Treatise of Miscellaneous Questions, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX.
That there was among the Jewes a jurisdiction and government Ecclesiasticall, distinct from the civill.
FIrst, they had Elders who were Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall (not civill) rulers. Whence it is that Salmasius de primatu papae, pag: 3. and long before Ambrose in 1 Tim: 5. doeth paralell the Jewish Elders not to the Christian Magistrate, but to the Elders of the Christian Church ordained by the Apostles. I do not say that they had no Elders who were civill Magistrates; but they had some Elders who were Church Governours, or had an Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Which I prove 1. By the arguments brought before, Book 1 chap: 3. pag: 26. 27.
2. The Jewes when they had lost their State, power, and civill Government, had still under the Romane Emperours their Presbyteri and Archisynagogi. Whereof Mr. Selden in Eutych: pag: 15. 16. brings cleare instances under Arcadius and Honorius. Now the Romane Emperours did not permit to the Jewes their owne civill Government, but onelyonly an Autonomy in Religion. So ibid: pag: 34. he sheweth us that the Kings of England have permitted to the Jewes in England their Presbyteratus, which he doth not deny, but halfe yeeld, to have been the same with their Sacerdotium.
3. Although Mr. Selden, comment: in Eutych: Orig: pag. 17. &c. to 34. and in his Vxor Ebraica. lib. 1. chap. 15. holdeth that the Jewish Elders or Presbyters, were such as were created by impositione of hands, receaving thereby a judiciall facultie or degree, so that thence forth they were capable of membership in the Sanhedrim, either of 23. or 71. and were fit to preside in judging of civill causes: and so endeavoureth to shew that it was a civill, not a sacred or Ecclesiasticall dignity and preferment; Yet he furnisheth me with some considerable arguments to confirme my opinion, beside that which was last mentioned. As 1. He tells us in Eutych. pag. 16. that nomina officiorum Sacrorum, ut patriarcha, Pr…byter, Apostolus, Diaconus, Primas Et Episcopus, in Christianismum ex Iudaismi veteris usu, &c. manarunt. But if the Jewish Elders were not promoted to a sacred, but to a civill jurisdiction, that name should have been transferred to Magistrates, Judges, Parliament men, rather then to Church officers. 2. He tells of a divided, distinct, bounded & particular Ordniation of the Iewish Elders, some of them being ordained to a faculty or power of judging, but not to judge of lawfull or unlawfull rites, others of them being ordained to judge of rites, but not of pecuniary causes. The forme of words which he citeth, is this, Et sit tibi sacultas judicandi, sed ita ut minime sit tibi facultas decernendi quinam ritus illiciti, quinam liciti, aut sit tibi hujusmodi facultas decernendi, ita tamen ut causas pecuniarias non sit tibi facultas judicandi. Behold a sacred and a civill jurisdiction distinguished. Mr. Selden himself, uxor. Ebr. lib. 1 cap. 15. tells us that the word Presbyters or Elders, is by the Talmudicall writers used no only for those who were created by imposition of hands to a Magistraticall or judiciall facultie, such as the members of the Sanhedrim, or such as were candidats in that facultie, and as it were expectants of a place, and memberships in their Courts of justice, but also for other fit and idoneous persons, who might be called for counsell or advice. Therefore all their Elders were not civill Magistrates.
