ sembly, or meeting, and occasionally elsewhere. Epiphanius (Haer. xxx. 1 8 ) in the 4 t h century writes of the "Ebionites": o-wayuyriv 8e OVTOL KCLKOVO-L TT]V eavr&v eKKXyjalav, Kal ovxl eKK\r\o~Lav. In the Pales1

y

1

B . J . i i . 14, 4 a n d 5 §§ 285, 289 ( i n C a e s a r e a ) , v i i . 3, 3 § 44 ( i n A n t i o c h ) , a n d

x i x . 6, 3 § 300

(in D o r a ) .

Antt.

JUDAISM.

9°

NOTES

tinian Aramaic which the "Ebionites" of Epiphanius probably spoke this distinction could not be expressed; both avvayuyrj and eiacXriaia would be NHtra). Perhaps what Epiphanius means to say is that they called their "church" by the same name which was used of the "synagogue." It is questioned whether special edifices for the synagogue were in the first instance places of meeting for the reading and exposition of the Law, or for public and private prayer. The origin of the Syna­ gogue itself is too obscure to warrant a positive answer, and in view of the various other uses for which the buildings served perhaps the alternative is too sharply put. Nor can it be safely assumed that the development was everywhere the same. In the period represented by our sources it was both. Another name by which the synagogue, considered as a place of worship, could be called in accordance with common Greek usage was lepbv. In Josephus B . J. vii. 3 , 3 the building in Antioch which in § 4 4 is called avvayuyrj is in the immediate sequel (§ 4 5 ) called TO lepbv. In the letter which Onias addressed to Ptolemy and Cleopatra for permission to build a temple (vabv) to the most great God after the pattern of that in Jerusalem, he says that in his observation of the Jews in various places — Coele-Syria and Phoenicia are mentioned by name — he found most of them having improper sacred places, irXeiarovs

evp&v irapa

TO KaOrjuov exovras

lepa and in consequence on

bad terms with one another, as happens to the Egyptians also on ac­ count of the multitude of temples and disagreement about the cultus (dia TO ITXTJOOS T&V lep&v Kal TO irepl TOS Bprjo-Kelas ovx bfjibdo^ov). These lepa of the Egyptian Jews have been usually assumed to be synagogues, the only lepbv in the meaning 'temple* being in Jerusalem. This assumption and the prevailing opinion that there were no Jewish "temples" with sacrificial cultus outside of Palestine is contested by Krauss, op. cit., pp. 7 2 ff., cf. p. 2 4 . — Jos. Antt. xiii. 3 , 1 §§ 65 ff. N53 Besides the ascription of the Tefillot to the Men of the Great Syna­ gogue we have another statement, which perhaps means the same thing and is at least not inconsistent with the antiquity attributed to the prayers: " A hundred and twenty elders, among whom were a number of prophets, prescribed Eighteen Benedictions in their order" (Megillah 1 7 b ; Jer. Berakot 4 d . ) . See Vol. I, p. 3 2 with n. 2 .

1,284

I,

N 54 Cf. also Tosefta Sukkah 4 , 5 . See Krauss, op cit., pp. 6 6 ff.

284

JUDAISM.

NOTES

9i

N55 The ttyo BHpD (miniature sanctuary) of the prophet has frequently been taken in this way — the synagogue as a substitute in the remote­ ness of the diaspora for the temple. So the Targum: "and I have given them synagogues second to my sanctuary" (the Temple in 1.284

1

Jerusalem): w i p o n'n ? ]"rn

Kneroa v n yrh

rrarri.

The

prophet's

words, understood in the same way, are applied more specifically to the synagogues and school houses in Babylonia, or (by Eleazar ben Pedat) particularly to the school of Rab (Megillah 2 9 a ; see Ba­ cher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 2 2 1 , cf. I l l , 3 5 ) . Another verse which was homiletically applied in the same sense was Psalm 9 0 , 1 ; the "dwell­ ing-place" of the Lord, is the synagogues and school-houses (Megillah I.e. See further Vol. I, p. 4 3 6 ) . N56 On the great synagogue in Alexandria see especially Tosefta Sukkah 4 , 6 (Judah ben Ua'i) and the parallels in Jer. Sukkah 5 5 a - b , Bab. Sukkah 5 1 b ; Krauss op. cit. pp. 2 6 1 - 2 6 3 . It is called ptOD^SH ('double colonnade'), and is described as a large basilica which had one colonnade within another; we may imagine two rows of columns on either side of the (higher) hall in the middle. There was a wooden platform [bemd) in the middle of the building; the edifice was so large that the hazzan of the synagogue or master of ceremonies {memunneh) had to give the signal for the responses of the congrega­ tion by waving a cloth {sudarin). It is noted as a peculiar feature that the people were not seated indiscriminately, but each trade (e.g. gold­ smiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, etc., etc.) by itself; per­ haps places were assigned the several occupations in the bays between two columns, as they might have been in a market hall (basilica), and this, as well as the size of the edifice, may have contributed to the necessity for a visible signal for the responses. In the Palestinian Tal­ mud it is said that this building was destroyed by Trajan (presum­ ably in the suppression of the revolt in 1 1 6 A.D.). If so, Judah ben Ila'i as a young man might have seen the building himself, and the way in which the description in the Tosefta is introduced would make this impression. A different explanation of ptOD^SH is given in Kohl and Watzinger, pp. 1 8 0 - 1 8 3 , where the "double stoa" is interpreted as a "twostory stoa," the lower row of columns supporting a gallery (presum­ ably for the women), and the upper row carried up to the roof. The words of the Tosefta, VDDD n^sb VBD, have then to be taken of a 1.285

9

JUDAISM.

2

NOTES

colonnade across the end of the building from one of the side colon­ nades to the other (p. 1 8 2 ) . T h e i r reconstruction in perspective of the synagogues at T e l l H u m and at Irbid shows this form. T h e term used in T o s . S u k k a h 4 , 6 (ed. Z u c k e r m a n d e l , p . 1 9 8 , 1. 20) pDDl^BH is not known in G r e e k , but is doubtless intended for 8LTT\TJ(TTOOV (cf. TeTpdaroov). I t is used also of a synagogue in T i b e r i a s (Midrash T e h i l l i m on P s a l m 9 3 , end (ed. B u b e r , p . 4 1 6 ) , where R . H a g g a i (an A m o r a of the 4 t h generation) tells of a visit to this s y n a ­ gogue, which, like others, was used as a b o y ' s school. T h a t a s y n a ­ gogue in A l e x a n d r i a and one in Tiberias should be designated b y this unusual name suggests t h a t they were distinguished b y something peculiar in the architecture, not t h a t they conformed to the prevailing t y p e , as illustrated b y the Galilaean synagogues, e.g. a t T e l l H u m , and m a y be connected w i t h the unusual size of the building in Alexandria and perhaps in Tiberias. In T a l m u d i c references to the temple in Jerusalem a double stoa (ViSD VttD) is mentioned in several places (see Pesahim 1 3 b , 5 2 b ; S u k k a h 4 5 a , top, and parallels), and it is described as t h a t in A l e x ­ andria is in T o s . S u k k a h , VttDD wish VBD. T h e cloisters in n ^ n "in ap­ parently consisted of t w o rows of columns roofed over; cf. Josephus, Bell. Jud. v i . 3 , 1, and in other places, in accounts of the burning o f these cloisters and especially in the description of the temple v . 5 , 2 , 8Lir\ai

ph> yap

at aroal

navai.

T h e columns were m a r b l e monoliths

twenty-five cubits high, and the panelled roof was of cedar. T h e w i d t h of the cloisters was thirty cubits. T h e y were enclosed on the outside by a thick wall; and the complete circuit, taking in the A n t o n i a , w a s six furlongs. See further S. K r a u s s , S y n a g o g a l e A l t e r t u m e r , p p . 3 3 5 337-

I t was p r o b a b l y this synagogue which the Alexandrian m o b de­ secrated b y setting up in it a bronze statue of Caligula in a four horse chariot (Philo, L e g . ad G a i u m , c. 2 0 § 1 3 4 , ed. M a n g e y , I I , 5 6 5 ) : Iv 8e rg /JLeyiGTrj Kal 7repLO"rjfioTaTXi [irposevxy} . . . \l8pvovro\ dv8plavra x^X/cow eTOXOvfievov

Tedp'nnrco.

T h e r e were m a n y other synagogues (Trpoaevxai) in the different quarters of Alexandria (Philo, I n F l a c c u m c. 8 § 5 5 ) which were de­ stroyed or similarly desecrated b y the setting u p of images (Philo, I.e.. cf. In F l a c c u m c. 6 § 4 1 ) . I.286

N57 '\D' \W. m

y-lK3 ^ « H j n o

aycoyds

laxvpov

iirl

rrjs

A q u i l a (cf. S y m m a c h u s ) : evkirp-qaav iracras avvT h e reference is thought to be to the

yijs.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

93

times of Antiochus Epiphanes; cf. the following verse, "there is no prophet more." I, 2.88

11. 2,2,-24

On Nazareth see G. Dalman, Orte und Wege Jesu (3 ed. 1 9 2 4 ) , pp. 6 1 - 8 8 . •—The name, as was observed long ago, occurs neither in the Old Testament, nor in Josephus, nor in the Jewish writings (Tal­ mud and Midrash), and from the silence of the sources it has been inferred that there was no such place, and still more serious things inferred from the inference. See G. F. M . , "Nazareth and Nazarene," in Jackson and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, Vol. I, Appendix B , pp. 4 2 6 - 4 3 2 ) . The name is found, however, in two synagogue poems by Kalir, from one of which it appears that it was the residence of priests of one of the twenty-four courses. Kalir's source seems to have been a list of the courses, with the places in Galilee where priests of each settled, probably after the war under Hadrian. A trace of such a source has been found in Jer. Ta'anit f. 6 8 d , middle, where two well-known Amoraim of the third and fourth centuries respectively (Levi, Berechiah) differ in their interpretation of the obscure opening words. See Samuel Klein, " D i e Barajta der vierundzwanzig Priesterabteilungen." Beitrage zur Geographie und Geschichte Galilaeas, 1 9 0 9 . (Text of Kalir's first elegy and part of the second, with a medi­ aeval commentary on the first, pp. 9 7 - 1 0 8 . ) The lines of the first elegy in which Nazareth is named are quoted by Dalman, op. cit. p. 6 5 , and of the second p. 6 6 ) . The eighteenth course to which the order of the poem brings us is Y?% (1 Chron. 24, 1 5 ) . Some particular disaster to this course seems to be implied in the verses ending with the words: mxa m o r a [ m n v.l.] m n [Jer. 1 5 , 7 ] p a n n y r a i . The commentary (Klein, p. 1 0 7 ) , in the way of etymological midrash, explains the "course" of Nazareth was pisses and "because they spread abroad (pasu) with their mouth what they had not seen with their eyes they were dispersed abroad (napdsu) by the Roman people who put faith in the Nazarene (nosri) who was born in Nazareth (Nosrat) and they (the Christian empire) became enemies to them (sorerlm). The age of this comment is not known, and what is thus drawn out of plays on words is not to be taken for authentic history, though after Nazareth became a holy place for Christians the expulsion of priests who made themselves obnoxious is not in itself unlikely. It remains to be noted that according to Epiphanius (Haer. xxx. 1 1 ) Nazareth was in his time ( 4 t h century) a purely Jewish place. y

n

y

JUDAISM.

94

NOTES

I, 288 N 58 T h a t t h e y g o t their knowledge o f the B i b l e b y their o w n reading is an imagination not unnatural in an age o f printed books a n d mul­ tiplied translations, b u t shows extraordinary ignorance o f the con­ ditions o f the time o f Jesus. T h a t his " h o m e l i b r a r y " included n o t only manuscripts o f the H e b r e w Scriptures, b u t " e x t r a n e o u s " books such as E n o c h in H e b r e w (or A r a m a i c ) is to push the misunderstand­ ing to absurdity. B y an error (corrected in the second printing, p. 2 8 9 ) the signal of the coming on and the close o f the S a b b a t h was said to h a v e been m a d e similarly also for a " h o l y d a y . " — References should h a v e been given to M . IJullin 1 (end) and Josephus B e l l . J u d . i v . 9 , 1 2 § 5 8 2 (in the T e m p l e ) . C f . E l b o g e n in L e w y - F e s t s c h r i f t (pp. 1 7 3 - 1 8 7 ) , and G i n z b e r g , U n b e k a n n t e jiidische S e k t e , p. 1 5 3 [ L . G . ] I.289

N N 5 9 and 6 0

O n the officers o f the s y n a g o g u e , their titles and functions, see Juster, L e s Juifs dans Tempire R o m a i n , I , 4 3 8 ff., especially 4 5 0 ff. ( 1 9 1 4 ) ; K r a u s s , S y n a g o g a l e A l t e r turner, 1 1 2 ff. ( 1 9 2 2 ) . - — F o r some inscriptions from R o m e additional to the sources cited in these w o r k s the reader m a y be referred to the publications noted b y L a P i a n a , " F o r e i g n G r o u p s in R o m e , e t c . " H a r v a r d T h e o l o g i c a l R e v i e w , X X (1927), 3 5 1 .

I. 2 9 0

1.

12

T h e m Y i w a s originally a portable chest, or closet, which could be carried o u t into the streets a n d open places o f t h e town in a public fast ( M . T a ' a n i t 2 , 1 ) . I t is n o w usually a press, or closet, in or against the wall a t the end o f the building toward which the congre­ gation faces in worship, on a platform raised b y three or more steps a b o v e the level o f the floor. A s it is, b y reason o f its contents, the most sacred p a r t o f the edifice it is often highly ornate (see illustra­ tions in the Jewish E n c y c l o p e d i a , V o l . I , s.v. A r k o f the L a w ) . T h e name tmpn ynK, " t h e h o l y a r k , " in reminiscence o f the a r k ( ardn) in the tabernacle ( E x o d . 2 5 ) , a n d perhaps particularly o f the 'edut in it ( E x o d . 2 5 , 1 6 ) . T h e same ignorant v u l g u s w h o invited their death b y calling the s y n a g o g u e " p u b l i c h a l l " (see a b o v e , p. 89) are con­ demned also for disrespectfully calling the EHIpn piK in their vernac­ ular nn«, " b o x " ; S h a b b a t 3 2 a below. y

JUDAISM.

NOTES

95

I,

290 N 6 1 See Vol. I, pp. 3 1 7 f. — Literature on the hazzan, Krauss, Synagogale Alter turner, p. 1 2 1 , n. 2 .

I.

N 62 Krauss, Synagogale Altertiimer, p. 2 6 7 (literature); pp. 3 1 7 fF. (orientation); pp. 3 3 4 fF. (architecture). See especially Kohl and Watzinger, An tike Synagogen in Galilaea, 1 9 1 6 . 290

I.

291 1. 5f. The translation given in the text is that of the English version issued by the Jewish Publication Society, The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text ( 1 9 1 7 ) ; Singer, Prayer Book, p. 4 0 , 9 7 ; K . Kohler, Jewish Theology ( 1 9 1 8 ) , p. 5 7 ; cf. the Vulgate Latin, " Dominus Deus noster, Dominus unus est." The Authorized English Version ( 1 6 1 1 ) is, " T h e Lord our God is one Lord." — The words have been differently construed and understood by Jewish scholars (e.g., Ibn Ezra) as well as by Christians (e.g., by Ewald and by Dill­ mann). The problem is somewhat disguised by the substitution of "the Lord" for the proper name, and the copula (not expressed in Hebrew) is sometimes introduced in the first clause (Jehovah is our God), or in the second (Jehovah is one), or in both.

I.

2 9 1 11. 1 1 - 1 7 The ascription quoted ("TIN n x v ) is recited only in the morning, and the statement in the text should be corrected accordingly. For the evening an appropriate prefatory benediction is provided ( n m n D ' z n y a n y o ) , " W h o . . . bringest on the evening-twilight" — The dif­ ferentiation of the evening service from the morning seems to have been gradual; Berakot l i b . For the history of the evening prayer, see Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, § 1 4 . Singer, Prayer Book, p. 9 6 , with I. Abraham's note, Companion to the Authorised Daily Prayer Book. pp. cviii-cx. See also S. Baer, p. 1 6 4 .

I,

291

1.

26f.

The first three and the last three are recited; see Vol. I, p. 2 9 5 . I,

N 64 See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, 1 ed. p. 2 4 2 , cf. 2 3 6 ; M . Tamid 5 , 1 (in the Temple); see also ibid. p. 24. The Decalogue should properly have been recited in the Shema not only by the priests in the Temple but in "the borders," i.e. outside of Jerusalem. This was discontinued on account of the "cavils of the heretics" ( m y i s ^ S D 291

4

96

JUDAISM.

NOTES

OTWT [Bab. nonyn] Jer. Berakot 3 c middle, Bab. Berakot 1 2 a ) , that they might not say, "These (Ten Commandments) only were given to Moses at Sinai" [? Deut. 5, 1 9 ] ; cf. Mahzor Vitry, p. 1 2 , below. See also the discussion in Sifre Deut. § 3 4 , ed. Friedmann, f. 7 4 a - b , of the rightful place of the Decalogue in the Shema*. — The "heretics" are here probably Christians; in fact the Mahzor Vitry I.e. (interpreting D T O n ) has " l e s t " * * * H'D^n ([the disciples of Jesus], should say, the rest of the Torah is not truth," etc. A manu­ script in the hands of S. D . Luzzatto contained, after the (suppressed) name of Jesus, some additional words, mediaeval characterization of contemporary Christians, I.e., footnote 8 ) . The attitude toward the revelation of the Law ascribed to these heretics is not that of the im­ mediate disciples of Jesus nor of the Nazarenes or Ebionites after them. Nor is it — rightly understood — the position of Paul and the Christianity which he represents; even less of the Marcionite extreme. The testimonies in the Talmud are somewhat uncertainly datable; the Rabbis cited in connection with them are Amoraim (Palestinian and Babylonian) of the third century or later, except R. Nathan (the Babylonian) Berakot 1 2 a . Who the "heretics" were who held that the Decalogue alone was the revealed law of God I have not been able to recognize in the heresiographers. I,

2 9 1 N 63 The Shema' consists of the following passages: ( 1 ) Deut. 6, 4 - 9 ; (2) Deut. 1 1 , 1 3 - 2 1 ; (3) Num. 1 5 , 3 7 - 4 1 . In the morning two "bene­ dictions" t i k nxr and n m nana) precede and one ( a w nm) follows these biblical passages (M. Berakot 1, 2 ) . See Elbogen, Der jiidi­ sche Gottesdienst § 7 , and the literature cited at the beginning of the section. — The passage from Numbers was introduced later than the two from Deuteronomy (Elbogen, p. 24 ff.). The modern form of the Tefillah may be found in the Prayer Books (Singer, pp. 4 4 ff.); on its composition and wording see Elbogen, § 8, § 9 ; on the other daily prayers (Minhah, 'Arabit), Elbogen, § 1 3 , § 14.

An older (Palestinian) form of the Tefillah was found in the Cairo Genizah and published in Jewish Quarterly Review, X ( 1 8 9 8 ) , pp. 6 5 6 ff. I,

2 9 1 N 65 In Jewish use the name "Tefillah" is appropriated to the Eighteen Prayers (Shemoneh 'Esreh) or the short prayer which may be used

JUDAISM.

NOTES

97

instead in circumstances of danger. The "Eighteen" is also called 'Amidah, because the worshippers stand during the recitation of it. See the article "Shemoneh Esreh" in Jewish Encyclopedia. 1,291 n. 5 It should be understood that this prescription has reference to private devotions.

I, 292 N 66 On this disposition see Abudraham, chap. 2 (ed. Prag, 1784, f. 2b~3a), quoting Rab Huna, Sifre § 343 (ed. Friedmann, f. 142b, top). I. 292 1. 21 The redactor of the prayer for the extirpation of heretics was Samuel the Little (so correctly in the index), not "Simeon the Little." The mistake was not observed in time for correction in the second printing. I. 292 N 68 This is the Birkat ha-Minim to the use of which Epiphanius (Haer. 29, 9) and Jerome (on Isaiah 5, 18 f.; 49, 7; 52, 4 f.) refer; in both the Nazarenes are specifically named. The text in the current PrayerBooks (Singer, p. 48, with Abrahams p. lxiv f.; Baer, p. 93 f.) with the editor's note on the variants in the list and explanation of them, beginning WYtibn^ is innocuous enough, and has the appearance of having been modified more than once in the course of the centuries and adapted to new conditions and surroundings. I, 293 N 69 The present texts probably derive from, or have been conformed to, Babylonian sources of the Gaonic period. I, 293 N 7 0 The first is called in the Mishnah I.e. n"QK on account of the re­ peated mention in it of "our fathers," "Our God and our fathers' God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" etc.); the second, m T Q 3 from the recognition of the almighty power of God ("Thou art mighty — TOU — for ever"); the third, wn nvrnp, "the hallowing of the Name" ("Thou art holy, and thy name is H o l y " — B m p ) . — See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst § 8 (Komposition, § 9 Wortlaut).

9

8

JUDAISM.

NOTES

I.

2 9 4 1. 8 ff. Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 23 § 1 9 6 , speaking of the temple service, " A t the sacrifices prayers for the common welfare come first, after them those for ourselves individually."

N71 See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst § 9 b .

1,294

I,

2 9 6 1. 1 8 - 2 1 Jer. Megillah 7 5 a , above; see also Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 17 § 1 7 5 , Philo, De opificio mundi, c. 4 3 § 1 2 8 ; cf. Jos. Antt. xvi. 2 , 4 § 4 3 . — On Ezra see above, p. 6 f.

I.

2 9 7 N 72 " A t the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose [Jerusa­ lem], thou shalt read this law (cf. vs. 9) before all Israel in their hear­ ing. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the stranger that is within they gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn," etc.

I. I,

2 9 7 n. 2 Read Deut.

31, 10-13,

instead of

"33, 10-13."

2 9 7 N 73 On the whole subject see Elbogen, op. cit., § 2 5 .

I.

298 N 74 " M . Megillah 4 , 4 does not refer to the regular weekly readings, but to special Sabbaths and holy days. As a matter of fact the rule given in the Mishnah, not to skip, was not observed by the high priest on the Day of Atonement; see M . Yoma 7 , 1 and Megillah 2 4 a .

[L. G.] I, 2983 end,

and

2 9 9 , top,

and

N

74

See Elbogen, p. 158 f. — Bertinoro (in loc.) observes that the high priests on the Day of Atonement read Lev. 1 6 , i f f . and then Num. 2 9 , 7 ff. (M. Yoma 7, 1 ) . Though these passages are widely separated, they have the same subject, forming two parts of the proper lesson for the day. -— In the prophets it was not allowed to skip from one prophet to another, except in the Book of the Twelve (Minor Pro­ phets). Jer. Megillah 7 5 b ; cf. Megillah 2 4 a .

JUDAISM.

NOTES

99

N75 See Elbogen, cited below (note 3 ) .

1.299

N76 The custom of reading the Torah through in three years is attri­ buted in Megillah 2 9 a to the Westerners (Palestinians), in evident distinction from the Babylonian one year cycle. The former division, represented by Sedarim, is observed in many of the Midrashim. As this system was superseded by the sections of the annual cycle (Parashiyot) its divisions became a matter of purely learned interest; they are ignored in most manuscripts, and the enumeration in the Massoretic sources varies from 1 5 3 , 1 5 4 or 1 5 5 (the last being the greatest number of Sabbaths that can fall in three consecutive years of the Jewish calendar) to a total of 1 6 7 . The annual cycle has 5 4 sections. It is perhaps not unnecessary to add in this connection that the chapters in printed Hebrew bibles are not a Jewish division: they were taken over from the Latin Bible (Vulgate), in which they had been in­ troduced for convenience of reference in a concordance, to serve a similar purpose in a Hebrew concordance, and the differences which may be discovered in the enumeration of verses between, say, the English version and the Hebrew Bible are not departures from the "original" •— they are in fact usually quite the opposite. See G. F. Moore, "Vulgate Chapters and numbered verses in the Hebrew Bible," Journal of Biblical Literature, X X X ( 1 8 9 4 ) . 1.300

1,300

H.8-12

" O n Sabbaths which fall in a festival the order of continuous read­ ing is not observed. On these Sabbaths two different lections are read; the first is the festival reading, the second an introduction to the prophetical lesson, whence the reader of the second is known as maftir, i.e., the reader of the Haftarah."). [L. G.] — See also N 74 (on Vol. I, p. 2 9 8 ) . I.

N 77 The quorum for certain religious observances specified in M . Megil­ lah 4 , 3 . See Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. 'Minyan'; Elbogen, op. cit., § 5 3 . The origin of this minimum number and its constitution (ten adult free males) are not explained. Perhaps ten was taken as the smallest unit in the Mosaic organization of the people (Num. 1 8 , 2 1 ; Deut. 1 , 1 5 ) . In M . Sanhedrin 1 , 6, in an explanation of the make up of the minor sanhedrin of twenty-three members, it is asked, "Whence 300

JUDAISM.

IOO

NOTES

is it learned that a congregation ( m y ) consists of ten?" and Num. 1 4 , 2 7 is adduced, where the n a m n y n n m y is taken of the (ten) spies who brought back a bad report of the land, Joshua and Caleb, who reported favorably, not being counted with them (cf. Jer. Megil­ lah 7 5 b , above; Megillah 2 3 b ; Maimonides, Hilkot Tefillah 8, 5 f.). I,

n. 4 See Vol. I, p. 4 1 1 ff. Cf. Jerome Epist. 53 (ad Paulinum, Vallarsi I, col. 2 7 7 ) : Tertius [Ezechiel] prinicipia et finem tantis habet obscuritatibus involuta, ut apud Hebraeos istae partes cum exordio Geneseos ante annos triginta non legantur. 300

I. 3 0 1 n. 2 See Vol. I, p. 3 0 3 , n.

3

I, 3 0 2 1. 2 o f . With the survival of the prevailing language of the Persian period and the coming and going from Palestine and more remote eastern lands, the number of Aramaic-speaking Jews in Alexandria and other parts of Egypt in this age was doubtless considerable. I.303

N78

The word tsniSD so interpreted, Jer. Megillah 7 4 d ; Megillah 3 a ; Nedarim 3 7 b . See Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst § 28, and the literature there cited; A. Berliner, Targum Onkelos, II, 7 3 ff., especi­ ally pp. 84 ff. I. 3 0 3 N 7 9 See especially M. Megillah 4 . I. 3 0 4 N 80 Berliner, Targum Onkelos, II, 86 f., where additional examples are adduced. I, 3 0 4 n. 4 Add Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 204 f. I. 3 0 5 N 8 1 See Vol. I, pp. 1 7 5 f. The English reader may get a notion of the freedom of the Palestinian Targums on the Pentateuch, in the forms in which they have been transmitted to us, from the translation by J. W. Etheridge, "The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziei

JUDAISM.

NOTES

IOI

on the P e n t a t e u c h with the F r a g m e n t s of the Jerusalem T a r g u m " (2 vols. 1 8 6 2 , 1 8 6 5 ) . — T h e texts are conveniently brought together (with standard commentaries on the H e b r e w , etc., etc.) in an edition, mm w i n n » D n , V i e n n a , 1 7 9 4 . I . 3 0 5 N 82 T h e search for precedent and authority found the exposition as well as the reading of Scripture and the translation ( T a r g u m ) in N e h . 8, 8 t o p o n i r m bzw nm " t h e y g a v e the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." I, 3 0 6 n. 1 In some of the M i d r a s h i m , e.g. L a m . R . , a good deal of A r a m a i c is interspersed, and some of them seem to be, at least in part, H e b r e w versions of discourses spoken in A r a m a i c . W e m a y compare mediaeval L a t i n sermons, p r o b a b l y delivered to popular audiences in the vernacular. I. 3 0 6 N N 83 and 84 E l b o g e n , D e r jiidische Gottesdienst, § 1 2 a ; D a v i d de Sola P o o l , T h e O l d Jewish-Aramaic P r a y e r , the K a d d i s h , 1 9 0 9 . — See V o l . I I , p p . 1 0 1 , 2 1 2 f. — In the e x t a n t prayer books, the A r a m a i c is larded w i t h H e b r e w clauses, but this is o b v i o u s l y secondary. A r a m a i c is ex­ ceptional in prayers. R a b J u d a h s a y s : " L e t a m a n never ask for w h a t he needs in A r a m a i c , " and R . Johanan, " W h o e v e r asks for w h a t he needs in the A r a m a i c language, the ministering angels [who transmit his prayer] do not ally themselves with him, for the minis­ tering angels do not understand the A r a m a i c l a n g u a g e . " ( S h a b b a t 1 2 b , Sotah 3 3 a . )

L 307

N85

T h e innumerable specific precepts and doctrines (X6701, bbyixara) h a v e t w o highest principles T O re irpos Oebv 5i' evaefieias Kal 6O~L6T7)TOS Kal TO irpos dvBpccirovs bia <j>ikavBpwnias Kal biKaioo-vvqs' &v eKarepov els iroXvax^eh ideas Kal irdaas eiraiveTas r'eiiveTai. Philo d e v o t e d t w o trea­ tises to these subjects (cf. V o l . I , p . 2 1 3 ) , of w h i c h the former (irepl evaePeias) is not preserved; the latter (7repi 4>i\avBpc*mias) has its place under the head of the V i r t u e s ( M a n g e y , I I , 3 8 3 ff.). W i t h the subsumption of the m a n y specific precepts and doctrines under these two heads, cf. M a t t . 2 2 , 3 4 ff., M a r k 1 2 , 28 ff. See V o l . I I , p p . 85 ff. ( T e s t a m e n t s of the T w e l v e Patriarchs, ibid., p . 8 6 ) ; cf. p p . 1 7 3 f.

JUDAISM.

102

NOTES

Vol. I, 3 0 8 n. 1 In Jer. 2 , 8 the rmnn n^sn seem to be a special class of students and interpreters of the Law, like the Scribes in our period (Vol. I, pp. 3 7 ff.), but those who earliest addicted themselves to these studies were probably priests. I, 3 0 9 N 86 Sofer is probably a denominative from 'book/ as if we should say "bookman," with especial reference to the books of Scripture, or to the whole "Bible." Taken as a nomen agentis in the sense of "one who counts," the name was supposed to be given to them because of what we should call "massoretic" enumeration of words, etc. Kiddushin 3 0 a : "The ancients were called soferim because they counted all the letters in the Law." The motive for such exactness is explained in the context. See Bacher, Terminologie, I, 1 3 4 f. I, 3 0 9 N 87 For a translation of the whole passage see Vol. I, pp. 4 0 f. 1.310

N88

See Vol. I, pp. 1 . 3 1 1

L l

?

156-158.

.

.

"Sacrificial worship" is perhaps too narrow a rendering for Simeon's 'abodah; in other places I have used "cultus" (Vol. I, p. 3 5 ; Vol. II, p. 1 7 2 ) , or "worship," and have explained the latter in Vol. II, pp. 84 f., cf. p. 2 1 7 f. n. 1 On "ryi n'3 see L. Ginzberg, "Geonica I, 3 , n. 3 . — The phrase suggests the *?K HyiD in Psalm 7 4 , 8 (Vol. I, pp. 285 f.), which Aquila (cf. Symmachus) rendered by avvayuyai (meeting-places): N 57, above, p. 9 2 .

1.311

N89 Sirach (Hebrew text), 5 1 , 2 3 : n n i D n u n i r h by nbDD IDS; Greek, ev 0U0) Trcudelasy similarly (and probably not independently) Syriac, itoEbv n'n. See further Vol. I, pp. 3 1 4 f. 1.312

1,312

n3

The suggestion had been made that the phrase may represent minn D n s i D , "association," collectively "associates"; e.g., of a teacher and

JUDAISM.

