# ,t m ^^mksmt ^,^,„., \>x*^^ PRINCETON, N. J. ""S. SAe//.. Division JU J 1 .1 . . / .Vtt^ Sectiofi ..y.tAO.)LA..l. Number THE KARAITE JEWS tONDON : PBINTBD BT BPOITISWOODK AND CO., NEW-BTKiJET SftUAEB AND PAULIAMENI STJ1£ET HISTOKY OF THE KARAITE JEWS r^iv. "pR WILLIA.AI HARRIS ^RULE, D.D. :ninnn Vy "pipno lau minn nx "p^non bsi What is uritten in the Laic? Hom readest thouf LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1870 PEEFACE. The book now presented to English readers is the first vohime in our language that has been entirely devoted to the history of Karaite Jews. Writers on Jewish history have usually given a chapter, an appendix, or a few common-place unstudied sentences to this branch of their subject. The subject in itself was deemed interesting, but so scant and imperfect were the materials that it was impossible to treat it satisfactorily. Two hundred years ago, James Trigland, a learned Dutch theologian, advanced far beyond his predecessors in the study of Karaism. His industry was rewarded by valuable contributions from intelligent Karaites, and two or three other scholars followed his example. Their works or materials collected for further study are con- tained in the Thesaurus of Sacred Oriental Antiquities, which consists of works on Hebrew and Jewish subjects, brought together by Blasius Ugolinus in thirty-four sumptuous folio volumes, but sealed from the sight of all who cannot or will not break through the Latin and Hebrew swathings that cover those precious remains from the hard-wrought servants of the Press in these busy times. Since Trigland's time little has been done to bring Karaism to light until very recently. Professor vi PKEFACE. Kosegarten, of the University of Jena, roused tlie learned ao-ain to some feeling of interest by his publication of portions of the 'Book of the Crown of the Law,' by Aaron, son of Elijah the Karaite, with translation and notes, in the year 1824. But this, too, is a Latin book. The precious materials furnished by Ugolinus and Kosesarten : contributions of travellers within the last half-century ; miscellanea collected from other Hebrew sources in the course of study ; Karaite liturgies ; frag- ments published from the Firkowitsch manuscripts ; all these being duly acknowledged in the following pages, and collated with Biblical and other subsidia of historical study, have enabled the author to essay the composition of what he may presume to call a History of the Karaite Jews. Dr. Julius Flirst completed last year his ' Geschichte des Karaerthums,' the fruit of much patient labour. It is chiefly an account of eminent Karaites, obtained from the mass of manuscript literature now referred to, and laid up in the libraries of Odessa and St. Petersburg, added to the little that had been previously extant in Europe. Fiirst's history is not only valuable on its own account, but is an extremely useful aid to study with the 'An- merkungen,' or passages extracted from the Hebrew originals, and most copious references to those originals, from first to last. That work is entirely different from the present in its arrangement, and if it is ever trans- lated into English, as it well deserves to be, the object pursued and course taken in each of the Histories will be found entirely distinct and indejiendent. By whomsoever written, the history of the Karaites PREFACE. Vll is comparative. They are a people honourably known by faithful maintenance of the principle of submission to acknowledged authority, and also by firmness in exer- cising their own reason in order to ascertain the suffi- ciency of that which claims to be authoritative. Nothing with them is authoritative which is not Divine — God only is to them the fountain of authority. They profess Avillingness to submit to Him, and to submit at any cost. This is the normal principle of Karaism. Submission to human authority in matters of faith and religious duty, unless that authority be manifestly supported by Divine Revelation, they justly consider to be no better than blind and servile sujoerstition. They pay unbounded reverence to the Written Law ot God, contained in the Old Testament. They utterly reject Avhat is called the Oral Law, and is now contained in the Talmud — at least, so far as it can be made out by those who spend their life in learning. The Talmud, however, is but the latest edition of the Oral Law — the last collection of traditions and miscella- neous writings for the illustration or exposition of the tra- ditional sentences; and we have now to mark the divergence of two parties — the faithful followers of God's Law, and the votaries of human tradition. In other words, we have to trace the progress of a schism from the beginning ; and to select at discretion a point from which to commence the story anywhere along the widely wandering lines of progress would be to lose sight of all that gave its peculiar character to the schism itself, from first to last. Hence arose a necessity for the first eight chapters of this book, from Chapter I., which defines the canon of Vlll PEEFACE. Inspired Scripture, to Chapter VIII., which briefly cha- racterises the body of traditions : that is to say, from the point where all Israelites were once agreed, onward to the opposite brinks of the great gulf of an impassable division. A deliberate survey of the gradual progress and con- summation of the Karaite schism obviates the controversy that would otherwise arise, and prevents difficulties other- wise insoluble ; whereas, to begin our history with Ahnan, for example, and to date the origin of Karaism from the year 750, or even at the beginning of the Christian era, would be contrary to every known antecedent, would shift us on to ground utterly untenable, and would, if that were possible, reduce one of the most important divisions recorded in the religious history of the Hebrew people to the insignificance of an unquiet uprising against ecclesiastical authority. This is what the Rabbanites might wish to do, but justice and truth forbid us to attempt it. That would now be impossible. Neither may we consent to darken history by taking up the allegation that the Karaites are descended from the Sadducees. A dispassionate survey of the whole period from the closing of the Canon of the Old Testa- ment by Simon the Just to the compilation of the Mishnah, while it shows what influences operated on the Jewish mind, and tended to bring about the decisive separation of two great parties, makes it clear as day that Sadduceeism and Karaism are just as contrary the one to the other as unbelief and faith. On this ground the author takes his stand without fear of successful con- tradiction, and here he differs from Jost and some other PREFACE. IX historians, and from the Rabbanites both ancient and modern. As to the alleged Saddiiceeanism of the earlier Karaites, which is maintained by some, Fiirst for ex- ample, who yet acknowledge their historical antiquity, the author reiterates an unqualified dissent, and hopes that his justification will be found in the history that is to follow. With reo-ard to the date of Karaism, so far as it mav be indicated by its name, one or two observations should be made in addition to what has been said in the body of this book. A sect suddenly sprung up after the nomenclature of Judaism was settled, when the extension of any one sect over the vast areas of the dispersion became difficult, if not impossible, would have borne a nameof reproach, if given by their enemies ; while a name of honour, if assumed by themselves, would have been disputed ; or a descriptive designation, if generally allowed, would have borne some special mark significant of local origin or of a dogmatic or political characteristic. But in the present instance there is no such name acknowledged, and even in the Babylonian Talmud a man of distinction for wisdom or learning is called a Reader (Karaite) ^Nip, or it is said that such an one reads (sip). In the earlier Jerusalem Talmud, the expression * Go and read ' is of not unfre- quent occurrence, both Talmuds agreeing in the same style. Kashi is quoted as saying that many eminent scholars were solemnly ordained with the title of Master of the Reading (NipDn ^yi), the very title borne by Karaites. Perhaps on this account it is so often noted that Rabbi Khaninah reads, although the common form X . PREFACE. wmilcl be that Rabbi such an one soys thus and thus.' For some centuries, therefore, the honourable title re- tained its place, evidently to distingnish him who quotes or recites the Law as he reads it, from him who appeals to the Tradition. As if to countenance the idea that the origin of Ka- raites may be dated so late as the eighth century, they are sometimes called Ahnanites by their antagonists, and although they never so call themselves, they so respect this man's memory as not to repudiate his name when it is put upon them. Still they only submit in silence, for it is not their proper name, and the celebrated Arab geographer and historian Ab-ul-Fedii expressly marks the Ahnanites as entirely distinct from both the Rabba- nites and the Karaites. He says that they take their name from Ahnan, son of David, chief of the captivity. He even marks their doctrine so strongly as to show that their teacher was, properly speaking, an innovator among them, one of those Palestinian Jews, of whom tliere is mention in our sixth chapter, Avho Avere brought under strongly Christian influence ; that he taught his followers to acknowledge the discourses and parables of Christ as true and prophetic ; that they honoured the Pentateuch, and said all men should be recommended to read it, and that Jesus Himself was one of the Prophets of Israel, but that they religiously observed the Law of Moses. In common Avith the Karaites, they said, according to Ab-ul-Feda, that Jesus never put Himself forward as a messenger of God, or author of a new laAv that should set aside the Law of Moses, but professed Himself to be • Frankel, iO^C''n\1 5<13JO> fol. t3''p. Vratisluvi;e, 1870. PREFACE. XI no more than one of those holy men who sincerely devote themselves to God.^ How far the Karaite congregations may sometimes have received Christum impressions the reader is invited to judge for himself, and future studies may more dis- tinctly ascertain, but the secondary influences of Karaism in relation to Christianity are indubitable. The subject of the fourteenth chapter, Karaism in Spain, cannot fail to attract attention, especially in relation to the Helvetian and Gallic varieties of the Christian Reformation of the sixteenth century. The author hopes that future research may throw some light on the entire question of the influ- ence of Karaite principles on the Reformation in the South of Europe. How far, again, may not the present history afford illustration of the spirit of parties in the conflict between the claims of Holy Scripture and ecclesi- astical tradition which is repeated in our own day. The pen of Rabbi Aaron, son of Elijah, may now be borrowed with advantage, and the author remembers how, thirty years ago, he translated into Spanish for the benefit of Spain the eloquent portraiture of Jewish traditionism from the HebrcAv of the ' Crown of the Law ' by that accomplished Karaite. He has again translated it into English for the information of his own countrymen. With regard to the execution of this work, he can only say that it has cost him much labour, and that, while he has done his utmost to avoid mistakes, and trusts that he has not been quite unsuccessful in any matter of main importance, he will be thankful to any one who can assist him in detecting such errors and defects as are ' rieischer, Ahuljalm Historia Antcisknnka, p. 161. Lips. 1831. XU PREFACE. almost inseparable from the reproduction of rare and remote intellio^ence. The book is but small, but should a second edition be called for, enlightening criticism, whether friendly or adverse, on any doubtful questions, whether it proceeds from Jew or Christian, shall not be overlooked. W. H. E. Ceotdon : April 1th, 1870. CONTENTS. ^^^VAEY. chapter page Preface I. The Canon of the Old Testament . . . , 1 II. The Beginnings of Schism 11 III. Htecanus, Jannai, and Ben Shetakh ... 22 IV. The Houses of Hillel and Shammai . . . 31 V. The New Testament and Christian iNFLrENCB . 40 VI. Tiberias and Palestine 49 VII. The Mishnah 57 Vni. Babylonia. — The Talmud 70 rX. The ILiRAiTES after the Talmud .... 76 X. Vowel-points and Accents . . . ; . , 91 XI. Ahnan and the Kevital of Karaism . . .103 XII. Distinctive Doctrine 120 XIII. Ritual and Custom . . . . . . .135 XIV. Karaites in Spain 146 XV. Decline of Karaism . . . . . , .157 XVI. Present State of Synagogue- worship in Eussia . 173 XVII. Present State of some Ivaraite Settlements, &c. . 187 XVIII. Rabbi Aaron, Son of Elijah. (His Exposition of Karaite Princijiles.) ....... 200 XIX. Rabbi Aaron, Son of Elijah. {His Commentary on the Pentateuch.) 221 FACSIMILE From a MS. of the IOth Century, at Odessa, with THE Vowel Points usually called 'Assyrian ob Babylonian' To face page 102 HISTOKY OP ""^^l PROP^ iO ^' '''^88, ^o:r 'Ary. THE KARAITE JEWS. CHAPTER I. THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. A Cheistian student undertakes to investigate the history of a portion of the Hebrew people whom their brethren usually regard as heretics. He entered on the subject with the single desire to ascertain the facts of his- tory, and with no ulterior object except that of publishing a trustworthy account of one of the most interesting, yet least known, of religious bodies. He writes under an ever-strengthening feeling of respect to liis Hebrew brethren — a feeling so proper to be entertained, that it would be superfluous to make the least profession of it, if it were not for the sake of bespeaking the confidence of any Jew into whose hands this book may fall. He is not writing to make proselytes, much as he wishes that every Jew were a Christian ; and whatever may have to be said will be said freely. It may be understood at once that he is no traditionist, — that he shall not attempt to tone down any sentiment he entertains, .nor to soften away any feature of the portraiture he endeavours to delineate. 2 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. There will be no temptation to such an expedient, because there is nothing likely to be said that could possibly offend either of the two parties concerned, and he has never had a Jewish friend who would wish him to forget that he is a Christian. Let this now be said once for all. There can be but one reason for Karaism ; namely, reverence for the written Law of God — such profound and undivided reverence as requires the rejection of what is called the Oral Law. The LaAv of God, as written in the Five Books of Moses, and in the other books of Holy Scripture onward to the latest of the Prophets, is acknow- ledged by us all to be divinely inspired, and of divine authority. It is necessary, however, to introduce the sub- ject to the attention of the reader by a few thoughts on our common standard, the Canon of the Old Testament. In this sacred volume lies the point at which we converge in cordial agreement, and at which the two sections of Jewry again diverge — * the sons of the Scripture ' and ' the masters of tradition.' The Karaites are the sons of the Scripture, or, as they prefer to say, x"ipO 'J^j sons of the Reading, or text of the Old Testament. Yet, when we look into the matter closely, we detect a considerable difference between the Jewish and the Christian view of it ; but, to avoid confu- sion, let us now suppose that Ave take our stand side by side with a devout Israelite, a few years before the de- struction of the second Temple, and before the books of the New Testament were any of them known to be written. At that time the Hebrew Scriptures were not yet accepted by our spiritual fathers as of equal authority. Indeed, such authority was not yet given to them. They were not spoken of by the Jews as one homogeneous col- lection, but as three — the Laiv, the Prophets, and the Psalms. So they were called by our Lord. So they stand in the Hebrew Bibles. Neither Jew nor Christian THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTMIEXT. 