History of the Jews (Vol. 1-6). Graetz Heinrich

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СКАЧАТЬ in the Judæan community, and which even divided families. What could be pronounced right and lawful? The father did not agree with the son; the one accepted the stern practice, the other the lax, and thus disputes arose in each household. To counteract these lamentable occurrences, the more pious, who would not allow themselves to be shaken in their convictions, met and discussed a plan of action. They turned with hope and longing towards Nehemiah, who was still at the court of Artaxerxes. If he would but return to Jerusalem, he could, with one blow, put an end to this miserable state of confusion, and restore peace, unity, and strength to the city. At this auspicious moment a God-fearing man suddenly appeared on the scene. He belonged to the party that was incensed at the behaviour of the high-priest and his followers, and he undertook to chastise the wicked, and to reanimate the waning courage of the good. This man, full of vigour, and moved by the prophetic spirit, was Malachi, the last of the prophets. Worthily did he close the long list of godly men who had succeeded each other for four centuries. Malachi announced to his dejected and despairing brethren the speedy arrival of the Messenger of the Covenant, whom many delighted in, and who would bring better days with him. The prophet counselled the people not to omit paying the tithes on account of the evil-doing of some of the priests, but to bring them all, as in former days, into the store-houses.

      Malachi, like the early prophets, proclaimed that in the distant future a great and awful day would dawn, when the difference between the pious and the wicked would be made clear. Before the coming of that last day God would send His prophet Elijah, and he would reconcile the father to the son. He bade them remember and take to heart the Law of Moses, with its statutes and its judgments, which had been given to them on Mount Horeb. With these words, the voice of prophecy was hushed.

      The written Law, which had been made accessible to many through the zeal of Ezra, and which had found a body of exponents, rendered the continuance of prophetic utterances unnecessary. The scribe took the place of the seer, and the reading of the Law, either to large assemblies or in houses of prayer, was substituted for prophetic revelation.

      Did Nehemiah at the court of Persia have any idea of the yearning for his presence that existed at this very moment in Jerusalem? Had he any knowledge that Malachi's belief in better days rested upon the hope of his return? It is impossible to say, but, at all events, he suddenly re-appeared in Jerusalem, between the years 430 and 424, having again obtained the king's permission to return to his spiritual home, and soon after his arrival he became, in the words of the prophet, "like a refiner's fire, and like the fuller's lye." He cleansed the community of its impure elements. He began by expelling the Ammonite Tobiah from the place which had been given to him by his priestly relative, Eliashib, and by dismissing the latter from his office. He then assembled the heads of the community, and reproached them bitterly with having caused the Levites to desert the Temple, by neglecting to collect the tithes. A summons from Nehemiah was enough to induce the landed proprietors to perform their neglected duties, and to cause the Levites to return to their service in the Temple. The charge of the collected tithes and their just distribution he placed under the care of four conscientious Judæans,—some of his devoted followers. He restored the divine service to its former solemnity, and dismissed the unworthy priests. A most important work in the eyes of Nehemiah was the dissolution of the mixed marriages which had again been contracted. Here he came in direct conflict with the high-priestly house. Manasseh, a son or relation of the high-priest Joiada, refused to separate himself from his Samaritan wife, Nicaso, Sanballat's daughter, and Nehemiah possessed sufficient firmness to banish him from the country. Many other Aaronides and Judæans who would not obey Nehemiah's commands were also sent into exile. After peace and order had been restored in the capital, Nehemiah tried to abolish the abuses which had found their way into the provinces. Wherever Judæans lived in close proximity to foreign tribes, such as the Ashdodites, Ammonites, Moabites, or Samaritans, mixed marriages had led to almost entire ignorance of the Hebrew tongue, for the children of these marriages generally spoke the language of their mothers. This aroused Nehemiah's anger, and stimulated his energy. He remonstrated with the Judæan fathers, he even cursed them, and finally caused the refractory to be punished. By such persistent activity he was able to accomplish the dissolution of the mixed marriages, and the preservation of the Hebrew tongue.

      Nehemiah next introduced the strict observance of the Sabbath, which had been but negligently observed hitherto. The Law had certainly forbidden all labour on that day, but it had not defined what really was to be considered as labour. At all events, the Judæans who lived in the provinces were ignorant on that point, for on the Sabbath they pressed the wine, loaded their beasts of burden with corn, grapes, figs, and drove them to market into the city of Jerusalem. As soon as Nehemiah discovered that the Sabbath was treated like an ordinary week-day, he assembled the country people, and explained that they were sinning against God's Law, and they listened to him, and followed his injunctions. But he had a more difficult task in abolishing an old-established custom. Tyrian merchants were in the habit of appearing in Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day, bringing fish fresh from the sea, and they found ready customers. But Nehemiah ordered that henceforth all the gates should be closed on the Sabbath eve, so that no merchant could enter the city. These ordinances were strictly enforced, and from that time the Sabbath was rigorously observed.

      The strict observance of the Law, enjoined by Ezra, was insisted upon by Nehemiah; he built the wall of separation between Judæans and Gentiles so securely, that it was impossible to break through it. The Judæans who were discontented with this separation and the severity of the Law were obliged to leave the Judæan community, and form a sect of their own. Nehemiah himself probably lived to see the formation of the first sect among Jews, and as he himself might virtually be held responsible for it, he thought it necessary to justify his proceedings, and to set forth his own meritorious part in raising the fallen community. He composed a kind of memoir, in which he related what he had achieved in his first and second visits to Jerusalem. At intervals he inserted the prayer that God would remember him for what he had done for the people and for his services in behalf of the Sanctuary and its preservation. It was a kind of self-justification written in his old age, and his name has remained eternally in the remembrance of a grateful people. To him and to Ezra, the creators of that spiritual current which has since attained an irresistible force in the Jewish world, grateful posterity has attributed all beneficial institutions whose origin is unknown.

      CHAPTER XX. THE SOPHERIC AGE.

       Table of Contents

      Enmity of the Samaritans against the Judæans​—​The Temple on Mount Gerizim​—​The High-Priest Manasseh​—​The mixed language of the Samaritans​—​Their veneration for the Law of Moses​—​Judaism loses its national meaning​—​The Jubilee and Sabbatical Year​—​Almsgiving​—​The Council of Seventy​—​The Assyrian Characters​—​The Schools and the Sopherim​—​Observance of the Ceremonies​—​The Prayers​—​The Future Life​—​The Judæans under Artaxerxes II. and III.​—​Their Banishment to the Caspian Sea​—​Johanan and Joshua contend for the office of High-Priest​—​Bagoas​—​The Writings of the Period​—​The Greeks and Macedonians​—​Alexander the Great and the Judæans​—​Judæa accounted a Province of Cœlesyria​—​Struggles between Alexander's Successors​—​Capture of Jerusalem by Ptolemy​—​Judæa added to the Lagidean-Egyptian Kingdom​—​The Judæan Colonies in Egypt and Syria and the Greek Colonies in Palestine.

      420–300 B. C. E.

      Hatred which arises from rejected love is stronger and more vehement than enmity resulting from inexplicable antipathy, jealousy, or disagreement. Sanballat, as well as his Samaritan followers and companions, out of preference for the God of Israel, had struggled to be received into the Judæan community. The virulence of their enmity against Nehemiah, who had raised the commonwealth from its declining state, was in reality an impetuous offer of love, by which they hoped to secure an intimate connection with Judæa. СКАЧАТЬ