2. =To receive training for higher revelation.= The higher revelations of God can come only to a people whose religious faculties have been trained to receive them. Judaism was God's school where a chosen race was educated. They received the Scriptures, the prophets, the ritual of worship, and, above all, the discipline of trial, fitting them to become "a nation of priests." See Paul's enumeration of their privileges in Rom. 9. 4, 5.
3. =To proclaim the Gospel to the world.= When, in the fullness of time, Israel was trained up to knowledge and the outer world prepared to receive the truth, Christ came as the consummation of Judaism. Then a new mission opened before the Jews--that of proclaiming Christ to the world. The little company of disciples were the seed that should replenish the whole earth. See the command. (Matt. 28. 19, 20.)
IV. We notice now the =Jews in the time of Christ=.
1. They were divided into two great =branches=: the =Jews of Palestine= and the =Jews of the Dispersion=. The former were descendants of those who had settled in Palestine after the decree of Cyrus, B. C. 536 (Ezra 1. 1-3); the latter those who remained in the lands of their adoption, were found all over the ancient world, and were far more numerous. See references to them in John 7. 35; James 1. 1; 1 Pet. 1. 1. We note that these "Jews of the Dispersion" were not descendants of the Ten Tribes, except in a few instances, but were _Jews_--that is, descendants of Judah.
2. Noticing now the Palestinian Jews, for with these the life of Christ was mainly connected, we find them divided into two =sects=, or schools of thought: the =Pharisees= and the =Sadducees=. These two parties arose about 168 B. C., in the time of the Maccabæan uprising. Let us look at them in contrast.
1.) Their _names_ express their traits. _Pharisee_ means "separatist," "one who is apart." _Sadducee_ means "just," or "righteous," but rather with our idea of the world "moralist."
2.) Their _aims_. The Pharisee aimed to keep the Mosaic law absolutely, particularly with regard to ceremonial requirements; to do more than obey it, by setting around it a hedge of traditional interpretations going beyond its letter in strictness. The Sadducee professed to keep the law, ignoring tradition, but gave it a lax and easy interpretation which often ignored its requirements.