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commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle, Acts xxiii. 6—10.

This will lead us to the consideration of some of their distinguishing tenets. I shall, therefore, set down now the account Josephus has given of their opinions concerning the points mentioned in this text. Of the pharisees he says, Moreover it is their belief, that there is an immortal power ' in souls, and that under the earth there are rewards and 'punishments for those who in this life have practised vir'tue or vice; and that to these [souls] there is appointed 'an eternal prison, but that to the former there is a power of reviving. In another place he says of them, That they believe every soul to be immortal, but that the 'soul of the good only passes into another body, and the soul of the wicked is punished with eternal punishment.'k On the other hand he says: It is the opinion of the sadducees, that souls perish with the bodies." And in another place, that they deny the continuance of souls, and the punish'ments and rewards of Hades.'m

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It has been thought by some" that Josephus, in this account of the pharisees, has endeavoured to accommodate their sentiments to those of some of the Greek philosophers : and that he here represents them as believing something very much like the Pythagorean transmigration of souls. And there seem to be in the New Testament the traces of some such sentiment; particularly in some of the instances mentioned, Matt. xvi. 14. "And they said, some say, that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets." Again it is said, "His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" John ix. 2.

Some think, that Josephus's words above mentioned are altogether inconsistent with the notion of a transmigration, and that they import the belief of a proper resurrection. Possibly there were different sentiments concerning this

* Αθανατον τε ισχυν ταις ψυχαις πιςις αυτοις είναι, και ύπο χθονος δικαιωσεις τε και τιμας οις αρετης η κακίας επιτηδευσις εν τῳ βιῳ γεγονε και ταις μεν ειργμον αίδιον προτίθεσθαι, ταις δε ῥαζωνην το avaßiev. Illis verò facultatem esse in vitam redeundi. vers. Huds. Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 1. sect. 3. k Ψυχην δε πασαν μεν αφθαρτον, μεταβαίνειν δε εις ετερον σώμα την των αγαθών μονην, την δε των φαύλων αιδιῳ τιμωρια κολαζεσθαι. De Bell. lib. ii. cap. 8. sect. 14. 1 Σαδδεκαίοις δε τας ψυχας ο λογος συναφανίζει τους Ψυχης δε την διαμονην, De Bell. ubi supra.

σωμασι. Ant. lib. xviii. cap. 1. sect. 4.
και τας καθ' άδε τιμωρίας και τιμας αναίρεσι,

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n Vid. Grot. in Matt. xiv. 2. xxii. 28. Cleric. Hist. Ec. Prolegom. sect. 1 Basnage, Ann. Pol. Ecc. A. D. i. n. 12.

cap. 2.

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matter among those called pharisees. It may be, they had none of them exactly that notion of a future state and resurrection, which our Lord, and his apostles after him, taught: for St. Paul says, 2 Tim. i. 10, that " Jesus Christ had brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.'

However, St. Paul's notions did directly contradict those of the sadducees, and favour and confirm, not to say improve, those of the pharisees, as is evident from Josephus's account. And it is not at all wonderful, that one sect laid hold of an advantage against the other.

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Without staying any longer here, I shall give a passage or two, in which Josephus, who was of the sect of the pharisees, has represented some of his own sentiments concerning these points. The city of Jotapata, where Josephus commanded, was now taken; and he and some others had hid themselves in a cave. He was for surrendering to Vespasian; the rest of the company were rather for killing themselves, and threatened to kill him if he did not come into the same sentiment. In order to dissuade them from this design, among other things, he says, All have mortal 'bodies, formed of corruptible matter. But the soul is im'mortal, and being a portion of God, is housed in bodies. 'What! know you not, that they who depart out of life according to the law of nature, and return to God the debt they have received from him, when it is the will of him that gave it, have eternal praise, and durable houses and generations; and that pure and obedient souls remain, having received an holy place in heaven, from whence, ' after the revolution of ages, they shall be again housed in pure bodies. But the souls of those who have laid violent hands on themselves, shall be lodged in the darkest Hades.' If I mistake not, St. Paul's figures in 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, have a resemblance with these of Josephus. "For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made. with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven."

