During the seventy years that this captivity lasted, only a few old men
survived who had retained any recollection of the laws of Moses. Esdras
collected, as far as was possible, the doctrines of Moses; but they were
mingled with too many principles which were foreign to them, and some of
them may be traced to Zoroaster. The existence of the three sects of the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Essenes, each of which give a different
interpretation of the word of God, abundantly prove this. Hillel and
Schamai, a little before the time of Vespasian, had a school. The Rabbi
Jonathan Sillai, a pupil of Hillel, exalts his master by saying, "If every
tree were a pen, and the whole ocean ink, I should not be able to describe
the wisdom I have received from Hillel." What extravagant expressions! How
well do they paint the fanaticism of sectarianism! It was not, however,
long, before this blind zeal drew down on the people a punishment from
Heaven, by the destruction of Jerusalem under the Roman chief, Titus. Read
the work of Flavius Josephus, and you will behold the noble firmness and
perseverance of the Israelites on one side, and on the other the
melancholy truth, that raving enthusiasm and blind obstinacy precipitated
the ruin of the most flourishing people in the world. The last siege and
capture of Jerusalem will ever be memorable in the history of mankind. How
violent was the exasperation between the two sects of the believers! What
firmness and obstinacy in each party, who preferred death and the
destruction of the whole nation to yielding up the smallest particle of
their different opinions! At that time, there fell, by famine and the
sword, more than a million of the Jews.
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