"the one part sadducees, and the other pharisees," Acts xxiii. 6. And we have, before this, mention made of a council in which there was a good number of sadducees: "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the sadducees," ch. v. 17.

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And there is no reason to suspect that St. Luke has been mistaken herein. The sadducees were not excluded from public offices; but in proportion to their numbers seem to have had an equal share in the administration with the pharisees. But the reader is to judge for himself from what Josephus says. This opinion (speaking of the sadducees) is embraced by a few only; but then they are some of the chief men for dignity: however, they can do but little; for when they are in the magistracy, they generally fall into the measures of the pharisees; (though unwillingly, and out of pure necessity;) for otherwise they would not be endured by the multitude.'" He says likewise, That they are the most cruel of all the Jews in their 'judicial sentences,' which I think does appear also in some instances in the Acts of the Apostles, where the pharisees were for the milder sentence, and had a majority. However these passages of Josephus plainly intimate that the sadducees were not seldom in office.

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The high priests themselves were sometimes sadducees. John Hyrcanus, prince and high priest of the Jews, who died in the year 107 before the Christian æra, forsook the pharisees upon a disgust and turned sadducee. He abrogated the institutions which the pharisees had pre'scribed to the people, and punished those that observed 'them. Hence the multitude conceived an aversion for ' him and his sons. But having suppressed this disturbance, 'he afterwards lived very happily; and having administer'ed the government in an excellent manner one and thirty ' years, he died, leaving behind him five sons.' There was another instance of this about the year of our Lord 60.a

* Εις ολιγες τε ανδρας ουτος ὁ λογος αφίκετο, της μεντοι πρώτες τους αξιωμασι πρασσεται τε απ' αυτων εδεν, ὡς ειπειν όποτε γαρ επ' αρχας παρέλθοιεν, ακεσίως μεν και κατ' αναγκας, προσχωρεσι δ' εν οις ο Φαρισαίος λέγει, δια το μη αλλως ανεκτες γενεσθαι τοις πλήθεσιν Ibid.

* Ant. 20. cap. 8. p. 896. v. 37. y Prideaux, Connect. Part II. Book iv. p. 328. 2 Μαλιςα δε αυτον επιπαρώξυνεν Ιωναθης, και διεθηκεν ούτως, ώτε τη Σαδδεκαίων ποιεισθαι προσθεσθαι μοιρα, των Φαρισαίων αποςαντα, και τατε ὑπ' αυτών καταταθέντα νομιμα τῳ δημῳ καταλύσαι, και τας φυλαττοντας αυτα κολασαι μισος αν εντευθεν αυτῷ τε και τοις υιοις παρά τε πλήθος διεγενετο Υρκανος δε παυσας την τασιν, και μετ' αυτην βιώσας ευδαιμόνως, και την αρχην διοικησάμενος τον αριςον τρόπον έτεσιν ενι και τριακοντα, τελευτᾷ καταλιπων υιες πεντε. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 19. sect. 6, 7. a Vid. Pagi. Crit. in Bar. et Basnage, An. P. E. VOL. I.

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'Cæsar having heard of the death of Festus sent Albinus prefect into Judea; and the king [sc. Agrippa the younger] took away the high priesthood from Joseph, • and gave the succession of that office to Ananus the son of Ananus.-This Ananus the younger, who, as we said "just now, had received the high priesthood, was fierce and haughty in his behaviour, and above all men bold and daring and moreover was of the sect of the sadducees.'b Many do suppose, that the high priest whom St. Luke speaks of, Acts v. 17, as being of the sect of the sadducees, was Caiaphas. but Josephus has said nothing concerning Caiaphas's principles one way or other.

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We may, as we pass along, observe here the agreement between the style of the evangelists and Josephus. The people, as is evident, very generally held the tenets and observed the traditions of the pharisees; yet they are never dignified so far as to be called pharisees. They are rather an appendage than a part of the sect, and are always called very plainly the people, the multitude, and the like. The title of pharisee seems to have been almost entirely appropriated to men of leisure and substance. St. Augustine made the same observation long ago.

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Again, St. Mark introduces our Saviour telling the pharisees, ch. vii. 9, " Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition." So that in one respect a tradition might be the fathers' and in another the pharisees'. And afterward; " Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered," ver. 13. And, to add no more texts, " They" (the scribes and pharisees)" bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders," Matt. xxiii. 4, Luke xi. 46. Here also the phrase and sense of the evangelists and Josephus agree together. In one of the passages just transcribed from him he says, The pharisees have delivered to the people many institutions:' in another he speaks of the institutions which the pharisees had prescribed to, or enjoined upon, the people.

