to appeal to the real opinion of his audience, that a future state contained nothing either to hope for or to dread; and was seconded in the avowal by Cato.50 It was, therefore, nothing wonderful that St. Paul should be mocked by his Athenian audience for preaching Jesus and the resurrection. The doctrine seemed beneath their serious notice, Acts xvii. 32. and was despised for its apparent absurdity. And this, not merely because it was disbelieved, but because men's minds had never been accustomed to it, even in the fables of Elysium and Tartarus. A bodily resurrection was unheard of, the idea of man's identity in a future state was altogether new; and heathen records agree with the statement of the Bible, that it was Jesus Christ who brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. II. RELIGION OF THE JEWS. IN estimating the state of religion among the Jews at the period of the Advent of our Saviour, two points of inquiry must be kept distinct: the one, what their Law and Prophets were apparently designed to teach them; the other, what they actually did learn from these sources. 51 That the Jewish Scriptures were so interpreted as to render the promised Messiah unacceptable to the great body of the nation, is plain from a cursory perusal of the Gospels. It is equally plain that the Jewish Scriptures were calculated to produce a quite contrary effect. With reference, therefore, to this, and to other points, it will be necessary to consider both the Jewish dispensation in itself, and as it was received by the people at large, and by the various sects which existed among them. nature of the In God's occasional communications with any people or individual Allegorical of old, his messages were conveyed as much by signs and types as Jewish by words. Of a practice so well known, no example or illustration Religion. can be necessary. Agreeably to this method, we find the religion of the Jews deposited, partly in their Scriptures, partly in ceremonies and institutions, and the service required of them consisting even more in representation than in verbal expression. They sacrificed more than they prayed. Instead of a form of words annually addressed to Heaven on account of their deliverance from Egypt, the scene was annually represented by the ceremony of the Pass over. A religion so constituted would naturally contain a vast body of Its objects. rites, many of them in themselves trivial and unmeaning, and deriving importance and significance only from being viewed as use the same argument to disprove the belief of a future state among the Heathen who spoke of the immortality of the soul, that Cicero himself does to disprove the belief of the Stoics that pain was not an evil. See De Finibus, Lib. IV. 9; and the conclusion he draws 50 Sallust. in Catilin. C. 51, 52. symbols. Had the ceremonial Law, indeed, been composed of rites and observances important or more than trivial in themselves, those who practised them would have been still more likely to regard them as valuable on their own account, and not for the further object to which they pointed. Considered thus, then, the ceremonial portion of the Law will appear as another mode of conveying the same instruction as its verbal precepts. It was unto each man “a sign upon his hand, and a memorial between his eyes, that the Lord's Exod. xiii. 9. law might be in his mouth." Some of its ordinances, no doubt, had reference to the idolatrous practices of the neighbouring Gentiles, concerning which our information is too imperfect for us to estimate fully the fitness of those ordinances. Others, again, were obviously lessons of morality and piety. A third, and the most important class, were calculated to prepare the nation for a candid and ready admission of the Messiah's claims, and of the Christian revelation. One or more of these objects was probably intended in each rite, however trivial. Causes their misin The minute directions, for instance, respecting the treatment of lepers. To the Jews these directions furnished a sort of histrionic sermon, displaying the foul nature of sin, its contagious character, the precautions requisite to enable the healthiest and strongest minds to escape its influence; lastly, its offensiveness to God, and the necessity of a mysterious cleansing and sanctification by blood. In all cases of legal defilement, purity was to be restored by the intervention of a high priest, by the offering of a sacrifice, and (whenever it was practicable) by the blood of a victim. The continual repetition of these scenes was like the continual reading of moral and religious lessons to the Jews, in a language agreeable to the habits of the most ancient times, and therefore impressive and intelligible. And if these rites did not actually convey a notion of the one great High Priest, who was to cleanse all mankind from moral defilement by the sacrifice of himself, yet they were calculated to habituate the Jews to that way of thinking, which should render the doctrine nothing strange and