sacrifices, and their view that the soul is imprisoned in the body and at
death is freed for a better life, besides many features of their life that
are genuinely Jewish, such as their regard for ceremonial purity, also
show similarity to the Pythagoreans. It has always been a matter of
perplexity that these ascetics find no mention in the New Testament. They
seem to have lived a life too much apart, and to have had little sympathy
with the ideals of Jesus, or even of John the Baptist.

13. The common people followed the lead of the Pharisees, though afar
off. They accepted the teaching concerning tradition, as well as that
concerning the resurrection, conforming their lives to the prescriptions
of the scribes more or less strictly, according as they were more or loss
ruled by religious considerations. It was in consequence of their hold on
the people that the scribes in the sanhedrin were able often to dictate a
policy to the Sadducean majority. Jesus voiced the popular opinion when he
said that "the scribes sit in Moses' seat" (Matt, xxiii. 2). Their leaders
despised "this multitude which knoweth not the law" (John vii. 49), yet
delighted to legislate for them, binding heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne. Many of the people were doubtless too intent on work and gain to be
very regardful of the _minutiæ_ of conduct as ordained by the scribes;
many more were too simple-minded to follow the theories of the rabbis
concerning the aloofness of God from the life of men. These last
reverenced the scribes, followed their directions, in the main, for the
conduct of life, yet lived in fellowship with God as their fathers had,
trusting in his faithfulness, and hoping in his mercy. They are
represented in the New Testament by such as Simeon and Anna, Zachariah and
Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, and the majority of those who heard and heeded
John's call to repentance. They were Israel's remnant of pure and
undefiled religion, and constituted what there was of good soil among the
people for the reception of the seed sown by John's successor. They had no