h law and prophets,--and an address or
sermon. It was in the sermon that the people learned to know the
"traditions of the elders," whether as applications of the law to the
daily life, or as legendary embellishments of Hebrew history and prophecy.
The preacher might be any one whom the ruler of the synagague recognized
as worthy to address the congregation.

16. The religious life which centred in the synagogue found daily
expression in the observance of the law and the traditions. In the measure
of its control by the scribes it was concerned chiefly with the Sabbath,
with the various ablutions needful to the maintenance of ceremonial
purity, with the distinctions between clean and unclean food, with the
times and ways of fasting, and with the wearing of fringes and
phylacteries. These lifeless ceremonies seem to our day wearisome and
petty in the extreme. It is probable, however, that the growth of the
various traditions had been so gradual that, as has been aptly said, the
whole usage seemed no more unreasonable to the Jews than the etiquette of
polite society does to its devotees. The evil was not so much in the
minuteness of the regulations as in the external and superficial notion of
religion which they induced.

17. Optimism was the mood of Israel's prophets from the earliest times.
Every generation looked for the dawning of a day which should banish all
ill and realize the dreams inspired by the covenant in which God had
chosen Israel for his own. In proportion as the rabbinic formalism held
control of the hearts of the people, the Messianic hope lost its warmth
and vigor. Yet the scribes did not abandon the prophetic optimism; they
held to the letter of the hope, but as its fulfilment was for them
dependent on perfect obedience to the law, oral and written, their
interest was diverted to the traditions, and their strength was given to
legal disputations. Of the rest of the people, the Sadducees naturally
gave little thought to the promise of future deliverance, they were too
absorbed with regard for present concerns. Nor is there any evidence that
the Essenes, with all their reputed knowledge of the future, cherished the
hope of a Messiah. The other elements among the people who owned the
general leadership of the scribes looked eagerly for the coming time when
God should bring to pass what he had promised through the prophets. While
some expected God himself to come in judgment, and gave no thought to an
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