judge cannot penetrate."

We have spoken of a gradual modification of Rabbinical views with the changing

circumstances of the nation. This probably comes out most clearly in the advice of the

Talmud (Baba M. 42), to divide one's money into three parts --to lay out one in the

purchase of land, to invest the second in merchandise, and to keep the third in hand as

cash. But there was always this comfort, which Rab enumerated among the blessings of

the next world, that there was no commerce there (Ber. 17 a). And so far as this world

was concerned, the advice was to engage in business, in order with the profit made to

assist the sages in their pursuits, just as Sebua, one of the three wealthy men of

Jerusalem, had assisted the great Hillel. From what has been said, it will be inferred that

the views expressed as to Palestinian, or even Babylonian Jews, did not apply to those

who were "dispersed abroad" among the various Gentile nations. To them, as already

shown, commerce would be a necessity, and, in fact, the grand staple of their existence.

If this may be said of all Jews of the dispersion, it applies specially to that community

which was the richest and most influential among them--we mean the Jews of

Few phases, even in the ever-changeful history of the Jewish people, are more strange,

more varied in interest, or more pathetic than those connected with the Jews of

Alexandria. The immigration of Jews into Egypt commenced even before the Babylonish

captivity. Naturally it received great increase from that event, and afterwards from the

murder of Gedaliah. But the real exodus commenced under Alexander the Great. That

monarch accorded to the Jews in Alexandria the same rights as its Greek inhabitants

enjoyed, and so raised them to the rank of the privileged classes. Henceforth their

numbers and their influence grew under successive rulers. We find them commanding

Egyptian armies, largely influencing Egyptian thought and inquiry, and partially

leavening it by the translation of the Holy Scriptures into Greek. Of the so-called Temple

of Onias at Leontopolis, whic h rivalled that of Jerusalem, and of the magnificence of the

great synagogue at Alexandria, we cannot speak in this place. There can be no doubt

that, in the Providence of God, the location of so many Jews in Alexandria, and the

mental influence which they acquired, were designed to have an important bearing on

the later spread of the Gospel of Christ among the Greek-speaking and Grecian-thinking

educated world. In this, the Greek translation of the Old Testament was also largely

helpful. Indeed, humanly speaking, it would have scarcely been possible without it. At

the time of Philo the number of Jews in Egypt amounted to no less than one million. In

Alexandria they occupied two out of the five quarters of the town, which were called

after the first five letters of the alphabet. They lived under rulers of their own, almost in a

state of complete independence. Theirs was the quarter Delta, along the seashore. The

supervision of navigation, both by sea and river, was wholly entrusted to them. In fact,

the large export trade, especially in grain --and Egypt was the granary of the world --

was entirely in their hands. The provisioning of Italy and of the world was the business

of the Jews. It is a curious circumstance, as illustrating how little the history of the world

changes, that during the troubles at Rome the Jewish bankers of Alexandria were able to

obtain from their correspondents earlier and more trustworthy political tidings than any

one else. This enabled them to declare themselves in turn for Caesar and for Octavius,

and to secure the full political and financial results flowing from such policy, just as the

great Jewish banking houses at the beginning of this century were similarly able to

profit by earlier and more trustworthy news of events than the general public could

But no sketch of commerce among the early Jews, however brief, would be complete

without some further notice both of the nature of the trade carried on, and of the legal

regulations which guarded it. The business of the travelling hawker, of course, was

restricted to negotiating an exchange of the products of one district for those of

another, to buying and selling articles of home produce, or introducing among those

who affected fashion or luxury in country districts specimens of the latest novelties from

abroad. The foreign imports were, with the exception of wood and metals, chiefly articles