f the sanctuary
were alloted in turn. Representatives of but four of these courses
returned from the captivity, but from these the orders were
reconstructed on the original plan. In the days of Herod the Great the
temple ceremonies were conducted with great display and outward
elaborateness, as an essential matter of consistency with the splendor
of the structure, which surpassed in magnificence all earlier
sanctuaries.[185] Priests and Levites, therefore, were in demand for
continuous service, though the individuals were changed at short
intervals according to the established system. In the regard of the
people the priests were inferior to the rabbis, and the scholarly
attainments of a scribe transcended in honor that pertaining to
ordination in the priesthood. The religion of the time was a matter of
ceremony and formality, of ritual and performance; it had lost the very
spirit of worship, and the true conception of the relationship between
Israel and Israel's God was but a dream of the past.

Such in brief were the principal features of the world's condition, and
particularly as concerns the Jewish people, when Jesus the Christ was
born in the meridian of time.

NOTES TO CHAPTER 6.

1. The Sanhedrin.--This, the chief court or high council of the Jews,
derives its name from the Greek _sunedrion_, signifying "a council." In
English it is sometimes though inaccurately, written "Sanhedrim." The
Talmud traces the origin of this body to the calling of the seventy
elders whom Moses associated with himself, making seventy-one in all, to
administer as judges in Israel (Numb. 11:16, 17). The Sanhedrin in the
time of Christ, as also long before, comprized seventy-one members,
including the high-priest who presided in the assembly. It appears to
have been known in its earlier period as the Senate, and was
occasionally so designated even after Christ's death (Josephus,
Antiquities xii, 3:3; compare Acts 5:21); the name "Sanhedrin" came into
general use during the reign of Herod the Great; but the term is not of
Biblical usage; its equivalent in the New Testament is "council" (Matt.
5:22; 10:17; 26:59) though it must be remembered that the same term is
applied to courts of lesser jurisdiction than that of the Sanhedrin, and
to local tribunals. (Matt 5:22; 10:17; 26:59; Mark 13:9; see also Acts
25:12.)

The following, from the _Standard Bible Dictionary_, is instructive:
"Those qualified to be members were in general of the