Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ

An extra-Palestinian Judaism, without priesthood, altar, temple, sacrifices, tithes, first-fruits, Sabbatical and Jubilee years, must first set aside the Pentateuch, unless, as in Christianity, all these be regarded as blossoms designed to ripen into fruit, as types pointing to, and fulfilled in higher realities.

It was a saying, that "to live in Palestine was equal to the observance of all the commandments." "He that hath his permanent abode in Palestine," so taught the Talmud, "is sure of the life to come." "Three things," we read in another authority, "are Israel's through suffering: Palestine, traditional lore, and the world to come." Nor did this feeling abate with the desolation of their country. In the third and fourth centuries of our era they still taught, "He that dwelleth in Palestine is without sin."

Our main object was to explain the division of Palestine in the time of our Lord. Politically speaking, it consisted of Judaea and Samaria, under Roman procurators; Galilee and Peraea (on the other side Jordan), subject to Herod Antipas, the murderer of John the Baptist... and Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, under the rule of the tetrarch Philip.

But "outside [Palestine]" everything was darkness and death. The very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it defiled by contact. It was regarded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt. More than that, if my mischance any heathen dust had been brought into Palestine, it did not and could not mingle with that of "the land," but remained to the end what it had been - unclean, defiled, and defiling everything to which it adhered.

Lastly, Judaea proper claimed pre-eminence over Galilee, as being the centre of Rabbinism.

It results from our inquiries, that, what the Rabbis considered as the land of Israel proper, may be regarded as commencing immediately south of Antioch.

The Holy Land itself was a country of mixed and hostile races, of divided interests, where close by the side of the narrowest and most punctilious Pharisaism heathen temples rose, and heathen rites and customs openly prevailed.

During the troubled period which followed [Babylonian captivity], there was a constant influx of heathen, and unceasing attempts were made to introduce and perpetuate foreign elements.

Even the language of Israel had undergone a change [post-Babylonian captivity]. In the course of time the ancient Hebrew had wholly given place to the Aramaic dialect, except in public worship and in the learned academies of theological doctors.

But Caesarea Philippi was originally Paneas, the city devoted to Pan; nor does its change of name indicate a more Jewish direction on the part of its inhabitants.

From what has been said, it will appear that [in the mind of the Jews] there remained only Galilee and Judaea proper, in which strictly Jewish views and manners must be sought for.

The favourites and counsellors by whom [Herod] surrounded himself were heathens; wherever he or his successors could, they reared heathen temples, and on all occasions they promoted the spread of Grecian views.

There was only one feeling common to all [Jews in the time of Christ] - high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlettered: it was that of intense hatred of the foreigner.

From the New Testament we know, that to enter the house of a heathen defiled till the evening (John 18:28), and that all familiar intercourse with Gentiles was forbidden (Acts 10:28).

The most unexpected and unprepared-for revelation, from the Jewish point of view, was that of the breaking down of the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, the taking away of the enmity of the law, and the nailing it to His cross.

The Rabbis detail certain theological differences between Galilee and Judaea. Without here mentioning them, we have no hesitation in saying, that [Galileans] show more earnest practical piety and strictness of life, and less adherence to those Pharisaical distinctions which so often made void the law.

Josephus describes the Galileans as hard-working, manly, and brave; and even the Talmud admits (Jer. Cheth. iv 14) that they cared more for honour than for money.

Indeed, in towns and their neighbourhood the police regulations were even more strict; and such ordinances occur as for the removal within thirty days of rotten trees or dangerous walls; not to pour out water on the road; not to throw out anything on the street, nor to leave the building materials, or broken glass, or thorns, along with other regulations for the public safety and health.

Journeys [in Palestine] were performed on foot, upon asses, or in carriages (Acts 8:28).

Israel was always distinguished for hospitality; and not only the Bible, but the Rabbis, enjoin this in the strongest terms. In Jerusalem no man was to account a house as only his own; and it was said, that during the pilgrim-feasts none ever wanted ready reception.

Bethphage and Bethany...were specially celebrated for their hospitality towards the festive pilgrims.

The Rabbis declared that hospitality involved as great, and greater merit than early morning attendance in an academy of learning.

The Jews retaliated [against Herod's slaughter of infants] by an intensity of hatred which went so far as to elevate the day of Herod's death (2 Shebet) into an annual feast-day, on which all mourning was prohibited.

Every town and community levied its own taxes for the maintenance of synagogue, elementary schools, public baths, the support of the poor, the maintenance of public roads, city walls, and gates, and other general requirements. It must, however, be admitted that the Jewish authorities distributed this burden of civic taxation both easily and kindly, and that they applied the revenues derived from it for the public welfare in a manner scarcely yet attained in the most civilized countries.

Whatever they may say of the superiority of Christ's teaching to account for his success, no religion could ever have been more weighted; no popular cause could ever have presented itself under more disadvantageous circumstances than did the Gospel of Christ to the Jews of Palestine.

Galilee might be the outer court, but Judaea was like the inner sanctuary of Israel.

Here [westward of Jerusalem] Joshua had pursued the kings of the south; there Samson had come down upon the Philistines, and here for long years had war been waged against the arch-enemy of Israel, Philistia.

[Through Jericho] passed the great caravan-road, which connected Arabia with Damascus. The fertility of its soil, and its tropical produce, were almost proverbial. Its palm-groves and gardens of roses, but especially its balsam-plantations, of which the largest was behind the royal palace, were the fairy land of the old world.

To the Jew [Jerusalem] was the true home of his soul, the centre of his inmost life, the longing of his heart. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning," sang they who sat by the rivers of Babylon, weeping as they remembered Zion.

The title "Son of man" was familiar to those who had drawn their ideas of the Messiah from the well-known pages of Daniel. The popular apocalyptic literature of the period, especially the so-called "Book of Enoch," not only kept this designation in popular memory, but enlarged on the judgment which He was to execute on Gentile kings and nations.

The question of the Messiah might come up as a speculative point; it might force itself upon the attention of the Sanhedrim; but it was not of personal, practical, life-interest to [the Sanhedrists].

We can readily understand, that to a Jew Caesarea was the symbol of Rome, Rome of Edom - and Edom was to be destroyed!

It deserves notice, that the answer which the Sanhedrists of old gave to the inquiries of Herod (Matt. 2:5) is equally returned in many Talmudical passages, and with the same reference to Micah 5:2. It may therefore be regarded as a settled point that, according to the Jewish fathers, Messiah, the Son of David, was to be born in Bethlehem of Judah.

At all times Bethlehem was among "the least" in Judah - so small that the Rabbis do not even refer to it in detail.

Of the hospitality of the inhabitants of Jerusalem accounts are given, which we can scarcely regard as much exaggerated; for the city was not reckoned to belong to any tribe in particular; it was to be considered as equally the home of all. Its houses were to be neither hired nor let, but freely thrown open to every brother.

In truth, every effort was used to make Jerusalem truly a city of delight. Its police and sanitary regulations were more perfect than in any modern city; the arrangements such as to keep the pilgrim free to give his heart and mind to sacred subjects.

Each morning [in Jerusalem] the threefold blast of the priests' trumpets wakened the city with a call to prayer; each evening the same blasts closed the working day, as with sounds from heaven.