CHAPTER VII.

The Nazi of Tiberias.-The Prince of the Captivity.—The celebrated colleges of Tiberias.-The Emperor Honorius.-The Caliphs.-The Sect of the Karaites.—The Western Jews.-Antoninus Pius. -Marcus Aurelius.-Constantine and Constantius.--Julian the Apostate. His favour to the Jews.--Project to rebuild the Temple.-Persecution of the Jews.-The rise of Mahomed.— His conquest of Arabia.-The Jews in Arabia Felix.—Their present Number and Condition.

Bur sixty years after the event recorded in the last chapter, i.e., towards the end of the second century, we find the Jews, though scattered among all the nations of the world, organised with a marvellous completeness under two heads, and keeping up a constant correspondence with each other; those on this side the Euphrates recognising the Nazi of Tiberias as their spiritual head, while those on the other side of it gathered under the Resch Gelutha (Prince of the Captivity), who resided in Babylon, and was asserted to be a descendant of David. The Jews of Western Asia, of Africa, and Europe were willing subjects of the Patriarch of the West, residing in Tiberias. Without the pressure of any

law not only was an unconditional obedience shown to him and his council in all spiritual matters, but each synagogue sent also an annual sum to Tiberias for the maintenance of the patriarch, his court, and his celebrated schools or colleges. From the latter came forth all the learned rabbis, and wherever in the whole western world ten Jews lived together, they had their synagogue and school presided over by a rabbi in the manner already described. The patriarch sent out "apostles" who collected in all parts of the empire the synagogical contributions and returned to give a report of the condition of all congregations. Of the one Nazi, Rabbi Jehuda, who codified the Mishna, I have already spoken; under the presidency of his successors, the so-called "Jerusalem Talmud" was compiled. The work embodies all the learning of the Palestinian rabbis, but fragmentary as it is it was overshadowed by the later compilation of the Babylonian Talmud, already mentioned, which was accepted by all Jews (except the Karaites, of whom more anon) as supreme authority. This government of the Patriarch of the West lasted till far into the fourth century, when the Emperor Honorius forbade the Jews of the empire to send their annual contribu

The Nazi of Tiberias.

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tions to the then patriarch, Rabbi Gamaliel. Somewhat later, the patriarch was also deprived of his title of Prefect, which had been conferred on him by law, and thus he lost all his authority and means. After the death of Gamaliel no new

patriarch was appointed, and thenceforth we may say, the spiritual monarchy, whose head had been the patriarch, was changed into an oligarchy, in which the rabbis were supreme. They were teachers of the people; they were the preachers; they were the lawyers; they had to assist on the most interesting occasions of family life from the cradle to the grave; it may be said, nothing could be done without the rabbi, who thereby naturally attained an immense influence. Doubtless this influence was often abused and led to evil consequences; but it brought about one grand result in accordance with the whole tenour of God's dealings with the scattered nation,—it raised a wall around the Jewish heart which more effectually than any walls of brick and mortar, kept the Jews separate from the surrounding Gentiles and enabled, or rather compelled them, even where they were a small minority in the midst of an overwhelming majority, to remain a distinct people. Truly, a wonderful accomplishment of

the old prophecy (Numbers xxiii. 9), “The people shall dwell alone."

The Jews on the other side of the Euphrates obeyed, as already said, the Prince of the Captivity. The origin of this arrangement we cannot clearly trace. But that in Mesopotamia there were multitudes of Jews we may gather from the circumstance that the apostle Peter wrote his first epistle general from Babylon, and the “ Apostle of the Circumcision" would not have tarried there if his kinsmen had not lived there in great numbers.

The Prince of the Captivity was enabled by his willing subjects to maintain a splendid court and several schools which were of world-wide renown. At the beginning of the third century, when the Persian empire rose again, the Resch GeJutha obtained the height of his influence, which was pretty equally maintained till the eleventh century. Under the first caliphs, after the conquest of Persia by the Mahommedans, the Babylonian Jews enjoyed all protection; but a later caliph, Abdallah Kaim, jealous of the Jewish court kept up in his dominions, seized in the year 1036 the then Resch Gelutha, Hezekiah, with his family, and deposed him. The

famous schools were closed, and all the learned Jews fled to Egypt and Spain. Before parting from Babylon and the Resch Gelutha I must yet mention a Jewish sect which took its rise there, though we do not exactly know under what circumstances. This is the sect of the Karaites, alluded to before, who may, in some sense, be called the successors of the Sadducees, inasmuch as they believe in the Old Testament, but reject the whole rabbinic tradition. They trace their origin to a certain Rabbi Anan, who revolted in the ninth century against the Resch Gelutha and his authority, collecting a large party around himself. Why they are called Karaites I find nowhere explained. Among the rabbinical Jews they are disliked; but even their enemies attest that they lead the purest lives imaginable. They seem never to have produced any writers of eminence, and remain therefore to this day all but unknown to the world at large. They are to be found throughout the Turkish empire, the Crimea, and some other parts of Russia; their number is stated to amount to about ten thousand souls.

Having traced the outlines of the two great dominions into which all that was left of the Jewish