NOTES

103

his colleagues and disciples (Ezra, Hillel, Johanan b. Zakkai, Meir). See Lev. R. 2 6 . I,3i3

I.13

"Janitor," literally "the keeper" of the Bet ha-Midrash. 1,313

N8ga

The name IIOXXICOJ> is perhaps conformed (? by copyists) to that of (Asinius) Pollio, a friend of Herod at Rome (Antt. xv. 1 0 , 1 § 3 4 3 ) . Cf. IIo7rXas Bell. Jud. ii. 2 , I § 1 4 and I l r o X X a s Antt. xvii. 9 , 3 § 2 1 9 - — the same man, friend of Archelaus. — It is said that Abtalion was of foreign ancestry (Vol. I, p. 3 4 7 ) , and if he had a name which began with two consonants both the prothetic K in our rabbinical sources and the dropping of the second consonant in Josephus would be explained. 1,313

N90

In fact they imagined that the antediluvians from Seth on — as well as the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — were at the head of schools of the Law. They have a corresponding position (Enoch, Noah) in the apocalyptic tradition. 1.313

U.2lff.

"Certain statements in the Mishnah are described as having been brought from Babylonia by Hillel; cf. Kiddushin 7 5 a , with reference to M. Kiddushin 4 , 1 . " [L. G.] — See also Vol. I, pp. 248 f., and N 1 4 there. 1.314 314

I . 2 2 Read Eleazar. n.4

It does not appear that when Philo writes of the "innumerable schools" (dtdaaKaKeia) open in the cities on the Sabbath he means to distinguish in a corresponding way between the Bet ha-Midrash and the Synagogue (irpoaevxh) • I,

11. i8f. and n. 2 On Eccles. 1 2 , 1 1 see also Sifre Deut. § 4 1 (f. 7 9 b , middle).

315

11. 2 4 ff On the Yelammedenu problem see Vol. I, p. 1 7 0 , and the Notes on that page (above, p. 48 f).

1.315

JUDAISM. 1,316

NOTES

N91

T h e usual name is "1£)D n'n; o n s i D Yin, K e t u b o t 1 0 5 a ; correspond­ ing (in number) to the nVDio 'nn and m e m o 'nn in Jerusalem. T h e sofer is here the teacher of the elementary school. 1.316

N92

I t is said t h a t Simeon ben S h a t a h ordained t h a t children ( m p i r n •— b o y s are meant, not girls) should go to the elementary school ("1SD n'n). Jer. K e t u b o t 3 2 c , top. A new arrangement is ascribed to Joshua ben G a m l a , w h o ordained t h a t teachers should be installed in e v e r y district (NUHD) and in e v e r y city, and t h a t b o y s should enter the school at the age of six or seven years, instead of sixteen or seven­ teen, at which age they had previously gone to the schools in Jerusa­ lem. B a b a B a t r a 2 1 a (tradition in the name of R a b ) ; K r a u s s , op. cit. I l l , 200 — Simeon ben S h a t a h was a great figure in the d a y s of A l e x ­ ander Jannaeus and Queen Alexandra — say, in the first decades of the first century B.C Joshua ben G a m l a is usually identified with Jesus son of Gamaliel, w h o , w i t h A n a n u s , was one of the leaders of the moderate p a r t y in Jerusalem in the early stages of the W a r ( 6 6 A.D.) and, w i t h A n a n u s , w a s one of the victims of the fury of the Idumaeans and Zealots (Josephus, Bell. Jud. iv. 3 , 9 ; 5, 2 ) . See Jewish E n c y c l o ­ pedia, " E d u c a t i o n " (Giidemann). I t is obvious t h a t if these reforms were proposed on the eve of the war, e v e r y t h i n g must h a v e begun over again after it. Such considerations h a v e led to the conjecture t h a t the name of Joshua ben Perahiah (the contemporary of Simeon ben Shatah) should be read, instead of Joshua ben G a m l a ( B a c h e r ) ; see K r a u s s op. cit. I l l , 3 3 7 , n. 1 0 . B u t this seems only to be getting out of one difficulty into another. 1.317

n.4

See also Maimonides, H i l k o t T a l m u d T o r a h , 2 , 1 . — Jerusalem was destroyed only because the children were allowed to p l a y on the streets instead of attending the schools. (Shabbat 1 1 9 b , quoting Jer. 6, 1 1 ) . T h e words (of R . H a m n u n a ) occur in a passage in which several A m o r a i m of the third century give reasons for the destruction of Jerusalem: " T h e world is sustained in existence only on account o f the breath of school children." (Shabbat, ibid., below, R . Simeon ben Lakish.) I

j

3

1

7

1 , 2 5

. L e v i ben Sisi (Vol. I, p . 290) should not h a v e been decorated here with the rabbinical title which he is never g i v e n in the sources; ap-

JUDAISM.

NOTES

105

parently, notwithstanding his close relations with the Patriarch, he was not ordained by him. The famous haggadist R. Levi (Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 2 9 6 - 4 3 6 ) is a different person, and belongs to a later generation. I,3i8

H.5-10

The neighbors complained that they could not sleep through the noise. Jer. Baba Batra 1 3 b , below. Cf. Martial, ix. 6 8 : Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister? Nondum cristati rupere silentia galli, Murmure iam saevo verberibusque tonas. Vicini somnum non tota nocte rogamus, Nam vigilare leve est, pervigilare grave est. Discipulos dimitte tuos. Vis, garrule, quantum Accipis ut clames, accipere ut taceas? n. Quoted, Vol. I, p. 1 6 1 . — For other references and literature see Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, I ( 1 9 2 7 ) , 7 .

1,319

I,

4

11. 23 and 2 9 Properly speaking rabbinical ordination did not confer the venia docendi, but an authorization to give decisions as jurisconsults or judges; and this authorization might be general, or restricted to certain classes of decisions, as is illustrated in the case of Rab (Vol. I, p. 1 0 5 ; Sanhedrin 5 a - b ; on the three degrees see also Maimonides, Hilkot Sanhedrin 4, 8 ) . 320

I,32i

1 . 8 _ l

When this kind of Jews is referred to the usual phrase is amme ha-ares, in distinction from non-Israelite amme ha-arasot, who are really heathen. l

I.

3 2 1 n. 4 ^ The investigation could be resumed with profit. In the lack of a recent comprehensive work, the notes in the German translation of Philo (Professor Leopold Cohn), particularly on De Specialibus Legibus, will be found helpful.

io6

JUDAISM.

NOTES

11. 6 - 1 0 Josephus, whose knowledge of Hebrew will hardly be disputed, is capable of etymological explanations of names from which an op­ posite inference might be drawn. 1,322

N 95 See C. Siegfried, Hebraische Worterklarung des Philo, u. s. w., 1 8 6 8 ; "Philonische Studien," in Merx, Archiv fur wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Alten Testaments, II. 2 ( 1 8 7 1 ) , pp. 1 4 1 - 1 6 3 . — In Greek also Philo makes etymologies more edifying than sound, e.g., De Monarchia (ed. Mangey, II, p. 2 1 9 ) : the Ideau are so-called be­ cause they 18LOTOLOV(TL every individual thing.

1,322

I,

n. 2 Mathematical astronomy fell in the field of higher education, and it is uncertain how extensively or in what way it was cultivated in our period. The first scholar celebrated for his attainments in this field is Mar Samuel (end of the second century and first half of the third). — The attitude toward Greek learning and the Greek language differed with times and circumstances, and with individuals. In the end of Sotah (f. 4 9 b) we read of an occasion, while Hyrcanus was besieged in Jerusalem by Aristobulus, when the practical joke of an old man expert in Greek learning — he sent up a pig for the daily sacrifice (Ton) instead of the expected lamb — in consequence of which they said, "Cursed is the man who raises pigs, and cursed is the man who teaches his son Greek learning.'' In the sequel there is somewhat roundabout tradition that among Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel's (II) reminiscences of his youth was that in the very numer­ ous household of his father, the Patriarch, one half the boys studied Torah and the other half Greek learning. His son, the Patriarch Judah, said: " W h y Syriac ('DUD) in the land of Israel? Either the holy language (Hebrew) or the Greek language!" Simeon ben Gama­ liel is elsewhere reported to have said that it was not permissible to write the Scriptures ( a n s o ) except in Greek. On the other hand, R. Joshua, being asked about teaching one's son Greek, answered, let him teach it to him at an hour that is neither day nor night (since the son should be engaged with the Law day and night). A daughter may be taught Greek, for it is an accomplishment for her. Jer. Peah. 15 c. 322

JUDAISM. 1.323

1-

NOTES

107

3f-

Buddhism, which in these centuries was in the midst of its great age of expansion, lies outside this field, and the Mysteries did not try to convert men from the public religions, but offered their various ways of salvation within and beside them. l. f. On the Diaspora see T h . Reinach, in Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Diaspora, IV, 5 5 9 ff.; Juster, Les Juifs dans l'empire Romain, I, 1 7 9 - 2 1 2 and the literature there cited (p. 1 7 9 , n. 5 ) ; on the numerousness of the Jews, ibid., p. 209 ff. — Josephus, B . J. ii. 1 6 , 4 (Agrippa's speech) § 3 9 8 , "there is not a people in the world which does not con­ tain a portion of our race"; vii. 3 , 3 § 4 3 ; cf. Antt. xiv. 7 , 2 § 1 1 5 (Strabo). On the influence of the Jewish religion and its observances, Contra Apionem, ii. 3 9 § 282 ff. — The Jews were exiled among the nations, in God's purpose, for the sake of increasing their numbers by converts. See Pesahim 8 7 b (R. Eleazar ben Pedat — third century — quoting Hos. 2 , 2 5 , ' I will sow (broadcast) her for me in the earth'). 1.324

I.

326

4

11.

5-9

See, e.g., Josephus, B . J. ii. 20, 2 § 560 f., on the women in Damas­ cus, who were with few exceptions addicted to Jewish observances. 1,328.

N97

has not been found outside the Greek Bible and writers influenced by its diction, and may perhaps have been coined to dis­ tinguish "13 in the later meaning of a convert to Judaism from the older and secular sense of the word, an alien living in a country and among a people not his own — the advena legum et rituum from the advena regionis (Philo, Fragt., ed. Mangey, II, 6 7 7 ) . In the latter meaning, a new-comer or stranger in a foreign land, the classical word is eT7)\vSy e.g. Herodotus iv. 1 9 7 (opposite of avroxOcav), Aesch. Persae 2 4 3 (invaders), cf. Theb. 3 4 ; Suppl. 1 9 5 ; ewrikvryis Thuc. i. 9 ; cf. Dion. Hal. iii. 7 2 ; L X X Job 2 0 . 2 6 (for T " I P ) . Similarly Tpoo~rj\vTos is opposed to avroxdoov (Lev. 1 6 , 2 9 ; 1 9 , 3 4 ; 2 4 , 1 6 ) or Tpoar]\vTos

eT7]\vTos

iyx&pios

I,

(Lev.

18, 26;

24, 22).

n. 4 One of the leaders of the revolutionaries in the War was "Simon son of Giora," from Gerasa, one of the Hellenistic cities east of the 328

io8

JUDAISM.

NOTES

Jordan in the Decapolis (Josephus, B . J. iv. 9 , 3 § 5 0 3 ) , and, as the patronymic "son of the proselyte" shows, of non-Jewish extraction. 11. 1 - 1 0 Torrey (The Second Isaiah, pp. 2 5 7 , 4 2 7 f.) regards Isa. 5 6 , 2 - 6 as an insertion by a later hand; cf. 58, 13 f. It would not be questioned, however, that it was in the text long before the period with which we are concerned. In the Greek translation 5 6 , 6 is rendered: Kal TO is aXkoyevecn rots irpoo~K€itikvoLs Kvpico SovXevecv aura), K. T. X. (cf. vs. 3 , 6 aWoyevrjs 6 TrpoaKeljjLevos irpos Kvpiov). The reference to proselytes is evident. 1.329

I,

329

1. 20

On advena in a religious sense see Apuleius, Metamorphoses, xi. 2 6 : Eram cultor denique assiduus, fani quidem advena, religionis autem indigena — as already an initiate of Isis — xi. 2 3 - 2 5 . See also Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Mysterienreligionen, 3 ed., p. 1 9 and p. 1 9 3 . N 98 Esther 8, 1 7 : nrxby a m r r n i n s b*n u DHrrno p « n ' o y a o'rni. This reflexive denominative, of which there is apparently no other instance, is equivalent to lov8at£eiv; see the Greek version, Kal TOWOI T&V kdv&v wepLeTejjLOVTO Kal IOV8CLL£OV 81a TOV (frofiov T&V 'Iov8aioiv. 1.330

N99 See the story of Shammai and the heathen inquirer in Sabbat 3 1 a : the inquirer asks, "How many laws have y o u ? " " T w o , the written law and the traditional law." "About the written law I trust you; but about the traditional law I do not trust you. Make me a proselyte OrT'a) with the understanding that you shall teach me the written law." Shammai chode him angrily and sent him off with a smart rebuke. (Hillel, to whom he went, received him: and next day con­ vinced him by a lesson on the alphabet that tradition is the indis­ pensable condition of learning.) 1.331

N 100 M . Keritot 1.2, R. Eleazar ben Jacob: The proselyte is in default a piaculum until the blood of the victim is splashed upon him. Cf. Tos. Shekalim 3 , 2 0 : a proselyte who is prevented from eating of sacrificial flesh until he brings his bird (dove or pigeon) may bring a [single] bird in the morning and eat of sacrificial flesh in the evening. 1.332

JUDAISM.

NOTES

109

See Keritot 8 b . It is remarked that in other cases when a pair of birds is offered, one of them is a so-called " sin-offering/' the other a burnt-offering; but in the propitiation of the proselyte, if two birds are offered, both are burnt-offerings (Sifre; cf. Keritot 8 b ) . Since in his case there is no sin-offering, some authorities held that only one bird, for a burnt-offering, was required (Tos. Shekalim 3 , 2 0 , quoted above, p. 1 0 8 ) . The legitimacy of sacrificing a single bird, notwith­ standing the fact that in the laws they are always offered in pairs, is affirmed in Sifra, Wayyikra, Par. 7 , but denied in Sifre Num. § 108. 1,333

In filling out the ellipsis I have followed Rashi in he. (f. 4 7 a ) , who continues the suppletion, "but would that I might deserve this." I, 3 3 3 N 101 According to Simeon ben Yohai, as reported in the Talmud (Sotah 1 2 b , Megillah 1 3 a ) , the motive of Pharaoh's daughter in going down to the Nile to bathe was to cleanse herself from the idols of her father's house; and since Jewish legend discovered Moses' foster-mother in Bithiah (daughter of Job) in 1 Chron. 4 , 18 (Wayyikra Rabbah, I , 3 et alibi) this bath was taken to be, in her intention, proselyte baptism. (See Rashi on Sotah 1 2 b , etc.) It need hardly be said that the original meaning of baptism cannot be learned by such tortuous combinations, as some scholars still think (see Jewish Encyclopedia, II. 5 0 0 ) . I, 3 3 3 n. 2 Three witnesses are required. Yebamot 4 6 b ; Johanan gives an explanation of this number: it was the number of judges in the lowest court. In the sequel (f. 4 7 a ) the case of the proselyte who has been made one in such and such a court and one who claims to have become a proselyte by himself are discussed; according to R. Judah (ben Ila'i) the latter is not a prose­ lyte at all, on account of the absence of proof. Assimilation to the rule that sessions of a court are not to be held at night produced the rule that baptism of converts should not be at night. Yebamot 4 6 b , end. Cf. Jer. Yebamot viii. 1 . I, 3 3 3 N 102 The rite is presumed in the Mishnah (Pesahim 8, 8 ) , and a dif­ ference between the schools of Shammai and Hillel about the right of a proselyte baptized on the eve of Passover to partake of the

JUDAISM.

no

NOTES

Passover is reported, which would take us back to a time before the fall of Jerusalem. There is, so far as I know, no earlier evidence; but there is nothing to indicate that proselyte baptism was of recent introduction. I,

N 103 The opinion of R. Eiiezer (ben Hyrcanus, first generation of the second century) is sometimes quoted, that a man who had been cir­ cumcised but not baptized should be treated as a proselyte. His habitual opponent in such questions, R. Joshua ben Hananiah, matched this opinion by as good a one, namely that one who had been baptized but not circumcised was a proselyte. The one proved it from the fathers in Egypt and the other from the mothers. Such, jeux cT esprit did not impress the majority, who ruled that a man was not a proselyte until both rites had been duly performed. (Yebamot 4 6 a ) . 334

1.335

The point of the discussion in Yebamot 6 2 a would have been more correctly stated if I had written "Whether a son born after his con­ version is his first born son. This correction, which I owe to Professor Ginzberg, was made in the second printing of the volume, Nov. 1 9 2 7 . As to inheritance, the rule is that a proselyte is not an heir-at-law of a heathen father, even if the latter also has become a proselyte (Kiddushin 1 7 b ) ; see Maimonides, Hilkot Nahalot 6, 9 and 1 0 . ,>

I

I> 3 3 5

2

_

I

4

a n

d

n. 2

It should be noted that this is the implication of R. Jose's opinion in a controverted question, not a generally accepted principle, still less a "doctrine." That the proselyte is like a newborn child, see also Yebamot 2 2 a , below; Bekorot 4 7 a , above. Cf. also Jer. Bikkurim 6 5 b , top — all his transgressions are forgiven to a proselyte, — the same thing is affirmed of others who enter on a new sphere of life — an "elder" newly elected, a bridegroom. The exegetical argument is unusually subtle, and the conclusion not to be taken dogmatically. In Midrash Samuel, c. 1 7 , the point of departure is 1 Sam. 1 3 , 1 ,
J

1- 9 The proselyte is a fourth category also in the schismatic Damascus sect. Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, pp. 1 2 4 - 1 2 6 . 335

JUDAISM.

NOTES

i n

I,

337 1. 2 9 f. The Idumaeans who were summoned to support the Zealots profess to be very patriotic Jews: they are come to defend the liberty of Jeru­ salem; they are of the Wvos, crvyykvtis, avyy evkararoL (kinsmen, near­ est kinsmen), and resent finding themselves shut out of the city which they name TTJV KOIV^V TOXLV; they will fight in defense of the house of God and our common country, against the invaders from without and the traitors within, etc., Josephus, B . J. iv. 4 , 4 , cf. also Antt. xiii. 9, 1, end. — On compulsory circumcision at a much later time, as a condition of living among Jews, see Josephus, Vita i. c. 23 § 1 1 3 ; i. c. 1 3 1 § 1 4 9 1, 3 3 8

H.6ff.

The ambiguity of the phrase 'righteous' might be avoided by say­ ing an 'upright proselyte'; p i x is frequently used where we should say genuine, or colloquially 'real.' I, 3 3 8

(1. i 9 ) ~ 3 3 9

top

In the Pentateuch toshab is such a resident, and the word is often conjoined with ger (ger we-toshab). The distinction between the two names or classes designated by them is not clear. In one place only in the Pentateuch (Lev. 2 5 , 4 7 ) , the phrase ger toshab, without the conjunction, occurs in the Massoretic text, perhaps merely by acci­ dent. (The Samaritan Hebrew and the ancient versions all present the usual ger we-toshab.) However that may be, Jewish jurists made it a technical term in the sense to be defined. 11. i f f . On the r w i n "13 see Sifre Deut. § 2 5 9 (on Deut. 2.3, 1 6 f., the fugi­ tive slave); more fully, Midrash Tannaim, ed. Hoffmann, p. 1 4 9 . [L. G.] 1.339

I,

1- 7 For "Jewish courts," "established courts" was substituted in the second printing; see Vol. I, p. 2 7 4 and note 4 . Cf. Jewish Encyclo­ pedia, s.v. Laws, Noachian (VII, 648 ff.). 339

1.340

H.15-20

" T h e question is whether Exod. 20, 10 refers to work done by a "13 for a Jew, in which case it is the "13, or to work done for himself, in which case it means the p"T2 "13." [L. G.]

JUDAISM.

112

I,

NOTES

n. 1 In the second printing the last words ("a Jew in sjavery to such an alien") were deleted. The nature of the case contemplated by R. Simeon ben Eleazar (Arakin 29a) is a question which it is unneces­ sary to pursue here. — That the year of Jubilee was not observed after the exile is agreed; that it was given up much earlier is said in 'Arakin 3 2 b near the end. See also Jubilees 50, 5, where the possession of all the land is the condition of the observance of this year, as in 'Arakin 3 2 b . It is evident that the reversion of landed estates to the heirs of those to whom they were originally allotted is dependent on the occupation of the whole territory thus divided into allotments by tribes, clans, and families. 340

I,

340 N 104 The legislation about the resident alien (ger toshab) is rather of an academic than practical character, for it is applicable only under cir­ cumstances in which the Jews were lords in their own land, and had only to do with the particular conditions on which foreigners should be allowed to dwell in the land. That the jurists were aware of this unreality appears from the statement that the class of institutions existed only so long as the law of the Jubilee was in operation, and as by common consent the celebration of the Year of Jubilee had not been held since the Babylonian exile, the casuistry about the ger toshab could become actual law only in the future golden age, when the Jews in their own land should again be a nation making and executing laws for foreigners domiciled among them.

11. iff. On the so-called "proselyte of the gate" "W) see Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, u. s. w., I l l , 1 2 7 . Schiirer opines that this distinction makes its appearance in the literature with Salomon Deyling, De ae^ofxevocs TOV Beov (in his Observationes Sacrae, II, 4 6 0 ff.). It may be so; though Deyling's pages would not sug­ gest it. His aefibiievoi are IWi na or "lytP na "qui dicebantur," proselytae portae — two names for the same class. He gives no refer­ ences to Jewish sources or Christian predecessors in this phraseology or identification. — The correct opinion is expressed by Lardner: "There was but one sort of proselytes among the Jews. They were circumcised," etc. (Works, V I , 2 1 6 ff.; cf. X , 3 0 0 ff.). 1,341

I,34i

IE 1 3 ff-

On the attitude toward proselytes see Israel Levi in the Hebrew

JUDAISM.

NOTES

"3

periodical plan, I X , 5 - 3 0 ; L . Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, pp.124-126.

N 106 The DTE^D who now appear in the twelfth of the Eighteen Prayers do not occur in the oldest texts of the Tefillah, and probably have their origin in Christian or Persian surroundings rather than under Roman rule. The report of Simeon ben Yohai's comment on the selfish mo­ tives of the Roman public works, greatly admired by one of his col­ leagues but which coming to the ears of the government forced him to flight and long hiding (Sabbath 3 3 b ) , is not represented as a case of delation. Judah ben Gerim (i.e., of proselyte ancestry, not himself a proselyte), who incautiously repeated the words of R. Judah (ben Ilai') and R. Simeon outside the school, was a rabbi who is found elsewhere in the school of R. Simeon (Mo'ed Katon 9 a ; Pesikta ed. Buber, 8 7 b ) . There is an anecdote which suggests how proselytes might be em­ ployed as detectives: two Roman military officers were instructed by the government to become proselytes and investigate the Jewish law. In this character they studied all branches of the law under Rabban Gamaliel at Usha, and finding in it only one thing to take exception to, left, promising not to report that point to the authorities. See Sifre Deut. on 3 3 , 3 (§ 3 4 4 ) . A relapsed proselyte was an "apostate" no less than a born Jew who had gone over to another religion. That some found the obliga­ tion they had assumed to keep the whole law too much for them is what we should expect, and is attested by Josephus, c. Apion. ii. c. 1 0 1,342

§123:

I,

eio~i 5' OL TTJV Kapreplav

ovx viroixeivavTes

TCL\LV

airkGTt)o~av.

h3 In Isa. 4 6 , 1 DTip is a verb (laa Dip hi y o , " B e l has crouched down, Nebo bends double" (?). That D"ip is a verb is recognized by all the ancient versions, however variously they render it (the same verbs, in the plural, in vs. 2 ; Dip is not found elsewhere in the Bible). In the quotation of this passage in Mekilta, I.e., "Yesterday you were worshipping Bel, Kores, Nebo," a proper name seems to be required (cf. Sifra, Kedoshim Perek 8 , 2 , on Lev. 1 9 , 3 3 ) , even if it be a mis­ take (to which the change of tense may have contributed). 343

1,344

N107

Num. R.

8, 2

(on Num.

5, 6).

ii I,

JUDAISM.

4

NOTES

n. 7 end See the same author's 'in 'rrron ]Vjnn

346

1.347

(192.7).

p.

276.

2

I- 5

On the combination which makes Akiba a descendant of Sisera, see Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 3 0 4 , note. — On Meir (Vol. I, p. 9 5 ) , above, Note p. 3 5 . 1.348

1 7 ;

On Elisha and Gehazi see also L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, IV, 2 4 4 - 2 4 6 and V I , 3 4 6 f. — Ibid. 1. 1 0 f. (Joshua ben Perahiah and Jesus). Joshua b. Perahiah is one of the second " P a i r " (Vol. I, p. 2 5 5 ) , colleague of Nittai of Arbela; their successors were Judah b. Tabai and Simeon b. Shatah, in the days of Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Alexandra. The Palestinian Talmud tells the story of Judah ben Tabai and one of his disciples, unnamed (Jer. Hagigah 7 7 d , mid.). In both stories the scene is laid in Alexandria. The anachronism in the Babylonian Talmud which gives the name "Jesus the Nazarene" to this disciple is obvious. N 107 Num. R. 8, 2 (Num.

1,348

I,

5, 6 ) .

n. 1 Cf. Suetonius, Domitian c. 1 5 . — Others, also, es rd T&P 'lovbaiuv

349

rjOrj QonkWovTes

were convicted on the same charge of ddebrris (Dio,

I.e.). "Atheism" in law was not the theoretical denial of the existence of gods, but, like daeBeta, covered various and ill-defined offenses against the religion of the state. Christians were called "atheists"; they would not take oath by the emperor nor say Kvpios Kcuaap nor offer sacrifice. (Mart. Polycarpi). From these demonstrations of loyal piety the Jews were exempted, but presumably not proselytes to Judaism (see Vol. I., p. 3 5 0 ) . Dio's description of the offense as "driving ashore (and making shipwreck) on rd TCOV 'lovdaiuv r)6rj sug­ gests addiction to Jewish observances and customs, rather than the monotheistic doctrine which Christians derived from the Jews and shared with them. y

1.357

ff

:

On this and the following chapters, cf. Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 1 6 ff., especially § 1 6 4 ff.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

US

1 , 3 5 9 l.*8f. See A. Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God. I. The Names and Attributes of God. 1 9 2 7 . I,

360

n. 1 Gen. R. 2 6 , 6 (on Gen. 6, 3 ) with Theodor's note (p. 2 5 2 f.) citing also Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 6 8 b , Lev. R. 2 8 , 1, Eccles. R. on Eccles. 1,3I,

361

I,

362

N 108 Monotheism in this, the proper sense of the word, is the central doctrine of the "theologian among the prophets" in Isa. 4 0 - 6 6 . See C. C. Torrey, The Second Isaiah ( 1 9 2 8 ) , pp. 6 7 f.; R. Smend, Alttestamentliche Religionsgeschichte, pp. 3 5 6 ff. This only God had been from the beginning the God of Israel, and Israel was the only people that acknowledged and worshipped him and obeyed his re­ vealed will. See Vol. I, pp. 2 1 9 ff. (Nationality and Universality). It is in this sense that the words of the Shema', Adonai Ehad, were understood and professed (Vol. I, p. 2 9 1 , n. 1 ) .

Read I,

363

I,

364

1.

24

CLVTOS.

n. 2 T o the references in Josephus on Egyptian theriolatry may be added: Contra Apionem, i. 2 5 § 2 2 5 , ii. 6 § 65 f., ii. 7 § 80 f.; on the statues (cf. Wisdom of Solomon, I.e.), ibid. ii. 6 § 7 4 f. N 109 The whole subject of the intercourse of Jews with adherents of other religions is covered in the Mishnah with the Talmuds, and the Tosefta, and in the codes, under the head of 'Abodah Zarah. (The abbreviation D"iDy "Worship of the Stars and Constellations.") came in with the Christian censorship. I.364

Nno

Dualism, of one origin and kind or another, was in the atmosphere of philosophical and religious thought in the period with which we are concerned. The references given in note 3 could be multiplied in­ definitely. T o that from Plato I add only one (Laws x. 896 E), where the question of Soul as controlling heaven is raised — "One, or more than one? . . . More than one; at least two must be assumed, the

n6

JUDAISM.

NOTES

beneficent (soul) and that which is capable of bringing about effects of the opposite kind." See also Aristotle, Metaphysics 9 8 6 A - B . Dualism of a Platonic kind pervades Plutarch's interpretation of the Egyptian as well as the Persian religions in the De Iside et Osiride. Dualism of this sort is found in Paul (6 Beds TOV ai&vos TOVTOV, 2 Cor. 4 , 4 ; Eph. 2 , 2 ; 6, 1 2 ) and in the Gospel according to John: 6 iipxuv rod Koa/xov TOVTOV, 1 2 , 3 1 ; cf. 1 4 , 3 0 ; 1 6 , I I ; cf. also I John 5 , 1 9 . A dualism, not of contrariety but of subordination ("one God, the Father . . . and one Lord, Jesus Christ"), is the specific difference between Christianity as a religion distinct from polytheistic heathen­ ism on the one hand and strictly monotheistic Judaism on the other (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 8, 5 f.). The early controversy of Judaism was with this type of dualistic theism; the trinity ( K n ? ^ ) , which became the distinctive peculiarity of Christianity in Jewish apprehension, be­ longs to a later development of dogma. Dualism of the good-and-evil kind is found also in the Christian Gnostic systems which have made whole mythologies out of it, generally with a further premise, that matter in and of itself is evil; but the proper characteristic of "gnosticism" is not its dualism but its plan of salvation by transcendental "knowledge" (yvooais). All dualists were heretics in the eyes of Jewish orthodoxy, but that the pre-Christian Jewish dualists were therefore "gnostics" is not to be inferred in default of other evidence. The literature on Jewish "Gnosticism" from Krochmal (ed. Lemberg 1 8 5 1 , pp. 226 ff.) and Graetz down to 1903 may be found in Blau's article (Jewish Encyclopedia, V, 6 8 6 ) . See also Weiss, Dor II, 1 2 5 f. 1

N m See Bacher, " D i e Gelehrten von Caesarea," Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, X L V , 298 ff.; on Abahu in particular, Bacher, Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer, II, 88 ff, — Two sayings attributed to Abahu may be quoted. On Exod. 2 0 , 2 (I am Jehovah, thy God): A human king may be king though he has a father or a brother or a son (living). God says, I am not so. " I am first," for I have no father; "and I am last," for I have no brother; "and besides me there is no God," for I have no son (Isa. 4 4 . 6. Exod. R. 2 9 , 4 ) . " I f a man says to you, ' I am a god,' he is lying; ' I am the Son of Man,' he will end by being sorry for it; ' I am going up to heaven,' he will not fulfil what he said." (Jer. Ta'anit 6 5 b , bottom.) 1,365

JUDAISM. 1.365

NOTES

117

N112

Perhaps these are only the initial words of longer formulas which were interpolated in the recitation of the prayers of the congregation. The errors which are condemned in them are pointed out in the com­ mentaries on M . Berakot 5 , 3 . 1.366 ll. ff. R. Nathan is an authority of the second century who held a high place in the Academy of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel and was afterwards closely associated with the Patriarch Judah. He was a native of Babylonia, but most of his life was passed in Galilee. 4

1.367

11- 9

ff-

Cf. Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God sed quaere.

(1927),

pp.

105

ff.,

11. iff. See Boll, "Hebdomas," in Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, V I I , 2 5 4 7 ff., esp. 2 5 6 1 ff. — On the seven heavens and what is in them see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V , 10 f.

1.368

n. 5 Cf. Pesahim 9 4 b , attributed to R. Johanan ben Zakkai (f. 9 4 a , bottom).

1.368

1.369

1-14

Hence an oath by the Temple, the abode of God, Kiddushin 7 1 a (Rashi); cf. nm p y o n M . Ketubot 2 , 9 (Bertinoro; see also Yom Tob, in loc.). I,

11. 1 1 ff. On the omnipresence of God, Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 148 ff. and on His omniscience, pp. 1 5 3 ff. — As a Greek parallel it may suffice to adduce Aratus, Phaenomena, 1 ff. fieo-ral 8e Aids Traaai p.ev ayviai, iraaai 8' dvOpcoircav ar/opai, ixearr) 8e 6a\aao~a Kal 370

\ijikves'

. . .