My second Argument shall be taken from the Jewish Ordination of Elders, (Ordination being an act of the power of jurisdiction, not of order) with imposition of hands, from which Mr. Selden, Eutych. pag. 24. 25. tells us, the Christian Ordination and imposition of hands upon Presbyters, was bo rowed (even as the Christian baptisme from the Jewish baptisme at the admission of Proselytes, and the Lords Supper from what was used in the passeover,) whereunto hee saith, any man will assent, if he consider what is found in the Talmudicall writers of the number of three, (which was the least number which could suffice to the ordaining of a Jewish Elder; and the same was the least number which the ancient Church thought sufficient for Ordination:) Also of the internall effect of that Jewish Ordination, with laying on of hands, which effect was the resting of the holy Ghost upon the Elder so ordained. And this was drawen from Num. 11. 26. Deut. 34. 9. See ibid. 21. 22. There is so much of the Christian Ordination borrowed from the Jewish, that D. Buxtorf: lex: Rabbin. pag: 1499. where he speaks of the Jewish Ordination, referrests to 1 Tim. 4. 14. I will adde other three cited by Mr. Selden, ibid: pag: 22. First, I. Scaliger, Elench▪ Triher: cap: 20. When I turne to this place, I finde Scaliger moves the question, how it came to passe that Christ was permitted to sit, and to teach among the Doctors in the Temple, not being ordained. (Marke here an Ordination which was for publick teaching, not for a power of civill judicature, which Christ never assumed) and how it came that both hee and Iohn Baptist were called Rabbi: also he paralells one newly ordained among the Jewes, with a young Bishop in the ancient Canons. The next shall be, H. Grotius annot. in Evan. pag: 329. When I turne hither, I finde Grotius speaking thus, Manuum impositio apud Iudaeos indicabat invocationem divinae potentiae: ut alibi diximus. unde factum est ut munia publica eo ritu conferentur, etiam civilia ut Senatorum. Sed & in archisynagogis & senioribus synagogae, idem observatum, unde mos foreign ad Christianos transiit. Here is an Ecclesiasticall Ordination to offices in the Synagogue, which he distinguisheth from civill offices. Lastly I turne to Itiner Beni. pag: 73. 74. Where I read of one D. Daniel Filius Husday, called caput exulum, unto whom the dispersed Jewes in severall Provinces, have their recourse for Ordination of their Preachers or Teachers. Hi omnes Israelitarum caetus ab exulum capite potestatem accipiunt, sibi in singulis Congregationibus professorem & concionatorem praeficiendi. Nam ipsum conveniunt, ut manuum impositione potestatem accipiant. Was this Ordination now to a civil rule or judicature? A Doctor or Professor in the Schoole, and a Preacher in the Synagogue, are here joyned as the common and ordinary rulers in the particular Assemblies of the Jews, as L' Empereur noteth, not. in Benjam: 148. 149. where he also cleareth, that this foreign Chazan mentioned there by Benjamin was not a civill ruler, but praelector & concionator, a reader & expounder of Scripture. See Buxtorf: lex: Rabbin. at the same word. Hic maxime oratione sive precibus & cantu Ecclesiae praeibat, praeerat lectioni legali, docens quod & quomodo legendum, & similibus quae ad sacra pertinebant. And after he sayeth of this word, pro Ministro Sacrorum passim usitatissimum. tis a rabbinicall word, sounding somewhat near chozim, seers, which was a name given to the Prophets, from foreign vidit. Moreover observe this passage of Elias in Tisbite, at the word foreign Cuicunque manus imposita est ad Magisterium, sed non dum idoneus est ut doceat dogma, quo vocetur doctor noster Magister, eum Magistri socium seu familiarem dicunt. This is cited by Scaliger, Elench Triher. cap: 20. and by L' Empereur not. in Benjam: pag: 188. Where he illustrateth it by the fellowes in the English Universities, who though not yet Masters, yet are diverse times promoted to the degree of Batchellours; yea, Doctors of Divinity. So then hands were laid on such a person as intended to be a Teacher, and if hee had not yet a dogmaticall facultie for Teaching, he was counted but a fellow.
A third argument I take from the Synagoga magni, see Aarons Rod, pag. 4. 5. 137. 146. Adde Mr. Selden in Eutych▪ pag: 42. where he tells us out of the Ierusalem Gemara, Centum & viginti Presbyteri, è quibus octoginta prophetae fuere aut instar Prophetarum, hanc precandi formulam institueruut. Marke they were Elders, and that an Assembly was an Eldership or Sanhedrim. But is it credible that Ezra Zerubbabell, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachia would consent that such an Assembly, for which there been neither institution nor president before, should assume that great power in Church affaires? Salom. Glassius Phil. sacr: lib. 1. Tract. 1. pag: 26. 27. Rectius est originem ejus (Masorae) ad veros Synagogae seu consistorii magni (cujus praeses Ezra sacerdos, legis divinae peritissimus, Ezra 7. 6. Symmistae & foreign, Haggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias, Nehemias, Zorobabel, Sacerdos, Jehoshua, aliique primarii Sacerdotes & Levitae, ducis Zorobabelis ex Babylonia comites, numero centum viginti) reducere, Ezra 7. 10. & haec communis Hebraeorum est sententia. Following the most receaved opinion of the Hebrews themselves, ascribes the making and composing of the Masora (a most ingenious and laborious critical doctrine upon the Hebrew Text) to the men of the great Synagogue.
