Table of Contents | Chapter
2
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Alfred Edersheim
1883
Book II
FROM THE MANGER IN BETHLEHEM TO THE BAPTISM IN JORDAN IN
JERUSALEM WHEN HEROD REIGNED
Chapter 1
In Jerusalem When Herod Reigned
IF the dust of ten centuries could have been wiped from the
eyelids of those sleepers, and one of them who thronged Jerusalem in the
highday of its glory, during the reign of King Solomon, had returned to its streets,
he would scarcely have recognised the once familiar city. Then, as now, a
Jewish king reigned, who bore undivided rule over the whole land; then, as now,
the city was filled with riches and adorned with palaces and architectural
monuments; then, as now, Jerusalem was crowded with strangers from all lands.
Solomon and Herod were each the last Jewish king over the Land of Promise;1
Solomon and Herod, each, built the Temple. But with the son of David began, and
with the Idumæan ended, 'the kingdom;' or rather, having fulfilled its mission,
it gave place to the spiritual world-kingdom of 'David's greater Son.' The
sceptre departed from Judah to where the nations were to gather under its sway.
And the Temple which Solomon built was the first. In it the Shekhinah dwelt
visibly. The Temple which Herod reared was the last. The ruins of its burning,
which the torch of the Romans had kindled, were never to be restored. Herod was
not the antitype, he was the Barabbas, of David's Royal Son.
1. I do not here reckon the brief reign of King Agrippa.
In other respects, also, the difference was almost equally
great. The four 'companion-like' hills on which the city was built,2
the deep clefts by which it was surrounded, the Mount of Olives rising in the east, were the same as a thousand years ago. There, as of old were the Pool
of Siloam and the royal gardens - nay, the very wall that had then surrounded
the city. And yet all was so altered as to be scarcely recognisable. The
ancient Jebusite fort, the City of David, Mount Zion,3
was now the priests' quarter, Ophel, and the old royal palace and stables had
been thrown into the Temple area - now completely levelled - where they formed
the magnificent treble colonnade, known as the Royal Porch. Passing through it,
and out by the Western Gate of the Temple, we stand on the immense bridge which
spans the 'Valley of the Cheesemongers,' or the Tyropœon, and connects the
Eastern with the Western hills of the city. It is perhaps here that we can best
mark the outstanding features, and note the changes. On the right, as we look northward,
are (on the Eastern hill) Ophel, the Priest-quarter, and the Temple - oh, how
wondrously beautiful and enlarged, and rising terrace upon terrace, surrounded
by massive walls: a palace, a fortress, a Sanctuary of shining marble and
glittering gold. And beyond it frowns the old fortress of Baris, rebuilt by
Herod, and named after his patron, Antonia. This is the Hill of Zion. Right
below us is the cleft of the Tyropœon, and here creeps up northwards the 'Lower
City' or Acra, in the form of a crescent, widening into an almost square
'suburb.' Across the Tyropœon - westward, rises the 'Upper City.' If the Lower
City and suburb form the business-quarter with its markets bazaars, and streets
of trades and guilds, the 'Upper City' is that of palaces. Here, at the other
end of the great bridge which connects the Temple with the 'Upper City,' is the
palace of the Maccabees; beyond it, the Xystos, or vast colonnaded enclosure,
where popular assemblies are held; then the Palace of Ananias the High-Priest,
and nearest to the Temple, 'the Council Chamber' and public Archives. Behind
it, westwards, rise, terrace upon terrace, the stately mansions of the Upper
City, till, quite in the north-west corner of the old city, we reach the Palace
which Herod had built for himself - almost a city and fortress, flanked by
three high towers, and enclosing spacious gardens. Beyond it again, and outside
the city walls, both of the first and the second, stretches all north of the
city the new suburb of Bezetha. Here on every side are gardens and villas; here
passes the great northern road; out there must they have laid hold on Simon the
Cyrenian, and here must have led the way to the place of the Crucifixion.
2. Ps. cxxii.
3. It
will be seen that, with the most recent explorers, I locate Mount Zion not
on the traditional site, on the western hill of Jerusalem, but on the eastern,
south of the Temple area.