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- Τα μεν γε σώματα θνητα πασι, και εκ φθαρτης ύλης δημιεργείται ψυχη δε αθανατος αει, και Θε8 μοίρα τοις σώμασιν ενοικίζεται· -αρα εκ ιςε, ότι των μεν εξιοντων τε βις κατα τον της φύσεως νόμον, και το ληφθεν παρα το Θεό χρέος εκτινόντων, όταν ὁ δες κομισασθαι θέλη, κλεος μεν αιώνιον, οικοι δε και γενεαι βεβαιοι, καθαραι δε και ύπήκοοι μενεσιν αι ψυκαι, χωρον ερανε λάχεσαι των ἁγιωτατον, ἔνθεν εκ περιτροπης αιώνων αγνοις παλιν αντενοικίζονται σωμασιν όσοις δε καθ' εαυτών εμανησαν αι χειρες, τετων μεν άδης δέχεται τας ψυχας σκοτιώτερος. De Bell. lib. iii. cap. 7. p. 1144, 1145.

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The pharisees are said in the gospels "to fast oft," Matt. ix. 14; and Josephus says, They practise great temperance, ́ and never indulge themselves in a luxurious way of life.' This is as much as is reasonable to expect from him. It was not proper to tell all the world, that they "fasted twice in a week," from sun-set to sun-set,' Luke xviii. 12. The Jews' fasting was one of those things which the Romans had always ridiculed. And some thought they fasted on their sabbaths; though that was a great mistake. Josephus, however, cannot be much blamed for endeavouring to give a good turn to what had been a foundation for many unlucky jests.

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I do not remember that the evangelists have any where said expressly, that the sadducees rejected the tradition. of the elders; but as these were the great concern of the pharisees, and as these two sects seem opposite to each other, I should think it very likely, even from the New Testament, that the sadducees were not very fond of these traditions; and Josephus says it plainly. The pharisees have delivered to the people many institutions as received 'from the fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses. For this reason the sadducees" reject these things, saying, that those things are binding which are written, but that the things received by tradition from the fathers 'need not to be observed. And about these things there have happened many disputes and contentions.' And again: They pretend not to observe any thing beside the laws; and it is with them a virtue to contradict the mas'ters of wisdom, and wrangle with them about the science 'they teach.'

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II. But though these two sects stood thus, in a manner, in opposition to each other, yet St. Luke represents them both as concerned together in that administration of affairs, which was allowed the Jewish nation by the Romans, to whom they were then subject: and says, that the members of the council, before which St. Paul was brought, were

4 Οιτε γαρ Φαρισαίοι την διαιταν εξευτελίζεσιν, εδεν εις το μαλακωτερον ενdidovres. Ant. lib. xviii. cap. 1. sect. 3. Buxt. Synag. Jud. cap. 30. Ne Judæus

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Jejunia Sabbatariorum. Mart. lib. iv. Epigr. 4. quidem, mi Tiberi, tam diligenter Sabbati jejunium servat, quam ego hodie servavi. Suet. August. cap. 76. " Και δια τετο ταυτα το Σαδδεκαίων γενος εκβάλλει, λεγον εκεινα δεῖν ἡγεῖσθαι νομιμα τα γεγραμμενα, τα δ' εκ παραδοσεως των πατερων μη τηρειν· και περί τέτων ζητήσεις αυτοις και διαφορας yeveolar ovveẞaive μɛyaλaç. Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 10. sect. 6.

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Φυλακης δε εδαμων τινων μεταποίησις αυτοις η των νόμων προς γαρ της διδασκαλες σοφίας, ήν μετιασιν, αμφιλογειν αρετην αριθμησιν. Ant. lib. xviii. cap. 1 sect. 4.

"the one part sadducees, and the other pharisees," Acts xxiii. 6. And we have, before this, mention made of a council in which there was a good number of sadducees: "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the sadducees," ch. v. 17.

And there is no reason to suspect that St. Luke has been mistaken herein. The sadducees were not excluded from

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public offices; but in proportion to their numbers seem to have had an equal share in the administration with the pharisees. But the reader is to judge for himself from what Josephus says. This opinion (speaking of the sadducees) is embraced by a few only; but then they are 'some of the chief men for dignity: however, they can do but little; for when they are in the magistracy, they generally fall into the measures of the pharisees; (though un'willingly, and out of pure necessity;) for otherwise they 'would not be endured by the multitude.' He says likewise, That they are the most cruel of all the Jews in their 'judicial sentences,' which I think does appear also in some instances in the Acts of the Apostles, where the pharisees were for the milder sentence, and had a majority. However these passages of Josephus plainly intimate that the sadducees were not seldom in office.

