rd 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 maze of traditions which awoke no spontaneous Amen in the moral nature,
consequently there was frequent substitution of reputation for character.
The Pharisees could make void the command, Honor thy father, by an
ingenious application of the principle of dedication of property to God
(Mark vii. 8-13), and thus under the guise of scrupulous regard for law
discovered ways for legal disregard of law. Their theory of religion gave
abundant room for a piety which made broad its phylacteries and lengthened
its prayers, while neglecting judgment, mercy, and the love of God.

10. Yet the earnest and true development in Jewish thinking was found
among the Pharisees. The early hope of Israel was almost exclusively
national. In the later books of the Old Testament, in connection with an
enlarged sense of the importance of the individual, the doctrine of a
personal resurrection to share the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom
began to appear. It had its clear development and definite adoption as
part of the faith of Judaism, however, under the influence of the
Pharisees. Along with this increased emphasis on the worth of the
individual came a large development of the doctrine of angels and spirits.
Towards both of these doctrines the Sadducees took a reactionary position.
Politically the Pharisees were theocratic in theory, but opportunists in
practice, accommodating themselves to the existing state of things so long
as the _de facto_ government did not interfere with the religious life of
the people. They looked for a kingdom in which God should be evidently the
king of his people; but they believed that his sovereignty was to be
realized through the law, hence their sole interest was in the obedience
of God's people to that law as interpreted by the traditions.

11. The theocratic spirit was more aggressive in a party which originated
in the later years of Herod the Great, and found a reckless leader in
Judas of Galilee, who started a revolt when the governor of Syria
undertook to make a census of the Jews after the deposition of Archelaus.
This party bore the name Cananeans or Zealots. They regarded with
passionate resentment the subjection of God's people to a foreign power,
and waited eagerly for an opportune time to take t