appearing, [a Vis. vi. ch. xiii. 27-52] [2 The better reading is 'in tempore diei ejus. (v. 52).']
It seems scarcely necessary to complete the series of testimony by referring in detail to a book, called 'The Prophecy and Assumption of Moses,' and to what is known as the Apocalypse of Branch, the servant of Jeremiah. Both date from probably a somewhat later period than the Fourth Book of Esdras, and both are fragmentary. The one distinctly anticipates the return of the ten tribes;[b Prophet, et Ass. Mos. iv. 7-14; vii. 20] the other, in the letter to the nine and a half tribes, far beyond the Euphrates, [c Ap. Bar. xxvii. 22] with which the book closes, preserves an ominous silence on that point, or rather alludes to it in language which so strongly reminds us of the adverse opinion expressed in the Talmud, that we cannot help suspecting some internal connection between the two. [1 In Sanh. 110 b we read, 'Our Rabbisteach, that the Ten Tribes have no part in the era to come, because it is written 'The Lord drave them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land.' 'The Lord drave them from their land', in the present era, 'and cast them into another land', in the era to come.' In curious agreement with this, Pseudo-Baruch writes to the nine and a half tribes to 'prepare their hearts to that which they had formerly believed,' least they should suffer 'in both eras (ab utroque saeculo),' being led captive in the one, and tormented in the other (Apoc. Bar. lxxxiii. 8).]
The writings to which we have referred have all a decidedly Hellenistic tinge of thought. [2 Thus, for example, the assertion that there had been individuals who fulfilled the commandments of God, Vis. i. ch. iii. 36; the domain of reason, iv. 22; v. 9; general Messianic blessings to the world at large, Vis. i. ch. iv. 27, 28; the idea of a law within their minds, like that of which St.
Paul speaks in the case of the heathen, Vis. iii. ch. vi. 45-47 (ed. Fritzsche, p. 609). These are only instances, and we refer besides to the general cast of the reasoning.] Still they are not the outcome of pure Hellenism. It is therefore with peculiar interest that we turn to Philo, the great representative of that direction, to see whether he would admit an idea so purely national and, as it might seem, exclusive. Nor are we here left in doubt. So universal was this belief, so deep-seated the conviction, not only in the mind, but in the heart of Israel, that we could scarcely find it more distinctly expressed than by the great Alexandrian. However low the condition of Israel might be, he tells us, [a De Execrat. ed. Frcf pp. 936, 937] or however scattered the people to the ends of the earth, the banished would, on a given sign, be set free in one day. In consistency with his system, he traces this wondrous event to their sudden conversion to virtue, which would make their masters ashamed to hold any longer in bondage those who were so much better than themselves. Then, gathering as by one impulse, the dispersed would return from Hellas, from the lands of the barbarians, from the isles, and from the continents, led by a Divine, superhuman apparition invisible to others, and visible only to themselves. On their arrival in Palestine the waste places and the wilderness would be inhabited, and the barren land transformed into fruitfulness.
Whatever shades of difference, then, we may note in the expression of these views, all anticipate the deliverance of Israel, their restoration, and future pre-eminent glory, and they all connect these events with the coming of the Messiah. This was 'the promise' unto which, in their 'instant service night and day, the twelve tribes,' however grievously oppressed, hoped to come, [b Acts xxvi. 7] To this 'sure wordof prophecy' 'the strangers scattered' throughout all lands would 'take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,' until the day dawned, and the day-star rose in their hearts, [a 2 Pet. i. 19] It was this which gave meaning to their worship, filled them with patience in suffering, kept them separate from the nations around, and ever fixed their hearts and thoughts upon Jerusalem. For the 'Jerusalem' which was above was 'the mother' of them all. Yet a little while, and He that would come should come, and not tarry, and then all the blessing and glory would be theirs. At any moment the gladsome tidings might burst upon them, that He had come, when their glory would shine out from one end of the heavens to the other. All the signs of His Advent had come to pass. Perhaps, indeed, the Messiah might even now be there, ready to manifest Himself, so soon as the voice of Israel's repentance called Him from His hiding. Any hour might that banner be planted on the top of the mountains; that glittering sword be unsheathed; that trumpet sound. Closer then, and still closer, must be their connection with Jerusalem, as their salvation drew nigh; more earnest their longing, and more eager their gaze, till the dawn of that long expected day tinged the Eastern sky with its brightness.
