IX. JEWISH THEOLOGY, SCRIPTURES AND CUSTOMS
(61) Some Aspects of Jewish Theology. Moses as Religious Educator
Our Polity a Theocracy
There is endless variety in the details of the customs and laws which prevail in the world at large. [To give but a summary enumeration:][394] some peoples have entrusted the supreme power of government to monarchies, others to oligarchies, yet others to the masses. Our lawgiver, however, was attracted by none of these forms of polity, but gave to his constitution the form of what—if a forced expression be permitted—may be termed a “theocracy,” ascribing the sovereignty and majesty to God. To Him he persuaded all to look, as the Author of all blessings, both those which are common to all mankind, and those which they had won for themselves by prayer in their utmost adversities. He convinced them that no single action, no secret thought, could be hid from Him. He represented Him as One, uncreated[395] and immutable to all eternity;[396] in beauty surpassing all mortal comeliness, made known to us by His power, although the nature of His real being[397] passes knowledge.
A Religion for the Many, not (like Greek philosophy) for the Few
That the wisest of the Greeks learnt to adopt these conceptions of God from principles with which Moses supplied them, I am not now concerned to urge; but they have borne abundant witness to the excellence of these doctrines, and to their consonance with the nature and majesty of God. In fact, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Plato, the Stoics who succeeded him, and indeed nearly all the philosophers appear to have held similar views concerning the nature of God. These, however, addressed their philosophy to the few, and did not venture to divulge the true doctrine[398] to the masses who were prepossessed by (other) opinions; whereas our lawgiver, by making practice square with precept, not only convinced his own contemporaries, but so firmly implanted this belief concerning God in their descendants to all future generations that it cannot be moved. The cause (of his success) was that he far surpassed (other legislators) in promoting the good of all men to all time by his scheme of legislation; for he did not make religion a department of virtue, but the various virtues—I mean, justice, temperance, fortitude, and mutual harmony in all things between the members of the community[399]—departments of religion. Religion governs all our actions and studies and speech; none of these things did our lawgiver leave unexamined[400] or indeterminate.
The Two Methods of Education Combined by Moses
All schemes of education and moral training fall into two categories; instruction is imparted in the one case by precept, in the other by practical exercising of the character. All other legislators, following their divergent opinions, selected the particular method which each preferred and neglected the other. Thus the Lacedæmonians and Cretans employed practical, not verbal, training; whereas the Athenians and nearly all the rest of the Greeks made laws enjoining what actions might or might not be performed, but neglected to familiarize the people with them by putting them into practice.
Our legislator, on the other hand, took great care to combine both systems. He did not leave practical training in morals without a written code;[401] nor did he permit the letter of the law to remain inoperative. Starting from the very beginning with the food of which we partake from infancy and the private life[402] of the home, he left nothing, however insignificant, to the discretion and caprice of the individual. What meats a man should abstain from, and what he may enjoy; with what persons he should associate; what period should be devoted respectively to strenuous labour and to rest;[403]—for all this our leader made the law the standard and rule, that we might live under it as under a father and master[404] and be guilty of no sin through wilfulness or ignorance.
All Jews Know their Law, which is Read Every Week
For ignorance he left no pretext. He proved[405] the Law to be the most excellent and necessary form of instruction, ordaining, not that it should be heard once for all or twice or on several occasions, but that every week men should desert their other occupations and assemble to listen to the Law and to obtain a thorough and accurate knowledge of it; a practice which all other legislators seem to have neglected.[406]
Indeed, most men, so far from living in accordance with their own laws, hardly know what they are. Only when they have done wrong do they learn from others that they have transgressed the law. Even those of them who hold the highest and most important offices admit their ignorance; for they employ professional legal experts as assessors and leave them in charge of the administration of affairs. But, should any one of our nation be questioned about the laws, he would repeat them all more readily than his own name. The result, then, of our thorough grounding in the laws from the time when we first had any sensations whatever, is that we have them as it were engraven on our souls. A transgressor is a rarity and to elude punishment by entreaty an impossibility.—c. Ap. II. 16-18 (164-178).
(62) A Future Life—for the Law-abiding
With us the death penalty is imposed for most offences, for instance, if a man commit adultery.... Even fraud in such matters as weights or measures, or injustice and deceit in trade, or purloining another man’s property or laying hands on what one did not deposit—all such crimes have punishments attached to them which are not on the same scale as with other nations, but more severe. For example, the mere intention of doing wrong to one’s parents or of impiety against God is followed by instant death.
For those, on the other hand, who live in accordance with our laws the prize is not silver or gold, no crown of wild olive[407] or of parsley[408] with any such public proclamation (as attends those awards). No; each individual, relying on the witness of his own conscience and the lawgiver’s prophecy, which is confirmed by the sure testimony of God, is firmly persuaded that to those who observe the laws and, if they must needs die for them, willingly meet death,[409] God has granted a renewed existence and in the revolution (of the ages)[410] the gift of a better life. I should have hesitated to write thus, had not the facts made all men aware that many of our countrymen have on many occasions ere now preferred to brave all manner of suffering rather than to utter a single word against the Law.[411]—c. Ap. II. 30 (215-219).
(63) The Jewish Scriptures and their Preservation
The Writers and Custodians of the Records
That our forefathers took no less, not to say even greater, care than the nations I have mentioned[412] in the keeping of their records—a task which they assigned to their chief priests and prophets—and that down to our own times these records have been, and if I may venture to say so, will continue to be, preserved with scrupulous accuracy, I will endeavour briefly to demonstrate.