Fourthly, consider the triple Crowne which the Hebrewes speak of Pirke Aboth, cap. 4. sect: 13. Tres sunt coronae, corona legis, sacerdotii, & regni. Here is an Ecclesiasticall and civill Government, and jus divinum over both. Pirke Aboth. cap. 6. sect. 5. Major est lex sacerdotio aut regno. See Aarons rod, pag: 36. Philo saith, Moses divided the Civill and Ecclesiasticall administration.
The fifth Argument I shall take from that Ecclesiasticall Government and discipline which the Jewes since their dispersion and the destruction of Ierusalem and of the Temple, have exercised, where they had at all liberty to exercise their Religion. I read much in Itinerarium Benjaminis of the Antistites, praepositi, praesides, praefecti, Moderatoris Synagoga, synedria & capita synedriorum, among the dispersed Iewes. pag. 70. decem in istâ civitate (in Bagdado) sunt concessus sive Synedria, Chrisost. lib. 1, quod Christus sit Deus, makes mention of a Patriarch of the dispersed Iewes, foreign, and he had a great power and rule among the Iews, as may be collected from that and other places of Chrysostome. This can be no civill Government or Magistraticall courts (though Benjamine is too vainglorious that way) as Const. L' Empereur in his preface to the reader, proves from the Testimonies of Iewes themselves, Kimchi, Abrabaniel, Maimonides, and the Chaldee paraphrase on Hos. 3. all making it manifest, that after their second dispersion, they had no Magistraticall nor judiciall power: See also for this, L' Empereur his annotations in Benjam. pag: 196. 200. Which answereth that of Mr. Selden in prolegom. ante lib. de success: Nullo adeo in aevo fere non erat hoc nationi huic (judaeorum) singulare, suis fere legibus alieno in regno seu republica uti. Well, what then was the power of those rulers and courts of the Iewes in Benjamins observation, who wrote in the twelfth Century? He tells pag: 30. of their excommunicating of Epicurean Iews, and pag: 73. 74. 115. of their ordaining of Rabbies, Readers and Preachers. From pag. 92, he tells a story of one David Alroi, who being a witty sorcerer, rebelled against the King of the Persians, called himself the King of the Iewes, and got some followers. After he was in the hands of this King of the Persians, he escaped by his magicall Arts, and though pursued, could not be overtaken and catcht, whereupon this Persian King, writes to Caliphas a Machumetan Prince residing at Bagdadum, that he would deale witt D. Daniel filius Has dai caput exulum, and with the capita Synedriorum, there also residing, to forbid this David Al…ci, and to restraine him, otherwise said the Persian King, I will kill all the Iewes whom I finde in my Kingdome, which put all the Iewes throughout Persia in great sea…e, so that they wrote ad exulum principem & Synedriorum capita qui Bagdadi habitabant, to their Pope, as I may so sa…, and heads of the Courts at Bagdadum, that they would by their authority prohibite that man, through whom they were in danger of their lives. After this, the heads of those Sanhedrims at Bagdadum by their auctority gave forth letters to this purpose. Scito redemptionis tempus nondum advenisse, necdum signa nostra à nobis conspecta: nam inflato suo animo nemo praevalebit. Ita que jubemus ut te cohibeas, quo minus talia in posterū moliaris: quod si non pareas, esto excommunicatus a toto Israele.
Observe here when the Jewish Government and Discipline at that time, was driven to the height, even for preventing the destruction of many of their brethren, they had not a Magistraticall secular power; but they did dogmatically declare against that man, and ordained him to be excommunicated in case of his obstinacy, which maketh manifest these two things, that they had not a Magistraticall power, and that they had an Ecclesiasticall power of Government and censures. But all this preveiled not with David Alroi, who still persisted in his course, till Zin Al-din a Turkish King sent against him some who killed him.
And if we will learn from Chrysostome what the Patriarchs of the dispersed Jews were in those dayes, see him, Tom: 5. Orat: 4. adversus Iudaeos. Will thou that I rehearse unto thee Lawes concerning the Priesthood, that so thou mayest understand that they who are now among you called Patriarches, are not Priests, but hypocritically act the part of Priests; &c. A litle after he concludes, because they had not sacrifices, nor sprinkling of blood, nor the anointing of oyle, &c. tis manifest that the Priest which is now among them (meaning their Patriarch who pretended to be a Priest) is impure unlawfull, and prophane. Whence it appears, that among the dispersed Iews there remained a shadow and footstep of Ecclesiasticall Governours and Government.