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The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

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purely secular. That l<strong>of</strong>ty absorption <strong>of</strong> thought <strong>and</strong><br />

life in <strong>the</strong> study <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Law, written <strong>and</strong> oral,<br />

which characterised <strong>the</strong> East, was to <strong>the</strong>m<br />

something in <strong>the</strong> dim distance, sacred, like <strong>the</strong> soil<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> institutions <strong>of</strong> Palestine, but unattainable.<br />

In Palestine or Babylonia numberless influences<br />

from his earliest years, all that he saw <strong>and</strong> heard,<br />

<strong>the</strong> very force <strong>of</strong> circumstances, would tend to<br />

make an earnest Jew a disciple <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Rabbis; in<br />

<strong>the</strong> West it would lead him to ' hellenise.' It was,<br />

so to speak, ' in <strong>the</strong> air'; <strong>and</strong> he could no more shut<br />

his mind against Greek thought than he could<br />

withdraw his body from atmospheric influences.<br />

That restless, searching, subtle Greek intellect<br />

would penetrate everywhere, <strong>and</strong> flash it3 light<br />

into <strong>the</strong> innermost recesses <strong>of</strong> his home <strong>and</strong><br />

Synagogue.<br />

To be sure, <strong>the</strong>y were intensely Jewish, <strong>the</strong>se<br />

communities <strong>of</strong> strangers. Like our scattered<br />

colonists in distant l<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>the</strong>y would cling with<br />

double afiection to <strong>the</strong> customs <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir home, <strong>and</strong><br />

invest with <strong>the</strong> halo <strong>of</strong> tender memories <strong>the</strong> sacred

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