3 could receive any one of the three, nor any part of that one without a divine and final authentication. Such an authentication had not then been given, but it was given gradually, and had to be confirmed. First, THE Law, or Five Books of Moses. — The in- spired writer of those books stood before the world in a character never before sustained by any man. He was commissioned by the Lord Himself to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. He executed that commission with every mark of authority, to prove that God Avas Avith him. He received a divine Law for the people whom he led out of Egypt. At every step miracle attended him. To him and to ' Jacob,' Avhom he led like a flock, the sea-bed and the burning desert were equally made passable. Shelter, sustenance, guidance, and victory were afforded to a mul- titude feeble, empty, and without Aveapons of war, or fore- sight, or any adequate degree of skill, even in the most favourable circumstances. The very course of nature was suspended for forty years, and one of the last things Avhich Moses did was to write this ' Law,' consisting of a marvel- lous historical preamble setting forth the great events which most concerned humanity — the creation of the Avorld ; the relations that subsisted between God and man for many ages ; the Fall ; the exj^ulsion from Paradise ; the Deluge ; the post-diluvian families of men ; the call of Abraham ; the coA'enant Avith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the Egyptian captivity, and the deliverance from Egypt. Then came the giving of the Law, Avith the twofold object of separating the chosen people from the heathen, and of establishing a form for solemn Avorship of the one true God. A full account of this was necessarily inclusive of much continuous history. This history could not be doubted. The divine sanctions of the entire system M-ere Aisible and indisputable. The Pentateuch, rnin i are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Plabbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi. While the books classed together in the pre- ceding division contain the history of Israel and Judah from the decease of Moses down to the Babylonish cap- tivity, these ' latter Prophets ' have the authorship of those inspired messengers whom the Lord sent to his people from the time when the Assyrians began to desolate their country and burn their cities, and whom He continued to send until Malachi delivered the last prophetic announce- ment about four centuries before the birth of Christ. The Scriptures, Drains, or Psalms, as they are also called in the New Testament, because the Psalter is the first of them, constitute the last division of the Old Tes- tament. They are the Book of Psalms, written by various persons besides David, the Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles. This division is miscellaneous. The Psalms, written at various times, are collected into one book. Job is a personal narrative, whereon the sacred writer framed a didactic composition. Ruth is an THE CANOX OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 5 historical episode. Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes are instructive -wTitings from the pen of Solomon, who could not fitly be counted Avith the Prophets. The Chronicles were regarded as secondary to the Book of Kings. Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah are historical writings, relating to events after the captivity, and for that reason they were not counted with the latter Pro- phets, although written before the last of them. The Book of Daniel is intensely prophetic, and therefore en- titled to class with Isaiah and the rest; but, as a cap- tivity-book, and written by one of Avhom it was not said that the word of the Lord came to him, and who in his life did not bear the prophetic title, although eminently worthy of it, as our Lord Himself afterwards signified by calling him ' Daniel the Prophet,' the book of history and visions written by him was placed in this miscellaneous collection of sacred writings. It Avould be untrue, and therefore unjust and unhistorical, to accuse the men of the Great Synagogue — of whom I shall speak presently — of undervaluing Daniel, and placing his writings in an infe- rior position, because of the clear predictions of the Saviour which he records, and the chronological periods which, it is alleged, would be disagreeable for them to cal- culate. All this arrangement was made, and the canon closed accordingly, more than three hundred years before Christ. The Jews, therefore, who rejected the Saviour had nothing to do with the allocation of the Book of Daniel in the latest division of the Old Testament, nor is there the slightest intimation of blame on this account, either against them or theu* fathers. The inspiration and authority of these books was not called in question, but the classification itself was distinctly recognised by our Lord when He made mention of ' the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms,' and the honourable rank of the Hao-io- grapha was sufficiently maintained when He applied their 6 HISTOKY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. proper title, Scriptures, to the whole code of ancient reve- lation, saying, ' Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.' Some further observation on this canon is necessary to our present purpose, for the Old Testament was the standard of Hebrew faith, and an enlargement of the final standard of canonicity attempted soon after its publica- tion gave rise to the great controversy that Avill engage our attention. Down to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c. 166), the Law was read in the Temple on high festivities, and in the synagogues every Sabbath-day, for which purpose it was divided into fifty-four sections, n1''t^'"lQ ; and it is said that when Antiochus had forbidden the readino- of the Law, and endeavoured to destroy the Law itself, as Avell as to prevent its observance, the Jews selected an equal number of lessons, niinsrij out of the Prophets, to be read instead. Whenever the reading of the Prophets began, it is certainly mentioned in the New Testament, and it is equally certain that the institution of this read- ing of the Prophets Avas subsequent to the complete col- lection of the prophetic Scriptures. The last diAasion of the Old Testament Avas not so used, but it enters largely into the Liturgies Avhich began in the times of Ezra and his successors.' ' Eabbi Eechai writes thus concerning the prayer which they call The Eighteen Petitions : — ' Yoxi must know that from the time of Moses, our mas- ter, until the men of the Great Synagogiie, there was not any form of prayer in Israel, but each man made a pi-ayer for himself, and prayed alone, ac- cording to his own knowledge, wisdom, and eloquence, until the men of the Great Synagogue came, and composed the mti'l? ^30t^' {Eighteen), that the Israelites might have an equal and common form of prayer. Wherefore also they conceived it in the most simple and easy language, that the mind and heart might not be distracted about the meaning of words; and that all Israelites, learned and wise, unlettered and rude, might use the same form,' — Jokan. Buxtorjii Patris Synagoga Judaica, cap. x. THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 7 Ezra, Nehemiah, and after them the high priests in succession until Simon the Just, were at the head of what is called the Great Synagogue. Those two great restorers of city and Temple were above all things careful to establish the reading and observance of the Law, and would also be careful to preserve and promote the read- ing of the prophetic books, all which they possessed, except the Book of Malachi, Their successors collated copies of the writings which were to supplement the Law, which foretold the fulfilment of its object, and were to be the standard of faith and rule of life/until that standard should be crowned by the Divine Founder of a more perfect Church, whom the Law prefigured and to whom the Prophets all bare witness.^ Doubtless the men of the Great Synagogue rejected much that their sacred study indisposed them to receive, but they were not inspired ; they certainly did well, but they could do no more than apply such tests as are continually applied by the learned and the wise. Their decision as to what ought to be received into the list was not final, and could not be authoritative until a superior judge had confirmed their judgment. Simon the Just closed the collection,^ but he could not set to it the seal of unquestionable authentication. He could not produce credentials like those of Moses. He wrought not any miracle, neither did he utter any pro- phecy, but he represented the highest order of uninspired men, and delivered the collective suffrage of their learn- ing, sincerity, and piety. He commended these books to the acceptance of his nation, and it is to be noted that no one after him ever presumed to add another. The Law, the Prophets, and the Scriptures were soon translated into Greek, and the Law, at least, into Chaldee, before One came with poAver to stamp the canon with final sanction. ' This is according to the generally received tradition. 8 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. Greek Jews wrote, and Greeks accepted, certain books which are kno-v^Ti as apocryphal, but were not acknow- ledged by" the Jews as worthy of reception in the syna- gogues, nor are they yet regarded as of much value. Their historical merits are various, their number un- certain, and the contents of some erroneous and trifling. None of them were acknowledged by our Lord Jesus, whereas He and his disciples quoted or referred to all the books collected by the predecessors of Simon the Just, and included in his list or canon, except two, perhaps three of the minor Scriptures in the last division, — a very unimportant omission. Our faith in their autho- rity is thus confirmed, and we can venture to fix on the date B.C. 340-320 as a time when there was not yet any open divergence from the sole authority of the written Law of God in the teaching of the Jewish doctors. We consider it indisputable that to the mind of the Hebrew nation at that time the Scriptures of the Old Testament contained all that could be regarded as of divine autho- lity — all that the Israelite was bound to obey. If there was any lurking notion of an oral law, there was no claim put forth on its behalf, no traditionists, no Pharisees. On the contrary, the labours of the most exalted and venerated men in all the nation swayed such an influence that if any distinguishing name could be given to the people with Avhom no new sectarianism was as yet es- tablished, we might call them Scripturists, as indeed they were. Reverence of Holy Scripture was coexten- sive with the profession of earnest piety, apart from all varying opinions ; the Word of God was exclusive and absolute. But godliness decayed ; men solemnly consecrated to the service of the altar gave themselves to inferior studies ; the ' Great Synagogue ' having ceased, the Sanhedrim arose, and its chiefs pretended to an oracular THE CAXON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 9 '^ Avisdom with which they might prosecute an unfinished^X.^^^ hibour of their fathers; unanimi ty was broken, as we ^-y^ shall see presently, and it bee amenecessary'tKat a divine ^ authority should interpose on the side of authentic reve- lation against human traditions, and, by a decisive sen- tence, obviate all pretext for doubt in future as to the sufficiency of the writings which mankind at large might confidently believe to be of God. This is what our Saviour did. He constantly quoted the Sacred Books with such expressions of honour and submission as to assure both Jews and Gentiles that they were written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and that all who would hope to escape condemnation in the Day of Judgment must receive them as such. Those Scriptures were the only code of revealed truth at the first promulgation of Christianity, whose Divine Founder and his servants appealed to them for attestation of his mission, and for support of their arguments in the defence and advancement of his Gospel. On this ancient founda- tion rested the fabric of Christianity. Without the Law and the Prophets the New Testament, as it is, could not have been written, nor the way prepared for ' the Lord.' His way being thus laid open, the marvellous dispensa- tion of redeeming mercy was established ; a new class of supernatural evidence was afibrded ; the fountain of in- spiration, after being closed for centuries, was opened again ; the canon of the New Testament in due time followed, in addition to that of the Old, and the entire Bible was given to the whole woi'ld. Moses, the Pro- phets, the Evangelists, and the Apostles united to deliver a mass of independent, yet concurrent evidences of one unchanging and imperishable truth, and thus each por- tion of the incomparable volume sheds light on all the rest. By this our faith abides, and it is now needless to recount the assaults it has withstood and the conquests it 10 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. has won. Generations of men pass away in withering age. The Word of the Lord flourishes as in an ever- freshening youth. Such is the result of the authentication of the Old Testament by means of the New, and whoever would fully apprehend the necessity of such an authentication has only to read the history of more than four hundred years that elapsed between the last of the Prophets and the first of the Evangelists. During that period the unreserved confession of the Law of God was well-nigh forgotten, and the rudiments of what they call the re])e- tition of it, but in reality the subversion, were fully developed, and only required assortment into a system to become practically rival and subversive, as they after- wards proved to be. 11 CHAPTER 11. THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHISM. A Karaite, author of the Tract p)^n, ISchism, which was read in manuscript by J. Trigland,' finds the source of Rabbanism in facts related by some of the latter Prophets. From those trusty witnesses he describes the moral state of the Jews betAveen the return from Babylon and the date of the Book of Malachi. In copying his sentences I shall perhaps fall into his style. 1. The doctors of the Law icere guilty of great negli- gence. — The priests, whose lips should have kept knoAv- ledge, that the people might seek the law at their mouth, themselves wandered out of the way, caused many to stumble at the law, and corrupted the covenant of Levi. (Mai. ii. 7, 8.) The people fell away after the ill example of their teachers, who were guilty of negligence and con- tempt of God's service ; and while they dwelt in cieled houses, left the Lord's house to lie waste. (Hag. i. 4.) Grown insolent at last, their words were stout against the Lord. ' It is vain,' said they, * to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and ' J. TrigJandli Diatribe de Secta Karrceorum, cap. vii. Trigland was pro- fessor of theology in Leyden in the latter part of the seventeenth century. His attention had been di-awn by a learned friend to the Karaites, whose history was then almost unknown. He prosecuted his inquiries with great earnestness, depending entirely on the Karaites themselves for in- formation. I have to acknowledge myself much indebted to his invaluable dissertation. 12 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts ? ' They called the proud happy, and insolently murmured that even they who provoked God to anger did so with impunity. (Mai. iii. 13-15.) 2. The judges were corrupt. — They spake falsehood every man to his neighbour ; they did not execute the judgment of truth and peace in their gates. They ima- gined evil in their hearts, and loved false oaths. (Zech. viii. 16, 17.) They encouraged sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, and those that oppressed the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless. They turned aside the stranger from his right, having no fear of God. (Mai. iii. 5.) Therefore they were made contemptible and base before all the j^eople, because they did not keep God's ways, but were partial in the law. (Mai. ii. 9.) 3. The solemnities of Divine worship and the sanctities of religion were generally set at nought, as is clearly ap- parent in the prophetic writings of that period. The ' wise men^ instead of betaking themselves to peni- tential humiliation and prayer, and earnestly striving to arouse both priests and people to amend their lives, faith- fully teaching them the will of God as made known by Himself, so following many bright examples, those self- called wise men departed from the Fountain of Truth, secretly forsook the one Source of living Power, and set about devising new methods of reformation which might seem plausible, but were unauthorised and dangerous; just like many devices among us Christians in later times, wherewith some of us have wickedly attempted to supple- ment the revealed Word of God, as if — as we profanely fancied — the Gospel were not by itself sufficient for adaptation to the new and shifting exigencies of our own day. This was the error of the Jews. As this author affirms, the Rabbis of a succeeding age endeavoured to meet the threefold declension with a THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHISM. 15 threefold remedy ; namely, to make many disciples ; to be slow and considerate in judgment ; to make a hedge to the Law. Now, these measures might be good if they were rightly devised, well understood, and well carried into practice ; but, as intended and understood by the Rabbis, they were at best utterly insufficient. As carried into practice, they were as bad as the worst enemy of God or man could wish to make them. Men were set to establish their own righteousness by the mechanism of a new method, and from all that could be gathered from these maxims, the Holy Bible might have been sealed up at every section, and the gates of Divine mercy closed for ever. But these three remedies were prescribed, and in plain words the prescription was graven at the head of what they call the Oral Law. Every well- educated Jew knows what that Law is, and where to set his finger on the tradition following : — ' Moses received the Law at Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua ; Joshua to the Elders ; the Elders to the Prophets ; and the Prophets delivered it to the men of the Great Synagogue, who spake these words (or commandments), "Be ye sloiv in judgment ; constitute many disciples; make a hedge to the Law.''' ^ The last of these injunctions is the worst. Not the names of men, but ' the name of the Lord is a strons: tower, and the righteous who runneth into it is safe.' But those over-busy zealots for the safety of Israel vainly thought to throw up a crazy outwork of their own around the Tower of Strength — to raise a frail tapia of clay, far in advance of the Rock of Ages, that the deserted flocks, left without shepherds, might run into that for shelter ; not foreseeing that, inclosed there, and overtaken by the destroyers, they would perish under their ' hedge of the ' Pirkey Aboth, cap. i. 1. 