the year 40 a.d., the Roman legate shrank from provoking their hostility.35 At the same time it
must not be thought that, even in these favoured regions, they were wholly without persecution.
Here also history records more than one tale of bloody strife on the part of those among whom
they dwelt.36
29. 537 b.c., and 459-`8 b.c.
30. Ant. xi. 5. 2; xv. 2. 2; xviii. 9.
31. Jos. Ant. xviii. 9. 9.
32. Midrash on Cant. v. 5, ed. Warsh. p. 26 a.
33. 330 b.c.
34. 63 b.c.
35. Philo ad Caj.
36. The following are the chief passages in Josephus relating to that part of Jewish history: Ant. xi. 5. 2;
xiv. 13. 5; xv. 2. 7; 3. 1; xvii. 2. 1-3; xviii. 9. 1, &c.; xx. 4. Jew. W. i. 13. 3.
To the Palestinians, their brethren of the East and of Syria - to which they had wandered under
the fostering rule of the Macedono-Syrian monarchs (the Seleucidę) - were indeed pre-
eminently the Golah, or `dispersion.' To them the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem intimated by fire-
signals from mountain-top to mountain-top the commencement of each month for the regulation
of the festive calendar,37 even as they afterwards despatched messengers into Syria for the same
purpose.38 In some respects the Eastern dispersion was placed on the same footing; in others,
on even a higher level than the mother country. Tithes and Terumoth, or first-fruits in a
prepared condition,39 were due from them, while the Bikkurim , or first-fruits in a fresh state,
were to be brought from Syria to Jerusalem. Unlike the heathen countries, whose very dust
defiled, the soil of Syria was declared clean, like that of Palestine itself.40 So far as purity of
descent was concerned, the Babylonians, indeed, considered themselves superior to their
Palestinian brethren. They had it, that when Ezra took with him those who went to Palestine, he
had left the land behind him as pure as fine flour.41 To express it in their own fashion: In regard
to the genealogical purity of their Jewish inhabitants, all other countries were, compared to
Palestine, like dough mixed with leaven; but Palestine itself was such by the side of Babylonia.42
It was even maintained, that the exact boundaries could be traced in a district, within which the
Jewish population had preserved itself unmixed. Great merit was in this respect also ascribed to
Ezra. In the usual mode of exaggeration, it was asserted, that, if all the genealogical studies and
researches43 had been put together, they would have amounted to many hundred camel-loads.
There was for it, however, at least this foundation in truth, that great care and labour were
bestowed on preserving full and accurate records so as to establish purity of descent. What
importance attached to it, we know from the action on Ezra44 in that respect, and from the
stress which Josephus lays on this point.45 Official records of descent as regarded the
priesthood were kept in the Temple. Besides, the Jewish authorities seem to have possessed a
general official register, which Herod afterwards ordered to be burnt, from reasons which it is