one word of the Levites, as distinguished from the priests. His
words are, "Thou shalt come to the priests, the Levites." He
does not say, "The priests and the Levites; but simply, "The
priests, the Levites; from which it is plain that he was speaking
only of that one class of the sons of Levi, who had the office
of the priesthood; but not of that other class, whose only title
was "The Levites." This is the first difference. The second
is like it, inasmuch as it is also an unauthorized addition, and
that is, that there should be Israelites members of this council,
of whom Moses does not say one word more than he does of
the Levites. Besides the priests, Moses mentions none but the
judge (
Hebrew characters), not the judges, so that if the judge was an Israelite,
there could at the very most be only one Israelite amongst
those whom Moses appoints as the highest court of appeal in
Israel. But if the judge (Hebrew characters) was himself a priest, then
there was not even one Israelite; but the court was composed
exclusively of priests. This court cannot, therefore, be the same
as the Sanhedrin, which was to be composed of all the three
classes. Thirdly, the oral law says, That though the Sanhedrin
should not reckon one priest amongst its members, but should
consist entirely of Israelites, that still it is lawful; this court can,
therefore, never be the same as that of which Moses says, "Thou
shalt come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge." The
court which the rabbies have appointed might not have even
one priest, and yet they ask us to believe that this is identical
with that, which, according to the appointment of Moses, could
never have more than one Israelite, but might, and in the days
of Eli actually did, consist exclusively of priests. Truly the
rabbies must have calculated upon disciples with a most inordinate
measure of credulity. The man that would believe this,
would believe that black is white; or as Rashi says, that his
right hand is the left, and his left hand the right. And this is
really what modern Judaism expects, and absolutely commands
in so many words. In Rashi's commentary on the words "Thou
thalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee,
to the right nor to the left" (Deut. xvii. 11); which words, as
we have seen, the rabbies apply to the Sanhedrin, he says—
(Hebrew characters)
"Yea, though they should tell thee of the right hand, that it is the left, and of the left hand, that it is the right." Of course men that expected from their followers this perfect renunciation of reason, might say any thing they liked, and might therefore ask them to believe that a court consisting of all priests was identical with one from which priests were altogether excluded. But as we are not willing to give up that reason, which we consider a noble gift of God, we cannot
