VII. Political, Intellectual, and Religious Effects of the Maccabean Struggle. This century of valiant achievement, colossal errors, and overwhelming failure left its deep impression upon the Jewish race. It witnessed the return of many Jews of the dispersion to Jerusalem and Judea and the development of a strong sense of racial unity. Henceforth the Jews throughout the world looked to Jerusalem as their true political and religious capital. The events of this period intensified the ancient feud between Jew and Samaritan and gave the latter ample reason for that hostility toward their southern kinsmen which appears in the Gospel narratives. It was during this age that the parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees finally crystallized and formulated those tenets and policies which guided them during the next century. At this time the foundations were laid for the rule of the house of Herod which exerted such a baleful influence upon the fortunes and destinies of the Jews. It likewise marked the beginning and culmination of Rome's influence over the lands of the eastern Mediterranean and that subjection of the Jews to Gentile rulers which has continued until the present. The Maccabean period gave to the Jews a greatly enlarged intellectual vision and led them to adopt many of the ideas of their Greek conquerors. In their literature it is easy to recognize the influence of the more logical Greek methods of reasoning and of the scientific attitude toward the universe. It was during this period that the wise were transformed into scribes, and the rule of the scribal method of thinking and interpretation began. The struggles through which the Jews passed intensified their love for the law and the temple services. Duty was more and more defined in the terms of ceremonial, and the Pharisees entered upon that vast and impossible task of providing rules for man's every act. Out of the struggles of the Maccabean period came that fusion of Hellenic and Jewish ideas that has become an important factor in all human thought. At last under the influence of the great crises through which they had passed, the belief in individual immortality gained wide acceptance among the Jews. Side by side with this came the belief in a personal devil and a hierarchy of demons opposed to the divine hierarchy at whose head was Jehovah. Last of all the taste of freedom under a Jewish ruler brought again to the front the kingly messianic hopes of the race, and led them to long and struggle for their realization. Thus in this brief century Judaism attained in many ways its final form, and only in the light of this process is it possible fully to understand and appreciate the background of the New Testament history. * * * * * THE RULE OF ROME Section CXVII. THE RISE OF THE HERODIAN HOUSE