III. There is in the gospels frequent mention of a set of men called scribes and lawyers. They are often joined with the chief priests, elders, and pharisees. They seem to have been men of skill and learning, and to have

* Ο δε νεώτερος Ανανος, ον την αρχιερωσύνην εφαμεν παρειληφέναι, θρασυς ην τον τρόπον, και τολμητης διαφεροντως αιρεσιν δε μετῄει την Σαδδεκαίων Ibid. lib. xx. cap. 8. sect. 1. Pharisæi illi Judæi erant, quasi egregii Judæorum. Nobiliores enim atque doctiores tunc Pharisæi vocabantur. Aug. Serm. 106. n. 2. T. v. Benedict.

had a particular deference paid to them on that account, Matt. ii. 4." And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born?-For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes," chap. vii. 39. A passage or two of Josephus will explain these men's characters. Whilst he (Herod in his last sickness) lay ' under these disorders, there happened a tumult among the 'people. There were in the city two sophists [or rabbies] 'who were reckoned exceeding skilful in the laws of their country, and for that reason were highly honoured throughout the whole nation, Judas the son of Sepphoræus, and Matthias the son of Margalus. Not a few of the young 'men frequented them to hear them interpret the laws, and they had with them every day an army of the youth, a

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Of this same affair he speaks thus in his Antiquities. There were Judas the son of Sariphæus, and Matthias the 'son of Margalothus, men who had the most persuasive eloquence of any among the Jews, and were eminent inter'preters of the laws, and were dear to the people because they taught the youth. These were daily frequented by 'those who gave themselves to the study of virtue.'

Whether there be any difference between lawyers and scribes, or whether they are words perfectly synonymous, I cannot say. Perhaps some were chiefly employed in the schools, and others usually spoke in public synagogues.

IV. It ought to be observed, that Josephus has given an account of a third sect among the Jews which were called Essenes and on the other hand there is a sort of men spoken of in the gospels of which Josephus has taken no notice, namely, the Herodians.

As for the Herodians, they (or their leaven) are not often mentioned in the New Testament; I think not above four times in all the gospels, Matt. xxii. 16. Mark iii. 6. viii. 15. xii. 13. What their particular tenets were does not appear to me, and I suppose it is not necessary I should set down here all the conjectures of learned men concerning

4 Δυο ησαν σοφιται κατα την πολιν, μαλιτα δοκεντες ακριβεν τα πάτρια, και δια τετο εν απαντι τῳ εθνει μεγιστης ηξιωμενοι δόξης, Ιεδας τε υιος Σεπφωραις, και Ματθίας ετερος Μαργαλε τετοις εκ ολίγοι προσήεσαν των νεων εξηγέμενος τες νόμες, και συνηγον όσημέραι των ήβώντων κρατοTεdov De B. J. lib. i. cap. 33. sect. 2. • Ιεδαίων λογιωτατοι,

και παρ' ούς τινας των πατριων εξηγηται νόμων, ανδρες και δημῳ προσφιλεις δια παιδειαν το νεωτερω ὁσημεραι γαρ διημερευον αυτοίς παντες οις προσποίησις aferns ETTETηdEVETO Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 6. sect. 2.

them. They might be a subdivision or branch of one of the other sects, either of the pharisees or sadducees: or if they were properly a distinct sect from the rest, it might be a character that subsisted but a short time, at least under that name. From the time that prophecy ceased among the Jews new sects were continually arising. There were two disciples of Antigonus Sochæus that were the authors of two new sects: Sadoc of the sect of the sadducees; Baithos, or Bathus, the author likewise of a new sect which had its name from him, and which is mentioned in the Gemara, though not in Josephus. There was likewise at this time a division in the sect of the pharisees, some following Hillel and others Shammai. The followers of Judas of Galilee were at first but a small portion of the pharisees; in time they swallowed up almost all the other parties. Josephus, who so often says that the sects of the Jews are three, once or twice calls Judas of Galilee the leader or head of a fourth sect. The reason of his not always distinguishing these from the rest was, I imagine, because they differed from the pharisees only in some few particulars. So that one and the same writer, who has professedly reckoned up the Jewish sects according to different ways of considering them, makes sometimes more and sometimes fewer: much more may two different writers, though they write professedly of this matter, which the evangelists have not done.