Changes that marked the chequered course of Israel's history
had come even over the city walls. The first and oldest - that of David and
Solomon - ran round the west side of the Upper City, then crossed south to the
Pool of Siloam, and ran up east, round Ophel, till it reached the eastern
enclosure of the Temple, whence it passed in a straight line to the point from
which it had started, forming the northern boundary of the ancient city. But
although this wall still existed, there was now a marked addition to it. When
the Maccabee Jonathan finally cleared Jerusalem of the Syrian garrison that lay
in Fort Acra,4 he built a
wall right 'through the middle of the city,' so as to shut out the foe.5
This wall probably ran from the western angle of the Temple southwards, to near
the pool of Siloam, following the winding course of the Tyropœon, but on the
other side of it, where the declivity of the Upper City merged in the valley.
Another monument of the Syrian Wars, of the Maccabees, and of Herod, was the
fortress Antonia. Part of it had, probably, been formerly occupied by what was
known as Fort Acra, of such unhappy prominence in the wars that preceded and
marked the early Maccabean period. It had passed from the Ptolemies to the
Syrians, and always formed the central spot round which the fight for the city
turned. Judas Maccabee had not been able to take it. Jonathan had laid siege to
it, and built the wall, to which reference has just been made, so as to isolate its garrison. It was at last taken by Simon, the brother and successor of
Jonathan, and levelled with the ground.6
Fort Baris, which was constructed by his successor Hyrcanus I.,7
covered a much wider space. It lay on the northwestern angle of the Temple,
slightly jutting beyond it in the west, but not covering the whole northern
area of the Temple. The rock on which it stood was higher than the Temple,8
although lower than the hill up which the new suburb Bezetha crept, which,
accordingly, was cut off by a deep ditch, for the safety of the fortress. Herod
greatly enlarged and strengthened it. Within encircling walls the fort rose to
a height of sixty feet, and was flanked by four towers, of which three had a
height of seventy, the fourth (S.E.), which jutted into the Temple area, of 105
feet, so as to command the sacred enclosure. A subterranean passage led into
the Temple itself,9
which was also connected with it by colonnades and stairs. Herod had adorned as
well as strengthened and enlarged, this fort (now Antonia), and made it a
palace, an armed camp, and almost a city.10
4. 1
Macc. i. 33, and often; but the precise situation of this 'fort' is in dispute.
5. 1
Macc. xii. 36; Jos. Ant. xiii. 5. 11; comp. with it xiv. 16. 2; War vi.
7. 2; 8. 1.
6. 141 b.c.
7. 135-106 b.c.
8. It
is, to say the least, doubtful, whether the numeral 50 cubits (75 feet), which Josephus
assigns to this rock (War v. 5. 8), applies to its height (comp. Speiss,
Das Jerus. d. Jos.p. 66).
9. Ant. xv. 11. 7.
10. Jos. War v. 5. 8.
Hitherto we have only spoken of the first, or old wall, which
was fortified by sixty towers. The second wall, which had only fourteen towers,
began at some point in the northern wall at the Gate Gennath, whence it ran
north, and then east, so as to enclose Acra and the Suburb. It terminated at
Fort Antonia. Beyond, and all around this second wall stretched, as already
noticed, the new, as yet unenclosed suburb Bezetha, rising towards the
north-east. But these changes were as nothing compared with those within the
city itself. First and foremost was the great transformation in the Temple
itself,11 which,
from a small building, little larger than an ordinary church, in the time of
Solomon,12 had become
that great and glorious House which excited the admiration of the foreigner,
and kindled the enthusiasm of every son of Israel. At the time of Christ it had
been already forty-six years in building, and workmen were still, and for a
long time, engaged on it.13
But what a heterogeneous crowd thronged its porches and courts! Hellenists;
scattered wanderers from the most distant parts of the earth - east, west,
north, and south; Galileans, quick of temper and uncouth of Jewish speech;
Judæans and Jerusalemites; white-robed Priests and Levites; Temple officials;
broad-phylacteried, wide-fringed Pharisees, and courtly, ironical Sadducees;
and, in the outer court, curious Gentiles! Some had come to worship; others to
pay vows, or bring offerings, or to seek purification; some to meet friends,
and discourse on religious subjects in those colonnaded porches, which ran
round the Sanctuary; or else to have their questions answered, or their causes
heard and decided, by the smaller Sanhedrin of twenty-three, that sat in the
entering of the gate or by the Great Sanhedrin. The latter no longer occupied
the Hall of Hewn Stones, Gazith, but met in some chamber attached to those
'shops,' or booths, on the Temple Mount, which belonged to the High-Priestly
family of Ananias, and where such profitable trade was driven by those who, in
their cupidity and covetousness, were worthy successors of the sons of Eli. In
the Court of the Gentiles (or in its porches) sat the official money-changers,
who for a fixed discount changed all foreign coins into those of the Sanctuary.
