ART. X.-RABBI AND SYNAGOGUE: THEIR PLACE AND

POWER.

It was a revolutionary pronunciamento when Paul (Rom. iii, 20) said, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified." It is not easy for us to appreciate what "the law" was to an old-time Jew, his reverence for and trust in it. It was the duty of everyone to write a roll of the law, and thus obtain the same benefit as if he had received it in person on Sinai. If unable to write another might do it for him, he making a correction of one letter, or several persons might write each a single letter and be able to declare that the roll would not be legitimate without the part he added. A roll of the law written by an apostate, by a man who takes money from Jews on behalf of Gentiles, by a man who denounces a Jew to a Gentile, by a slave, a woman, a boy, must be buried; if written by an Epicurean it must be burned. The work was unlawful if the scribe before writing any of the names of God did not pause and say, "I am now ready to write the name of the Lord with mind and understanding." He must write the holy name and the three following words in silence and with a fresh pen. If the name of God be written incorrectly, whether upon an earthen or a stone vessel or a sheet of parchment, that thing must be buried and replaced. If written with blue, green, or red, or any dye or metallic matter, if written on papyrus, linen, or cotton, the roll is unlawful and may not be read in the synagogue. This written roll of the law might not be sold even to save life, but the sale is justified if the money ransoms a captive Jew or enables a man to marry.

The Jewish law students-there were always many-had to learn the six hundred and thirteen commands of Moses collected by the craft. Originally any Jew who could officiate in public worship was thus designated, though he was not even a preacher. He taught in the school, not in the synagogue; his function was with the law (halacha) rather than with the homily (hagada). Since the Middle Ages the maggid, or local rabbi, has not even been required to know rabbinical law. The term "rabbi" became

common after the destruction of the temple and implied no superior holiness, though he was qualified to act as judge on questions of rabbinical traditions and Mosaic readings.

It seems almost impossible to exaggerate the reverence with which the doctors of the law, the rabbis, were regarded by the Jews in the time of Christ. For four hundred years there had arisen no prophet to show the way and point the meaning of the providences which had come to this people. Herod had come in and, with the humiliating exercise of his power, appointed the high priests, and naturally the people turned to the exponents of the law to know what all these things meant. Hence such utterances in the Talmud as, "The honor due to a teacher borders on that which is due to God." It exceeded that due to a parent, because the parent only brought the child into this world while the rabbi was to guide him into life eternal. If one's father and a rabbi be both in prison the rabbi must be first redeemed. To dispute with a rabbi, or murmur against one, was like doing the same with the Almighty. "The sayings of the scribes are weightier than the law" was a common saying. Little wonder, then, that Joseph and Mary marveled (Luke ii, 46) when Jesus either showed great appreciation of or acquaintance with the questions which these learned men were discussing in the temple; much more if he exhibited the temerity which called in question anything they were teaching. The rabbis had a surprising hold on society. The position was open to anyone and was remunerative. Paul said (Acts xx, 33), "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel." It was and still is customary to pay the teachers and religious guides, though often not any fixed price. A good part of the profits of the oriental teacher still consists of the presents given by the disciples, often costly wearing apparel. They would have paid Paul, doubtless, and may have done so during the two years in which he taught in the school of Tyrannus, or the three months he taught in the synagogue, or for teaching privately in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, in all about three years; but Paul had worked with his own hands at his own craft during this same time and accepted no costly garments. That the disciples (John i, 38) called Jesus "rabbi" does not signify

that he had been trained by any special master, since ordinary laymen assumed this office; but no one could assume it without securing a group of pupils to teach in the mysteries of the law. In the case of the professional rabbi it was considered a grave sin to be without some one to instruct. The method employed by Jesus, calling a small group of men of whom to make disciples, seems ingrained in the economy of the Eastern world. Every Hindu "guru," or teacher, pursues more or less this very method. In the remotest fastnesses of the Himalaya Mountains groups of disciples were found in lonely places, and they in turn went out to make disciples.