1,371

N113

In the sequel in the Mekilta a distinction is drawn from other texts between the messengers who are sent to execute a decree of God favorable to Israel and those sent on an evil decree; but this does not affect the preceding argument. The messengers of a human ruler always have to return in order to render their report. — The omnisci-

n8

JUDAISM.

NOTES

ence of God is recognized in the prayer in the 'Amidah of the Day of Atonement (Singer, p. 259; Baer, p. 416): Thou knowest the secrets of eternity, and the hidden things of the secrets of every living being. Thou searchest the inner chambers of the body, and triest the reins and the heart. Nothing is concealed from Thee and nothing is hidden from Thine eyes, — followed by prayer for forgiveness and the indi­ vidual confession of sins Cal het). This form of prayer is known to Rab, if it is not meant that he is the author of the first clause, Samuel of the second, and so on (Yoma 87b, middle; see Baer's note, I.e., and, as a commentary, Abudraham (Prag, 1784, f. 88b.) 1.373 N 113a On the omniscience of God in Philo cf. also De Somniis, c. 15 § 90 f., ed. Mangey, I, 634 (the most secret thoughts of men). — On God as TOTTOS in Philo see Drummond, Philo Judaeus, II, 20; on mpD in rabbinical sources, Marmorstein, op. cit., pp. 92 f. (literature on its relation to Greek, p. 91, n.), cf. pp. 127 ff. This author's thesis is that for the DlpD of the older sources substitutes were later introduced, especially, nopn. 1.374 1 1 . 1 5 * On the omnipotence of God, Marmorstein, pp. 82, 127, 160 ff. 1,374 N 1 1 4 For additional references see Marmorstein, pp. 158 f. 1,374 N 1 1 5 Numerous other occurrences of r r v n a , especially in connection with the giving of the Law, e.g., Mekilta, Beshallah 1 (ed. Friedmann, f. 26a); Cf. Jer. Sanhedrin 28a, bottom: "not as though he heard it from the mouth of a shepherd (Moses), but as though he heard it from the mouth of the Almighty," et alibi. See Aruch Completum, s.v. (II, 230). 1,376 11. 1 iff. On miraculous events of later times brought into existence at the close of the creative week, see Abot 5, 6 (cf. Pesahim 54a; Sifre Deut. § 355, ed. Friedmann, f. i47a-b; Mekilta, Beshallah 4, ed. Fried­ mann 30a, Weiss 37a). Mediaeval Jewish philosophers found support in these passages for their view that miracles were not after-thoughts or innovations, but had been implanted in nature from the beginning.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

119

See Maimonides commentary on M . Abot, I.e., and Moreh Nebukim, ii. 2 9 ; Jewish Encyclopedia, V I I I , 6 0 7 , with references. I,

N 116 Additional references of the same tenor: Berakot 4 a , Sanhedrin 9 4 b .

377

N 117 Honi ('tivlas) is a caritative for more than one Hebrew name (Jo­ hanan, Nehunya). The rain-making saint is referred to in Josephus, Antt. xiv. 2 , 1 § § 2 2 - 2 4 ; i the war between Aristobulus and Hyrcanus with his ally the Arab king Aretas, he prayed that God would hear the prayers of neither party, and was killed by those who had invited him to turn his effectual prayer into imprecation against Aristobulus and the priests who were besieged with him in the Temple. The rab­ binical references which connect the name of Simeon ben Shatah with this importunity in prayer for rain (Vol. II, p. 2 2 2 , 2 3 5 f.) are not incompatible with the date in Josephus. 1.377

n

1.378

1.8

New Testament examples: cures, Acts 3 , 6, cf. 1 6 ; 4 , 7 , 1 0 ; exor­ cisms, Matt. 7 , 2 2 ; 9 , 3 8 ; Luke 1 0 , 1 7 ; Acts 1 6 , 1 8 ; 1 9 , 1 3 - 1 6 . Rab­ binical: Jacob of Kefar Sekanya, Tos. Hullin 2 , 22 f.; Jer. 'Abodah Zarah 2 , 2 ; Jer. Shabbat, 1 4 , end; 'Abodah Zarah 2 7 a - b . See in gen­ eral on the efficacy of names in incantations and in prayer, Pfister, in Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, X I , 2 1 5 4 - 2 1 5 6 ; Heitmuller, Im Namen Jesu ( 1 9 0 3 ) . N 118 " I n S h a b b a t h 3 2 a , Ta'anit 2 0 b , it is said that the miracle wrought for one will be deducted from his merits, that is, he will in this way have drawn on his bank account in heaven!" [L. G.] 1.379

I.

379

n. 8 Heraclitus: rjXios ydp oi>x virep^riceT at p.krpa' et 8e yd), 'IZpivves ixiv A'uajs kw'ucovpoL k^evprjo-ovaiv. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 9 4 (3 ed., I, 9 6 ) . I,

380

N 119 Bacher, in Jewish Encyclopedia, X I , 641 a-b.

N 120 Creation ex nihilo is discovered by some (see Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, II, 4 9 3 note) in Apoc. Baruch 2 1 , 4 : " W h o

1,382

JUDAISM.

120

NOTES

didst call from the beginning of the world to that which till then did not exist and they {plural) obey thee"; but the inference does not seem to be warranted by the words. Cf. Philo, De justitia, c. 7 (De special, legibus, iv. § 1 8 7 , ed. Mangey, II, 3 6 7 ) : rdydp UT) OPTO. eKahrjaev els TO elvai TOL^LV e£ arra^ias Kal e{ airo'uov TroioTrjTas Kal e£ dvofioluv dptOLOTtfTas . . . dei ydp irkrjfipiekes

eariv e L

0V0

TTJS x ' P ^

eirijieKes ovalas

avTco Kal r a t s evepyeTiatv

avTOV dwapeat

/xera7roieu> Kal jJLeSappLofecrOai irpos TT)V

TO dfielvo).

As Philo elsewhere expressly includes the material (the four ele­ ments) as one of the conditions that must concur in every creative act (De Cherubim, c. 3 5 § § 1 2 5 - 1 2 7 , ed. Mangey, I, 1 6 1 - 1 6 2 ) , it is plain that he does not here imagine creation ex nihilo. I,

N 121 On the end of God in creation see Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 67 f. 383

1.384

11- 5 ff-

See Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, p. 102. I,

n. 6 The Yoser (Singer, p. 3 7 , Baer, p. 7 6 ; Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottes­ dienst, § 7 ) is the first of the Benedictions introductory to the recita­ tion of the Shema' and the Tefillah in the daily morning ritual. The clause, " A n d in his goodness renews every day continually the work of creation," is found in a different context in Hagigah 1 2 b , middle, with Isa. 40, 2 2 , as scripture for it. 1.385 N122 God's providence is not confined to human beings: Even a bird is not caught in a fowler's snare without (the decree of) Heaven. Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 89a, in a story about R. Simeon ben Yohai; other references and readings in Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, p. 9 1 ; cf. Matt. 10, 2 9 . 384

N 123 On the two nwn see Gen. R. 3 3 , 4 (on Gen. 8, 1 ) : 'W m p D bsn . . . .nai p i n m o D'H^K mpo bzn . . . parn mm b& " ™ a w n n m o The occurrences which seem contrary to this rule are explained as cases in which men by their conduct have turned the attribute of mercy into judgment or vice versa. See Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God ( 1 9 2 7 ) , pp. 4 3 ff. Other terms are m i B mo and rnayns mo ('punishment') (ibid. 4 5 ) ; 1,387

v

JUDAISM.

NOTES

121

e.g., Mekilta Yitro 1 0 , ed. Friedmann, f. 7 2 b , ed. Weiss, f. 7 9 b — one should give thanks to God for both alike — Akiba, in a signifi­ cant contrast with the attitude and custom of the heathen; cf. the words of R. Ishmael reported in Mekilta Bo 1 6 , ed. Friedmann, f. 1 9 b , top, ed. Weiss, f. 2 3 b - 2 4 a . — The reason why the attribute of mercy is associated with the name Yahwe is that Yahwe is the proper name of the God of Israel; He is expressly qualified as pam Dim (Exod. 3 4 , 6 ) , Sifre Deut. § 2 7 init.; cf. also Rosh ha-Shanah 1 7 b . Philo, who read his Bible in Greek was led by the substitution of Kvpios for mrp, to connect with it the idea of sovereignty in its judicial aspect, and deos conversely with the beneficent power (Quis rerum divinarum sit haeres, c. 6, ed. Mangey, 1 , 4 7 6 f.; De somniis i. 26 § 1 6 3 , ed. Mangey, I, 6 4 5 ) . w

I, 3 8 7

1. 2 6 - 3 8 8

1. 1 ff.

Marmorstein, pp. 1 8 1 ff., cf. pp. 1 9 6 ff. I, 3 8 8 N 1 2 4 Upon condition of repentance. Hence the sentence pronounced at New Years is not sealed until the Day of Atonement, in order that in the intervening ten days a man may have opportunity and occasion to repent. See Vol. I, p. 5 3 3 , Vol. II, pp. 6 2 f. U. iff. For other references see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V , 7 3 .

1.389

1.390

N125

See Vol. I, p. 3 9 6 . N 126 Compare 1 John, 2 , 1 ; Rom. 8, 3 3 f. In general, in the rabbinical sources, almsgiving and personal charity "are a great advocate (paraclete), and great peace is between Israel and their Father who is in heaven'' (Jer. 1 6 , 5 , Tos. Peah 4 , 2 1 ) , or repentance and good works are the great advocates (pto ?pns); though nine hundred and ninety-nine testify that he is guilty and only one bear witness in his favor, he will be saved (Shabbat 3 2 a ) . Cf. R. Eiiezer b. Jacob, Abot 4 , 1 1 , and the numerous places quoted by Moses Kobryn on this say­ ing (f. 9 6 b - i o o b ) . 1.391

,l

I, 3 9 3 N 1 2 7 Men asked wisdom (philosophy) what is the penalty of the sinner? Its reply was: Evil pursueth sins' (Prov. 1 3 , 3 1 ) ; they asked prophecy 1

JUDAISM.

122

NOTES

the same question, and were answered: ' T h e soul (person) that sins shall die* (Ezek. 1 8 , 4 ) ; [they asked the Law, and got the response: ' Let him bring a trespass-offering, and atonement shall be made for him' (cf. Lev. 1 , 4 ) ] ; they asked God, and He said, " L e t him repent, and it shall be forgiven him." — There are variations in the tradition, the most important of which I have added in brackets from the Pesikta; but the substance is the same, and God's answer is always forgiveness on condition of repentance. — The omission of sacrificial atonement after the destruction of the temple in not strange; but the symmetry of the scheme obviously requires the answer of the Torah as well as those of Wisdom and Prophecy. 1,393,

end.

On the suffering of God in his people, see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V I ( 1 9 2 8 ) , 25 f. — many and old occurrences, e.g., Mekilta, Bo 1 4 , ed. Friedmann, f. 1 6 a , ed. Weiss, f. i o b - n a . I, 3 9 4 - 3 9 5

On the goodness of God extending to the animals see Baba Mesi'a 8 5 a (quoting Psalm 1 4 5 , 9 ) . [L. G.] This Psalm is recited in the Daily Prayers (see Berakot b ) , and in fact thrice (Singer, pp. 29, 7 1 , 9 4 ; I. Abrahams, Companion to the Daily Prayer Book, xxxvi; Baer, 1 2 6 ) . On Psalm 1 4 5 , 9 see Gen. R. 3.3, 3 . See also Psalm 1 0 4 . The doctrine is so common in the Bible that it needs no further illustration. On the goodness of God to all his creatures see also Marmorstein, op. cit.> pp. 1 9 6 f. 4

I,

396

N

128

Particularly "7Dn, manifestly undeserved goodness (like x<*P«). I,

N 129 Note especially ppn, Deut. 7 , 7 ; 1 0 , 1 5 . R. Simeon ben Lakish includes pm, Deut. 4 , 4 ; psn, Mai. 3 , 1 2 ; Gen. R. 80, 7 . 1,397 U.i6f. See Vol. I, p. 3 9 5 (Jer. Hagigah 7 7 c ) ; also pp. 3 9 3 - 3 9 4 , and with the references there, R. Meir, M . Sanhedrin 6, 5 . 396

1,399

N130

In the period from which our sources come " E s a u " and " E d o m " were taken to apply to the Roman empire. See Vol. I, p. 400.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

123

1 , 4 0 1 fF.

Inasmuch as it was my purpose in the volumes on Judaism to set forth the teaching of the Tannaim, not the imaginations or super­ stitions of the Jewish masses, I have not made place for either the mythical angelology or the popular demonology. For the latter the reader may now be referred to an Excursus, Zur altjudischen Damonologie, in Strack-Billerbeck, IV, 4 3 5 - 5 0 1 , observing that the range of sources is much wider than in my "Judaism." Cf. also Bousset, Religion des Judentums (3 ed. Gressmann, pp. 3 3 1 - 3 4 2 ) , " D e r Dualismus. Die Damonologie," in which title the author's unhistorical point of view is indicated. I,

402

N 131 There are places where wrbto ("divinities") itself has been under­ stood in ancient and modern times to be applied to angels (Psalm 8, 6 ; 8 2 , i ; 9 7 , 7 ; 1 3 8 , 1 ) in all which except 82, 1 (where it construes differently, and renders 6eovs) the L X X has ayyekoi. — In Enoch 6 , 2 (Gk.), ot &77€Xoi utot obpavov (cf. 1 3 , 8; 1 4 , 3 ) , ovpavos is probably a metonymy ( c m ? for DYT^N, as was already noted by Lods ( 1 8 9 2 ) . I,

402

N 132 Angels, or a class of angels, are named p T y (wide awake, unsleep­ ing), commonly rendered "watchers" (Dan. 4 , 10, 1 4 , Aramaic), frequent in Enoch (eyprjyopol); epithets expressive of might or majesty are poetically appropriated to them, Psalm 7 8 , 2 5 , Wto *?DK D'TnK orfr, the manna, which R. Akiba interpreted "the bread which angels eat," cf. L X X

aprov ayyekuv

(see Vol. I, p. 4 0 5 and N 1 3 7 ; pp. 408

f.).

L402 N 1 3 3 Etymology would suggest that the primary sense of "|KVD might be best expressed in English by 'agent.' In later Hebrew irbw (literally 'one sent') is commonly used for an agent empowered to act for his principal — a converse evolution of meaning. I.12 Names of angels (and of demons, e.g., Azazel) are usually com­ pounds the second element of which is

1,403

n. 1 Nor is Gabriel the only angel who is the medium of revelation; Michael, as the patron and guardian of Israel, naturally brings to them the message of God.

1,403

I2

JUDAISM.

4

NOTES

n. 4 See also Hullin 6 0 a end, D^iyn HP.

1.403

1.404

N134

"Whether good or bad, whether inadvertent or presumptuous," the angel appointed over a man takes it down, and God is apprised of it (Mai. 3 , 1 6 ) . See also the references in Strack-Billerbeck, III, 840, IV, 1 0 4 1 . 1.405

N135

See Vol. I, p. 4 1 2 , below, the ephemeral angels who are created from the river of fire. N 136 Observe that in Jubilees 1 6 , 1 ff. the meal that Abraham prepares for his visitors in Gen. 1 8 , 8, which they ate, is not mentioned at all. See also L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 2 3 6 . 1,405

1.405

N137

Bacher gives the parallel references, with diverse attributions. 1.406

11.

11—13

The much discussed words of Paul in 1 Cor. 1 1 , 1 0 have sometimes been interpreted in a contrary sense. I,

N 138 The demons which of their own ill-will and by their own power cause disease and death are thus subordinated to God and taken up into the moral order, without change of function or disposition. In becoming tormenters of the damned they extend their activity to the existence after death. 407

1.407

N139

For additional references to the "household above" and the "house­ hold below" the reader may consult the index to Strack-Billerbeck, s.v. "Familie" (IV, 1 2 2 5 ) .

11. 1 ff. Acts of the High Court Below confirmed by the High Court Above, Makkot 2 3 b . Three instances of a legislative kind are adduced; one of them the use of the Divine Name in salutation (Vol. I, p. 4 2 7 ) . I,

408

JUDAISM.

NOTES

125

1.409

"In the liturgy the Ofannim and the Hayyot are the only ones named [L. G.].-—See the Kedushah at the end of the Yoser (Baer, p. 7 9 , top). n. 5 In Isa. 6 3 , 9 , 'The angel of his presence delivered them* (singular) is interpreted by Rashi traditionally of Michael (cnsn I P ) . See Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 2 3 , where R. Johanan interprets 'JID^S in Dan. 8, 1 3 of Michael ("notarikon" for m ^sb). Cf. also Jubilees 1, 2 7 , and 1 , 2 9 , where the angel of the Presence who went before the hosts of Israel is presumably Michael the patron and guar­ dian of Israel. See Buber's note no. 1 7 6 , and on this method of inter­ pretation, Bacher, Terminologie I, 125 f. 1.410

I,

N 140 On the four — or seven — chief angels see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V , 2 3 f. (n. 6 5 ) . 410

1.411

N 1 5 4

On the Ma'aseh Merkabah see Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. (Gressmann) 520 f.; note the reference to Dio Chrysostom. I,

n. 1 Cf. Tos. Hullin 2 , 18 (quoted Hullin 4 0 a ; animal slaughtered uvb l&p bwhv uvh*\ bnr\ fcus i » ^tO'D). M . Hullin 2 , 8 (where Michael is not named), corresponds, but with noteworthy differences, and the absence of Michael and the earthworm hardly proves that angels are purposely ignored in the Mishnah. 411

1.412

I.9

Read: "one excels in teaching but not in practising." 1. 2 3 f. What is meant by the enigmatical report that Aher my'Dan y&p is unknown. The rationalistic explanation, he went around among the schools persuading the pupils to abandon the study of the Law and take up practical trades is not a solution (Jer. Hagigah 7 7 b , top). The figure may remind us of Plato, Euthyphro 3 A, cf. Apol.

1.413

2 4 B.

n. 4 The reference should be corrected to Hagigah 1 4 b .

1,413

126

JUDAISM.

1.415

NOTES

N146

Hence the common phrase signifying God ubiyn r r m *D. Mar­ morstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, p. 8 9 : "This is one of the characteristic Tannaitic terms for God." It is superfluous to cite a "Sumerian Psalm" as an antecedent through which " w e can trace the origin of this term to the oldest stage of religious thought." 1.416

N147-

For Philo's conception of the nature of God and of the Logos, and for the literature on the subject reference may be made to Praechter, in Ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophic, Erster Teil, 1 2 ed., 1 9 2 6 . — The metaphysical idea of transcendence makes mediation necessary. The Hermetic tracts are to be compared. See Wilhelm Kroll in Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, V I I I , 803 ff. (The transcendent God is in essence Nous; but the secondary Nous or Logos is dynamic, demiourgos, etc.) I,

417

N 148 See Josef Kroll, Hermes Trismegistos, pp. 55 ff., besides the older monographs, M . Heinze, Die Lehre vom Logos in der griechischen Philosophic ( 1 8 7 2 ) ; Aall, der Logos, u. s. w. ( 1 8 9 6 ) . I,

418

n. 1 For a contradictory opinion see Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. (Gressmann), p. 3 4 3 . 1. 1 4 f. The Aramaic ID'D (determined, NID'D) formally corresponds to a Hebrew e.g., Gen. R. 4 , 6 (on Gen. 1, 7 , citing Psalm 3 3 , 6 ) ; cf. Abot. 5, 1 : nbtyn *naa nnDKD m » y n (the ten occurrences of nmi in Gen. 1 ) . In the Midrash (in Hebrew contexts) the word TOH is some­ times used in the same sense, e.g., Lev. R. 1 , 1, Moses only heard ^lp TOHH, "the sound of the utterance," cf. Targums on Deut. 5, 2 1 ff. (e.g., 'H fcnD'D bp). 1,419

V

I,

11. 1 6 - 2 1 TOD in a similar circumlocution in the Yalkut (iran TOD), and so in a fragmentary manuscript from the Cairo Genizah (L. Ginzberg, Yerushalmi Fragments, I, 3 1 2 ) , compared with our texts in Jer. Yoma 4 2 c . [L. G.]. I,

420

421 11. 2 1 - 2 4 Seder 'Olam ed. Ratner p. 7 0 , and additional references in Ratner's notes.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

127

1 , 4 2 2

Common phrases are, "they heard a bat hoi" " a bat kol issued," ("said," etc.), e.g., Tos. Sotah 1 3 , 3 ; Abot 6, 2 ; Jer. Berakot 3 b ; Shabbat 8 8 a and often. It is a "daughter of a sound," a secondary, or derivative, sound; so Tosafot on Sanhedrin 1 1 a. The idea of a faint sound may perhaps come from 1 Kings 1 9 , 1 2 . — In Abot 6 , 2 , " E v e r y day a bat kol issues from Mount Horeb (the mountain of the law-giving) and cries abroad and says, "Woe to mankind on account of their contempt of the Torah" (neglect of study). R. Joshua ben Levi. — Note also Jer. Sotah 2 4 b (Simeon the Righteous and other examples). — In the case of Simeon the Righteous, who heard a bat kol issuing from the Most Holy Place (the adytum of the Temple) say­ ing, " Gaios Koligos is killed and his edicts are annulled," the reference to the death of Caligula (Jan. 41 A.D.) and the frustration of his orders for the setting up of his statue in the temple (Josephus, B . J. ii. 1 0 , 1 - 5 ; Antt. xvii. 8 , 1 - 9 ) is unmistakable. Simeon "the Righteous" (ca. 2 0 0 B.C) is out of the question; the epithet may be an erroneous gloss, though the position of the anecdote (before the oracle received by John Hyrcanus, Vol. I, p. 422) shows that the connection with Simeon the Righteous determined the order in the compilation of instances in the Talmud. The recipient of this oracle "from the Holy of Holies" was presumably a high-priest; the only Simon among the high-priests mentioned in Josephus whose incumbency falls near the time of Cali­ gula's death is Simon son of Boethus (Antt. xix. 6 , 2 ) , who was, however, appointed by Agrippa, after the accession of Claudius. I, 4 2 4 n. 1 The absence of the name in the poetical parts of Job (except 3 8 , I ; 4 0 , 6 ) is dramatically appropriate to the scene and the speakers; it is used freely in the prose prologue and epilogue. The author of Ecclesiastes employs the cosmopolitan "god." In Esther there is no mention of God at all. Daniel has the proper name only in the prayer (chapter 9 ; but observe D'n^Kn ' H K 9 , 3 ) , which is noteworthy in view of the national-religious character of the book. I,

n. 2 The use of the words for God in the Psalms is thus summarized by Driver: In Book I (Psalms 1 - 4 1 ) , mrp occurs 2 7 2 times; DVI^K (abso­ lutely) 1 5 times. In Psalms 4 2 - 8 3 DY6K occurs 2 0 0 times; miT 4 3 times; but in the rest of Book III (Psalms 8 4 - 8 9 ) mrp is found 3 1 times: 7 times. In Books IV and V (Psalms 9 0 - 1 5 0 ) , finally, mrp is used almost exclusively, the only exceptions being Psalm 108 424

128

JUDAISM.

NOTES

(taken from Psalms 57 and 6 0 ) , and one other solitary instance, Psalm 1 4 4 , 9 . Psalms 4 2 - 8 3 therefore once existed as a separate collection, the editor of which had a strong preference for D'n^N. The natural tendency of scribes would be to introduce the name mrp and thus to diminish rather than increase the significant preponderance of D'n^K. In 4 5 , 7 O'n^K was put in the place of the verb mistaken for mm in an early form of the square alphabet. The inference probably to be drawn from these statistics is that when the bulk of that collection (Psalms 4 2 - 8 3 ) was compiled and edited, mm was pronounced when it was written, but that, in the circle to which the editor belonged, if not generally, there were scruples about the free use of the name, in deference to which the appellative wrbto was substituted in the text. That in the considerably later compilation, Books IV and V, mn' only is used, shows that by that time the custom of substituting ' r i K (or D ' H ^ K ) for the proper name in reading was fully established; exactly as in the Targums mm could be written everywhere, because no one dreamed of pronouncing it. I,

11. n - 1 5 Baudissin maintains the thesis that the substitution of Kvpios in the use of Greek-speaking Jews and in translations made for them preceded, not followed, the customary substitution in reading of *nK for mm in regions where the lessons were read in Hebrew. See his (posthumous) Kyrios als Gottesname im Judentum und seine Stelle in der Religionsgeschichte, edited by Otto Eissfeldt ( 1 9 2 6 seqq.). In Baudissin's book this thesis is, so to speak, incidental; the whole is conceived as a contribution to the history of religion, and carried through, on a large scale, with the massive learning, the laborious accuracy, and the insight into the nature of the problems and the ap­ proaches to their solution which characterize all his work. Inasmuch as in the L X X Kvpios is not put exclusively for mm, but very often for the appellatives 'rTK, btt, O'n^K (with frequent variants in the manuscripts), it cannot be inferred from the occurrences of Kvpios in extracanonical books translated from Hebrew that mm stood in the Hebrew original. It should be needless to say that in a translation at two removes, like the Ethiopic Enoch, inferences to what the author wrote are doubly unsafe. 424

1,425

N154

On the utterance of the ineffable Name, Marmorstein (The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 1 7 - 4 0 , The Pronunciation of the

JUDAISM.

NOTES

129

Tetragrammaton) has collected the rabbinical texts and discussed them with his habitual ingenuity. He sees in the disuse of the proper name influences flowing from the Hellenistic doctrine of the namelessness of God. (See further the Note below on Vol. I, p. 4 2 7 . ) I,

n. 2 Outside the temple (nanon, ] ^ u a ) , in the synagogue service, the priest pronounced the blessing not with the Name, but ' 1 3 3 3 . See also Mekilta, Yitro 1 1 , ed. Friedmann, f. 7 3 b , and Sifre Num. § 3 9 (on Num. 6, 2 3 ) , Num. R. 1 1 , 1 0 (near the end), cf. 1 1 , 2 1 . The sub­ stitution of T I N , Kiddushin 7 1 a ; Sanhedrin 2 8 b ( n T r a 3H33 T"ny3 n-Vr *y ?N3 *npn.) 425

v ,

,l

I,

4 2 5 n. 3 A definition is given in Sifre Deut. § 48 (on Deut. 1 1 , 2 2 , ed. Fried­ mann, f. 8 3 b , below), D^ODn o m a y m s (here the cause is lazy ignorance, and on the consequence Eccles. 1 0 , 8 b is quoted). In the Damascus sect (Schechter, Fragments of a Zadokite Work, p. 2 0 , line 2 5 ) , rrnnn *?!3a m i r i s im ^ 3 1 ; cf. Daniel 1 1 , 1 4 , and on these passages see E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christentums, II, 1 2 7 f.-—The colloquial "breachy" (of cattle), given to breaking fences, would be etymologically an equivalent. 1,425

N 1 5 5

See Blau, Das altjiidische Zauberwesen, pp. 93 ff. ( 1 8 9 8 . ) The belief that men who knew the Name could by pronouncing it work all man­ ner of wonders had, apparently under the influence of the Cabbala, a recrudescence in more recent centuries. Cf. in general R - E . der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, X I V , pp. 3 3 0 ff.) I,

N 154 In Sanhedrin 1 0 1 b followed by the words, Kay p^ram Kan (Aruch on which see Tosafot in loc, and Kohut, Aruch Completum, p. 20). The word occurs in the Samaritan Targum of Lev. 1 4 , 1 1 translating Hebrew 3 p i . — See the story of R. IJanina ben Teradion, Abodah Zarah 1 7 b - ! 8 a. Possibly nain should be under­ stood "spells out" (by its letters, Tod-he-waw-he) rather than "mut­ ters." 426

v

I,

n. 1 What Theodoret got from the Jews was 'Ai'd; perhaps they were putting him off with nT!N (Exod. 3 , 1 4 ) . 427

JUDAISM.

13°

1,4*7

NOTES

N 1 5 5

On the use of the Name in salutation and response see Marmorstein, Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 22 ff., and the sources there cited, particularly Makkot 2 3 b ; Jer. Berakot i 4 c - d . R. Nathan transposes (DTIDO) the clauses. Instead of' it is time for the Lord to do something; they have nullified T h y Law,' he made it: 'They have nullified T h y Law; it is time to do something for the Lord.' — A t the end of the paragraph I have interpreted the "TDPn "in of the persecution under Hadrian, after the Bar Kocheba war. This is not, however, expressly said; the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes is an alternative; so David Cassel in a footnote to his edition of Me'or 'Enayin, p. 2 4 5 . This is the view of Marmorstein also (op. cit. p. 2 7 , the change in­ stituted by the Zekenim, the early Hasidim, to counteract Hellenistic influence). — It has been suggested, by other scholars, referring the ordinance to the time of Hadrian, that the measure was in opposition to Judaean Christians who appropriated the title " L o r d " to Jesus; with their complete separation from the synagogue the need for a profession of Jewish orthodoxy such as is implied in the salutation with the Name no longer existed. I have expressed in the text the opinion that the saying of R. Abba bar Kahana in Midrash Tehillim is a play of exegetical ingenuity, not an historical tradition (see Buber, notes 2 5 and 2 6 ) . Even if there were better warrant for taking this wholly isolated statement — there is not even the remotest parallel —historically, I should doubt whether those who entertain the opinion in question are not attributing to the Nazarenes ("Judaean Chris­ tians") such an ambiguous use of the Lord (Kvpios) as we find, for example, in Paul. The whole subject of what is called "Jewish (or Judaean) Christianity" has been so confused by writers on the begin­ nings of Christianity that Jewish scholars may well be excused for falling into the same confusion. On interpretation by way of inver­ sion of clauses (or of letters in a word) see Bacher, Terminologie, I, 1 3 6 ; II, 1 4 4 . 1,428

N 1 5 6

In the preliminary examination of the witnesses in a trial for blasphemy the testimony is given 'irsa, *DV 'DV na ('DV in place of the proper name of God); in the formal proceeding, behind closed doors, the eldest of the witnesses is bidden to say precisely (ttflTsa) what he heard, i.e., the Tetragrammaton, whereupon the judges rend their garments, etc. As the commentators observe, *DV not only has four letters but is numerically ( = 8 6 ) equivalent to DTJ^K. 1

JUDAISM. 1,428

NOTES

N157

A distinction is made between thyh n? (the Tetragrammaton) and TTT ivh nDT n? (Adonai); in the World to Come there will be no reason for such discrimination, and the Name will be written and read in the same way (with Yod-He). I,

428

N 158 Not of what we call "profane swearing."

I,

428

I,

429

n. 6 "Jer. Berakot 1 0 a does not give a reason for the periphrastic bene­ diction, but (cites the opinion of R. Tanhum bar Judan) that if a man has recited a benediction containing the name of the Lord that was not called for, he should immediately add the benediction "Bles­ sed be his name," etc., thus turning the benediction into an ascription. See Maimonides, Hilkot Shebu'ot 1 2 , 1 1 . " [L. G.] 11. 4 ff. A list of over ninety such substitutionary words and phrases, with references and comments, may be found in Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 5 4 - 1 0 7 ("The Rabbinic Synonyms for G o d " ) . See Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. (Gressmann) pp.

3ioff.

I.

429 N 159 On the utterance of the "name of Heaven" idly (rhu^b) see also Temurah 3b, below; Maimonides, Hilkot Talmud Torah 6 , 1 4 ( 1 3 ) .

I.

N 160 See Note 157 for additional references.

429

1,430

II.1-4

Marmorstein (op. cit., pp. 108 ff.) maintains that rropn was not commonly used by the Tannaim, and in our texts is usually a substi­ tute for DipDH. I.

N 161 For ]vby (n«^y), o n o , whether associated with God or not, the Greek translators generally give "T^io-ros, which is used as a name of God by authors who wrote in Greek (Wisdom of Solomon 5, 1 5 ; 6 , 3 ; 2 Mace. 3 , 3 1 ; Sibyll. iii, 5 1 9 , 5 8 0 ; Frag. 1, 4 ; etc. It is frequent in 430

JUDAISM.