Here also was that great mart for sacrificial animals, and all that was requisite
for offerings. How the simple, earnest country people, who came to pay vows, or
bring offerings for purifying, must have wondered, and felt oppressed in that
atmosphere of strangely blended religious rigorism and utter worldliness; and
how they must have been taxed, imposed upon, and treated with utmost curtness,
nay, rudeness, by those who laughed at their boorishness, and despised them as
cursed, ignorant country people, little better than heathens, or, for that
matter, than brute beasts. Here also there lay about a crowd of noisy beggars,
unsightly from disease, and clamorous for help. And close by passed the
luxurious scion of the High-Priestly families; the proud, intensely
self-conscious Teacher of the Law, respectfully followed by his disciples; and
the quick-witted, subtle Scribe. These were men who, on Sabbaths and
feast-days, would come out on the Temple-terrace to teach the people, or
condescend to answer their questions; who in the Synagogues would hold their
puzzled hearers spell-bound by their traditional lore and subtle argumentation,
or tickle the fancy of the entranced multitude, that thronged every available
space, by their ingenious frivolities, their marvellous legends, or their
clever sayings; but who would, if occasion required, quell an opponent by
well-poised questions, or crush him beneath the sheer weight of authority. Yet
others were there who, despite the utterly lowering influence which the
frivolities of the prevalent religion, and the elaborate trifling of its
endless observances, must have exercised on the moral and religious feelings of
all - perhaps, because of them - turned aside, and looked back with loving gaze
to the spiritual promises of the past, and forward with longing expectancy to
the near 'consolation of Israel,' waiting for it in prayerful fellowship, and
with bright, heaven-granted gleams of its dawning light amidst the encircling
gloom.
11. I must take leave to refer to the description of Jerusalem, and especially of
the Temple, in the 'Temple and its Services at the Time of Jesus Christ.'
12. Dr. Mühlau, in Riehm's Handwörterb. Part viii. p. 682 b, speaks
of the dimensions of the old Sanctuary as little more than those of a village
church.
13. It
was only finished in 64 a.d., that
is, six years before its destruction.
Descending from the Temple into the city, there was more than
enlargement, due to the increased population. Altogether, Jerusalem covered, at
its greatest, about 300 acres.14
As of old there were still the same narrow streets in the business quarters;
but in close contiguity to bazaars and shops rose stately mansions of wealthy
merchants, and palaces of princes.15
And what a change in the aspect of these streets, in the character of those
shops, and, above all, in the appearance of the restless Eastern crowd that
surged to and fro! Outside their shops in the streets, or at least in sight of
the passers, and within reach of their talk, was the shoemaker hammering his
sandals, the tailor plying his needle, the carpenter, or the worker in iron and
brass. Those who were less busy, or more enterprising, passed along, wearing
some emblem of their trade: the dyer, variously coloured threads; the
carpenter, a rule: the writer, a reed behind his ear; the tailor, with a needle
prominently stuck in his dress. In the side streets the less attractive
occupations of the butcher, the wool-comber, or the flaxspinner were pursued:
the elegant workmanship of the goldsmith and jeweller; the various articles
de luxe, that adorned the houses of the rich; the work of the designer, the
moulder, or the artificer in iron or brass. In these streets and lanes
everything might be purchased: the production of Palestine, or imported from
foreign lands - nay, the rarest articles from the remotest parts. Exquisitely
shaped, curiously designed and jewelled cups, rings and other workmanship of
precious metals; glass, silks, fine linen, woollen stuffs, purple, and costly
hangings; essences, ointments, and perfumes, as precious as gold; articles of
food and drink from foreign lands - in short, what India, Persia, Arabia, Media
Egypt, Italy, Greece, and even the far-off lands of the Gentiles yielded, might
be had in these bazaars.
