James, and the would -be murderer of St. Peter, who introduced the un-Jewish practice of

images on coins. Thus everywhere the foreign element was advancing. A change or else

a struggle was inevitable in the near future.

And what of Judaism itself at the period? It was miserably divided, even though no

outward separation had taken place. The Pharisees and Sadducees held opposite

principles, and hated each other; the Essenes looked down upon them both. Within

Pharisaism the schools of Hillel and Shammai contradicted each other on almost every

matter. But both united in their unbounded contempt of what they designated as "the

country -people"--those who had no traditional learning, and hence were either unable

or unwilling to share the discussions, and to bear the burdens of legal ordinances,

which constituted the chief matter of traditionalism. There was only one feeling common

to all--high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlettered: it was that of intense hatred

of the foreigner. The rude Galileans were as "national" as the most punctilious

Pharisees; indeed, in the war against Rome they furnished the most and the bravest

soldiers. Everywhere the foreigner was in sight; his were the taxes levied, the soldiery,

the courts of ultimate appeal, the government. In Jerusalem they hung over the Temple

as a guard in the fortress of Antonia, and even kept in their custody the high-priest's

them to the procurator or his representative! They were only just more tolerable as being

downright heathens than the Herodians, who mingled Judaism with heathenism, and,

having sprung from foreign slaves, had arrogated to themselves the kingdom of the

Readers of the New Testament know what separation Pharisaical Jews made between

themselves and heathens. It will be readily understood, that every contact with

heathenism and all aid to its rites should have been forbidden, and that in social

intercourse any levitical defilement, arising from the use of what was "common or

unclean," was avoided. But Pharisaism went a great deal further than this. Three days

before a heathen festival all transactions with Gentiles were forbidden, so as to afford

them neither direct nor indirect help towards their rites; and this prohibition extended

even to private festivities, such as a birthday, the day of return from a journey, etc. On

heathen festive occasions a pious Jew should avoid, if possible, passing through a

heathen city, certainly all dealings in shops that were festively decorated. It was

unlawful for Jewish workmen to assist in anything that might be subservient either to

heathen worship or heathen rule, including in the latter the erection of court -houses and

similar buildings. It need not be explained to what lengths or into what details

Pharis aical punctiliousness carried all these ordinances. From the New Testament we

know, that to enter the house of a heathen defiled till the evening (John 18:28), and that

all familiar intercourse with Gentiles was forbidden (Acts 10:28). So terrible was the

intolerance, that a Jewess was actually forbidden to give help to her heathen neighbour,

when about to become a mother (Avod. S. ii. 1)! It was not a new question to St. Paul,

when the Corinthians inquired about the lawfulness of meat sold in the shambles or

served up at a feast (1 Cor 10:25,27,28). Evidently he had the Rabbinical law on the

subject before his mind, while, on the one hand, he avoided the Pharisaical bondage of

the letter, and, on the other, guarded against either injuring one's own conscience, or

offending that of an on-looker. For, according to Rabbi Akiba, "Meat which is about to

be brought in heathen worship is lawful, but that which comes out from it is forbidden,

because it is like the sacrifices of the dead" (Avod. S. ii. 3). But the separation went

much beyond what ordinary minds might be prepared for. Milk drawn from a cow by

heathen hands, bread and oil prepared by them, might indeed be sold to strangers, but

not used by Israelites. No pious Jew would of course have sat down at the table of a

Gentile (Acts 11:3; Gal 2:12). If a heathen were invited to a Jewish house, he might not be

left alone in the room, else every article of food or drink on the table was henceforth to

be regarded as unclean. If cooking utensils were bought of them, they had to be purified

by fire or by water; knives to be ground anew; spits to be made red-hot before use, etc.

It was not lawful to let either house or field, nor to sell cattle, to a heathen; any article,

however distantly connected with heathenism, was to be destroyed. Thus, if a weaving-