sense, intermediate between "the land" and "outside the land."

The term Soria, or Syria, does not include that country alone, but all the lands which,

according to the Rabbis, David had subdued, such as Mesopotamia, Syria, Zobah,

Achlab, etc. It would be too lengthy to explain in detail the various ordinances in regard

to which Soria was assimilated to, and those by which it was distinguished from,

Pales tine proper. The preponderance of duty and privilege was certainly in favour of

Syria, so much so, that if one could have stepped from its soil straight to that of

Palestine, or joined fields in the two countries, without the interposition of any Gentile

strip, the land and the dust of Syria would have been considered clean, like that of

Palestine itself (Ohol. xviii. 7). There was thus around "the land" a sort of inner band,

consisting of those countries supposed to have been annexed by King David, and

termed Soria. But besides this, there was also what may be called an outer band, towards

the Gentile world, consisting of Egypt, Babylon, Ammon and Moab, the countries in

which Israel had a special interest, and which were distinguished from the rest, "outside

the land," by this, that they were liable to tithes and the Therumoth, or first-fruits in a

prepared state. Of course neither of these contributions was actually brought into

Palestine, but either employed by them for their sacred purposes, or else redeemed.

Maimonides arranges all countries into three classes, "so far as concerns the precepts

connected with the soil" --"the land, Soria, and outside the land"; and he divides the

land of Israel into territory possessed before and after the Exile, while he also

distinguishes between Egypt, Babylon, Moab, and Ammon, and other lands (Hilch.

Ther. i. 6). In popular estimate other distinctions were likewise made. Thus Rabbi Jose of

Galilee would have it (Bicc. i. 10), that Biccurim8 were not to be brought from the other

side of Jordan, "because it was not a land flowing with milk and honey."

But as the Rabbinical law in this respect differed from the view expressed by Rabbi Jose,

his must have been an afterthought, probably intended to account for the fact that they

beyond Jordan did not bring their first-fruits to the Temple. Another distinction claimed

for the country west of the Jordan curiously reminds us of the fears expressed by the

two and a half tribes on their return to their homes, after the first conquest of Palestine

under Joshua (Josh 22:24,25), since it declared the land east of Jordan less sacred, on

account of the absence of the Temple, of which it had not been worthy. Lastly, Judaea

proper claimed pre -eminence over Galilee, as being the centre of Rabbinism. Perhaps it

may be well here to state that, notwithstanding strict uniformity on all principal points,

Galilee and Judaea had each its own peculiar legal customs and rights, which differed in

many particulars one from the other.

What has hitherto been explained from Rabbinical writings gains fresh interest when we

bring it to bear on the study of the New Testament. For, we can now understand how

those Zealots from Jerusalem, who would have bent the neck of the Church under the

yoke of the law of Moses, sought out in preference the flourishing communities in Syria

for the basis of their operations (Acts 15:1). There was a special significance in this, as

Syria formed a kind of outer Palestine, holding an intermediate position between it and

heathen lands. Again, it results from our inquiries, that, what the Rabbis considered as

the land of Israel proper, may be regarded as commencing immediately south of Antioch.

Thus the city where the first Gentile Church was formed (Acts 11:20,21); where the

disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26); where Paul so long exercised his

ministry, and whence he started on his missionary journeys, was, significantly enough,

just outside the land of Israel. Immediately beyond it lay the country over which the

Rabbis claimed entire sway. Travelling southwards, the first district which one would

reach would be what is known from the gospels as "the coasts (or tracts) of Tyre and

Sidon." St. Mark describes the district more particularly (Mark 7:24) as "the borders of

Tyre and Sidon." These stretched, according to Josephus (Jewish War, iii, 35), at the

time of our Lord, from the Mediterranean towards Jordan. It was to these extreme

boundary tracts of "the land," that Jesus had withdrawn from the Pharisees, when they

were offended at His opposition to their "blind" traditionalism; and there He healed by