The Early Christians in RomeSpence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
History
The Early Christians in Rome
Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Rome (Italy) -- Church history
This is one of the recitals in the Old Testament Scriptures which has
ever, for various reasons, been a difficulty, when regarded as a piece
of actual history. Its appearance in the “Book of Jubilees” among other
evidently Haggadic or purely legendary amplifications of the original
text, suggests that even in the Pentateuch the inspired compiler has
occasionally introduced in his narrative details which in the opinion
of the very early Scribes belonged evidently to the realm of Haggadah
or legend.
In the Haggadah of the Pentateuch a vast cycle of legends accompanies
the original Genesis account of famous heroes of Israelitic history,
such as Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Aaron.
A good specimen of Haggadic legendary amplification is given above
in the extract from the Jerusalem Targum on Deut. xxxiv., where the
death of Moses and the circumstances attending his burial are related.
Again, one of the canonical writings of the Old Testament, the Book of
Chronicles, is a fair example of the less fanciful Haggadic historical
Midrash. Here the compiler of the book in question adds to the original
record of the Jewish kings a number of details not found in the Books
of Kings and in the older histories of Israel.
The Haggadah specially enlarges at great length, and with much detail,
the passages which even remotely refer to the future, to the angels,
and to the heavenly world; it amplifies all the mystic sections which
deal with the glory of the Eternal, such as the “chariot” of Ezekiel,
that wonderful introductory vision of his great prophecy.
Even in the New Testament Epistles and in the “Acts,” Haggadic
influence is noticeable in several well-known passages; for instance,
in S. Paul’s 2nd Epistle to Timothy iii. 8, the names of the Egyptian
magicians Jannes and Jambres, which do not appear in the Genesis
history, are given. A still more remarkable example of Haggadic
influence is the singular legendary account of the Rock in 1 Cor. x. 4,
where the rock from which, at Moses’ bidding, the water gushed forth
is represented as positively accompanying the Israelites during their
desert wanderings. Again, in Acts vii. 53, Gal. iii. 19, Heb. ii.
2, the Law is represented, not as given to Moses by God Himself, as
related in the Pentateuch, but as reaching him through the medium of
angels.
IX
WOMEN’S DISABILITIES
Among the disabilities of the women[171] of Israel nothing is more
remarkable than the position they occupied in the public services of
the congregation. The Inner Court of the Temple, within which the whole
of the official worship was celebrated, was divided by a wall into two
divisions--a Western and an Eastern. The latter (the Eastern)--the more
remote from the Temple proper--was called “the Court of the Women,” not
however because none but women were admitted to it, but because women
as well as men were allowed to enter it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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