Selection of the Custodians. Scrutiny of Priestly Marriages and Genealogies
Not only did our ancestors in the first instance set over this business men of the highest character, devoted to the service of God, but they took precautions to ensure that the priests’ lineage should be kept unadulterated and pure. A member of the priestly order must marry a woman of his own race, without regard to her wealth or other distinctions; but he must investigate her pedigree, obtaining the genealogy from the archives[413] and producing a number of witnesses. And this practice of ours is not confined to the home country of Judæa, but wherever there is a Jewish colony,[414] there too a strict account is kept by the priests of their marriages; I allude to the Jews in Egypt and Babylon and other parts of the world in which any of the priestly order are living in dispersion. A statement is drawn up by them and sent to Jerusalem, showing the names of the bride and her father and more remote ancestors together with the names of the witnesses. In the not infrequent event of war, for instance when our country was invaded by Antiochus Epiphanes |170-168 B.C.|, by Pompey the Great |63 B.C.|, by Quintilius Varus |4 B.C.|, and above all in our own times |A.D. 66-70.|, the surviving priests compile fresh records from the older documents;[415] they also pass scrutiny upon the remaining women and disallow marriage with any who have been taken captive, suspecting them of having had frequent intercourse with foreigners. But the most convincing proof of our accuracy in this matter is that our records contain the names of our high priests with the succession from father to son for the last two thousand years. And whoever violates any of the above rules is forbidden to minister at the altars or to take any other part in divine worship.
The Twenty-two Books of Scripture
The task of writing (our national history) is thus one which cannot be capriciously undertaken by all alike; and there is no discrepancy in the records. No; the prophets alone (had this privilege), obtaining their knowledge of the most remote and ancient history through the inspiration which they owed to God, and committing to writing a faithful account of the events of their own time just as they occurred. From this it naturally, or rather necessarily, follows that we[416] do not possess vast numbers[417] of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those to which we justly pin our faith,[418] are but two and twenty, and contain the record of all time.[419]
Of these, five are the books of Moses, comprising the laws and the traditional history from the birth of man down to the death of the lawgiver. This period falls only a little short of three thousand years. From the death of Moses to the (death)[420] of Artaxerxes,[421] who succeeded Xerxes as King of Persia, the prophets subsequent to Moses wrote the history of the events of their own times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for (the conduct of) human life.
From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written, but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.
Jewish Veneration of their Scriptures
We have given practical proof of the spirit in which we treat[422] our own Scriptures. For, although such long ages have now passed, no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable; and it is an instinct with every Jew, from the day of his birth, to regard them as the decrees[423] of God, to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to die for them. Time and again ere now the sight has been witnessed of prisoners enduring tortures and death in every form in the theatres, rather than utter a single word against the laws and the allied documents.—c. Ap. I. 6-8 (29-43).
(64) Universal Imitation of our Laws the sincerest flattery
Now, since Time is reckoned in all cases the surest test of worth,[424] I would call Time to witness to the excellence of our lawgiver and of the doctrine which he has delivered to us concerning God. An infinity of time has passed (since Moses) by comparison with the ages in which other lawgivers lived; yet it will be found that throughout the whole of that period not merely have our laws stood the test of our own use, but they have to an ever-increasing extent instilled an emulation of them into the world at large.[425]
Our earliest imitators were the Greek philosophers, who, though ostensibly observing the laws of their own countries, yet in their conduct[426] and philosophy were Moses’ disciples, holding similar views about God, and inculcating simplicity of life and participation[427] between man and man. But-that is not all. The masses have long since shown a keen desire to adopt our religious observances, and there is not one city, Greek [or barbarian, nor a single nation,][428] to which our custom of abstaining from work on the seventh day has not spread, and where the fasts and the lighting of lamps and many of our prohibitions in the matter of food are not observed. Moreover, they attempt to imitate our harmonious relations with each other, the charitable distribution of our possessions, our devoted labour in the crafts, our endurance under persecution on behalf of our laws. The greatest miracle of all is that our Law holds out no seductive bait of sensual pleasure, but has exercised this influence through its own inherent merits; and, as God has permeated the universe, so the Law has found its way among all mankind. Let each man reflect for himself on his own country and his own household, and he will not discredit what I say. It follows, then, that either we must convict the whole world of deliberate depravity in their eager desire to adopt the bad laws of a foreign country in preference to the good laws of their own, or else our accusers must give up their grudge against us. In honouring our own legislator and putting our trust in his prophetical utterances concerning God, we do not make any arrogant claim justifying such odium. Indeed, were we not ourselves aware of the excellence of our laws, assuredly[429] we should have been impelled to pride ourselves upon them by the multitude of their admirers.—c. Ap. II. 38 f. (279-286).
(65) The Oath “Corban”
Cf. Mark vii. 11.
In ancient times various cities were acquainted with the existence of our nation, and to some of these many of our customs have now found their way and here and there been thought worthy of imitation. This is apparent from a passage in the work of Theophrastus on Laws, where he says that the laws of the Tyrians prohibit the use of foreign oaths, in enumerating which he includes among others the oath called “Corban.” Now this oath will be found in no other nation except the Jews, and, translated from the Hebrew, one may interpret it as meaning “God’s gift.”[430]—c. Ap. I. 22 (166 f.).