132

NOTES

the Testaments of the X I I Patriarchs. Probably Altisstmus, which is very common in 4 Esdras, represents a Greek U^XOTOS. "Ti/aoTos is frequent in Ecclus., but in only a half-dozen places does it corres­ pond to ]vby in the Hebrew fragments; it often stands for simple ^K. This fact enjoins caution in dealing with translations of translations such as the Ethiopic Enoch. — "T^XOTOS was a current word in the Gentile religious vocabulary of the time, and therefore peculiarly useful to Jewish writers who had an eye to possible Gentile readers. On "TXI/LO-TOS see Cumont in Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, I X , 4 4 4 - 4 5 0 . I,

N 162 On Shamaim for God in Jewish use it is hardly necessary to mul­ tiply examples. The religious motive is for a man to do what he does D'DP DB^ (Vol. II, p. 9 8 ) ; the goal of all endeavor, the world as it ought to be, is D'DtP niD^D, the sovereign rule of God. 430

1,431

N163

The multiplication of honorific names and titles is condemned by R. Hanina (see Vol. II, p. 2 2 9 ) ; but the man whom he censured was probably not a solitary offender against reverence by such piling up of epithets. I,

n. 2 For the universalistic conception of the kingdom of God see especi­ ally the prayer -prnDn IVD obnyn bi by -p*7D in the Musaf for New Years after the Alenu and the Malkuyot (Baer, p. 3 9 9 ; Singer, p. 2 4 9 ) : Our God and God of our fathers, reign thou in thy glory over the whole universe, and be exalted above all the earth in thine honour, and shine forth in the splendour and excellence of thy might upon all the inhabitants of thy world, that whatsoever hath been made may know that thou hast made it, and whatsoever hath been created may understand that thou hast created it, and whatsoever hath breath in its nostrils may say, The Lord God of Israel is King, and his do­ minion ruleth over all. Sanctify us by thy commandments, and grant our portion in thy Law; satisfy us with thy goodness, and gladden us with thy salvation. O purify our hearts to serve thee in truth, for thou art God in truth, and thy word is truth, and endureth for ever. Blessed art thou, O Lord, King over all the earth, who sanctifiest Israel and the Day of Memorial. (Singer's translation.) 434

JUDAISM. L

NOTES

133

2

1,435 "Shekinah is found in the Mishnah several times, though rcaprr and DIpDH occur more frequently." [L. G.] See also Marmorstein, op. cit., pp. 103 f., and below, Note on p. 4 3 6 , end. 1,435

H.12-17

Ten descents (of God) are mentioned in the Law, Mekilta, Bahodesh (on Exod. 1 9 , 1 1 ) ; Sifre Num. § 93 (on Num. 1 1 , 1 7 ) ; Gen. R. 3 8 , 9 . The count of ten is attributed in Gen. R. to R. Simeon ben Yohai. In Abot de Rabbi Nathan 3 4 , 5 they are enumerated, but the last (Gog and Magog) is not in the Pentateuch. Ed. Schechter, f. 5 1 b . 3

I,

435

N 164 Inasmuch as R. Jose ben Halafta elsewhere teaches that God is not in any place (Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ki Tissa 1 6 ; Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 1 8 5 , with notes 1 and 2 ) , perhaps that is his meaning here. It has been suggested (Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 185) that the words quoted in the text had a polemic point against Christian dogma — the in­ carnation and the resurrection of Jesus. But it is uncertain whether Jose b. Halafta came in contact with that kind of Christian dogma in Galilee in the generation after the Bar Kocheba war. I,

436

N 165 There is a considerable lacuna in the printed text here; see Buber's note 6 6 . — The interpretation in the name of Isaac takes "ixy in the sense of 'assemble' (msy ^DP, so understood); cf. Joel 1, 1 4 l*np r m y (cf. Yalkut I § 7 8 2 nD\D rrvxy pw). For the way in which this meaning was associated with the ordinary meaning of "isy (' keep in, shut up') reference may be made to Kimhi, Shorashim, s.v. ('3^ ons'DN mpoa M D y n o i n x y 3 » ) . — In the sequel in Pesikta, the same in other expression, miniD Tarn HPDD 'nan pipo hxrwv pr *?D •nay inrap mpo nopn. ,

I,

N 166 The midrash is somewhat subtle in that it extracts two inferences from myn nsn n»rb& (Psalm 8 2 , 1 ) , first the place (cf. *?K nyina Psalm 7 4 , 8 and Rashi), and second the congregation, the minimum number {minyan) of which for concerted prayer was ten (Numbers 1 4 , 2 7 , the twelve spies, Caleb and Joshua excepted, verse 6 ) ; see above, p. 99 f. For judges the minimum bench was three. — With this pas­ sage (Berakot 6a) compare Abot 3 , 2 (IJanina ben Teradion); see also 436

JUDAISM.

134

NOTES

Abot 3 , 7 ; Mekilta, Yitro n (ed. Friedmann, f. 7 3 b ; ed. Weiss, f. 8 0 b ) . The enumeration in Berakot 6 a is the most complete, and per­ haps the latest form of this commonplace; observe also the climactic order given it. — On the exegetical derivation see Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 220 f., n. To the same homilist Song of Songs 2 , 8 f. suggested God's springing from synagogue to synagogue and from school to school to bless the Israelites (Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Fried­ mann, f. 7 2 a ; less complete text, Pesikta, ed. Buber, f. 4 8 b ) . 1.437

N167

Frequently this interchange is due to copyists; a good example of this is Mekilta Beshallah 2 (on Exod. 1 4 , 1 3 , ed. Friedmann, 2 8 b , above; ed. Weiss, 3 4 a , above): see Friedmann's note on the variants. Sometimes T O D interchanges with n m p . A more significant variant is nopn and rtPDtf. I,

438

n. 2 In Hebrew "HDID, 'a go-between/ especially in business transac­ tions. Chiefly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the Midrashim.

I,

438

N 168 In Philo the Logos is intermediate in nature between God and man, OVT6 ayEVRJTOS m 6 Oeds &v ovre YEVRJTOS
N169

On Metatron in this office see " Intermediaries in Jewish Theology," Harvard Theological Review, X V ( 1 9 2 2 ) , 7 4 f. 1.439

N170

Michael and Gabriel were peculiarly the patron angels of the Jews, and that Jews may have sought their intercession is conceivable enough, though not necessarily to be inferred from the passage quoted. It has been thought that in Colossians 2 , 1 8 the dprjo-neia dyyekcov against which the Christians are warned was borrowed from Jews (cf. vs. 1 7 ) , perhaps particularly from Jews of Essene proclivities, e.g., Lightfoot, Commentary on Colossians, " T h e Colossian Heresy." But if this were more certain than it is, it would prove nothing for what may be called orthodox Jewish belief or practice. In Tos.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

135

^lullin 2 , 18 (see above Note on I, 4 1 1 , n. 1 ) the flesh of an animal slaughtered in the name of the highest archangel or of a little earth­ worm is DVID ' m r . I,

440 N 171 Another homilist has God sitting and (figuratively) making ladders — making one man go up and another down, as it is written — (Psalm 7 5 , 8 ) , 'For God is judge; one he abases and one he exalts* (Gen. R. 68, 4 ) . Or Moses finds him putting the finishing strokes on the Law, making 'crowns' for the letters (Menahot 2 9 b ; see above, p. 7 6 , Note 2 0 ; cf. above p. 83). Or he sits and teaches school children who have died before they had opportunity to learn Torah. 'Abodah Zarah 3 b , quoting Isa. 2 8 , 9 . — To many, in whose imagination of God portentous dignity is a dominant attribute, such occupations seem unbecoming, and, for want of a sense of humor, they have set them down to the "rabbinical idea of God," all the more absurd in associa­ tion with the "transcendence" which the rabbis were supposed to ascribe to him.

I,

N 172 The words irn gave rise to divers midrashic ingenuities, in one of which it is taken for the Greek j8(a; Jer. Hagigah 7 7 c ; Gen. R. 1 2 , 1 0 (see Theodor's note there). On man's creation and endowment see Ecclus. 1 7 , 1 — 1 5 , and in other places cited below. 441

1.445

N173

See also the Baraita in Kiddushin 4 0 b (near the top; Eleazar ben R. Simon): Inasmuch as the world is judged according to the pre­ ponderance (of good or evil) and the individual is judged in the same way — if a man fulfils one commandment, blessed is he, because he has tipped the balance to the side of merit for himself and the whole world; if he commits one transgression, woe to him because he has tipped the balance to the side of guilt for himself and the whole world, for it is said, 'One sinner destroys much good' (Eccles. 9 , 1 8 ) . For this one sin of the individual which he has committed destroys much good for himself and the whole world. Cf. Tosefta Kiddushin 1, 1 3 . 1.446

N174

See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 4 1 7 f., with references also to modern writers on Jewish ethics.

136 1.448

JUDAISM.

NOTES

N175

The "two w a y s " (respectively of life and of death) are from Deut. 3 0 , 1 9 ; these two ways were set before Adam (Gen. 2 , 1 7 ) . On the ingenious twist by which Akiba found this in Gen. 3 , 2 2 see Bacher, Tannaiten I (2 ed.), 3 1 9 , note 1. (He took ^DD not as one " o f us," but " o f himself" (fa»D), that is, by his initial choice of evil, he be­ came as one who has only one way before him. See Gen. R. 2 1 , 5 (on Gen. 3 , 23) with Theodor's note on the variants and on the compet­ ing interpretations of Pappos and Akiba, substantially as in Bacher, I.e. I, 4 4 8 N 176 The moral likeness to God is brought out in Tanhuma on Gen. 3 , 22 (§ 7 ) by way of Eccles. 7 , 2 9 : God created man to be righteous and upright ("lizn p n s ) like Himself. (There follows a discussion of the question why, if this was His intention, He created the evil impulse, with the argument that it is man himself who makes the impulse evil.) 1.449

N177

That the image of God is the intellectual soul is the conception of later Jewish philosophers also need hardly be said; see Maimonides, Moreh Nebukim i, 1 . The haggadah in Berakot 1 0 a which recounts the points in which the soul of man (nOBfl) resembles God (cf. Vol. I, p. 3 7 0 ) does not seem apposite. I, 4 4 9 end, and n. 6 On the notion that the world was made for Israel, and for other Christian parallels, see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 6 7 f. L451

N178

That the ministering angels do not understand the vulgar tongue, Aramaic, is a reason for the use of Hebrew in prayer. Shabbat 1 2 b ; Sotah 3 3 a (R. Johanan). Private petitions are meant; the Tefillah may be recited in any language. In Sotah, I.e., instances of a bat hoi heard in Aramaic are cited. The same dissuasive from praying in Aramaic is enounced also by Rab Judah (Babylonian). That the angels will not ally themselves with the petitioner because they do not understand him has a bearing on the belief in the function of angels in presenting prayers. See above, Notes 8 3 , 8 4 (p. 1 0 1 ) . L452

N179

Other haggadic matter about angels, Gen. R. 8 , 1 1 and 1 4 , 3 (Aha).

JUDAISM.

1.452

NOTES

137

1.7ff-

Cf. Josephus, Bell. Jud. iii. 8, 5 § 3 7 2 : " A l l of us, it is true, have mortal bodies, composed of perishable matter, but the soul lives for­ ever, immortal: it is a portion of the deity housed in our bodies " (Thackeray's translation). I,

N 186 That Adam somehow represented the whole world was discovered by taking the letters of the proper name A A A M for the initials of the four cardinal points, dvToXlrjv re bvaiv re fiearefj.fiplrjv re Kal apKrov, Oracula Sibyllina, ii [iii] , 2 6 . — For Christian parallels see Geffcken's note, p. 4 8 . 453

1.453

N181

The midrash operates with Gen. 2 , 2 1 , vny^SD "inK, interpreted as "one of his (two) sides," as in Exod. 2 6 , "the side" of the tabernacle. Another way of coming at it was through Psalm 1 3 9 , 4 W i s D l p i "Witt, "Thou didst fashion me behind and before" (back and front), Bera­ kot 61 a; 'Erubin 1 8 a ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Tazri'a 2 ; see Rashi on Berakot I.e. — Plato's description of these androgynous creatures is as follows: The form of each of the species was completely round, having back and sides encompassing it; it had four hands and a cor­ responding number of legs, and two faces (7rp6
JUDAISM.

i 8 3

NOTES

I, 4 5 4 n. 4 Thus Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 5 , 2 ff. "Power (of selfdetermination) is given (by God) to every man. If he chooses to turn himself to a good way and to become righteous, the power is his; if he chooses to turn himself to an evil way and become wicked, the power is his. This is what is written in the Law, 'Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil' (Gen. 3 , 2 2 ) . That is to say, this species, mankind, has become unique in the world; there is no second one resembling it in this respect, that of itself, by its intelligence and reflection knows what is good and what is evil, and does whichever it chooses, and there is no one who restrains it from doing the good or the evil/' The author goes on to assert man's un­ restricted power of self-determination and his sole responsibility for his character and conduct against the alien (Christian and Moslem) doctrine of predestination and similar opinions entertained by many uneducated Jews (D'DVU), and against astrological fatalism. I. 4 5 5 N 1 8 2 Cf. Plato, Rep. 6 1 7 E (of the initial choice of returning souls) aiTia eXofxevov

Beds dvamos.

The Hebrew Sirach exhibits a doublet:

n r - r a irram | w n n "ra l r r o w . ; cf. the Syriac version: -ra paa draw

p m s \ In the first member of the doublet 1£>mn corresponding to 5tafiov\iov

avrov is unintelligible and perhaps corrupt.

For dtafiovkiov in

Ecclus. see 1 7 , 6 (no corresponding Hebrew). I.455 N 1 8 3 K a t wlaTLv iroirjaai ev8oKlas which may be construed by any one who y

thinks he can do it. I, 4 5 5 n. 6 The Midrash supplies n w after .ran vb OKI also — HDin nfcttP, nap rbbp. For the former meaning is cited Lev. 9 , 2 2 ('Aaron lifted up his hands on the people and blessed them'), for the latter, Lev. 2 2 , 1 6 ('And cause them to hear iniquity involving guilt'). These proof texts are probably afterthoughts. The point is the ambiguity of K&tt without an object. The incomplete construction of n&«P with­ out a complementary genitive is remarked in Mekilta, Amalek c. 1 (ed. Weiss, f. 6 i b - 6 2 a ) and parallels, for which see Weiss's note or Theodor on Bereshit Rabbah, on Gen. 4, 7 (p. 209 f.). Others understood, " I f thou doest well, I will forgive thee, and if not thy sin is heaped up and accumulated" (again two senses of nw, Bereshit Rabbah, I.e.)

JUDAISM. I,

456

NOTES

139

1. 8

Read Exod. 1 5 , 2 6 . 1,457

N184

In this very difficult sentence the text presents its own problems; for SoKTJarav TCO OeQ KpLcriv yeveoSai some codices and editions Kpaviv. In my translation I have taken the latter, on the ground that Kpdcns is more likely to have been displaced by KP'LGLS than vice versa, and have, with many doubts, rendered it, in the light of the context, by 'concurrence/ rather than 'combination/ — On Heimarmene in the philosophy of the age see Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, s.v., V I I , 2 6 2 2 - 2 6 4 5 (Gundel). It was what Cicero calls fatalis necessitas (De natura deorum, i. 20, 55), or as, in another place, he lets an exponent of the Stoic doctrine say: "Fatum autem id appello, quod Graeci el\xappevT\v, id est, ordinem, seriemque causarum, cum causa causae nexa rem ex se gignat" (De divinatione, i. 55, 1 2 5 ) . This concatenation of causes in Stoicism is the eternal causal nexus of the universe itself. The divination, to which the Stoics were addicted, undertook to read the future in the sky, and the belief in astrological determinism was wide-spread outside — or on the outskirts of— philosophical circles. Attempts were made to evade the fatalistic consequences of this doctrine (the irresponsibility of man) and to compromise with Platonism. The best-known of these is the treatise De fato among the writings of Plutarch, but presumably not by him. See Praechter, in Ueberweg, Geschichte der Philosophic, I ( 1 2 ed. 1 9 2 6 ) , 5 5 5 . With a mediating conception of this kind the account in Josephus is not irreconcilable; man's choice is his own and free, but the consequences are completely determined. And it is possible that such compromises were made much earlier than the writings through which we know about them. — M y impression is that the characterization of the Jewish "philosophies" in the War by their conflicting doctrines about Heimarmene comes from a non-Jewish source (Nicholas of Damas­ cus?); how Josephus would naturally express himself may perhaps be gathered from what he says about the Essenes in Antt. xviii. 1 , 5 § 1 8 : 'H<j(rr}voLS 8e eirl fxev Oeco KaTaXeiireiv ^>tXeT rd iravra 6 \6yos, com­ pared with xiii. 5, 9 § 1 7 2 : rd de rcov ''EO'O'TJV&V ykvos Travruv TT)V eip.apixkvi)v

Kvplav

diro^alveTat

Kal

nrjbev

6 p.r) Kar

kKeivrjs

xl/rj^ov

dvdpcoirots

airav-

(cf. Tavrrfv Wero TTJV ^TJ^OV 6 0 e 6 s , B . J. ii § 3 5 9 ? ) The passage in xviii. 1 , 2 ff. seems to be an attempt to explain the attitude of the Pharisees as it is briefly stated in B . J. ii. 8, 14 § 162. rav

JUDAISM.

NOTES

It is not without significance that this notion cannot be expressed in Hebrew. The recent Hebrew translation of Josephus' Jewish War from the Greek by Shimhoni can come no nearer to it than 'decree' (mn, in such a connection the divine decree), putting the Greek word in parentheses and explaining it by nrat£>n ('providence'). But this makes the writer say that the Pharisees made everything depend on " a (divine) decree and on God" — On the Essenes see Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Supplementband IV ( 1 8 2 4 ) , 3 8 6 - 4 3 0 (Bauer). — In the accounts of the differences be­ tween the "Jewish philosophies" about elpappLevrj it may be assumed that the word is used in the sense in which it was employed in the cur­ rent Greek philosophy, but there are many other occurrences of the word where it is more loosely used of the inevitable; see, e.g., B . J. ii § 2 9 7 ; vi. 8 4 , 1 0 8 , § 2 6 7 , etc. It may interchange with irpovota, as in the Stoics: see Titus's escape from imminent peril. See also "Fate and Free Will in the Jewish Philosophies according to Josephus," Harvard Theological Review X X I I ( 1 9 2 9 ) , 3 7 1 - 3 8 9 . On Philo's use of the word see the references in Leisegang's Index Verborum ( 1 9 2 6 ) , p. 2 2 6 . I,

ff. See Koberle, Siinde und Gnade im religiosen Leben des Volkes Israel bis auf Christum ( 1 9 0 5 ) . 461

1.461

N186

"Though the Halakah quite correctly limits the nKton to inadvertent transgressions and to things which have of themselves no moral qual­ ity, the Haggadah •— and Tannaites earlier — attempt to explain all the cases for which a sin-offering is prescribed as involving sin. See [childbirth] Gen. R. 2 0 , 7 [R. Simon in the name of R. Simeon ben Yohai]; Niddah 3 1 b ; [nazirite] Sifre Num. § 3 0 ; Nazir 1 9 a ; Jer. Nazir, i. 5 [f. 5 1 c ] ; [leper] Lev. R. 1 6 , 6 to the end. See L. Ginz­ berg, Legends of the Jews, V , 1 2 2 , note 1 2 8 , with reference to Apoca­ lypse of Moses 2 5 . " [L. G.] — In these passages the Haggadah is trying to find a reason for the prescription of a "sin-offering," and naturally connected the nKttn with Nttri; in the case of child-birth (Simeon ben Yohai) particularly for the prescription of a bird as sinoffering. 1.462

I.4-11

See Note 1 8 9 , below (on Vol. I, p. 4 6 4 ) .

JUDAISM. 1.462

NOTES

1. 2 5

Read non punirentur. 1.463

N187

"Accidental sin" is to our way of thinking a contradiction in terms; but where the revealed will of God comprehends the whole field of clean and unclean it is a real and large category. " S i n " may even attach to inanimate objects, as to the stones of the altar in Ezekiel, which have to be "unsinned." Ezek. 4 3 , 20, 2 2 , 2 3 ; (cf. 1 Mace. 4 , 4 3 - 4 6 ) . T o express it in logical terms, the Hebrew Kttn has a much wider extension than the English "sin'' by which it is customarily translated. The nNton (specific " sin-offering'')* the piaculum by which man's relation to God (and thus to the cultus and to society) is re­ dintegrated, is not made for what we call "sin." — For the Tannaite point of view one may profitably read Sifra on Lev. 4 , 2 (ed. Weiss f. 1 5 b seq.; Sifre Num. § 1 1 1 , on Num. 1 5 , 2 2 ) . 1.463

N188

See Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer § 61 (1 ed. pp. 3 2 9 f.): Ist der Verstoss wissentlich und absichtlich geschehen, so ist fur ihn personlich eine Wiederherstellung des zerstorten Verhaltnisses zur Gottheit ausgeschlossen, er hat sich seinerseits ausserhalb des ius divinum gestellt und ist darum, ohne die Moglichkeit einer Suhnung, als impius zwar nicht weltlicher, wohl aber gottlicher Strafe verfallen. Ist dagegen die Verfehlung unwissentlich und versehentlich begangen worden oder ist sie erfolgt unter dem Zwange einer unausv/eichlichen Notwendigkeit, so geschieht die Ausgleichung durch eine siihnende Darbringung, die ebenfalls piaculum heisst. I,

n. 6 Cf. Cicero, De legibus ii. 8, 2 2 : Sacrum commissum, quod neque expiari poterit, impie commissum esto (quoted by Wissowa, I.e.). 463

N 189 In these pages ( 4 6 0 - 4 6 7 ) and elsewhere in various connections (e.g., Vol. II, pp. 5 - 1 0 , 7 9 f.) I have tried to make it plain that the Jewish teachers clearly distinguished between things to be done or left un­ done for the doing or avoidance of which there was an evident moral reason — such as not harming our fellow men in person or reputation, or property, and those in which a moral reason is not obvious, such as not eating rabbits. Nor have I anywhere implied that the former were 1.464

142

JUDAISM.

NOTES

not regarded as intrinsically more important than the latter, so that in cases of conflict the duties of humanity were given the precedence •— if I had thought it worth while to emphasize the self-evident, I might have added to the citations I have made in various connections (e.g., Vol. II, pp. 3 0 f.) some drastic examples from M . Yoma 8, 5 f. with the Talmud (fF. 8 2 - 8 3 ) on satisfying the craving of a pregnant woman, or feeding a sick man, or one afflicted with ravenous hunger (bulimy), on the Day of Atonement, a day of the strictest fasting, even with food unclean every day such as a pork stew. Here as elsewhere (e.g., Vol. II, pp. 7 f.), however, I have main­ tained that in the logic of a revealed religion •— Judaism is not peculiar in this respect — the ground of obligation is the will of God as known through revelation; moral precepts have not an independent ground of obligation in what we call ethical principles. The religious man believes that in giving those particular statutes for which he discerns no rational or moral reason God was actuated by a wisdom and goodness that pass our understanding; he does not exempt himself from them because of the limitations of his own understanding. — In Judaism morals are an integral part of religion, and I have endeavored to show how this side of the religion was de­ veloped beyond the letter of Scripture by the Scribes and the teachers who succeeded them ( • D D n ) ; but they did not dissociate it from religion. ,

n. 4 The word piT conveys the idea of impudence, insult; it is sin con­ ceived as an affront to God; " H D is disobedience in the spirit of revolt against His authority, and in a manner defiantly provoking (cf. wyDnb). •—That one who sins unwittingly is nevertheless a trasgressor ("Qiy) of the commandments of God is proved from Lev. 4 , 2 (Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyikra 1 1 ) . In Buber's edition naiy [ T W O ] 'n msD by, "as it were a transgressor"; so also in the Old Tanhuma (without the critical brackets). 1.464

N 190 "TlD of rebellion against God, Ezek. 2 , 3 ; 2 0 , 3 8 ; Num. 1 4 , 9 ; Josh. 2 2 , 1 8 - 2 9 . It is from the collocation of the words in these places as well as in 2 Kings 3 , 5 and 7 , that the definition in Sifra is derived which makes yu?B equivalent to "HD, not from reflection on the nature of sin or analysis of the use of y®9 in the Bible. To this conception of the heinousness of sin, in association with the radical sin of apostasy, 1.465

JUDAISM.

NOTES

H3

additional emphasis was given by the conflict with hellenizing tend­ encies in the period when the revolt against God was not the worship of other gods but the ignoring or neglecting of the law of God and the denial of providence and retribution. It was perhaps in this way that it came to be typical of sin gone its whole length, and of the direction and goal of all deliberate sin. I,

465

N 191 On the two " y o k e s " (of the Law and of subjection to heathen rule) see also Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 2 0 0 a-b (on Deut. 3 3 , 3 ) . Of diligent students, "who bruise their feet (in going from city to city and from province to province) and sit and labor in the L a w " God says, " I will break off from them the yoke of (human) empire" (cf. Baba Batra 8a, above; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Berakah § 4 . I,

466

N 192

min:.

Viy

D'ao rfraDi nnn nem pTis (cf. Tos. Sanhedrin 1 2 , 9 ) . — On ^iy p"T)S see above, nnn "isn is frequent in the Scriptures of nullify­ ing (in act) God's covenant, or law; e.g., Lev. 2 6 , 1 5 ; Deut. 3 1 , 1 6 and 2 0 ; Isa. 2 4 , 5 ; Jer. 3 1 , 3 2 ; Ezek. 1 6 , 1 5 . In the context of Sifre, I.e., it is more specifically the "covenant of Abraham" (cir­ cumcision); see 1 Mace. 1, 1 5 ; Josephus Antt. xi. 5 , 1 . — T h e figure of speech in D'HD rbiD is similar to that in the English "bare-faced" (impudence). In Sifre Num. § 1 1 2 (on Num. 1 5 , 3 0 ) the 'audacity* of one who sins nD~i Tn is thus described: rrrinn cms n^ao nr, and illustrated by the example of king Manasseh, of whom it is said that he sat and made derogatory remarks on the Pentateuch before God — Moses should not have written in it the story of Reuben and his mandrakes (Gen. 3 0 , 1 4 ff.), nor "Lotan's sister was T i m n a " (Gen. 3 6 , 22) — the objection is based on vs. 1 2 , Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz son of Esau (cf. Sanhedrin 9 9 b ) . On this phrase, see fur­ ther, Bacher, Terminologie, I, 1 4 9 - 1 5 1 , with the reference there (p. 1 5 0 , n. 1 ) to Guttmann's articles in the Monatsschrift for 1 8 9 8 . For a definition of this offense see also Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 3 , 1 1 .

I,

N 193 "Attention should be called also to the (Tannaite) Halakah in Hul­ lin 5 a : Sacrifices are not accepted from a Jew who has apostatized to heathenism (l"n "]D3D1 "IDID) or from one who openly profaned the sab­ bath." [L. G.] Though they are accepted even from the wickedest men (bxiUP since such may repent of their misdeeds. 466

y' t&ns),

JUDAISM.

144 1,467

NOTES

N194

Other illustrations. In Tos. Shebu'ot 3 , 6 (on Lev. 5 , 2 1 , ' I f a man . . . deal fraudulently with his neighbor in the matter of a deposit/ etc.): " N o man deals fraudulently with his neighbor until he de­ nies the root" ("lp^n "ISID); Jer. Peah 1 6 a , above. " N o man speaks slanderously of another (yin ]wb 1D1K) until he denies the root" (Johanan. Note the proof following, from Psalm 1 2 , 3 - 5 ) . The in­ fidelity may be, not the implicit premise, but the outcome, e.g., Sifra, Behukkotai Perek 2 , end (ed. Weiss, f. I I I C , on Lev. 2 6 , 1 5 ) : If you find a man who does not learn and does not do, and despises others and hates scholars, and does not allow others to do, he may profess to accept the commandments delivered from Sinai, but will end by disbelieving them; and one who has all these characteristics will end by denying the root. The relation of conformity and belief is here clearly brought out; observe in the preceding examples especially the relation of man's sins against his fellow and his real belief in God. The substance of it is that no man whose faith in God is more than an idle profession will slander or defraud his fellowman; and conversely, that, no matter what professions he may make, and however he may delude himself about his faith, if he ignores the law of God, he will end in practical atheism, though he might be shocked by the very thought. N 195 For a definition of heinous (nmon 'grave') and venial (m^p, 'lighter') sins see Maimonides, Hilkot Teshubah 1 , 2 ; the former are those to which the penalty of death by the sentence of a court is affixed or extirpation by God ( m a ) is denounced; others fall into the category of lighter sins. The distinction, so far as the DID is concerned, is made by Hillel in his argument before the Bene Bathyra, Jer. Pesa­ him 3 3 a , above; Pesahim 6 6 a ; Tos. Pesahim 4 , 2 . See Vol. I, pp. 498 and 507 ff. 'Heinous' and 'venial' sins of commission or omission are not those which the conscience of the individual or the community at any time may regard as major or minor; which they are in God's judgment is to be learned from the penalties He has attached to them, and this is the basis of the classification in rabbinical law. The gravity of an offense does not depend on the element of intention: both nVTlDn and Tvbp may be done either m i B Q or HD1 T 3 (Tnn). 1,467

I,

n. 5 On patriarchs and saints who died without sin see below, Note to Vol. I, p. 4 7 4 . 468

JUDAISM.

NOTES

H5

11. iff.

1,470

Schechter's quotation is by a typographical error in his work attri­ buted to" Sifra"; it is actually from Sifre Deut. § 1 8 7 . I,

47

2

n

- 4

See the editor's notes on Echa Rabbati, ed. Buber, I.e. (f. 3 5 b ) . I> 4 7 3 n. 1 Read *7mn. On the beginning of idolatry in the days of Enosh see Maimonides, Hilkot •"'Dy, init.; L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, I, 1 2 2 - 1 2 4 , V, 1 5 1 . 1,474

N196

The quotation in Pugio Fidei is attributed to "Siphre," but the first half of it is actually found in Sifra, ed. Weiss, f. 2 7 a . In the sequel in the Pugio (not in Sifra) the question is raised whether the attribute of goodness or of punishment predominates, and the answer given that the attribute of goodness is augmented and that of punishment diminished, for which Isa. 5 3 , 5 and 6 are alleged; the King Messiah who was humiliated and afflicted for the sake of the wicked — how much more shall he justify all generations! The Christian origin of this interpolation is evident. Martini compares Romans 5 , 1 5 , where the same figure of argument (mp) is employed. I,

474

n. 4 On sinless individuals (cf. Vol. I, p. 4 6 8 ) and on the relation of death to the sin of the individual there are different opinions. The reader may be referred to L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, I, 7 4 with V, 9 5 f., 1 2 8 - 1 3 1 , with the texts there cited. That there is no death without sin and no chastisement without guilt is a view attri­ buted to Rab Immi (Shabbat 5 5 a - b ) ; note the discussion between the ministering angels and God about the death of Moses and Aaron (ibid. 5 5 b ) and the long following passage. The seemingly conflicting utterances in Scripture about the suffering of posterity for the mis­ deeds of their progenitors (e.g., Exod. 2 0 , 5, Deut. 5 , 7 and Deut. 2 4 , 16) are confronted in Berakot 7 a , and harmonized by a distinction derived from Ezekiel's doctrine of retribution. — On a similar point of view in the Apocalypses see Vol. I, p. 4 7 8 (Adam's sin entailed death on all his posterity, and Adam was not the cause except to him­ self alone, etc.). I,

476

1.

Read

evos.

28

146 I.477

JUDAISM.

