dy tradition, as embodied in the Talmud. The Pharisees were the great
patrons and teachers of these meetings, which became exceedingly
numerous, especially in the cities. There were at one time four hundred
synagogues in Jerusalem alone. To these the great body of the people
resorted on the Sabbath, rather than to the Temple. The synagogue,
popular, convenient, and social, almost supplanted the Temple, except on
grand occasions and festivals. The Temple was for great ceremonies and
celebrations, like a mediaeval cathedral,--an object of pride and awe,
adorned and glorious; the synagogue was a sort of church, humble and
modest, for the use of the people in ordinary worship,--a place of
religious instruction, where decent strangers were allowed to address
the meetings, and where social congratulations and inquiries were
exchanged. Hence, the synagogue represented the democratic element in
Judaism, while it did not ignore the Temple.

Nearly contemporaneous with the synagogue was the Sanhedrim, or Grand
Council, composed of seventy-one members, made up of elders, scribes,
and priests,--men learned in the law, both Pharisees and Sadducees. It
was the business of this aristocratic court to settle disputed texts of
Scripture; also questions relating to marriage, inheritance, and
contracts. It met in one of the buildings connected with the Temple. It
was presided over by the high-priest, and was a dignified and powerful
body, its decisions being binding on the Jews outside Palestine. It was
not unlike a great council in the early Christian Church for the
settlement of theological questions, except that it was not temporary
but permanent; and it was more ecclesiastical than civil. Jesus was
summoned before it for assuming to be the Messiah; Peter and John, for
teaching false doctrine; and Paul, for transgressing the rules of
the Temple.

Thus in one hundred and fifty or two hundred years after the Jews
returned to their own country, we see the rise of institutions adapted
to their circumstances as a religious people, small in numbers, poor but
free,--for they were protected by the Persian monarchs against their
powerful neighbors. The largest part of the nation was still scattered
in every city of the world, especially at Alexandria, where there was a
very large Jewish colony, plying their various occupations unmolested by
the civil power. In this period Ewald thinks there was a great stride
made in sacred literature, especial