(3) Method of Procedure. There are many hints in the Talmud which throw light upon the manner of proceeding in these assemblies. Thus, a student asked Gamaliel whether the evening prayer was obligatory by the law, or not. He answered in the affirmative; on which the student informed him that R. Joshua had told him that it was not obligatory. 'Well,' said Gamaliel, 'when lie appears to-morrow in the assembly, step for ward and ask him the question again.' He did so, and the expected answer raised a discussion, a full account of which is given. It appears that these learned men delivered their dicta and argu ments in Hebrew to an interpreter at their side, who then explained them in the vernacular dia lect to the audience. This is the explanation given of an anecdote, that a celebrated teacher was unable to proceed for want of an interpreter, till Rabh volunteered his services (Tr. Yoznalz). In such meetings there was one who was recog nized as president or chief professor, and another as vice-president (Tr. Horayoth).
These teachers and professors, who were the 'lawyers' and 'doctors' of the New Testament, formed no mean opinion of their own dignity and importance, as indeed the Gospels evince. It is said, 'A wise man (more particularly a chief pro fessor) is of more consequence than a king; for when the former dies there is (often) no one to replace him, but any one may replace the latter. A wise man, even though a bastard, ranks even above the high-priest, if the latter be one of the unlearned.' Even the students under these per sonages claimed to be regarded with respect; they were called the 'holy people,' as opposed to the masses, who are contemptuously designated 'peo ple of the earth.' Philo (De Vita Contenzp.), speaking of the meetings of the Essenes, who are supposed to have observed the regulations of the ancient prophets, says, 'After the head teacher had finished his exposition to the assembly, upon a proposed question, he stands up and begins to sing (a hymn or psalm), in which the choirs join at certain in tervals; and the audience listen quietly till the repetition of the leading theme, when all join in it.
(4) New Testament Allusions. Now the practices mentioned in the preceding citations en tirely correspond with the intimations of the New Testament, and with them may be taken into the series of facts illustrative of the condition of learning and education and the mode of instruc tion among the Jews, for the period considerably before and long after the time of Christ. The
following passages in particular may be indicated in this conneotion—Luke ii :46; Acts vi :9, to; xix: 8, 9; xxii :3; s Cor. xiv :26-33; 2 Tim. ii:2. In the last but one of these, it is true, the description applies to the Christian assemblies; but, on com paring it with the other passages, it will appear that the first Christian teachers had retained many of the regulations of the Jewish assemblies. The Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which belong to this period, contain some curious and distinct intimations to the same purport, and il lustrative of the general subject. See in partic ular, Wisd. viii. 8, to; Sirach, xxxv. 3, sq.; xxxix. 2, 3; xliv :3-5; I Macc. vii. II; 2 Macc. vi. 17, 18.
(5) Conclusions. From the above and from sundry other passages of the same import, which we have not thought it necessary to produce, we may safely draw the following conclusions:— (I) That soon after the Babylonian Exile, as semblies of the learned not only existed, but had increased to a considerable extent.
(2) That these meetings took place not only at Jerusalem, but also in other places, remote from the capital •of Palestine, such as Galilee, the frontiers of Idumea, Lebanon, and even in heathen countries.
(3) That the meeting places of the wise stood mostly in connection with the synagogues; and that the wise or learned men usually met, soon after divine worship and reading were over, in the upper apartment of the synagogues, in order to discuss those matters which required more re search and inquiry.
(4) That the Beth-Midrash was a place where subjects of religions philosophy and various para doxes from the moral and material world were treated, serving as a sort of academical lectures for those higher students who aspired to fill in time the place of teacher themselves. These insti tutions may therefore be fairly likened to the academies, or learned societies, so famous in ancient Greece and Rome.
(5) That these assemblies of the wise were quite different from those of the priests, who oc cupied themselves merely with investigations on the religious rites and ceremonies, etc.; as also from those where civil laws were discussed, and law-suits decided (Beth-din, 'court of judg ment') ; though many of the learned priests were no doubt members of the literary assemblies, and probably often proposed in the Beth-Midrash questions of a character more suited to a sacred than to a philosophical society.