Page:Buddhism in Christendom, or, Jesus, the Essene.djvu/165

Rh that the authority of the regular anhedrim was at an end, and that He was Supreme Lord and Pontiff of the whole Hebrew race."

The word "apostle" designated the shoeless wandering missionary of Christianity; but it was also used to describe the stationary councillors round the head of the Church. The twelve apostles, according to Renan, were not missionaries, but remained at Jerusalem. After the taking of that city, even the orthodox Jews used the word "apostle" to designate the council round their patriarch. The Essene Sanhedrim abrogated to itself the power of inflicting death (to the blasphemer) and excommunication, a punishment which, according to Josephus, was almost its equivalent. That Christ had His Sanhedrim at an early date is manifest from more than one passage in the New Testament—

"And if he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church [assembly]: but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be as a heathen man and a publican" (Matt. xviii. 17).

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?" (1 Cor. vi. 1).

If Christ thus took over the Essene Sanhedrim and set up a government with the avowed purpose of superseding that of the dominant Jews, it is difficult to see how He can be held, when speaking of "every jot and tittle of the law," to have alluded to the law as interpreted by the historical Sanhedrim.

""

Professor Rhys Davids has pointed out the fact that Buddha's great object was to found a "kingdom of righteousness" (dharma chakra) on earth. From Benares, in the first yea.r of his ministry, he sent forth his sixty disciples on the work of propagandism—

Depart each man in a different direction, no two on the