14 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. Law.' They wrought folly indeed, and now the fatal con- sequence is too notorious. Instead of the fortress of eternal truth, those Tanaim — doctors of tradition — did no more than prepare for coming generations an ever- crumbling heap of their own empty sayings. But the catalogue of sins that prevailed, even in the lifetime of the Prophets, is not yet exhausted. The author of Hilluk proceeds: — 4. Men gave themselves over again to the study of things relating to strange gods, as is plainly written in the Book of Malachi. — This is overlooked when we repeat what we have often heard, and too readily believe, that the Jews did not relapse into idolatry after the Babylonish captivity. The Prophet's words are these : ' Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem ; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.' (Mai. ii. IL) This language is too plain to be mistaken, and the Karaite is en- tirely supported by the Septuagint, which thus translates the last decisive words : — siTSTrjhsvazv sis Osovs aXkoTplovs, * he liath studiously gone after strange gods.'' It is true that they did not again set up idols and construct cham- bers of imagery in Jerusalem, as in times before that captivity ; but they continually deserted to paganism, and many of them — the Herodians, for example, in the time of our Lord's ministry — lived more like heathens than Jews, Judah marrying, so to speak, the daughter of a strange god. 5. They treated their icives cruelly. — ' The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously : yet she is thy companion, and the Avife of thy covenant.' (Mai. ii. 14.) The Karaite understood this literally, and whether his interpretation is correct or not, he was too honest to THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHISM. 15 cloke the disgraceful fact under the veil of metaphor. He knew that the hearts of the Israelites were not softer in the days of Malachi than in those of Moses. How cruelly the Jews divorced their wives for no sufficient cause is notorious. 6. They were guilty of Sahbath-hreahing , as is e^ddent from the fidl account of their proceedings given by Nehemiah (xiii. 15-22), who could not restrain the people under his government by persuasion, and had to employ force to maintain order in Jerusalem on Sabbath-days. They were nothing improved since the time of Isaiah. 7. Theij contracted marriages with the heathen, as we learn from the same history (Nehem. xiii. 23-29), and so fell into the inevitable snare of idolatry, as we have been just now reminded. The Karaites do not deny that the wise men endea- voured to prevent these sins, but complain that they set about counteracting them by adding to the Law supple- mentary injunctions of their own, whereas they ought to have enforced the Law as it stood, and should have accom- panied the administration of healthful discipline with faith- ful instructions and holy example. For instance, in order to enforce the right observance of the Sabbath-day, they added niDK'? sabhath-keepings, directing that some portion of a common day should be added to the Sabbath-day, Avhich is actually done by ordaining a three hours' prepa- ration. [How far this can fairly be called a Sabbath- keeping must depend on the manner of observance ; but the question is for Karaites and Rabbanites to decide be- tween themselves, although we cannot but observe that there is express mention of the preparation in the Gospels (Matt, xxvii. 62), without a word of disapproval.] And, to prevent the doing of work on that day, they went be- yond the explicit direction of the Decalogue, for that which is prohibited is nnx'pOj ordinary business, and they 16 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. made it unlawful to swim in water, or to climb a tree. Not content with enforcing that prohibition which re- strains the priest from marrying a heathen woman, they made it criminal for him to marry a Hebrew woman that had been unfortunately carried captive into a heathen country, or otherwise associated, however unwillingly, with even heathen women in her own land. It is noto- rious that some of their most eminent and holiest ancestors, Moses for example, married heathen women without in- curring censure, but the sages who pretended to supply deficiencies in the Law of God endeavoured to enforce their own gratuitous commandment, and did great mis- chief. Hence their offensive conduct towards Hyrcanus. [Here, again, the Karaite must be watched as well as his antagonists, and we must not forget what was indeed the law concerning intermarriages with Hebrews and Gen- tiles.] Full of the fatal notion of supplementing God's law, in order to make it stronger or easier to be conve- niently administered, they called the devotees of this voluntary religion D''*T'Dnj Khasidim, Asidceans, Essenes, or Religious, and gave them the very questionable praise of being minn n''2"i3 D'^pDiy? studious of the increase of the Law, which some think accounts for the epithet n''Jn"i5 Rct- hanim, which would be understood to mean Increasers. Hence we say Rahhanites not Rabbinists. Consequently, while volunteering an excessive study to enlarge that exceeding broad commandment which, in truth, reaches to every secret thought and intent of the heart, they lost the wheat among the chaff, or they mis- took chaff for wheat. Some, like the Sadducees, ceased to believe the truth itself, their understanding being strained and warped by an unhealthy habit of contention. In time, people ignorantly retained supplementary sta- tutes, and overlooked original commandments. Others, attaching themselves to the Essenes, who were indeed THE BEGINXIXGS OF SCITISM. 17 ' righteous overmuch,' neglected the holy services of the Temple, and gave themselves to a sort of philosoi^hical retreat, with meditation, — ' spiritual exercises ' is the special phrase, — and to the promotion of particular virtues, such as charity to the poor,' placing religion in that one thing, with emulation of Pythagoras and Plato, rather than obedience to Moses. So it was even in the days of Jeremiah, who therefore writes : ' What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, 'that use their tongues, and say. He saith.' (Jer. xxiii. 28-31). So far we follow the strictures in the Karaite tract on schism, and now we observe that some of the grossest forms of misbelief have been provoked by the refined offi- ciousness which labours to make faith easy by some hasty illustration, or novel method. The Sadducean heresy had such a beginning. In the first of the ' Chapters of the Fathers ' we read that one Antigonus, a man of Socoh, (the place mentioned in Joshua xv. 35), a disciple of Simon the Just, was used to say to his disciples, ' Be not like servants who serve their master well in hope of re- ceiving 013 {n [lift? or present) ; but be like servants who serve their masters with the understanding that they will not receive any gift, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you. The saying was, no doubt, characteristic of the speaker, for as such it is preserved in the Mishnah, and is ' Dwelling, perhaps, on the literal meaning of a -worcl, as npTVi iii a few places in the Old Testament (^i.Ka\.oaivi] in Matt. vi. 1), for bene- volence or alms-giving. ^ This word is quite diflFerent from "I2C'> v:ages, C 18 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. perfectly cleai- and unobjectionable, but it may have been so repeated, enforced, and enlarged upon, as to convey a very false impression. Not preseiits, to quicken the dili- gence of a mercenary hireling, but icages promised to a faithful servant and bestowed of grace, not debt, are to be expected at the Last Day. Some of the hearers of Anti- gonus, whether by his fault or their own, did not perceive the difference. As two of them, Sadok and Baithos, left his presence, they fell into conversation on this favourite maxim of his. * Our master,' said Sadok, ' evidently be- lieves that however well a man may do, he must not expect any reward at all, and that if he does badly, he needs not be afraid of punishment.' To this conclusion Baithos assented. Fortifying each other in unbelief, they both withdrew from his instructions, and began to propa- gate their heresy. The Jews tell us that Sadok did not believe in angel or spirit, nor in the resurrection at the Last Day. His name passed on to his disciples the Sadohim, or Sad- ducees. The Habbis are wont to associate the two names, and call such infidels Sadduceans and Baithosians, so keeping the Mishnaic legend in remembrance. Mai- monides says that the opinions of the two heretics differed widely, and that each became head of a separate sect. He adds — but that is mere invention — that although the ♦ Sadducees were all agreed in denying the resurrection of the dead, they eventually agreed again to renounce that article of disbelief, and adopt the current faith in order to avoid the scandal of infidelity. Still, according to the same fable, they persisted in denying the Oral Law, and in casting off its constitutions and observances. ' From these,' says the son of Maimon, 'came those accursed heretics, the Karaites, but our wise men call them. Sa- dokites and Baithosltes.' These are they who declaim ao-ainst tradition, and expound Holy Scripture after their THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHISM. 19 own mind, having rejected the decisions of the wise, con- trary to what is written, ' Thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire ; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment : And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee ; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee : According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do : Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.' (Deut. xvii. 9-11.) To this the heretics retorted, not without reason, that the traditions the Rabbis endeavoured to enforce were perversions of the Law which they were appointed to explain, as judges that should sit in Moses' seat. On this narrative of the rise of the Sadducean sect, I have only to note that it is only introduced here for the sake of saying that the alleged identity of Sadducees and Karaites is fabulous. The disciples of Sadok followed their master in dogged unbelief, but the Karaites, who followed no man, had no master from whom they could receive a name. The Sadducees left the orthodox teachers of the synagogue on the question of eternal reward and punishment after the resurrection of the dead. The Karaites gradually severed themselves from communion with their brethren on the single question of tradition. There is no coincidence of time, place, or doctrine to justify a confusion of the two. The Karaites are of all the Jews most loyal to Moses' Law, whereas the Sad- ducees were among the least faithful to it. The heresy of Sadok, however, called forth an emphatic profession of the truth Avhich he denied, for then it was 20 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. that instead of the single word D^iyo, from everlasting, repeated at the close of prayers in the Temple and synagogue services, there was introduced a fuller form (D'piyn iy D^iyo), from everlasting to everlasting. This was to signify that there are two worlds, or ages, the past and the future, and to enable the whole congrega- tion to proclaim with one voice that as there was an eternity past, so after the resurrection there will come a second and eternal state of being. The echo of this grand suffrage is daily heard in our own Christian assem- blies when they respond, ' As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.' If the Karaite question had been treated as fairly as the Sadducean, and the alternative of abiding either by the Law of God or the traditions of men had been con- sidered honestly as a purely religious question, the de- cision misrht have tended to the universal acknowledg- ment of a cardinal truth, diverting the entire course of Jewish history into a different channel. But it was not so. Controversy on a religious question was the hypo- critical pretext, at the period which we now approach, for a conflict between bigot and infidel where the real motives were personal hatred and party antagonism. There was an interval of nearly two centuries between the secession of Sadok from the school of Antigonus and the outburst of revolt against the government of Hyrcanus which led to the eventual establishment of Karaism, for which no date can possibly be assigned, inasmuch as there is no account of any critical conjunc- ture — no moment of transition. We shall however see that learned men whose only sources of information were the writings of Rabbanites were utterly misled when they described the Karaites as reformed Sadducees, and that THE BEGINNINGS OF SCHISM. 21 the modern writers who represent Ahnan as founder of a Karaite sect are equally mistaken.^ ' The Karaites, like other persons who degenerate into partisans even while their cause is good, have sometimes called themselves righteous. It is said that once, having built a new synagogue in Constantinople, they wrote over the entrance : This gate is of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. But the night before the synagogue was to be used for worship, while the parties con- cerned were asleep, some wicked Kabbanite, clever at stone-work, managed to lengthen a stroke, and before day dawned upon ihose that should enter the gate, there was displayed on it another word in full — D''pnV — Saddvcees. 22 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. CHAPTER III. HYECANUS, JANNAI, AND BEN SHETAKH. « After the victories of the Maccabees over their Syro- Grecian tyrants, Judea rose again into the condition of a kingdom — feeble indeed, yet a kingdom. The newly created royalty was in a dependence on Rome very like vassalao-e. Simon was the first who bore the name of king in this humiliating relation. John Hyrcanus, son of Simon, succeeded to his father, and in time attained to the tAvofold dignity of high priest and king, for the priests and elders had been pleased to decide that the crown and mitre should be worn by the same person, and that this royal pontificate should be hereditary. So they created for themselves a mock theocracy. Under the sublime theocracy of Moses and of David, God was King indeed. He elected men to serve Him as kings choose their ministers. He gave the laws for civil go- vernment, and appointed one of his own servants to be king and captain of the people. His voice gave command for the army to march ; his sword transfixed Israel's enemies. He held his court at the Sanctuary in Jeru- salem, amidst august solemnities, such as no earthly sovereign ever had around him, nor ever could have. That King was holy, omnipotent, eternal. Heaven and earth were filled with the majesty of his glory. There, in the same Jerusalem, after the glory had departed, when the visible splendour was extinguished, and the HYECAIsUS, JANXAI, AJ\D BEX SHETAKH. 