The Martyrdom of Man, Winwood Reade [best book club books TXT] 📗

a civilised people; a literary class arose. Jerusalem, situated on

the highway between the Euphrates and the Nile, obtained a place in the

Asiatic world. The minds of the citizens became elevated and refined,

and that reflection of their minds which they called Jehovah assumed a

pure and noble form: he was recognised as the one God, the Creator of

the world.

 

During all these years Moses had been forgotten, but now his code of

laws (so runs the legend) was discovered in a corner of the temple, and

laws of a higher kind adapted to a civilised people were issued under his

name. The idols were broken, the foreign priests were expelled. It was in

the midst of this great religious revival that Jerusalem was destroyed, and

it may well be that the law which forbade the Jews to render homage to a

foreign king was the chief cause of their contumacy and their dispersal. It

was certainly the cause of all their subsequent calamities: it was their

loyalty to Jehovah which provoked the destruction of the city by the

Romans: it was their fidelity to the law which brought down upon them

all the curses of the law.

 

The reformation in the first period had been by no means complete: there

had been many relapses and back-slidings, and they therefore readily

believed that the captivity was a judgment upon them for their sins. By

the waters of Babylon they repented with bitter tears; in a strange land

they returned to the god of their fathers and never deserted him again.

Henceforth religion was their patriotism. Education became general:

divine worship was organised: schools and synagogues were established

wherever Jews were to be found.

 

And soon they were to be found in all the cities of the Eastern world.

They had no land, and therefore adopted commerce as their pursuit; they

became a trading and a travelling people, and the financial abilities which

they displayed obtained them employment in the households and

treasuries of kings.

 

The dispersion of the Jews must be dated from this period and not from

the second destruction of the city. When Cyrus conquered Babylon he

restored to the Jews their golden candlesticks and holy vessels, allowed

them to return home, and rendered them assistance partly from religious

sympathy—for the Jews made him believe that his coming had been

predicted by their prophets—and partly from motives of policy. Palestine

was the key to Egypt, against which Cyrus had designs, and it was wise to

plant in Palestine a people on whom he could rely. But not all the Jews

availed themselves of his decree. The merchants and officials who were

now making their fortunes by the waters of Babylon were not inclined to

return to the modest farmer life of Judea. Their piety was warm and

sincere, but it was no longer combined with a passion for the soil. They

began to regard Jerusalem as the Mohammedans regard Mecca. The

people who did return were chiefly the fanatics, the clergy, and the

paupers. The harvest, as we shall find was worthy of the seed.

 

Beneath the Persian yoke the Jews of Judea were content, and paid their

tribute with fidelity. They could do so without scruple, for they identified

Ormuzd with Jehovah, took lessons in theology from the doctors of the

Zend-Avesta, and recognised the Great King as God´s viceroy on earth.

But when the Persian empire was broken up Palestine was again tossed

upon the waves. The Greek kings of Alexandria and Antioch repeated

the wars of Nebuchadnezzar and Necho. Again Egypt was worsted, and

Syria became a province of the Graeco-Asiatic empire. The government

encouraged emigration into the newly conquered lands, and soon

Palestine was covered with Greek towns and filled with Greek settlers.

Judea alone remained like an island in the flood. European culture was

detested by the doctors of the law, who inflicted the same penalty for

learning Greek as for eating pork. They therefore resisted the spread of

civilisation, and Jerusalem was closed against the Greeks.

 

In the Hellenic world toleration was the universal rule. An oracle at

Delphi had expressed the opinion of all when it declared that the proper

religion for each man was the religion of his fatherland. Governments,

therefore, did not interfere with the religious opinions of the people, but

on the other hand the religious opinions of the people did not interfere

with their civil duties. We allow the inhabitants of the holy city of

Benares to celebrate the rites of their pilgrimage in their own manner, and

to torture themselves in moderation, but we should at once begin what

they would call a religious persecution if they were to purify the town by

destroying the shops of the beef-butchers and other institutions which are

an abomination in their eyes. Antiochus Epiphanes was by nature a

humane and enlightened prince; he attempted to Europeanise Jerusalem;

he could do this only by abolishing the Jewish laws; he could abolish

their laws only by destroying their religion; and thus he was gradually

drawn into barbarous and useless crimes of which he afterwards repented,

but which have gained him the reputation of a Nero.

 

At first, however, it appeared as if he would succeed. The aristocratic

party of Jerusalem were won over to the cause. A gymnasium was

erected, and Jews with artificial foreskins appeared naked in the arena.

