2 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cultus of the one purely spiritual God, who was represented by no 

 imao-e, a powerful attraction for the minds of pagans, who were sur- 

 feited with the numberless divinities of their religion. " Enemies are 

 they of the gods as well as men "such was the frequently pronounced 

 judgment of the pagan populace on this nation, whose character was 

 so mysterious to them. About the time of the Roman war in Judea, 

 they fell, not seldom by thousands, as a prey to the fury of the heathen 

 populace. 



They won again, however, a center of religious life and a head : in 

 the little town of Jamnia, in Palestine, the sanhedrim formed itself, 

 whose presiding officer was honored and recognized as the patriarch of 

 the whole nation ; so there was at once a supreme authority and an 

 academy. 



But just at this time, and in consequence of the powerful influence 

 of the zealots, which had been enormously increased during the late 

 wars, Judaism withdrew convulsively within itself, the Pharisaic way 

 of thinking became exclusively predominant, and cast out every foreign 

 element, such as Hellenism and Essenism ; while the Talmud, which 

 held all the members of the Jewish body together and lay like an iron 

 band about the nation, completed the separation, and all the more 

 surely since the Roman laws forbade any to be circumcised who were 

 not of Jewish birth. 



However, the question of vital moment was, what attitude those who 

 carried the future in their bosom viz., the Christians would assume 

 toward the Jews. The earliest Church remained true in this respect 

 to the example and word of its Master and the teaching of the apos- 

 tles. It believed and taught : 1. That the death of Christ, for which 

 the leaders of the Jews and a part of the people at Jerusalem were re- 

 sponsible, involves in no way the continuous guilt of the whole nation. 

 On the contrary, Christ himself asked for the forgiveness of his cruci- 

 fiers, and his prayer was heard. Peter, too, like his Master, excused 

 their transgression on the ground of their ignorance. 2. The people is 

 by no means outcast from God, even if their dispersion, the downfall 

 of their state, and the destruction of their temple and capital, may be 

 regarded as a divine punishment. Israel remains the chosen people of 

 God, since God can not retract his choice and promise. At some fut- 

 ure dav, when the " fullness of the Gentiles " shall have come, the full- 

 ness of Israel will also believe, and make an harmonious fellowship 

 along with Gentile believers. 



Starting from this view drawn from the New Testament, the wisest 

 and most eminent teachers of the Church exhorted that the Jewish 

 people must be regarded as a brother who has for the time gone astray, 

 but will sooner or later return to the Father's house, and in the mean 

 time is always and will remain the bearer of irrevocable promises. 

 Hence, they marked out the duty for Christians of indulgent and patient- 

 ly enduring love toward the race, of which both Christ and the apos- 



