Is JUDAISM the Law of Moses? - Part 7 - Ernest L Martin - June 1961

Ernest L Martin

We continue the shocking period in Jewish history when "Hellenism" spread. Here is bow Egyptian tradition replaced the Law of Moses in the second century before Jesus' birth. LAST installment we discovered that the coming of the Egyptians and finally the Syrians, caused violent changes among the Jews in Palestine. The authoritative Sopherim, the rightful teachers of the Law of Moses, were divested of all prerogatives. So thorough was the dissolution of the Sopherim as a corporate body that we hear nothing more of any of its members outside of Simon the Just, the High Priest who died in 270 B.C. (Aboth i, 2). Simon is described as the last remnant of the group. What happened to the remainder of these teachers is not known. It is obvious from the silence of history that the Sopherim, as the religious authority among the Jews, became extinct within about a score of years after the invasion of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.). - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library