ied the actuality and possibility of a
bodily resurrection, the contention resting mainly on the ground that
Moses, who was regarded as the supreme mortal lawgiver in Israel, and
the chief mouthpiece of Jehovah, had written nothing concerning life
after death. The following is taken from Smith's _Dictionary of the
Bible_, article "Sadducees," as touching this matter: "The denial of
man's resurrection after death followed in the conception of the
Sadducees as a logical conclusion from their denial that Moses had
revealed to the Israelites the Oral Law. For on a point so momentous as
a second life beyond the grave, no religious party among the Jews would
have deemed themselves bound to accept any doctrine as an article of
faith, unless it had been proclaimed by Moses, their great legislator;
and it is certain that in the written Law of the Pentateuch there is a
total absence of any assertion by Moses of the resurrection of the dead.
This fact is presented to Christians in a striking manner by the
well-known words of the Pentateuch which are quoted by Christ in
argument with the Sadducees on this subject (Exo. 3:6, 16; Mark 12:26,
27; Matt. 22:31, 32; Luke 20:37). It cannot be doubted that in such a
case Christ would quote to His powerful adversaries the most cogent text
in the Law; and yet the text actually quoted does not do more than
suggest an inference on this great doctrine. It is true that passages in
other parts of the Old Testament express a belief in the resurrection
(Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2; Job 19:26; and in some of the Psalms); and it
may at first sight be a subject of surprize that the Sadducees were not
convinced by the authority of those passages. But although the Sadducees
regarded the books which contained these passages as sacred, it is more
than doubtful whether any of the Jews regarded them as sacred in
precisely the same sense as the written Law. To the Jews Moses was and
is a colossal form, preeminent in authority above all subsequent
prophets."

5. The Temple of Herod.--"Herod's purpose in the great undertaking [that
of restoring the temple, and of enlarging it on a plan of unprecedented
magnificence] was that of aggrandizing himself and the nation, rather
than the rendering of homage to Jehovah. His proposition to rebuild or
restore the temple on a scale of increased magnificence was regarded
with suspicion and received with disfavor by the Jews, who feared that
were the ancient edifice demolished, t