might call them, if Plato had not given the word a bad sound. The wisdom which they eulogise as the best thing in the world is not philosophical theory, but the practical maxims by which a sagacious man orders his life. They appeal to prudential motives rather than to the highest ethical principles; but they consistently affirm that morality is the condition of success and happiness, and that religion ("reverence for God") is the foundation of even worldly wisdom. The counsels of the sages are wholesome, even if homely. Warnings against the fascinations of strange women, the serpent that lurks in the wine-cup, indolence, hasty anger, gossip and slander, are common themes. In Sirach we get a vivid picture of the life of the cities stirring with the ferment of Greek civilisation. There is hardly anything specifically Jewish in the moral precepts, nor do the sages give themselves the least concern about ritual and ceremonial; religion is with them not a matter of observances but a serious and reverent temper of mind towards life and the moral order of the world. From reflections on the excellency of wisdom in man some of these thinkers were led to meditate on the wisdom of God, possessed by him before the world, the first of his works, his sportive associate in the creation (Prov. 8; cf. Job 28; Ecclus. 24; Wisd. 7). Hellenistic Jewish philosophy, especially Philo, developed these suggestive hints in its own way, making Wisdom an intermediary between its ultramundane God and the world; in Palestinian theology Wisdom is commonly identified with the Law, i. e., with revealed religion (Deut. 4, 6; Ecclus. 24).

CHAPTER III

JUDAISM

SCHOOL AND SYNAGOGUE

Alexander and his Successors-The Asmonæans-Rise of the Pharisees -Doctrine of Retribution after Death, Resurrection, Immortality -Essenes and Other Sects-Philo-The Synagogue-Popular Literature and Apocalypses-Wars with Rome-The Stronghold of Judaism, the Law-Judaism as Revealed Religion-The Idea of God-Angels and Demons-The Golden Age and the Last Judgment-The Talmud.

THE battle of Issos in 333 had made Alexander the master of all western Syria. In the division of his empire Palestine, after some vicissitudes, became part of the kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and remained in their possession, though not uncontested, until 198 B. C., when it passed into the hands of the Seleucid kings. With the conquests of Alexander began a new and wider dispersion of the Jews; as soldiers, traders, and adventurers they were to be found in all the new centres of politics and commerce which sprang up everywhere in the East. In these cities, where Greek was not only the language of administration but the common language of intercourse among their polyglot inhabitants, the Jews in the course of a generation or two exchanged their Aramaic vernacular for the new cosmopolitan speech. In Alexandria, where they formed from the beginning a considerable part of the population, they found it necessary early in the third century to provide themselves with a Greek version of their sacred Law. Judea itself the upper classes made haste to acquire at least a veneer of Hellenistic culture, and the unfavourable influences of Hellenism are more apparent there than in the dispersion itself. Particularly under the Seleucids, who in

In

their perennial financial embarrassment sold the office to the highest bidder, the high priests strove to commend themselves still further to their lords by an ostentatious zeal for Greek manners and customs. One of them purchased the privilege of establishing a gymnasium just below the temple, and the young priests hurried through the services to resort thither. The Greek hats in the streets and the naked contests in the gymnasium were an equal scandal to the godly.

During one of the campaigns of Antiochus IV in Egypt the high priest Jason, whom he had deposed, took Jerusalem by a coup de main, driving out the king's latest creature, Menelaus. The adventure gave the king a not unwelcome pretext for confiscating the public and private treasures in the temple. As this did not put an end to agitation he, in December, 168, erected an altar to Jupiter on the great altar in the temple, and shortly after issued a sweeping edict against the Jewish religion, whose observances he forbade under extreme penalties.

1

The result was a revolt headed by Judas Maccabæus, who, favoured by the inefficiency of the Syrian commanders and by Antiochus' absence in the East, succeeded after three years in recovering possession of the temple and restoring it to the worship of the national God, though the castle in Jerusalem with a strong garrison remained in the hands of the Syrians for twenty years longer. The religious persecution ceased, but the struggle continued. The Asmonæans, encouraged by the weakness and disorders of the kingdom, now aimed at nothing less than the independence of Judah under their own rule, and this end, after many turns of fortune, they achieved. Not content with this, they waged aggressive war against their neighbours on all sides, and for a brief time the territory over which they reigned almost equalled in extent the kingdom of Solomon. Later rulers of this house allied themselves with the old aristocracy and with the neighbouring dynasties, and their 1 The family of Judas and his brothers.

character and conduct were not more pleasing to their pious countrymen than those of the high priests they had superseded. Family dissensions, artfully fomented by the Idumæan Antipater, Herod's father, opened the way for Roman intervention, and in 63 B. C. Pompey made an end of what was left of the Jewish kingdom after eighty years of independence.

The Maccabæan revolt was supported at the beginning by the earnestly religious part of the people, who called themselves the pious; persecuted for the exercise of their religion, they took up arms against the persecutors. When the persecution was at an end, the worship in the temple restored, and a high priest of the legitimate line-though personally an odious creature-installed by the king, they had no further motive for continuing hostilities; and the more distinctly the Maccabæan struggle assumed a political form, the more completely they drew away from it. Out of this unorganised class, or party, of the godly the Pharisees arose, whose name is first heard in the time of Jonathan (161-143 B. C.). They called themselves by preference "associates," and formed societies, pledging themselves by mutual agreement to a strict observance of the laws, in particular those concerning ceremonial purity and the religious taxes, which were often neglected even by otherwise wellmeaning people. The actual members of these societies were probably never very numerous; they included, however, many scholars ("scribes"), and by their teaching and example and their repute for learning and piety they exerted a great influence among the people.

The learning of the scribes was not only in the Scripture but in the traditions, the unwritten Law, which was in part based upon interpretation of Scripture and in part embodied custom that had grown up by the side of the Scripture. The Pharisees employed the principle of tradition not merely in the interest of a strict interpretation and observance of the Law, but to adapt its prescriptions to changing circumstances. It is erroneous to regard them as an ultra

conservative or reactionary party. On the contrary, they were less inclined to a hard-and-fast literalness than the priesthood or the sects. With the great body of the people behind them, they constrained the rulers and the priests to accept their interpretation of the Law, and boldly opposed the worldly and corrupt conduct and measures of the later Asmonæans. Under Alexander Jannæus the conflict culminated in open hostilities, in which much blood was shed. His successor, Queen Alexandra, made her peace with them by reaffirming their abrogated ordinances; and from that time forth their power was so firmly established that even Herod avoided coming to an open rupture with them.

It is in this period that the belief in the retribution after death, the immortality of the soul, and the final judgment became current. In older times the Jews had the same notions about the survival of the dead which are found among all races. The tomb was in some way the habitation of the departed, and the strenuous prohibition of the offering of food to the dead in laws of the seventh century bears testimony to the persistence of the belief. By the side of this conception there appears in the same age the idea of a common abode of the dead, a vast cavern beneath the earth, where the shades of all men are gathered. The most vivid descriptions of this dismal place are in Isaiah 14 and Ezek. 32, 18 ff. The resemblance of the Hebrew Sheol to the Homeric Hades and the Babylonian Aralu is obvious, and it is not impossible, though it is by no means certain, that Babylonian imagery may have contributed to these prophetic pictures. The international character of the prophetic Sheol should not be overlooked. In it are found. the nations which are the enemies of the Jews, with their rulers.

The lot of the shades is miserable, deprived of life and the joy of living, inhabiting the tomb or the dark recesses of the earth. To be sent to this gloomy realm before one's time is the extreme penalty of offending God. But while death, and particularly premature death, is thus retributive,