INTRODUCTORY
THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL: THE JEWISH WORLD IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST
IN PALESTINE, JEWS AND GENTILES IN 'THE LAND', THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS AND FEELINGS, 'THE WALL OF SEPARATION.'
CHAPTER VII
The pilgrim who, leaving other countries, entered Palestine, must have felt as if he had crossed the threshold of another world. Manners, customs, institutions, law, life, nay, the very intercourse between man and man, were quite different. All was dominated by the one all-absorbing idea of religion. It penetrated every relation of life. Moreover, it was inseparably connected with the soil, as well as the people of Palestine, at least so long as the Temple stood. Nowhere else could the Shekhinah dwell or manifest itself; nor could, unless under exceptional circumstances, and for 'the merit of the fathers,' the spirit of prophecy be granted outside its bounds. To the orthodox Jew the mental and spiritual horizon was bounded by Palestine. It was 'the land'; all the rest of the world, except Babylonia, was 'outside the land.' No need to designate it specially as 'holy'; for all here bore the impress of sanctity, as he understood it. Not that the soil itself, irrespective of the people, was holy; it was Israel that made it such. For, had not God given so many commandments and ordinances, some of them apparently needless, simply to call forth the righteousness of Israel; [a Mac. 23 b] did not Israel possess the merits of'the fathers,' [b Rosh HaSh. lla] and specially that of Abraham, itself so valuable that, even if his descendants had, morally speaking, been as a dead body, his merit would have been imputed to them? [c Ber. R. 44] More than that, God had created the world on account of Israel, [d Yalkut 2] and for their merit, making preparation for them long before their appearance on the scene, just as a king who foresees the birth of his son; nay, Israel had been in God's thoughts not only before anything had actually been created, but even before every other creative thought, [e Ber. R. 1] If these distinctions seem excessive, they were, at least, not out of proportion to the estimate formed of Israel's merits. In theory, the latter might be supposed to flow from 'good works,' of course, including the strict practice of legal piety, and from 'study of the law.' But in reality it was 'study' alone to which such supreme merit attached. Practice required knowledge for its direction; such as the Am-ha-arets ('country people,' plebeians, in the Jewish sense of being unlearned) could not possess, [a Comp. Ab ii. 5] who had bartered away the highest crown for a spade with which to dig. And 'the school of Arum', the sages, the 'great ones of the world' had long settled it, that study was before works, [b Jer. Chag. i. hal. 7, towards the end; Jer. Pes. iii.7] And how could it well be otherwise, since the studies, which engaged His chosen children on earth, equally occupied their Almighty Father in heaven? [c Ab. Z. 3 b] Could anything, then, be higher than the peculiar calling of Israel, or better qualify them for being the sons of God?
It is necessary to transport oneself into this atmosphere to understand the views entertained at the time of Jesus, or to form any conception of their infinite contrast in spirit to the new doctrine. The abhorrence, not unmingled with contempt, of all Gentile ways, thoughts and associations; the worship of the letter of the Law; the self-righteousness, and pride of descent, and still more of knowledge, become thus intelligible to us, and, equally so, the absolute antagonism to the claims of a Messiah, so unlike themselves and their own ideal. His first announcement might, indeed, excite hope, soon felt to have been vain; and His miracles might startle for a time. But the boundary lines of the Kingdom which He traced were essentially different from those which they had fixed, and within which they had arranged everything, alike for the present and the future. Had He been content to step within them, to complete and realise what they had indicated, it might have been different. Nay, once admit their fundamental ideas, and there was much that was beautiful, true, and even grand in the details. But it was exactly in the former that the divergence lay. Nor was there any possibility of reform or progress here. The past, the present, and the future, alike as regarded the Gentile world and Israel, were irrevocably fixed; or rather, it might almost be said, there were not such, all continuing as they had been from the creation of the world, nay, long before it. The
Torah had really existed 2,000 years before Creation; [d Shir haShir. R. on Cant. v. 11, ed War shau, p. 26b] the patriarchs had had their Academies of study, and they had known and observed all the ordinances; and traditionalism had the same origin, both as to time and authority, as the Law itself. As for the heathen nations, the Law had been offered by God to them, but refused, and even their after repentance would prove hypocritical, as all
