Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/220

* JESUS. 194 JESUS CHRIST. JESUS, Wisdom of. See Ecclesiasticls. JESUS CHRIST. The founder of the Chris- tian religion, whose life and teachings are given in the four Gospels of the New Testament. In order to appreciate the work of Jesus, it is necessary to untleistand the political and reli- gious condition of the Jewish people, to whom He belonged and among whom His work was carried out. Politically. — The .Jews were subjects of the Roman Kiuiieror. the dominion of the Romans having l)een estaldished by IVimpey in n.o. 6.3. After that time various adjustments of I'aU'stine's relations within the Kmpire took place, and when Jesus began His public ministry the government of the country was divided as follows: (ialilcc, with the land to the north, east, and southeast of the Sea of Galilee, was under the rule of Philip and Antipas, sons of Herod the Great, who, as lex sociiis, had had the entire land as his king- dom. Philip's territory' was the land north and east of the Sea of (ialilee ( Iturea and Trachoni- tis) ; the territory of Antipas was Galilee itself and the land southeast of the Sea of Galilee (Perea). Both regions were ruled as tetrarchies. On the other hand, Judea. Samaria, and the land of Idumea, south of Jui. — The Jews had returned from their exile with a new hold upon the monotheism of their religion and a new devotion to Jehovah's law. This spirit had been strength- ened by the persecutions which they had under- gone under the rule of the Seleueid* and the re- volt by which, under the Maccabees, they had broken from that rule, producing at the time of • Tesus' ministry an exaggerated conception of the ceremonial rei^uirements of the Jlosaie law, in the interpretation of which had arisen a body of legal reliiieinents that added greatly to the burden of the law and to the power of those who administered it. See Maccabee.s ; .Tews. It was a characteristic of .Jewish life, how- ever, to combine religion and politics. As a re- sult there arose in the nation during the time of the Maccabean revolt, when the religious and political elements in the people's life were brought to accentuation, two great parties, whose signifi- cant influence increas<"d as with the religious ele- ments in the national life were mingled with in- creasing energy the political. These parties were the Pharisees and the Sadducees (qq.v.). The Pharisees (literally fieparatixts or Purixt/i) were the party of religion. The eharaeteristie of iheir creed was the scrupulous observance of the law. They represented the religious idea dominant among the people since the return from P.abylon. while in their devotion to the conception of the theocracy and their expectation of a Messiah who should restore it to its independency they expressed what in general were the people's po- litical views. They were, in brief, the popular party. The Sadducees (a name derived from Zadok, the priest whom Solomon put in the place of Abiathar, I. Kings ii. ,3.5) were the party of the priesthood. They represented the priestly nobility, and their object was the retention of priestly power in the State. They were largely indifferent to religion as such, giving their thought rather to politics, in which their aim was to keep in favor with the ruling power. In addition to these were two minor parties, which more or less added to the politico-rcli gious confusion of the times. Of these the polit- ical was the party of the Herodians, the religious the party of the Zealots (qq.v.). The Herodians arose with the introduction into Jewish politics of the family whose name they bore, and were committed to the p<ililical interests of that fam- ily in its etlort to establish a rule in Palestine, the spirit of which would be a union of .ludaisni and Hellenism. With them the religious element wa.s minimized, if it was present at all. though they did not hesitate to combine with the reli- gious parties when their aims could thus be furthered. The Zealots arose with the reces- sion of the Pharisees from active interest in na- tional afl'airs. Their principles were those of the Pharisees, only they were ready, as the Phari- sees were not, to carry these principles into action to any extent. In this party conse(|uently the religious element resulted in a fanaticism which made them the most dangerous factor in the troublous conditions of the times. Separate from all these parties stood the Es- senes (q.v. ), who were unique in their absolute removal from all politics and their complete dissociation from the public worship of the tem- ple. They were characterized by the strictness of their community life, their strenuous regard for ceremonial purity, their unselfish practice of the community of goods, and their ujiriglitness of life. Their organization was confined to Palestine, and their main roots were laid in Pharisaic .Judaism. Yet they were subject tb foreign influences, Oriental rather than Greek, which contributed largely to their isolation among the parties of the land. In fact, they were a sect rather than a party, and as a sect emphasized the idea of an exclusive brothe'rhood. nf these parties anil sects the people were most infliu'nced by the Pharisees, who best expressed popular ideas, and with whom the people came most vitally in contact, especially through the authoritative channels of the temple, the syna- gogues, and the schools. In fact, the control of the last two institutions was almost wholly in the hands of the Scribes, who were the ex- pounders and the administrators of the law. and who almost exclusively belonged to the Pharisaic party: while in the temple itself their influence and authority was an increasingly important factor. This popular influence of the Pharisees was naturally most felt in .Judea and .Jerusalem, where the observance of the national religion was concentrated, and where the religious rulers liad their home: but there and elsewhere there were those among the people who. while rever- encing the Scribes and following the general line of their directions, still held to a direct fellow- ship with God in worship and life. From this survey it is clear that .Jesus, while finding a special receptivity among these devout ones of the people, as a religious teacher and worker among the .Jews, must have come more or less into contact with the sects and parties of the land; that this contact, in proportion as .lesus' position involved opposition to national ideas and customs, must have been one of con- flict : and that this conflict, in proportion as the parties combined politics with their religion,