revolting, but, on the contrary, highly natural and acceptable. Nevertheless, Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block; which must have been owing to some wrong bias, which their minds received from those who pretended to guide them in the interpretation of the Law and the Prophets. To explain the nature and origin of this bias, two passages of which led to Jewish History must be brought under notice. The one is the terpretation. intercourse between the Jews and the Gentiles, especially the Egyptians; the other is the rise of the traditional law into supreme authority. Connexion I. As early as the period of the Babylonian captivity some settlewith Egypt: ment of the Jews in Egypt appears to have been formed. At all events, from the foundation of Alexandria they began to be estab Jer. xlii.xliii. The illustrious founder of that city 53 lished there in great numbers. allowed them a share of privileges in common with his Macedonian colonists, and the free exercise of their religion; and his liberal policy towards them was continued by his successors.52 Increasing in numbers and importance, they at length obtained permission to build a temple for themselves in Egypt, in order to avoid the inconvenience attending the yearly resort of so many to Jerusalem.58 This was a most important step. Weakening the ties of filial dependence by which the Jews of Egypt were bound to the holy city, it was the occasion of their becoming more devotedly attached to the place of their abode, and more liable to the mischievous effects produced on their faith by their connexion with it. It was in itself indeed a bold violation of their Law, which expressly directed that they should perform their temple worship at the one place only which the Lord had appointed. They now began to Deut. xii. imbibe many of the absurd fancies of the heathen philosophy, so much cultivated at that time at Alexandria, and blended it in their view of their own sacred doctrines. Accustomed to contemplate a secondary meaning in their Law and Prophets, they too readily yielded to the seduction of the famous Platonic school of Alexandria, Platonic the aim of which was, by allegorical interpretation, so to adapt itself to every other system, as that all should appear consistent and the same a method afterwards practised with the like success on Christianity. This false wisdom soon spreading from Egypt to Judæa, the Jewish creed, both at home and abroad, became not a little changed and distorted by the artificial light thus thrown on it. 54 School. As the period of the Advent drew nigh, the rest also of the Gentile world became so interspersed with Jews, as to justify almost a literal acceptation of St. James's assertion, that Moses had in every city them that preached him. Yet it does not appear that Acts xv. 21. the Jewish creed was generally affected by this varied intercourse. Egypt was the channel, at least, through which any foreign impression was conveyed. There was a fatality in the connexion of the Jews with Egypt, and when it ceased to be a scourge, it became a snare to them. At the same time, it must not be supposed that the intercourse between the Jews and Gentiles was productive of unmixed mischief to the former.55 Part, indeed, of the scheme of Providence, in 52 Josephi Ant. Jud. Lib. XI. C. 8, and Lib. XII. C. 1. 53 Ejusdem, Lib. XIII. C. 3. 54 See Bruckeri Historia Critica Philosophiæ, Tome II. pp. 690 and 697. 55 Warburton has suggested that the Jews were cured of idolatry from the period of the Babylonish captivity, not so much by the severity of the punishment which they had undergone, as by their subsequent acquaintance with the Greek Probable reasons for the of this with the Gentiles. extending that intercourse so greatly at that precise period, might have been to afford the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, an opportunity permission of acquiring more preparatory light than either enjoyed, for the intercourse glorious scene which was approaching. And although this opportunity was not generally embraced by either, there were, doubtless, many, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, on whom it was not lost; many among the Jews, such as Simeon and Anna; many among the Gentiles, such as the good Centurion and Cornelius. From this intercourse the Gentiles might have derived clearer notions of the character of that universal Lord, who was expected to arrive out of the East, if, indeed, the expectation were not wholly derived from that source. On the other hand, the Jews might have been roused to search their Scriptures for the true account of certain matters on which the Gentiles speculated largely, and which were so imperfectly revealed to the Jews, as to be likely to be unnoticed without some call for investigation-as, for instance, the doctrine of a future state. How much the publication of the Gospel was facilitated by the establishment of synagogues in every great city is obvious; and this, too, was not an exclusive benefit to the