In the next place, we are told in the Mishna (Jadaim iv. 6) that the Sadducees made fun of the Pharisees for teaching that the Holy Scriptures “defiled the hands,” while the books of Homer did not “defile the hands”; that is to say, the Sadducees repudiated the Pharisaic conception of what constituted the Canon. This phrase, “to defile the hands,”[222] was the Pharisaic way of expressing canonicity; it implied that the holiness of the sacred object produced by contact with it a state of Levitical impurity (cp. Lev. vi. 24-28, Hag. ii. 11-13; and see further the interesting remarks by Robertson Smith in _The Religion of the Semites_ [2nd ed.], pp. 161, 466 ff.)[223] “The fact that defilement only of _the hands_ is attributed to the sacred writings demands more attention than it has hitherto received. Interpreted in positive terms this can mean only that _contact with them involves a ceremonial washing of the hands_, especially as the ruling in the matter occurs in that Mishna treatise (Jadaim) which relates to, and is named from, such hand-washings. The expression would be an unnatural one if it implied a command that the hands should be washed _before_ touching. The Pharisees attributed to the sacred writings a sanctity of such a sort that whosoever touched them was not allowed to touch aught else until he had undergone the same ritual ablution as if he had touched something unclean.”[224] The record of this difference of opinion between the Pharisees and Sadducees on this subject throws an interesting light upon the Pharisaic position regarding the Canon, and suggests that the final fixing of this lay with this party. It is also worth recording that prior to Josephus the attribution of the term “holy” to the Scriptures occurs only once, viz., in 2 Maccabees viii. 23,[225] a book which emanated from Pharisaic circles[226]; and in the New Testament this occurs only in the writings of St. Paul,[227] who was brought up as a Pharisee. It is, therefore, probable that the final fixing of the Canon was due to the Pharisees. SUMMARY