f. Shemaia (= /attlas, Joseph. Antig. xiv. 9. 4) and Abtaljon (=HoXXia,v, Joseph. Antiq. xv. 1. 1, io. 4) are the two great doctors of the law who now succeeded to the presidency and vice-presi dency °Lc. 65-30) as the fourth pair (Milt). They are generally considered as having been proselytes. But this is precluded by the fact that they were at the head of the Sanhedrim, and that according to the Jewish law [SANDEDRIm] no proselyte could even be an ordinary member of the seventy-one. Indeed Graetz (iii. 481) has shown that they were Alex andrian Jews, and that the notion of their having been proselytes rests upon the misinterpretation of a passage in the Talmud. Though very few of their enactments have corne down to us, yet the influence which their great learning and unflinching integrity gave them among the people at large, and especially among the succeeding doctors of the law, was such as to secure for any question an authori tative reception if it could be traced to have been propounded by Shemaia and Abtaljon Edltioth, i. 3 ; Pesachinz, 66 a), who were styled the two magnates of their day (-Inn +911i). The two maxims of these disting-uished Scribes which have survived reflect the deplorable condition of the Jews under the Roman yoke. Thus Shemaia urged on his disciples, Love a handicraft, hate the Rabbinate, and befriend not thyself with the worldly powers' (Aboth.i. ro) ; whilst Abtaljon said, Sages, be careful in your utterances, lest ye draw upon yourselves the punishment of exile, and ye be banished to a place where the water is poisonous [L e. of seductive influence], and the disciples who go with you drink thereof and die, and thus bring reproach upon the sacred name of God' (ibid.i.
Some idea may be formed of Shemaia's unflinching integrity from his conduct ,at the trial of Herod before the Sanhedrim. When this magnate was summoned before the supreme tribunal to answer the accusation of the mothers whose children he had slain, and when his armed appearance, and his retinue of soldiers, frightened the other members of the court into silence, Shemaia the president had the courage to pronounce the sentence of death against him (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 9. 4).
g. Great as was the learning, the integrity, and the influence of all the foregoing Scribes, yet Hillel I., who now succeeded to the presidential throne (B.c. 30-A.D. to), surpassed in these and in many other respects all his predecessors. His character, however, as well as his doctrines, etc., are described in a separate article [MLLE', I.] in this Cyclopmdia. Of the other doctors of the law (viz. Simon b. Hillel, Gamaliel I. b. Simon, Simon II. b. Ga maliel, Jochanan b. Zakkai, Gamaliel II., Simon III., Jehudah I., and Gamaliel III.) who succes sively became the heads of the colleges till the close of this period, Gamaliel I. and Gamaliel II. are noticed in separate articles, whilst the distin guished disciples of this epoch are enumerated in the article EDUCATION. The most cursory reflec tion upon the characters and teachings of the chiefs of these Scribes down to the time of Christ, as above described—and be it remembered that as is the head so is the body—will convince any im partial reader that they were not the set of formal ists and hypocrites which they are too often repre sented to be, but that the conclusions arrived at in the article Pharisees and elsewhere in this Cyclo pwdia are based upon facts.