NOTES

N197

Propter eos enim feci saeculum. Et quando transgressus est Adam constitutions meas, iudicatum est quod factum est. — What was judged (condemned), as the sequel shows, was not the world (mundus) but the saeculum {ai&v, oViy), and quod factum est, not inanimate nature, but (human) creatures (nnnn). N 198 O tu, quid fecisti, Adam! Si enim tu peccasti, non est factum solius tuus casus, sed et nostrum, qui ex te advenimus. — Casus is here not to be rendered "thy fall," with the understanding that "Adam is here charged with being the cause of the perdition of the human race" (Box). See, 4 Esdras 3 , 1 0 : Et factum est in uno casus eorum; sicut Adae mors, sic et his diluvium. "Adam's fall" cannot be divested of the associations it has contracted in Christian theology! The ancient versions understand correctly, malum, calamitas, etc. 1.477

1.478

N199

In the passages quoted the author of 4 Esdras is in accord with the rabbinical teaching of his time about the 'evil imagination' (impulse, j n n i r ) or 'heart' (mind). See Vol. I, pp. 4 7 9 ff., with the Notes on those pages. I, 4 7 9 n. 2 In this note the phrase "image of G o d " is employed in the sense it has acquired in Christian theology; on the Hellenistic Jewish notions see Vol. I, p. 4 4 8 . That the dominion over the animal kingdom which was conferred on man (Gen. 1, 2 6 ) was no longer possessed by his descendants in its whole extent was evident, and Scripture was found for it: " A wild beast does not have power over a man until the man seems to him like a domestic animal, as it is written 'Man abideth not in honor; he is like the beasts (mom) that perish'" (Psalm 4 9 , 1 3 ) , Shabbat 1 5 1 f. The words have sometimes been thought to imply the loss of the divine image. On the relations between man and the animals see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 1 1 9 f. I, 4 7 9 N 2 0 0 On the IE? see F. C. Porter, " T h e Yecer Hara. A Study in the Jewish Doctrine of Sin," in Biblical and Semitic Studies, 1 9 0 2 . — The word is found in the Hebrew Sirach 1 5 , 1 4 (on the variants in Hebrew text and versions see Smend, Die Weisheit des Jesus Sirach

JUDAISM. erklart

(1906,

auros e£ dpxvs

p.

142):

NOTES

n*' T 3 ran man t r o n €L

L

kirovqaev Kal ar}Kev avrbv kv x P

H7 m

D»rfr«.

dtafiovXiov

Ecclus.:

avrov.

Other

expressions for the same idea may be dLa\oyio~nos ( 2 7 , 6 ) , evdvfiTjfjLa KapoLas (27, 7 ) , but HDTD is in these and similar cases at least equally probable. I,

N 2 0 0 (bis) An example of the metaphor in another connection, Mekilta, Beshallah 2 (on Exod. 1 4 , n ) , ed. Friedmann, f. 2 8 a , bottom; ed. Weiss f. 3 3 b : nD*ya TINP i n « D (the Israelites began to murmur against Moses). 480

1,481

N201

ybnn are 'spices.' The translation 'antiseptic' is suggested by the preceding parable in Sifre (see Vol. I, p. 490) and by the use of aromatics in plasters or poultices applied to open wounds; cf. the words in the same context (before the parable), •"nn DD3 mm nzn ibwxw. 1,481

N20ia

In the preceding context, Gen. 4 , 6 (God's words to Cain) is quoted, and Prov. 2 5 , 2 1 f.: ('If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat' — the bread of the Law, etc.). 1,481

N202

See above, N 200 I,

483

N 203 On the "sons of G o d " in Gen. 6, 2 , in Jewish and Christian sources, see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 1 5 3 — 1 5 6 , and 1 7 2 f. (note 1 4 ) .

I,

484

n. 4 R. Alexander's prayer, Vol. II, p. 2 1 6 . See also the prayer of Rab Hamnuna to be delivered from the y"in and other evils, Berakot 1 7 a . R. Tanhum (bar Iskolastika — this name only here) prays: " M a y it be Thy will, O Lord my God and the God of my fathers, to shatter and bring to an end the yoke of the evil impulse from our heart; for Thou didst create us to do Thy will and we are under obli­ gation to do Thy will. Thou desirest it and we desire it. And what hinders? The leaven in the dough. It is perfectly well-known to Thee that there is in us no power to resist it; but may it be Thy will, O Lord, my God and the God of my fathers, to cause it to cease from

JUDAISM.

NOTES

ruling over us and bring it into subjection; and we shall do Thy will as our own will, with a perfect heart." Jer. Berakot 7 d , below. (Against the supposition that this Tanhum is no other than the wellknown Tanhuma bar Abba see Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, III, 470.) On the impulses of animals, and their difference from the passions of men, cf. Seneca, De ira, i. 3 , 4 ff. 1,485

N204

R. Jose the Galilean said: Righteous men, good impulse (mw "IS') judges them, as it is said, 'And my heart is wounded within me' (Psalm 1 0 9 , 2 2 ) ; wicked men, evil impulse judges them, as it is said, 'Transgression speaketh to the wicked man, in the midst of my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes' (Psalm 3 6 , 2 ) ; inter­ mediate men, one and the other judges them, as it is said, 'he will stand at the right hand of the needy to save him from them that judge his soul' (Psalm 1 0 9 , 3 1 ) . The application and appositeness of the proof-texts is dubious enough, but the only point with which we are are here concerned is that nb (' heart') is used in the first two texts as equivalent to "is\ Berakot 6 1 b ; in Yalkut, Psalms § 7 2 5 , mistakenly ascribed to Eleazar ben Pedat. A different version with the same proof texts, Abot de-R. Nathan c. 3 2 . See Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 3 6 8 ; and compare Gen. R. 3 4 , 1 0 , quoted Vol. I, p. 486, n. 2 . I,

487 N 206 In Sankhya texts the relation of the soul, which has intelligence but no power of action, and the body, which has all active powers but no intelligence, is illustrated by a lame man mounted on the shoulders of a blind man, both of whom thus escape from the jungle in which singly they were helpless. See Garbe, Die Samkhya-Philosophie, 1 8 9 4 , p. 1 6 4 . In the Buddhist Visuddhi-Magga the same illustration is used for the combination of ' N a m e ' and 'Form,' each of which individually is impotent, but when they support each other can do things. (See Warren, Buddhism in Translations, p. 184 f.) In the Greek Anthology (ix. 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 3 , B), the lame man on the shoulders of the blind man is only an example of how two imperfections may com­ plement each other. In Mohammedan tradition it is applied, as in the Jewish sources from which it is doubtless derived, to the common re­ sponsibility of soul and body. (See Goldziher, Vorlesungen iiber den Islam, p. 43 ff, and references, ibid. p. 7 4 , note 4 , 1 ) . A variation is found in Ikhwan al-Safa (Dieterici, Philosophic, u. s. w., I. 1 1 5 f.)

JUDAISM. I,

NOTES

149

n. 1 According to another Baraita in the same context (Berakot 61 a, end) man has two reins ( f i V ^ O , kidneys) one of which counsels him to good, the other to evil; the good counsellor is the right kidney, as is shown by Eccles. 1 0 , 2, ' A wise man's heart (2 ?) is on his right side, a fool's on his left.' Cf. the expression 3 ^ 1 nvbj ] r a God tests 'reins and heart' (Jer. 1 1 , 2 0 , et alibi.). 485

1

I,

486

N 205 The notion that the soul (often as a manikin exactly reproducing in miniature the form of the owner's body) tenants the chambers of the heart, which being empty after death seems made on purpose for such occupancy, is common. Thus in India the manas (soul as mind and will) is "the little winged thing in the heart" (Atharva Veda vi. 1 8 , 3 ) ; so, as a manikin (purusha), in the Upanishads, etc. On similar notions in the Talmud (Berakot 61 a, end) see Schechter, op. cit., p. 2 5 6 . I,

492

N 2 0 6 (bis) On this variety of permutation of letters (pan = mno) by r\"2m see R. Hananel and Rashi on Sukkah, I.e. Other interpretations in the Talmud, I.e. The rendering of the English version, "shall have him become his son at length" connects the word with pa; see Ibn Ezra on Prov. 2 9 , 2 1 . 1,493

N207

R. Judah (ben Ila'i). See Vol. II, p. 3 7 0 . — T o the righteous it will seem very large ("like a high hill") and to the wicked very small ("like a single hair"); "the former will weep, saying, How could we subdue this high hill! the latter will weep, saying, How could we not subdue this strand of hair!" I,

N 208 This is sometimes held up as evidence of the moral confusion caused by 'legalism,' whereas it is only an instance of mental confusion caused by translation. The English 'sin' differs from the Hebrew KDn both in extension and connotation; but instead of recognizing that the terms do not match, it is inferred that the Jews had a defec­ tive idea of 'sin'! It would be equally intelligent to assert that Aris­ totle had an erroneous idea of 'form' because we translate his eldos by 'form' while he uses eldos for a conception that does not fall in with our notion ofform at all. 493

JUDAISM.

NOTES

What I may call the dictionary fallacy, namely, that a Hebrew or a Greek word means a word in English or German, is one to which doc­ trinal interpreters are peculiarly addicted. Having substituted their own word, with its peculiar history and associations, for the author's, they imagine that they are interpreting his term, when they are only naively assuming that he thought in theirs. Jewish theologians are sometimes caught in the same fallacy, and to prove that the rabbis had a correct, i.e., a modern, idea of sin and righteousness set them­ selves to prove that their distinctions were strictly " ethical." 1,^95

N209

Paul's argument rests on two premises equally alien to Jewish thought and repugnant to its spirit: First, as we have seen, that the righteousness which is under the Law the condition of salvation in us is nothing less than perfect conformity to the law, see, e.g., Gal. 3 , 1 0 - 1 2 . Second, that God, in his righteousness, cannot freely forgive the penitent sinner and bestow upon him a salvation that is of grace, not of desert. This second assumption is less explicitly developed than the first; on it rests, however, the whole necessity of the expi­ atory death of Christ; see, e.g., Rom. 3 , 2 5 . It is to be noted that Paul shifts the whole problem from forgiveness to "justification." The rhetorical form in which he puts this argument, especially in the seventh chapter of Romans, has led interpreters to take it as his own experience, and to generalize it as the normal experience of a conscien­ tious seeker of salvation in Judaism — inescapable conviction of the impossibility of justification by the works of the law, and the despair of knowing that there was no other way. To Jews, on the other hand, it is a perpetual amazement how a Jew, on his own testimony brought up in an orthodox home, a professed Pharisee, for a time, it is reported, a student in the school of the elder Gamaliel, evidently well-versed in the Scriptures and the hermeneutics of the day, should ever have come to make such assertions or assumptions. T o his overstrained definition of the requirements of the Law in Gal. 3 , 1 0 , "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to do them," a verbal parallel is found, indeed, in the utter­ ance of the younger Gamaliel when he read Ezek. 1 8 , 1 - 9 : "Only he that does all these things shall live." But Akiba quoted to him Lev. 1 8 , 2 4 : ' D o not defile yourselves with all these things,' does not mean that a man must commit all the abominations enumerated in the pre­ ceding part of the chapter to be defiled, but any of them. Sanhedrin 81 a. In a parallel narration, Makkot 2 4 a , the cause of Gamaliel's

JUDAISM.

NOTES

searching of heart was Psalm 1 5 . Compare also Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 1 5 . How a Jew of Paul's antecedents could ignore, and by implication deny, the great prophetic doctrine of repentance, which, individual­ ized and interiorized, was a cardinal doctrine of Judaism, namely, that God, out of love, freely forgives the sincerely penitent sinner and restores him to his favor — that seems from the Jewish point of view inexplicable. From that point of view it is in fact inexplicable. The two proposi­ tions we are dealing with are not given premises from which Paul draws his conclusion; they are the postulates which the predetermined conclusion demands. His thesis is that there is no salvation but by faith in the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Jews were equally positive that the only way of salvation was the religion which God had revealed to them in Scripture and tradition, with all its teachings and observances, and they were diligent to make proselytes even among Gentiles who had embraced Christianity. Paul had therefore to prove that Judaism is not a way of salvation at all, neither by man's merit in the works of the law nor by God's grace forgiving the penitent. He can hardly have expected the argument to have effect with Jews, who would deny both premises. He was, in fact, not writing to convince Jews but to keep his Gentile converts from being convinced by Jewish propagandists, who insisted that faith in Christ was not sufficient to salvation apart from the observance of the law. It is perhaps Christians who are meant in Tanhuma ed. Buber, Naso 3 0 , by the Minim who say that God does not receive repentant sinners, with the reply of Resh Lakish; but the tenor of the passage as a whole does not favor so specific a reference. In Pesikta Rabbati (ed. Friedmann, f. 1 8 4 b ) those who doubt the reception of the penitent are called "fools" ( D » B I » ) . I,

N 210 M . Shebu'ot 1, 2 - 5 ; M . Yoma 8, 8 f.; Jer. Yoma f. 4 5 b ; cf. Tos. Yom Kippurim 5 (4) 6 - 8 (Ishmael), and 9 . In M . Shebu'ot the prin­ cipal point of the controversy about the public sin-offerings, in which the chief authorities of the generation after the war under Hadrian participate, is over the relation of the sin-offerings at the festivals (Num. 2 8 ; 2 9 ) and new moons (Num. 2 8 , 1 5 ) to the supplementary sin-offering on the Day of Atonement (Num. 28, 1 1 ) and the specific sin-offering of the Day whose blood was carried into the inner sanct­ uary (Lev. 1 6 , 15 ff.). R. Meir held, as we have seen above, that all 497

JUDAISM.

152

NOTES

the goats (sin-offerings) without distinction expiate uncleanness affecting the sanctuary and the holy flesh of sacrifices. All agree that the public sin-offerings avail for the individual only when this intrusion of the unclean into the sphere of holiness was not deliberate. For wilful violations of this holiness "the goat (sin-offering) which is made in the inner sanctuary and the Day of Atonement expiates." On the whole subject see Encyclopaedia Biblica, s.v. Sacrifice (Vol. IV, cols. 4 2 2 3 - 4 2 2 6 ) . See also Shebuot 1 2 0 - 1 3 a . The opinion there ascribed to Rabbi, viz. that the Day of Atonement atones, with or without repentance, for all sins except those of the man who p T S "icon n n n IS^DI m i n n eras r t a o i bny: for these it atones only on condi­ tion of repentance, did not prevail. (See Rashi, al.) 1.498

N 2 1 1

On the "bn nm see Maimonides, Hilkot Shegagot 8, iff. — M . Keritot 1 , 1 enumerates thirty-six cases in which the Pentateuch denounces the penalty of extirpation ( n " D ) , all except two (observance of the Passover and circumcision) attached to express prohibitions, ranging from incest, blasphemy, and the defilement of the sanctuary and holy food, to the so-called dietary laws. The rule (M. Keritot 1 , 2) is that if any of these is transgressed wilfully (pi?) the Karet is incurred; if inadvertently (xw) a sin-offering (n«Dn) is required; if j m n ib by (Lev. 5, 1 7 , 'though he know it not'), an ibn om (with exceptions which we need not here pursue). The uncertainty may arise in various ways, for instance a man may be in doubt whether he has eaten suet (n^n, Lev. 7 , 2 5 ) or ordinary fat (pity), or has eaten more or less than the minimum necessary to constitute a trans­ gression of the law; eye-witnesses may contradict each other on the facts, and so on. On the derivation of this interim asham from Lev. 5, 1 7 see Sifra in /oc. Perek 2 0 f., ed. Weiss, ff. 2 6 - 2 7 . 1.499

H.17-19

The legitimacy of sacrifices by proxy is here assumed as it is in several places in the Mishnah. The Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 2 8 b ) , in restricting this to certain kinds of sacrifice or to the sacrifices of women, represents a later theory; see the Tosafot ad he. [L. G.] The difficulty raised is about the HD'DD (cf. Menahot 6 3 a ; and especially Sifra on Lev. 1, 4 , ed. Weiss, f. 5 c : T sb I T m y T ib vr ra T tb I T li-p^ttf). What I have said in the text refers only to the practicability of such offerings.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

153

I, 5 0 0 N 2 1 2 Sifra, A h a r e Perek 8, ed. Weiss, f. 8 3 a : "Whence do we prove that, although there are no sacrifices and no scape-goat, the D a y atones?" I, 5 0 0

N 213

That in animal sacrifice it is the blood that atones stands in the Law (Lev. 1 7 , 1 1 f.), and that there is no atonement (rriED) without blood is deduced in Sifra, A h a r e Perek 1 0 , ed. Weiss, f. 8 4 b : Yoma 5 a ; Zebahim 6 a as well as in Heb. 9 , 2 2 . From the Hebrew word E O S , 'lamb,' the victims in the daily morning and evening sacrifices in the Temple (Num. 2 8 , 3 ) , the school of Shammai inferred by way of etymology, or rather play on words, that they 'pressed down* ( K b a ) the iniquities of Israel, according to Mic. 7 , 1 9 ; the school of Hillel, remarking that what is pressed down (submerged) comes to the top again, held that the lambs 'washed off' (DID) the iniquities of the Israelites (Pesikta, ed. Buber, 6 1 b ; cf. Pesikta Rabbati, c. 1 6 , ed. Friedmann, 8 4 a ) . In the ' Aruk, where this passage is quoted, the text is more completely preserved, and continues: Ben Azzai says, 'Lambs a year o l d / for they wash off the iniquities of Israel, and make them like an infant a year old, which has no iniquity. The difference be­ tween the two schools is also quoted in slightly different form from the (lost) Midrash Yelammedenu. The scripture of the Hillelites is Isaiah 1, 18 ('like snow'). These alternative paronomastic etymolo­ gies are the nearest approach to a theory in the rabbinical literature. W i t h the etymology of 1£)J which has filled so much space in Chris­ tian speculation the rabbis seem never to have played. See " Sacri­ fice," Encyclopaedia Biblica IV, col. 4 2 2 6 ; "Atonement," Jewish Encyclopedia II, 2 7 7 B. I, 5 0 0

11. 25 f.

It is hardly necessary to add that this applies only to the people of God. Those who are not of the true religion have no claim upon its promises. For such, repentance is primarily conversion to the true religion, according to Philo exemplified by Enoch (Vol. I, p. 5 1 6 ) ; cf. Acts 2 0 , 2 1 ; 2 6 , 2 0 . 1,501

N2i3a

See Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann, f. 1 8 3 b : " A l l the prophets call Israel to repentance, but not like Hosea" — the difference from Jeremiah and Isaiah illustrated in the sequel. Observe also in Pesikta de-R. Kahana that the section mw (f. 1 5 7 ff.) begins with Hos. 1 4 , 2

JUDAISM.

154

NOTES

(Haftarah to the Parashah irmn, Deut. 3 2 , 1 ff.) and frequently recurs to it. On the doctrine of Repentance in Hosea see Koberle, Siinde und Gnade im Alten Testament, pp. 1 4 7 ff. I,

503 n. 2 Note should be made also of a saying of R. Johanan ben Zakkai (Baba Batra 1 0 b ) : " A s the sin-offering atones for Israel, so alms­ giving ( n p i s ) atones for the Gentiles." Sin-offerings are prescribed — and accepted — only for Israelites; for the m ' n there is no requirement of such a sacrifice; see Vol. I, p. 504, n. 2 .

I,

503 N 2 1 4 See also Makkot 2 4 a - b , and Ekah Rabbati on Lam. 5, 1 8 . Two occasions are named, one on a mission of the rabbis to Rome, the second in Jerusalem. The others wept over the destruction of Jeru­ salem and the Temple; Akiba showed by his behavior that he was glad, extracting both from the prosperity of Rome and the desolation of Jerusalem the assurance of the better future in store for the Jews and their sanctuary. 1,504

N215

That the gods cannot be bribed to condone wrong-doing through gifts is emphasized by Plato in the Laws (x, 905 D seq.; 907 A - B , watch-dogs and ordinary men would never betray the right for the sake of gifts impiously offered by bad men — much less the gods; cf. iv, 7 1 7 A (the great pains that ungodly men take about the gods is in vain). Other places in Philo are cited in Encyclopaedia Biblica, I.e. I,

505

n.

1

The words quoted in the text are also in M . Menahot 1 3 , 1 1 . I,

N 216 In Sifre, I.e., there is a variant; for the TOI nwyb of the editions from Venice ( 1 5 4 6 ) f. 2 5 to Friedmann, Horovitz, with manuscript authority and derivative Midrashim, has "pYsn -\b nwyb ^ a r a , which is supported by the proof-text adduced (Lev. 2 2 , 2 9 , D l O T n ^ ) . Sacri­ fice was not demanded because of any need on God's part, but to satisfy or gratify the worshippers; cf. Pesikta Rabbati f . i 9 5 a . See Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 298 n., who is not in­ clined to think that the rabbis entertained any such "rationalistic views . . . in regard to sacrifices." 505

JUDAISM.

NOTES

155

I,

505 N 217 " I n our time, when there is no temple and no altar, there is no atonement there but repentance. Repentance atones for all iniqui­ ties; even the man who has been wicked all his days and at the last repents, no whit of his wickedness is remembered against him (Ezek. 3 3 , 1 2 ) . . . . The Day of Atonement itself atones for the penitent (Lev. 1 6 , 3 0 ) . " — See, to the same effect, from the supposed situation in the Exile, the Prayer of Azarias in the Greek Daniel 3 , 38-40.

I,

505 N 218 Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ahare 16 f. God made provision for the state of things that would arise when the Temple was destroyed and piacular sacrifices could no more be made. He bids man study diligently the words of the Law, " for they are made like to offerings, and they atone for y o u " (Lev. 1 7 , 2 , i m n nr), etc. Cf. Berakot 5 a-b.

I,

507 N 2 1 9 Hence the literal equivalent is emo-Tpe^o} (intrans., compare the New Testament use). When the change of mind and purpose are in the foreground of the thought, fieravoeoo (cf.

ixeravoia).

I,

508 N 220 This phrase has sometimes been taken to imply that repentance was "wesentlich als Tun aufgefasst." What such naive linguists do with the Christian agere poenitentiam or "Busse tun," is not apparent.

I,

5 0 9 N 221 Tos. Ta'anit 1, 8: If a man have an unclean reptile in his hand, though he bathe in the waters of Shiloah or in all the waters of crea­ tion, he will not be clean; if he casts the reptile away, a bath of forty seahs (the minimum measure for ritual ablutions) suffices for him, for it is written, 'He who confesses and forsakes [his sins] shall receive mercy' (Prov. 2 8 , 13) and 'Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands (to God in heaven)' (Lam. 3 , 4 1 ) . — Abot de-R. Nathan c. 3 9 (cf. Bacher, Tannaiten I, 3 3 6 , n. 3 ) : "There are five for whom there is no forgiveness: he who repeatedly repents and repeatedly sins . . . he who sins relying on repentance, and he who is guilty of pro­ faning the name of God." The compiler apparently attributes the saying to Akiba; see Bacher, I.e. — Abot de-R. Nathan c. 4 0 : "One who sins and repents and walks in his integrity is forgiven on the

i 6

JUDAISM.

5

NOTES

spot; one who says, I will sin and repent, is forgiven unto three times and no more" (R. Eleazar ben Jose). Cf. Yoma 86b, middle, where the somewhat different question of the repetition of a transgression once repented of and confessed is raised. •— In the Shepherd of Hermas the possibility of repentance is more narrowly limited; see especially Mandate 4 , 3 . See also Shebu'ot 1 2 b , below. 1,510

N222

Maimonides, in his definition of perfect repentance, adds that, op­ portunity and ability being given, a man refrains from yielding to the temptation "because of his repentance'' (Hilkot Teshubah 2 , 1 ) . 1.510

N223

See also N 2 1 9 . The usage of the Greek words in the L X X does not support the precise discrimination of synonyms sometimes attempted. 1.511

N224

On the cultivation of repentance by special seasons and exercises see Vol. II, pp. 5 8 - 6 1 , 6 2 f.; cf. also Vol. II, p. 1 4 . — That man should always be in the attitude and spirit of repentance is the mean­ ing of the saying, "Repent one day before thy death" (Abot 2 , 1 0 ) ; Shabbat 1 5 3 a , since no man knows but that this day is his last, there­ fore repent today. For this reason the petition that God will bring his worshippers back in perfect repentance has its place among the first in the Daily Prayer (Tefillah; Singer, p. 4 6 ; Baer, p. 90) im­ mediately preceding the petition for forgiveness. 1.512

N225

For an older form of confession see Jer. Yoma, end, f. 4 5 c (R. Berechiah in the name of R. Abba bar Abina, 3 d cent.): " M y Lord, I have sinned and done wickedly, I have continued in an evil frame of mind, and have habitually walked in a far-off way; but as I have done I will do no more. May it be Thy will, O Lord my God, to for­ give me ('131 by b IBDDW) for all my wickednesses, have mercy on me for all my sin." Cf. Lev. R. 3 , 3 (as a formula for individual confes­ sion on the Day of Atonement). — On the confession to the injured party in the case of wrongs done to a fellow-man, and reconciliation with him, see Jer. Yoma 4 5 c ; Yoma 8 7 a . Cf. Vol. II, p. 1 5 4 . — Whether in the confession it is necessary to specify (DID) the sin or sins was a disputed point (Yoma 8 6 b ) . R. Judah ben Baba held that it was necessary, alleging Exod. 3 2 , 3 1 , 'This people has sinned a great

JUDAISM.

NOTES

iS7

sin, and have made them golden gods'; Akiba held the opposite, quoting Psalm 3 2 , 1, 'Blessed is he whose trasgression is forgiven, his sin concealed.' See Maimonides 2, 3 , and 5. In case of a wrong done to a fellow-man, however, it is laudable to confess it publicly before others, with specification of the person and the offense, and expres­ sions of regret. Offenses against God, on the contrary, should not thus be proclaimed (Maim. 2 , 5 ) . Misdeeds of common notoriety, however, should be publicly confessed. In Pesikta (ed. Buber 1 6 3 b ) R. Juda bar Simon (end of 4 t h cent.) teaches that God accepts a re­ pentance that is between the sinner and himself alone, even for public insult and blasphemy. 1.513

N226

The confession of Samuel (1 Sam. 7 , 6, lUKton) is adduced, and the lesson drawn: "Lord of the worlds, Thou dost not judge (con­ demn) a man at all, except in case he says, I have not sinned." 1.514

N227

Repentance and good works (o^niio cnpyD) are like a shield against God's punishments (Eleazar ben Jacob, Abot 4 , 1 1 ) ; repentance and good works are man's advocates (pto^plE), irapaKKriToi) in judg­ ment (and secure his acquittal), Shabbat 3 2 a . Better is one pang of compunction ( n m D , fig.) in a man's heart than a hundred (legal) floggings, as it is said, (Hos. 2 , 9 ) . Berakot 7 a . 1.515

N228

Yoma 8 6 b . Both eulogies of repentance are attributed to R. Simeon ben Lakish. In Hosea,' Return O Israel, unto Jehovah thy God (re­ pent), for thou hast stumbled through thine iniquity,' the inference is drawn from the very mild word (unintentionally) 'stumbled' (rbwo); in Ezekiel,' When the wicked man turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness. . . . none of his sins that he has com­ mitted shall be remembered against him; he has done justice and righteousness, he shall surely live.' The two utterances are harmon­ ized by the distinction between repentance out of love and repentance out of fear. See Bacher, Agada der palastinensischen Amoraer, I, 3 5 6 . With the first of these sayings compare Yoma 3 6 b , where Moses prays (cf. Exod. 3 4 , 7 and 9 ) : Lord of the world, whenever Israelites sin before Thee, and repent, do Thou make for them wilful sins (rmnr) like unwitting ( n w ) . We may be reminded of the Catholic doc­ trine: B y penitence mortal sins become venial. The second is Philo's

i8

JUDAISM.

5

NOTES

teaching also: The Day of Atonement (the "Fast day") is a day of purification and of turning from sins, for which forgiveness is granted through the grace of the merciful God, who holds penitence in as high esteem as guiltlessness. De spec. legg. i. § 1 8 7 ; cf. § 1 8 8 , end: The scapegoat takes upon it the curse of the sinners who by turning to the better way have made atonement for their former sins and have purified themselves by their new piety. (Apparently Ezek. 3 3 . 1 4 ff., 1 8 , 2 1 ff. are in the author's mind.) Cf. De Abrahamo c. 1 8 , ed. Mangey, II, 4 (on Enoch as a type of repentance): 'He was not found,' to intimate that the former sinful life was effaced and destroyed and no more found, as though it had never been. Elsewhere Philo regards the state of the repentant sinner as inferior to that of the righteous man (De virtutibus: De paenitentia § 1 7 7 ; De Abrahamo § 2 6 : but in both places he is thinking chiefly of those who have turned from false religion to the true. In an earlier passage in De spec. legg. (i. § 1 0 3 , end), he remarks that in the soul of the repentant man scars and marks of his former sins remain — almost verbally reproducing a saying of the Stoic Zeno in Seneca, De ira i. 1 6 , 7 . From Isa. 5 7 , 1 9 R. Abahu (end of third century) inferred that not even completely right­ eous men stand in as high a place as repentant sinners (Berakot 3 4 b , Sanhedrin 9 9 a : God bestows the greeting of peace first on those who are afar off, and then on those that are near). Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, II, 1 0 4 . Cf. Luke 1 5 , 6 : There will be more rejoicing in heaven (cf. vs. 10) over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous men who have no need of repentance. — See also the following verses. 1,516 Hhr)tf

The

N229 /jLeravoovaiv

hiravobos

22, 21

eduicev

eiravobov

Kal

TrapaKakeaev

eKKeiirovTas

vwojjLOvrjv.

is here a return to friendly relations, a reconciliation; see

f.

I, 5 1 6 n. 2 The Greek of Ecclus. 4 4 , 1 6 , as given in the text, is supported by substantially unanimous manuscript tradition; only cod. 2 3 accord­ ing to Lagarde's collation, has havolas (see Smend, Die Weisheit des Jesus Sirach, p. 4 2 1 ) . The Hebrew (only one manuscript contains the passage) has "im Til ? njn nifc*. In the Syriac the whole verse is lacking, probably by accident. Philo extracts from jxeTedrfKev a metathesis or fxerafioKr) to the better (/jera/3 aXeiy), repentance, De paenitentia, c. 1, Mangey, II, 4 0 5 ; see also De monarchia, c. 7 , ed. Mangey, II, 2 1 9 ; De praemiis et poenis, c. 3 , ed. Mangey, II, 4 1 1 . 1

JUDAISM.

NOTES

159

The Palestinian haggadists did not think well of Enoch; see Gen. R. 2 5 , i ; cf. also Wisdom of Solomon, 4 , 1 0 f., where the verb fxereredT] suggests that Enoch is in mind. 1.517

N230

For other references see Bousset, Religion des Judentums, u. s. w., 3 ed. (Gressmann), pp. 3 8 9 f. 1.518

N231

In his brief treatment of the subject in De paenitentia, Philo has primarily in mind conversion from mythological polytheism to the pure monotheism of Judaism, from creature-worship to the worship of the eternal creator, and, in consequence, from bad political constitu­ tions ("ochlocracy") to the best form of government ("democracy"), from ignorance to well-established knowledge, from licence to selfcontrol, from wrong-doing to uprightness, from cowardice to bravery — in short from vice to virtue. Such a reformation is a second-best good, indeed, such as is restoration from illness to health compared with unimpaired sound health (cf. De Abrahamo, c. 3 ) ; but never to sin at all is peculiar to God — or perhaps to a godlike man. For others there remains only the way of repentance. Philo is thinking primarily of proselytes, whose character, formed by their new religion, he contrasts with their former way of life (c. 2 § 1 8 2 ) . See also De monarchia, c. 7 , ed. Mangey, II, 2 1 9 . On the nature and effect of repentance Philo discourses more gen­ erally in De fuga et inventione, c. 1 8 (see especially § 9 9 ) , Mangey I, 560 f. — On the Day of Atonement, De specialibus legibus, i, c. 3 § 187 f., ed. Mangey, II, 2 4 0 : The Day has a double character, as a festival and as a day of purification and banishment of sins, on condi­ tion of which amnesty (dismissal from memory; Ezek. 1 8 , 21 f.) is granted by the free gift of the propitious God, "who estimates repent­ ance as equivalent to not sinning at all." See also § 1 8 8 , end: the scape-goat is sent away into an untrodden and inaccessible wilderness, "taking upon itself the curses of those who have done wrong, who are purified by reformation (/iera^oXaTs reus irpos TO fiekTiov), having washed away their former sin by new rectitude (evvonia Kaivfj ToXaLav dvonlav €Kvi(j)dfxevoL). See also De Abrahamo § 1 9 , ed. Mangey, II, 4 : by repentance (as in the case of Enoch) "the old and culpable life is erased and made disappear and no more be found, as if it had originally never been." Cf. Justin Martyr, Trypho, c. 4 7 : God, as Ezekiel says, holds the man who repents from his sins as a righteous man and

i6o

JUDAISM.

