Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/164

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of the soul, penalties in the underworld[1] and rewards, they will have none of them.

The Pharisees are affectionate to each other, and cultivate harmonious relations with the community. The Sadducees, even to one another, are rather boorish in their behaviour, and in their intercourse with their fellows are as harsh as with aliens.

Such is what I have to say on the Jewish philosophical schools.—B.J. II. 8. 2-14 (119-166). (55) Another Account of the Three Sects—and a Fourth


This account, which follows the story of Quirinius and the revolt of Judas, § (24), seems to be taken from the special source on which Josephus draws largely in the last books of the Antiquities. The style is difficult, and the text in places uncertain. Among the hereditary institutions of the Jews, dating from quite ancient times, were the three schools of philosophy: the school of the Essenes, that of the Sadducees, and, thirdly, that of the Pharisees so called. Although I[2] have spoken about them in the second book of the Jewish War,[3] I will briefly touch on them here. The Pharisees

The Pharisees practise simplicity of life, and give way to no self-indulgence. They take as their guiding motive certain traditional principles which their school[4] has tested and approved, and consider it a matter of the first importance to observe the doctrines which it has deliberately dictated. They show respect and deference to those who have gone before them, nor have they the. Whiston, "follow the guidance of reason"; but [Greek: ho l.] must, it seems, have the same meaning as in the corresponding opening sentences in the paragraphs on Sadducees and Essenes, (?) "doctrine" or "tenets."]

  1. Gr. "Hades."
  2. Gr. "we."
  3. § (54).
  4. [Greek: ho logos