23 moral grandeur lost, John Hyrcanus became the mimic theocrat. Moses, when marching in a path made by the advancing pillar of glory, was far less in his own eyes than John Hyrcanus, the Jewish tributary to pagan Rome. He was in the twenty-eighth year of his kingship, and fortieth of his high-priesthood. Under the tutelage of the Roman Senate, and after a succession of victories, it pleased him to make a splendid banquet for the enter- tainment of his princes and ministers, with the officers of the little army of Judah and Benjamin, and a numerous assemblage of AYise Men. These were the governors of his earthly kingdom, the captains of the army of Avhich he was general, and the hierarchy over whom he ruled as pontiff. When he had well drunk, and his heart was merry ■with wine, the festive company seemed to him as grand as the multitude of princes and lords who feasted around Belshazzar in the palace of Babylon ; so he felt able to give free vent to the conceit which had grown strong within him, and began to recount the multitude of good and honourable works that he had done. He took praise to himself for uprightness, justice, and beneficence. None presumed to contradict him, but the cold smiles of some, and the servile applause of others, persuaded him that he had the cordial consent of all. After this oration a few more wine-draughts sank him into a mood of sweet humility, and in this happy state he appealed to all the reverend sages there present, to say Mhether he had not ahvays willingly received their correction and reproof for any bad or wicked action he had happened to commit. Then the Wise Men gave the response expected, praising him aloud. Their spokesman rose during the acclama- tion, and, as it subsided, began his due address. ' Thou hast told the truth, O king 1 For indeed thou art just. 24 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. and upright, and faithful. Thou art a servant of God, and his high priest, therefore praise and dominion become thee well.' The king; received the incense "^ath com- placent though tfulness, while the company waited his reply, and there being no second voice to interrupt the pause, he answered most graciously to this effect : ' I will always listen to your Avorcls. I will welcome your reproof whenever I have done anything beyond the bound that limits what a righteous judge should do.' Either emboldened by the royal declaration of sub- mission, even humble submission to reproof, or moved by a sense of his master's hypocrisy, a Wise Man named Eliezer boldly rose, and gave utterance to thoughts long pent up within his bosom. ^ O King Hyrcanus, live for ever ! If thou art so wishful to be just, — if indeed thou art so fond of honest correction, — come down, come down from the sacred throne of the priesthood, and content thyself with the crown of the kingdom.' ' Then tell me why,' said Hyrcanus, suddenly inter- rupting him ; ' then tell me why.' * I will tell thee,' answered Eliezer. * When thy mother was carried captive to the city of Medith, in the days of Antiochus, King of the Greeks, — when the heathens pressed hard on thy father Simon, whom they besieged in the mountain where his wives were captive, he betook himself to flight, and left them there. It is true that he got back again after he had rallied his forces and beaten the enemy, but that notwithstanding, there has always been a whisper that King Hyrcanus is profane. It is therefore not fit that thou shouldest go into the Holy of Holies.' Now these were hard words to say to an old man who had been high priest forty years. He had not bidden for such cutting faithfulness as this, which was all the HYECAJ^US, JANNAI, AND BEX SHETAKH. 25 more cruel as the statement was unanswerably true. Mad with rage, Hyrcanus rushed from his seat. The banquet broke up — all was confusion. From that hour there was nothing in Jerusalem but enmity and strife. The king tried to quiet men's murmurs by a stroke of power — last resource of despots Avho feel themselves falling. He at once declared the Rabbis guilty of con- spiracy, and charged Eliezer -with being chief of the conspirators. The charge was not without some shade of reason ; for, notwithstandino- all their flatteries during the entertainment, that one sentence of truth had reduced the whole of them to silence, and instead of draccsfino; the insolent disturber out of the royal presence, they had let him say what he would, and with tacit unanimity gave consent to every word. Those Rabbis were therefore greatly to blame : after keeping politic silence all their life, and on that very occasion volunteering fulsome flattery, their flattery was as contemptible as their brother's faithfulness was tardy. The aged king, in uncontrollable vengeance, had them all made prisoners at once, and then killed with the sword. Eliezer, their leader as he thought, he caused to be burnt alive. From that time forward there was bitter hatred between the Asmonean king-priests and the whole body of the clergy. As for Hyrcanus, he died soon afterwards ; and when one of his sons, though not the rightful heir, had reigned about twelve months, his eldest son, Alexander Jannai, took the crown. But Alexander had a troublous reign, and in that reign came the first event that we can mark as decisive in relation to our present history. Jannai began prosperously. He was victorious in war, and the affairs of his priesthood went on smoothly enough ; but mischief was brooding in secret. One year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, as he officiated at the altar, one of the disaffected Rabbis approached him rudely, crying as 26 HISTORY OF THE KAEAITE JEWS. he came, 'Woe to tbee, thou son of a profane woman! What art thou doing ? How canst thou dare to meddle wdth the priesthood? Thy mother^ was a profane woman, and thou art not fit to be high priest.' So saying, the man flung a citron, which struck him violently in the face. Startled and alarmed at the assault, and perhaps ex- pecting to be attacked murderously by those around, he shouted,^ ' The sword I the sword upon the Wise Men ! ' The soldiers rushed into the midst of the Temple, and the blood of six thousand victims flooded the sacred courts. Not content with this horrible satisfaction, Alexander Jannai, High Priest of the Jews, declared himself a Sadducee, and now the faith of the State was to be changed. Jeroboam was the first avIio made the Is- raelites to be idolaters ; Alexander Jannai, successor of the noble Maccabees, descendant of a race of martyrs, is the first who invited them to become open infidels, by proclaiming that there is neither angel nor spirit, nor final judgment, nor any resurrection from the dead. As for traditions, he would abolish them ; but although the chief teachers of tradition have been slaughtered, and war is waged against their successors in the little kingdom of Judea, the Oral Law will be honoured all the more for the sufferings of its advocates, and the now persecuted sect of Pharisees will flourish more proudly than ever. But a schism never to be healed is at its height. Pabbi Caleb ^ relates that Alexander Jannai proceeded to greater lengths than Hyrcanus, and put to death no fewer than three thousand persons, in addition to the six thousand that were slaughtered in the Temple. Hatred raged hotter and hotter between him and the Wise Men, ' Mother meaning his grandmother, mother of Hyrcanus. 3 Trigland quotes from a MS. of this Eabbi, with title of nnOXD niK'y, The Ten Sentences. HYRCAXUS, JAXNAI, AXD BEN SHETAKH. 27 until he had killed them nearly all. Only about eight hundred evaded his fury for a little, lying in concealment at Bathshemesh. To that place he pursued them, took the city, carried them prisoners to Jerusalem, and there hung them. So vast an execution filled the population of Judea with dismay, and awakened profoundest grief, and an unconquerable sympathy. People gave their terrible king the nickname of Alexander the Piercer, ' piercing with the piercings of a sword.' (Pro v. xii. 18.) Despe- rately abandoning himself to the tempest of revenge, he went beyond all bounds. Only one Rabbi escaped, and that was his wife's brother, Simon ben Shetakh, whom the queen saved by contriving his flight into Egypt. After he had been some time in Alexandria, and there was not known to be a living Rabbi left in the land, the queen his sister succeeded in getting permission for him to return, with a promise that his life should be spared. He did return, and after his return made great boast of the Oral Law, often repeating the words of the Psalmist, ' It is time for thee, O Lord, to work : for they have made void thy law.' (Ps. cxix. 126.) For hatred of the royal Sadducee, he was ten times more a Pharisee than ever. Meanwhile Alexander began to quail under the con- sciousness that all men hated him. He was tormented with the dread of some sudden retribution from his ene- mies, and writhed under the pangs of a guilty conscience. Simon ben Shetakh, on the other hand, grcAv very famous, and went to greater lengths in exalting his own dignity than any Rabbi before him had ever dared to go. Fearing no contradiction, he taught such things as the Rabbis whom Hyrcanus and Alexander massacred might have confessed faintly, but never ventured to teach. He de- clared his determination to restore the Law of Moses according to the sense in which, he said, the Fathers had 28 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. received it. He it was, if this witness is correct, who first deluded men with the fable that the traditional super- stitions were received originally from the lips of Moses on •Mount Sinai, and perpetuated by a succession of teachers. It was then, Rabbi Caleb says, that the Jews were di- vided into two sects, called Rabbanites and Karaites. There is every reason to doubt the introduction of the latter name at that time, but there can be no doubt that the Jews of Palestine were then divided into two parties, very nearly corresponding with Rabbanite and Karaite. Rabbi Caleb thinks that if the Wise Men themselves, whom the kings massacred, had been alive, they would have refused to suffer the heavy impositions of Ben Shetakh. That is very likely ; but a Chief Rabbi who could deal gently with opponents, and bear with contradiction, was not the man wanted for the desperate service of contend- ing single-handed with such a despot as Alexander. They say that, under his fostering influence, the order of Wise Men revived, and took the name of Pharisees, or separated persons— a title at such a time far more significant of a political schism than of separation from sinners or retire- ment from the world ; a title which represented, if this account be true, a revolt of the ecclesiastics from the tyranny of kings, at least of kings like the two whose memory is infamous, and who hated the whole cqmmunity of the Jewish clergy. Ben Shetakh, however, was a man of strong religious feeling, as well as impetuous temper. When in Alex- andria, he fiercely opposed all who rejected the Oral Law, and, after his recall to Jerusalem, maintained the same un- compromising hostility to what his own sect regarded aa innovation, although in reality they were themselves the innovators. Later still, when his colleague Rabbi Judah ben Tabbai differed from him on this crucial question of tradition, he altered not, but persisted in his opinions. HYKCANUS, JANNAI, AND BEN SHETAKII. 29 He Avas a high-minded ecclesiastic, sensitive withal, thought it no sin to refuse forgiveness to an adversary, and was ever on the alert to magnify his office. One anecdote remains to illustrate his character, and to show that he had given his royal brother-in-law great offence before the flight to Alexandria. As the story goes, one of the king's servants had committed a murder, and then absconded. The king, as master of the fugitive, was summoned to answer for his servant, and, as master, did honour to the Law by coming. As king, he remembered his dignity, and sat down in court, Ben Shetakh being judge. ' Stand up. King Jannai ! ' shouted this haughty judge, ' stand up upon thy feet, while they bear witness concerning thee. For thou dost not stand before us, but before Him who spake, and the world was ; and remember how it is written, " The two men who have the disjjute shall both stand up." ' The king, being so challenged, stood up in honour of the high Presence to which the surly judge appealed, but silently ruminated on a rude illustration of the case which Ben Shetakh proceeded to employ, telling his Majesty that ' if an ox kills a man, the owner of the ox must answer for it,' and that he, on the same principle, must answer for his servant, both parties being reduced to the same level in presence of the judge who spake to him, — the king being as the owner of the ox. Here, cer- tainly, was a Rabbanite enlargement of the Law ! I am not uninfluenced by the reluctance of many his- torians to allow so great antiquity to the Karaites as nearly a century before Christ, nor can I be ignorant of the utter ignorance of chronology prevalent among Jewish writers of even high repute. R. Judah the Levite, author of the Book of Cozri, in the sentence next pre- ceding the one I am about to quote, writes that ' Jesus the Nazarene was a disciple of Joshua ben Perakhya.' That was impossible. But this palpable mistake, whether 30 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. wilful or accidental, is not enongli to reflect an}' doubt on the clear statement that ' in the days of Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shetakh began the sect of Karaism, niX"ipn nyi n^PTinrij on account of something that happened between the Wise Men and King Jannai',' &c. The aflfair of Sadok and Baithos, and rise of the sect of Sadducees, is related in the same chapter; but with regard to the Karaites, who here make their earliest appearance in the Book of Cozri, R. Judah is careful to observe that Avhile the Sadducees, or Sadokites, are heretics against Avhom he prays, * the Karaites are scrupulously exact, and show themselves very wise in the first principles of conduct throughout life.'^ To set aside so explicit a testimony from such a witness as this, in deference to an adverse tradition, unsupported by any sufficient reason, Avould be to throw away wilfully a link in the continuity of this historical sketch which connects Karaism -svith the narra- tives of the four Evangelists, and establishes the fact of their existence in principle, if not in name, eight hundred and fifty years earlier than many persons are willing to allow. 1 Seeker Cozri, pars iii. cap. 65. 31 CHAPTER IV. THE HOUSES OF HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. ' HiLLEL AND Shammai ' are as closely associated in Jewish history as the mythological names of Castor and Pollux. They were, like Ben Shetakh and Ben Tabbai, president and vice-president of the Sanhedrim, the presi- dents being zealous supporters of the so-called Oral Law, and their colleagues not so much opponents in form, as independent men who would accept a tradition if it was fairly to be reconciled with the sense and spirit of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the Prophets. Hence they were not regarded as antagonists, although they generally disagreed, and sometimes their disciples carried the controversy from words to blows. Hillel the Babylonian, being descended on his father's side from the tribe of Benjamin, and on his mother's from the tribe of Judah, represented in his own person the major part of the Hebrew population of Judea. When forty years of age, he came over to Jerusalem (b.c. 72), and applied himself closely to the study of the Law, enlarged and darkened as it already was by the excessive diligence of masters of tradition. In the eightieth year of his age, and about the hundredth before the destruction of the second Temple, after enthusiastic devotion to study and administration, he was elected president of that high court, not yet deprived of its judicial authority, even in cases of life and death. Notwithstanding his royal 32 HISTOEY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. descent, he was a very poor man when he came from Babylonia, sharing Avith his fellows in the privations of captivity, but rich in a humble and contented spirit. Although not previously of the student-class — a Disciple of the Wise — he had learned enough to thirst for more knowledge, and his proficiency soon brought him into notice. Attired in the garb of a labouring man (for he earned his livelihood by daily labour), he neither wasted time nor lavished words, but revolving the subjects of study in his busy mind, acquired justness of sentiment, a clear judgment, and a refinement of language that at- tracted the lovers of wisdom, and drew forth the applause of those whose praise was better that gold.' He became a member of the Sanhedrim, and had risen above poverty, when Shemaiah and Abtalion, president and vice-president of the Sanhedrim, perished in the slaughter by Herod of all the members of that great assembly, except himself and Shammai. While the Sanhedrim was extinct, and there was no court nor council to receive appeals on any doubtful matter, there arose a practical difficulty for which no decision was on record. The Passover fell on the Sabbath. The observances of the festival and of the Sabbath were incongruous, and therefore one must give way to the other ; but tohich ? There were three brothers in Jerusalem, ' sons of Bethira,' reputed to excel all others in extent of knowledge, to whom recourse was tisually had for guidance where some authoritative de- cision was needed, and an assembly of citizens besought them to determine what should be