Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/31

Rh sect, escaped from the Law after this fashion. On the evening before the Sabbath, they would place small pieces of meat, distant two thousand paces one from another, on the road whereon they desired to journey. Where a man's meat is, said they, there is his home. So when they were come in their journeying to the first piece of meat, they would say, "Now I am at my home, and may walk yet another two thousand paces." And so, walking from this home to other homes if need were, they walked as far as they listed. This mixing of distances they called erûbh, or "mixture;" and the device remaineth unto this day.

Again, if a man's ox were dying on some holy day, and the owner thereof desired to kill it, he was forbidden. But if he slew the beast and then took of the meat and ate thereof, yea, even though it were a piece of flesh no bigger than an olive, and if he said, "I slay the beast to provide a necessary meal," then he was held excused. Likewise, though a man might not buy from a butcher on the Sabbath, yet if he abstained from mentioning the number or weight of the things bought, and the sum of money to be paid, then he might buy as much as his heart desired and be held blameless. Thus he would say, "Give me a portion, or half a portion, of meat," and the butcher would give it; and the buyer would go away, paying naught. But next day the money would be paid. And this was called, not a sale, but a gift. After the same manner they did away with the Law which remitteth debts in the Sabbatical year. On the day of payment, the creditor would come (such was the ordinance of the Scribes) and say, "In accordance with the Sabbatical year I remit thee the debt." Then the debtor was bound to reply, "I nevertheless wish to pay it;" and the debt was paid, and the Law was made of none effect.

About the thirteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius, it