John Henry Arthur Hart

“ SCRIBES. The word “ scribe ” (from Lat. scribere, to write) means generally a writer; but it has a more special application as the English term for the Jewish class called in Hebrew Sopherim (Gr. γραμματῖς) . Both the Hebrew and the Greek word are used to denote something equivalent to secretary of state or town-clerk in general; and through the influence of the law, revealed through Moses, upon the Jewish nation conceived as a theocracy, both words denote in particular one learned in Scripture. ”

“ The Jewish War (Περὶ τοῦ Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου) , the oldest of Josephus’ extant writings, was written towards the end of Vespasian’s reign (69–79) . The Aramaic original has not been preserved; but the Greek version was prepared by Josephus himself in conjunction with competent Greek scholars. Its purpose in all probability was, in the first instance, to exhibit to the Babylonian Jews the overwhelming power of Rome and so to deter them from repeating the futile revolt of the Jews of Palestine. ”

“ Later Sadducees, who actually bore the name, resisted this and all the characteristics of the Pharisees and continued to flatter the predominant foreigner—Greek or Roman—by imitating him with less reckless bravado than the first Hellenizers and with growing assurance. They were men of the world, and men of this world, and, so far as they still professed and practised Judaism, they preferred to repudiate the additions for which they felt no need, but which had entered into the faith of their fathers. ”

“ The work contains accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus, which may account for the fact that Josephus’ writings were rescued from oblivion by the Christians. But the description of Jesus as “a wise man, if indeed one should call him a man,” can hardly be genuine, and the assertion “this was the Christ” is equally doubtful, unless it be assumed that the Greek word Christos had become technical in the sense of false-Christ or false-prophet among non-Christian Jews. ”

“ In the New Testament there is already a tendency to ignore the Sadducees and to transfer to the surviving and active sect of the Pharisees denunciations addressed to hypocrites. The feud which set Pharisee and Sadducee against one another is ignored, and generally the condign oblivion which overtook this sect of the Jews is already beginning. The Christian Fathers seem to confound them with the Samaritans, and the confusion is natural enough. The Sadducees were as little loyal to the Judaism of Jerusalem as the Samaritans—and they were less sincere and less interested in religion. ”

“ It appears that the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican ended originally with a question, “ Which went home justified ”-the Pharisee who thanked God because he had been saved from the grosser sins, or the Publican who recognized that his calling was in itself sinful, and without venturing to pass beyond the Court of the Gentiles whom he served-without even promising to abandon their service-prayed for mercy to the God whom he feared? ”

“ The Sadducees do away with Destiny altogether and set God beyond the possibility of punishing or supervising men. They assert that man is free to choose good or evil since both are set before him, and that he receives good or evil according to his choice. ”

“ Book III. contains Jewish oracles relative to the Golden Age established by Roman supremacy in the East about the middle of the 2nd century B.C. (especially 175-181: cf. 1 Macc. viii. 1-16) . The evacuation of Egypt by Antiochus Epiphanes at the bidding of the Roman ambassadors suits the warning addressed to “Greece” (732-740) against overweening ambition and any attempt upon the Holy City, which is somewhat strangely enforced by the famous Greek oracle, “Let Camarina be, ’tis best unstirred.” ”

“ Being a Pharisee, he sometimes introduces traditions of the Elders, which are either inferences from, or embroideries of, the biblical narrative. Sometimes, also, he gives proof of some knowledge of Hebrew and supplements his scriptural authorities, which include 1 Esdras, from general Greek histories. For the later period he uses the Greek Esther, with its additions, 1 Maccabees, Polybius, Strabo and Nicolaus of Damascus. ”

“ In contrast with the mutual friendliness and loyalty of the Pharisees, their behaviour towards one another is lacking in courtes, and when they mix with their fellow-countrymen, they are as offhanded as if their fellows were aliens. ”

“ Christian practice is, on the whole, in favour of the Pharisee.
Other views of the ancient Scribes are too notorious to need statement here. Broadly speaking they have no connexion with the real evidence, because they rest upon the denunciations of the First Gospel. If it is necessary to begin historical investigation at the wrong end, it is advisable to take into account the whole evidence available. ”

“ John Hyrcanus I., high priest of the Jews from 135 to 105 B.C., was the youngest son of Simon Maccabaeus. In 137 B.C. he, along with his brother Judas, commanded the force which repelled the invasion of Judaea led by Cendebeus, the general of Antiochus VII. Sidetes. ”

“ Necessarily they differed from one another even in the same generation according to their different temperaments and their different experiences, especially of foreign lands. And different generations had to adapt themselves to different needs. ”

“ In 129 he accompanied Antiochus as a vassal prince on his ill-fated Parthian expedition; returning, however, to Judaea before winter, he escaped the final disaster. By the judicious mission of an embassy to Rome he now obtained confirmation of the alliance which his father had previously made with the growing western power; at the same time he availed himself of the weakened state of the Syrian monarchy under Demetrius II. to overrun Samaria, and also to invade Idumaea, which he completely subdued, compelling its inhabitants to receive circumcision and accept the Jewish faith. ”

“ Editions.—C. Alexandre (Paris, 1841, 2 vols.; 1869, 1 vol.) ; Rzach (Prague, 1891; text and appendix of sources) ; Geffcken (Leipzig, 1902; text with full apparatus of variants, sources and parallel passages) ”

“ But even in the Talmud the reign of Alexandra is described in apocalyptic language such as is commonly applied to the future age, and if allowance be made for the symbolism proper to revelations it is clear that essentially the scribe and the seer have the same purpose and even the same doctrines. ”

“ John Hyrcanus II., high priest from 78 to 40 B.C., was the eldest son of Alexander Jannaeus by his wife Alexandra, and was thus a grandson of the preceding. When his father died in 78, he was by his mother forthwith appointed high priest, and on her death in 69 he claimed the succession to the supreme civil authority also ”

“ They were also concerned to insist upon the strict observance of the Law, so far as it was compatible with the exigencies of ordinary life, and to train disciples who should set a proper example to the mass of the people. ”