16. Nedar. iv. 8.
17. In Ned. iv. 3 this is the actual division. Of course, in another sense the Midrash might be considered
as the source of both the Halakhah and the Haggadah.
18. Neh. xiii.
19. Very strange and ungrounded conjectures on this subject have been hazarded, which need not here
find a place. Comp. for ex. the two articles of Grätz in Frankel's Montsschrift for 1857, pp. 31 etc. 61
etc., the main positions of which have, however, been adopted by some learned English writers .
20. The Talmudic notices are often inconsistent. The number as given in them amounts to abut 120. But
the modern doubts (of Kuenen and others) against the institution itself cannot be sustained.
21. Ezra x. 14; Neh. v. 7.
22. Ab. i. 1.
In the course of time this rope of sand dissolved. The High-Priest, Simon the Just ,23 is already
designated as `of the remnants of the Great Assembly.' But even this expression does not
necessarily imply that he actually belonged to it. In the troublous times which followed his
Pontificate, the sacred study seems to have been left to solitary individuals. The Mishnic tractate
Aboth, which records `the sayings of the Fathers,' here gives us only the name of Antigonus of
Socho. It is significant, that for the first time we now meet a Greek name among Rabbinic
authorities, together with an indistinct allusion to his disciples.24 25 The long interval between
Simon the Just and Antigonus and his disciples, brings us to the terrible time of Antiochus
Epiphanes and the great Syrian persecution. The very sayings attributed to these two sound like
an echo of the political state of the country. On three things, Simon was wont to say, the
permanency of the (Jewish?) world depends: on the Torah (faithfulness to the Law and its
pursuit), on worship (the non-participation in Grecianism), and on works of righteousness.26
They were dark times, when God's persecuted people were tempted to think, that it might be
vain to serve Him, in which Antigonus had it: `Be not like servants who serve their master for the
sake of reward, but be like servants who serve their lord without a view to the getting of
reward, and let the fear of heaven be upon you.'27 After these two names come those of the so-
called five Zugoth, or `couples,' of whom Hillel and Shammai are the last. Later tradition has
represented these successive couples as, respectively, the Nasi (president), and Ab-beth-din
(vice-president, of the Sanhedrin). Of the first three of these `couples' it may be said that,
except significant allusions to the circumstances and dangers of their times, their recorded
utterances clearly point to the development of purely Sopheric teaching, that is, to the
Rabbinistic part of their functions. From the fourth `couple,' which consists of Simon ben
Shetach, who figured so largely in the political history of the later Maccabees28 (as Ab-beth-
din), and his superior in learning and judgment, Jehudah ben Tabbai (as Nasi), we have again
utterances which show, in harmony with the political history of the time, that judicial functions
had been once more restored to the Rabbis. The last of five couples brings us to the time of
Herod and of Christ.
23. In the beginning of the third century b.c.