Gentiles, for the Jew abroad was likely to be more free and fearless in submitting his mind to the humiliating truths which were to be disclosed, inasmuch as he was removed from the chief seat of national prejudice, and was unawed by the presence of that authority which upheld it. Traditional II. Of the true origin of the traditional Law there is no certain account, which is remarkable, considering that it constituted the main line of separation between the contending sects. According to its advocates, it was delivered by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, together with the written Law, and was therefore asserted to be of equal authority with it. Their opponents contented themselves with refusing assent to this statement, without, however, either denying the antiquity of these traditions, or assigning them any specific source or date." Law. Its probable origin. Its effects. 56 It is probable, from this uncertainty, as well as from the character of the traditions themselves, (for, if they have been faithfully recorded in the Talmuds, they are little more than a tissue of minute rules superadded to those in Scripture concerning the observance of the ritual law,) that they were the gradual accumulation of many centuries. Originally, perhaps, mere directions for determining matters left indeterminate in Scripture, they acquired from usage and habitual compliance an equal authority with the law itself.57 Be it as it may, the enlargement of the ritual law suited well with that bias of mind in the nation at large, which in those latter days to view the heathen worship in its true 56 Josephi Antiq. Jud., Lib. XIII. C. 10. 57 See Prideaux's Connexion, Part 1. B. V., where the source of these traditions is assigned to the age of Ezra and the return from the Captivity. was more fully displayed in the character of the Pharisee--a tendency, namely, to forget the twofold nature of the Law, and to consider that as valuable on its own account, which there was every reason to believe was only valuable from its reference to some other object, even although that object might not always have been clear and distinctly to be seen. Going then on the principle, that the works of the Law were to be regarded as an ultimate and independent object, that its intent was to make the comers thereunto perfect, not to shadow out the good things appointed for that purpose, the traditionist thought, consistently enough, that by adding rite to rite, and rule to rule, he should enlarge the sphere of meritorious conduct. And if the written Law contained enough for justification, the superadded value of the works of the unwritten Law would be more than the purchase of Divine reward. 58 Pharisees. This was the righteousness of the Pharisees, the most consider- The able sect at the period of the Advent. They were the class into which the learned naturally fell, and being reverenced for their Scriptural erudition, and for the strictness of their lives, the great body of the people was content to subscribe to their doctrines, and to adopt their views of Scripture, without aspiring to be Pharisees in holiness any more than in learning. On them the vulgar gazed, as on men whose righteous attainments went so far beyond what was needful, as to be admirable rather than good, and beheld them in their long fastings, their reiterated prayers, and their profound meditations, advancing ever, as it seemed, from superior to supreme sanctity. It will be readily conceived, that to such men the doctrine of good works being insufficient and ineffectual for salvation, and of the necessity of atonement for the sins of all, must have been light too distressing for them to open their eyes upon without a painful effort; and that they were likely for the most part to be obstinately blind to all evidence. And what must have been the result on the people who were under their guidance? The Pharisees bade them, indeed, conform to the Law, and especially to the ceremonial Law, but they took away the key of knowledge, that unlocked its mysterious meaning, or else, substituted for its true secondary meaning, something that was fanciful and foreign. They enjoined obedience to the Divine precepts, even to the letter of the commandment; but whenever obedience proved hard or inconvenient, some one of the numerous traditions (the Divine source and authority of which they maintained) was readily found to make the case an exception. 58 Goodwin, in his "Moses and Aaron," gives a quaint and graphic description of the varieties of the Pharisaical character, as represented in the Talmuds. Among them he enumerates "Pharisæus truncatus, so called, as if he had no feet, because he would scarce lift them from the ground when he walked, to cause the greater opinion of 66 Pharisæus mortarius, so called, because he wore a hat in manner of a deep mortar, such as they use to bray spice in, insomuch that he could not look upward, nor of either side; only downward on the ground, and forward, or forthright."-Lib. I. C. X. |