Riots broke out. Then royal edicts were issued forbidding circumcision,

and keeping of the Sabbath, and the use of the law. A pagan altar was set

up in the Holy of Holies, and swine were sacrificed upon it to the

Olympian Jove. The riots increased. Then a Greek regiment garrisoned

the city; all new-born children that were found to be circumcised were

hurled with their mothers from the walls; altar pork was offered as a test

of loyalty to the elders of the Church, and those who refused to eat were

put to death with tortures too horrible to be described. And now the Jews

no longer raised riots: they rebelled. The empire was at that time in a

state of weakness and disorder, and under the gallant Maccabees the

independence of Judea was achieved. Yet it is only in adversity that the

Jews can be admired. As soon as they obtained the power of self-government they showed themselves unworthy to possess it, and in the

midst of a civil war they were enveloped by the Roman power, which had

extended them its protection in the period of the Maccabees. The senate

placed Herod the great, an Arab price, upon the throne.

 

Herod was a man of the world, and his policy resembled that of the

Ptolemies in Egypt. He built the Temple at Jerusalem and a theatre at

Caesarea, in which city he preferred to dwell. The kingdom at his death

was divided between his three sons: they were merely rajahs under the

rule of Rome, and the one who governed Judea having been removed for

misbehaviour, that country was attached to the proconsulate of Syria. A

lieutenant-governor was appointed to reside in the turbulent district to

collect the revenues and maintain order. The position of the first

commandant whom Russia sends to garrison Bokhara will resemble that

of the procurator who took up his winter quarters at Jerusalem.

 

Those Jews of Judea, those Hebrews of the Hebrews, regarded all the

Gentiles as enemies of God; they considered it a sin to live abroad, or to

speak a foreign language, or to rub their limbs with foreign oil. Of all the

trees, the Lord had chosen but one vine; and of all the flowers but one

lily; and of all the birds but one dove; and of all the cattle but one lamb;

and of all the builded cities only Sion; and among all the multitude of

peoples he had elected the Jews as a peculiar treasure, and had made them

a nation of priests and holy men. For their sake God had made the world.

On their account alone empires rose and fell. Babylon had triumphed

because God was angry with his people; Babylon had fallen because he

had forgiven them. It may be imagined that it was not easy to govern

such a race. They acknowledged no king but Jehovah, no laws but the

precepts of their holy books. In paying tribute they yielded to absolute

necessity, but the tax-gatherers were looked upon as unclean creatures; no

respectable men would eat with them or pray with them; their evidence

was not accepted in the courts of justice.

 

Their own government consisted of a Sanhedrin or Council of Elders,

presided over by the High Priest. They had power to administer their

own laws, but could not inflict the punishment of death without the

permission of the procurator. All persons of consideration devoted

themselves to the study of the law. Hebrew had become a dead language,

and some learning was therefore requisite for the exercise of this

profession, which was not the prerogative of a single class. It was a

rabbinical axiom that the crown of the kingdom was deposited in Judah,

and the crown of the priesthood in the seed of Aaron, but that the crown

of the law was common to all Israel. Those who gained distinction as

expounders of the sacred books were saluted with the title of rabbi, and

were called scribes and doctors of the law. The people were ruled by the

scribes, but the scribes were recruited from the people. It was not an idle

caste—an established Church—but an order which was filled and refilled

with the pious, the earnest, and the ambitious members of the nation.

 

There were two great religious sects which were also political parties, as

must always be the case where law and religion are combined. The

Sadducees were the rich, the indolent, and the passive aristocrats; they

were the descendants of those who had belonged to the Greek party in the

reign of Antiochus, and it was said that they themselves were tainted with

the Greek philosophy. They professed, however, to belong to the

conservative Scripture and original Mosaic school. As the Protestants

reject the traditions of the ancient Church, some of which have doubtless

descended viva voce from apostolic times, so all traditions, good and bad,

were rejected by the Sadduccees. As Protestants always inquire

respecting a custom or doctrine, “Is it in the Bible?” so the Sadduccees

would accept nothing that could not be shown them in the law. They did

not believe in heaven and hell because there was nothing about heaven

and hell in the books of Moses. The morality which their doctors

preached was cold and pure, and adapted only for enlightened minds.

They taught that men should be virtuous without the fear of punishment

and without the hope of reward, and that such virtue alone is of any

worth.

 

The Pharisees were mostly persons of low birth. They were the

prominent representatives of the popular belief, zealots in patriotism as

well as in religion—the teaching, the preaching, and the proselytising

party. Among them were to be found two kinds of men. Those Puritans

of the Commonwealth with lank hair and sour visage and upturned eyes,

who wore sombre garments, sniffled through their noses, and garnished

their discourse with Scripture texts, were an exact reproduction, so far as

the difference of place and period would allow, of certain Jerusalem

Pharisees who veiled their faces when they went abroad lest they should

behold a woman or some unclean thing; who strained the water which

they drank for fear they should swallow the forbidden gnat; who gave

alms to the sound of trumpet, and uttered long prayers in a loud voice;

who wore texts embroidered on their robes and bound upon their brows;

who followed minutely the observances of the ceremonial law; who

added to it with their traditions; who lengthened the