NOTES

without sin (also c. 1 4 1 ) . To the same effect, Tanhuma ed. Buber, f. 4 7 b : No matter how many iniquities a man has, if he repent before God, He imputes it to him as if he had not sinned (Ezek. 1 8 , 2 2 ) . An even higher rank is accorded to repentant sinners by R. Abahu: " T h e righteous do not stand in the place where penitents (TOWn byn) stand, as it is said — ' Peace, Peace, to him who is afar off and to him who is near' (Isa. 5 7 , 2 ) ; first the far off and after that the near." (Sanhedrin 9 9 a ; see the sequel; Berakot 3 4 a , et alibi). Cf. Luke 1 5 , 7, "There will be joy in heaven over one repentant sinner more than over ninety-nine righteous men who have no need of repentance." 1,519

N232

See, e.g., the terminology of Philo, N 2 3 1 . I,

522 N 233 On the possibility of repentance at the last moment cf. M . Sanhe­ drin 6, 2 — the exhortation to a man condemned to death on his way to the place of execution; confession assures him of a share in the World to Come. — The extension to death-bed repentance is a con­ sequence of Ezekiel's doctrine applied to a later eschatology. — An example of the death-bed repentance of an atheist, the Cynic Bion of Borysthenes, is related by Diogenes Laertius, iv. 7 , 54 f.

I,

523 N 234 The sentence passed and sealed is not to be understood as man's eternal destiny. The sentence passed at New Year's and sealed at the Day of Atonement, e.g., might be that a man should die in the course of the year. The firm belief in retribution in this life was not superseded by the annexation of another sphere of retribution beyond death. 1,524

N235

b inn. The loophole was found by a play upon b "injpl, 2 Chron. 3 3 , 1 3 (E. V. " H e (God) was entreated of him," sc. Manas­ seh); taken as equivalent to *b "inm, "he made an opening for him." R. Eleazar, son of Simeon ben Yohai, adds that "in Arabia" they say KnTny for Krrrnn — not the last excursion into Arabia for Hebrew etymologies. Galileans are censured for their slovenly pronunciation in general ('Erubin 53a) •— they pronounced i?n so that you could not tell whether they said 'milk' (halab) or 'suet' (heleb, prohibited) it was that you were invited to eat, and particularly ridiculed their rrrnn

JUDAISM.

NOTES

161

confusion of the gutturals — when a Galilean said amar, nobody could tell whether he meant an ass ("lion) or wine ("ion) or wool ("ioy) or a lamb (-m*). 'Erubin 5 3 b . I,

524 N 236 A modern instance is alleged: the repentance of R. Eleazar ben Durdaya, an infamous lecher, who having in vain besought the mountains and hills, heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, to intercede for mercy on him — they had need to seek it for themselves, since they were all doomed to annihilation — said, It all depends on me, and putting his head between his knees cried aloud till his soul went out. A mysterious voice (bat kol) was heard saying, R. Eleazar ben Durdaya is summoned to life in the World to Come. Rabbi (Judah the Nasi) said, One man gains his World in ever so many years, and another gains his World in a single hour. Abodah Zarah 17a.

I,

526 n. 7 . "In Gen. R. 1, 4 the matter is presented as if the earlier authorities did not count repentance among the seven (Gen. R.: six) things created before the world. Compare, however, L. Ginzberg, Genizah Studies, p. 4 7 6 , where it is shown that repentance (as one of the seven) is a Tannaitic tradition." [L. G.] — The count of six in Gen. R. is arrived at by splitting n w a into nn? ten, cf. Sukkah 4 9 a (Theodor; see his whole note on Gen. R. ad toe; cf. Buber's note in his edition of Mid­ rash Tehillim on Psalm 9 3 , 2 , p. 4 1 4 , n. 1 1 ) .

I,

527 n. 1 Read pp. 528 f.

I,

528 n. 3 On Noah as a preacher of repentance see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 1 7 4 , n. 1 9 .

I,

528 N 237 The passage cited from the Mekilta adduces the generation of the flood, the tower of Babel, the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, the ten plagues in Egypt, to show that God puts off his intervention to give opportunity for repentance, and causes destruction only when men have brought their wickedness to a consummation ( n r P ^ y n i D . ib y^b nyun ^Dbwnw i y n ?D is the refrain of each example). It is ,,l

l62

JUDAISM.

NOTES

natural that such utterances should be more common in the homiletic midrash of the synagogues, but the Mekilta is evidence that the teaching is old and current in the schools of the second century. 1,531

N238

The same Midrash has a parable in part resembling the Prodigal Son: "'Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God* (Hos. 1 4 , 2 ) . It is like the case of a king's son who was a hundred days journey away from his father. His friends said to him, Go back to your father. He re­ plied, I have not the strength to do so. His father sent word to him, Come as far as your strength permits, and I will come to you the rest of the way. So God said to them, 'Return to me and I will return to you' (Mai. 3 , 7 ) . " Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann, f. i 8 4 b - i 8 5 a . I. 5 3 2 N 239 For Philo on Repentance see further above N 228 and N 231. 1,535

N240

T o the places cited in the footnotes on I, 3 9 3 , many others might be added. Perhaps the most significant is R. Joshua ben Levi's in­ clusion of the heretic (pD) who vexed him with Bible texts — per­ haps messianic texts applied to Jesus — among the works of God over whom his mercy extends (Psalm 1 4 5 , 9 . 'Abodah Zarah 7 b ; Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 1 4 7 f.). 1,537

N241

A contemporary of the Patriarch Judah, R. Jose ben Zimra re­ ported by Johanan, generalizes: "When a man depends on his own desert (flD?) he is made to depend on the desert of others; when he depends on the desert of others, he is made to depend on his own desert." Moses is an example of the latter (Exod. 3 2 , 1 3 and Psalm 1 0 6 , 2 3 ) ; Hezekiah of the former ( 2 Kings 20, 3 and 2 Kings 1 9 , 3 4 ) . Berakot 1 0 b ; cf. Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 1 6 7 b . 1,537

N242

In a long parallel between Elijah and Moses (Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann, f. 1 3 b ) Elijah's invocation in 1 Kings 1 8 , 3 6 f. (O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel) is interpreted in the same way; both Moses and Elijah laid hold of the good desert of the Patriarchs in their intercession for the sins of the people. Similarly, Exod. R. 4 4 , 1. — It may be noted that the appeal to the merit of the Patri-

JUDAISM.

NOTES

163

archs has a large place in Exodus Rabbah, as in Pesikta Rabbati, and in later elements in the liturgy. 1, 5 3 9

N243

The cleaving of the Red Sea is connected with the covenant with Abraham by verbal analogy with Gen. 1 5 , 1 7 ( o n n ) . The parting of the waters of the Jordan on his account is elicited from Josh. 3 , 1 6 (-pyn DIN = b\ir\ a i « , sc. Abraham, Josh. 1 4 , 1 5 ) . — Correct the reference note 2 to read Yalkut on Josh. 3 , 1 6 (instead of 1 3 , 1 6 ) . — On the cleaving of the sea for the sake of Jacob cf. also Mekilta on Exod. 1 4 , 1 5 (Beshallah 2 , ed. Friedmann, f. 2 8 a - b , with the editor's notes; ed. Weiss [3] f. 3 5 a ) . 1.540

N244

The Mekilta on Exod. 1 2 , 1 3 (Bo 7 , ed. Friedmann, f. 8 a , ed. Weiss, f. n b ) , in connection with the blood on the door posts and lintels of Israelite houses in the Passover in Egypt, speaks of the blood of Isaac's Akedah. In the Pirke de Rabbi Eiiezer (c. 3 1 ) , Isaac's soul left his body when the knife drew near his throat, but returned when the voice said to Abraham ' D o not stretch out thy hand to the lad' (Gen. 2 2 , 1 2 ) , an illustration of the revivification of the dead. 1.541

N245

The blowing of the ram's horn in the New Years liturgy (Shofarot; Vol. II, p. 6 4 ) is ordained by God, "that I may remember the binding of Isaac, son of Abraham, and impute it to you as though ye bound yourselves in my presence." Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 a , end. I,

541 N 246 On the Akedah see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, I,

279-286,

V, 2 4 9 - 2 5 1 . 1.543

N247

See also Tosafot on Shabbat 5 5 a (lemma ^KlDEn). Rabbenu Tarn said: The mat* no? came to an end, but the covenant of the Fathers did not come to an end (Lev. 26, 42) even after the exile; therefore we now do not make mention (in the liturgy) of the good desert of the Fathers, but of the covenant. Others endeavored to harmonize the apparently contradictory statements in the Talmud. n.4 Read circumspectio tua.

1.544

JUDAISM.

164

NOTES

I,

545 N 249 JTDT is virtue, righteousness, good desert, as in Abot 2 , 2 (Gamaliel, son of the Patriarch Judah): Ail who exert themselves in the interest of the community should do so with a religious motive D^), for the virtue (JTDT) of their fathers helps them (cooperates with them), and their (sc. the Patriarchs') righteousness (np"7E) abides forever. And as for you, I (God) will reckon to you a reward as though you (alone) did the work. — DUD is, however, often used in a prepositional way, without thinking of the desert, or merit, of the object, as we use ' b y virtue o f without any thought of the usual meaning of the noun. Similar cases are the Greek x<*p«>, ducrji/, Latin gratia with a genitive, equivalent to propter. When we read, for example, that the world was created rmnn mDD (Gen. R. 1 2 , 2 ; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Bereshit § 10) or D'lOD^n iron (Gen. R.), or btiTW -TDQ (Tanhuma, I.e.), the natural rendering is 'for the sake of the Torah,' 'for the sake of the tribes' (of Israel); 'for the sake of Israel,' not on account of the excellence of the Torah' or 'on ac­ count of the good desert of the tribes' or 'of Israel.' So the Red Sea was divided D^BHT iron 'for Jerusalem's sake' (Mekilta on Exod. 1 4 , 1 5 , ed. Weiss, f. 3 5 a ; citing Isa. 5 1 , 9 f.); the world was created p*x man (Tanhuma, Buber, Bereshit § 1 0 ) . — In other places the 1YQK fTD? is a good inheritance which Israel has from its forefathers. Thus Israel is compared to an orphan maiden who has been brought up in a palace. When it came time for her to be married, people said to her, you have nothing at all (no inheritance). She replied, I have something from my father and from my grandfather. So Israel has ITDT from that of Abraham and from our father Jacob (Isa. 6 1 , 1 0 ; Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 1 4 7 b ) . Frequently the phrase DUN man is best translated the same way: for the sake of the Patriarchs God opened the well in the desert, for the sake of the Patriarchs Israel was given the manna to eat, etc. (Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyera 9 , f - 4 5 b , 4 6 a ; Hukkot 4 8 ; Beshallah 2 4 , etc.). 1

I,

N 250 It must not be supposed that the idea that the death of the righteous atones for others was actually derived from the juxtaposition re­ marked in the narratives of Exodus and Numbers. As so often in the Midrash, a commonly accepted notion is discovered by homiletic ingenuity in some such recondite association. That is the way in which the teacher's originality is exhibited. Another illustration of the notion that the death of the righteous atones is the inference from 547

JUDAISM.

NOTES

165

2 Sam. 2 1 , 1 4 , 'they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan . . . and after that God was entreated for the land/ (Tanhuma ed. Buber, Ahare 10.) I, 548 N 2 5 1 To the references given may be added the Midrash on the Ten Commandments (Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, I, 68 f.). When God was about to give the Law, he demanded of the Israelites securities that they would fulfil its requirements. They offered in succession Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but these were succesively declined, be­ cause each of them was culpable ( m r o ) for some (specified) wrong­ doing or other. Then they offered their innocent children, and God at once accepted the proposal. They presented the infants at their mother's breast and those still in their mother's womb. T o each of the Ten Words these answered with a chorus of Yes, Yes! or No, N o ! etc. — There seems to be no early trace of this particular bit of Hag­ gadah; but that children die for their parents' sins, see Vol. II, p. 2 4 9 . 1,549

N252

The story is told in Sifre Num. on 2 5 , 7 f, cf. vss. 1 4 - 1 6 ( § 1 3 1 , ed. Friedmann, f. 4 8 a ) and in several other places with variations and embellishments. (For a composite narrative reference may be made to L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, III, 383 ff. and V I Notes). The point with which we are here concerned is that when Phineas had impaled Zimri and his Midianitish paramour, Zimri's Simeonite tribesmen sought to kill him. The quotation from Isa. 5 3 , 1 2 is meant to bring up the following context, ' and was numbered with the trans­ gressors; he bore the sin of many, and intervened on behalf of trans­ gressors.' 1,549

N253

This is probably to be connected with the opinion which identified Phineas with Elijah on the ground of the zeal for God displayed by both (cf. 1 Kings 1 9 , 1 0 , nil '"'b V i w p NJp with the reiterated t o p in Num. 2 5 , 1 0 f.). The Palestinian Targum on Num. 2 5 , 1 2 runs: " I will make him a messenger of the covenant (Mai. 3 , i ; 3 , 23 f.), and he shall live forever to proclaim the deliverance at the end of days." The priesthood of Phineas is a Q^vy (cf. Num. 2 5 , 1 3 ) . See also Pirke de-R. Eiiezer, c. 4 7 (God changed Phineas's name to Elijah).

i66 1.550

JUDAISM.

NOTES

N254

Simlai (second half of the third century) is remembered in Pales­ tinian tradition especially for his replies to Christian controversialists who deduced a plurality of divine persons from certain modes of ex­ pression in the Bible (see Bacher, Pal. Amoraer I, 555 f., and above, N 111), and it is surmisable that the application of Isa. 53, 12 to Moses was a tacit parrying of the use made of that passage by Chris­ tian apologists (see, e.g., Justin Martyr, Apology, c 50). 1.551

N255

It would be a misunderstanding of the whole method of midrash to say that the Rabbis interpreted the passage in Isaiah of Phineas or of Moses. The modern interpreter first fixes the limits of the passage (52,13-53,12), and then seeks some figure, historical or ideal, singular or collective, which the whole description fits. The Rabbis did nothing of the kind. The opening verses (52, 13-15) they not unnaturally referred to the Messiah, as in the Targum, but they felt no constraint to extend this interpretation to the following. Similarly, if 53, 12 reminded them of Phineas or of Moses, it did not draw the preceding verses with it. Nor had such an application of the verse any other authority than its plausibility; whoever could suggest another was free to display his ingenuity by doing so. So again, when in a cata­ logue of the names or titles of the Messiah (Sanhedrin 98b) 'the leprous one,' or 'the sick one/ appears, with quotation of Isaiah 53, 6 (cf. Matth. 8,16), the application goes no farther than the quotation. All that may legitimately be inferred from such passages is that it was a generally accepted opinion that the suffering of righteous men and their willingness to sacrifice life itself was accepted by God as an atonement for the sins of the people. A t the instance of E. B . Pusey an almost exhaustive collection of Jewish interpretations of Isa. 53, from the earliest down to the seven­ teenth century, was made by Adolf Neubauer, " T h e Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah according to the Jewish Interpreters" (1876), and accompanied by a volume containing translations by Driver and Neubauer with an introduction by Pusey (1877). Of recent mono­ graphs on the "Suffering Messiah" it is sufficient here to refer to August Wiinsche, Die Leiden des Messias (1870), and Gustaf Dal­ man, Der leidende und der sterbende Messias (1888); and to the discussion by J. Klausner, 'Itf TPPDH p'ynn (1927), pp. 158-160. See Note on Vol. I, p. 474, above, p. 145.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

167

II, 6 1 . 1 3 Read (as in the second impression), by the horn-blowing.

11,7 That the Jewish teachers recognize the intrinsic difference between the distinctive observances of Judaism in the sphere of the cultus and the support of the ministry, or of domestic life, and universal moral laws, I have tried to make sufficiently plain here (II, 6 - 1 0 ) and in other places (II, 7 0 - 7 8 ) . What I have maintained is that they also recognized that in a revealed religion which includes both kinds of duties or prohibitions the ground of obligation is the same for both, namely that thus and so is the revealed will of God. The gravity of the offense, in case of neglect or transgression, is dependent not on our natural notions, but upon revelation, which affixes the doom of extirpation (n"D) not solely to vile crimes such as incest but to eating flesh with a remainder of blood in it or the suet of certain animal kinds (p. 6 ) . It belonged to the Jewish faith in God's wisdom and goodness to believe that in prohibiting the flesh of a "hare" (nariK) and in similar cases for which there was no reason apparent to men, God had reasons which were beyond human understanding, but that all such things were ordered for the good of his people. Philosophers, from Philo on (see Vol. I, 2 1 3 f.), endeavored to discern and explain the divine motive, but he would not admit that the discovery of the good­ ness and reasonableness of the laws (see, e.g., De specialibus legibus, iv. cc. 4 ff., ed. Mangey, II, 3 5 2 ff.) was the reason why Jews should observe them (Vol. II, p. 9 ) . In the sphere of morals, so far as I can see, the Tannaim had no notion of a rationalistic ethics, still less of an intuitive ethics — "thus saith the Lord" was the beginning and end of their wisdom; 'He hath taught thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee' (Micah 6, 8 ) . Between this attitude and a rationalization like that in Maimonides' "Eight Chapters" lies Aristotle. Without ignoring that morality is integral in Judaism in a sense that cannot be affirmed, for example, of the religions of the Greeks, it may be said that attempts to define Judaism as essentially an "ethical religion," like similar definitions of the es­ sence of Christianity (often in contrast not only to contemporary heathenism but to Judaism), are modernizations which belong to apologetics, not to history.

JUDAISM.

i68 II, 1 0

NOTES

11.13-18

Consequences, which when they were put in practice, shocked Paul greatly (see, e.g., his first epistle to the Corinthians, almost through­ out). II, 1 1 11. 1 7 - 2 1 This restriction of the sacrificial cultus to one sanctuary had not always existed. Worship at the local "high places" was in its time general and entirely legitimate (e.g., 1 Sam. 9 f.). Deuteronomy 1 2 (cf. Lev. 1 7 , 3 - 9 ) proposes to make an end of all this, and 2 Kings 22 f. narrates how Josiah put in force the provisions of the law in 6 2 2 / 6 2 1 B.c. (according to the generally accepted chronology). Doubts about the historical character of this account and about the age of the law itself have not been lacking. We know of a temple with a priesthood and sacrifices at Elephantine, a military colony garrisoned by Jews far up the Nile, which was destroyed by the Egyptians with the con­ nivance of the local Persian governor in 4 1 0 B.C. and by the account of the Jews on the spot had existed there before the Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 B . C , and it may be suspected that there were such Upd in other places in Egypt before the Onias temple. The latter was erected, or at least reconstructed, under the lead of Palestinian refu­ gees in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, with a legitimate priesthood of the old Jerusalem line (Josephus, Antt. xii. 9 , 7 § 3 8 7 f.; xiii. 3 , 1 - 3 ; Bell. Jud. vii. 1 0 , 2 ) . See Valeton, "Jahwe-Tempels buiten Jerusalem" in Teyler's Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1 9 1 0 , pp. 3 3 ff.; S. Krauss, Synagogale Altertiimer, pp. 7 2 - 9 2 , and the literature there cited. — It is sufficient for our present purpose that rabbinical au­ thorities agree in recognizing Jerusalem as the one place where public sacrifice can legitimately be offered. II, 1 1

H.28-30

As the expansion of Islam made obsolete the annual attendance on the Feast at Mecca (hajj). Nowadays a man who has made such a visit once in his life adds to his name hajji, like a title of nobility. — Ceremonial uncleanness would not exclude from admission to the sacrificial rites and mingling with the throng of worshippers (Hagigah 4 b ) , but distance might prevent a man from appearing in Jerusalem at all. II, 1 2 11. 1 - 4 and n. 1 See also Tos. Pesahim 4 , 3 : Once King Agrippa wanted to take a kind of census, and instructed the priests to save for him one testicle

JUDAISM.

NOTES

169

from each passover victim. There proved to be 6 0 0 . 0 0 0 pairs of testicles«— twice the number of the Israelites who came out of Egypt (Exod. 1 2 , 3 7 ) — and there was no passover company numbering less than ten persons; those who were on a far journey, or who were un­ clean were not included in the numeration. It is added that the "mountain of the house" would not hold them all, and that it was called the "Passover when men were crushed to death." But on this name see Levy III. 1 9 0 . The resulting number of those present was 1 , 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 . Cf. Pesahim 6 4 b ; Lam. R. on Lam. 1, 1, ed. Buber, f. 2 3 a for the text and the editor's notes). For the name "Passover of the Crushed" a Baraita in Pesahim 6 4 b gives another origin, referring it to an occasion in the time of Hillel when an old man was crushed to death by the crowds in the court of the Temple. II, 1 2 11. 1 6 - 2 4 On the prayers and readings in the Temple see M . Yoma 6, 1 ; Tos. Yom Kippurim, 4 , 1 8 ; Jer. Yoma, vii. 1 ; Yoma 7 0 a [L. G.] II, 1 2 , end, 1 3 11. 1 ff. On the lay deputation (maamad) see Maker's note in his edition of Ta'anit ( 1 9 2 8 ) on Ta'anit 1 5 b (p. 1 0 5 , n. 2 3 0 ) , also pp. 1 9 8 f. (on M . Ta'anit 4 , 1 - 4 ) . ' — A private sacrifice was presented either by the offerer or by his representative (n 7P). ,l

I,

1 3 n. 5 ^ Cf. Ta'anit 2 7 b , where the purpose of these fasts is specified. Note also the reasons there given for not including Sunday. R. Johanan (third century) said Dnnan 'aso, etc.

II,i4 I L 1 - 7 The blowing of the ram's horn and the waving of the palm branches were observed in the synagogues and at home before the destruction of the Temple, cf. M . Rosh ha-Shanah 4 , i ; M . Sukkah 3 , 1 2 , but outside the Temple the ram's horn was not blown on the Sabbath, and, after the destruction of the Temple, the palm branches, which previously had been manipulated outside the Temple only on the first day of Tabernacles, were used on all the seven days. [L. G ] II, 1 4 11. 25 ff. One may perhaps surmise that the idea had its starting point in the readings prescribed for the mdamadot (the creation of heaven

JUDAISM.

170

NOTES

and earth, Gen. 1 ) , rather than in the Haggadah about Abraham as is alleged in the Talmud. Or did the designation of Gen. 1 for the les­ sons rest on some such a connection? — In the days of the Amoraim named the temple-worship had long since ceased, but mdamadot had an established place in the synagogue, which was long main­ tained. Baer, 'Abodat Israel p. 495 cites testimony of Rab Amram to the continuance of the custom in the voluntary practice of individ­ uals, and gives reasons for its discontinuance as part of the synagogue service. II, 1 5 n. 1 Reference should be made also to Menahot 1 1 0 a , where the general principle is applied particularly to the various species of sacrifice. In the preceding context it may be noted that on the heavenly altar the great prince Michael offers sacrifice. It is perhaps such studious substitutes for material sacrifice that Rab has in mind. II, 1 7 11. 5 - 1 0 . This passage in Herodotus is quoted by Josephus, C. Apionem, i. c. 2 2 § § 1 6 8 - 1 7 1 ; cf. Antt. xvii. 1 0 , 3 § § 2 6 0 - 2 6 2 . 11.18

H.22-27

R. Akiba would not admit any such delay. 11.19

I.15

The term ger sedek is never applied to the manumitted slave, who is always described as l a y . . . . The second baptism admitted him to full standing in the Jewish community, including the connubium, and imposed upon him the religious obligations, which as a slave he had been exempt from. [L. G.] II,i9

11. 1 9 fF.

See Note on Vol. I, p. 1 9 8 , n. 3 . 11. 1 9 f. The inference from 2 Kings 4 , that in old Israel people were ac­ customed to demit their ordinary occupations on the New Moon, and might use the opportunity to visit a "man of G o d " like Elisha, is one which I should not be inclined to press; our knowledge of what was customary in Israel in the ninth century is too small to warrant confidence.

11,22

JUDAISM.

NOTES

171

II, 23 n. 2 Labor was not forbidden on the New Moon, but some made a voluntary or customary holiday of it; see also Megillah 2 2 b . — In Jer. Pesahim 3 o d , top, reference is made to a woman's custom, to refrain, at least partially, from work on the New Moon; cf. Pirke de-R. Eiiezer, c. 4 5 , where an historical origin is attributed to the custom. [L. G.] This is perpetuated and commended in the Codes: see Shulhan A r u k , Orah Hayyim § 4 1 7 . II, 2 4 n. 1 Unleavened bread at the Passover season could be the rule every­ where, as doubtless it had been before the destruction of the Temple (cf. Vol. II, p. 4 0 ) . Other features of the festival rites were taken over, with adaptation, into the synagogue and the home; but the sabbatical observance was the main thing. 11,26

H.3-8

In their wars with the Romans we find it the established rule that defensive operations were licit, but not offensive. Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 7 , 3 § 1 4 6 (Pompey); cf. ii. 1 6 , 4 § 3 9 2 (Agrippa's speech); ii. 1 7 , 1 0 § 4 5 6 ; iv. 2 , 3 § 100. — The Jews represent that they are for­ bidden to take up arms, even in defense; but they are trying to de­ ceive Titus. The Romans themselves had feriae publicae on which it was nefas "hostem lacessere bello." (Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer; Festus p. 2 2 6 ) . — In Titus's siege of Jerusalem the factions within the city were as little deterred by such scruples from breaking the Sabbath as from desecrating the Temple. — For the rabbinical rules of defensive and offensive military operations refer­ ences may be made to Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat 2 , 2 3 - 2 5 and the passages of the Talmud there cited in the commentaries ('Erubin 4 5 a ; Shabbat 1 9 a ) . 11. 4 - 1 1 This connection of the "thirty-nine" species of labor prohibited on the Sabbath with Deut. 2 5 , 2 f., is very far-fetched, and should not have been asserted as if it were an authenticated fact — the com­ bination seems, on the contrary, to be modern. — For other ways in which the number 3 9 was ciphered out, see Strack-Billerbeck, I, 6 1 7 (paragraph c). 11,28

II, 2 9 n. 2 According to Besah 1 2 b , rubbing out the heads of grain in the hands is not threshing, and is therefore only rabbinically prohibited. [L. G.]

JUDAISM.

172

NOTES

II, 3 i n.3 According to Joshua ben Levi "combinations of courts" were ordained only for the sake of peace (friendly relations in the neighbor­ hood). Jer. 'Erubin 2 o d , below; and 24c. end; Tanhuma ed. Buber, Noah 2 2 . The rule has, however, been interpreted as a cautionary restrictive measure. 11.35

n

-

2

In the Morning Prayer on the Sabbath of Penitence to the same purport (HPD nop*,' in the fourth 'benediction'): " A n d thou didst not give it, O Lord our God, unto the Gentiles of the (other) lands, nor didst thou, O our King, make it a heritage of the worshippers of images, and in its resting place the uncircumcised do not abide; but to thy people Israel thou didst give it in love, to the seed of Jacob whom thou didst choose." (Singer, Prayer Book, p. 1 3 9 ; Baer, p. 2 1 9 , and Baer's note with citations from Talmud and Midrash). Abrahams, Companion to the Daily Prayer Book, pp. cxlvi fF., calls particular attention to the resemblance to Jubilees as illustrating the antiquity of features of the liturgy which otherwise are known to us only from the Gaonic age or after it. Cf. also the Kiddush of the day, on the eve of the Sabbath (Singer, p. 1 2 4 ; Baer, p. 1 9 8 ) . H 35 5

L 31

The three meals are obligatory, even for a pauper who is dependent on alms. There seems to be no authority for making of the third a light repast; the codes treat them all alike, each of them presuming the regular provision of wine and the breaking of the two loaves (Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat 3 0 , 9 ) . The Shulhan 'Aruk, however, contemplates the case of a man who has eaten to satiety at the pre­ vious meal; he may satisfy his obligation by eating a quantity no greater than an egg, and if he cannot do even that, he is not bound to force himself (Orah Hayyim § 2 9 1 , 1 ) . A wise man will look out not to fill his belly at the forenoon meal, so as to have room for the third meal (ibid.). 11.36

IL5-8

The statement about the sabbath lamp was corrected in the second printing to read as follows: " I t was an ancient custom . . . on Friday afternoon before dark to light a lamp which was to be left burning through the evening of the holy day."

JUDAISM. 11,36

NOTES

173

I I - 1 5 ff-

This Kiddush belongs in the home, where the table has been spread for the family meal. In Tannaite times there were no congregational prayers in the afternoon, and the eve of the Sabbath was not an ex­ ception. The introduction of a Kiddush into the synagogue service on Friday afternoon, like this service itself, is later, and is thought to have begun in Babylonia. There is mention, however, of a Kiddush in the synagogue building, and over wine, in Mekilta Bahodesh 7 (ed. Friedmann f. 6 9 a - b ; ed. Weiss f. 7 6 b ~ 7 7 a ; cf. Pesahim 1 0 6 a ) , and on the other hand we hear from Samuel (Babylonia, 3 d cent.), rrnpD Dipon * 6 K c m p p a . The place of the Kiddush and Habdalah in the congregational prayer is a very tangled history, into which there is, fortunately no necessity to penetrate here. See I. Elbogen, "Eingang und Ausgang des Sabbats nach talmudischen Quellen," in Festschrift zu Israel Lewy's siebzigstem Geburtstag ( 1 9 1 1 ) , pp. 1 7 3 1 8 7 ; L. Ginzberg, REJ. L X V I I ( 1 9 1 4 ) , pp. 1 3 3 f., 1 5 0 . Ginzberg thinks that the Kiddush ( a m w n p , Pesahim 1 0 6 a , to which he would refer the passage in the Mekilta) originally had its place in the Sab­ bath morning service in the synagogue, the transposition to the eve of the Sabbath was later, since it presumes a Friday afternoon service. The Kiddush in the home on the eve of the Sabbath is usually pro­ nounced over the wine. It is permissible, however, to say it, omitting, of course, the blessing on the wine, over the two loaves of bread, if the householder likes it better than wine, or if he has no wine (Pesahim 1 0 6 b ; Maimonides, Hilkot Shabbat, 2 9 , 9 ; Shulhan A r u k , Orah Bayyim § 2 7 1 , 1 2 ) . 11.22 f. This symbolism is a homiletic afterthought.

11,36

11,36

n.3

The form of blessing over the lights found in the prayer-books is mediaeval. n. 7 This note should be cancelled. — The n m n bw DID is the cup following which the grace after meals (p?Dn n m n ) is said. On the Sabbath the grace after meals is expanded by the insertion of a prayer appropriate to the day, known from its initial word as '^-P. (Singer, p. 281 f.; Baer, p. 5 5 7 ) , which is in substance very old.

11,36

JUDAISM.

174

NOTES

11- n - H , n . 3 The text is not as clear as it should be: fasting on the Sabbath is never permissible (except when the Day of Atonement falls on a Sabbath); M . Ta'anit 3 , J names certain emergencies in which an alarm may be sounded on the Sabbath (cf. Ta'anit 2 2 b ) , but has nothing to say about fasting on that day. 11,37

11,40

On the rules for Passover and Unleavened Bread a century or more before the Christian era, see Jubilees 4 9 . The prescriptions closely follow the biblical laws and interpret them strictly (see especially 4 9 , 2 0 ) ; nothing sectarian is discoverable in them. II, 4 0 11. 1 2 - 1 4 The obligation to partake of the mas§ot on the eve of the fifteenth is treated as an independent requirement of the Law, binding every­ where and in all times. Maimonides, Hilkot Hamas u-Massah, 6, 1 ; see also the discussion, Pesahim 1 2 0 a . — "There can be no doubt that long before the destruction of the Temple, the Passover meal became a home ceremony entirely independent of the sacrifice. In the description of this ceremony in M . Pesahim 1 0 , 1 - 7 , though com­ posed before 7 0 (cf. Hoffmann, Die erste Mischna, pp. 1 6 - 1 7 ) , the sacrifice plays a very subordinate part." [L. G.] II, 4 0 n. 4 As at the other pilgrim festivals, when all male Israelites were re­ quired to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary of his choice (Jeru­ salem), Exod. 2 3 , 1 4 , 1 7 ; Deut. 1 6 , 1 6 , the actual participation of women is not questioned. On the whole subject see M . Pesahim, 8, 1 ; cf. Pesahim 9 1 a (discussion by disciples of R. Akiba). 11 1 - 2 1 The modern rule corresponds; see Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah Hayyim §47^ i11,42

11,42

11.2if.

