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

world, and of the tendencies of Israel during the
earlier stages of their history, the strictest isolation
was necessary in order to preserve the religion of
the Old Testament from that mixture with foreign
elements which would speedily have proved fatal
to its existence. And if one source of that danger
had ceased after the seventy years' exile in
Babylonia, the dispersion of the greater part of the
nation among those whose manners and
civilisation would necessarily influence them,
rendered the continuance of this separation of as
great importance as before. In this respect, even
traditionalism had its mission and use, as a hedge
around the Law to render its infringement or
modification impossible.
Wherever a Roman, a Greek, or an Asiatic might
wander, he could take his gods with him,' or find
rites kindred to his own. It was fiu: otherwise with
the Jew. He had only one Temple, that in
Jerusalem; only one Ood, Him Who had once
throned there between the Cherubim, and Who was
still King over Zion. That Temple was the only