itself, after the unsuccessful attempt of Claudius to banish them, greatly increased, especially in the times of the Agrippas, before the fall of Jerusalem, and under the Syrian Emperors Elagabalus and Philip the Arab. They do not appear to have held government posts, though some were enlisted in the army (Tebul Yom, iv, 5). Their relations with the other elements of the population will be considered later.
The Jewish colony at Palmyra prospered under the native princes. In the third century Queen Zenobia is called Yedithah on some Palmyrene texts, which apparently means "Jewess." She was not really of Jewish birth, though she may have favoured the Jews as she favoured the Christians. She is not mentioned in the Mishnah, which shows that late additions were not allowed to corrupt its text.
The Sanhedrin which finally settled at Tiberias (T. B. Rosh hash Shanah, 51 h) appears to have been undisturbed till Constantine renewed the edicts of Hadrian against the Jews (T. B. Sanhed, 12 a). In the Mishnah there is little which would lead us to suppose that the persecution of the Jews continued after Hadrian's time[1] until the establishment of Christianity. There is much on the contrary to prove peaceful intercourse with the non-Jewish population.
II.—Employment.
The Jews were engaged in trade and in agriculture. Some of them were rich, for there are frequent allusions to the "men of leisure." A place containing ten Jews who were Batlanin[2] was accounted a city, Megillah, i, 3), and they furnished the congregation of the synagogue, as they were said to have furnished that of the temple when standing. There is abundant evidence that the Jews travelled far by sea and by land.[3] Media, Italy, Spain, Alexandria, Nehardea, and Greece are mentioned in the Mishnah, with regulations on board ships and on journeys. Women as well as men went abroad: "the dispersion" were the Jews so scattered, and even a Samaritan woman might be met travelling on a ship (Taharoth, v, 8). The employments of the Jews were connected with trade and commerce, both external and internal, as well as with agriculture, though the scribes and doctors of the law still formed a separate class. The Mishnah insists on the importance of teaching a son a useful trade or profession (Kidushin, iv, 14), and includes the curious criticism that "donkey drivers were mostly wicked, but camel drivers good, sailors pious, doctors only tit for Hades, and butchers for the company of Amalek."
- ↑ Justin Martyr, however, says that Jerusalem was guarded, "and that death is decreed against any Jew apprehended entering it" (1 Apol. xlvii). This was Hadrian's edict, still in force about 150 A.D.
- ↑ See בטלן otiosus Buxtorff. These men of "leisure" were paid, according to this authority (col. 292), for attending the Synagogue services in place of more busy persons.
- ↑ They even owned ships (Baba Bathra, v, 1).