done, but the brothers could not agree. Impatient to know how the Holy City should be spared from confusion on the nearly-approaching day, the inquirers turned to Hillel, who instantly settled ' There are some amusing tales intended to illustrate his patience and ingenuity when out of work ; but they are doubtful, and, even if true, are trifling. THE HOUSES OF HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 33 tlie hard question by pronouncing that the Sabbath must oive way to the Passover, for so, he said, he had received i'rom his departed masters, the presidents Shemaiah and ^Vbtalion. The opportune decision was most welcome. It was delivered, too, on the strength of tradition. To have treasured in memory and heart the oral decisions of wise men of departed generations was deemed equivalent with possessing wisdom and authority also, originally derived from the mountain where Moses was face to face with God. The Passover was kept joyfully. All eyes were turned to the venerable Babylonian, and as soon as the vacated seats of the Great Council could be sup- plied, Hillel was created president in the year 32 B.C. Like another Moses, he entered on and completed a third period of forty years of life, and at the advanced age of six score, departed full of honour in the year 8 of our era. With his colleague, he presided over the schools of Jeru- salem with unexampled success. Their scholars were numbered by thousands, and many of them rose to an eminence that is to this day related with pride in the Hebrew colleges. To Hillel, a prince among traditionists, is attributed the merit of first reducing tradition to a science. His classification of the Mishnah into six orders prepared the basis on which his successors laboured with a zeal that may engage admiration, and with a result that compels both admiration and regret. Shammai, his colleague, maintained a position of nearly equal eminence. His biography is not so splendid, but he exerted a counteractive influence which tended to save the Hebrew nation from sacrificing, in an excess of man-worship, some distinctive characteristics which the Christian world should be thankful to acknowledge on their behalf. In the above sketch of Hillel we follow familiar guides, but in describing Shammai I thankfully take information from a Karaite who perpetuates a frag- D 34 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. ment of history which the Rabbanite majority would rather leave to be forgotten in silence. R. Moses Beshitzi was an enterprising Karaite Jew who fict out in the strength of early manhood on a pilgrimage in countries where his brethren of the Reading were reputed to be scattered. In that labour he seems to have prematurely exhausted his energies, and having written a book under the title of ' Staff of God,' ^ ended his life. The Karaites, he assures us, unanimously rely upon R. Shammai, and are supported by him and by his * house of judgment,' accepting from him both instruction in the Law, and an example to be followed. R. Shammai re- ceived instruction from R. Shemaiah, as did Shemaiah from R. Judah ben Tabbai, the dissentient colleague of Ben Shetakh, in whose time Israel was divided into two srreat factions. The line of succession was no doubt interrupted during the intervals that followed when Pompey conquered Palestine and broke up the Sanhedrim, and again when Herod, as we have noted, put its members nearly all to death, and for some years (probably five) prevented its reassemblage ; but, allowing for these inter- vals of suspension, the statement of Beshitzi, and others who have written on the subject, is perfectly intelligible. The Rabbanites, he says, derive their doctrine from Hillel, and his house of judgment. Hillel from Abtalion, and Abtalion from Ben Shetakh, whom he also describes as a man who always took his own way, and both studied and taught independently of his brethren. ' He made a divorce, and separated from the rule of the Wise Men of Israel, acting on his own pleasure, leaning to his own understanding ; and, out of his own heart, presuming to affirm " Thus saith the Lord God," Avhen the Lord had not spoken.' This account of the origin of the exaggerated ' The title is QTl'pX HDO ; it is quoted freelj' by Trigland in the seventh chapter of his invaluable Diatribe. THE HOUSES OF HILLEL AND SHAMilAI. 35 form of traditionism adopted by the Rabbanites, but not yet shaped into a system, and appearing only the charac- teristic of a school, is to my own mind more satisfactory than any of the speculations which are thrown into the way, and obstruct the path of history. Even Ben Shetakh would not have been so enthusiastic and extreme a tradi- tionist if it had not been for horror in the recollection of the fatal banquet of Hyrcanus, and the execrable mas- sacres of Jannai, and a profoundly human sympathy with myriads of Jews persecuted to death or driven to apostasy from the first principle of truth by a savage relative of his own. Jerome ^ reports that the two schools of the Houses of Shammai and Hillel were regarded with little favour by the Jews in general, who called the former ' Scatterer,' and the latter ' Profane,' because they deteriorated and corrupted the Law with their inventions. It is also said that Shammai was leader of the scribes, and Hillel of the Pharisees, which is very like the truth. On account of a fatal conflict between the two houses, which took place on the ninth of Adar, that day Avas afterwards kept as a fast in memory of the slain. After a struggle of three years for ascendancy, they were persuaded to a reconciliation, but not, as the tale goes, by a voice from heaven, pronounc- ing the words (q^^h D^n^X nn DnoiX iha^ \bii) Both these and these speak the words of the Living GodJ^ Whoever framed the absurd sentence, it passed for law, and their contradictory sayings are perpetuated in the Talmud to this day. Their words are just what St. Paul says his were not, yea and nay ; unlike what the Lord said those of his servants ought to be ; their yea, yea, or their nay, nay ; never contradicting one another. The first step towards the entire separation of the two * Hieron. Comment, in Esaiam, viii. 114. - The authority for this statement is in Bartolocii Biblioth. Mag. Rab- bitmica, s. \. 77 H- 36 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. ' houses ' or schools of interpretation of the Law, and the conversion of each school into a sect — unless, indeed, the better of the two be exempted from that ignominious dis- tinction : the first step, I say, towards the great schism was irrevocably taken by those who proposed what the Talmudists afterwards made a standing rule — that ' if the House of Hillel takes one side, and the House of Shammai takes the other, the decision is according to the House of Hillel.'' On this canon of interpretation by majority of votes the Karaites very reasonably observe that as the House of Hillel is now the more numerous of the two, the decision in most places is merely that of a majority. They complain that as the House of Hillel derives its strength fi'om number, and the House of Shammai from skill, the wisdom as well as the justice of the decision must be always questionable, except in those very few places where it happens that the majority of JeAvish residents is Karaite. This takes place, as they plead, in open con- tempt of the sentence of Solomon of glorious memory, that 'better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king,' (Eccles. iv. 13.) They might also say, what doubtless both parties must perceive, that the deci- sions arrived at by skill, not those voted by majorities, will stand the test of common sense when reconsidered, and that the decisions of the skilful, being placed on record, and proved sound in the experience of the few, will be accepted in future times, provided only that the skilful have based their reasonings on a sure foundation. In that case ' the testimony of the Lord standeth sure.' The Karaites further say that the foreclosing of judg- ment in obedience to the vote of a multitude that does not reflect, much less judges, must be in most cases extremely inconvenient. On marriage questions, for example, whereon the two houses utterly differ in many cases. ' The House of Shammai says that a man shall THE HOUSES OF HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 37 not put away his wife unless he find some uncleanness in her, as it is written in Deut. xxiv. 1. But the House of Hillel says, " Even if she burns his dinner, or if she finds no favour in his eyes." R. Akiba says, " If another is more beautiful than she, as it is written in the same place, ' If she finds no favour in his eyes.' " '^ Here let us not fail to mark this one instance out of many where our Lord con- demned the Pharisees precisely on the ground since taken by the Karaites. R. Eliyahu, in his book ' Adereth,' calls attention to this point of agreement between his brethren and the House of Shammai. Eleven or twelve years before the decease of Hillel, Jesus of Nazareth was born. The aged saint who took the infant Saviour in his arms was, as we believe, the son of Hillel,^ the father being then about a hundred and eight years old, and his son perhaps eighty-seven, if, as the Jews appear to say, he was the first-born after Hillel's early marriage. Twelve years later than the presenta- tion in the Temple Hillel died, Simeon succeeded him as prince of the Sanhedrim, and Jesus went into the Temple, on occasion of his first appearance at a feast in Jerusalem, sat with the doctors in the house of debate {■^t^'q n''2)j and joined in their discussion, both hearing and asking them questions. If nothing that day prevented, R. Simeon himself lectured as usual, just as Shemaiah lectured when Hillel went to hear him before daybreak on a winter's morning, and Jesus sat listening at the feet of Simeon. ' Mishnah, Ordo Mulierum. De Divortiis, cap. ix. 9. - Athanasius and Epiphanius are quoted for confirmation of this relation- ship, but on reference I find their testimony is adverse rather than con- firmatory. Hillel's father was a man of the tribe of Benjamin, and his mother of the tribe of Judah, whereas the priests were of the tribe of Levi. Now, both those Fathers happen to call Simeon 'priest, or priest and old man, whereas he was not a priest, neither does St. Luke say that he was. But, as Greeks, the two Fathers write loosely, and St. Luke is the one sufBcient witness. 38 HISTORY OP THE KAEAITE JEWS. Having heard, lie also asked questions. Gamaliel, son and successor of Simeon, would scarcely be absent, and so the future master of Saul of Tarsus and his future Lord were side by side. The wisdom of Jesus Avas not lost on either. Doubtless He appealed to God's Law, whatever was the subject of that morning's lecture, whatever doubt or contradiction moved the questioners ; and they were all astonished at his understanding and answers. No doubt there was a special reason for his going thither, and when his mother and Joseph remonstrated with ' the child ' for quitting their company Avithout making known the reason of his absence, ' He said unto them. How is it that ye sought me ? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ?' (Luke ii. 29.) Now may we not reverently surmise that that business could scarcely have been any- thing less than to give a word in season to the men who ruled the public mind of Jewry at such a juncture in the history of the nation as never was before, nor has been since ? In that very year, whether before or after the Passover I do not pause to investigate, Hillel departed this life, leaving behind him the first ordered sketch of the system of traditions that grew into such a formidable bulk, and assumed so hurtful a character. Just then the sceptre de- parted from Judah on the banishment of the last king, Archelaus, and Judah was reduced to a Roman province. Just then the sectarian schisms grew more bitter than ever, and still the sects were all political. No longer held in check by the personal unity and united influence of their leaders, who kept peace during their theological con- troversies, the two schools were breaking out into san- guinary conflict, which lasted for three years, to the loss of many lives. The child Jesus,l when about his Father's business^ could not be unmindful of the exigencies of that crisis : then Avas his first personal appeal to the men who. THE HOUSES OF HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 39 SO to speak, held in their hands the peace of Jerusalem, to be saved by their reconciliation, or to be sacrificed to their obstinacy, and then were sown the sorrows that made Jesus weep, when He exclaimed, ' O Jerusalem, Jeru- salem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.' (Matt, xxiii. 37, 38.) Those traditions that lurked in the incipient Mishnah, those disputes that were to rage in a perpetual schism, might have been all ended if the Doctors had heeded the wisdom of the Child. But all were not guilty, nor was everything lost. Still there were many good men who waited for the consola- tion of Israel ; and while the wise men and the disputers wrangled, there were faithful matrons who, although not admitted to the Beth-Midrosh, prayed at home and brought up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Under their smiles and blessings Timothy and Titus were to learn the Scriptures from their early youth. Gamaliel and Nicodemus, even already, caught the spirit of the Holy Child, whose understanding and answers they admired. 40 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. CHAPTER V. THE NEW TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE. f-- r> r ■ - ..'<■,■ Historically considered, the New Testament 4s. a, docu- ments essentially necessary to the completeness of our survey. We may not yet find Karaites by name, but shall at least be able to trace the principles of Karaism in the Jewish mind, and to mark the «^eterring influence of our Lord's personal ministrations beyond the circle of Christianity. We shall see how He laid hold of the ele- ment of honestly obedient faith which yet remained — how He associated with Himself, for the future benefit of the children of Israel, a multitude who, although stopping short of conversion to Himself, had the mark upon their foreheads of men who sighed and cried for all the abomina- tions that were done in the midst of the city. (Ezek. ix. 4.) He found among such a faithful remnant wherewith to lay the foundation of his future church. The divided house, indeed, could not stand, but even from the frag- ments of its ruin materials were gathered for building up a more glorious temple to the God of Abraham. All our Lord's ministry was an active and continuous antagonism to human traditions. The voice from heaven proclaimed Him the beloved Son of God, and commanded the multitudes assembled on the Jordan to hear, that is, to obey Him, not following the ' blind leaders of the blind.' From his first address to the people to his last. He set Hunself against the traditions that had been THE NEW TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE. 41 rapidly gaining strength through not less, probably more than, eighteen years since his conversation with the doctors, and with most pointed and solemn reiteration He enforced his own instructions, which were all in agree- ment with the Old Testament Scriptures, in plain contra- diction to the sayings of the Ancients, ol ap')(cuoL, as they wei-e also called by the Pharisees and other Jews ; the |''JiiDlp or D^j"'CS"in D''3pT' By these were not meant the members of the Great Synagogue, but they who followed Simon the Just, the authors of the sentences collected for the Mishnah in their own times, and there honoured with the title of nilX? Fathers, of whom Antigonus of Socoh, successor of Simeon, was the first. This opposition never slackened. No one can recall what he remembers of those divine discourses without feeling that the Speaker made it his constant business to denounce a prevailing system of false teaching, and to pour condemnation on a set of men whom He denounces as hypocrites and blind. The denunciations, indeed, are not indiscruninate, and He cautiously refrains from lowering the office they profess to fill. Speaking of them as ' they who sit in Moses' seat,' he bids his hearers keep (rrjpelv) what Moses de- livered to be kept, warning them, at the same time, that they must not imitate their practices. To prevent mis- apprehension. He specifies many of those practices, which are all novelties, vain, trifling, superstitious. He de- nounces their decisions, which are casuistic and demoral- ising. A religious rite fairly intended to act out a prin- ciple of the Mosaic Law He readily sanctioned. Such was baptism, identical in spirit and meaning with Levitical ' ablutions, and He even said that it became Himself to submit to it as a 8iKaL(o/Ma, or righteous observance ; but such was not the ostentatious washing of hands after touching a Gentile in the market-place, or washing cups and pots from defilement supposed to be contracted from 42 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. a Gentile touch. Phylacteries He did not forbid, but He found great fault with the manner then prevalent of making and wearing them. The paying of tithes He did not undervalue, but He did speak very contemptuously of tithing potherbs, and at the same time neglecting the demands of justice, mercy, and truth, and the weightier obligations of the Law. He spared not those who were punctual in ceremonious obedience, and left their parents to starve while they fed the priests. He summoned them to respect the sentence recorded by a Prophet : ' I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, saith the Lord.' During the more than thirty years that elapsed from the census made by order of Ca3sar Augustus to the ap- pearance of the Baptist and his own miracle at Cana, a great change took place in all Palestine — nay, wherever Jews were to be found throughout the empire. Society was well-nigh revolutionised, ancient ties relaxed or broken, and people in general thinking of religion less and less. Hypocrisy and bigotry contended angrily against insolent unbelief. In all this the spirit of those godly persons who lived just long enough to hear of the angel-song at Bethlehem, and to witness the adoration of the infant Jesus by the Magi, had passed away, and the good men of the living generation were less eminent, and in number fewer, than the compeers of Zacharias, Simeon, and Anna. The ministry of the Lord Jesus opened a new era in the religious history of this nation ; and we will now inquire whether there were any manifestations of disaffection towards the traditionists in authority, or any influential advocates of the simple teaching of the ancient Scriptures, or any traces of public sentiment, that would give hope of a favourable response to the appeals of the Saviour. This is all we could expect to find in the New Testa- ment, for professed Karaites were not yet. Learned men THE NEW TESTAMENT AND CHEISTIAN INFLUENCE. 