Paul acknowledges (Acts xxiv, 14) that he belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, the word "sect" denoting a chosen set of doctrines or a mode of life. The two well-known sects, Pharisees and Sadducees, were, according to the popular notion, now being supplemented by another sect or party or division of the Hebrew communion. Paul claims, however, that he followed the strict sect of the Pharisees, holding to the law and to the prophets in teaching the resurrection of the dead. Paul was a rabbi, and this order of teachers, taking the place of the prophets, known by the title "The Learned in the Law," aimed to secure its strictest observance. They commanded three sentences: "Be slow in judgment; make many disciples; put a hedge around the law," this latter being a quantity of ceremonies and precepts gathered around the weightier requirements of the precepts of Moses. Rites and observances were indefinitely multiplied. The priesthood constituted an aristocracy of birth, but the rabbis came to be an aristocracy of learning, and the contest waxed fiercer and fiercer till the aristocracy of learning became superior in power over the heart and life of the people. The scriptures became a dead language, and the people had to depend on the scribes' knowing the law as well as the prophets. Paul said that "after the strictest manner" he was of the sect of students and protectors of this "hedge about the law." He taught the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducees held was one of the fables which the Jews had brought back with them from Babylon and which the fathers had not known. Around

such points as these the whole controversy of the "sects" raged. Hence the Roman soldier gave up Jesus to the Sanhedrin, as the case involved quibbles which could in no wise interest the Roman government or law; and Felix took a curious interest in getting at the detail of the Christian sect and desired a "more perfect knowledge of that Way," or that division of the Jewish parties.

The tendencies of the Jewish Church in the treatment of accretions from without were strong. One class was unconditionally opposed to admitting any proselytes. Shammai, a famous teacher, would admit no overtures from them. He drove Gentile converts from his house even if they consented to enter the community by the ceremony of circumcision. He maintained that "all the uncircumcised go to hell," and "no uncircumcised one shall rise at the last day." The other school was far more lenient. Rabbi Hillel, a great authority, advised that they love all men and bring all men into fellowship with the law. The Golden Rule was all that was necessary; "all else is mere comment." Philo was also in favor of the largest moderation, but the Jews generally held that a man was unclean till he was circumcised. T. E. Zerbib, missionary to Morocco, says, "The Mishna and the Gemara are the scriptures of the Jews of Morocco to-day." "In which Midrash [school] did you learn the Jewish religion?" asked Koolil, a rabbi in Morocco, who had been sent to collect money for the poor of Jerusalem. "During the hour you have been speaking you have not once quoted from either the Mishna or the Gemara; you have only spoken of the Taanach [the Bible]." When alone the Jews of Morocco converse on the prophecies, which they will compare with the New Testament, but fear of the rabbi makes them hide their true sentiments. "Be quiet; if the rabbis hear us we shall not sleep in our beds;" they would be sent to prison. They are entirely in the hands of the rabbis, who by the order of the Sultan exercise civil, commercial, and even criminal jurisdiction over them. They inflict fines or put them in prison as they please. It is little wonder that Jesus said (Luke xi, 52), "Woe unto you, lawyers!" The Roman government delegated large powers to the Sanhedrin, who exercised authority rigidly, and often unjustly, without appeal.

The Jewish synagogue was everywhere, even in the remotest parts of the Roman world. There were four hundred and eighty in Jerusalem. Nearly every foreign colony in the city had its own, partly from race jealousy and partly from difference in languages; besides, there were peculiar prejudices against foreigners on the part of the pure and unmixed old Palestine Hebrews-especially those who had their ancestral habitations in the holy city. These synagogues of foreigners were generally named after their respective geographical divisions; as, the Alexandrians, who came from that city in Egypt, the Cyrenians, from another section of Africa; the Cilicians, who came from Cilicia in Asia Minor. There was, however, still another synagogue which embraced representatives of several countries who, though originally born in Judea or the descendants of such as were born there, had been carried away captive into foreign countries by some conqueror and had obtained their liberty. On returning to Jerusalem these were styled "freedmen." The Romans called a freed slave "libertus," and his children born after the parents had obtained his freedom were "libertinus," the plural being "libertines." Sixty-three years before our era Pompey overran Jerusalem and carried vast numbers away into slavery, most of whom the Romans afterward liberated, in many instances because they were so tenacious of their religious usages as to be unadjustable as servants. Emperor Tiberius expelled these from Rome, and many naturally resorted to the holy city. Paul was a "libertinus," or the son of one, but as the Cilicians had a synagogue of their own he would probably resort to that rather than to the mixed company of the libertines. Most of these large synagogues had connected with them rabbinical schools or colleges under the charge of some famous rabbi, and the young men connected with these stood ready to combine to challenge any comer to argument. The Jewish synagogue was of the pattern seen in the ruins at Tell Hum and elsewhere-a rectangular hall with Grecian-pillared portico, the wall opposite the entrance being toward Jerusalem; as to-day in all Moslem mosques, on the deserts of Africa, the uplands of Asia, or in the islands of the sea, the kibleh is found marking the direction of Mecca. Some were