[Sidenote:  Eccles. 2:24-26b] There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find his pleasure in his labor.  This also I saw that it is from the hand of God.  For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment without him?  This is also vanity and a striving after wind.

I. The Ritualists.  Liberty of thought as well as speech was from the first characteristic of Israel’s life and thought.  It was one of the many valuable heritages that the Hebrews brought with them from the free life of the desert.  Their close contact with the outside world, and especially with Hellenic life and thought during the Greek period, increased this sense of freedom.  The result is that many different currents of thought are reflected in the Old Testament writings that come from this age.  Most familiar and easiest understood is the ritualistic type.  It is represented by the Chronicler, who lived and wrote some time between 300 and 250 B.C.  For him all life and interest centred about the temple and its services.  In general the vision of the ritualists was turned toward the past rather than the present and the future.  In the traditions regarding the origin of the temple and its institutions, in keeping the ceremonial law, in participating in the formal ritual, and in joining their songs with those of the temple singers they found an escape from the pettiness of the age and attained that peace and joy which is expressed in many of the psalms of the Psalter.

II.  The Legalists.  Closely related to the ritualists were those whose interests were all fixed in the study of the law and the teachings of the earlier priests.  They regarded the written laws as a complete guide to conduct and the embodiment of Jehovah’s supreme message to his race.  Psalms like the fragment found in 19:7-14 voice their convictions: 

The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul,
The judgments of Jehovah are true and altogether just. 
By them is thy servant warned; in keeping them is great reward.

They emphasized not merely external acts and words, but inner motives.  In character and in conduct they were noble products of that religion which Israel had inherited from the past.  By them were probably treasured stories such as are found in the first chapters of the book of Daniel.  The detailed references in chapter 2 to the marriage of Antiochus Theos and the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus in 248 B.C. and to the murder of Antiochus by his former wife Laodicea, together with the absence of allusions to subsequent events, indicate that these stories were probably committed to writing somewhere between 255 and 245 B.C.  Their aim was clearly to emphasize the supreme importance of fulfilling faithfully the demands of the law, even in the face of bitter opposition and persecution, and the certainty that Jehovah would deliver those who were loyal to him.  Their teachings were especially adapted to inspire the tried and tempted Jews of the dispersion, who were sorely persecuted by the heathen among whom they lived.  The dramatic picture of men who dared face the fiery furnace or the hungry lions rather than depart from the demands of the law undoubtedly proved a great inspiration to the Jews of the Greek period.