43 have laboured to make it appear that scribes and lawyers were the same as those whom Jewish writers call ' Masters of the Readina:,' as distino-uished from Masters of the Mishnah and Masters of the Talmud ; but every step taken in examination of those verbal speculations removes us farther and farther from hope of confirmation. Passages from Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Origen have been ad- duced to shoAv that scribe and doctor of the Law are equivalent terras, and then it is taken for granted that a doctor of the Law must have been a faithful expositor of the Law of Moses. But the conjectures are ventured without a due regard to the laws of evidence. Time, place, language, religion, are all different, sometimes remotely distant and various ; except, perhaps, in the single case of Epiphanius, who, as Bishop of Cyprus and historian of heresies, made it his duty to obtain as much information as possible from Palestinian Jcavs, and says, on their testimony, that scribe, ypafx/jbarevs, and doctor of the Laic, vofiohiBdaKoKos, mean the same person. So they may, and so they sometimes do ; but the indifferent use of tAvo titles for one person, as presbyter and bishop, for example, is a confusion of language in free and fami- liar use that cannot avail much for the solution of a doubt in history ; and ha^Tug pondered again and again the pas- sages referred to by Trigland and others, and examining the New Testament for myself, I so frequently find the use of the same word, rypafi/xaTsvs or vo/jlikos, for very dif- ferent persons, that I fail to derive any conclusive informa- tion on the point from the narra 'ves themselves, except it be that the lawyers are as often and severely censured as the scribes, and that both lawyers and scribes are found among the Pharisees. But being in search of evidence, time shall not be wasted in quoting passages merely to show that they shed no light on the present inquiry. A gleam of light, however, may be caught from the word 44 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. vofjLohcBdaKa\o9, literally meaning a teacher of the Law, and so translated in the simple Syriac version, which was made in Palestine itself, and made early enough for the translator to know the customary meaning of the words in common use a generation or two before his own time. Now it is fairly argued in favour of understanding this word as indicating loyalty to the supreme authority of the written Law of God, that it is peculiar to the New Testament, being used there after the rise of Jewish tra- ditions, and that it is translated literally in the Syriac version, the same translation not being given to the more familiar word vo/xikos, hmfyer. It is not, I repeat, found in the Septuagint, nor, if I am sufficiently informed, in the other Greek versions of the Old Testament. It occurs in Luke V. 17, together with ' Pharisee ; ' and the Pharisees and doctors of the Law who then came together Avith their questions were unusually candid, and easily convinced. It is also said that Gamaliel was a vofioSiSdaKoXos, and of his honesty there can be no doubt. But then Gamaliel, we know from the testimony of his most illustrious pupil, was a rigid Pharisee ; he taught accordingly, and there- fore was probably' a traditionist. There is only one ' I am carefiil to say no more than probably, beca^ise a man might be of that strictest sect of the Jews' religion, and yet utterly opposed to Kab- bala. Saul of Tarsus was, ' as touching the Law,' not the traditions, ' a Pharisee' (Phil. iii. 8). Even after his conversion, St. Paul did not hesitate to ' cry out in the council. Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee' (Acts xxiii. 6). Even when the Talmud was acknow- ledged by all except Karaites, literal interpretation was not absolutely re- jected, and the most eminent Rabbinical commentators have excelled in exact literal and historical interpretation of the sacred text. The Karaites uniformly contended for t^K^Qn TlTi ^^^ simple inethod, but the following words occur in a note of Aben Ezra, on Lamentations i. : ' and the simple method (S"n).' This is the substance, in words most carefully chosen ; and thus they spoke according to the plain sense, and the trans- lated or copied words (D''p^ny D''"l2Tn"l)- The same commentator con- trasts, in a passage elsewhere occurring, but which I cannot turn to at this moment, the K^~nnn "|-|1, method of Midrash, which was that of the highest THE NEW TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE. 45 more place where this word is found (1 Tim. i. 7), but there men boast of a high title who are censured for falling far beneath it ; and besides this, we find the later Jews for ages boasting of the Lmv when at last they mean the Talmud, which they regard as containing the most full and correct exposition of the Law of Moses. We must therefore confess ourselves unable to trace a title equivalent with Karaite in the New Testament. There are, hoAvever, two or three facts which do reveal distinctly the presence of the Scriptural principle amidst the overflowing torrent of traditionism which rose very high, and seemed to carry all before it, during twenty or thirty years after Hillel had finished his arrangement of the traditions under the six orders of the Mishnah ; and one of these instances is worth more than a thousand of mere similarity of name. St. Paul writes to Timothy (a.d. 58, according to Conybeare and Howson, 2 Tim. i. 5 ; iii. 15), and in that Epistle reminds him that from a child he has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 'All scripture,' he proceeds to say, ' is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- rection, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.' This is an explicit declaration of the sufficiency of the written Word of God, without any traditionary Kabbalists, with this simple method, and uses, as an accustomed title, QtpTiyDn. the transcribers, copiers, qicoters, persons who were content with a plain allegation of the sacred text (Aben Ezra, on Deut. xxv. 5). Even the traditionists did the same when it suited them; so did the great Maimonides, a bitter enemy of the Karaites ; so did all the chief com- mentators of the twelfth and following centuries, and D'>p1*lpin! the gram- marians, found free field for their labour among all the sects. The truth is that there always was, and still is, too much diversity among the Jews for any man's method to be conjectui'ed confidently from the mere name of tlie sect he follows. 46 HISTORY OF THE KAEAITE JEWS. complement for the use of a teacher of the people. This is said to Timothy twenty-five years after Christ, Timothy being then ordained Bishop of Ephesus, and the Apostle also calls to mind the time when Timothy was a child, and reminds him from whom he learned the Scriptures. He was taught by his mother, who had in herself un- feigned faith, and was for this indebted to his grand- mother Lois. His grandmother, evidently, taught his mother in her childhood, who afterwards taught Timothy in his, all which would require more than twenty-eight years to be accomplished, counting from the time when Lois was herself instructed ; and therefore Lois must have been a student of the Old Testament Scriptures, without the taint of tradition, before she could have been induced to cast off tradition by any influence from Chris- tian teaching. St. Paul was in Thessalonica and Berea in the year 52. (Acts xvii.) At Thessalonica the unbelieving Jews raised a tumult, which drove him from the city, and thence he proceeded to Berea, where he went into a synagogue and taught. His teaching in that synagogue was derived from the Bible, to which he referred the congregation for confirmation of his doctrine. ' These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word wath all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.' Here, then, were two synagogues, in one of which the Jews were furiously hostile, but in the other mor-e noble, and their nobility arose from an established reve- rence for the Word of God. Traditionist casuistry would prevent any such readiness of mind as they displayed, and, if nothing more, would produce hesitation, scru- pulosity, and strife among themselves. But nothing of the kind took place. Such a temper in persons totally strangers to Christian preaching, and living in a country where Christianity had now to be published for the first THE XEW TESTAMENT AND CHEISTIAN INFLUENCE. 47 time, shows that they must have been comparatively free, to say the least, from the influence of tradition regarded as a necessary supplement to the Word of God, or they would have maintained, with their less noble brethren in Thessalonica, that the Scripture cannot be understood without illustration from proficients in an oral law. Perhaps there were other Jews like them among the multitude to whom the Lord Jesus said, * Search the Scriptures, for in them, as ye think, ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.' As we advance, we have occasion to observe the state of feeling among the Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt on the matter of Bible-reading, and therefore we notice here that there were in the Berean synagogue many honour- able women which were Greeks, who believed the Chris- tian preacher after searching the Scriptures to see whether what he said was true. Perhaps, again, the Greeks who came to Jerusalem and desired to see Jesus were Bible- reading Jews. But we have now seen enough to be assured that in the time of Christ the Jews were not all followers of the traditions of the elders. Before leaving the New Testament, there is yet another note to be taken. The more anyone has studied the entire contents of the sacred volume, so much the more distinctly he perceives the agreement of the language of each of the inspired writers with that of his age and country. This is not mere adaptation. It was not necessary that they should adapt their style by changing it. It was just that of those around. To us at a distance, who compare it Avith other portions of the same volume, the difference strikes us as remarkable ; but they could not themselves perceive local peculiarities of idiom as we perceive them now. They not only used familiar words and phrases at the time current, but in discoursing on familiar subjects they re- peated, consciously or unconsciously, allusions that were 48 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. then in every person's mouth. There was a fashion in the market-place, and there was a fashion in the syna- gogue. One might speak about Jannes and Jambres without caring to think of the authenticity of the tale, any more than an accomplished scholar of this day would be above speaking of 'Gog and Magog,' if wishing to note the place where those grotesque objects are to be found. A Jew of the Apostolic age would not hesitate to pronounce a technical word to express a date, any more than at this day, one of his descendants would hesitate to direct you to page Kav (ip) if he wished you to find the 106th page in a Hebrew book, and you would not think of troubling him with a disquisition on the possible meaning of the sound. In like manner, the later books of the New Testament bear obvious traces of an advanced Rabbinism in the com- mon speech of Jews. The Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistle of Jude, and the Apocalypse are strongly marked with this peculiarity ; and it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that this indicates a corresponding change in the language of those who spoke and wrote on religious subjects. It might have been avoided. The Holy Spirit might have always kept his servants aloof from the shifting varieties of human language, but that He never did. As the antiquarian architect can confi- dently assign a proximate date to any building sufficiently preserved for even slight examination, so can the literary critic estimate the period when the manuscript copy or the original Avork was written. And so the notes of time wrought into the last few leaves of Christian Scripture afford us at this moment some instruction. Within thirty years after St. Paul, Rabbinical studies revived in Pales- tine, through the zeal of earnest men who escaped from Jerusalem in the earlier part of the Roman siege, and established themselves in the towns which soon became famous as chief seats of Hebrew learning. 49 CHAPTER VI. TIBERIAS AND PALESTINE. o Long beforeithe last lines of the New Testament were written, Jerusalem was rased to the ground. Amidst all the calamities that overwhelmed the Jews, the force of party-spirit was not broken, and Rabbinic zeal grew more intense, even as the flood gains depth and rapidity in proportion as the channel narrows. The relative position of parties was also changed, the parties them- selves being different and more numerous. If the ques- tion was barely one of literal interpretation, the houses of Hillel and Shammai were ready for battle at any moment; while the multitude, neutral for the time, as Jerome heard his Hebrew friends describe the matter, stood aloof, content to call one party destructive, and the other jyrofane. If Jewry was moved on a question of doctrine, the subject of dispute would determine the distribution of the belligerent force, which might be Pharisees on one side, and Sadducees on the other — those Avho contended for the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and these more coldly infidel than Sadoc him- self, ready to assail them with derision. But now there is another party, the Christian, and this is very strong. The Divine Founder, far more emphatically than any of his servants, condemned the traditions of the elders as being the great occasion of disobedience and infidelity — a system of delusion, offensive to God and injurious to E 50 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. mankind. His servants were not empowered to employ language of equal authority, and therefore they could not so denounce the evil ; neither might their energies be largely spent in assailing the strongholds of tradition, while their one all-absorbing care was to discharge the peculiar duties of their vocation by publishing the Gospel, surrounded as they were with witnesses of its power unto the salvation of every believer. They ceased not to preach Jesus and the Resurrection, and so kept the public mind alive to the recollection of the day of Crucifixion, when the sun was darkened, and the vail of the Temple rent, — the morning of the Resurrection, when the graves were opened, with their account of the glorious Ascension, and of the Pentecostal awakening and conversion of the thousands. This doing, the Chris- tian preachers raised another conflict, and wherever their voice was heard, the Jews were divided on the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, Seldom were they all united against the Evangelists, for it was almost certain that a few at least, whether Hebrews or Hellenists, men or women, would receive the truth. Sometimes a multi- tude, many even of the priests, would profess themselves obedient to the faith. The more thoughtful would go to the fountain of knowledge, and search the Scriptures of their own accord ; therein to seek either denial or con- firmation of the discourses they had heard. While so engaged, some sense of the incomparable majesty of God's Word would surely rest upon them. In such sacred moments they heeded not the clamour of the sects, but gazed with undistracted steadfastness into the sanctuary of heavenly wisdom. Large secessions from Judaism proved that on that side the contest had been unequal. The traditionists were opposed by a power they had neither force nor weapons to resist. They had not yet agreed upon a TIBERIAS AND PALESTINE. 