Jewish PATRIARCH, a dignity, respecting the origin of which there have been a variety of opinions; some thinking it of very ancient institution, whilst others contend that it is not older than the time of Nerva, the successor of Domitian. It seems probable that the patriarchs were of the Aaronic or Levitical race; the tribe of Judah being at that time too much depressed, and too obnoxious to the Romans, to be able to assume any external power. But of whatever tribe they were, their authority came to be very considerable. Their principal business was to instruct the people; and for this purpose they instituted schools in several cities. Having gained great reputation for extraordinary learning, zeal, and piety, they might, in time, not only have brought a great concourse of other Jews from foreign parts, as from Egypt and other western provinces of their dispersion, but likewise have proved the means of their patriarchal authority being acknowledged there. From these they at length ventured to levy a kind of tribute, in order to defray the charges of their dignity, and of the officers under them, whose business it was to carry their orders and decisions through the other provinces of the dispersion, and to see them punctually executed by all, that some shadow of union at least might be kept up amongst the western Jews. They likewise nominated the doctors who were to preside over their schools and academies; and these were in process of time styled chiefs and princes, in order to raise the credit of their dignity, or to imply the great regard which their disciples were to pay to them. These chiefs became at length rivals of the patriarchs; and some of them possessed both dignities at once, an usurpation which not only caused great confusion, but oftentimes very violent and bloody contests. However, as the Jewish Rabbins have trumped up a much older era for this patriarchal dignity, and have furnished us with a succession of patriarchs down to the fifth century, in which it was abolished, it may not be amiss to give our readers the substance of what they have written on the rise and progress of this order of men; at the same time showing the absurdity and falsehood of the pretended succession to this imaginary dignity.
According to the Rabbins, the first patriarch was Hillel, surnamed the Babylonian, because he was sent for from thence to Jerusalem about a hundred years before the ruin of their capital, or thirty years before the birth of Christ, to decide a dispute about the keeping of Easter, which on that day fell upon the Sabbath-day; and it was on account of his wise decision that he was raised to that dignity, which continued in his family till the fifth century. He was likewise looked upon as a second Moses, because, like the Jewish legislator, he lived forty years in obscurity, forty more in great reputation for learning and sanctity, and forty more in possession of this patriarchal dignity. They reckon him little inferior to that lawgiver in other excellencies, as well as in the great authority he gained over the whole Jewish nation. The wonder is, how Herod the Great, who was naturally so jealous, could suffer a stranger to be raised to such a height of power, barely for having decided a dispute which must in all likelihood have been adjudged by others long before that time.
However, Hillel was succeeded by his son Simeon, whom many Christians consider to have been the venerable old person of that name who received the divine infant in his arms. The Jews give him but a very obscure patriarchate, although the authors above quoted make him, also, chief of the Sanhedrim; and Epiphanius says, that the priestly tribe hated him so much for giving testimony to the divine
patriarch: child, that they denied him the rites of common sepulture. But it is hardly credible that St Luke should have so carelessly passed over his twofold dignity, if he had been really possessed of such, and have given him no higher title than that of a just and devout man.
He was succeeded by Jochanan, not in right of descent, but of his extraordinary merit, which the Rabbis, according to custom, have raised to so surprising a height, that, according to them, if the whole heavens were paper, all the trees in the world pens, and all the men writers, they would not suffice to record all his lessons. He enjoyed his dignity but two years according to some, or five according to others; and was the person who, observing the gates of the temple to open of their own accord, cried out, "O temple, temple, why art thou thus moved? We know that thou art to be destroyed, seeing Zechariah hath foretold it, saying, 'Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let the flames consume thy cedars.'" Upon this he is further reported to have complimented Vespasian, or rather, as some have corrected the story, Titus, with the title of king; assuring him that it was a royal person who was to destroy that edifice, on which account they pretend that the Roman general gave him leave to remove the Sanhedrim to Japhne.
The Jewish writers add, that he likewise erected an academy there, which subsisted until the death of Akiba; that this was likewise the seat of the patriarch, and contained three hundred schools, or classes of scholars. Another he erected at Lydda, not far from Japhne, and where the Christians buried their far-famed St George. He lived an hundred and twenty years, and being asked what he had done to prolong his life, he returned this curious answer: "I never made water nearer a house of prayer than four cubits; I never disguised my name; I have taken care to celebrate all festivals; and my mother has even sold my head ornaments to buy wine enough to make me merry on such days, leaving me at her death three hundred hogsheads of it to sanctify the Sabbath." The doctors who flourished in his time were no less considerable, both for their number and character, particularly the famed Rabbi Chanina, of whom the Bath Col was heard to say, that the world was preserved for the sake of him; and Nicodemus, whom they pretend to have stopped the course of the sun, like another Joshua.
He was succeeded by Gamaliel, a man, according to them, of insufferable pride, and yet of so universal authority over all the Jews, not only in the west, but throughout the whole world, that the very monarchs suffered his laws to be obeyed in their dominions, not one of them offering to obstruct the execution of them. In his days flourished Samuel the Less, who composed a prayer full of the bitterest curses against heretics (meaning the Christians), which are still in use to this day. Gamaliel was no less an enemy to them; and yet both have been challenged, the former as the celebrated master of the great apostle of the Gentiles, the other as his disciple in his unconverted state.
Simeon II., his son and successor, was the first martyr who died during the siege of Jerusalem. The people so regretted his death, that an order was given, instead of ten bumpers of wine, which were usually drunk at the funeral of a saint, to drink thirteen at his, on account of his martyrdom. These bumpers were in time multiplied, they tell us, to such shameful height, that the Sanhedrim was forced to make some new regulations for preventing so great an abuse.
These are the patriarchs which the Rabbis tell us, preceded the destruction of the temple; and we need no further confutation of this pretended dignity than the silence of the sacred historians, who not only make not the least mention of it, but assure us all along that they were the
high priests who presided in the Sanhedrim, and before Patriarchs, whom all cases relating to the Jewish religion were brought to be decided. It was the high priest that examined and condemned our Saviour, that condemned St Stephen, that forbade the apostles to preach in Christ's name, and that sat as judge on the great apostle at the head of that supreme court. The same may be urged from Josephus, who must needs have known and mentioned this pretended dignity, if any such had existed; and yet he is so far from taking the least notice of it, that, like the evangelists, he places the pontiffs alone at the head of all the Jewish affairs, and names the high priest Ananus as having had the care and direction of the war against the Romans; an evident proof that there were then no such patriarchs in existence.
To all this let us add, that if there had been any such remarkable succession, the Talmudists would have preserved it to future ages; whereas neither they, nor any of the ancient authors of the Jewish church, make any mention of it, but only some of their doctors, who wrote a considerable time afterwards, writers to whom little credit can be given in points of this nature, especially as there are such insurmountable contradictions amongst them, as no authors, either Jewish or Christian, have, with all their pains, been hitherto able to reconcile.
Upon the whole, it appears that, however much Jewish pride may have prompted them to falsify, and to claim an origin more ancient than it really was, they cannot be traced much farther back than the time of Nerva. Nor have the Jews been faithful in giving an account of the authority of these men. They have indeed exaggerated their power beyond all bounds, in the hope of repelling the arguments of Christians; for their power was far more showy than substantial. In time, however, they certainly imposed upon the people; and what power they did possess in such matters as were connected with religion, they exercised with great rigour. In particular, their pecuniary demands became very exorbitant; and this was the cause of their final suppression in the year 429.