down elaborate directions, what place is to be assigned to the Rabbis, according to their

rank, and to their disciples,75 and how in the College the most learned, but at feast the

most aged, among the Rabbis, are to occupy the 'upper seats.'76 So weighty was the

duty of respectful salutation by the title Rabbi, that to neglect it would involve the

heaviest punishment.77 Two great Rabbis are described as literally complaining, that

they must have lost the very appearance of learning, since in the market-place they only

had been greeted with 'May your peace be great,' without the addition 'My masters.'78

A few further illustrations of the claims which Rabbinism preferred may throw light on

the words of Christ. It reads like a wretched imitation from t he New Testament, when

the heathen Governor of Cæsarea is represented as rising up before Rabbis because

he beheld 'the faces as it were of Angels;' or like an adaptation of the well-known story

about Constantine the Great when the Governor of Antioch is d escribed as vindicating a

similar mark of respect to the Rabbis by this, that he had seen their faces and by them

conquered in battle.79 From another Rabbi rays of light are said to have visibly

proceeded.80 According to some, they were Epicuraeans, who ha d no part in the world

to come, who referred slightingly to 'these Rabbis.'81 To supply a learned man with the

means of gaining money in trade, would procure a high place in heaven.82 It was said

that, according to Prov. viii. 15, the sages were to be saluted as kings;83 nay, in some

respects, they were higher - for, as between a sage and a king, it would be duty to give

the former priority in redemption from captivity, since every Israelite was fit to be a king,

but the loss of a Rabbi could not easily be made up.84 But even this is not all. The curse

of a Rabbi, even if uncaused, would surely come to pass.85 It would be too painful to

repeat some of the miracles pretended to have been done by them or for them,

occasionally in protection of a lie; or to record their disputes which among them was

'greatest,' or how they established their respective claims.86 Nay, their self -assertion

extended beyond this life, and a Rabbi went so far as to order that he should be buried

in white garments, to show that he was worthy of appearing before his Maker.87 But

perhaps the climax of blasphemous self -assertion is reached in the story, that, in a

discussion in heaven between God and the heavenly Academy on a Halakhic question

about purity, a certain Rabbi - deemed that most learned on the subject - was

summoned to decide the point! As his soul passed from the body he exclaimed: 'Pure,

pure,' which the Voice from Heaven applied to the state of the Rabbi's soul; and

immediately afterwards a letter had fallen from heaven to i nform the sages of the

purpose of which the Rabbi had been summoned to the heavenly assembly, and

afterwards another enjoining a week's universal mourning for him on pain of

excommunication.88