Rabbinic expectation of the Messiah, and the picture of him presented in the New

Testament. Surely the Messianic idea, as realised in Christ, could not have been derived

from the views current in those times!

PUTTING aside, as quite untenable, the idea of a regular Beth ha-Midrash in the Temple

(though ad vocated even by Wünche ), we have to inquire whether any historical evidence

can be adduced for the existence of a Synagogue within the bounds of the Temple-

buildings. The notice (Sot. vii. 8) that on every Sabbatic year lection of certain portions

was made to the people in the 'Court,' and that a service was conducted there during

public fasts on account of dry weather (Taan. ii. 5), can, of course, not be adduced as

proving the existence of a regular Temple-Synagogue. On the other hand, it is expressly

said in Sanh. 88 b, lines 19, 20 from top, that on the Sabbaths and feast-days the members

of the Sanhedrin went out upon the Chel of Terrace of the temple, when questions were

asked of them and answered. It is quite true that in Tos. Sanh. vii. (p. 158, col. d) we have

an inaccurate statement about the second of the Temple-Sanhedrin as sitting on the Chel

(instead of at the entrance of the Priests' Court, as in Sanh. 88 b), and that there the

Sabbath and festive discourses are loosely designated as a 'Beth ha Midrash' which was on

'the Temple-Mount.'1 But since exactly the same description - indeed, in the same words -

of what took place is given in the Tosephta as in Talmud itself, the former must be

corrected by the latter, or rather the term 'Beth ha -Midrash' must be taken in the wider

and more general sense as the 'place of Rabbinic exposition,' and not as indicating any

permanent Academy. But even if the words in the Tosephta were to be taken in

preference to those in the Talmud itself, they contain no ment ion of any Temple-

Synagogue.

Equally inappropriate are the other arguments in favor of this supposed Temple-

Synagogue. The first of them is derived from a notice in Tos. Sukkah. iv. 4, in which R.