14. See Conder, Heth and Moab, p. 94.
15. Such as the Palace of Grapte, and that of Queen Helena of Adiabene.
Ancient Jewish writings enable us to identify no fewer than 118
different articles of import from foreign lands, covering more than even modern
luxury has devised. Articles of luxury, especially from abroad, fetched indeed
enormous prices; and a lady might spend 36l. on a cloak;16
silk would be paid by its weight in gold; purple wool at 3l. 5s.
the pound, or, if double-dyed, at almost ten times that amount; while the price
of the best balsam and nard was most exorbitant. On the other hand, the cost of
common living was very low. In the bazaars you might get a complete suit for
your slave for eighteen or nineteen shillings,17
and a tolerable outfit for yourself from 3l. to 6l. For the same
sum you might purchase an ass,18
an ox,19 or a cow,20
and, for little more, a horse. A calf might be had for less than fifteen
shillings, a goat for five or six.21
Sheep were dearer, and fetched from four to fifteen or sixteen shillings, while
a lamb might sometimes be had as low as two pence. No wonder living and labour
were so cheap. Corn of all kinds, fruit, wine, and oil, cost very little. Meat
was about a penny a pound; a man might get himself a small, of course
unfurnished, lodging for about sixpence a week.22
A day labourer was paid about 7½d. a day, though skilled labour would
fetch a good deal more. Indeed, the great Hillel was popularly supposed to have
supported his family on less than twopence a day,23
while property to the amount of about 6l., or trade with 2l. or 3l.
of goods, was supposed to exclude a person from charity, or a claim on what was
left in the corners of fields and the gleaners.24
16. Baba B. ix. 7.
17. Arakh. vi. 5.
18. Baba K. x. 4.
19. Men. xiii. 8; Baba K. iii. 9.
20. Tos. Sheq. ii.; Tos. Ar. iv.
21. Men. xiii. 8.
22. Tos. Baba Mets. iv.
23. Yoma 35 b.
24. Peah viii. 8, 9.
To these many like details might be added.25
Sufficient has been said to show the two ends of society: the exceeding
dearness of luxuries, and the corresponding cheapness of necessaries. Such
extremes would meet especially at Jerusalem. Its population, computed at from
200,000 to 250,000,26
was enormously swelled by travellers, and by pilgrims during the great
festivals.27 The great
Palace was the residence of King and Court, with all their following and
luxury; in Antonia lay afterwards the Roman garrison. The Temple called
thousands of priests, many of them with their families, to Jerusalem; while the
learned Academies were filled with hundreds, though it may have been mostly poor,
scholars and students. In Jerusalem must have been many of the large warehouses
for the near commercial harbour of Joppa; and thence, as from the industrial
centres of busy Galilee, would the pedlar go forth to carry his wares over the
land. More especially would the markets of Jerusalem, held, however, in bazaars
and streets rather than in squares, be thronged with noisy sellers and
bargaining buyers. Thither would Galilee send not only its manufactures, but
its provisions: fish (fresh or salted), fruit28
known for its lusciousness, oil, grape-syrup, and wine. There were special
inspectors for these markets - the Agardemis or Agronimos - who
tested weights and measures, and officially stamped them,29
tried the soundness of food or drink,30
and occasionally fixed or lowered the market-prices, enforcing their decision,31
if need were, even with the stick.32
33
Not only was there an upper and a lower market in Jerusalem,34
but we read of at least seven special markets: those for cattle,35
wool, iron-ware,36
clothes, wood,37
bread, and fruit and vegetables. The original market-days were Monday and
Tuesday, afterwards Friday.38
The large fairs (Yeridin) were naturally confined to the centres of
import and export - the borders of Egypt (Gaza), the ancient Phoenician maritime
towns (Tyre and Acco), and the Emporium across the Jordan (Botnah).39
Besides, every caravansary, or khan (qatlis, atlis, katalusiV), was a sort of mart, where
goods were unloaded, and especially cattle set out40
for sale, and purchases made. But in Jerusalem one may suppose the sellers to
have been every day in the market; and the magazines, in which greengrocery and
all kinds of meat were sold (the Beth haShevaqim),41
must have been always open. Besides, there were the many shops (Chanuyoth)
either fronting the streets, or in courtyards, or else movable wooden booths in
the streets. Strangely enough, occasionally Jewish women were employed in
selling.42 Business
was also done in the restaurants and wineshops, of which there were many; where
you might be served with some dish: fresh or salted fish, fried locusts, a mess
of vegetables, a dish of soup, pastry, sweetmeats, or a piece of a fruit-cake,
to be washed down with Judæan or Galilean wine, Idumæan vinegar, or foreign
beer.