51 book that they might quote against the Christian preach- ers, for the Mishnah was but rudely drafted, and even the text of the first draft was not settled, much less ex- pounded in the synagogues. The traditions themselves came not from any fountain universally acknowledged. Each sentence could only be traced to a human speaker, and it is observable that when our Lord enumerated certain traditional customs of the Pharisees, He treated them with significant indifference as mere voluntary rites : * Many other such like things ye do.' On the contrary, the Chiistians made vigorous and constant use of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which all parties acknowledged to be written by inspira- tion, confirmed by indubitable evidence, and the latest of them accepted by ancients who lived in the world gene- rations before the Mishnaic sentences were uttered. The same hand that opened the sacred roll, to be read in the congregation, was often laid upon the sick with power to heal, or touched the dead, to raise him up in the name of Jesus, while Jewish exorcists, essaying to do the like, were confounded. So it was Avhen the man with the unclean spirit fell on them, exclaiming, ' Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who arc ye ? ' It was not now Hillel or Shammai, Antigonus or Sadoc disputing for possession. From that Feast of Pentecost, when thousands of Jews were incorporated into the Church, the precincts of the synagogue were every day narrowed. Myriads of God's ancient people experienced new convictions, and although the leading traditionists worked harder than ever to frame a complete code of rules for the government of their congregations, there was a widespread outgrowth of dissatisfaction with the Avhole scheme of oral law. The project of re- peating, or amplifying, or substituting a modern contri- vance for the ceremonial law of Moses, which could £ 2 52 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. neither be observed in Jerusalem nor transplanted to any other place, was regarded with mistrust by many, while others laboured for its accomplishment Avith all the more desperate enthusiasm. If Christians, in those days of miracle and awakening, had not Judaized at all ; if the orthodox had not re- taliated evil for evil on the Jews; if Gentile proselytes to the Christian name had not brought in with them ido- latries which the Jews abhorred ; if all prominent advo- cates of Christianity had been adequately charitable and well informed, refraining from vituperation and watching against untruth in controversy with the Jewish brethren, Christendom would not have degenerated as it did, both parties would have had God's pure Word in supreme honour, and the world might never have seen a Talmud or a Koran. But matters took a very different course, and we have now to slance at the Hebrew schools in Palestine, from the Apostolic age to their dispersion and decay. Jerusalem was made a desolate heap, and the youth of Israel were left destitute of schools, if not of teachers. Still the exiles were permitted to revisit the Holy Land, although not the Holy City ; the silence of despair Avas quickly broken, and the Israelite, whose indomitable spirit refuses to bow under any discouragement, rose up again, more vigorous than ever. The old men, schooled in sorrows, rallied around themselves the manhood that remained, and the infancy that multiplied, resolving that they would transmit a knowledge of their religion to future generations. They knew that they possessed, Avord for word, the covenant that God made Avith their ancestors, containing promise of a King that should sit upon the throne of David, — a King whose majesty Avould outshine the glories of Solomon, and Avhose goodness would equal or surpass the graces of their lord Moses. TIBERIAS AXD PALESTINE. 53 They were not sensible of their error in obscuring that Q;reat Covenant with late inventions : but, imao;ininor those inventions to be beneficial, resolved that they would teach them diligently to their children, and for that purpose multiplied schools in proportion to the in- crease of their families. To every synagogue it was their intention to attach a school. Rabbi Judah had determined that any town should be considered worthy to have a synagogue as soon as it had a hundred and twenty male Jewish inhabitants of full age.^ The commentators on this decision. Rabbis Bar- tenora and Maimonides, explain that so many were necessary for transacting the ordinaiy business of a synagogue, both civil and sacred ; and, after specifying the duties that were to be distributed among the hundred and twenty, they close ^he list by saying, ' and one schoolmaster.^ This was as necessary as ' one surgeon to cure,' and ' one scribe ' to make the public records. In four towns in Palestine, namely, Jabneii, Zepho- RiAH, C^ESAREA, and Tiberias, where favouring cir- cumstances had raised the schools into higher efficiency, the elder youth of other towns were assembled to pursue their studies, and the schools took the character of colleges. At Jahieh, the first rector was Rabban John, the son of Zakhai. He escaped from Jerusalem when Titus Vespasian entered, and gathered into the place a new and larger population, who took him for their father. So he was at once governor of the town, judge of the syna- gogue, and head master of the school. On him it devolved to organise the new township, and to this end he had to study the principles of government, and guard the laws which it behoved the inhabitants to obey. Those laws, ' Sanhedrin, i. 1. 54 IIISTOKY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. as yet, were only to be sought in the Books of Moses, with such traditions as he knew for help to understand the laws. As for civil precautions, he very laudably did his best ; as to sacred observances, his position was extremely difficult, and his error, as a traditionist, was not peculiar to himself alone. Like others dependent on private re- sources, he set hedges (myo jpn) round Moses' Law, to keep it safe. He tried to fence a dismantled fortress with bulwarks made out of the ruins. He had, however, abundant material of the kind, for his master was Gamaliel the Younger, son of Gamaliel the Aged, the reverend master at whose feet St. Paul had profited above all his equals in that factitious learning which, after all, he counted as dross, and rejected as ' rudiments of the world,' — elements of a system decayed, corrupt, abandoned. Zephoriah and C^sarea also attained a temporary honour as possessing colleges, but their history is of lesser importance. Tiberias became eventually the one centre in the Holy Land of that learning which Rabban John culti- vated so diligently at Jabneh. Tiberias was supposed to be the ancient E-akkath (Josh. xix. 35), but that is doubted. There is no doubt, however, as to its identity with the present Tabariah. The city, as yet but recent, was eminent, and beautiful indeed for situation. To us the name is familiar as being borrowed for the Lake of Galilee, called also the Sea of Tiberias, and mentioned under both descriptions in the Gospels. The Roman emperor Tiberius chose the site for a new city, in admira- tion of the scenery around, and, as customary with emperors, gave it his own name with the slight syllabic variation. Sacred, indeed, are the memories of the lake, and they could not have been quite unknown to the Jewish fugitives who then found refuge on its borders, but they did not acknowledge the divinity of Him who \ TIBERIAS AND PALESTINE. 55 had walked upon those waters, who stilled the tempest that rushed down from the gorges of those mountains, and made the lake and its shores the scene of many other mighty miracles. It is for travellers to describe the beauties of Tiberias, seated as it is in one of the most delicious valleys of the world. A note of descrip- tion from one of them will not be out of place. ^ * The ruins of the ancient city, the numerous tombs in the vicinity, one of which contains the remains of the great Mairaonides, and the Jewish population, whose peculiar manners and features at once attract the tra- veller's attention as he passes through the streets of the modern town, attest the reverence in which it has been held by the distant settlements, whence Jews have for centuries come to lay their bones in the neighbourhood.' In short, for three centuries Tiberias was in the stead of Jerusalem to the Jews of Western Asia. The first rector of the college was R. Simon, son of Gamaliel II., and the successor of Simon was R. Judah the Holy, called Rabbi only, by way of distinction, when his sentences are quoted. His countrymen were agreed in the persuasion that in his day there was not a man in the world fit to be compared with him ; and wild as are some of the legends of Rabbi Judah the Holy, they con- tain a reality of sober truth which tells that he was dis- tinguished by excellent wisdom and extraordinary sanctity. ' There he sat, surrounded with seventy judges, in Beth- Shearim, in Tiberias, and in Zephoriah. Tiberias lay deepest.' ^ It lay embosomed in a broad valley, west of the lake, cut through by perpetual streams that water ever-flourishing forests, as they flow down from the ever- lasting hills above and around, rushing to the Sea of Galilee. * Tiberias lay deepest of all the cities,' most sheltered, therefore, and most peacefully retired, ' and ' Sinai and Palestine. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A., chap. x. ' Buxtorf s Tiberias, chap. iv. 56 HISTORY OF THE KAEATTE JEWS. there the Sanhedrim was captive in the tenth captivity ; ' for so many times had they met hurriedly in places where troubles would not suffer them to rest ; and residence in any place other than Jerusalem, however pleasant, hos- pitable, or even secure, is always called a captivity by the loyal Hebrew. This illustrious Rabbi and his successors not only en- joyed the obedient recognition of the Jews in matters relating to religion, but were allowed by the Romans to exercise a certain civil jurisdiction, within the Imperial boundaries, over the Jews of the dispersion. They say that the Emperor Antoninus' conferred many honours on him, treating him with much favour, and, when at Tibe- rias, admitting him to familiar conversation. The Jews then enjoyed special privileges in the city, and when Antoninus died. Rabbi Judah lamented that a bond of strength was broken. » By permission of Antoninus, it is affirmed, he published his great Avork, the Mishnah, which by that Imperial sanc- tion had the force of what we should call canon law, for general observance by the Jews. It was so called to signify that it should serve as a second Law, be adapted to the circumstances of a scattered people, and facilitate the application of the first to all the business of life. As to the alleged sanction, it is quite probable that so pru- dent a Chief Rabbi would enjoy the favourable regard of all Roman authorities, but the particular statement now quoted lacks the confirmation requisite for its acceptance as an historic truth. Whatever Antoninus might have per- mitted, experience taught his Christian successors the inex- pediency of extending to human laws the recognition which is due to the laAvs of God, and, so instructed, Justinian prohibited the Mishnah from being read in synagogues. * Whether Antoninus Pius or Philosophus, is uncertain ; perhaps both. 57 CHAPTER VII. THE MISHNAH. If the Saviour had not come into the world ; if the legal types and historic shadows of four or five thousand years had not been superseded by the substantial benefits of a higher dispensation, and if the one great prediction of the Prophets had not been fulfilled, any judicious eifort to facilitate the due application of a law not yet repealed would have deserved the highest commendation. R. Judah, however, was not the author of this secondary code, for its materials, orally recited like Arabian legends, had been in vogue long before, being those very traditions which the Messiah condemned, and which the learned Rabbi, not considering or not pondering the reason of that condemnation, spent the best years of his life in cor- recting and arranging. He probably revised the gradually collected text, and, in some inferior way, did for the Mishnah what Ezra had done for the Old Testament Scriptures. To speak in Hebrew style, he sealed the hook. The titles of the six Orders of the Mishnah, with those of the Tractates of each Order, are given at the end of this chapter,' and, thus exhibited, may convey the first idea of the framework of the Talmud — that immense col- lection which has been made equally the subject of mys- terious admiration and of idle ridicule. The Mishnah, as the original text of the Talmud, and as a faithful pic- ture of Jewish theology and ecclesiology in the apostolic ' See Note A, at the end of this chapter. 58 HISTORY OP THE KARAITE JEWS. and post-apostolic ages, should be known to every Chris- tian student, — at least in its general outlines, — and a nearer acquaintance with its contents is indispensably- required for successful investigation of the Hebrew ele- ment in primitive Christianity, as found in the New Testament, and in the New Testament alone. As an ancient document, it possesses great interest, and we should be thankful to God for the preservation of so large a mass of materials for explaining the phraseology, and therefore the teaching, of our Lord and his Apostles — materials which are not now sufficiently employed in application to their proper use. One thought only dashes our satisfjiction, and it is that all the evidences of Chris- tianity were ignored by the laborious compiler during its production. On the very scene of our Saviour's mighty works, and within sound of the traditions of his presence, the chief of the wise men of Israel spent years of toil, and produced with his own hand a literary key to his dis- courses. * Let my part be with them that go to the synagogue on the Sabbath in Tiberias,' says one of the Rabbis in the Talmud, ' and with them that go out of the synagogue on the Sabbath in Zephoriah.'' Zephoriah was built upon a hill, and the sun disappeared there half an hour later than at Tiberias, which lay low on the eastern side of a high mountain which hid it so much sooner. The devout Rabbi, could his wish be realised, would have added half an hour to the Sabbath time. But the traditional name of the mountain behind Tiberias is * Mountain of the Beatitudes,' for there, it is believed, our Lord delivered the sermon to the great multitude, as related by St. Mat- thew. Under the shadow, then, of the very mountain where that sermon was delivered, was prepared the col- lection of traditions which were alluded to by the Divine * Quoted by Buxtorf, ut supra. THE MISHNAH. 59 Preacher, and it must be acknowledged that without the Mishnah it would be vain to attempt a full textual expo- sition of the sermon. Such a key Rabbi Judah uncon- sciously prepared. We regret his unbelief, yet must honestly acknowledge that, in this unbelief, there was no apparent malignity. Although shielded by the protection of the Pagan, and perhaps incited by the zeal of inferior brethren, he did not, as I think, set down a word in dis- paragement of the person or ministration of our Lord Jesus. With self-imposed reserve, he laboured in the forlorn work of reciting rules for the due observance of festivals that had not been celebrated for three or four generations past, and never could be kept again;— for marking the boundaries of a land that never could be oc- cupied by his people, at least so long as they remained in unbelief, — for defining the domestic relations of tribes that were utterly scattered and denationalised, — for pre- paa-ing oblations that could not be presented, and for sacrifices that could not be slain, because the altars w-ere overthrown and the priesthood was extinct. Yet again. The Mishnah must be read with interest, for it has contributed, more than any other visible instru- ment, to the perpetuation of a system of traditionary principles, precepts, and customs that keeps alive the peculiar spirit of Judaism, as distinct from all the world of Gentiles, that feeds an enthusiasm and rivets an attach- ment strong beyond the conception of any stranger, thus keeping this ancient people in an isolated existence for the fulfilment of their appointed service in the world, until the fulness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and the dispersed of Judah shall return with a ransomed Avorld to crown the triumph of their Messiah— theirs and ours. While it serves these great purposes. Christian scholars do well to acknowledge its existence, examine its various contents, and refrain from indulging in expressions of 60 HISTORY OP THE K.