proof of the affinity existing between the religious conceptions of Judaism of that period-so far as it had developed in the line of a clear recognition in thought and conduct of the abstract transcendental character of God-and the religious philosophic mode of view of the enlightened and cultured Greeks of that epoch. In the ratio in which Jewish orthodoxy diverged from vulgar heathen polytheism, did a cultured Judaism approach the cultured philosophical heathenism of that time.

The prevailing currents of Judaism tended to enhance the idea of God's transcendence of the world, and the deep-rooted idea that man must acquire a right to the Divine mercy by fulfilling the law, tended more and more to the expansion of legalism, especially in regard to ceremonial and ascetic performances, which appeared to be called for by the supermundane character of God. Jesus was not affected by this prevailing tendency as Philo certainly was. Philo is to be regarded as the Reformer of Judaism. In accordance with the spirit of his time, he sought to give a consistent exposition. of the conception of God which had become the prevailing one among his countrymen, whilst divesting Judaism of its narrow national prejudices and customs. At the same time, by recognising and accepting the best elements of Hellenic thought, he sought to adapt himself to the intelligence and requirements of the whole world of culture of his time. That this view is correct, is proved in the case of the Christian apologists of the second century, who adopted the Alexandrian philosophy in order to

bring Christianity home to their contemporaries. Those apologists, following Philo's example of allegorising the Old Testament, represented Christianity as a spiritualised Judaism; and they so unfolded the idea of the pure supersensuous nature of God, and the necessity of an abstemious and righteous course of life in order to attain salvation, as brought them into harmony with the Greek Idealism. But, in considering this subject, the question forces itself upon us, whether a religious philosophical system, dominated, like that of Philo, by the idea of the transcendental character of God, could have furnished the inspiring motive to such missionary labours as those of Paul, or to such joyful confession as that of the Christian martyrs. Would it have been able, not merely to satisfy the intellectual requirements of the cultured of that period, but to give new life and a new ideal to the mass of the common people? And would it have possessed an innate force of truth, sufficient not only for its acceptance as the highest wisdom by the cultured world in that declining period of antiquity, but for proving a perennial revelation for the whole human race, outlasting all the changes of history and all the forms of civilisation?

CHAP. II. THE RELIGIOUS HOPES OF THE JEWS IN

THE TIME OF JESUS.

1. The religious hopes formed an essential part of the system of Jewish ideas in the age of Jesus. I here devote a separate section to this subject, on

account of the special importance of those hopes as points for the historical foundation of the teaching of Jesus. Whilst Jesus came claiming to bring the fulfilment of His people's hopes, He had nevertheless to explain the distinction between that fulfilment as He understood it and as the Jews expected it. The rejection of His teaching on the part of the great mass of the people, was primarily owing to the fact that the salvation whose realisation He proclaimed did not correspond to the people's hopes, and to the ideal which they cherished.

Wherein, then, consisted the relation of the religious hopes of the Jews to the rest of their system of religious thought? The Jews sought to build the structure of their hopes as a whole on the foundation. of the Old Testament. Hopes of a great Divine manifestation of grace in the future, formed a strong element in the prophetic teaching of an earlier period; and the zeal of a later Judaism to maintain the integrity of the religion of that earlier period, was shown in a special manner in their cherishing of those ideal hopes of the future. And we must regard it as a special proof of the energy and confidence with which the Jews clung to the ancient beliefs of their people, that they would abate nothing of the great ideal hoped for in the early time. In the case of the ancient prophets, an incomparably. grand expression was afforded of their unshaken. conviction of the substantiality of their beliefs, in their taking all hardships of the present, all contradictions between the actual state of things and their religious ideas, only as incentives to the expectation

and prediction of a perfect solution of all such difficulties and contradictions through the future intervention of God. In like manner, we have to note with admiration how the post-exilian Jews, through all that long period of fruitless waiting for the fulfilment of the prophetic promises, and despite the contrast presented by the hard realities and the natural outlook of their present to the brilliant pictures of their hopes, never for a moment faltered in their confidence in the validity of those hopes. Certainly in many respects those hopes underwent a process of transformation in post-exilian Judaism; yet, on the whole, the early prophetic ideals were not impaired, but rather enhanced.

The intensity of these hopes formed a counterpoise to the tendency of the Jewish theology to accentuate the supermundane idea of God beyond His other attributes, and thus served to secure the specially religious character of their idea of God.' The religious interest is always directed, not to a mere knowledge of the Godhead, but to a reception of blessings from God as worshipped by men, whether the blessings they seek are spiritual or external. The religious interest, therefore, demands such a knowledge of God as promises the certainty of obtaining from Him certain valuable blessings. But the bare idea of the absolute exaltation of God above the world, of His essential opposition to the world as sensible and transient, and of His supremacy as First Cause of all things, though it may be sufficient from a philosophic point 1 Cf. Baldensperger, d. Selbstbewusstsein Jesu, p. 53.

of view, cannot satisfy the religious requirements. These latter demand the supposition of such Divine qualities as will insure the communication of blessings to the world,—a demand which must somehow be reconciled with the other interests which uphold the transcendence belonging to the idea of God, and imparting a special and incomparable value to the blessings He bestows. With Philo, whose philosophic interests so greatly overshadowed the religious, the idea of God's transcendental abstraction, which he set forth with special emphasis, caused a proportionate abatement of the redemptive hopes; yet, because those hopes were an ever-present element in his system, they imparted to it a certain religious character. Conversely, however, in the case of orthodox Judaism, we find, in the lively hope of God's redemptive interposition, a saving salt which, in spite of the strong emphasis laid upon the holy transcendence of God at the expense of His more ethical attributes, maintained the definitely religious character of the idea of God, and preserved it from philosophical petrifaction.

Hence we can explain the relation which these religious hopes of the Jews bore to their legalistic view of the religious relation to God. We must not suppose that this legalistic view and those hopes had no inner harmony, and that they in a measure counteracted each other. Instead of this, they found, in the ordering of the religious relationship between God and His people on the footing of law and justice, the reconciliation of the holy transcendence of God and His gracious dealings. The judicial attitude and acts