And after all, perhaps, these Herodians were never properly a distinct sect. Mr. Basnage, and others, suppose they were some of the officers of Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, which came up to Jerusalem at the feasts, and who were more devoted to the interests of the emperor than some of the Jews and therefore the pharisees persuaded some of them to go along with their own disciples, when they sent them to our Saviour with the question concerning the lawfulness of tribute. Their leaven might comprise several things. Mr. Basnage supposes, that one thing meant by it, might be a conformity to Roman customs in some points which were forbidden the Jews. If this was the case, it is not strange, that they are not particularly mentioned by Josephus among the Jewish sects.

f Vid. St. Hieron. Matt. xxii. 15, 16. Prid. Conn. Part. ii. Book v. Reland. Ant. Heb. p. 242, 263. Clerici Prolegom. ad Hist. Ecc. p. 15.

Vid. Reland, ubi supra, p. 262.

Part. ii. Book viii, at the beginning.

* Vid. Poli Synops. Matt. xxii. 16.

h See Dr. Prideaux's Connect. i Ant. lib. xvii. p. 794. in.

Ecc. Vol. i. p. 293. n. 5. p. 318. n. 16. et passim.

1 Vid. Basnage, Ann. Polit.

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The late learned Albert Fabricius supposed, that the Herodians mentioned in the gospels, were the courtiers and soldiers of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee; and that the name Herodians no more denotes a sect, than Cæsareans and Pompeians, or any such like name would do. And he cites a passage of St. Jerom, which deserves to be remarked: who even banters those, who thought the Herodians were men who believed Herod the Great to be the Christ.

V. As for the Essenes not being mentioned by the evangelists, it was not their design to write the history of the Jewish sects, but of our Saviour's ministry. And it is likely this did not lead them to take any particular notice of them. They were not very numerous. Josephus computes their number at about four thousand; but I think, he means only those of them that entirely rejected marriage." Philo says, that in Syria and Palestine there were about four thousand of them. As they were not very numerous, so they lived very retired. Philo says, they sacrificed no living creatures, and that they shunned cities.P Josephus says, they sent presents to the temple, but offered no sacrifice there. They seem not therefore to have come much abroad; and they would not admit a man of another sect into the apartments in which they lived. In order to be admitted among them, a year's probation was required without doors, that it might be seen whether a person could bear their way of life. The sect itself is divided into four classes, according to 'the time of their initiation. And the younger are reckoned 'so much inferior than the elder, that if any of these do but ' touch one of a junior class, they wash themselves, just as

m Herodem magnum tribuisse nomen sectæ Herodianorum contendunt viri doctissimi, præeunte Epiphanio, hæresi, xx. et Niceta, lib. 1. Thesauri, c. 34. Verum Herodiani, Matt. xxii. 16. Marc. iii. 6. xii. 13, fuere ministri vel milites Herodis Antipæ, qui Johannem Baptistam interfecit, et Herodis magni filius fuit. Nec magis hæresin vel sectam significat ibi hoc nomen, quam Cæsareanorum, Pompeianorum, et similia. S. Hieronymus, ad Matt. xxii. Mittunt igitur Pharisæi discipulos suos cum Herodianis, id est, militibus Herodis; seu quos illudentes Pharisæi, quia Romanis tributa solvebant, 'Herodianos vocabant, et non divino cultui deditos. Quidam Latinorum 'ridicule Herodianos putant, qui Herodem Christum esse credebant; quod nusquam omnino legimus.' Vid. Fabric. ad Philastr. de Hær. cap. 28. • Quod omnis Probus liber, p. 876, C. D.

" P. 793.

• Ου ζωα καταθυοντες Ibid. 4. Εις δε το ιερόν αναθηματα τε σελλοντες, θυσίας ουκ επιτελεσι' κ. τ. λ. Antiq. l. xvii. cap. 1. sect. 5.

* Και μετα ταυτην την αγνείαν εις ιδιον οικημα συνίασιν, ενθα μηδενι των ETEрodоžov εTITETтpañтai wapeλÕεiv. De Bell. lib. ii. cap. 8. p. 1061. v. 25. Τῳ δε ζηλεντι την αίρεσιν αυτων εκ ευθυς ή παροδος, αλλ' επ' ενιαυτον εξω μενοντι την αυτην ὑποτιθενται διαιταν. Joseph. ibid. p. 1062. ν. 18

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