of the letter of the Law, it soon ceased to offer scope for the development of such a lofty system of
ethics as the Testaments [of the Patriarchs] attest, and so the true successors of the early Hasids
and their teaching quitted Judaism and found their natural home in the bosom of primitive
Christianity."
After a period of rule by the High Priests, Mark Antony made his friend Herod King of the Jews.
Herod was a gay adventurer, often on the verge of bankruptcy, accustomed to Roman society, and
very far removed from Jewish piety. His wife was of the family of the High Priests, but he was an
Idumæan, which alone would suffice to make him an object of suspicion to the Jews. He was a
skilful timeserver, and deserted Antony promptly when it became evident that Octavius was going
to be victorious. However, he made strenuous attempts to reconcile the Jews to his rule. He rebuilt
the Temple, though in a hellenistic style, with rows of Corinthian pillars; but he placed over the
main gate a large golden eagle, thereby infringing the second Commandment. When it was
rumoured that he was dying, the Pharisees pulled down the eagle, but he, in revenge, caused a
number of them to be put to death. He died in 4 B.C., and soon after his death the Romans
abolished the kingship, putting Judea under a procurator. Pontius Pilate, who became procurator
in A.D. 26, was tactless, and was soon retired.
In A.D. 66, the Jews, led by the party of the Zealots, rebelled against Rome. They were defeated,
and Jerusalem was captured in A.D. 70. The Temple was destroyed, and few Jews were left in
Judea.
The Jews of the Dispersion had become important centuries before this time. The Jews had been
originally an almost wholly agricultural people, but they learnt trading from the Babylonians
during the captivity. Many of them remained in Babylon after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and
among these some were very rich. After the foundation of Alexandria, great numbers of Jews
settled in that city; they had a special quarter assigned to them, not as a ghetto, but to keep them
from danger of pollution by contact with gentiles. The Alexandrian Jews became much more
hellenized than those of Judea, and forgot Hebrew. For this reason it became necessary to translate
the Old Testament into Greek; the result was the Septuagint. The Pentateuch was translated in the
middle of the third century B.C.; the other parts somewhat later.