The cup of Elijah owes its origin to a misunderstood phrase. In Pesahim 1 1 7 b (bottom) some authorities in the Middle Ages read, 'the fourth 'cup ('JPai) and others 'the third' (*B^0, see Tosafot in loc). This question, like many others, Elijah would have to settle when he came. [L. G.] See below, Note on Vol. II, p. 3 5 9 , n. 4 .

JUDAISM. II

43

NOTES

175

11. 12 ff;

" T h e exact time of this procession is nowhere given. I am inclined to assume that it took place before Musaf, as is now the custom among Sephardim and has the authority of Sa'adia." (See Genizah Studies, II, n. 1 8 ) . On p. 4 4 , 1. 1, for "the people" read "the priests."— " I t is also very doubtful whether they marched with palm-branches; the text of the Mishnah rather favors the view given in Sukkot 4 3 b that the weeping-willow was carried and not the palm-branches." [L. G.] 11,45

H.7ff.

See Feuchtwanger, " D i e Wasseropfer und die damit verbundenen Zeremonien," Monatsschrift, L I V - L V . II, 4 5 11. 2 5 ff. For a different interpretation ("Fackelhaus") which would explain the name of the illumination of the Temple, see Kohut, Aruch Completum, I, 8 5 , where it is etymologically associated with the Syriac shauba, 'burning heat, stmmum wind' (Bar Bahlul, ed. Duval, 1 9 3 9 ) ; it is employed to render the Greek KCLXHTUV (see Payne Smith, s.v., col. 4 0 8 5 f.). That the word was ever used of a light or a torch, I find no evidence. II, 4 9 11. 5 - 1 0 The name Simhat "Torah is mediaeval; the earliest authority to mention it is Hai Gaon. Previously this day ( 2 3 d of Tishri) was in­ dicated merely as the second of Shemini 'A§eret. The one year cycle of Pentateuch lessons which ended and recommenced on this day is Babylonian, though it has become universal. Elbogen Der jiidische Gottesdienst, pp. 1 6 7 , 200. 11,49

11-25-30

Josephus, Antt. xii. 7 , 7 § 3 2 5 ; cf. c. Apionem, ii. 9 § 1 1 8 . Apart from the reported difference between the Shammaites and the Hillel­ ites (Shabbat 2 1 b ) , there is not much about the Hanukkah lights in Palestinian sources, though Palestinian Amoraim are quoted in the Babylonian Talmud (Johanan, Joshua ben Levi, al.). The pro­ vision for putting them out of sight, or in a position where they might seem to be ordinary household lights, in case of danger, seems to point to countries under Sassanian (Zoroastrian) rule in the third century.

176

JUDAISM.

NOTES

II, 56 n. 2 In M . Yoma 6, 8, the place is called n n n n'3 (cf. Enoch, 1 0 , 4 , Dudael); in the editions of the Pal. Targum, n n n n'n. In the Mish­ nah of the Jer. Talmud ( 1 0 , 9) ]mn m is not the terminus ad quern. II, 59 1. 1 0 On the observance of the day, see Philo, De septenario c. 2 3 , ed. Mangey, II, 296 f.; on the all-day supplications, § 1 9 6 . 11,59

L

2

3

For after read before [Perles]. II, 6 1

11. 1 8 - 2 1 , and

n. 4 .

The quotation of Cant. 3 , 11 in the Mishnah is the answer of the young man (read n s i K K i n - p i , so Mishnah, ed. Lowe); see Malter, Ta'anit ( 1 9 2 8 ) , p. 2 0 3 , n. 3 8 9 . - — T h e match-making of the day left its traces in the reading of the HViy n^ns at the afternoon service; Megillah 3 1 a . [L. G.] 11.62

H.5-10

In the liturgy note the prayer "D1T n n a in the Musaf service on New Years (Singer, p. 2 4 9 f.; Baer, pp. 4 0 0 - 4 0 2 ) ; cf. Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, pp. 1 4 2 , 1 4 3 f., 204. The age of this prayer prefatory to the Zikronot (see Vol. II, p. 64) is not known, but the ideas of God's all-comprehending knowledge and his perfect justice are both old and familiar; and his annual judgement on nations and individuals was long-established belief. 11.63 1 . 1 5 An error in this passage was corrected in the second printing: it should accordingly read: "it was transposed to a later hour, in the Musaf prayers," and in the sequel: " I t retained this place in the liturgy, but what might be called an anticipatory horn-blowing was introduced when the congregation was seated after the close of the morning prayer and the reading of the law." See Rosh ha-Shanah i 6 a - b , where the question is raised why the ram's horn is blown when the congregation is seated and (again) when they are standing (in the Musaf prayers); see Maimonides, Hilkot Shofar, 3 , 1 0 - 1 2 ; Elbogen, Der jiidische Gottesdienst, p. 1 4 0 f., 1 4 2 . 11.64 1.4 On the significance of these three proper benedictions for New Years, cf. Rosh ha-Shanah 1 6 a , bottom. — It may be noted that the

JUDAISM.

NOTES

177

verses selected in the Malkuyot refer to God's goodness to Israel, not to his discomfiture of the heathen.

11,66 11. 6 f. That is, it was treated as a public fast in distinction from a fast of individuals. 11.70

H.3-6

Vespasian converted this into an annual poll-tax on all Jews in whatever part of the empire, to be appropriated to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline in Rome, as previously they had paid it to the Temple in Jerusalem, Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 6 , 6 § 2 1 8 ; Dio Cassius, lxv. 7 , 2 . II, 7 0 n. 1 The portion of the sacrificing priests, defined in Lev. 7 , 3 1 - 3 4 . Ac­ cording to the Mishnah (M. Hullin, 10, i ; cf. Sifre Deut. § 165) of an animal slaughtered for food (not a prescribed victim) the parts named in Deut. 1 8 , 3 are customarily given to a priest (M. Hallah, 5, 9), both in the land of Israel and outside the land, and whether the Temple is standing or not. In the Talmud (Hullin 1 3 6 a ) the opinion of Rabbi Ila'i (contemporary of Ishmael and Akiba, early second century) was that these presents (m.nD), like the Terumah, were made only in the land of Israel, not outside of it. II, 7 1 n. 1 On the character of some of the high priestly houses of this period see Pesahim 5 7 a ; Tos. Menahot 1 3 , 1 8 - 2 2 ; cf. Tos. Sukkah 1 4 , 6 . In Jer. Yoma 38c the great number of high priests who served in the second temple is accounted for by their getting into office by murder (of their predecessors), "some say that they killed one another by sorcery'' (crspzn). n. On the ratio of the Terumah to the whole, a difference of opinion between the Schools of Shammai and Hillel is reported in Tos. Teru5, 3> the former regarding 1 / 3 0 as liberal, the latter 1 / 4 0 . The former is thought to have in view the well-to-do; the latter, the poor. [L. G.] 11.71

m

o

4

t

II,7i

n. 6

The burning of Hallah is prescribed in the Mishnah in certain regions in or adjacent to Palestine, where two Hallahs are required

JUDAISM.

i 8 7

NOTES

one of which is thrown into the fire; see M . Hallah 4 , 5. See Biichler, Der galilaische 'Am ha-'Ares, pp. 2 5 5 ff. For modern rules see Shulhan 'Aruk, Yoreh De'ah § 3 2 2 ff. II,7i

n.7

On the meaning and use of the phrase "Mosaic law from Sinai," see Vol. I, p. 2 5 6 . II,

72

n. 1

See Biichler, Der galilaische 'Am ha-'Ares, p. 1 6 . II, 7 2 n. 2 On the dire consequences of the neglect of tithing, see Abot 5 , 8 f. M . Yadaim, 4 , 3 ; the statement in Midrash Tehillim is not found in early sources. [L. G.] II, 7 3 11. 2 - 5 The Terumah Gedolah of agricultural products (Num. 1 8 , 1 2 f.) and the tenth of the Levites' tithe (Terumat Ma'aser, Num. 1 8 , 2 5 - 2 8 ) are the portion of the priests and their households (being in a state of ceremonial "cleanness"); Vol. II, p. 7 2 (Num. 1 8 , 1 3 - 1 9 ) , and are strictly prohibited to all others; while the remainder of the Levites' tithe is not sacred, and may be eaten by any one. II, 7 3 end Read (as corrected in the second impression): 'Amme 'the (ignorant) people of the land.'

ha-ares,

11,74 On the so-called "dietary laws," and their educational importance, see Josephus, c. Apionem, ii. 1 7 . On the meaning and wisdom of these laws, Philo, De special, legibus, iv. §§ 100 ff. (De concupiscentia, cc. 4 ff., ed. Mangey, II, 3 5 2 ff.). Allegorical interpretation, E p . Aristeae, §§ 143 ff. (ed. Wendland). — On rules attributed to Pytha­ goras, Diogenes Laertius, viii. 1 9 ff., 3 3 - 3 5 . — Abstinence from every kind of animal food was common in philosophical piety. II, 7 4

1. 2 5 - 7 5 , 1. 3

Such inspection ( n p H n ) as is now practiced is of very late origin; it is not known in Talmudic times. (L. G.] 11. 1.4 "Difficult" is hardly strong enough; for a strictly observant Jew it would have been impossible; particularly the cooking utensils 7 5

JUDAISM.

NOTES

179

used in a Gentile kitchen made anything prepared in them prohibited food. 11,75

U.22fF.

For a curious partial parallel in Unyoro (Central Africa) see Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (Golden Bough, Vol. I l l , p. 2 7 2 ) . 11.75

n

-

2

Cf. Esther (Greek), after 4 , 1 7 (Esther says): Kal OVK [Perles].

edo^aaa

cvjJLiroaLOV /ScuuXeajs, ov8e eiriov olvov onrovb&v

11.76 1 1 . f. Contact with dead animals is meant, and should have been said. 9

11,76

11. 1 3

^

See Biichler, Der galilaische 'Am ha-'Ares, p. 2 f., n., and pp. 1 5 7 ff. 11,76

11.2of.

The purifications here meant are those which required an offering in the Temple. There were rites of purification in which the year 7 0 was no such crisis, and these may have been observed by scrupulous persons thereafter. For an example see Hagigah 2 5 a , and on the question how long they thus continued see L. Ginzberg, Genizah Studies, p. 7 1 . II, 7 7 11. 1 1 - 1 6 See Note on Vol. II, p. 7 . II, 81

11. 2 0 - 2 2

See below on Vol II, p. 83, n. 2 . II,

83

n.

2

Plato, Diogenes Laertius, iii. 9 0 : (f>p6vr}<ns, dLKaLoavvrf, avdpeia,

(ro$-

pucrwri, with brief definitions of their several spheres. 11,85 n.7-9 Numerous echoes and applications of this saying, or of the principles enounced in it, are collected by Kobryn ad loc. (f. 2 5 a - 2 7 b ) . — The order, Truth, Justice, Peace, in which the three terms are sometimes found, seems to me to be a transposition, bringing the order into cor­ respondence with Zech. 8, 1 6 , quoted in the sequel.

180 II,

85

JUDAISM.

1.

NOTES

24

In Berakot 61 b the word is understood of material resources, mammon. A different interpretation is quoted from R. Akiba who finds in the word H I D , 'measure'; see Vol. II, p. 2 5 3 and n. 4 . -]TIKD *?zn.

II, 85 n. 1 Sifre, I.e., is quoted in Ta'anit 2 a , below. II.87

11. 1 2 ff.

See King, " T h e Negative Golden Rule," Canadian Journal of Religious Thought ( 1 9 2 8 ) . n. 5 The term mn byn, 'creditor,' is used of God in his relation to man; Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, p. 7 9 , citing Shebu'ot 4 2 b , top; Gittin 5 1 b (Rabbah). Other instances in which sin and its penalty are a debt to God are Jer. Shabbat, I5d, IPPn m n r n r » 'Km ?, and Jer. Ta'anit 6 6 c , where God is fcttin n o . Biichler, Studies in Sin and Atonement ( 1 9 2 8 ) , p. 1 5 4 , n. 2 , p. 3 3 6 , n. 1. On flogging in expiation of offenses against which the T)1D is denounced, see Sifre on Deut. 2 5 , 3 (§ 2 8 6 ) : j n n n D T O n o w ipbv n w o *a«n bj. 11,95

1

II, 9 6 n. 1 On DIE) see Note on Vol. I, p. 3 5 . II, 98 11. 6 - 9 See Vol. I, p. 3 6 7 . Marmorstein, op. cit., pp. 1 0 5 - 1 0 7 ; though with his surmise that it means "the Father in Heaven" I do not agree. II, 9 9 On the service of God out of love or fear, and the obedience of Job, see Biichler, Studies in Sin and Atonement ( 1 9 2 8 ) , pp. 1 2 2 ff. II, 1 0 1 On the Kaddish, see Vol. I, p. 3 0 6 , Notes 83, 84. II, 1 0 2 11. 4 - 1 2 Cf. Ecclus. 3 3 ( 3 6 ) , 1 - 5 . II, 1 0 3 n. 2 In Sanhedrin 7 4 a - b , the offense must be committed with publicity, which is defined as under the observation of at least ten Israelites; but it may be about so small a matter as changing the Jewish mode

JUDAISM.

NOTES

181

of lacing shoes for one customary among the heathen, in which the form of the knot had perhaps a magical or a superstitious significance. In the same passage a difference is made between ordinary occasions and a time of religious persecution when the government undertakes by edict to nullify the Jewish law. See Maimonides, Yesode ha-Torah, 5, iff. 11,104

11. i6f.

By an oversight to which Professor Perles has kindly called my attention, number 4 in the text is used twice, and the second of the two notes thus indicated was omitted altogether. The bit of Midrash on Psalm 1 2 3 , 1 is preserved in the Yalkut II § 548, end (on Amos 9 , 6 ) , from which Buber has restored it in his edition of Midrash Tehillim on the Psalm (f. 2 5 5 a ) . The last clause in my quotation (1. 1 6 ) should read: Otherwise, Thou wouldst not be sitting in the heavens. II, 1 0 5 11. 7 - 1 4 The point of the story about Sarah is not the act of charity, but the demonstration that she had borne a child, thus hallowing the name of God. [L. G.]. II,io6

11. 1 9 fF.

I. Halevy argues, against Graetz and others, that this conference was held before the fall of Bether (the last act of the war under Had­ rian); see Doroth Harischonim, I e (Vol. II), pp. 3 7 1 f. For the pur­ pose of the present work this question is not vital. II, 1 1 3 11. 1 5 - 1 9 Cf. what the Jewish deputation has to say before the Emperor Augustus against the succession of Archelaus, and their request that their country be annexed to Syria under the administration of governors of their own people in Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 6, 2 ; see also ii. 2 , 3 § 22 (autonomy under the administration of a Roman governor). II,ii4

11. iff.

Cf. The Essene oath, Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 1 , 7 : A t his initiation "he swears tremendous oaths, first, that he will reverence the Deity, then that he will deal justly with men, and injure no one, either of his own accord or under orders, will always hate the unjust and con­ tend strenuously on the side of the just; that he will ever keep faith

182

JUDAISM.

NOTES

with all men, especially with those in power, for without God rule comes to no man," etc. See also Cant. R. (on Cant. 2, 7) and Ketubot 111a, top. — Biblical examples of honor paid to heathen governments and rulers, Mekilta Bo, 13 (ed. Friedmann, I3b-i4a). II, 115 n. 4 References may be added: Josephus Antt. xii. 10, 5 § 406 (for the Seleucid king); c. Apion. ii. 6 § 76 f. (for the Emperors and the Roman people). I I , i i 5 n. 6 See also the sequel, Bell. Jud. ii. 17, 3 f. (§§ 409-417). II, 116 1. 8 and n. 1 The name "Vespasian" makes difficulty, for although Josephus (Bell. Jud. iv. 3, 2 § 130) brings Vespasian from Caesarea to Jamnia and Azotus, while Titus, after the fall of Gischala and the flight of John to Jerusalem, moved his headquarters to Caesarea, all this was before the investment of Jerusalem. The strife of factions, however, was already raging within the city as well as throughout the land. II, 119 ff. L. M . Epstein, The Jewish Marriage Contract. A study of the Status of Woman in Jewish Law. 1927. With a classified biblio­ graphy of the whole subject (pp. 301-304) and an index. II, 119 11. 19 f. That eighteen is the proper age for a man to marry is to be found in Abot 5, 21, where the whole of life is laid off in a comprehensive scheme (Vol. I, p. 320). In foot-note 5 the reference to Kiddushin 29b has to do only with the words attributed to R. Ishmael. In the sequel other opinions about the best age for marriage are reported. See L. Ginzberg, Genizah Studies, I. 478. The actual ages most likely varied widely from any mean, with times and circumstances. II, 120 n. 1 See Ginzberg, Ls.c. In Kiddushin 29b I have followed the interpre­ tation of Rashi; the contrary explanation is given in the Tosafot. II, 120 n. 7 One may compare the advice of Pittacus about such an alternative in the Anthology, vii. No. 89: TTJV Kara aavrov eka.

JUDAISM. II,i2i

NOTES

n.3

See also S. Krauss, " D i e Ehe zwischen Onkel und Nichte," in Studies in Jewish Literature in honor of K. Kohler ( 1 9 1 3 ) , pp. 1 6 5 II, 1 2 1 n. 6 See, however, Kiddushin 4 1 a (repeated, 8 1 b , below), in the name of Rab (or "as some say, R. Eleazar"): " A man is forbidden to give his daughter in marriage while she is a minor (ketannak), until she grows up and says, I want so and so." This rule is incorporated in the modern code (Shulhan A r u k , Eben ha-'Ezer 3 7 , 8; but see the Tosafot on Kiddushin 4 1 a and commentators on Shulhan 'Aruk I.e.). 11,121

11. 1 4 ff.

See A. Biichler, " D a s jiidische Verlobnis, u.s.w.," in Festschrift zu Israel Lewy's siebzigstem Geburtstag ( 1 9 1 1 ) , pp. n o f f . II, 1 2 2 11. 1 - 3 The expressions used in these lines are exposed to misunderstand­ ing. I did not mean to suggest a religious character in the Kiddushin; but the exclusive right of the husband in his wife, just as things and persons in which God has an exclusive right are said in the Bible to be kadosh, and as such not to be meddled with by others. An equiva­ lent, and presumably older, term is rrap, 'acquire' (property rights). Professor Perles brings to my notice the fact that Rappoport asso­ ciated the word Kiddushin with the Aramaic (and Syriac) Kttnp 'ring,' (the man gave the woman a ring), but I should imagine that the ring was so-called because it was an amulet, and of an ancient Jewish ring ceremony in betrothal or wedding I know nothing. (See S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaeologie, II, 3 6 and p. 4 5 5 , n. 2 9 8 ) . II, 1 2 2 1. 5 Sexual relations of any kind with foreign female slaves are strictly prohibited; see M . Gittin 4 , 5. The kind of slavery of Jewish women contemplated in Exod. 2 1 , 7 - 1 1 had gone out of use in the times of the Tannaim and Amoraim; the rabbis see in the union of a Jewish female servant and her master a regular marriage, not concubinage (Kiddushin 1 9 b ) . [L. G.]. — The statement in the text that "the rabbinical law corresponds" must be qualified accordingly. II, 1 2 2 11. 6 - 1 0 On polygamy see the article in the Jewish Encyclopedia, X , 1 2 0 1 2 2 , especially for this period, p. 1 2 1 A. — " I know of only one case

JUDAISM.

NOTES

of polygamy among the Tannaim, Abba, the brother of Gamaliel II (Jewish Encyclopedia, I, 2 9 ) . " [L. G.]. — The nine wives of Herod — not all at once •— by seven of whom he had offspring (Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 2 8 , 4 § 5 6 2 ) , are to be regarded as privileges of uxorious royalty, not as examples of custom among his subjects. 11.122

11. 1 6 fF.

For the literature on divorce, see L. M . Epstein, The Jewish Mar­ riage Contract, pp. 3 0 2 f. II, 1 2 2 11. 1 2 - 1 5 On the marriage contract (Ketubah) see Epstein, cited in the last note. That some form of marriage contract is older than Simeon ben Shatah is demonstrable (Epstein, op. cit., pp. 1 7 - 3 1 ) ; the precise nature of the changes introduced by Simeon ben Shatah it is difficult to determine. 11.123

U.6-9

Gittin 9 0 b . See Bacher, cited in n. 3 , who surmises that the rabbis here named were the two sons of R. Hiyya (third century). It is possible that the two rabbis had in mind different cases. Josephus' account of his own divorce from his second wife, who had borne him three children (Vita, c. 7 6 § 4 2 6 ) , ixr) dpeo-Ko/jievos avrrjs rots rjdecriv aireTrep.ypap.riv, is indefinite enough. 1 1 . 2 f. The most significant advance beyond the biblical laws is to be seen in emancipation of the girl who has arrived at the age of puberty (man, n^ra) from the control of her father; she is thenceforth com­ pletely her own mistress. This is treated in Tannaite laws not as the kind of innovation that is nowadays called a "reform," but as an established principle. See, e.g., Mekilta on Exod. 2 1 , 7 (ed. Friedmann, f. 7 4 b ; ed. Weiss, f. 8 4 a ) .

11, 126

7

II, 1 2 7 n. 4 The age was not the decisive factor, but the physical evidence of puberty. Since there were abnormal cases both of premature and of delayed development, the rule was that a girl remained under the authority of her father from twelve years to twelve years and six months.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

185

II, 1 2 7 11. 1 5 - 1 7 The earnings of a daughter belong to her father until she becomes suae juris; those of a boy in his minority are his own. [L. G.] 11,128

n. 4

The obligation of fathers to teach their sons Torah and to begin talking Hebrew to them as soon as they began to speak, and that there is no similar duty to teach their daughters, see Sifre Deut. § 1 4 6 , on Deut. 1 1 , 1 9 . II, 1 2 9 11. 1 4 - 1 6 The rule that women are exempt from positive commandments for the observance of which a time is set (Sifre Num. § 1 1 5 , at the begin­ ning, on Num. 1 5 , 3 7 f.) was perhaps first formulated by R. Simeon (ben Yohai) who is named there. The Mishnah is frequently at vari­ ance with the general rule enounced by R. Simeon; e.g., M . Berakot, 3 , 3 , quoted in the text. [L. G.]. — The commentators who feel obliged to harmonize these prescriptions with the general rule, are put to some straits. II, 1 2 9 1. 1 7 The parenthesis {at Tabernacles) is accidentally misplaced: should stand after "the palm-branches.''

it

II, 1 2 9 n. 1 0 These rules affect all the relations of men with women. II, 1 3 0 n. 5 See, however, Kiddushin 5 2 b , at the bottom, and Tosafot, ad loc. (lemma, O l ) . II, 1 3 3 1. 1 9 This Dama ben Netina lived before the destruction of the Temple; see note 8, and add Tos. Parah 2 , 1. II, 1 3 5

H.7-10

In Sanhedrin 7 1 a , R. Simeon (ben Yohai) is quoted as saying (in regard to some of the specifications of the rabbinical law denning Deut. 2 1 , 20), "Such a case never arose and never will arise." II, 1 3 5

11. 2 0 - 2 2

The rules found in rabbinical sources about the Hebrew slave are purely theoretical. In 'Arakin 2 9 a it is said that this form of servitude

JUDAISM.

i86

NOTES

existed only as long as the year of Jubilee was observed, i.e., in the time of the first temple; this is probably an exegetical inference not an historical tradition, but we may safely infer that it had become obsolete long before the age of the Tannaim. See Vol. II, p. 1 3 8 . 11,136

II.1-4

On the "Canaanite" (alien) slave in Jewish law, see Maimonides, Hilkot Abadim, 5 ff. — The legal status of such a slave was better than in Roman law. See, in general, S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaologie, II, 91 ff.; Rubin, Das talmudische Recht, I, i, Die Sklaverei, 1920.

II, 1 3 6 n. 1 Whether the slave is real or personal property is in controversy between R. Meir and his colleagues. Baba Mesi'a 1 0 0 b . [L. G.] II, 1 3 7 n. 1 The father is here supposed to be a Gentile or a Gentile freedman, not a Jew, to whom such relations were, according to most authorities, forbidden. II, 1 3 8 1. 1 9 See Note on Vol. II, p.

135,

11.

20-22.

II, 1 4 2 11. 1 3 - 2 0 Various kinds of adulteration are named in Eccles. R. 6, 1, along with fraudulent balances, etc. 11,145

n. 5

The words of the usurer are euphemistically paraphrased in the Talmud. The meaning is "Moses was a fool, and his Torah is not true." [L.G.] II, 1 4 9 n. 2 Note also the ayvhto in early forms of the Birkat ha-Minim (Shemoneh 'Esreh, 1 2 ) . 11,150

I.7

Read lishan. II, 1 5 1 n. 1 On ]V3n see L. Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, pp. 7 0 f.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

187

II, 1 5 2 n. 2 That is, a man should not insist on his rights to the utmost limit of the law, but have regard to the equity of the case and in fairness rather concede something to the other party. The Roman proverb summum ius summa iniuria (Cicero, De ofHciis, i. 1 0 , 33) will occur to everyone. 11,154

n.4

Reference may also be made to Yoma 8 7 a . For a form of confession, see Vol. I, p. 5 1 2 (N 2 2 5 ) . II, 1 5 6 ff. (chap, vi) See Bousset-Gressmann, Die Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. ( 1 9 2 6 ) , p p . 1 8 3 ff11,157

11.2if.

In Seder 'Olam (c. 3 0 , ed. Ratner f. 7 0 b ) the prophets prophesied till the time of Alexander of Macedon: "from that time on, incline thine ear and hear the words of the learned (hakamim), Prov. 2 2 , 1 6 f." 11,157

n. 5

See also Israel Abrahams, 'Am ha-'Arec, appended to Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels ( 2 ed., 1 9 2 7 ) , II, 6 4 7 - 6 6 9 . II, 1 5 8 11. 1 9 - 2 1 "In Tannaite times unclean food is not prohibited; men may par­ take of it if they are willing to take the consequence of becoming impure." [L. G.] See Maimonides, Hilkot Turn' at Okelin, 1 6 , 7 ff. II, 1 5 8 n. 1 The Babylonian Talmud does not lack reported answers to the question, Who is an 'am ha-ares?, and Babylonian scholars con­ tribute their own (see, e.g., Berakot 2 9 a ) . 11,159

11. 1 3 fF.

For the texts see Biichler, Der galilaische 'Am ha-'Ares, at the beginning; cf. I. Abrahams, 'Am ha-Arec (above, Note on Vol. II, p. 1 5 7 , n. 5 ) . II, 1 6 0 n. 1 Jesus son of Sirach was of the same way of thinking. See BoussetGressmann, Religion des Judentums, u.s.w., p. 1 6 4 . In his case one

i88

JUDAISM.

NOTES

might suspect something of upper-class feeling; but not in Hillel, who was himself a man of the people. For parallels to Hillel's saying, see Kobryn, Catena on Abot, f. 3 5 b . II, 1 6 2 n. 4 It is one of the most important differences between R. Ishmael and R. Akiba; see D . Hoffmann, Einleitung in die halachischen Midraschim, pp. 7 - 9 . [L. G.] 11,167 1.5 _ On almsgiving in secret ("1DD3) see Baba Batra 9 b . R. Eiiezer de­ duces from two texts that the man who gives alms in secret is greater than Moses. II, 1 6 7 h. 5 Read wnyn

LDyn.

II, 1 6 8 n. 3 Hilkot Sedakah in R. Jacob ben Asher's Tur Yoreh De'ah ( 1 4 t h century) is in many respects superior to Maimonides' treatment of the subject. [L. G.] See also Schechter, Studies in Judaism, III. II, 1 6 9 11. 1 6 - 2 0 On the ups and downs of human life, cf. Philo, De somniis, i. 2 4 § § 1 5 4 - 1 5 6 , ed. Mangey I, 6 4 4 (symbolized by Jacob's ladder). II,i7i

11. 1 5 f.

On the almsgiving of Gentiles different opinions are expressed. Johanan ben Zakkai is reported to have said, "as the sin-offering atones for Israel so almsgiving atones for the nations of the world" (Baba Batra, 1 0 b , below; cf. his saying after the destruction of the Temple about the cessation of sacrificial atonement, Vol. I, p. 5 0 3 ; Vol. II, p. 1 7 2 ) . The preceding context records the answers which the disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai made to a question he propounded to them, How do you interpret Prov. 1 4 , 3 4 "IDITI 'u D D n n np"T£ nmn CPDIN?? They took *ia to refer to Israel (quoting 2 Sam. 7 , 2 3 ) , and DKBn to mean 'sin': "Almsgiving exalts a nation (Israel), and the charity of the nations is sin," with various definitions of the nature of the sin -— they do it to extend their dominion, to boast of it, to taunt Israel with, etc. After they had delivered these opinions one after another, R. Johanan gave his interpretation of the verse, in 1

JUDAISM.

NOTES

effect: Almsgiving exalts a Gentile Ou), and the charity of the nations is a sin-offering (for them). All agree in taking i D n as synony­ mous with np"TE. The rendering of the English version, "but sin is a reproach to any people," said to have been anticipated by Sym­ machus (oveidos de \aois dpLapriat •—'disgrace' as L X X in Lev. 2 0 , 1 7 , taking it as Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew nsnn). Cf. Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 1 2 b (Abin bar Judah; see Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, III, 759)II, 1 7 2 - 1 7 3

For a similar distinction attributed to Plato see Diogenes Laertius iii. § 95 f. (Evepyeala . . . ccopiacrLV, K. T . X . ) rj

xPVPao'w

V

II, 1 7 2 n. 7 On this interpretation of Psalm 89, 3 , cf. L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V I , 1 4 5 , n. 4 2 . — The words are quoted in Sifra on Lev. 2 0 , 1 7 , apropos of Cain's wife (his sister). II,I8I

IL24-26

On the duty of giving evidence see also Tos. Shebu'ot, 3 , 1 f. II, 1 8 3 n. 1 Into the numerous and various cases in which excommunication could be pronounced •— Maimonides, Hilkot Talmud Torah, 6, 1 4 , enumerates twenty-four — and into the forms and degrees of ex­ communication there is no occasion to enter here; the important thing for us is that a court had power to excommunicate for contumacy of any kind. 11,184

n. 4

Sifre Num. § 1 6 1 and Tos. Sanhedrin 9 , 4 refer to the witness plead­ ing in behalf of the accused, not to testifying. [L. G.] II, 1 8 7 1. 1 4 More exactly "eight rows back" (from the front, where God was); Akiba belonged to a later generation. See Vol. I, p. 2 5 6 . II,

188

11. i 8 f .

On the order of these three things, see above, Note on Vol. II, p. 8 5 . 11,189

I.7

That is, make up some false answer. Others understand rrann "be given the lie."

JUDAISM.

190 11,189

NOTES

n. 4

For ]n as an affirmative particle see Mekilta on Exod. 1 9 , 20 (ed. Friedmann, f. 6 6 a : ed. Weiss, f. 7 3 b ) ; Ishmael and Akiba. II, 1 8 9 n. 8 The equivalent biblical phrase is nb ma (the heart as the seat of intelligence, the mind). II, 1 9 1 1. 8 In the second Epistle of Clement, c. 1 2 , this saying is attributed to Jesus. [L. G.] — See the prayer of Socrates at the end of Plato's Phaedrus: "0 <j>l\e Tlav re Kal aXXoi ocroi rfjde 6eol Solrjre JJLOL Ka\& yeveaOat r'avhoQev. (The resemblance is rather verbal than real; the "efaBev" here are external circumstances) e&dev 8' ova exco, reus kvrds elvai 1x01 y

(j>L\ia. 11.193

11. 1 5 fF.

