On the ruins of the city and of the temple
the Pharisaic Judaism which rests upon the law and the school
celebrated its triumph. National fanaticism indeed was not yet
extinguished, but it burnt itself completely out in the vigorous
insurrection led by Simeon bar Koziba (Bar Cochebas, 132-135).
That a conspicuous rabbin, Akiba, should have taken part in it,
and have recognised in Simeon the Messiah, was an inconsistency
on his part which redounds to his honour.
Inasmuch as the power of the rabbins did not depend upon the
political or hierarchical forms of the old commonwealth, it
survived the fall of the latter. Out of what hitherto had been a
purely moral influence something of an official position now
grew. They formed themselves into a college which regarded
itself as a continuation of the old synedrium, and which carried
forward its name. At first its seat was at Jamnia, but it soon
removed to Galilee, and remained longest at Tiberias. The
presidency was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last
descendants of whom the court itself came to an end. /1/
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