25. Comp. Herzfeld's Handelsgesch.
26. Ancient Jerusalem is supposed to have covered about double the area of the
modern city. Comp. Dr. Schick in A.M. Luncz, 'Jerusalem,' for 1882.
27. Although Jerusalem covered only about 300 acres, yet, from the narrowness of
Oriental streets, it would hold a very much larger population than any Western
city of the same extent. Besides, we must remember that its ecclesiastical
boundaries extended beyond the city.
28. Maaser. ii. 3.
29. Baba B. 89 a.
30. Jer. Ab. Z 44 b; Ab. Z. 58 a.
31. Jer. Dem 22 c.
32. Yoma 9 a.
33. On
the question of officially fixing the market-price, diverging opinions are
expressed, Baba B. 89 b. It was thought that the market-price should
leave to the producer a profit of one-sixth on the cost (Baba B. 90 a).
In general, the laws on these subjects form a most interesting study. Bloch
(Mos. Talm. Polizeir.) holds, that there were two classes of market-officials.
But this is not supported by sufficient evidence, nor, indeed, would such an
arrangement seem likely.
34. Sanh. 89 a.
35. Erub. x. 9.
36. Jos. War v. 8. 1.
37. Ibid. ii. 19. 4.
38. Tos. Baba Mets. iii.
39. That of Botnah was the largest, Jer. Ab. Z. 39 d.
40. Kerith. iii. 7; Temur. iii.5.
41. Makhsh. vi. 2.
42. Kethub. ix. 4.
If from these busy scenes we turn to the more aristocratic
quarters of the Upper City,43
we still see the same narrow streets, but tenanted by another class. First, we
pass the High-Priest's palace on the slope of the hill, with a lower story
under the principal apartments, and a porch in front. Here, on the night of the
Betrayal, Peter was 'beneath in the Palace.'44
Next, we come to Xystos, and then pause for a moment at the Palace of the
Maccabees. It lies higher up the hill, and westward from the Xytos. From its
halls you can look into the city, and even into the Temple. We know not which
of the Maccabees had built this palace. But it was occupied, not by the
actually reigning prince, who always resided in the fortress (Baris, afterwards
Antonia), but by some other member of the family. From them it passed into the
possession of Herod. There Herod Antipas was when, on that terrible Passover,
Pilate sent Jesus from the old palace of Herod to be examined by the Ruler of
Galilee.45 If these
buildings pointed to the difference between the past and present, two
structures of Herod's were, perhaps, more eloquent than any words in their
accusations of the Idumæan. One of these, at least, would come in sight in
passing along the slopes of the Upper City. The Maccabean rule had been
preceded by that of corrupt High-Priests, who had prostituted their office to
the vilest purposes. One of them, who had changed his Jewish name of Joshua
into Jason, had gone so far, in his attempts to Grecianise the people, as to
build a Hippodrome and Gymnasium for heathen games. We infer, it stood where
the Western hill sloped into the Tyropœon, to the south-west of the Temple.46
It was probably this which Herod afterwards enlarged and beautified, and turned
into a theatre. No expense was spared on the great games held there. The
threatre itself was magnificently adorned with gold, silver, precious stones,
and trophies of arms and records of the victories of Augustus. But to the Jews
this essentially heathen place, over against their Temple, was cause of deep
indignation and plots.47
Besides this theatre, Herod also built an immense amphitheatre, which we must
locate somewhere in the north-west, and outside the second city wall.48
43. Compare here generally Unruh, D. alte Jerusalem.
44. St. Mark xiv. 66.
45. St. Luke xxiii. 6, 7.
46. Jos. War ii. 3. 1.
47. Ant. xv. 8. 1.
48. Ant. xvii. 10. 2; War ii. 3. 1, 2.
All this was Jerusalem above ground. But there was an under
ground Jerusalem also, which burrowed everywhere under the city - under the
Upper City, under the Temple, beyond the city walls. Its extent may be gathered
from the circumstance that, after the capture of the city, besides the living
who had sought shelter there, no fewer than 2,000 dead bodies were found in
those subterranean streets.
