The Life of Jesus of Nazareth | Page 5

The centurion of Capernaum (Matt. viii. 5; Luke vii. 2-5)
was an officer in the army of Antipas, who, however, doubtless
organized his army on the Roman pattern, with officers who had had
their training with the imperial forces.
7. The administration of justice in Samaria and Judea was theoretically

in the hands of the procurator; practically, however, it was left with the
Jewish courts, either the local councils or the great sanhedrin at
Jerusalem. This last body consisted of seventy-one "elders." Its
president was the high-priest, and its members were drawn in large
degree from the most prominent representatives of the priestly
aristocracy. The scribes, however, had a controlling influence because
of the reverence in which the multitude held them. The sanhedrin of
Jerusalem had jurisdiction only within the province of Judea, where it
tried all kinds of offences; its judgment was final, except in capital
cases, when it had to yield to the procurator, who alone could sentence
to death. It had great influence also in Galilee, and among Jews
everywhere, but this was due to the regard all Jews had for the holy city.
It was, in fact, a sort of Jewish senate, which took cognizance of
everything that seemed to affect the Jewish interests. In Galilee and
Perea, Antipas held in his hands the judicial as well as the military and
financial administration.
8. To the majority of the priests religion had become chiefly a form.
They represented the worldly party among the Jews. Since the days of
the priest-princes who ruled in Jerusalem after the return from the exile,
they had constituted the Jewish aristocracy, and held most of the wealth
of the people. It was to their interest to maintain the ritual and the
traditional customs, and they were proud of their Jewish heritage; of
genuine interest in religion, however, they had little. This secular
priestly party was called the Sadducees, probably from Zadok, the
high-priest in Solomon's time. What theology the Sadducees had was
for the most part reactionary and negative. They were opposed to the
more earnest spirit and new thought of the scribes, and naturally
produced some champions who argued for their theological position;
but the mass of them cared for other things.
9. The leaders of the popular thought, on the other hand, were chiefly
noted for their religious zeal and theological acumen. They represented
the outgrowth of that spirit which in the Maccabean time had risked all
to defend the sanctity of the temple and the right of God's people to
worship him according to his law. They were known as Pharisees,
because, as the name ("separated") indicates, they insisted on the

separation of the people of God from all the defilements and snares of
the heathen life round about them. The Pharisees constituted a
fraternity devoted to the scrupulous observance of law and tradition in
all the concerns of daily life. They were specialists in religion, and
were the ideal representatives of Judaism. Their distinguishing
characteristic was reverence for the law; their religion was the religion
of a book. By punctilious obedience of the law man might hope to gain
a record of merit which should stand to his credit and secure his reward
when God should finally judge the world. Because life furnished many
situations not dealt with in the written law, there was need of its
authoritative interpretation, in order that ignorance might not cause a
man to transgress. These interpretations constituted an oral law which
practically superseded the written code, and they were handed down
from generation to generation as "the traditions of the fathers." The
existence of this oral law made necessary a company of scribes and
lawyers whose business it was to know the traditions and transmit them
to their pupils. These scribes were the teachers of Israel, the leaders of
the Pharisees, and the most highly revered class in the community.
Pharisaism at its beginning was intensely earnest, but in the time of
Jesus the earnest spirit had died out in zealous formalism. This was the
inevitable result of their virtual substitution of the written law for the
living God. Their excessive reverence had banished God from practical
relation to the daily life. They held that he had declared his will once
for all in the law. His name was scrupulously revered, his worship was
cultivated with minutest care, his judgment was anticipated with dread;
but he himself, like an Oriental monarch, was kept far from common
life in an isolation suitable to his awful holiness. By a natural
consequence conscience gave place to scrupulous regard for tradition in
the religion of the scribes. The chief question with them was not, Is this
right? but, What say the elders? The soul's sensitiveness of response to
God's will and God's truth was lost in a