a Grace Notes publication Sketches of Jewish Social Life by Alfred Edersheim Grace Notes 1705 Aggie Lane, Austin, Texas 78757 Sketches of Jewish Social Life Table of Contents Preface........................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Palestine Eighteen Centuries Ago .............................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2. Jews and Gentiles in "The Land" ............................................................................................... 6 Chapter 3. In Galilee at the Time of Our Lord........................................................................................... 12 Chapter 4. Travelling, Roads, Inns, Hospitality, Taxation, Publicans....................................................... 17 Chapter 5. In Judaea................................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 6. Jewish Homes........................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 7. The Upbringing of Jewish Children ......................................................................................... 40 Chapter 8. Home Education; Female Education; Elementary Schools; Schoolmasters............................. 48 Chapter 9. Mothers, Daughters, Wives in Israel ........................................................................................ 54 Chapter 10. In Death and After Death ....................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 11. Jewish Views on Trade, Tradesmen, and Trade Guilds ......................................................... 70 Chapter 12. Commerce .............................................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 13. Among the People, and with the Pharisees ............................................................................ 82 Chapter 14. The "Fraternity" of Pharisees ................................................................................................. 88 Chapter 15. Relation of the Pharisees to Sadducees and Essenes, and to the Gospel of Christ................. 92 Chapter 16. Synagogues: Their Origin, Structure and Outward Arrangements......................................... 96 Chapter 17. The Worship of the Synagogue............................................................................................ 102 Chapter 18. Brief Outline of Ancient Jewish Theological Literature ...................................................... 108 Appendix 1. Massecheth Middoth: Being the Mishnic Tractate Descriptive of the Measurements of the Temple)..................................................................................................................................................... 114 Appendix 2. Extracts from the Babylon Talmud ..................................................................................... 119 Jewish Social Life 1 Another, and perhaps the most important part in its Preface bearing on Christianity, yet remains to be done: to The object of this volume is kindred to that of my trace the progress of religious thought--as regards previous book on The Temple, its Ministry and the canon of Scripture, the Messiah, the law, sin, Services as they were at the Time of Jesus Christ. and salvation--to describe the character of In both I have wished to transport the reader into theological literature, and to show the state of the land of Palestine at the time of our Lord and of doctrinal belief at the time of our Lord. It is here His apostles, and to show him, so far as lay within especially that we should see alike the kinship in the scope of each book, as it were, the scene on form and the almost contrast in substance between which, and the persons among whom the events what Judaism was at the time of Christ, and the recorded in New Testament history had taken teaching and the kingdom of our Blessed Lord. place. For I believe, that in measure as we realize But this lay quite outside the scope of the present its surroundings--so to speak, see and hear for volume, and belongs to a larger work for which ourselves what passed at the time, enter into its this and my previous book may, in a sense, be ideas, become familiar with its habits, modes of regarded as fore studies. thinking, its teaching and worship--shall we not Accordingly, where civil society touched, as on so only understand many of the expressions and many points it does, on the theological and the allusions in the New Testament, but also gain doctrinal, it was only possible to "sketch" it, fresh evidence of the truth of its history alike from leaving the outlines to be filled up. To give a its faithfulness to the picture of society, such as we complete representation of the times of our Lord, know it to have been, and from the contrast of its in all their bearings--to show not only who they teaching and aims to those of the contemporaries were among whom Jesus Christ moved, but what of our Lord. they knew, thought, and believed--and this as the For, a careful study of the period leaves this frame, so to speak, in which to set as a picture the conviction on the mind: that--with reverence be it life of our Blessed Lord Himself, such must now said--Jesus Christ was strictly of His time, and that be the work, to which, with all prayerful reverence the New Testament is, in its narratives, language, and with most earnest study, I shall henceforth set and allusions, strictly true to the period and myself. circumstances in which its events are laid. But in It seemed needful to state this, in order to explain another, and far more important, aspect there is no both the plan of this book and the manner of its similarity between Christ and His period. "Never treatment. I will only add, that it embodies the man"--of that, or any subsequent period--"spoke results of many years' study, in which I have like this man"; never man lived or died as He. availed myself of every help within my reach. It Assuredly, if He was the Son of David, He also is might seem affectation, were I to enumerate the the Son of God, the Savior of the world. names of all the authorities consulted or books In my book on The Temple, its Ministry and read in the course of these studies. Those Services, I endeavored to carry the reader with me mentioned in the foot-notes constitute but a very into the Sanctuary, and to make him witness all small proportion of them. connected with its institutions, its priesthood, and Throughout, my constant object has been to its solemnities. In this book I have sought to take illustrate the New Testament history and teaching. him into ordinary civil society, and to make him Even the "Scripture Index" at the close will show mingle with the men and women of that period, in how many instances this has been attempted. see them in their homes and families, learn their Most earnestly then do I hope, that these pages habits and manners, and follow them in their may be found to cast some additional light on the ordinary life--all, as illustrative of New Testament New Testament, and that they will convey fresh history; at the same time endeavoring to present in evidence--to my mind of the strongest kind--and in a popular form the scenes witnessed. a new direction, of the truth "of those things which are most surely believed among us." And now it Jewish Social Life 2 only remains at the close of these investigations Jordan stretched wide plains, upland valleys, park- once more to express my own full and joyous like forests, and almost boundless corn and pasture belief in that grand truth to which all leads up--that lands; on the western side were terraced hills, "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to covered with olives and vines, delicious glens, in every one that believeth." which sweet springs murmured, and fairy-like beauty and busy life, as around the Lake of Chapter 1. Palestine Eighteen Centuries Galilee. Ago In the distance stretched the wide sea, dotted with Eighteen and a half centuries ago, and the land spreading sails; here was luxurious richness, as in which now lies desolate--its bare, grey hills the ancient possessions of Issachar, Manasseh, and looking into ill-tilled or neglected valleys, its Ephraim; and there, beyond these plains and timber cut down, its olive- and vine-clad terraces valleys, the highland scenery of Judah, shelving crumbled into dust, its villages stricken with down through the pasture tracts of the Negev, or poverty and squalor, its thoroughfares insecure South country, into the great and terrible and deserted, its native population well-nigh gone, wilderness. And over all, so long as God's blessing and with them its industry, wealth, and strength-- lasted, were peace and plenty. Far as the eye could presented a scene of beauty, richness, and busy life reach, browsed "the cattle on a thousand hills"; the almost unsurpassed in the then known world. The pastures were "clothed with flocks, the valleys Rabbis never weary of its praises, whether their also covered over with corn"; and the land, theme be the physical or the moral pre-eminence "greatly enriched with the river of God," seemed of Palestine. to "shout for joy," and "also to sing." Such a It happened, so writes one of the oldest Hebrew possession, heaven-given at the first and