On the bad Pharisees, see the advice of Alexander Jannaeus, when dying, to his wife (Sotah 2 2 b ) : Do not be afraid of the Pharisees, nor of those that are not Pharisees, but of the counterfeits (lit. " d y e d " ) who resemble Pharisees (outwardly); whose deeds are like the deed of Zimri but claim a reward like Phineas" (Num. 2 5 ) . 11.194

11. 2 0 ff.

On God's Truth see Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God,

pp.

179-181.

II, 1 9 5 11. 5 ff. Cf. Josephus, Contra Apionem, ii.

22 § 190,

dpxn

pkaa Kal reXos

OVTOS T&V WaVTUV.

II,

196

n. I

Read ed. Horovitz, pp. II,

196

n.

248-250,

as in the second impression.

4

In the names of synagogues the singular is usual, Oheb Shalom, etc. II, 2 0 2 ff. See Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 5 6 - 6 1 , 1 0 9 , 1 2 1 f., 1 3 6 . — The earliest use of Abinu as an invocation in prayer is 1 Chron. 2 9 , 1 0 (David): nbty ~ryi nbtyn ian«, 'our Father from eternity and to eternity' (forever and ever). [Perles.]

JUDAISM. II,

204

NOTES

191

1. 2 0

On these substitutes for the Name see N 1 1 3 a (on Vol. I, p. 3 7 3 ) . II,

204

1.

25f.

Read from 'Hellenistic Judaism, as in the second impression. II,

204

n. 4

Seder Eliahu Rabbah contains a good deal of older material. II,

205

n. 3

Read Vol. I, pp. 4 5 1 f., as in the second impression. II, 206 1. 1 3 The "sextons" (fcWTn) probably in their frequent occupation as (elementary) teachers, assistants to the school-masters. See Bacher, Tannaiten, I , 1 0 5 . II, 2 1 0 n. 5 Bousset 3 ed. (Gressmann, 1 9 2 6 ) , p. 3 7 6 . 2

11,212

1.22

See David de Sola Pool, The Old Jewish-Aramaic Prayer, The Kaddish, 1 9 0 9 , especially, pp. 1 0 ff. (Language and Date of the Kad­ dish). — Another view is that the " Kaddish contains some old phrases but is not an old prayer." [L. G.] II,2i6

11. I7f.

Read (as in the second impression): " R . Eleazar (ben Pedat), con­ temporary of Johanan." — This R. Eleazar lived in the third century. II, 2 1 7 11. 19.f. Vol. II, pp. 84 f. S. Krauss, Synagogale Altertumer, pp. 9 6 f. II, 2 2 0 n. 2 Also Gen. R. 68, 8. On the way in which these origins were arrived at see S. Krauss, op. cit. pp. 3 6 - 3 8 . y

II, 2 2 0 n. 4 Jer. Berakot 7b, above (R. Tanhuma); cf. Gen. R. 6 8 , 9 . — The o m s i Dnn'K which were left burning on the altar all night furnish the desired correspondence with the sacrificial worship.

JUDAISM.

192 11,220

NOTES

II.16-19

See Vol. I, p. 2 9 2 . The differences recorded in Tos. Rosh ha-Shanah 4 ( 2 ) , 1 1 , between the schools of Shammai and Hillel presume a fixed order in the daily prayer before the destruction of the Temple; cf. also Tos. Berakot 3 , 1 1 (R. Eiiezer). The point in dispute between R. Gamaliel and his colleagues was the obligation of the individual (cntt VlBnti) to conform in this point exactly to the form and order of the prayers in the synagogue. [L. G.] II.

221

n.

3

The passages cited refer to the repetition of the Tefillah. [L. G.] II, 2 2 3 n. 1 The general rule about sacrifices is M . Zebahim 1, I ; every sacri­ fice must be offered under its specific name; cf. M . Pesahim 5, 2 ; and, of course, with observance of the ritual particularly prescribed. The priest must therefore have definitely in mind the particular kind of sacrifice he is making. II, 2 2 5 n. 4 If the "hour" is taken literally, it would be hard to see how such pious men found hours enough in the day for other occupations. The word is frequently less definite, " a while." II, 2 3 4 n. 4 On the harmony between man's will and God's, see the more general counsel in Abot 2 , 4 : " M a k e His will as thy will," etc. Herford, Pirke Aboth ( 1 9 2 5 ) ad loc. quotes Abot de-R. Nathan (Schechter, second recension, p. 3 6 a ) : " I f thou hast done His will as thy will, thou hast not done His will as His will. If thou hast done His will against thine own will, thou hast done His will as His will," etc. II, 2 3 9 n. 3 Cf. Abot 6, 5 (Knowledge of) Torah superior to priesthood or royalty; the forty-eight excellences by which it is acquired. II, 2 4 0 n. 1 For Johanan read Jonathan. — m i n is a measurable obligation; in contrast to such an obligation m^D is used of an action by the per­ formance of which a man acquires merit, though it is not specifically commanded. The whole discussion in Menahot 9 9 b is about Josh. 1 , 8 ; all would agree that the study of Torah is one of the greatest, if not the greatest of n n x D in the sense defined above.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

J

93

II,

2 4 0 n. 4 For a different application of the principle, great things or small, see the story of the two rabbis on the way to execution, in Mekilta on Exod. 2 2 , 2 2 (ed. Friedmann, f. 9 5 b ; ed. Weiss, f. 1 0 1 b ) .

II,

2 4 1 n. 2 Rosh ha-Shanah 3 5 a very likely means that Rab Judah, instead of saying the prayers himself, attended the public service and listened to the recitation of the leader in prayer ("in:sn rp^P). On Tannaim who gave study the precedence over prayer see Shabbat 1 1 a and Jer. Berakot 1, 5 .

II,

2 4 2 n. 1 Others take the reference to be to the angels who preside over the heavenly bodies and the elements of nature; Jer. Rosh ha-Shanah 2 , 5 (f. 5 8 a , middle); cf. Pesikta, f. 3 a - b , where Michael and Gabriel are mentioned, both of whom are patrons and guardians of Israel. Abot de-R Nathan, ed. Schechter, p. 48 f.

II,

2 4 2 11. 23 f. The metaphor, 'fire-law' (n"TTO,Deut. 3 3 , 2 ) , is developed in detail in Sifre Deut. § 3 4 3 (ed. Friedmann, f. i 4 3 a - b ; on the text see Friedmann's note 3 5 ) . It is a d e a d l y fire to those who abandon their

S t u d i e s : VTIN DTVDD OHD P T S b DH D"n Dm b&y D W p r

II,

bl.

248 ff.

With the chapter on Chastisement compare that on Expiatory Suf­ fering (Vol. I, pp. 5 4 6 ff.). See also Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, pp. 1 8 5 - 1 9 6 . II,

2 4 9 n. 3 The disease is noted as especially fatal among children, but not confined to them. It is probable that the ancients did not distinguish it from quinsy (acute suppurative tonsillitis).

II,

2 4 9 n. 1 0 On "measure for measure," see also Mekilta on Exod. 1 3 , 2 1 (ed. Friedmann, f. 2 5 a ; ed. Weiss, f. 3 0 a ) and on 1 4 , 4 (Friedmann, f. 2 6 a ; Weiss, f. 3 1 a ) ; cf. the anecdote of Hillel and the skull floating in the water, Abot 2 , 6. Cf. L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 4 2 7 , n. 1 7 2 .

JUDAISM.

i 4 9

NOTES

II, 2 5 2 n. 4 The Megillat Ta'anit was written by Hananiah ben Hezekiah and his associates, as a memorial of deliverances, n n x n n« paanD vritf; as Rashi explains it, the afflictions from which they had been delivered. The words of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel are taken in the same sense, the interventions of God to deliver his people in our time have been so frequent that we should not be able to record them. (L. G.] See Shabbat 1 3 b . 11,253-254

See Mekilta Mishpatim 9 , end (ed. Friedmann, f. 8 5 b ; ed. Weiss, f. 9 1 b ) on Exod. 2 1 , 2 7 . See Vol. I, p. 547 with notes 1 - 3 . II, 2 5 7 11. 1 8 - 2 2 On the penitence of Reuben (and Judah), Sifre Deut. § 3 4 8 (on Deut. 3 3 , 6 f.; cf. Gen. R. 8 4 , 1 8 ; Pesikta ed. Buber, f. i 5 9 a - b (in connection with his return to the pit into which, at his instance, the brothers had put Joseph, Gen. 3 7 , 2 9 ) . 11,258

n.3

On the penitence of Adam see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 1 1 4 f. II, 258 n. 5 For a Christian parallel, see Hermas, Sim. 5 . 3 , 7 f. See also 2 Cle­ ment, 1 6 , 4 (almsgiving as a mode of repentance is good; fasting superior to prayer; almsgiving to both). II, 2 6 0 n. 4 See also Abot de-R. Nathan, c. 1 and the parallels cited by Schech­ ter. [L. G.] Cf. Bacher, Tannaiten I , 3 8 3 , also 380 n. 2

II, 2 6 1 n. 2 The services were held on these days because they were the marketdays on which the country people came to town (Vol. I, p. 2 9 , n. 2 ) . II, 2 6 2 11. 1 4 - 1 6 On the date of the destruction of the Temple cf. Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 4 , 5 § 250. — "Tenth of L o u s " (Jer. 5 2 , 1 2 f.). II, 2 6 2

11. 2 2 - 2 5

See Biichler, Priester und Cultus, u.s.w., p. 2 2 .

JUDAISM. 1 1 , 268

NOTES

195

1.8

Read Isa. 1 , 1 5 , and correct n. 4 accordingly. II, 268 n. 4 Cf. Martial ix. 4 1 — a kind of murder ("istud quod digitis, Pontice, perdis, homo est"). Nocturnal pollution (Deut. 2 3 , 1 1 f., Sifre § 255 f.) has as its consequence serious uncleanness for the n p byn. He is forbidden to read in the Scriptures or to study any of the branches of the unwritten law (Tos. Berakot 2 , 1 3 ; Berakot 2 2 a . About the unwritten law certain exceptions are made, in which there is no unanimity). On the ordinance of Ezra see Note on Vol. I, p. 2 9 , N 3. Inasmuch as the bath of purification could not be taken until toward evening, the disqualification lasted through the daylight hours of the day following the pollution. II, 2 7 1 n. 1 Those who thus indulge in thoughts of sin are not admitted to the mansion (PETriD) (of God) — the part of heaven where He abides. 11,272

11. 11—18

Cf. 2 Peter 1, 5 - 9 . II, 280 1. 2 5 There is a strong presumption that the language of the apocalypses written towards the close of the first century was the Hebrew of the times, "the language of scholars." Against the opinion formerly entertained that the original language of 4 Esdras was Greek, see Wellhausen, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, V I , 234 ff., who operates, how­ ever, with Biblical Hebrew, e.g., p. 2 3 7 , the frequency of the Infini­ tive Absolute with a finite verb, a use which has disappeared in the later Hebrew (Segal, Mishnaic Hebrew Grammar, p. 1 6 5 ) . Perles contends for a Hebrew original for Enoch (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, X V I ( 1 9 1 3 ) , 4 8 1 AT., 5 1 6 ) . II, 280 n. 2 With the esoteric books of the Essenes may be compared what is told of the Pythagoreans, Iamblichus, Vita Pyth. § 2 5 3 . II, 2 8 4 11. 1 9 f. The Georgian version is published by R. P. Blake in the Harvard Theological Review, X I X ( 1 9 2 6 ) , 2 9 9 - 3 7 5 .

196

JUDAISM.

NOTES

II, 2 8 7 n. 2 The burnings for kings furnished precedent for the burnings for Patriarchs ( n w t w ) •— the parallel is not without significance — not for private persons. Tos. Shabbat, 7 (8), 1 8 ; cf. Abodah Zarah 1 1 a . The question what was burned is asked, and answered, "his bed and all the articles he had in daily use." But the following anecdote shows that others might contribute: "When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder [this appears to be an anachronism] died, the proselyte Onkelos burned for him more than seventy minas," i.e., things mounting up to that value •— one may imagine costly gums and spices. The Tal­ mud, I.e., guards itself against the suspicion of a heathenish custom. II, 2 8 9 n. 4 On later Greek notions see Rohde, Psyche. II, 2 8 9 n. 7 Virgil, Aeneid, vi,

425

(the irremeabilis unda, cf. ib.

436-439).

II, 2 9 0 n. 6 Readvny (his kinsfolk). 11,291

11. 9 - 1 1

Cf. Wisdom of Solomon, 5, 1. Grimm, in his commentary on 4 , 2 0 - 5 , 2 (p. 1 1 1 ) , similarly finds in the verses, not the resurrection and last judgement (Bottcher, al.), but "eine Dramatisierung des Gedankens . . . , dass Gottlose wie Gerechte im Jenseits Bewusstseyn und Kenntniss von der durch Gottes Richterspruch erfolgten ganzlichen Umwandlung ihres beiderseitigen Schicksales haben," u.s.w. II, 2 9 2 11. 28 ff. The speech put into the mouth of Eleazar, addressed to his follow­ ers at Masada (Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 8, 7 §§ 3 4 1 ff.), notwithstand­ ing the appeal to the Scriptures (§ 3 4 3 ) , is completely Greek in con­ ception and expression. II,

294

Cf.

n.

4

e^eTao-fioSy 4 ,

6.

II, 2 9 5 11. 4 - 1 2 . See Vita Mosis, ii. 3 9 § 288 (ed. Mangey II, 1 8 9 ) ; Quod Deus immutabilis, c. 1 0 §§ 4 5 - 5 0 (Mangey I, 2 7 9 f.); De mundo opificio, c. 23 §§ 6 9 - 7 1 (Mangey, I, 15 f.).

JUDAISM.

NOTES

197

II, 2 9 6 n. 3 For other references see L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V , 1 1 9 . II, 298

11. 2 4 - 2 7

Cf. Dan. 1 1 , 3 3 . II, 298

n. 5

On this commentary see Maker, Saadia Gaon ( 1 9 2 1 ) , p. 4 0 4 . II, 2 9 9

n. 1

With 2 Mace. 7 , 9 (avaPLwais) cf. Josephus, cited in Vol. II, p. 3 1 7 (dvafiiovv). II, 3 0 1 1. 26 In 4 5 , 3 the judge is "the Elect One"; cf. 6 9 , 2 7 . See Vol. II, p. 3 3 3 . II, 3 °

2

1- 5

That the name Raphael may originally have been derived, not from N S l , 'heal,' but from CTNEn, 'shades' (of the dead), so that he appears quite in character in 2 2 , 3 ff., is conjectured by Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, V, 7 1 . He would accordingly take Tartarus away from Uriel and give it to Raphael, supposing that the translator mistakenly connected the words with the preceding clause instead of the following. II, 3 0 2 1. 1 9 Why this category of sinners should be neither punished in the day of judgment nor raised up out of Hades is not manifest. Gunkel, Berliner philologische Wochenschrift, 1 9 0 3 , p. 2 0 3 ) would insert a negative before the second clause in the description, so that it would read, aW 01/6' ctjuaprcoXoi acre/Sees, they are not 00-101, but also not godless sinners and accomplices of the wicked (heathen), and fittingly they do not share either the torments of the altogether bad or the resurrec­ tion of the righteous. This plausible emendation removes the main difficulty, but comparison of the Greek and Ethiopic shows that the text is otherwise not in order. — The rabbis had their opinions about the fate of the 'middling class'; see Vol. I, p. 495 f.; Vol. II, p. 3 1 8 * and Note on the latter place. II,3ii

U.1-3

Cf. Exod. R. 4 4 , 6.

JUDAISM. 11,315

NOTES

11. 2 4 f.

The notion that the fallen angels are the authors of the corruption of mankind is almost entirely unknown to rabbinical sources. [L. G.] 11.315

n.

4

Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 2 ed. p. 3 8 3 , n. (3 ed. p. 3 3 3 , n.) cites Clem. Horn, viii, 1 2 ff. 11.316

H.24-26

Commonplaces about the universal and inevitable lot of man from the beginning, in the consolation of mourners, with prayer to God, the great comforter (mora byn)> closing with the benediction, "Blessed is He who comforts mourners/' Ketubot 8 b . 11.317

II.10-13

When and where Ecclesiastes was written are questions which I have seen no reason to discuss. I do not find in Sirach any evidence of acquaintance with the book. 11,317

11. 2 0 ff.

Reference may be made also to Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 2 3 , 2 § 6 5 0 , cf. § 6 5 3 ; iii. 8, 5 § 3 7 2 ; Contra Apionem, ii. c. 3 0 § 2 1 8 . 11,317

n.3

With avafiiovv cf. 2 Mace. 7 , 9 (dvafiicaais);

Vol. II, p. 2 9 9 , n. I.

II, 3 1 8 1. 1 6 and n. 3 In Mekilta Mishpatim 1 4 (on Exod. 2 2 , 5) DBXBXD is used of fire running along the surface of the ground, in distinction from a fire that jumps from point to point, and might perhaps be rendered 'scorching' or 'charring.' In Mekilta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai on the same verse (ed. Hoffmann, p. 1 4 1 ) , though not in the same con­ nection, HSD3D occurs in a context where the meaning 'scorch' or 'singe' seems to be required. In M . Nazir 6, 3 , a Nazirite who shaves or singes his hair (*|DEPD), no matter how little, is accountable; see also Tos. Ukasin 2 , 1 6 . TINS I S D S ' D P "though one singe them with fire." Professor Ginzberg, to whom I owe this suggestion, with an etymological and critical discussion of the words in these and other passages, understands the opinion of the School of Shammai to be that these "betwixt and betweens" will go down to hell and be singed by its fires, and after this experience arise thence and be healed. It is evident that this figure for their fate is more appropriate than that which I dubiously employed in the text.

JUDAISM. 11,319

NOTES

199

n. 2

See Note on Vol. II, p. 3 2 1 , n. 3 . II,32i

n. 2

See Origen on Matt. 1 5 , 1 4 . II,32i

n. 3

In Besah 1 5 b (cited on p. 3 1 9 , n. 2) the contrast is between the fulfilment of a commandment (keeping the holiday festively, which belongs to nyw "n) and the study of Torah (a^iy " n ) ; see on the same page, below, on the division of time, etc. In Ta'anit 2 1 a in the same phrase the current editions erroneously read tun Q^iy "n, the old editions simply nbty "n. [L. G.] II,32i

n. 4

Other examples, R. Eleazar ben Azariah, Gen. R. 9 3 , 1 1 ; R. Hanina ben Teradion, 'Abodah Zarah 1 7 b . Compare also the attitude of the author of 4 Esdras throughout. The relatively early date of these utterances may be observed. II, 3 2 3 ffOn the Messianic expectations of the Jews the most recent com­ prehensive monograph is that of Joseph Klausner, ^frntra 'iTODn ivyi JTODn nDTin ~ryi irrp&riD, 2 ed. Jerusalem, 1 9 2 7 , pp. 3 4 6 ff. — In three Parts: I. In the Age of the Prophets: II. In the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphic Literature: III. In the Age of the Tannaim. The Third Part is a revision of Die messianischen Vorstellungen des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter der Tannaiten, Berlin, 1 9 0 4 . In Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, the subject is treated in long excursuses (nos. 2 9 - 3 3 ) on " Diese Welt, die Tage des Messias und die Zukiinftige Welt; Vorzeichen und Berechnung der Tage des Messias; Scheol, Gehinnom und Gan 'Eden; Allgemeine oder teilweise Auferstehung der Toten?; Gerichtsgemalde aus der altjudischen Literatur. Vol. IV ( 1 9 2 8 ) , pp. 7 9 9 - 1 2 1 2 . The index, s.v. Messias, should also be con­ sulted. See also Bousset, Religion des Judenturns, 2 ed. ( 1 9 2 6 ) , pp. 2 1 3 301.

II, 3 2 6 n. 6 See Strack-Billerbeck, Excursus 28 (IV, 7 6 4 - 7 9 8 ) , Der Prophet Elias nach seiner Entriickung aus dem Diesseits; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, IV, 1 9 5 - 2 3 5 , V I , 3 1 6 - 3 4 2 .

JUDAISM.

200

NOTES

II, 3 2 6 n. 7 Ekah Rabbati, ed. Buber, p. 4 5 b . ; Jer. Berakot 5 a , above. 11,327

ll.i5ff.

See Torrey, The Second Isaiah

(1928),

pp.

5-19.

II, 3 2 9 11. 1 0 - 1 2 In the Amoraic passages of the Talmud ben David is rarely used; more frequently in the Midrashim, where, however, Messiah ben David is the common form. [L. G.] II, 3 2 9 , n. 3 See Vol. II, p. II, 3 2 9

347.

11. 2 0 - 2 2

In Lam. R. on Lam. 2 , 2 a pun on this name is attributed to the Patriarch Judah: in Num. 24, 1 7 , nm nrro npn read not " a star," but " a liar." In Buber's edition ( 1 8 9 9 ) , piece of wit disappears; see the editor's note, f. 5 1 a , n. 5 7 . t

11,329

m

s

n. 2

On this constant usage see Jackson and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, I, 3 4 8 , 3 5 3 f. n. 7 In the Talmud also there are several passages in which it is sup­ posed that the Messiah will appear after the so-called "Messianic work" (the gathering of the dispersed and the punishment of sin­ ners.) — See L. Ginzberg, Unbekannte judische Sekte, p. 3 4 7 , n. 2 .

1 1 , 333

II, 3 3 3 11. 2 1 ff. Judgment by the Chosen One, Enoch 4 5 , 3 , cf. 3 6 , 1 fF. (Vol. II> p. 3 0 1 , and Note there). 11,334

11.

1 iff-

Reference should be made to Enoch 6 2 , 7, the "Son of M a n " hidden from the beginning. A Christian hand may be suspected in this pas­ sage, at least by way of expansion. •— For literature on the "Son of M a n " see Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. ( 1 9 2 6 ) , p. 2 6 6 . 1 1 , 3 3 7 1- 18 The contrast between the peaceful prince and the militant Asmonaeans, John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, may have been in the author's mind.

JUDAISM.

NOTES

201

U.a6f. Cf. Enoch 6 2 , 7 (Note on Vol. II, p. 3 3 4 ) .

11,337

II, 3 4 1 1. 2 7 The book of life, see Vol. II, p. 2 9 7 . II,

342

Christians who took the Revelation of John literally held that there would be a millennium after the resurrection of the dead, when the kingdom of Christ was to be established in material form on this same earth (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles, iii. 3 9 , 1 2 — Papias, not recog­ nizing, as Eusebius says, that the Apostolic descriptions are to be understood mystically); Euseb. iii. 2 8 , 1 ff. (Jerusalem his capital, Cerinthus); Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryphone, c c 8 0 - 8 2 (for himself and many others of the same mind, c 80, 2 ) ; the Montanists, et al. 11,344

IL8-12

See Vol. II, p. 3 3 7 , and Note above, p. 200. 11,346

11. 1 3 ff-

On the Messianic notions of the Tannaim see Joseph Klausner (titles above, p. 1 9 9 . ) II, 3 4 7

11. 2 0 - 2 3

See Note on Vol. II, p. 3 2 9 . II, 3 4 7 n. 2 Another Hillel was a brother of the Patriarch Judah (II), and it is thought by some that he is meant by Origen (on Psalm 1 ) when he speaks of lovWos irarpiapxos. " H e may have been prompted to this declaration (Sanh. 9 8 b ) by Origen's professed discovery in the Old Testament of Messianic passages referring to the founder of Chris­ tianity. " — Jewish Encyclopedia V I , 4 0 1 . — In the preceding con­ text (Sanhedrin 9 9 b , top) a yD (perhaps a Christian) asks R. Abbahu when the Messiah will come; and to such a question the answer of Hillel would be apposite. The identification with a contemporary of Origen is, however, very dubious. 11,348

u. if.

A different explanation is preferred by Ginzberg: Hezekiah was the scholar on the throne, and R. Johanan ben Zakkai may have thought of Hezekiah as coming to meet him at his entrance on the

JUDAISM.

202

NOTES

better life; cf. Baba Kamma n i b , where Raba hopes that when he dies R. Osha'ya may come to meet him because he has explained a tradition of that rabbi. II, 3 4 8 n. 3 Ekah Rabbati, ed. Buber, f. 4 5 a f. II, 3 5 ^ That Daniel misunderstood this revelation, see Megillah 1 2 a , top (Raba). [ L . G . ] 11,352

H.25-30

When the kingdom of the house of David will be re-established is one of the things that no man knows, Mekilta Wayassa 5 (on Exod. 1 6 , 3 2 ) , ed. Friedmann, 5 1 a , below; ed. Weiss, 5 9 b . [L. G.] II, 3 5 3 11. i - 5 One of the things which God adjured Israel not to reveal was" the end" (Levi). Ketubot m a . Rashi understands this as an injunction laid particularly on the prophets; and probably this is what Levi had in mind. II, 3 5 3 n. 3 See also Vol. I, p. 3 6 8 ; Vol. II, p. 3 9 0 . 11,354

n.2

"Persian" (for Roman) is a favorite substitution of the censors, and is found here only in censored editions of the Talmud. [L. G.] H,355

11.5-9

_

On Jose ben Kisma's prognostications also Tanhuma ed. Buber, Wayyishlah 8 (f. 8 3 b ) . Here the reference to Tiberias is explicit; they were staying in that city, and he said "this gate." Caesarea Philippi is suggested by the " s i g n " (m«) he gave his disciples — the waters in the grotto of Paneas should turn to blood. 11,356

L8ff.

On this and the following utterances see Klausner, 'iTPDn p*jn, pp. 284 ff. Klausner thinks that they had their origin in the experience of the generation which lived under the decrees of Hadrian after the Bar Kocheba war; the authors of these Baraitas are of the school of Akiba.

JUDAISM. 11,356

NOTES

203

I.20

Nehorai is said to be equivalent in meaning to Meir ("he enlight­ ened the eyes of scholars in Halakah") and is taken for the name of the well-known disciple of Akiba. 'Erubin 1 3 b . See Vol. I, p. 9 5 , n. 4 and Note ad loc. In 'Erubin Lc. the true reading is not 'tnirn but or Kiwra; see Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 6, n. 1 . 11.356

n. 7

The patrial ^vb^x may be from n. p. bni Byblos, in Phoenicia for which Assyrian inscriptions have Guubli. 11.357

n.5

Later sources have (or D y i ) , perhaps the rumbling sounds, precursors of an earthquake; and this may be the meaning in Sanhedrin, I.e. [L. G.] 11.358

H.27-29

See Vol. I, p.

46,

11.

1 5 ff.

H,358 n.3 Cf. Mark 9 , 1 2 airoKaQiVTavti

iravra.

II, 3 5 9 n. 3 See Biichler, Priester und Cultus, p. 2 0 , n. 3 . 11.359

n.

4

For a complete collection of passages in which doubtful cases are reserved till the coming of Elijah see L. Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, p. 3 0 4 . II, 3 6 2 n. 6 Also Pesikta ed. Buber, f. 5 0 b . II, 3 6 3 1. 2 Read hamushlm. II,

363

n.

2

Also Pesikta de-R. Simeon ben Yohai, ed. Hoffmann, p. 3 8 , end. 11,364

n.5

The Messianic banquet is perhaps meant in a saying of Akiba, Abot 3 , 1 6 : m i y D ? ipino fam r\m yi p m . 1

JUDAISM.

204 II,

365

n.

NOTES

3

Cf. Enoch 6 2 , 14 f.; see also Note on Vol. II, p. 3 6 4 , n, 5 (Akiba). II,

368

n.

7

The name of this land is Arsareth in the Latin version of 4 Esdras, 1 3 , 4 5 ; cf. mn« p"l«, Deut. 29, 27, quoted M . Sanhedrin 1 0 , 3 ; Tos. Sanhedrin 1 3 , 1 2 . The Syriac version has Arzaph and the other Oriental versions otherwise. See Hilgenfeld, Messias Judaeorum ( 1 8 6 9 ) , p. 1 0 1 , n. (v. Gutschmid, Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Theologie ( i 8 6 0 ) , p. 7 6 , compares 'Apo-ap&ra, Ptolemy, v. 1 3 , 1 1 (name of a city in Armenia Maior). See Violet, Die Apokalypsen des Esra und des Baruch in deutscher Gestalt ( 1 9 2 4 ) , p. 1 8 5 , for other conjec­ tures, among which " A r a r a t " may be particularly mentioned. See also Klausner, TPPDH p'yn, p. 3 0 5 . — On "Sabbatical" rivers, see Jo­ sephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 5, 1 § 9 9 (in Phoenicia); Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxi. 2 , 1 8 (In Judaea rivos sabbatis omnibus siccatur), cf. R. Akiba in Sanhedrin 6 5 b ; but neither of these, of course, is the river beyond which the ten tribes were in exile. II, 3 6 9 n. 1 Return of the Ten Tribes from beyond Sambation, Yalkut II § 4 6 9 (on Isa. 4 9 , 9) quoting Pesikta R. (ed. Friedmann, f. 146D-147). II,37o

11. I 2 f f .

On the Ephraimite Messiah see Klausner 'iTPDn p'jn, pp. 3 1 3 ff. On the origin of the notion see also L. Ginzberg, Unbekannte jiidische Sekte, 3 3 7 - 3 4 ° II, 3 7 3 n. 3 Cf. Vol. I, p. 11.378

434.

n.5

It should also be noted that in repetitions of the same saying in different sources the terms sometimes interchange, being equivalents in the mind of the scribes, as in the instance cited in note 5 . 11.379

H.28-31

The resurrection in Palestine, Midrash Tannaim on Deut. 1 2 , 1 0 f. (ed. Hoffmann, p. 5 8 ) . — "Some say forty days before other lands, some say forty years."

JUDAISM.

NOTES

205

II, 3 8 0 n. 1 See also Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Friedmann, f. 1 4 7 a (from beyond Sambation). 11,381

L15

"From the Torah" is here a late addition not found in correct texts. [L. G.] II,38i

n. 1

See also Pesahim 68a, end, where Deut. 3 2 , 3 9 , " I kill and I make alive; I have wounded, and I heal," furnishes an answer to those who say that the revivification of the dead is not in the Torah. 11,383

I.20

In Talmudic sources Parashah is never the "weekly lesson," but "section." [L. G.] II, 3 8 4

n. 1

A Christian parallel is Athenagoras, De resurrectione, c. 18 f. 11,386

11.2-6

Instead of "he had formerly held the same view," etc., the words of R. Joshua should be rendered: " I f the verse had said/ 'The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the Gentiles,' and stopped there, I should have interpreted it as you do; but now since it says, 'who forget G o d / there are righteous men among the nations who have a lot in the World to Come." 11.386

11. 9 - 1 1

The "nations of the world" with whom Maimonides was acquainted were Christians and Mohammedans. 11.387 n. ffThe translation reproduces the Tosefta. In the parallels, Seder 'Olam, c. 3 (ed. Ratner 9a) and Rosh ha-Shanah 1 7 a , the clause "and those who stretch out their hands against the Temple," is not found. The Seder '01am has in place of it, " and those who deride the words of learned men" (hakamim); cf. 'Erubin 2 1 b , where this class is prom­ ised a particularly offensive punishment. It may be suspected that the clause in the Tosefta had its origin in the desire of a haggadist to do something with the last words of Psalm 4 9 , 1 5 ( ^ ^P)> as had been done with what went before it mW? D T i n ) . 9

2o6

JUDAISM. N O T E S

11,388

I.7

On the words "from the Law" see Note on Vol. II, p. 3 8 1 , 1 . 11,388

15.

I.9

"Extraneous books" (D'HS'n, cf. Baraita). Akiba's damnatorysentence is probably aimed at reading from such books in the syna­ gogue. See Krochmal, Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman ( 1 8 5 1 ) , p. 1 0 1 f. -rasa ana a-npn). II. 3 9 1

H.8-12

With this conversion one may compare the story in Eusebius Hist. Eccles. ii. 9 , told of the martyrdom of the Apostle James. II, 3 9 4 11. 1 6 - 2 5 See E. Meyer, Ursprung und Anfange des Christen turns, II, 5 8 - 1 2 0 ; Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 3 ed. ( 1 9 2 6 ) . Das religionsgeschichtliche Problem, especially, pp. 501 ff. II, 3 9 4 n. 4 See Pettazoni, Zarathustra, p. 106, n. 5 .