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Is Judaism the Religion of Moses? 83

Non-Priestly Teachers Assume Authoritative Positions

Under Egyptian control, within the period of the religious anarchy, Palestine had no official
teachers of the Law. A few individuals here and there endeavoured to study the Scriptures in a per-
sonal way. Without official teachers, the study obviously had to be personal and in private. The
fact that a few independent students of the Law existed is proved by the few learned men who came
to the fore with the establishment of a Sanhedrin. We are further assured of this when we realize
that this new Sanhedrin, organized about 196 B.C., was composed of LAY TEACHERS as well as
some priests.

"The study of the Law NOW BECAME a matter of private piety, and as such WAS NOT
LIMITED TO THE PRIESTS" (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, p. 198).

This private study, without proper guidance from recognized authority such as the
Sopherim were, brought about some surprising results.

(This is the same condition that happened in the Protestant Reformation. Many lay teachers
arose, because the Bible was made available by the printing press, and many confusing and contra-
dictory divisions arose amongst those who were coming out of the Catholic Church.)

Many of these Jewish teachers, likewise, because of their independent private study in the
Scripture, were not in unity on many of their teachings. And, too, many of these teachers were vari-
ously affected by Hellenism.

"We shall therefore be not far from the truth if we represent the Sanhedrin, in the years from
its foundation down to the outbreak of the Maccabean Revolt, as an Assembly of priests and
LAYMEN, some of whom inclined to Hellenism while others opposed it out of loyalty to
the Torah" (Herford, The Pharisees, p. 27).

The differing degrees of Hellenic absorption among the teachers, mixed with independent
study of the Scripture, brought about a new variety of opinions. And, in the discussions that fol-
lowed to determine which opinions to use, the LAY TEACHERS claimed as much right to voice
their views as the priests. The lay teachers were assured of the common people being behind them.

"At the beginning of the second century these non-priestly teachers already exerted a great
influence in the community and began persistently TO CLAIM FOR THEMSELVES, as
teachers of the Law, THE SAME AUTHORITY WHICH, TILL THEN, THE PRIESTS
EXCLUSIVELY HAD ENJOYED" (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, p. 28).

Such privileges that the lay teachers were usurping to themselves would never have been
permitted while the Sopherim, the successors of Ezra and Nehemiah, were in authority. The Law of
Moses, which God had directly commanded him, clearly enjoined that the priests, with their helpers
the Levites, were to perform the functions of teachers, not just any layman who would presume to
do so.

The Berean Voice September-October 2002