=6. But the Sanhedrin=, which was presided over by the high-priest, became the centre of learning and authority so far back as B. C. 200 years. The priesthood was recognized as the legitimate ministers of the altar; but the people, with whom the Mosaic Law was supreme, entering as it did into all the details of their lives, regarded the expositors and interpreters of that Law with the highest honor. With them “the voice of the rabbi” became “the voice of God.”[145] =7. For many years before the Christian era= the Sanhedrin was the highest authority in matters of faith, and its utterances, or more particularly those of the most learned of its members, both in traditions and in opinions, became so numerous that from being only orally delivered, they were committed to writing, and these writings and opinions upon the Law were the foundation of that voluminous work called the Talmud, with its divisions. FORM OF THE TALMUD. =8. The Talmud therefore= in the main was the growth of centuries, beginning from about B. C. 220 to several centuries after Christ. It was composed of the text of the Law, both the written law and that which was believed to be additional law, although only handed down from age to age, but never written. This was called the _oral law_. All this comprised that part of the Talmud called “the repetition,” or in the Hebrew the MISHNA. Then came the “Commentary” upon every part, and this was called the GAMARA. THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. =9. As there had been a very large and learned class of Jews= in Babylon from the Captivity to the time of Christ, there was also a corresponding number of very important schools in several cities on the Euphrates and east of it. These also gathered a Talmud, with its Mishna and Gamara; but this――called the Babylonian Talmud――was of later origin than the Jerusalem Talmud. A WONDERFUL MEMORY.