4. Between the close of the Canonical period and the Christian era there arose many intellectual and studious ones, who ranged themselves under three general and widespread schools.
(1) The Traditionalists, called by the Jews the Masoretic School, or Pharisees.
(2) The Philosophic school, of whom were the Sadducees.
(3) The Kabalistic school.
The first of these confined themselves strictly to Scripture and tradition. They derived their name from the Hebrew word masar, to deliver, as from hand to hand.
The second entered the paths of speculation unknown to the fathers. They were pleased with theGreek philosophy, due to their contact with the schools of Alexandria. They strove to harmonize the principles of Judaism with the doctrines of Pythagoras, the philosophy of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle. Thus, as virtue was its own reward, they taught that there can be no future reward, and therefore that there was no future life and no resurrection; and this was the belief of the Sadducees.
The third school, Kabalistic, believed in the mysteries, or secret meaning of the words of the Law. They thought they could detect secret truths in the words, and sometimes the letters of the words, which others could not apprehend. They taught that the truths were to the words of Scripture what the soul is to the body, and that we are mistaken if we see only the letter in the Scripture,and fail to ascend by the help of the letter to the ideas of the Infinite Mind.[142]
5. From the men of the Masoretic school, who devoted themselves strictly to the Law and Tradition, arose a series of academies, or scholastic institutions. Those were presided over by the most learned members of that body, which, as we have said, followed upon the Great Synagogue after the death of Simon the Just,and which was called the Sanhedrin, or council.[143] This council, about this time, became the seat of supreme legislativepower among the Jews, in both civil and ecclesiastical matters,but was subsequently divested of some of its powers by Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, B. C. 57.[144] It is referred to in the New Testament (Matt. 5:22; 26:59; Acts 4:15; 5:27, etc.).
6. But the Sanhedrin, which was presided over by the high-priest, became the centre of learning and authority so far back as B. C. 200 years.
The priesthood was recognized as the legitimate ministers of the altar; but the people, with whom the Mosaic Law was supreme, entering as it did into all the details of their lives, regarded the expositors and interpreters of that Law with the highest honor.With them “the voice of the rabbi” became “the voice of God.”[145]