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The high priests themselves were sometimes sadducees. John Hyrcanus, prince and high priest of the Jews, who died in the year 107 before the Christian æra, forsook the pharisees upon a disgust and turned sadducee.

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abrogated the institutions which the pharisees had prescribed to the people, and punished those that observed 'them. Hence the multitude conceived an aversion for • him and his sons. But having suppressed this disturbance, 'he afterwards lived very happily; and having administer'ed the government in an excellent manner one and thirty 'years, he died, leaving behind him five sons.'z There was another instance of this about the year of our Lord 60.a

* Εις ολιγες τε ανδρας ουτος ὁ λόγος αφίκετο, της μεντοι πρώτες τους αξιωμασι πρασσεται τε απ' αυτών εδεν, ώς ειπείν όποτε γαρ επ' αρχας παρελθοιεν, ακεσίως μεν και κατ' αναγκας, προσχωρεσι δ' εν οις ο Φαρισαιος λεγει, δια το μη αλλως ανεκτός γενεσθαι τοις πλήθεσιν Ibid. * Ant. 20. cap. 8. p. 896. v. 37. Prideaux, Connect. Part II. Book iv. p. 328. Μαλιτα δε αυτόν επιπαρώξυνεν Ιωναθης, και διεθηκεν ούτως, ώτε Σαδδεκαίων ποιεῖσθαι προσθεσθαι μοιρα, των Φαρισαίων αποςαντα, και τατε ὑπ' αυτών καταταθέντα νομιμα τῳ δημῳ καταλυσαι, και τες φυλαττοντας αυτα κολασαι μισος εν εντευθεν αυτῷ τε και τοις υιοις παρα το πληθες διεγενετο-Υρκανος δε παυσας την τασιν, και μετ' αυτην βίωσας ευδαιμόνως, και την αρχην διοικησαμενος τον αρισον τροπον ετεσιν ενι και τριακοντα, τελευτα καταλιπων υιες πέντε. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 10. sect. 6, 7. a Vid. Pagi. Crit. in Bar. et Basnage, An. P. E.

VOL. I.

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Cæsar having heard of the death of Festus sent Albinus prefect into Judea; and the king [sc. Agrippa the younger] took away the high priesthood from Joseph, • and gave the succession of that office to Ananus the son of Ananus.-This Ananus the younger, who, as we said 'just now, had received the high priesthood, was fierce and haughty in his behaviour, and above all men bold and daring and moreover was of the sect of the sadducees.'b Many do suppose, that the high priest whom St. Luke speaks of, Acts v. 17, as being of the sect of the sadducees, was Caiaphas. but Josephus has said nothing concerning Caiaphas's principles one way or other.

We may, as we pass along, observe here the agreement between the style of the evangelists and Josephus. The people, as is evident, very generally held the tenets and observed the traditions of the pharisees; yet they are never dignified so far as to be called pharisees. They are rather an appendage than a part of the sect, and are always called very plainly the people, the multitude, and the like. The title of pharisee seems to have been almost entirely appropriated to men of leisure and substance. St. Augustine made the same observation long ago.

Again, St. Mark introduces our Saviour telling the pharisees, ch. vii. 9, " Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition." So that in one respect a tradition might be the fathers' and in another the pharisees'. And afterward; "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered,” ver. 13. And, to add no more texts, "They" (the scribes and pharisees)" bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders," Matt. xxiii. 4, Luke xi. 46. Here also the phrase and sense of the evangelists and Josephus agree together. In one of the passages just transcribed from him he says, 'The pharisees have delivered to the people many institutions:' in another he speaks of the institutions which the pharisees had prescribed to, or enjoined upon, the people.

III. There is in the gospels frequent mention of a set of men called scribes and lawyers. They are often joined with the chief priests, elders, and pharisees. They seem to have been men of skill and learning, and to have

b Ο δε νεωτερος Ανανος, ον την αρχιερωσύνην εφαμεν παρειληφεναι, θρασυς ην τον τρόπον, και τολμητης διαφεροντως αιρεσιν δε μετῄει την Σαδδεκαίων Ibid. lib. xx. cap. 8. sect. 1. Pharisæi illi Judæi erant, quasi egregii Judæorum. Nobiliores enim atque doctiores tunc Pharisæi vocabantur. Aug. Serm. 106. n. 2. T. v. Benedict.

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