authorities which he could quote in his support. Unlike the Halakhah, the Haggadah had no
absolute authority, either as to doctrine practice, or exegesis. But all the greater would be its
popular influence,56 and all the more dangerous the doctrinal license which it allowed. In fact,
strange as it may sound, almost all the doctrinal teaching of the Synagogue is to be derived from
the Haggadah - and this also is characteristic of Jewish traditionalism. But, alike in Halakhah and
Haggadah, Palestine was under the deepest obligation to Babylonia. For the father of Halakhic
study was Hillel, the Babylonian, and among the popular Haggadists there is not a name better
known than that of Eleazar the Mede, who flourished in the first century of our era.
54. From darash , to search out, literally, to tread out. The preacher was afterwards called the Darshan.
55. The Halakhah might be described as the apocryphal Pentateuch, the Haggadah as the apocryphal
Prophets
56. We may here remind ourselves of 1 Tim. v. 17. St. Paul, as always, writes with the familiar Jewish
phrases ever recurring to his mind. The expression didaskalia seems to be equivalent to Halakhic
teaching. Comp. Grimm, Clavis N. T. pp. 98, 99.
After this, it seems almost idle to inquire whether, during the first period after the return of the
exiles from Babylon, there were regular theological academies in Babylon. Although it is, of
course, impossible to furnish historical proof, we can scarcely doubt that a community so large
and so intensely Hebrew would not have been indifferent to that study, which constituted the
main thought and engagement of their brethren in Palestine. We can understand that, since the
great Sanhedrin in Palestine exercised supreme spiritual authority, and in that capacity ultimately
settled all religious questions - at least for a time - the study and discussion of these subjects
should also have been chiefly carried on in the schools of Palestine; and that even the great Hillel
himself, when still a poor and unknown student, should have wandered thither to acquire the
learning and authority, which at that period he could not have found in his own country. But
even this circumstance implies, that such studies were at least carried on and encouraged in
Babylonia. How rapidly soon afterwards the authority of the Babylonian schools increased, till
they not only overshadowed those of Palestine, but finally inherited their prerogatives, is well
known. However, therefore, the Palestinians in their pride or jealousy might sneer,57 that the
Babylonians were stupid, proud, and poor (`they ate bread upon bread'),58 even they had to
acknowledge that, `when the Law had fallen into oblivion, it was restored by Ezra of Babylon;
when it was a second time forgotten, Hillel the Babylonian came and recovered it; and when yet
a third time it fell into oblivion, Rabbi Chija came from Babylon and gave it back once more.'59
57. In Moed Q. 25 a. sojourn in Babylon is mentioned as a reason why the Shekhinah could not rest
upon a certain Rabbi.
58. Pes. 34 b; Men. 52 a; Sanh. 24 a; Bets. 16 a - apud Neubauer, Géog. du Talmud, p. 323. In Keth. 75 a,
they are styled the `silly Babylonians.' See also Jer. Pes. 32 a.
59. Sukk. 20 a. R. Chija, one of the teachers of the second century, is among the most celebrated
Rabbinical authorities, around whose memory legend has thrown a special halo.
Such then was that Hebrew dispersion which, from the first, constituted really the chief part and