was decided by
the High Priest and the Sanhedrim, which was a council consisting of
seventy-two civil and ecclesiastical judges. The sentence of the High
Priest and of his associate judges was to be obeyed under penalty of
death. "If thou perceive," says the Book of Deuteronomy, "that there be
among you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment, ... thou shalt come to
the Priests of the Levitical race and to the judge, ... and they shall
show thee the truth of the judgment.... And thou shalt follow their
sentence; neither shalt thou decline to the right hand, nor to the
left.... But he that will ... refuse to obey the commandment of the
Priest, ... that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from
Israel."(135)

From this clear sentence you perceive that God does not refer the Jews for
the settlement of their controversies to the letter of the law, but to the
living authority of the ecclesiastical tribunal which He had expressly
established for that purpose.

Hence, the Priests were required to be intimately acquainted with the
Sacred Scripture, because they were the depositaries of God's law, and
were its expounders to the people. "The lips of the Priest shall keep
knowledge, and they (the people) shall seek the law at his mouth, because
he is the angel (or messenger) of the Lord of hosts."(136)

And, in fact, very few of the children of Israel, except the Priests, were
in possession of the Divine Books. The holy manuscript was rare and
precious. And what provision did God make that all the people might have
an opportunity of hearing the Scriptures? Did He command the sacred volume
to be multiplied? No; but He ordered the _Priests_ and the _Levites_ to be
distributed through the different tribes, that they might always be at
hand to instruct the people in the knowledge of the law. The Jews were
even forbidden to read certain portions of the Scripture till they had
reached the age of thirty years.

Does our Savior reverse this state of things when He comes on earth? Does
He tell the Jews to be their own guides in the study of the Scriptures? By
no means; but He commands them to obey their constituted teachers, no
matter how disedifying might be their private lives. "Then said Jesus to
the multitudes and to His disciples: The Scribes and Pharisees sit upon
the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you,
observe and do."(137)

It is true our Lord said on one occasion "Search the Scrip