\EAITE JEWS. contempt or censure until their criticism can be discrimi- native as to the demerits and merits of the work. Two events quickly followed after its completion. One was the publication of what is called the Jerusalem Tal- mud, which is little more than four of the six Orders of the Mishnah, with notes. ^ Led away by the starving spirit which ever wanders in search of something better than has been yet found by the beings it possesses, other members of the Sanhedrim and college of Tiberias had no doubt been working busily to produce a commentary on the sentences of the Wise Men from Antigonus of Socho onward, as they were now arranged by R. Judah the Holy. They say that in closing the collection he was guided by the alleged decision of an oracle, which pro- nounced the contrary sayings of the houses of Hillel and Shammai to be both of them the words of God. By vir- tue of that absurd figment, the two great parties which sat face to face in the colleges and synagogues of Israel were clothed in the same livery of sect, as one might almost say, that they might be authorised to keep up the habit of contradiction and spread casuistry instead of pro- mulgating truth. This was Talmudism properly so called. The fathers of Tiberias Avere the first of Jews to under- take that work. They wrote the first Talmud, published at Tiberias in the year 230, and called the Jerusalem Talmud, as distinguished from the Babylonian : not that it was written in Jerusalem, which would not be possible, but because Jerusalem was claimed by the authors as their metropolis. The other event was the mio;ration eastward of several of the most learned Jews from the college of Tiberias. In consequence of their departure from Tiberias, and settlement in Babylonia among the descendants of those who remained there after the first captivity, there ' See Note B, at the end of this chapter. THE MISHNAH, 61 arose a new and far more powerful centre of Rabbini- cal influence in the East ; but Palestine was not yet deserted, nor was the chair of R. Judah at once left va- cant. Two eminent Rabbis, Ammi and Asslii, did not indeed occupy that chair, but they are mentioned as flourishing together in the country about the year 300. Then in the year 340 came into view R. Hillel the Prhice, Chief Rabbi and Head of the Jews in that captivity, known to posterity as an astronomer, and marked as the author, or, at least, the last reviser of the Jewish chrono- logy. With him, however, promotions to the rank of Doctor ceased in the school of Tiberias. Now appear evidences of a very powerful influence of Christianity in Palestine, and a corresponding decay of Judaism at Tiberias. Epiphanius, a native of Palestine and Bishop of Constantia, in Cyprus, is quoted as having heard that the Jews of that city possessed the Gospel ac- cording to St. John in Hebrew, — or Syriac, the vernacu- lar of Syria, called Hebrew by the Christian Fathers, — and that they classed it with their own apocryphal books. The informant of Epiphanius was a Jew converted to Christianity, persecuted by the Jews, but protected by the emperor, Avho permitted him to build a Christian church. The Dialogue of Justin Martyr with Try[)ho the Jew is a notable indication of the intelligent contro- versy of that age, that could not be conducted in so charitable a spirit, and with such fixed purpose, without producing considerable effect. Epiphanius further in- forms us that there were many converts made from Judaism about the time at which we have arrived, and most remarkable of all is his account that Hillel himself, prince, philosopher, and astronomer, was in heart a Christian, and that, when on his death-bed, he sent for the Christian bishop, and Avas privately baptised, ' and so the worthy patriarch departed this world from the sacred 62 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. baptism, and after partaking of the holy mysteries.' ^ The bishop, it seems, was a physician, or acted as such, as did Kabbis and priests commonly, and after desiring Hillel's chamber to be cleared of visitors, he remained with him alone, and baptised him secretly. A secret baptism is rather a thing to be ashamed of than published abroad, but if the Prince of the Jews in Palestine quitted the synagogue on his death-bed, that was a fact wliich, to say the least, indicates a decline of zeal in the very head of the captivity. A conversion to the fait k of Christ would have been openly confessed ; and a more satisfactory in- stance of friendly communication Avith Christians is the notorious fact that Jerome, without any concealment or disguise, obtained the assistance of a learned Jew from Tiberias to assist him in translating the Old Testa- ment from Hebrew into Latin. This learned Hebrew could not have rendered such a service to a Christian theologian unless he had been sustained by the favour- ing opinion of his own people ; such as, to borrow a later example by way of illustration, Avas afforded to R. Moses Harragel, a learned Jcav of Maqueda, in Spain, AA^hen he Avent to Toledo, early in the fifteenth century, and sat down daily Avith a high dignitary of the Roman Church, to translate the HebrcAv Bible into ' good Cas- tilian.' ^ It Avould be easy to demonstrate the hap{)y influ- ence which rested on the HebreAv population of Spain at that particular time, and gave a powerful impulse to the early acceptance of the Gospel by multitudes of the Spanish people, especially those of HebrcAv birth, and, if • Epiphanii adv. Hares, lib. i. torn. ii. Hseres. 30. Adversus Ebiongeos. "^ This commendation of the version of Ben Eagel for good Castilian must pass on its own merits. I fear there is no good vernacular in any of the old Jewish versions. They are so extremely close to the letter, esclavas a la letra, as the Spaniard would say, that there can hardly be a sentence of good Castilian possible, and sense itself is often lost in super- stitious scrupulosity without intelligence. THE MTSHNAH. 63 I mistake not, of Karaite principles, if not Karaites pro- fessed. A similar influence was now prevalent in Pales- tine. The Babylonian Jews were, in the days of Hillel the Prince, rather the successful rivals than the cordial friends of their brethren in Tiberias, — certainly more zealous tra- ditionists ; and although people say, with or without proof, that a love of Hebrew learning lingered in Tiberias for many ages, the three Buxtorfs, who made this passage of Jewish history a special study, and whom I now chiefly follow, could not discover any traces of scholarship in the place on record, after the remarkable death-bed baptism of Hillel the Second.^ The desertion of the Palestinian schools in the fourth century can be easily accounted for. During the latter years of Hillel's life, Christianity — already much debased, we know — rapidly gained political influence as the religion of the empire, but lost religious influence in converse pro- portion. The most cursory perusal of the Imperial laws concerning Samaritans and Jews suggests what a careful examination of the history of those laws confirms, disclos- ing to view a legal oppression that crushed the Jews to the dust, and a disgusting system of bribery and intimidation which induced myriads to desert the synagogue, and lured or forced them into Avhat Avas miscalled ' the Church,' yet made them not Christians, but confirmed hypocrites. Every honest Christian is bound to make this acknow- ledgment, but it concedes nothing to weaken the persua- sion that earlier intercourse with Christians led the Jews of Palestine to study the Old Testament Scriptures more practically in order to meet the Christian advocates, examining the facts of sacred history, and searching out the literal meaning of the prophecies. But let it be re- membered that the persecutions of Constantine the Great, ' Tiberias, sive Commentarius Masorethicus, cap. v. 64 HISTOEY OF THE KARAITE JEWS. the first Christian who made a law against the Jews, did not begin until Ilillel had nearly finished his career, and the school of Tiberias had already fallen into a state of irremediable decay. The three centuries of Hebrew study in Palestine were not lost, and the character of Mishnaical literature, as compared with the later Talmudic literature of Babylonia, is very strongly marked. The Mishnah was originally devised to be ' the hedo;e of the Law ;' and althouoh the tendency of the work, as already marked, was to super- sede the Law, the pre-eminence of the Law itself was always acknowledged, if not always felt. At first, while R. Judah the Holy was prosecuting his labour in collect- ing the traditions, and Juvenal was Avriting his Satires (for the two Avere contemporary), Moses was reputed the supreme authority of Judaism. The Roman poet dis- covered in Judaism no other objects on which to spend his ridicule than tke Sabbaths, the God of Heaven, the clouds of Mount Sinai and the sanctuary, abstinence from un- clean meats, circumcision, separation from the Gentiles, and the hidden volume of Moses. The words of the satirist, so often quoted (we have given the sense), should be re- peated now. for the satisfaction of the reader that the absurdities of tradition had not attracted his attention. Quidam, sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem, Nil prseter nubes, et cseli numen adorant ; Nee distare putant humana came suillam, Qua pater abstinuit ; mox et prseputia pouunt : Eomanas autem soliti contemnere leges, Judaicum ediseunt, et servant, ac metuunt jus, Tradidit arcano quodcumque Tolumiue Moses. Non monstrare vias, eadem nisi sacra colenti ; Qiisesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos. Sed pater in causa, cui septima quseque fuit lux Iguava et partem vitse nou attigit uUam.' Juvenalis Satira xiv. 96-106. THE MISHXAH. 65 Tacitus is far more unjust than Juvenal, but his feeble travesty of the Mosaic history, and misrepresentation of the Jewish religion, is equally free from allusion to the absurdities of Talmudical tradition. Secessions from the dominant party, or from the pre- vailing faith, had often hitherto been political and factious, but in the year of our Lord 360, the signal was given for a secession for conscience' sake. At that time Hillel II. made a revision of the JcAvish method of determinino; the length of the year, and appointing the Feast of the Pass- over. In his calculation and its result he followed the Christians, who had learned this more correct system from the Greeks. Hillel, being president of the Sanhedrim, engaged that venerable council to join him in giving the adoption of the new system the highest sanction that could be found in all Jewry, and the majority of syna- gogues received their decision without the slightest dithculty. But there was a multitude of Jews so accordant in principle as to need no organisation for united resistance. They did not acknowledge the right of the Sanhedrim to supersede the explicit directions given in the Law for new moons and festivals. They would not depart from the letter of that Law. They were numerous enough to keep the feasts, and observe the * beginning of the year,' and ' the beo-inniug of the month too,' without reo-ardinar the novel proceedings of another multitude, which in some neighbourhoods there would be. They acted accordingly, and so they continue to act at this day. In the year 360, then, the Paschal controversy of Judaism and the first movement towards a Karaite secession simultaneously took place, although Karaism, in substance, was too ancient to date later than Ezra. 66 HISTORY OP' THE KARAITE JEWS. Note A, page 57. The Orders and Tractates of the Mishna, I- D7"}T- Seeds. 1. ^liD^3. Benedictions. Pra^^TS and tlianksgivings. Ch. ix. sec. 57. 2. nSQ. Cb/-«er of the field loft for the poor. Ch. viii. sec. 69. •J. ""J^Cl. Things doubtful. Whether to be tithed or uot. Ch. yii. sec. 63. 4. D^!S173. Divers hinds. Not to be mixed. Ch. ix. sec. 77. 5. n^yii^'. The seventh year, when the land should rest. Ch. x. sec' 88. 6. niDliri. Offerings to priests. Ch. xi. sec. 100. 7. nnb'yjD. Titlies to Levites. Ch. v. sec. 40. 8. ''it;' "iby?- ^^'^ second tithe from Levites to priests. Ch. v. sec. 57. 9. r*i?n. The oblation-coke from women to priests. Ch. iv. sec. 37. 10. n'piy. The profane. Young trees not yet yielding fruit to be eaten. Ch. iii. sec. 35. 11. CITS?. TAe _^ys<-/rMJ^s to be offered in the Temple. Ch. iii, sec. 34. II- "lyiD- Feasts. 1. nSJ^. Sabbath. Things lawful and unlawful. Ch. xxiv. sec. 'l.39. 2. ril-IT'y. Confnsio7is of bounds between things sabbatic and common. Ch. x. sec. 89. 3. DTID?. Passovers. How observed. Ch. x. sec. 88, 4. D'''?PP'- Shekels to be paid. Ch. viii. sec. 52. 5. NOV. Dat/ of Expiation. Ch. viii. sec. 61. 6. nS'lD- Feast of Tabernacles. Ch. v. sec. 53. 7. nV?- The Egg (or litD DV Feast-day). Concerning Feasts. Ch. V. sec. 41, 8. T\'^'^T\ C'XI- The Neiu Civil Tear. Ch. iv, sec, 35. 9. ri'Vjyp. Fasting. Ch. iv, sec. 44. 10. Th'>yt2- '^he Soil of Esther. Ch. iv. sec. 33. 11. jitOp "ly'l^- ^^'^ lesser Feast. Days between Passover and Tabernacles. Ch, iii. sec. 23. 12. riJi|n. The Solemnity. When every male person must appear, or be exempted. Ch. iii. sec. 23. THE MISHNAH. 67 III. D^t^O. WOIIEN. • T 1. ni©!".. Brothers' wives to be married or not. Ch. xvi. sec. 12H. 2. n'Uin?. Writings oi conimct. Cli. xiii. sec. 111. •3. Dn"IJ. Von-s obligatory or not. Ch. xi. sec. 90. 4. T'p. Nazarite. His obligations. Ch. ix. sec. 60. •5. ntplD. Unfaithful looman. How to be tried. Ch. ix. sec. 07. C. |''P"'a. Divorces. How performed. Ch. ix. sec. 75. 7. pt^*-n"'i?- Esponsals. How made. Ch. iv. see. 47. IV. T'p^^ Injuries. 1. Sr^i'^ Xna. First gate. Damages. Ch. x. sec. 79. 2. Ny"'VP Xn3. 3Iiddle gate. Things found. Gains. Ch. x. 'sec. lOlI 3. Knn? X33. Last gate. Agreements. Ch. x. sec. 86. 4- riinjD. Sanhedrin. Courts. Ch. xi. sec. 71. 5. nisp. Stripes. Rules for inflicting. Ch. iii. sec. 34. 6. niy-ISEj'. Oaths. Rules for administering. Ch. viii. sec. 62. 7. nviy.. Witnesses. Ch. viii. sec. 74. 8. niT m'nj?. strange ivorship. Ch. v. sec. 50. 9. niSX "'p.")?- Chapters of the Fathers. Sentences of Wise Men. Cii. vi! sec. 106. 10. n'Vlin. Jws^/'MC^WMS for judges. Ch. iii. sec. 20. V. D'tJ^lp. Sacred Things. Sacrifices. Ch. xiv. sec. 101. Oblations. Ch. xiii. sec. 93. Things profane or unclean. Ch. xii. sec. 74. Firstlings. Ch. ix. sec, 73. Beckonings for redemption. Ch. ix. sec. 50. Exchange of victims. Ch. vii. sec. 35. Cutting off. Ch. vi. sec. 43. Error in sacrificing. Ch. vi. sec. 38. Perpetual sacrifice. Ch. vii. sec. 33. Measurements of Temple. Ch, v. sec. 33. Young birds offered by the poor. Ch. iii. sec. 15. F 2 1. n^nnr. 2. 3. nin;p. 4. nniD?. 5. 6. / . 8. ninn?. 9. n^pri'. 10. 11. nnp. 68 HISTORY OF THE KARAITE JEWS, VI. ni"lPIO- Purifications. T T 1. D'''?3. Vessels. Hotv to be cleansed. Cli. xxx. sec. 254. 2. Dion's. Tents or houses to be cleansed. Ch. xviii. sec. 134. 3. D''y3!). Plagues oile-prosj. Cb. xiv. sec. 115, 4. n"13. The red heifer. Cb. xii. sec. 96. 5. ni~ini5. Purifications. Ch. x. sec. 92. 0. n'lNlpp. Baths. Cb. x. sec. 71. 7. rr^J. Separation of menstruous woman. Ch. x. sec. 79. 8. pT'C'^p. Liquids that pollute vegetables. Cb. vi. sec. 54. 9. Qi^T. ' Pollutions at night. Ch. v. sec. 32. 10. DV ^-ISP- P>aili/ rvashing. Ch. iv. sec. 26. 11. Dnv Hands to be washed. Ch. iv. sec. 22, 12. D^Vpiy- Fruit-stetns. Ch. iii. sec. 28. Note B, page 60. The Jerusalem Talmud is a small book in comparison with the Babvlonian. It has passed through very few printed editions, and is contained in one volume. A learned and laborious Rabbinical scholar, Zechariah Frankel, of Breslau, has just given the Hebrew world an elaborate volume,^ in which he endeavours to throw new light on the text, and prepare the way for an enlarged and corrected edition. He considers that the work of the Palestinian doctors has been neglected and hopes that it will henceforth receive more attention. For the sake of history, both Jewish and Christian, I hope it will. The brief synopsis of the Mishnah given in the preceding note should be followed by a notice of the contents of the first Talmud, the Babylonian being too late and too miscellaneous to be of much value in relation to the Karaites. Dr. Frankel says that ' the Jeru- salem Talmud at this day in our hands is only on the four Orders Zeraitn 3locd, Nashim, Nezikim, and the first three chapters of the Title Niddah (in the sixth Order). On the Title Shabhat (in the second Order) is wanting the Jerusalem Gemdra (or explanatory complement) from chapter xxi. to the end of the Title. Gemdra is also wanting to chapter iii. of the Title Makkot (in the fourth Order). ' "pypJXID nnST n5