Close by the tracks of heathenism in Jerusalem, and in sharp
contrast, was what gave to Jerusalem its intensely Jewish character. It was not
only the Temple, nor the festive pilgrims to its feasts and services. But there
were hundreds of Synagogues,49
some for different nationalities - such as the Alexandrians, or the Cyrenians;
some for, or perhaps founded by, certain trade-guilds. If possible, the Jewish
schools were even more numerous than the Synagogues. Then there were the many
Rabbinic Academies; and, besides, you might also see in Jerusalem that
mysterious sect, the Essenes, of which the members were easily recognized by
their white dress. Essenes, Pharisees, stranger Jews of all hues, and of many
dresses and languages! One could have imagined himself almost in another world,
a sort of enchanted land, in this Jewish metropolis, and metropolis of Judaism.
When the silver trumpets of the Priests woke the city to prayer, or the strain
of Levite music swept over it, or the smoke of the sacrifices hung like another
Shekhinah over the Temple, against the green background of Olivet; or when in
every street, court, and housetop rose the booths at the Feast of Tabernacles,
and at night the sheen of the Temple illumination threw long fantastic shadows
over the city; or when, at the Passover, tens of thousands crowded up the Mount
with their Paschal lambs, and hundreds of thousands sat down to the Paschal
supper - it would be almost difficult to believe, that heathenism was so near,
that the Roman was virtually, and would soon be really, master of the land, or
that a Herod occupied the Jewish throne.
49. Tradition
exaggerates their number as 460 (Jer. Kethub. 35 c.) or even 480 (Jer.
Meg. 73 d). But even the large number (proportionally to the size of the
city) mentioned in the text need not surprise us when we remember that ten
men were sufficient to form a Synagogue, and how many - what may be called
'private' - Synagogues exist at present in every town where there is a large
and orthodox Jewish population.
Yet there he was; in the pride of his power, and the reckless
cruelty of his ever-watchful tyranny. Everywhere was his mark. Temples to the
gods and to Cæsar, magnificent, and magnificently adorned, outside Palestine
and in its non-Jewish cities; towns rebuilt or built: Sebaste for the
ancient Samaria, the splendid city and harbour of Cæsarea in the west, Antipatris
(after his father) in the north, Kypros and Phasaelis (after his
mother and brother), and Agrippeion; unconquerable fortresses, such as Essebonitis
and Machœrus in Peræa, Alexandreion, Herodeion, Hyrcania,
and Masada in Judæa - proclaimed his name and sway. But in Jerusalem it
seemed as if he had gathered up all his strength. The theatre and amphitheatre
spoke of his Grecianism; Antonia was the representative fortress; for his
religion he had built that glorious Temple, and for his residence the noblest
of palaces, at the north-western angle of the Upper City, close by where Milo
had been in the days of David. It seems almost incredible, that a Herod should
have reared the Temple, and yet we can understand his motives. Jewish tradition
had it, that a Rabbi (Baba ben Buta) had advised him in this manner to
conciliate the people,50
or else thereby to expiate the slaughter of so many Rabbis.51
52
Probably a desire to gain popularity, and superstition, may alike have
contributed, as also the wish to gratify his love for splendour and building.
At the same time, he may have wished to show himself a better Jew than that
rabble of Pharisees and Rabbis, who perpetually would cast it in his teeth,
that he was an Idumæan. Whatever his origin, he was a true king of the Jews -
as great, nay greater, than Solomon himself. Certainly, neither labour nor
money had been spared on the Temple. A thousand vehicles carried up the stone;
10,000 workmen, under the guidance of 1,000 priests, wrought all the costly
material gathered into that house, of which Jewish tradition could say, 'He
that has not seen the temple of Herod, has never known what beauty is.'53
And yet Israel despised and abhorred the builder! Nor could his apparent work
for the God of Israel have deceived the most credulous. In youth he had
browbeaten the venerable Sanhedrin, and threatened the city with slaughter and
destruction; again and again had he murdered her venerable sages; he had shed
like water the blood of her Asmonean princes, and of every one who dared to be
free; had stifled every national aspiration in the groans of the torture, and
quenched it in the gore of his victims. Not once, nor twice, but six times did
he change the High-Priesthood, to bestow it at last on one who bears no good
name in Jewish theology, a foreigner in Judæa, an Alexandrian. And yet the
power of that Idumæan was but of yesterday, and of mushroom growth!
50. Baba B. 3 b.
51. Bemid. R. 14.
52. The
occasion is said to have been, that the Rabbis, in answer to Herod's question,
quoted Deut. xvii. 15. Baba ben Buta himself is said to have escaped the
slaughter, indeed, but to have been deprived of his eyes.
53. Baba B. 4 a.
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