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 description from one of them will not be out of place.1

The ruins of the ancient city, the numerous tombs in the vicinity, one of which contains the remains of the great Maimonides, and the Jewish population, whose peculiar manners and features at once attract the traveller'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 contain a reality of sober truth which tells that he was distinguished by excellent wisdom and extraordinary sanctity.

2

There he sat, surrounded with seventy judges, in BethShearim, 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 everlasting 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

1 Sinai and Palestine. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A., chap. x. 2 Buxtorf's Tiberias, chap. iv.

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, hospitable, or even secure, is always called a captivity by the loyal Hebrew.

This illustrious Rabbi and his successors not only enjoyed 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 Antoninus1 conferred many honours on him, treating him with much favour, and, when at Tiberias, 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 work, the Mishnah, which by that Imperial sanction 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 prudent 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 permitted, experience taught his Christian successors the inexpediency of extending to human laws the recognition which is due to the laws of God, and, so instructed, Justinian prohibited the Mishnah from being read in synagogues.

› Whether Antoninus Pius or Philosophus, is uncertain; perhaps both.

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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 effort 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 correcting 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 book.

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 collection which has been made equally the subject of mysterious admiration and of idle ridicule. The Mishnah, as the original text of the Talmud, and as a faithful picture of Jewish theology and ecclesiology in the apostolic

1 See Note A, at the end of this chapter.

and post-apostolic ages, should be known to every Christian student,—at least in its general outlines,—and a nearer acquaintance with its contents is indispensably required for successful investigation of the Hebrew element 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 Apostlesmaterials which are not now sufficiently employed in application to their proper use. One thought only dashes our satisfaction, and it is that all the evidences of Christianity 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. Matthew. Under the shadow, then, of the very mountain where that sermon was delivered, was prepared the collection of traditions which were alluded to by the Divine

Quoted by Buxtorf, ut supra.

9

Preacher, and it must be acknowledged that without the Mishnah it would be vain to attempt a full textual exposition of the sermon. Such a key Rabbi Judah unconsciously 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 disparagement 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 occupied 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 preparing oblations that could not be presented, and for sacrifices that could not be slain, because the altars were overthrown and the priesthood was extinct.

Yet again. The Mishnah must be read with interest, for it has contributed, more than any other visible instrument, 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 attachment 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 world 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